Artist • Author • Blogger
This thing happened with my hand this week and I couldn’t work on my novel as much as I’d have liked, which got me thinking. I haven’t really updated you on the stuff in my life in a long while. Let’s talk about the hand first, since you’re probably wondering. In December of 2016, I […]
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Furyborn by Claire Legrand was one of those random books I picked from the library, based solely on its cover (and what a cover it is). I wasn’t disappointed. Lovers of YA and Sarah J. Maas’s writing style will probably adore this book. It’s action-packed features female characters who take no prisoners, and a delicious […]
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I haven’t been using these pens for that long, but I still wanted to chat about Posca’s Paint Pens. Since I am still a noob, I’ll let you know if my opinions change in the future. My hubs bought me the set of eight, extra fine (0.7mm) Posca paint markers for my birthday last month. […]
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Folks, I grew up chasing Carmen Sandiego and Co. across the pixelated globe on the screen of our very first computer. I remember the sounds, the graphics, the sheer excitement when we managed to catch someone. We played this game so often that we needed only a single clue to know where to go next, […]
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I’d never heard of Tsarpunk before a friend recommended this series and asked me if I’d ever heard of Tsarpunk. Which I hadn’t. 🙂 Now that I have, I’m glad to know the term. There will be spoilers in this post. This is your stop here warning if you’d like to read these books spoiler […]
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I picked up this book in hardcover for $7–what a steal. I’d never heard of Bradley P. Beaulieu before this, but I’m really glad a book on sale introduced me to his work. Twelve Kings in Sharakhai is the first instalment in The Song of Shattered Sands trilogy. The story is set in the desert, […]
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It’s been a long while since I devoured books like I devoured these ones. The series has been recommended to me a few times, but I never got around to reading them. Last week, Amazon had a special. And, well. Here we are. It doesn’t hurt that this series is New Adult (it certainly isn’t […]
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Who could think that twelve half-pans of paint could be so magical? But this is a review, so it probably isn’t the best idea to give away the punchline in the first sentence. 😛 The set comes with these colours: Cadmium Yellow Pale Cadmium Yellow Cadmium Red Pale Alizarin Crimson Ultramarine Cobalt Blue Viridian Sap […]
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Now, by this time you know how I feel about this series. I’ve reviewed both The Babylon Eye and The Real, and I’ve been waiting for this book. The wait has paid off. You know that feeling when the first book in a series is ALL CAPS FANTASTIC, but the second is just meh and […]
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Toronto is a city of skyscrapers. Steel and glass. Grey. Yet, there’s an energy there that refuses to be contained. It’s always on the move. Vendors and tourist and business people, rushing from place to place, night or day. Festival after festival, ball games, concerts, camera crews, and every culture represented in food and drink. […]
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One night, my husband reaches for the remote. He browses the selection on Netflix without any real conviction. You know what I mean – the stereotypical man-with-remote-thing. He stops on Longmire. A cowboy who’s also a sheriff. Fantastic. I send up a silent prayer of please, not this, but he selects it and the show […]
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As someone who’s spoken to her fair share of therapists, you’d think I remember how important exercise can be for mental health. You’d think, but you’d be wrong. I mean, in theory, I know. Of course I do. But I’ve never really done the recommended exercise. I’m a butt-in-chair kind of person. 🙂 Lately though, […]
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It’s official, we’ve experienced another first on our journey. Last night, we had no electricity due to the insane storm that has been raging here in the north since Thursday. Ice rain, friends, is a bitch. If those of you back in sunny South Africa thought the worst thing that can possibly happen in Canada […]
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Friends, I finished this series in a week. I can’t begin to explain to you how obsessed I am, but if it’s any indication, I’m listening to the soundtrack on Spotify as we speak and my Amazon search history will show you I’ve been trying to find the novel in English. You can read it […]
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It’s so surreal, but this is my seventh year of blogging. Writing my thoughts and publishing them on the internet has always been strange, but stranger still is the fact that people read them. I’ve mentioned a bunch of times that I don’t always know what to write about. That’s been happening more frequently lately. […]
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It’s been just over two months since I announced on the blog I’d be taking some time away from social media. In reality, I’d been avoiding those platforms for a while longer than the official post date, probably since around December. A friend of mine did something similar a few years back, only she wanted […]
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I mentioned in another post that I was rewatching The Office. I’ve been finished with that for a few weeks and now I can’t stop thinking about it. I find myself looking at behind the scenes videos of the show on YouTube, and laughing so hard at all of the memes. I remember watching the […]
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This Wednesday edition of Maple Mondays is brought to you by a broken router. Being without internet in this day and age is a form of torture, I’m certain. First world problems and all that, but seriously, the internet has become such an important part of my work and daily life. Being cut off from it […]
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You know what I mean. That so-out-of-my-depth feeling that hits us all from time to time. Like you’ve brought a football to a ping pong match and you’re going to smash your paddle to smithereens with your first serve. (Where are these sports metaphors even coming from?) Lately, this has been my reality. You’ve seen the trend in […]
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Some days, I have zero direction. As you probably guessed by the title, today is one of those days. I could tell you all about our newest experiences here in Canada: our first Groundhog Day (apparently, we have six weeks of winter left) our first time sledding (photos incoming sometime this week) or our first Superbowl (not […]
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It’s a normal Tuesday and you’re scrolling Facebook. Everything has been going great today and you feel chipper. You’re happy for your cousin who’s pregnant again, you like the pic of that high school friend’s new puppy and you laugh at the ridiculous Star Wars meme. The following post though, it ruins your day.
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The answer came through the random comment from a friend. You need time off to refill the well. The ironies upon ironies I’m faced with now are shocking. Not only have many friends and loved ones made similar statements, but didn’t I write a post with the same friggen message? The answer is yes. Yes, […]
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Some days, it’s difficult to get inspired. I’m having one of those days. I talked about this problem on Friday too, so you’ll know about my predicament if you’ve been around the blog. The recap version? Today, I have no idea what to blog about and I don’t have the drive to put in any real effort. […]
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Everything is quiet again. Back to normal. It’s been a month since our visitors left (I can’t even) and, with the vacation posts out of the way, I can’t ignore the elephant in the room anymore. Too many people have been asking.
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Since the last bunch of posts were all travel-related (you missed it? Start here), I figured I’d share some of the tips we’ve learned in our travels. I realise the internet is chock-full of travel tips, but this is a roundup of the things that work for us.
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We entered 2017 to a chorus of whistles, glittery explosions, pops and sizzles. Fireworks. Hours and hours worth of fireworks. Just to keep you in the know – in South Africa, fireworks are pretty much illegal. The minority of people still shoot these pretties to celebrate the new year, but on the whole, it’s a […]
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