plant lust

I wonder if I can convince the partners of the company I work for to roll with this in our shiney new offices.  I love the contrast of industrial modern and organics.  I love that the combo of ivy, various philodendrons, pothos, hoyas & those rounded-edged quasi succulents I do not know the name for – all fast-growing & low-maintenance but with textural differences which complement each other nicely.  I would even supply the starters & volunteer to look after the little beasties so I could feel like I’m working in a jungle.

the mister – ftw

Miz D got to gloat about her stunning amber bobble and now that I have pictures I reckon it’s my turn.

Historically my romantic interests have been in one of two camps when it comes to buying me jewelery: those who hem and haw and ponder and fret only to drop the idea in favour of a gift certificate out of intimidation of the gusband’s brilliant (dude has amazing taste) successes in finding me lovelies, or those who take the leap and fail miserably.  I have a stash of expensive shiney things too fugly to pawn.  Does that make me sound spoiled?

This year the mister tried* and passed with flying colours with this number:

Here’s why he wins:

1. It’s not a ring!  Rings are too personal (and scary – remember I cling tightly to my matrimonial prophylactic) and unless it was one he’d seen me oggling over at my favourite silver shop, which I almost never do and when I do I almost always make the purchase myself, it’s not going to be right.

2. It’s not gold.  Dude pays attention.  I’m a well-pierced, well-adorned chica and all of my shinies are silver which gold refuses  to play nice with.  I’m not going to wear something if it takes me 18h to take out every bit of silver in my bod to replace them all with stuff from the stash of gold fuglies.

3. It’s not a bracelet or earrings, which are what the gusband generally buys.  By opting out of at least that part of the competition he levelled the playing field.

4. It’s the perfect length, sitting nicely between my collar bones and creating a flattering line which leads the eyes up the neck.  Sometimes I think guys buy necklaces just so they can go dipping into cleavageland to fish them out.  Guess what?  I’m onto that.  I only wear long necklaces with turtle neck sweaters and I stopped wearing those in the mid-nineties.

5. It’s not amber in one of those overly ornate & whimsical settings with fairies and leaves and curlyques.  Nice, simple, curvy lines are another favourite.

6. It’s slightly asymmetrical. I love me some asymmetry.

7. It’s amber.  I adore amber.  It’s my favourite even before my beloved garnets and opals.  Admitedly he’s seen me swoon over the oodles of amber pieces immediately inside the doors at the gemboree each year, so maybe it’s kind of the easy choice.  He noticed and that’s all that matters.

*He also gave me a lovely pair of earrings which I love last year, but they’re just not in the same ball park and I kind of picked them out.

here’s to ’09 – the resolutions post

I don’t normally post about resolutions.  I rarely post about anything terribly personal at all, but one of my resolutions is to do a bit more of that at the request of a few readers.  I’ll get into that a bit more later, in the meantime, this is what I’m gonna do in oh nein:

– get the new website (a gift from the mister) up and running by the end of this month.

– lose 10 pounds and get my great legs back (we’re starting small here).

– reacquaint myself with visual arts in practice and not just in theory. I will produce and display 5 serious works, not just doodles, between now and the end of the year.

– I will finish painting the trim in the house.

– I will get my house in good-enough-for-a-visit-from-dad shape and keep it that way for at least two consecutive months.

– I will blog more recipes.

And now for the sticky one: I will make my blog more personal.  As I said before, this is by request.  I get asked quite a bit to blog more about parenting experiences and anecdotes I have no hesitations about relating in real life in the right company.  Truth is, I’m kind of scared shitless to do it.  It’s that kick in the ribs by the celtic ancestry which dictates that putting it down in written form commits it to the encyclopaedic memory and brings on the gestalt.  It’s also the sense of disenfranchisment from the rest of the parenting world which comes with being the girl too busy giving birth to write her OAC French exam, even though I got a 94% in that course without the exam and the kid is still alive.  It’s also because I find so many bloggers who write about their personal lives entirely insufferable with inflated martyr syndromes, save a handful (like this person, and this person, and this person).  I don’t want to be an insufferable, dripping sap with nothing better to share but stunted poetry about unmet, exceedingly high expectations which were never communicated through anything but passive aggression in the first place.

Even though I’m scared shitless I’ll do it anyway because I’m goign to be 33 in 6 days and it’s time I grew the hell up and realise that I’m not a teen mom anymore, that I’ve been around the block a couple of times and that I’ve got a debt to pay to all those other uncensored parents out there who shared and made me a better person for it.   I’ve grown a 13 year old and an 11 year old.  I bought a house when I was 20 and put myself through post-secondary school after that.  I’ve been married and am almost divorced (after almost 8 years after separation – I’ll be sad to lose my matrimonial prophylactic) with narry a lawyer in the scene and maintain a working relationship with the baby daddy.   I guess I’ve got a bit to share so I will.  All y’all are responsible for telling me if I’ve become insufferable.  Deal?

I completely forgot that Corine tagged in her post about what was learned in Ohate.  I suck.  Yes I do.

It’s kind of an overwhelming topic at this juncture as ’08 has brought many changes in circumstances my way after having quit my job as a corporate whore in late ’07, settling in to living with the mister, a child going into his teens and developing an intimate relationship with Sick Kids Hospital as the result of an injury my daughter sustained.  I also have that annoying habit of learning from other people’s experience.  I learned a lot, but I’ll try to keep this short and sweet.

– You know that whole me being lucky with money thing that you’re all giving me the gears for?  Yeah, I learned that’s pretty much true.

– It’s really healthier for all of humanity to keep my standards non-negotiable.

– I’ve got an amazingly supportive group of friends.

– I can’t be friends with everyone.

– I relearned how to let shit go.

– Leaving a bad job is like leaving a bad relationship.  All those steps of grieving and everything.  True story.

– My kids have picked up a lot of my bad habits but some good ones too.

– I’m sensitive and I’d like to stay that way.

– Walking around with your heart on one sleeve and your vulnerabilities on the other can be exhausting but so worth it.

– My sense of reciprocity is skewed.

– I really am a quick study.

– I will never grow out of the desire to take on my children’s pain.

– Canada has been wearing blinders for far too long and we were not prepared for the shock of reintroduction to daylight.

– I finally got that damned shoe-tying thing down too.

quickie

Just a quick blurb to let all y’all know that I’ve survived the weekend.  The focus fair holiday arts & craft show was a brilliant event.  The collective did a fabulous job of pulling it all together, getting the word out and keeping it all ticking.  Vendor turnout could not have been better if everyone was hand picked by Martha.  We had such a great array of talent and personalities it’s no wonder we got the traffic we did.  Using The Spill was a stroke of genius and I’m so grateful to Dave for lending us the space.  This kind of cooperative spirit is what makes me happy to be part of this community.

edit

I’ve been meaning to post about these guys for a while now but haven’t known what to say other than ‘I want to live in their show room’ and ‘please, good folks from EDIT, please adopt me and/or give me a job now’.

I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Amber glass, that particular shade of turquoise, stacks of books, dyed doilies, retired silk screens as art?  Swoon.

In other news, I’m renegotiating the terms of my relationship with tailor’s pins.  We’re back together but that doesn’t mean there won’t be a pre-nup.

where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?

Did anyone catch Harper’s and Dion’s addresses tonight?  I felt it a weak move and not just because it was Harper’s idea.  Honestly, he needs more grass-roots support and is using the wrong medium to reach his intended audience.  Harper made an ass of himself in insisting that this coalition involves a deal with the devil in the form of a ‘separatist party’. First, no such deal exists.  Please remember the Bloc’s signing on at Harper’s request back in oh four when they were questioning Martin’s effectiveness.  Secondly, I don’t see how his choice in wording – …ahem…’separatist’ comes immediately to mind – can be seen as anything other than vitriolic and two-faced at this point.  When you’re up against a community and political party of and backed by heritage/language proud citizens one had best not use the nicer word to its face then turn around and use the nastier word behind its back.  Hello, Mr. Harper, there are far more English speaking Francos than there are French speaking Anglos per capita.  Please also remember that Harper, at one point, pleaded with our then Governor General, Adrienne Clarkson, to side with the same ideas he and his supporters are now referring to as ‘undemocratic’ even ‘communist’.

Dion’s follow-up was less aenemic but kind of sad in that he felt the need to be reactionary in this.  He could have done a better job and made a stronger statement simply addressing questions from the hacks.  He’s so much better in an impromptu arena.  Plus the whole late tape fiasco was stunningly idiotic.  Someone had better get a stern talking to for that one.

This is a nation built on a socialist-capitalist hybrid platform and the truth of the matter is that we’ve been leaning a lot more heavily on the capitalist side than we have the socialist side for a great many years.  The foundation is starting to buckle.  My hunch, and I’m a pretty intuitive person so I think it’s a good one, is that we’re a people yearning to look after our own.  Harper’s government is not out to look after its people.  Harper has proven time and time again that his government is ready to buckle in the name of its own perverse idea of victory.  They’re already buckling.  They have been for a long time. Now they’re being called on it.

Though this is an exciting (terrifying?) time in Canadian political history, I don’t like what’s going on in parliament right now.  It’s not pretty.  It’s not the ideal…not mine or anyone else’s…even those of the parties most likely to benefit from it.  It makes me sick and anxious.  I want something dependable.  I want something which stands for me.  I do support the coalition but I want this to be fast and efficient.  A clean kill.  I want the coalition to act like Vulcans until it’s over.  I want something from which we can quickly move on from in order to address and act upon other, more, MUCH more pressing needs.  I think we’re all in the same boat and will just be happy when it’s over.

my bookshelf brings all the boys to the yard

I have that same Ikea bookshelf.  It has served me well over many, many years.  It has been everything from a computer desk/clothing storage in a small space (which worked out much better than one might expect) to a baker’s rack.  It’s currently back to a bookshelf, hangin’ out in our hall collecting stuff:

Yes, I the DOF to highlight the plant and not the clutter, but you can still get a feel for just how hard this baby works.  Even with the blur you can see sunscreen, stoneware candle holders, tin can candle holders (made by the daughter 4 years ago), laundry detergent, DVDs, kids school pictures, a hair ornament, my bill payment thingy, pencils, a spray of fake sunflowers the daughter decorated it with almost 5 years ago and which we have never taken off, kids school pictures, vaseline (even books need lube) and a cute, felted, teal cloche.

What you can’t see are all of the books, the candelabra, my sharpie collection, a collection of Things Which Do Not Belong To Us, 2 baskets containing hats & mitts & gloves, a candy jar, 3 sketchbooks, a pneumatically powered toy aeroplane, watercolour paints, oil pastels and a jar of seashells.

Needless to say it is not nearly as put together as the one in the first photo.  How do these people do it?  As much as ours looks like the aftermath of a tsunami on a daily basis, I still like it better.  I know where everything is and I’ll never make the mistake of putting Proust next to Machiavelli in a tragic organization-by-colour mishap.

they win

I’ve long maintained that the tree shouldn’t be set up until the 15th of December at the earliest.  What can I say?  I like a saturated Christmas.  This year the kids convinced me to do it earlier.  Today was the day.

I have to say it was fun to get out and dust off the baubles and trinkets which adorn our tree.

Most are handmade or have a story.

We rather luckily have a glassblowing friend who gifts us with these lovelies.

That’s a beaded one I made a lifetime ago.

That’s a kitschy, besparkled and bedazzled bit.  The product of a drunken craft night chez nous.

Everyone helped.

Taste testing the tree is always important.

Keen supervision is important too.

Some were confused.

I love our little tree and that everyone has a part to play in making it happen.  The mister does the lights.  I make the branches look pretty and add the ribbons.  The sprogs put on the ornaments and everything comes together beautifully.  Of course Ypsilon, being the new kitty, is going to be a huge big jerk and claim it all for herself, but it’s all in the name of a month of fun and merriment.  I’m for that.

banishing november

We’ve got two days left in this hellcat of a month and I’ll be happy to say ‘good riddance to bad rubbish’ once it’s over.  I think this may have been the worst November I’ve experienced since I was 16 years old, which is saying alot as that was a horrible November.

Here are a few heartwarming things which I’m counting on to get me through the next couple of days:

– I just watched Wall*E.  I know I’m a little late jumping on that bandwagon but I’m glad I finally did.  It’s life-affirming on the same level as the Flaming Lips album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is.  Go watch it…again.

– I’ve got some employment prospects coming up which are promising.  I’m crossing my fingers and toes.

– Sunday will be decorating and tree-trimming day.  The sprogs have finally won out and I’m happy to give in.

– I’ve had a crazy amount of ideas lately and have been able to see a lot of them through to fruition.  Teasers to come.

– the Free People Boutique has an amazingly cute holidays ’08 card available for downloading and printing.  You can check it out here.

– I get to come home to a great family everyday.  Can’t really beat that.