A few weeks ago the opportunity to teach a block printing class at our local sewing atelier Emeline and Annabelle fell into my lap. It sounded fun! And it had been a while since I had had a good excuse to bust out my collection of inks and lino carving tools.

I was a little nervous about teaching a class full of people (so official! so much pressure! how will I fill 6 hours of classes??!) but in the end it was just so. much. fun. Great people with really cool ideas, and it was so much fun to watch finished projects come together in what really amounted to a few short hours.

And it was so much fun that I’ll be teaching again! In November I’ll be guest-teaching a block of the month class along with a card printing class (time to haul out the print gocco!). I’m already looking forward to it.

Last leg – peloton heading towards the finish line, originally uploaded by mintyfresh.

This photo pretty much sums up how I feel about the remnants of summer. Fast, but full of endurance (these cyclists in the Grand Prix rode a solid 205 km, including 17 trips OVER mount royal. They rock.), equal parts whee! and challenging.

Montreal is home now. It’s funny how it happened, especially since many months of this year have been punctuated with “I wanna be somewhere else” moments and opportunities. Toronto? San Francisco? They have been contemplated heavily in these parts. But unlike before, I find it difficult to contemplate leaving. It’s as if I have roots here now (and let’s be honest, an aversion to packing any more boxes).

I have friends here, my time is full with volunteering, and teaching, learning french (qui l’eut cru?), hosting visitors and trying to jam in all the things I want to do into days that are never quite long enough.

Now the real question is, after a summer full of leisure and fun and visitors, can we outdo ourselves with an equally fantastic winter?