magazines

i love the ritual of reading a magazine.  when i see a new cover of my two favourite magazines, living etc. and martha stewart living, in the magazine section of any store, i get excited.  i purchase it without even leafing through it. 

once i get home i flip through it, just a quick scan.  i savour what i glimpsed and calculate when i will have some time to read it thoroughly cover to cover.  it usually requires an hour of time to slowly read each and every page. yup, every single page.  i love it when it happens this way.  cover to cover in one sitting, beautiful and relaxing. 

unfortunately it doesn't always happen that way. sometimes, i must return to the magazine a few times.  this is okay, like savouring a really good novel that you don't want to end. 

i hear people talk about getting magazines on their ipad but i don't think the ritual would be quite the same.  i dog-ear pages i want to save to later rip them out and add to my growing collection.  it's fun to leaf through the images i have saved over the years and most of the time i still love them.

some other magazines i purchase, but not always, are house and home, elle decor, and marie claire.  i really miss domino and cookie.  but guess what?  domino has a surprise coming - an issue coming out in april!  i. am. ecstatic.  i can't wait to get my hands on it.  you should too.

have a lovely weekend!  you can bet i will crave out some time to sit with my magazines.

sleeping cats

loki, jude, and kai have been sharing a bed with me these last few nights with stefan away.  i have had to adjust my sleeping position to accommodate their sleeping positions.  if kai isn't curled up into a fetal position he is spread out like a starfish.  thankfully, the cats mostly have kept to themselves, loki in a semi circle position at the foot of the bed and jude curled up between the pillows.

have a giggle at these sleeping cats in some awkward (cute!) positions:



the awkward spoon: the goal here is not so much intimacy as it is the socially uncomfortable sharing of a physical space with someone. bonus points if your arm falls asleep but you're too embarrassed to move it.





the full box: just get your whole damn body in there no matter what it takes. be the box.





the drunken radiator: just because you are obviously some kind of gin-addled hobo doesn't mean you can't be nice and warm.





the ruler: measure the floor with every inch of your tiny body.





the dog bed: not a bed for dogs, but a bed that is made of dogs. i.e., the most comfortable bed you will ever sleep on that also smells kind of funky.





happy valentine's day

lauren fleishman's love ever after project showcases couples that have been married for more than 50+ years.  she says the project "is a photographic series of love letters".  inspiring.

"What is the secret to love? A secret is a secret and I don’t reveal my secrets!” – Ykov Shapirshteyn, Brighton Beach, Brooklyn on July 22, 2008

"Now I am going on 88. My wife is 85 and I’m only wishing for another 5 or 6 years of life. This is all we want. We don’t want to live much longer. As a matter of fact, I always say to my wife, I wish I could reach 94. This is the aim of my existence. I’d like to see my grandson earn a living and my granddaughter get married. We want them to be happy the way we were.” and ""everyday my wife expresses her love for me. she says, did i tell you how much i love you today? everyday. everyday she says that." -Moses Rubenstein, Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn on August 24, 2008

“We met each other at a dancing party. It was January 1938. My friend invited me to the party. He said there were a lot of beautiful young girls. Another cadet with high boots had approached her but she didn’t like high boots and so she said no to him. I was the second one to approach her, I had a different uniform, but I’m still not sure if it was my uniform or my face that attracted her to me.”  -Yevgeniy Kissin, Midwood, Brooklyn on March 3, 2008

happy valentine's day!

valentines

this will be the valentine that kai hands out to his classmates tomorrow, each with a personalized note and heart-shaped lollipop attached to the back.  i think valentine's can be super sweet, especially when homemade.  i like using photographs because it takes less time than making them completely from scratch.  i learned this lesson a few years before when trying to get kai to create 23+ cards - it just took too many hours and took the fun away. so since then, i have been more realistic, kai is on board, and it's fun again!

 

i found this written in one of the notebooks we keep lying around the house for doodles, impromptu math questions for kai, or for a game of x and o.  sweet, yes? 





weekend pics

i started the weekend off with a foodie event, big night, hosted by the vancouver magazine at the posh vancouver club. the men in suits, the women in heels and fancy dresses, the room grand, the food amazing.  it was quite the successful evening without room to move at times. 

food tastings were served from some of the top chefs in vancouver, each paired with a winning wine.  the tapas i tasted were full of flavour and aromas.  i i did pass on some of the food items, like beef tendons, rabbit, goat, and venison - i couldn't do it.  but i did indulge, just a little bit, in the bubbles.  an acquaintance won the raffle - 17 cases of wine!

in my head i played the 'judge' and the winner was the tapa served by blue water cafe -  mussels in a madras curry sauce with leeks, celeriac, and green apples. it was perfect.  for dessert, thomas haas was present to serve not one but two items. stefan and i were giddy with happiness.  we both thought the pineapple and almond macaron with lime sorbet was fabulous.

the one thing that would have made the evening so much better was to share it with our good friends dan and snehal.  due to big miscommunication (like, a really huge mistake) they were unable to join us.  so sorry!

taking advantage of having a babysitter for the evening, we ended the evening with more drink and dessert (huge desserts!) at a neighbourhood restaurant, portobello.  and i should say, the best babysitter ever - she took kai to his school's skate party while stefan and i were out eating, drinking, and being merry. thank you talia!

not so exciting, i finalized the big purge of the year this weekend .  i am getting rid of a ton of stuff this time around - clothing, dvds, toys, housewares, etc.  it got me thinking about consuming more mindfully - look for a post on this very subject later in the week.



sorry, there is no way to take a pretty photo of a bunch of bags



it was a warm day up on grouse mountain for my weekly snowshoe grind.  and so pretty with the falling snow.  i just had to take some more photos of this mountain!

    

  

 

 

the lorax made me laugh!



i am single parenting for a few days this coming week and before stefan left he made kai and i a big pot of jambalaya.  kai is eating his second big bowl as i write this (i think a growing spurt is about to happen) despite wanting stefan to make goulash instead.  he says, "it's very good."  thank you stefan.

while on the topic of food, kai was back to scrambling eggs for us and i love that this last time he wanted to "plate and present" them - he stylized the eggs with gummy worms.  it does look like art, yes?

happy weekend



image from here

 have a lovely weekend!  aside from attending a foodie event with our sweet friends (the upcoming weekend pics post will have all the details), we don't have much planned.  i hope for a relaxing weekend with some sleeping in happening and whiling away at least half a day in pyjamas.  i guess i should get to a yoga class too :)  see you monday.

heart inspiration

with valentine's day around the corner i thought it would be fun to share some heart worthy inspiration:



smile bright with a flowery heart poster (image here)





knit a pretty heart band (sorry i cannot find the source)



indulge in champagne truffles from gilt





eat a pretty cookie (image from here)





wear these fabulous heart earrings from marc jacob





wear this t-shirt from the ellenshop - i want!







make a valentine breakfast (image from here)





felt cute heart patches (from here)





yummy heart shaped jam snack for the kids