Category Archives: family

That’s what 2011 has been all about for me so far.  Well, that and a big fat engagement ring. (Yeah!)

But seriously, apart from shoving the gold and emerald band on my fat knuckle (thanks recreational basketball) I’ve hardly felt time to breathe work wise. So I’ve retired all of my public relations work to focus on writing and editing (almost) full time.

I’m just finishing up my first feature for Reader’s Digest (it’s a meaty story, and I can’t wait to get my edits back as I think I did a kick ass job, fingers crossed). I wrote a service piece for them earlier this year on Allergies, which opened the door to the editors taking my feature idea. In December, I landed my very first profile in a national magazine — it was on Lynda Powless, the editor and publisher of Turtle Island News.  More nominated it for Best Profile for this year’s National Magazine Awards, which made me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

I also acted as a judge for those awards – in the always glamorous and exciting “How To” category.  There were over 50 pieces to read, from How to Make a Wreathe to How to Stalk a Deer.  As a new editor, (I started as Managing Editor at Precedent last June), I found the discussion with the other judges highly instructive — my opinions were sometimes wildly variant from theirs, and I even admitted that I was wrong on some fronts — but not all.

On the non-work front, I’ve been taking a photography class through the Native Women’s Resource Centre — as a Board Member it’s given me a chance to spend time with the women who use the centre everyday — and get to know my new Panasonic DMC LX5.  I love you camera. I love you. We were tasked with a photo essay, so I chose the Business of Weddings, documenting visits to three wedding venues in one morning. You can see those pictures, and more on my Flickr page.

And now the second big season of my walking tour company — Walk T.O. — is ramping up. And it’s a busy one.  We’ve hired four new guides (all amazing teachers, eco-geeks, artists and/or a combination of all three) and we’re in training mode. Today and tomorrow we have 300 students from North Toronto Collegiate on our Toronto the Green Tour — that’s the entire section of Grade 9 Geography.  And it takes a lot of energy to keep one step ahead of them. One thing to be thankful for: the weather forecast was wrong today, no thunderstorms, just light rain.