Where in the world is Kim?

Good title for this blog. Where the heck have I been? I restarted the blog and then I disappeared! Well, alot has happened in the last week. I got an internship with an eco-designer named Nicole Bridger in Vancouver and also lined up an apartment in Kitsilano. So very exciting. Big change and its happening very very fast. I move in April 1st so everything is changing in just a couple weeks.

This is just a quick update because I have soooo much to do! I'm going to keep doing the DIY stuff but no schedule or promises as to when I will post anything. Not very good at commitment! Most people who know me know that though...

So starts yet another chapter. Hope its a good read. Cheers to Year of the Rabbit!!

Project #2 - Done at last!!!

2 weeks in and I have already messed up my commitment. This last week has been a chaotic whirlwind, but finally here it is! The finished necklace, made up of wood and glass beads from my extensive pack-rat collection and seed beeds from Peru. I will take a photo of this necklace with an outfit very soon, but for now here it is!


Necklace making in progress



The final look...

This weeks DIY project is to recover a couple pillows that have been floating around my bedroom for a while - how long you ask? They are covered in fuzzy zebra stripes. They have to go. Enough said...

I will try my hardest to get photos up by Friday!

Thanks Michaels...

Alright. In the effort to make this DIY blogging a consistent thing, here is my second installment.

About 5 years ago, I found myself living and working in Kelowna with a year off between high school and uni. I was working at LOR, started my first retail job at MEXX and when LOR closed down for the winter, I started on at Michaels. It was an extra couple hundred bucks a paycheck that was easily bankable...or so I thought. Me working in a craft store? Kind of like a bouncy ball in a crystal emporium, or a mouse in an elephant pen, or cookie monster in a bakery, or whatever cliched scenario you can think of. Regardless of your referenced imagery, its a disaster. Each and every paycheck went to the next coolest thing I spotted, the best craft project I had every thought of or scrapbooking (yes, its a category all on its own). Problem? I was working over 60hr a week - when exactly was I thinking I would make all these things? Unless I started sleep-crafting, and don't put it past me, I would never get the projects started, let alone finished.
So what does that leave me with? Piles, boxes, bins and crates of incomplete projects, leftover crafting items and really cool things I never even touched.



Present day: I have plenty of time, little money. Like I said before, I'm making pretty things out of old pieces and thanks to Michaels I have lots of bits and pieces. This week I'm focusing on my bead collection. I bought some awesome beads in Peru as well and didn't know what to do with them until now.


I saw this awesome necklace on anthropologie.com (probably my favorite store) and figured I could make it. So I shall try - check back friday for the final product!

Project #1

Here it is ladies and gents - my take on the bentwood rocker. Just to remind you all what it looked like before....

vs. my take on it!

I painted it white to go with the bookshelf I remodelled in September, but the fabric was an awesome find. I was planning on going with something subtle, but this was too awesome to pass up for a number of reasons:

#1 - Its paisley. enough said
#2 - One of the many colours is a dark indigo blue. Like an awesome pair of jeans, it can go with anything.
#3 - There are a ton of other neutral colours in the print, like a pale sage green which is ironically the colour on my parent's walls.



#4 - The rocker is an accent piece. I wouldn't do this to a couch. But there is tons of fabric left over for me to make pillows to throw on a solid couch...(lets make that project #3, the couch #85)



So here you go. Its funky and now, its way more comfortable than before. I'm also remembering back in the day why it was pulled out so far from the wall.....
it rocks... a lot...

Next project to be set out on Monday!

New Beginnings

Picture the board game 'Life'. You took the long way around by going to University and getting an education, a ton of life experiences and a hefty pile of debt. But now you're done and you're back on the road dubbed 'the real world'. So where do you go now? Especially when this economy keeps stealing you die and preventing you from moving forward. Its hard to keep on down the path when the jobs you want aren't appearing. So what do you do? Everything else.

Thats where you'll find me at the moment. Post-uni I have travelled (Peru), taken advantage of free time (summer in Kelowna), started my own business (Lilly Nichols Accessories) and sewn random contract projects for friends and family. I've also relapsed back into living at my parents. The thing is, I know what I want. I have a plan. But my generation wants everything now, or so I'm realizing, and that can't happen. So I'm looking at the steps and figuring out what tiny little things I can do to get me to my goal.

I guess the question now is why am I writing. One tiny little step is for me to stop spending money so I can save up and make a big change, aka moving to Van. However, I'm obsessed with pretty things and find myself constantly spending money. If you've ever lived with me or seen my house, you've noticed how I already have way way way too much stuff, so my goal is to make pretty things out of old. And not just counter-clutter. I want to turn all the craft-materials, excess clothing and old furniture into items that I will fill my new place with when I finally get to the coast.

So let the creativity begin! I've been missing it so....

Project #1
The Bentwood Rocker
This awesome chair rocked the 80s (pun intended). For anyone my age or older, you will remember this as a staple in not only your living room, but also in you granny's, aunt's and friends. However, the last time I sat in one of these I was under 4 feet tall and had foot braces on. But thanks to my wicked cool aunt, I now have one of my own. And I quickly discovered they are not so comfortable when you are 5' 7"


Check back soon to see how it looks when I'm done!

Machu Picchu - the best way to say goodbye

I'm assuming if you read this, you know me pretty well. You know my sleeping habits, my inability to be an early riser, my complete distaste for extreme cardio and physical exertion. You know that while I love the outdoors and the environment, I love my coffee and I hate being cold.

Yet, I just hiked to Machu Picchu.

It entailed 5am wake up calls, camping overnight at 4100m above sea level and below freezing temperatures as soon as the sun goes down. After 2 full days of hiking, we had conquered a 4800m mountain and back down to the valley. At one point while we were hiking up, I could hardly breathe due to the lack of oxygen and personal fitness and was stopped on the side of the mountain with Erica. While we are standing there doubled over and wheezing, the porters just flew by us with at least 40 pounds strapped to their backs. I turned to Erica and asked her if she felt like a city girl. She looked up and said "I can't go 10 m without stopping, 20 minutes without eating, I've realised I don't really like hiking and I really really want a Starbucks right about now."

I pretty much agreed. So while it was painful and way past my physical limitations, the scenery and sense of accomplishment after the two days was the best reward I could have asked for. Then it was followed by hot springs and of course Machu Picchu.

If you ever need a reality check, or just to have your mind completely boggled, head there. The mystery behind the town, the culture and the architecture is immensely intriguing. I can't really describe it much better than to say go there. Now. There isn't a doubt in my mind why it is considered one of the 7 wonders of the world.

But now I have to leave Cuzco, one more day in Lima and then back to Canada and reality. It has been a life-changing learning experience, an adventure day after day and a lesson the hard way on how important it is to be bilingual. I wouldn't change the experience, because in both the ups and downs I learned a hell of a lot about people, myself and group dynamics.

I will definitely be coming back to Peru, and South America. After all, I did promise an 11 year old girl I would see her again.

That is, once I learn Spanish.

How do you say heartbroken in Spanish?

Today was most definitely the hardest day.

The mural is done. The roof is up. In Peru, when the roof is done that is when the celebration is, because here a roof means shelter regardless of what may be underneath it. That broke my heart a little. Then Erica had the honors of christening the bathroom with a bottle of champagne. Laughter followed and the tears abaded. Today we didn't really work. Abdias told us to come in but there wasn't any work so we think he just wanted to spend more time with us. Which was fine. A moto taxi came by playing music at full blast so had a dance party in the middle of the street for a good hour, including an organized line dance for all to see (line dancing on a hill is an unbelievable work out.) Such fun times.
And then my heart broke.
We got the kids to sign our shirts and write things down, like numbers and emails and names. Sorry Mom and Dad - 120 Peruvian children now have your phone number. But then there were hugs, and an onslaught of tears. How do you tell two 10 year old girls, Kelly and Carmella, that they are so unbelievably smart and talented and that the world is their oyster. How do you tell them that if they need anything or just a person to talk to, just to call. How do you tell them that you will miss them all and you will be back to check in on them - if you don't speak their language? So you cry and you hug and you tell them that you will be back to check up on them because they are way to brilliant to be stuck in a place like Villa Maria. And I mean it. I will keep in touch however I can because those kids that not only touched my heart but fully stole it deserve so much better than just a shelter over their head and a dirt hill to live on. In the end that bathroom really didn't mean anything. It is those kids that are the heart, soul and hope for the community. If the kids only took a small piece from the last 4 weeks, I'm ok with that - they taught me things about myself I didnt know and affected me in ways I probably am not quite aware of yet.

But now I must put my travelling boots back on and once again say my goodbyes and hit the road.
Tomorrow:
Cuzco!