thrift store boo-yah!!!

Poor Jax dude has been sick aaaalll week. These headaches keep coming and going...it's the same thing Carmichael had over Friday Saturday Sunday last week. He will go in to school, and call at noon for me to pick him up. Poor little buddy just crashes after expending every last little bit of energy. I kept him home today - he woke up in the middle of the night with a headache, crying. My heart just melts for him when he's sick. Party I feel sorry that he's in pain/discomfort, partly I want to make him feel better, and partly I love that he's kind of needy when he's sick. He's six...he's got boy stuff and friend stuff and lots of stuff to do without mama and so I kind of cherish being able to be close to him when he's sick. He had a great morning, and my friend Selma and I had a date to go to the thrift store today. So he came. It was super fun...he's a bit of a shopper and he wanted to look for cool t-shirts and hoodies. As we were leaving, S spotted brand-spankin new Dior shades in the glass jewellry/camera/sunglass/$5+goods case that also holds the cash register. Serious. And honestly, I usually don't really give a shit about brand names and stuff, but when I put them on and my eyelashes didn't hit the lenses, I was a happy girl. Sometimes you get what you pay for, and if you get really sick Dior glasses that should run you about $200 for $25, it's a good thrift store shoppin day. Then we went to a sushi place. J developed a headache but I thought a good part of it was due to hunger. He eagerly gobbled up a Cali roll (hold the avocado - WHAT!?? is that even my child!??) and had some miso soup and mango ice cream. Perfect sick day, if you ask me. And him.

xog

Ruth! - I can't seem to get contact info for you from the comments - can you please email me!?

she's a tired girl.

Or feeling old. or both.
A panic attack in the middle of the night (wtf???) and 3 crazy vivid dreams and one restless sleep later......I didn't venture out of bed until 9:30, had to pick Jaxon up sick from school at 12:30, tried to fit in a shower and some work and had a meeting tonight.
Phew.
A much as I'm dying for some creative time, I think I'm just headed to bed with Sudoku on Dren's PSP.
xog

hilarious!

I had Oprah on today, and she featured a The Container Store for one of the segments. I was immediately in love. Of course we don't have The Container Store here (of coure) but I want it. So I went to the website:


And I had to laugh. And then I thought: "it's a little teeny bit scary how much power Oprah has" I mean, love the girl, but seriously...she probably really could take over the world. Dren used to have a joke that Oprah and Martha are aliens sent to take over the world. I guess Martha got a little sidetracked from her mission. :)

Gratitude is back! (I really think I need it...it works!)
Sooooo very grateful for the first sunny day in a loooong time. Took Momo to the dog park!

meet Momo!

The ONLY non-blurry photo I've caught so far...

soul-searchin

I'm really sad about Scrapologie. It was like a scrapbooking touchstone for me...a way to keep in touch with some of my favourite people and artists in this crazy little community. I love scrapbooking...I love it alot. It's just that I've kind of pulled away from it lately, to be honest. I've been in a creative rut in general...Christmas was pretty difficult for me this year. I've been spent emotionally and creatively. I want it back so bad. I've been dabbling in making jewellry again...that's been fun. And so now, as The Scrapologie Era comes to an end, it's a good time to re-group, get re-energized and also just have some time to relax and play for a bit. As you may have read, the dares is gonna take a quick hiatus as well. in support of the writer's strike, you know. and we are BACK with a vengeance on lippity leap year with a whole new bag of tricks.



and in the meantime, i'm having a blast moving into my new office and working out the work/play kinks.



this post via ae so hit home.

today Jaxon and I went to the park with Momo. What an excellent time. Jax insisted on going to the park with the Spiderman climbing thing ...the one that's near to the licker store. It always makes me feel like a fabulous parent when my child lists the "licker store" as a landmark near to the playground. ahem.

I kicked ass cleaning the house tonight. Seriously. Jaxon went up to play with Carmichael and I got busy on the house. De-cluttering, putting things away in the places they belong (such a weird concept, I know). Emptied and refilled and emptied the dishwasher (have I mentioned loving having a dishwasher?) All surfaces sufficiently tidied, candles up in appropriate spots, aromatherapy happening in my office. Ahhhh. Good times. And baaad backpain after!! Am I like 90!?

Jaxon and I are both suffering from exema this winter (at least I think we are!?). It's kind of irritating being itchy and dry all the time.

Alright. 10:54pm and I have just returned from the kitchen, where for some insane reason I felt the need to blurt out "who wants chocolate chip cookies!!??" to which dren replied "ah yeah...what kind of questions is that?" and jaxon replied "yeah, mama, what kind of question is that?". Little clone. A self-admitted little clone. God I love those boys. And our new little girl :)

xoxog

yessssss!

Project runway is back FI-NAH-LY!!!
And it's about as Devil Wears Prada-ish as could possibly be.

Totally productive, happy day. Figuring out possible solution to debt (wow). 40 minute walk with Momo (so good for me and it felt so good and the little munchkincrazygirl was so good and so cute). Made jewellry for the first time in SO long! Two necklaces. Funky and cute. Just have to add clasps and then they'll be good to go!

I also took a break in the afternoon around 3 and worked on a collage piece thing that's been going for a little while. I'm feeling a tad more pressure to pay it some attention because Momo seems to like to come in and chew on it. Hmmm.

And thanks to Project Runway, I did a fashion sketch too!

Soapiest Day Ever.: when you take the bar of soap and mix it with the bubbles in the bubble bath and go crazy with the best biggest amount of soapiest soap EVER. {excerpt from The World According to Jaxon}

today is the soapiest day ever.

We have all been totally consumed by the newest member of our family (who I currently have no photos of because of her keeping us so busy but also because it's winter and there's no light and the photos I took with a flash are icky). We've been talking about getting a dog for some time. It's mostly been Dren talking and me either tuning him out or saying "no." Once I gave in, he was online 24/7 trying to find us a dog. And as of New Years Day, we have a 9 week old lab cross. Her name is Momo and she's awesome. Photos soon!

I'm loving my own new office space. Burning all these yummy essential oils I found while cleaning and sorting, putting bits and pieces up and reorganizing...actually playing in my little spot.

I'm trying to restore some of that creative mojo that seems to have completely disappeared of late. Just rolling with it and doing different stuff. I'm reading a really cool little book a friend gave me for Christmas called Craft Inc. It's cute and chock-full of information and inspiration. Colleen and I went for brunch today and strolled down the Drive. Haven't done anything girlfriendy lately and it was really nice. We went into the new Barefoot Contessa...to die for! I love window shopping.

Just finished up a bunch of work in order to have an easier more relaxed Monday morning. Feeling really in shape. For work...not in general :) Walking the dog is going to be awesome for getting more exercise. It will be especially great when she actually wants to go out...it's too damn cold right now!

For one of the recent Dares I put together a gazillion tiny little thumbnails together in a little ring-bound album, all from 2007. I started with Jaxon's 2006/2007 school photo, and ended it with this year's. Gotta get all caught up with the Dares and some other projects!


About time for a long winter's nap, methinks.

xog

december 29

i so miss blogging. and i miss lots of people too.
the holidays...times of love, joy, peace...always seem to creep up on me and then explode all over the place and then be gone in a split second. leaves me feeling spin-headed and much less-prepared than i had originally thought i was about 2 weeks ago.

10:22pm: just returned from jaxon's room, "putting the children to bed" for about mmm...the past FOURTY-FIVE minutes? (cousins Ella and Sophie are staying over, as well as Carmichael. The room is crowded indeed).

10:32pm: i hear Dren going in with the stern father voice. Yeah baby!

Our Christmas was OK. Christmas is getting different for me...I'm getting to be an adult I guess. We have always celebrated with my family. Dren's family is all on the East Coast...in Toronto. I think he wanted to go there one year and I gave him a look of complete horror. What!?? Leave my family?? At Christmas??? This year was the first year I thought to myself: Hmmm...Maybe it would be nice to visit his family at Christmas. Not that anything unbearable is going on with my family...it's just different. It's the first year I've had to do two Christmases. That kinda sucked. My sisters invited their dad and grandma to dinner. I swear to god right now I feel like I could write a soap-opera out of my life right now and I alwaysalways thought that I had the "normal" family.

Onwards and forwards. I had an awesome conversation with my mum about it all and it made me feel better. I actually have my own family now, and I can start new traditions. I can carry on the ones that make me happy, and I can take the things that have changed, process the changes, and deal with the sadness. But honestly...it's pretty fuckin weird when your family splits and completely changes at thirty years old.

The past two days have been spent moving my art&scrap stuff and my office from the dining "room" (it's so not even a room) and the living room to our third bedroom and moving D's "ofice" as Jax calls it to a little "manspace" in the living room. It's working famously so far, but I have such a ton of stuff to go through and cram into that little room. Where was it hiding before? Oh right...that's why we haven't eaten at the dining room table in about a year. So, lots to do but feels SO good for now. Dren loves the living room (he's got the movie channels now) and I love having my own space. Oh, and I love not wanting to throttle my child because he came in screaming and carrying on while I'm on the phone with a client. I have an office - hooray!

11:02pm: I realize I think I finally hear silence. Victory.

Goodfellas is on. I love this movie. Loving the reruns and movies due to the writer's strike. Feeling for the writers. Hell yeah they should receive royalties! Hell-OH???

I got a Palm. I love him. So much. wow. You all probably know how I drowned my Palm Treo in beer, yeah? So I have been whining ever since how I don't have peoples' numbers in one place, I don't know where anyone lives at a moment's notice, and above all, I don't have reminders and I don't have my calendar. Boohoo. I have a new cell - I had to pay $70 and they could hook me up under the current contract. Whatever. But ever since I have missed the features I used on that lovely phone...and so I asked Dren for replacement pages for my Dayplanner for Christmas. He said "OK...don't tell anyone else that idea...that is what I'm getting you." I'm thinking "Great, awesome gift babe...thanks for the surprise and can't wait". But of course...we all know Dren. The gift was a Palm Tungsten something or other with a wireless keyboard included!!! I can be all business-y and get back all those things I have missed so much and I don't need the phone because I already have one! But I gotta get it synched with my computer this time. Uh yeah.

It really takes a long time to go through art supplies and scrap stuff. Really. A lot of it is total crap but for the simple sake that it must be useful to someone at sometime just makes me hold onto it that little bit later. You know? Earlier tonight Colleen was here. Her sister got Carmichael a kitten for Christmas and so Colleen brought her down to introduce her to Sophie and Ella. And Colleen loves free stuff! So I went through 4 boxes of stuff and reduced it to not even one box. Then the useful stuff that she didn't want I put into a separate box to donate to Jaxon's daycare. SWEET!

And now I'm looking up at a stand my dad made me many years ago so I could sell cards at craft fairs. It's gorgeous...of course. Everything he does is incredibly beautiful and well-thought out. It has plexi-glass fronts so you can see the cards through. I think I'll make little art pieces of something or other to put in the spots. That will be fun.

xog

i still have to shop.

not for everything, but all that little finish-up stuff, you know? today i will be visiting ToysRUs, Office Depot, Costco, and, lord help me, The Mall. Also the liquor store and the produce store. And it's 12:43pm. Yikes! Wish me luck - here I go!
xog

ponder of the day

If you download an audiobook from iTunes, can you still count it as "read"? I have a feeling I might have found a new little great thing! But I'm just downloading the first one now, so really, I don't know if I'll even like it. I think the narrator will have a lot to do with whether I can handle it. Christina Ricci reading a Gossip Girl book? The way she was reading kind of irritated me. Cynthia Nixon, on the other hand reading Lipstick Jungle...her voice appeals. I figure I'll start with a book just for total fun and see if I like it. So...can I count it as read once I've listened to all 6+ hours of it?

xog

i'm so into

I'm so into living my life these days.
I'm so into getting by on the small amount of energy I have.
I'm so into being home every day when Jaxon gets home and asking him "how was your day".
I'm so into going through my friends' purses and stealing:
1. Revlon Bedroom Eyes Powder Liner in "Plum Wicked" (because she never wears it), and;
2. L'Ancome Juicy Tubes Ultra Brilliant Lip Gloss in "Fizz" (because she has enough lip glosses)

I'm so into the multi-pack of Big Rock Brewery beer we have in our fridge. Yum.

I'm so into getting into the Christmas spirit. In fact, I started a mini album entitled "The 12 Days of...Me"

I'm so into The Dares again. I love the renewed sense of energy we're all feeling. Love it.


76:best improvement:i LOVE this page. Red Velvet Kit Club. MMM. Scrumptious.


77:letter to yourself XX# of years ago. mine's to me when i'm like 19. and it's in the lil envie. kind of deep and private. there's a sticker on this layout that we can't see anymore (it was showing but i hid it) that says "a major regret". that is how i sometimes feel. other times, i think...what the hell...i wouldn't be me if i didn't choose that.


79:and then there's the fantabulous hand-made dare from our one and only 2007 LSS winner, Julie. She's a creative girl, that one. I love seeing that. My hand-made came from one of the base/table-cover/experimental pieces of cardstock that happened to be on the table and/or in the vicinity when I was making my paper. Stamps, paint...you name it. The part that would probably be the most controversial in terms of "hand made" is the strip at the bottom...whatever. It's a starbuck's bag handle un-wound. I had a hand IN in...but hand-made...ultimately, no. So sue me ;) They still my girls...and yes, I still love 'em.

xog

momi love notes

goodbye, old post

And hello new.

In between working more than ever (and I thought working @ home would mean LESS hours - ha!) and getting a handful of hours of sleep a night, I'm thinking about working on this week's Dare, feeding my family (sort of), trying to remember to drink enough water, stealing moments to myself (like meeting KM for lunch yesterday and having her brave downtown Vancouver traffic/parking/construction to pop into the VAG...so important and fun to have moments like this...must remember), and reallyreallyreally trying hard not to end up committed. Ridiculous. Time management expert seriously needed. And a house-cleaner. And perhaps a winning lottery ticket.

Light at end of tunnel? What light? As a matter of fact, what tunnel?

I realize I am probably NOT self-disciplined enough to work at home...that is, I don't seem to ever shut it off. I will blame both my parents, self-admitted workaholics. That said, I'm enjoying it too. Walking Jaxon to school, along with random buddies that join us. Emptying the dishwasher on my "break" to get some water. Not buying lunch far too often. One tank of gas over the past 3...maybe 4 weeks!

That's it for now...back to work. I do want to bust out the wicked sponsor kit tonight while I watch Grey's. Moments for me, 'member?

xog

and then, eventually, there was one.

I helped Jaxon clean his disaster of a room today. Actually, I mostly did the closet purge and cleaning, and encouraged him to "keep going...if you don't keep cleaning, I won't be able to keep helping you". "oh, right!" he would say. "and I won't get any money either!" We are contemplating the best way to move into "allowance territory". I've talked to mum about it, and she remembers starting us off with a very small base amount that we got no matter what, and used that amount to try to teach us about money. You get $1 (or whatever the amount was...I can't remember!) and you have to save 10% in the bank. 20% was recommended, but that 10% was a must. God...I wish I stuck with that plan my whole life. Anyway, I do want to start teaching J the value of money, but I also want to tie a portion of the allowance to helping out...keeping his room clean, helping tidy, etc. This whole experience with Dren's injury and being off work (almost a month now) is kind of making me feel like I have two sons!

I also pulled out my camera for the first time since D got home from the hospital (the second hospital visit, third in two weeks) when I took photos of his 27 staples. It was fun. Jax was only really in the mood to goof around, but we had fun and laughed and I captured the memory and that's what's important.



Back to work.
xog

right now

Doing: Working

Listening to: Van Morrison Moondance (just finished "Crazy Love"). Such feel-good, happy, soulful, chair-dancy, singable, make-work-more-enjoyable kind of music. If the boys weren't in the same room, I would probably be belting it out like I was on American (ahem, Canadian) Idol. I'm sure at some point this afternoon I'll forget all about them and get into the tunes enough to hum a few bars...sigh. I love Van.

Wearing: red softball shirt, my grey sweats, a black bandana, bare feet, and headphones. No bra. Yeah, that's right.

Thinking about: Working at home...trying to establish a routine. Loving it and hating it all at the same time. But probably loving it a little bit more.

Enjoying: Jaxon and Carmichael playing video games quietly, having asked to be picked up from daycare early (school's out at noon on Fridays). They're respecting the fact that I have a lot left of my workday.

Grateful for: Dren's short term disability benefits being approved and for direct deposit.

today

Today I took a two hour lunch break and went to the VAG with mum. We saw Georgia O'Keefe. Amazing. She is probably the most accomplished artist I looked to and looked up to early on in my life. I tried to emulate her works and was constantly fascinated with the variety in her art...the colours used and the light she seemed to bring out of the New Mexico desert, translating them directly to canvas...but in her way. Her unique, abstract way. Mum gave me a membership to the gallery and a book about her for my birthday. Perfect.

Wonderful to get away for a bit.

xog

thank you...

for providing me with all that motivation to see the light at the end of the tunnel. you guys rock. and I made a layout to say so. the teeny tiny text is all the comments I received from you on the last post.

xoxog

i'm ready. uplift me.

If you have a favourite inspirational or motivational quote, please share. If you have a story of some trying time you've gone through, please share. I'm ready to be uplifted out of this fog...this state of overwhelming fog I've felt. I miss scrapbooking. I really REALLY do. It's my therapy. I need it. I'm sad. I'm spent. But I'm SO done talking about it and thinking about it. So please, PLEASE, if you have a happy, uplifting thought, phrase, story to share with me...please share it. I will be forever grateful. xog

here

Here I am. Alive and well. Here we are, almost one week to the day of Dren's surgery. It feels like perhaps a month could have passed by now. I've joked to people that I feel like Florence Nightingale. As soon as I've finished doing something for Jax or feeding him or putting a load of laundry in, there is an errand to run. As soon as I'm back from the store, Dren needs to move or eat or drink or perhaps have a DVD popped in. But truth be told, I'm happy and feeling fulfilled. We've had tons of offers of help and support, and it all means the world. I've received emails and messages of encouragement that are so uplifiting...it's amazing how you can gain strength from a few simple words.

Last night I managed to sneak out for a few hours with some friends. We checked out Me & Julio, a new restaraunt our friends Shelome opened. Incredible. YUM. Chicken tacos, tacquitos, ribs, steak, quesadillas...all mexican with a completely modern flair. The interior is amazing with massive tables and a bar all hand-made and designed by the brother-sister team of owners/operators. And the drinks?? All custom cocktails (think Pink Taco, Pineapple Mint Tequila Fizz, Likitiki...the list goes on for about 7 more). My, my...between the 5 of us, we were able to try all but 3. Oh well...I guess we'll have to go back. It was nice to have a break, but part of my mind was constantly elsewhere - back at home, hoping the boys were behaving, hoping Dren had the co-op phone list handy in case something came up in a hurry. We were only 6 blocks away, which is definitely one of the contributing factors in me deciding I could do it. When we got home I was glad to be there. It's where I feel I belong right now.

Speaking of being at home...I'm slowly but surely getting caught up with work/working from home. I have been a bit all over the place during the last week - visiting the hospital almost every day and dealing with Jax and trying to fit in as many work hours as possible. But I'm doing it, and I'm seeing the light. And it feels really good. I hope it continues to work, and I hope this is what I was waiting for in terms of "when things slow down". I now have limited responsibility in a much larger company, and I hope for me that means more mental space to think about and do the other stuff in my life that I like to do...and grow my own business.

But for now, one day at a time. I'm here, and I'm alive. We're here, together as a family and we're making it. We're going to experience a huge test starting a week ago. Dren is literally in a straight-leg splint and can't comfortably move from bed right now. Sometimes Jax is great, and sometimes he doesn't really understand, but we're all coping the very best that we can, and so far so good. D seems about 80% better than he did yesterday (managed to get him in the shower, brush his teeth, etc...all the things we take for granted everyday). Mum made soup for us and we celebrated Rhi's birthday today with a lunch at her house.

Day by day, minute by minute...we're here.
And here we are.

xog