Daily Jamie

In Case You Were Wondering

This is what a groundhog picnic looks like. 

Daily Jamie

January 27th

January 28th

Come Hither, Spring

'Member back when I was, like, getting prematurely excited for cold weather? Well now I'm doing the opposite. The brightly-colored tulips and pre-Lent semla aren't melting any of the snow outside, but just the fact that they are available means that we're on our way to the other side of another winter and a step closer to my favorite season.

Daily Jamie

Daily Jamie

January 24th

January 25th

Playing With Others

We were particularly social this weekend, with dinners on the calendar both Friday and Saturday night. Friday was Jambo's half birthday and since it's become a bit of a tradition we asked Mama and Papa Swede to join us out for dinner. We ended up going back to their place afterwards and chatting till way past our bedtime.

On Saturday, The Swede went ice fishing all morning and Jamie and I stayed home and took it easy until he came home. Then we packed the snow racer into the car and met up with our friends Emil and Sofie and their boys to do some sledding. Jamie had just fallen asleep when we arrived so I hung out in the car so he could catch a few winks and The Swede got dog duty while Emil and little Elvin did some sledding. The Swede is a big animal lover but this scene looked super unnatural to me. Later we went in and had a cozy evening and delicious dinner. We were home by eight thirty because The Swede had an ice fishing competition in the morning and my choir was singing at a church service, but mostly because we were pooped.

Daily Jamie

Daily Jamie

Throwback Thursday

The other day I was digging around in a box of old photos and found two each of The Swede and me when we were Jambo's age. That's The Swede on the left and me (and my pops) on the right, if it's not completely obvious. I personally think our kid looks more like me that The Swede, but I'm pretty much the only one who seems to hold that opinion. I've put the photos up on the fridge so any visitors can weigh in, but what do you think? 

Daily Jamie

The Business Cas Fashion Show

First full day back at work after the holidays and everyone was like, "Red? Really? It's a little late for that." I prefer to think of it as early for Valentine's Day, actually. And anyway, it was on sale. Unfortunately, something was up with our office's heating system and it was freezing that whole week so I was extremely uncomfortable until it occurred to me to put on my parka at my desk. I skipped the picture of that outfit.

So the rest of the week I wore this vegan leather jacket over everything. Do you like how I called it "vegan leather" to class things up even though it's obviously just pleather? I loved wearing outerwear as business cas as I feel that this particular number doesn't usually get enough play. The same goes for my vegan Burberry scarf. Shoes are where I draw the line, though. I will never be sitting at my desk in these.

I had to dig through all the old Fashion Shows to make sure that I hadn't already photographed this sweater because it's been in the rotation for so long. I got it at the Old Navy outlet on this trip and every time I wear it it reminds me of that amazing vacation. The pants were another recent after-Christmas-sale purchase that I'm very pleased with. They're the kind of cotton chinos that are typically sagging by the end of the day, but these have held their shape impeccably, which makes me even more pleased. 

Neither business nor casual, I had to include this outfit because it's probably my favorite one of all time and I did, technically, wear it to work. If you count the office holiday party, that is. This isn't the best picture (since I wasn't in my usual studio) so here's the pro image for reference. Am I too old to wear a romper? Most definitely. Do I have the figure to pull it off? That's what Spanx are for. Am I scanning my calendar for another opportunity to romp it up in this bad boy? BIG TIME.

Daily Jamie

Daily Jamie

Daily Jamie

January 17th

January 18th

Rio Turns One!

Today we were invited to celebrate this little nugget, the sweetest baby I know, Rio! It's his first birthday (which is crazy since I was meeting him for the first time just yesterday) and a bunch of friends were going to come over to party but because of sickness and jet lag, it ended up just being Jamie and me and Erin's family. It was actually really nice that way since I totally got to monopolize Erin and Jamie got to monopolize Ossian and Rio's toys so it was like a low-key play date with cake. Did I mention it was Funfetti? Best party ever.  

Daily Jamie

January 13th

January 14th

January 15th

Daily Jamie

Toothpaste For Your Manly Vices

Oh my goodness, really? Aren't all teeth the same, pretty much? Not according to Pepsodent, apparently, who are shilling a whitening toothpaste especially for men because their teeth are more likely to be subjected to the discoloring likes of tobacco, black coffee, red meat, and brown liquor. We delicate ladies don't like any of those things. Oh, and the mint flavor is apparently stronger, which is obviously appropriate since their manly mouths can handle it. The only thing that could have made this product more ridiculous is if they had called it Pepsodent White Now For Him.

Daily Jamie

Daily Jamie

January 8th

January 9th

January 10th

Into The Woods

It's a bit of a blizzard out there, but we had to run some errands so we bundled up and drove off to take care of a couple of things. Between two of our destinations, we decided to stop and take a walk in the woods in an area we've been talking about checking out for the last four years or so.

We couldn't have picked a better moment to finally venture into the area. It was mid-afternoon so the sun was starting to set (not that you could see it anyway) and masses of huge snowflakes were falling silently. We were just a few hundred feet from our car, but felt like we were deep in the forest and that a wolf or moose could sneak out from behind a tree at any second. It was pretty magical and definitely worth leaving the house for.

The Movies

After work on Monday, Jambo and I decided to give going to the movies another shot. I can't remember if I wrote about it here, but the last time, Jamie got super freaked out just sitting in the theater waiting for the movie to start and we left before anything even appeared on the screen. We were the only people there, though, so I reasoned it would be less weird with more audience this time since all of the schools were still closed. I sent a text to Axel's mom asking if they wanted to join us and she wrote back that they were already at the theater! Perfect! We joined them for a matinee showing of Penguins of Madagascar, which was super funny in Swedish so must be knee-slapping hilarious in English. Jamie was glued to the front of his seat for the entire movie; I don't think I've ever seen him so focused on anything before. Afterwards, the boys were zipping around the lobby (ostensibly running off the energy they had saved up during the previous hour and a half) pretending to be penguins and wolves and octopi. Now that we crossed that threshold and had a successful movie-going experience I'm definitely taking Jamie back sometime soon 'cause honestly, I don't know who had more fun, he or I.

Daily Jamie

January 6th

Daily Jamie

January 4th

January 5th

Working

Because tomorrow is Epiphany and a national holiday, our office was open for only five hours this morning. Jamie's preschool is still closed for the holidays so we brought him with us to work. He oscillated between my desk and The Swede's, but only I got the joy of hosting a "baking" session where he tore apart a piece of bread and then rolled it into tiny bits. My desk became a disaster zone, to be sure, but the real loser was my colleague, who now has a half-hours-worth of "baking" remnants ground into this chair.

Daily Jamie

Daily Jamie

The Next Generation

 

New Year's Day was windy and cloudy, but I'm sure that wasn't the only reason we were the only people outside during the few daylight hours. We took it easy on New Year's Eve, stayed home and launched some fireworks before Jamie fell asleep at ten, and then went to bed shortly after watching the rest of the neighbors' fireworks at midnight. Consequently we were in pretty good shape yesterday so we went out and decided to give The Swede a warm-up ahead of the season's first ice fishing competition this Sunday. The ice was super thick, but since most of the snow on it had melted and it was above zero it was wet on top and felt (and looked) like we were walking on water. The Swede drilled about eight holes in various locations and caught a perch in the last one right as we were starting to get a bit cold and ready for a cup of cocoa. Naturally we tossed him back in to be with his friends. Jamie did a little fishing as well, albeit without an actual hook and I daresay he may have the gene. At the very least, he enjoyed being outside.

Daily Jamie