farewell gift.

This gorgeous clear crisp day is making me sad to leave Toronto, but oh! the west coast is calling. Dean and I are doing a pretty good job of crossing items off our TO to-do list (see update below).

We leave a week from today and will arrive in Seattle one more week after that. We're making the move into a wee holiday/adventure, taking the drive a little slower, with exciting stops at Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone Park—two places I have always wanted to visit.

Normally the last week before a move is spent frantically tracking down boxes and stuffing them haphazardly to the gills. Instead I'm up to my ears in (really fun) work. One minute I'm trying to put beautiful folk music into words, the next I'm writing about the drizzle in Scotland, and still the next I'm describing one of coolest educational buildings I've ever seen. Freelancing was a great move. Not a minute of regret thus far! Also, we owe a HUGE debt of thanks to Dean's new employer, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, for arranging our move for us and taking all the stress/work out of it.

And because I'm in a generally happy state of mind, here's a little gift, in the form of First Aid Kit, from me to you!

two week list

Forgive the cliche, but it really does feel like just yesterday we were packing up the Chapel and saying goodbye to Oxford. Now we're in the same spot again, wrapping up nine months in Toronto, and oh-so excited to start life on the West Coast.

It's around this time in any move when I start to get some early nostalgia for the place I'm living. Before we left the UK, I put together a one-month list—all the things I wanted to see and do in London/Oxford before we left for good. I'm two weeks behind on this (yes, we leave Toronto in two weeks, today), but nevertheless, I've put together a little list of things I'd be remiss to leave without doing in my last month in the T-dot. Notably, they mostly involve food! Three down, nine to go!


1. Visit the AOG and MOCCA

2. Eat Korean (and we both enjoyed it SO much we're going back for our last night in town!)

3. Purchase upholstery fabric at Designer Fabrics to re-cover the seat of my favourite armchair

4. Tour the Steamwhistle brewery

5. See a show (Circle Eloize at the Sony Centre - wonderful!)

6. Brunch at Bonjour Brioche

7. Brunch at Cafe Marmalade  (fruit and yogurt-filled buckwheat crepe and fresh OJ)

8. Lunch at the Drake Corner Cafe

9. Visit Union Station

10. Stroll through the leaves in High Park

11. Tour Casa Loma

12. Purchase item from 69 Vintage (or other fabulous TO vintage shop)  (lovely pleated navy polka dot skirt at Common Sort)