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life right now

01 branches

02 sunnies

03 bridge

04 wall

05 rainbow

06 driftwood

07 sky

I took these pictures a couple of weeks ago; when I told Gwen we were going to the beach she immediately ran and put on her bathing suit from last summer and I had a doozy of a time convincing her that February was too cold for swimming.

making Not a lot. I have been very hard at work trying to get my shit together with regards to my REAL job and it has left me precious little time for much else (like blogging for example). I am still working on my suede & leather skull patches but suuuuuuper slowly; I’ve only finished two so far which is a little disappointing. I did make what I think is a GREAT mini banner this week: a lavender-to-black gradient that reads “NOT ONLY WILL THIS KILL YOU; IT WILL HURT THE WHOLE TIME YOU’RE DYING” except instead of a semi colon it’s a little lightning bolt. I’m trying to decide if I want to bother listing it in the shop- it’s so long that it’s difficult to photograph, especially in the current late winter gloominess of my basement apartment, and the number of characters makes the price $55 and idk if anyone in the world would buy it.

reading In the past few weeks I’ve bought and read cheap Kindle omnibuses of ALL the Anne of Green Gables books and ALL the Little House on the Prairie books. I started but didn’t finish both of these as a kid and I figured what the heck. You can get these for just a few dollars for the entire series and they are great bathtub reads (although the other night I was reading The Long Winter while waiting for Taylor to pick up food and it was Too Real).

watching I’m really not feeling anything that I’m watching lately. When I work I have been slowly dragging through Gilmore Girls but like… it’s a really bad show you guys. I’m only on season two because I hate it so much I keep giving up in disgust. Right now I’m just dying at what a terrible jealous red-flag waving control freak Dean is and like HOW can Lorelei encourage this relationship???? It’s terrible! Also I don’t understand why everyone thinks Rory is so smart and so great, bitch thinks AYN RAND is a good writer. Look, I read The Fountainhead and objectionable content aside, there is literally ONE sentence in the whole book that isn’t total trash, and it’s like a description of grass or leaves or something. NEXT.

loving I have the month off work and have been spending lots of quality time with Gwen, and it has been great. She is just a really good kid with a sweet little heart. Most mornings I get up with her and we watch Peppa Pig (her current fave) while she has milk and a snack, then “pway wos” (play Legos) until breakfast-and after breakfast-and all the time! She cannot get enough of her “wos.” In the past few weeks a lot of her sneaky, naughty behaviour has stopped, and I can leave doors open and cupboards unlocked without having to worry that she’s going to wreak havoc (sometimes) and she loves to help with things around the house- doing laundry, wiping counters, making coffee, microwaving. The only trouble is if you don’t let her help with this stuff (or you just forget and put a load of wash on without consulting her) she breaks down and cries like you’ve broken her heart, which you probably have. Shame on you.

planning How to get myself back on track, financially. I’m back to work in April and have enough new clients starting over the course of the spring that by June I will have more than QUADRUPLED my monthly income from what I made in January. This is a pretty big deal as I have been super broke for a super long time and I am really looking forward to not being in the bottom of my overdraft anymore.

wishing Spring would get here already!

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light

01 fern

02 hydrangea

03 leaves

09 animals

05 gwen

06 gwen

04 skull patch

08 georgie

When I opened the door this morning I was expecting to see grey and clouds and rain, but instead I was hit in the face with bright sunlight. It’s blue-skied and warm today, I didn’t even put off walking the dog. Sometimes on rainy mornings, rather than get Gwen and myself completely dressed and weather-ready to go out I just open the blinds and let Gwen stay on the couch watching Peppa Pig while I take Georgie out to the backyard. I have to watch her through the window to make sure she doesn’t get up to any naughtiness (she usually does).

On the weekend I retook my first aid, so I spent most of Valentine’s Day getting physical with CPR dummies of assorted sizes. Not to brag (yes to brag actually) but I’m like, rly good at CPR, all my dummies lived. Also, DID YOU KNOW that doing CPR is a pretty intense ab & booty workout? I had forgotten and the next day I was completely incapacitated. My arms weren’t that bad but my stomach was pretty sore and my behind was not having it at all.

Another thing I did this weekend was start making what I think are some great little patches from appliqued leather & suede. Each 3.25″ patch has little skulls with leaves & flowers or laurel wreaths that have all been cut out, placed and sewn by hand. I’ve only finished one so far but I have a bunch that are half-made and I hope to have them up in the shop soon

Sym is having trouble with math again; this happened last year as well and the problem is that if she starts having difficulty with it, she doesn’t ever ask for any help and just lets it spiral until she’s fallen far behind. This is especially bad this year because at the moment her grade is so poor that her teacher has to recommend her for “Apprenticeship & Workplace Math” next year. See, there are two different tracks for math, A&WM and Foundations & Pre-Calculus Math, and if you don’t get on the F&PCM track in the 10th grade you can’t take any of the grade 11 or 12 math prerequisites for university! When I was in high school I feel like we just had Math 9, Math 10, Math 11 and it seems bananas to me that at 14 years old she has to decide her post-secondary education plans already! Thankfully her teacher has said that if she gets her grade up enough by June he will change his recommendation, and he is confident that she has the aptitude to do it and doesn’t want to see her limit her future now. But like. WOW. Teenager stuff is intense.

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five faves

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A lil late is better than never, right? I’ve been really struggling with completing tasks this week and blogging is no different. However I have a super-important meeting coming up this week so NO MORE SLACKING ALLOWED.

When I am not so broke I rly want to get some patches from PONY PEOPLE.

Two of my fave tumblrs: Colorful Gradients and Daily Minimal.

I spent a good amount of time this week on what-dog.net. Georgie got Pomeranian, Mark Fluffalo got Pomeranian. I’m a Sheltie, Taylor’s a Golden Retriever and Gwen got Dogue de Bordeaux:
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Broad City is back next week, yaaas!

Food prices in Canada’s north are a serious issue, highlighted perfectly in this mock ad. Fun fact: last year I was reading posts on a facebook page about this problem and some dipwad actually said people should “just grow their own food!” like I don’t think you know how the GODDAMN ARCTIC CIRCLE WORKS???

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gwen lately

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Gwen’s speech is progressing nicely. Everyone always said “oh she’ll be caught up by the time she’s three!” and now she’s three and she’s not caught up BUT she is definitely talking more and more every day. She asks for things by name, she uses adjectives to describe things and numbers to describe quantity (usually how many chocolates she wants…). She tells jokes! Kid jokes, like when I ask her what colour her pants are she’ll say “pint (pink) pants!” when really they are black. Hilarious.

Potty training is basically done; it took like… three days. Not even. The other week on a Monday I stopped putting diapers on her except for quiet- and bedtime, and on Thursday she said she didn’t want a diaper at quiet time. She only used the potty a little that day, on Friday she did a great job and by Saturday there were no problems. I always try to not get too hung up on milestones and where other people’s kids are at but it was a little frustrating hearing about 2-year-old who are fully there when Gwen was not even close. But NOW I’m glad I didn’t bother trying to force it to happen before she was ready, because it was SO EASY! Even though she’s completely out of diapers during the day (even when we go out places) we’ve only had one accident.

Her favourite toys right now are Duplo (she asks us every day to “pway wo” with her) and this week she is really into tea parties with the toy food and dishes. Other faves are any kind of tiny baby animals, like Calico Critters or the toys that come out of the bath bombs we get for her at Daiso; her stuffed Peppa Pig; and the little wooden trees, mountains and houses Sym painted for her for Christmas. And Play-Doh! She would play Play-Doh all day if she could.

As for her favourite show, it’s all about Peppa Pig right now. That’s the only thing she wants to watch on the tv although I can usually convince her watching the Lego Movie is a good idea. She doesn’t sit still for very long watching tv though, and will often run around or get up to go play in her room. She WILL sit still for probably forever watching her weird little kid youtube videos on a tablet or phone though. She loves unboxing videos (WHY) and the ones where people act out terrible skits with their toys (WHY). She’s only allowed to watch them during quiet time and I have to remind myself to go get her up after a certain amount of time because she will stay in her room for hours watching videos if we let her.

She loves kitties and bunnies and foxes. Her favourite colour to wear is pink but she always walks on the green stripe of the rainbow crosswalk. She likes any kind of small bread products and calls them all “buns.” She always wants to help do the laundry, make coffee, feed the dogs, wipe the table, and will even clean up her toys when asked nicely (though she usually wants one of us to help her). She’ll steal my phone and tweet pictures from Neko Atsume (sometimes with emoji commentary), she will always give us a hug or kiss (or bart-kiss) but she’s still very shy with strangers. She’s 40 inches tall, weighs 42 pounds and wears size 4 clothes.

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five faves: monochromatic

Happy Friday to everyone… and happy birthday to me! Today’s post is all about my fave black & grey & white things.

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This Scully piece by beautiful angel Jessica Sea is a treat. Get 50% off orders of $20 in her shop until the 13th with the code FEBFRIENDS.

For days when I don’t want to wear my silver star necklace, a silver moon like this one from Little Pancakes would do nicely.

I have the long-sleeved version of this dress already but obviously I will need a short-sleeved one for spring!

The “Nordic Village” blanket from Little Unicorn is too cute.

Teletubbies x Joy Division

Also! get free shipping on most items & discounts on throw blankets & pillows on Society6 all weekend long! I put up some new designs this week so go browse, fave & maybe even buy?

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pajama party: flowers in space

Gwen is growing out of most of her pajamas again, all the size 3 two-pieces are getting very short and showing A LOT of tummy and she can’t wear the size 3 footies anymore at all. She’s even growing out of her teddy bear slippers! I actually found some size 4 pajamas from last summer when I was going through all her old clothes (how???) but they are shorties and it’s just not warm enough for them yet, especially since she insists on sleeping on top of the covers now. Inspired by the zinnias on the International Space Station, here are some cute new bedtime looks I’m eyeing for her for late winter/early spring:

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lilac floral nightie // moon phase footies // star print top and leggings // planet print sleep set // periwinkle floral footies // navy floral sleep set // these are neither space- nor flower-themed but who can resist bunny booties!

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five goals

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I’ve been super stressed out and frazzled this week so I don’t have any faves to share (except for maybe my keen ability to not barf during a panic attack). Instead, here are five goals I want to accomplish this year:

1. The first and most important thing, that I really need to do, is improve my job-slash-financial situation. I need to get my child care license again and get some more clients! At the moment I only have one little boy in care part-time, and I just found out this week that they will be leaving the country at the end of February (originally they’d planned on staying here until late spring/early summer). I have been hustling hard to find some new families to work with and I finally, FINALLY sent in my license application (it only took me five months).

2. Replace my dishwasher. This is contingent on #1 going well but I really need to do this. My current one, which I inherited from the previous tenant and was secondhand to her, is super decrepit and barely works. Like it doesn’t even wash the dishes anymore, just rinses and sterilizes (I need the dishes sterilized for work) them, so I have to completely pre-wash everything. It is SO not energy/water efficient, and I read online that modern dishwashers are SO GOOD that the only way a human could equal their efficiency level would be if they could wash all the dishes with the water running for just two minutes. I WANT THAT.

3. Fix all the holes/dings/gouges in the walls. I used to keep on top of fixing this kind of small damage but I’ve majorly slacked on it in the past couple years. There are a bunch of places where things bashed into the walls or I’d moved shelves or furniture from one place to another, and it really doesn’t look cute having holes all over the place.

4. Repaint the half-bath and the hallway. I’m so sick to death of the orange bathroom and yellow hallway! The hallway is the worst because when I painted it I accidentally used the high-gloss yellow paint left over from my desk instead of the eggshell yellow paint left over from idek what. It’s horrible, this shiny yellow hallway. And the orange in the bathroom is not fun anymore and when the light is on the whole room glows like the surface of the sun. I want to paint them both white or light grey or something else inoffensive.

5. CANCEL MY GYM MEMBERSHIP. I put this on my list of goals last year and did not accomplish it, thereby wasting $240 on fees that could have gone towards my dishwasher fund or hallway paint or literally anything at all. I’m going to do it this year, for reals this time.

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little fox

01 cinnamon hearts

02 fox

03 fox

04 shadow cat

06 ivy

07 legos

I have been LOVING this new ready-to-ship banners change I instituted in my shop earlier this month! I love not feeling bogged down with making the same banners every week, I love being able to ship orders so much faster, and I love love love all the extra time I have to work on different projects!

On the weekend I started embroidering a little grumpy fox and I just find it so fun and relaxing. I hadn’t really done any embroidery since I made the patches for Taylor’s anniversary gift two years ago, and I’d forgotten how much I enjoy it. I even like buying the embroidery thread; the subtle variations of the colours make choosing just the right shade fascinating AND they only cost sixty cents each (less with a coupon; I got the new oranges I needed for this fox for 45 cents each)! Combine that with how inexpensive the wooden hoops are and the fact that I’m upcycling the fabric from a torn pair of linen shorts and this is a very cheap hobby.

Bad news for poor lil Symmie: after two weeks having her palate expanded with a palate expander she went to the orthodontist to get it removed… or so she thought. Turns out that while we don’t have to adjust it anymore, she has to keep it in the whole rest of the time she has her braces! I feel really bad for her, it makes it hard to talk and hard to eat and it leaves a weird impression on her tongue that really bothers her. Thankfully she only has four months of braces left, or maybe less! Everyone cross their fingers that it’s less.

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self care sunday

At the end of last year I was so busy with orders I really didn’t have any time to spend on myself. Some days I literally couldn’t even squeeze in a shower, let alone any pampering. This year I want to make a more conscious effort to get a little more me time. For me a perfect opportunity to do this is right after Gwen goes to bed; while Taylor takes the dogs for a walk I love to hop in the bath with some fizzy salts, a mask on my face and a good book, then afterwards wrap myself in a cozy towel.

self care sunday 1

Bison Fresh Grapefruit hot bath salts // Tony Moly Choco Mushroom face mask // The Magicians Trilogy by Lev Grossman // Bespoke Post Turkish bath towel