Nicole’s Favourite Things – Spring Edition!

It was such a long, cold winter, wasn’t it?  Snow on the ground from October solidly through April, but I tell you this: May has been absolutely stunning in YYC.  I keep expecting snow in the forecast every day, or at least hard frosts, and yet it’s been warm and beautiful.  It feels like spring, but not Calgary spring – regular actual spring! 

And so it’s time for the Spring Edition of Nicole’s Favourite Things!

My Garden

On the fourth of May, this is what my front yard Mayday tree looked like:

This is what it looks like now:

Leaves!  Flowers!  All in a nine day span, which is not great for the allergy sufferers in the house, but it sure is pretty.  Speaking of pretty:

This is the prettiest the Nanking cherry has ever looked.  Usually the buds freeze before the flowers come out and/or the flowers get blown off by gale force winds, but not this year.  I’m soaking up every second. 

I know people in other parts of the world have had lilac bushes, the blooms of which have already come and gone, but look at the adorable little buds on my lilac:


There are many, many other exciting things happening in my garden right now, but if you are NOT a gardener, you may be falling asleep with boredom at all my squee flower talk.  Moving on. 

Embracing Colour

Well, kind of.  I was shopping with a girlfriend who just so happens to have gone to design school and has a fabulous sense of style, and she practically forced me to buy this top, which I was unsure about, but now I love.

IT’S SO COLOURFUL!  I feel a little bit peacock-y in this outfit, but my husband informed me that I am now no longer allowed to shop without my friend in tow.  Hope she doesn’t mind her new career as my personal stylist.

I also wore a blue – BLUE – scarf to my 20th high school reunion.  I don’t know if it’s spring fever or what, but all this colour is going to my head.


Anyone else feel like I need to clean my bedroom mirror?  Seems a little dusty.

Mascara

I am a sucker for different formulations of mascara, and yet I don’t actually notice a difference between any of them.  None of them transform me into a Megan Draper lookalike, possibly because I don’t look anything like Megan Draper and also she has fake eyelashes and professional makeup artists and she’s a TV character, not an actual person.  Anyway.  I did buy this mascara called “The Falsies” and although I was at first disappointed with it (see also: non transformation into a TV character) the more I use it the better I like it.  My husband snapped this picture of me on Saturday night and I can actually notice my eyelashes in it:


Spring Food

I am in love with everything berry and green these days, so I’m enjoying these recipes I have up at Yummy Mummy Club: Green Goddess Bowl of Goodness, Overnight Coconut French Toast, and Lemon Mini-Cakes with Whipped Coconut Cream.  Fun fact: that last recipe is a vegan riff on my dear friend Hannah’s famed Lemon Muffins

Mother’s Day

I’m not hugely invested in Mother’s Day, but this weekend my boys gave me homemade cards and hugged me approximately one zillion times.  They also had a blast playing in the sprinkler, which NEVER happens in May! 

 
 


That series of photos just makes my heart happy.

Ground Control to Commander Hadfield

Commander Hadfield is the BOMB.  I have never been a person even slightly interested in space.  In fact, one of my strongest memories from Grade One is lying to the teacher of the gifted enrichment program about already reading a book about a dog who becomes an astronaut because, hey, books about space?  Snore.  I think they gave me an equally snore-worthy book about a dog who dug a hole in a garden but whatever.  At least I didn’t have to read about space.

But here comes the amazing Canadian Chris Hadfield and suddenly I’m completely obsessed.  I can’t wait to watch him come home tonight, with the kids.  Is there anything that man cannot do?  Plus, his song Is Somebody Singing makes me tear up every time I sing it (which is often, in the shower).  The kids sang it for Music Monday and it was just so special.

This Fabulous Spam Comment

Anonymous wrote: I don’t even understand how I stopped up here, however I believed this put up was good.  I do not know who you are but certainly you are going to a famous blogger in the event that you aren’t already.  Cheers!

Anonymous goes on to post his/her website entitled “tits movie”.  Oh boy!  Thanks Anonymous!  I sure hope you’re right, and I think I’ll just go click that link now.

Comments

  1. Joanne Hutchinson says

    I love that top ……. also love the green yoga pants you had on this morning 🙂

  2. That top is fabulous. So is that picture your husband took of you. Mother’s Day was cold here, but my ridiculous daughter swam through run, rain and hail anyway (I went in too, but didn’t stay long). We had hot weather followed by a cold snap, and today was sunny and cold, which is my favourite. Glad you’re enjoying May.

  3. That top *is* fabulous, ditto the scarf. I like you in colours. To me, your personality is so bright and vibrant that I imagine you as dressing to match.

    You guys are having a warmer spring than we are! WTF, weather?

    • You’re so cute! I do feel colourful on the inside, why am I so drawn to black things? It’s a mystery. A DEEP DARK MYSTERY!

  4. I bet that tits movie was amazing.

    Every day, on the way to and from school, we pass an enormous lilac tree whose blooms have now all wilted and are falling off. My daughter and I would stop every day to smell them and she wanted to know when they would be back. Today, I told her the hard truth – not for another year. BRUTAL! I miss the lilacs when they’re gone. They’re my fave flower.

    Also! Love the top! I was just talking about you to a friend of mine when we went out shopping. I was telling her how my friend in Calgary always wore black and that I should start doing that too (mostly for ease of dressing – no mix and match) and she thought that was a great idea. But I’ll have to eat my words, you colourful peacock you.

  5. That spam comment made me snort. I only ever get mundane crap like “I will go ponder your wise words.” As if, seller of office supplies. Where’s my tits movie?

    As for Commander Hadfield – he’s my literal hero. So inspiring and awesome. I heard he might be in Ottawa for Canada Day, and am already making stalking plans. Did you know he will be leading the Calgary Stampede Parade?

  6. You have cute outfits!

    And I’m so glad flowers are starting to grow. It’s finally going to stay warm where I’m at, I think.

  7. I think that you’re having a better spring than we are. We had frost. Anything out there is all wilted. So enjoy your baby buds.
    I think the colour is great and the pop of blue.
    I don’t understand mascara. I find that they are pretty much the same too aside from being clumpy. I hate clumpy.
    Someone found my blog once via a search “Road cone in the ass”…classy.

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