Clouseau, the Velveteen Rabbit, and an eat in kitchen

I am a lucky woman. Yesterday Jeremy decided that it would be nice for me to have some down time and go shopping, while he cleaned the house. I found some crazy deals at Club Monaco- t-shirts for $5 kind of great deals!! Feeling great about the fantastic purchases, I came home to find our kitchen furniture totally rearranged!! Our centre island is now serving as a room divider, and we now have an "eat in" kitchen! I love it!

Last night we went for dinner at our friends house, and on our way home decided to take some pictures of some graffiti we had noticed a few weeks ago:

When we first saw this one, it was one complete shadow portrait (minus the car dragging a gangsta). I think it is of the Velveteen Rabbit...... What do you think?

students, students, students

Thank goodness for the time change. I think that this is one of my favourite nights of the year. Last year we were in the process of moving into our little coach house, and we completely forgot about the time change, until we were on our way to pick up the u-haul. However, tonight the time change is part of the plans, and we plan to savour every second of the extra hour. Yay sleep!!

And sleep is totally needed. I got 2 calls this weekend for new students, so I am now up to 25 students!! 7 at SCS, 8 at the studio on Saturday's, and 10 private students. Sixteen of them are half an hour lessons, one is a 45 minute lesson (although he might move up to an hour after Christmas) and 8 of them are full hour lessons, and just one of those hour students are at the studio. It's good. It's busy, but I find teaching to be incredibly rewarding. And it is always challenging- plus you never know what kinds of stories the little kids are going to tell you!!! So far this year, I've learned about 25 different pet names, know more kids favourite foods than I ever thought I would, and am constantly hearing about various adventures- from trips to foreign places to school field trips. My time teaching is always interesting!!! Another thing I am enjoying this year is that I now have a few advanced students- working on Grade 8 RCM or above. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to teach MUSIC. As much as I totally love teaching the cute little beginners, it has been fantastic to have a variety of levels and repertoire to work on.

So, I feel like I'm officially making it as a musician. I am playing gigs, doing some sub work, and teaching up a storm. It's been over a year and a half since I had a non-music job, and I have to say it feels pretty good to start to be able to make ends meet doing something I love. Now if only we had a house (with a garden), with a separate music studio so Jeremy didn't have to hide out somewhere while I'm teaching........ well, a girl can dream can't she??!!

one of the perks of teaching...

Pictures* from People's

Ahh, you have to love People's. It's kind of hard to see, but they are actually waving at us (from the window on the right) for this picture! Also- the caution taping is Halloween decoration, just incase you were wondering!!

Our friends Melissa and Michael, and a semi view of the kitchen (to the right), and the bar seating (behind).

Jeremy and I, totally full. I like this picture, because it's hard to determine just exactly what Jeremy is thinking!! Is he full and content? Is he looking wistfully at the Jukebox wishing we'd brought some change? Or is he enjoying the feel of the cashmere sweater he bought me for my birthday??

*Pictures courtesy of my new and amazing digital camera!! Thanks Mom and Dad!!!

Bowling, Boxes and Brunch!

I had a great birthday weekend. Saturday night was so fun- bowling was a riot!! The first ball I threw was a strike, and it stayed pretty similar until my arm got tired toward the end of the 2nd game. Who would have thought?!! I won the first game, and Jeremy won the 2nd game. After 2 hours of glow in the dark, black lighting and disco lighting we headed out to the pub by our place, where we celebrated with a few drinks, and some fun conversation.

We slept in, and then after presents and phone calls, we headed out to our old neighbourhood and had brunch at the best greasy spoon in Toronto- People's. Melissa stayed with us for the weekend, which was such a nice surprise and it was lovely to have her as our guest and to have brunch with her and Michael.

A luxurious nap in the afternoon was followed by a rehearsal last night with the Toronto Wind Orchestra, and I was again spoiled by my friend Laura who surprised me with cake (complete with flaming candles) and a bottle of scotch.

It was my best birthday since I moved to Toronto, and I would like to thank everyone for their kind thoughts and cards and wishes. I love you and miss you!!

I like packages

For (I think) the first time since Jeremy and I moved into our coachhouse, we got packages delivered to our door!! In the past I have had to trek to the not so close post office to pick up parcels and such- but not today!! And thank goodness- because it is raining and grey outside.

So now I am faced with a predicament...... do I go crazy and tear with excitment into my packages right now? Or do I wait until Sunday...... crazy tearing or patience, crazy tearing..... Personally, I'm all for the craziness...... but maybe I should wait until my actual Birthday! 2 days to go.

It's been a busy month. I am doing a ton of teaching, and loving every minute. My students are a varied range of ages and levels- so it is always interesting and challenging. I just started teaching a 12 year old boy this week, (at his house- can you say PETS galore!! They have 2 dogs, and 4 cats!) and tomorrow I have 3 new students starting at the studio. So I'm up to 22 students now.

I had my shellfish allergy test a couple weeks ago- and was disappointed to find out that I am not a mutant freak, and am still severly allergic to shellfish. Boo. No busting out to Red Lobster in celebration- instead Jeremy got to toss the tempting shrimp ring in the trash. Believe me, there were tears shed.

There are exciting plans for my Birthday weekend!! For the past 2 years, I've had gigs for pretty much the entire day and evening, but this weekend I am free!! Tomorrow night we are going 10 pin glow bowling, which should be a riot. I'll bring the camera. Before that we're heading over to our great friends Matt and Michelle's to have pre-bowling dinner and drinks. After bowling we'll hang out with friends at the local pub. And then Sunday is free for breakfast and presents. And to top it off, I just found out last night that my friend Melissa is in town for the weekend, and will be staying with us!! YAY!

Time to tidy up and then get some groceries!! Must resist the tempation of the temptingly tempting packages........

Girl vs Treadmill

Okay- I know I'm supposed to be cleaning...... but I was just taking a quick break, browsing a few blogs- and found this. It gets funnier the more you watch it. I love the sounds..... I promise to write a real post soon......

maybe an excitingly exciting new hobby......

For the past few days I have been working on a new update for my teaching blog. I wanted to add something new that my students could learn about, that was both fun and flute related. Maybe some Thanksgiving flute trivia? Well, surprise, surprise, there is not an abundant amount of fun Thanksgiving flute trivia floating around out there. This got me thinking. "What could I post about, that I find interesting, that most students might find neat, that they don't know about already?"

Enter my dizi- or chinese flute!! With a few fun sound samples and pictures, there's a new bit of trivia over there that you might want to check out. I'll post the answers in a few days. To check out Fun Flute Trivia #1, click here!

The most exciting thing about this for me is how EXCITED I find myself getting when I listen to this instrument!! I love the quality of the sound. So...... I'm thinking about taking some lessons, since the Conservatory now has Traditional Chinese Instrument classes!! Click here to see their web page. It's just a thought right now, albeit a very tempting and exciting thought!!!