THE DAY ZACH CAME INTO OUR LIVES.

I wrote this 3 weeks ago when I left to give birth.

It is now June 18th and I still haven't given birth. A bit frustrating to say the least. But at the same time my time is still mine. Mark's been off for 1 week. We are doing some serious hanging out of which we haven't done in so long. Well actually since we've been in Paris in September 2010 when  we conceived this little man. See?

Ahhh good times! So the story is that he's 9 days late. Whatever that means. In Quebec, a baby should be born between 37 and 40 weeks. In France it's 41 weeks. So since he's just getting bigger in there, I'm going to get induced tomorrow or whenever there's a room in the hospital for me. Apparently the hospital is packed. There's a baby boom in Montreal!! Is it because I'm pregnant that I notice all the other pregnant ladies and newborns? Maybe. But it just seems that there's a whole lot of them these days. More than when I was in my 20s.

OMG I just got the phone call from the hospital to be induced. It's 12:50. See you when we get back iwth a baby!!

MY ROCKIN' BABY SHOWER!

On May 7th, I had the pleasure of celebrating my baby shower with the best-est ladies in my life. All organised by my BFF Vee. Friends from high school, Cegep, work, life downtown, and of course my family were in attendance. I can't tell you how nice it was to see everyone I care for together. It's so rare. It was a Rock'n'Roll themed baby shower so Hilary decorated balloons with Bowie, Ramones, Grateful Dead illustrations, Christy and Hil decorated the place with pictures of Keith and Mick with their children and all kinds of fun stuff like that and Tanya made us a yummy rockin' cake. I got some really awesome presents for baby(no name yet) as well as for Mark and I. We received really cute clothes. My mom went crazy with the knitting. She made little jackets and hats and socks. So cute! We got THE diaper service. Environmentally friendly cloth diapers with a cleaning service. They actually come and get the dirty diapers at my house and give me clean ones in exchange!! Why doesn't everyone do this?? I'm just so lucky! So here are some picts of the event.

Mom and me

Mom Rief and me

my big bedaine

Ramones balloon

Bowie balloon

The hostest with the mostest ...Vee!

Karen and Quinn and Vee

The ladies!

Tanya and her awesome rockin' cupcakes!

Look at this cake! Amp, Guitar, Pick, records and flames!

Man she's talented! 

presents

more presents

my boy is going to be one cool kid

even more presents

Tons of presents!!

Natty!

Hilary (balloon illustrator extraordinaire)

Vivianne

Tanya and Christine

Hil and Christy

I'm so spoiled. Thanks Vee!!

BOYS TOYS!!

I consider myself a real girly girl. So you can imagine  my surprise when  I found out that I was going to have a boy. I thought: "What am I going to do with a boy?" I know pink and unicorns, not cars and guns! As weeks went by I realized that there's pretty cool stuff out there for boys. Here's a small selection.

Look at these awesome puppets from Pintassilgo Prints. THey all represent my favorite rock stars. There's puppet John, Paul, George and Ringo. The different incarnations of BOWIE. The Ramones!! Unfortunately, it looks like they're out of stock. I will wait cos mama needs some puppet rock stars in her baby room!!

I found these when I was looking at my friend Tyson's awesome monster robot cushions. Dog Bot is really speaking to me. I hope it doesn't scare the little one.

There's so much out there and one really doesn't have to resort to the typical Walmart crap. It's just a start but I never thought I'd have this much fun looking for cool stuff for boys! http://www.dwellstudio.com/designer-baby-boutique/dwellstudio-collections/owls-collection/owls-sky-crib-set.html

BED CRUSH
As I was perusing the old Craigslist for a second hand white shabby chic steel bed, I decided to see what would be my options if I could afford the bed of my dreams. My mind was blown when I came upon this artisticly molded steel bed reminiscent of a Tim Burton movie.
Tripoli Designs, a company based out of California is run by Tyrome Tripoli. Before he turned to furniture making, Tripoli had a background in art including painting and lost wax jewelry making. His three dimensional jewelry motifs were then successfully translated into larger-scale furniture pieces. These media have a common feature in the use of negative space in their constructions. The interplay of cursive shapes and gaps create a flow and tension that define the Tripoli style.
This would account for the design of my dream bed that looks "thick threads of incense swirling around the air. Wafts of the bent metal create a dreamy bed anyone could snuggle up to. "
A girl can dream right?

THE STROKES!!
OMG I've been waiting 5 years for this! My expectations are high. I already have a friend that's not impressed with the first single, but I like it. I'm sort of the fan that will like everything they do and not judge them. But she can't help it, she's a music critic. Anyways, here's the cover. 

Not super inventive. Sort of deja vu. But again I'll take anything they offer me. 
Little story. My BF and I have been huge fans since the first album. There's just something about those boys. Their sound, their look, their attitude. LOVE! I can remember driving down to NYC shuffling the albums and singing our little asses off in the car. Good times! Last year, Vee and I were in NYC for a visit with our friend Pete. We were looking for a place to eat breakfast/brunch. I kept telling her that there this place on St-Marks that has a nice terrace and good breaky and feels like home. I think it was call Orlyns? Mark and I went almost every morning last time in NYC. After a few hums and haws, we walked by and saw a free table. I said let's go! We sit, chill and I start people watching from my angle. Boy did I make a double take. whatwhat?? There are basically 2 artists I will  go gaga for if I see them. David Bowie of which I saw a few years before eating lunch with his daughter at the Moma. You go gaga, but you leave in peace because of tremendous respect. AND the boys from the Strokes. THere they were eating breakfast and talking music business talk. Yes we were eavesdropping. Nick and Fab. Ahhh and glad to say they were still dirty hipsters just like 6 years ago. They haven't changed and they actually hang together after all these years. So we sat, admired as person after person would come up to them and say remember me from blablabla...and they were polite enough to say umm yeah....
Yep that's my story. Not huge but when you're not expecting it... it's kinda cool.

NEW JOB!!
My life is a rigamaroll since Christmas. Right after the holidays, I found out that my company was moving away and that they couldn`t afford to take me on a full time basis just freelance. As awesome as it could be to start a freelance career, it just seems like a lot work and hustling. Not my style. Well lucky for me, the creative director in another division of my company had her eye on me. And when she found out that I was available, offered me a job as the designer for Secret Legwear. So now I'm knee deep in packaging. I loved doing all the product design at MyTagalongs but this is kind of fun too!  

THE GREAT DYLAN I`ve been admiring this Dylan poster for years. Love the 60s psychedelia design. So perfect for my boys room. Might as well initiate him to good things right away!

OH boy it's a boy!

New Years BANG!

New Years is right around the corner and I couldn't be more happy. This year's going to be a doozy. Yes a doozy! Since no one reads this blog I will come out with it. I'm pregnant ! 18 weeks as of today! As much as I'd like to say that I'm not going to change, it's going to happen even without knowing it. I'm ok with that because I've had plenty of years to think about myself. Not that I will let myself go, au contraire this is the time that I need to get a hold of myself. Let the things go that have been hanging over me, and forgive myself for the things that have made me feel like shit all these years. Some people will not understand. That's ok. They will one day. Or not, I don't think I care.

I hate making plans that I might not be able to accomplish, but I sure will try and that will be half the battle.

So in keeping with the New Year tradition, here's my list of to dos for 2011:

1-Stay motivated

2-Wake up early and get going right away.

3-Look for clients. Hustle Hustle Hustle

4-Learn how to build a web site.

5-Post everyday on my blog.

6-Cook more and spend less on restaurants.

7-Clean the house more often.

8-Try to sew at least one garment this year. Just one.

9-Be a good mom.

10-Listen to my instincts and be good to people.

I think that's a realistic plan. So now I just need to start with a bang! Time to learn HTML!! Baby will come when ready!

PIX LOVE

It's La Chatte Bottée party time again! So that means another flyer to design. This month I was really stoked cos I found a picture that I've been wanting to use for years but could only find very low res quality. It's 4 ladies in boots posing for legendary photographer David Bailey. This guy shot everyone that was anyone in the 60s and he was the inspiration for the main character in the movie Blow up. He's shot everyone form Jean Shrimpton to Twiggy to The Stones and Beatles.

Glósóli

It's a gloomy, rainy day in Montreal. I'm feeling a little nostalgic. Saw my parents yesterday. Always makes me feel like a child. Made me see that I'm still longing for my childhood and growing older is bittersweet. It would be nice to just walk around with your friends all day banging the drum and imagining other world's where you can fly over the ocean to wherever... sigh. Just gotta keep our childhood spirit alive.

La Chatte Bottée Sale this Thursday!

Why do the good girls always want the bad boys?