One Of A Kind

I managed to go to the One Of A Kind Show at last.
Every year, there seems to be something going on that has prevented me from being able to go.
This year I was as free as a bird- plus I had free media passes.
I brought Lulu with me which was o-kay.
She chilled in the stroller for the first half of the show.
Than again, I came prepared with plenty-o-bribery-loot.
Chocolate soy milk box- bought me 10 minutes.
Bits and Bites- another 10 minutes.
Raisins- 1 minute.
grapes- 0 minutes.
lollipop- 10 more minutes.
Gum- gasp! I know terrible mother, but whatever- 20 long luxurious minutes.
It was crowded and I'm glad that Lulu agreed to stay in the stroller most of the time, even though we kept getting stuck behind elderly ladies, leisurely checking out the booths.
Imagine! being leisurely at a Craft Show! The nerve...
Let's go ladies...chop chop...I'm on a mission..I have to get the entire place covered before Lulu decides that there just isn't enough sugar to keep her contained and insists on getting out of her stroller, which would be soooo not good.
Try telling a three year old not to touch lots of cool hand-made glittery neat things 1000 times.
Eventually they refuse to listen, take off, and lie in the middle of aisle G and have a melt down in front of hundreds of horrified onlookers.
I'm just saying.....
But it was worth it, as I found that fantastic hat and scarf.
And I'm not really a hat wearer- but the reality of standing on the sidelines of the park/school etc. for what seems like an eternity when its freaking freezing out has brought out the sensible side in me.
Bonus that it's super warm and super cute.
Now...where was that pediatric dentist's phone number?.....

giving thanks

Even though it's been several weeks since our thanksgiving, it's never a bad time to remember all that there is to be thankful for.
I came across this today and I only wish I could have put it as eloquently.
Happy thanksgiving to everyone south of the border.

sniffing glue

It's only a few weeks into winter (weather) and I'm already starting to feel the cabin fever setting in.
I've been frantically trying to sign Lulu up for winter programs starting in January so that
a) she has fun and it gives her something to do when the weather outside is frightful
b) she learns new skills and makes new little friends
c) so that I don't go stark raving mad and find myself sneaking sips of vodka at 3 in the afternoon.
you can only bake so many cookies and do so many crafts if ya know what I mean.
Just found out that soon will be the time to sign up for March break activities too.
I'm so on it this year.
Until then, it just me, Lulu, and our copious amounts of crayons, glitter glue, pipe cleaners, and other craftish paraphernalia.
good times.

tightening the belt

Well its no secret that the economy is in the toilet.
I've really been trying not to dwell on it too much and have a positive attitude despite all the doom & gloom out there.
It's just difficult to do when you see headlines that mention the "Great Depression" with black & white photographs of men waiting in a soup line.
Depressing is an understatement.
It's especially scary when you are self employed.
Just the other day one of my clients closed it's doors for good.
Wish Magazine and Gardening Life Magazine.
I didn't do a ton of work for them, but still, it's a big blow to the magazine world.
I just hope all those really nice people that worked there full time find new jobs soon.
That really sucks for them, especially at this time of year.
Anyhow it is kind of freaky when it starts to hit closer to home and not just on Wall/Bay.St
I'm still going to try to maintain a positive attitude though.
Let's just hope that when one door closes another one opens.
Big daddy and I were planning a mini getaway to NYC in a couple of weeks but somehow I just don't feel right about dumping a whole lotta cash on fancy dinners, boutique Hotels, live theatre and expensive shoes at the moment.
Then again if everyone had this reaction to all the news, then it will only make matters worse I guess.
We are in good shape at the moment, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to conserve a little more over the next few months.
It's taken me a long time to really understand that really some of the best things in life are free.
Family & health for example.
which at the moment I'm extremely grateful for.
I am however finding myself eyeing our tiny city garden filled with boxwoods , a Japanese Maple, euonomous, ivy, climbing hydrangea, cedars and a bunch of other useless greenery and wondering if we could replace it with a vegetable garden?
And I wonder if the shed would work if we decided to get some live stock?
Just a thought...

easy peasy

I can't believe another weekend has come & gone.
Big daddy & I had a few Lulu free days Thurs, Friday and Saturday morning.
It was a much needed break for all of us.
I seriously don't know why I don't take advantage of all the offers my parents make to babysit for us more often.
I'm a glutton for punishment I guess.
But I think it's super important to take breaks when you can.
So needless to say the few days were filled with lots of fun things.
Big daddy & I got to go shopping-alone.
Sooo much more relaxing without a three year old to deal with.
We had a nice casual sushi dinner out, got up early to work out and seize the day on Friday.
We went for a crepe down on Queen St. did a bit more shopping.
Hey someone has to keep the economy going...
Then I had the good fortune to be invited to watch a taping of the Steven & Chris Show with a girlfriend.
(hi natilia nervosa ; thanks again)
Big Bonus that the guest du jour was none other than THE Jamie Oliver.
I love this guy.
I've been a fan since the early days- Naked Chef.
I have all his cookbooks except one.
But when they were giving out prizes to the studio audience, guess who won?

It's the only one I didn't have so I was thrilled.
Jamie whipped up a little roasted carrot salad which I of course tried when I got home.
All I can say is that it was amazing.
I tweaked it a bit and added chick peas to round it out a bit and make it into more of a main course, but I highly recommend this cook book, if only for this fantastic recipe alone.
I can't wait to try out more of the amazing looking recipes.
I'm sure they are all delicious and easy as per usual.
We also got some lovely wine glasses from Crate & Barrel, which is currently housing a nice merlot-yum.
I love me some swag.
We went for some cocktails with some other gals after the show and then big daddy & I enjoyed a fantastic dinner at
Chez Victor.

More on that soon I promise.
Saturday we went to pick up the munchkin, got home in time to go to a neighborhood annual oyster party AND a 2nd birthday party for our little pal Zo-Zo.
Oh and the fun doesn't end there folks....
Today we slipped in the tail end of the Santa clause parade AND went to see Your'e A Good Man Charlie Brown at The Young Peoples Theatre.
Lulu really enjoyed it- me...not so much.
All I can say is that the entire time I was watching Snoopy, Linus, Schroeder, Lucy, Charlie & Sally on stage, I kept wondering what in the hell the woman in front of me was feeding her kid?
I mean this kid was farting up a storm and trust me it wasn't pretty.
Thank- g-d I was wearing a turtle-neck, which I ended up wearing pulled up all the way up to my eyes.
Seriously.
Even Lulu was grossed out.
But other than that it was fun.
Lulu is a huge Peanuts fan so it was sweet watching her reaction to the "live" peanuts gang.
I'm exhausted though and in need of another weekend.
So that's my weekend in a nut shell, how was yours?

day of the dead

Ah weekends...
I remember a time when big daddy & I would lounge in bed reading the paper, sipping our soy lattes leisurely trying to figure out what to do with our two days off.
Hmm brunch, drinks with friends, check out a gallery or two, go shopping, just hang and do nothing.....
Getting up when we felt like it and not when "someone" starts yelling at the top of her three year old lungs "get up DAAADDY!!! COME AND PLAY WITH ME!!!!! I WANNNA WATCH T.V.!!!!!!!! NOW!!!!!!! CARRY ME DOWN THE STAIRS!!!!!! I DON'T WANT TO WALK!!!!!! I'M HUNGRY!!!!!!!LETS GO WAKE UP MOMMY!!!!!!!!"
Oh and I might add that all this hooting & hollering usually takes place at around 6:45 a.m.
And good morning to you too my little sweet hell child....Sigh.
Hard to imagine that someday we'll be the ones who will be yelling for her to haul her sorry ass out of bed.
Oh the sweet pay back...
Anyhow somehow our weekends have turned into a quest of "how can we keep Lulu entertained enough to exhaust her into actually going to sleep at 7:30ish so that we can actually have a sliver of a weekend too?"
Well that and Lulu is no longer the mellow anything goes kind of child and needs to be constantly entertained "or else".
Anyone out there with a three and half year old might just know exactly what "or else" entails.
If not, lets just put it this way- It ain't pretty.
So now we are up & at'im first thing Saturday mornings.
We managed to go to the Day Of The Dead "Dia De Los Muertos" festivities down at Harbourfront on Saturday.
Bonus that it's free and wasn't super packed with people.
Big daddy was in heaven when we found these

And Lulu was somewhat sated when she got one of these

But all she really wanted was to do the crafts.

That child is never more happy than when she is surrounded by paints, markers, glitter glue and crayons.

We did a bunch of other stuff and by the end of the day I pretty much felt like this

Let's not even talk about Sunday.
Word to the wise- don't ever bring a three year old shopping on Bloor st- especially not to the Hermes Store.
Ever.
Funny that she was the perfect angel when we were at Pottery Barn Kids though....

as an aside- not every weekend starts off like this one did.
Thank g-d... but for some reason, and oh do I wish I knew why, Lulu was like a different kid this weekend.
The majority of the time she is sweet and relatively relaxed in the mornings and sometimes down right adorable, but our regular Lulu must have been on vacation this week.
Let's just hope she gets back sometime before next Saturday.

g-d bless america

You know when you go to a restaurant and end up having entree envy with the person sitting next to you?
Well that's how I felt last night while watching the US election results.
I had total election envy.
I mean our election was a big expensive waste of time (which we have to do all over again in 6 months time)
What's up with that?
Watching the speeches last night was more exciting that watching a rock concert (not that I can remember the last time I was actually at a "rock" concert)
I so don't recall any moving historical speech given by our priminister after his party won a few weeks ago- little lone one of his opponents.
Both speeches last night were really inspiring.
Watching President Obama gave me goose bumps, brought tears to my eyes, made me feel hopeful and excited about the future.
And I'm not even American!
I can't even begin to imagine how proud every single African American must be feeling today.
Every American for that matter-even the republicans.
McCain put up a good fight and he is a class act.
I really hope both parties do keep their promise to work together to help solve the difficult problems at hand.
Very monumental.
Not to sound unpatriotic- because I am very proud to be Canadian, but why can't we get it together when it comes to the way we run our elections?
I love the idea of a set date on the calender- every 4 years and the leader can only run for two consecutive terms.
I mean, that totally makes sense.
And campaign money should be raised by the people and not the big corporations.
An election by the people for the people.
It is time for a change- big time.
Let's just hope it happens north of the border soon.
(and for the love of g-d will the liberal party get moving on finding an actual worthy opponent for the conservatives)
I wonder if Jack Layton would ever consider jumping ship and going red?
Just a thought.

Okay so enough about politics.
I went to a really fun gathering of fellow mommy bloggers last night- and I promise to give more details soon.
Stay tuned.
But If I don't get moving, my poor kid will be the last one picked up at school today.

In the mean time-Congratulations to all the Democrats and to all Americans.
Very exciting future ahead.

trick & more treats

Ah what a fun halloween.
My all time favorite holiday.
Even though I don't really think that it is technically a holiday per say, it's so much fun.
The weather this year was absolutely perfect.
Lulu really got into things this year and was running from house to house like her coach was going to turn back into a pumpkin by the stroke of midnight (or more accurately nine o'clock)
She was dressed as Cinderella- and kept telling big daddy that he was her prince charming all night.
That girl knows how to work it.
It was so nice talking to all the neighbours on the street that otherwise you don't really get a chance to.
One house came out with a tray of warm mulled wine in plastic wine glasses for the grown ups.
How great is that?
Another house rented a cotton candy machine!
Several houses had really amazing special effects, smoke machines, creepy music the works.
I love love love my neighborhood.
I feel so lucky to live in such an awesome community.
Lulu will be very fortunate to grow up here.
It really is like a small town within a big city.

The only negative-all the candy.
Yes I said negative.
Big daddy & I enjoyed a delicious steak tenderloin with truffle polenta and porcini mushrooms for dinner last night and managed to polish off an entire bottle of Prosecco and some fantastic red wine.
Needless to say, we were both two sheets to the wind and ended up eating a ton of Lulu's Halloween stash.
What is it about being drunk and eating like a pig?
Anyhow, today I'm feeling super guilty.
Not just because of the massive trail of mini wrappers scattered all over the basement, but because I think we managed to polish off all of the mini kit-kats, crispy crunch and reese's peanut butter cups.
Poor Lulu-all that trick or treating and hard work and all she has left to show for it is some lousy eatmores and oh henry's.
Poor mommy feels like crap today.
I'm feeling a little like the evil stepmother at the moment.