new retro specs

Around two years ago, shortly after I moved into my new place, I broke my favourite purple glasses and completely lost my spare pair. Now I don't wear glasses all too often because I only wear them for distance, but I'm particular about them nonetheless and I considered my purple ones "perfect". I searched and searched for months for a replacement until I found Gafas on Queen Street.

I must have walked by it a million times and just never noticed. The outside storefront is quite narrow, but they pack a ton of wonderful glasses and sunglasses in this place. Tony helped me pick these Barton Perreiras - "DiPrima". I never thought I would choose brown, but I love them!

In fact, I loved them so much that when I realized I had some credits left over that I needed to spend, I thought I would just get the same pair in another colour. When I bought the first pair I had really been looking for a frame that was clear.

But Tony steered me in a new direction - Barton Perreiras again; this time "Halston".

 

 I know they're a bit cartoon-y, but I think they're fun!!

glamour shots

One of the bonuses of having my sister come to visit is that there is someone to take some photos of me with Marcel!

Marcel is working on his sultry look.

And seems to have mastered the "over the shoulder".

under the weather and over the moon

So ya, I've been sick. But I am willing myself to be better because tomorrow I'm leaving for NYC to have another x-mas in New York. I wasn't going to go, but then my sister decided to come for a visit in January instead of now and the ticket was cheap!!

So off I go to visit my favourite kids. Tomio has been saying he doesn't want gifts this year, only Jessica. And it will be a surprise! I'm sure to come back exhausted but happy to have made some more wonderful memories with my little goofballs. It's going to be a very Xena xmas!!

Oh yeah, and this will be on tonight at 9:00 pm. This show is not something I would watch - ever - and I'm not encouraging you to watch either. But if you're interested in seeing me on it my bit comes on in the first 5 minutes and is pretty ridiculous and awesome (if I do say so myself). But beware, after that it gets pretty offensive, and no, I had no idea what the rest of the content would be at the time.

 

Hopefully it will turn up on youtube and I can post it on its own for all my fans out there (and by that I mean family and friends of course)! Love you all!

UPDATE: here's the link I'm on just before the 2 minute mark 

Tomio is 10

I've been going to NYC at least once a year since Tomio was born. He was my first baby, you know, the first of my friends babies, and I love this kid like crazy. Sometimes he drives me a little crazy but he and I have a bond with each other that is very special and we have lots of silly, koo-koo, crazy times when we're together.

He's always been tall for his age and he was creeping up on me at x-mas, but look at this - he's officially taller!! And this photo was taken as we picked him up from his first school dance. I know it's a ridiculous cliche, but he really is growing up so fast. His doctor recently told him he could be as tall as 6'7" - that's just nuts!

Halloween!

Perry invited me to a Halloween party at the Spoke Club where he is a member (la di dah!) and people always show up in amazing costumes. But I just really wanted to wear this wig and hat and tried to come up with something to make that stuff work.

He showed up as Bettlejuice only to tell me that there was in fact a theme: Alice in Wonderland / Tim Burton.

Which explained the multitude of Mad Hatters, Jokers and Corpse Brides.

It did not explain the large numbers of sex-pot cops and nurses, but that's the Spoke Club for ya. And I have no idea which movie this is from but I thought the face painting was amazing!

I haven't even seen Alice in Wonderland, but I got lots of lovely compliments on my get up and I sure had fun wearing it and dancing the night away!

Hope you all had a fun Halloween!

my favourite wig

I had incredibly short hair for many many years.

And often as a swing dancing performer I need to look a bit more girly and vintage - so I'd wear a wig.

I think blond works on me, but it never really feels like me. So although I acquired my big blond afro wig a while ago, it sat in the costume closet for years. And then last year I was invited to a Halloween wedding with a circus theme.

(that's Penny - the bride on the left, and Connie in the middle)

And I couldn't find my red clown wig, but I thought this would do the trick.

And now I just want to wear it all the time! So of course I wore it for the disco party ...

which inspired the look for that TV show that I can't tell you about ...

 

and then I was at a loss for what to wear for Halloween because I didn't think I could wear it again, but then I found this little hat!

I'll show you the rest of the get up tomorrow!

who am I?

A couple of weeks back there was yet another costume party on the island. I was not given sufficient notice for this thing but I can always just wrassle something up. The fine fellow said "the theme is Hollywood, and hurry on up and get here".

He loves any excuse to dress up as Elvis and I love any excuse to wear these shoes.

 

The general consensus was that Tim was Trueman Capote.

And apparently I was Farrah Fawcett.

Not gonna complain about that!

I also got Bernadette Peters - who I LOVE!!

There may have been some dancing on the bar.

There is no photographic evidence.

SO-LID GOLD!

So many different things inspired me to want to be a dancer when I was little: The Nutcracker, Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers, and SOLID GOLD. I loooooved those Solid Gold dancers.

And yesterday, I got to be one!

Can't tell you anything about this right now but it will be on TV in about 2 months.

fall is here

The change of season always bring new things with it, but with fall there always seems to be an ending of so many of my favourite joys: summer, sun, swimming in the lake, and now fun times on the island are on a very short count down.

We're all just trying to enjoy the time left and not think about how all this will change in a few weeks.

But little reminders are creeping in. Tim decided to clean out the fridge and he taught me how to make that amazing lobster salad - it was sooo so good to have that treat again.

The fine fellow went on his annual, fall fishing trip.

The last band of the season played at the bar.

Tyler's band, White Cowbell Oklahoma, is going on their fall tour. (He plays the cowbell and the Chainsaw!)

And I'm wearing jeans!!!

I must remember to live in the moment, beacause we're all still having a wonderful time, and I'm very very grateful for that.

I got hacked!

Yes, my Google account got hacked. And I came up with an ingenious new password and changed it as soon as I found out quite late one night.

And when I woke up the next morning I could not remember the password for the life of me. So then I was locked out of my account. And my my, the things Google wants you to remember to give your account back were pretty hard to dig up. I had to submit my request twice before they'd hand it back over.

 

But I've been having a wonderful time and completely forgetting to take photos. I'm glad my island friends are happy to share theirs - especially when things like Disco parties are going on!

gettin' my cowgirl on

Do I like costume parties? YES, YES, YES !!!

The Island Marina hosted a western party with a costume contest and I thought for sure me and my fellas would win. I mean look at this skirt!

But at least my friend Tim won. I helped him pick out the shirt when we went shopping for his outfit earlier that day in Kensington Market.

And we also found this amazing outfit for Bella - she'd had crinoline envy the last time I wore mine so we had to get her one too!

As a special treat the band were friends of mine - Leon Knight and the Neon Lights. Rob there in the brown shirt was my very first dance partner and we took a little spin on the dance floor for old time's sake when the band took a break.

Craziest thing of the night was when a guy we'd never seen before asked the fine fellow if he could buy the shirt he was wearing with the pink cadillac on the back. He said sure - 200 bucks, and the guy wandered away. And came back with 200 in cash!

island eating, mmmmmm

We have been eating very, very well this summer. Usually I cook up a couple of easy things at home, pack up the bike and head over the the island. Then the fine fellow does the rest - all the cooking and all the clean up! But I always make him a batch of my almond-butter chocolate chip cookies cause they're his favourite.

There have also been some wonderful dinner parties and pot-lucks organized by some of the other lovely boaters.

My new friend Tim made the most amazing spread recently - all served out on the lawn looking over the water: salmon in saffron, pork on skewers with peaches, steak, mandarin salad, capreses salad, and the yummiest lobster salad (no mayo!) stuffed in perfectly ripe avocados!!! He's promised to show me how to make it.

I may not have figured out all the things I want in life, but I've been just reveling in every wonderful, perfect moment - and they have been plentiful. I'm grateful for them all!

flower gateway to ...

It was extremely lovely to have even just two days with my sister.

A couple of times a year just isn't enough,

even if she does always borrow my clothes.

It's nice to be with someone who loves all the same things,

and was even more excited than me when we spotted this wall of pink flowering amazingness right next to this,

gateway to fairyland?