Category: Uncategorized

spontaneous huggies

raindrops on noses and whiskers on Kichous

Is there anything better than a lazy long weekend? I so did not accomplish all the things I meant to accomplish (I still haven’t put up the second door on the dvd cabinet, whoops) but I did accomplish a lot of shopping (double whoops). I picked up some spring clothes for Gwen, some more Valentine’s Day gifts, a little glass dome with a marble base (I was hoping to put my crystal unicorn in it but the horn is too long- I think when I had it repaired they replaced the horn instead of reattaching the old one, it seems longer. I think I’m going to keep a skull in it instead bc why not ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). As it turns out, the money I’d transferred from Paypal was already in my bank account so this morning we took a spontaneous trip to Ikea to buy the new dressers & bookcases for the girls, as well as a second set of Gwen’s bed linens. I went slightly off-list, buying a new throw pillow for the couch and a bunch of 1,000-lumen LED lightbulbs, but I still came in under budget (for the second Ikea trip in a row, this must be some sort of record).

This weekend I also spent more time than I’d care to admit redoing the layout for this blog- surprise surprise, it’s plain as hell and grey, BUT it’s also optimized for your mobile devices! The future!

The thing that took the longest was making and resizing and remaking-in-the-opposite-colour and re-resizing all the little buttons for the sidebar. I thought I had is all finished with white text on grey buttons but it looked terrible on my phone so I had to redo the whole thing. It’s annoying that you can’t save your layout as a draft, because I had mine open for so long that it crashed or went weird or idk what happened and I had to start all over again. NOT COOL. Anyway it’s done now and I’M NEVER CHANGING IT AGAIN.

PS There are still two days left to enter my floral boot giveaway on instagram! And while you’re at it, check out my friend Caroline’s art giveaway as well.

Gwen chose her own outfit of mountain-print footie pajamas, grey fox sweater, cat ear bowler hat and Ivy green leather boots from Little Mountain.

Today was my first sort-of-off Friday. Starting this month on Fridays I only work 7:30-9am and 3-4:20pm, leaving a big wide open six hours in the middle of the day to do whatever. It’s kind of great, especially since Taylor also has Fridays off right now. We have big plans to do interesting things on these Fridays, like go to the art gallery and the aquarium, and once the weather gets nicer we can walk around the Seawall. Today was kind of off-and-on rainy & gross so we stuck a little closer to civilization. First we had coffee & a bite to eat the the Greenhorn Cafe, and then made our way down to Taylor’s office in Gastown so he could drop off a phone to a coworker. On the way back we did a lil shopping, including buying a Valentine’s Day gift for Sym, some Legos for Taylor and Gwen’s 2015 Christmas pajamas (THEY WERE ON CLEARANCE OK I’M JUST BEING PRACTICAL). I was supposed to go get my nails filled too buuuuuut instead I just watched this week’s Nashville and worked on banners in the afternoon. I have so many open orders right now!

My plans for this weekend include making some teeny-tiny baby boots, taking a trip to the Swarovski store to pick up my crystal unicorn that was being repaired (yes, I have a crystal unicorn), and finishing replacing the doors on the dvd cabinet. Oh and tonight I’m going to drink a whole bottle of sparkling wine to celebrate my birthday (which was yesterday). Originally we’d planned on doing my whole birthday celebration tonight since Sym usually spends Thursday nights at her dad’s, but she is having a hotel sleepover with her ex-stepmom tonight so instead Sym stayed with us and we did cake and presents last night, and tonight will be wine and I guess more cake? There is a lot, Taylor bought a giant dobos torte from the Transylvanian bakery.

PS don’t forget to enter the Little Mountain giveaway on instagram!

When Gwen wants to give you a hug she will run up to you with arms outstretched, saying “guh! guh!” (it’s “hug” spelled backwards). She’ll wrap her arms around you and rub her hand on your back, and it’s the sweetest hug ever.

She gives all her toys kisses and wants you to give them kisses too. She also gives kisses to pictures in her books. When we’re reading together she taps her mouth and then the page to ask me to bring it closer so she can give her favourite characters (like the fox in The Gruffalo, the fox in Green Eggs and Ham, the fox in Fox in Socks- SENSING A THEME HERE?)a smooch.

One day last week I pulled my pant legs up and put my feet into the tub when she was having a bath. At the time she was horrified, but now she wants me to do it every day. After dinner she’ll come over to me in the kitchen or the office or the living room and start trying to pull my pant cuffs, and if I don’t get moving right away she’ll prod and poke and push me into the bathroom and pat the edge of the tub where she wants me to sit.

Even though I’ve been really busy this week I decided it was the perfect time to get crackin’ on some home improvement projects I’ve been slacking on. Of course I decided that, it’s a totally typical Tanie move. First was replacing the doors on our dvd shelf in the living room. By shelf, btw, I mean 4 Ikea Benno shelves. The shelves are black-brown, but the doors were birch ones I pillaged from our old bookcase, and the mismatch drove me bonkers. Sym’s dad picked up new, black-brown doors a few weeks ago and I thought it’d be a quick & easy switch. I wouldn’t even have to take out the hinges, just unscrew the old doors, pop the new ones on. I was like it’ll be easy peasy lemon squeezy!

In the fifty billion years since I bought the old doors Ikea changed how they make them, and the hinges are attached in a different place, so I had to take out the old hinges after all. Plus, the new hinge placement relies on the shelves having special pre-drilled holes for them, which my old shelves don’t have. I had to make my own holes, but because the shelves are so narrow I couldn’t use my drill, I had to sort of gouge them with an awl. I couldn’t even fit my ratcheting screwdriver in there, and had to use this awkward tiny one instead. And did I mention I had to crouch down in a teeny-tiny space between the shelf, the new door, the wall and the end of the couch to do all of this???? Suffice it to say, I only got one door done.

After that I wanted a simpler project to tackle, so next I started painting this shelf-with-clothes rail I’m making for Gwen’s room. It would probably (definitely) been easier to paint the pieces separately and then assemble them but WHY WOULD I EVER DO ANYTHING THE EASY WAY? So there were all sorts of awkward little crannies and nooks to wedge the brush into but I managed to get it done. Once the paint is cured I’m going to hang it over her dresser and her cute lil dresses will be more easily accessible and hopefully get worn more often! Plus with no clothes in it her closet can be used purely for storage instead of the current half clothes, half boxes of books & Taylor’s extra coats like it is now.

I also have big plans for replacing her dresser (it was handed down from Sym’s room and is falling apart so badly) and a new bigger dresser & bookcase combo for Sym’s room as well, but I have to wait for the money to transfer out of my Paypal account. It’s good though; it’ll give me time to patch all the holes in the walls and touch of the paint! Because that’s what I need… more projects.

SPEAKING OF PROJECTS…. LITTLE MOUNTAIN BABY BOOTS ARE NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE! Yes that’s right, I got all my samples made, photographed, photos edited & uploaded, listings written and published just like I wanted to, by my birthday. I’m feeling pretty good about it and if you’d like to help me feel even better please click on over to check them out.

To celebrate the launch (and my birthday) I’m giving away a pair of floral leather boots on my instagram! I literally only have enough leather to make one more pair so these are an exclusive, extremely limited edition (Gwen has the other pair). Visit my instagram to enter!

Happy February! Although January was a good month for me it really seemed to drag so I’m happy to bid it farewell.

After all the attention my shop got last week, this week is gonna be really busy for me. I Actually only have two orders that need to ship this week but there are a ton after that and I’d like to get ahead. My goal is to make eight banners, which is super doable. I could probably make even more but I’m also trying to finish my very last sample pair of boots. I did a ton of work on them yesterday and am more than halfway done, which is pretty great.

Also this weekend some friends were in town from Portland, so on Saturday Taylor and I met them for brunch at Lucy’s Diner on Main Street. Since we were out there we also did a little window shopping (and shopping shopping, I bought Gwen a set of Calico Critters babies that she loves) before taking the train out to Oakridge so Taylor could visit the Lego store. He’s just really into Legos. He got himself a couple sets and some Duplo for Gwen, and I got her a gold-dotted sweatshirt from the Gap on clearance. It’s so cute I kind of want to paint little gold dots on one of my sweatshirts (I mean lbr, how many plain grey sweatshirts do I needs?).

She refused to wear a coat.

He brought this empty duffle bag so he could fill it with Legos.

A dilapidated fortress on King Edward.

Little critters.

Little love.

Weekends with toddler: twirling, watching Pee-Wee’s Playhouse (her new fave), wandering the city, eating waffles, napping hard, building train tracks with her big sister.

Last week I was digging through Gwen’s basket of shoes by the front door in in the very bottom I found the first pair of boots I ever made. This soft, dark brown leather came in a bag of scraps and actually inspired me to make the boots, like as soon as I saw it I pictured this exact thing. These are where it all began! They don’t fit her anymore (although she tried to cram her feet into them), but I just finished a new pair for her in brown sheepskin that I can’t wait for her to try out.

It’s only Wednesday but WOW has it been a cool week so far! On Monday I noticed that the views/faves on one particular banner in my shop were blowing up, but I never bothered to dig into the stats to find the source of the traffic- I’d recently been featured in a roundup on Candypunk.com so I assumed that was it. Then yesterday my friend posted on my facebook that my banner was on Salon’s tumblr? Say what? I found the post and traced it back to the Editor-in-chief of The Mary Sue, who I now love because people posting my stuff on tumblr with the proper source (ie a link to my shop) is something that rarely happens. Anyway she posted it and it was reblogged by tons of people, including Wil Wheaton (???) and the official Mary Sue tumblr as well.

EDIT: now it’s been posted to BoingBoing as well? THIS IS MADNESS

Then in the afternoon I got a message from someone letting me know that Jessica Valenti had posted a link to me on her facebook! She’s actually bought banners from me in the past and I specifically uploaded a quality image of one of my mini killjoy banners so she could use it as her twitter header, and now it’s on her facebook page as well. Amazing!

Sometimes I feel like kind of an ass bragging about this stuff but like… I work REALLY REALLY hard on my shop and it feels pretty great when people notice & appreciate what I do (and also buy things).

Speaking of working hard, my new snap setter arrived today so I can finally FINALLY finish the boots I made last week. I actually only have one more sample pair to make and then I will be photographing & listing them all for sale! Right now I’m aiming to launch in about a week (on my birthday, actually) and I’ll also be doing a giveaway on instagram so be sure to follow me so you don’t miss out!

Earlier this week I wrote out a big long post whining and complaining about a bunch of things I’ve been whining and complaining about forever. Then I saved it as a draft and decided to not post it, and I’m really glad I didn’t because this turned out to be a great goddamn week.

Spontaneous ramen date.


Gwen loves pigeons and follows them around the park, holding her hand out like she does to the dogs.



Normally I wouldn’t go for white pants on a toddler but these fleece ones were on clearance for TWO DOLLARS and at that price you really can’t go wrong.

Gwen had her followup appointment with the pediatrician who confirmed that we didn’t have anything to worry about re: her being a late talker and said Gwen was very smart. She really is talking a lot more nowadays anyway- she’s added “coh” (coat) and “kih” (kiss) to her vocabulary this week and she’s constantly asking us (by pointing) what things are called. She’s also started giving us spontaneous hugs, which I can’t get enough of.

I had an appointment with my endocrinologist to see where my thyroid was at after being off the medication for six weeks aaaaaaand my Graves’ Disease is in remission!

This means I DON’T have to go back on medication, I DON’T have to have a thyroidectomy, I DON’T have to have a radioactive iodine treatment, and best of all, if (hopefully when) Taylor and I decide we want to try to have another baby we don’t have to wait- I would just ned to get my thyroid levels checked to make sure they are still normal. Of course, my Graves’ could come back, at which point I’d have to decide which treatment option I want to go with but for now I don’t even have to think about it.

Taylor and I went out last night to the Death From Above 1979 show, which was AMAZING. We hadn’t been OUT out together in a really long time. Honestly I hadn’t been out like that at all in about a million years, and being at the Commodore brought back a lot of memories (WOW what an old person thing to say). We didn’t get home until almost midnight (ON A WORKNIGHT????) and I am a lil bit hungover today. It was definitely worth it though; the show was great, I love spending time with Taylor and even drinking pints of Molson Canadian has a certain nostalgia to it.

I hit a super irritating snag with cobbling on the weekend, and it was ALL MY OWN FAULT. After a lot of trial an error I’d finally figured out the easiest way to get boots done, and it involves sewing just two pieces together and then punching the holes & setting the snaps before sewing up the rest of the boot. On Saturday I had just started a new pair (kelly green leather) and after punching the holes I went to set the snaps and my snap setter is… gone? I use a 4-piece snap setting tool with a stand, two separate dies (one for setting the outside of the snap and one for setting the inside) and cylindrical setter. You can see it here…

Those of you in the know might notice that I’m using the wrong die to set these inside snaps, oopsssss.

The setting tool was in a storage bin in my hall closet where I keep all sorts of leather crafting stuff,and when I went and got it I found the dies and the stand, but not the setter. After wracking my brain to try and remember the last time I used it I realized it had been almost two weeks earlier, and there was a couple days in those two weeks when CERTAIN TODDLER PERSONS may have gotten into the bin. Usually the gate in the hallway keeps that closet off limits, but most evenings before bathtime we take the gate down and I definitely left the bin lying open for a couple days. Stupid Tanie, stupid! Never leave anything open around sneaky toddlers!

Cat burglar?

The setter is probably somewhere in the house still (unless it was thrown in the trash or recycling) but so far we haven’t been able to find it even after thoroughly searching most of the common areas of the house and Gwen’s bedroom. I had to order a new setter this morning and it’s shipped already BUT until it arrives I can’t finish any boots. I can still sew them up and punch the holes but it’s so much easier setting the snaps BEFORE sewing up the whole boot. This whole thing definitely threw me off on my goal to make a pair each week because last week’s pair was the kelly green ones I started on Saturday, haha. Luckily I made two pairs the week before so as long as I sew my little heart out (or my little fingers off) this week I should be back on track once the new setter gets here.

She is very into foxes and also buckling her toys into the stroller.







I thought geese were supposed to fly south for the winter? Is this evidence of global warming?

As usual, at the end of 2014 Taylor had a great big surplus of unused vacation days. Once again he decided to take Fridays off, this year until mid-May. It’s great because it gives him more time to spend with Gwen, to sleep, and to get back on a regular sleep-schedule on the weekends. It’s not great because it makes me feel like I also have Fridays off, which I do not. Next month though, one of the families I work with is temporarily cutting back to 4 days/week so I’l only be working from 7:30 to 9 in the morning and 3 until 4:20 in the afternoons. Not a total day off, and I really am not in love with that early of a start, but I’ll take it!

Today was Taylor’s first Friday off and although it was supposed to rain the weather is fine so we took the little ones to the playground at Second Beach. It was clear and sunny but very windy, my favourite kind of day. The water was all churned up, with waves crashing against and even a little over the top of the Seawall. Gwen had so much fun at the playground she didn’t want to leave, and had a full-on screaming freakout when we tried to put her back in the stroller and was mad at us the whole way home. Once we got back here some books & snacks cheered her right up.

This afternoon I am getting my blood tested to see if I’m hyperthyroid again or if levels have stabilized. Then I’m looking forward (not really) to spending a super fun weekend cleaning & reorganizing the storage room, hopefully well enough that I can finally put the Christmas decorations away? Right now they are piled in bins in my foyer. Wish me luck!

And for your Friday afternoon, my current fave song…

Last night I had just about the worst sleep of my entire life. I fell asleep on the couch just before midnight, and then woke up at 12:15 and moved to the bedroom, where I couldn’t get back to sleep. Like AT ALL. I was up suuuuuuuuper late reading and today I’m so tired I just want to lie down forever. Last week when I was feeling sick I joked on twitter that I’d “taken to my bed” and like… why can’t that be a thing, I feel sick and/or exhausted and/or in pain almost every day of my life SO WHY CAN’T I JUST GO LAY DOWN???

I’ve actually had pretty crappy insomnia since just before Christmas and I’m a little worried that it’s my thyroid being hyper again. Or am I just worried that I’m hyperthyroid and the worry is causing the insomnia? WHO CAN SAY (I have my appointment with my endocrinologist in 10 days so I guess I’ll find out soon enough).

Gwen continues to amaze. Her latest trick is she will just take off her diaper, which is GREAT. Really. Great trick. I’ll be minding my own business and from the other room I’ll hear a velcro sound, and I’ll know she’s up to no good. Actually I can usually tell when she’s up to no good because she’ll run to her room and slam the door. You hear that door close and you know she’s got a bowl of candy, or a box of pins, or a half-sewn boot that is still mostly held together by a dozen carefully placed binder clips and has a great big sharp leather needle hanging off a very long and easily tangle-able piece of thread for good measure. Yesterday afternoon she kept going to her room and NOT closing the door and every time I checked on her she was just playing blocks, so I think it’s pretty clear that the door slam is indicative of TROUBLE.

Speaking of half-sewn boots, after posting last week that it is literally impossible for me to make more than one pair of boots a week with all my other responsibilities… well I made two pairs last week. ALMOST. I made almost two pairs, I have one boot still waiting to have its sole sewn on. But still! Almost two pairs in one week is a DRAMATIC increase from just one pair. I probably could have finished both but one pair is in this beautiful soft dove grey suede that is inexplicably hard to sew so it is taking longer than I expected to finish. What’s weird is I already made a pair of shoes with this suede and it was not this hard to sew before! IDGI.

I’ve been trying to get these stupid sippy lids for Gwen’s LifeFactory bottles for forever. Usually she has water & milk in regular sippy cups like she should at this age, but part of our bedtime routine is milk after her bath and for some reason regular sippy cups get her AMPED UP. idk why, if we give her one she will run all over the house with it, acting crazy, but with a bottle she’ll sit quietly on the couch, all snuggled in a blanket. Soooooo we’ve just been giving her bottles. I KNOW I KNOW IT’S TERRIBLE but at least we don’t put her to bed with a bottle, that would be worse.

Anyway it’s apparently just about fucking impossible to get these sippy lids here. On amazon.ca they are like THIRTY DOLLARS PLUS TWELVE DOLLARS SHIPPING. For just two sippy lids! Ridic. I tried to get them at the local store where I got the bottles but they are sold out AND YET STILL LISTED AS AVAILABLE ON THE WEBSITE LIKE OMG UPDATE UR INVENTORY, if something is out of stock I should not be able to add it to my cart and pay for it. I finally found them on well.ca for cheaper than anywhere else, with free shipping once I added a box of graham crackers* to my order to meet the $25 free shipping threshold. The lids were delivered today so hopefully I can finally, finally pack away** the last of the bottle tops & nipples.

* Annie’s bunny grahams in honey, chocolate chip and chocolate. They are so good but when I gave some to Gwen she THREW THEM ALL OVER THE FLOOR, what the heck. MORE FOR ME igss.

**We’ve been “packing away” all the baby stuff and tbh our storage room is just about ready to burst from it all. I tried to talk to Taylor about possibly going through Gwen’s old stuff and selling/donating it except for a few keepsakes, and he was all “THAT’S NOT FAIR, TINY BABIES, FEELINGS” but like… he’s the one who doesn’t want to have another baby?*** And it doesn’t make sense to keep our storage room crammed with all these things that we’re never ever ever going to use again. idk. I get really sad sometimes thinking about how I’m never going to get to have another baby. It’s not like I PLANNED for Gwen to be my last baby, it just worked out that way. It’s like when Danny DeVito is the old stripper at Phoebe’s bachelorette party in season 10 of Friends: “You never know when it’s gonna be your last dance.”

*** Taylor is actually supposed to give me his final answer on the baby/no baby question before my appointment with the endo next week so I can talk to the doctor about it, like if I am hyperthyroid again one of the options would be to go back on the meds, but one of the meds is not safe for fetuses so if we did want to try and get pregnant then surgery or radioactive iodine would be a better option, but how long do I have to wait after those treatments before starting TTC? Or even if I’m NOT hyperthyroid now, should I still wait? Also I think Graves’ makes conception more difficult? And tbh I’m not getting any younger. UGH I WASTED A DECADE NOT HAVING BABIES, SOMEONE GO BACK IN TIME AN SMACK ME.