What style of Blundstones do you have on today and where do you plan on taking them?
I'm wearing the Blundstone Originals 510. I'm going to take them all over town! Rain! Sun! Wind! Snow! Hikes up in the North Shore Mountains, looking for crabs and interesting shells with my daughter Rosie at Jericho Beach, to the farmers market on Saturdays, along many tree lined streets to grab coffee or pastry from Le Marche, or Liberty Cafe, or Federal Store, and to my studio in Mt Pleasant's brewery district where I paint.
What are some of your favourite things to do in Vancouver as a family?
We love getting outdoors and being in nature anywhere; trails, the ocean, a bike ride; Vancouver is amazing for having such a variety of outdoor places to spend time in. We're also embarrassingly regular patrons of many coffee shops, cafes and restaurants, though we also love putting on a record, and cooking meals all together in our apartment.
Does Rosie have her own personal style, what are some things she loves?
Oh yes. Her personal style is passionate and ever changing. Right now she's really leaning into layering, so she'll pick out like five pairs of pants and want to wear them all over top of each other and then she'll waddle around with stiff legs telling us how comfortable she is and how much she likes it. She's also really into dresses and loose 'swishy' pants, so I got all excited and borrowed a sewing machine this summer and sewed her some, and now that the initial excitement wore off, they're probably her least worn, bottom-of-the-barell-need-to-do-laundry items. Go figure.
Can you tell us about your painting style and what inspires your practise? (@meghanbustard_art)
My painting is heavily inspired by my time outdoors and around our neighbourhood. You could probably call it abstract landscape. I'm really interested in how I can visually distill an environment and somehow translate the feelings that being in a place evokes, into shapes and colours and lines on a canvas. They're conversations between me and the materials about the interplay of form, colour, and pattern in the spaces that shape my world, which hold excitement, pause, wonder, fear, peace, curiosity etc.
Tell us about one of your favourite family adventures this summer?
We love going on little weekend adventures and getaways. A special one this summer was going over to Sooke, on Vancouver Island, for a few nights to stay at a cottage that's been in my dad's side of the family for years. It's right on the ocean and you wake up (early, because you have a toddler) and light a fire in the wood stove, and watch while the sun rises and illuminates your surroundings; huge evergreens, waves crashing on a rocky beach, seagulls flying by, and people heading out in little boats for their morning catch. It's a really slow and refreshing spot, and it feels meaningful to watch Rosie and James enjoy the wildness of a place that holds so many childhood memories for me.
Lastly, what would an ideal weekend look like for you?
Ooh I love this question, it always makes me feel like I'm playing that game about what you'd do with lottery winnings, except that it's all actually possible. It changes a lot with the seasons for me, but currently it would look like homemade pizza dinner on Friday night, in which James and I eat all the toppings Rosie meticulously picks off her slices, a family hike on Saturday morning with some friends, soup for lunch, afternoon charcuterie and tea to live piano at Fabrique 7e7, reading and candle lit yoga after Rosie goes to bed, Sunday morning brunch at Yolks, or 33 Acres, an afternoon on the big rocks overlooking the ocean at Lighthouse Park, and Sunday dinner at my parents'.
