Birthday Wish List

It's my birthday on Saturday! Here is what's on my wish list:

A cozy sweater. I am in love with this cozy wool and cashmere sweater. It looks so soft and warm, and I love the little cutout detail at the hemline. The price is steep though — that's why it is on my wish list and not in my closet :)

A leather jacket. I've been craving one all fall. I thought I wanted one with a stand collar, but now I think I would really like a classic moto one. I wanted to pull the trigger on this one on Black Friday, but sadly it sold out in my size before I could order it. (My hubby and pocket book are much happier though.) This one too, with it's shearling collar would be nice.

A delicate necklace. I've been looking for a delicate necklace made of mixed metals and this one is absolutely perfect.

My hair is in need of some serious care, and I can never bring myself to spend money on fancy hair care products. I'm sure these damage remedy products could help get my hair back into shape. I absolutely love the smell (and tingle) of this shampoo by this brand too, but I think I need something a little more nourishing for my hair. And in all honestly, what I'm probably going to treat myself to for my birthday is a haircut—I haven't cut my hair in a year—and this would be a nice little treat to go along with my haircut!

A beautiful cashmere scarf. The red is pretty, and outside of my comfort zone. I normally gravitate towards greys, like this one, but this fall and winter I've been craving a pop of colour.

A subscription to The New Yorker. And maybe The Walrus too. In a bid to make weekend mornings more relaxing, and to spend less time on my phone and laptop, I tried subscribing to the weekend editions of The Globe and Mail and The New York Times. But during my 4 week trial period The Globe and Mail showed up exactly once, and The New York Times was never delivered. I cancelled my subscription (don't worry they opened an investigation to see why I never received my papers, which I'm sure will be very fruitful), and am looking for something else to make weekends less about screen time, and more about learning and reading.

XOXO

Fall TV Hits and Misses

The fall TV season is in full swing and it has turned out to be pretty good so far. Here's what I've been watching the past couple of months:

Hits:

1. The Good Place — If you're not watching The Good Place you should start to immediately! We binge watched the first season on Netflix at the end of the summer and have been watching season 2 this fall—the midseason finale was a couple weeks ago. The Good Place is so good! It's funny, the cast is great, and the first season had one of the best twists. Ever. Seriously, if you're going to pick up one new show make it this.

2. Scandal — I know, I know, I have mixed feelings about Scandal, but I'm in too deep and need to finish the final season. I've just started it on Netflix, but so far I'm digging feminist Olivia Pope!

3. Riverdale — A schlocky teen soap, but I totally have a soft spot for this show. A little teen drama mixed in with some murder mystery. A match made in heaven.

4. Stranger Things 2 — I know this season has gotten a little flack, and it didn't really break any new ground, but it certainly made for some heart-pounding entertainment. Poor Bob! I hope season 3 delves deeper into Eleven's story.

5. Brooklyn Nine-Nine — Not the strongest season this year, but still a very funny show. Andre Braugher is beyong amazing and makes the show.

Misses:

1. Star Trek Beyond — I was so excited for this show, and to be fair I only watched the first episode, but it left me a little (a lot actually) underwhelmed. I thought it was an interesting premise and boasts some strong female leads, but the first episode was awful. Is the show going to be just about a war with the Klingons? My niece once gave me this assessment of Star Wars, and I'm going to echo it here: I don't mind the outer space stuff, and I don't mind the characters, but I really don't like the war stuff. Should I keep watching?

Happy Monday!

XOXO

(Photo by Tina Rataj Berard)

Weekend Links

I'm back! Sorry for the month-long hiatus — I got behind on my blog schedule, and life and work got in the way for a bit, but I'm back (hopefully) to a regular posting schedule. Let's kick the weekend off with a few fun links from around the web!

It's Black Friday today! Are you going to do any shopping this weekend? I'm trying to limit my spending right now, but I have snagged a couple of things. Some cute jammies for the kiddo for Christmas. And a couple of these sweaters. (I know Uniqlo doesn't ship to Canada, but I was able to send these to my dad who lives down in the States.) These are the best merino wool sweaters I have found. I think they are better quality than merino wool sweaters I've bought from Banana Republic or J Crew, at a third of the price, and they honestly machine wash like a dream. And you can sometimes snag them for $20! I also have my eye on this shirt, but I'm trying to resist.

Segueing from shopping to the topic of money management, I found this old blog about how this guy paid off nearly $100,000 of student debt in 10 months! Yes he had a very good job, but he had to be pretty darn frugal and come up with some creative ways to get more cash. I find it really hard to opt out of consumerism — there's always something new and cute I want to buy, or something we need to get for the kiddo. We have some pretty lofty financial goals for the next year, thankfully we don't have anywhere close to this kind of debt — I'm so glad to live in Canada where we have comparatively affordable education, but I think I could learn a thing or two from this blog about saving money.

A little less serious — all the food posts I've read about American Thanksgiving have me thinking about Christmas dinner! We're hosting Christmas for the first time in Montreal this year(!) and I kinda want to change things up and try this bread pudding recipe in place of our usual stuffing. It's what Ina Garten serves at Thanksgiving, you know.

Speaking of food, we made fettuccine alfredo this week using this recipe and it was so good! I don't know why I ever buy pre-made alfredo sauce, this was a million times better and so quick and easy to make.

This is last week's news, but I was fascinated by this Leonardo Da Vinci painting that sold for $400 million dollars. If you want to take a deep dive like I did there are lots of interesting articles out there, like this, and this, and this. And this and this. I know it was all a marketing ploy by Christie's, but I would have loved to see this painting in person.

Indulging my true crime obsession, an interesting article on lady serial killers — I think this title says it all: “Girl Poisoner Moron,” or Why Was Everyone So Bad at Murder?

I hope you have a great weekend! I think I'm going to make a batch of these, but maybe with a berry filling? They freeze really well and make for a nice little treat!

XOXO