[i] LoveLife

Buried.

Hello last moments of 2009...

At the moment - I am buried under 14 loads of laundry and the sinking feeling that I am never really ever going to catch up. We are all sick. Penn is cutting several teeth. The dogs are stir-crazy. The madness of the holidays is piled up higher than our dirty clothes. And I have a monster zit in the middle of my forehead. I am overwhelmed. Overwhelmed by the awesomeness of our families. Overwhelmed by the cheer and the generousity of our loved ones. Overwhelmed by love. Overwhelmed by the sheer amount of "stuff" that accumulates from 'the spirit of the season'. Overwhelmed by my own consumerism. Overwhelmed by the things I need to do to get this place back to a functional home and not a toy distribution centre. Overwhelmed by the fact that our splendid coffee maker is broken. (BOO!) And overwhelmed by the amount of blessings I have. Overwhelmed that the two small people that fill my heart are growing too fast. Overwhelmed.

First items: tackle laundry, sort girls clothes, change sheets (I've GOT to start the new year on nice clean sheets!), get something going in the slowcooker and download some photos.

Today: It's the last day of the year and that's a big deal to me. I've got lists and resolutions and things-I-want-to-accomplish and a whole slew of new recipes for 2010. The future is here. I intend to make it a great one.

Tomorrow: a new year of awesome begins!

GO!

On the road again.

If I could be so bold as to hope for a few things today they would be: easy packing, soothed sickies, warm see-ya-soon-hugs, a few see-you-some-tears, good weather, clear roads, hot coffee, happy kids, never-ending DVDs, naps (for everyone but our fantastic driver Dan), and smooth sailing home.

Fingers crossed.

GO!

Oh, Canada!

We've been taking it easy the last couple of days. Penn was sick. Then Pilot was sick. Then Kam was sick. Little bit of a gross stomach bug rocking around these parts, but everyone is recovering nicely. Nice enough for Dan and I to go see Sherlock Holmes yesterday (terrific movie!) and to take in a World Junior Hockey game (Slovakia vs. Latvia). Good times. Oh, Canada. I love winter. I love holidays. And only another day or so until we go back home and start closing the shutters on 2009. I have some resolutions to figure out and some ideas and plans to take care of too. 2010 is going to be amazing. I can feel it. ;)

'Twas.

Peace + love from us to you.

This photo is a keeper for a few reasons; first Pilot thinks Santa is crap so we booted him out of the way, second our small people are usually cheerful pups but this shot looks like they are tortured souls, and third - well, I can't think of a third reason right now - but, it's a keeper anyways. [Photo taken in Santa's Village upstairs at the Children's Museum.]

Tonight: we are celebrating with a traditional Ukrainian Christmas Eve meal + holiday drinks. I, for one, am going to bed early because the last couple nights have been more disruptive than usual (IF THAT IS POSSIBLE) and I feel more like a night ninja than a human being.

Ho, ho, GO.

Winter wonderland.

We drove all day long yesterday to make it o BabaLuba's house for dinner. It was THE MOST picturesque day with a white sky and hoar frost covering the entire landscape. Which is just amazing to see. It must have been icy out there on the roads because we saw lots of cars in the ditches. My girl tribe was, and I am afraid to say it, AWESOME. The girls were happy and entertained and delightful for the entire 9 hours in the car. And after a few really horrible car trips with Pilot - their ease was remarkable. Thank you in-roof DVD player. Amazing.

And here we are. It's snowing! My Christmas wishes come true. The girls are loving life with BabaLuba + Grandpa. The dogs are frollicking in the snow. Dan has his feet up and coffee in hand. The holidays have begun.

Today: nothing to do, but enjoy it. GO.

(Prints/stuff purchased since yesterday morning will not be shipping until December 30 or there abouts.)

The gallery prints [swoon].

It's not very often that I swoon over my own work. BUT. I picked up a chunk of the gallery prints from the I FOUND WINGS collection - and I nearly started to cry. They are beautiful. Actually, they are beyond beautiful. The prints are technically perfect. That's amazing. Typically - there's always something that I'm not 100% happy about. Paper. Scans. Shots. Colours. Some. Thing. But, not these. I photographed the paintings myself on a splendidly snowy afternoon where the light was PERFECT. It could not have been better for creating really, really accurate representations of the originals. Which are pretty close to my heart - it's no secret. So to say that the prints are beyond beautiful - give me a deep sense of pride.

After January 1st - I'm raising the gallery print prices to $100. I'll try to get all the sizes posted this week and note that we won't be shipping again until the New Year (but you can order then now for the $85 price which includes shipping). Sweet deal.

Today: SO MUCH. TOO MUCH. Including a lot of coffee, Dora and prairie landscapes. Will post again tomorrow.

GO!

A wish list.

 

Here it is. My gift-wish-list. This was one of the harder projects I've had in a while because the truth is that I really don't need anything. And even my want-list is getting short - which either means I want less or I have too much. I definitely have every single thing I need - and their names are Dan + Penn + Pilot + Crash + maybe even Norman. I'm a lucky girl. These are just some things I found while cruising around the internet that would make me smile if I opened them on Christmas morning. (As would a bottle of red wine.)

1. A white ceramic moose head. I used to have a really beautiful one of these, but it took a topple and smashed itself to bits. TOTAL BUMMER. I am on a mission to find an even bigger one than I had before.
2. iTunes Gift cards. I'm too lazy to find clever ways to download albums + movies so I just buy them.
3. Pears. I love pears. I love pear soaps + lotions + candies + candles + jelly beans and whatever else comes in pear.
4. Owl cushion. I love this. I'm not really a decorator-pillow-type, but I very smitten with everything owls (but surprisingly not the cutesy owls - the real ones).
5. Candy canes. Who doesn't love candy canes. I love classic and I also love flavour craziness.
6. Tic Tacs. I love Tic Tacs, too. What a practical gift!
7. The Tobias chair from IKEA. Yum. Dan just designed a great plan for a radical new kitchen table and I want 4 of these chairs to go with it. Simple. We are hoping to get a major renovation started this spring and these are the kitchen chairs I am imagining.
8. Polar bears. I love polar bears. I especially love that they can be found in this province. This little polar bear is a leather paperweight from Chapters.
9. Diamond earrings. I think I might be ready for grown up earrings. I typically lose anything worth more than $10 - but I've been doing really well lately. But, just in case - I like these laboratory diamonds because no one (and no environment) gets harmed over something as ridiculous as stupid girls and their sparkly rocks.
10. Straight Sexy Hair products. Wow. My new favourite hair stuff. Another practical gift!
11. Nail files. Classier people might call them emery boards. I'm not picky - anything will do. After a couple of months painting my fingers are even uglier than usual and need some TLC.
12. Hope in a jar. I am pretty wrinkly... But, hopeful. (And finally smart enough to know that you should only by really little containers when you are testing out new skin products).
13. The Fuji Instax Mini. It's the new polaroid and it's awfully cute. I still have an actual polaroid mini, but the world is out of film! I would like to make a book of relatives and their faces so that the girls can stay familiar with family. And I would like to do some crafty things with photos.
14. Ear-phone bling. I thought these earphones were funny and my chances of getting the diamond earrings are slim. ;)
15. Starbucks gift cards. It's never a bad thing to make sure a tired mom has the means to get a nice coffee. It's a nice treat.
16. A new MacBook Pro. I'm not desperate. YET. But my current MacBook Pro is going downhill quickly. My CD/DVD drive doesn't work. My hard drive is starting to make grinding noises. I'm pretty diligent about backing things up, but I have also been visiting the Apple.com store daily (Dear Santa - the anti-glare screen is really the way to go - glare is yuck).

And there you have it. It's a nice list (posted mainly because Dan hasn't started his Christmas shopping yet). Notice that I didn't add 'sleep'? Penn's still getting up a zillion times a night, but she's an amazing kid in every other way so I'm cool with it. Hey - what I could really use is a waist line! Maybe a gym membership (or some pilates classes) and some regular time to work on getting my other body back. (If it's not available anymore - then I'd like Jennifer Aniston's body.) I took the last couple of months to work on painting and getting my wings and heart in the right place - now it's time to work on my core strength, confidence and overall health. The small people around here are so cool - I want to be able to keep up with them forever.

CHOCOLATE IS NOT ON THE LIST. Thank you.

Today: It's time to do enough laundry to pack a few suitcases and think about heading West this week. It's also time to get everything organized and wrapped and put away and checked off the many lists around here. Dan's family is coming over tonight for Christmas dinner (hey, I am ordering a big pizza and I am not ashamed). Let the festivities begin!

GO!

...soar.

This is a video of a video of a DVD clip that CTV sent me (I might be technologically challenged). It's one of the interviews that ran on night of the art show. (Thank you Sylvia Kuzyk!) There was a very sweet camera guy sent to do a little interview with me. The only problem was that I was running a little behind schedule and Tammy, Jessica, Dan and I were frantically hanging paintings and unraveling extension cords. It is not one of my better interviews, but - that's my own fault for not taking time to prepare being such a dork. You can see that there are no painting tags beside the paintings yet. You can (hopefully) also see that the paintings look TERRIBLE when viewed through a video of a video with a super bright spotlight in a really dark room.

Did I mention yet that the paintings are so much nicer in person?

Today: I have a packed agenda that hopefully includes a little painting - might include an afternoon post - and definitely includes Dan's work Christmas party. Sweet!

GO!

Pine cones + cute girls

Oh heaven's my day yesterday was not productive or awesome. I did a little work. I did a little pine cone sketching. I did some crafting with Pilot on our super awesome gifts. I did some errands + shopping. I did a little backtracking + dead-ending. I got a big head ache. I did a heck lot of laundry. But, what I really should have done was just gone back to bed. I just can't bear not being ridiculously productive while our terrific nanny is with the girls. Penn was having a rotten day teething her heart out and after nearly a year of really long nights with her (and more recently Pilot) let me tell ya DEAR SANTA I WOULD LIKE SOME EAR PLUGS. And I'd like them to be awesome. And maybe fancy. These ones look nice.

GIFTS OF ART. It's sort of like letting the cat of the bag - but, here's a peek at my girl tribe's paintings for gifts. They are taking shape. Not only did we make pimped out bird feeders, but we are just whipping up masterpieces, too. ;) Pictured here is my portion + Pilot's portion. Tomorrow I am going to tackle a little addition to our work with the Pennster. I'm not so sure I can give them away any more. I like them A LOT. Anybody that receives one of these and isn't completely delighted can suck it. To be blunt.

Photo: the little Picasso at work in my painting dungeon yesterday. She was absolutely LOVING the fact that she got to wear my awesome painting shirt and I was loving the fact that she just attacked the canvas like a total pro. She started balling when there was nothing left to paint. My sentiments EXACTLY, Little P. Three years ago I bought eight 12 x 12 inch canvasses because they were on sale and little did I know it was the making of a little art group I like to call Girl Tribe Collective. GTC. We're no Royal Art Lodge, but whatever. I loved those guys. They were edgy + awesome. I don't know what they're doing now - but, my Girl Tribe Collective is a welcoming + opening minded bunch.

(Eeeep!) That just gave me a global idea.

Today: I'm making lists and checking them twice and hopefully getting the last few items so I can call it a day and just start chugging eggnog. Just for fun I might post a holiday wish list of some things I've come across lately. And if that doesn't pan out I'll just chug some more eggnog. And if there is no post tomorrow then I chugged too much eggnog and I need a day to recuperate. Ha.

GO!