packing and unpacking

Flip flops: check
Sunscreen: check
This book: check
Beach blanket: check
And this very cute beach tote made from a thrifted pillowcase to toss it all into.

That's me packed. More or less. I swear. You see, I'm trying something new this vacation. I've never really mastered the art of light packing, and traveling with kids has only encouraged my everything-but-the-kitchen-sink tendencies. But after a couple of seriously stressful airport runs juggling stroller, diaper bag, laptop, carry-on amusements and snacks plus two enormous, overweight pieces of luggage I'd rather take my chances this time. Besides, limiting my footwear to flip flops means nothing fancier than breakfast here and barefoot dinners here. And we're off!

the great escape

Things have been a little hectic around here lately. Just the stuff of life - parenting, house, jobs, families - nothing out of the ordinary but enough keeping us running from thing to thing all the while feeling the weight of stuff left undone. It's been a week of managing life, not living it. It'll be good to get away for a few days next week. Feeling disorganized and over-scheduled erodes the reverence I have for family time and so I need to unplug and unwind and just chill out a bit.

We're going back to our deserted beach. I snapped this photo on our vacaction there last November; walking back from the beach at sunset I turned for one last peek at the sky and saw this house for the first time, though surely we'd walked and biked past it a dozen times before. It lives in my computer, rather optimistically titled, myfuture.jpg. It seems I'm not the only one who's taken with this house, which, I've just learned, is called Mansour House. I can't believe we'd taken the exact same photograph. Kindred architectural spirits.

Happy Friday friends.

garage sale-ing

I couldn't resist this cookbook, spied in the fifty cent box yesterday morning. While those meatballs look more like hamburger patties to me, I am swooning over that cake. Note to self: bowtie for Henry's second birthday.

I also picked up this copy of Tom Sawyer. Turns out it's one of my fella's favourite books, which was a bit of serendipity. And I found this adorable little table hiding beneath a stack of something or other. Loving that colour. It's too pretty to paint over, so I think I'll add it to the shop as-is.

still feeling it

Our day looked like this. Only louder.

A cardboard box fort. Sidewalk portraits. A chalky bum. A walk home from the park with a friend. Barefoot lunch on the front lawn. And the start of yard sale season. Hello spring. Am I glad to see you.

feeling it

It's been a hectic week. A backlog of furniture orders awaiting my paint brush. A business trip means I'm flying solo at home. Stella's 2:30 a.m. onset of the 48-hour flu. Laundry, laundry, laundry. But a quiet coffee in the sunshine. No socks. Windows open all day. Spotting the first signs of life in the garden. A good long walk. I feel restored.

napoleon complex

I freely acknowledge that most days the kitchen is not my milieu. Oh I can rise to the occasion - a small dinner party, a backyard BBQ, even a big turkey dinner - just fine. But Monday to Friday meat and potatoes? Feh. I'm happier with scrambled eggs and a nicely toasted English muffin to be perfectly honest. Cooking for an unappreciative audience doesn't help. Vegetable intolerance, herb phobias and a general unwillingness to try anything new make the dinner hour my Waterloo. Not to be overly dramatic.

I find myself in a bit of a culinary funk. It's happened before. It usually means a few days of Kraft Dinner and boiled hot dogs. Maybe a frozen pizza. Eggos for breakfast. And far too much time spent daydreaming of toodling around Italy with Jamie Oliver, eating sun-warmed tomatoes and panzanella. I really need to find some fresh inspiration. And so with all the time I've saved by not cooking, I shall visit here and here and maybe stop by here so that when the farmer's market opens next month I will be not just inspired but also perfectly attired. Surely the stalemate will have ended by then.

There is one exception to my kitchen woes: the sandwich. Oh how I love them. And love to make them. Here is one of my all-time favourites. It's really good. Of course no one else will eat it. It contains arugula after all.

You will need:

baguette
half of an avocado, sliced
some sliced BBQ chicken breast. Leftover rotisserie chicken from the grocery store works like a charm.
arugula
fresh boconcini or buffalo mozzarella
tomato sliced thinly. Leave it out if you can't find a good vine-ripened one.
a dab of pesto
optional but totally worth it: sliced fresh fig
salt and pepper


Spread a bit of the pesto on both halves of the baguette then layer everything else on top. Pop it in the oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes, just so the boconcini melts a bit and the bread gets a nice crust. Let it cool for a few minutes, but definitely eat while it's still warm. The sweetness of the fig is delicious with salty pesto and peppery arugula. Bon appetit.

Our First Contestants

I do love a good tin foil hat!





A non-traditionalist: the Birthday Banana


Serious cuteness!




Dimples and a cupcake smorgasbord? Lucky girl.



I love the crooked bowtie and the vintage-y feeling of this photo. Sweet!

revisiting + recycling

Summers spent on my grandparents' farm in Lefroy certainly left their mark on my decorating sensibilities. My sisters and I shared my Aunt's old bedroom, which smelled of lavender and pine. It was pink with trailing rose wallpaper. There was a big iron bed dressed with flowery sheets and a chenille bedspread. Lace curtains that didn't keep out the sun and a roller blind that would not stay lowered covered the windows. We were up with the roosters and asleep with the sunset. In the morning we collected eggs from the coop, which my grandmother would perfectly poach for breakfast. Later we picked strawberries and manned the roadside stand. Or just swung from the big gate when things were slow. Afternoons were strictly for swimming down at the lake - a just reward after walking two miles down a dirt road, my grandmother pushing my sister in an old pram with a wonky wheel. It was heavenly.

I can't resist old window panes. I picked up quite a pile of them last summer, from a farmhouse around Midland that was being torn down, and I've finally gotten around to finishing one. It's fitted with pieces of vintage sheeting and chenille. I love them just for their decorative value, but the wooden knobs make it useful too. It will be for sale in the shop next week. If you want to try your hand at making one, I suggest trying Habitat for Humanity's ReStore for old casement windows.

Honeybunch Photo Contest Now Open!

Break out the party hats, noise makers and neopolitan ice-cream. We are in the mood to celebrate!

To celebrate the new shop opening we're holding a Best Kid's Party Photo Contest. So dig up those albums or download those digitals and send in your favourite kid's party snapshot. It can be new or old. It can be you, your kid, your nephew or neighbour. Send us one or send a bunch. We'll post them all on the blog, pick our five favourites and let you can vote for the ultimate winner. The winner will take home a $100 Honeybunch Gift Certificate!

Enter soon, enter often. And, because we want everyone to be a winner, we'll send you a 15% off coupon toward your next Honeybunch purchase just for entering (one coupon per household).

Here's how to send your photos:
Email your photo as a JPG, no more than 1 MB please, and we'll upload it to this blog. If you like, tell us a bit about the photo and we'll include that too. *Please note this is a public blog so your photo can be viewed by anyone.

The contest is open during the month of April. We'll post the five finalists April 30 and let the voting begin! The winner will be announced in our mid-May newsletter.

Good luck!

raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

Easter is definitely one of my favourite things. It's such a nice low-maintenance holiday, don't you think? No costumes required. No big gifts to buy. No large scale house decorating. It's nicely contained to one day. But it's those colours. Those glorious Easter Egg colours I really love. Fuschia and mauve and turquoise and bumble bee yellow. They inspire my paint choices for the shop's vintage furniture.

Last night's egg dying marathon yielded two good lessons:
1. Neon food colouring is far superior to the regular kind.
2. While buffing your newly-dyed eggs with a bit of oil does indeed make them nice and glossy it also makes them ridiculously slippery. There were many egg casualties.




Despite the dreary forecast the neighbourhood egg hunt will go on, rain, snow or, hopefully, shine. With kids ranging in age from 1 year to ten it's a challenge keeping things fair. Last year we gave the little ones a head start and held the older kids at bay with a round of Simon Says. Personalizing treats also helps. In the end there is always counting, comparing and bartering (are five mini eggs worth one marshmallow egg?) and everyone leaves smiling.

Happy Easter!

forecasting

I confess: the Toronto weather forecast for this long weekend worries me. Worry because that is four days of activity, diversion and amusement I have to come up with. Worry because my mother-in-law, who can always be counted on in a crisis such as this, is off to Paris for ten days tomorrow. Worry because if the neighbourhood Egg Hunt is rained out there will be 20 pounds of unclaimed chocolate in my closet. It's not good.

So I jumped when a postcard arrived today from the Theater for Young People, offering $10 preview tickets for a show on Monday. Salvation. We saw Seussical there in January and it's a great venue for kids. Monday's show is called I Think I Can and it promises "a hi-octane show told through percussive dance and red-hot urban tap." I don't know what that means. But I ordered tickets on the spot. So that's one down.

The other ace in my pocket is a place I discovered on the weekend, Balls of Fun. Yes it's an indoor playground, a category of children's entertainment I generally avoid, but it's different. It's organized. It's clean. The equipment is in excellent repair. And it's a big space filled with nothing but balls. Huge four-foot high balls with oversized soccer nets and basketball hoops, climbers, slides and rope ladders for parents and kids. And, mercifully, bean bag chairs for tuckered-out parents. We had a, er, ball, and I'm actually looking forward to going back.

If there are any other no-cost, low-cost suggestions out there, pass them on!

Hatched!

The new site has sprouted!
I hope you like it. I'm keeping things a little quiet for a day or two while I work out the kinks in both the site and my cramped and carpal-tunneled right hand, but please stay tuned for news and offers, including my first ever contest. Hint: dig out your best birthday party photos!

P.S. I owe a very big thank you to the fantastically talented (and did I mention sweet and supportive?) illustrator Jennifer Playford for creating the beautiful new honeybunch logo. Jenn, you're a dear friend.