woah, now they are definately in love.

his hands are hooked right into her perm - you just can't fake that kind of emotion.

nice to meet you, madelyn!

robynn had her baby today! we're aunt and uncle to a little girl!

woah, brand new babies just blow my mind with their brand newness like she's only 7 hours old right now. she doesn't even know about morning time. or what her home looks like. or that there's a cute row of dresses in the closet there waiting for her to wear them.

welcome little sweetie! when you're old enough we'll keep you home from school one day and jer will make you those giant pancakes like the ones from uncle buck.

a thousand words paints a picture

that bread song was my favourite when i was 5. the song that says if a picture paints a thousand words then why can't i paint you? yeah i loved that one.

my mom sang it to me and i used to imagine scenes for all the dramatic lyrics like the part in the end when they talk about the stars going out in the sky one by one i'd imagine the world ending and floating out in space really peacefully holding hands.

i made this picture using 1000 words and then erasered out space to look like my aforementioned imaginings.

just in time for the christmas shopping season, it goes on sale to the public next week.

PRESENTING......

our very small tree!

we got it from the grocery store. it was hanging out in the christmas plant section with the amaryllises and those blooming cacti and when i saw it i thought YOU belong with us.

here's some fun facts about our new bud:

1. it's a goldcrest which is a conifer, a family of evergreen trees who've been around for more than three hundred million years. that is so old i don't even think birthday cards go up that high.

2. in summer it's lemon scented.

3. one website said that goldcrests are 'very good for streets, avenues and parks', how versatile! comforting to know it will be equally at home among our city friends and country friends.

4. it grows to the room it's given so as long as you care for it and water it regularly and feed it with plant food once a month (or diluted with the water daily) - it can become as big as 5 metres tall!

we're going to grow it as big as we can indoors and then plant it in the woods in ten years time when it's too big for us to look after and we'll exchange a tearful but happy goodbye because this was the day we'd all dreamed of from the start.

welcome beauty! make yourself at home. there's some cold pc diet cola in the fridge.

bacon is a treat for friday morning

jeremy just the other day asked me where i got my shirt from and i said 'steph' and he said 'i shouldn't even bother to ask' and we had a little laugh because i am basically a goodwill of steph hand me downs. even in our living room i can spy three things that once belonged to gherkin.

she's coming to town for sarah's wedding this weekend and i get to see her tomorrow morning for breakfast! work's letting me come in late! HURRAY!

i'm getting scrambled eggs and a barista beverage in a giant cup with a saucer.

that date we had on sunday

potato hash with egg disaster

we were making this delicious dinner and jeremy asked me to look up why you add vinegar to the water when making a poached egg and this is what google told me:

vinegar should be added to the water as it begins to boil, as this will help the egg white to coagulate more quickly and form a neat and compact shape. without the vinegar, disaster may occur.

oh noo-ooo!! disaster!! i always knew eggs had a dangerous side.

mmmm, dangerous and delicious.

all the news that is the news

time flies when you're busy inventing new alcoholic beverages! it's november and i feel like that should mean snow but it doesn't and there's still yellow leaves on the tree out the window.

and we're still talking about the wedding.

we started to read articles on factory farmed meat and got scared into being vegetarians. we still do eat meat occasionally and when we do, we get it from the market or the healthy butcher - places that can tell you about the farm the meat came from. places that know the farmers name.

there are so many tasty vegetarian dishes we really feel opened up to a new world, rather than shut off from an old one.

and anyways we get to use the snack plate more.

i made this pouch for jeremy's ipod from old scraps of material, some from the wedding, some from halloween. it's a tree and there's a little heart carved in the bark and there's love in all the stitching.

jeremy sent me flowers to work last week. yellow ones. happy ones.

so many people stopped by my desk to ask what the occasion was and i answered 'no occasion' and turned a shade of pink and loved jeremy so much my heart became visible through my shirt like et's all those times he gets excited.

i brought them home for the weekend so they could retire peacefully.

every year (starting last or the one before) we've been on the hunt for the perfect hot alcoholic beverage. last year we found the hot toddy and stopped there to enjoy those for a spell and now we're on the hunt again. royal cider grog sounds funny and tastes delicious. i added cloves into the pot the second time we made them - even better!

tastes like christmas.

mmmmm christmas.

boney m i love your coloured pantaloons

i am totally addicted to rasputin. i think i knew i kinda liked it so i asked our dj to put it on the wedding list and ever since that fun shin-dig, it's been on repeat.

the words are hilarious. he danced really wunderbar.

someplace no one can find us

i made jer watch 'up' the other day and he loved it and all human beans love this movie so if you do not love this movie you are most likely not human.

we took a picture of this scene because we want one of these things in our kids room if we ever have one or in our room starting next week.

we usually make forts with couch cushions and chairs but this one is so much more convenient! just a rope and a quilt and a story worthy of a flashlight under the chin.

arranging the bacon

i think we're gearing up to make an omelette coffee table book.

proceeds of the sale of our book will go towards the purchase of more eggs to make more omelettes.

good cause!

a post without any pictures

yesterday the subway was closed between eglinton and bloor meaning hundreds of thousands of commuters stood on the street corner waiting for a shuttle bus.

also meaning jeremy and i took a really long walk

i hate being on transit when there’s any sort of delay because of the overwhelming feeling of helplessness. i hate waiting for the car to go. i hate sitting so close to someone that you’re each thrust unwillingly into each others space/sounds/worlds.

and i love how walking is the opposite of those things.

you can stroll, you can stop, you can get a peppermint mocha frappucino. you can hold hands, you can swing your arms, you can pass right on through the crowds. you can kick the leaves, you can yell out loud, you can kiss jeremy on the street corner. the light can change three times.

it took us nearly two hours to get home but we’d spent every minute of that doing just what we wanted to do. sometimes those things that hold us up can be the perfect reason to slow right down.

and sometimes there’s a drink in it for you with whip cream on top.

x

that day we got married

it's such a deep, deep chasm our love.

i tripped on something and fell down it and you caught me and i've been looking at you like this ever since.

(that means you)

i did a funny job on this handkerchief. the writing doesn't look how it did in the embroidery instructions.

it looks like me though.

i made it one night in the bedroom when you were playing video games and i told you not to come in because i was working on something top secret. sometimes i say that when i'm brushing my teeth but this time i meant it.

that moment we found on our wedding day when i could give this to you was nice because it was just a moment in between some other moments and that's where we always seem to find ourselves. extraordinary in the ordinary.

last week by chance you got on my subway car on the way home and we hugged for that long time and you said it felt like we'd won the lottery and been given 15 minutes and i loved that you said that and i hugged you harder and your neck was warm.

i hope the letters stay on and it doesn't catch and pull and i hope in 50 years it's still legible.

if it isn't i'll read it from memory. if it isn't i'll make it a song.

x

madeleines for madelyn

robynn's going to have a baby soon and her name will be madelyn and jeremy made these madeleines and we ate them saturday with tea.

robynn's baby probably won't be allowed to drink tea until later on in life but i can be the one who tells her what she's got to look forward to.

make me a cake as fast as you can

i have a lot of talented chefs in my life, jeremy being numero uno and mel from work being my office backup.

i wanted a chocolate cake recipe and as jer's sweet tooth is more of a salt fang i asked mel and mel delivered!

i made it for my father in laws birthday because the way to phillip's heart is through a combination of love, butter and sugar.

YUM IT WAS TASTY! and two layered. with icing.

i shaved dark chocolate on top which flew all over the ground when phillip made his wish and now the carpet is extra delicious.

family tree

the other day i went to vanesa's house and we had cheese and wine and baguette and she put a candle on and it was like we were in paris!

she has an old family picture like this old family picture only hers is of her own relatives in fuzzy hats and coats.

these are the grandparents of my grandma on my dad's side which means they were around long before me which means they probably lived a life half full. they look like a good time though eh? especially great great grandma jane. i bet she had all the best knock knock jokes.

i'm number one!

jeremy says so, he even gave me this award.

we're not lost, we're meandering.

true fact cemeteries are a nice place to spend an afternoon. they're so giant and sprawling and quiet and mysterious and comforting and full of this really tangible feeling of calm.

sometimes when me and jeremy have decided to spend saturday in the cemetery making grave rubbings and taking cool pictures i think to myself , man, are we ever lucky we found each other.

i'm so stoked for our lifetime of weird hobbies. xox

and my favourite tree in the wide world is in a cemetery. jeremy made a willow wreath from its branches which made me love the tree more because you could make arts and crafts with its parts.

magical.

it's GIANT. like so big it feels a bit like a dinosaur if that makes any sense. are trees and dinosaurs linked? have i made a scientific discovery just now? if this tree was a dinosaur it would be a brontosaurus. which were my favourite dinosaurs second to the diplodocus.

and then we went home and brewed up these crab apples and played with our ouija board.

oh just joshing you! the ouija's in the shop we played scrabble.