For the Soul

Sometimes you see a piece of art that makes your heart stop. And you know you don't have to defend your taste or choice to anyone, because very clearly the piece is somehow speaking directly to you. The above is "sheltered" by Shira Sela. Casually scrolling through Poppytalk a couple of weeks ago there it was. I took a sharp breath, and, using a little of my meagre Etsy earnings, soon it was framed and living here. And I'm glad. This I got for me, from my earnings, and those earnings supported an artist. That feels good.


When Mr. S. and I were Double-Income-No-Kids, we got for ourselves a piece of art from local artist Sheila MacDonald Roberts for precisely the same reason - we saw her work and it stopped us both in our tracks. This we considered a good omen, and it came home as a wedding present (for us :-)


When the beauty in our home comes from people that we know or local artists, it enriches us all the more, for these objects have those extra ties, that extra story behind them. I did the art-prints-of-all-the-artists-i'm-supposed-to-
think-are-important-and-reflect-my-true-inner-nature in university, and while I agree with an old professor of mine that prints of "great art" should not be frowned upon because they bring beauty regardless, wouldn't it be even better if the money from our hands went directly to those who worked so hard to create pleasure in this world?


I love Shaun Downey's work. Quite frankly I could never afford one of his oils, but a couple of years ago I went to the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibit with a mission to find something to commemorate a turn in my life. After a long afternoon I lucked onto his booth and after humbly asking him if he had anything in my price range, he kindly directed me to a box of sketches. I was stunned with the one above.

Someone else local whose work I love is Peter Schacht. He does these works with acrylics on wood:


Being a former farm girl, I'm really, really in love with the one on the bottom right. I ache for it, I pine over it...


The narrative in these is amazing, and I never get tired of looking at these little postcards. They'll be framed and hung, I think. It's the best respect I can give his work without being able to afford it. Affordability does not have to be a barrier to beauty.

And these days it easy to find. Think your local arts and crafts fairs. Think Etsy. There's Tiny Showcase, which supports artists and gives to charity. There are a million different places where you can find something to nurture your soul and support an artist directly...

Or hey, make it yourself, right? :-)



p.s. One of my friends is of the opinion that the art is our house is a little, well, depressing. But that's just the living room (and personally I find them comforting....). But anyway, there's plenty of thrift store flowers and landscapes in the rest of the house :-)

Beach Days Already

There is something about sunny days that brings peace of mind. No matter what else may be going on around you, you can look outside and say "well, at least it's a sunny day". Or close your eyes and feel that warmth as you tilt your head up, drinking it in. For me the sun is grounding; it's like a strong clearing drug that starts in my forehead and then blissfully works its way down to my fingertips.

For Safiya it's pure joy. Yesterday we went to the beach for the first time this season. Weird, eh? Two weeks ago there was snow on the ground and these last couple of days have been over 20 degrees celsius...so yesterday was sandy feet, rock collecting, and little toes daringly dipped in the still-icy water.

It took me four years of living in Toronto to finally come down to the beach and see what all the fuss was about. I'd just never thought of this city as a beach city, you know? Big mistake. As we discovered shortly after we moved to this house, the Woodbine beaches, only a 5 minute bus ride from our place, are huge, sandy, and gorgeous. Hmmmm......I think I need a proper beach bag this season :-)

The Best Reason for Homeschooling I've Ever Heard

We are walking by a small school. Safiya knows that children play there (but she does not know that it is a school for developmentally disabled children). Letting her hand glide across the fence as children do, she asks:

"Mama, why is there a fence here?"

I do my best. Schools have fences.....
She looks at me wide-eyed and says:

"But Mama, how do they go and see the world?"

On a Roll... (200th Post Love Update)

O.k., so I was thinking yesterday that maybe not everyone is as enamoured of brown as I am.


And also that these are fun to make, so might as well practice...


So, with regards to the draw, if you are selected you may take your pick!


And maybe the birdies will come home with you!
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Just to be really clear: this is a little update to the 200th post give-away. Please leave a comment on the original post before midnight, Tuesday, April 22nd, and your name will be entered into a random draw. If your name is pulled, you may pick which cutlery roll you would like: brown or birdies. Yay!

A Little 200th Post Love (for a Greener Planet and All You Nice People)

Want to be my cutlery buddy?

I know, that's so not cool....not even not cool enough to be cool. But hey, I'm loving this cutlery roll, and I had so much fun making it that I made two the same! (I'm thinking good craft fair item?) We put ours (the prototype - it's the one with the wonky seams 'cause I forgot to add the pocket at the right time) to a test drive yesterday at Safiya's favourite little sushi place. Very often at restaurants they give you throw-away cutlery and napkins, and this is our little way of cutting down on the garbage. It would also be great for picnics! I suppose you could use real silverware for a little luxe, but I'm not up to lugging the extra weight, so we packed ours with plastic cutlery from our oh-darn-I-forgot-to-tell-the-take-out-guys-not-to-include-cutlery-and-stuff drawer.

When lunch was done, we quickly wrapped up the dirty cutlery, put it back in the roll, and when we got back home popped everything in the washing machine (wait - cutlery in the sink, of course). Easy-peasy! The whole thing's cotton (except the ribbons), so it's durable. It's got 4 cutlery pockets plus one smaller one for extra stuff (more napkins, anyone?) 'cause I'm a Mama and Mamas need nice things that are practical and pretty :-)

I didn't do a give-away for my one year blogiversary, but today is my 200th post! Good grief, that's a lot of babbling! So, if you want to help lessen the burden on this precious earth of ours, leave a comment by midnight Tuesday, April 22 and I'll send you the buddy to our cutlery roll! (including the napkins, which are a cotton/poly blend, but you'll have to add your own cutlery). I'm giving you guys a week! On Wednesday, April 22 Safiya will draw a name randomly out of a hat, and I'll mail it that day! (I'm getting better on the procrastination, even though I still owe the lovely Jen the package she won from too long ago, and there are others but for them I've got a year according to the rules :-)....maybe this is a way of publicly getting myself in gear...however, speaking of babbling, I digress...)

And of course, I'll send you the nice one - no wonky seams for such nice people :-)

Quel Disaster!

That, my friends, is the picture of greed. How so? When I picked it up at the fabric swap, lulled into complacency by its beauty, I knew it was some version of plastic. I also knew that I would wash it in hot water. I tested it when it came home with me; yep, plastic. Huh. It looked a little fragile....but I certainly wouldn't have predicted...

It disintegrated! Poof! Should have left it for someone who would be a little less hard on it, eh?

And I can't even use it for scraps or for stuffing 'cause now it's got a really odd smell.....

Evidence and a Little Excitement

Just to show you that I did actually do what I said I was going to....although not from the couch that day. I started to try hand-sewing the patches, which promptly reaffirmed that it's just not my thing. Somehow embroidering yes, hand-sewing....not so much. Now I'm looking at that first pair and wondering about the wisdom of such a light colour on the knees, but seriously, those birds are super-cute, (and I'm not doing them over again), so the birds must stay! In other pants love, I saw a tutorial for easy kids' pants, which I'll try to squeeze inbetween other things coming up.

And speaking of, I've been working all day preparing my little on-line "table" for.....POPPYTALK! (Sorry, didn't mean to get soooo excited....but, actually, I am :-) I'm tickled pink to be hosted by them on their market starting tomorrow (there's a link on my sidebar too), and am looking forward to seeing how things go.
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Update: here's my table!
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There was other fun stuff going on today in the sun:


Be still my heart - she came in all excited afterwards: "Mama, I was going super-fast!" It aches a little, that going super-fast, that growing up super-fast....

Playing with Fire

Before:

After:

He he...that was fun. When I thrift fabric, my rule is if there's no label, I don't buy it unless I really like it and can use it for something that's not going to go next to anyone's skin. Which is fine, except when you go to fabric swaps and places like the "by-the-pound" Goodwill, where bags of donations are just dumped into bins and you have to fight the other vultures for what may or may not be cotton....

Now, everything thrifted goes into hot water wash and dry, because, well.....ick. Nothing personal, but I don't know what kind of environment any of those pieces have come from. However, I had got some fabric from a fabric swap at The Workroom (where there is a decidedly un-ick atmosphere ;-) and from the Goodwill that I wasn't sure about, fibre-content-wise. So, using info I found, I did my first real burn test this morning:


Here are my guesses, left to right, top to bottom (I wrote them down first) and the results:

blue and white gingham: mostly polyester :: mostly cotton
green: linen :: linen
lt. blue/pink flower print: mostly polyester :: mostly polyester
cream: cotton :: cotton
red/orange/pink flower print: cotton :: cotton
cream and red baroque print: no idea, probably man-made :: man-made
orange/white print: mostly cotton :: mostly polyester
stripes: mostly polyester :: mostly cotton
baby pink flowered stripes: mostly cotton :: mostly polyester
pink flannel: cotton :: mostly cotton
blue and white: cotton/linen :: some polyester
yellow/red/blue flowers: cotton :: cotton
nubby cream: i hope it's linen/silk :: linen (some polyester? - have to retest)
purple/red print: cotton :: cotton

Some other things I learned:

• blow out your match before becoming mesmerised by how the fabric is burning
• when they say well-ventilated area, they mean it - ack!
• whoah - cotton burns fast!
• make sure your last piece is extinguished before starting the next one - interesting fireballs may result if this advice is not heeded
• have a glass of water handy.....
  

Also, this confirmed my gut feeling about polyester. Why, oh why, would anyone want to wear something whose true (un)nature is revealed like this:


Do you see that melted edge? That's plastic. Gross.
There was a pleasant surprise, though. We have a huge curtain over the closet in our bedroom that I picked up at a thrift store probably a decade ago. It's a large bedspread, I think, and on each corner is woven this:

I was hoping it would be silk, and from the burn test, it looks like it is! It's beautiful regardless, but somehow it's just nice to know :-) I wish I could find out more info on it...

That, and see that sun? The last two days it's been raining, so I'm really doing a happy dance today!

Cinnamon Goodness

A couple of weeks ago my friend Katharine, she of the newborn third child, returned a baking pan of mine. It was, of course, full of goodness. Because she's that kind of new mom. She's got her priorities straight, man. Me? After Safiya was born I don't remember wearing anything but a housecoat for a while, and for the first six weeks, if I did go out (thank goodness for midwives - they visit you at home), the best I could do was pyjamas. Yes. New mother padding down to the corner store, downtown Toronto, in slippers and pyjamas. My mother was horrified. I argued that since we lived in a condo, technically the street was my backyard...

Anyway, back to Katharine's awesomeness. She had made these cinnamon buns (veganised: Earth Balance margarine for butter, soymilk for cow's) from The Pioneer Woman Cooks. I think the other things in the picture are popcorn and some homemade applesauce that I finally got around to making from the hoard of apples. We had that for lunch....and then just cinnamon buns for dinner....and then first thing the next morning, Safiya came thumping down the stairs with these words:

"Mama, can I have some more of that awesome cinnamon goodness for breakfast?"

Yes.

And for other food awesomeness (even if there's not a vegan bone in your body :-), check out:

• Fatfree Vegan Kitchen (the title doesn't do justice to the true awesomeness of these recipes, and it's a prettty blog - very well done, well organised)
• The Post Punk Kitchen (she of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, seriously wicked recipes that don't rely on margarine for light, sinfully delicious cupcakes...)
• A Vegan Ice Cream Paradise (how I love thee, internet)
• The Vegan Chef (good list of recipes)
• shmooed food / the vegan lunchbox (of course)
• Two Vegan Sisters (serious food documentation and good feedback on recipes)
  
• Yeah, That "Vegan" Shit (writing makes me smile, and awesome list of food blogs on the sidebar)

Drooling yet?

On the Mend

Well, sort of. First of all, thank you so much for your kind well wishes...we endured one-and-a-half weeks of various combinations of the three of us having fever, aches, and coughs (I'm still coughing if someone makes me laugh), and at the end I was just plain old exhausted. And behind. So the past couple of days have been spent catching up on housework, on bills, on correspondence, on just being happy that we're all mobile and happy again, and the weather has been lovely fine, which we've been relishing with glee. So we're on the mend.

Until today when I dropped a giant 3L metal can of olive oil on my foot. Seriously...I'm such a clutz. This is better than fever though, because although immobile, there's none of that bleh-I-don't-even-want-to-think-about-moving-but-I-need-a-
drink-of-water-and-it's-on-the-bedside-table-but-that's-too-far
-to-move-I'll-just-roll-back-over-and-ignore-everything-feeling.

So the only pictures I've got for you today are ones that I can take from the couch :-) First, the awesome sewing basket I picked up at the thrift store a couple weeks ago, which Safiya promptly tried to fill with toys when we got it home, but I've reclaimed it....sort of. There's still building blocks in there somewhere....


The project inside is a quilt for an overseas cousin's baby, and I'll show it to you when I'm done :-) The other project for the day has been:


Mending! In keeping with the theme, some sad jeans of Safiya's to go with my sad foot. They still fit just fine, but yes, that's been our kid running around the neighbourhood (in her socks), knees bare to the new spring sun. They'll be good as new, and I love that ABC fabric, which was a skirt found and claimed, just for the fabric. Perfect happy fabric for happy knees.

Like a Cherry on Top

Yesterday was the first day where it was warm enough to open the front door to get some sun in the house. There's still snow on the ground, but it gives me hope.

Oh, and I started coughing this morning and now I've got a fever....if my posts start sounding delirious just email me and tell me to get off the computer and go to sleep! If there are no posts, I'll see you in a couple of days...

Beloved and Aged

My great-grandmother (my Oma) has moved from her little apartment to a room in the home and so some of her things have been passed to others in the family. Her daughter (my Grammy) and daughters-in-law helped her go through her things. She's still in good health, but has come to that point...well...I don't really know what that point is. She's always been pretty independent, steadfastly so, and so it's hard for me to imagine at my comparatively young age what kind of a decision, personal and familial, that must have been.

Now two of her china teacups have a home here, as well as the tablecloth. If I'm honest, I'll tell you that the china teacups, although pretty, came along more out of respect than desiring or needing them. Also, I don't particularly remember Oma using china teacups. But they certainly do evoke her spirit - always properly dressed, always kind and with lovely manners. Lunches with the ladies of the church, that kind of thing (although don't be misled, she's got a good sense of humour and plays a mean game of dominoes!) So I'm glad to be their caretaker; Safiya and I will have a proper tea party one of these days, with tea and little cakes and manners...I suppose part of this post is really a reminder to myself to take some time out to go and visit Oma...

When my Grammy passed me the very cool 40's tablecloth, she looked at me rather seriously and said, "I know you like these. But I don't want to see Safiya wearing this. This is supposed to stay as a tablecloth."

Yes, Grammy.

(But it would make a perfect little smock!)

I Blog, You Blog, We All Blog!

(Safiya a year ago...)

Thanks to Florence at Flossie Teacakes for tagging me for a meme about blogging!

1. Why did you start your blog?
This community of bloggers was so appealing, and like a lot of people, I had no idea this world existed until I was googling something or other crafty and one thing led to another and suddenly I had a ridiculous number of craft blogs bookmarked. And then that wasn't enough - reading wasn't enough, I wanted to participate and maybe give back a little. Couple that with a dearth of creativity in my life and that crossroads that a lot of Mamas go through when their little ones are between toddlerhood and being a kid, and you feel you need to do something for yourself and voila!

2. How did you come up with your blog name?
See sidebar. I couldn't for the life of me think of what to call this space until one day I idly picked up Dickens' "Hard Times" and there it was. Clear as day. I am girl number twenty and this space is my voice, my protest sometimes against the concrete sidewalk of the world, and also my solace.

3. Do your friends and family know about your blog? What do they think of it?
Yep. My family and friends far away like it because it lets them keep in touch in a completely unique way. The only person who doesn't often have time is my Mom (she really is really busy), which is kind of wierd, I think.....it's o.k. 'cause I think she thinks the whole concept is wierd :-) And I just asked Mr. S. what he thought of the blog, and after thinking for a bit he said (wait for it)....."It's good."

4. How do you write posts?
Usually I've already got it in my head. It's how I used to write essays for school (but somehow I agonise more over posts than I ever did over essays :-) - it just comes out. There is very little editing or rearranging. First I upload the pictures and put them in order with space for the words, then I fill in the words. I'll read it aloud a couple of times (o.k. when Mr. S. is home, otherwise strange, I know), and then...done!

5. Have you ever had a troll or had to delete unkind comments?
Nope. People here have been kind and fantastic! I had to delete an advertisement once, but that's it!

6. Do you check your stats? Do you care how many people read your blog? If you do care, how do you increase traffic?
I quite honestly started out really wanting it to just be an experiment, a place to putz around and for once not care what other people think. And then I put a stats counter in. Ha! That thing's addictive, man. But a contest for high numbers? Not really - I'm pretty happy if someone's reading, that's all :-) When I do a new post I'll check to see if anyone's noticed (I still get a little thrill to see someone's read something I've written!), but it's not as bad as it used to be. In my experience I've found that submitting for whip-up generally results in an increase in traffic and some new people say hi, which is always really nice.

7. What kind of blogs/posts interest you?
Different kinds attract me on different days. There are the ones that are reliable good, with good, sincere writing and beautiful pictures. Ones where even if I've been reading for a while if I have time I'll go back and read archives. And then some places I know there are always smart, new tutorials and lots of crafting ideas, or good design inspiration. Kind of new to me are blogs of friends that I've met either through this space or through the craft scene here in Toronto - that's an entirely different kind of anticipation, and it's wonderful.

8. What do you like and dislike about blogging?
Ugh - that guilty feeling when I've been away for a while. That's the only thing I dislike, and that's not really about blogging, that's about not blogging :-) Like most people, I suppose, I love when people comment - that kind of communication can brighten anyone's day! Also, being able to sink into a day and ruminate for a bit. To capture goodness and frustration and excitement...and in the end, with no apologies, this space really is my own, and I'm proud of it.

That's it for tonight! And I'm not going to tag anyone because I promised myself I'd go to bed before 9:30! Night-night!

Antidote for a Tuesday Afternoon

Seriously? Because this is not what I signed up for. More snow...ish. And poor Mr. S. is on his third day of some wicked virus-induced fever-sinus thingy. Not the best prescription for a Tuesday in March, eh? And so, bemoaning my fate and listlessly picking at chores this afternoon, and worrying a little bit about the list of things to do growing in my head, suddenly it dawned on me that life doesn't need to be this way.....And so I said to myself and Safiya: "If it's determined to be this blah outside, then we must have treats to eat!" To which she replied, "What treats, Mama? Are they chocolate treats?" Ha! Well, of course!



"Tasty Snack Ball Things" or, vegan truffles, I suppose. Oh so easy and yummy. I can't really objectively tell if they look good in the pictures I took (my picture success with food is pretty low), but boy are they good! That and a whack-load of apple chips drying in the oven (we still have apples left from my adventures at the farmers' market last fall), more than make up for a pile of laundry that is leering at me this very minute from across the living room and a mountain of dishes lurking in the kitchen. Oh, and a stack of quilts neglected downstairs.

Life's too short to be complaining and not eating truffles :-)

Falling in Love

I'm running out of flannel, and it's hard to find 100% cotton flannel when out thrifting, especially in white or light colours that don't show through when I use it as batting in blankets. So I think I'm going to bite the bullet and order some from NearSea Naturals. I like that a lot of their cotton is not only organically grown in North America, but most of it's also milled in the States. Have to support our friends' economy in times of trouble, right? 'Cause no matter what, we don't want the organic fabric businesses to vanish - that would be a tragedy.

And as I was browsing around:


Ooooooooo! Organic? Awesome. It's from mod green pod.

And I may have fallen in love with this flannel:


It's oh-too-easy to fall in love when everything about them is right, eh? :-)

Things Are Growing Around Here

Despite the ridiculous amounts of snow which linger around here, signs of spring are creeping. The sun is warm. Things are sprouting. We heard a robin two mornings ago. Baby birds need their nests ;-) Since the onions were sprouting anyway, we decided to make a spectacle of it - some of them needed more toothpicks than others, evidently.

Our morning routine now involves tending for these little guys:


We've got lettuces and kale, and we're seeding tomatoes (as a summer offering for the raccoons) today. Safiya is often the one who stops suddenly in the middle of something and reminds me that we have to water them. It's pretty incredible how fast she's sprouting, too. The days are full with "That's o.k., Mama I can do it." If she falls or bumps, the first thing out of her mouth is "I'm o.k." like she's totally in charge of the situation. My favourite so far is the other morning when we were still in bed and she cuddled up, saying "Mama, you're the warmest spot". It doesn't get much better than that.

We've come into our own with a rhythm around the house. She enjoys working together on chores. And you know what, I don't call it "helping". Once in a while I'll ask her and show I'm in need of help, but otherwise I think it's pretty important in the everyday stuff for her to not be diminished into "helping". And, at three-and-a-half, it's so much easier for me to work on my stuff, too. I have to say, it's great. She's busy, I'm busy, it's all good. Her latest is a fascination with tape:


My work for the last little while has mostly been taxes and fighting with the computer (hence the absence) and finally giving in and taking it in. Ugh. I'm of two mind about the whole thing. You know, the whole debilitating/liberating thing. I'm still mulling it over.

But it's good to be back in this space. I missed it! There has been some work, a bunch of craft fair planning and applications for the year (nerve-wracking), and babies arriving or imminent (NOT US! We're not sprouting! ;-) I've got a bunch of quilts/blankets on the go and some new projects. Ahhhhh, back into the spring of things, eh?


Now, if only the snow would co-operate and go. away!


The bike is winning, right?

Baby Bird

On my way from the kitchen to the living room, packing the bag for the day, saying "Safiya, come on, we have to catch the bu-u....s...."

And there she stands, in the middle of the living room, scissors in hand, a good grip of her hair in the other, and she says, very seriously:

"Not yet, Mama, we can't leave yet because I'm not done making the nest for the baby birds."

eeeeep!

"Um, o.k." I say. and retreat back to the kitchen, phone in hand to immediately confer (and by that I mean laugh my ass off while trying to keep it quiet) with Mr. S.

She had done a pretty good job - on half of her head!

That's a big nest :-)

Now Our Computer Has a Cold....

Sorry about the absence! Silly computer's been down for a week and hopefully will be fixed by Monday.

Until then, please relish the idea of an incident which involves Safiya, Safiya's hair, a pair of scissors, and something about making a nest for baby birds :-)

Green and Wilde

Before Al Gore, before fair trade coffee, before simple living, before bloggers, and certainly before any of this came crashing into my awareness, there was "The Young King", a short story by Oscar Wilde. I do not know much more than the standard about Mr. Wilde, but I have loved his stories since a child, and this was always one of my favourites. These days I find it more complex than I remember, and I don't really agree with the ending other than it is literary-wise the romantic thing to do, but I still love it. And the odd thing is, most of the arguments that I encounter against the choices that our little family makes for a simpler, greener, more connected life could be taken from characters in this story, verbatim. If you have time, I invite you to read it, as it is a pleasurable read, and a good place to start.

Thank You China and Mexico

Last winter I sprouted for the first time. Hee hee. Sounds like some fantastical story, eh? And actually, it was. I had never really believed that plants come from seeds, you know; it sounded like a whole lot of fairy-tale nonsense. When we did have plants, they first came into the house or garden as, well, little plants. And then I caved and bought this little packet of sprouting seeds and felt a bit foolish as well as completely awed by the fact that living things come from little dots.

Then there was our pathetic little garden. The only seeds that made it in from my big haul at Seedy Saturday last March were carrots, calendula, and beans. The calendula and beans did well, but the carrots were a sad, sad affair (water, must remember water...). And actually the pathetic-ness of it all had a lot to do with squirrels and racoons and birds and cats, so there!

So to say I'm a gardening neophyte is an understatement (I have a lot of information about plants and herbs in my brain, but that's a lot different than actually growing them!) This year I took out all the remaining packets of seeds, wrote their start dates on them and on our calender, and we actually did germination rate tests - so much fun! Safiya's eyes went big like dinner plates when she saw the beans sprouting! And also, I set up a grow lamp in the basement.

About which I am excited and conflicted, as I do not like purchasing new stuff. But we have only one little south facing window, and I really want to learn about starting from seed. So thank-you China and Mexico (and I do not mean that facetiously). Someone's work in a factory that is part of this industrial machine complex that I so desperately want to walk away from has enabled me to grow something green. Maybe if I grow enough it will be like carbon credits or something...

The Last Little Bit for Tonight

Oh, and as my Mom decided to stay over for the weekend, I've had the luxury of reading. For hours on end this morning. Yesterday I rather sceptically picked up a book she was reading, thinking I'd read a couple of pages, you know, like picking at a food you're quite sure you're not going to like:

Eat. Pray. Love.

I devoured it in two days. Reading an emotionally charged book like that at that speed results in an emotional experience akin to what I imagine it's like driving in a Formula-1 race: a little exhilarating and a little white-knuckled at times. You know in "When Harry Met Sally" when the lady leans over to waiter and says "I'll have what she's having"? That. Except spiritually.

Now I'm tired, and me and my cold are going to bed.

Snippets of a Week (in which a tired girl compresses in a not-very-compressed way three posts into one)

O.k., so there might be more than one post tonight, as Safiya still has a cold and has gone to bed early and I feel like I have to untangle my thoughts from the week...

First, in my rearranging, I came across an old House & Garden from January 2003. Look at the knitted goodies! That was 5 years ago, before any of what I'm doing now was even percolating in my brain...


But my favourite by far is the knitted curtains. Aren't they gorgeous? I can't imagine the amount of work they would take, nor the kind of tragedy that would ensue if they ever got washed...no, no....knitting curtains is not in my future. But they sure are pretty....


What else? I managed to do some thrifting:


Also we (and by that I mean the royal we :-) have removed the microwave from the kitchen because it was freaking me out that the cordless phone didn't work while the microwave was on. I've dubbed it an "experiment" so that other members of the household don't mutiny. Safiya only occasionally laments its loss because now she has to eat her food before it gets cold. Or so I thought:


Ha! She also came up with a new way of peeling garlic:


Who am I to argue? Whatever works, eh? Speaking of work, I would have like to do more, but it has been a week of errands, dropping off people at the airport, colds, people having babies (that doesn't really have to do with me, I just had to get it in there - yay Katharine and her family!), and planning for spring and summer craft fairs.

It's application time, and I got up the guts to apply for the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibit, which, I must explain, is huge, and more art than craft, and I'm really not being humble in saying that I sincerely don't think I will be accepted. I do think, however, that it is good practice for me to go through the requirements of applying, the little write-ups, getting the photos, heeding deadlines. Mostly because I dislike applications, and am not very good at deadlines.

I may have over-compensated on this one, however. On the last eligible day for application submissions, aware that Safiya and I had to meet my mother arriving at the airport at 3:00pm from a vacation, I gave poor Mr. S. a rather perfunctory good-bye as he left in the morning for a conference in Vancouver at the same time as I was madly trying to get this application in. I rushed, lost my work online twice, and we were a little late leaving for the airport...and when we got home it suddenly smacked me that of course the application deadline date wasn't. until. the next. day.

Of course :-)

Something to Do on the Subway

There was a lot of shuffling about this week, cleaning, rearranging...not much doing. Except for the hyperbolic crochet class last Sunday. During which this was created:


It was great fun, Becky is a patient teacher, and although at home Mr. S. had a cold and Safiya proceeded to run a fever while I was crocheting away, I only felt the teensiest bit guilty....well, not very much, actually. I really needed to get out :-) When I presented Safiya with the above, she immediately proclaimed it a sea-slug and asked where its baby was.....

After the workshop there was a fabric swap at The Workroom, so Becky kindly gave me and my suitcase of fabric a lift. There was some chomping at the bit and good natured nervous laughter at the sight of a mountain of fabric on the table in front of us, and we dove in politely as the reserved Canadians we are (I had heard that fabric swaps could get nasty, but of course not with these gals :-). Got a few sweet pieces, including this:


"Now when you bring that home," said my friend Johanna (who had the self-restraint of a saint and was only an onlooker in the melee of fabric), "you feel like you've accomplished something!...It's like...bringing home a wheel of cheese!" Which is exactly what Mr. S. meant, I am sure, when he said "What are you going to do with that?" upon beholding my spoils of the day.

It doesn't matter; it's marked "organic" and "cotton". Done and done.

Oh, and why does anyone take a hyperbolic crochet workshop? If for no other reason so that on the way home on the subway when someone asks "What are you crocheting?" you can smile and answer "I am crocheting hyperbolic space!"