I’ve been struggling to write a post about all of the plant babies I recently became Plant Mum to after I decided I wanted an army of air cleaners in my house. Actually, struggling isn’t the right word, so much as lazy and distracted. Oops.

Then, Snowmageddon, or some other crazy name, happened, and I got all snow photo happy all weekend.

Then, I got distracted with planning for New York City this weekend and getting orders complete and being woken up at four in the morning by playful cats, random brain activity, and snoring husbands. Talk about dragging my feet yesterday.

I’ve also been holding off because I plan on segregating this here blog to its own space. It doesn’t feel right having this all lumped together, blending portfolio with carefree blog posts about life and things.

Having said all that, let’s rewind to the important topic at hand – SNOW!

Talk about the most beautiful Friday ever, despite having to drive on the snow covered roads to work, while everyone else stayed home in their pajamas watching movies.

By everyone else, I literally mean everyone else because my workplace wasn’t all that deserted. People around here are hardcore snow drivers who throw caution to the wind.

It was rather entertaining, Friday afternoon and evening, watching car, after car, after car, get caught in the hell that is Side Street Snow. From having our shovels borrowed to just watching people attempt to push their cars out of the snowy pits, we had some sort of Caught in the Snow Fiesta to wintess until late in the evening.

The next morning, however, the skies were crystal clear blue, the air was chilly, but warm enough, and our neighbour had some pretty intense icicles forming on the back part of his roof. By intense icicles, I mean, icicles that can kill you by just looking at you.

Sunday morning was much of the same but came with the added benefit of frosting. The world was white. Perfect, pristine, white. A delicious cake with perfect icing that had yet been tasted or poked.

Mornings don’t really get much better than that.

Actually, no, I take that question back, because I’m pretty sure that every single year pans out this way. January always seems to start off incredibly slow. Each day feels endlessly long and it’s downright glorious because you feel as though you have all the time in the world.

Then, January 15th hits and all hell breaks loose. The next thing you know it’s February first, and the moment you blink, boom, it’s June.

This is how it works.

Don’t blink.

Last weekend was Surprise Date Night weekend. Finally. For two months I had to endure and ignore Randy’s endless teasing. It was kind of fun though because it seemed like my blah, lacklustre attitude drove him a tiny bit crazy. He teased. I teased. It was all a big tease.

The funniest part in all of this is that I managed to properly guess our Secret Date Nigh activity without any hints. The little I did know, and the little info Meg was able to draw from Erik, confirmed my random hunch. I am Detective Extraordinaire and lucky for me, being a skilled detective is exactly what I needed for Secret Date Night.

Many moons ago, after our self-hosted Murder Mystery night, we talked about doing a “proper” one out in the wild somewhere. I had looked up a number of places that hosted them, but we never really moved on actually attending one.

Enter my initial Secret Date Night hunch, and my ultimate ruining of the secret part of Secret Date Night. I really excel at ruining secrets. I’m not sure if I should be proud or disappointed.

We wined and dined with the Mysterious Players at Aberfoyle Mill. After reading a terribly disappointing review of the show on TripAdvisor, I was wary, expecting terrible wait staff service and awful actors.

Fear not! The night was fun! Sure, by the end, our server was kind enough to disappear, leaving us to hunt down another so that we could, you know, actually pay for the evening, but the rest was enjoyable.

I awkwardly began the night by requesting “something cheap” when asking our server for a glass of wine. We kept that momentum going by absolutely confusing the actors whenever they came to our table to chit chat. The one fella just had no idea what we were on about, and frankly, neither did we, I think.

The food was really great, albeit, borderline too much. Five courses when you’re not used to eating so much in one sitting is a bit of a belly stretcher. I didn’t even eat that much over the holidays. I just couldn’t stop though. My stomach was shouting no, while the chicken on my plate shouted yes in every language.

Gosh. I’m hungry. Is it lunch time yet?

The BEST part? I GUESSED THE MURDERER, METHOD AND MOTIVE! You have NO idea how proud I am. Out of the four of us, I was the last person to fill out my form and submit it. Everyone teased me, including the actors – “Is she a novelist, or is she a bit slow?” – but I GUESSED CORRECTLY.

I glowed like a five year after eating an entire cake. I was given a Certificate of Wit and everything. You best believe that certificate is being proudly displayed on my fridge right now. I am PROUD. I am so USELESSLY PROUD.

I was one of three people to guess correctly that night. The other two people? The murderer, herself (eye roll) and the lady sitting beside her (eye roll again). I smell fishy business.

The rest of the weekend? Well, the rest of the weekend didn’t even compare.

Hair cuts. Big pots of chili. Oh, and something ridiculous like sixty cinnamon buns.

Don’t ever prepare the “big batch” recipe of cinnamon rolls unless you’re prepared to spend most of your day in the kitchen making batch after batch of cinnamon rolls. I felt deceived. Despite the name, the recipe went on to say that I would split the dough in half and make two rolls. TWO ROLLS.

I made FOUR. The dough just kept rising, resulting in me splitting it into quarters rather than halves. I suppose it helps that I wasn’t able to prepare everything at once, giving the dough all that time to rise, but never mind that.

On the plus side, we have about 30 cinnamon buns in our freezer ready for last minute cinnamon bun eating. Who wants to come over and have a treat with me?

That isn’t to say that things still aren’t super great, but they’re certainly a lot more frantic and a little more borderline chaotic than I was anticipating for this point in January.

My broken toe Christmas gift resulted in me having to delay my winter session of Zumba by a week. I was convinced that one extra week would help, but there I was, last Thursday, still taped and bandaged with a Tensor, just in case, slipping and sliding all over the floor that was a heck of a lot more dangerous than I thought.

Last night? Last night was amazing. Despite still needing some buddy taping, I was able to pound away on that foot like the good old days of four weeks ago. I hope I never outright break a foot, because wow, has having a broken toe made me a grump-a-saurus at times.

Dear toe,

I love you. You’re the best.
Never break again.

Love,
Your favourite body

Also, Universe, don’t take that as an invitation to BREAK MY FOOT.

Toe aside, January wedding orders are in full swing, as are fun, unexpected home adventures. The latter being one of the distractions I deemed to not have going into 2013. Silly girl.

I ask you, how many times can you rearrange and change your home office in a short period of time? According to our house, two times in a week and a half.

None of that is nearly as exciting as our spontaneously planned TRIP TO NEW YORK, however. On a whim, one Friday evening earlier this month, I started looking up flights to various destinations, thinking we needed to make the most of the February long weekend (which is, also, my birthday weekend, in a round about way).

2008 was the last time I was in New York City, during a cooler weekend in early May. This time around, we’re embracing the cold head on, visiting the city in the dead of winter. This time around, we aren’t spending 10 hours in a van to get there, nor will I be there for a Broadway show, specifically (The Little Mermaid forever, by the way).

This time around, we will putz around town, exploring the lower half of the island, as we eat and eat and eat and hang out and people watch and eat. We’ll pretend to be true New Yorkers with our one bedroom apartment rental in Astoria (truly, the only way to travel), and, most likely, fail miserably because we’ll so obviously NOT be true New Yorkers.

At least we won’t be like the kidlets Mike and I have occasionally run into at various stores around town who pretend to be British with the MOST AWFUL British accents. We can’t help but impersonate them each time, because, why not?

In this instance, timing is coincidental. Things are calmer. Today is the last day of my 11 day holiday from “cubicle” designing life. I’ve caught up where I can, and am focused on working ahead wherever and whenever I can. Timing is back on my side, with no intense time sucking distractions.

Knock on wood, of course, because even this whole “timing is on my side” notion has been disrupted by the broken toe my body gifted me on Christmas day. Perhaps I shouldn’t say that everything is going well then since I’m way behind in some parts of this triple life I lead. Bah humbug and all of that nonsense.

The last few months saw me revisiting and discovering handfuls of blogs that I became connected to, enticing me to once again pick up where I left off. What 2011 started, 2012 really developed. I started to see things differently and began to feel how contrived my efforts seemed. The genuine flair was missing, muddled by third parties. Now, I’ve stopped comparing and I’ve stopped feeling that microscopic annoyance. The pressure of being something else has been replaced by being genuine.

The fact of the matter is, I’m never going to the be pitch perfect blogger, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to capture these moments. I privately blogged for many years to simply remember. Now’s the time to remember out loud, to connect with others, and to demonstrate authenticity.

This year, I don’t want to tie myself down to days of the week or subject matter. I just want to be. Whether that makes this a personal lifestyle blog, or not, it will be what it will be.

I’ll soon find time to sit down and revisit this site’s style, as well as update the areas that need refreshing. My portfolio is painfully old and the snowy background needs to go. It’s time for a minor facelift. Nothing too drastic, of course. We don’t want things to start looking too plastic, do we?

Seriously. There is a good chance that many a thing will soon change in the Etsy world of Vicentine Design, and it all started a number of weeks ago, when in a flurry of activity and confusion, I ordered the wrong size of envelopes for not one, but two clients. Oops.

No matter, though. I  placed the order, received the order, and then realised my error. It’s not like I was sitting in a cafe over coffee with my happily engaged couple only to realise, “Oh, look! Your invitations are too big for your envelopes! That’s peculiar!”

That would make a happily engaged couple very unhappily engaged rather quickly, I bet.

During this envelope sizing mishap, I was emailing back and forth with one of the local printers I work with to graphically enhance the backs of my envelopes. Turns out, they didn’t have the size I needed on hand (big pain!) and they were looking to me to supply them with the specific size in question.

Needless to say, once the appropriate envelopes arrived on my door step, I sat in my office, humming and hawing over whether or not I should deliver the envelopes to the print shop or give printing the envelopes at home a whirl. We have an incredibly decent and powerful printer, but I had always been wary of navigating the envelope printing world.

That is… I was wary until I finally said “Forget this outsourcing business,” set everything up and hit the ever dangerous print button.

What happened? Nothing! The envelopes printed perfectly and I was thrilled, for I not only saved myself some cash, but I was staring at the very real possibility of printing my own envelopes in house.

Invitations are still an entirely different ball game, and that will never ever go in-house, unless I invest in all of the fancy, expensive things like an even better printing, an incredible multi-sheet paper cutter and trimmer, perforating tool, etc etc etc.

The quantity thing is what’s scary, of course. I miss the days when this was my full time preoccupation. Things would be so much easier then.

Envelope adventures aside, as I was previewing my Etsy shop stats sometime in February, I realised that I rather suddenly had a lot of traffic coming from a website called Discover Paper. I followed the links and sure enough, stumbled upon a post featuring my mustache notepads. I was tickled pink. Absolutely.

It took me a few weeks, but I managed to throw the feature up on my Features page for permanent safe keeping. In the meantime, go ahead and check out the post at Discover Paper. I’m sure they’ll appreciate it.

Shameful. Totally shameful.

I didn’t know a whole lot about The Curious when I finally got around to picking it up. It was one of those books that I had always looked at (when, you know, it was still really popular and on the “books to read” shelves in the book store), but never really looked into. I could only recall hearing great things about it and since it seemed so highly recommended, threw it onto my must read one day list.

Enter the ever wonderful university book sale and bam, the book finally finds itself on my bookshelves.

After finishing up The Future of Us, I decided I wanted to venture back into the realm of adult fiction, rather than diving headfirst into yet another YA book. I picked out The Curious as my next book, not realising, somehow, that it was written from the perspective of Christopher, an autistic 15 year old boy, and so, wasn’t venturing very far away from the easy read young adult novels.

It was a neat perspective to read, however, and yet, it was also a perspective that made me feel guilty at times for feeling frustrated with Christopher’s choices, actions and decisions.

It was, also, the first book that compelled me to dog ear a page and highlight a passage. I haven’t done this in a book since, oh, 2009? As much as I may have enjoyed the novels I’ve been reading, they just haven’t been moving me enough to want to highlight them.

Then again, I’m mostly big on noting observances or statements about life, who we are, and how we deal. That kind of thing hasn’t been in most of the books I’ve been reading.

Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them. (p.12)

It was nice returning to a book that was real. Rather than reading about magic, time travel, super powers, werewolves or alternate realities, I read about “real life,” so to speak. Every once in a while, that’s a nice change. Keeps things fresh.

Christopher’s character really helped draw the story telling down many paths, which is something that I’ve always enjoyed in books. I like when characters have tangents and discuss ideas or theories they have, rather than simply narrating a sequence of events. I like seeing their personality. I like seeing the way their brains work. I like diving into concepts about things, no matter how abstract. Christopher was just enough random and just enough structure to make it work.

I’m not really surprised that it won awards.

I’m surprised that it took me so long to get to it.

People believe in God because the world is very complicated and they think it is very unlikely that anything as complicated as a flying squirrel or a the human eye or a brain could happen by chance. But they should think logically and if they thought logically they would see that they can only ask this question because it has already happened and they exist. And there are billions of planets where there is no life, but there is no one on those planets with brains to notice. And it is like if everyone in the world was tossing coins eventually someone would get 5,698 heads in a row and they would think they were very special. But they wouldn’t be because there would be millions of people who didn’t get 5,698 heads.

[...]

And people who believe in God think God has put human beings on the earth because they think human beings are the best animal, but human beings are just an animal and they will evolve into another animal, and that animal will be cleverer and it will put human beings into a zoo, like we put chimpanzees and gorillas into a zoo. Or human beings will all catch a disease and die out or they will make too much pollution and kill themselves, and then there will only be insects in the world and they will be the best animal. (p.164-165)

Then, I hit a brick wall.

I stopped reading entirely.

I ran into one of those books that is making it next to impossible to finish my dinner, choking down each bite.

That’s a whole other story, for an entirely different blog post, but, let me say that this rut I’m in is awfully disappointing because the book I’m currently stuck on was one that I was incredibly excited to read for months and months and months.

Having said all that, let’s retrace our steps and go back to that wonderful week in January where I read Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler’s recent novel, The Future of Us.

I first discovered Asher via Thirteen Reasons Why a few years ago. How I came across that book, I still can’t remember. It was most likely online somewhere or within a publishing magazine that I first saw it publicized. When I went to actually buy the book, however, I discovered that this new book was out of print, for one reason or another.

A few months later, on a shopping trip to the US with a friend, we walked into the now defunct Borders, and I immediately beelined for the clearance racks. What did I find there? Thirteen Reasons Why, just waiting for me. Whatever happened with the publishing and distribution of these, I’ll never know, but I got my hot, little hands on a copy while it was still technically listed as temporarily “out of print.”

I raced through that book. As much as it slightly disappointed me in one or two tiny areas, it was a book you could easily fall into, always wanting to know more about each person’s connection to the untimely suicide of the “main” character.

Then, when I found out that Asher was releasing another book (finally!) I was instantly pumped. Like John Green, Asher felt like one of those YA male writers who would pump out a book that I had no ability to hate, despite any quirks or plot pitfalls.

So far, that’s ringing true.

The basic concept behind The Future Of Us intrigued me. As much as I hate when books date themselves too much – in this case, the book is entirely about Facebook – it’s a book perfectly suited for the present and sure, may never become a classic, but is definitely a great here and now kind of story.

The idea of what you do in the present affecting your future, however, is a classic concept, and so, I was interested to read Asher and Mackler’s rendition of that concept with modern day ideas.

Sure, some of it felt silly reading, but I’m not going to say that’s because the book is YA or plainly not good. I think I was having a personality conflict with Emma that was getting in the way of me feeling any sort of sympathy for her. I’m a firm believer in that internet cliche of, face your problems, don’t Facebook them, and so, I was having a hard time with Emma’s future self posting so many personal, intimate details as status updates.

At some points throughout the book, I caught myself rolling my eyes and feeling genuinely irked by Emma’s inability to keep her mouth shut and/or to deal with the problems in her lives rather than simply posting about them on a social networking site. Maybe it’s because I don’t associate with people who publicly air their dirty laundry or because I just don’t see the point to it myself, but I was having a hard time believing that someone would so blatantly post about their husband being MIA, not coming home one night, or any other similarly themed statement.

(I know that people do actually post stuff like this out there. I don’t understand it. I don’t think I ever will.)

That was, however, my biggest beef with the novel, for what it was.

I got sucked into it, and regardless of my beef with Emma, wanted to see what the changes in her present made to her future. I wanted, much like her, to see if her decisions today made tomorrow better or worse. After all, I think that’s probably something we all think about in one way or another at some point in time, whether it be obsessively or rarely.

Who wouldn’t wonder what laying in bed on a windy, cold Saturday afternoon could do to your future that going out into the wind couldn’t?

I mean, I could go outside and get whacked in the head by a falling tree. That’s certainly not the type of near future I want. Then again, staying indoors and laying around in bed could result in the cat laying on my face and suffocating me. That’s also not a near future experience I’d like to have.

Decisions. Decisions.

Back in January, I received an Etsy message from a Go4Pro marketing gal, informing me of the site’s monthly prize pack contest on their blog. They had stumbled upon my mustache notepads and were hoping to feature them in their upcoming March giveaway.

Not going to lie, I was pretty stoked about the opportunity. It seems like, every now and again, some pretty neat things happen over on Etsy when you’re least expecting it. This was definitely one of those moments.

And, sure, it’s not like I was handpicked by someone over at Martha Stewart Weddings for a feature, or acknowledged by any of the other big wig stationery sites/magazines/bloggers, but hey, it’s the little things that count, and beggars can’t be choosers. These days, I’m thankful for what I get, seeing that my time to focus and pour my entire self into the stationery end of life is rather limited. Ho hum.

Go ahead and check out this month’s giveaway on the Go4Pro blog for yourself. There are some pretty nifty items this month that you just may want to try to get your hands on.

Sorta.

Kinda.

I still go mental every now and again because I forget to do something or my because my task lists feel like they’re a mile long.

Regardless of all that, I’m pretty much working from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to bed. That’s also a lie. I definitely take a break to eat an awesome supper while watching an awesome show with awesome husband. D’awww.

I’m gross. So what?

Since it’s Etsy Tuesday for just two more hours, I thought I’d take a stroll down 2012′s very short memory lane and showcase some of the invitations I’ve been working on. The mustache and lip invitations have proven to be an incredible seller, as have the concert ticket styled invites. To my surprise and pleasure, the silhouette save the date cards were finally picked up by a cute couple in the UK and I can’t wait to get to work on their invitations.

See? Adorable. I really wish more people would hop on this bandwagon. I love the style of the silhouettes on a simple, almost 1950s background.

While working on Kevin and Nicole’s invitation, I had moments of hesitation and frustration. I wasn’t happy with it and no matter what I did, I couldn’t seem to force happiness upon myself.

Then, the printed piece came in and as I held it, I thought to myself, “Nope, I’m still not a fan. What was I thinking when I created this invitation?”

Now that I’m four variations in with this style, Kevin and Nicole’s may be my favourite. The blue tones with a hint of yellow turned out to be one of my favourite colour combinations. Now, the yellow was supposed to be gold, but Nicole opted to forgo the extra fee for a metallic ink. I don’t think going yellow has tarnished the feel at all. Heck, gold may have even been too much, in the end.

Marci is a sweetheart. I have been helping her with everything from save the date announcements to table number cards to place cards and favour stickers. She’s quick to respond and an absolute doll to brainstorm with. I’ve spent so much time bouncing ideas off of her and showing her samples, and I don’t even care. She’s one of those customers you want to help as much as you can.

Soon, we’ll embark on the invitation adventure, and I can’t wait to see the results. Her colour scheme on the mustache and lip invitation has been my absolute favourite so far.

Steph and Geoff were my first couple to request something other than my standard silk stock. For them, I ventured into linen territory and ultimately, I was rather pleased. In fact, I’m beginning to think that I may to start offering linen as an available option in my listings. The texture adds a neat element to the feel (Hah! Feel!) of the invitations, making them a little more traditional rather than something that’s a little bit more in the ways of an artistic print.

I guess?

Gary and Victoria were my first couple European couple to place a very large order. My heart broke when tracked shipping came up at just over $80. I understand that I’m paying for someone to take my package and fly it overseas for me, but wow, $80. I knew international shipping was expensive, and I suppose I should have known to expect something like this, but I still managed to hold out hope that Canada Post would surprise me in some wonderful fashion.

No such luck.

No such luck at all.

On the bright side, she was lovely about it and LOVED them when they arrived:

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! I absolutely love my invitations!!!! They are exactly what I was expecting. I can’t wait to send them out!!! You have been wonderful !!!!

I have been so lucky with my Etsy brides. They have been so lovely and sweet. There have been the rare instances of bridezillas, but they tend to be so zilla that they opt to work with someone more traditional. My gals have been nothing short of the best. At the end of the day when I’m exhausted after a day of work, followed by a night of work, their excitement and appreciation makes this all totally worth it.

/end sappy moment

But then, I started getting a little bored.

Why?

Despite the bread being tasty, it still wasn’t tasty. The making bread at home thing never lasted long enough to see a recipe perfected. That, and, once I started using a bread maker at home myself, I wasn’t the biggest fan of how big the loaves were. Each slice of bread was as big as my head and that, I definitely was not feeling. I like big sandwiches as much as the next guy, but that was just too awkard.

Recently, I began to hum and haw over the whole yeast business of bread making. I began wondering if it really was that much of a bother to bake things that required having to wait for yeast to activate and rise in dark, warm areas. I had attempted a recipe for french bread, utilizing the bread maker to make my dough and the loaves just didn’t turn out the way I had hoped and/or was promised in the recipe. Never mind that the recipe called for kneading the dough by hand and all of that fun business. I decided to forgo that part and attempt bread maker experiment number one. Clearly, the bread maker failed.

I then experimented with multiple batches of cinnamon buns and had a go with a couple of loaves of french bread. My experiments resulted in delicious samplings of sweet, sweet heaven wrapped in cinnamon and french loaves that were so quick and easy, all I need to do now is finesse my method enough to never have to worry about buying store baked bread again.

Seriously.

Fingers crossed.

Up for a yeasty experiment of your own? Give this 30 (give or take) minute french bread recipe a shot. It’ll help you to feel as though you accomplished something in your day.

Quick & Easy Baguette
from Babble’s The Family Kitchen

• 2 cups very warm water
• 1 packet yeast
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3-4 cups flour

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees, as you whisk together the warm water, yeast and sugar in a large bowl. Allow your yeast to activate for 10 minutes. If your oven emits heat, leave the bowl sitting on top of the stove. If your oven is like mine and feels frigid along its exterior (thumbs up insulation!), just make sure you don’t do something silly like put your yeast in the fridge where you’ll successfully kill millions and millions of little yeast men and women.

After ten minutes, stir in the salt and add flour one half-cup at a time. Add flour until the dough becomes soft but not sticky, followed by kneading the dough until it’s elastic.

Cut the dough into four even pieces and roll each piece into a long, thin rope.  Twist together two ropes to form one loaf and transfer both loaves onto a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

You can either bake the loaf right away if you’re in a hurry or allow it to rise for an additional 15-30 minutes. The original recipe tells you to allow the loaf to continue rising on top of your warm oven. Frankly, I knew I was going to allow my dough to rise the 30 minutes ahead of time, and so, never preheated my oven to 425 at all. Instead, I preheated my oven to about 200 and then shut it off, somewhere in the dough kneading process. I use the remaining heat in the oven to help my loaves rise during this time. It’s the only way I can do it around here, since my oven doesn’t warm the whole stove top and we keep our home relatively cool – cool enough to prevent a good rise out of our dough.

When you’re ready, put the loaves in your 425 degree oven. To prevent the loaves from drying out during the baking process, cover a cookie sheet with ice and place it on the rack below your loaves. Shut the oven door and do not open it again until you’re pulling the loaves out of the oven – approximately 15-18 minutes later or until they’re golden brown.

I over did with mine, accidentally. I put the loaves in the oven and went upstairs to play video games (it was for my YouTube channel! Not mindless pleasure!) and left the loaves baking for 20 minutes. Oops.

They were still really soft and tasted great. They were just a lot more golden than they were supposed to be.

Then again, we could say that their being more golden only made them that much more valuable.

Am I right? Am I right?

Okay. Lame joke. Whatever.