Guys who buy their partners really awesome shoes for Christmas are pretty good guys.

Happy Holidays, you!

Despite my little holiday cold, I had a nice time off doing absolutely nothing at all except for sleeping, eating, watching movies, and 'helping' Chris cook by reading out the ingredient list before napping.

We watched The Third Man (again, and still so good), The Brothers Bloom, the first 20 minutes of Kicking and Screaming (B&B. Boring & Bad. Why do people like this one so much?). And lots of HGTV.

Chris got me lots of wonderful gifts, including these darlings:


I'm going to save them and wear them on our honeymoon. They're not really Canadian winter shoes, anyway.

I'm not going to lie, I love getting gifts. And giving gifts. Especially beautiful sparkly gifts. My friend Kate got me this dress, which I had been stalking for months. It's got swans on it. Swans!


And here's another one, from Chris, which I had also adored from afar. Did anyone get anything wonderful? I also got a gizmo that attaches to my Diana and turns it into a Polaroid. For real! I'm going to try it out this weekend.

Le Butter Dish.

What's with butter dishes being so awesome lately? I mean seriously:


Peanut butter dish & Crown butter dish by Rae Dunn. Delightful.

Cow butter dish.
Whale butter dish by Jonathan Adler. This would be mine if it weren't $70. Which is too much for a butter dish. At this point in my life.

The winner! Thanks Anthropologie, you always come through for me.

And I actually need one of these things in my life. The plate with a smoosh of warm butter on it is no longer pleasing me. The little bits of bread left over in the butter are pretty great, though.

Arts & Science.

Here's what looks like an amazing & perfectly curated store (for boys and girls!) , called Arts & Science. Hey, I like arts! And science!

Here are photos of the stores, which are in Japan, from what I can tell. 

Shoes & Accessories:

Men's store:

What looks like an apothecary:
And here are some amazing things I found on their website. I don't know how you can buy any of these things, but I'm happy just to swoon for now.

Bags!


Men's manicure set:
Girl-things!


I have a feeling that I'd be pretty happy living in the store. Or maybe having it as my winter home, with Anthropologie as my summer vacation spot. I still have to work out some of the details.

Breakfasts.

Sometimes I make breakfast.

Sometimes Chris makes breakfast.

Chris is pretty fun.

Fall Shoes.

Hello! In honour of fall, and of it having been really cold this weekend, I'm sharing some fall footwear that I'd be more than happy to own.

A.P.C, J. Crew, J. Crew, Les Prairies de Paris

These last ones are basically the same as the grey ones I bought last fall, but I love them so much that I dream about owning them in every colour. Ridiculous.

A great gift.

First off, I just wanted to spread the word that I've finally updated my website. It only took me around 4 years. I am officially no longer embarrassed of it. 

Anyway, what I really wanted to share was this great engagement gift that Chris and I got from my sweet friend Sarah. Perhaps inspired by a recent trip she took to Italy, she and her husband adopted an olive tree for us through a company called Nudo, and we'll be getting fresh olive oil shipments from Italy throughout the year. It's so nice to have a little something extra to look forward to! 

We got our first shipment - lemon oil, orange oil and chili oil - and it's gooood. And the packaging is pretty wonderful as well. Thanks Sarah!

Buying and Selling.

I hope you had a lovely weekend! Mine was full of bacon, ravine walks and making fabric flowers for the wedding (which is still far far away).

And! I finally got my shit together and opened an etsy shop. I currently have 1 item for sale. Slow but steady. Here it is:

I will be adding more to the shop in the coming week, and once I have more time to sew I'll be adding some hand-sewn items as well. 

You can visit it in all of its glory: shiraleuchter.etsy.com

In other etsy news, I bought a painting from Heather Smith Jones, who makes beautiful things. Here's the wee painting I found in my mailbox on Friday. Isn't it lovely?

I get chest pain in bookstores sometimes.

I finally finally had the opportunity to visit Swipe Books this weekend, which I've been meaning to do for ages but they're closed on Sundays, and I kept forgetting that, which sucks. It's pretty great. I can measure the goodness of a bookstore based on how quickly I get chest pain, and I'd say this time it was right around the 2 minute mark, which is impressive. In fact, I was so overwhelmed that we had to leave Built, the architecture bookstore just down the hall, for another day. I can't wait!

I picked up Maira Kalman's book The Principles of Uncertainty after having loved her blog for a while now. Oh, it's so wonderful. You should get it. Unsure? Take a look at her blog here. That's what I thought you'd think.

(Oh okay, here's an excerpt from Paris).

Another wonderful thing that happened was the spontaneous purchase of this model hot air balloon, seen here in the forest during an outing we took yesterday, but which will take up permanent residence above our filing cabinet. Of course.

I hope you're having a wonderful long weekend!

For the non-sommelier gift-giver.

Oh why haven't I discovered these earlier? They'd have made my lame attempts at host-gift-giving so much wittier.

By Papermash.

Weekend Projects.

It's been another busy weekend, but I managed to finish a few projects today for friends. Chris and I visited baby Iris yesterday and I wanted to make sure that I finished her baby quilt, so I spent Friday night working away and I'm really pleased with it!

I also promised to work on a toddler back-pack for the sweet 2-year-old who will be coming to stay with us in a couple of weeks. I used the backpack pattern in Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing, and took a few inches off each measurement so it'd work for a small person. I think it's really cute and just the right size to fit whatever a toddler might need to carry around.

And I finished a simple little tote for a friend's birthday. Fun & easy to make.

Also - some dream skirts from Anthropologie. I had a brief visit to their new Yorkville shop and I was a bit disappointed (especially with their sale section. Poor!), but there was still some wonderful ephemera and it's always a joyous browsing experience. These skirts were nowhere in sight, but given that they're each over $200, I'm fine with just looking at them online. Bows! Buttons!

[oooh! aaaah!]

Chris and I took a nice little walk today between work sessions. We had popsicles and ice cream sandwiches and dreamed about the future.

I hope you've had a wonderful long weekend.