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Things are starting to come together for the holidays. I've made a dent in christmas shopping and have also completed this year's quest for a new parka and warm, waterproof boots just in time for the temperature drop. Also, the new shower curtain arrived:

The next couple of days will be focused on finishing a few odds and ends at work, more christmas shopping, tidying up and baking for our party on Saturday. This year I'll be keeping things relatively simple and baking red velvet cupcakes, Toblerone fudge, and my favourite christmas cookies.

I watched the Charlie Brown christmas special last night. It's one of the few things I'm still sentimental about around the holidays, despite it's overt religiousness. I'll pull out our tree for Saturday, though it's not going to be the same without Starla around to chew on it:

No update on the bathroom makeover yet. I'm still waiting for the new decals to arrive and I have to find a cool black and white shower curtain, of which there appear to be none in this city. I had a dream where I found the perfect b&w shower curtain: it was white with a smattering of black letters in a really nice serif on it, obviously inspired by the opening sequence of Bored to Death (which has always reminded me of this Jay-Z video). What can I say? I'm a font geek who dreams about shower curtains.

(By the way, if you haven't been watching Bored to Death, you totally should.)

So yeah, no decals or shower curtain. But this pillow I ordered from Etsy a while ago arrived in the mail today:

Yay! I don't consider myself to be overly sentimental but that pillow was just too cute to resist.

I got my new glasses yesterday! I'm still getting used to them, they're a lot funkier than anything I've worn for a while, glasses-wise. But I like them, they're the perfect balance of cool and retro and nerdy that I was looking for.

That's Starla on my shoulders, chewing on my hair, in case you were wondering. She insisted on being up there while I was taking photos.

It's been a good week so far, despite the fact that I turned 34 yesterday. It's not that I'm upset about getting older, I'm just not excited about it. 34: woo. It is, however, a good excuse to go out for lunches, dinners, and a brunch. Food is one thing I can get excited about.

The other nice thing about a birthday is that it gives me license to buy things for myself without feeling guilty. As such, I have recently acquired:

This top

to go with this skirt (except in black with a light grey ruffle 'cause my ass needs a tight hot pink skirt like I need a hole in the head).

And Arun found this cute shiny red iPhone case for me.

Yay.

You know when you come back to the office after a long weekend and wish you'd just stayed home? Yeah, I'm having that kind of day.

I did, however, have a really great weekend. We watched Transsiberian, which was really good, despite the presence of Woody Harrelson, we cleaned the apartment, and we hopped on a train to Montreal to go see Thievery Corporation at Metropolis.

We're getting to be picky about what bands we travel to see these days but Thievery Corporation definitely warranted the trip; they have long been one of our most listened to artists. And the show did not disappoint. They were crazy good—and loud, with big, sick bass. I was really happy we got to see them.

Yesterday we did a whirlwind shopping tour before catching our mid-afternoon train home. Or rather, I shopped. Arun helped, and waited with the patience of a saint. I came away with a few tops, a couple of skirts, and a new giant purse (H&M is a paradise for giant, cheap purses).

Today I've been busy playing catchup and working around the fact that the (crappy VoIP) phone in my office has stopped working. Everyone else's phones are ok and my phone works everywhere else but my office. Apparently only a new network drop can fix it, which won't happen till sometime tomorrow, if I'm lucky. Oh, the irony of being a communications person without a phone.

I don't know about you but my skin went into full-on winter mode a few weeks ago. I had been using Bio-Oil on my face to great success until then (heavy moisturizers make me break out but slathering oil on my face is ok—go figure) but by mid-January my skin was getting drier and redder and angrier by the day.

I picked up a Biotherm moisturizing mask from Sephora that's turned out to be quite nice but a once-a-week mask wasn't enough. More reinforcements were needed.

So then I did what I always do when I have a beauty emergency, I went to see Gavin at the Bank & Laurier Shoppers because he always knows what to do. He recommended I put a tiny bit of Avene Cicalfate cream on the spots that need it (for me it was mainly my chin). It's actually a cream for cuts and burns and such and has copper and zinc and other things in it to help promote healing but whatever it is, it has solved my winter skin crisis. I swear, that stuff is magic.

Go get some. You and your soft, smooth skin can thank me later.

I highly recommend treating yourself to a little something every now and then as a way to help you make it through the winter.* Ok, I treat myself to stuff all year round but it makes me especially happy in the winter, when I find there is little, if anything, to be happy about.

For example, this morning, as I was teetering on the edge of an unrealistic deadline-related panic attack, one of my coworkers came by and dropped an envelope on my desk. In said envelope was the copy of Black Postcards: A Rock & Roll Romance, by Dean Wareham that I ordered over a month ago. I am especially excited about the book because Dean Wareham is the ex-frontman for Galaxie 500 and Luna, two bands I have adored forever, and he now continues to do great stuff with his wife Britta Phillips, who was also in Luna and, before that, was the voice of Jem in Jem and the Holograms.

Oh, and this particular copy of the book is autographed. He used a fountain pen to sign it, which makes the pen geek** in me happy just long enough to forget about my unrealistic deadline-related panic attack.

*I also recommend a Lite Book, lots of vitamin D, good boots, and layering.

**A trait I inherited from my dad. If you ever need to buy me a gift, a cool pen (or mechanical pencil) is a sure winner.