oh dear...

It's one thing to loose a coffee machine, it's another to loose a computer. Well I didn't really loose my computer, but it's acting up so badly that I will have to bring it to the computer doctor. Yep! It turned out that it wasn't my mouse that was broken... It was the entire machine! I was freaking out! All my work is in there, clients projects, software, photos... On top of that, my back up disk decided to play dead at the same time! We had very very hot weather and a huge thunder storm and I think it affected both devices in different ways. But I went to get another backup disk and was able to save everything on my computer. Yay! And fortunately, I borrowed a computer from a very kind person. So my toy is ready to go to the hospital...

A client told me "You know, it's only data. You still have your health." Never thought that such an obvious statement would make me breath so much better.

So I intend to enjoy my weekend even if I have to make up for the work time lost. What are your plans for the weekends? I wish you a great one!

Lovely work by Alex Kopps - via Dear Ada

p.s. Alexandra, je n'ai pas fait exprès pour les photos. Je crois que c'est un état d'esprit général :)

sadou...

I had such a lovely quiet 3 days weekend. Planted herbs in pots for the balcony, visited my sister, watched the very cute movie Séraphine about the painter Séraphine Louis de Senlis (and here) and the last episode of Lost - I should have known it was the dog dreaming! - and that's about it. Oh yeah, we also spent some time trying to repair the espresso coffee machine but it didn't work :( On the other hand, I gained some counter space which is good! And I realize that my little coffee maker makes as good coffee as the big one I had. So I'm sticking to the little one.

Ah! and now I'm wondering "who cares about your freaking coffee Nathalie?!" Might as well mention that my computer mouse doesn't work well either. Now you know all about my domestic problems!

Anyway, all that to say that I haven't notice how hot it became here until I sat down in front of the computer to work. We're having our very first and very early heat wave of the summer. Very unusual for May up here. I wish I could just lay down like my cat and wait for some cooler weather...

Breath taking work by Lawrence Carroll - via Dear Ada

friday...

It's already Friday! Even with more time on my hands, I find that time flew by really fast! The weather has been gorgeous and it supposed to stay the same for the weekend. I bought my first basil plant but it's all gone now. I'll go back to the market back and get all my herbs for the summer, with more basil :)

What are your plans for the weekend?

Gorgeous drawings by Melissa Murillo - via brown paper bag

I haven't been through it all but here are some tips from artist on overcoming creative block - via drawn! :)

embroidery...

Taking advantage of the time off!

Have you heard about the 48hr magazine?

more back alleys...

More photos of my alleys walks. The t-shirt on the clothesline is from our home hockey team. It's playoffs time here and people get pretty crazy about it. I fell in love with that guy sleeping on the long chair, wishing it was me there. The last photos are from the market down the street. It's so nice to see all those colors after such a grey winter.

So far, my week should be as quiet as the last one. Looking forward to start some personal projects.

Wishing you a very good one!

Lovely work by Angie Lewin - via The beat that my heart skipped

catwalk and fern shoots...

When walking in my neighborhood's back alleys, you always cross path with cats. It's their domain. Some of them get very very friendly and even think they own you. The black one belongs to my brother in law. His name is Pas Propre - Not Clean - I don't agree :)

We walked there to get those fern shoots he picked (my brother in law, not the cat) at a friend's cottage. Fern shoots are considered to be a culinary delicassy here in Québec. Have you ever tasted fern shoots? Is there a wild plant that you enjoy eating in your part of the world?

I was looking at the latest issue of the always interesting Ruby Mag and fell in love with Rebecca Stevenson's work.

time off...

I had such a great week. After another weekend spent on a beep beep pitch and a crazy start on Monday with an insane deadline - when that happens, I always go back to Clients from Hell, it has the power to calm me - I took the rest of the week off and I took it really easy. I went for longs walks, cleaned a little, took photos of course, read and browsed through picture books, prepared the back balcony for my potted herbs...

Can't wait for the weather to settle down for good. Did I tell you we had snow last Sunday? Yep! Very depressing. But the rest of the week was gorgeous, still on the cool side though. Nature doesn't seem to mind at all. Everything is blooming and growing in so many fantastic colors.

I love this simple drawing.
And this post made me smile big time.

Wishing you a very good weekend!

pigeon town...

Yay! Back to a more normal life. Rainy and cold weekend ahead though. Will probably cook and take it extra easy even if I still have a little document to prepare for Monday.

How will you spend your weekend?

So happy to see that week word is back. Will try to participate soon. Meantime, you can visit Rachel's blog for links to this week's participants.

I have to salute Thereza and her friends their last projects. I love love love this movie and I find the happy journey collective to be sooooo cool! Making coffins fun is a real tour de force!

I've spent the last two evenings surfing The Selby. I can't believe I didn't know about this fantastic blog before. I love to sneak around people's home!

back...

Hi there! I'm back. I had such a crazy week! I'm still stunned, wondering what happened. I finished a big gig Wednesday night. An award show for the multimedia scene here. One of my clients was producing the show. We created all the multimedia visuals and prints, which I must say were pretty gorgeous and clever, managed the entire show, including two hosts, 37 finalists and 12 winners, and we put the whole thing on air which was the stressful part. I'm still sweating. While I was working on this full time, I also had to write yet another pitch, for myself this time, not for a client. I'll tell you more when I know how it turns out.

I'm so happy the weekend is here! I have lot of catch up to do on the blogging front. Will visit you soon.

Some of you asked me were I took the photo from my previous post. Well it's a very old shoeshine store in my neighborhood. The man who owns it also cleans men hats. I'm very found of this place. One of the very few old trade shop remaining here.

Speaking of photo, Tim found a very funky way to make macro photography with a 18-200mm lens (second photo here). But I promised to keep the secret though ;)

Beautiful work by Roseau - via doodlers anonymous.