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?

"wont you hold my hand...wont you understand"

pickled carrots!!


pizza!


peach jam!

the last few days have been super productive. i've only let one chore slide (cleaning the bathroom) and have gotten a hand on this canning thing. it still takes me more time than i anticipate but that'll come with time. tonight i was going to do strawberry jam but i have some craft projects i'd rather work on. off i go to hang out with little person and listen to the new wavves!!

"tonight...give me something i can use"

i got this yarn in a mill-ends bag from walmart, who knows what it could've been, but it has wool fibers in it!! so i dyed it with koolaid! wahoo!


rupert caught this mole (for us obviously) and hurt it's little arm. this is me and stewart banding together to save it.


i cut them from my mom's rose bush. she's going to transplant the bush to another part of the yard. love the colouring!

today was hands down super awesome. one of those days where it's not even over (movie and popcorn and crafting next!) and i just think, "fuck, my life is awesome". i just got off the phone with my sister and i so want to move to victoria. it would be so good.

"hey girl in the strobing light, your mama never told ya"

well, despite stewart being a write off today for being sick (he did just make the best tuna melt i've ever had in my life, though!), and seth having a mini melt-down that broke my heart when he got his vaccinations (3 needles!!), and the two of us still having breastfeeding frustrations (PATIENCE!), today was a good day! yay!

i LOVE being able to buy groceries. having money to buy food that fills our bellies with goodness is good. and also being able to buy local groceries (it's not more expensive, just better) fills my heart with goodness. for lunch we had eggs and bacon and potatoes from the alberni valley! which i bought at only locally owned shops/businesses. so good. i did venture to extra foods (blah) to buy some canning equipment and happened upon BC blueberries (100 mile diet!) that were 1.50$/lb (!!) and i froze them and put them in bags. way cheaper than buying frozen blueberries!! i'm going to get another 2 lbs tomorrow. i wish i had a bigger freezer.

this week is a crafty/diy week for sure and it makes me feel so good! i love making things, i can never forget how much i love making things! i seem to have my groove back a little and have so many different things to make. like canning jam (strawberry jam! peach/apricot jam!) and canning carrots (pickled carrots! yum!). i've also got a handful of sewing projects to finish up and eden's knitted bday present to finish before i see her.

xo

"back in suburbia kids get high and make out on the train"

one handed typing is my new specialty. i'm a pro qwerty typist so doing one hand is hard, so much of it is muscle memory for me that the one hand means i miss a lot of keystrokes that i'd normally get. today is one of those days where seth does not want to sleep because he needs to poo a lot. it's super annoying because i really want to knit, but he just wants to cry through his naps, eat a shit tonne off schedule so my boobs are all outta whack, and then giggle for hours instead of sleep. arg!

summer's in full swing and i should probably go outside and go for a walk. but it's still really hot out, despite the breeze. blah i feel boring right now. will go watch united states of tara season 1 and get in a few rows before seth realizes his bouncy chair is also boring. xo

"love hurts when you do it right, you can cry when you get older"

helvetica is sleeping! yay! on his own, well with the cat. and for the last hour! WOOP! which means i was able to do some housework, paint our shelf, and get this blog a post (and download robyn tracks from youtube. omg, this ep is going to be great!).

two days ago the door between upstairs and our suite finally got put in. which means the cats are downstairs with us. they no longer have the enormous picture windows to look out of, or the fancy and fluffy wingback chairs to curl up in, or my mom to pester for soft cat food. and they're pissed. well, rupert's pissed (and he keeps trying to angry piss on our rugs), and pickle's just melancholy. i'm happy she's settled down enough to cuddle with seth, but she still hasn't figured out that she can't spoon with us in the bed like she used to. that's seth's spot now. so she just takes off. and meows like she's dying. and rupert just fucking glares at us and refuses to cuddle. i'm not sure which he's more pissed about: the baby or being confined to the basement.

okay, i'm off to make something to eat and maybe paint a second coat on that shelf. xo

"gonna make it all the same"

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

"in june you must give facists hell"

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

progressssssss

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.

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

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.

"you really got the power over me!"

mid-day post! i slept in forever today. until almost noon. which was wonderful. i was awoken a few times by kitties wanting to cuddle and officially ended my sleep with a view of a beautiful blue sky out our bedroom window (which has now been replaced by wind and some clouds. but it looks sunny-ish out to tofino).

i was hoping first thing this morning to make the apple danish bars from the rebar cookbook, but could not find my food processor anywhere. must wait for mom to get home with the knowledge of where she moved it. oi. but that meant i could dedicate my time to something more important and that i've put off for more than 8 weeks: replanting my indoor plants and planting some seeds! there's 2 trays of little containers holding basil and one tray holding containers with heirloom tomatoes! i so should've planted these months ago, but now is better than never. the house plants we have, aside from the jade and the aloe, are amalgamations of plants from our wedding's center pieces! we ended up keeping 3 of them, but one died, and then was reborn somehow through dirt i used to help the other plant along. it's such a gorgeous pink now and the only plant that thrived during the terrible terrible winter i gave them. it's trying to just outlive all of us, i think.

in other news i've been knitting a bathroom rug for our bathroom! the pattern is from cocoknits and i've altered it a bit, more details when it's done! xo

"i'm right over here, why can't you see me?"

helvetica's room is shaping up!

the handmade mid century cabinet i got for free off craigslist (heavy glass doors not on right now, but they're sliding! love it)

our record stand (fits our record player on top) won't be staying here but was happy to get some things unpacked!

a bookshelf i got off craigslist for $15 a few months back. super sturdy and holds all of our magazines (with room for more!). baskets of yarn and felt are on the top shelf.

these teeny-small metal plates i got at the thrift store today. i <3 them.

today seemed sluggish at first. i had zero energy to do absolutely anything (from doing 1/2 load dishes and showering...so lame) and then i made a to do list for the day and accomplished almost everything on it! the fun part was thrift shopping with stewart, picking up my new douglas coupland book (must finish rule of the bone first!), going to parksville to have fish with my grandparents and picking up my new super sweet (and free!) handmade 1960s wood cabinet (glass front! built in lighting!) which will get hung on the wall and hold my random collections of melamine, french presses, and cookbooks. i can't wait to hang it. later this summer all of the wood furniture we acquire will get taken down and sanded and then we'll paint it raven black and rehang it. some of it, of course, will be bright red, but the majority will be black. now all we REALLY need is a good vintage/modernish couch like this one, or this one, this one, and even this one. you know, a statement piece? and then something to put the tv on with a semi-locking cabinet underneath. starting fresh sucks sometimes, but we'll get there!

"i'm in the corner watching you kiss her ooooh!"

this morning i got up and painted the purple walls in helvetica's room! and the purple bubble (these are in progress photos...finished photos after the weekend when everything's done!). i love the colour that i picked and happy that stewart picked purple!

last night we searched the internet for cat-bed like sleeping surfaces for helvetica for in our bed. stew's genuinely terrified that he'll roll over onto lil'font and squish it. i'm pretty sure if i did that a tit would just fall in it's mouth and it would be happy. i mean, sleeping and then tit in your face? nice! anyway, we couldn't find such a sleeping situation anywhere so stewart's going to go find a cat bed or something to assure himself in his sleeping. so adorable. and then the cats can use it after. haha.

we're definitely in the countdown, almost. as of next monday we have 4 weeks left (!!) so this weekend feels like a last hurrah! ha! we're going to victoria to hang out with stewart's mom and the aunties, and my darling eden. it'll be nice to get one last outing out together sans child (i'm still heading down for owen pallet in may!). well, i should go get ready for my day and head to my meeting! xo

mmmm

mmmm, this looks good!

eta: so, i had just written that sentence when stewart came in and started asking me all these questions about our trip to vancouver for warped tour (august 14th) and our DETOUR TO THE ISLAND!! WOOP!!! 15th, 16th, and 17th baby!!! and then we heard this weird glugging sound coming from the bathroom and stewart got up (such a prince) and said, "hon, something's wrong" and i went out and the plumbing had backed up again. so the water from the washer came up through the shower and the toilet, gross and was all over the floor (just water and charcoal like stuff) and the carpet by the bathroom. so i'm calling the rotto rooter in the morning and the landlord is paying for it, of course. this is the second time in a year (or just a year) that it's been rotto rootered, i wonder what it is. either excess water in the pipes from the streets OR roots catching shit that's going down the drain. but that's enough plumber speak.

we ran to save-on to cure our ails with frozen pizza and a bag of oranges (i've been eating a lot of oranges lately) and we're going to curl up and watch role models i'm so happy sean william scott is back in action. mmmmmm, looking forward to the weekend!

love, love!

mid-week

we do this thing mid week where nothing gets done. bags and backpacks dot the floor and dishes pile up and we don't follow our weekly menu. and we just get exhausted.

this week has been pretty barak centric for me and millions of other people. i've been prowling the nytimes and keeping on top of the blog roll. it's an exciting time. he's been in office for what 3 days and has already made moves to close down Guantanamo, has made a positive proclamation in response to the anniversary of roe v. wade, and has this lovely position website on women . i'm also excited on his position regarding lgbtq issues. let's cross our fingers and hope our dreams come true! xo