Dear Santa...

all I want for Christmas is a new pair of running shoes...

and maybe something special from the One of a Kind Show.

As we did last year, my mum and I are heading off to the show tomorrow.

I didn't think we'd make it this year...

until I got a free ticket in my Canadian Design Bloggers Meetup swag bag (thank you ladies!)...

and until I realized that the sweet things that were purchased last year are just about my favourite pieces...

of this past year.

I can't wait to be inspired.

~

As the snow fell on Saturday morning and Court escaped outside to catch it, I served up breakfast to three sleepy girls.

Although we said we would never do it again...we hosted a sleepover.

Watching Nanny McPhee Returns (♥ it so much) and getting Court to bed early made it somewhat bearable.

Charlotte likes to whine about the fact that she doesn't have many Nintendo DS games and since I respond to it by telling her to be proud of that fact, I made her everything she and her friends asked for at breakfast instead.

She will thank me later.

almost there

I may have had just a touch of the spirit this weekend.

It started, as it usually does, with the first snow.



Central Park - NYC snow last winter



Early Sunday morning as I walked hand in mittened hand with Court to grab my morning coffee, the snow flakes started to fall.

We woke up in a downtown Toronto hotel and mommy desperately needed a Starbucks red cup.  I had been to the Canadian Design Bloggers Meetup the previous night and there had been some wine.

I had the red, thank you very much.

Jennifer did a fabulous job, as usual, summing up the night.  There were so many talented, thoughtful women! I'm still feeling a little overwhelmed to have been a part of it.

~

If your fall mums are looking like this...

but you aren't quite ready...

or perhaps you lack the time, energy, and drive to do this...

do this...

♥

just not ready...

Mudroom welcome December 2009

I am not ready for Christmas.  The holiday magazines are piling up and I just can't open them.

Not yet.

I've loved this fall...

and I'm going to squeeze every last crisp, crunchy, brown, leaf out of it...

before I hang my stockings.

~

Today I drove around in the town where Kevin and I started our married life.

I kind of got choked up when I passed our first house which we bought shortly after we married. 

And where we had Charlotte.

We sold it when Charlotte was just a year old. 

That year of getting to know my little girl in that cozy english cottage in the beautiful lakeside town was sweet.

I found this picture of her nursery and was surprised at how much I still love it...

I mean that was over 9 years ago and I think I would still do the periwinkle and the gauzy drapes with the embossed bumble bees. 

That C on the shelf came from my first visit to Anthropologie...the gem of a store I "found" during a fun trip with friends to Chicago over 11 years ago.  The start of my Anthro love affair. Sigh...

I miss that house.  I miss the window hardware and the shiny pine floors.  I miss walking Charlotte in the stroller down to the lake, to the library...

and to Starbucks where total strangers would comment on her chubby kissable cheeks.

Now Charlotte is asking Santa for an iPod touch.

No...I'm just not ready.

♥

give and take



these pictures will have nothing to do with this post



I am having one of those working mom moments...

I just feel like it is simply impossible to fit it all in.

Although it is almost light during my morning run...it is pitch black when I pull in at the end of the day. 

There is no light for pictures.

Dinner needs to be made and cleaned up.  Homework needs to be done and put away.  The kids need to be played with and cuddled. 

The hubby needs...

some attention.

My mind races all day long of things I want to share...

and make...

and do.

But there is simply no time.

I am going to blame the nap I took on Sunday.

Such an indulgence that I simply can't remember the last time I did that.  Of course I really wasn't completely asleep...because there was still lots going on.  I just chose NOT to respond and kept my eyes closed.

My life is a big give and take.  I will manage to get one thing done...but will have to leave another.

Yesterday, dinner was homemade and served by candle light...but the clean clothes piled up and are still not folded.

The beds got changed...but the tub did not get scrubbed.

I played the memory game AND tinker-toys with Court after dinner...but the kitchen floor remains a sticky mess.

The fridge got cleaned out...but I missed my morning run.

This morning I will RUN...but the puzzles will stay scattered in the hallway...

and this is how it will go on.  And on... ♥

remembering

Today I am remembering as we all should...

I am remembering especially my grandma Evelyn, who served as a dietitian with the Medical Corps of the Royal Canadian Army in Canada and England during WWII.

She, like myself, obtained a Bachelor of Science degree.

She, like myself, loved to bake.

She, like myself, liked to have a pretty home.

She, like myself, loved her boy.

So much a part of me and so very missed.

oh happy day

Charlotte has been singing this song today....Oh happy day, oh HAPpy DAY, oh happy DAy...

She has been singing it because she has heard her teacher sing bits of it in class.  Her teacher simply can't help herself...and neither can my Charlotte.

Charlotte's singing and her fantabulous teacher, some new songs on my ipod, a toasty warm and clean house, a run at dawn, kisses from a five year old boy...

and a 39 year old...

boy...

also made me happy today.

I bought this lipstick and I'll pretend I'm Jenna Lyons and I'm cool enough to wear it.  But I think I need to wait for spring. (It was really so silly of me...I haven't bought a lipstick in, like, 10 years...)

I'm in love with these boots my hubby got me last year and I know I will love for-eva. 



Yes, he picked them out.  Yes, they were a surprise.  Yes, this is why I don't mind taking out the garbage.

I'm going to remember all the things that make me happy and throw out all the rest today.  Because I realize that my Kevin is right when he says that just as soon as one worry goes away I manage to find another one to replace it. 

I worry...all...the...time.

I'm sensitive.

I get stressed.

Today I'll be thankful.

Speaking of thanks...

here are the cookie magazine recipes for the small scale thanksgiving I did last month.  The cranberries and pears were really delish and worked just as well the next day tossed in a salad with some pecans and some chevre.

The individual gratins were a nice thought but a total pain to clean up.  I also made them with regular potatoes instead and did my mother-in-law's famous sweet potato pie as another side.

So how will GOOPY do tonight on the CMA's? Well, I'm off to find out my dear friends...

d is for dessert

Hello my name is Tara and I am a dessert-a-holic...

I think the mini candy bars have done me in.  I have no control.

I mean, they aren't even very good and yet I can't...help...myself. 

I need to stop the insanity and quit sugar go back to treating myself with only the good stuff...

like the chocolate chip bread pudding above that I had a couple of weeks ago.

It was at a new bakery I'd been dying to try where the mantra is good ingredients matter.  We watched Charlotte karate kick her way towards a new belt and stopped in on the way home.

I, in an unusual state of together-ness, even brought along the homework...

that got finished along with each crumb of the brownie.

I think I just might try the handmade challenge this year...at least when it comes to sweets and treats.

I'm eating from scratch people...or at least I'm going to try.

Halloween is so totally over...

ready for trick or treating

I am so done.

I should be more tired and cranky except my delicious daughter just cleaned my entire kitchen of the post dinner mess...and then some.

She decided to organize the napkin drawer.

She is divine.

Here she is in her awesome closet Halloween morning working on Court's birthday gift from me...

some yarn art for my crafty kid.  I just couldn't resist.

With the candy still in a big pile on the coffee table and the costumes willy nilly on the floor, I ran out to host Court's 5th birthday party on Monday morning at the local indoor playground...

and I survived. 

Just barely.