Saturday, December 31, 2011

Happy New Year!

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I'm nothing if not a lady obsessed with her bulldog. (I realize it's a birthday hat, let's just pretend it's a new years one.)

2011 has been a pretty great year all around - it was the year of the bulldog after all. It was also a year where I became even better friends with all of the amazing people that I surround myself with.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy night xo

Friday, December 30, 2011

Film Friday - PNE

Carnival fare

Finally (finally!!!) got some film developed and got them to digitize it for me.

As a kid, one of my favourite summer activities was going to the CNE (or, as we called it "The Ex") with my mum, her friend and my nanny.
Since being in Vancouver I've tried to make it every year to the PNE and I've succeeded so far.
Most important thing to do while there - eat lots and lots.

Totes healthy
Deep fried poptart, what up!

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Total Eclipse of the Moon


Photo by Don Oberbeck

Last night/this morning there was a (super amazing) total lunar eclipse. I got Adam to wake me up around 4:30 so I could see it (it started then and the moon was completely covered by 6am). He had set up his telescope and we were lucky enough to have a totally clear, beautiful night. We could see it perfectly from our front yard.

Adam got a bit of video, but no still pictures. The above photo I got from the website spaceweather.com which I learned about in teacher's college (It gives northern lights alerts, and I was pretty gung ho on seeing some when I was in Thunder Bay. Unfortunately I never did.)

It will be the last total eclipse for 3 years, so I'm pretty happy that I got my sleepy self out of bed to take it all in :)

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

École Polytechnique Massacre

On December 6th, 1989, a man entered the École Polytechnique in Montreal and murdered 14 innocent women.

Geneviève Bergeron (born 1968), civil engineering student

Hélène Colgan (born 1966), mechanical engineering student

Nathalie Croteau (born 1966), mechanical engineering student

Barbara Daigneault (born 1967), mechanical engineering student

Anne-Marie Edward (born 1968), chemical engineering student

Maud Haviernick (born 1960), materials engineering student

Maryse Laganière (born 1964), budget clerk

Maryse Leclair (born 1966), materials engineering student

Anne-Marie Lemay (born 1967), mechanical engineering student

Sonia Pelletier (born 1961), mechanical engineering student

Michèle Richard (born 1968), materials engineering student

Annie St-Arneault (born 1966), mechanical engineering student

Annie Turcotte (born 1969), materials engineering student

Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (born 1958), nursing student

All killed because they were women.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

CHRISTMAAAAAAAAAAAAS!

Alright! It's Dec 1st (in Ontario anyways) which means I can allow myself to start getting super jazzed for Christmas! :D

I love Christmas. Love it. It has nothing but lovely memories for me - I love the parties, spending time with family and friends, eating tons of delicious food, making the house smell all piney and putting paper snowflakes and tinsel everywhere.

I also really love Christmas crafts. I grew up in a household with a mum and a nanny who were all about homemade decorations, and that bug was passed on to me.

Counting down the days has always been a huge source of joy for me, so I'm all about advent calendars and crafts. I'm going to be buying a delicious Lindt calendar tomorrow, and tonight I whipped up this bad boy:

Advent tree!

Advent paper chain tree!

I used this tutorial (it's actually a little tricky). I found loads of pretty great ideas of things to make for advent; a few of my favourite:

Cute paper cone tree

Neat idea to repurpose vintage Christmas cards

Incase you have loads of wooden spools hanging around...

Within my group of friends there is a discussion happening RIGHT NOW around trying to plan a craft night soon, so I hope to have lots to show off on here.

And that's an end for NaBloPoMo! Well, my 1/3 of it anyways. Thanks for reading along ;) I've liked getting into the groove of posting everyday, hopefully I'll keep it up

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Kate Beaton is fantastic

I should be sleeping, but one quick post!

Everyone, do yourselves a favour and get thee to Hark! A Vagrant post haste.

Not only does Kate Beaton make history (and not just any history - Canadian history!) interesting and funny, she also does things like this:






Nancy Drew and Edward Gorey have big places in my heart, so I just love her.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Shopping locally & consciously

As is the trend these days, I do my best to shop locally. For food this can be tricky in Vancouver - not because there isn't that option but because that option, in high falutin' Vancouver is a pricey one. But, I have always been more than happy to spend a little more money on food if it's going to be a lot more tasty, so this hasn't been too hard for me to do.

When it comes to everything else in life (or, clothes and stuff) I'm trying to also stick to this rule. With more work comes more money (yay!) and I've decided that extra money isn't going to equal more stuff, but better quality stuff.

I want to share a couple recent purchases here, and I want to share them because I am so super jazzed about both of them!

First!



This beautiful Simcoe braided chunky headband from good night, day.

Tara-Lynn runs this wonderful shop, and if I could buy one of everything in it I would. This headband is fantastically warm and so SO SOFT. I've worn it every chilly day since I got it, and hope to wear it for hundreds more!


How great is this picture? Both this and the first are from Tara-Lynn's flickr


Next!



The Good Girl bag from Erin Templeton. My dad sent me some birthday money this year and told me to buy something good for myself with it. And I did!
I have have slight anxiety over buying purses, I never want to have one that I might see someone else with. This usually leads me to thrifting purses, which definitely works, but they often wear out quickly. So I decided it was high time I got myself a proper bag. Not being of the Coach set, I looked to local designed Erin Templeton and went to her cute shop in Chinatown that I had walked by probably hundreds of times.



I love my purse! It's made from beautifully soft leather, is just big enough for my things but not so big that I'll fill it with crud and it looks really, really cool. I'll use it for years!

This year I've actually gotten most of my Christmas presents from etsy or other thrift stores. I'm trying my best to look for vintage or hand made things. A little easier on the environment and heaps more unique.

Hooray for shopping!! ;)

Sunday, November 27, 2011

29 Before 30

Another list inspired by another blog.

My next birthday is my 30th. And while I am determined for it to "not be a big deal", well, we'll see how that goes.
But in the spirit of being a grown up and making goals, I've come up with 29 things I plan to do before I turn 30.


1. Make a quilt

2. Start swimming regularly

3. Make gumbo

4. Make 3 different types of cheese

5. Organize sewing room/work area

6. Learn how to knit

7. Make a piece of clothing for myself

8. Get Horizon training

9. Do my driving test

10. GO to a life drawing class

11. Put photos into photo albums

12. Edit wardrobe to only things I wear & love

13. Do some dyeing with homemade natural dyes

14. Make an embroidery sampler

15. Do a photography project/learn to use all the cameras around me

16. Paint a picture

17. Sew something for Minnie

18. Make mustard

19. Take a train trip

20. Host a themed dinner party

21. Go to Museum of Anthropology

22. Organize spices/pantry

23. Do yoga regularly

24. Finish 'mad women' embroidery project

25. Get into making smoothies

26. Do a daily photo project for at least a month

27. Read 30 books

28. Go to Vancouver Police Museum

29. Go to New Orleans (again!)


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The (very, very, hopeful) plan is that I will actually ring in my birthday in New Orleans. With lots of friends, maybe even some family - that would be ideal.

There are some long overdue things on the list *coughDRIVERSLICENSEcough* and some newer interests of mine. A lot of the things on my list are things I've been meaning to do for ages and have bits and pieces in books and documents on here related to them (painting, sampler). I've got such a problem with motivating myself though. So here is a list for all to see! And if I fail, then all will see that too!

Saturday, November 26, 2011

But it wouldn't be make believe if you believed in me..

Paper moon photos are one of my favourite things, and this recent post gave me more than I could have hoped for.

I love the variety in the people who are in them, and the variety of moon faces!
This one is probably my favourite one ever (ever).

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How could he not have a girl?! That coat!!

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Friday, November 25, 2011

Film Friday - Mary!

Miss Mary by girl and tonic
Miss Mary, a photo by girl and tonic on Flickr.

My "best friend since third grade" extraordinaire. This is a snap from summer 2010 when she came out to visit for two weeks.

We're provinces apart and don't talk as much as we'd like to, but none of that really matters. When we do talk, or get together, it's the easiest thing in the world (and generally includes a lot of giggling).

We've been best friends for 20 years, and I'm sure we'll be best friends for another 20 (and probably another 20 after that, and so on).

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Shades of Yellow

November in Vancouver can be tough.
Before moving out here I had numerous people tell me to watch out for the rainy weather, and do my best to stay positive. I'm a pretty positive person, and have never minded rain all that much, so I didn't think I had anything to worry about. And I didn't! Until I finally (it took a couple years) experienced a real Vancouver bout of rain. Good lord.
Rain isn't as exciting here as it can be in Ontario - there's no thunder or lightning.
Just clouds, and rain, rain, rain. And wind.

November Rain
Grim car garage view chosen to emphasize cruddiness

Weather like this usually keeps me inside. As I get older I seem to be less capable of doing nothing all day, so inside days generally lead to me keeping busy. And most of the time, keeping busy = cooking.

My canning craze from the bountiful days of summer has not slowed much, even if the produce has. So, looking to things in season in fall lead me to one of my favourite veggies - beets!

Golden beets

Specifically these lovely golden beets. I used this Alton Brown recipe as a base (I loved the idea of roasting the beets instead of boiling!). I roasted them with onion, garlic and some sage from my garden (that and thyme are the only things left). I used regular pickling vinegar, but threw extra sage in while bringing it to a boil. I then chopped the beets up, and popped them in jars, to which I had added some mustard seeds, nigella seeds and a few juniper berries.
Et voila!

Golden beets, pickled

Another endeavour of mine has included Meyer lemons. I was introduced to these beauties while working at South China Seas. I got to take the odd, almost-bad one home but usually just made them into lemonade or threw them into some gin (which, don't get me wrong, was delicious).
In the last week or two I have noticed that they've become available at "regular" grocery stores, usually in bulk (a bag of 6 or so). Adam decided to pick some up, and since they don't have the longest shelf life I needed to use them up quickish.
I turned to one of my favourite things in the world - lemon curd.
Oh. My. God.
First of all, it's pretty much the easiest thing in the world to make. Whiz everything up in a food processor and then cook it for less than 10 minutes and you're done. It tastes a million times better than any you would buy. And! With the extra floral sweetness of Meyer lemons? Ridiculous.

Meyer lemons: curd and preserved

The jar on the left was full as of Saturday.
The jar on the right is what I did with the rest of my lemons. Another delicacy I was introduced to through SCS was preserved lemons. They're used primarily in Moroccan cooking and often made from Meyer lemons. I actually have never used or tasted them myself, but now is as good a time as any, right?
As of today they're halfway through their sitting period. They've been blanched, cut up, mixed with salt and covered with their own juice. They sit in this mixture for 5 days, after which I'll top up the jar with some olive oil and pop them in the fridge where they should be good for up to a year.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Remember me?

I'm still alive!

Good grief. I really can't believe how much time has passed since I last posted.
It's silly to make excuses, especially since it's exactly what I was talking about last time - work! I just really need to figure out how to balance working full time with doing other things. Like blogging!
And seeing as how my busy work life has taken a little break, at least for today, here I am (finally!).

Of course I still read blogs like crazy, and in doing so learned that November is National Blog Posting Month (or, NaBloPoMo - catchy!). The idea is that you blog every day for a month. Being 21 days in, I'm a little late to the party but what the heck. Since going from a month+ of nothing to a full month would be a bit crazy, a 10 day challenge seems right up my alley.

So! To recap what's been going on (aside from all the work), October was pretty fantastic. It always is, really. Autumn smells, Thanksgiving, my birthday and Hallowe'en all wrapped up in one lovely month. This year we had yet another event - Minnie's birthday! It's October 7th, so of course (of course) we had a dog party. Complete with "pupcakes".

Dog party!

Dog party!
Gorgeous mustard costume courtesy of Devon & Benson

Thanksgiving weekend was lovely, and of course I didn't get any pictures. Turkey dinner went off without a hitch, though.

My birthday was also great, me and Adam went for a delicious dinner at Les Faux Bourgeois, which is conveniently located just around the corner from us. It was our first time there, and I would definitely go back.

And then Hallowe'en! Again, no pictures of my costume (so off the ball). I was Little Red Riding Hood, complete with a wolf pelt I made from some faux fur. I left the pelt at home for Hallowe'en Day and wore my costume to school and successfully hosted my first classroom Hallowe'en party. Fun!

A couple snaps from the party night,

WENDYTHIRTEEN
Adam as local promoter extraordinaire, Wendy13

Comic gal

Little hands!

and Hallowe'en proper

Front door

:O

Hallowe'en

And so now it's November. It's rainy most days, frosty some, and dark by 4:30.

Crow path

I also noticed that in my absence I still gained some followers, so, welcome! :)

Saturday, October 1, 2011

October!!

October Sacrifice
via Anja of clever nettle

Good grief. I can't believe it's October already.
As evidenced by the lack of activity around here, the bulk of September flew by, with me feeling like I've nothing to show for it! Except money.
I mentioned in my last post about a few days work in a library - that was followed by a week and a half in another school. Yesterday was my last day there, and I was sad to leave such a lovely, kind, funny bunch of kids.
I've yet to properly adjust to working full time again, especially teaching. It's so great, I couldn't ask for a job I'd like more, but goddamn it can be exhausting.
But enough of that. It's October!!

October is my favourite month. I love autumn, and it certainly comes into it's own in October. I'm super pumped for Thanksgiving this year - I'll be cooking our dinner on Sunday, and then going to a big potluck one on Monday with friends. Hallowe'en never gets old for me, and I'm pretty sure I've settled on my costume for this year, which really I should get started on soon (it always comes up much faster than I think it will!).
And, most importantly - my birthday! I actually share my birthday with my friend Caitlin, and we're planning some kind of gluttonous food crawl for the day - it will be fantastic.

So here's to a wonderful October - full of good friends, good food, and of course, good fall fashion ;)

October!
Scarves, stripes, camel and navy - some of my fall faves. And those leaves! Anja again.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Library Times

Back to school, back to work.

I didn't quite realize how relaxing it is not working until I actually started working again. My god, but kids are exhausting.
I've had a bit of luck and got a three day job working at a school I can walk to filling in for the librarian. It's been lovely! I still get to see students and do a bit of teaching, but for my last day actually I'll probably be spending most of it just organizing the very-chaotic book collection. I'm a little embarrassed to admit just how excited I am for Monday, and how much I've enjoyed just putting books into alphabetical order (/dork).

Some photos from the New York Public Libray, c/o the Life archive:

my heroes
I love everything about this picture

lady and doll

reading

nun using card catalog

And two adorable librarians for good measure:

librarian

librarian, too

I hope the beginnings of fall (my favourite!!) are treating everyone well :)

Monday, September 12, 2011

Yes, I can!

I think the best thing about my not working this summer was the fact that it led me to start canning. It was about the middle of August that I finally got myself a canning pot and decided to give it a go, and I've made at least a couple things a week since.

The older I get the more I love doing things that my own parents did - it gives me just an awesome feeling of nostalgia and makes me feel even closer to them somehow.
Growing up, most summers my parents canned tomatoes and some type of jam - usually strawberry to use up all of the spoils from the pick-your-own farm we'd visit.

A couple months back, a post on the awesome blog Crackers led me to buy Canning and Preserving by Ashley English which contains a wealth of canning info and recipes. It's a perfect book for someone getting into canning, as it goes over pretty much every possible thing that could go wrong and how to avoid it.

Most of the stuff I've made so far has been from the book too though, as with any of my new interests, I've thoroughly researched online and found a few really amazing canning blogs as well, chock full of recipes I can't wait to try.

Summer's bounty

L-R: Dill pickles, tomato basil sauce and pickled okra - all recipes from Canning & Preserving. The last two jars are canned peaches in a vanilla syrup and a strawberry jam with balsamic and pepper.


Jams

L-R: Cherry marmalade, peach lavender butter (again, from Canning and Preserving) and blueberry maple jam.

So far, everything I've made has been pretty easy with no real problems. And the few mishaps I've had, really aren't so bad (floating peaches!) and are easy to fix (pack more tightly!)
I've also made fairly small batches of everything, mostly to do with cupboard space, but also to cut down on cost.

This afternoon I'm actually planning on turning these wonderfully sweet cherry tomatoes & basil from my garden...

Garden tomatoes

..into a few small jars of tomato basil jam.

I know it's said in pretty much every mention of canning, but I really cannot wait to eat some of that sunny tomato basil jam on a rainy, grey January day.

And speaking of sunny! I have to admit, I was way too quick to judge the seasons out here. The last week has been beautifully hot and sunny. Just yesterday in fact we got back from a blissful three days of camping near Squamish with a wonderful group of friends. I took loads of pictures with my A-1 and can't wait to get them developed.

Free(wo)man Lake

We were on a small lake we had all to ourselves, complete with a raft tethered across the lake. I swam tons and pretty much had the best time ever.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

B&WTF

My newest favourite tumblr - all photos from blackandwtf.

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How badass are these girls?!

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Pretty sure I had this photo in my dictionary of medical anomalies that I was obsessed with as a kid

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