…like a rolling stone.

well. i’m in the clear.
i’m packed and ready to go 3 hours early. i think this is what most would call turning over a new leaf?

ah. the relief i feel!
now it’s smooth flying all the way home.

let the holidays begin, let the traveling commence!

i will possibly attempt to get a post in somewhere along the road, but i make no promises. one of the greatest things about being away is the no-facebook, no-computer, no-cell phone, i get to be off the gridness of it all.

MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
see you in february.

xo.

judging from this photo, you know we’re in for trouble.

trouble here:

costa rica and panama are on the docket for january 5-february 2 with jenna, one of my greatest friends since grade four.

we’ve long been like so many pairs of friends, hoping to someday go on some crazy whirlwind trip together before life got too serious.
but instead of letting our lives get too serious, we made that little thought be.
 so off we go!

to backpack, find some surf, collect conversations with random people in the wee hours, drink wine, lay some towels on some sand, take scary cab rides, stand in front of mountains, sleep in huts,  light up djarums and be in strange places. 
to have an adventure.

and it all can’t help but make me think of this, from jack kerouac,

“i saw that my life was a vast glowing empty page and i could do anything i wanted.”

every day, every year is a glowing empty page. that idea that you can’t, at any given time, reverse or change your direction to be something better, is bullshit. we are not stuck on some train track, destined on a set course. take that idea apart, stop saying “i wish”, go and use your days. only you can.

get out there and be free. throw your arms into the wind.
for what will be left of your life are the ideals you lived. they will come and collect on the shore like waves.

decide what they will be. then go and live them.

xo.

it is high time to announce some travel.

it’s been awhile, or what seems like awhile. last august i landed back in canada and haven’t had my wings back since.

so it’s out on the road we go!

first-stop, home for the holidays in good ol’ edmonton from december 22-28.

coming home feels like walking into an old photo. the decorations, tree, fireplace, food, music, stockings, snow..everything is the same. your family, the airport pick up, the jokes, it’s so familiar.
and i love it. it’s the best thing about christmas.

i know i should be endorsing more christmas-ey jams, but my little sister finds the best tunes.

clapping around the house to this is just more my thing today.

the got craft? show on sunday was awesome, such a good little follow-up to make-it. we sold 150 more cards, so success, success, success!

yet one of the greatest things to come out of doing these two shows and meeting people that know dani press or are just meeting me, is to talk about These Numbers Have Faces.
it was one of the foundational parts of starting this whole thing in the first place. if i wasn’t going to give back and contribute to a greater story, i didn’t want to do it. so to tell people about south africa, about sustainable aid with education, to be asked, “which townships do they work in?” and answer with a list that includes crossroads (where i went to school for six months), and tell them about meeting the students during the world cup, that’s the surge of greater purpose i feel in my feet while i watch that person walk away. 

that feeling that you are a part of something greater, it’s incredibly humbling. because i just feel God standing next to me, shoulder to shoulder, and i look to Him and feel His warmth. that, that i wouldn’t give up for anything. it’s why i do this. i can make money and more cards, do more shows and meet people who love my work, and that’s unreal and wonderful, but if God isn’t completely threaded through everything and this work isn’t contributing to a better story for people other than myself, then why?
i don’t want to be a part of anything He isn’t.

xo.

to find out more about the cut from dani press that goes to tnhf get over here or to find out more about them directly, find them here.

the christmas season is starting to feel like 5 o’clock.
you look at your watch, “holy smokes, it’s 5 already!”

except it’s, “holy smokes, it’s christmas already?!”
december came right out of the middle of nowhere. 

my uncle gave me a turntable and the start of a very fine record collection nearly half a year ago and i’ve just now started getting it all set up.

a couple weeks back, i found a pair of vintage sansui speakers heavier than trees, exact replicas of the ones we had when we were kids. when i saw them and their signature wood latice, i couldn’t believe it. sold.
so today, chris and i got a temporary board to hold up the receiver and turntable. he fiddled around with some wires, then asked what i wanted to play.

i went over to the uncle-sponsored stack of records.
bobby vee, elvis, the chiffons, sam cooke, neil diamond, cat stevens, mamas and the papas, john denver, beach boys, even the beatles, nope.
there can only be one “first record i ever played on my very own turntable”,

buddy holly.

we put it on and twisted to “oh boy!” and i sat a couple hours later in the fm glow listening to “words of love”.

thank you buddy holly, and thank you uncle baron for what is the start of the best sort of education.