Sneak Peek

Riley and I are headed out on a road trip for the weekend, a long one here in Canada, with limited or no internet access. I wanted to thank everyone who expressed concern about my eyes, they are much, much better today

Thank you.

And here is a sneak peek at my studio space which is being featured by Tracie Hanson today over at her place at mybloominglife.com

And yet another sneak peek of a tiny but great soul that crossed paths with me. I have said "no" to her so far. But she does need another two weeks to let the frostbite on her ears heal before she is officially adopted.

A rescue dog that would fit in the palm of your hand. Very laid back (spent the day in the sweater of a co-worker at my office and didn't make a peep but won over every single heart anyway. She weighs less than one pound and was found running down the highway. She was chased by someone for 18 blocks before she was caught and treated with love and respect. The other details pieced together from a full and proper veterinary examination you don't want to hear. Sometimes people just break my heart.

Wordless Wednesday

{Virtual Coffee}

It's time for coffee, thank heavens! I really need this cuppa because I spent the morning in the clinic waiting room to get a diagnosis of conjunctivitis and bleferitis, although I assume it is spelled with a "ph" instead of an "f" since it is a fancy pants medical term. If I could see better I would look it up in the dictionary but I think it means the tissue around my eyes is inflamed (and this judging from my unsightly swollen eyes).

If we were meeting for coffee today I would show you the beautiful sympathy flowers Riley brought home for me last night after walking the dog, to help my eyes feel better because this swollen/red nonsense has been going on for a few days now.

If we were meeting for coffee today I would show you what I did this weekend, my new bare walls. I spent all of Sunday stripping old wall paper that has been on my walls since day 1. And I mean 1 A.D. Seven years ago, just before we moved into our house, we had managed to get some of it down and then just ran out of time and I had been looking at wallpaper literally half peeling off the walls for s-e-v-e-n years.

I think I just stopped seeing it. But one day I did see it again and it was unbearable. And if I had known what a tedious job it was going to be, I never would have started it. But I did start it so I also did my best impersonation of Martha Stewart crossed with Mike Rowe because that was one dirty job. Now the walls are ready for paint. NOT! On day 1, when the paper went up, I discovered it went up on wet plaster in spots and the whole area is going to need some serious plastering. If we were meeting for coffee today I would happily tell you that I have actually hired someone to do THAT dirty job.

If we were meeting for coffee today I would bemoan the fact that I finished my jar of Wow! sauce.

Made by The Pickle Guy himself, it is basically chopped garlic with a bit of spice. Next summer when I am back up in Cremora, Ontario, I will have to buy more than one jar.

My last piece of toast with the Wow sauce, uh huh, even for breakfast.

If we were meeting for coffee today I would tell you that on Thursday morning Riley and I are getting on a train to Toronto to visit my sister for an early birthday celebration for her and if I'm lucky I will be meeting up with The Indigo Girl at some point. And another thing that is happening on Thursday, a peek into my art studio is going to be appearing on Tracie Hanson's blog (mybloominglife.com) for her series she calls "Room to Bloom".

If we were meeting for coffee today I would now be giving you the bum's rush out the door because I think that is all my eyes can take right now and I need to go and rest them a bit and put more drops in. But there is always something good cooking over at Amy's Lucky Number 13 if you're still in the mood for more java.

Virtual Vermut

Well, la-di-dah. It's Friday and I'm celebrating! It's champagne (OK, sparkling wine) all around!

I don't know why this kind of surprised me this week but my mother announced she is getting married. And with the groom at 81 and the bride at 76, I gently advised her to not have a long engagement. But seriously, what better reason to be drinking in the afternoon but to celebrate the growth of a family? This day is simply gorgeous and if you looked up, "gorgeous day" in the dictionary, it would say, "May 13, 2011" and have a picture of my city beside it. It's so nice out I almost forgot about it being a Friday the 13th until I read my horoscope and found out that it is an accident prone day for me and that I need to guard against theft or loss.

You know it's really spring when garbage can art returns to your neighbourhood. I do love a bin man with a sense of style.

If we were meeting for vermut, or champagne, today I would tell you about going for a walk with Riley early this morning and show you some of the things we found - all this before 8:30 a.m.

A robin's egg

a lobster

ducks to feed

the world's smallest caterpillar

cherry flavoured lip balm that has a definite colour to it.

And he could double for Edith Piaf in this one with the pseudo lipstick. La vie en rose...

My original "twinkle"

was returned to me at the same tree where I left today's message, one that has been challenging me plenty

magnolias gone crazy

improvised rabbit ears

and an absolute riot in my former neighbour's garden

If we were meeting for vermut today I would tell you that yesterday I allowed myself to do a bit of this

and that

with a magazine and it felt great. We would play a requiem for old pajamas

I think I've had these since before Riley was born and they are one waist-cinch away from falling to the floor around my ankles.

If we were meeting for vermut this afternoon I would tell you that I have spent considerable time cleaning up my art studio and now I can't find a damn thing. Not only have I cleaned it up but I have been KEEPING it clean and so I have been spending an inordinate amount of time looking for things I used to be able to put my hands on quickly but still, I'm loving the "space" created by the tidiness. I would tell you I started a class on colour palettes and have been painting many colour wheels.

And while we were on the subject of colour swatches, I would also share with you Yo-Yo, which is the colour I have pretty much settled on for the bathroom that will be painted next month.

Can't you see white fabric shower curtains with this?

If we were meeting for vermut this afternoon I would tell you this funny story that happened a few nights ago when Riley and I were walking the dog. It was the first time I had to put the birds and the bees into more specific words as a pair of red-winged blackbirds had a go at it right before our eyes. And I'm expecting more questions once my initial answers have been digested. Oddly enough, there are no photos to document this part of the story.

If we were meeting for vermut this afternoon I would limit myself to one, OK - two glasses because it's not even four o'clock then I would send you over to Kate at The Catalan Way and remind her that it's time for vermut!

Wordless Wednesday

{Virtual Coffee}

NOT! I'm doing tea today. Isn't this a pretty bottle

and I will tell you it's quite tasty too. If we were meeting today I would be happy to make you a coffee but my body is saying tea. I love the way is whooshes down, leaving me feel clean and clear. I have been kind of sick these last few days and I'm dragging myself around. So if we were meeting for coffee I would expect you to carry a good part of the conversation.

If we were meeting for coffee today I would tell you how generally out of sorts I have felt these last few weeks. How so much of what I want to say is politically incorrect and how social media is exhausting me. I have hardly been reading blogs and when I do I am rarely commenting. And I'm feeling kind of bad about that because people are still stopping by here and leaving me their thoughts and words but I haven't been reciprocating. I would tell you how I find myself looking for my center once again and how I know it is a natural cycle of life to feel like this and that I have a certain sense of peace this time while I go through it.

I would confess to you how winter clothes can hide a multitude of chocolate sins. I have been tweaking some habits and pieces of my lifestyle here and there and it is becoming less about feeling better about my body and more about feeling better in it.

If we were meeting for coffee this today I would show you my garden and declare myself the Queen of Mulch.

Things are sprouting and stretching in my corner of the world -the magnolias are almost there. I used to prefer the classic magnolia, the kind you picture in your mind when you hear the word, "magnolia"

but lately I am loving this white one

with creamy tentacles inside

and the tulips are finally (finally!) coming out.

I would show you these two and ask you if you don't see a pair of bums like I do.

I would show you how one sprig of mint last week has turned into an absolute invasion and I'm loving it. I would be proud that something other than the dreaded weed-vine is invading my garden.

If we were meeting for coffee today I would bore you with stories about Riley. He is growing intellectually in such funny ways. He has become very aware of how many kids in his class are suddenly needing glasses and although he can spot a flea on a moose 10 miles away, he has been taking his Build-a-Bear glasses out for some test runs to see what it's like.

I would tell you that beyond laughing at my underwear on the clothesline, he is starting to regularly use sarcasm and words like "totally" and "awesome" and sometimes even putting them together like, "totally awesome". I would encourage you to stick around until he comes home from school to see for yourself. And if Riley was home from school while you were here, he would show you his squirrel trap.

Every eight-year old kid should build a squirrel trap, don't you think? And when he ran off to re-set the trap I would tell you about how mad I got at him this morning over how he intentionally dropped his bicycle helmet on the ground and how it occurred to me that oftentimes when I do get mad at him it is not just me flying off the handle, that it is a genuine circumstance when he isn't learning a lesson and I have yet to discover another way to say what I need to him and resort to yelling. And I need to forgive myself for that more than I do.

Now I've got all that off my chest, let's go check out Amy's new rose bush at Lucky Number 13.

Virtual Vermut

Hey! It's Friday and I've got plans with this buddy of mine:

It was a present from someone who was passing through L.A. and of all the flavored voddies, this is my all time favorite. Unfortunately or, fortunately, I can't buy it here in my city and so I have been enjoying it sparingly which is a word that rarely gets used when I open a bottle of voddie.

If we were meeting for vermut this afternoon we would go and sit on a terrace somewhere because the sun is shining for the first time in 5 days. I would ask you if there is a brand of self-tanner you would recommend because I'm noticing that each spring when I put on my sandals

my feet are getting uglier and uglier and my legs are getting whiter and whiter. Usually when I use that stuff I get these carroty patches at my knees and ankles and sometimes on the knuckles of my toes because it's almost impossible to apply it evenly. Oh, what price vanity!

If we were meeting for vermut today I would ask you - would you get on a Ferris wheel car numbered 13?

Honestly, vermut or no vermut if I got on a Ferris wheel car my head would be between my legs for the whole rotation. I would tell you of this memory I have as a small child sitting on the Ferris wheel with my father with just a simple bar across our laps which, technically, wasn't across my lap because I was so tiny. At the very top of the wheel when it stopped to let people on or off my father would swing the car wildly, while I screamed and imagined myself slipping beneath the bar. I remember my hands sweating heavily and having a hard time holding on while he laughed. And I would sit in amazement at realizing where my fear of heights started.

If we were meeting for vermut today I would tell you about our "firsts" this week. The first bit of mint is up.

Our first daffodil which is in my garden but I didn't plant.

Our first lilac sighting, even if it was just one little bud that had fallen off another stem.

And for Riley, the first time he wasn't allowed on a ride at the travelling fair because he was too TALL. And even though there have been so many in the past when he has not been allowed on because he was too short which caused no end of disappointment, this held equal disappointment for him. Oh. I would tell you of another "first" and more proof my boy is growing up - last week he saw my underwear hanging on the clothes line and laughed. Underwear on the clothes line is, apparently, a source of mirth when you are 8 years old. He was less mirthful at seeing his own hanging out there in the breeze.

Before I pour myself another glass I would tell you I have to run and exchange some things I bought that turned out to be the wrong size. I would ask you if, when you have less money in the bank you are more prone to wanting to spend some? I am having a bit of a short month what with taxes due and the end of the heating bills (hopefully) from the winter but have nevertheless been tempted by sales and spring clothes and shoes.

Be sure to stop by Kate's at The Catalan Way and say hi as there is no bottom on her vermut glass and maybe you can convince her to put up a Mr. Linky on Fridays.

Friday Haiku

Dear neglected blog,

will you ever forgive me?

I have been remiss.

Wordless Wednesday