There can be no doubt

Watch and listen to this. I am sure that you will be convinced that Radiohead is one of the best bands on the planet. I watched the video this morning and it is good stuff. The songs are from their new album (or alblum - for Tyler) In Rainbows. The album was originally released on the band's website for a pay what you want fee. It was released in North American stores on January 1. Check it.

I hope they tour North America.

Listy bliss

Oh my, I do love me a good relaxing Saturday, and today was just that. Lots of little things checked off the list:

• mail that stuff to mom and dad
• remove the very unnecessary and actually bulky pockets from my new fleece skiing pants
• do a couple loads of laundry
• vacuum the upstairs
  
• bake a couple loaves of pumpkin bread
  
• finally unpack all those wonderful pieces of China from my mom-in-law
• take the wreath off the front door
  

Do you keep a list of things-to-do? I admit, I regularly toy with list-making. I come by list-making honestly: my dad is an avid list maker. Often the list is a mental list, but I have been learning the virtues of the tangible list. Not only am I less likely to forget some fleeting idea, but I can take tremendous pride in crossing the items off one by one.

Of course, being a self-proclaimed anti-perfectionist, I am perfectly content to not cross off every thing that goes on the list. For example, "take Jake to the dog park" is not going to get crossed off today. I has been about 15°C all day, with strong chinook-like winds all morning long, and what snow there was a few days ago at the aforementioned park is inevitably all mud gook. Mud gook caked dog is something we can live without today. Sorry buddy.

But overall, crossing items off a list one by one is a fine way to spend a lazy Saturday.

... and as I type, chaos and tempers are erupting downstairs. (Last night Kai went to a friend's house for a sleepover, so he's a teensy weensy bit tired today.) Bliss bliss... where is the bliss?

Oh, here's some bliss. These photos are from earlier today, when the sun was actually still mostly visible through the foggy sublimating-ice and -snow haze:

Look! I can help things grow!
The first photo is the jade plant that I purchased not long after we moved to Colorado. (I had to leave all my plants in Canada when we moved - something about not bringing soil across the border.) I think the jade is the only houseplant we have that I bought from a store - most of my plants are either from garage sales, gifts (i.e.: my holy-cow-it-has-tripled-in-size! aloe) or inherited. My friend Meg gave me the African violet before she moved to New Hampshire last summer. I replanted it in a larger pot and watered it diligently for a few months (when I was here, at least) with nary a bud in sight. When we returned from Canada at the end of November, out of the blue there were two open blooms and a host of buds ready to burst!

And finally - what could be more exciting than having a window open and a breeze blowing through the house to encourage the freshly-hung January laundry to dry? I'm so easy to please, eh?

Quietly sewing

It is official: my voice is on vacation. What was an on-again/off-again raspy mess yesterday is today a rare throaty syllable bookended by apologetic whispers and enthusiastic gestures. It is good that I generally work alone, eh? I am mostly feeling alright, as per usual with my not-so-extensive laryngitis experience, I just can't talk. Alas. I just need my voice to return by next week because I'm off to Germany to give a talk, and I am going to need something other than whispering and gesturing to pull that off. I suppose that is obvious, considering the keyword "talk".

But I can still type...

I have been spending the majority of my free time over the last few evenings sewing a myriad of projects that are hopefully worthy of Christmas gift-giving next month. I would love to show them to you, but I'm afraid many of the recipients of the projects are faithful readers, so you're just going to have to wait until December when we are back from our travels and I can show off the spoils. Anyhow, the sewing has been productive. It often takes a deadline for me to get my act together to start a project, but what can I say - I'm task-oriented.

Last night I sat at my sewing table, listening anxiously to the Leaf game on the internet in the intermittent silences that fell between the whirrings of the machine (let's not talk about that game, shall we?). This was followed by some serious hand-sewing while I sat perched in front of the television, half-watching/half-listening to the Rockies homer their way into the World Series. Crafting and sports are united at last! (And Keith wasn't even home for much of this.) Oh, yes - I am a card-carrying, unapologetic member of the happy-go-lucky Rockies' bandwagon. It is great for the community, not to mention participation in the lunchtime conversation at work, which inevitably circles around sports for a decent percentage of the meal. I fade into my meal when the wave of conversation heads towards college sports (how can anyone remember all those schools?!), but I can hold my own with hockey, and I'm almost up to speed with baseball and football. Go Packers!

"thank you God for the cookie recipe"

I'm feeling a little like I'm neglecting you. After almost a week with no posts, I felt I should grace you with my presence once again. Do you feel graced?

Don't answer that.

The assembly line continueth. At last count I have completed 23 blocks. At some point I'm going to need to determine exactly how many I'll need in toto, but for now I'm just going to keep sewing sewing sewing.

I think I've read that Nemo book too many times.

I timed myself, by the way. 16 minutes for one block, start to finish, not including the actual block cutting. Add a couple minutes here or there for refilling the bobbin or changing the CD in the CD player, and I'd guess that three blocks per hour is a good estimate. It is a good thing that I find it so therapeutic.

Anyhow, I'm itching to get back upstairs to my quilt-making right now, but I made a promise to make some cookies, so I'm going to have to do that first. If I wasn't so tired after supper, I would have made them with Kai, but I asked him if he would mind if I made them after he went to bed and he could have some tomorrow. He said that would be fine.

What a gracious little kid he is somedays.

Most days.

That would likely explain why he thanked God for "the cookie recipe" in his nighttime prayer tonight. This was along with his puddles, the neighbour kids, our house, Jake and, well, "everything".

Off to the cookie-making. And yes - it's the same recipe that I've been making since I was ... oh, I don't know... 7? 5? I don't know that I've ever thanked God specifically for the recipe though.

Assembly line

This afternoon I took a break from being a scientist and spent some time being domestic, piecing a quilt that I started a while back. Until today, I had done a bunch of cutting but had only pieced three blocks. I now have ten pieced blocks, and another partially-pieced block on my sewing table.

I know it has been said before, but chain piecing rocks. Not only does it save thread (nice) and prevent the corners of my squares from getting sucked into the bobbin zone (significantly less frustrating), but it makes it easy to keep going (there is always another block being made.)

I get such intense pleasure out of seeing a block come together. I have been slowly getting better at making my points line up on these blocks - not exactly an easy feat when 8 points come together in one location, but the highlight of the day (sarcastic tone very on) had to be when my sweet husband came into the room near the end of the day, leaned over the bed-full of blocks and immediately commented on one very poorly lined-up corner.

Uh, thanks, sweetie. I know.

Darn homespuns... I really love them, as you may have noticed from previous projects, but they have a very different stretch than cotton prints. Anyhow, whatever - it's homemade. And maybe that's just one of the reasons that I don't do this for a living. Not yet at least.

Sadly, near the end of the afternoon some of my beige piles were looking rather depleted. So this evening I made a quick trip to the fabric store and have added four more beige fabrics to my collection. Ummm... yeah. And one more orange and one more green. They were really pretty and asked to be brought home with me. Honest.

The plan is that this will eventually be our spare bedroom queen-sized bed covering. By my estimates I think I have another 50+ blocks to go.

Lastly, the strangest photo of all: me working away on the sewing machine, compliments of my 4-year-old. Don't ask me how he managed to eliminate my head, but fear not - I still have my "big brain" and the science will continue. Later.

Twin

I made the match to the other pillow last Sunday, but life happened and photographing it was postponed and then it had to be washed after someone had a throw-up on it, and then I had to wait for light to photograph it again, and... well. Life happened. But I did make it, and that's what matters. Out with the old, in with the new.


More of my favourite fabric! I keep finding uses for the few remaining scraps that I have... sadly, I don't think this will continue on much longer. I'll just have to find a new favourite fabric.

Enjoying the fruits

Another sunny Saturday. On the docket: spend WAY too much money at Costco, pick up Keith, get a haircut (!), and make another of these:

I whipped up this up last night. It has been about 5 years in the making and, along with its soon-to-be-sewn buddy, will replace the horrid throw pillows that came with our couch.

And look: my favourite fabric! I still have a teeny tiny bit left.

Also, remember the peaches? Together with a little cottage cheese and a sprinkling of cinnamon, I have the perfect snack.

Busy, busy, dreadfully busy...

Those of you who are familiar with the first few Veggie Tales movies can pretend to throw random objects at my head now. Sorry. I just enjoy the lilting "whateverness" to the song that speaks so specifically to the balancing act I'm playing out. Kind of like the coffee-questionnaire that wanted to know how I deal with stress, I'm normally I'm a proactive, get-the-job-done kind of gal. Thankfully, it takes a lot to get me completely unglued.

I'm not saying it can't happen, mind you. Just to clarify.

I just tucked Kai into bed... half an hour of playing in the bath while I chatted with my mom, quick wash-up, toys-away, towel-off, sticky-moist legs and arms poked into PJs, train-set dismantle, pick-a-story, read and cuddle, lights off, two songs, kiss, hug, sleep tight my sweet.

A few variations here and there depending on the circumstances, the nighttime routine has been my bonding time with Kai over the last year and a half. I cherish it, even in the midst of a busy busy week.

So I'm back to work in a few minutes, but I wanted to at least say hello before I dive back in. And since we're on the topic of things that cheer my heart, I give you this:

This is what is waiting for me for whenever I need to pause, look around, and evaluate the world around me.

Not the slippers. The dog.

Although I do love my slippers. Boy do I love them. It's so beyond fashion. Obviously. And oh, how I love them when it's -20 deg C outside and we have no basement. Like it is right now. With the cold and the lacking of the basement.

But I digress. Back to the dog...

I can't get over how much he loves me. It is truly unhuman. Likewise, I can't get over how much I love him. He's really my first dog. Sure, I had Shorty when I was a kid (ahem. yes. Shorty. I wasn't responsible for naming him - he was 5 when I first opened my eyes), but that's different. This is the first time I've been responsible for a dog. And the devotion is almost unnerving.

Almost.

But not entirely.

Okay... yes. Busy. Be good. Talk to you soon.

Now where's that coffee?

in·er·tia

Pronunciation: /ɪnˈɜrʃə, ɪˈnɜr-/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciationin-ur-shuh, i-nur-
Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin, from Latin, lack of skill, from inert-, iners
1 a : a property of matter by which it remains at rest or in uniform motion in the same straight line unless acted upon by some external force b : an analogous property of other physical quantities (as electricity)
2 : indisposition to motion, exertion, or change : INERTNESS
(courtesy of www.dictionary.com)

I lack momentum. Perhaps this is to be expected, in the slowness of the post-Christmas-season lull. The past two weeks have seen me leap into action for brief necessary intervals, and then I fall right back into idleness.

And this is not entirely by choice. I just lack momentum. I have never been happy being idle. I'm not always twitchy... well, uh... actually I generally am. But this is more than an untwitchiness. I have things I want to do. Multiple works-in-progress projects are sitting idly nearby just waiting for my attention. But I just can't seem to acquire the activation energy required to start. So instead, I'm going to grab a coffee (black no sugar), cuddle up with Kai on the couch, read my new book, and dream about all the baking that I'm going to do in 2007.

By the way, Ms. Jenn Foley - I think you would love this book. I'm hardly more than 10 pages in, and already I'm plotting out purchasing a kitchen scale. Or two. Oh, an aside: I posted a photo I took for you from my SF trip on my new flickr page. Yes. I'm a convert.

Happy New Year's Eve, everyone. May 2007 be good to you. And happy birthday to my cousin, Brian. You're still the only New Year's baby I know.

Steady

Thanks to my dear mother-in-law and her wonderful husband (Kai's Pop Pop), I am now the proud owner of the most wonderful tripod on earth. Maybe this seems like an exaggeration, but I take this claim very seriously. After all, it's going to make my photo-taking much more zen.

Since taking a picture of the tripod is a little counterintuitive, I give you this:


What IS intuitive is that I had to use it last night to redo the ornamental photographing that failed miserably a couple days ago. Voila:

Deck the halls

Or maybe just the dining room and living room and lower bathroom.

Imported Goodness

I just finished off the second bag of Lay's Ketchup Chips that our friend Chris brought to us yesterday. As a kid, these were definitely a favourite of mine. He tried to find Hostess for me because they're, well, better... but as Shannon informed me recently, they are getting more and more scarce. Sad. The Lay's were sufficiently tasty, though.

As I was wandering around the internet, trying to find out whether or not Ketchup chips (and dill pickle chips?) are another of those "uniquely Canadian" treats, I found this little gem. I suppose that in a world where you can buy almost anything on e-bay, getting Canadianish items shipped to the US shouldn't be too surprising. Oh the nostalgia! Vector "meal replacement" cereal, Kraft peanut butter, Tim Horton's coffee, Chipits, Bick's relish, Malt bread... but wait. There are a lot of things that I can have shipped to me, for only the cost of shipping + $5 "handling" that I can get here in my local grocery store. Kraft Dinner? Not Canadian. Oreos? Pretty sure you can get those here. Reese peanut butter cups? Last time I checked, they're EVERYWHERE.

So these people are scamming us a little. Maybe the recipes for some of the items are just a little different. (Canadians aren't as addicted to high fructose corn syrup as the yanks.) Maybe some people really miss having French on their packaging. For now, we'll just sweetly ask our friends and family to bring us the many items that we miss from home.

Thought of the Day

I hate it when I make coffee and then an hour passes before I can sit down and have a cup.

Clean

Remember the shower curtain I made? I finally figured out how to get our new grommet setter to put holes in it, so it is now finished. I didn't want to use a flash for the photo, but our bathroom has no windows, so the picture isn't very bright. And excuse the faux-wood counter. It's not our first choice for a counter top, but I can't sew a new one of those so we're stuck with it.


A close-up of the fabric I used:


I'm quite happy with it. Keith wonders why we didn't do this years ago. (The yellow shower curtain hadn't matched our bathroom for a while now... not since we lived in Willowdale.)

Oh, and to brighten your day, here's the lovely sunrise I saw this morning on my way to the gym. (I've been going right around sunrise lately, and this morning I finally remembered to bring my camera. It actually got prettier a few minutes later, but by then the backdrop was a parking lot, so it wasn't as good a shot.)

The week in review

Lots going on, lots to show and tell... here's the past week in pictoral form:

Kai watches our landlord Dave mow the grass, too shy to join in with his own weed trimmer.


Happy late-summer sunflowers, fresh from the grocery store.


I know this sort of falls under the category of high school weekend retreat photo-taking, but I just couldn't help taking this when I went into Kai's room on Sunday to wake him up from his nap. I had to use a flash, because it was pretty dark in his room, so although it looks like all the lights were on in his room, it was really very dim. We've never seen him sleeping like this before, and we check on him every night before we go to bed...

The new kitchen, all set up and ready for the chef.

The new bedroom curtains. They do make me happy... :)

Weekend bliss

We had a very busy weekend. I think. It's a bit of a blur now, but I remember feeling very satisfied. There were many little projects, both new and old, and many were completed. I thrive on completion. When I consider this aspect about myself, I find myself thinking back to the "high D" personality type that always emerged when I took the DISC personality tests back in my high school and undergrad years. I'm certainly not sentimental about that time, but wow... the flashbacks of the horrid yellow carpeting in our old Jr. High room are really vivid. My "D" personality suggests that although organization isn't one of my strong points, the satisfaction of finishing a task is a strong motivator for me.

So, I thrive on completion, and because I don't get to do domestic things and little tasks around the house on a daily basis, I love that aspect of the weekend. While other parents were happily packing up their children and taking them to the beach to enjoy one of the last weekends of the summer, we spent the weekend doing all those little things around the house that have been patiently waiting for our attention, which couldn't make me happier. But first, there were some
yard sales to discover. Some of the plunder:

Some artwork.

Not-so-vintage plates (from Restoration Hardware, reportedly) with a vintage cheese label theme. I couldn't resist them...

This firetruck tent got the best reaction from the kid: a big wide-eyed gasp. He eventually crawled inside and "drove" it around the driveway.Some other toy finds: a kitchen, a weed trimmer, a wheelbarrow and a variety of FP Little People toys. Oh the joy!

On to the Projects, in addition to cleaning the aforementioned toys.

Completed:

1. Obtained some new screws and reattached the hinged top of the blanket box at the end of Kai's bed. I'm happy to report that we're no longer putting our child in danger every time he crawls on and off his bed.

2. Sewed curtains for our bedroom, to replace the not-so-chic and not-so-adjustable bedsheet that has been providing us with a little sunlight-relief since June. They're hung now on our brand new curtain rod, and looking very lovely, if I don't say so myself.

3. Hung up the garage saled artwork and mirrors from the last two weeks in our bedroom, the stairwell, the spare room and the downstairs hallway.

4. Finished installing the new shelves in my craft closet. How exciting is this? I find it funny that I'm not the only one who decided it was necessary to organize my quilting supplies over the last week or so.

5. Keith rearranged the linen et al. closet to make room for our 12 jars of peaches, and the 10 or so that I will hopefully finish up tonight. (Did I mention that I'm going to can more peaches? Well I am. The price is just too good to pass up... and they're just so tasty!)

WIP (Works-in-progress):

1. Sewed a new shower curtain for our bathroom to replace the lovely-but-not-at-all-matching yellow curtain that has been in our lives since I moved into our apartment on Ancona Street. It's not quite finished yet because our grommet setter turned out to be in less than ideal shape. Perhaps a new one will be purchased today and it will get finished tonight...

2. Purchased some lovely cedar planks to make some shelving for the craft area (scrapbooking and card-making) of our bedroom - I'm going to attempt to organize that zone so that it's easier to sit down and be productive. Keith spray-painted the brackets so that rather than bright white, they're now a funky shade of brown. (Is that really possible? Can brown be funky?)

3. Keith removed some glass from an old window frame that I found at a yard sale a few weeks ago. I purchased some sheet metal to replace the glass... I still need to do some tin-punch art on them, and cut them to size before we look for a place to hang it.

Peaches!

More happy things...

First, from this past weekend's garage sales: a new skateboard - we have a very happy kid, although we're going to need some elbow and knee pads now. Some of you might wonder how he knows about skateboards - for starters, we have a pretty awesome skatepark in town, and we've been there during a competition and have seen some good tricks... and there are at least two T-shirts on the current rotation that feature skateboards, not to mention one that has been retired to the "too-small pile".

For me, a new (old?) washstand... although I'm not really sure that's what this is called. Internet nerd as I am, I googled "washstand" and "wash stand" (in Images) and most of the pictures of stands sans built-in-sinks (ie. traditional ones) were the kind with a towel rack at the back, not on the sides. So does anyone know what to call this?

Also - 16 1-quart mason jars. I'm going to can peaches for the first time outside of my mother's home. I'll let you know how that goes later. The box of peaches we bought on Sunday is still ripening in the garage... Maybe tomorrow.

I've been getting inspired lately. Angie has a bunch of links on her website that I've been frequenting lately (and links within), and some of them have inspired this:

And this:


And the purchase of these:

Pillow number one is pictured above... I just finished number two this evening. Number three needs the binding blind-stitched... if the peaches aren't ripe tomorrow, maybe that'll happen then. I'm really excited about my new fabric - I don't know what made me purchase all the pink, but I'm suddenly feeling that I need to make a pink pillow for someone. Anyone want a pink pillow? I can add other colours, too.

I love my new mat. It's probably one of the wonkiest things I've ever made, so much so that I had to explain to Keith that you're not supposed to get down on the floor to analyze it. Anyhow, it makes doing dishes just that much more bearable, and it's fun to look at, too. The last good-sized piece of my favourite fabric is in the mat - it's also the binding for the pillow. I've still got a couple little scraps, and I'm pretty sure that they'll make it into something someday.

On one other completely unrelated front (why stop with the non sequiturs now?), we've got exciting news. HE GETS IT:

Outdoor bliss

I really love our little townhouse. Sure, it feels a little too 70s-inspired at times, but on the whole, it is a good size and it has some great features. My issue? The outside has always been lacking. Until now... Thanks to some inspiration at my mom-in-law's place last month and this past week's garage sale outing, I found a cute little wall hanging that adds some flair to a rather bland front door wall, and some fabulous glazed planters. Add some colourful flowers, a plant stand and two benches from a couple months ago's garage sale adventure and the front of our place is no longer the bland entrance that it has been for the last year.



One last thing - happy birthday, Shannon! With a great new house and all the responsibilities that go with it, you're defintely another year wiser. But I think it's fair to say that you still don't look a day over 25! (Just go with it... it'll be useful in your 40s.) I hope you have a wonderful day my friend!

The birthday girl