Arts festival

OK, first of all, please dear God don't let our vacation start off in the same way that Jackie's did. I think there would be some deep and serious losing of shit if that was happening to us. Then again, we're not trying to catch a cruise a few hours after arriving. The worse that happens to us if we arrive a few hours late in Rome is that we won't spend much of our first day doing anything as opposed to poking around.

Oh, I've also started to monitor the temperatures in Italy, seeing as how we're getting close. Warm, but not life destroying. Low 30s is certainly manageable. It's only when the temperatures start climbing above 40 that my brain starts to seriously shut down. If it stays in that range for the duration of our trip I should be all right.

As for our last weekend in Iqaluit for awhile, it was spent mostly trying to get the apartment in order (I will never understand how it gets cluttered and dirty so fast. I blame the dog) and doing some prep work for the trip. Starting to get excited about going now, which is cool.

We also did a few things with the Alianait festival. One of the main things was the Arts and Crafts sale and workshops. I picked up a couple of nice pieces there last years and was very much looking forward to see what I might find there this time around. However, it was kind of disappointing. Yes, there were some nice pieces there, but it didn't seem like there was as much there this time around as last time. Also, it was much more expensive. I'm not saying the pieces were over-priced. Most were well worth the money. It's just they were more than we could afford at this time.

Still, here are a few pics of some of the pieces that were available.








I like the last two in particular. Cathy wasn't as thrilled with the hunter, but fell deeply in love with that muskox. Alas, it was the most expensive piece we saw there, at around $3,400. It's beautiful work. For whatever reason, you don't see many nice muskox carvings. Besides, not only is the carving nice, but the polishing on it as top notch. It really is worth the money, we obviously just don't have that much right now.

There were carvers working outside on Saturday and the arts and crafts show is running until Tuesday. I might pop back before the show wraps up to see if anything new shows up. Or something a bit more affordable. The other nice thing about the show is that there are carvers from places like Rankin or Clyde River and you don't always get a chance to see their work in town.

Last Five
1. Unguided - The New Pornographers
2. We can run away now, they're all dead and gone - Snow Patrol
3. Killer queen - Queen
4. Picadilly sand farewell - Ron Hynes
5. Big wheel - Tori Amos