An Anniversary Wish

Today, my parents celebrate 57 years of marriage.

fiftyseven

Isn't that amazing?

What's even more amazing is that they haven't killed each other yet.

I kid. sort of.

Mom and dad, we love you.

Happy Anniversary! 

Please take a moment to vote for Ava Grace's Closet on Circle of Mom's top 25 Fashion & Beauty Mom's here! 
Thank you so much. 

Mother's Day Photo Fail

I don't think I ask for much.

One little photo of the kids and I on Mother's Day every year.

I had this brilliant idea that it might be cute to do it out at the swing set and have them all sit on the rocket. 

You can see how this went.

It didn't take long for us to give up.

And it took even longer for my husband to realize that Isabella's face had a chain from the swing across it in almost every.single.photo

Still...it's all my babies and me. And we're happy.

Mission accomplished. Sort of.

See last year's fail here. We'll get there yet. 
Happy Long Weekend to my fellow Canadian friends!

Everything for Mama

I am one of those people that loves to give gifts.

Maybe, just maybe, more than I like to receive them.

So for mama's everywhere, here are some of the items I'm eyeing: 

For the cook:

Aprons by CreativeChics via Etsy.


I might wear either of these aprons out. Pretty enough to, non?

For the constant gardner: {read: my mother}

Gardner's gift set by Sting in the Tail at Chapters/Indigo.

I love anything presented in a galvanized bucket. If it smells really good, that is a bonus.

For the book lover:

The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani

Buy the above book right now. I couldn't put it down. Annnd, if you visit the author's website here, you can receive an autographed bookplate for mom. Amazing.


For the beauty queen:

Nars Blush/Bronzer Duo in Orgasm/Laguna. Available at Sephora

If you don't own this already, do yourself a favor and buy two. One for you, one for your mama.
It gives just the right amount of color and will make you look both sun kissed and slightly flushed. 
Perfection.

For the fashionista:

"Design Your Own" Shoes by Shoes of Prey

A friend of mine received this gift recently from her husband. I would die. Die! 
Extravagant and fabulous. 


For the mama who has everything: 

Eco-friendly totes by Maude & Tilda.

 With sayings like "I'm still saving for my Birkin" among other more racier selections, these are a definite conversation piece. They are not cheap but are made in England and Paris, so there's that. 

For the new mama:

A hatbox full of cupcakes from Eat My Words

I don't know about you, but when I first had each of my babies, between breastfeeding and changing diapers, I rarely had time to eat. I would have loved a box of this goodness delivered to my door. The ladies at Eat My Words made Ava's baptismal cake and it was honestly one of the best I've ever tasted, not to mention the prettiest. A portion of all purchases goes directly to the Stephen Lewis Foundation.

What's on your shopping list?

Celebrating 80

We celebrated our mama's 80th birthday at the house on Saturday night.

Good szechuan and good company made the evening a memorable one.

I've been semi-obsessed with making tissue paper poms for our events recently.
Festive, inexpensive and fun.
I used this tutorial. 

The amazing cake was made by Marilena at Dazzle Me Cakes. If you are in the Toronto area, I highly recommend giving her a try. 
And deciding what to give the lady who has everything was tough but a necklace from Pendants by Steph with all her grandchildren's names on it made the perfect keepsake. She just loved it :: thanks so much Steph for making it so special!


I think she looks pretty amazing for 80. 
Love that lady right there.
Happy Birthday mama!


The winner of our group giveaway was lucky #7 (we had 105 entries!) :: Congrats to LeAnn from Join The Gossip! I will email you today.