Mixed Bag

I got my first order for buttons off to the derby contact, and then she wanted more. I got them all finished and then went to the clinic.

But before I got a cold, Shaun brought home this Date Coffee loaf, or maybe it's a Coffee Date loaf, from Cobs. I didn't know what to do with it. But then I channeled my inner Chopped addict and came up with what we now call "toasties". Not so creative name for a super yummy snack.

I sliced the bread super thin. Then I brushed it with melted butter and sprinkled it with sea salt.

I baked it until it was dry. I served it with cream cheese to Emily and her friend and they loved it. Weird, because neither likes coffee or dates. We've had it with brie, and cream cheese and roasted garlic. It's a keeper.

The night before my cold, we got our veggie bin. I decided to sign up again, we need some veggie inspiration. The tangelos were a huge hit. I opted for the large bin every other week.

The other new thing was the watermelon radish. Radish texture and taste, but not radish heat. We like it!

The doctor prescribed this giant bottle of cough syrup. It did the trick, the cough and snotty nose did not amount to the ear infection he said was on the verge of ruining my life. Maybe over exaggerating, but I've been sick 3 times in 4 months since I started working out in the world. Germs are not my friends.

I told Kerry to take that cupboard down, and he did. What difference!

I need to paint, but you can see sort of, how removing the cupboard opened up the kitchen/dining area.  Well, I can see it, the picture does nothing to really show you. I want to paint/remove the tiles. I hate them. I want new counter tops too, while were at it. But that will have to wait.

In the mean time, we'll eat white chocolate fudge, made with Bernard Callebaut chocolate.

I was inspired today by Donna Downey's poppy canvas album cover. So I made this canvas. It's almost 2 feet square. I think I will put it in the living room.

Rumor has it...

I cleaned my craft room. I'm hoping to have found the 'almost perfect' system for me to keep the space neat and tidy.

This is before....I'm a "Piler", if there's a clean surface, I cover it.

I' m a "Keeper", the bottles are for recycling, but I keep all kinds of things that I think I might use later. I hardly ever use them.

I'm a "Collector". I like stamps in sets, I like paper that comes in kits, full lines, and co-ordinates.

I'm not a "Hoarder". But I'm darn close.

This is between "before" and "after".

This is after....the new bookshelves, painted with way too many cans of spray paint, lesson learned. The drawers on wheels are cleaned off, one holds fabric and that isn't working but I haven't found the right storage yet.

Notice the recycling bin is full. I think I did a pretty good job of letting go of things I know I won't use. 

 The "to be sorted" box is small, and full. I figured if it's small, I can't put that much into it, and then I have to sort it before I can put more in. So far, I haven't sorted it. 

The other end of the room, I still want to clean up the shelf of albums. And the corner on the right. But so far, I'm pretty happy with it. I don't want to mess it up. 

It's winter again, or still, depends on who you ask. I think winter lasts till mid-March, but then again, I don't really pay attention. I just wish we'd go from this to green dry grass. 

This guy loves the snow. I haven't taken many pictures outside this winter. And when I do, what do I do, I cut his feet off, they are in the snow, but still....

He humored me with a few throws of the frisbee. He can stick it in the snow and then flip snow at us. I'm hoping it's just a fluke and not a new trick.

 These two didn't know who Skellator was, or He-Man, or 4 Non-Blonds, but they found this ridiculous video and sing and laugh like maniacs when it's on.  What's Going On, what it here, but be warned, it's ridiculous.  I've discovered after the Grammys that I like Adele, Bruno Mars, and Gotye. 

 $2 Valentine's chocolates!  I don't even like Ferrero Rocher, but Kerry does. One perk of working is finding out the deals beforehand. 

 This one's brother took her to see Woman in Black with Daniel Radcliffe. We knew that one or both of them would have a few sleepless nights because of it. She figures she slept a total of half an hour. Poor kid. They liked it, said it was good, had a story line. I am not going to watch it. Ever.

 

We have a busy year in the making....2 weddings in the family, 1 friend wedding, the anime convention, my 40th (still trying to decide what we are doing), mom and dad's 40th anniversary, and I'm sure much more that I have forgotten about. I can't wait for better weather!

Organization 101

I must tell you I have not edited any of the following photos. I have what I'm sure is like tennis elbow, but it's in my finger, and it's not from tennis, it's from spray painting. Spray Painting Finger! And hand. So I don't feel like editing photos. We, and I use that term lightly, have been organizing like crazy. I have a fear that when I die, someone is going to have to come in and help Kerry clean up the mess I have left behind. I don't want that mess to be someone's last memories of me. And I bought 2 stamp sets and I can't get them on my stamp set shelf so something had to change.

My brother gave this shelf to my parents and I saw at Christmas that it was empty. Now it's in Shaun's room, it's almost the perfect size for his books. Addicted to Full Metal Alchemist? It totally bothers me that he's put them in upside down. I will speak to him about that!  Organization must please everyone.

 My cousin had a Tupperware party but I had a class so I couldn't go, but I did order a whole Modular Mates set! On sale!  Check out the Light Brite in the background, originally mine. I got it the year I found out Santa wasn't real (ooops, sorry ...  SANTA SPOILER), I remember being in the shopping cart at Sears with the Light Brite.  Anyways, it's now been passed through both kids and has been deemed unwanted by Kerry. I said "NO WAY! Use it to leave me nice little notes or something!" He didn't.

 I made up a recipe for spinach pie, not really quiche, but very yummy! Kerry says spinach tastes like dirt but he ate 2 pieces for dinner. Ricotta, mozza, egg whites, ham, and dog hair. Not sure I can replicate it.

 I thought, and may have been mistaken, that this would help me solve all my problems. It didn't. It made more problems. "Look Kerry, I need a $500 cork board, Martha says!"

 We had a weird snow fall last week, the snowflakes were actually snow rods.  Yes, my bird feeders are empty and my birds are starving, but so is the neighbourhood cat!

 The Old Spaghetti Factory opened and Heather and I went for lunch. It was okay. Not sure why everyone rants and raves about it. Then we went to Homesense and got so inspired that I almost swallowed my gum a few times.

 On Valentine's Day we had smoked brisket and it was probably the best one I've done. It had more fat than the other ones, which made it moister. I did it on the new bbq and that's the way to go! Go figure, it has a thermometer, where as the smoker just says something like "cold, warm, hot".  Kerry made apple crisp for dessert, I wanted to eat it all. I've not been having stomach issues and I'm not taking my pills.

 This dresser was left to us when we bought the house because the other people didn't want to move it. I started painting it and then stopped and never got started again. I decided to paint the drawers black and move the whole thing to the other end of the room. The photos are really bad.

I'm hoping to keep my Big Shot here, the dies are in a drawer below. My sewing machine and the serger will also find a home here. The black thing in the middle won't be staying there, it will go on my new shelves. They will be done in the near future. 7+ cans of spray paint because I thought that would be easier. I was wrong. I haven't even painted the sides all the way or the backs. Live and learn.

I'm working a lot lately, so I come home, paint like crazy, shower, and I don't sit down, otherwise I fall asleep and nothing else gets done. I have a deadline of Sunday afternoon. A friend is coming and we are brainstorming about her quilt she is going to make from her boys' baby sleepers.
Emily wanted to drive to Vancouver tomorrow, it's a pro day at school and for 5 seconds I thought we could do it. Then while I was at work, we got a dump of snow, and it's still snowing, I think we will check out oldnavy.ca tomorrow.

Button Up!

Emily and I are the proud owners of a button maker. The price is outrageous, but she plans on making money with it. I plan on making a button out of every single thing I can find. 

Here I've used an old dictionary and a 'vintage' Peanuts book.

 This is my little me that Emily drew. I see so many possibilities.

Soup and Stuff

I'm still keeping up to my lessons in Body Restoration. It's week 3 and I'm so happy to be caught up. It's hard but I'm enjoying the process. The lessons get you thinking about how hard we are on ourselves to look like everyone else. 

 I'm not dieting, but I'm trying to get control of my diet. I'm going to the dr. next week to see about my options, some allergy testing, and maybe medication.

In the mean time, I journal everything I've been eating and how I feel afterwards. Monday was a bad day and all I can think is that maybe I had too much dairy the day before. 

Thank goodness for things like gluten free cream of chicken with quinoa pasta soup. I'm thanking Shaun and Cobbs for the mini sour dough loaf, but my tummy didn't thank anyone for it afterwards.

 Home made clam chowder. Thank you very much. Kerry said he was never eating it from a can ever again. Cream biscuits. Yes, too much dairy. 

 Butternut squash soup, this time with a little ginger and thyme. Was a huge hit. Sour dough croutons.

 The list. I can't even pronounce what FODMAP stands for but it seems to be helping. I can eat an Arby's sandwich and fries, I can eat almost anything orange, but I can't eat a bowl of lettuce. Life is cruel. 

With all my days off, (I traded with someone so I worked a few close together but I don't work again for about 2 weeks), we have been doing the menial stuff. Washed all the cupboards, top and bottom, but didn't do the insides. Took 5 boxes of things to Salvation Army. Feels good to get that stuff out of here.

We also cleaned out 2 large boxes of the kids' school work that we'd been saving. We thought they'd want it later in life. Then I remembered I didn't want the stuff my mom had saved so whey would my kids want this stuff. We asked them and sure enough, they didn't care. We sorted it, kept a few things, and got rid of the rest. But this little gem...Emily's handy work, we had to keep it. 

 I made these for tonight. M-R's birthday was last week and she's coming over tonight. I felt like making Creamsicle cupcakes from scratch for her. I had a bite yesterday afternoon and almost instantly had stomach cramps and goosebumps. I so want one tonight. 

Body Restoration, a BBQ, and lack of coffee humour.

I am very fortunate to be taking the Brave Girls course called Body Restoration.  I need it right now. My body needs it right now. It's not a comfortable place to be.
With all the dietary issues I've been having over the last 6 months, I am at odds with my body and food. I think I should be able to eat fruits and veggies, my body doesn't think so, it rebels, it causes me grief. This goes against everything I've ever known about trying to lose weight and maintain a healthier lifestyle. I want salad so badly. I want grapefruit juice, I've never been much of a juice drinker but all of sudden, it's what I want, but the side effects aren't worth it.
I've given up coffee {gasp}, my one and only cup a day. Which means I've given up my sugar in it too. This may be the reason I am not as sweet as I was 8 days ago. I am drinking tea, black tea, with caffeine in it. Only benefit I can see right now to giving up coffee might be the money we are saving on Tassimo cups,  and maybe the fact I might be less acidic. But that could be due to the medication I'm taking too.
I'm not doing the course to lose weight, if that happens, great, I'm doing it to get my body on track, feeling better about eating, and to feel more comfortable with myself. And if I make some beautiful artwork while I'm at it, then it's win-win! The above is the first assignment, and if it's a little 'Silence of the Lambs', that's on purpose. It wouldn't be me if it wasn't a little tongue-in-cheek.


A new addition....as of Christmas, thanks to mom and dad.

Our old bbq was free, and we had 2 of them so we gave one to mom and dad. They were small, but they worked and were free, did I mention that? This sucker is huge! Has no sides, so no burns on the wrists! It has a burner, for frying onions according to Kerry. It has a handy cupboard below it for hiding the tank and oh, I don't know, maybe your bike headlight so that when you really need it, you look high and low and everywhere else only to decide it's lost forever. Then when you are lighting the bbq so your wonderful wife can try to prove you wrong that the bbq really isn't hotter than the old one and everything burns, you discover that you put your light in the cupboard. And then you worry that you have Alzheimer's because your wife just finished reading Still Alice and told you you have Alzheimer's.
Anyways, The BBQ is heaven sent. Matches the house too. Needs a cover, which is nearly impossible to find in the winter. And if you are wondering about dietary issues and the BBQ, I can eat meat. And meat I will eat! I can't wait to smoke a brisket on this baby!
And yes, my flowers are dead. It's still life.

The hardest part about blogging is coming up with titles.

I've put my 50mm f/1.4 back on my camera. I did it just before Christmas knowing 2 things...

1. the 24-70mm is darn heavy to be packing around during the holidays, I need my arms for presents and food. 

2. f/1.4 is totally awesome for low light situations, f/2.8 is not. (Jimmy Fallon said I need to use awesome less, therefore it's stuck in my head and I want to use it all the time.)

I have kept the lens on out of sheer laziness now, and as I document my everyday with it, I remember how much I love it. 

We received some interesting items this Christmas...Shaun's page-a-day calendar is counting us down to the end of the world. A small change from the zombie-fact-a-day calendar of 2011.  It's a great way to start the day.

 I gave one of these thought-a-day journals to myself, Heather and Marg for our Project Life journaling. I find it so hard to write a thought a day. I also found I have to have the perfect pen to write, and I have the worst handwriting in the world, so it's a work in progress. I want to not write "I have a stomach ache" every night so ....

 We are not dieting, I'm sure I've mentioned my non-resolutions and the feelings of let down that go with resolutions when they aren't followed. Anyways, it's not a resolution, it's a life style change. I need to eat healthier so we are following a bit of Clean Eating, getting out the processed foods, etc. And eating with common sense. We bought this creamy chicken soup with quinoa pasta and it is so good, I decided to put it in a cute little sour dough loaf from Cobs. This was a bad choice. I soon discovered that if I want to not write "I have a stomach ache" in my journal, I should not eat so much sour dough. 

 Speaking of interesting gifts...Mrs. Purkis got this wonderfully interesting and very amusing Flavorwave Turbo Oven. It's endorsed by Mr. T! How could it not be useful? I pity the fool that looks into the light.

No models were injured during this photoshoot. Some lost their eyesight for 2 hours, and some had mild 3 degree burns on one side of their faces.