February fitness challenge!

I'm sure this is well-documented on this blog, but February and I are not such good friends. I find the shortest month of the year the toughest one to get through. Something about the holidays being long done and spring still so far away just does me in. Oh, and the awful, awful seasonal affective disorder. It can change my personality a full 180 degrees, until the Husband is worriedly asking me what he can do. Sometimes all I seem capable of is sitting and doing nothing. Feeling absolutely nothing, which is super weird and kind of scary.

However, with February just around the corner, I seem to be doing okay! And I want to keep that momentum going by filling my month with fun and giving myself a little challenge.

Here's the challenge: I am going to get at least 30 minutes of exercise every single day in February. I will document my success here on the blog and if I reach my goal, I get to buy some new Lululemon togs!

This challenge will hopefully keep the blues at bay AND get me back in the exercise swing of things. Because between the wedding, the holidays and then the honeymoon, I have inadvertently decreased the amount of calorie burning/muscle building in my life while increasing the (already ample) amount of baked goods.

Ya. My clothes are a wee bit tighter. Plus I just don't feel as good as I usually do. And I find my age is starting to catch up with me a little, which is unacceptable. I want to be a spry senior citizen one day, easily able to take on flights of stairs rather than trapped at the bottom of a broken elevator. Prevention, people!

Stay tuned for my progress and send your suggestions of what Lulu wear I should buy at the end of it!

Go Team Canada!

I had a very fun project over the holidays! I got to work on a commemorative journal for the 2010 Winter Olympics. I wrote an intro piece and an inspiration piece with ideas on how to photograph your Olympic experience. I also wrote some lists and and stuff to pepper through the journal. I really enjoyed it and I'm extra excited now, because all of you can have your very own copy!

Follow this link and reserve one today! I can't wait to get my own copy. I haven't seen the final version (and, as a writer, you never know how much of your work they're going to use), so I'll be watching my mailbox closely as the opening ceremonies approach.

13 days to go!

Oh, and one more!

I almost forgot! For all the fiction and fashion lovers out there, my best friend from junior high has created a blog that marries the two in the most creative of ways. Of Plotlines and Hemlines gives her space to flex her fiction muscles with short writing exercises. The official experiment is called "Try it on Tuesday," so each Tuesday she posts a picture of herself in a different dress (often borrowed from friends) followed by some fiction inspired by the dress. Fun, eh?

Can I have a blog roll, please?

Ah, January. Even when the weather is being unseasonably agreeable, it's still the perfect month to hang out at home in flannel pjs and fuzzy socks, with your favourite pet by your side. It's a good month to bake and drink tea. (Who am I kidding? Every month is a good month to bake and drink tea!) It's a good month to make fewer plans and spend more time just being.

Which makes it a perfect month to read new blogs!

Seriously, I have to tell you guys about a few of my new favourite new blogs. My go-to reads. Because sometimes you just need to pass some time appreciating other people's creativity and handiwork. (Also, for those of you on "resolution budgets," reading blogs is 100% free!)

The first one is Please Let Me Know if You Have Any Questions or Concerns. This is a brand spanking new blog - only two posts as of this writing - by a good friend of mine who is not only a crazy overachiever (I would list all of her amazing accomplishments, but it's January and we all need to hoard whatever post-holiday self-esteem that we have left.), but who also happens to be bee-you-tee-full! Have a read of her clever entries thus far and then keep checking back to see how she's doing on her mission, which is to have 80 postcards sent to her father by his 80th birthday in the fall.

The next one would fall under the beauty blog category. Heapnose explores the world of perfume, but in a wonderfully unique and witty way. The Husband told me about this one - he actually worked with the woman behind the nose at a previous job. I looked it up at his suggestion, even though perfume and I have a complicated relationship. (I love the idea of it and want to have a signature scent, but so much of it just smells really cliché to me and it ALL makes the Husband dissolve into sneezing fits.) I fully laughed out loud within moments of reading and have resolved to become a dedicated follower!

If you're a crafty type (or just appreciate others who are crafty, like me), you'll love New Dress a Day This blogger has given herself a challenge a la "Julie and Julia." She's not doing any traditional clothing shopping for an entire year, but instead buying vintage pieces and using her own two hands to transform them into something wearable. Oh, and her entire budget is only $365. I *wish* I had this girl's vision and sewing ability! (Oh, and her figure.) (And maybe her hair!)

I'll add these and some of the other ones to my blog roll. Check them out and bid those January blahs adieu!

The Honeymoon Finale

Okay, so I've been called out for posting a few too many negative feelings about our luxurious Caribbean getaway. And rightfully so. But before I get to the good stuff - and I promise that there IS good stuff - let me explain. We planned this trip waaaayyyy back in the summer, during the height of the wedding hoopla. I got it into my head that this was where we needed to go. (One downfall of being decisive is that it's very hard to change my mind once I've made it up.) The husband was understandably confused, because whenever we'd talked about a honeymoon, we'd discussed places like Paris or Greece or maybe New Zealand. Not an all-inclusive resort in the Caribbean. But I had seen a sale and we knew that we didn't want to wait until the spring. (Who wants to go to Paris in January!?) And New Zealand is far enough away that you really need two weeks, which seemed like a lot of my vacation allotment to use up so early in the year. I think I was also anxious to just cross something off of my very long to-do list.

So we booked. And I was honestly very excited about it right up until we arrived. It just didn't feel special enough.

It took me a couple of days to get past that disappointment and recognize that not only were we incredibly privileged to get to take a vacation like this AT ALL, but that this also wasn't the last trip we would ever embark on together. There's still time for Paris, Greece and even New Zealand.

All that said, here are the parts that we LOVED!

The resort grounds were gorgeous! Flowers and greenery everywhere. And so many pools tucked away in spots that we didn't even find the one with the cool swim-up rooms until halfway through our stay. And while the pools were beautiful - I'd never seen ones designed to just sort of slope downwards - we spent most of our time on the amazing beach. The water was so, so blue and just the perfect temperature - cool enough to be refreshing, but warm enough to just dive right in. Most of our mornings, after the tasty breakfast buffet, involved setting ourselves up in one of the handy blue tents and losing ourselves in our books. After about an hour, we'd cool off in the ocean and then back to reading for a bit more before another dip. At that point, one of us would go off in search of some BBCs.

Ah yes, the BBCs! Basically a milkshake of blended bananas, Bailey's and coconut rum. DIVINE!

We took a full day excursion, which involved an amazing boat ride, a visit to a volcano and a waterfall, and some snorkeling. That was my favourite day. We also climbed the two peaks of Pigeon Island, which was right next to the resort, to check out the ruins of British forts from the 1700s. We took a little catamaran-type vessel out ourselves, which was slightly more nerve-wracking than fun for me, but still awesome to be on the water.

Oh, and the service at the resort was super. They really spoiled us as newlyweds. There was a bottle of champagne upon our arrival and flower petals scattered about our room. We also got a complimentary breakfast in bed (we ate it on the balcony) and a complimentary dinner at the fancy restaurant out on the pier that wasn't part of the all-inclusive. (That was our best meal! Very tasty.)

We met some fantastic people and passed quite a few late-night hours talking with them. And, just generally, we had a lot of quality time together. Which is really what a honeymoon is all about. I have to remember that.

Here are a few of the highlights!

Honeymoon Part 4 (AKA Funny names, Food and Fried Skin)

Sixth lesson learned: I will never get used to being called "milady." Literally this began the moment we arrived at the resort. Suddenly, within a span of just a few minutes, the woman who was checking us in called me "milady" like five times. And I couldn't figure out who she was addressing! I looked around to see if it was Renaissance Fair night, but I saw no wreaths of flowers in anyones hair. I decided it was just this particular woman's quirk, but the next day I heard it again. And the day after that. And it never got any more normal. If only they would have called the Husband "my lord," I might have been able to get in on the game, but he got plain old "sir." (Although he did have to contend with men who wanted to do elaborate homeboy-type handshakes, which he did NOT look comfortable attempting.)

Seventh lesson learned: If you order a vegetarian shepherds pie at the pub, you’ll get some mashed potatoes on top of vegetables (no meat substitute in sight!). And if you order the beef Wellington, which is supposed to be encased in puff pastry according to the menu, you’ll get a piece of beef – no pastry in sight. When you point that out to the waitress, she won’t care. Like, really won’t care.

I'll admit that my new vegetarian way of life seriously compromised my food choices at the resort, but our complaints with the food went a lot deeper than not having options. In what we assume is an attempt to please even the weakest of palates, they actually managed to remove the majority of taste from all of the dishes. Even the dinner buns, which were my saving grace during seven months of cruise ship employment in 2001, were bland. A container of chocolate ice cream managed to taste just like...ice. It was SO weird. And so disappointing. Thank goodness for triple word scores to help take our mind off of the mediocrity.



Eighth lesson learned: Some people take tanning really, really seriously. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, since I frequently, inadvertently inhale copious amounts of cigarette smoke while trying to walk down Yonge Street during my lunch hours. Those people obviously all know about lung cancer and yet still feel compelled to singe their oesophaguses with burning hot carcinogens. So asking the people who hit the sunbeds at 8am with their bottles of oil and their fierce determination to “get a little colour” on their internal organs so that they match their leather handbag exteriors, if they know about skin cancer would probably just be a waste of my breath. But truly – why are we under the impression that premature wrinkles, age spots and a higher probability of experiencing chemotherapy in our lives is more attractive than milky (read: pasty) white skin? Considering that the current estimate is that 1 in 3 Canadians will have cancer in their lifetimes, I guess I should be glad that these obsessives are tipping the scale away from my direction.

Honeymoon Part 3 (AKA Burns, bad music and blissful massages)

A continuation of wee bits of blog stuff I wrote during the vacation. I'm still recovering here at home and trying to get my regular life in order before returning to work tomorrow. Here you go:

Third lesson learned: Do NOT assume that you have plenty of sunscreen at home before packing. Because if you only bring one container which is less than half full, you will have to buy another tube for $18 at a resort gift shop. Being pasty white is good. Painful vacation sunburns (and subsequent serious sun damage) is bad.



We both got a little more colour than intended, just from outdoor activities. My hands got burned during our hike up Pigeon Island (Another lesson: Don't wash hands after applying sunscreen.) Also, my lips totally burned and it was painful to put on balm of any sort for a couple of days. Oh, and what I used to consider cute freckles on my face from the sun? Ya, well now I just see them as age spots and am paranoid that skin cancer is imminent.

Fourth lesson learned: Music from the 80s is not actually considered “retro” at a Sandals resort in St. Lucia. It’s totally current and cool. (If I hear “Miss You Like Crazy” by Natalie Cole one more time…) Also, we actually heard a live rendition of "Feelings" our first night there. "Feelings." Seriously. Oh and these guys:




(Keep in mind that they are not just playing solo sax. They are playing along to highly synthesized backing tracks that include backup vocals and a heavy beat.)

Fifth lesson learned: If you want to have your massage outside, either in one of the already set-up, sort of private gazebos or at the end of the main pier, which is not the least bit private and Jo from Cincinnati could totally stroll on by to see how you’re making out, it will cost you an extra $45.

We had our side-by-side reflexology massages inside, of course. The privacy and piped in music (mercifully free of pan-flutes) was perfect. The Husband even fell asleep during the treatment.

Honeymoon Part 2 (AKA Getting to the resort took a long, long time)

First lesson learned: As tempting as it is to run to the bathroom to pee and change (because it’s 40 degrees warmer than where your journey started) as soon as you arrive at a small island airport, be cognizant of the other two planes that just landed and the fact that only 4 border guards are processing customs. Then hold it and get in the customs line! Otherwise, you will find yourself at the BACK of the line, looking at the 500 people in front of you. It will take more than an hour to get through. It will take so long that your luggage will be the last luggage from your flight waiting to be picked up. So long that the second customs guard who you have to give something to on your way out will say, “We closed that plane ages ago!” It will take so long that you will get a private ride to your resort and will arrive long after the sun has set.





Second lesson learned: Driving in St. Lucia is on the left side of the road and free of most rules. If your driver wants to pass the truck in front of him, because its flatbed is full of guys STANDING for the ride, he will pull into the oncoming lane to do so. If a car approaches in that lane while your driver is still in it, the car speeding towards you will swerve onto its shoulder to give your driver space. Your driver will also drive in the oncoming lane if the surface of his own lane doesn’t look so hot. Oh, and apparently drinking and driving is A-okay in St. Lucia, as long as you offer to buy the cops a round.


(Our driver took this pic at a particularly scenic spot. While I was glad to stretch my legs for a moment, we'd been in transit for about 8 hours or so and I was desperate to get there already!)

Honeymoon Part 1 (AKA I have terrible taste in movies...)

After five full days of no Internet access while on our honeymoon, we had a legitimate reason to log in today. And since I'm logged in, I thought I'd provide you with the first part of the honeymoon story. The following was written on January 15th, while on our way to St. Lucia:



Public service announcement: Do not rent “Post Grad.”

Seriously. I have a very high tolerance for mediocre romcoms. And if you look at the cast list, it seems like there’s some promise to this flick, even though the premise is flimsy. But do not be seduced by the likes of Michael Keaton, Jane Lynch, CAROL BURNETT! Even the really hot guy that Laura Linney almost gets it on with in “Love Actually” is in this movie. But he’s romancing Rory Gilmore.

Yes, this movie rests on the slim shoulders of Rory Gilmore. Sure, the preview says that Alexis Bledell is the star, but considering that the character got kick-ass grades in high school, a big scholarship to university where she was almost the valedictorian and she’s chasing a career in publishing, she’s totally Rory. It’s like they didn’t even try! They just swapped charming Stars Hollow for some nameless suburb and one kooky mother for a whole kooky family, minus the smart, witty banter.

Blech! The Husband was watching “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” right beside me and it looked way better. Oh well, at least it was a free movie on a flight. Right?

Honeymoon!

I can't tell you exactly what we're doing right now, because I'm writing this post on Thursday night, while we're still packing, but I can promise that some semblance of the above photo is imminent. Raise a rum punch for me!

The Reveal!

I didn't mean to leave you hanging with the whole hair transformation! Here was my before shot:



And here are the after ones:





While I'm really happy with the results ( especially when I dried it so quickly this morning), it didn't take me long to realize that I haven't exactly reinvented the wheel. This is basically just a slight variation on many other haircuts I've had. Oh well. If it ain't broke and all that. Right? Also, the Husband's reaction when I came home was very appreciative. That's a good sign!

A bouquet for you

Are you thinking about Valentine's Day yet? If so, consider giving your beloved this beautiful book of paper flower bouquets.





They don't need any water. Not even those little packs of fertilizer from the florist! And their blooms will never fade, just like your love. (Well, hopefully like your love. Who knows!?)

Tammy - a story in hair

Let's talk about my hair, shall we?



The husband says that I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking (and complaining) about my hair. You, too? Or is it just me? Anyway, let's start at the beginning.



Kindergarten. My mom claims that I was so difficult about having my hair done that she had no choice by to give me a bowl-shaped pixie cut. (The style was trés chic back in the day.) Granted, I think it was pretty cute, but there's still some underlying emotional trauma from being the only little girl in my whole kindergarten class without pigtails.



The bowl cuts continued for several years, meaning I never learned the fine art of French braiding, until my mom brought me to the salon and introduced me to the world of permanents! Who knew that several hours of tight painful curlers, countless neck-breaking rounds at the rinse sink and a good long bake under the infrared lights (or whatever they were) could produce something so magical! But even better - you could skip the salon altogether and DO IT AT HOME!



This is really the darkest period of hairstory for me.



(Bonus points if you noticed from the earliest photos that I actually have my very own curly hair! Who knew? I suppose you just went with the flow in the 80s.)

At some point there was nothing left to do, but start again. (Also, hooray for contact lenses and tweezers!)



I loved the ease of a pixie cut, but I don't really have the delicate feminine features to really pull it off.

Overall in my life, I have rarely had long hair. A couple of times it's been an inch or two past my shoulders, but rarely did that length flatter me. Also, since I have LOTS of hair and it likes to hold on to moisture for as long as possible, having length of any sort just makes actually doing my hair an awful chore. (No natural dry setting. I am so jealous of women who can wash their hair at night, sleep on it wet and wake up ready to go. We're talking serious frizzy fuzz my friends!)

Alas, on to the reason for my post. In the past few days I have had three lovely hair compliments. Do you know why? Obviously it's because I have an appointment to cut the majority of it off tomorrow. Murphy's law! It's gotten fairly long post wedding and is annoying me. I want to enjoy a fresh new 'do for the impending honeymoon. (FOUR MORE SLEEPS!) What's the point of growing it if you don't get to enjoy cutting it all, I always say!

Stay tuned for the new me...

I am so well-loved

I got my wedding gift from the Husband back from DeSerres, which is where we get all of our stuff framed, because they have good bi-annual sales. Doesn't it look gorgeous:



For now I've hung it by my bedside table, but I dream of one day having a little corner with a comfy reading/writing chair and a whimsical lamp, like this one:

Wandering through Middle Earth

I have recently come to the conclusion that the Husband only likes things from the very distant past - long bow, medieval sword fighting and, of course, "Lord of the Rings" - or from the unforeseeable future - "Star Wars," "Star Trek" and "Battlestar Galactica."*

This revelation caused me to [lovingly] yell at him: "Why can't you live in today!?!"

His explanation actually made some good sense (but I'll deny it to his face). He prefers his entertainment to take him out of today, as it were, and transport him somewhere else. Huh.

Anyway, one of the thorns in our relationship has always been the fact that I have not seen all three of the LOTR movies. (Insert gasp of shock here.) While I thoroughly enjoyed the first movie in the theatre, the second movie a whole year later just left me confused and befuddled. Every time they said a proper name, I would turn to my then roommate and ask something along the lines of, "Who are they talking about?" And he would hiss back something approximating, "Mordor is a place, Tammy. Not a person!" And so on, and so forth. I was completely turned around about who was what was where and how.

(Note to writers everywhere: It's OKAY to give characters names that are VERY different, so people don't spend the whole time trying to remember Sauron from Saruman!)**

When the third movie came out, a couple of friends reported back that they were bored through it and so I opted out.

Fast forward to several years later and I am married to a man who not only has the box sets displayed in one of our Ikea Benno towers, but who is also in possession of a Gandelf action figure that screams, "You. Shall Not. Pass!" when you press the button.

So, I got to thinking, "I should probably watch these movies. I enjoyed the first one and might have enjoyed the second one, if I'd watched it right after the first one. The trick is to not wait an entire year between installations!"

Hence, on New Year's Eve and then New Year's Day, while the weather outside raged on, we began watching "The Fellowship of the Ring." And I really enjoyed it! (Especially because I could pause the DVD to ask questions whenever I needed to, including repeatedly trying to recall which one was Sauron and which one was Saruman. I think I've finally got it straight.) We took a break partway and came back to it and when it ended, we had this conversation:

Me: "That was really good. I was totally entertained!"
Husband: "Tammy, that was only the first disc."
Me: "Ya. The first movie. I know there are two more to go."
Husband: "No, the first disc of the first movie."

I think I failed to realize that the Husband owns the super duper extended versions of these three already-long-to-begin-with movies. Sigh. Well, at least it's something we can do together.



*Obviously I am missing a major component in this list - worlds where superpowers exist. That's a very popular one with him.

** This was my exact issue with the book "100 Years of Solitude," which is supposedly a masterpiece, but I could not get through it because everyone had the same name and I had no clue who was doing what.

A Holiday Album

In a fit of last-minute industriousness at the end of this lovely holiday, I'm blogging for the second time today. In truth, I'm probably trying to delay the inevitable by reliving a few holiday memories. Here, for your viewing pleasure...

I call this one "Cat and Christmas Tree." It was the evening of the 23rd, before we packed everything up and headed north. I like how Daphne is almost under the tree. It's as if she thinks of herself as a present to us. (She's such an egomaniac!)



Here's a sample of what we saw on our trip up north, on the 24th, as soon as we hit Orangeville. There was a strange, super-thick fog and everything was covered in ice. We didn't even notice the turbine farm north of Shelburne, it was so foggy. It was like the Ice Capades do "Brigadoon." (Hey, has anyone thought of that!?)



This one is aptly titled "Cranky Cat." Daphne wasn't so keen on the car ride, her cage or the continuous "Glee" soundtracks that I was playing.



Um, this one is called "Pee break in Markdale." We often stop at this Petro Canada on the way out of Markdale (or the way in, depending on which way you're going), because I have a wee little bladder and I like to drink a lot of water. The bathroom is remarkably clean, but has an unfortunately positioned full-length mirror facing the toilet! Seriously. I don't know much about Feng Shui, but I'm pretty sure that's a fail.



Ah, this one is called "Happy Husband, grumpy cat." Daphne generally shuts up when we put her on our lap, but then gets annoyed because we won't let her roam the car freely. She telegraphs her annoyance by restlessness and random claw use.



This one's good! It's "Children's Gravol works its magic." Yes, we drugged the cat, but just a little.



And since no one should have their Christmas morning state published on the Internet, I present this as a reasonable facsimile of the big day:



We, however, had no small children or elderly men present. We did have two dogs though! And we had an obscene amount of holiday treats for four adult people:



(Bear in mind that this pile is only the treats we gave an received on Christmas morning. There were also enough baked goods in the house to feed a hungry family of 12 for about a month.)

And finally, just a few pictures to remember a perfect icy day on Georgian Bay:

Like sleeping in a warm cloud

This is a public service announcement for everyone who is currently experiencing winter: Get thee to a store and buy some flannel sheets!

After a six year hiatus of not having flannel sheets that fit my bed, the Husband and I picked up a set in early December. That's when our lives changed for the better. Except that they are so cozy and comfortable that you may not want to ever part from them. Which can make living the rest of your life a bit difficult. I have spent much of this holiday break perfecting ways I can live my life fully from the comfort of the flannel-ensconced bed.

So we bought a second set, so we never have to part with them. Until spring.

If you've lived your life this long without ever experiencing the joy of flannel sheets, go and find some now. The Husband found out second set on sale at Home Outfitters for a mere $12!!

One catch! A flannel-pj wearing friend once told me that flannel sheets drove her crazy, because flannel on flannel makes moving around difficult. While she does have a point, I highly recommend getting rid of the pjs and just enjoying the soft, soft flannel in the buff. The way nature intended!

Happy New Year!

Okay, I've been trying to write a new year's post, but I either start a huge post that is too consuming or I don't quite know what I want to say. So instead, I'm watching "The Office." It's a marathon.

Did you ever have a year that was so good that you didn't want it end? And the only possible reason that you can see to end it is because you not only need to detox from the holiday indulgence (seriously), but that there's also a possibility that the next year could be even better?

Guys, I think 2010 could be even better than the amazing year that was 2009. Is that crazy? Starting with a honeymoon in St. Lucia in just 15 days. And potentially more exciting events on the horizon, although none that I will blog about just yet. It's as though I stepped through a little portal and am suddenly surrounded by doors that I didn't have access to before. I just need to have the gumption and guts to open them and head on through.

And it's going to start tomorrow, because today has been more about continued indulgence and some serious lazing about, although also about getting some work done and doing some laundry.

I love the fresh start feeling of a new year. I'm so ready for everything life has waiting for me. Bring it on!