Elton

A little sign painting practice this past weekend.

Work, work, work

A little preview of what I've been working on these days. I'm super excited to share some new projects in the next couple weeks.

Have a great weekend!

CR

I ♥ Uppercase

A tremendous thank you to Janine from Uppercase Magazine for posting this lovely piece on the Uppercase blog yesterday. It was so much fun to attend the Show and Tell at Kid Icarus last week, and it's an honour to be featured on Type Tuesday.

Additional thanks to Erin for lending a hand last week, and for making a special delivery back to Calgary.

Creative Type Five - highlights

These were my top 5 favourite works at the Creative Type exhibit, which closed on Sunday night. Please excuse the low quality camera photos and poor lighting.

"Alphabet" by Thom Sevalrud

"Das Spinnennetz" by Sascha Hass

"Shelf Life" by Adrian Forrow

"Ampersand 3" by Kirsten McCrea

"Motor Oil" by Kellen Hatanaka

For better photos of all the works from the show, please check out Creative Type's beautiful new website.

Projeto de Etiqueta Urbana

Exciting news! The Urban Etiquette Project is now available in Portuguese!

A few weeks ago, I received an interview request from a journalist at Folha de São Paulo, a major Brazilian newspaper. They wanted to publish a piece on city etiquette, and use the Urban Etiquette Project as a case study.



After a few follow-up emails, I was able to translate the cards into Portuguese, and now, they have been published on their site and in a printed magazine! (I've requested a copy of the print version - please stay tuned.)



The cards are also available for download on my blog below the English and French versions.

How many translations can we do? I can't wait to find out!

Special thanks to Letícia for contacting me and making this all happen, and to Christine for her generous contribution to the translations.

Three bits of awesome

1) June is tomorrow, so it's time to vote for your favourite June lettering at 12 in 13 for 14!

2) Today is the last day to take advantage of my spring sale at my shop. Get $10 off when you spend $60 on your favourite prints. Just enter promo code ABC2013 at checkout - before midnight tonight!

3) Here's a photo of my work, Razorblade Origami Alphabet, at the opening of the Creative Type Five exhibit in Toronto last night. The show runs until Sunday at Cooper Cole gallery - I hope you can check it out!

Have a great weekend!

CR

Grandma and Grandpa's special day

Here are some snapshots from my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary surprise party last weekend in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. My grandparents were actually one of two happy couples who married at the same ceremony on April 17, 1963. Both couples were in attendance, surrounded by friends and family.

It was a special day, times two.

I'm an uncle!

Well, not really. But I still wanted to share photos of my sister's beautiful Bengal cats. In the bottom photo: Triton (right) & Stella (left).

Follow me on Instagram for more cat photos!

Have a great weekend :)

CR

Special delivery

On April 17, my grandparents their 50th wedding anniversary. This was my gift to them.

SL10K 2013: Results, and a lesson

For the second year in a row, I participated in the Sporting Life 10K Run in Toronto, which raises money for Camp Oochigeas, a camp for children with cancer.

I started training in January, with 2 goals in mind: 1) to beat last year's time of 1:04:35, and 2) to beat last year's fundraising total of $420.

I only reached one of my goals this year.

Back on March 28th, I felt a strange twinge in my right shin, so I checked in with my family doctor. After several tests through the month of April – an xray, an ultrasound, and nuclear bone scan (!) – the sports doctor confirmed that the twinge I felt was not shin splints (a common condition for runners), but a tiny stress fracture on my right tibia. I found this out last Wednesday, four days before the race.

The treatment for a stress fracture is no running for 6-10 weeks.

After consulting with the sports doctor, he said that based on the date of the injury, the progress my healing, and my current level of my shin pain, I could try running the 10k, but must stop immediately if I feel any pain. He warned that a stress fracture can easily turn into a compound fracture, which would be bad news.

Up until this morning, I didn't know if I was going to be able to run. I thought of walking the entire distance if need be - there's no shame in that. I told myself I would decide when I got to the start line based on how my body felt. When the whistle blew at 8:20am, I started walking and increased the speed slowly over course of the first kilometre. For the first 8km, everything was feeling okay.

Then right at the 8km mark, just as one of my favourite songs came on my iPod, I felt a moderate twinge in my knee/shin. It took me about half a second to realize that that was my body's signal to stop. So for the last 2km, I walked briskly, and passed under the finish line as the timer struck 1:09:49.

I only reached one of my goals this year. But the goal I did reach still blows my mind. With the unbelievable support of friends and family from across the country, I raised 3X last year's total: $1260! This is enough money to help five kids with cancer go to camp - how amazing is that?! I can't thank each of you enough for your contributions and encouragement.

This year was an exercise in listening to my body and learning my limitations. Being stubborn and ambitious, I really really wanted to run the full distance today and beat my personal record. But it was deeply humbling to accept the limitations I was given, and focus on the true purpose of the run, which had nothing to do with me, but rather, the lives of children fighting with cancer.

This was all summed up perfectly by a inspirational quote I received in my inbox first thing this morning:

"Affirm sufficiency."

CR