A hat and scarf kinda day.

I’m exhausted.  My sister in law, Tabatha, and my niece Eliana and nephew Leandro just left.  I got the girl ready for bed, and Damon is in there reading to her.  Normally I’m in there too, but this is a book he picked out and is reading to her – and I don’t want to interfere.  While it’s not the first time he’s read to her (he had to take over when my TMJ got so bad that it forced me to stop reading out loud) but this is the first book he picked out and bought for her, so it’s kinda special. 

Yesterday’s challenge photo was “letterbox”, which I’m assuming is the same as a “mailbox”.    So here’s ours.  It’s dirty, dusty, and dinged up…  but it’s cute and charming just like the rest of our new house.  And hey!  It even had some mail in it when I snapped this picture:

Today’s challenge was to photograph something I wore.  Well…  I didn’t have to give this one much thought.  With my hair badly needing to be washed (it’s super flat and greasy right now, just ask my SiL – whom I’m sure was amazed I’d be seen with it like this) I threw my hat on before heading outside earlier today.  I really love my hat.  And with the weather unseasonably warm for January (try -10 or -15 when it’s usually -30 or -40) I haven’t been having to wear a super heavy scarf.  So I threw on the one my sister Riki and her girlfriend Kate bought me for Christmas, it’s right up my alley and I just love it.  Here they are:

Just found your way here and have no idea why I’m sharing pictures of such unusual items?  Check out the January challenge list below:

Preparing for Yule!

Filled with Wonder!

I figure it’s about time that I shared a few pictures from December first, when we decorated our Yule tree.  It’s our first year with a big (six foot) tree.  I’ve posted before about our little half-a-tree that we normally hang on the wall.  Well, in our new house we actually have room for a regular sized tree – so when Grampa offered us his (he was switching to a table top sized one) we gratefully accepted!

All wrapped up!

We really did love our little half-tree-thing…  but this?  Watching the girl’s face light up, getting to pick out and buy new ornaments, as well as hanging some that Grampa and Gramma Joan gifted us?  It was pretty amazing.  Lily-Ann had the most wonderful time and it did my heart some good to be a part of it all.

Trimming the Tree!

After it was all decorated, I put out the bags for her Advent Calendar, and she dug through them looking for bag number one…  thus beginning a wonderful new Yule tradition in our wonderful new home.

Advent, Day One!

With that, here’s wishing you all a Joy-filled Yule!  One packed full with wonderment and delight.  Take time to be childlike!

 

 

Craft Crazy!

This time of year I tend to be on crafting overdrive.  Far too many projects and not nearly the time needed to comfortably complete them all.  I love it anyway though. 

A My Little Pony Artist’s Trading Card for the Trading Post. The theme was “holiday specials”, which is why Frosty is stuck in the corner – clearly I didn’t feel adventurous enough to sketch him myself.

It used to just be me, crafting all by my lonesome… but now that Kid Kid is five, she’s in it right along with me.  It’s awesome to see how well she’s doing to, in so many mediums.  Embroidery, sewing, painting, drawing – and that’s just today.  We still have planting, baking, decorating, packaging, more painting, more embroidery, more drawing, and a buttload of sewing still to go.

Paint covered play clothes. Crafting is a dirty job, but somebody’s gotta do it.

I wish I could share all the projects, but some of the folk who are on the receiving end of our efforts may stop by the blog, so we gotta keep it all under wraps.  I gotta say though, as artsy fartsy as we are, all this creative work is absolutely exhausting.  It is with great relief that we welcome bedtime tonight.

The girl and Sweets (the old man chi) drifting off to sleep as Daddy reads… a bedtime well deserved after a day of working hard.

Woe be unto the mother after moving.

I’m beginning to think I may need to start blogging in the afternoons.  Lately I’m so beat by the time the girl is in bed that it’s hard to string two sentences together – forget being witty and interesting while doing so.  Settling in and nesting is an exhausting undertaking, and this is our first time doing so with a five year old under foot…  which only multiplies the exhaustion and the amount of time it takes to get anything done.  I am hopeful though, slowly we will put together a room.  And yes, I said A room, as in ONE room…  eventually ONE room will be finished, and then we’ll move onto another.  For now though, we live surrounded by boxes and piles of partially organized items.  And I’m just too darn exhausted to do anything about it. 

titles are hard when you are tired

Another night, another positively exhausting day.  At least the basement didn’t flood again (of course, I didn’t do any laundry today either).

Damon and I spent the evening putting together the girl’s new loft bed, while she played at my parents place.  Her Tio and Auntie Tabs bought her a new (much smaller) loft which meant we could leave the extra large one we’d built at the old place.  It would have been a major headache to get the old one out – especially considering we had to build most of it in the room as it was too big to do any other way.  The new one is much smaller and cuter too.  And, for now, the loft is full of her boxes that still need unpacking… but it will eventually become Ponyville, home to all the ponies of Equestria.

Now I’m going to bed.  LOL

Night all!

Safe Travels Deedee!

Tomorrow morning is going to be a tough one.  11 hours from now, we’ll be leaving to take Deedee to the airport where she’ll fly to Kelowna to meet her new family.  Placing puppies isn’t easy…  but placing one who is a year and a half is even harder.

Deedee at the lake a few weeks ago (next to her sister Alice and mommy Roo)… and yes, those are my dirty camp toes.

 

We’ve known since she was only a few months old that there would come a time when we’d place Deedee.  This litter was a co-breeding between myself (Sidhe Dogs) and Em (HiLeigh Chihuahuas)…  so with two puppies one was ours and one was hers.  We chose to keep Alice as her temperament just fit in better with us.  Which meant it was just a matter of finding the perfect placement for our little tri-coloured girl.

Deedee is a lot like her mom: super smart.  She’s also super accepting and willing to just sit back and let the girl manhandle her.  After all, Lily-Ann has been holding the pups since they were a few days old.  At this point it’s just second nature for them to relax in her arms and have her cart them around.  She’s gentle with them, but she is a kid, and the pups learn quickly to just relax and go with it.  Because while they won’t always be carried around or treated in a dignified manner, it’s always done gently and with love.

Alice ended up being our pick, mainly because her temperament is more like her dad’s, she’s the snuggler.  And I need a snuggler.  Lily-Ann bogarted Marnie, so our family clearly needed a second.  And as much as we love Roo, one Roo is plenty for any household. 

Thankfully for her new family, while Deedee is a lot like her mom, she did inherit some of her dad’s easygoing nature.  She’s up for just about anything at any time.  She’s happiest on the go.  She loves hiking, hitting the beach, camping…  and as the only dog in her new home, she’ll be toted everywhere and doted on by this active family.  It’s also nice to know that all their past fids (furry kids) are all still so treasured (pictures hanging up as reminders of those who are waiting for them at the rainbow bridge).

We really are going to miss our little treasure…  but we wouldn’t let her go if we had any doubts about her being treasured there too.  It really is going to be a hard morning.  Lots of tears ahead (and some right now too).  The girl and I have already shared a cry, but I’m sure we’ll have another tomorrow.  Our little Deedee is one in a million, and she will always be loved.

Deedee getting a smoosh from Lil (after a bath) early in the Spring. This picture is the wallpaper on my iPhone.

Good Night!

It has been a long and exhausting day, so I do hope you’ll all forgive me for such a short blog post.  I’m just online for a moment or two to wish you all well.  Hold your loved ones close, and tell them how deeply important they are in your life.  Give yourself the freedom to feel – deeply and fully – every day.  Be gentle with yourself and with others.

Night all!

Mrs. Morin – always a beacon of love and strength.

Life has a tendency to throw a curve ball every so often, just to keep you on your toes.  Some you catch, and return…  others knock you on your ass.  This one?  This one hit me harder than I’d have expected.

A friend just shared the news that a woman I loved and respected has passed from this life.  I knew she was sick, but I hadn’t seen her in years.  I only ever knew her as the bright, intelligent, caring Mom to the Morin clan.

I have so many wonderful memories of Maryjo.  She peppered my teen years with kindness and laughter, an ever present nurturing figure that I (and so many others) could count on.  Mom to four boys, I remember her rescuing me from her eldest who had stuffed me in his hockey bag one afternoon.  I remember the look she gave him as she made sure the others helped me out of that stink sack.

I would have been fifteen or sixteen at the time, and he was a few years older than me – and delighted in the fact that I was so pocket sized.  At the time there were no girls in the family other than Maryjo, so the boys tended to treat me more like a brother – which is something she always felt the need to apologize for (though it didn’t bother me).  I’d like to think those experiences helped prepare them for the sister who would come later, and whom they had learned to be much gentler to thanks to Maryjo’s no nonsense brand of loving discipline.

Maryjo always grinned and gave me a knowing look when the guys would call me idget (because I was “too small to be a midget”).  They always treated me like one of their own…  a middle sister.  And I always felt so at home with them all and Mrs. Morin was a big part of that.

As tears dry on my cheeks after the news of her passing, I take comfort in knowing she found her way home.  I’d like to think that she is again that woman – healthy, vibrant, full of spark – that I remember from all those years ago.  Pain free, and rejoicing in all the blessings she has known.

My heart goes out to the Morin family.  I can only imagine the feelings they must be coping with as they experience her loss.  Maryjo was the hub of their home.  You knew wherever she was you would find compassion, joy, laughter and tenderness.  I will always hold her in my heart – a heart full of gratitude for all she gave me.  She will be remembered with fondness, love, and appreciation.

Momma Morin and her boyz (hope they don’t mind that I nabbed this off fb). The clan as I remember them from my early teen years – a little older, a little hairier, but the same old faces I loved so much.

 

He loves me. :)

Every so often, in life (as in art), something happens that makes you feel valued.  I know I make a difference, and I know what I do is important…  but in our families, with our mates, sometimes we just get to the point where we just take love for granted.  And when something happens to make you stop and realize how deeply someone trusts you?  It’s a big deal.

I can’t share the details…  yet.  We are making some changes, and as much as I LONG to share, we’re keeping things somewhat private for the time being.  But I can share this:  My husband trusts me far more than I realized.  And that feels pretty darn good. 

The Legacy of 9/11 is Love.

Today is a day for contemplation, and for many it is filled with a deep sense of loss.  Rightly so.  And not just for the losses that occurred 11 years ago in the U.S. but for the losses 39 years ago in Chile.

Today I chose to focus on all the blessings we have.  The love of family.  The gift that is Lily-Ann.  Our wonderful animal family members.  The home we have had for nine years now.  My husband, and all that he does for us.  The fact that I am able to make my way through life as a photographer and advocate.  That we live somewhere that anyone I love is free to love whom they love without persecution.  The many friends, though some are far away, who care so deeply for us.  Our many communities that we are a part of, both irl and online.  And these are just the tip of the iceberg.

Things may not be perfect but we are so very, very blessed.  No… we must not forget the travesties this world has faced, and not just on 9/11, as they have shaped our lives in so many ways.  However, to dwell on all the horrible things man has done does nothing to honor all the good that has also been done.  And I will always choose to focus on the love, the honor, the heroism, the bravery, and the many incredible things our species has done.  I do so with hope, because I refuse to despair for our future while lamenting the past.  I believe in our children, and I believe they will lead us to a life filled with love and promise.

Today is a day for contemplation.  So I have, and will continue to think on our world and the world our children will find themselves in.  But I will do so with hope.  If nothing else, days like today, have taught us love.