Year: 2013

This day has been very frustrating so far. All these little annoying things keep happening and piling on top of me until I’m so irritated and angry I just want to scream. The two most aggravating:

1. There is no hot water. Apparently the water heater has a hole and was leaking all weekend so it needs to be replaced, but like…. they just replaced it in AUGUST. I swear, they replace the dumb thing 2-3 times every year, it’s absurd. STOP REPLACING CRAPPY WATER HEATERS WITH OTHER CRAPPY WATER HEATERS. I was too tired to have a shower last night and I slept in too late to have one this morning, so my plan was to have one this afternoon during Gwen’s nap, but NOPE, I just have to sit here and stew in my own filth and also not wash the dishes that are piling up.

2. SALT. SALT ON MY STAIRS. It’s snowing today, but just BARELY. Here’s a pic to illustrate how very snowy it is not:

It’s not even anything, and it’s certainly not an amount of snow that you have to do anything about. In my mind when it snows you wait until there’s enough to shovel, and after you’ve shovelled if there are any stubborn icy patches, you toss a little salt on them. unfortunately I live in IDIOTVILLE and people seem to believe that you should preemptively SALT FUCKING EVERYWHERE. I knew someone would be going around throwing salt on all the stairs and walkways, so when the maintenance guy came to tell me about the hot water I specifically asked him to NOT salt my stairs. Two hours later?

SALT. SALT FUCKING EVERYWHERE. GREAT HANDFULS OF BLUE SALT THROWN ALL OVER MY STAIRS. I seriously hate this stuff, I gets tracked into the house and makes a mess, plus it is TERRIBLE for animals! When the dog walker dropped Dougal off he was limping and crying he was in so much pain! I had to clean his paws off and then go out and sweep up as much of the salt as I could, and now MY paws are in pain. AND I ONLY HAVE FREEZING COLD WATER TO WASH THEM.

So yeah. Forget today. Today is a garbage day.

Hard Candy in The End

This mani is very plain BUT I did it after drinking two beers and didn’t screw it up at all, which I think is super impressive. I think I’m finally getting my nail skills back after going a year without painting them!

PS in case you were wondering the movie in the background is Spring Breakers

Friday night we decorated the tree, with the traditional donuts & sparkling wine. Sym was in a very bad mood so it was actually a very trying evening. She said nothing was bothering her, but then she fell asleep on the couch at 9:30 so I think the problem was that she was really tired.

H&M had these horrible pumpkin masks in the clearance section so OBVIOUSLY I had to get one

Saturday was my day to go do all my last minute shopping done. I had to go all over the city (ie three different locations) and it was kind of a nightmare because it was cold and I’d bought a ton of stuff I had to lug around everywhere, but it was also a wonderful time because I love buying presents! I was also looking for something for my Goody Goody Gift Swap partner, and I think I was able to find the perfect thing!


Taylor bought this, it was … less gross than I was expecting? horribly sweet though
Saturday night Taylor and I had arranged for Sym’s dad to babysit so we could go to his office holiday party, but Gwen had different ideas. She was feeling under the weather* all day so we ended up cancelling to stay home with her. After she went to bed we had special, not-on-poutine-night poutine (normally we only have it on Thursdays) and watch Fast & Furious 6 (RIP Paul Walker).

it’s been unreasonably cold here so on Saturday I bought Gwen a puffy coat from Old Navy and a stroller wrap, and now she’s snug as a bug when we go out


I’m literally obsessed with this wrapping paper
Sunday was Taylor’s day to do his last minute shopping, although I also ran a couple errands with Gwen. I spent most of the afternoon wrapping presents, and I’m happy to have gotten it all done early (minus two gifts that haven’t arrived yet). I feel very organized, it’s a good sign that maybe this year I won’t end up cancelling Christmas dinner because I’m too disorganized to cook.

*this is code for “had diarrhea”

This post is a lot later & lazier than normal, as I didn’t bother saving ANY links this week. OH WELL ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Instead of links I’m going to talk about pajamas because why not.

In the spring when Gwen started rolling over and moving around more, she’d get into all sorts of trouble at sleep time, wedging her arms and legs through the bars of the crib. I tried putting a pool noodle under the sheet and while that helped a little we needed to take more drastic measures. At that time she was growing out of all her cute footie pajamas so we switched her to a Mod Swad sleeper, which kept her legs contained and not shoved through the bars.

After nine-ish months of constant use it’s starting to look pretty gross, and since it’s almost Christmas pajama time I decided to switch her back to pajamas recently, and last night I dressed her in footie pajamas for the first time in forever. I seriously just about had a fit, how could I have forgotten HOW FRIGGING CUTE THEY ARE???? Especially now that Gwen’s a little toddler, seeing her standing and walking in them basically slays me. I wanted to leave her in the all day but tragically she suffered diaper containment failure and they had to go straight in the laundry this morning.

They remind me of these ones from last winter, which were my favourites:

She has the same hat in cream & a similar sweater in brown now, so I can basically relive this whole outfit, haha. (for Gwen’s daytime outfit this week go here)

OH AND I DID SAVE ONE LINK, to the latest addition to my Christmas playlist.

You can download it here. I realized a few weeks ago that my Halloween playlist was 3 minutes longer than my Christmas playlist and HOW DOES THAT EVEN MAKE SENSE???? Since then I’ve been adding more songs and I’m pleased to say that the Christmas playlist is now 9 whole minutes longer than “Spoopy Creppy” (my Halloween playlist).

I have a three-step process for putting up my Christmas tree so that babies don’t destroy it (more on that below) and I’m only on step two, so I’ve been putting up my other decorations to fill the void (not really but yeah really).

My silver glitter “Be Merry & Bright” banner is new this year. I was actually inspired by a customer who ordered a gold “Be Merry” banner, but since I can have banners as long as I want I expanded on the original idea. The lights are clear globes that I’ve had for a few years but never used. Originally I was going to do something with them in the kitchen, and then the bedroom, but they ended up just collecting dust on top of the bookcase until last night.

pro tip: unscrew the bulbs and stash them in empty egg cartons so you don’t break any when you’re hanging up the cord!

I also put up my Playmobil nativity scene. Actually, I set up the stable and Sym arranged the characters. She’s also promised to loan me some extra animals from her vast Playmobil collection. There were guinea pigs at the nativity, right? I mean, Santa was there:

I have an unofficial tradition of adding something new to my wreath every year. The first year I made it I took a plain wreath and added tiny gold leaves, red berries and small white globe ornaments. Last year I added two little birds, and this year a string of tiny lights (battery operated). Next year maybe I’ll add a bow? WHO CAN SAY.

How To Put Up Baby’s First Christmas Tree

This is actually Gwen’s second Christmas but last year she wasn’t the force of destruction she is this year, and I had no idea how she’d react to a lighted, ornament-covered tree suddenly appearing in our living room. I’ve honed this three-step technique over the past seven years of being a childcare provider, where every year was SOMEONE’S first Christmas, and I’ve never had a tree incident (knock on wood). Doing it this way gives baby the opportunity to get used to the tree being there, and gives you the opportunity to see how they’ll react to it, and also to teach them to leave it alone.

Step 1: Put up the tree with no lights or decorations, and then leave it for three days to one week.

Step 2: Add the lights on the tree and the leave it for three days to one week.

Step 3: Add all your ornaments. By now baby is so used to the tree it doesn’t even register on their radar. I hope!

I put our tree up on Sunday and originally I was planning on adding the lights this Friday and the decorations next Friday, but tbh the lightless tree was starting to depress me and Gwen was doing really well with it, so I decided to do the lights last night and we’re adding the ornaments tomorrow night, so fingers crossed it goes well! When I first put it up Gwen crawled over and gave some of the branches an experimental poke, but they’re quick prickly so she quickly moved on. This morning she tugged on one light cord but I just distracted her by saying “Gwennie! No!” and is silly shocked voice, and when she’d moved on to some toys I tucked the offending cord deeper into the branches. So far so good!

cinnamon toast waffles & mandarin orange / tomato, cucumber & cheddar salad

I’m pretty sure Gwen has now fully made the transition to being a one nap-a-day baby. It’s weird to think that only a few months ago she was still have THREE naps! She still wakes up around 8:30 or nine in the morning, and then she goes down for her nap at around 1pm. If I’m lucky she sleeps for a couple hours, if not then she has a total meltdown before we can get her in the bath. She has a new, earlier bedtime of 7:30-ish.

I think for me the most difficult part about her adjusted sleep schedule has been figuring out her new mealtimes. It used to be really easy: food when she wakes up, bottle before she goes down. Now it’s breakfast when she wakes and maybe a lil snack then lunch at 11:30 and a bottle at 12:30, then snack after nap and dinner HOPEFULLY around 6 (I’m not used to getting dinner ready that early!) and a bottle before bed. It sounds simple now but it’s taken me a week to get the whole thing down.

And finally, this baby is now a walkin’ fool. She will walk unsupported for 5-6 steps at a time, before she has to grab onto the furniture or drop to a crawl. Every day she walks further and further on her own.

Essie in Mesmerize + Sinful Colors in Hottie (what a weird name for a blue glitter, should be Coldie)

I don’t like Hottie on it’s own; it’s too translucent for my tastes. I layered it over a blue to try and capture how it looks in the bottle, but I think a more electric/royal blue would have worked better. tbh I really hated this mani at first. I did it at night and in the artificial lighting the glitter looked like plain silver. It reminded me of this weird glitter paint I used to have for the daycare kids, haha idk. It’s grown on me though, and the glitter is more dimensional than just silver; it’s actually turquoise blue and iridescent.

duh.

do you like blackberries, Gwen?




everything.



a grumpy robot.


concert hangover recovery.

We call them Floorios around here.

I’m not a fashion blog person (unless someone made one of just sweatpants outfits) but I enjoy reading Katie’s.

My favourite, Sara M Lyons, is running an amazing sale this weekend with tons of new products!

Elf of the Shelf: What You Need to Know

I need this.

Scream-laugh-barfing

A couple things Gwen wore recently.

A final reminder that anyone who wants to receive a banner in time for Christmas/New Year’s should place their order by the end of the weekend AND as an added bonus all ready-to-ship banners are now 25% off, no code necessary.

… to get a banner for Christmas (and don’t forget new Year’s Eve decorations)! My cutoff for holiday orders is this Sunday, December 1st- I can’t actually guarantee orders placed by this date will arrive before the 25th but I’m like… 99% sure they will. Orders placed after the first may still arrive in time but I can’t promise anything.

Also, if you follow me on instagram you will have already seen these (I’ve been blowing up my own feed) but I’ve made mini stickers to start including with banners (for free), and I think they are so cute!

Also: don’t forget to “like” my facebook page for pics of recent work, shop announcements and promotions!