Confession:

This is a rather common occurrence in my apartment.

Also, I'm too tired right now to get up and go to bed. True story.

It got really cold in Toronto today.

Ice Queen photo by Cecil Beaton courtesy of Model's Own

Yes Please!

Can we focus on #s 1, 3, 5 and 6?!? DROOL.

via Vogue.com

Okay so all of last year I kept track of the books I read in the margin of this blog. Here is the list:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling
The History of Love - Nicole Krauss
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Eat Pray Love - Elizabeth Gilbert
Gods Behaving Badly - Marie Phillips
Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson
Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked WItch of the West - Gregory
Maquire
A Technique For Producing Ideas - James Webb Young
All My Friends Are Superheroes - Andrew Kaufman
Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer
Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
What Colour is your Parachute - Richard N. Bolles
The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammet
Stardust - Neil Gaiman
On Beauty - Zadie Smith
Too Much Happiness - Alice Munro
Strengths Finder 2.0 - Tim Rath

It is not as long as I might have hoped however does average out to a book a month which is quite satisfactory. Actually, reading a minimum of one book a month might be a good goal for the coming year... hmmmm. I got a marvelous amount of books for Christmas so I've got plenty of delicious reads to sink my teeth into.



Of course if I had a swoon-worthy library such as this in my house, I'd likely be reading day in, day out. How cosy does that white chair look?!

Have you read any good books lately?

photo via Apartment Therapy

Radical dude!

Did I ever post these? I'm doing a little New Years purging of the files on my computer and I saw these amazingly cool photos of waves that my father sent me in an email way back in the summer. There is an actual person who takes these! I don't know how, and unfortunately I can't remember who but I just think they are spectacular. (And on a snowy January day, why not post some photos of sun and waves?)

Oh right, it's winter.

....of course the self-imposed hibernation of yesterday makes me feel compelled to leave the house today, which is kind of tricky because outside it looks like this:

Time to bundle up!

Sick Days are AWESOME.

So I took yesterday off work.

Tuesday night I got a dreadfully sore throat, Wednesday added a headache to the mix, and I decided that to fend off whichever illness was trying to take hold of me (Strep? MONO? I was imagining the worst) I'd better take a day to let my immune system do its thing.

Not wanting to bug my coworker to take my shift last minute I worked on Thursday (and was rather miserable) and then went home and didn't leave my house for what's now going on 42 hours.

Yesterday I woke up, sat in bed, went back to sleep, got up to take some vitamins and make some hot water with lemon and honey - a concoction which I firmly believe in during times of illness and which I drank constantly throughout the day - and do a crossword puzzle, went back to bed, went back to sleep, got up to eat some soup, read some blogs and magazine articles, went back to bed, went back to sleep, got up watched some bad tv, had some tea and a long hot bath, read a magazine, went back to bed and went back to sleep.

IT WAS AWESOME.

So this morning I awoke at the oh-so-reasonable hour of 8am feeling rested, refreshed, and 100% better. Huzaah! Take THAT winter cold! Victory is mine! I will never again try and 'work through' a cold. That is a silly notion that won't cure anything. I don't care where you work, surely you are not so important that your employer can't spare you for 1 day. Hell, even if you're not suffering from a cold giving yourself permission to do absolutely NOTHING for one whole day can only be beneficial in today's 'Go! Go! Go!' society. Take it from me, Sick Days are AWESOME.

Auld Lang Syne

Ah finally, a New Year's wrap-up with my kind of sentimentality: http://jezebel.com/5721528/fuck-you-2010

“We don’t need lists of rights and wrongs, tables of dos and dont's; we need books, time, and silence.

--Philip Pullman

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope everyone is happily recovering from their New Years' Eve celebrations. I am happily - if slowly - doing the same.

Cheers to 2010, what a year it was. And here's to the New Year, oh what adventures 2011 is sure to bring...

http://www.cbc.ca/day6/blog/2011/01/01/lets-go-around-again-by-tanya-davis/

OMG Guess what I'm going to see in February?!!

My awesome great Aunt Mary bought me a ticket. I've told everyone I know. I am beyond excited.

Ahh the holidays. I hope that you have been enjoying yours as emensley as I have been enjoying mine. Since arriving home in Halifax I have..

..eaten Lobster twice. (!!)
..spent what might be considered an embarassing amount of time hanging out with my dog Toby
..eaten turkey dinner to the point where I needed to lay down...twice.
..watched 4 movies - two in theatres, two on tv (The King's Speech is a must see, and I will never get tired of watching The Sound of Music)
..had a marathon baking session with Sophia - the best niece ever in the whole world
..drunk copious glasses (bottles?!) of wine
..had the time to sit and read 2 magazines cover to cover AND do at least 4 crossword puzzles (I'm currently working on the giant Globe and Mail crossword - it's slow going)

I've also managed to take a couple moments to reflect on how lucky I am at this time of year. I am fortunate to be surrounded by those I love, and to have a roof over my head and food on the table.

Hearfelt Holiday Wishes to you all!

Hope you find some time to relax and enjoy the company of loved ones. I for one am looking forward to an afternoon of baking with my niece and an evening that includes one of my favourite things: LOBSTER!! (yummmm).

(Can you believe it's "Christmas Eve Eve" already?!)

via French By Design

Yesterday while Christmas shopping, I fell in love with these boots. They were at the Bay (of all places) and they were 40% off and they were sold out in my size. Cue devastation. The blankity-blank employee refused to call other stores to see if they had my boots so I may do some investigation of my own. I mean, for a pair of winter boots these are pretty damn cute - just sayin.

I love everything about these tights.

I want them. I need them. They are the most fabulous.

Image found on Model's Own

OHMIGOD I WANT TO DO THIS.

Covent Garden, tea, opera - it's like all of my favourite things!

There is an extreme cold weather warning in Toronto. First of the season, and the earliest there has ever been one. So I guess it's time to layer up and think cozy thoughts - like sitting by the fire in this awesomely cozy living room:

Weathered wood, gorgeous textiles, fireplace... how lovely it must be to hole up in this space with a pot of tea and a good book.

Image found on Bliss

Oh yeah! Happy 50th Anniversary Corrie! Well I myself am not an avid watcher I have spent many a Sunday morning harassing my mother with endless questions about plot lines and characters as she tried to catch up with the latest drama on this tiny British street.

Day Off Tomorrow. This is what's happening:

Image from Natalie Dee

Hello beloved readers. I'm sorry I abandoned you last month. I wasn't overly busy per say but I spent a lot of time doing non-computer things - like baking, and cross-stitching, and painting and sewing and reading books. It was kind of nice, actually.

Now that it is December I am re-committing to the blogosphere. December also means that I am in full-blown Christmas mode. I've bought a itsy bitsy Charlie Brown Christmas tree for my apartment, and completed it with a blue blanket and solitary red ornament, and am listening to Christmas songs as frequently and constantly as possible. (Thanks 98.1!) Speaking of radio, I've also stumbled across this little gem, which is made especially awesome by the fact that the chocolate Advent calendar my mother sent me got lost in the mail.