Whimsy.

I wore a hat to work on Friday.

While it drew confusion ("What is that?") and tons of ribbing from my all-male office-mates (nothing new, really), it actually means I must be in a good mood. And I stayed that way, even after they drew this comparison:

I'm prone to flights of whimsy, and I might be in the midst of one of those. There's something about hats.

(cue nostalgia, switch to italics.)

I feel like watching The Wizard of Oz with my sister in footed onesie-pajamas and fast-forwarding (y'know, 'cause we're watching it on VHS) to all of the singing parts. LIONS AND TIGERS AND BEARS!

I want to play with My Little Ponies and Puffalumps. Eat Kraft Dinner with cut-up hot dogs (veggie, of course). Make greeting cards with glitter-glue. Giggle incessantly.

I want to collect Jem & The Holograms stickers and trade them for Jelly Bellys and Lip Smackers.

But I'll just rely on my imagination. I suspect that such behaviour would be very unbecoming in a girl of 30-ish, yeah? In some ways, I never managed to grow up. Playing adult, though, can get exhausting (I've never considered myself a full-fledged grown up. When do you know? Is there an initiation? A sign?).

So, while I'm stuck (mostly) abiding by societal guidelines for my almost-adult age bracket, I'll never stop secretly playing make-believe. Like my never-shed baby-fat, I think I just haven't yet shaken that last little bit of my childhood sense of wonder. Sure I'm cynical and crotchety like 90% of the time, but there's still some frolic left in this girl.

In an homage to my fits-of-giggles mood this week, I've plucked a little whimsy from my favourites on Etsy.

Great finds inspired by: dollhouses, dress-up, fairy tales, birthday wishes, sing-a-long, innocence + lime popsicles.

  

What IS this magical little place? (Terrarium, Sea & Asters $25)

 

  Big, bigger, biggest! (Jye big hair bow $35)


Trade'ya for your skipping rope. (Lemon Citrus lip balm set $22)

I need this. I have NO place to put it. No place at all. But I need this. (oversized 'W' by Hinsvik $125)

Oh, hello yourself. (necklace by Piano Bench Designs $47)

Dapper. P.S. These lovely folks also make pillows that look like cherry pies! And PB&J sammies! (Diffration Fiber $26)

All-time favorite scent: grapefruit. Do they still make scratch n' sniff stickers? Confession: I really clicked on this listing for the miniature dog. Lovely attention-to-detail on the product styling! (Prunella Soap  $6.75)

Wee pony! Of my very, very own! Oh, my sister would have DIED for this. I would have made her sooo jealous. (Royal Mint $75)

Washi tape forever and ever. (Pretty Tape $4.50)

Mom had a tin just like this, but maybe without the knob. Often it held cookies. (The Magic Attic
$20)

Matcha marshmallows. Mmmmmmmmm! (Fusion Sweets $10)

Wha? Rings made from SKATEBOARDS? Man I could have snagged a real stud in middle school with this baby. (Seven Ply $22)

Well, OK, off to do big girl things. Like making dinner for my husband and paying bills. Not quite as fun, I'm sure.

Skinny Genes

[ granny joe, 1950-ish ]

My mom and grandma had birthdays this week. I am constantly reminded that I am a Murray through-and-through and that I didn't get any of those drop-dead-gorgeous Brawley genes. My sister took them all for herself. Bitch. 

 [ not even fair ]

OK, I must give credit to Dad - he did give me height and blue eyes and apparently semi-OK metabolism (it's waning, of course), even if he also passed along a slew of annoying skin conditions and non-existent cleavage (I quite literally have my dad's chest). I suppose I get a lot of my personality from my mom and maybe that's why people say we look alike when we clearly do not. 

 [ 1980 ]

 [ 2009 ]

I'm not sure how I'll age, but I'm not afraid of it. I may not be a babe-like granny like my maternal fore-mothers, but that's what face-lifts are for, right? Kidding.

Happy birthday to two gorgeous old broads!

XO

p.s. I stole the clever title of this blog from a song by Eliza Doolittle. Santa brought me her CD and I'm kinda in love with her. She's playing Coachella (along with a thousand other artists I'm dying to see) but I'll have to wait for her next trip to Canada.

T-R-O-U-B-L-E

Capital T. Trouble.

If I had met this girl when I was single or young (or both), we would have found plenty of trouble together. But I'm married now, so I'm not allowed to have any fun. Kidding. But really, it's probably a good thing that I met her post-Alex.

She's road-tripping with me to see Sweet Thing in Ottawa and stay with my folks (they're getting a HOT TUB)! Too excited about what kind of shenanigans we might find.

I think I attract trouble. Or maybe I bring it out in people. Or do they unleash it in me? My high school friend's mother never liked me because she thought I was a bad influence. It was, in fact, entirely the other way around. I was a good girl until I met that group, but of course, her mother didn't really want to see it that way.  

All of my favourite people are so bad-ass in their own way. (And most of them live tooooo far away)

Like this one. Oh, don't be fooled by the fact that she's probably THE nicest person I know. This innocent smile can be deceiving. This is us last year at my wedding. 

But things weren't always so pretty...

Trouble.

Then there's this one. Oh my. I would say that Trouble is her middle name but her real middle name (and first name and last name) are already so freakin' cool. And not made up. Legit. (But yeah, trouble)

My sister (trouble).

 

This one. Hell yeah.

Don't even get me STARTED.

Oh lordy...

Mom/Trouble. Seriously. (Genetic?)

Have I mentioned how much I love these people? 

OK, so I've made my own contributions...

 

 

Good clean fun.

I'm just really thankful to have some seriously ridiculous people in my life. And I'm happy none of them have been arrested yet. 

---

UPDATE:


It is with great regret that inform you that I missed the biggest troublemaker of all. She JAY-WALKED the other day. *GASP* 

Pretty much pure evil. I think a general rule of thumb is to never trust red heads (real or otherwise).

Hearts growing fonder.

I miss these people. Though...I do like having distance between us. We appreciate each other more. I somehow forget that I used to want to punch my brother in the face when I watched him do innocent things like eat cereal. And how I have left permanent scars on my sister because of hairbrush fights. Nope, I just remember secret languages, dumb-kid inside jokes, fort-making, late-night bonding over wedding speeches, bunk beds, conspiracies against adults, and hysterical laughing at inappropriate times.

Now I wish we had no distance. Except 3 feet of my parents' kitchen table. I wish it was Christmas morning and we're bickering over who's going to make coffee and we're having Bailey's before noon and we're eating Pot of Gold chocolate for breakfast. I wish we were laughing at Dad (not with him). I won't take these little things for granted anymore. Promise.

My brother is in Japan (although en route "home" in 2 days) and my sister is in Costa Rica (vowing to "stay forever"). *sigh* Is it the heat? Or my age? Hormones? Isn't funny how the people who can annoy and infuriate you the most can also leave a big dumb empty hole in that inner place where you keep your best-things-of-life? 

(p.s. Happy Birthday Jill-wee!)

Your Yoko on Facebook!

Because, of course, she can't get enough of promoting Alex's band (and her blog), Her Royal Blogliness had to have a Facebook page too. 

Maybe this will ease the Sweet Thing news feed saturation. Maybe not. Maybe I'll be just as annoying as ever. Probably. Plus, I DO like other things besides the BEST-BAND-EVER(!!!). Like oversharing, shoe "porn", eating condiments by themselves, pretending that I have nothing to wear, acting like a real journalist, halfheartedly looking for a real job, AND trying to convince everyone that marriage life is, like, so Fetch ("Gretchen, stop trying to make fetch happen! It's not going to happen!"). Go "Like" it, kay?

Love,
Your Yoko

 

p.s.  Entirely off topic: I miss my sister. Maybe this is why she left?