Ode to John Hellum.
John Hellum was larger than life in every possible way, physically, mentally and gastronomically. Unfortunately for us John has died and has left us poor mortals for that ultimate kitchen in the sky. The patrons there will soon learn to recognise and love the man in the hat just as we did. Fortunately as long as there is one person here that knew him, John will live on. His swagger, his story telling ability, his incredible knowledge base on all things, his kind and gentle heart and his rapier like wit will never leave us. Fortunately we can also still experience the essence of John...
Read MoreYes You Can Self-Publish.
I have people asking me all the time if they think anyone would read their memoirs. The answer is a resounding, yes! If you have led a full adventurous life, travelled a lot and friends or family are constantly telling you that you should write a book, then go for it! You might consider taking a writing course or hiring a professional copy-writer if you can’t write. A copy-writer will research content for your book, be creative and also ensure sentence structure and flow. Remember not to do your own proofreading. This is separate from copy-writing and done after the manuscript is...
Read MoreYour Flashlight
Spring is with us and the days are brighter. This makes me think of a poem that I recently wrote called “Your Flashlight”. I performed it at the Spiral Café in Victoria, and you can check it out on You Tube if you like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL_FqK0zIDc I am thrilled to announce that I have been writing with Island Woman Magazine for nearly two years now. Whenever I meet a new audience, I begin in a safe and easygoing manner, and then I begin to unleash myself more and more. It occurred to me, a few weeks ago, that I have yet to fully unleash, or even step it up a...
Read MoreWhat If ?
When I ponder the many directions I could take this article, I feel compelled to talk about our upcoming “Pink Day”, on February 24. Pink Day is the international day against bullying, discrimination, homophobia, transphobia, and transmisogyny across the world. This is a topic that has been speaking to me loud and clear for the last number of months. I have many poems that would fit well here, one is a new one, hot off the press but yet to be fully processed. I have also created a YouTube video show called “Tea with Carlie” and my first topic is called “Self-love: A Radical...
Read MoreA Brush Full Of Colour
Two remarkably talented women and reputable West coast authors have in common a connection with a very special artist among Canada’s rich culture and history. Both held a unique relationship with an iconic Canadian painter and shared their experience to create a beautiful piece of literature that has recently earned them The Children’s Literature Roundtables of Canada 2015 Information Book Award. Combining their passion for story-telling with their own personal account of the painter, it’s not surprising the result is nothing short of award-winning. The children’s novel is titled ‘A...
Read MoreNew Today
As a new year comes to pass, I am filled with great vision and inspiration. Our world is becoming new before our eyes and we have the chance to co-create in this amazing time of shifting. It may feel turbulent and uncomfortable, but I hope that you will find empowerment in knowing that as you change, you change our world. What if your new year’s focus was to love yourself? Can you step toward better self-compassion and self-nurture? We are taught about taking care of others – service, good will and charity – but very little is mentioned about how to care deeply for ourselves....
Read MoreGifts I Want
The holiday season is with us and it is my passionate desire to share with you a poem that I wrote at this time last year. The holiday season has not always been easy for me. I find myself overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle, the downtown driving and parking, the commercial focus of gift giving frenzy, and the overall assumption that everybody is happy and well prepared for Christmas. Not everybody celebrates Christmas and not everybody feels merry in December, and this is perfectly alright if you ask me. I prefer the things that are much more simple and wholesome, like kindness, presence...
Read MoreIt’s All About The Contrast
When my Comox customers first approached me to come up with a whole home concept to convert their single family 2-storey home into a residence with a self-contained rental suite downstairs, I got very excited. Now that the renovations are complete, I am just as excited. Originally the homeowner wanted a white-on-white kitchen with white walls and pale flooring. She was a fan of mid-century and Scandinavian design and had a collection of vintage pieces scattered throughout her home. I didn’t want her “new” home to be caught in the trap of one look – and a period one at that...
Read MoreThe Best Infection
Hello Island Woman! Here we meet again. As I ponder how I want to share with you this time, a few poems jump to my mind as if they are saying: “Pick me!” The one that speaks the loudest, recently written, is called “Infection” and so I allow it to come to the surface at this time. I will warn you that this might be one of the grossest poems I have written. As someone recovering from germophobia, I can understand that the words in this poem may make some itch and squirm a little. I urge you to hold your seat and stick with it. The message is powerful and well worth some...
Read MoreCurated Cat Designs
Everyone knows I love dogs; after all, I write a regular blog called Dax’s Dog Spot, and I’ve written previously for Island Woman about customizable dog beds, dog decor and designing for dogs, but I also love cats. Unfortunately my husband is VERY allergic to them so I keep my feline fun down to a minimum and make sure I change clothes and wash hands before having any contact with Bruce. That said, enjoying awesome cat designs causes absolutely no allergies whatsoever. While purr-fectly paw-some designs for cats don’t cause allergies, they do cause elevated pulse – I mean who...
Read MoreRommy Verlaan’s Heart Song
It is a haunting sound, ancient as the peoples who lived out their lives in the forests and on the plains of the North American continent thousands of years ago, a plaintive call of eerie beauty, evocative both of human longing, and of the dark, sweet mysteries of nature itself. This is the sound of the North American native flute, and it is a sound you can hear today, deep in the heart of the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island. It seems natural that these flutes should be made here, in the ancestral homeland of the Cowichan peoples, a land of forests, rivers and lakes. Here the sound of the...
Read MoreMy Time Of Spring
Spring is with us and I am always uplifted when the flowers bloom, the birds sing, and the sweet air warms. It seems to bring a renewed joy to most people and as the days grow longer and brighter, smiles grow. As this spring takes wings, it comes to me that I am in my own life’s time of spring. I believe that our lives follow their own cycles and they aren’t necessarily related to the physical changing of seasons each year. More on a metaphoric level, we move through times of birth, death, release, growth and much more. I love the image of a tree, and our trees are looking lovely and...
Read MoreMerging Art + Architecture
I was so mesmerized and impressed by this latest merging of art and architecture that it got me revisiting some of my other “Ev Fan Favourites” and it wasn’t hard to come up with a selection of uber exciting examples to write about; the only hard part was keeping it to five! Samantha Everton’s Masquerade Artwork Surreal Building FacadeKavellaris Urban Design and Samantha Everton’s structural composition of art and architecture culminated in a building called “2 Girls”. Located in Melbourne, Australia and using the photo art Masquerade from Samantha Everton’s “Vintage...
Read MoreThe Art of Hanging Art
It never fails to amaze me how many people say they wish they could hang more of their art in their homes, but they can’t because their walls are full. Then I take a look and realize that the walls aren’t full of art at all. After rearranging their collections to create compositions that include more then one piece per wall area, the results are usually far more interesting and include more pieces than before. Homeowners usually hang art or photos in a line, with way too much space between each piece. For example, in the foyer shown at right, most people would have hung one piece over...
Read MoreYour Words
And so we meet again Island women. It is once again my pure delight to share with you. I want to offer another poem and this one came after a writing drought. I have been taking great strides in preparing to launch my own spoken word show called “Spoken Love with Carlie Kilduff” and I can assure you that, behind the scenes of any artist baring their soul, are some shaking knees and tender hearts. As I move forward, I constantly nurture the voice that tries to encourage me to keep going, rather the one that says I should just pack it in and keep my passion hidden. There is a part in all of...
Read MoreAvant-Garde Upcycling
With upcycling being the new “IT” word, and recycling materials seen as a way to create fun and fabulous designs for both interior and exterior lifestyles, Pinterest and other sites are being bombarded with zillions of upcycled designs that are really not much better – and sometimes worse – than the original product. This is a shame because it leaves the impression that upcycled generally means junky. Yet there are so many amazing designs out there – some of them avante garde – that are truly inspiring, such as this oh-so-fun paper mache installation called “Linda the...
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