WELL SAID, ANAÏS

We are less than 5 weeks away from our big move to Germany. I'd been humming along nicely right up until last night.

I went to the post office earlier in the day and told the friendly post-woman who has been ringing through my orders and sending my prints all around the world for the last 4 years that we're moving. It's funny when you realize that someone who is almost a stranger knows you and your family and your business so well. She was understandably surprised, it's a big move, but I shrugged off her concerns, assuring her it's not really that big and that we've got it all under control. I blame my Finnish genes for this sense of calm that comes over me when major life stuff is happening. It's the smooth clear ice that seems to go on forever, right up until you fall into the open water. It's the feeling that everything is fine, everything is doable, as long as we have the important things, the rest can fall away. It carries me right up until the moment that I have to open my mouth to say my wedding vows, or put my newborn son in his carseat and drive away from the hospital for the first time. It's a business-as-usual, let's-not-get-too-hysterical place I go to when all signs point in the other direction. I don't know if it's a help, or a hindrance, but probably the former. The cracks in the ice are starting to appear, the first of which happened last night when I confirmed with Charles the date of Edwin's last day at daycare, last day. 

It's the beginning of the goodbyes, and those are not easy. However, if there's anything I've learned after moving to Europe and back (and back again), it's that the world is a small place, and no distance is too great to stand in the way of love and friendship. 

xo Bess

IT'S OCTOBER WHAT?!

You know when you're super busy, and your husband is super busy, and your baby is turning into a tantrum-ing yet brilliant toddler, and your dog is getting on your last nerve, and then you look at the calendar and for the first time in a few weeks you actually, really, see the date—you see that it is 21 days into a month that you thought would be a slow one, a good one to use to prepare for the oncoming rush of the holiday season? Ya, that's what just happened to me.

So, needless to say that October has been a busy month on all fronts. But, it's a good kind of busy. I've had work from clients, and have been applying for the holiday shows here in Montreal as well as finalizing details for some new products that will be in the shop very soon. Charles is in the midst of job application season, applying for professor jobs is no joke. The amount of writing and thinking involved is quite astounding. He keeps at it though, and his applications are going all over the world, who knows where we'll end up! Edwin is wonderful. He is consistently the bright spot in our days. We're navigating around some tantrums here and there, but the flip side is watching his little mind grow and expand everyday. He can count to 10!! (proud mama!).

Despite our crazy schedules there's always time to step away from our desks and go out to enjoy one of Montreal's wonderful parks. This weekend we headed up the mountain to Parc du Mont Royal. The air was chilly, but we bundled up and enjoyed all the beauty that October has to offer.

xx Bess

Breakfast at Charlie's

This is what was waiting for me when I strolled into the kitchen on Sunday morning, still in my jammies...

... an el supremo fantastico breakfast courtesy of my hubby, Big Chuck. I mean really, how lucky can a girl get? In case you're wondering, there are two easy over eggs, two corn tortillas, tomatoes, avocado, salad, salsa, and a wedge of lime. Yum.

Have a wonderful Monday!

xo bess

Just a moment

(My Chotto Omoshiroi Poster arrived!!)

I was looking through my iPhone's photo album last night and thinking that it's amazing how easily we can document so many of life's moments these days. Up until a few years ago these little snippets would have just passed most of us by. They're not the most important moments in my life, but they are the little daily sparks of beauty that now just beg to be snapped, photo-filtered and shared.

(Charles transplanting and fertilizing our basil plant.)

(Birthday daffodils from my sweet friend Anile, in my favourite Alvar Aalto vase.)

(Michelle and Conrad and their curry kids. I love a family who loves curry!)

(My clipboard and Charlie's glasses on our coffee table.)

Have a wonderful weekend :)

oxo bess

Operation Canada Goose, pt.3

The final installment of our move to Montreal is quickly approaching. Tomorrow I'll be heading back to Toronto after a fun week at the cottage and then on Wednesday Big Chuck will be arriving home from Vienna!! We'll probably head back up north to see his parents and then begin rounding up our furniture and head east to move into our new home. It's pretty exciting! To be honest that's about all I've got so far. Details like how the heck we're going to move all our stuff I've sort of left till my team member is back home. It's difficult making all these plans on my own. Well, maybe difficult is not the right word, I guess it's just not as much fun.

So, I'm going to be taking a little break from English Muffin and the blog. Although you may not be seeing much of me on the interweb, I'll be doing my best to document all our adventures and be back in early July with a recap. Also in the works is a new project for English Muffin and I'm hoping to be able to get that off the ground asap. I promise I'll be working hard while I'm away, be it moving furniture, organizing our new Montreal life or prepping for new design projects, and be back to fill you in on everything.

Have a great couple weeks!

xx Bess

image: Denise Collette

Welcome home, sorta.

Ugh.

I'm having a moment.

A moment of frustration and anger.

I tried to wait until it passed to do today's blog post but, dear friends, I don't think it's going to. I don't want to bore you with the details, about how it looks like (thanks to provinces who don't talk to each other) I'm going to be without health insurance for the next SIX months - in CANADA, as a CANADIAN citizen. Good, well done. Or how the car I purchased is now sitting at the mechanics waiting to get certified except the tow-truck driver who towed it there seems to have misplaced the KEY. Awesome, thank you. Or how Big Chuck is suddenly MIA in Berlin while I need to get in touch with him to make important financial decisions. Excellent, really.

Oh well, shit happens.

I wish you all a happy weekend,

Bess

(image: wailintse)

Kid-o's - the great debate!

Today is the last day of camp, hurray! Not that it's been that bad - actually, it's been great to hang out with the other teachers and spend afternoons outside in the sun. Yesterday however, we were all feeling the effects of 60 screaming kids with incessant questions and poor grammar, when one of the teachers declared "I'm never having kids!" and another piped in with, "Camp is the world's best contraceptive!". Oddly enough, in all the years I've worked with kids, I've really had the opposite feeling. Obviously you aren't going to have 60 kids - but won't you be a force to be reckoned with after learning how to manage 60, shouldn't only 2 be a breeze?! Perhaps my perspective is a little too simplistic (and slightly exaggerated, of course), but I feel like having spent so much time teaching and being with children is great preparation for when I'm a parent.

Am I crazy??

Have a great weekend, and last day of camp!
bess

Many hats

photo via flickr
I like wearing a lot of hats, it keeps life interesting, but sometimes it also feels like perhaps I am not taking life seriously enough, like I am pretending with all of these pretend jobs. Why can't I just find one real 9 to 5 office-girl job and be done with it?

When we go to parties and people ask what I do, I usually just pick one from the list and leave it at that. I say, "I'm an English teacher" or, "I'm a graphic designer" or, "I'm a contemporary dancer" or, "I own my own business" (I rarely use that one). Big Chuck then always pipes up, dissatisfied with my answer, and proceeds to fill in the casual inquirer on the story of my life, while I stand there and feel dumb. Now, I may be exaggerating (slightly), I know he does it because he thinks that I am being modest, but modesty be damned - I just don't want to relate to every person we meet the details of how I came to be standing there in front of them. Sometimes I wish I could just say something simple and straight forward that requires no elaborate explanations, "I'm an accountant!", the end.

The idea of working at desk in an office in a random building in a random city is not what scares me, it's the idea that the work itself will be so uninspiring that I may as well be an accountant (no offense accountants - I really do respect your maths skills). Although I have a schedule that can at times be irregular (and therefor, money unreliable), I do value the newness it brings to every day.

Spending my summer days playing with kids in the sunshine, and teaching them dance, and in the evenings shipping orders and blogging, is a darn good way to make a living.

Just one question, who should I speak to about that raise??