The Year In Pictures

JANUARY 

Bringing in the New Year in Ucluelet.

Celebrating Robbie Burns Day

Burns Supper participants.

Celebrating my sister Mary's 50th birthday in Victoria, B.C.

FEBRUARY

Winter Olympics Reunion.

Snowshoers.

The beautiful Callaghan Valley.

Mr. Snowshoe.

MARCH

Celebrating Will's 19th birthday.

The brownstone we rented in Harlem, New York City.

NYC skyline as seen from Central Park.

Soul food supper: Chicken and waffles.

Walking over the Brooklyn Bridge.

APRIL

Celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary.

Spending Easter in Ucluelet.

MAY

Girls' road trip to Kelowna, B.C.

My garden bloomed.

JUNE

A new deck!

We watched a hockey game outdoors with other happy Canucks fans a few days before the rioters burned the city down.

We hosted a backyard concert with Andrew Lee and Julia McDougall.

JULY

We stayed for a month in the southwest of France.

I celebrated my 53rd birthday in rural France.

AUGUST

Spent 10 days in Paris.

The feline love of my life died.  R.I.P. Spirit.

SEPTEMBER

My class of scholars.

We celebrated my Mom's 75th birthday.

Spent a weekend with friends in Olympia, Washington, U.S.A.

OCTOBER

Joe and I occupied Vancouver for an afternoon.

NOVEMBER

Joe celebrated his 52nd birthday.

Molly celebrated her 24th birthday.

Paige celebrated her 22nd birthday.

Sotham/Thiessen Reunion.

We got...

...a brand...

...new kitchen!

DECEMBER

Many Christmas activities both at school and at home.

The family is home for Christmas.

My New Year's wish for you is one of peace, joy and happiness.  May 2012 be filled with good health and prosperity for all.

Happy New Year everyone!

Shopping Spree Encore

And the shopping continues.

Joe can barely contain himself waiting for his beloved dual-action espresso machine to arrive from Italy.  His 'coffee corner' is set up and waiting for the machine to complete its nautical journey across the Atlantic Ocean.

To pass the time today, Joe made a cardboard mock-up of the espresso machine to see how it would fit in the corner of the kitchen.  (The ruler is the lever, in case you were wondering.)  I hope the corner is big enough to house such a monster.

We bought a set of dishes at Pier 1 Imports yesterday.  Ten of everything.  "White dishes are the best for showing off food," says Joe.  I believe him.

For years our coffee table was a tiny occasional table that we took from Joe's grandmother's basement in the mid-80s.  It had been painted purple by Joe's uncle.  We had it refinished and over the years that poor little table suffered bumps and bangs like crazy.  I think someone even carved a telephone message into its varnish one time.

We've been thinking about what kind of coffee table we wanted to replace it with.  We wanted something large with clean lines.  Something unique.  We wanted it to make a statement.

We didn't have to look any further than our own backyard.  Friends of ours, Rick and Joanne Bowerman, are the proprietors of 'Bowerman's Antiques and Handcrafted Furniture' here in Squamish.

Rick crafted this table from a maple tree that was felled at Porteau Cove during the construction project to improve the Sea-to-Sky Highway for the 2010 Winter Olympics.  

It is beautiful.  It is perfect.  We love it.

Rick is a master craftsman.  Their shop is full of amazing antiques and pieces of furniture that he has made.  Please stop by and take a look at their beautiful furniture.  And then buy a piece.  You will be happy you did.

Bowerman's Antiques and Handcrafted Furniture

#148-39002 Discovery Way

Squamish, B.C.

604.892.2334

www.bowermans.ca

And the shopping continues.

Shopping Spree

Now that our renovation has taken a breather for the holidays, Joe and I have had some time to do a bit of shopping for our new space.  Here are our most recent purchases....

1.  We have ordered two club chairs on-line from Restoration Hardware.  They will be delivered in a couple of weeks.  (I have never bought furniture sight unseen.  I'm crossing my fingers that these chairs are comfortable!)

2.  We took a trip into Vancouver to visit Restoration Hardware to look at their draperies.  As you can see in the photo below, there are lots of choices.  So many choices.  I am starting to hate choices. 

Looking at this wall of drapery samples sent me into an ADD stupor.  I instantly lost focus and began to wander around the store aimlessly.

But have no fear!  Lawrence came to our aid.  He helped us choose a colour (sand) and a fabric (Belgian linen); he figured out the size of panels we needed to buy; he counted out all the hardware that we'd need to hang the drapes; and then he ordered it all for us and even waived the shipping fee!

Ask for Lawrence when you shop here.  He is a GREAT help!

Restoration Hardware

2555 Granville Street,

 Vancouver

604.731.3918

Our new curtains.  (Not our living room.)

3.  Our hand mixer 'accidentally-on-purpose' got donated to the thrift store at some point during the renovation, so Joe needed to replace it with a Breville emulsion mixer.  Of course he did!

4.  Over the course of our 25 year marriage, I am sure we have bought at least ten $30.00 toasters.  That is $300.00 worth of crappy toasters tossed into the garbage can over the decades.  We vowed never to do that again.  Hence, a Breville toaster now graces our kitchen.  (But it lives in a drawer as we don't want to clutter up our beautiful counter space with appliances.)

I love a toaster that has an 'A BIT MORE' button.

All this shopping made us hungry, so we stopped for lunch at Vij's Rangoli for some curry.  Delicious as always.

Vij's Rangoli

Eat In or Take Out

1488 West 11th Avenue

Vancouver

604.736.5711

5.  We bought an over-sized wall clock for the space between our dining room and living room.  But after we got the clock home and were about to hang it, we discovered there were scratches on the glass.  Grrrr.  Back it goes.

This was the only 24" clock in this style at the Country Store.  I'm so disappointed it is scratched.

CAT UPDATE:

Daisy-Mae, the feline warrior, is making great post-operative progress.  She is eating and drinking on her own.  She is sleeping on top of us again.  She is wandering around the house.  We still have to administer her meds through the feeding tube, but that is small potatoes compared to the alternative.  We are thrilled we didn't kill her and that she is alive and getting healthier by the day.

Paige and the patient.