Oh how I love to paint dolls on warm, spring evenings in my glassy studio! There is a majestically serene vibrancy to downtown Vancouver during warm seasons. They call Vancouver A City of Glass, because our highrises tend to be all windows and no walls, to allow maximum views of nature. Hanging artwork inside residential Vancouver towers can be quite a challenge because of that. But I digress.

On such warm, spring evenings, I pour myself a cup of Pomegranate tea, put it on my desk next to the china brushes and watch its steam rise up to the wide-open windows as I work. The intoxicating scent of leaves wafts through them, as golden dusk fades into the towering skyline around me. Scores of sun-kissed dog walkers return home from seaside parks with their happy dogs in tow, passing under my windows as they chat and sip on ice frappuchinos, couples stroll leisurely hand in hand, while dozens of dressed up groups hurry down manicured sidewalks to the bustling restaurant district, while there's still room on patios.

The sounds of traffic quiet down into a pleasantly distant hum, allowing evening songbirds to be heard. Dwellers of residential glass towers grill meat on their balconies and patios green with plants, leafy trees and twinkling garden lights. I smell dinners being prepared and hear an occasional chink of a wine glass along with faint joyous laughter as fellow Vancouverites take pleasure in each other's company at the end of the day. In the growing dusk and quiet, the city pulses with life and contentment and I feel like all my senses are tingling with wonder and anticipation of the next day as I paint porcelain body parts.

Around this time I begin to hear Chad making preparations for dinner in the kitchen, two doors down from my studio. My thoughts turn to a delicious meal and His company. I tidy up my desk, turn off all the lights and close the glass door behind me. I will pour us some white wine and we will cook dinner together while sipping it and discussing our daily accomplishments, challenges, frustrations, triumphs and plans for tomorrow. And our voices and laughter will carry through the open window to join with thousands of other Vancouverites at the end of a warm, spring day, in a quiet cacophony of joy.