Brittni's July and August in Summary Form:
July!
1. We had our very first Mint textile studio opening and craft fair during friday night art crawl and the next saturday! I missed the Friday due to another great event that happened that day. It was super lovely! We had a bit of trouble getting people to come up to the third floor where our studio is located, but I think it went better than we were all expecting! We invited a whole bunch of our crafty friends and it was just a lovely time of hanging out. Laughter, crafts, beer and friends-what more do you need?
2. My sister-in-law Tineke and my new brother-in-law Rob got married! This was well worth missing the Mint opening on friday night for. Family weddings are just so great and I'm so happy that these two are so in love and finally married! Plus now they have a sweet house in the country where we can come over for campfires and tractor driving.
3. We went out west! Eric was taking a week-long Fluvial Geomorphology course (yeah, I know what that is) in Fernie, BC for his work and I decided to tag along. Though it may not have been the most financially responsible decision we've ever made, it was definitely worth it for all the other, more important reasons. We flew to Calgary on a friday and we didn't need to be in Fernie until sunday night, so we had a couple of days to explore. We stayed in Banff for a night, took the gondola up Sulphur Mountain, climbed Tunnel Mountain, walked around in awe of mountains. Mountains, mountains, mountains. We love mountains. It was my second time in Banff, and Eric's third, but we got to see and do a lot more this time than we had before, so it was pretty wonderful.
On our way to Fernie we hiked up to Stanley Glacier. This was one of the most amazing, but also most painful days of my life thus far. The actual trail is a continuous climb up switchbacks until you get to a valley surrounded by gorgeous mountains and waterfalls. The trail ends there, but most people hike up a bit farther to get a better view of Stanley Glacier. We decided that since we were there, we'd be kicking ourselves later if we didn't hike up all the way to the glacier itself. Painful. Painful, but worth it. I'm still pretty amazed that we made it that far. When we calculated it later, we figured out that we had climbed more than a kilometer in elevation. I'm so glad we did it though, touching a glacier surrounded by a view like that was just incredible.
Gondola up Sulphur Mountain. Cheesy Smiles.
Sulphur Mountain
Tunnel Mountain. Eric took me here against my will as I was very unprepared to hike up a mountain. Birks aren't the best climbing shoes, fyi. I complained a lot, but the view from the top of a mountain has a way of making stuff like that disappear.
Stanley Glacier. Partway up. You can sort of see the pain in Eric's face here.
4. As soon as we got back from BC we headed off the Bon Echo with my family and spent a couple days relaxing. We had some plans for some big canoe trips and hikes, but we were pretty beat from our trip and we all mostly wanted to just sit around, drink beer and eat. My family is really, really good at that. On the way home, I also dropped off an order of Hands&Feet goods at Quinn's of Tweed, so if you're ever in that area, go by and check out my stuff there!
August!
1. We had our second Mint textile studio craft fair for August art crawl. Again, it's just a really fun night of hanging out with dear friends and meeting people who come through the studio.
2. I finally got a screen exposed in the studio and screen printed some fabric for the first time since school ended! I'm now dreaming up and drawing prints and I hope that Hands&Feet will have some screenprinted goods available in the coming weeks.
3. We celebrated our one year anniversary! In one way I can't believe it's been a year already, but in others it just feels like we've been doing this forever. Either way, I think it's been the best year yet and I just know they're going to get better. I'm posting a wedding photo a little bit because I'm talking about our anniversary, but mostly cause Eric looks super studly in this photo.
3. My dear wonderful friends Kira and Benjamin got married just this past saturday. Kira and I have been best buds since we were babies and I just can't tell you how much I love that woman. It was a pretty spectacular day, to say the least. I managed to get through my best woman speech without crying too much and everyone had a fantastic night of dancing and laughter and so much love.
4. I started a new job, which so far I am completely in love with. Hurray!
5. Since it's been so busy lately, I've now got a pretty small amount of time to get ready for the craft fairs that I'm doing in September. Hands&Feet will be at Locke Street Festival on September 8th and Supercrawl on September 15th! I'm SO excited for these two festivals, but I better get my butt in gear and start spending some serious time at the studio. I've got some new designs that I can't wait to bring to the festivals and see what people think!
Tonight we're going to another wedding of my wonderful cousin and his lovely bride, and next week some more of our dear friends are getting married! This has been the summer of weddings. Normally, I'd probably get sick of so many weddings, but this summer it seems that all of our nearest and dearest friends are getting married and it just makes it so special and fun. My heart's just exploding with all the love I've got for the people in my life. Life is good, God is good.
