collectoholics anonymous

ty and i have recently discovered that we have a serious problem: we collect stuff. so, i'd like to blame my grampa elwood jackson. and so would ty.

me:

sunflower anythings

audrey hepburn anythings

things that hang (ie. like, with hooks...its quite a general term, but i'd like to keep it that way...)

picture frames

pictures
quotes

glass stars

glass balls
buttons

movies

books
journals
sewing supplies
tea cups
antique china
magazine ads
vintage magazines
shoes
dresses
amber jewellery

ty: (disclaimer by ty: the first 4 on this list are purely "accidental" collections. he vows to get rid of all but one of everything, eventually...)
record players
amps and preamps
speakers
miscellaneous electronic equipment
different types of wood
vintage and antique radios
tools
authentic recipes
vintage ties
cuff links
cheeses (yes, we have quite a collection in our refrigerator...)

us:
music
records
vintage light bulbs
lamps
old cameras
lenses
elephants
tightly sealable glass jars (like, to put our food in)
art

luckily, thanks to second hand stores, ebay/kijiji, and the people of ontario's blessed tradition of leaving things they don't want on their front lawn for anyone to take, our addictions can be quite cheap. here are some of our most beloved finds.

love,
r&y

  

please have snow and mistletoe

we are home for christmas. and we were flashed mobbed at my parents house. possibly the best welcome home we have ever had. they said they would have done it at the airport if we had woken up for the flight we were supposed to have taken... but i'm pretty sure it was more perfect at home.

someone asked us today what some our favourite christmas traditions were. we talked for a long time, each taking turns telling our most favourite traditions and what our most precious memories were. next question asked was what was the best christmas present we had ever received. there was silence for a few seconds until someone said, "suddenly, gifts really don't seem that important right now..."

we are so happy to be home right now, we feel like sleep might be wasting time.

merry christmas.

love,
r&y

ps. these are some pictures of tyler's birthday weekend. it was before final projects and exams took over our lives. we can finally take lots of pictures again here.

 

making a list, checking it twice...

i am making a list. and even though it coincidentally coincides with the Christmas season, it is a list that might last seventeen years. patience is a virtue that makes for a lot of window shopping.

1. a tilt shift lens (so i can make people and places look like miniatures like these whenever i want to...)

2. 360 spinner camera (so i can get a 360 view of everything at one time...)

3. excalibur food dehydrator (so i can have fruit and veggies at any time of the year)

4. a medium format slr (for that wedding shoot i will do one day)

5. an antique view camera (to take family photos with)

6. vintage dresses. a lot of them.

7. matching, warm, cute touque and mittens and scarf

8. a puppy (he loves me...)

9. an instax fujifilm wide instant camera! (it's the new polaroid. and i want it...)

10. a macbook. (so all my photo and music dreams can come true...)

11. a lens baby (a toy. the second cousin twice removed to the tilt shift lens...)

12. a piano. maybe one that can play a little better than this one. but i'd take this one, too (photographed by clayton austin, one of my most favourite photographers in all the world...especially when he travels the states with this piano as a prop for his photoshoots).

and here's another piano i love in a music video i love by a band i love.

merry christmas.

love,

me

ps. i did not take any of these photos or record any of this music. to find their source, click on the link above each picture.

happy happy birthday, tyler, dear

it is tyler's birthday. he is now a year older than me. he can start saying to me (again) "you wouldn't know; you are too young" or "i'll tell you when you're older."

so, here's to you, ty. i love you.

love,
me

ps. he got a tool box for his birthday. nothing like a little organization for his toys going into his 27th year of life. we also saw a tim burton exhibit. nothing like goggling at the weirdness of one massively creative man going into your 27th year of life.

these are of us two years ago in our favourite photobooth. i think we look just about the same. and we're probably at the same maturity level...

i'd rather buy defying gravity

i forget things too easily... i had forgotten:

1. what it's like to be with friends who know you really really well.
2. to never go shopping with someone who is too encouraging and too easily encouraged.
3. that wicked is worth a parking ticket and all the noises people make at you as you're running down the street in a fabulous gold dress, fur coat, and bare feet (heels slow you down).
4. how nice it is to cuddle, especially after months of separation.
5. how to put makeup on in colour.
6. how to stay awake during school after not sleeping.
7. that the best thing to happen to you in the whole world would be standing on a stage and having thousands singing your songs back to you...
8. why home is in the west.

but, boy, toronto looks good on film.

and we always like it when they love to eat.

carla visited with lover. they were our last visitors until after christmas. we saw wicked (and now tyler finally knows why i love it so...), we danced with kate nash and peggy sue, and we shot toronto at all angles.

check his blog for more pictures that he took. he and she with digital, ty and i with film.

love,
r&y



up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, start

instead of studying, i've been planning my first stop motion movie. i think this one is brilliant (from color me katie). with film, this would cost me a million dollars. but this will be my first project with my first digital slr camera. i want to fly.

here is another one using a tilt shift lens, which is our new obsession. how can a lens turn everyone and everything into toy miniatures, do you ask? don't ask me. but i like it. a lot.

love,
r&y

take a longer drive

the kushi institute is near boston.  we drove most of the way with our gps set to "no toll roads." we saw a lot more than highway asphalt. i found a fabulous gold dress. tyler found fabulous locally-made egg nog. we found our dream home under disrepair with patterned roof tiles and turrets, a lovers lane, buildings from another time, and had a drive by shooting with train car graffiti (tyler went the exact speed of the train so i could hang precariously out the window, holding my camera and car door for dear life...).

take a longer drive next time.

love,
r&y

a favourite song filmed in a favourite place: an antique shop 

begin anywhere

i want to be a piano master
i want to be a rockstar
i want to be a wedding planner
i want to reclaim an old schoolhouse for my home
i want to crochet a sweater
i want to make family home videos with a super 8
i want to be a fashion avant-garde
i want to run a marathon in a foreign country
i want to make lots of babies
i want to eat macrobiotic

goals. some ancient, some new. i am actually working on all of the above, even if some are not progressing presently...

a couple weekends ago, we went to the kushi institute to learn how to eat macrobiotic. beautiful people, beautiful food, beautiful land.

we began with our new favourite meal: burdock root, lotus root, carrot, onion, arame, ginger and broccoli stem stir fry with fresh hulled rice. we're getting pretty good at it, now.

thanks mom and dad.

love,
me