recommendation + update

let me tell you, i came across gwen bell and her fantastic blog by creeping through jennifer jeffrey's twitter list, and let me tell you - she's lovely. absolutely lovely. she's most definitely up there amongst my best blog finds of 2009.

anyhow, since having come across her blog, i've found a new and interesting blogger every day. (what a well-connected chick!) lovelove. if you haven't come across her yet, check her out. you won't regret it.

what else has been up:
i'm sick. i've been sick for just over a week now, and that's balls because i hate being sick during my vacation time, especially during the time that i'm supposed to be hanging out with jess and ava. i had huge plans to get painting and creating, but that's been cancelled due to coughing. yuck.

i have a few digital projects up my sleeve, though, and i'm almost done all of my christmas shopping. that's good enough for now.

to the edge - best challenge '09

as is the case with most workplaces this year, there's been quite a bit of transition in mine; combine that with the fact that the university was in the midst of recovering from a strike in the 2009 winter semester, and you've got a recipe for some backlogged programming.

now - in case you haven't noticed, i'm a details person. i like to run events and i like to run them well, and i like to track all of the details during their development. i prefer not to do things last-minute, and rushing a deadline makes me feel like i'm going a little bit crazy. but sometimes you do what you have to do, particularly when things get backed up.

this conference was my first national conference. i was antsy because the planning wasn't going as i'd envisioned it (what with the management turnover in the office and all) and i knew that others were a bit nervous about it too. however, as the conference date moved closer and closer, the student team that i was working with pulled together marvellously in order to get it all done (and then some!).

the conference was a hit.

the success was as a result of a combination of the right people, a sense of ownership from the student coordinators and fabulous support from the rest of the office that provided assistance where and when we needed it. most definitely, it's a great example and reminder that we're not meant to do everything ourselves; no one person has the skills, connections and stamina to give 150% of their energy 100% of the time.

moral of the story: understanding your weaknesses + asking for help = a stronger you in the end.

image: myself, my boss and the student conference coordinators along with a few of the delegates after the closing brunch.

moment of peace

it was early summer and the weather was just on the brink of heating up. i got up early - before any of the students or my coworkers at the retreat - and went for a walk down by the water.

there was nobody but a few groundspeople already awake (and a few mosquitoes). the early morning sunshine was sparkling golden off of the lake; i walked down to the dock and dangled my bare feet in the water while i watched the minnows skittering about the rocks on the bottom.

if i could've, i would have laid down on the dock and gone to sleep.

sigh.

(more photos from my moment here)

one of a kind show '09, toronto style

oh good morning world!

as per our yearly tradition, mike and i made a day of wandering the aisles of toronto's one of a kind show this weekend, absorbing all of the talent and unique ideas that had to be offered.

a few of my top three personal favourites:
gorgeous text and graphic art by blair chivers
precious metal and wood jewelry by jenny greco
reclaimed wood jewelery and accessories by billy would

can't wait for the spring show.

(still to come: i'll be playing catch-up for my best of 2009 entries later today, after jess, ava, arianne and i run some errands.)

new favourite + best of '09

oh hello there.

baby ava is awesome. she rocks so hard for a little person (she also rocks pretty hard for any person - she's likely my most favourite person in the world!) big love to this little newbie. we've been kickin it this week and watching boxed sets of friends in between feedings (which i don't really have much to do with) and burpings (which apparently i have a talent for extracting) until all hours of the night. for all of the fuss that everyone said she'd make, she seems to be a pretty laid-back lil chica.

what's better than a month off of work (thank you lieu time from all of the overtime i've accrued over the past year) to hang out with my first ever niece? not too friggin much.

more on sweet baby ava later.

anyhow, i came across gwen bell (blog and twitter) and she's got a blog challenge that features the best of 2009. i'll be participating so feel free to join in!

today's challenge:

my fave 2009 book is, without a doubt, is michael pollan's in defense of food. i read it as a follow up to the omnivore's dilemma (which i was totally gonna put as my fave 2009 book but i have a sneaky suspicion that i finished it in 2008). it was a much shorter and significantly less dense read than it's predecessor, so i found that a lot of the facts were easier to digest (excuse the pun!) because i already had a foundation of knowledge from the prior book.

pollan's basic recommendations: eat food. not too much. mostly plants.

“My aim in this book is to help us reclaim our health and happiness as eaters. To do this requires an exercise that might at first blush seem unnecessary, if not absurd: to offer a defense of food and the eating thereof… But I contend that most of what we’re consuming today is no longer, strictly speaking, food at all, and how we’re consuming it — in the car, in front of the TV, and, increasingly, alone– is not really eating, at least not in the sense that civilization has long understood the term.”

check out gwen's blog for the upcoming challenge themes, which will go all the way up until the end of december. join in, and send me links so that we can all share in the best-of-2009 love. oh, and sign up at the bottom of her blog too so that she can check it out.

tomorrow: mike and i are making our annual pilgrimage to the toronto one of a kind show. am going to miss ava, but she's visiting her daddy's family tomorrow. so it's ok. will tweet updates as i go, and i may try to sneak an iPhone photo or two.

Coming soon..

Best of '09. Shh. Don't ask questions. You'll find out soon ... And will want to join in!

welcome to the world, lil Ava!

Ava Alejandra Alarcon, born Nov 30th at 10:02pm. 6lbs 15oz. such a sweet face.

check out mike's blog for more info!

today's the day!

they're inducing jess today; stay tuned to my twitter feed for updates!

prayers sent her way for a safe & speedy delivery for both jess and the new lil peanut are most appreciated.

xo

la silence

i'm excited that today will be a day to get things done.

this weekend: i'm not sure what my plans are exactly, but with any luck they include jess going into labour before her get-induced deadline of monday, and then hanging out with the new lil peanut.

if not, i'll be cleaning out my car while toronto's still enjoying the warm(ish) weather, and will get rolling on that side table that i bought at a garage sale back at the beginning of the summer. i'm thinking it'll be a pretty black laquer. mm. before and after pics to come.

things have been pretty quiet on the interwebs for the past few days while everyone in the states enjoys their thanksgiving turkey - what are you planning on doing for the rest of the weekend?

so. pretty.

i quite enjoy wandering through other people's flickr favourites - here are my most recent "discoveries".

how do you find the prettiness that you do - do you have any strategies?

1. errant æsthete, 2. bench Monday! 4, 3. off duty, 4. W H I T N E Y & D A N, 5. Plums in blue bowl, 6. carefree, 7. pdx_6070, 8. pdx_6073, 9. pdx_6079, 10. Orange & Grapefruit Slices, 11. Sasha Pivovarova, 12. "Do you believe in fairies?...., 13. Up close, 14. ribbon storage, 15. colors...., 16. Stuff, 17. many kinds of oranges., 18. a blurry self portrait..., 19. Purchase #3 - $12, 20. hello orange., 21. today's pickins, 22. squam peeps, 23. Hope rises, 24. Untitled, 25. Untitled, 26. Delancey, Ballard, Seattle, 27. found objects - keys, 28. Child's world., 29. Teatime, 30. orange + gray, 31. beets, 32. give me, 33. istanbul diaries XII, 34. tirana diaries XI, 35. "Photography is just another way of keeping a diary!", 36. busy

java, moleskine and a little bit of quiet time

how is it only wednesday?

yesterday: awesome. it's funny how little things like changing your routine justalittlebit can help to shake things up just enough. after work, i met up with my mom to buy a christmas gift for my brother, but had half an hour prior to meeting her to kill some time. instead of wandering the shops aimlessly, i resolved to buy a hazelnut coffee and a slice of triple chocolate loaf and sit down to watch the world go by.

i have a tiny moleskine journal that i carry around with me so i did a little bit of writing and coffee sipping, nibbling on my cake and watching a small lineup of kids coming to have their santa picture taken. just a few more evenings like this - just me, myself and i, snuggled up with some me-time and a cup of coffee - and i'll be back to feeling like my old self again.

i also registered for a two-night course at my church, which i'm excited to check out; finally decided on a graduate diploma program i'm going to apply for, and no - jess hasn't had her baby yet.

she was due yesterday, but the doctor said it'd likely be another week or so. if she doesn't have it by next monday, they're going to have to induce, and apparently you don't want that. fingers crossed, please, that this lil peanut decides to make an appearance before then?

ps - one month til christmas!

funk-free zone

oh, wow. what a day.

not one to wallow for long, after getting a few things done at work yesterday, i helped mike finish up the last of his first big christmas card order and then we watched downloaded episodes of last week's fringe and flash forward.

today: things are going to be better. i don't know what exactly i'm going to do yet, but it's going to be better.

images via jennifer jeffrey (times two!) and finally, tanja tiziana

slowing slowing down

when i started out reading blogs three years ago and writing my own almost two years ago, one of the biggest things that struck me - and likely one of the biggest reasons that i enjoyed it - was the amount of thought that my favourite bloggers put into their creations and their blogs.

those blogs that i most connect with are the ones that have posts that highlight a mixture of different areas of their life, their projects, their job, their kids, their plans. they're the ones that are real and genuine; the ones that make me feel like they're blogging for the sheer enjoyment of it instead of just pumping out posts.

{that is, of course, not to say that those of you who post frequently or quickly are being thoughtless about it - quite the opposite. some of the most memorable posts i've read have been uber concise and therefore all the more poignant}

i feel like, in the past few months, i've somehow lost that. with all of the craziness at work in august and then most recently, i've been reflecting on how much i let my day job take over my entire life. when things are busy, i don't make plans with any of my friends. i don't draw. i don't cook. i don't paint or write or do much else, really, than think about what's next on my to-do list. which is ok, really if that busy-ness lasts only for a week or so, but when it starts stretching into a four-month span of having my blinders on to everything but my day job, it starts to affect things. like life.

which, needless to say, makes a girl end up feeling as though her list is running her life rather than the other way around. it's a feeling that i don't like to get.

i need to take some time to rejuvenate. whether it be stepping away and finding something new to work on, or just getting rolling with the laundry list of ideas that i have floating around - some partially started, others not so much - i'm not sure what i want that to look like yet. but i'm feeling a bit lacklustre lately and am looking for ways to spice things up.

i need to slow down. i keep forgetting to do that.

what do you do to get yourself back on the wagon?

xo

ps i got my wireless network up and running again. hopefully no more router problems for me for at least another four years.

photo found here

dear blog spammers (and a peek into what i've been up to lately)

please stop spamming my blog. i can't read japanese or russian, and nor do i require viagra. i still refuse to re-enable word verification for people leaving comments, but man is this comment moderation thing is getting to be a bit of a pain in the butt. three spams a day? come on dude. you need to get out more. learn to cook or something, hey?

thank you.

all the best,
courtney

ps - however, the conference went very well, thanks. i'll be posting photos up later this week, but i've taken an additional two days off work in order to unwind after weeks of eating, sleeping and breathing conference planning. it was a ton of fun, so i'm sad to see it go. today, mike and i went on a driving adventure. tomorrow: christmas shopping with a very pregnant jess. it's gonna be interesting, i tell you!

images: top - the york u student conference coordinators along with staff advisors ross and i pose with the ryerson u delegates. bottom - the student and staff delegation of the 4th annual Canadian Conference on Student Leadership. woot!

whirlwind + peanut butter cup brownies

four more days til the conference, then i'll be back to a regular blogging schedule after that. promise.

until then, i came across this recipe for peanut butter cup brownies and think it sounds absolutely fantastic. it might be the first thing i do after the conference is finished on the 15th.

or maybe it'll be the second thing, after having a big long nap.

Ingredients

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, plus more for the pan
• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 4 large eggs
• 3 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• kosher salt
• 8 large peanut butter cups, cut into pieces

Directions

1. Heat oven to 400° F.
2. Melt the butter and chocolate in a pan over low heat.
3. Using a mixer, beat the eggs and sugar until pale yellow and fluffy. Lower speed and pour in the melted chocolate and vanilla. Mix in the flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Fold in the peanut butter cups.
4. Scrape into a buttered 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Bake until the tip of a knife comes out clean, about 35 minutes.

enjoy. and please, if it's before sunday, eat an extra one for me.

ps - i managed to do a little 25-minute belly photoshoot with jess this weekend. it felt a little bit rushed, so i'm going to see how they look after a bit of photoshopping. will keep you posted.

recipe and image from here

sneaky peeky

here's a preview of what no internet connection and no cable can get accomplished. (taken from my iPhone, so please excuse the darkness and the pixellation.)

bonus: i think i figured out what the issue was. only problem is, if i'm right, it's gonna cost me a new router. crapola.

hello, operator?

so my wireless router is down. again. we had a power-out a few days ago and it hasn't been working since. I've reset both the router and the modem but to no avail - I'm officially disconnected and am left to blog from my phone. does anyone else have this problem?

tonight, am going to work on my Christmas cards since, for all intents and purposes, I'm Amish. maybe I'll start a quilt or raise a barn with all of the spare time I now have.

any recommendations on ways to either fix my router or spend my evenings?

in the meanwhile, I'll be tweeting up a storm. not quite Amish, I know, but it provides a little entertainment on the bus ride home at least.

for all those who had to bundle up..

i think everyone had to deal with the characteristic snowsuit-under-halloween costume deal, unless you lived somewhere warm. this, however, is one of the best accounts of a first halloween that i've seen in a long time.

"... I knew what costumes were. I loved costumes. They wore costumes in the Wizard of Oz. Glenda the Good Witch - now that broad had a costume! I was a reasonable, rational child, mind you. I didn't get my hopes up that high. I knew four year olds were supporting cast, not feature players. I would be satisfied with pretty much anything the chorus girls wore in any of the musicals my mother used to watch on Sunday afternoons. That's along the lines of what I figured a novice Halloweener would be outfitted in. Surely you didn't get feature dancer quality costumes until you were at least five. Fine with me. Anything would be an improvement on the big, brown, uncomfortable snow suit I usually had to wear when we went out ..."

to read more, check out tattytiara's blog.

wading in possibility

'nuff said.

have an awesome weekend, all. xo

image via i can read, which i found on perfect sentiment.

simply sublime

all yesterday, i was thinking about what i should post up next, and the overwhelming feeling was that i needed to get something pretty up there, given the fact that the majority of my blog's main page right now is likely taken up by screen shots of my blogger dashboard.

(and yes, as exciting as that may be, i'm well aware of the need for a change.)

what perfect timing, then, was it when i came home from work & running errands today and decided to read a few blog posts that i came across this one by miss blair at delight by design that had been inspired by the shoes that paula from two ellie had shot for a wedding.

a job well done, ladies - thanks for the inspiration! xo

today: i've got a few things on the go, including the ever-present paintings that i need to finish up, as well as figuring what the heck i want to do with my recipe book, looking up ideas & inspirations for the pregnancy photos i'm going to take of jess next week, making some thank-you cards for her shower last weekend, and then getting started on some christmas cards as well.

alright thursday. i'm gonna take you down.

(via two ellie by kellen jacob photography, blumarine, jose villa, jose villa, design lovely via dolci odille and tec petaja)

how-to number three: blog prettification (part 2)

one of the biggest pet peeves i have about not being fluent in html is the fact that i know what i want out of my blog - i know exactly what i want it to look like, and have very strong opinions about what looks good and what looks ridiculous, and not quite knowing exactly what to do with it (or what the proper terminology is to google in order to find the solution).

and so, one of those nagging little features that bothered me was that, whenever i tried to upload a photo with a link to anything in my sidebar, it would never align the way i wanted it to. that is, it'd be all higglety-pigglety.

and if there's one thing i hate most, it's higglety-piggletyness. i like my images to line up nicely, one after the other.

and so, ladies and jellybeans, i bring you part two in my blog prettification series:

de-higglety-piggletying your sidebar (or more commonly known as adjusting the sidebar justification).

as per usual, go under template > edit html, and scroll to any part of the segment. copy the following code and past it into the template.

/* Sidebar Boxes */

.sidebar img {
margin-left:25px;
border:5px solid #e8baba;
}

the portion in blue adjusts the position of the image - you can change it to margin-right too, if you'd like. The attribute text-align:center; is tricky since it's not supported in some browsers, so i stayed away from it given the difficulties i had with browser compatibility when i first started blogging. (it sucks to find out that all of the poor firefox users weren't seeing things the way i was while using IE.. i promptly switched over and try to fix any overly problematic old posts as i need to)

while i didn't do this particular part of the coding for my blog, the text in red is the styling that you can do as an additional option - for example, you can use this if you want the sidebar pictures to be different from the blog post pictures, with a different coloured border.

you can play around with border thickness and colour, if it's what floats your boat - just be sure to do with with the 'preview' button in the template tab rather than by saving the changes and then having to go back and manually revert them one by one if you don't like it.

special thanks goes out to this site for the step-by-step instructions on how to get my sidebars rockin' again.

my next step is to create a navigation bar in blogger - that'll have to be my next research project, and don't you worry - i'll be sure to simplify and share my discoveries here with you too!

how-to number two: blog prettification (part 1)

holla! so this post took me a lot longer than i'd expected it to , but better late than never, right?

my blog has gone through a series of design changes and steps since i started it a year and a half ago, and will continue to be in flux while i figure out everything i need to know about design, html coding and typography in order to make it look just the way i like it. i'll document it all here - but for now, here's how to add or change a background in blogger. (woot!)

step one to this whole process is by far the easiest one ... find an image that you'd like to use. if you know how to use photoshop or illustrator, i just looked up some swatches and patterns that i liked and then did them as a small sample image using the paint bucket, then saved it to my desktop.

however, if you don't know how to use either of these programs, you can always google 'tileable background images/textures/patterns' and find something that suits your fancy. save the image to your computer so that you have your own copy of it, and let's get this show on the road.

for step two, you need to upload your image to the interweb. you can do this using photobucket or flickr, but if you don't have an account with either, you can start a new post in blogger, upload the image as a photo in that draft post, and save it - don't publish it.

while you're still in edit mode, preview your draft post. you should see your image displayed in the preview page. right click this image and view the properties, then click on 'copy image location' in order to copy the photo's url to the clipboard. you'll need this url to paste into the HTML template in the next step. alternatively, if you've uploaded the image with flickr or photobucket, take the same steps with right-clicking and saving the image location.


now you can safely delete this draft. Choose not to delete the image when prompted, otherwise you will be unable to use this url for referencing your background image.

step three is adding the background image to your template code.

to do this, we'll need to edit a small part of your template's html code to add this image to the background. before you do this, go to layout > edit html in your blogger dashboard, and download a copy of your current template for safekeeping.

once your original template is safe and sound on your computer, look for the following lines in the code:

body {
background:$bgcolor;

you'll find it near the top, just below the 'variable definitions' section of code.

in order to get the image to show as the background image, we need to paste the url from step two (since it's still copied to the clipboard, right?) into the code, using the following format:

url(the_url_of_your_image)

In my demonstration template, the additional code appears like this:


of course, your own url will be different from mine listed up there. just be sure to follow the same format, and make triple sure that the semi-colon (;) appears at the end of the statement. (this is an important step - i forgot it the first few times round and couldn't figure out why the changes weren't reflected in the preview).

now, preview your blog to see the changes. do you like what you see?

sometimes adding a texture or patterned background to your blog makes it tough to read the text - which is pretty counterproductive to redecorating, right? you've uploaded a kick-ass image for your background but nobody can read what you're trying to say. how unfortunate!

the solution to this is to customize the background colour of the main body.

to work with this part of your blog, find this line in your template's HTML code:

#outer-wrapper {

(in some templates, this may be "#outer-wrap" instead). directly below this line, add the following line of code:

background: #ffffff;

this adds a white background to the main content of your blog (which includes both the blog posts and the sidebar). you can easily use a different color if you prefer by changing the hex value for white (#ffffff) to a different hex value instead. you'll need to know the code that corresponds with each colour, but a nifty little firefox add-on that i came across that you can use is colorzilla - it lets you use an eyedropper tool on any website to pull the corresponding colour code. once you have that specific code, you can use it in your template.

i opted to use a plain white background, so the code i used was #fffff, but if you wanted to use a different colour (like light blue), your complete code would look a little something like this:

#outer-wrapper {
background: #E3F2FB;
width: 660px;
margin:0 auto;
padding:10px;
text-align:$startSide;
font: $bodyfont;
}

furthermore, if you want to make the foreground stand out even more from the background image, you can add a border to the left and right hand sides of the outer wrapper by adding the line (highlighted in red) to the same section we've been working with, which would make it look like this when you're done:

#outer-wrapper {
background: #E3F2FB;
border-left: 2px solid #cccccc;
border-right: 2px solid #cccccc;
width: 660px;
margin:0 auto;
padding:10px;
text-align:$startSide;
font: $bodyfont;
}

and that, my darlings, is what took me forever to figure out on saturday night at three in the morning. special thanks to this site for the oh-so-helpful information, which i've based this post on.

(am i a computer programmer yet?)

three so beautiful things

1) so very thankful for everyone who attended jess' baby shower yesterday - for their support and encouragement, and of course, for the oh-so-generous gifts. she and jose are truly blessed. xo

2) my time on saturday was spent just the way i like it - getting a few errands done and then settling into doing something creative. my original plans were to paint, but i wasn't quite feeling it. besides, it was high time to do some redecorating 'round these here parts, and i'd been meaning to learn some basics of Illustrator. after spending a bit of time googling the HTML needed to make some changes and downloading various Illustrator swatches and Photoshop patterns, i managed to pull it all together and finally get it looking more like how i'd been wanting it to look. for all of you restless kindred spirits out there - i'll be posting a tutorial up tomorrow - it's much, much easier than you'd think!

3) am enjoying some delicious coffee that i bought on the weekend from timothy's - caramel vanilla nut. it's love at first taste. yum.

image by me

new, bright & shiny

i came across these images via blueprint bliss this morning - they were posted on a blog that i've never been to before (but i can tell already that it's gonna become addictive), wanderings of a wannabe.

i can't decide what i like more about this house - the fact that it's a small space but is still bright & airy, or the goooorrrrgeous palette that they've used. want it. need it.

this weekend: at the tail end of the longest week in history, i'm looking forward to kicking back and relaxing. i've entertained the thought of talking mike into going on a driving adventure with me, maybe taking a visit to the mug & truffle cafe and doing some reading or drawing, or maybe catching up on some of the tv shows i've missed since i started my no-cable kick.

what about you?

images via wanderings of a wannabe

resolution, find, thought

resolution: i was telling mike the other day that i'm going to stop saying how busy i am all the time - it's become a standard response, i think, for so many people, and it loses it's meaning after a while.

(plus, everyone's busy. what makes me think that my busy-ness warrants more attention than anyone else's?)

great find: i've been listening to accuradio at work to keep things relatively mellow - it's an internet radio station i came across a few years ago that doesn't play as many commercials as regular radio, and lets me choose what genre of music i want to listen to. (sidenote: now, i know that people in the states have access to pandora, but we canadians are restricted from it because of our copyright laws (says the message that pops on on pandora.com when you visit it from a canadian IP address). awesome.

a thought: i've been thinking it's been a while since i did an artist or blog feature ... are you interested? email me!

image by simply hue

bonne fete a moi!

while i'd never really & truly admit it, i like it when people make fusses over birthdays. i think people should be made to feel special every day of their lives ... but particularly so on their birthday.

which is why today is an especially lovely day. birthday well-wishes all over facebook, birthday texts and msn messages, and then surprise cupcakes from the resident cupcake guru, genevieve . how yummy!

tonight: dinner with the fam, followed up by some quality time with my all-time favourite peeps in the world (yep - still my fam).

thanks to everyone who's made my day more special in their little individual ways!

xo

consider it cran-tastic

and i'm back from our bala weekend away with debbie, cassandra, jess, arianne and my mom; couldn't have asked for a more beautiful weekend. i think it was the first time there was no rain or clouds throughout the entire weekend. we stayed in the marriott residence inn in gravenhurst - i'd highly recommend it to anyone looking for someone to stay up in muskoka. the suites were gorgeous, the view breathtaking, and the complimentary breakfast in the morning had waffles, french toast, fresh fruit and eggs. need i say more?

we checked out the pig race, the fire eater, the craft show where i bought some of my favourite craft-show snack, christy's milk chocolate crunch, and a new necklace by jewelery artisan christophe poly. (he doesn't have a website, but you can check out a few of his pieces here.)

the colours were gorgeous, and the view from the suite's balcony was to die for.






my yearly deep-fried mars bar. calories don't count when you're at the cranberry festival.


i love love love these rings, found at saturday afternoons in orillia. i cant decide which one i prefer - the double-stacked thicker band, or the thinner multi-stacked version. (my favourite thing about these is that they only look like stacker rings - but they're not. that way, i won't lose them piece by piece)

am starting to believe that the only way to solve this dilemma is to get them both.

had a wonderful, lovely weekend. can't wait til next year.

i see famous people!

woody harrelson's coming to campus tonight for a pre-screening of his new movie, defendor ... and i've got tickets to check it out! he's gonna be receiving an honorary degree from us as well, which i think is pretty cool.

tomorrow: going to bala for the cranberry festival. gonna take a bunch of pictures, possibly buy some stuff from the craft show, eat a deep-fried mars bar, and laugh my face off with the girls. it's gonna rock. stay tuned.

gorgeous, darling!

today: i don't want to speak too soon, but i think i'm actually going to leave work on time and not stay late. that's awesome.

yesterday: there was frost on my windshield, which is less awesome ... although strangely enough, i'm getting into a christmas mood just a little bit early this year. must be all the christmas baking recipes i've been pulling out of my magazines lately. i've got a little side project going on right now; am making a recipe book instead of having shelves upon shelves of magazines filled with ads and other unnecessary stuff mixed in with the recipes. consolidating. creating room. and not to mention, making it pretty.

this weekend: although it's a bit early to be posting about the weekend, i can't help it. i'm going up north to the 25th annual Bala Cranberry Festival. we've gone every year for the past five - excluding last, because jess had to go ahead and graduate that day (the nerve!) so this year we're making a triumphant return. more on that later.

for now, let's just enjoy the airy brightness of this house, featured on desire to inspire.

le sigh.

ally-oop!

my mom, arianne and i went for a walk in the rouge valley yesterday.

turned out it's a great way to work off our turkey dinner from sunday, and to simultaneously work up an appetite for my mom's birthday dinner of chinese take-out. mm.

gobbledy gobble!

four-day weekend. awesome. loved the time off and the change of pace, and the shoe tree pit stop on the way up to ian's century-barn-turned-antique-shop. road trips rock.

paige, jess, my mom and i took saturday to drive up to the teensy town of coulson, ontario and the goodies that i always find inside.



this sideboard was an incredible deal - i didn't buy it at the time (mostly because i don't have anywhere to put it since i don't have a house or apartment of my own), but am now strongly reconsidering calling ian back to see if it sold ... and if he could put it aside for me. it's too gorgeous not to, don't you think? i'll find a space - where there's a will, there's a way.




i did, however, buy these chairs ... $69 for the pair! i'm going to get different pillows to use with them - i'm thinking something solid, but am not sure about the colour yet. black? white? mustard yellow? what about a tone-on-tone stripe?


LOVE these suitcases. love. and if you look real close, you can see the reflection of yours truly in the mirror.


a distance shot of my mom, a very pregnant jess and paige in front of the old farmhouse. the building is 130 years old - surrounded in huge trees and fall colours. with their homemade fudge and chocolate macaroons, it was most definitely worth the trip.