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

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


my closet after i unpacked my last bag of stuff...colour! tutus!


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


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).


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!

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?

"if you were to fall apart there's plenty room inside my heart"

Today's task was to put art up! Ha! And, to get the hooks up on the 1x4 we put on the wall over 2 months ago. Oh, boy. I was scared that the hooks would cost me like $40 so kept putting it off, but managed to get 6 hooks for $12 plus HST (bastards). They've got a pewter finish and I like them. Despite the fact that I hate pewter. Looks better than a "nickel" finish, though. Anyway, I got the hooks up and hung up a few of the hoodies/sweaters that were on side tables, our bedroom floor (we have another row of hooks in the bedroom), as well as the few hats that I found of Stewart's. That man has a serious prblem with leaving hats absolutely everywhere. I like that the only shoes we own (minus Stewart's work shoes and a replacement pair for his skate shoes that are in a box in our closet) fit under/around our bench. I think I might even get rid of my black shoes and then wear the shit out of my chucks and then in the spring get new chukka boots or something. I also hung up some mini-frames in the hallway above our bulletin board, used clothing pins to put small pictures on magazine files or the curtains in the kitchen, and put up a painting in Helvetica's room.

I am slowly getting through my list of home to-dos. And am working out how to get the rest of them done. Some of them are going to cost a bit of $$ which we're saving right now to go to PG, so I'll probably get those done when we get back.

Today it's rainy and wet, but warm enough to leave the front door open, trying to get the last batch of fresh air I can before it gets too cold to leave it ajar. I can also see my tomato plants and their reminder to PICK ME!! I made seven 500ML sized jars of green tomato salsa last night. I've probably got enough green tomatoes to go into business. Blarg. 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

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.

"this is death of [my to do list], moment of silence"

at the very least today i got a few things from my list done: i made the bulletin boards, i painted the hallway (two coats), and fixed up my messes from painting the chalkboard wall. after that we ended up going to get a blizzard and since then i've reloaded stewart's computer (again) and basically crashed from the sugar. oh! and i started laying out our birch wall mural. it's not as art-print as i thought, more photo, but i f'in love it! the panels are a little screwy but it comes with the paste and you put up the pieces as squares! it's going to be so fun and will definitely fit with our woodland/colonization-themed living room. there's more pictures over on the flickr. and will be more tomorrow once i get the rest of the wallpaper up in the AM.

while stewart was moving stuff from helvetica's room (which still needs to be drywalled, painted, and set up) he slowly unpacked some things like our slew of badges/buttons, and pens/pencils, a bag with my knitted shrug in it that i thought i lost, and found the lid to my water bottle. we didn't unpack a single box to completion but just coming across my ceramic cupcakes (!!), my kokeshi dolls (!!!), and my skulls pillowcase was enough to remind me that i do have so many awesome things already and i don't need to stress about putting my place together so much. it also reassured me that i haven't lost myself by moving here (not that i think that often) but to see my nearest and dearest books, markers, and doo-dads was enough for me to remember how much awesomeness i have around me! that my collecting isn't for want!! and that i've survived 5 months of it being in a box! now i just need to get it out of those boxes!! off to hunt down some food!

"i don't understand, i thought she liked ice cream and magic?"

getting things together! our weave (by jmac) and my new seatee!! i'm excited to get my hands on more space and i can start unpacking!! guh! well, gossip girl and knitting will make it better <3 first snb today! xo

photos as of late

this week has been busy. well, no busier than normal. i'm just tired, i guess.... lots of knitting done too! i'm finished my portland socks, almost done a little arrowhead shawl, made one hat for a trade i owe'd on, and started mittens for mishelleorama. at work this week i found out that i'll be going straight back into training on PDA and will do 9 weeks of training to troubleshoot devices and handsets like blackberries and iphones. kind of sweet! i'm pretty happy about being paid to just sit in a training environment and knit and learn about tech support. yippeeeee!! as for "real jobs" still no luck.

last week we finally moved into the basement and have spent the weekend just getting our bedroom oriented. we still have a tv in here, but have moved our dresser down and i have a chair and ottoman for knitting times. i've also been able to set up a cat-friendly sleeping space (pickle!) as i'm oddly still allergic to pickle and can't cuddle into her gutt anymore.

and on saturday stewart and i got to hang out all afternoon together, which meant we had breakfast out (!!) at miller's place a family restaurant (with the patriarch visiting tables) and had the best breakfast ever and it was cheap too! very impressed. will definitely be back any time i have spare change. the hash browns were the best i've ever had. oi.

well off to bed, maybe a bit more reading, and sorting out my knitting to take to work tomorrow. xo

you are the drinks i keep and keep drinking and fall down stumble

our house! we've been here a few months and i finally feel like we're settling in. so, to show off a bit of it--i didn't do any charolette york-style pre-photo session cleaning, but i also didn't take pictures of the piles of stuff everywhere (this place is so small, imagine if we had a child? we'd have absolutely no room anywhere!!!)


my mum gave me these sheer curtains a few years ago and they're perfect in our bedroom. she just bought us these star garlands from the 10,000 villages sale in terrace: they're so beautiful! i love them. they'll definitely be up for the whole year, not just for the holidays.


we have this yellow dresser in our bedroom that we bought from an old man who lives by the hospital. his backyard was a maze of old furniture, electronics, vines, and apple trees. we put a dessert tray on the dresser for our jewellery and many things adorn the little space. i love the picture of stewart at his prom!


in our living room we have this big blank wall. i'm a modernist: i love piles of frames, or weird magazines, bulletin boards with scraps of everything on them, typewriters on the floor, etc. i bought these frames at a garage sale (the vintage photo is from the hospital aux in terrace. the art on the right is by a friend from highschool, trina myhr. stewart acquired the hockey stick with his dad and younger brothers years ago.


next to our front door we have a random assemblage of things: basically our "foyer" is our living room. no space for a couch, just a random assortment of great cheap chairs (imagine, a wooden vintage chair and a wingback for 15bones?). our books are also a very random assemblage: but our shoes? absolutely a hipster pile.


the dining area in the kitchen. i'll take a picture when it's dark out. it's luminous. the pink salt rock is from the himalayas! my kitchen feels so good now (i used to hate it!!)


looking out our kitchen window. my mum made the shelf and the curtains. i love it. there's definitely a red theme happening in our kitchen. stewart and i had just got home and he put the sos pads on the shelf--a very interesting choice. and they were moved (tee hee).