Yellows and Greys

I've been saving this gorgeous inspiration board from Snippet & Ink since late March (Board #362: Milk and Honey - even love that name). These are the colours that best suit our new home: gold, yellow, white, blue, grey. They feel both joyful and calm. Chris loves them too, though he sees trouble ahead when he looks at our current flooring. Clever boy - he knows colours well enough to realize the red laminate clashes. : )



So I used the photo above to generate palettes at both the Color Palette Generator and Colors Palette Generator (I know right). The first was more accurate and the second generated a greater number of colours. I consistently use both to get the best result.

I built the palettes below over at Colour Lovers so I can keep referring back to them for paints and fabrics. Let the fun begin!


Color by COLOURlovers


Color by COLOURlovers

I'm a big fan of Behr paint, and their colour selection is quite good. (I adore Ralph Lauren's gorgeous colours, but I prefer to use tints on my walls)

I'm thinking White Luxury for the main living spaces...



and White Mink for the master bedroom...

Is it a sham or a wow?

Yes I did buy a shamwow today. Did I spend time testing it out on my kitchen counters and floors? Nope! I spent time searching for the most amusing parody of the shamwow advertisement. Enjoy! (And check out their Mighty Putty Dub too - you deserve a laugh today.)



p.s. I will post about its shamminess or its wowiness as soon as I know.

got, got, got, got no time!

(when I see the same word written repeatedly as above, it really makes me question the word itself...."got? does that sound right? such a hard g sound......awwwwwt...really?.........")

As someone who adores the written word and takes great amounts of pleasure in writing, I struggle with my lack of commitment to this blog. I do a lot of what I'll call cognitive blogging. All through the day I'm blogging in my head. Blogging my bagel with pea shoots and cream cheese. Blogging my response to the BC Leader's debate. Blogging the dilemna of how to deal with my toddler's tantrums. I have an impressive collection of 1-5 word reminders saved as drafts: "laptop luxury", "Grey Gardens Running with Scissors", "mistakes Grade 2 reindeer" and "think about what you've done" to name a few. I do intend to write those blog entries one day....supposedly. So why aren't I producing?

I have to be honest. It isn't really that I've "got no time". I waste a lot of the time that I have. Look me up on Twitter and you will see that I watch TV from 8-10pm almost every night (120 minutes = numerous blog posts). Yes I love my moving pictures, but more than that, I revel in end-of-day inertia! I love to shut down and even feel entitled to it; I go hard from 7:30am-7:30pm. After a 12 hour day caring for an emotionally and physically draining tot, it's time to break out the pajamas.

That's all fine and good, but I allow TV to suck the life out of my evening! Before I know it, it's midnight. My chores are done, I've caught up on two missed episodes of Brothers and Sisters and read through my neglected Google Reader (only 88 unread posts left!) My drafts remain drafts, I still have a bazillion things to say, but I'm off to bed. Well, maybe tomorrow...

Enough is enough. I'm making a commitment to myself to take back the night (in a far less meaningful sense than that phrase is usually used). I don't know what that looks like yet, but I'm guessing there will be some re-arranging of schedules and furniture involved. Let's get the show on the road!

My Perfect Mother's Day

I'm writing this now so that in years to come I can refer back to remember what a truly perfect Mother's Day looked like. There was no breakfast in bed, no spas and no exorbitant gift - no grand gestures. Today, my beautiful child and my adoring husband were completely available and amenable to my every whim. They cleaned the kitchen and tidied the house while I slowly woke up. We headed out to the fancy new Whole Foods where I had the luxury of choosing exactly what I wanted for our picnic. That's right! I did not concern myself with Chris' preferences and I didn't worry about Maggie's nutritional needs. I chose the cheese I wanted, the bread I wanted and the fruit I wanted! No guilt. No compromising. Such a simple pleasure.

After Whole Foods, we headed to Queen Elizabeth Park and chased after Maggie a bit before we settled onto a shady patch of grass in a quiet corner. Picnics on the beach are lovely, but I'm a huge fan of a park picnic. Maggie can toddle around in the grass (she isn't very impressed by sand) and I can keep her in the shade, plus I don't have to eat sandy sandwiches!

After Maggie's nap (the little dear crashed on the way home and slept for two long hours) we headed out to buy my gift (this link inspired us to consider every single purchase we make special and worthy of celebration - including things we think are "needs"). We bought a Deuter Kid Comfort III Child Carrier Backpack (will review after some use) and with that purchase Chris made an impressive commitment to me. He has agreed to haul my daughter up and down and all around so that we can be the hiking family I want us to be. I love him like crazy by the way.

We picked up some ready-made sushi on the drive home so mama didn't have to cook; as much as I adore cooking, I was relieved to take a day off. After the little squirt was in bed, I sat down to read my magazine (also an indulgence of the day) and eat my brownie. Sooo delicious.

It wasn't planned and it wasn't elaborate, but it was a perfect Mother's Day.

My Mother

After being a mom for only one year, I realize how inadequate my gratitude has been.

And still, I have only a small idea of what she has done for my siblings and I. In one year, I've gone through breastfeeding, sleep training, diaper changing, solid food introducing and babyproofing.

In thirty years, my mom has dealt with:
pregnancy and labour x3,
potty training x3,
chicken pox x3,
78 birthdays,
29 Christmases,
39 First Days of School,
an unknown number of
piano lessons, choir practice, team sports,
tournaments, camps, and sleepovers,
teaching children about death x3,
having "the" talk x3,
rebellion and puberty x3,
underage drinking, parties, socials,
driving lessons and car accidents x3,
graduations from high school x3,
leaving the nest x3,
apartment hunting and moving x?,
moves to Vancouver, Prince George, Montreal,
post-secondary graduations x3,
applying, hiring, firing, quitting,
scrapes, burns, cuts,
hospitalizations, blood clots,
a wedding,
and the birth of a grandchild.

For every Mother's Day I didn't know,
thank you Mom.

XO

happy mother's day!

Dear Full-time Mothers,

Oprah made me cry. I know. Big deal; Oprah makes a lot of people cry. Well, it is a big deal! I only cry 2-3 times a year so it's gotta be something important, revelatory and moving. This is.

I'm in awe of good mothers—those heroines all around me who sacrifice daily out of love for their children. In our society, we give motherhood plenty of lip service. We pat moms on the head, bring them flowers on Mother's Day, and honor them before crowds. But at the end of the day, we don't extend them the same respect we would a professor, a dentist, an accountant or a judge. Women who choose full-time mothering are often put in a box by their friends and former colleagues—a container labeled "just a mom." -Oprah

I can't believe how often I do this. I can't believe how often I diminish not only what I do, but what my grandmother did, what my aunts did, what my cousins and my good friend are doing...

Never again am I "just a mom". From now on I am proudly and confidently "a mother".

I Can Fly!

Jan von Holleben's Dreams of Flying is a coffee table book even my daughter would love! Such beautiful and theatrical images. If Maggie was older, I would have her pick a photograph and write a story about it one rainy day.