8 years later and whole lotta chocolate

How the world has changed in 8 years.  My world has changed.

Happy birthday sunshine

signed, the willow

The Painted Ladies of Grimsby

How cute is this circle of houses on the beach of Grimsby?

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source:   flickriver


source:  flickriver



 Pretty. Don't you just want to go? Or would you rather have a taste of their gingerbread details?

 signed, the willow

Christmas Eve with the Chickadees

And after....

signed, the willow

I'm married to a Griswold

Yes, I know there aren't that many lights.  But, when goes to Canadian Tire thrice each weekend day for more lights and starts chatting up the neighbour about his lights.  The neighbour puts out lights, Clark Griswold puts out lights.  The neighbour puts out more lights, Clark puts out more lights.  And it keeps going on and on and on.

signed, the willow

Back to Work

My challenge this week has been to balance a new work life with home life.  Working full time for someone else hasn't happened for 8 years for me.  So, it's a bit of a stretch for me.

First, I'm tired.

Second, there's no time to exercise. Or, if there is, I'm sleeping due to the point above.

Third, I miss my little girl and feel like the few precious moments in the evening are spent demanding her to do things.

Fourth, I feel guilty because everyone has made accommodations so that I can work.

Fifth, I feel squeezed, incapable, and fragile.  I'm new at this, so I know that it will get better and no day will be easy or perfect.

signed, the willow

Oddly Quiet

Tonight (because it's so dark out) This Afternoon the house is oddly quiet.  It's never this quiet.  *Mila* is quietly drawing, colouring, writing, and I'm typing with the tv on mute.  It's nice.  I love being together just doing all sorts of quiet things.

Next week, this will change.  We're taking a turn in our lives.  The only one sacrificing will be *Mila*.  For the past 7 years, I've been there to pick her up from school and take care of her every need.  For 7 years.  Some mothers have been working since their babies were 7 months old, or even 7 weeks old.  We've been lucky and we've tried to provide her with the best push start into the world that we could.  But it's my turn to contribute and make up for lost time lost dollars.

It will be fine.  Tell me it will be okay.

signed, the willow

Take me away to Glastonbury

I'm in absolute heaven with these wonderful people.  I want to be around them, creating magic with them.  Heck, I want to be them!



Welcome to the House of Fairytales from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.


signed, the willow

MoVember?

Will you be letting your guy or girl dote on some facial hair for the benefit of Movember?  I'm thinking if they commit to donating some money (or time....time is good too) to a good cause like Prostate Cancer awareness, then why not.  But if they're just doing it for Grey Cup or Hockey Season (*Steve*!) then my answer will be no - for my husband, anyhow.

For those of you who will support a good cause, here's some simpler ideas.  And this allows us girls or children to participate too.

Two Finger Moustache Ring (Amberie on Etsy)

Tachinator Fascinator ( Crown and Glory on Etsy)

Moustache Straws (The Paper Jungle on Etsy)

So?  Are you going to participate in a more stylish version of Movember?

signed, the willow

Candy Corn Nails

*Mila* asked for some candy corn nails.  I struggled with how to create these ones.  

First, I pulled out a Science project book.  Why not?  Use it to protect the table and use it to maybe come up with a better idea than intricately painting finger nails.  This is not my forte.

I figured some scotch tape might help us out for this and taped the top 2/3 of her nails.

So far, so good.  She thinks this is all legit and what the candy corn nail process is all about.

Paint the bottom layer orange (yep, I'll get to this later).

We let them dry and got down to taping off the top 1/3 of her nail and carefully painted in the yellow.  How fabulous is that yellow nail polish by Joe Fresh?

Order some cucumber slices from the kitchen for your tired eyes and relax.

We topped it off with some globs of white for the tips and hello Candy Corn Nails.  

Until we saw this:

Yeah!  Yellow goes on the bottom.

signed, the willow

Mask Love

Aren't these the greatest masks?  The quality of them is surprisingly impressive.  Why am I so amazed?  Because they are from the giant dollar store in the mall.

So inspired to make a great costume or two or three from these.  What would you dress as with one of these masks?  What's your costume for 2011?  Or the costume of someone you love?

I'm considering an angel with wings, or maybe a lingerie zombie?  Ooooh.

signed, the willow

Now, When I go to Webster's Falls...

Now, when I go to Webster's Falls I am going to be feeling rather under-dressed.

signed, the willow

I feel like a new outfit....

...Polyvore to the rescue!

I feel a little bit of envy lately.  All the more reason to choose something green.  Greenish Deco, that is.

source:  polyvore

Greenish Deco by kikiwillow featuring a brim hat

Bend little willow

It's not everyday that you can blog about your middle name.  But I'm so lucky I can do it over and over and over again.  And now, I have so many more reasons to love willows:




willow leaf ring
silver blueberry on etsy




source:  pinterest




source:  pinterest




(blue willow inspired johnny walker bottles)
source:  pinterest



incredible sculpture of dancing lady
source:  trevor leat





signed, the willow

Taming of the Shrew?

Hard to believe that this wonder needs taming.  Sadly, it's been a hard road reining in her spirit.  It's a struggle for us all.  She has such strong attributes and one is her will.  That will just needs some guidelines and rules.  One of them is school.

signed, the willow