flickr friday

has such a nice ring to it:

\1. picasso, 2. 365/44 I love you, 3. Shoes, 4. fall in L.O.V.E see giraffe, 5. Untitled, 6. my moment ~ tuesday 6pm, 7. “Nothing is more beautiful...”, 8. weekend love 4/5, 9. Every day is a new beginning., 10. Untitled, 11. Untitled, 12. Untitled, 13. Some raindrops you remember, others become a blur, 14. Untitled, 15. Untitled, 16. Spider Jewels, 17. BALANCING ACT, 18. waiting..., 19. spring 46/365, 20. cameras xprs, 21. *, 22. Untitled, 23. Oh, Edible!, 24. Untitled, 25. Untitled, 26. Messages, 27. snoop: 76/365, 28. More Twisty Bits, 29. February 4 ~ Joy, 30. My lovely whisker humps, 31. dried, 32. friday night tradition, 33. @ the "dinah", 34. somebody loved, 35. 8/365, 36. water-diptych

baby inspiration file

we finally vacated bb boy's room (well 75%). of course that meant completely breaking down our office & buying two new laptops (still ambivalent about this). on one hand the laptop aggravates me (smaller screen - more scrolling; shiny hd screen is too reflective; damn compact keyboard) but in other ways it is great (as i type - with my left hand only - bb boy is asleep on my lap but computer is - handily - right beside me).

we are still looking to all of the usual places for inspiration (magazines, online stores, blogs, ikea) - thankfully bb daddy & i are on the same page with everything so far (simple, nostalgic, clean). i'm finding more & more online (but of course little is available in canada) & quite frankly we don't really need anything else @ the moment. except this - we are totally getting one of these (mostly cause bb daddy loves bean bag chairs):

pink rain

shutter sisters ask ''What are you waiting for today?  Show us what you're taking the time to see right now as you look through that hope-full lens.''  i must say that i am not really 'waiting for anything - it seems that having time off and having baby-ful days has somehow enabled me to just enjoy  what i see as i see it (now everyone is thinking blah blah blah).  i actually am waiting impatiently to see if leaves will come back on my freezer burned shrubs (& hoping my core will return to normal one day)... 

i love this time of year as indicated by my numerous obligatory spring snapshots. one thing that i love more than anything is cherry blossoms - my mom will say she loves dogwoods the best - but i love cherry blossoms if only for the pink rain (luscious pink petals floating across blue sky, lit by sunshine, falling in drifts along the sidewalk). i have several of these shots - some with green flip flops, some with yellow flips flops, some barefoot (i am easily amused).

spring cleaning

i have a few old blog posts sitting in my drafts folder - stuff that i came across or that came into my head (back when stuff was still coming into my head)... thought i would just blast them all out & clear out to old draft factory...

i still am amazed @ this visual database - it tracks the number of times that a particular body part is referenced in a song; it's a fleshmap.  have a click through - i think you will be as astounded as i was that shoulder is mentioned twice as much as tits in hip hop music (even knuckle gets more play time)!

i also fell in love with this idea quite awhile ago - the human calendar... the coolest thing is that the as the date changes - the humans in the calendar change what they are looking at...

111 days & counting

baby boy is 8 months old today - things have changed so much for us - all of us. 

the incomparable tango once commented, after spending time with me & my bump in public, that she hadn't realized that baby bumps (and the babies that follow) are public domain. before getting pregnant - i think i expected that to bother me & though few people asked to touch my once massive belly - i let them (perhaps it was because of my own utter fascination with it)... and now i smile when strangers say hello to bb boy (thankfully few of them have been inclined to tell me what he needs or how to deal with him).

further to this new knowledge - who would have thought that i would knowingly & purposely stick my nose to someones bum to smell for poop - yet this is now a regular occurrence (bb daddy & i laughed out loud as we drove by a couple on the street yesterday - the dad hooked a 2 year old's waistband & held a dangling butt up to his nose - then held the same butt up to the mom with a questioning look on his face).

i literally jumped with joy when he went down for a nap in his crib the other day (better late than never); in three days he has gone from stepping on his own feet to stepping with purpose & really going places (of course with my help) and i love that he is eating whatever we give him & loving it (his chewing makes me laugh every time)!

ah baby.

what's in a number

today i lay in bed - it was 5 am

my bb boy was awake & crying for the 3rd time in 3 hours

i knew something was bothering him so i didn't take it personally

i thought of stuff - like 'hey it's april 30th and officially my birthday'

though only i am aware of that at the moment

it is hard to believe i am 45 that number used to seem so far away

and now i'm here with a 7.5 month old baby

there are only 116 days of mat leave remaining

time ticks by so quickly

i don't feel any different than i did when i was 26 (random number)

other than some aches & pains that i'm not sure can be addressed by rub a535

and perhaps a attitude of gratefulness that i have not had before

it is now 10am bb boy is sleeping bb daddy has cleaned the condo

the sun is shining! i have time to take a shower...

& i will take the new age on happily - yay 45 yay bliss

been waiting for this

well not 'waiting' really, just hoping each spring (if i remember that the tulips are coming) or cursing myself each may (when i forget). i have known about the la conner tulip festival for years (maybe 16 years since my sister lived on whidbey island) & have always wanted to see it. in fact, i have taken the trip twice only to arrive too late (who's to know that tulips don't actually follow the perrenial dates of the festival itself & the festival doesn't follow the tulips...)

so we made it this year!

& was a perfect day!

just be patient

i have been waiting for this moment: [1] to wear an emma bracefield ring on my finger [2] for my true love to put it there... ah sweet patience... tnb and i first saw emma @ circle craft exhibition (just as the idea of marriage was becoming a reality). we both loved her name (right out of jane austen)!  & her work was so lovely: contemporary yet - organic (like a found object i would have taken from the beach and treasured) & wearable (pieces move together like they grew to fit my finger)...

love love love...

it doesn't have to be pretty

i am back on caffeine. i don't ever go crazy - no 5 cups of office brew a day or anything - i just need ONE good cappuccino. it is remarkable how difficult it is to find that one good cappuccino - scalded milk, bubbly foam, burned beans, bad ratios... i don't think i'm being too critical - i want lovely rich espresso (not the stuff that bites you), melted together with nice hot whole milk (not scalding & not skim), then luscious foamy foam (not those harsh bubbles) in the top half of the cup (not the top 1/8th not the top 1/4). 

i'm obsessing. in a town with a starbucks on practically every corner you'd think everyone would try harder to get it right...

at cafe artigiano the other day the barrista actually winked at me as i was standing waiting (perhaps i looked fearful); he said: "don't worry it is going to be so pretty." "it doesn't have to be pretty", i said, "it just has to be delicious" (i didn't snap at him & i didn't snear).  i need a nap.

   

take me back

this is kind of fun: one of my photos was picked out of flickr & was selected for inclusion in the newly released seventh edition of the Schmap Montreal Guide. it is a pretty basic snapshot - of the amazing auberge 'Pierre du Calvet':

this is the maplet for schmap: