Here are a few of the things that are making me happy right now:
I finally bought myself these wedge sneakers I’ve been stalking for the last 3 months. I got a really good deal on them, and I absolutely love them. I get tons of compliments every time I wear them. A lady actually chased me down the street yesterday to find out where I got them, which is kind of ironic since I chased down a lady in the airport to find out where she got hers.
This recipe for Nanaimo Bar Cupcakes. If you’ve never had a Nanaimo bar, stop what you’re doing and go visit my grandmother and get one, immediately. They are probably my favourite food, and the greatest things to come out of Canada since… well all the other great things that come out of Canada.
When I saw this recipe online I was so excited I almost burst into patriotic tears of joy. I immediately decided to make a big batch of these for my birthday this month. Just for me though. I don’t know what everyone else is having.
Also, this pile of gold sequins for a project I am working on.
“We were the first human beings who would never see anything for the first time. We stare at the wonders of the world, dull-eyed, underwhelmed. Mona Lisa, the Pyramids, the Empire State Building. Jungle animals on attack, ancient icebergs collapsing, volcanoes erupting. I can’t recall a single amazing thing I have seen firsthand that I didn’t immediately reference to a movie or TV show. A fucking commercial. You know the awful singsong of the blase: Seeeen it.
I’ve literally seen it all, and the worst thing, the thing that makes me want to blow my brains out, is: The secondhand experience is always better. The image is crisper, the view is keener, the camera angle and the soundtrack manipulate my emotions in a way reality can’t anymore. I don’t know that we are actually human at this point, those of us who are like most of us, who grew up with TV and movies and now the Internet. If we are betrayed, we know the words to say; when a loved ones dies, we know the words to say. If we want to play the stud or the smart-ass or the fool, we know the words to say. We are all working from the same dog-eared script.
It’s very difficult era in which to be a person, just a real actual person instead of a collection of personality traits selected from an endless Automat of characters.
And if all of us are play-acting, there can be no such thing as a soul mate, because we don’t have genuine souls.”
I love writing like this, the first time I read this passage I got chills all the way down to my toes.
Love You Forever by Robert Munsch. I get this book for every person I know who is having a baby, it’s the greatest children’s book ever written. I can still remember my mom reading it to us when I was little. Robert Munsch has tons of great children’s books, my favourite are Moira’s Birthday, The Paperbag Princess, Something Good, and David’s Father.
A list of the best children’s books would not be complete without There’s a Monster at the End of This Book, with a shout out to my auntie Sherri, who does the best Grover voice, ever.
This book, Life: The Classic Collection that I bought as a birthday present to myself 2 years ago. It has all the most famous photographs ever printed in Life magazine, and some of them are removable so you can take them out and hang them in your house. I recently rediscovered it (we will have some unpacked boxes) and put up my favourites right away. I need to get frames, but every time I go to Target I end up buying a toboggan, a fishing rod and a new serving tray, so I just stuck them up with fun-tac for now.
This video (apparently there is a bit of a literary theme for this post):
A few of the things that are making me happy right now:
My new shower curtain, it was love at first sequin
My kindle almost always has chocolatey fingerprints on it, oh well
I resisted getting an E-reader for the longest time because it kind of made me feel like a cheating girlfriend. I love books, the smell of them and the feeling of flipping the page, and the library is my happy place, where I go whenever I am sad or upset, but the boy bought me one as a gift last year, and I love it. I still get library books all the time, I only use my Kindle to download new books that I know I really want to read.
I discovered yesterday that you can rent library books on your Kindle, which is basically amazing. I will still go to the library to get books, there is nothing like “finding” a great book on the shelves that turns out to be one of your favourites, but it is nice to be able to get newer library books right away, that you would have otherwise had to spend ages on the waiting list for. Learn about renting Kindle books here.
The gorgeous aztec pattern on the Express skirt I got for Christmas
Chocolate Soufflé Cake from Tartine
I was lucky enough to try this magnificent cake last night, it was truly amazing. If someone would please buy me the Tartine Cookbook, I will attempt to make it, and then let you watch me eat the whole thing.
Here are some of the things that are making me happy right now, Ixtapa edition.
One of the things I love the most about Mexico and the Mexican culture, is the bright colours that are so prevalent. Sometimes if feels like everything here is some offshoot of beige, and then you go somewhere else and see amazing, vibrant colours on everything from fence posts to table legs and everything in between.
I want to live here, or else paint my whole house this amazing blue
I would do unspeakable things for a purple fence
A bright red gate off the dirt road in Troncones
A tablecloth at a restaurant near the marina in Zihuatanejo
Bright blue and gold leaf in a church in Zihuatanejo
A pinata on Ixtapa Island
I also adore the skulls and Dia de los Muertos decorations you can find all over the place.
Love this, spotted on a random wall on a street in Zihuanatejo
And the wildlife:
We saw pods of wild dolphins and sea turtles out in the ocean
I bought us tickets to go see The Nutcracker at The Opera House in San Francisco. My mom took my sisters and I to see it when we were younger, and it is one of my last good memories with my Great-Grandma Dolly before she passed away.
It’s also something that we definitely haven’t done together yet, it will be a festive date and a good excuse to get dressed up and drink champagne with the boy.
There are only a few weeks until we leave for 8 days in Ixtapa with my family. Bring on the sun, surf, and other tropical things that start with ‘S’.
Me in 2 weeks. Probably.
The above the knuckle ring I got from Etsy. I am constantly afraid it is going to go flying across the room every time I gesture, but it actually stays put.
Essie Turquoise and Caicos Nail Polish
The most expensive mushroom soup ever. Canadian Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup is sooo much better so I made Derek bring me back two cases in his suitcase, but then his suitcase was overweight and he had to pay $75.00 to get it on the plane.
He didn’t even get upset, he is pretty much a keeper. He did say that I better eat it for every meal, but since I know I won’t be getting more for a long time I’ve only eaten one can, and I am squirreling it away in the back of the closet like a doomsday hoarder.
I am obsessively reading Game of Thrones on my Kindle, I’m on the 5th book and I only started them last month. I watched one episode of the show, but the characters didn’t match what I had in my head (I’ve decided Jon Snow is probably really, really, ridiculously good looking) so I’ve decided not to watch anymore until I’m finished with the books.
This is what Jon Snow looks like in my mind.
This glue pen which allows me to transform even the most mundane of writing tasks into sparkly, glittery wonderment. I have been using it to make my own birthday cards because I find Hallmark (and other brands) of greetings cards to be expensive, cheesy and pointless, and it is not uncommon for me to spend an hour in the card aisle in a cold sweat trying to decide which card best surmises how I feel about my husband’s mother’s best friends’ dog walker’s former room mate.
A Starbucks Mocha on a rainy, cold San Francisco morning. I wish it was an Espresso Truffle, but you can’t have everything in life.
My eggnog candle, it smells so good I want to eat it.
This recipe for chocolate cheesecake that I am going to make for our company Thanksgiving potluck. I bought a spring-form pan to make Pumpkin Cheesecake for Canadian Thanksgiving this year, and ever since then I’ve been wanting to make a new cheesecake recipe every week, and then eat the whole thing myself.
I feel very accomplished when I pull out my spring-form pan, they only let you buy one if you are a professional chef. Probably. All I need now is a set of ramekins and I can basically open my own restaurant.
This Rose Gold Michael Kors watch I’ve been wanting for a few months now. It is soooo gorgeous but I always feel guilty spending so much money on an item for myself, because there are starving children in the world, still a girl can dream. Maybe if I am a good Santa will put it in my stocking?
The fact that there are only 9 more days until I get to go back to Canada to see all of my family and friends. So far on the agenda: perogies, a Grey Cup party, hockey games, a bachelorette party for one of my oldest friends, and massive amounts of cuddling with my niece and nephew.
The best part is, that one guy is finally going to get to see where I’m from, which is probably slightly overdue given that we’ve been together 3 years and are already married. He is from California, and had 1200 people in his graduating class alone, but I’m from a very tiny place, I only had 36 people in my grad class and that was considered a lot. It’s going to be lots of fun to show him my lovely little town.
And this picture, that I found on Pinterest with no link and no attribution. It looks like it was just painted on a wall somewhere, but I’d love to have it on canvas for my house.
loveliness. 
