Kids complementing each other

You probably know by now that LP's favorite pastime is playing with toy cars. And incidentally, spreading them across the floor everywhere. You might even remember how crazy it drives me (the zero tolerance to clutter neurotic) sometimes (like here, and here, and here for instance).

Well, there's hope. F, now just one week shy of her 1st birthday, is not walking yet but is crossing the whole house on all fours at lightning speed, pulling herself up, starting to climb up the stairs and to cruise around furniture. She also likes her brother's toy cars. They're all she ever knew for toys -the pink bug hasn't caught her yet (I know it will soon). Yesterday, without anyone teaching her how to, she suddenly took a different interest in a typical LP cars-on-floor modern art display. She zoomed to it, and, very decidedly, one by one, she took them and put them all in the bin that was waiting silently nearby. Then she sat on the floor, let out a sigh while looking at the bare space, and applauded herself.

Cougar

Once again this year I've been contacted by the Canadian footwear company Cougar, who wanted me to review a pair of their winter boots (last year's post here).

Despite my initial doubts last year, I've been pretty much wowed by the products, so I was really pleased. Receiving another pair of boots for free by mail? Yes, please!

This time, I chose the Mirage wedge model, which is in black leather with a suede overlay. There are also neat little details, like a decorative zipper in the front.

They arrived last week, and I love them. They are really confortable and warm, which, given that I've always valued style way over comfort, I can't seem to get over... Depending on how active you are outside, they will keep your feet warm until from between -10 to -30 degrees Celcius! And yes, these kind of temperatures are possible here in the winter, although much more frequent in my hometown or in Quebec City than here. All my adult life, I've been freezing my toes off as soon as the temps dropped below zero and we got snow on the ground, so this is new, and welcome to me.

But what I like best about them is that they are also pretty stylish... In an ideal world, I would have liked the wedge to be even higher (but you know my thing about high heels), but at least it still gives me some height and the proportion of the boot is good. I really like the suede part, and the fact that they are just wide enough to allow tucking jeans or leggings in, but at the same time skinny enough to keep an overall streamlined look. I can wear them to go walk into the woods (which I did last week and I hope I have time to post the gorgeous fall pictures soon), but also in the city without compromising on style -I'm wearing them today (casual Friday) with jeans. When winter comes, they will be perfect for my daily walk downtown to meet M at the end of the day, but also perfect for more outdoorsy occasions.

And by the way, they didn't ask me to do this or anything but I smiled when I saw this morning that they have just launched the "Pillow Boot" collection again... Cougar has been there for a long time, and at least before, they've always been known for their practical side more than for their fashion forwardness... And these boots were totally ubiquitous here at a certain period, late seventies to eighties...? Everyone here had them, and they sure weren't a style statement! But here they are again, worn by models who totally pull it off. They've become "iconic". Who knew?

Would you wear these?

See you soon?

I've started my new job yesterday. It's going well; as much as I was ambivalent about coming back, it almost feels like I never left. It seems like sometimes, a step back can also be a step forward? I sure hope so.

I didn't really see this coming, but ever since having F it became increasingly clearer: life has caught up with me. Between the family, work, the commute, some freelancing, an insane number of hours spent prepping the house for an edless array of showings that still haven't led to an offer the house being on the market, and other things like social occasions and trying to carve a little time for myself, I just don't have time for the blog anymore. And it clearly shows... It makes me really, really sad not to be able to do this properly, because I was always able to make the time before, but at the same time the last thing I need right now is another nagging thing on the to-do list that's always in the back of my head.

I promise that this is not goodbye, but this explains why you'll see less of me in the near future. At least until my life gets a little less hectic, or I gain back control of a predictable routine...

As always, thank you for still being here.

Genius!

I know I've blogged about it before, but it's a bit of an endless conundrum of mine: how can you eat produce that is as local as possible with our crazy climate and short growing season? Of course, people have been growing things like tomatoes in greenhouses here for a while, and it seemed like a sensible solution... Until I learned that greenhouses are so expensive to heat and maintain that the carbon footprint of a single hothouse tomato is actually worse that if it had come from California, and 10 to 20 times higher than if it had been grown in a field.

But we can't escape our endless winter, and we also have to eat other things that root vegetables. It didn't seem like there was a solution but only have access to less fresh (less nutritious) produce from far-away lands, inevitably making our food-related overall carbon footprint much higher than people who were blessed to be born in milder climates.

But I was wrong! Just take a look at this project: Lufa Farms. The vision of a twenty-something Montrealer from Lebanese origin, who skillfully blended his business and technology background with his passion for food and agriculture. The result is the most impressive and well-though of initiative I've seen in a long time: a rooftop greenhouse to grow food.

How is it different?

Since it's on top of a building, the elevation means that you get maximum sun exposure. And since heat goes up, the greenhouse benefits from the building's heating system, and heating costs are very low. In fact, the higher the urban density, the lower the heating costs. Also, the rooftop means that no valuable urban square footage is wasted -the space is already available and under-utilized.

The prototype greenhouse, which was built for $3 million (from private funds) in the North End of the city, can feed up to 2,000 people. They grow no less than 40 varieties of vegetables and herbs, distributed in the form of  weekly "baskets" -even in the dead of winter, people can receive local produce that they know has been picked on the same day. They use different microclimates that are specifically suited to different plants, and grow hydroponically, collecting and reusing rain/snow water. No chemicals are used, although their growing methods excludes them from receiving an official organic certification.

The people involved are looking for expansion opportunities, since they say it would probably take a greenhouse twice or three times as big (6,000 people fed) to ensure long-term profitability. We never think of large-scale agriculture in terms of an urban setting, but according to their research, it would only take greenhouses on 10% of the roofs in Montreal to be able to feed the entire population of the city (over 1 million people if you exclude the suburbs). And this, year-round. Positively awesome.

 I REALLY hope this concept will take off.

(You can see a video (in French) of the project here -although I'm not sure it's available outside of Canada. Ande here's a NYT article about it from last May).

The last week

I'm just a week away from starting my new job...

It seems just like yesterday that I quit my previous one, crying. That I was so exhausted, waddling around, my mind just drawing a blank most of the time.

That I wrote this.

That I nonetheless finished a freelancing gig about Holiday presents while not telling my editor that I could possibly give birth pretty soon. I didn't want to scare her, and I guess I was right; I sent my bill three days before F was born. I got lucky on this one.

That I looked like this:

And usually felt even worse that it looks.

But a year has gone by at lighting speed. I go from reminiscing and getting teary to being so excited for the next stage to begin (new job, new house). From feeling so sad that not being at home anymore means spending less time with my kids, to be really looking forward to get out of the house where I now spend my days alone, obsessing about the real estate market situation.

I don't look like the above photo anymore, in fact this time I've already lost all the weight I had gained (probably because I had never expected how the work involved with two kids would be exponentially higher than with one). I still breastfeed but we're in the last weeks now, and doing it less and less. I enjoy the accrued freedom but there's a little bit of mourning too, since I'm never going to do this ever again, I'll soon never have an infant to care of again.

Instead I now have an 11 month-old who spends all of her energy exploring and socializing right now. Who loves to laugh and already displays humor and determination. Who has lots of hair, cute and even a little curly. Who correctly points to several different things when asked: daddy, LP, cat, fish, flower, boat.

Who continues rocking all of our worlds.

Goes by so fast.

United colors

Since I donated a lot of my clothes earlier this year, I was a little nervous to open back my fall-winter bin (remember I hadn't worn these items in two years), especially now that I'm going back to work soon. It turned out that there were still several OK/good pieces in there, which I only had to complement with a few key things (killer jeans, a black blazer with just a little stylish edge (a cute and quirky lining that peeks through when you turn up the sleeves), a professional-looking skirt, one great pair of wool trousers, maybe one or two daydresses that can double as tunics...)

I ended up buying most of these at Benetton. I'm not sure what brought me back to this store I hadn't been to in years (trips to Italy excepted), but I've been a fan ever since I was about 12 (there even used to be a store in my remote hometown). My budding fashion sense started to take shape in the late 80s, and at the time it one of THE labels to sport if you aspired to be a preppie (along with Polo, Lacoste, and Vuarnet mostly).

I had since abandoned them, mostly because after I started paying for my own clothes, there were a good number of years during which it was inconceivable for me to spend, say $89 on one item. I'm a bit of a bargain hunter when it comes to clothes, and although it's still always fun to be so, I don't think it served me really well over the years. I purged my closet after 1-developing a wariness of bargains and their various "hidden costs" in the last few years, and 2-becoming so fed up of the blahness of my style and the way my cheap clothes start looking much less appealing after just a few washes. So suddenly, spending about $500 on 6 or 7 items that were all GREAT didn't seem so expensive as much as a great value for clothes that can go with everything and last for years. I mean yes, that's still a lot of money but this shopping spree was a one-time, particular situation (having to build my wardrobe again, but trying to do it smarter than how I shopped before).

I'm glad I went back. Their current collection is pretty nice! The clothes didn't immediately speak to me, but after a few minutes of browsing the store, it all seemed to click and I 'got' it. This was everything I was aiming for. Definite style that does not scream for attention but still subtly makes a statement, just a hint of European flair, great colours (this has always been their big strength) and rich fabrics/textures, obvious quality, a flawless fit, and a polished but not stuffy look.

Here are the skirt (thin leather belt as a bonus) and the pants (herringbone and in pale grey as opposed to this dark shade) I got (along with a gorgeous printed silk blouse and a teal cowl neck tunic):

Funnily enough, I also made a friend when the (very gay, no worries M) store manager/stylist and I somehow connected and spent over half an hour talking about fashion, the brand, and even work-life balance (the one his twin sister strives to have with her kids, anyway). He told me that unfortunately, Benetton has lost quite a bit of market share here in recent years, and the company even had to lower its prices. Why? Because of new low-end retailers (he mentioned XXI, H&M) that lure their target customer away with their shockingly inexpensive clothes. Benetton's position here in North America is a little different than it is in Europe, I think, where it's a bit like the GAP, with lots of jeans, t-shirts, sweat pants, etc. The niche they have tried to carve here is me quite specific: "a professional woman who's perhaps not at the cutting edge of fashion but definitely still wants to be fashionable and give off a bit of sophisticated vibe." Which may not be that easy... On one hand the younger girls are probably both priced out and interested in flashier clothes anyway, and on the other hand, the real high-power women who do have serious clothing budgets may probably favor (more expensive) local designers and/or couture.

He thought it was so bad the brand image just keeps lessening over the years, because they do have a really nice product offer... But he was right: not only the store in my hometown is long gone, but there are now only two stores in Quebec. Do you remember how edgy and controversial and out there they used to be with ads? They had gone a little far, but now they've just left the marketing landscape altogether. "What's that about?", I asked my new friend. "Well, it's working so well for them in Europe, and the North American market is so tiny in comparison, that they don't care. They don't let us do anything... I can't even conduct my own local campaigns or even maintain a Facebook page. It's like they keep the stores alive just so it looks good to have all of these worldwide locations."

Isn't so sad, someone who really believes in the potential of what he sells and really wants to make things happen but is being denied the tiniest initiative? It made me reflect on my shopping habits a bit, and try to see "pass the bargain" even more. And even though I probably won't stop buying a few things from H&M, XXI and especially Joe, I really need to remember that quality trumps low prices every time. The guy even told me he went to a conference recently, where he was told that the trend would be for an increasing polarization of clothing retailers, with lots of low-end, lots of very high-end, but very few middle-range shops. And if these all disappear, where will I, and all the women like me, find their clothes?

What do you think? Are you seeing this happening?

The real estate market, month one

Our house has been on the market for a month now. And it's been... very disconcerting and frustrating.

We've had 11 showings, including one family who came twice, and were visibly quite in love with the place and the neighbourhood, but then didn't follow up with an offer (officially they're still "thinking about it", they haven't bought anywhere else either). We've had people who were quite obviously never going to buy our house (because their budget was much higher, they really wanted an open kitchen, or then didn't want a swimming pool -all of this, along with the price, dimensions, all related information, and about 20 pictures, is may I remind you very transparently displayed in our listing).

We've had people who were clearly a wrong fit, like an elderly couple who spoke no French nor English and left after two minutes without saying anything (it probably didn't help that when you first come in, you immediately have two flights of stairs). Then we've had people who liked the house but were only starting their search, weren't ready to buy, and I guess didn't love our place enough to stop the presses and do whatever it takes to get it immediately (which is what we did ourselves).

Even though I'm getting better at it with each visit, it still takes me about 2 1/2 hours to get the place ready every time (and that's on top of it being already staged and decluttered from top to bottom). So we found ourselves getting up at 6 on a Saturday morning to tidy up and get the kids in the car by 9 while we wait for them to show up -45 minutes late, we found ourselves at the hardware store at 8 PM with two tired kids, including LP who was quite sick and didn't understand why we couldn't go home yet, we found ourselves eating out more often that we're used to when showings coincides with meal times. We found ourselves coming home 10 minutes early to find an agent and the two buyers waiting by the door in the pouring rain (what a first impression), me with bags full of the flowers I had gone out to get. We found ourselves driving around our neighbourhood frantically for 40 minutes, hoping that the people wouldn't see our car repeatedly passing by, wondering why the hell it took them so long (the usual showing lasts about 10 minutes). Clearly, we had not realized selling a house was this involved. On weeks when we have several showings, it completely scr*ws up our routine, but then, on weeks when we don't, we worry. We feel like we're not completely at home anymore, and we're not really good at this.

And I guess it was silly of us to imagine that it would sell almost immediately, based on the fact that it has been the case for every single one of the nearby houses in the past couple of years. But in the past few months, a shift has occurred, from a sellers' market to a buyers' one. So our timing is not quite perfect (of course!), and there are suddenly lots of other houses for sell nearby, more so than ever before (of course!) None have sold in the past month though, so at least this is reassuring.

Our agent is not at all worried, and we still have plenty of time before our official occupation date of April 1st. Our hopes of moving before the winter, though, are rapidly waning.

I find it a little difficult not to take it personally, which might be the biggest problem. Honestly, the house has never looked so great -clean, functional, pleasant to live in, warm, uncluttered, with our style really shining through. I am loving this, and wish we could take inspiration for our next house, although M the clutterbug "misses his stuff" (of course). We have made all kinds of improvements in the last six weeks or so, and realized that we should have done all of this way before (seriously why didn't we???) We have worked so hard on our home over the years (upstairs bathroom reno being one example), and it is a million miles away from the dated, not very appealing, unmaintained, slightly sad property M bought nearly ten years ago. But buyers of course don't see that... And they always tend to focus on the three negative things instead of the 50 positive ones. I don't blame them, everyone is the same... But I still see it as a bit of a rejection every time.

To tell you the truth, this time of our life strangely reminds me of when we were trying (and for a long time, failing) to conceive LP. There's the same feeling of being vulnerable and a little trapped, of really wanting something to happen but having absolutely no control over it, of knowing that the next stage is so much better but we can't be there yet. There are the falses hopes you have almost in spite of yourself, followed by the harsh return to reality, and the need to start over again. There's the time that goes by so quickly, and makes us feel more and more powerless. And more than anything there's my neurotic side flaring up again, waking me up at night.

To be continued...

Here's one wedding that won't soon be featured on Style Me Pretty...

Adapted from an article (in French) in La Presse this morning.

In a local court yesterday, a 38-year old man, let's call him Mr. Greatpartyfriend, has been cleared of molestation and assault charges which occurred during a 2007 wedding. Why? Because the 45-year old bride (Ms. Classylady) confessed that she assaulted the victim (Ms. Goodtasteinmen) herself.

Mr. Greatpartyfriend attended the wedding of Ms. Classylady, and had been asked by her and the groom to buy and bring various drugs for the occasion. Mr. Greatpartyfriend brought Ms. Goodtasteinmen, which he had been seeing for 3 weeks, as a guest. Once at the reception, Ms. Goodtasteinmen was surprised to realize that Mr. Greatpartyfriend was introducing her as "his cousin." She then found out that Mr. Greatpartyfriend was still involved with a woman he had been with for the last seven years, AND that the bride's sister was in love with him and DID NOT have sex (Clinton/Lewinski-style) with him right there at the wedding. Outraged, Ms. Goodtasteinmen started yelling at Mr. Greatpartyfriend and picked up a verbal fight, which, sadly, kind of killed the buzz of the wedding.

It is then unclear what happened exactly, but Ms. Goodtasteinmen was severely beaten to the point where she lost a tooth, a shoe and her cell phone. She was later picked up outside in a trench by other guests who called 911, and was then taken care of by paramedics.

Ms. Goodtasteinmen stated in her complaint that Mr. Greatpartyfriend assaulted her, and even sexually molested her. Mr. Greatpartyfriend, though, always argued that he saw Ms. Goodtasteinmen in a fight with "another woman".

So Ms. Classylady finally admitted that she beat up the victim after looking for her to confront her about ruining her wedding, and finally finding her outside. When the enraged victim started yelling at her that this was an "douchebag" wedding and that her whole family were "tramps," it did it for the bride. Ms. Classylady then punched Ms. Goodtastedinmen in the face "at least" 4 or 5 times, and then grabbed her from the ground and dragged her on the gravel driveway to the trench. When the judge asked why the bride had not confessed of all of this earlier, she replied that she felt "her criminal record was too heavy already."

No word about who designed the wedding dress.

Two weeks notice in reverse

I have a job. Which I'm starting on October 17.

A funny set of coincidences meant that a company I previously worked for for 3 years needed a tech writer. I liked that job, it was well located, and the people were nice... There's even the enticing probability of occasional trips to Paris and to NY. Why did I leave it then? Well, it mostly had to do with having started to go out with a certain guy. A co-worker...

Who's now my husband.

Going back feels funny, but in a good way I guess. It's been six years since I left, and I've had two jobs since, not to mention I got married and had two kids. Getting into the building, seeing some familiar faces, setting foot into their premises felt both well-known and odd. Being able to talk about all of this with M and knowing that he understands and relates is also quite funny, I must say (he worked there for seven years). There'll always be a specialness to this company in our lives, because we met so many of our friends there (some have since also left), and of course that's where we first met, that's where we fell in love, despite me trying REALLY hard not to for a VERY long time (but that's another story). This morning when I went to sign the papers I suddenly remembered the moment and the place we were first introduced, and I smiled fondly. We were both with other people then, and we didn't know, but this was it, the love of my life.

I feel so relieved, and ready. F is doing really well at daycare, and exactly like it did for LP, she seems to progress at lightning speed ever since she started, probably from the contact of these other kids. She's starting to have a life away from me now, which both hurts a little and makes me feel good. She goes on walks with the giant stroller, she plays in the plastic ball pool, she sits outside with her little friends, she explores her surroundings on her own more and more. She get rocked and kissed and fed and nurtured by two wonderful teachers she loves seeing in the morning, which makes me feel at peace.

And so I have two more weeks at home now. Two weeks to get prepared for the adjustment of being a two working parents family again, but except with double the load of kids. To get back into this routine I used to master pretty well, and which seems a bit overwhelming now. To get familiar with the drill: planning dinners ahead, making lunches, laying out three outfits for the next day, setting the alarm clock, and I hope, working out while the family is still sleeping.

My new (old) office will be right downtown, and it's something I've really missed in the last few years (outstanding shopping during lunch breaks! All the restaurants you can imagine! Being able to run almost all your errands quickly and conveniently!) I do love our sleepy little suburban town, but I'm really an urban person at heart, and I'm kind of looking forward to dressing the part, feeling this energy, and drawing style inspiration from all of the people you see in the streets. Becoming me again, me outside of being a mommy.

Bring it on. We can do this... Now all we need is for our house to sell.