warm and cozi

It is the sign of a deeply disorganized home to unearth a bottle of Pol Roger beneath the hill of laundry that's been perched on top of the clothes dryer, well, for quite some time evidently. I don't know what stresses me more, that a perfectly good bottle of bubbly has been shaken and heated to oblivion or that I have no recollection of buying or receiving it, thus, the laundry must have been there a very long time indeed.

So the topic of yesterday's Daily Candy was most welcome. Cozi. It's a new freebie web tool from Microsoft that whispered all the right things in my ear: centralized contact info, a family calendar (no more "what Doctor's appointment?") and a communal shopping list that everyone can add to so I'm not the only one to blame for 8 jars of dill pickles in the pantry but no toilet paper. All wonderful things that will save me time, make me organized and, if I'm lucky, help us get to the bottom of the laundry pile faster. Naturally I signed up on the spot. Step one is to add in family members and their coordinates. I input my husband and 2 minutes later got this reply: "why r u spamming me?" Ah, young love. Next it's Stella and Henry's turn to be cozi'd. About 20 minutes later and I've managed to assign colours to each family member, schedule my hair appointment, Stella's twice weekly Karate class and upload all 800 photos so all my unflattering, not fit to print photos can scroll before me every 5.2 seconds. Fantastic. (reminder to self: summer sun highlights are not the same as real highlights and generally start to look crappy at the same time my summer "freckles" revealed themselves to be, horror, age spots.)

So we're cozi'd. I'm not sure it's going to live up to its promise. Time will tell friends, time will tell.

A stack of these tiny chairs were found in the storage room of a primary school that was relocating after decades in the same spot on the lakeshore. I guess someone years ago decided wood chairs weren't comfortable so they were all replaced with that moulded plastic stuff. Imagine. But goody for me. I bought them all. I painted this one for my little niece, Maya, and delivered it last week to her new house. My sister bought this sweet but unloved house and moved in a week ago. Against the carpet removal, floor refinishing, replacing trim and doors chaos inside, I love that my sister found a few minutes to make the pretty urn you see peeking out of the corner. I know the neighbours must love her for that.

I do have a few chairs not yet spoken for, so if you're interested in a cutey little chair for your cutie, contact me.

cozy cozy cozy

Two weeks ago I was absolutely not ready to say good-bye to summer. Linen skirts, soft t-shirts, bare feet on warm patio stones. Can't. Let. Go. But then today came along and changed my mind. That fall wind that turns blue sky grey then blue again - all within the hour. Love it. It was the perfect day to try out my brand spankin' new JJ Cole stroller cozy. I bought the original Snuggle Me. It's less streamlined and less fashionable than the new Urban model, which looks and feels like a trekking in Nepal-type sleeping bag, but I like the faux sheepskin lining. And so, evidently, does Henry. He curled right into it and fell asleep - something he rarely does on walks. He looked so cozy and yummy, the way sleeping babies do, that I kept right on walking and walking and walking. I love fall.

what we bought

This is our painting. It's not, by the way, askew. I am.

As you can see, it's gold foil, textured and scrunchy in places, with photos of monkeys, and nice pink drippy splotchy paint circles here and there. It's covered in a thick coating of resin which makes it really glossy and luminous. We call it "Monkeys with Pink Circles" Isn't that clever? We also call it October's mortgage (oh well).

It's quite large - about 4-feet tall and 2 feet across - so it certainly says "hey you! over here! look at me!" just the way real monkeys would. Stella's convinced they're people. And even though I know people just don't have tails, if you look at them closely and long enough you might just believe that they could.

Steven Nederveen is the artist. You can see his other stuff here. I might need to have the gold fish on white instead of groceries...

in my dojo

Oh dear. We're beginning to think karate lessons were a bit premature.

Make your own (virtual) tape here
http://www.says-it.com/cassette/index.php
So silly. But fun. And free.

Another Fantastic Rationalization

We went out for pizza and came home with our first real piece of art. I feel so grown up. It was a completely spontaneous purchase made at the excellent Queen West Art Crawl today. And while walking to the bank machine, I had an anxiety attack thinking about the much-needed bathroom reno I was probably now forsaking this year, but those scandalous Elastoplast-coloured tiles will have to wait because this quirky, colourful, amazing painting makes the whole house look better. I love it.

With the three-year old hanging out with Grandma for the night, we fixed a pitcher of gin and tonic and set to reconfiguring the living/dining room to find a suitable spot for our big purchase. Lamps, tables and mirrors were relocated, a forgotten armchair relegated to the basement resurrected, my grandparents' antique sideboard (it goes with nothing but I cannot part with it) moved and moved again. Sure, the baby's swing and playpen and Stella's craft table and armchair are now stacked in the kitchen (and they're not coming back) but we eventually found the perfect spot and hung it.

We spent the next two hours admiring it from different vantage points: "Go out in the hallway and then come in from the dining room so you can see it with fresh eyes" "Now sit on the bench. Isn't it cool?" "I want to have people over." And so on. We were practically experiencing Stendahl syndrome by the end of the night.

It's funny. I can buy a $30 pillow at HomeSense and have total buyer's remorse when I get home, but I'm really pleased about this thing that we certainly cannot afford, hadn't budgeted or planned for or even considered, that we can't sit on or store things in, that doesn't spin or light up or otherwise amuse young children. It's the first non-functional object we've bought since we married five years ago. And I'm so glad we did.

A Work In Progress

I bought a stack of old window panes on closing day at the market last year with the intention of doing all sorts of interesting things with them over the winter. Putting pieces of thrifted and vintage fabric or old illustrations behind the glass or maybe painting them. I'm finally getting around to doing something with them. I think this one is going to be a headboard. I was planning to make it for Stella's room, but these fabrics, which I love--they're so soft and faded--won't work, so this will be added to the store when it's finished. Somewhere, somewhere, I have a bowl of lovely old painted metal hooks that I'd like to put along the bottom to make this functional and pretty. My two favourite things.

Shopping at WalMart is like using a public washroom. Go only if you have to. Take a deep breath. Take care of business. Get out as quick as you can. It's a passionless shopping experience. You go for the lowest price on the planet for a 64-load jug of Tide and that's about it. No one goes to WalMart for retail therapy. I'm not picking on WM specifically. I feel the same way about most chain stores: Feh.

So I'm kind of saddened by the news that Robeez was bought by Stride-Rite. I mean I wouldn't turn down $30 million bucks either, but still. I loved the whole story. From the first pair being fashioned from a cast-off handbag (how "mom" is that?) to total global sales domination fifteen years later, while maintaining manufacturing in BC and, by all accounts, running a very groovy family-friendly company that consistently ranked in Canada's Top Places to Work lists.

Well, it'll be interesting to see what she does with that $30 million. That's a lot of seed money.

Canadian Family Mag - super deal

I really like this magazine. Yuki Hayashi ,one of the editors, is super-cool, super-stylish with a good eye for new gear. It's published in Toronto, so you can always find the stuff they've featured. And, would you believe, you can get a year's subscription for just $8? That's less than a Starbucks with a mango biscotti. Thanks to SavvyMom for the scoop.

Fairies, ballerinas and princesses don't hold much truck with the kid. We chalked up last year's occasionally alarming gender-related query ("mommy, am I a boy or am I a girl?") to the off-kilter boy/girl ratio at her nursery school.

But when she attended a princess dress-up party a few months ago and, faced with a closet full of faux satin gowns, plastic pumps and boa-trimmed evening coats, opted to wear a Spiderman costume with full body padding and a face mask for the parents' fashion show, well,
a few eyebrows were raised among the preschool set. Who knew four year olds could be so judgmental?

Her stereotypes-be-damned attitude and cool willingness to spend the party friendless
for the sake of Spidey was impressive. What any of this has to do with crochet booties is anyone's guess, but here they are. And aren't they, like, the cutest thing ever? I'll be adding them to my site next week. They're made to order and made by hand and I wish it would get cooler so Henry could wear them outside.