Blog Archives
Where are you Spring?!?!?
Okay. Yeah. I’ve been a really bad blogger lately. Well, maybe not by most standards. After all, there are MANY bloggers who post once a week or even less frequently. 😉 But for me? This is bad.
I don’t know if it’s the weather, or just the physical exhaustion after working so hard getting Breaking the Silence up and running then following it up with a very physically demanding photo shoot… Whatever it is? It’s kicking my ass. I’m just done. So I am VERY grateful that the Easter break is now upon us. Not having to worry about our regular schedule, and getting the girl off to school, should help a great deal. And even better? The next couple of days we’re actually supposed to see plus temperatures!
I am so done with this cold and all this snow. I am dying for it all to melt away. I want to cultivate the ground. This house has a nice big garden space (that was unused for who knows how long) and I’m just itching to get out there and plant something. I have so many plans for the outdoor space here, and this extended Winter is making me a little itchy… seriously. I’m so irritable I’ve definitely got a case of cabin fever… Spring just cannot get here fast enough.
December is Almost Upon Us.
I don’t know about you, but I could use another couple of weeks before December. YIKES! How on Earth did it jump from November 10th to November 25th so quickly? Way too many holiday projects are about to become due in no time flat. I had plans to make our own little advent calendar for the girl, but I’m now wondering if I’ll have time to do all the sewing I’d planned to. I may just have to cut some corners and find little pre-made baggies to put each days “treasure” in. LOL Well, either way, I’ll get something put together.
For now I intend to put on some super comfy warm holiday themed PJs, pop on a show, grab a puppy or two, something yummy to snack on, maybe my husband, and cuddle into the bed. The temperature drop today definitely says “holiday’s a’comin”, and rather than pump the furnace into high gear just yet, I’m retreating for the coziness of a very full bed. 😉
Night!
My BRAVE Family!
For Denyse’s annual Halloween party we decided on a Disney Pixar Brave theme. However, with our being in the middle of moving house I knew I wouldn’t have time to sew three costumes this year. So we hit the great “interweb” to hunt down whatever we could find – to help lighten the crafting load.
After a couple of days it became apparent that we weren’t going to be able to find anything movie accurate – which was a bit of a drag, but that also gave us a bit of freedom as well. So instead of being Merida, Queen Elinor, and King Fergus we are Merida-inspired, Queen Elinor-inspired, and King Fergus-inspired. LMAO That also meant I could buy a red tartan to make Damon’s costume at half the price a more authentic blue/green tartan would have been… and when you’re buying four meters of something, that adds up pretty quickly. Yay for thriftiness!
With Lily-Ann’s naturally curly red hair, she’s a total natural as Merida. And she was only too proud to tell anyone who’d listen how she doesn’t need a prince to find her happily ever after. Now, because kid kid’s curls are all really pretty soft spirals, I had to do some twisties in her hair overnight. We left the bottom as is, but twisted up six bunches of varying thicknesses up on top. I just twisted each section until it formed tight little twisty piles and then secured each with two bobby pins. It gave her the fly-aways, and crazy tight spirals that Merida sports.
The toughest part of my costume was finding a wig. Seriously, if you need a long brown wig for Halloween you are S.O.L. I ended up settling for what you see here. It was the best I could find – even after hitting two Halloween specialty stores and a costume shop in addition to several general stores. Apparently they figure no-one wants brown hair for Halloween.
I have to admit, with ordering our dresses online I was expecting to have to make alterations once they arrived… but I didn’t have to sew even one stitch on either. Considering I’m a whopping five foot nothing?!?!? I was amazed. If I need a period dress again, I’ll definitely be heading to HolyClothing.com a second time. The girl’s dress was less of a shocker, but still… for straight out of the package, it fit pretty darn well. 🙂
So, that’s us this year. We didn’t go on a photo safari… it was just too darn chilly out. So these were taken in my parent’s back yard. Thanks Auntie Risa!
And here’s one more, just a snapshot I grabbed of Lily-Ann at the party, being cute with a stuffed snake:
Oh, and yes… the little stuffed blackbear is from the Disney store. You can flip it inside out and it looks like one of the triplets (we call him Hamish) but the girl wanted him to stay a bear for our pictures. 🙂 My mom gave him to Lily-Ann on her birthday.
Family Photography at Dusk
Dusk is a time of day often neglected by photographers. The poor light tends to cause folk of our ilk to shy away in favour of brighter times, especially considering dusk is shortly after the “golden hour” with it’s beautiful warming rays. However, dusk can be a lovely time to shoot.
The low light of dusk creates images reminiscent of yesteryear, with it’s last filtered rays of sunshine… It is exceptionally moody, creating romance and intrigue. Especially during the late Autumn or early Winter when rosy cheeks and noses only add to the feeling of crispness. Here are a few photos from a recent shoot to inspire you to get out there and create during this mostly ignored time of day:
My thanks to the St. Onge family for braving the chilly air in search of these shots. It was a pleasure working with you!
Tea, Tea, and More Tea
The last several days the wee girlie has been out sick… and I am now fighting it off myself. I’m close to losing my voice and my throat is super scratchy and sore. I have a conference to speak at on Saturday though, so I am WILLING myself (and downing a ton of home remedies including a ton of echinacea and tea) to be better. Being sick, thanks to my wonderful Auntie Risa, meant new tea.
YAY for Auntie Risa! YAY for her gift of tea!
We love tea. And for the longest time there wasn’t any place in Saskatoon to get decent tea. Thankfully there is now though, and along with the store came my Auntie Risa who runs it. So not only did we finally get great tea locally, but we got my Auntie Risa home too. 🙂 So go visit her and get some great tea at Tea Desire in the Center at Circle and 8th.
Rooibos Strawberry Cream
Okay, my photos seem determined to post sideways today, and I’m too tired to fix it. LOL They were taken with my iPhone and well… I’m not about to open photoshop to fix them (usually I can flip them from within wordpress and it works, but not today apparently).
Anyway…
Yesterday we brewed up a bunch of Rooibos Strawberry Cream in our bodum press. The girl was batty for it, and drank several glasses (leaving me only one). LOL Today we did up some Honeybush Superstar (which, lets be honest, sounds like the name of a porn star – maybe it should be my drag name). LMFAO It smells divine and is sooo soothing on a sore throat. Seriously, the BEST tea for when you are under the weather.
sick, but enjoying her tea
LOL Okay, that photo worked. Jeepers. LMAO
And here’s one last thing for you! Have a wee one you need to cool the tea off for after steeping? Grab an ice pop out of the freezer and stir it until it’s at an appropriately warm-only temperature. It works like a dream and unlike ice cubes doesn’t dilute it. 🙂
ice pop stir stick
Enjoy your tea!
How I envy the resiliency of youth
I’ve been out sick the last couple of days. I’m still sick today, but have a little less cold and flu medicine in my system – which gives me a spank more lucidity. So figured I should make an attempt to post something through the haze in my head.
One thing I envy children is their resiliency, their ability to bounce back and to just keep going. Lily-Ann is the one who passed this virus on to me, but did it knock her out? Heck no. She had the sniffles, but was determined to just keep on keepin’ on. Her contagious period occurred while she was out of school on the weekend, and she wasn’t about to miss any of the fun. She had a runny nose, but was otherwise unaffected. Me, on the other hand… I’m a wreck.
I was out cold all of yesterday, stuck in bed, loaded with a plethora of remedies (both home and store bought). Drippy, sore, cranky, and exhausted. And today I’m not much better – though trying to make due with a little less of the store bought remedies… but as soon as I’m done this blog post it’s back under the covers for me.
There isn’t much I envy of children, but that ability to bounce back is truly a remarkable thing… and it’s not just virus related. They have an incredible capacity to fight back, to push until they see things righted. If only we could harness that power – the good we could accomplish.
Ahhh well… That’s enough musing from me. My typing skills are getting worse the longer I’m attempting lucidity. And I’m also beginning to drip on my keyboard – and that’s the kind of lovely image I strive to leave y’all with.
So TTFN.
Keep your friends close, and your netti pots closer. 😉
Too sick to party? Hope not. :(
I’m afraid that after all of her hard work, kid-kid may just be coming down with something in time for her class’s Valentines Day party. 😦 Today she has a runny nose, and is a little extra wrangy… Hopefully with lots of fluids and healthy foods we’ll have her on the mend before then. Poor kid.
On Friday we spend the early afternoon baking and decorating: cupcakes, of course. Confetti cupcakes with chocolate icing, and covered in sprinkles, sparkles, and red, white, and pink candy hearts. We then popped one tray into the freezer and one into the fridge. We still have to make the cupcake toppers and slide them into their individual bags – but then they’ll be all set. We’re also planning to do up bookmarks for all of her classmates. She’s super excited about them, and I know they’ll turn out adorable. After everything she’ll have put together it would be awful for her to miss out on the festivities.
Damon and I don’t usually exchange anything on Valentines Day. Instead we buy something for the girl. After all, we have our anniversary to celebrate one another… Valentines is about celebrating love, so it only makes sense that we’d celebrate our baby. 🙂 And went out shopping yesterday and again today in search of the right gift (while Lily-Ann was having her weekly sleep-over at her Pop Pop and Grams’ place). I think we’ve got something she’ll absolutely love. And thanks to an error at the store, we got it for half price – which is what brought it into our price range. LOL Gotta love an error (of course, we didn’t realize it was an error until the price came up differently at the register – but Toys R’ Us honored the price marked on the shelf, so YAY).
Even if the girlie ends up out sick, I’ll make sure that her things are delivered to her class, and she’ll still get a present… but after all her efforts I’d hate for her to miss out on the class party. Lots of good vibes, healing energy, and white light her way, if you have any to spare, we’d appreciate it.
My poor baby. Crashed out on top of the comforter… We didn’t even make it three pages into our current chapter before she was out like a light.
And yes! She has a fuzzy red heart-shaped pillow (it’s a total coincidence, we didn’t start reading the Goddess Girls books until after she’d had it for several months, she giggles every time we read about Aphrodite’s pillows).
And again, yes. She’s wearing a frog prince sleeping mask – which I slipped down over her face after I snapped this shot.
And one further yes. Like any good Canadian kid should have, she’s got on her Toopy and Binoo jamies. 😉
Poor kid, just wiped right out.
A very long day…
It’s been a very long day… Mostly because we didn’t get much sleep last night. It was absolutely freezing here.
The pilot light started going out early in the evening, and while we thought it was odd, we lit it a couple of times and the furnace then kicked in fine. However, by about 9:00 it went out and stayed out. We could light it, but within about a minute it would be out again. Of course, by this point, there was nothing we could do but wait until morning.
Thankfully the girlie was away, sleeping over at her Pop Pop and Grams’ place. I’d have hated for her to have been here with us. It was pretty miserable. It was just too cold to sleep. I was up until about 6:00 AM, when exhaustion kicked in and I finally crashed. But even then I was only able to sleep for five or ten minute spans, as the cold would rouse me.
Damon slept pretty well all night, but was up by 7:00, and couldn’t get back to sleep… because? You guessed it. Too cold. I gave up and got up at about nine.
I have to admit, I’m awfully grateful for Damon some days. While he may not have a romantic bone in his entire body, he is pretty handy, and good at figuring things out. After spending a little time online he figured out what the problem was, and we hit the co-op home center. Twelve dollars later we had heat.
So, not sleeping will make most any day seem long… but today was jam packed and would have been long even without our frigid night. I’m looking forward to sleeping tonight, but am guessing that morning will be here all too soon. 😉
cough… cough
I’ve had a lingering cough for weeks now. Just can’t seem to shake it. And as of tonight? It’s gotten worse. I had my cold, not fair that I may end up with another. I guess that’s what I get for having the wee girlie in school… all the germs that go with it. LOL Oh boy.
cough… cough…
Totally not cool.
No pictures… took some… but don’t feel like uploading just now.
cough…
Got some cute ones of the girlie.
cough… cough.
cough.
Time to load up on the echinacea again.
Wasn’t coughing all day like this, thankfully. This just started at about 8 pm. So was able to make a nice supper (roasted a chicken – with stuffing, carrots, potatoes, and corn). Will make soup for lunch tomorrow, for which the timing couldn’t be more perfect. LOL
cough…
night all
cough… cough.
Fight the Flu
People have this notion that it’s cold and flu season during the Winter, because when we go out into the cold we put ourselves at risk. Not so. Germs don’t like the cold – that’s why a cold mist humidifier is WAY healthier than a warm mist one. Winter is cold season, because WE are like the viruses that plague us.
We don’t like the cold. We huddle together inside. We are in close confines, bunched together, all Winter long. Germs love this. It’s warm inside. We like it warm, and so do the viruses.
I have a bad cold, and it’s knocked me for a loop. But I have to admit, I’m glad I’m sick now – because I’d rather be sick now than during Yule and Christmas. This is why I didn’t post yesterday. I crashed pretty early. LOL
So here’s my survival tip (and yes, I’m taking my own advice). Knock out the virus by loading up on Echinacea and Vitamin C, stay hydrated, and get plenty of rest.
Echinacea
TD 365 