I feel the winds of change blowing (and I love it!)

Despite my darling husband sometimes playfully teasing me that the opposite is true, I am not afraid of change in the slightest and rarely shy away from it. However, that doesn't mean I necessarily go out of my way to introduce it into my life 24/7 either.

Like many of us, I have my usual routine. It isn't always perfect, and sometimes (aka, everyday!) there aren't anywhere near hours in the day, but it's mine and I can become rather steadfastly attached to it. Until, that is, I grow weary and restless with with it and certain other elements of my life (not, mind you, my “dedicated days” work schedule - that is life changingly amazing and not budging an inch any time soon!).

Ever since I came back from visiting Calgary in the fall of 2013, which was a profoundly important trip for me (as I delved into in this post), I've been doing an even greater amount of soul searching and introspective thought than ever before. I frequently feel like certain things need be altered, yet they remain exactly as they are because other bigger issues, points of stress, or worries come along and knock them squarely onto the back burner.

At this stage in my life, a few weeks before my 31st birthday, my heart and soul feel very, very open to change, as well as to both embracing new opportunities - whatever they may be - and getting in touch again with certain things that I love doing dearly, but haven't been kind enough to myself to make time for, in many instances, years now.

I realize that such statements sound a touch vague, and that's intentional. This isn't because I don't want to share the details of such with all of you, but rather because in many cases, I don't even know exactly what those changes will be yet myself. I just know, that like a runner bracing themselves on the starting line, I'm ready to burst forward and turn over a lot of new leaves - or so I hope!



{There is a certain almost palpable quality to the air when the winds of change pick up. I feel recharged thanks to it and am so excited to see where it will lead me this year and beyond. Vintage image source.}



That said, here are a few things that I'd really like, and am planning, to change in the coming months:


-Take actual days off. If we exclude days when my health keeps me bedridden and unable to do pretty much anything at all, which I don't feel should count because I have zero choice in the matter, I haven't taken a single day off this year and can (excluding our trip to Victoria last fall, which I did a lot of work related things on all the same) count on one hand the number I took last year.

Not kidding there in the slightest. And I put in long days. I mean like an average of 12 - 20+ hour workdays, which my health pays quite often, I know, but as a lifelong workaholic, it's genuinely hard for to be any other way. That said, I know, I know, I know oh-so-well that I must take days off at least once or twice a month and am going to try even harder to push myself to do so.


-And while I am, I'm going to craft. I love crafting, it's been near and dear to my heart my whole life, but you wouldn't know it from my blog. I have a dedicated craft room in our little basement that in recent times has doubled as my home office + photo studio + where I store inventory for my Etsy shop and I have not actually crafted in it, for all intents, for about 2.5 years. I literally shudder when I stop and reflect on that. I'm all for hard work, being driven, and pushing yourself, but every last one of us needs to stop and enjoy a hobby or two every now and then and I absolutely must get back to creating once more.


-I feel like some of my blog posts series and/or certain topics I cover are getting a bit staid/old (and not "old" in a good, vintage kind of way!) and aren't as popular as they once were, so I may be retiring some and/or introducing others later in the year.


-Speaking of my blog, looking ahead to late 2015 and beyond (aka, after this coming summer), I think that I'm going to scale back just a touch on my posting frequency. I madly adore writing and blogging and could do so almost everyday, but there is a great deal of behind the scenes work that goes into posting - as any frequent blogger who puts a lot of effort into their posts will quickly tell you - and in order to keep my blog and shop both going strong, I need to take a little bit of that time and apply it to other areas of my work and home life alike, as well as to those mythical days off.


-I need to spend more time outside. Sometimes that isn't possible and I fully accept that, but nothing, and I mean nothing, in the whole universe soothes my soul (as discussed in posts such as this one and this one) like connecting with nature and genuinely require that sense of serenity in my life.


-Worry less. Plain and simple. Tony recently reminded me of the importance of just going with life's natural flow and that's something I'm trying to embrace on an even deeper level these days.


-Weed out more "time sucks" from my life, be they online or off (this is something I've been doing for quite a while now, but there's always room to cut down on or entirely remove others still).


-Try a new wig. I love my current wig and it's been a very good friend to me for over 2.5 years (not literally the same wig, but the same model - I go through a new one every 3 to 6 months or so, just depending on the weather/heat and how often I wear it), but I've been jonseing for both darker and, even more so, shorter hair, so I'm planning on purchasing one soon (I hope) that fits this bill.

I've actually tried several other wigs since becoming a wig wearer due to medical hair loss in 2012, but none of them have worked well or looked flatting on me, so that's part of the reason I've stayed with my current one for so long (and why the others that didn't pan out haven't made it onto my blog). Time to at least try another wig - worst case, I'll return or resell it. No biggie - especially since I know that I can rely on my current one so long as its still being produced.

♥ ♥ ♥

Again, these are just a few things. The real key here is somewhat less about specifics and more about being open and ready for change. Hopefully most of it will be positive, but even if some negatives happen, I'll embrace them and hunt down the silver linings that they house, for there is one in very nearly every situation in life (that's been a guiding principle of mine ever since I was a child).

Spring, which we're about 2/3rds of the way through at this point (can that really be?!) is such an important time of rebirth and growth, and I think that is a big part of the reason why, amidst the April showers and May flowers, I've been feeling the winds of change blowing lately.

I'm really glad that they’re out in full (gale) force and hope that they'll continue to propel me forward for a long time to come!

Are you also feeling ready for change in your life this spring? What sorts of things would you like to see happen for you on that front in the weeks and months ahead?

Meet Annie, our adorable new puppy

This past Monday, our lives changed in an incredibly precious and wonderful way. Two days shy of the ninth anniversary of the day that we meet (March 20th), Tony and I welcomed a puppy into our family for the very first time.

We are both massive dog lovers and have dreamed of getting a puppy throughout our whole relationship. This week, in celebration of nine years together, we did just that.

Hailing from Delta (a part of the Metro Vancouver area down on the Lower Mainland), our darling new girl is named Annie - her name celebrating the fact that she's our anniversary gift to one another this year.

I cannot begin to put into words that joy that we're both feeling right now. It's incredible to have to new, darling bundle of puppy joy in the house (we found the listing for, and bought, her on the same day - Monday - so hence why I didn't post about this exciting chapter in our lives prior to the fact).




 Our sweet girl (seen above in an iPhone photo I took yesterday afternoon) is an almost nine week old American Bullador (a cross between an American Bulldog and a Labrador Retriever).

More than just a "gift" in the sense of something that one gives or receives, Annie is a beautiful blessing who will no doubt enrich our lives in countless ways. I love her to pieces and then some! It's hard not to have a few tears of happiness tumble out of my eyes each time I look at her for more than the quickest of moments.

Sweet, very well tempered, curious, playful, alert, intelligent, and healthy, she is so tremendously amazing that I still feel like I have to pinch myself to believe that she's real.

She is though, and as new puppies take a lot of time and energy, I've not been online since Monday (save for a few minutes yesterday - chiefly to write this post) and suspect that my presence will be pretty scare for the next little while.

I want to take a moment to thank you all very much for your blog comments this week - including on Monday's Ice Phone giveaway (which I just want to note, is not only for iPhone users - the Ice Phone is compatible with nearly all modern cell phones).

As many of you know, I always try my best to visit and comment on the blogs of those who super sweetly do the same for me, but I may be a touch behind on that front for the next little while these highly formative early puppyhood days are underway. Likewise blog posts here may appear a tiny bit less often just (I'd imagine) for the next few days.

It's fantastic to be able to share about Annie with all of you this morning - I've been so eager to do so since the moment we decided we were going to get her - and likewise to know that she'll be a part of this blog - as the newest Cangiano family member - from her on out (be sure to follow me on Instagram for the latest snaps of this super cute little girl).

Sending happy start of spring wishes - and countless new puppy kisses (and, goodness, is she a kisser!) to each and every one of you!

12 things I did in 2012 to make my life better

Some years seem to fade into the next, with little division between them. They're part of the fabric of our lives, but they're by no means the flashiest or most exciting of times, and so it can be difficult to recall with much detail years later. Others are fraught with problems, pain, worry, and perhaps even heartache, as it seems like a break can't be had, no matter how hard you try. At the risk of jinxing myself a mere four days before the ball drops and 2013 launches, this year did not fall into either of those two camps. In fact it was, over all, rather wonderful.

And busy! Wonderful and busy, yes, that sums up 2012 rather accurately, if you ask me! As I sit here at the end of December, twelve months to flip through in the pages of mind, a flood of thoughts come pouring over me and I'm reminded of some of the elements that helped to make it such a great year. There were many, and I feel exceedingly blessed that such was the case. Goodness knows I've had my fair share of years I'd love to erase from my memory forever, if such a thing were possible, but 2012 was certainly not one of them.

As there are twelve months in that year, I thought I would take the opportunity today to share, correspondingly, twelve things that I (or in many cases, we, as in Tony and I together) consciously, intentionally did to help improve and enrich my –and our- life.

It isn't every day, or should I say, every year, that I have a list like, and I don't want to forget the key highlights of 2012 that helped to make it so superb as the years roll on, so without further ado, my I present (in no particular order) a roundup of some of the reasons why this year rocked.

1.) Moved to British Columbia: The year kicked off on an exceedingly busy note, as we made the life changing (and rather sudden) discussion to leave Toronto, after six years of life on the East Coast and move for the first time together to my home province of British Columbia. There were many motivating factors behind our decision, and it was not a choice that was reached lightly by any stretch of the imagination. Fortunately this decision has proved to be one the best we've ever made, and I don't think a single week has passed without one of us saying how truly glad we were to be here, near family, with a better health care team, a nicer climate, and a home we love to pieces.


2.) Got a new house: And speaking of that house we adore so much, it ranks amongst the most important (and wonderful!) improvements in our life this year. After more than seven years (the duration of our marriage up until the point we moved provinces) of living in homes that ranged from shudder inducing to okay but chocked full of problems, we were fortunate enough to find a beautiful little condo on the most serenely lovely street anyone could ever ask for. The house, while not huge, is modern, safe, nicely laid out, and an absolute joy to live.


3.) Spent time with family: Before moving to B.C. we had always lived thousands of miles away from both of our families. Though that statement still rings true for Tony, whose relatives all reside in Italy, we now live in the same province as the bulk of my small family, some of whom even live right here in Penticton with us.

Having the ability to interact with relatives again, be it for a quick "pop in" visit or to celebrate the holidays, as well as to have extra help when I'm going through an especially rough patch health wise or need transportation and assistence to get to a medical appointment when Tony is working, has been an indescribably wonderful gift for both of us (Tony and my family hit it off famously, which sure makes life a lot easier for everyone involved).


4.) Created a craft room of my own in the basement: Though I did technically have a very small room in our last apartment that was designated as my craft space, its teeny size meant my supplies and finished projects were woefully overcrowded and it was hard to clear my mind and focus at times in such a cluttered space. It took a while to set up throughout the spring and early summer, but I'm thrilled to report that since then I've had an awesome, much (!) more spacious craft room of my own to work, play, and just kick back and relax in (this having been a dream of mine for all as long as I can recall).


5.) Got our first car: Though some people are a bit sceptical when we tell them this, it wasn't until early on last spring, just a couple of weeks after we moved to B.C., that Tony and I finally got our fist vehicle (neither of us had ever had a car before in our lives, and though my parents always did, Tony's had not, so this was really and truly his first set of wheels!).

As you can imagine, this has helped improve and enrich our lives in many ways, and is also significantly easier on me from a health standpoint than taking public transit or having to walk long distances to get anywhere. Now, several months on, it's almost mind boggling to think that we'd gotten by in large cities for all those years without a car.


6.) Finally found a feedreader that I love: This might sound like a small matter, but to me it really wasn't. For years I'd bounced around from one feedreader to another, failing to find one that I felt really worked for me and as a result over falling behind on staying abreast of my favourite sites. Last spring I tried Bloglovin and fell head-over-heels in love with after the first day. It's the only feedreader I use now and has been such an instrumental tool in my ability to better follow (and in turn comment on) some of my favourite blogs.



7.) Hammered out a blog schedule that works for me: Speaking of blogging, this year was the first in my life when I really felt like I hit a good, manageable (under the circumstances this year dished out) blogging schedule and pace that worked for me. I'm not going to delve into detail too much on this topic now though, as it's a subject I'm planning on devoting a whole post to early on in 2013. So stay tuned to hear more on this particular improvement (and how what works for me, may help you, too).



8.) Starting taking regular wardrobe snaps: While we're on the subject of things that involve the good ol' interwebz, this year marked the first one for me in which I regularly began documenting my vintage outfits through photographs (nearly all of which are taken by my highly talented hobbyist photographer husband, Tony). While that is certainly awesome unto itself, for me, an even more important element of this act (taking snaps) has been the fact that it's helped me tackle, and better handle, some of my self-esteem and body image issues, as well as to no longer be quite as painfully shy in front of the lens.


9.) Organized my wardrobe better and more efficiently: Much as with my craft supplies at our old home, there was precious little closet space or anywhere to store my wardrobe at our last place. This house however has more of both and and as a result I've (finally!) been able to better sort, organize, and display my wardrobe. A point which makes me so very, very happy - and which makes getting dressed now a snap compared to at our old apartment.


10.) Worked on making (more) peace with my body: Whether justified or not, I've struggled greatly with my body image throughout my whole life, in part because of the way I was (cruelly and completely unjustly) treated regarding my appearance by certain family members when I was growing up, as well as the fact that I was teased mercilessly as a child by my schoolmates, sometimes due to certain elements of my appearance. Battling a multitude of chronic illnesses everyday certainly doesn't help how I feel about my body either, but the older I get, the more I love my body - flaws, imperfections, shortcomings and all (a topic I discussed here last spring), and hope dearly that this positive trend will continue as the years roll on.


11.) Discovered I could wear most brooches: As you may recall from this post last May, I discovered that, if I placed at least a couple of layers of fabric between the metal and my skin, I'm often able to wear brooches. This might sound like a strange thing to mention, but for those who didn't catch my post about this point, I'm extremely allergic to nickel, a metal which is found in a large amount of jewelry (thus preventing me from wearing said jewelry), however this discovery has opened up the whole wide world of brooches to me and I've been wasting no time in building up a delightful collection of them ever since.


12.) Got outside more: Though there were numerous long stretches (the lengthiest being almost almost all of August and part of September), as there are every year, when my health wasn't doing well enough for me to leave the house, thanks to the fact that we now live in a much better situated neighbourhood in a town we love (and delight in exploring) and have a car, I've been able to get out of the house more frequently, whether for everyday tasks like running errands or setting off with Tony to neighbouring communities and towns.

Throughout 2012 we had fun doing everything from doing a photo shoot at an orchard in East Kelowna to going fishing in the dark, visiting Polson Park in Vernon to spending as many Saturdays as we could out garage saling around town. I can hardly wait to see all the awesome places we'll hopefully be able to go, and the wonderful memories we'll make while out and about, in 2013!





{My deepest thanks go out to 2012 for being such a splendid, meaningful, and highly memorable (in a good way!) year. I have my fingers firmly crossed that the coming year will be one of great happiness, success, and fun, too - not only for me and my family, but also for each and every one of you and your loved ones, too. Vintage New Year's card via Miehana on Flickr.}

♥ ♥ ♥

Peppered amongst this list there were other things, big and small, that also helped rank this year so highly for my both me and my husband, but these are the ones that jump out as me on this fine winter's morn first and foremost.

I'm not saying that 2012 was without its hiccups, worries, and rough patches, but for a very, very pleasant change of pace, I don't feel like they were the predominant factor this year. Perhaps that was part luck, maybe life gets a bit easier to tackle as you get older, or, who knows, the universe might just have wanted to smile on us throughout the course of the past dozen months.

Whatever the case, I can't begin to stress how grateful I am to have enjoyed such a terrific, productive, happy year. Only time, that great and mysterious unknown, will tell what the future has in store for us, but I can't help thinking - knock wood - that it's bound to better than many years past thanks to these twelve things and the improvements they brought into our world in 2012.