8.31.2008

wintering

gnocchi up close
oh my gnocchi, thank you martha!

apples
and apples. i'm thinking of making my standard apple crumble pies and freezing them, apple butter, the croat apple squares (i'll have to call my grandma for her recipe), and hand pies (which i could also freeze).

i'm going to finish this glass of red (don't ask me what number it is) and go cast on for the anthropologie-inspired caplet.

cause we know the only time we both feel alright is when you're lying next to me holding me tight

spring forward - knitty
oh mirah, she knows exactly what to say at the right time. i'm settling into anniversary weekend. i've picked some apples and tomorrow will make apple sauce and hopefully can it, but right now i'm listening to wolf tracks, going to make carrot gnocchi, drinking a glass of glorious red, and roasting garlic. i spent the afternoon knitting (finally cast on for the next noro sock rather than working on the one above) and raked 1/2 of the backyard (it's big) and started our compost pile! bring on the grizzlies baby! pending credit approval i bought a 2008 city golf yesterday (and am feeling anxious about the pending part, but good overall)!! woot! okay i'm distracting myself from my good wife activities and no less on the eve of our anniversary! must get my wifie butt in gear! (ahahhaaaaaaa)

8.30.2008

i was a little different, i didn't do what the best girls do..


it's anniversary weekend around here, which happily coincides with 5 days off in a row. this means that i can catch up on contracts, crafting projects, catching up with friends, knitting stewart's anniversary gift (above), the dishes, laundry, and sleep. a good friend from highschool and beyond was here last night and it was so nice (but too short) and then today i hung out with benny (happy birthday!!) and we rode around in his hoodride and mopped up water (it's been raining) with a towel and then made pancakes and i knitted and we talked shit and listened to rekkids. this evening we ate an incredible pasta and got a little buzzed while i finished the mitt and we all sat down and watched "transylvania 6-5000" all in all a good day.

i'm super excited to spend all day monday (our "legal" anniversary, which has fit as our anniversary rather than the other date, i'm not sure why) with stewart. we have a ghetto breakfast at the camelot planned, sleeping in, and maybe a movie (house bunny vs. sisterhood of the travelling pants. yay! small town movie theatres rock!). i'm proud of us for making it a year, if you can believe it! i known a few people and the popular media that can't make it through the first year so it's nice to have accomplished something together, up next task # 34. g'night! xo (and yes, i'm in love with sol-angel).

8.28.2008

wolf tracks

breakfast
fall is settling in and i'm so excited! not only do i almost have 1 weeks worth of hand knit socks (!!) but i cleaned up the pile in my brand new craft room/office and have been working in here steadily. with the oncoming of colder months (yes!) includes the finding the bag of winter clothes, putting away the summer ones, and making my fall mix. and yes, i know there's a few more days of august left. but up here, that don't matter. it's cold out. and it's almost our one year anniversary. we're going to celebrate by going to the camelot for breakfast (it's a national holiday on the first so we don't have the best pickin's around here) and going to lie around, read books, celebrate, etc.

wolf tracks

1. get your head around it - headlights
2. i was made for you - she + him
3. you want the candy - raveonettes
4. marry song - band of horses
5. gold - jeffrey lewis
6. pace is the trick - interpol
7. sub-zero - snoozer
8. brook and waxing - why?
9. nineteen - tegan + sara
10. crumble - dinosaur jr.
11. spit shine your black clouds - blood brothers
12. don't go - mirah
13. jigsaw - mates of state
14. over your heart - rob crow
15. white winter hymnal - fleet foxes
16. awkward silence - total bummer
17. i decided - solange knowles
18. piano fire - sparklehorse
19. long division - death cab for cutie
20. doping for gold - preston school of industry
21. gloomy planets - notwist
22. fuck this... i'm leaving - american analog set

8.21.2008

morning light chasing you


the last two days have been crazy. well, this week has just been crazy. and it's starting to feel like every week. first things first, i didn't get the job from monday's interview. well, not really. i'm still in the running, but if their "lead candidate" fails miserably in reference checks then i get a go at it or something. so they wouldn't even confirm on the phone. kinda lame if you ask me, but i guess that's the way the king bureaucracy works. so the stress of that one is over now because i had a job interview today and it went really well. but i won't know for two weeks. sadly i'm going to apply for a student loan this weekend just in case and see what happens. i like working part time at the tattoo shop and at meow. it's nice!

i've been super busy lately building this. it's been an incredible project and we're in the home stretch. probably max 10 more hours in the short term for me! but a few more in the long term. phew. but yesterday with the site and the shop one on top of another i was drinking coffee at 8pm but still so tired i conked out at 1 am. that's exhaustion for ya. and today i made a yummy smoothie with organic banana, mango, yoghurt, soy, orange juice, and coconut oil. it was so good. it made me a little more alive. maybe it'll help me combat this impending cold? gr.

i have yet to take a picture of my hat, but yesterday katie helped me reconcile a problem with it. but i'm in love with these mitts. cashmere? omfg!!

8.19.2008

with heart on fire i reach out to you today...

more scissors and buttons..
no crochet today. i haven't taken a picture. i got up this morning ready to code and web build my heart out and got a call from the record store, fire downtown (it was a scuzzy hotel) store's closed! sweet, don't have to work, i can contract all day! then 1/2 hour later after i'd done a bunch of work on the site i get this call from handsome, the afternoon slot had cancelled, and i slipped right in there to get my other scissors finished. i'm pretty out of it right now..it began to hurt so much! we've still got colour to do in the buttons and thick outlines on all the scissors as well as the addition of a thimble and little spackle and stars. and then it's on to the sewing machine! huzzah.

i also was anxious all day to get a call back from my interview yesterday and i didn't get a call! they said they'd call and didn't. does that mean that they just wanted to think about it overnight, or they can't decide, or that they decided it's not me and they're not going to call. regardless, i have another job interview somewhere else on thursday doing very similar work and for a non-profit with tonnes of benefits. it's also only a term position, but probably pays less, they never really say... i'm fighting off the urge to email the first ppl and ask. maybe i should wait until tomorrow. bah! well, at least the second interview called me back before i had a chance to call them! isn't that great?! anyway, fingers crossed!

i was going to work on the site a bunch more tonight but am right now feeling incredibly drained from this tattoo and might pass out in front of the l word season three. and then crochet. xoxo

8.18.2008

it takes a long time, sometimes

i thought that while stewart was out getting undercover tickets for summer slaughter that i'd sit down and blog! woot! the home doings continue, but today i only got 1/2 way through my lates rearrangement project: dining room/craft room. basically i think we live in a small place, but lucky for us there are all these little hideaway rooms. and they're all the same size as our bedroom! ha! anyway, so stewart has his own "office" where his guitars, computer, and piles of random stuff are (harmonica, lists of bands he wants to download, tshirts that should probably go in the drawer, etc). until recently the laundry room has had laundry paraphernalia in it: a drying rack, a shelf, laundry bins, plastic recycling, etc. some of it went when the tenants upstairs went and some of it i organized/got rid of today so that i could fit my craft room in there. until this my craft room was in the dining "nook".
previous dining nook
basically, we've been eating off our laps for the last year. we don't even have a coffee table (i hate coffee tables). so, i got a dining table from freecycle and set it up. we celebrated by having overpriced takeout sushi (from the hut) for dinner (they were impossible to deal with on the phone) and i like having it all wiped and clean!
dining area
and now our laundry room is a craft pile:
new craft space
what i really want to do is get a smaller sewing table and more shelving for all my stuff. i also think i can put most of the fabric into a bin (which we have) and into a different storage room. despite my enormous soul sucking destash i still have way too much stuff.

in other news, i had a job interview today. i was so stressed out for it because i hadn't been to a serious job interview since this time 2005! and it was one of those "competency" interviews that the government does so i have no idea how i did. and i don't want to get my hopes up. but i really want this job. it's strange. one of the great things is that my good friend who i rarely get to see b/c she has a weird family/partner situation would be working in the same building so we could have lunch together all the time!! yayayayaaaaa!! and it's a hop from the yarn store and the bakery. tertiary things aside the pay scale is ridiculous (!!) and the job would be a perfect way for me to dedicate my next year before we have a baby.

tomorrow, my current crochet project! yes, crochet! it's the puff stitch crochet beret with bow and i'm making it out of KnittyDirtyGirl's Boys vs Girls Handdyed yarnie, DK. so soft and the colours are so beautiful! tomorrow.

xo

8.15.2008

street tar in summer'll do a job on your soul


i don't care what anyone says (erm, perez!) i love sam ronson and lindsay lohan together. if their relationship needed approval from me i'd say, "go for it", but it doesn't even need recognition or approval. i hate that the celebrity machine makes their lives so accessible to us (though i'm excited to see the 19 pages of brad and ang's twins in ppl. ha!) and we feel bound and obliged to comment when it's really none of our, my, business. what i love about watching sam and lindsay is the terror with which people tear them apart. it's "gross" when they make out in public. and lindsay is "crazy angry" when she freaks when there's cameras around. oooh! lesbians! so scary!

this week has been as scary as a certain spice girl. it's been an annoying week! first monday my eye started to be really sore just on my eyelid right where my eye lashes are and then when i went to bed i realized it was puffy. so, i did like every girl with allergies does: i took an anti-histamine and put a cold compress on it. and i woke up to razorbladeeye! it hurt so much and was so stiff and puffy that i called in sick or "emergency-ward-visit" to work and sat in the waiting room of emerg for 2 1/2 hours (which is good!) but i saw the strangest shit like a guy with a huge framing nail through his thumb (he offered to help me knit ahahahhaaa!!), a guy who was dripping biohazard blood EVERYWHERE!!, a woman whose face was swollen right up from a toothache, and a woman who had to have been in there because she was crazy. oh canada. at least it was "free"!! and then i went to get my antibiotics and they were only $6! yay for extended medical!!

phew! and i just payed a tonne of my tuition that i'd been forgetting to pay! so, i guess this week has been EVENTFUL but slow and exhausting. i've been working more at the tattoo shop this week and did the first round of interviews for a full-time unionized job with full healthcare benefits! i'm going to celebrate by buying a car. wha? global oil crisis and you want to buy a car? yes. i'm currently torn between a nissan versa and a vw city golf.

i guess i'm just buying time until the mini is in its electric form. i think then will all be okay with the auto industry.

8.14.2008

oh teenagers


i love it when teenagers are cooler than me. it reminds me of what i try to aspire to. i wish i had the knitting factory when i was a kid. instead we got together in an old union hall with slumping floors and bad purple crush pop.

8.05.2008

dive into the sleep that's waiting, back at home the stars are fading...

it just became august and i already feel like i'm settling into the fall. i'm starting to get into more of the mopey indie rock (such as the new mirah, notwist, and mates of state), starting to want to cook more wintery foods, and knitting even more than ever (i know, you can hardly believe it). i had this thought as i looked at my pictures of rupert that i rarely post one of pickle. so i got down on the floor this evening with her and managed to get one picture! currently she's cuddled up between me and stewart (stewart's watching betty boop cartoons!! yay!) and undoubtedly snoring loudly and comfortably.

i applied for a number of jobs recently and am literally spending a handful of minutes every day looking for new postings and more job opportunities! thinking about having an "adult" job means that i need adult clothes! my clothes have been all over the place, particularly because we haven't had much money to buy new gear what so ever. i got some summer shoes and they're pretty wrecked already. anyway, what i'm trying to say is that i feel like i don't have anything that expresses how adult, modern, and put together (but not a yuppie) i feel. i think i have enough to do a job interview or two, but to work full time in a cool adult job, that's a whole different story. any suggestions of cool arty professional clothes or styles i should look into?

today i had an urge to go thrifting and scored this tray. it's metal and immaculate! i love big colourful trays for food prep and display! i had to share this one. i'm a little scrambled today, but felt a need to post. (if you're a mirah fan, get the new one. it's classic and amazing mirah).

8.04.2008

no hgtv for me!


i've kind of resigned myself to the fact that we're not buying a house tomorrow and that we'll probably rent through christmas. we've tinkered with the idea of moving, but i thought, rather than run and worry about it all i'd work a bit today (in amongst my website building work) on doing nice things to our living space. so, today i gave ourselves light in the bed rooms by taking the insulation out of the windows (whoa fire hazard!)


and then i found some shelving taken apart in the garage and thought, "stop the bus!" our kitchen has so little storage and shelving and being a hard-core domestic nutt and cooker (and soon to be canner) and having a vintage-glassware addiction means we don't have space for anything! our stone-ware plates are weighing down the cabinets and i have to store our beautiful wine glasses in the closet! but i love the kitchen right now! everything's starting to fit and it's nice putting my peculator out on display. (it's from white elephant vintage).

then in the shed i found the broken basket for the bike that someone stole from me (jerk). after being in love with alisa's toilet top medicine cabinet i thought that utilizing the space above our toilet would be nice. so i screwed this into the wall for cloths but thought toilet paper would be better. i love how it worked out and so easy! our ramshackle bathroom with milk crate shelving and a bike basket for storage. ha!

lastly, the previous tenants aren't living here anymore and that means their dogs are gone and while i loved their dogs and adored them, rupert didn't. he's barely inside anymore and he's not cranky or sick or as bite-y as he used to be. he usually just hangs out in the yard, it's nice.

up next, moving my craft room into the laundry room! that's going to be epic! but it will give us a dining space! tonight a friend came over and we watched desperate housewives on dvd (i bought it to knit to, season three) and knitted! it was so great. we ate her yummy raspberries and baked goods and chips and i just realized that i consumed a lot of junk food today. anyway, we were both knitting on socks and at one point stopped knitting in unison and tried our socks on. like a ballet. we chuckled. it was nice.

speaking of knitting, i want to do more now. xo

8.03.2008

and you have to learn the lesson twice

we had organic burgers for dinner with cilantro pesto (still going through the huge batch i made the other day) and the above delicious handcut salsa. someone dropped off a box of canning jars for me (i think i know who they're from) and i have immediately begun to fantasize about what to can inside them and this salsa definitely might be a winner. could you imagine opening up a jar of yummy handcut salsa in january in this town? amazing !!

on july 25th i freaked out and went "5 months to christmas!!" and bought yarn to knit xmas gifts with. this is the first pair of xmas mitts on the go. they're long and slouchy to fit over a pair of gloves. i bought some sock yarn to make man socks (for some random man in our lives) and more of this yarn in browns to make more mitts. i love mitts. i kind of want to keep all of them for me.

i've been in lots of pain lately. it's not nice. i should go get a massage and a chiro. a hot tub would help a lot but my tattoo can't really submerge for a few more weeks and by then i'll have the other scissors done. this is rupert doing some stretches when i was down on the floor doing some pain relieving yoga. i truly love our cats as equals! this mr. comes down on the floor whenever i'm stretching or reading the newspaper or knitting or whatever and gets in for some sweet loving. it's nice, actually.

today we had a sunday brunch at a girlfriend's house. complete with brunch cake (!!), fruit salad, cherries, smoothies, salad, mimosas, and lox and spinach eggs benedict. it was one of the best breakfasts i've had in a while (minus the huevos rancheros we had for breakfastdinner the other night). i love brunch so much!

i hadn't realized how busy we've been lately but pretty much for the last 10 days or so we've done something whether it's just coffee with a friend to going to see a movie or me having a board meeting or going to a show. and we're pretty tired and worn out. so busy! i'm surprised, really. well it's probably way past my bedtime and this hungover body from last night is still cranky. so i should sleep it off. xo