5.29.2010

stilettos and broken bottles

my grandpa with helvetica

helvetica in hand knits

i can't believe it's almost been two weeks since i last posted! having a baby can obviously do that, throw you for a loop, etc. i'm obviously still in transition and finding time to fit "previous life stuff" into my new routine. or even build a new routine. luckily being confined to breast feeding to fatten our little baby up means i can catch up on House and finally start/get into Scrubs (all eight seasons here i come!), i also get to knit maybe 3 rows of helvetica's sweater a day (!!), sleep around 9 hours/day (broken up of course, into three chunks usually), and stay on top of the laundry! having stewart around is fabulous. we've managed to split up the chores nicely and he's been my personal servant for the last two weeks during operation-get-helvetica-back-up-to-birth-weight. regardless everyone around here has baby fever.

i have a number of craft projects on the brain. consistently. i have these stuffed bats i need to make for doula megan. and helvetica's sweater i want to finish. and a knitted gift of something for our midwife (which she'll probably get for christmas). eeps! Seth just hollered, must go. xo

5.16.2010

"gonna make it all the same"

birch wall mural! finally up!

little garter socks for LSD

i'm sad that this weekend is already over! while i haven't "worked" in the last 8 weeks or so, i definitely still feel the weekends as what they are: 2 days off in a row! and this weekend stewart had the same 2 days! after he worked 8 days in a row (!!) it was nice to have him home and working out his "i just worked 8 days in a row" crankiness. we spent part of saturday at the port alberni annual book sale (funds to the rollin arts centre) and got our hands on some sweet vintage sci fi paper backs, pioneer-style cook books, and an autographed copy of coupland's polaroids from the dead. in total we probably got like $20 books and spent between us around $12. so, definitely a good fundraiser! after that we hung around the house, unpacked more things, watched a lot of californication, and i knit.

my midwife has put me on "bed rest", meaning she caught me in a lie saying i was "relaxed". my blood pressure says i'm not relaxed, that i'm not relaxing, that i need to slow down. so i've worked REALLY hard this weekend to not do so much, running maniacally around the house getting ready for helvetica, etc. despite not doing "much" we accomplished a lot and feel way more moved in. i mean, the birch wall is up! and our oversized (bleck) TV and all of our "machines" (old skool nintendos, etc) are plugged in. all we need are a few rug-like things, and for my parents to wrap up their reno (still a bunch of things for them to do!).

last week a new friend of mine had her baby almost 2 weeks overdue! luckily i got to go visit her the day after she came back to the farm from the hospital, but couldn't muster up the courage to cuddle her baby. i find holding babies weird. i'm not worried about seeing holding my baby as weird (it's necessity at that point), but feel so awkward and gawky holding someone else's little bundle. but he was ridiculously adorable. and so big (9lbs!). and looked like a baby, not an infant chimpanzee or anything like that. these socks i knit up for her little berry and i love them! must knit helvetica a pair!! (but must finish this mother fucking heirloom sweater first. i tell you, i forgot how much i cursed that sweater when i made it for iz. and how i swore i'd never knit another one.)

off to work on this dish cloth. haha

5.13.2010

omzg!

douglas coupland autograph for helvetica!

this definitely made my day! i am feeling tired (yay getting up every 45 minutes throughout the night to piss!), stressed (re: money), anxious (just about everything), and emotional (yay hormones!). so to my surprise i come home to a card from my lovely friend amanda s. from ottawa with a big pink stickie inside and this story:
"went to see douglas coupland and he had a book signing after - I had been on his website earlier and seen an essay of his written about Helvetica, so when I got to meet him I mentioned how I had a friend who wanted to name her baby Helvetica, and he got all excited and went "I LOVE HELVETICA!" and grabbed a post-it (which had a name of someone else getting a book signed) and signed this :). So, hopefully Helvetica loves Douglas Coupland!!"
this totally made me well up a little. so great. so exciting. Douglas Coupland is my hero. hands down. yay! (side note: we decided that helvetica's "real" name will not be internet-based for privacy, so we will refer to our child online as helvetica forever).

today i must nap. my blood pressure has been really high (yay for gaining baby weight!) and it's frustrating, which is making it go up more, haha. so i'm going to lie down, watch the rest of my L word DVD, maybe knit, probably read Egger's Zeitoun, and then put up the wallpaper (birch!) with my momma. 11/12 days!

5.12.2010

(almost) summer days!

rupert cuddles the dishcloths i made

spaghetti and turkey meatballs

today was great! i finished up the ballband dish cloths i was working on. and then folded them up so rupert could obviously use them as a pillow.

today i pulled out the weekly menu i had made for meals, as i'm finding i'm so exhausted i can't keep on top of anything. today i had planned on smashing together two recipes from everyday foods turkey meatballs and fresh tomato sauce. i didn't change the turkey meatballs at all, but changed the sauce (no tomato paste, didn't need it, seemed to be a waste, and i think i used less tomatoes, one from a local farm, not sure how many). SO DELICIOUS!! and we ate all of it. all. of. it.

now off to spend the evening watching californication season 1 and catching up on last night's glee! too dah loo!

5.11.2010

"in june you must give facists hell"

rooster!

owl penny savers

our first real cooked meal in our suite!

i can't believe i went to victoria and didn't take a single picture. smart. and i know it's tuesday, evening, but i'm still reeling from the weekend. such a full weekend. i'll definitely need a few days to sleep it off. friday i had a midwife appointment and went to nanaimo to pick up my sister who was coming to town for the weekend. then on saturday am we went garage sale-ing and to the farmer's market (yum local tomatoes, eggs, lettuce, chard, dried apple!) and then to the farm in errington for my momma's bday potluck. it was great to eat lots of food, hang out, and eat more food. yum. then on sunday we went drove down to victoria, and i laid around dealing with my sore throat and drinking tea, eating more yummy food, and seeing final fantasy. which was fucking mind blowing. i came home today, pretty much drove the whole way without stopping, and unpacked more of the kitchen, hung out with stewart who has a super sore back/neck and is a little cranky, caught up on gossip girl, etc.

it was nice to make dinner in our own kitchen this evening, even if we didn't eat until 9:30!! okay, off to watch californication season 1. duchoveny is hott. xo

5.04.2010

progressssssss

setting up our music!
well, things are finally coming together and i've been able to dwindle down our pile of boxes, to more unpacked than still packed! wahoo! there's just a few boxes of DVDs left (i have no idea how we're going to store these, we definitely need some sort of shelf unit thing a majigger) and then our boxes of "MISC" stuff, which will get combined into smaller boxes and put aside until we get ourselves a dresser of junk drawers. we still need a variety of furniture, some floor rugs, and a couch (we have a futon on loan! thank heavens!). we also still need a dresser for helvetica's room. but at this point i could care less. this weekend the kitchen island will be complete and we can move our kitchen stuff downstairs and then begin cooking up a storm for the weeks to come. on the menu homemade burgers, arugula and cilantro pesto!, rebar black beans (yum), peanut butter bars, blueberry bars, brownies, and probably a big vat of apple crisp.

this weekend, too, is my mumma's birthday and we're going to have a potluck over at the farm in errington! yay! i have plans to make the rebar carrot cake, and have unearthed this cookbook from the library: Nirmala's Edible Diary, and will be making the potato salad on this page (among other things). yum. food.

and eden. she'll be here this weekend to cuddle. can't wait.

5.01.2010

"i'm losing patience, so i'll call again"

knit bath rug!

bulletin board

today has been pretty awesome! i finished the bath mat! i love how it turned out and can't wait for the bathroom to be finished (new vanity!) and painted so that i can throw this on the floor in there without being worried!! i also covered a leftover ceiling tile with some yellow hawaiian fabric we got as a wedding gift and erected it in the hallway. now our calendars can finally have space, as well as the ultrasound of helvetica, and my yard stick. weird combo.

i spent the afternoon watching amelie, finishing this bath mat, and eating apple danish that i made last night. it was from the rebar cookbook and i'm not sure i'm a fan of the recipe. usually all the recipes are hits. but this was definitely a miss. i have the tray freezing in the freezer and will wrap in plastic wrap and freeze individually to be eaten later, probably at the delivery (yay snacks). last night stewart and i also finished watching the yellow rolls-royce. and it was incredible! i love how the three stories all revolved around the rolls, and that all the women were absolutely slutty! one night stands with no strings! and it was pre-world war II! of course their sleeping around got them in trouble and was the main focus of each story (cheating, finding love, etc), and often they ended the story in the arms of SOME man, but whatever. shirley maclean was a HOTTIE and ingrid bergman had such presence! i definitely want shirley's hair as my summer hair. must. get. hair. cut.