indoor picnic and art activities

on saturday i like to dress up. i put bobby pins in my hair and pink gloss on my lips. i ask jeremy to take a photo of my pretty grey sweater. i go for coffee with jenn cairns and we share a bench seat by the window.

we talk like old friends who don't need a backgrounder.

i come home and the house smells like lemons and jeremy's been cleaning and now he's on the couch with his feet tucked behind him and he looks like a frog or a boy watching cartoons. i kiss him on the head and he smiles.

i sit down to write and i look out the window. the sleeves on my sweater are the perfect long length. only my fingers are bare as they slide along the keyboard and find their right keys. i type to you.

i toast to saturday.

on this hour of mantlepiece theatre, our mantle!

this was our first large scale construction collaboration and i use the term collaboration quite generously as this was clearly jeremy's baby. jeremy's wooden, nailed together baby. but the baby let me sand it and paint it and even though jeremy's the favourite parent i think we share something quite special. (read when jeremy's out i feed it junk food and let it watch television with swear words.)

i painted the bottom part a colour called canadian sky. i love sky! i love bringing sky into the apartment through a well named paint chip.

jeremy stained the top part dark walnut. not as well named but still very attractive.

i enjoy how our home is looking more and more like a cottage. or a flea market. or a flea market moonlighting as a cottage. and i love all the tools on the red bench in the back.

in the future jeremy will have a wood shop for all that stuff and he'll be in there on saturday mornings and i'll bring him coffee in a thermos and ask what he's making and he'll say it's a surprise.

the dog really loves the new fireplace too, the warmth is good for his arthritic bones. especially as he insists on laying down in yogic poses.

those photo frames need photos, (and i know just the ones), and that phrenology head needs a hat if he's ever to go outside but we're basically done!

let's roast chestnuts and marshmallows and our buns when first we come in from the cold.

x

robeson, you done me real good.
i’ve had a lot of people ask why i’m changing my name so i’ve pondered on it and i’ve slept on it and i’ve asked the magic eight ball for his opinion and i’ve come up with an answer. a real goodie.

i’m changing my name because i feel that in doing so, jeremy and i have become a unit in an outside-looking-in type way. we’re the sorrells! so nice to meet you! won’t you come and sit by the fire? mr. sorrell built it with his bare hands.

i also like that if we had children or adopted children or saved a pet monkey from its horrible circus life that we would name that monkey, 'something sorrell'. the sorrell family! the flying sorrells! we'd go on tour twice a year.

i like the idea of being a sorrell because i like the idea of being a part of jeremy’s family. of BEING jeremy’s family.

i think marriage is a transition in many ways. it’s about merging with someone all your dreams and hopes and fears and laundry and for me, sharing a name is a very real representation of that.

i loved being a robeson for 29 years. and i’ll love being a sorrell for the rest of my lifetime.    

the perfect dress for twirling

cautionary corn tale

minutes after this photo was taken my heart exploded into a universe of love and contentment and we walked back to the barn full of family and friends on a carpet of the newly born stars.

sunshine slippers

maybe steph loved sunsets first and i saw her do it and wanted to copy her like all the ways she puts outfits together and piles her hair on her head and talks about clever books i haven't heard of.

sometimes i think it's like your my big sister. sometimes i think it's like i'm yours.

i can see the sun rise perfectly from our living room window. i can almost hear it as it creeps steadily up over the lip of the edge of my world. it's always such a deeper orange just then. it's always not quite so round.

blurry and melted and reluctant to get out bed, we share that in common as i watch it make its effort in my bare feet, wishing i had the power to give us both the day off.

the best part about winter around this joint is the annual buffy marathon. this is its third year running and we still toast with champagne at all the important parts and there's lots of important parts so there's lots of champagne. it's a simple mathematical equation.

we keep track of things like which characters kill how many vampires and which demons kill how many people and last year we kept track of how many times giles gets hit in the head so we switch up the categories but the fun stays the same.

i know i'm in love with vampires and demons and things from the netherworlds but this show is the best. it's funny and smart and light and deeply sad. like a good book it's the depth and the sincerity of the characters that pulls you through. often you forget about the fantasy stuff cause the truths are so truthful and well thought out.

and buffy, well, we all have a little slayer inside us. and a bad boot collection from the 90's that we'd rather forget.

sweet sweet saturday morn

stuff and things

on the way home i noticed a sign in the coffee time window that said 'soup and ciabatta club' and i thought it would nice to be a member.

we are moving the mantle to it's spot after three days on a plastic drop sheet where it's spent its time drying and getting used to its surroundings. we painted it a colour called 'canadian grey' so it looks like a moody sky with a hint of spring.

mmm spring.

today i took a walk at lunch and thought it seemed brighter than it has in some time but then the wind blew and my hood came off and i remembered it was winter still and i'd just have to keep on being patient.

our little tree is doing well so that's a nice reminder of growth and renewal and what plants naturally do when it isn't minus ten. you're actually supposed to prune it like a bonsai but i kinda like how it looks au naturel. also i don't want to poo poo it's creative growth style so early on its life.

steph sent me a book in the mail, a real goodie. she's a real goodie.

jeremy put up a new shelf in the kitchen to hold our cookbooks cause now they're up above the cupboard and the only way to reach them is to drag a chair into the kitchen or invite inspector gadget over for dinner but he just never knows when it's time to go.

sometimes i feel like i can't stop looking at our wedding photos. like i want to print them all out and scatter them everywhere and go about our daily business surrounded by images of our wedding. and honeymoon. and life.

this weekend i'm going to make homemade granola cause i hear it's pretty simple and amazingly tasty but mostly cause i like thinking about waking jeremy up on saturday morning, with the smell of baked oats and honey.

who wrote the book of loveso every night this week i've been working on making a coffee table book of our wedding photos. we made one last year of our trip to costa rica and they turn out really nice and you just download the software and lay out each page however you fancy and you can take tons of time with it or they can lay it all for you and i chose the former so i could re-create the little story that was our wedding day.

it arrives in 9-12 business days and i can't wait to look at it right after i wash my hands and put on my fine china handling gloves.

come over and look too! we can all dress up in our same outfits.

yesterday i saw batman coming out of the subway.

he wasn't right away recognizable but when he started to sprint up the subway stairs in front of me and his trench coat billowed out behind him like a cape, i couldn't be fooled.

i wonder where he holds his day job. and if he eats in the lunchroom with his work colleagues. and if sometimes he can't help but use his utility belt gadgets to retrieve his print jobs.

sweetie smells of sawdust

jeremy made us a fireplace mantle!! from this freehand design he made up in his head!!

we saw one at chad and ryan's with candles underneath and it made their living room so cozy and warm so he got to work on planning and construction and now we have something to hang our stockings on next year.

it needs to be sanded and painted and candles need to be added which are all areas i can help with but look how cool!

i think we're going to paint the bottom with a light grey-blue wash so the wood grain shows through and the top we'll stain dark and you can come over for drinks and we'll all gather round the fireplace and i'll read aloud from a giant book from the olden days.

i too recently made something all by myself. it's a vacuum cleaner, a piece of pizza and pizza crumbs all made from the wrapper of a ferrero rocher!

obvious where the talent lies in this marriage. though i'm confident jeremy will find his niche one day.

how much is that doggie in the winow

we have been looking after molly since phil's been in costa rica and i gotta say, dog watching is hard work! so much walking and feeding and stick throwing! and so much shedding too! i think we vacuumed up another dog after she left.

she was sweet though. and when we took her for walks on the trail after work and it was quiet and the snow was falling and there was no one but us three, that part was nice.

she went home last night and jeremy started to miss her so i gave him this guy as a replacement isn't he cute?!

this is actually a dog i made as a kid he has three legs and red marker on his left side but i threw him in the washing machine, made him a new collar, sewed his ears back on and he's like a pup again!

so far his best trick is 'lie down'.