Picasilly

Oh, poor Picasilly.  I’ve been neglecting this space because I’ve been busy with life.  If ‘life’ is, you know, eating ice cream on the sofa while watching Gilmore Girls reruns.  Don’t judge!  We’ve all been there.  At least I’ve had pants on…some of the time.

This is not the only thing in my life I’ve been neglecting.  The plants are dying in the garden, desperate for a drink.  The pile of laundry in my closet has taken on Jabba The Hutt proportions. Unresponded-to emails are cluttering my inbox.

But it is almost September!  And moreso than New Year’s, September always feels like a new start to me.  Even fifteen years out of high school, it still reminds me of freshly sharpened pencils and unmarked notebooks.  A blank slate on which to start over, again.  And again.  And again.

1. Her favourite perfume.  Yes, my mother’s favourite perfume is Coriandre.  So what if it makes her smell like garnish, she loves it.  Don’t use Mother’s Day as an opportunity to give her something she’s never tried before.  Perfume, like abstract art,  is a subjective thing, so play it safe and get her something you know she loves.

2. A fruit arrangement. Flowers look pretty, but then they die and all you’re left with is a stinky vase and some beautiful memories of the time you spent together.  Edible arrangements look pretty AND you can eat them!  So you are left with beautiful memories…and even better, roughage.

souce: imdb.com

3. A DVD of her favourite movie. Who still uses DVDs, you ask?  Moms, that’s who.  My mom can barely figure out her toaster oven, so for her a DVD is still hugely advanced technology. She likes to tell us that her cultural education died when she had children and was forced to give up Janice Joplin for Charlotte Diamond. Therefore, having seen only a handful of movies past 1978, Doctor Zhivago remains her favourite, mainly because of Omar Sharif and his swarthy good looks. When she saw Hidalgo she refused to believe the aging man on screen was actually Omar Sharif, and was in a state of shock for hours after the movie.  I suppose that’s what happens when you live under a pop culture rock for 30 years.

soure: Apartment Therapy

4. Throw Pillows.  People can never have enough throw pillows.  Or at least most mothers can’t.  There’s always a piece of furniture that would benefit from a throw pillow: the sofa, the bed, the toilet.  And, as an added bonus, when she’s lonely because you don’t visit enough, she can pile them into a vaguely human shape, like the man in the picture has done, and–voila!–instant friend.

5. Even though my mother finds her toaster oven challenging, she still has an iphone.  Who doesn’t? For her it’s as much a fashion accessory as a useful communication tool, so why not jazz it up with a cute, colourful case from Cath Kidston, one of my favourite textile, stationary, home goods designers.