just percolating...
Okay, friends, to cap off this "50 Shades" theme, I'm bringing out the big guns today. Like any good finale, I've saved the best for last. I've called upon one of my favourite bloggers to write a guest post just for us! Amanda is The Maven of Mayhem and it did not go unnoticed by me that she recently penned an erotic tale about bacon. (Yes, yes she did!) But since I don't actually like bacon, I have put in a special request for .... POUTINE! … [Read more...]
Here is the email I received this morning from Fluevog Shoes. Tell me it doesn't make you want to squeal in delight! (Especially #3!) Your Fluevogs can't wait to meet you... We wanted to let you know about a change to the status of your Fluevog order, placed on 2012-Jul-22. Your order is now complete! 1. Your order was carefully taken from our Dot Matrix and passed to our Fluevogian Elves, who started searching for your exact … [Read more...]
A fashionable guy at work told me that Fluevog Shoes was having a sale. So, this past weekend while I was procrastinating getting some important work done in my home office, I couldn't resist taking a peek. Oh boy, oh boy! I really shouldn't have done that ... it's like going into a Baskin Robbins 31 Flavour Ice Cream store to "just take a look." Using the advanced search option on the Fluevog site, I wanted to see how many of the sale shoes … [Read more...]
So, my first attempt at creating a mountain slide of traffic to my blog by piggy-backing on the popularity of 50 Shades of Grey has been a total failure. But I'm not going to give up. No, siree! I'm no quitter. Today, I present you a photograph sent to me by one of my girlfriends. For Canada Day, her family had gathered up at the cottage to celebrate and hang out. Here, you can see a heart-warming image of cousin-ly love and children who are … [Read more...]
Alrighty, friends! Major progress on the painting front! We have guests arriving this evening and Hubby put a major push on to have all the painting done before they got here. So now, as I type this, everything is Cloud White except my office, which is out of view, and the kitchen, which I have almost convinced Hubby to paint white as well. I have no idea why I am so thrilled with the white. But I am and I'm not gonna fight that happy … [Read more...]
Fellow travel and book lover, Rhonda Carrier, shared this on Facebook and it is so cool that I just need to share it on as well! In Berlin, a program called Forest Books -- tree trunks have been installed in public places and free books are in the plastic enclosures for residents to swap out and exchange. To see some more photos from this awesome program, check out the inhabit website. … [Read more...]
The weekend that was ... was all paint, all the time. We chose our new home specifically to avoid having to do any kind of renovations. We were tired of spending our time on them, and wanted to spend our free time on travelling. Or pretty much anything else really. Hubby loves to work with his hands, but the tedious work of painting and drywall -- not so much. But ... (you knew there was a "but" coming, right?) the peachy undertone of … [Read more...]
hug a friend, enjoy an ice-cold drink, wish on some lucky stars ... xo … [Read more...]
Stella has been growing her hair for about two years now. She has gorgeous hair -- capital G, gorgeous! It is really thick, with a nice wave in it. And you can see it's grown quite long now ... well past her shoulders. (If I could transplant some of it straight onto my head, trust me, I would!) But she hasn't been growing it long to enjoy it long; she's been growing it so that she can donate it for cancer patients who would prefer to wear … [Read more...]
A major highlight for me when it comes to attending BlogWorld (now called NMX, short for New Media Expo) in New York City is that Book Expo America takes place at the same time, in the same building AND your pass for NMX also grants you access to Book Expo. Books and Blogging, all day, for three days -- How can I NOT attend?! This year, I took only one carry-on bag and it was half-full to allow space for books on the way home. So, although … [Read more...]
Since we moved into our new home last summer, Hubby and I have been sleeping on a mattress on the floor. That's right, just like college kids. What happened was that when we moved in, my mother-in-law and step-father-in-law were visiting from Australia and we wanted to be sure they had a comfortable bed. So we moved our existing bed right into the guest room of our new home and it's been there ever since. That bed was actually created by hand … [Read more...]
On several occasions, I've overheard Stella say this to someone who's asked her about me being away on a trip: When mom is away, my dad gets bored and watches Lord of the Rings or Star Wars movies at night. I don't like it! The music is so loud that I can hear it in my bedroom -- and it can be really scary and eerie! Not only do I find it sweet that she thinks he's bored without me (even though I don't actually believe that for a minute!), but … [Read more...]
Yesterday morning I awoke to the sound of cars pulling up outside and chatter. All of my bedroom windows were closed, but I could still hear that something was going on. I took a peek and it turned out that two houses on our street were having garage sales. I don't normally do garage sales. I lived in a very petite home that had virtually no storage space for a long time and grew accustomed to the notion of keeping "things" at a minimum. And … [Read more...]
This post is sponsored by Snuggle Bugz. Starting today, Snuggle Bugz is celebrating Canada Day by offering 5 days of Daily Deals. These deals won't last -- each day there will be one amazing deal – but just for that day! Our family is heading out on a road trip to spend Canada Day up at a cottage. We’ve got our share of travelling under our belts, but I always find I can use a few extra things to keep things rolling smoothly. So I took … [Read more...]
Today we held our son Max's 4th birthday party. Usually, we do a small family get-together for these kinds of occasions, but as the kids get older, it has expanded to two separate parties -- one party with the friends, and one party with the family. I'm not sure how it evolved into two parties for each child (do you do this too?), but it's far too much work in my opinion! So, usually I choose to "outsource" the children's party by hiring a … [Read more...]
So, you might recall that I have a habit of buying expensive, lovely-packaged cereals when I hit the grocery store. Well, a gorgeous box of Dorset Cereals is definitely something I've been known to come home with, while managing to forget to buy other staples. I can't be blamed really ... how does one resist such an attractively designed package? I just love a yummy muesli! Why? I don't know ... there is just something so comforting about … [Read more...]
I've been to two events recently and many people commented that they didn't recognize me. So I should explain that I look different. (And I'd also like to warmly welcome anyone who's new here from the Blog World Expo event in New York City as well as to my awesome local blogger community here in Ottawa from last night's Blog Out Loud Ottawa event!) The photo in my blog's "About" box in the right-hand column of the homepage was taken when I … [Read more...]
An English teacher by the name of David McCullough Jr. stood up and told a high school graduating class that they're not special. It was a commencement speech. And he told them nine times, "you're not special." Naturally, like most things these days, it was recorded and then uploaded to the internet. Yes, you guessed it -- it's gone completely viral. Everyone from traditional media to new media is weighing in. One the one hand, you have the … [Read more...]
Blog Housekeeping: New Comments System Installed (Livefyre)
There's a lot of work that goes into blogging beyond just typing and pressing publish. I learn on the fly (hello Google!), attend events like BlogWorld, and hire the very fine brains of a local developer that I've worked with since day one to try and keep up. There are also some hard costs like hosting fees and owning domains -- these are the "keep the lights on" costs of being a blogger. But when it comes to a lot of the tinkering and … [Read more...]