friday fixations

my round pink floral rug finally has a home on the floor!

{all shades of pink} Unfortunately for Idle Husband, this house looks wicked awesome with pink. I know I was fixated on purple and yellow, but now I kinda want to buy a bunch of pink accessories and pink pictures and pink tchotchkes and pink rugs. I think I'd like to revise my favourite colour to the Pantone colour of the year. Honeysuckle is right up my alley!

{ice cream sandwiches} Behind my back, Idle Husband bought some delectable Rolo ice cream sandwiches last week and now I'm craving them big time (four to a box?! Come on!). Chewy chocolate cookies hugging a thick slab of ice cream that just happens to be hiding delicious gooey caramel? I did not need this introduced to my lips (and, consequently, hips)! This is exactly the reason he shouldn't be allowed in a grocery store and why I never venture down the ice cream aisle.

{calendar of the month} I know, I made my own calendar and then I made another, but then I stumbled on this 3D calendar from the Curiosity Group and wanted to print and assemble it in the worst way thought it would be a fun little addition to Idle Husband's office. It's really easy to put together (it took me longer to find a glue stick), and I think it's a bit more guy friendly than flowers and mushrooms. I can't wait to see what the next one will be!

{music balloon} I've decided having a stereo is kind of a moot point these days. I haven't bought a CD since forever and I don't even listen to the CDs I have anymore. So I'm always on the lookout for interesting speakers that can plug right into my MP3 player. It always has the most up-to-date music I'm listening to so having the ability to listen to it directly without a computer and being able to move it anywhere in the house is really the most perfect thing. I love how these little speakers at Poketo look! They're so cute! (Sidenote: I pronounce 'balloon' like 'ba-loo-in'. I didn't realize I was saying it weirdly all these years until I got into a confusing discussion with Idle Husband over the need to have a whole store dedicated to balloons.)

{winning contests} I won my very first contest! I only enter the ones I truly would like to win, but I've never actually won anything. One time, I participated in a pancake taste test (where I had to make two different pancake recipes and then report back on which was best), and I got an email saying that due to low response, she'd decided to draw for a gift to thank those for responding. So I was all excited about having been chosen, but I never did get that gift. Bummer. So when I was told I'd won this contest, I was ecstatic but also dubious. I've been sitting around since the beginning of December waiting for it to arrive, and just when I started to think, Drag. Another won contest without having won anything, it came! I chose this print. It's so pretty!

{the dishwasher} It takes a big person to admit when they're wrong. So I'm admitting it. Dishwashers have come a long way since my grandmother's gross, smelly, never washing anything dishwasher (the dishwasher that soured me towards all dishwashers). So I promised to utilize it for everything once we moved, and you know what I realized? I think it washes dishes better than I do. Not to mention the time it's freed up for me to work on other little projects. I also really love how I can remove the silverware container and I don't have to keep bending down there all the time. And yes, I have a lot of stuff that can't go in there, but even when I wash that stuff, I still use the dishwasher. The upper rack pulls double duty as a drying rack. (That's really the most genius idea I've ever come across on the internet ever.) The only problem I've noticed is that we run out of things to eat on before the dishwasher's completely filled. Oh darn! We need to get another set of plates and bowls and silverware!

bonus! fixation PLUS angry ranting diatribe!

{graders} I have to get this off my chest because I spent an hour and a half in -26 C weather shovelling out the old house, because we received a letter from Canada Post describing our walks as "unsafe" sometime between Wednesday and Thursday. So I thought, what the hell? I was just there on Wednesday to pick up the mail and I shovelled out a path specifically for the mailman and I even threw some gravel on parts that I thought were kinda icy. It was snowing while I was doing it, and about two inches of snow fell since then, but what's this unsafe business? How is it unsafe? Could you please describe what's unsafe about it? So I drove over there this morning to see for myself. I looked at all the other houses so I'd have something to compare to, and when I got to ours, it didn't look any different from anyone else's on the block. So then I started to suspect that Canada Post had just sat around in their warm offices this week, printing out warning letters for everyone in Edmonton. That prompted my angry shovelling. And by "angry shovelling" I mean, I got the ice chipper out of the little shed (all the way at the back of the property, through thigh high snow), and chiseled everything down to the cement and covered the place in gravel. So there. I'm so sorry you had to walk through the two inches of snow that fell since I shovelled on Wednesday. I just don't know how you survived it! Trudging through snow that literally came up past the rubber sole on your boot! Oh me gawds! Insert your favourite expletive here (I know I never come across as someone who does, but I really truly swear like a sailor).
Anyway, on my way home, I got stuck behind a grader because finally (finally!) the city has decided it should maybe spend some money and plow the streets. (I don't know, is the city gasping in shock every time it happens? What?! Snow?! We didn't budget for this!) And then I noticed the vehicles ahead of me anxiously looking for a way to get around the grader, clearly angry that he was holding them up. I really don't get that mentality at all. People complain about the snow piling up everywhere and then complain when it's getting removed? I'll gladly follow a grader along Edmonton city streets going 30 all the way to my destination if it means the streets will be free of snow. I love graders. I wish I could stare fondly at one through our front window while it toured our neighboured. Hint hint.