here comes the sun

This is basically how I feel right now.

What a gorgeous weekend we had here in Halifax. Seeing the sun after a long, cold, extended winter is so reassuring. I even had my first patio meal of the year - complete with a margarita.

I hope there is more of this on the way. How was your weekend?

 

xx Janelle

weekend recap | getting stuff done at home

 

veggies from D's dad | abby waiting patiently for her treat | hedgehog closeup | blurry selfie, since i rarely post my face on here.

This weekend was just what I needed. I think D and I were both craving some time at home to do some cleaning, watch movies and relax.

On Friday night we watched FIBA Americas (basketball). Then on Saturday, I had a laughing fit with the seniors at our dance fitness class. The theme was ABBA and we came up with some pretty creative choreography. "Jump with my baby", turned into us miming being pregnant while hopping up and down. Almost everyone was in stitches. Maybe you had to be there?

Saturday night we watched The Beach - I know. I can't believe it took me this long to watch it. Apparently, it's a classic Leo movie. I liked it, but I feel like it started going downhill about halfway through. The whole gameboy scene was a bit wacky.

Today we got a few things done around the house that we've been procrastinating on. Hung a curtain in the living room (pics soon!), cleaned 3 windows, and hung up this painting I did a while ago.

I try not to see the mistakes when I look at it. I do like the hair though and it's the first of my artwork I've ever framed and hung. Plus I think it coordinates well with the wall colour.

What did you do this weekend? Fill me in.

Thanks for stopping in,
xx Janelle

puppy eyes

If you've ever visited my blog before then you've met Abby - the cutie on my header. And if you're a regular then you know she's the star around here. And while she is a rambunctious, tough, dirty, garbage-eating animal as she should be, she is also a certified Beyonce-level diva.

We'll be playing with the rope, tugging, having a good time, growling (yep, both of us) and then I look away for, like, a second and she hits me with one of these.

Or I'll be getting ready to catch the bus in the morning, scrambling to grab my purse and throw together a lunch when I'll look over and she's doing this.

And I fall for it every time.

How am I supposed to look this dog in the eyes and leave for work every morning? Two and a half years later and I still can't handle it. So, I don't. I call out "be good" and fly out the door with my head down.

My kids are definitely going to have attachment issues.

xx Janelle

a good day : all the little things

I don't really have a picture to go with today's post, so hope you don't mind the random one above.

How was your Thursday? Are any of you still reeling from the time change, like me? A lot of the girls at work have said that they've been feeling extra tired this year. I can't decide if I think everyone is having a harder time adjusting this year or if we just forget how it affects us each year. I'm not trying to be negative, just something I noticed.

Anyway, despite sleeping through my alarm once again and almost missing my bus, I had a pretty good day. Here are some little things that made it special:

- As I stepped onto our front stoop to take Abby out for her morning business, I noticed a five dollar bill plastered to the wood. It must have fallen out of one of our neighbour's pockets during the rain. You can bet I bent right over and picked up the sopping wet bill and put it in my pocket. Since we do have a few neighbours that use that door, I'm not sure who it belongs to so I think I'll keep it. Is that bad (karma)?

- I got to see the cutest little boy at work today. Every kid I see is the cutest. #babyfeverallthetime. He was waiting with his mom and he dropped his tiny blue eater egg on the ground - or so I thought. When I picked it up and gave it back to him, he tossed it once again. And then I gave it to his mom. C'mon little one, I'm smarter than that... But you're just too cute.

- Follies at the dog park again tonight. There was a whole pack of them tonight. They drank a lot of puddle water, ate a lot of sticks and spent the majority of the time marking their territory. That pretty much sums it up!

- My hairdresser is awesome. It took a long time for me to find her and now I won't let anyone else touch my hair. She's the first person I ever let colour my hair when I got ombre last Dec. Today I just got a little trim, but it feels really good.


- After my appointment, I got to catch up with a friend of mine, who is like a sister to me at Humani-T, a cafe downtown. We kind of have a bit of a history: Our moms were best friends in high school, lost touch in college and then reconnected when they were pregnant. They are a family of three girls and then there is me and my sister and brother. We used to go camping every year for a week since we were in diapers, so they truly feel like family. I feel like I can be 100% myself around her and we can talk about all of the family stuff and we just get it, you know what I mean? It's always nice to chat with her... I enjoyed it very much. And I had a delicious pulled pork sandwich.

- Oh, and I started a new book today, Before I Go to Sleep. So far, the first ten pages are very intriguing and remind me quite a bit of the Notebook, but it's a thriller, not a romance so I know the tables will turn. I'm already thinking about what might happen, so that's a good sign. Have you read it?

So this post is a bit random, I suppose, but I like to keep track of the small, simple pleasures. It helps keep me optimistic and I truly believe that positivity breeds good things.

I hope you all have a great Friday, whether your at work, school, home or traveling. Be safe!

xx Janelle

mondays are for quick suppers & dog park adventures

I have news! Usually, I keep all work info off the blog, but I'm ready to share just a little bit. I started a new job in Education Coordination! I accepted the position at the end of January, but only started two weeks ago. I'm not going to spill all the details, but I am very happy with my new position and I think that it was a smart decision.

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One of the perks of my new job is that I get home at 5, instead of 5:30 which gives me a little extra time to get supper ready or... get caught up on all the blogs that went up during the day. Today we had some hamburger left over from our burritos last night and we had big plans for it. Nachos.

Complete with dairy-free cheese. My belly thanked me. And it was ready in less than twenty minutes!

Although all I wanted to do after eating half a pan of nachos was curl up in the fetal position, D suggested taking advantage of the extra daylight (thank you, DST) by bringing Abs to the off-leash park. So, I dragged my lazy butt off the couch and off we went.

Lately we haven't had much luck at the dog park. This past weekend we went up two or three times, but there just weren't any dogs for Abby to romp with. I think people may have been avoiding it, since the field was/is full of mud, muck and dirt.

Oh, but tonight there were no less than five (!!) dogs for her to play with. She had a blast. A big muddy, blast. She is really making progress with her recall training and she comes more often than not when we call her. We are so happy for that. She has come a long way! I couldn't stop talking about what a good girl she was being...

After she got a little spray down with a waterbottle and a towel off, she polished off her food. Too busy to even look up for the paparazzi. Divaaa.

To get warmed up from our walk, I grabbed a hot drink and cuddled up on the couch with D. While he watched the newest episode of Walking Dead, I hurried through as much of the last few chapters of The Rainbow Troops as I could. It's due back at the library on Wednesday and I still have about 60 pages to finish tomorrow... It's doable. Sometimes I can get through a chapter or two on my commute, since the chapters are only about 5 pages long max.

On the right is my current bookmark. It's a photo of me and my mom at the beach near our house when I was a little one. Check out our eighties style.

And we topped our night off by doing some dishes. We live a wild life of adventure.

I hope your Monday went well. The hardest day of the week is over! That's something to celebrate.

Goodnight,
xx Janelle

how we survived Nemo

So, we did end up getting that storm I told you about on Friday. We got about 10cm less than expected, but the snow did result in huge snowdrifts and a foot and a half of snow on the sidewalks where people hadn't shoveled yet. While most people stayed in during the "snowpacolypse", we decided it would be the perfect time to bring Abby to a nearby green space to release some energy.

We are still training her to be off-leash and she occasionally steps out of her boundaries, so the fact that there were barely any cars on the road made me much less nervous. We do always make sure to bring lots of treats to lure her back to us, so that always helps! 

Just look at that happy tail...

My handsome boyfriend with his snowy gloves.

We can bring any of Abby's favorite balls and tug toys to the park, but she generally wants nothing to do with them. In the house, she goes crazy for them, but once we get outside she has one thing on her mind. Eating sticks. She will nearly tackle a small child for one. She's such a beaver. 

EXHIBIT A

 EXHIBIT B.

It seems like we spent the whole weekend in this little park, having been out for at least a couple of hours each day. I guess our plan to tire her out worked, because this tired dog napped for most of the day. Even my legs felt a little "jello-ey" from trudging through snow both days. We went to run some errands downtown today and sneak in a little coffee date and the sidewalks still weren't plowed! That just makes it more of an adventure, I think. It made for a very memorable weekend.

We're being lazy right now and watching our Raptors take it home... for a change. Winnnnnners.

 

And loser.  

With my Raptor-ish arm.

Hope you all had a great weekend. Were you out in the snow or soaking up the sun?

xx Janelle

PS - For whatever reason, the news outlets called the Nor'Easter storm Nemo, which explains this post's title.

weekend plans : hibernate

© Sanchez & Lope for WWF

I was going to start off by saying I was preparing for the big storm on it's way, but stopped because that's not true. Unless you call making an ATM detour and buying almond milk "storm preparations". I guess I'm mentally preparing myself? In any case, we won't actually be hibernating all weekend. Tonight we might have dinner with a friend, tomorrow I have volunteering (details in this post) and Abby will still need to go out. We plan to bring her out to romp in the snow during the blizzard tomorrow. We may be crazy.

"You're brave for being out in this weather!" a lady called out to me last week from her front porch. It was -28C with the windchill. A dog has to use the bathroom... I mean.. grass/snow pile?  It's not really possible for me to just not bring Abby out because it's cold. That would be cruel. For all 3 of us.

I do plan on doing lots of snow day stuff tomorrow though, like cleaning up my enormous clothing pile in the bedroom, napping, making soup and cozying up while watching Netflix. Side note: I burst out laughing when on last week's Mindy Project made reference to couples watching Netflix in sweats because that is us most Friday nights. Guilty!

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I also want to share some links I enjoyed this week. Maybe you'll like them too?

1. Jenni's post on "marital blish" | it's so comforting to read posts from people who share their feelings freely & honestly. this post will hit home to a lot of couples (married or otherwise, I'm sure!)

2. A Winter Survival Guide | I can't live without my lipbalm & my winter bandeau (headband) from H&M. What's on your must-have list for making winter more bearable?

3. This board & this one | I have such immense baby fever and this photos make it so. much. worse. My heart is literally bursting at the tenderness & love in these photos. Oh, but this shot made me laugh.

4. Struggles of a perfectionist creative | This post is so relateable. I'm working on just letting go & creating. The more i make stuff, the better it gets. I finished that collage I was telling you about & I can't wait to share it with you soon.

I hope you all have a great weekend. Stay warm & stay safe if you're expecting erratic weather.
xx Janelle

sundays are for baking & drawing

Another weekend down. Where does the time go? People have told me that time moves even faster as you age. I can't even imagine!

If you know me, or have been reading my blog for a while, you know that Sundays are my rest day. I like to do a few things, but I love not having any set plans and spending my day doing what I want when I want. I know this luxury won't last forever, so I plan to take advantage of it!

Yesterday, I woke up slowly and chatted with mom on the phone for a bit. Once she told me they were having smoothies, a craving hit. After finishing our phone call, I busted out my trusty magic bullet and threw in some frozen peaches, fresh strawberries and low-acid orange juice. Instant smoothie! Even on a frigid day, like yesterday, a smoothie still hit the spot.

I've already told you before that Sunday makes me want to bake. I've also confessed that baking feeling went away the day we moved into this apartment, with it's seemingly surface-less space. D had been wanting to make for a couple of months now, so yesterday we bit the bullet and made them. It didn't take very long, since worked together. He did the wet bowl and I did the dry bowl. Then mix. They turned out alright from what I could tell. I only had a little bite because I was too busy binging on chocolate I had bought on Friday.

One must-do Sunday activity, unless it's raining, is to take Abby to the off-leash dog park. She doesn't get much (if any) dog interaction during the week, so we try to bring her a couple times every weekend to release some energy by chasing and wrestling the other dogs. When we finally took her inside because our feet were frozen, she looked like this. Man, she knows how to turn on the puppy eyes.

Later on in the evening, after watching a couple episodes of Ink Masters on Spike TV, D & I decided to draw. Inspired by the tattoo designs on the show, we decided to challenge each other. We set up our table so we couldn't see each others' drawings and then described a tattoo we would want to get. We had one hour to create a cool design. The photo on the left is just a sketch I started to make a collage over, the photo on the right is what I came up with after he gave me the following instructions:

I want a bomb dropping into water. You can use blue, red and orange.

A man of few words.

Not bad, for my first "tattoo design" ever. I'm pretty sure that no one would ever get this permanently drawn on their body though. Haha. I asked for a spiral/floral design with lots of detail in blue, green and purple, but he won't let me show you his. It was actually really fun to surprise each other with the design at the end. We'll probably try this again.

The design on the left above is just a sketch I made of an old travel photo my parents took. I'm planning on doing a paper collage over it sometimes this week or next. I'll be sure to show you the finished product.

How was your weekend? Did you do anything fun?

xx Janelle

sundays are for cuddling

I have what seems like an infinite number of photos of Abby in this last pose. Sulking, all day long. Just look at those eyes and tell me how you could bring her back to the shelter. Abby was adopted and returned at least twice before we met her. I just don't get it.

On to happier thoughts...

My plans for the rest of the night consist of sipping vanilla nut cream tea, while watching my new obsession, Sherlock, on Netflix and pretending I don't have to go back to work tomorrow. Oh, and cuddling up with my two housemates, one furry and the other not so much.

What is your favorite Sunday night activity? Tell me.xx Janelle

PS - try to ignore the terrible white balance in the photos above. D bought new lightbulbs for the living room but we still have the old, yellow light ones in the office. my camera doesn't know how to handle that. haha.

these two

D & Abs couldn't drive up because of the winter storm that hit the Maritimes last night/today. This means I am without them until Monday when we will meet in Moncton for New Year's Eve. I am enjoying spending time with family but I feel like a part of me is in Nova Scotia. I keep thinking I'm forgetting to take the dog out, but D is being a "single [dog] dad" for now. I keep denying that I treat my dog like my baby, but I think the joke is on me...

My new toy kept me busy this afternoon - I got the Bamboo Create tablet for Christmas. Now I can add my handwriting to my photos. So you can expect to see a sequence of photos with quotes or sayings on them in the future. I'm exploring graphic design with baby steps. There is definitely a steep learning curve, but I can't wait to practice more. The picture you see above is the result of a large number of tries.

I hope you're all doing well.

stormed in?

Today was an unexpected day. A big kicker of a storm put a wrench in my travel plans, which meant that I suddenly had an extra day with nothing to do. So, I did stuff. I'm a Maritimer. No storm is going to keep me inside.

Abby needed to go get a routine "procedure" at the vet, so I called to see if they had an opening and two people had cancelled because of the weather. Around ten, I bundled up, zipped up my rain coat, pulled on my rubber boots and we were on our way through the rain, snow and slush to the vet's. I think it's quite amazing how in the span of ten minutes, the weather in Halifax can pass through almost every type of precipitation/cloud cover. Oh, and top it all off with some heavy winds. It's not so fun to walk through, but I do enjoy listening to a good storm rage while I'm inside under the covers.

Once I was back inside, I took a few photos of myself hoping you would be able to see how cozy I was in my gray sweater, favorite heart shirt and sweats but they turned out blurry. This was the best one. Here's what I look like with my hair up while I'm loungin.

After a bit of blog browsing, I followed through on my plans to bake some cookies. Some to bring to my family's home, some to give to D for his parents. Okay, a lot to bring home - probably about 30 cookies. I made a double batch!

Once all of the cookies had come out of the oven, I set out again to pick up my brother's gift from a local shop. While downtown, I also swung by the library to pick up a few books for the slow moments while at home.

Tonight, once D came back from work, I decided to finish up the rest of my wrapping. I'm happy with how it turned out. We had the snowflake wrap left over from last year and I bought a couple of rolls of kraft paper, some washi tape and some teal ribbon to go with my Christmas colour scheme. I didn't have any gift tags, so I just cut some letters out of card stock and wrote my nickname on them. Done and done!

I tackled my wrapping in three short spurts. Although I confessed to enjoying wrapping last week, it still takes a bit of time to get the packages ready with all the embellishments, tags, bows and ribbon. Time well spent though, it was fun.

What did you guys do today? Any holiday adventures?

bribery & affection.

Abby & I lazing around on a Monday night:

Sometimes I bribe my dog with graham crackers to sit next to me. Is that sad?

She likes men better. Probably because they don't smother her with unwanted love like I do. Right?

That must be it.

sticks in the park

Hiii! Thanks for stopping by my blog. My posts here have been non-existent for the past few weeks because, as I mentioned earlier, my computer was dying on me, little by little. This weekend was the last straw. This girl 'needs' internet.

A couple of weeks ago, Abby, the boys & I headed outside after work for some play time in the park. I am definitely appreciating the extra few hours of sunshine in the evenings. It's hard to believe that just a month ago it got dark at five and now the sun doesn't seem to set until after eight. I used to see Spring as a rainy, muddy pit stop that stood between me and summer, but I'm learning to appreciate it more.

While the boys tossed around the football, Abby & I romped around a bit.

Although Victoria Park isn't technically a 'dog park', lots of owners give their pups some off leash time here. I'm a little hesitant to let her off-leash unless there is another dog to keep her close. She is so easily distracted and tends to wander jet off at high speed when she gets her first taste of freedom. Luckily for her, though, there were a ton of sticks laying around so I decided to chance giving her some freedom. Luckily for me, it worked!

I leave the leash on her, so she's easier to grab.

When we try to play with her outside, whether it's with a ball, bone or her favorite stuffie, she wants nothing to do with us; but all we have to do is find the biggest, baddest stick and she is all over us. She is a wild-dog through and through.

I hope you all have a lovely, relaxing Sunday!

easy mondays

I haven't quite been feeling well since late last week, but it's nothing more than a nuisance. I've got a bit of chest congestion and an occasionally nasty-sounding cough, but I've managed to avoid most of the icky symptoms most colds/flus bring like headaches, all kinds of nasal problems and body aches. That's great and all, but I somehow managed to get a tiny canker on the inside of my lip. Where the heck did that come from? I rarely ever get them, maybe once every 3-5 years.

The whole point of me filling you in on my minor sickness is to show you what I bought to treat myself. Do you guys do that, buy yourself something nice to make you feel better? At least this time my gift to myself has a meaningful purpose. I bought some tea from David's Tea! Nothing like hot tea to soothe a scratchy throat...

I brewed myself a cup of the oolong as soon as I got home and I must say, it was pretty flavorful. The peachy, nutty smell was so inviting! The flavour was not as intense as I would have liked, but next time I'll just steep it a bit longer. I drank it in bed while reading a few pages of my newest library find and chatting with D while he folded some laundry.

And this is how I ended my night.

Cuddled up on the couch with my unusually affectionate dog, sketching my future home, making fun of Cee-Lo's crazy outfit on the Voice and eating sour cream and onion chips. Perfect.

As much as I lament (and dread) Mondays, sometimes they just aren't so bad. Sometimes they're pretty good.

snowed out

The reason for the silence around here over the weekend is that I went home to visit my parents in New Brunswick! I took 3 (!!) vacation days so that D and I could drive up with Abby-dog on Thursday. We had to rent a vehicle which made it costly, but it was worth it because it meant a lot to my Mom. Plus, I got to see my Dad & brother on their shared birthday!

On Friday my Mom, Dad, D and I took Abs for what we thought would be a leisurely walk. And it was while we were on the groomed trail, but as it turned out that the snow off the trail was super-soft from recent warm temperatures. All of a sudden our "leisurely walk turned into over two hours of an intense physical workout including snow up to our crotches. Cool.

These photos don't really show the intensity of it all. This was before we decided to cut through the woods and a big open field that was being blasted with icy wind off of the bay. I'm not complaining though (trust me I did plenty of that during the adventure), because D & I agree it was probably the best part of the weekend. It was more exercise than I usually get, it was fun and Abby got some quality off-leash time.

Northern NB is known for having some of the best snowmobile trails in Canada. My parents don't have a snowmobile, but they sure do take advantage of the trails on foot.

sweatpants over jeans. all bundled up.

so thrilled.

dad & the only pic you'll see of mom. she doesn't like her photo on the internets.

see? crotch-level.

grandad & grandog bonding.

D trying to make me into a snow-woman

  

Did you have any outdoor adventures lately? Tell me about them.