Make More Room

screw the closet doors!

am I right or, amiright?

I’m talking about the ones in our front hallway, just inside the front door.

so generally speaking, closet doors are really handy at hiding all the skeletons. but in the case of our front hallway, we were forever bumping into them – there was no room to take your shoes off. no where to sit.

and if a group of people showed up there was no where for them to spill into. so as the door stands open and people try to take their shoes off (and people behind them wait to get inside) you’re trying to take their coasts while holding the dog with one hand and diverting the cat with the other. yea – it’s as confusing and awkward as that last sentence was.

it was a disaster as far as front hallways go. (ok it wasn’t a disaster but it wasn’t working.)

it was time really. i’ve been talking about re-doing our front hallway for the past year.

so we took the closet doors off.

and volia. we made more room:

Welcome to my front hallway!

Tenderness

i was out walking the dog today and this song just popped into my head. i have no idea where it came from:

k that’s not a creepy freeze frame at all ^^^

the ’80′s did such a good job of making really happy peppy songs about kinda quasi serious issues. like i looked the lyrics for this one up when i got home and it’s actually about either breaking up – or not being together, or like leaving someone high and dry…. but it’s just SO g.d. catchy!

i thought it was pretty fitting because i’ve been kinda a crab the past couple days – anything but either upbeat or tender. i think the job search coupled with the fact that i’m still pretty unsettled in life had been getting on my nerves and it just came out in snips to those people closest around me. unfortunately … mike always takes the brunt of it.

when you’re with someone, they see all sides of you: the good, the bad and the ugly. you just hope that the good outweighs the other two

i dunno for whatever reason after i started humming this song it made me think that it’s not just about not nagging, or listening, it’s about being kind and thoughtful and putting more in then you think is necessary. because really, when you’re all caught up in your own world it’s easy to forget that we all just need a little TLC.

lesson for the day brought you via time travel by 1985.

work in progress

the silver lining of having some time off from the working world, is that i actually get to concentrate my efforts on writing for a bit.

i have a few ideas for longer term projects that I want to put together (for you know… real life outside of the internets), and also this! i can take some time to make this blog i started two years ago into what i’d like it to be!

so bare with me while i try my hand at some HTML and PNP (… or whatever…. ok this might be a bit of an uphill battle.)

and let me know if you like what you see!

and for good measure, ANOTHER picture of tulips… because well there really aren’t enough hours in the day to show you all the pictures of tulips that i took… but I’ll be damned if i don’t try

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oh tulip

may is for the tulips in ottawa.

one of the reasons i love ottawa so much is the fact that you get four true seasons. in the winter you can skate the canal – in the summer there’s green everywhere, in the fall the city is on fire with maple trees and in the spring there’s the tulips.

hundreds of thousands of tulips are planted in gardens along the pathway that borders dow’s lake. you just want to capture it ALL on film. but it doesn’t do it justice to capture the scene on camera – i could take a million pictures of tulips (which i have and i will continue to do each year that i live here) but the colours are just something that when you see in person it’s an amazing experience.

every time i turned around, there was another tulip i wanted to take a picture of ^^^^

i’m not from this city originally, but i speculate that if you grew up here, you have a picture of you as a child in front of the tulips in the spring. it’s a right of passage more or less. this is the first year that i’ve lived here that my parents have been able to take in the tulips as well – which was awesome because i got to participate just like a tourist again.

is it too much to ask for this for my birthday? ^^^ just a small home for two

until next year pretty ladies xoxo

A rainy day for a yard sale

Can you say it’s ironic if you have about 10 solid days of beautiful weather and then on the 11th day – the day you have plans to hold a yard sale – it rains and drops about 20 degrees in temperature?

that’s what happened to us this past weekend.

i spent the morning huddled in the car because mike was relentless and would not close up shop. i think after we factored in the morning coffee & the mcmuffins we came away with about 40 dollars in profit. not too shabby for about  hours of work :p

i consider the one success of the sale to be the fact that we got rid of the vacuum we tried to sell last year but couldn’t. see how persistence and holding on to things in your garage can pay off?!

I think some people are just the sort of people who hold on to things. we’re those sort of people. it’s a fact that i still have papers and work books from public school, the first CD i ever owned (although i no longer own a CD player) and sundresses which i’m certain will come back in style one day (… lord jesus I’m already starting to sound like my mother) mike isn’t much better at picking and choosing so i’m in good company.

and then there’s all these studies that say the less stuff you have, the better it is on your mind – your well being.

so every so often i’ll do a bit of a purge.

and don’t you know, the minute i’ve discarded or donated that old pile of christmas cards or the extra canning jars (or any other random collection of objects!) i find a direct need for them? something comes up and someone says, “OH but couldn’t I just USE 40 old Christmas cards for this craft I’m doing.”

and I say “oh for crying out loud.”

sometimes life plays these funny little ironic jokes on us. rain when there should be sun. a need for something you’ve just gotten rid of.

i guess that’s why they say that god must have a sense of humour.

London in 1927

If you haven’t seen this video yet, you have to set five minutes aside to watch it.

Absolutely mind-blowing footage, in colour, of London in 1927.

Makes you feel like you are there in real time.

(Makes you wanna visit now.)

My favourite part is petticoat lane, which is a sea of men in Petticoats – a few of them turn around and look at the camera (probably wondering what it is!)

How has this video been around (as in online) for 3 years and I’m only just seeing it today?

Around the house and city

^ everything is in bloom in downtown ottawa. it smells like flowers.

^^ on my running route. it didn’t even up raining.

^^^ finally set up record player. jackson browne was the first record i listened to.

^^^^ i told him no soccer ball in the house and this is what he does.

^^^^^ nothing better then a spring night – windows open, candles lit.

^^^^^^ Lord Elgin’s patio is open for the season.

^^^^^^^ a striped selfie for good measure.

^^^^^^^^ mike is a on a quest to perfect the bocconcini stuffed hot pepper.

^^^^^^^^^ homemade italian sandwich bliss.

^^^^^^^^^^ we made a pizza.

^^^^^^^^^^^ i’m taking may to revisit the old children’s faves. first up, the phoenix and the carpet.

 ^^^^^^^^^^^^ he ate cat poop and then asked for forgiveness.

Have a great weekend! p.s. I’m on INSTAGRAM. (who isn’t

Trail Run

iPHONE: a really bad distraction if you are a runner. ^^^

(Also, not only is it distracting, it’s frustrating to hear an email pop up, or see a phone call when you are supposedly “checking out.” I really need to get an iPOD – still haven’t replaced my old one since last fall.)

This beautiful trail is nearly in my backyard. (Plus one Suburbs, minus one, downtown!). Seriously – how many trails do you know of called “Heart’s Desire?” Although I’m not sure how I feel about that creepy little cabin? It broaches on the blair witch vibe…. the bright sunshine helps – I don’t think I’d want to run across it in the fall or night time.

The breeze is so beautiful today. Last night we got some rain and it broke that really uncanny, unseasonal heat we’ve been having. Now it just feels like a lovely May day.

I got some positive feedback today on some side projects I’ve been working on – and you wouldn’t think it, but it goes a really  long way to have that sort of thing thrown your way.

That little nugget, plus the wind, plus the beautiful blue sky? Life is pretty good.

Ten Lessons I Learned from The Great Gatsby

Reblogged from Sparrow in the Tree Top:

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To me, The Great Gatsby is primarily a story about summer. It’s July 4, so maybe that’s why the book spoke to me. Or maybe it’s just because it’s a really good book.

I had no idea that it was the epitome of a “summer read” when I picked it up a week ago, which, may I add, doubled my appreciation of the book.

Read more… 613 more words

last summer i wrote this piece on the Great Gatsby and i've been getting a lot of hits on it over the past few weeks - i suppose since the movie opens... tomorrow?! back when i wrote this it was scheduled to come out in december. let's hope good things are worth waiting for - to be honest i'm still a bit worried it's baz luhrmann we've been anticipating.