Wanderlust

Cabin Hollow, Utah

Najavo Lake, Utah

Zion National Park, Utah

Zion National Park, Utah

Grand Canyon, Arizona

This past September my brother Liam embarked on a solo cross country roadtrip. For two months he camped on beaches, up dodgy roads and in open fields and once hiked a pan, bacon and eggs up a mountain for what must have been a most spectacular and rewarding breakfast! His travels brought him from Vancouver, BC down the west coast to LA then onto Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana  Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania before settling in New York for a grand total of 8500 miles and 54 days.

Liam faithfully documented his travels and shared them via his envy inducing instagram. This is just a small scattering of my favourite photos he took with a camera borrowed from Landon's mum. I'm urging him to make a blog on which he can share the full collection of his travel photos and will hopefully have that to share with you soon.

Today it is a frigid -9 celsius (which is nothing compared the -25 in my hometown Ottawa) and our Super only just turned on our solo radiator so looking at these pictures is currently serving as an escape from my chilled surroundings! Me and my icicle toes are eager to move into the next season and the adventure it brings.

Little Colorado Canyon, Arizona

Kanaab, Utah

Bryce Canyon, Utah

Bryce Canyon, Utah

Garfield, Utah

Garfield, Utah

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Across the Sea

Finally a moment to sit down and recount my ten days of travel abroad (was gone for a month but only spent ten days in England, the rest were darting around the west coast). Have composed two versions of the story, one long and one short and sweet! (I've placed the long one after the cut with some photos from the trip, unfortunately just of the instagram variety.)

The Short Version:

It was a magnificent, perfectly dreamy, better than imagined trip.

Halcyon Days

We are returned from our Canadian adventure where we were absolutely spoiled with perfect wintery weather, truckloads of chocolate and the very best company. I feel so incredibly fortunate to have my pop's home to run away to. Highlights from our trip included a cross country ski to the grocery (where we spotted a deer! Never in my life have I felt so... Canadian), tobogganing without injury, maple candy cooking, glittering shoes with my aunt; sharing a bed with Landon, Rebecca and a long limbed whippet puppy, lots of cranium, some settlers of catan and fireworks (and fire) on new years eve.

We had a quick visit in Montreal where I was able to satisfy my bagel craving by stuffing my mouth with not one, not two but three (and a half) hot sesame bagels all in a row. I don't know why folks are always on about New York bagels - they're basically regular bread in a circle formation but man alive, Montreal bagels are next level eating. It was especially cold while we were in Montreal (25 below) so we limited our activity to jumping in and out of the car and popping into only a few shops. Of the shops we visited Citizen Vintage was definitely a favourite, super cute and nicely curated. Frustratingly I cannot recall for the life of me the name of the other shop that I really enjoyed. The shopkeeper was delightfully chatty and her prices were just right that if I had any extra dollars to spare they'd have gone straight into her shop (serious knick knack heaven there). I promise should the name come to me to post it right away. On the subject of vintage shops we also had a chance to pay a visit to my favourite (and frankly, the only that I now know of) vintage shop in Ottawa, Ragtime. I have fond memories of renting Twiggy style dresses from them when I was in highschool. Super chatty shopkeeper and just brimming with treasures (lots buried so much digging required - my favourite)! The coat I'm wearing above was a gift from my Pops from Ragtime (Landon & Emma both have ones to match so we can coordinate and look like a disney vacationing family while wearing them).

Oh, and then there was the POUTINE, the excessive kids in the hall watching and falling asleep each night on the sofa with a book in one hand and 1.5 kilograms of chocolate in the other. Perfect, perfect holiday.

You may also click through for a few instagram pictures of our travels :).

Jacoba

Up in Chelsea with my family for the week. My little Cobi has grown up so much since I last saw her. It's all giggles, splashes, investigating beaver dams and s'mores 'round here, a very welcome change from the intensely busy months just passed. There is nothing I like better in the whole world than time spent with my family up here (if only the kitties had joined us this time round).

a skeleton and a tiny turtle

My beloved baby ham (and sister) Jacoba. She was born 20 years after me, wants to be a champion figure skater (my brother got her her first pair of skates this christmas), loves me third best of all after herself and god, refers to reindeer as "precipitation deers" and her record for not talking is a full 30 seconds.

ps. Having a bit of an issue with my comments loading super slow and not showing up. Sorry if you come to comment and the form is unavailable!

my sugar, she's so refined

Hello friends! My apologies for an extended absence! Thank you for all the kind comments on my previous post! I've added many of you to my ever-expanding google reader and I thank you for letting me peek in on your own adventures. My eye recovered only to be brutalized yet again as I was picking my nailpolish off and had sliver of polish spring into my eyeball - the very same naughty eyeball. It's back to glasses for me :(. The holidays were glorious and food and family filled (I hope the same was true of your holidays). Our arrival home proved to be no less busy and Landon has been overwhelmed with preparations for upcoming TCOP exhibition at Space 15 Twenty. I've started working on my own projects including getting spring goodies ready for selling on the internet (have had a great debate on whether to sell on ebay or etsy - have opted for ebay).

While in Vancouver I managed to snag a handful of loose photographs from my grandparent's garage and have uploaded a few to share with you. The ones above are my beautiful grandma and grandpa and the ones below my beautiful mummy and badass dad. My mum's wedding attire I think requires some explanation - it was designed by a friend of hers and was not available until the day of, her hat the final touch to her mystery chef-like ensemble. She had fashion balls. And how wee and youthful is my dad? All gangly limbs and big hair. They were a pair. I've added a few pictures of my own ginger child self - like Conan, I was the sole ginger in family of blondes, brunettes and raven-hued locks. My mum paid extra care to protect me from the sun and while she and my brother turned golden in the summer I remained practically transparent (once convinced that I could, in fact, glow in the dark) and ghostly. I wasn't sure what to make of my copper coloured tresses' and was often disheartened by the great number of fictional redheaded orphans - were we so terrible? Even I am half-adopted! Perhaps it is the alleged hot temper? Though any friend of mine can tell you that they've never heard me raise my voice or flush for any reason other than embarrassment. Oh ginger babies, why so misunderstood?





















For those of you interested in donating to earthquake relief in Haiti I would encourage you to take a gander at this list of charities or for my US buddies texting 90999 with "Haiti" to donate $10 to the Red Cross.