The Wine Tour Lovelies - photo courtesy of www.punctumphotography.com

It’s Spring Wine Festival and I am feeling a little smug in my wine-footedness here in the Okanagan. About this time last month, the gorgeous and hilarious “Tea Party” ladies got together to do another one of our fabulous wine tours.

The Westside wine circuit, beginning and ending at my place (on the West side): with nibbles and sips, PLUS designated driver pick-ups made for a super-fun day and evening.

Starting off at Greata Ranch, we snooped through their gift shop while sipping on their lovely whites. My favourite, by far, was the 2011 Peachland White (a case for the cellar!). Moving onto Kalala Winery, an organic winery with fun names, a great Gewurtz, and a cheap and cheerful 2008 Curvee Blanc at $11.95 a bottle! Beaumont Winery, with it’s production floor wine shop, provided gorgeous jam samples which resulted in a Gewurtztraminer Jam being served with cheese later on in the evening.

High fives to Rollingdale Winery for overall experience! Took home the 2009 Gewurtz and 2009 Gamay Noir, whilst clicking my heels. At Rollingdale, we sampled two glorious ice wines that were about to be bottled. Honestly: YUM. $400 a bottle is a bit steep, but we were lapping up the luxury.

We finished up the tour at Quail’s Gate Winery, a favourite across the board. The 2011 Gewurtz is a must-try, as are the 2011 Chenin Blanc (heaven) and the  2011 Chasselas.

Thinking of that wine tour, a giant grin spreads across my face when I think of the four, purple-clad Okanagan wild women roaming the Westside in search of great wine, treats, and laughs.

The Westside circuit brought 25 wine tastings. 924 more wines to go! For a complete list of wines that we tasted and my sparse notes, check out my list!

Thank you to Christine, Jenn, and Christy for being the best darn wine touring buddies a girl could ask for! 

excerpt from SARK's "Fabulous Friendship Festival"

I really like rain on Saturdays. For me, rainy Saturdays bring back the best memories of naps, ease, play, exploration and creation.

Today, I settle in with a ginormus cup of french press and the writing of the fabulous SARK, and wanted to share this excerpt (pictured above) with you.

It feels like rainy Saturday mornings are a good time for forgiveness and heart-shifts.

Wishing you the Saturday that you need.

Here we are, life list. You say that I wanted to drink 1000 wines. The thing is, I have noticed that  some here n’ there *ahem*  bottles have been slipping through the cracks and not been documented.  What shall we do about that, hmmm?

Well, nothing like a good ol’ fashioned wine tour as an opportunity to document the different wines that I am sipping lovingly. This Sunday, three of the most fabulous women and I went on a self- directed (and Cynthia poorly navigated) Lake Country, BC wine tour.

Our “Tea Party” (sounds so upstanding, doesn’t it? it’s all for show) brought us to Grey Monk Winery and also Ex Nihilo winery, both of which had gorgeous wine that I took home by the case.

We had 8 tastings at Grey Monk and loved the lychee and grapefruit of the Gewurztraminer and the dinner-wine Merlot at $14.99. The 4 pours at Ex Nihilo were quite good, as was wandering around their beyond-beautiful space, with local art and a great room that you just want to throw a big fete in. The sheer romance of the the place sent me home with one of their “buy in bulk” specials.

The absolute best part of sampling 12 (twelve!) wines in Lake Country wineries (other than the company and the views, of course) was that we had the staff to ourselves, low-key pourings with patient explanations and discussion about the wine and region. And willing pourers at both wineries that enthusiastically agreed to take group photos of these wild Okanagan women on the roam.

949 more wines to go. Yay!

briefly considering opening a cat-cafe

You know how some days are more Shrek-ish than others? Those days where your foot fall is heavy and there should be a balloon over your head that looks like:

There was one of those days this week.

Until the kittens.

I walked into my aunt’s house with that exact grumble bubble over my head and see to two little, recently rescued, kittens. The bravest, most cuddly kittens you have ever met.

Instantly, I realized: kittens are nature’s valium. The Japanese know it, with their cat cafes. So smart…and happy.

The rest of the evening was spent spooning, snoozing and playing with these wild and wonderful kittens. Embarrassing photo evidence can be found here, here, and here.

Save the tequila. Cuddle a kitten today.

I spent a *ahem* bit of time on Pinterest compiling images in honour of the Year of the Chickies. They are just so fluffy and peep-ily insistent, how could I resist?

Have you landed on your intention for the year? The clues are everywhere! One smartie that I know picked their intention from this list.

Happy Saturday, everyone!

While my twinkle lights will stay up for another week or two, the holiday season is done and I hope that you had exactly the time that you wanted and needed. What I needed was to celebrate Grinchmas, and, boy: did it ever get me where I needed to be.

There was celebration, nourishment on many levels, and time spent enjoying simple pleasures and silence. I played and created playlists and learnt some great lessons.

My favourite lessons were about choice.

• Choosing to co-operate and help instead of super(s)heroing.
• Choosing to shelve the “shoulds” and focus on my wants.
• Choosing to honour the years’ wild journey.
• Choosing to be the best boss in the world. (I like that one a LOT.)

I hope that you enjoyed celebrating Grinchmas with me: thank you for coming along for the journey!

The beginning of 2012. The fresh page. The choosing of an intention for this year.

Have you chosen your intention, or word(s) for the year?

There are a lot of way to get there. Chris Guillebeau has a great practice. My  pal Laura McGrath has a great reflection/visioning offer that I got to play with and would definitely recommend. Or you could try out some mondo version of a Fireside Chat for yourself.

Last year, I declared it the Year of the Wild Things, and holy macaroni: did it ever turn out to be just that! Through reflection and visioning, this year has a decidedly different tempo. Officially I am decreeing it to be: The Year of the Chickies. 

Why? Because I can feel things that are ready to hatch. Little peeps keep me awake at night, longing to be heard. Things feel fluffy and wee, but plucky and insistent. And while chickies need loving tending, they have big personality.

Welcome Chickies!

I am curious: will you chose an intention for 2012?

My confession is that I am a nervous host.

I love to participate and heck: I will even bring decorations, five types of cheese, and a killer bottle of wine. But my perfectionist gremlins stop me from opening up my own space: from putting myself out there and stepping up to the hostess plate.

And I am really inspired by people who do this frequently.

So I dipped my toe in the frigid waters and hosted New Year’s Day brunch for a group of family and super-close friends. My rationale, of course, went a little something like:

It’s brunch, how bad could it be? Even bagels could cover it and with enough Bailey’s and Mimosas everything will be fine. Fiiiiiiiine. 

Much to my gremlin’s disdain: it went off without a hitch. The food was lovely (high-fives to me!) and so, there were full bellies combined with laughter, music, and rowdy Jenga. Success!

Which brings be back (the long way) ’round to: The Best Boss in the World.

I want to be my own Best Boss in the World (more on that later I am sure), and on this first kinda-sorta back to work day after the holiday hulabaloo, the best boss in the world gave me the day mostly off.

To sleep waaaay in. To watch schmaltzy movies by the fire. To laze around, munch on leftovers and generally hang the heck out.

This was one of my many gifts this Grinchmas.

The feel-goodness rooted in the truth and intentionality of choosing to be the best boss in the world. Giving myself the day off to cuddle up and celebrate the opening up of my hostessing space. Time off to be grateful for the sharing of laughter and feel the buzz of anticipation of all of the goodness to come.

Wishing you a wonderFILLED 2012. Merry Grinchmas–out.

As a kid, the week between Christmas and January 1st was a bonus. Time to play, gorge on treats, be shuttled to one house or another, special nights out, fort building and generally driving the parents up a wall. As an adult, the in-between week feels different.

Weird and itchy different.

Like there’s something that I am supposed to be doing but can’t quite put my finger on it.

And then I did. (I put my finger squarely on that itchy little should-er.)

It’s Grinchmas time! I can do whatever I want during this week! And what I want is to gorge on Christmas cake. And make mincemeat tarts. I want to spend time getting to know lovely new friends. Do the work on my business that I have been sweeping into the corners. Dream. Nap. Plan. Cut out at 4 and drink red wine in the hot tub. Crank call some old friends. Wheeeee!

As T.I. would say:

You can have whatevah you like. (Hey, don’t judge my dirty l’il musical secrets!)

How have you been rocking out this in-between week?

If  you haven’t, there’s still time! How would you?

The holiday season is a busy one and it can feel like a blur of activity and preparation, especially if, like in my family, the holidays are about the feasting. There are a minimum of four family-related feasts in my world, which means a days of kitchen work, prepping and planning and generally cooking up a storm, which can leave the host feeling flat-line tired at the end of their celebration.

Whoo hoo? Not so much.

A week before Christmas Eve, my Kelowna family got together and made a plan. We talked about what kind of meals we would like to have, each picked a meal with everyone making contributions to each individual meal itself. The result:

No one solely responsible for one individual ginormus event. 

We are about halfway through, and it is working beautifully. The food has been wonderful and there has been a lot more time to celebrate together during events. There has been room for nappish, relaxing days leading into gorgeous meals. Bottom line:

The co-operation and collaboration has amped up the feel good-ness about sharing and brought about more time for true connection.

My meal is coming up: New Years Day brunch, which I am greatly looking forward to and have zero worries about. It’s going to be great: I have the support of wonderful family members to help make it happen.

How could a little bit of help make the holidays less like Stress-tivus for you?

Nono-Santa and Cynthia "Suzie Snowflake"

My hilarious cousin dragged this picture from the archives and sent it over yesterday. What a gift!

You see, for many years, the Gunsinger family Christmas Eve tradition was to have “Santa” (aka Nono, our grandfather) show up with “Suzie Snowflake” (played by yours truly) with much bell ringing, ho-ho-ho-ing and little prezzies for each of the wee kids. And there were quite a few wee ones at that time: six cousins and two of my siblings were under the age of 8.

It was so fun and quite a production: my grandmother and all of the aunts and parents played their parts: dressing, distracting, making sleigh marks in the snow, and generally controlling the melee.

While this is not a look I will likely cultivate in the future, my heart swells when I piece together all of the little memory-lets and let them play around in my mind.

So on the ninth day of Grinchmas, I wonder:

What holiday memories can you dig up in the recesses of your mind (or photo albums) that you can revel in?

The sweetness, the joy, the funny-bits, the poignant parts of holidays past, present, or maybe even future.

I am going to spend my day doing odds and ends with the intention of staying open to more of these memories popping up like popcorn.

Will you?