In her custom bunny ears headband from Tiny Tangerines.
Goat cheese & berry honey for lunch.
Sweater, H&M (similar here); sweatpants, Gap (here).
A blogger I follow posted a pic last week of orange peels and I was like “…this is a straight up photo of a compost bin” but then I read the post and she was like “simmer orange peels, cloves and cinnamon sticks in a little water to make your house smell nice all day!” and I have to say it is a brilliant tip, especially if you’ve just made stew and your house smells like onions and beef.
This weekend was quite busy and really exhausting, I feel like I could use another weekend to relax after this one. I started it off really great with flu shot on Friday morning for me & Gwen. I also learned that Gwen knows that going to the doctor most likely means a shot because while she was fine in the waiting room, she FREAKED OUT in the examination room, before the doctor even came in! She was fine again after the actual shot, that silly.
Friday night was Sym’s birthday slumber party, and although two of her guests cancelled at the last minute she had a really good time (I think? Taylor and I were banished from the living room). They stayed up literally all night, like I had to force them to bed at 8:30 on Saturday morning. TEENS, SHEESH. After they were asleep & Gwen had her breakfast Taylor and I took the dogs for a walk and then voted in the municipal election. This year they had it so you could vote at any polling station, which I think is SO GREAT. I remember the first election after I was eligible to vote I couldn’t because I lived downtown but worked at the very edge of the city (like literally, it was a warehouse on the riverbank that serves as the boundary between Vancouver and Richmond) and my polling station, which was by my house, didn’t open until after I left for work and closed before I got back. Also there’s been a few times when the polling station closest to my house wasn’t the one I was allowed to vote at, which seems dumb? Another time it was in a church hall that had NO wheelchair or stroller access like w t f. Most of those were probably federal or provincial elections but still, this vote-anywhere-you-damn-please arrangement was great. I’m also glad we went early in the morning because apparently there were some long lines later in the afternoon, as well as waits to get more ballots brought in at places that ran out.
After voting I had to run out and get some supplies to make a rush order banner, which I made and shipped as soon as I got back from the store. I normally don’t work on banner orders on the weekend and probably should have just told the person that I couldn’t make the banner they wanted in time for their event but I hate disappointing people (and I also like money). After all the rushing around I spent some quality time being suuuuuuuper lazy all afternoon. At five I had a hair appointment and once I got back Taylor and I put Gwen to bed and then we basically watched Sailor Moon and Friends until we fell asleep on the couch.
Sunday I had nothing I needed to do so we spontaneously decided to go to Ikea, which is always a really smart idea on the weekend. We wanted to look at dining room furniture, toys and the Christmas stuff. The Ikea nearest to our house has been on strike for like… ever but the strike finally ended a few weeks ago so we decided to go to that location and I think it was a bad idea. They are still on reduced hours for another month and stuff was kind of a mess? There were some things we wanted to get that we couldn’t find anywhere, and not a lot of staff around to ask for help. The internet is terrible there for some reason but after we left I checked the stock levels and all the things we couldn’t find they had TONS of, it just wasn’t out anywhere. Luckily a Sym’s dad is going to the other, less sloppy Ikea this weekend and he’s going to pick them up for me, and we did get some housewares we needed (like a new bathmat and a bowl to replace one I broke a couple months ago) and lots of toys, most of which I’m saving for Christmas because I’m very responsible.
Speaking of Christmas, I need to get a new tree this year and I’ve falling into a weird Christmas tree vortex. I found this one great looking tree and I was like OH YEAH THAT’S THE ONE FOR ME… but it’s $650 on sale. YEP NOPE obviously I’m not buying that one, but now I’m looking at all these other trees and thinking “hmmmm, $400, that’s a good price!” just because it’s less than $650. And I made the foolish mistake of looking at the 9-foot version of the $650 tree (which is 7.5′) and it’s like $1100 so then I start thinking $650 is reasonable… LOL THIS IS TERRIBLE. It’s like when I look at real estate listings and a 3 bedroom house in Vancouver is a million dollars so then I think a $700k one in North Van is reasonable and affordable. LOL NO, NO IT IS NOT. Anyway.
It’s been a while since I talked about the goals I’m working on this year, so here’s a quick update…
I am still putting my laundry away in a timely fashion instead of leaving piles of clean clothes everywhere.
I’m like 99% sticking to my no potato chips during the week and no pop except for on Thursdays rules. Sometimes I’ll slip up or make an exception but most of the time I’m good.
I failed at wearing sunscreen regularly enough to avoid getting a terrible shoe tan, and I also failed at going to the gym. It lasted a couple weeks but apparently I’m so decrepit I can’t even spend 30 minutes walking briskly on a treadmill without suffering shitty consequences like unbearable back pain and also hip pain? Both of which make walking basically impossible, and with my current job requirement of walking down and up a big hill four days a week I can’t go crippling myself at the gym. It sucks but oh well.
I am doing so well at growing my hair out. I didn’t get it cut at all for like nine months I think? Since around my birthday until just this weekend. I finally went in for a trim to fix up some of the unevenness of how it grew out and also to get bangs! I know what you are thinking: “Tanie, wasn’t it the terrible trial of growing out your last set of bangs that caused you to cut off all your hair and suffer through the last year and a half of growing it back out?” The answer is NO IT WAS NOT well actually only sort of. Partly it was the bangs but mostly it was the dark hair dye that I wanted to be rid of. My plan was always to cut my hair off, grow it out my natural colour and then get bangs again once it was long enough. Originally I was going to wait until it was to my shoulders before I got bangs but this weekend I was like ENOUGH OF THIS, IT’S TIME.