1.27.2011

check out my guest post over at colette patterns!


when sarai asked bloggers to put together a spring palette for her spring sewing challenge i immediately jumped on the bandwagon! it was so fun putting my palette together and just loving grey grey grey!


mostly it's inspired by robyn and her outfits in the dancing on my own video. which did come out last summer but will have huge implications on what i want to wear this spring.
Here's the LINK !!

1.26.2011

"i am no student of ancient culture, before i talk i should read a book"

my sweetgum
i finished my first sweater!!! the sweetgum duncan. i love it. except it's too big and now it's blocking (to flatten the lusciousness out a little bit and to lengthen the arms) and i'm terrified. i've been honestly dying of impatience this past three weeks working on the last little bit of it. and today i sat down and wove in the ends. oh i'm so anxious about it fitting! yikes!

in other news prep for squash month is upon us. i already have 2 squash recipes and have cooked up some pumpkin to be turned into a number of yummy things including pizza and scones !! yum!

i had more to say but i'm exhaustemated and still have work to do because the internet was so slow today i couldn't bring myself to waste and hour to do something that takes 10-15 minutes. it was brutal.xo

1.24.2011

and it begins!

february will be squash month over at the blog

february will be !! squash !! month around here; i'm already getting it together! i've planned out some recipes, started cooking (and eating and taking poorly lit pictures), and have even made a fancy banner! my goal for february is to eat every single squash in our cold storage! including the pumpkin! so there's got to be a dozen squash in there.

we have a pumpkin, a turban squash, autumn cup squash, a few different sized delicata squash, a number of both green and yellow hybrid acorns, and some butternuts!

if you're feeling adventurous and would like to post a squash recipe/post here in february just drop me a line at ohsweetie@gmail.com; this could be way fun!

1.23.2011

t i r e d

stack of my grandma's clothes
since my grandma died back in september i've been anxious to get my hands on some of her things. mainly because they smell like her and because i like heirlooms and things that remind me. i've been missing my grandma a lot, and get to see my grandpa even more. which is wonderful. but it's still pretty sad for me, and in passing glimpses, so finally getting my hands on some of her stuff has been good.

i didn't get the chance to get to nanaimo to go through her closet, but my mom has started to bring back garbage bags full of things, organized into "type" (ie. PJs, Sweaters, etc). today i got to go through two bags and unearthed a big pile of vintage grandma pieces that i haven't seen in years. the above is just a sampling. there's a few things that i'll wear just the way they are, but a number of them i'll alter into tunics and / or skirts. very exciting. the smell, though, i can't get over how much they smell like my grandma. absolutely indescribable, but nice, comforting, familiar.

Project ReStyle DIY #1!

This is my first official Project ReStyle Project! I have had this t-shirt since back in my SFU wannabe lesbian days and I found this pink on browny gingerbreadperson like fabric at a thrift store sometime over the past two years and have been hauling it around. I don't remember if I got it after the great purge before I moved to port, but if I got it before it's lucky to have survived.

Project ReStyle #1

I used my favourite tshirt as a pattern for this one. The original is a brown tshirt from the Joe brand (love the joe brand) that I got for super cheap, fits really well, and has held up through weekly wearings for the past two years (and weekly washings). However, it's on it's way out and I'm committed to making as many new shirts out of the same old shirt as possible. That's how much I love the fit. And it always looks good on.

My sewing quality is shitty but whatever.

1.21.2011

"oh you wouldn't say it but you wanted to"

REbar's spinach linguine....
last night, late last night i should say, i made a REbar pasta. having food/cooking goals is incredible. when i have absolutely NO MOTIVATION to cook and no energy to go pouring through my bookmarks or cookbooks i just go, "pick a pasta, grab the shit, and cook it". the thing about the REbar cookbook is trying to find recipes that don't use 800 million (expensive) ingredients, and even though it was pretty expensive to make dinner last night, it was one of the cheaper ones...and it was good. (the problem is that i've also been cooking the cheapest ones first so that means there's gonna only be expensive ones soon. bleck.) the one above is the spinach linguine which is basically the noodles with a sun dried tomato salsa (with artichokes, fresh herbs, kalmata olives, garlic, capers, etc) that you top with Parmesan and fresh cut tomatoes. we've been buying mainly winter veg this whole winter so it's been weird buying veg from chile and china once in a while (when i used to do it ALL THE TIME).

speaking of winter veg, the other night at the agricultural meeting, the farmer i bought all of our squash from gave me shit for not eating it yet. i'd been pacing myself and didn't realize that we're getting fresh veg at the farmer's market soon. so that means we're going to be in squash heaven around here for the next month. i think i just need to start pulling it out. i know i have at least 11 squash and 1 pumpkin and they're all in good shape (it's a good cold room). and while i love squash so much i want to get a squash tattoo, i'm a little lacking in the squash recipes department. let me preface that by saying i hate stuffed squash. it's boring. it's lame. and it's just not very exciting. i'll for sure make some squash burritos and some pumpkin millet muffins from the REbar book, but need suggestions! what are your favourite squash recipes? anything you want to try? anything you want me to experiment with?! i think i'm going to make February SQUASH MONTH around here, with a pretty banner and stuff. maybe i'll make some badges so you can play along too? what do you think?

1.18.2011

In Progress #8: Smash patriarchy tattoo.

smash patriarchy tattoo

OMG! YIP! it's not done yet. about 1/2 hour to go... but i had to leave. i got it done by brian at kingpin here in port. the shop looks sketchy as hell from outside and is a little messy/dirty inside, but no cross contamination AND brian is a great nice conversational talented blah blah guy. he said not only did i teach him the word "patriarchy" (!!) but i was the first person to ever ask him how he was doing while he was tattooooooing. very interesting.

OK, so we're off to dinner out! having a job and money is so nice! it's like OLD TIMEZ.

texas donut

1.17.2011

wozas part 932

i want to post because i know, just know, that today is one of those days that will be looked at in my life as "the day that everything changed". i just got back from a community planning session on the regional district's agricultural plan and am going to go to the actual planning meeting next week (tonight was information gathering). tonight i had a severe consciousness shift in what matters to me the most and where i need to direct my attention: agriculture. farming, land issues, access to food, peak oil, grassroots organizing around growing, etc etc. when i finished grad school i felt like a chapter in my life was closing and tonight the deal was sealed. i'm not saying i'm not going to be a feminist anymore, ahaha, that would NEVER happen, but i think that instead of trying to get a job being a career feminist im now heading in a new direction...very interesting. trepidatious maybe, but exciting as hell. diandra the feminist farmer crafter person. LOVE IT. xo

" i get so lovesick my sad thoughts float "

I really have 100% no time to type anything so I share pictures from the past few days and my to-do list for the week. WOWZAs.

to do list of death.

magazine rack i made
magazine rack i made today.

aaaah !!! baby attack!!!!
BABY! ACK!

white cream pizza ala smitten kitchen
a blurry pic of friday's pizza.

1.14.2011

January Birthday


Here's a mix for all you January babies out there.....there's a lot of you! XO

JANUARY BIRTHDAY


clementine – washington
awkward silence – total bummer
rill rill – sleigh bells
heart full of pentagons – film school
almighty moon – sondre lerche
go outside – cults
blue and gold print – mates of state
bad communication – sufjan stevens
trash paintings – maple you know
for the last time – bella
babay (eat a critter, feel its wrath) – the blow
o ye coffee tables – boats
solitaire – preston school of industry
two hearts – ryan adams
shelter – the xx
the lord – young people
trace a line – au revoir simone
mama – coconut records
sold – dan mangan
these roads don't move – jay farrar + ben gibbard

1.13.2011

Grilled Cheeeezy Goodness


I completed this task last week and then completely forgot about it! haha! But, check out my guest post over at Food in Jars! Yip! (PS there's a recipe over there...)

"match all the cracks...check all the maps"

baby food!
mmm, baby food? L-R squash, pears, and bean stew. my babe eats in style.

snow day!
snow day! daycare was closed on wednesday and thank heavens stewart had the day off so i could get some work done! but i have gotten less done this week and am stressed about it. bleck.

i need to get better at taking wardrobe remix pictures
ahahah, my attempts at a wardrobe.remix picture. i really wish i could get some sleep and feel more READY to work on getting rid of my post-pregnancy belly. i signed up for yoga! that's a start. bleck.

After years of using lyrics for my blog post titles I've decided to start using the LINK function and making the lyric a link to the artist in question. wow, that took me a long time. who can say "diandra is really set in her ways" ten times fast?

Next week Laura and I are going to start working on the online presence of a new project we've been working on for months! We got some solid advice from a dear friend lately on which route to take our project and we've just been avoiding the online component. but it's almost here! i can't wait to finish what i have to finish this week and dedicate a bit of time next week to getting it up and rolling. YIP! I will not tell you what it is until it's fully beautiful and functional but will say if you like these things:

DIY Lifestyle
Crafting
Feminism
Giveaways
Homemaking
Buying Locally
Reading
Making
Eating
Thrift Shopping

You will like what we have in store for you!

Now, off to work on my weekly to-do list. EGADs where did the week go?

XO

1.11.2011

"on your street we march like toy soldiers in our winter clothes"

my closet before the colourful things
my closet before i unpacked my last bag of stuff...lots of GREY!

closet after the introduction of colourful things
my closet after i unpacked my last bag of stuff...colour! tutus!

my wedding dress
my wedding dress! (i decided to finally throw it out, but not until one more hurrah!)

our vinyl stickies from the of montreal album
i also found our of montreal vinyl wall art and put some of my favourites on our bathroom mirror (we have a lack of both wall space and windows around here).

pins i unearthed!
some pins i also unearthed....missed them!

this evening i began to pull down the last of our stuff from the closet in the room upstairs that we lived in for MONTHS before our basement suite was finished. i realized after i unpacked most of it that there's still a box up there with a board game, some markers, and some craft stuff. that i'll have to get tomorrow. but i was super impressed with what i found, yet super disappointed it's stuff i've seemed to live without for the past number of months. OH STUFF I'VE MISSED YOU! SO SORRY! it's weird how just days after we decided that i do need to ramp up getting a good job with the provincial government and that we might be moving to victoria by the end of the year (if i can make it happen fast enough!)....i start to enjoy living in this space more and feel more at home. but, that being said, i'd really like to go get a gallette at cascadia and see my sister on daily basis. that would be nice.

today i also discovered a great way to take care of my much-loved to-do lists. the tasks option in gmail! duh!
it's super handy and is always there and it means i don't have to update my chalkboard for just my weekly list. i've been using my dashboard for more work-based notes/things so i feel so GROSS when i go to use it for non-work. (can you tell i hate working?) haha. anyway, i'm super excited to streamline my to-do list life. especially since i'm on the computer at least 32 hours a week for work and will see this list often.

i've been thinking fleetingly about living somewhere else lately. another country. go on an adventure. but am working steadily on reminding myself of what i want (a farm) and that to do that i need to stay here, work, pay off debt, learn more about farming, and work towards that goal. it is even a short-term goal (within 5-6 years) so i have to work as hard as possible. or the time will go past so fast and i wont be ready. i also have to remember that i want to do my PhD and that has to fit in there between working and getting ready to farm! ha! by the time i'm 35 i'm going to be even more exhausted!

speaking of exhausted, my thesis zine is done and completely ready for order!

1.10.2011

A cute video and a recipe!

The Move, Paper Animation from Mandy Smith on Vimeo.


SO CUTE AND AMAZING!

Today I worked my face off and I'm just putting the finishing touches up on my pattern submission! I made loaf this morning, chili in the crockpot for dinner (even though i don't really like chili), and am excited to finish up a knit for @kalinhop for her birthday, maybe get to work on my sweater, and go to be a little earlier than last night. XO

Zucchini Gingerbread Loaf

This past summer I put up bag after bag of grated zucchini in my freezer and last week when I was doing a general overview of what we had left to consume from our cold box, I realized we hadn't yet eaten any of the zucchini. So I pulled a bag out and it sat in our fridge for a few days while I thought of what to do with it. And then I started craving gingerbread and the rest is history.

There aren't a lot of zucchini gingerbread recipes out here on the internet. I found this one, and Martha's, and ended up modifying a Mennonite Girls Can Cook recipe with a recipe Northern Purly Girl sent me back in the middle of the harvest. I replaced the sugar with honey, reduced the fat (by a little), added oats, and gingerbready goodness. YUM.

In a large bowl combine:
2 cups previously-frozen grated zucchini
1/3 cup oil
3/4 cup honey
2 eggs
1/2 cup molasses

In a separate bowl combine:
3 cups flour
1 cup oats
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves

Add dry ingredients to wet and mix until they're just combined. Divide batter among two well-greased loaf pans and bake at 350F for 50-60 minutes.

Note: If you like nuts feel free to add 1 cup of your favourite chopped nut! Of course, walnuts or pecans would taste best, but whatever works in a pinch will do, of course. Same goes for seeds (sunflower, pumpkin), but I'd recommend only adding 1/2 cup of seeds.

1.07.2011

what's on your nightstand?

what's on your nightstand?
it's like one of those "what's in your bag?" kind of things! but, what's on your night stand! yes! (i joined a flickr group and you can only post once a month, so i'll try to do one once a month and share!)

itemized list (left to right back, and then left to right foreground):
plastic transformers slurpee cup filled with water
not very sticky stickies
burts bees hand salve (i've had this for years and am forcing myself through it)
mint green alarm clock my mom bought for me in high school. my sister has a matching ice blue one. i don't use it for the alarm, just the comforting ticking sound to drown out the hum of the monitor.
PINK nail polish!
lamp borrowed from my mom
framed picture of caitlin and amanda and i two or three days after i got back from japan. it's at albion books in vancouver where caitlin was working. i had met amanda at word on the street and i don't remember what else we did that day.
player one by douglas coupland
my original penguin hanky from japan
my "new" ipod inherited from stewart. it's next to the bed because i'm using the alarm on it to wake me up in the morning (it's so nice and quiet and soft).

what's on your night stand?

1.05.2011

this pasta salad is broken...

this pasta salad is broken
i know i said i was going to be on hiatus while i got all my stuff done this week, but the list is coming along swimmingly AND the days are going by just as fast. regardless, i've got a face mask on and i need it to dry a bit more before i have a shower and go lush it up.

this salad is inspired wholly by derek from fine thank you... i'm a bonafied food snob so whenever i was at his little attic place in victoria (probably before crystal castles or something) and he made me gnocchi in coconut milk and curry with frozen peas i think i died. FROZEN peas? yuck. but wait, YUM! so now i have a bit of a love-only relationship with frozen veggies....in the winter that is! so i've purchased TWO (count'em) bags of frozen veg since the non-growing season started. the first being a big bag of peas and carrots mainly for pot pies, and the other i bought today! a bag of yam fries for friday's pizza.

anyway, the moral of the story is that the frozen peas and carrots are starting to get freezer burnt! ha! so i made this salad with them. and i'm poor right now so was scrambling with things from around the house. YES!

THIS PASTA IS BROKEN

boil a medium sized pot of water and cook about 200g of your favourite dry pasta (i used rigatoni but i really thought i had jumbo shells and was disappointed!) until it's al dente.

while the pasta is cooking get out a medium sized bowl and put 1 cup of frozen peas and carrots in the bottom of it. once the pasta is cooked drain it and put the noodles on top of the frozen veg to thaw them.

while the noodles are cooling down mix together 1/2 cup mayo, 1/2 cup italian dressing, 1 tbsp HOT mustard, 1 tsp chili flakes, dash of pepper. Also cut up about 1/2-3/4 cup of your favourite sour pickle (i used pickled green beans). Pour sauce and pickles on noodles, stir well and devour (preferably with a grilled cheese).

XO

1.03.2011

"everybody will ask what became of you"

FREEZE THAW!
i am in bed and there is a cat cuddling at my feet and i'm about to crawl under the covers and hopefully get a few hours of sleep before i'm woken up by a cuddly tired and hungry baby. i dread it, but also look forward to it. the cuddles, anyway. i'm feeling more forlorn than i expected about him going to daycare. he's going to have so much fun with all those other kids, but i know i will miss our all day hang outs. but instead i have to work. i'm thankful that he's only going three days and that i can afford to work "part time" (approx 32 hours a week) and have flexible hours and workplace.

this morning when i went outside to take the recycling to the curb (we had THREE bags/bins this week - they come every two weeks - the most yet!) i gasped in awe at the magic of the freeze thaw. i honestly think i should have gone into geography and then i could have spent my undergrad surrounded by boys with thick glasses and beards and fleece pants. haha. anyway, it was super cool and i had fun taking pictures of the ICE and the dirt. as for the dirt my parents started a landscaping project at the end of October and just never finished it in time for the early snow and it seems to be written off for now. kinda annoying. but whatever.

blah, this week is going to be insane. i'm feeling a little overwhelmed, like i can't get it done, but i know i can and i will! here's a list of the things i have to put together. i hope to do it all by saturday PM so that i can go to girl's night with eben lemon and emily from five dog house and janine and dame girling without being distracted by the following list of doom. as a rule to myself i'm not going to post until after saturday about what i accomplished. but fingers crossed i get them all done.

1. work 40 hours (including last week) on my time sheet
2. do my open jars recipe for food in jars
3. bind those zines and mail them to KT and E-sharp. PS, KT put together a chap book. i'm sure she'll mail you one.
4. post info about the zine burkholder is collecting for on Shameless
5. do post on hatred against teen girls in BC in 2010 on Shameless
6. OMG, knit two more swatches and do three drawings and finish my work up of my super secret design (knit) for the twist deadline
7. finish and fax in my child care subsidy forms (FML).

Have a good week and wish me luck! XO

1.02.2011

i have had la bouche in my head for days!

pinky sunset
christmas! stewart was more excited than anything!
The last week has kind of been a blur. We had visitors, which was GREAT!, lots of visitors. I saw 3 of my BFFs and my sister (huzzah!) over a one week period. I got spoiled by all of them and got to set forth with my sister on planning our FARM OF MYSTERY AND WONDER! yay!

To me the reason the week just dragged on and felt LOW for some stupid reason was threefold: My Mat leave is, in essence, over. Tomorrow I start working pretty much full time at my new job (technical editing for a company in TO). So, I spent Thursday-Today doing pretty much nothing except eating, knitting, squeezing my baby really tight (he starts daycare on tuesday! sob!). Second, I'm totally not used to returning to my MOON CYCLE just yet. I'm a CRAZY BITCH right now and have been a hormonal mess. BLECK. (I'm sure this also has to do with return-to-work, baby in daycare, working but not having $$ yet b/c of massive MSP bill and the holidays, and also not eating well gaining weight and feeling shitty about that). THIRD, when there's a lot of people around I put on "the face". even when i don't intend to do it, or it's just barely there, i don't usually notice it until after all the people have gone (or i've left) and then it's just SLUMP no more busyness and exhaustion from MRS SHOW for two weeks. (I'm going to add a four to say that Seth isn't really sleeping well lately and I'm getting very little sleep and no more than 3 hours in a row...it's been ROUGH). OH! And this song has been in my head!:


MAKE THIS SONG GET OUT OF MY HEAD RIGHT NOW PUH-LEASE?