Happy Birthday to Me

It seems silly to jump back into this creative blogging thing with a materialistic post but really, I'm just segueing into a renovation blog, let's be honest. A couple of things I got for my birthday are making me so ridiculously happy I have to spread the love.

First was the surprise internet radio from AH. We had talked and talked about finding a good one but he pulled the trigger for my birthday. It's a little more "nostalgic" than I would normally go but in this case, funtion outshines form to the nth degree. For the past 10 years I have been using a red "jelly" style alarm clock radio from Radio Shack as my personal listening device in the kitchen. I do two things when I wake up: put the kettle on and turn on the radio. My kitchen radio has been permanently tuned to NPR as it's not a digital tuner and switching between KEXP and NPR is too painful. So sadly most mornings I wake up to Morning Edition - now with a 100% more Mitt Romney! - or worse, Marketplace. There are not enough adjectives to describe my hatred of Kai Ryssdal, especially before I've had a cup of coffee. Yet strangely, silence in the morning is worse. I need that chatter, that background hum. But I am also tired of yelling at the radio "you lying sack of doo-doo!" and switching it off in a huff. So the internet radio - amazing. I can preset and stream all my favourite radio stations from around the world and the internets - including every CBC radio station and BBC. I can attach my iPod or phone and play that. Or stream my Pandora stations or my iTunes playlist. If it could stream my record player we would truly be in business. But this is so perfect for my cooking, doing dishes, Sunday Brunch life. I love love love it and love tossing out my cracked, ancient, buzzy ridiculous alarm radio for good.

While on the last minute birthday trip I bought myself a new cookbook:

Oh I love everything about it. I read it from cover to cover and I want to make everything in the book. And then I put it on display.

 Then I bought this clock I have been wanting since approximately 2002.

Contemporary Clocks design by Amazon

and the densest, least frivolous purchase (I'm not even including my new red peep-toe wedges) was this book:

Because we are set to close on the silly house tomorrow, 6 months after we began this process. And we have a lot of renovation to do. Which I might just document here, cause a house needs a lot more than 1 million cookbooks and a decent clock. 

Summer Spark

School let out last Friday - the most anticipated day of my year. I had an automatic countdown on my iGoogle page that slowly ticked off the weeks, the days, each draining hour. And finally, my sweet reward, a huge component in why I took this job in the first place- 14 weeks off in the summer, 5 weeks off in the rest of the year. I should be completely stoked, electrified, ready to go - but it felt a bit anti-climatic in the end. Part of it was knowing I still had weeks of work to do, that I could not in good conscience leave right away. Some of the teachers were flying off to France the next day or parents were headed out on long, luxurious vacations - and I suddenly realized that I didn't have much lined up for the summer. A few camping trips, but we're saving for the big trip next summer. No airplane trips, no sand and sun, nothing glamorous. No daycare either, and despite wanting to spend more time with my kid - again a big, big reason to take this job! - weeks of full-time parenting doesn't sound exactly relaxing. Part of my mind realizes it is utterly insane to have any quibbles about time off and time with my kid when every working mother across the nation is likely about to throw their commuter mug at the computer screen hearing that- or uh, you know, the 1.2 of them who read this blog. But there you are - I had a little sadness and disappointment when school let out, not what I was expecting to feel.

So I started making a list - doodling a list, busting out my pretty ink pens and Moleskine notebook, all things, small and huge, made it on the list. From the dentist to cleaning my computer screen to writing/finishing my gdmned YA book. Small things like this -


- a knitted banana I started approximately 3 months ago, for a baby I know. It has a jingle bell inside. It looks lumpy and insane because there was no pattern, I was trying to make it up as I went along. And it looks like it. But it is done! Checked off my list.

The list morphed into some little/big projects that I am excited about and by extension include grain elevators. prairies, film reels, audio equipment and two-lane highways. Anything to make this close to home summer feel more purposeful and important and bigger.

I'm also coming to terms with my thrift problem this summer. It has always been extreme, but now I can easily wander into a couple thrift stores way too often. When I'm thrifting for Simone's clothes and shoes, I always find something else I cannot live without. A Czech magnetic toy theatre . A dual Super 8/regular 8 projector that works perfectly.

Spanish baby shoes

Danish pottery with the original Danish price sticker on it.

It turns out this island called Bornholm was the ceramics mecca of Europe at one point. The BOFA factory only existed for ten years but those 10 years happen to be some of my favourite in design - 1953-1963. They still have the original price tag on it, how could I say no? Even though I have no use for them.


And I can never say no to Holt Howard, let alone his tomatoes.


I have myself slightly convinced that I need my own Etsy vintage shop so that I can shop without guilt. Please disabuse me of this notion, as it would likely be more trouble than it could possibly be worth, right? Especially as I only ever remember to take pictures at night, in terrible lighting and apparently only on my kitchen table. Still...it's on the list.