My Favourite All-Time Designer

Issey Miyake...

...hands down...

...utterly, amazingly, beautifully-constructed clothes...

I am fortunate enough to own two of his pieces.

I have owned them for twenty years.

I will have them and wear them until the day I die

Winding Backwards...

Upon reading all of your lovely posts this morning

dear blog-friends, I sense a slow-moving wheel being turned in reverse as the clock ticks down to the end of 2011.

Everyone seems to be languidly recoiling...gently taking up the slack of the old year.  Cleverly beginning, ever so slowly, to tighten that invisible cord of excitement and energy for the New Year.

Hope abounds in all of us.

Hope, by Gustav Klimt

Open heart, soul and mind to the opportunities of the future.

There is magic to behold.

December 26...Nine Bells...and All's Well...

Happy New Year!

Kids are gone (some temporarily)...

and the house is sighing with joy and relief

Tomorrow morning, the tree will come down,

and the decorations will be lovingly stowed away 

as we prepare to ring in the New Year.

This year will be a separate celebration...complete with

decorations and attitude.

Old friends will roll in New Year's Eve,

and two of our four and a half kids will come back

to herald in 2012 with us.

Dinner will be risotto with curried shrimp

and an avocado and tomato salad

with the Grande Dame in attendance

we will dash to the Cenotaph at midnight to welcome the New Year

with our neighbours and friends...

and will I be tossing that fistful of glitter in the air?  Without a doubt!

New Year's Day will be brunch at our neice's home and then 

January 2 we will bless this life as we get set to do it all over again in 2012!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Morning Silence

In this most busy time of the year

there is nothing more special, more important to me,

than the dark silence of early morning.

I sneak downstairs, gently squeezing light switches on, dimmers on low so not to wake others in the house and prepare a cup of espresso splashed with steamed milk.

I sip silently next to the Christmas tree,

just letting the essence of the season settle into my heart.

Trying too hard just seems pointless and unproductive.

This particular gentle morning

it's just me, Miss Daisy snoring at my feet and Hank pleading with me with her big green eyes to turn on the tap--just one more time!--so that she can play with the dripping water.

Today will be the last of the prepping for the weekend...perhaps a pate and some gourgéres for the freezer?

One more present to wrap,

finishing touches to the Christmas lunch shopping list,

Iron the napkins

and then a long walk with Miss Daisy on The Common.

"To be with you, To be with you,
I love this time of year,

It always brings me here

to be with you."

I wish you all a Gentle Christmas.

Time to Stop

Today, I was lucky enough to spend the day

with my best friend.

We started at Tim Horton's, (it's a Canadian thing) over coffee and muffins and just sat and talked.

Meandering around a shopping mall...(Petra hates wind in her hair)...

superficially looking at stuff and still talking, we caught up on each one of our twelve (collective + husbands/significant others) kids,

husbands, parents, sisters and brothers, nieces and nephews...

We chatted about arrangements for Christmas...

meals, sleeping arrangements, grocery shopping, pick-up/drop offs at airports,

 we discussed books and make-up...

where we were in our lives;  how we felt about Christmas today, 

about how now it was time stop...

and enjoy...

and think...

and what we were really saying was...

"I love you...

I'm so lucky to have you in my life"...

Happy Christmas everyone...especially you Petra.

Soap

Clever and talented Chania at Razmataz

has just written and photographed some beautiful soaps.

Right now, well actually for the past few months,

I have been removing all the bottles of liquid soaps I have in the house

and I am replacing them with wonderful, delicious-smelling, tactile

bars of soap.

(no, I did not make this!)

I just find the whole thing, more beautiful, more luxurious, more sensuous

The wrapping alone sends me into raptures...

I am sure there are those who think that liquid is more sanitary...but isn't soap, by it's very nature, cleansing?  

So are you a liquid-person or a bar-person?

Enquiring minds want to know?

pictures, courtesy of Pinterest