Photo of the Day March 10th

Chris and I purchased a "commemorative DVD" on the MSC cruise we took when I was pregnant with Sophie - it was this very silly collection of video shot of passengers around the ship combined with stock footage of the islands we visited. Although we've watched it several times since the trip we often laugh at the cheesy graphics and strange collection of ship-board events they included... although most of the on board events were kind of odd so I guess that couldn't be avoided. Instead of shelling out the $29.95 that RCI wanted for this trip's DVD, Chris decided to make a personalized version with a bunch of our cruise photos set to music... it's quite cute, and nice to see a "cruise in review" DVD that's full of things we actually saw and did. I'm looking forward to when Chris gets the chance to put together something similar for all the videos we took when we were away too!

0

Photo of the Day March 9th

Chris made my day by fixing our scanner this afternoon... I've been struggling without access to one, especially having just started my Wine Tasting position with Luma events. I have to scan and send forms as part of the job and have been slipping over to my friend Julie's place to use her scanner, which while greatly appreciated is also a bit of a pain. Also waiting to be scanned is a small pile of photos we had taken professionally while on vacation - two of them we purchased for Chris's mom but have been holding onto so we could scan them. So now we can finally give Chris's mom her photos and I can get ready for my first Tasting on Saturday with less stress: thank you honey!

0

Given the choice I would have posted a different "photo of the day" today, but I forgot to bring my camera this evening... it was bring a friend night at The Little Gym, and Sophie asked her best friend Rhys to join her. It was so much fun watching Sophie introduce him and show him off to her teachers and the other kids in her class - they walked hand-in-hand into the gym and Sophie kept her hand on Rhys's back almost possessively for the first few minutes of class.

0

Photo of the Day March 8th

Rowan was with us today and when we walked down to the school to pick up Sophie he did something a bit out of character: he decided to go into the school yard to hang out with Sophie and her friends. Normally he stays with me, holding my hand and not moving from my side the whole time we're there, but perhaps with the number of times we've picked Sophie up he's starting to feel more comfortable and therefor adventurous. I know, the picture above may not look like that big an adventure, but it's all relative - I think his little bout of independence was pretty impressive.

0

Photo of the Day March 7th

This pretty little dish is one of the souvenirs that I brought back from our recent vacation... when we were in Curacao we saw an amazing selection of Delft Blue China in the shops that line the little streets. Curacao is an island strong in Dutch culture and as it's part of the Netherland Antilles the import and export laws allow Dutch produced goods to be sold at incredibly reasonable prices. We brought home both this little candy dish and a wheel of Dutch cheese, which we've got tucked away for a special treat some time soon... perhaps we'll cube it up and serve it in the candy dish for a real taste of Holland.

0

Photo of the Day March 6th

Boy oh boy, do I feel humble. I'm working this weekend on the Firebird newsletter, which is the monthly publication we put together for Tecumseh Public School... myself and my co-editor Julie write articles, take photos, edit other people's work and create the newsletter's layout each month in an effort to celebrate the school and communicate with Tecumseh's families. One of the articles we do each month is called "Spotlight on Volunteers", where we highlight one of the folks who give their time around the school running events, helping teachers, and doing a lot of other "background stuff" that doesn't always get noticed. Julie offered to handle this month's volunteer page, and much to my surprise she's just sent me the article shown above. Turns out that three of the other volunteers I work with got together and nominated me for the "volunteer of the month" without my knowing, and wrote some truly lovely things about me for inclusion in the newsletter. I was blown away - I had no idea that they were planning this and I was just so touched... I've always believed in the importance of thanking those who give their time to the school, but didn't expect to see myself recognized here too!

0

Note: if you'd like to take a peek at the Firebird newsletter, we've posted several months worth on the Tecumseh website here - check it out!

0

Photo of the Day March 5th

Yippee for another sign of spring! I’ve got a busy day ahead including time with our friend Rowan, a School Council meeting, a visit with a friend, and a euchre night & potluck with about 20 other women from our neighbourhood. Needless to say I tried to get some of my running around done yesterday, including a stop to the LCBO to pick up a bottle of wine for a get-together tonight. I’m always pleased when I see the new copy of Food & Drink arrive at the liquor store, but the beautiful cupcake on the cover of this issue made me feel especially happy... cupcakes just make me smile, and the lavender accents bring spring instantly to mind, as do the little sugared flowers balanced on the icing. So along with my bottle of wine I got several excellent new recipes to try out and a great desire to bake some cupcakes for all of us to enjoy. Now I just need to get my hands on some edible flowers...

0

Photo of the Day March 4th

As you can see, a new condiment made an appearance on our dinner table tonight. This morning we picked up hot dogs from The Butcher's Blend at the Farmer's Market (as of today they're open on Thursdays, which is fantastic!) and decided to break in one of our vacation souvenirs: Banana Ketchup. We picked it up at a spice shop in Old San Juan that Chris had heard about, and it's really quite nice... you have to remove the expectation that it tastes anything like the tomato ketchup we're used to, and then loose yourself in the slightly sweet flavour and subtle spice of it. Just lovely, and a great way to kick a simple hot dog up a notch (apologies to Emeril Lagasse for borrowing his catch phrase)!

0