Do you swap?

I am planning a Sip n' Swap party again this year and I am waaaay excited. 

Last year we had 10 ladies get together and do a clothing swap in the spring for summer fashions. What a hit! A few of my girlfriends even held their own swaps after that for fall they were so inspired!

This year, I am giving lots of notice (to beat people's urge to purge and garage sale season) to all my ladies so they can start to declutter and build their pile of items to swap. This year it is Home Decor.

I am sending the invite over 5 months in advance to allow them the time to glean through their homes, investigate closets, dig in basements etc. and create a pile of decor / home items (pictures, mirrors, drapes, pillow covers, rugs, art, lamps, clean bedding, small tables/ chairs, coffee table books, knick knacks, paddywhacks - whatever they can carry) to bring to the.....

"Friendsgiving Home Decor Sip n' Swap in July"!!!

If they have a larger piece of furniture, they can bring pictures and we will consider it added to the pile, the donor and the new owner can arrange pick ups smile emoticon

So far I have about 10 pictures, 2 lamps, unused kitchenware, small decorative shelves, a rug or two, decorative boxes, vases, draperies, barstools, outdoor hangers for plants....you would be amazed once you start your pile!!! So if they were thinking garage sale....I say don't do it! 

I am reminding everyone that it is important to be able to truly let go of the items they bring and not to be hurt if the pieces don't have a new home by the end of the evening. Any and all leftover items will be packed up, carted away and donated lovingly to a local Children's Assistance Program for their new store on (where Boy#2 volunteers)

Redecorating your home with new-to-you pieces can and should be inspiring. What's more inspiring than girl time???

Thanks for diving in with me - Dharma

Free. My favourite F word.

So after finishing my mermaid spa out of the master bath, I was still lacking artwork for the far wall. How does one find specific mermaid inspired art....for no money?

Enter my girl Louise (I am her Thelma), my garage-sailing babe. She was given 4 weird canvas art pieces of shoes at a garage sale by a man who just wanted these 12x12 canvases gone from his life. Yup, shoes. I mean, I like shoes but I do not want art of shoes. Each to their own.

Weird right? Weirder is it was a set of 2. Times 2. Doubles of shoes. Weird.

I had mermaid stencils, cause what Mermaid doesn't? So I set to work covering the canvases in ASCP 'Versailles". Broke out the stencils and used the same chalk paint in Aubusson Blue (leftovers from the dining table and chairs). Finished these babies off with a bit of white pickling stain to soften the colours and VOILA.

mermaid art yo :) fo free.....fo sure!

International Women's Day

True Dat Madeleine! I am surrounded by and have been surrounded by amazing women my whole life. Cheers to you and to them :)

So….from one crazy project to another!

I am closing in on the living room becoming the awesome Gamer’s Paradise I want it to be. I finally got my new rug from Overstock.com and it it great. Almost dog hair resistant. Almost.

The IKEA Poang chairs are awesome for gaming and I enjoy watching the guys pull them all over the house. NOT!
Started a new project tonight, but still playing with the details….more to come courtesy of Cutting Edge Stencils. I know, I know….I am never happy with the master bedroom

Had an early 43rd birthday night out with my girls this weekend. A nice snuggly Saturday with the menthings… ordering Chinese food instead of cooking and lazing around all day Sunday while starting the new painting project.
My ladies (partners in crime).

Next up….finish stencilling and start decorating for Christmas. OY VEY!

Happy Birthday Sista!

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day. For most of you it will be a day of clovers, green T-shirts that are celebration-appropriate and possibly a lime green beverage.

For me St. Patty's is and always has been a special day. Not just because somewhere along the immigration line, I had an Irish ancestor or two but because it is my baby sister's birthday.

Babies, this year is a milestone. This year my wee sis turns the big 4 and 0.

How did we get from this?

All the way to this?

Anyhoo....we shall be going out in great style, dressed to our 9s and dancing the 40s in all night long. I can't wait to have an evening out with her and our bestest girls.

Happy Birthday Jules. You make my whole world funnier, better and just the right amount weirder.

To all my SISTAs!

Happy International Woman's Day! To all my ladies, reading around the world.

(This makes me sound important, right?)

"Womb to Tomb" Friends? I think not.

I like to check in on the Pioneer Woman. She makes me laugh and she rocks out some amazing recipes. I even bought her cookbook.....and I rarely buy those. She regularly talks about her friends. Those friends she has been friends with since they were babies. I don't have any of those.

My parents moved us around so much when we were younger that by the time I ended up in highschool, I think I was on school number 10+....I have lost track of pretty much anyone I ever met prior to Grade 12 and those who did stay on the radar are mostly relegated to Facebook because I live 4000 kms from the west coast now.

I know I will only ever have one "womb to tomb" friend - my sister Julie, but for others I do have a specificly awesome class of girlfriend to whom I like to refer as my....

"GREAT ASS to GRASS Girls"

You know, the ones you meet in your late 20s or early 30s (when you were most smokin') that make you laugh so hard you do this:

or this:

some of this:

and pretty much this nonstop.....

I intend to know these ladies till they put me under the dirt. Who are your girls? Have you called one today?

Who's in?

seriously, I wanna do this.....wanna come to Atlanta with me next June? 

Why I Don't Drink Wine Wednesday #8

You may not know this about me, but I'm a tad blunt.

No, really. Ask anyone that knows me.

That being said, this condition (which is kind of like having your "ladylike filter" removed for all time) has gotten me into a myriad of hot water over the years. Not including the times where I have frustrated bosses/ kids/ husband/ lovers/ family members etc. to the point of stammering and yelling at me, I can say resolutely that I have brought some people to a stalk, silent standstill. This condition is fueled to a degree of nuclear proportions when I drink.

When I drink wine, it can be epic to be in my company. No, really. Ask my sister.

It would stand to reason then, that being my friend or relative would entail keeping an eye on what I am consuming. How much and how quickly. I know, I know, I should be doing that for myself, but hey, I'm a social gal and I talk a lot (insert eyeroll from my BFFs here) and I have had a tendency to lose track in the past.  You know, when I was younger. LOL

So, when out with me, when you see me on white wine #5.....this is the SOP (standard operating procedure) that my friends and family have devised.

1) Start the car.

2) Extricate Dharma from the direct vicinity of the person she is speaking to/ at. Like, now.

3) Grab all of Dharma's belongings.

4) Hand off Dharma to (hopefully present) other BFF/Sista and explain that we are at CODE WHITE!

5) Return to person/people spoken to and apologize profusely giving them a fake name for the person they just got away from....

6) Call Greg and explain that we are going out for a late night coffee.

7) Coffee stat.

This procedure has been adhered to with mostly acceptable results. Except when the person who got to be the focus of one of my white wine fumbled-interventions turned out to be a future co-worker who would have recognized me anytime and anywhere. Thankfully she had the ladylike filter and did not bring this up while I waited next to her desk at the interview.

She did however ask me why my resume said Dharma and not Susan ;)

Kudos to my sister for being the most effective wingman in history. Triple kudos to her for keeping me on beer for most of the evenings we have gone out together. You are so wise.

You are the best, babe! Especially at 10:25 a.m. - ummm I have to figure out that damn camera!

This post is brought to you by the letter "F"!

For those of you waiting on this:

FUCKIN’ POTATOES

• 1.5 cup (packed) grated extra-sharp cheddar cheese
• 1.5 cup crumbled Danish blue cheese
• 2/3 cup (packed) freshly grated Parmesan

• 8-10 pounds YUKON GOLD potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
• 3  teaspoons kosher coarse rock salt
• 1  teaspoon ground black pepper
• ½  cup finely chopped onion
• 6 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, melted is easier

• 6 cups whole milk

These instructions I give to you, not by telephone or 6 times per day:

Preheat oven to 400°F. Lightly butter the biggest stinking roasting pan you own. Should be big enough to cook a toddler. Mix cheddar cheese, blue cheese and Parmesan in a bowl. If you are listening to Wanda, this must be a glass bowl, chilled in the fridge. Why? Who the hell knows, do as you are told.

Arrange one third of potatoes in pan, overlapping slightly. Slightly, people. Sprinkle with a teaspoon of salt and 1/3 teaspoon of pepper. Sprinkle onion over, then 1/3 of the flour. Dot with 2-3 tablespoons butter. Sprinkle one third of cheese mixture over. Do another layer, second verse same as the first. Quit bitching about your cramped hand from all the peeling. Top with remaining potatoes, remaining salt, pepper and butter. 

Reserve the remaining cheese. RESERVE, damn you!

Bring milk to a simmer in medium saucepan. Pour milk over potatoes (milk will not cover potatoes completely, do NOT panic). Cover baking dish tightly with foil & top. Bake 60-75 minutes. Uncover dish (liquids in dish may look curdled); sprinkle potatoes with reserved cheese mixture. Bake uncovered until potatoes are tender and cheese is deep golden brown. This could take hours, warning! Cook by the 30 minute interval and check often. The “beatch” never did give me time instruction so you’ll have to wing it like I do.

Remove from oven, let stand 15 minutes, wrap in a bath sheet and deliver these to my MIL’s house. I will be forever grateful as this will mean that I don’t have to provide the fuckin’ potatoes this year.

If we're gonna be friends.....

I was trying to think about what you would need to know about me if we were going to be BFF like Little Miss Momma and I ;) (actually I just stalk her, she doesn’t know I exist). I did love her link party idea however and have been merrily stalking others via the links! LOL 

Here is a pic of my BFF for LIFE, my sister Jules and I. Hi Jules!

So if you were to be Dharma’s BFF, you would have to be aware of the following:

I tolerate other people’s children. I am kind but I adore my own and think you should adore your own too.

I cuss. A lot. No really, if you have a problem with foul language when not in the company of smalls, move on.

I am 41 and I skinnydip at every possible opportunity. In our lake is my favourite, after a night out with the girls in the dead of night, giggling like crazies. My husband is used to me coming home smelling like lake water or chlorine. He doesn’t ask.

This whole blogging thing totally intimidates me. I look at other people’s work/ projects and blogs and sometimes it keeps me from posting my weirdo masterpieces.

I am in love with Mick Jagger. You heard me.

I drive. I drive when we go anywhere because my husband drives like Henry Fonda in On Golden Pond. My sister calls me the “Getaway Girl”. I have a molten lead foot.

I have what I call “reverse anorexia”. I have been a size 14-16 forever but when I look in a mirror I see a size 6. I am that damn HAWT!

I collect toys for our annual Toy Drive at work and I’m good at it.

If it is labelled chocolate, I will eat it. I once ate a chocolate covered ant.

I had a breast reduction when I was 16 and it was the best decision I ever made. Thanks Mom for being so cool when I asked for that for my birthday.

I could probably go on and on, and anyone who knows me would say that I can…..but I’ll be going back to LMM’s blog to meet others who are brave enough to share some of their weirdness :)

Trust, gossip and me....

Gossip has been a hot topic amongst my friends lately. Particularly, damaging third-hand stuff.

I must admit I feel a bit like the Olympia Dukakis character in Steel Magnolias who says "Hunny, if you haven't got anything nice to say about anyone, come sit by me" when girlfriends start to dish on one another. It is fascinating stuff sometimes. Mind you hearing passed on info that essentially shakes free someone's closet boneyard can be rather smarmy feeling after you've heard the lurid details. Have you ever heard something about someone and then thought secretly...."I need a shower"

But do I really want/ need to know this information? How does it hurt or damage the person being talked about? Mostly, I try to consider the source and see what derision of power or glee the "teller" is getting from the story. Is the gossip being purveyed with someone's best interests or is it malicious???

I have been known to get my gossip on, especially when smarting or hurt by someone. Mostly I have
tried to grow up past this in the last ten years and have actually had to carve friendships away from myself with women who live in the misery of other's drama....So how do I feel about it now? I'm sitting with this and making desicions...mostly about how I want to proceed and be percieved.

Let's face it, I sure as shit don't need anyone strolling my skeletons outta my closet. That's why my closest girlfriends (who have all sorts of info on me) are called my "Graveyard Girls"....cause that is where we will finally be able to tell all ;) If my sister is laid to rest next to me you'll still hear giggling into the next millenium....:)

Have anyone like that? A "bosom friend" as Ann Shirley would say that could basically set people's hair on fire with what she knows about you? How does it feel having that kind of info roaming the Earth? Do you still trust her????

Whoever gossips to you will gossip about you. ~Spanish Proverb