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I’ve been spending another rushed weekend on Vancouver Island with my family, and part of what makes the time feel as though it flies by is the fact that I always try to pack so much activity in such a short period of time. Today was no exception. Being that my birthday is officially next weekend, I’ll be sipping pinot noir and noshing on chic tapas with a few fabulous and fun friends at “Chez Jack.” This weekend was reserved for celebrating with my mom, aunt and Charley with a big vat of Szechuan beef and chow mein before ice cream cake.

And guess what?

I photo-blogged.

Being the lover of First Nation art that I am, my mom thought it appropriate to get me a birthday card designed by a local artist from the Comox First Nation. This untitled piece is, for all intensive purposes, entitled “Queneesh.”

“The Majestic Comox Glacier is a symbol of our community, heritage and one of the physical features that make our area so beautiful. Recent reports have made it evident that the glacier is disappearing at an alarming rate and will likely be gone within my lifetime.

For members of the Comox First Nation, the glacier has even more significance according to stories such as this: An old chief was forewarned of the coming of a great flood. He was told by the Creator to prepare four canoes, great lengths of rope and to pick the strongest and most attractive members of the community. When the flood came the selected people went into the canoes. Whenever non-selected individuals tried to enter a canoe, the craft would magically move away from them. The flood destroyed the village and the rest of its inhabitants.

The people in the canoes floated around for a while with no evidence of land in sight. Eventually, they spotted a large white whale. They attached their ropes to the whale. By the time the water receded, the whale landed on the sight of the glacier, keeping the Comox people in our territory. To this day we respect our Heritage and refer to the glacier as “Queneesh,” or white whale.” - Andy Everson

For months, I’ve been covetting this hoodie. It was designed by Sheri Moon Zombie, one of my personal heroines. She defines individuality and has created her own “sexy.” For those of you who are unfamiliar with her, she’s not only the wife of Rob Zombie, but also the star of a handful of his films (including one of my personal top tens, ‘The Devil’s Rejects‘). Add “designer” to her roster as she’s created her own line of hot tops for men, women, kids and pups with Total Skull.

Please don’t copy me, k?

After all birthday celebrations were said and done, it was time to trim the tree. My aunt was displaying a previously unseen level of Christmas spirit, and surprised me by showing up in a Santa hat.

Needless to say, the hat got passed around.

The pre-Christmas festivities proved to be a little much for Charley. In no time at all, she was tuckered right out…

And last, but certainly not least, I want to turn your attention to a fairly new cosmetic line from Australia.

Today I was on the hunt for a fantastic new lip balm or gloss and was directed to Bloom Cosmetics. Though the line’s been around for almost 15 years, it’s based out of the southern hemisphere and is something very new to me. I snagged their grapefruit-flavoured ‘Delicious Lips’ lip balm and I’m completely sold. Their products are made with mainly natural ingredients, including the succulent essential oils contained in the lip balms.

Stay tuned because I’m quite sure that I’ll have more to say about this line in the future.