shopaholics of the world, unite and take over

We were out doing a bit of retail therapy today. After visiting my friend in her cute home I got inspired to work a little bit more at making our home look inviting and warm.

After Fenix came we really got lazy and stopped putting any effort into making things look nicer around the house. It's terrible and it really shows.

So today we went out and did a bit of shopping. The primary goal of the trip was to purchase a gift for Fenix's first birthday. We got something very awesome for him but I'll post a picture of it when I write about his birthday party (next weekend!).

I also stopped at Anthropologie to see what goodies were on sale and I was definitely pleased with what I found.

Dishes marked down from $10 each to $1.95:


I also picked up some really beautiful tea towels to replace our generic, dingy ones and a ceramic citrus reamer because we broke our old one - all deeply discounted.

After Anthro we moved on to World Market where we picked up a loveseat (also a sleeper sofa!) for just $399. It matches the sofa that we already have and it will fill the void left by the large and uncomfortable leather chair that we recently sold on Craigslist.

I still have a bit of shopping to do - a few things to put in Fee's and J's stocking, presents for J and our friends and a few more items like new throw pillows and a less intrusive coffee table but that'll all have to wait til the next paycheck! Feel free to share your sale finds in the comments section. Happy shopping!

How was your holiday?

We just got back from Portland this afternoon. Our thanksgiving dinner was a demonstration in excess. We also managed to work bacon into almost every single dish which is both deplorable and magnificent, no? Portland is such a great city, I can really see us living there.

So we brought the dogs down and they had a good time too though Noodle managed to o.d. on wild mushrooms and got violently ill in the house. That was disgusting, sad and funny all at the same time. On Friday we went down to the Pearl to do some shopping. I had high hopes to buy some cute clothes or housewares but everything I loved was too expensive (what a surprise :-/). We ended Friday night with drinks and several rounds of pool at a new lounge in Alberta called Soi Cowboy - the space is cute, the bartender is friendly and the food is very delicious.

That about sums up our holiday. I hope yours was full of good food and good times.
In parting I leave you with a pictorial review of the weekend:

noodle wearing rudi's wig:

on a nature walk:

fenix, ready to put away some turkey:

do me a solid, huh?

hey all,

please do me a favor TODAY... go here and vote for David Cameron. he's one of the talented authors of the USSMariner blog, which has been a faithful companion of mine for many, many years. He's got the chance for a $10,000 scholarship and for a dude that's currently in school, that's a big deal.

please please please go here and vote for David Cameron today, before the voting closes. do it from work and again from home if you can!

thanks all,
j

hand made, mcg made

photo: me knitting a baby hat whilst still pregnant, august 2007

So apparently handmade gifts are super trendy this year. I'm feeling kinda good about this because it's always been really important for us to put a personal touch on the gifts that we give to our loved ones.

My friends are very creative people and I feel lucky to have received handmade gifts from them. But the good news is that you don't have to be creative to make nice handmade gifts. They can be really easy and in most cases none of it requires a lot of work or money to execute.

Last year we gave away homemade vanilla extract, pregnant belly salve, lip balm, infused whiskey, rosemary limoncello, change purses made from upcycled leather, mulling spices (for wine or cider), and things knit by me

This year we plan to give away more whiskey and mulling spices to folks that didn't get any last year as well as more hand knit and home sewn items.

What are you making this year?

Another sweet Modish giveaway!

I've been a Modish fan for quite awhile now. They have giveaways on the regular and the handmade loot in these packages is always pretty fabulous.

Look at all of this awesome stuff:


This month features a two part giveaway the first of which has already been posted here.
I urge you to go check it out and follow the instructions to make an entry. Maybe you'll win! Oh and while you're at it, add Modish to your RSS reader.

To get you motivated I'll leave you with a photo of my sweet child hamming it up for the camera.

it's over!

let's see... what else we got? there's so much in the news today. how about this
great slideshow of front page of many newspapers....

did you vote?

We did!
Now it's your turn. Then go get your free stuff including this from Babeland.

I found it!

the evolution of our home digital storage system continues, with some significant progress made over the weekend. i was even able to find the pic I referenced earlier.

now go vote!