baby it's cold

holiday wrap

from Lab Partners available at Hello Lucky and found at most favourite daily haunt - Canadian design blog - Poppytalk.

Baby it's cold outside, it's really cold, frigid, freezing, bone chillin', cheek chappin', long john wearin', brrrrrrrr cold ... outside. Winter has officially arrived here in this sleepy little seaside village. This is the kind of cold I hate. Even fleece and down can barely do their thing in this wind chill kind of cold. Yuck. This old brick house is very close to the harbour (a much appreciated feature three seasons of the year) but in winter most often those chilling winds are coming in off the water. Brrrrrr. The kind of cold that even my wood stove fire place insert with the fan cranked to high can't heat the whole house. The kitchen and laundry room feel like I've gone outside and I have to burrow down deep into the nest of down and flannel at night, holding my book delicately with as few fingers exposed to the cool bedroom air as is possible. I'm tres frugal with the furnace/oil heat. The good news is tomorrow we're in for one of our Eastern Chinook's and temperatures of +12 - fantastic !! As long as we continue with this up/down, cold/warm/cold I can bare winter. Throw me a (mild temps) bone every now then and I'll survive.

Same ol' same ol' here at the teak topped desk at 29 Black Street today. More cute thumbnails. Listening to Twilight (unabridged audio CD), and the soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas my most favourite holiday music, and of course always my beloved CBC radio 1.

I plan to mix up a jar of this today. I'm not normally a Tang kinda girl ... but this is delicious and super easy. My grandmother Flo used to make this concoction and it reminds me of her - it's a perfect hot beverage for cold wintry days or if you're coming down with the sniffles.

Hot Spiced Tea
1 1/3 c. Tang flavor beverage crystals
1/3 c. instant tea *
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cloves

Mix together well and put in canister. Put 1 heaping teaspoon per cup of hot water. * I think I will change this to 1 cup instead of 1/3 cup - making it more tea-ish.

Feeding the birds and a few stray neighbourhood cats (and Jessie who has a lovely warm home but seems to like the food better here) and realizing that yet again Christmas will be here before I know it and I've yet to begin the very few holiday preparations that are on la list. This happens every year ... I'm not sure why I can't come to terms with the fact that I'm just not that Christmas girl. Sigh.