My Favourite Music of 2011

It was a great year for the music I love.









Midnight City is by far my favourite track of the year. XO

A year in photos

Smash Patriarchy tattoo - January 2011

Foggy and Snowy on the Hump - February 2011

Katsudon, I die, best meal of the year, hands down - March 2011

Vegan transition, coconut yoghurt - April 2011

We've managed to have a baby for a year and not kill it ! ! - May 2011

Embracing summer, skirts, tights, toms - June 2011

The AVRG come out into public, exciting times - July 2011

My dream couch that I've been hunting for FREE on freecycle - August 2011

Cave Singers at Rifflandia IV, I had an incredibly amazing get away weekend with Stewart - September 2011

six min eggs and mizuna - October 2011

My betiko favourite knit of the year - November 2011

My Derby Wife and I making Ganache, so happy this lady came into my life this year - December 2011

FO: Stemwinder

Woo! Went to make this hat for my Derby Wife, Chia Grrr'vara, and knit it too small. Kid's small. So now it sits all lovingly on his head. Knit it out of Malabrigo Worsted in Lettuce. Wanna know how to get a toddler to sit still for the camera? Totoro. It's ridiculous. I used the Stemwinder pattern by my gal Laura over at HOME SWEET HOME. This is the ravelry project page. My voice is pretty non existent today and I've spent most of the day in bed or near the bed. Heading back to lying down. Have a great holiday b/c I probably wont see you until the new year! XO

before the week starts

Tonight was our annual hanukkah feast and HONESTLY there were about 40 people in our house. Lots of kids high on sufganiot and sparkling juice, teenagers gleefully happy off of the massive pile of rum balls that stewart made, and my voice is almost 100% gone. done. finished for. And now I'm hungry (thank GOD for leftovers) and need to have a bath and hit the hay. If I don't see you until after the holidays... sorries, but have fun! XO

as time goes by...

It's officially transitioned from fall into winter, though solstice is a few days away, the oncoming of xmas has truly made it's mark. Our pre-hanukkah hanukkah feast is tomorrow and our friends have (thankfully) taken on some of the meal preparations. I'm excited (and nervous) about the huge people load that will be here tomorrow: fun! Regardless of me knowing every year exactly when they're coming, the holidays are always a last minute thought for me. I don't carve out the time and I don't save up the money to go hog wild, which is good, because that's not the holidays I really want anyway. And the post-SLAY BELLES hangover finally fell right into a brutal cold and had me pretty much off of work this whole last week. YUCK. And not even days off with a lot of accomplishments. Lots of lying on the couch or the floor, fighting for a few extra hours of sleep (I've reinstituted my 11pm bedtime, hoping for lower next time), and avoiding doing dishes or even making dinner opting for eating out (expensive but delicious) and popcorn and totoro for dinner. The best times. I don't really know what my xmas angst is about and while we've pared down so much I truly only have one person to "buy" for (and I collected all year and made stuff for them too), there's always the people I forget (like a cousin - we each take a relative from this family; or my grandpa - guh!; or even my step mom - ooops!). I tend to skip friends almost entirely but managed to pick up a few goodies a while back, regardless I'll send my "xmas parcels" in April like I always do, which I really like doing anyway. And the knitting two more things to knit, both in progress, one for my derby wife and one for my step dad (I had him in the swap this year). I knitted things for Stewart's family but I'm worried about lurkers so pictures will be posted as soon as they receive their parcel (of which I have to send first). This post has been too nitty processy. I'm a bit tired and am avoiding the cooking I have to do for tomorrow, but will nip that in the bud and get the vegan brisket in the oven pronto, so it can bake while we watch LOVE ACTUALLY. Happy Chrismukkah!!

weee ol' update

I know, it's been almost a month since I posted here last. It's brutal. (I have been posting at HOME SWEET HOME if you're really desperate).  After we got back from the OK I got pretty sick and then got a flu shot (fuck yes flu shot virgin and i love it so far) and then things have been SO BUSY gearing up for SLAY BELLES 2011 which is happening this weekend here in port alberni. Eeeeeps!!! So much to do, just the right amount of time, and Port Alberni gets to finally put ourselves on the map for Roller Derby! Yay!

I was thinking about updating a bit on how my goals are coming (see the left).

1. Not going to Hilo, but going to blood & thunder bootcamp in Abbotsford in February AND to Rollercon in Vegas in July. So I'll cross this one off when I get back from Vegas.

2. we have moved upstairs and now have space for our teapots. we have yet to decide where they are going, though, so that's why it's not crossed off yet.

6. appointment booked! idea decided. it's going to be better than everyone's tattoos in the world COMBINED

9. I've passed everything but my laps. I must work out almost every day to work on my endurance. FML.

13. new bedroom. still needs to be painted. going for a look like this.

14-16. i don't wanna talk about it

21. going very well.

29. booking for early january.

how do you spell FUCK out of coquihalla?

well, we actually made it to the OKANAGAN on the weekend! hurrah! on thursday night our ferry was an hour late, and then on friday we spent the better part of the afternoon stuck up in a line of cars on the Coquihalla just about 30KM north of Hope. Thankfully had somewhere to turn around and head back down on the right side of the road. That line of car went for MILES. (did you see it on the news?) the part that I didn't really understand was that at a point when I could've turned around we rolled down the window and I asked an RCMP officer who was standing on the side of the road if we should turn around and he said, "KEEP GOING!" stupid jerk. and when we turned around no one else really was. so they were stuck up there on the mountain, barely out of the lower mainland, in the dark. not even katy perry could put some fun into that friday night.

luckily we got on the hope princeton and the roads were pretty good all the way to osoyoos. my sister ended up taking my car, with my camera inside, so i didn't get any pictures of our great great fun! including family dinner at stewart's grandma's house, seth running around in circles and eating chips at his other great grandma's house, massive family breakfast at the diner, family visit at lauralee's craft store, family visit at timmy's in penticton, running around the beach with seth in penticton, the insanity of the mall in Kelowna, the yummy vegetarian pasta i made at stew's mom's house in kelowna, nor the beautiful beautiful day outside on sunday in kelowna (i had forgotten about my camera by this point). and then today on the way home i also forgot to get pictures of this incredible fruit stand we visited in summerland. i bought a huge bag of apples from just up the road, pears from just up the road, and organic shallots deemed "the best shallots in BC" by the farmstand owner, which were grown in cawston. yum!

what i did get pictures of though, was the snow. on the coq. and on the hope-princeton. and our crazy faces. OMG.

hope-princeton

 

get us off this mountain!

line of cars for miles and miles!!

SLAY BELLES 2011

My league is holding our first bout here in Port Alberni on December 10th! There will be a beer garden! A 50/50! Hot women on roller skates smashing each other and going for the glory of the holiday massacre on skates! Have you liked us on Facebook yet? Let me know if you want tickets! Or if you live in another land and want to buy a tshirt or tickets as a donation for our awesomeness!

FO: Ocean Breathes Salty

I've been on a bit of a Modest Mouse kick lately. I was really into them when I was a teeny bopper in the mid to late 1990s. I even have a memory of seeing them in Victoria at an all ages show when I was like 14. Pretty epic.

This shawl is my first shawl for myself in a long while (2 years! I knit one right when we moved here). The pattern is called Betiko and it was designed by the lovely Lee Meredith of Leethal.net. I've knit a few of Lee's patterns and what I love about them is their challenging construction. My bff Laura designed a hat using one of her techniques. You should check it out. Anyway, since Lee released this pattern in her mystery pattern I had been dying to make one, and finally was able to get my hands on some berroco Ultra Alpaca and knit it up. It's DREAMY and i LOVE it. Now, time to knit some of my project goals ( <--- ). XO

[RAVELRY PROJECT LINK]

Another Halloween Photo

#20: Dress Up for Halloween

OK, I know I don't look like I"m in costume, but behind that poster I'm wearing my most butchy dress and a militant vest with my anti-censorship and feministy buttons on the lapel. I'm also not wearing make up like usual (only brown lipstick). We recently watched citizen ruth and it was awesome. Stewart (probably jokingly) suggested we go as a baby saver and pro-lifer. So, my costume didn't stand out, but it took some effort AND had lots of little details. (I also love this photo b/c I look k-razy!). XO

baby savers

baby savers, originally uploaded by ohsweetie.

just the start of our costumes... a little bit of inspiration c/o CITIZEN RUTH

food !!

Okay, so I know HOME SWEET HOME (---->) is usually where I post all my food pics, but the time I've been away from the computer has meant that I've collected a bunch of food pictures that aren't really related to anything. So enjoy them! (so good to be back). (ps. the apple pie my friend made).

thank you victoria!

This is what happens when a bunch of tired and/or sickish people have breakfast at mo:le. It's wonderful. I should've taken pictures of the food. because i miss the food. Home now to enjoy Saturday evening with House season 7 or Mannequin, I can't decide. Stewart's writing pop punk songs and seth is playing with a baby sized skateboard. Maybe I can lie down for a few minutes. I've been going to Victoria more and I love it a lot. I'm trying very hard not to job hunt there, and anticipate we'll be here a few more years, but there, it's pretty great. Always this back and forth with wanting to be in Victoria. Blah.

Hunting for Chantrelles

On my dad's side of the family there's a handful of siblings. Enough siblings that we could honestly say that they had a big family. The older siblings all had kids within six years of each other. I was the first. And then the next year my cousin Jade was born. There weren't any other cousins for about four years, and even though JR grew up in Vancouver and I grew up in Terrace, there's more than us both being Virgos that holds us together. And it's awesome. Being here on the Island means that I'm a 35 minute drive from JR's mom's house (my aunt and uncle and other cousin live there on Beltane Farm). And I still don't get to see them as often as I want, and because JR is a chef/cook and works summers up Clayoquot and hopes to work winters on yachts owned by rich people, I only get to see her in between. Right now she's in limbo, which means I get to see her (more).

Last weekend, the family and I drove out to have brunch with them and ate a ramshackle of stuff from their fridge and ours. It was delicious. It was also pouring out, but we put on our rain gear (JR had more rain gear than me obviously) and headed off to wander the farm HOPING to find chantrelles (which are enjoying a bumper crop this year). Unfortunately, no chantrelles, but lots of other mushrooms, which was cool. We got disoriented, too, so much forest to walk through, but found our way back to the farm and the tomatoes that are finally ripening in the green house.

Next year I commit to picking chantrelles and drying them. Not just trading a supply for vegan coffee cake with great and generous friends!

HOME SWEET HOME Round up!

I know I haven't been here around much (I've been on Twitter lots!) and I've been blogging a bit over at home sweet home. Trying to keep it real. Here's a few of my favourite recent posts (by both me and Laura).

BUNTING TUTORIAL (LINK)

TOTAL AWESOMENESS BUTTON TUTORIAL (LINK)

PIEROGIES ALA THE SUGAR REFINERY (LINK)