Sunny days and kiwi tunes

Hello! Thanks so much to everyone for the birthday wishes, I had a lovely weekend! The weather in Vancouver has been amazing for the past couple of days so we made the most of it by spending as much of our time outside as possible. I had my first iced chai of the season, wore a skirt with bare legs (and no doubt blinded some people, hello whiteness!), went to a funny little jumble sale and ate delicious Belgian chocolate cake (for breakfast today, also). It was a pretty low key weekend as I realise now how I am friends with a lot of very busy people and getting them all together is damn near impossible, but it was kind of fun to spread it all out over brunches and cocktail dates (raspberry vodka and lemonade, so delicious). It's funny, I'll admit that I did let myself get a little bummed that I didn't have a big fancy party....until I remembered I don't at all feel comfortable at big fancy parties, especially not if the focus was to be all on me!

I bought myself some new shoes as a bit of a birthday present to myself, the black Toms I'd been thinking of. Definitely not a super glamorous shoe purchase but cute nonetheless and so comfy. Oh man, if you're in search of a comfy shoe for general walking about then look no further. I'm completely smitten. I'm really terrible for buying cheap and easy shoes but with the amount of walking I do with the kids and not being a driver I really needed something that was going to hold up a bit better than a pair of flats from Army & Navy (I did say cheap and easy) and I'm pretty sure these are going to do the trick! I will say that it might pay to try some on before buying these as they do fit a little narrow for those of us blessed with wide feet, but they've worn in so quickly and now fit my feet perfectly. Hooray!

It's New Zealand Music Month at the moment, so I wanted to make a kiwi mixtape for you all. It was much harder than I imagined! I knew NZ music might be a little obscure but I didn't expect things to be so easy to find, and that it would be pretty much lady free. While there are a lot of amazing female musicians from back home it was nearly impossible to find them online, and when I looked at Nature's Best, a compilation of the top NZ songs of all time, there were only 5 female tracks in the top 30! Shocking. I've decided to split it up into two mixes, one being the oldies and the kiwi music I grew up on, and the second being some of the more recent stuff to come out of the New Zealand music scene. I've tried to include as many ladies as I could, but I sadly couldn't find this gem that I enjoyed dancing around to as a young gal, or this one with the extremely questionable lyrics but secretly fantastic video clip (I was obsessed with their outfits), or even this one where none of them look at all like rock stars, but man could Jenny Morris sing.

Anyway, here it is. Enjoy!

Five Senses Friday

image via bonjour celine

It's Friday, it's sunny and it's my birthday weekend! I'm hoping to spend the weekend meeting up with friends, drinking a cocktail or two, eating cake and soaking up the sun. I have been totally smitten by this cake up here (made by Nikole of Herriott Grace) ever since I first saw it back in February. One day I hope to have a cake as fanciful and dreamy as that! Like Jeannette, I like to make my own birthday cake so it's exactly how I want it, although Richard did make me a rather delicious one last year. I've got my sights set on the Salty Sweet cake that she mentions, although vegan-ising it looks pretty much impossible, so we shall see! 

I hope you're all gearing up for lovely weekends! Here's my Five Senses Friday...

:Tasting:

Fresh, home made salsa on soft tacos for Cinco De Mayo.

:Hearing:

This song on repeat on my bus ride home from work.

:Seeing (and swooning over):

 The dreamiest of cats on Anabela's new tumblr

:Smelling:

Lilacs. Possibly the best part of Spring.

:Feeling:

The sun on my back. Sigh.

ABC's

I'm having a bit of a hard time keeping on top of things at the moment, just a general feeling of being overwhelmed, you know? Funny coming right off my last post of excitement, I know. I'm not sure if I need to top up my iron levels, or get some earlier nights or what. Sometimes I fall into the bad habit of letting my thought life get away on itself where I think and plan and think and plan and dream and then all of a sudden I've thought up a million things to work on or worry about or get excited about and it's just too much. Gotta bring back the focus to the now a little bit and remember to be in the moment.

One thing that has captured my attention lately though are these beautiful letters by Anja Mulder. I could stare at them for ages, there's so much hidden in there! Do you see the little cat in the 'B'?

Hope your Thursday is going great!

May

H

 via Banter Banners

Hello! Sorry for the small hiatus there, it took me a little while longer than usual to recover from Got Craft? than usual (it was fantastic though!), which I think may have something to do with attending a birth just days before the event adding to my usual procrastination and last minute-ness. I used to think that as I got older I'd out grow these habits, but sadly I don't see any change a comin'.

Anyway, it's May! Hooray! Aside from feeling slightly terrified at how fast this year seems to be flying by, I'm excited for May and all the fun times that are coming with it. Not only is it my birthday (this weekend!) it is also Jeannette's birthday, our wedding anniversary and the 1 year anniversary of us opening our etsy store! We've planned our trip to Portland, where I hope to catch up and breakfast with Abby, and I cannot wait. There is also the DOXA film festival in Vancouver this month and there are a number of movies I want to check out. All this with Spring in full force and Summer just around the corner, Vancouver is looking so lush and green and the patio sitting, bike riding and lemonade drinking opportunities are that much greater.

Hooray for May! What are you looking forward to this month?