cat meet bird, spring meet snow

olly and pip, the latest additions to my shop

the weather outside is frightful. i feel so badly for the parsley i planted on thursday, only to have it snow on friday. the weather man said not to worry, because it would be sunny all weekend. not so! it slushed a bit and then hailed and then slushed a bit more today. bowie and i have no interest in going out in this weather, so i finished up a little kitten i was working on, and named him olly. i also made my first bird (a budgie named pip) and am so happy with how he turned out. i like budgies a lot, and like pigeons i think they're under appreciated, but at least they don't have as bad a rap. so hermitting my saturday away, i am doing laundry, and working on a web site for one of my absolute favourite clients (cough cough destroyer) and am going to try to get my new sewing machine going. i love my little crocheted animals, but they take so long to make and i feel like such an ass charging so much for such small creations. if i can translate their cuteness in fabric it would save me a lot of time, and then i could feel good about the prices i charge.


dammit toronto, stop laughing at me

in other news, i'm thinking about trying to blog once a day every day in april, and am kicking myself for not doing it in february instead.

doing as the islanders do

i've spent the past few days at my parents home on vancouver island enjoying the sunshine and quiet. the only downside of the peace and quiet is that it's hard to sleep when it's completely silent and you're used to falling asleep to the sound of trains slamming together. what a thing to complain about!

i've been trying to get hans to help me move the old clipper canoe down to the water because i'm not confident i could portage it down several flights of stairs without killing myself. i just want to go for a quick paddle, but he doesn't want me to go out alone. he doesn't care how good i am in the canoe, he just knows i am an awful swimmer. i'm one of those people who can't just sit and enjoy the sunshine though. i have to be doing something. so with no canoe or kayak, and not wanting to walk through the woods where i wouldn't be able to enjoy the sun, i tried to find something to busy myself with. so i dug a hole. i recommend you try it sometime, because it's really satisfying. it's crazy wild here on the island.

and when i'm not digging holes, i like to make homemade granola. i know, i'm out of control. clearly the reason i didn't go to sxsw this year is because i've turned into an old person. but this granola is so damn good that i'm glad i put down my crochet hook and got my bifocals out long enough to make it. it's much better than digging holes, so you should make it too.

best granola ever
6 cups rolled oats
2 cups whole almonds
1 1/2 cups shredded or flaked coconut
3/4 cup hazelnuts
1/2 cup sesame seeds (i used black)
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 teaspoons ground allspice
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon fleur de sel
3/4 cup olive oil
6 tablespoons honey
2 cups pitted dates, each cut crosswise into quarters
3/4 cup dried cranberries

preheat oven to 300°F. mix first 12 ingredients in large bowl. melt honey into the olive oil in a saucepan over low heat, then pour it over the granola mixture and stir well. spread out mixture over 2 large baking sheets. bake about 20 minutes, stirring 2-3 times. stir in the dried fruit and then continue baking until golden brown. this can take between 15 and 40 minutes depending on how deep the pans are and how often you stir the mix. cool and store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.

you can really use any dried fruit, i just happened to have dates and cranberries.

arctic front meet pineapple express

alba and lavender

this past weekend it snowed and snowed, and since we still haven't managed to have our snow tires put on i stayed in. i ventured out on saturday afternoon to drag the dog around the park. she's not a fan of the cold, and i actually had to get behind her and shove her along for part of the walk. there were footprints everywhere, but my favourite tracks were the ones left by the long haired miniature dachshunds: two sets of two paws followed by a dash left where their little tails drag behind as they hop along. dachshund tracks look like morse code in the snow.


lavender

the rest of the weekend was spent stitching and stuffing. i finished this little rabbit as part of a swap with hadley hutton. she's stuffed with soft roving and is made of merino, and hand dyed icelandic wool. i spun lavender and cream yarns together to create the mottled detailing on her smock.

it seems like hadley's been adding new work to her etsy shop everyday lately, and i love, love, love the spotted owls below:


new pieces from hadley hutton:
spotted owl // two blue // butterfly, did you take my spots, asked little bird

i also finished a camel for my mum over the snowy weekend. she collects camels. she collects a lot of things actually: baskets, kohl pots, opium pots, shadow puppets... mostly though, she collects camels. this one is made of super soft alpaca, and its little ruff collar is beaded. i'm thinking about adding little white or red french knots to make it look like a christmas wreath, but i'm still mulling over that one...


christmas camel

so i pretty well spent the entire weekend making stuff and staring out the window. i think that birds are always great to watch in the snow. there were a couple dozen crows on the railroad tracks pecking at things they found the the snow. i wonder if grain, jarred loose by the trains breaking and shunting, falls from the freight cars.

and then there were the pigeons, which took to the sky flying in formation like schools of fish every time the snow stopped.


pigeon flight


pigeon flight

i am randomly closing this post with the video to a terence trent d'arby song i was briefly obsessed with as a child, before i moved on to the more important task of memorizing every word of paul simon's rhythm of the saints. please note the shoulder pads, and wicked dance moves.

snowy mountains, mushrooms and mistletoe

good morning snowy mountains
one of the best things about vancouver in november is waking up to that morning when the snow line reaches the north shore mountains. the first week or so it melts by noon, but eventually it sticks and that's when it's really winter. people always point to the northwest and say "how can you live with all the rain in the winter? isn't it depressing? i think i'd kill myself." to which i reply "but we have colour, and you have grey and brown, dirty snow and trees covered in burlap." some people get seasonal affective disorder from short winter days. i have seasonal aesthetic disorder. in vancouver the snow's rarely around long enough to get dirty, and the snow that sticks stays up in the mountains where it belongs. everything's green and blue and crisp and clean and shiny. i have the added bonus of all the red of my view across the port. it's very christmassy don't you think? that said, it rained all weekend and i was a shut-in. a very productive shut-in, but a shut in nonetheless. here's what i did:


mushrooms and mistletoe
the past week has been an assembly line of holiday ornaments for the swap, (and gifts for family). i originally wanted to do bunnies because i love bunnies, and to top that off design sponge recently declared that rabbits are the new birds. i told a friend of mine about that and she said that's totally wrong, because mushrooms are the new birds. first i made the wool crochet mushrooms, then i felted some white berries, and then i made crochet alpaca leaves which were embroidered and beaded. and THEN i embroidered and beaded the mushroom tops and used a candy cane striped bamboo blended string to tie it all together. it's a lot of work, and i have a lot more to do.

woah is me

i have a recurring nightmare about losing all my teeth. they just get wobbly and loose and start falling out and i try to put them back into place but keep losing them, and no matter how tightly i try to keep my mouth shut, i can't keep them from falling out because since they're all wobbly, i can't actually bite down properly. i actually wake up in a cold sweat whenever i have this dream. i had a lot of orthodontic work done as a child. head gear, neck gear, you name it i had it. people say that this is a dream about losing control of your life, but i assure you that in my case it's all about losing my teeth.

a couple of weeks ago i noticed (after one of my tooth dreams) that my bite was a little off. because this was right after one of my tooth dreams i dismissed it. then a couple of days ago i decided to actually take a look, and i noticed that one of my 2 fillings was missing. the fact that i'm almost 29 and only have 2 fillings is something i'm strangely proud of. today i went in to have it replaced, and they found 2 more cavities. it was a bad start to the day. they even told me i could stand to floss better. did you know that daily flossing is not enough? you need to floss until it squeaks, or you're failing your mouth.

my dentist is just down the street from ikea so after the appointment as a pick me up i went to buy candles and things. as i pulled out of the parking lot i got a call from hans letting me know our hot water heater had burst. i got home to discover that all of our winter jackets and extra bedding (pillows and duvets included) were sopping wet. we won't have hot water until tomorrow sometime in the late afternoon. maybe while the plumber is here i'll go to visit the dry cleaner.

that was my day. now that it's gone 6 i think that i can pour myself a glass of red wine without feeling guilty for using alcohol as an unhealthy coping mechanism. tea can only get you so far. cheers!

make work projects

poppy posted about an ironing board that got powdercoated a shiny new red finish. my first reaction was "oh my god, i wish i had a band that i played keys for so i could use that as a stand." and my second reaction was to look around the loft to try to find something i could powdercoat. sadly, i don't have a thing. but we've recently inherited a secretary desk that i think needs an airy and light wire or metal share, or maybe brightly painted bentwood number, and after seeing the pretty red ironing board i'm thinking metal.



we also recently inherited the white lacquered cabinet in the photo on the left. it was my boyfriend's mother's and i think she bought it back in the late '60s. the trouble with the cabinet is two-fold... 1. i don't yet have enough to fill it so it looks rather bare. this isn't really a problem because it gives me a pretty good excuse to shop. 2. all of our dishes are white, and almost all of our glasses are, well... glass, and so it looks pretty severe and uninspired. i'm debating papering or canvasing the back in a bright colour like the gorgeous teal shown in the cabinet on the right that was featured over at design sponge. i'm not sure what to do... thoughts?



a couple of months ago i was visiting with my mum on vancouver island, and we ran into the local thrift shop where i spotted this mirror and wanted it immediately. that said, they wanted $40 for it, and i am never willing to buy something unless it's a good deal, and i just didn't think that was a deal. a month later it still hadn't sold so the shop dropped the price to $8 and my mum scooped it up for me! i love the embroidery, but the frame itself is just hideous. so what do you think -- shall i paint it a dark burnt orange pulled from the embroidery thread colours, or should it be black? i'd do super dark chocolate brown, but brown and orange are way too A&W root bear for my liking. i'm not so sure straight up black is the best way to go, but maybe i'm wrong. what do i do?