Living Creatively

Last week I spent a lovely afternoon with Claudia Kwan, a journalist who was working on a story for the Vancouver Sun about people reconsidering how they use their basement. And today the story came out! We (where by "we" I mean Greg and some volunteer and professional friends) have been feverishly working on the...
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I didn't know what to expect when I got us tickets to the grand tasting hall at the Hopscotch Festival, the Vancouver beer and whisky event. I was hoping the place would be filled with vendors who know their craft. See, we enjoy our whisky chez Werker. And so we wanted to go and...
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A few weeks ago I bought a chair from my neighbour for $1 at a yard sale. I'd been waiting a year to find the right chair to complete my vision for a corner of our living room, and though I'd had something else in mind, the price tag on this chair couldn't be...
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This post was originally published on the now-retired Make & Meaning blog on March 13th, 2010. On Twitter a few days ago, Kirsty Hall (who's written some great guests posts here on Make and Meaning) shared a link to a blog post by a woman named Patty K who recently wore pajamas...
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This post was originally published on the now-retired Make & Meaning blog on February 13th, 2010. Kids, there is a pervasive opinion out there that in order to appeal to a massive audience, you have to be bland. Not that anyone actually says “bland” but that’s totally the gist of it. Folks...
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We didn't have our act together to participate in our block-wide yard sale today, but we had a lovely morning walking around catching up with our neighbours. I honestly can't think of a more delightful way to start the weekend. Especially a weekend devoted to moving passed the stress and angst of the last...
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This post was originally published on the now-retired Make & Meaning blog on December 11th, 2009. Paul recently wrote about his desire to drop-kick commenters who say “Great tutorial! I could never do that.” The same kind of self-deprecating denial often follows phrases like, “Great photo!” “Great project!” and “Great...
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I was reading this article about EduPunk in The Tyee yesterday, and it got me thinking. (Ironically, something else I thought was that I wanted more thoughtful meat, and more concrete history and policy in that article.) For every formal job I've ever had, I've been either over- or inappropriately credentialed. I have a bachelor's...
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Last summer we opened up the wall between our living room and what's now kind of like a sub-living-room, or a den. Our 90-year-old Craftsmen bungalow feels much more airy and open now, and I've enjoyed the excuse to redecorate these two front rooms (and no, I don't mean to imply that we've actually...
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A couple of weeks ago an idea pounced on me while I was riding the bus home at night. The kind of idea that led me to run home from the bus stop and have a domain registered and half a website built before I went to bed. I've written about intentionally making ugly crafts...
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