Merry Merry Chritsmas!

to all our dearest family, friends and the ones we love- both near and far, may you completely enjoy and savour every moment of incredibleness this season has to offer!

Love, the Thorburn family
xxoo

my favourite christmas song

despite being up to our eyeballs in boxes and not really having a 'home' to set up anything christmassy this year, i have still somehow managed to stay pretty excited about the season. we have a tiny little tree perched on our counter, surrounded by packing tape and sharpies, but still holding its own and reminding us when we see it to take a minute and reflect on all thats good in the world. (thanks for this steph.) and we have definitely managed to keep our fridge stocked with yummy festive treats compliments of a few wonderful friends (thanks becky and aviv!)

one of my absolute favourite musical groups of all time is the carpenters. karen's incredible voice has always reminded me of my moms singing voice - sweet memories of sitting in the living room while my mom happily sung along with every song lyric come flooding back. something about every carpenters song gives me goosebumps from head to toe. so with that, here is my favourite christmas song for all of you to enjoy!

xo

 

jasmin rose himalayen bath salts

every christmas i usually opt to make a few handmade goodies. this year with us moving on december 15th, i knew whatever i made had to be easy and had to get done right away.  i had quite a few amber glass bottles left over from the wedding, and thought that jasmin and rose (two of my favourite scents) mixed with himalayen sea salt would blend perfectly to become a wonderful cold winter treat! so SO simple to make but so beautiful and relaxing to receive!

:: ingredients ::
himalayan sea salt (epsom salt would also work well, but i love the soft coral pink colour of himalayan)
dried rose petals
jasmin tea balls (optional)
jasmine essential oil (i used a blend with neroli - i wore it on my wedding day!)
a pretty container to house it all

:: directions ::
add the sea salt and a small hand full of rose petals and jasmine tea to a mixing bowl. add around 10-15 drops of essential oil (more or less to your scent liking) and mix well. pour into a sealable container and enjoy!

a few notes: i used a cheap (re: disposable) plastic bowl to mix everything up in as, even after washing, the jasmine oil will likely linger in your good dishes. i also used chop sticks (again, disposable) to stir it all together. i purchased most of the ingredients in bulk from soap and more here in calgary (including the amber glass bottles) and the jasmine oil came from favourite essential oil shop, sage natural wellness. of course you could use any scents or little additives to make your own unique bath salt blend- get creative and make something the speaks to your senses. i bought a 3 kg bag of himalayan salt and it made x11 250mL bottles of bath salts with just enough left over for me to have one really wonderful bath!

(you can see last years posts on homemade lipbalm, deodorant and another variation on bathsalts HERE)

wild teepee

finn and i met with our sweet friend paula and went for a little inner city hike today. we found an incredible teepee made from old branches and a fallen tree. the sign above it reads 'no hobos'.

too much stuff

its funny to me that as a self proclaimed ruthless organizer (well, maybe more than self proclaimed, i guess i do it professionally for a living) and someone who continually preaches about the importance of purging, getting rid of and then not bringing back in useless stuff, that i myself would have endless, overwhelming, ginormous piles of crazy amounts of stuff. i started packing up our tiny home. we have a pretty small space, but everything always fit here - i have spent tireless weekends purging and getting rid of what we aren't using any longer (we live across the street from a goodwill, so we take donations over weekly). but we also have tons of cupboards, shelves, nooks and crannies and secret hiding places to fit all of our super important possessions, and now that i'm pulling it all out, its just SO MUCH! and its everywhere! cupboards and cupboards of stuff. and after spending an entire day just looking at it all, im tempted to just turn my back and walk away. i packed 13 boxes yesterday and barely made a dent. and its so hard to know what to pack that we wont need over the next few weeks and what should be left to the last minute. oh, and packing with a two year old while on day 15 of being a single parent (jeff has been in vancouver training and house hunting) - its kind of making me bonkers. but, i guess it will get done. as jeff's mom perfectly described it, its like trying to move an elephant- our elephant just happens to be MUCH larger than i thought it was.

shop our junk

hi calgary friends,

since we are moving to vancouver soon, i have started a little website to try and get rid of a bunch of stuff we will need to purge before we go. all items listed are looking for a wonderful new home! in return, all we ask is for a (small) donation that we will then pass along to deserving local charities as our parting gift to our beloved city. pop on over and have a peek. new items will be added as we go, so visit regularly. (there is a link to this site on the left hand side of this page or you can click HERE.) xo

Wedding Photographs

Below are some of our favourite photographs from our wedding.

All photographs by Eden Lang & Maria Lang

(you can click the first picture in this post to launch the series in an enlarged picture viewer window and easily click through the pictures rather than having to scroll. You can also see slideshows of all Eden and Marias images here and here - they both require a flash player to view.)