recent adventures in cooking

My most fre­quent­ly cooked foods are rice (in a rice cook­er), instant noo­dles, fried eggs, chili, and Chi­nese greens (in the microwave). Need­less to say, my inter­est and skills in cook­ing are lim­it­ed. So when Mike and I try out new dish­es it’s very excit­ing :D

Like these avo­ca­do and brie sandwiches!

 

And but­ter pork! After going out for Indi­an food a cou­ple of weeks ago we want­ed to try mak­ing but­ter chick­en our­selves. So we bought a bot­tle of but­ter chick­en sauce. But we did­n’t have chick­en. So we cooked it with pork because that was what we had in the fridge. It still tast­ed quite good! We even added mush­rooms to it :D

 

Have a fab­u­lous Tuesday!

 

 

narnia to the north!

Well… not exact­ly Nar­nia, but cer­tain­ly the north, and we can always pre­tend, espe­cial­ly with the awe­some lamp posts! :D (you’ll see…)

Mike had to work at the Ontario Para Sport Games this week­end, and so I tagged along.

We had a snow cloud above us the whole way there, so the dri­ve was slip­pery, slow, and and kind of scary…

 

The roads were all cov­ered in snow with ice under­neath… but I real­ly like this pho­to because it looks almost like a vin­tage print.

 

But final­ly we got there safe­ly. The snow slowed down and the resort we were stay­ing at lit up like a small Christ­mas vil­lage. Note the fire­place in one of the units!

 

Then we noticed the lamp posts — we were wait­ing for the resort shut­tle to take us to the main build­ing, but maybe Mr. Tum­nus will come out from behind that tree and invite us to his cot­tage for tea…

 

Caught a nice sun­set. And the flags, they look like cheer­ful buntings, were encir­cling the ponds on the golf course so peo­ple don’t dri­ve over them on their snowmobiles. 

 

 

More lamp posts! :D

 

Mike bought a fire log and made good use of the fire­place in our unit, just like in the mag­a­zine! :D

 

And the next day, while watch­ing a game of sledge hock­ey at the Sum­mit Cen­tre, I caught sight of this won­der­ful bronze sculp­ture by Musko­ka artist Bren­da Goulet.

 

Which reminds me of this quote:

Today’s mighty oak is just yes­ter­day’s nut, that held its ground. 
– David Icke 

 

Hope your week­end was won­der­ful, and wish­ing you a great week ahead!

 

 

 

 

this week’s awesome finds

 

A gor­geous head wrap called “So Port­land”! Have always want­ed to vis­it Port­land — sounds like such a hap­pen­ing place and right by the ocean. Pat­tern from Bliss­ful Knits.

 

Sim­ply dar­ling owls, pat­tern from Crafty is Cool.

 

Love­ly sim­ple sewing — tuto­r­i­al for a ground­hog phone case from Wild Olive.

 

Awe­some knit­ted milk car­ton! Pat­tern from Knit­ted Toy Box.

 

I’m think­ing plac­ing the heart on the side seam of the t‑shirt, and sten­cil­ing it direct­ly, maybe a lighter paint on a dark­er shirt… hmm. How-to on MADE.

 

These look fas­ci­nat­ing — might look cool on a neck­lace pen­dant or a brooch. How to on Fru­gal Fam­i­ly Fun.

 

Love the gen­tle shades of pink and pur­ple on these ros­es, made with water­colour-paint­ed paper. How-to on Craft­ber­ry Bush.

 

Fur­ry mon­ster bracelets! These are so awe­some. From one of my favourite Etsy shops, Abby­did.

 

And there we have it, a list of awe­some things on a love­ly Fri­day :D I’m head­ing up north this week­end, will be back with pictures!

Have a won­der­ful weekend!

 

 

 

at the table with… forest and farm friends!

I must show you my new table cloth! :D

You might say, it’s just a table cloth, what’s there to show? But no! It’s the best table cloth ever!

Check. This. Out.

*squeal*

My favourite is of course the mush­room creature!

The owl is super adorable too.

And I also love the peas!

And the broc­coli, the straw­ber­ry, the turnip… well, they’re all cool!

And now you might ask, where did you get such an awe­some table cloth?

From my awe­some moth­er-in-law! :D

(I believe she got it at a Loblaws Super­store, if you want to try get­ting one too…)

Now I want to make plush­es of all the for­est and farm friends!

And when we’re fin­ished using it as a table cloth, I’m going to make it into a tote bag :D

 

Hap­py Tues­day, every­one! :D

 

 

 

 

 

simplicity

I made this sweater a while ago, just wait­ing to get a light-colour top to wear under­neath it. 

 

The pat­tern came from an old issue of Inter­weave Cro­chet (fire­side pullover). The yarn came from a cardi­gan that I cro­cheted but it felt too stiff and heavy. It sat in the clos­et for over a year with­out me wear­ing it once, so I decid­ed to unrav­el it and use the yarn for some­thing else.

I real­ly like the sim­plic­i­ty of it. A sim­ple stitch repeat­ing itself over and over again. I used to be more attract­ed to com­plex pineap­ple lace and such, and I still like them, but I find myself wear­ing sim­pler designs as I get older.

And the plants look­ing quite hap­py in the warm after­noon sun! :D

Wish­ing you a love­ly week ahead!

 

 

sweet love

So! I actu­al­ly made the mush­room love pin from my last post! here’s a close-up pic­ture of it…

 

Real­ly enjoyed a morn­ing of hand-sewing. There’s some­thing very calm­ing about that. Haven’t done it for a while and think­ing it would be great to find more projects to sew.

I wore it out to Indi­an food with Mike for Valen­tines day :D 

We were both unfa­mil­iar with Indi­an food, so we just tried to order things that sound­ed inter­est­ing, like this fried cheese. I believe it’s called paneer.

 

And of course, but­ter chick­en! :D

 

Awe­some date and deli­cious food makes me a hap­py valen­tine :D

 

Have a sweet Fri­day, everyone!

 

 

this week’s awesome finds

 

Beau­ti­ful ice can­dle hold­ers, made with bal­loons. How-to on Wil­low­day.

 

Cup­cake hat for a lit­tle per­son. Very sweet. Pat­tern on Ucre­ate by All Things Bright and Beau­ti­ful.

 

I love that it holds dif­fer­ent shapes and sizes and colours of beads. How-to on Cup of Delight.

 

Inge­nious idea for a cake top­per! Now, where does one find an over­size clothes­pin? From Brook­lyn Bride.

 

Real­ly hop­ing to knit this one day. Pat­tern gen­er­ous­ly shared on Sew Knit Me.

 

Sim­ply delight­ful win­dow dec­o­ra­tion, and a won­der­ful craft with chil­dren. From Lil­la A.

 

More chil­dren-friend­ly birds! Cute owl lantern, by Meet the Dubi­ens.

 

This is too adorable for words. An excerpt from an upcom­ing book, Heart-felt Hol­i­days, pat­tern and tuto­r­i­al for a mush­room love brooch! On Whipup.

 

I’m real­ly tempt­ed to make the mush­room brooch. Right now. Lemme see if I have the right colour felt…

 

Best wish­es to you for a love­ly week! :D

 

 

 

if you were an angry bird…

Late­ly I’ve been spend­ing my time on the sub­way play­ing Angry Birds Sea­sons. Mike and I have col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly unlocked all the lev­els on his phone, but when I got my own phone I had to replay all the lev­els again to unlock them, which is fun! :D

If I were an angry bird, I think I’d be the blue bird — main­ly because he looks kind of afraid, which is a word that I’ve often heard oth­ers use to describe me as. It’s true that he’s not as strong as oth­ers, but he’s cer­tain­ly help­ful in his own unique ways.

 

Just curi­ous…

If you were an angry bird, which would you be?

Have a won­der­ful Friday!

 

 

yarn love

Mike made me this for Valen­tine’s Day! :D

 

A yarn love wall­pa­per! :D :D :D

And to spread the love of yarn and yarn­crafts, we’d like to share the wall­pa­per with you, my love­ly blog friends!  

To down­load click the link for the size that fits your screen:

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And I’ll re-post the paper rose ones from last year too, since they also fit with the Valen­tine theme.

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Thank you so much for the love and kind­ness you’ve shared with me, friends!

 

 

 

 

inspired by buttons

A few days ago I went with a cou­ple of friends to the clay drop-in class at the Gar­diner Muse­um. Before that we also went to Let­tuce Knit, where I saw some incred­i­bly charm­ing ceram­ic but­tons for sale. The friend­ly woman who was look­ing after the shop at the time said that she had actu­al­ly made those but­tons at the drop-in class­es at the Gar­diner. So when I left the shop I was quite deter­mined to make but­tons in the class.

But when we got there I had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to use one of the few pot­tery wheels avail­able, so I made a split deci­sion to try my hands on the wheel instead. It was quite an expe­ri­ence but I did­n’t end up with any fin­ished prod­uct, because by the end of the 2‑hour class I was still try­ing to cen­tre the clay on the wheel (and fail­ing to do so after 4 attempts!). I was­n’t dis­ap­point­ed that I did­n’t have a mug or bowl to put into the kiln; I under­stand full well that throw­ing clay on a wheel takes a long time to mas­ter. But I think I would feel very hap­py in the end if I had stuck to my plan of mak­ing buttons!

So! After I got home I start­ed to gath­er inspi­ra­tions for the next time I vis­it the clay class.

 

I love this one, it is so sweet. (source)

 

 

My favourite shade of blue! (source)

 

Remind me to bring my col­lec­tion of pressed leaves from the sum­mer! (source)

 

Thumbprints. Love the organ­ic shapes and sub­tle­ty (source)

 

It would be fun to find sur­faces and tex­tures to make imprints with (source)

 

And this would be fun to glaze, no? (source)

 

AND! What about mak­ing ceram­ic neck­lace pen­dants? You know how much I love neck­laces… I’m so ready to have tons and tons of fun next time I go to the class! :D Now I just have to wait until school work slows down…

But that’s not to say that I came home from the last clay class emp­ty-hand­ed. While help­ing me cen­tre the clay on the quick­ly spin­ning wheel, the instruc­tor said some­thing that I thought was quite profound:

Don’t let the clay push you, you push the clay.

My mind real­ly hung onto those words for a while, and I have been try­ing to fig­ure out why.

I sup­pose they res­onate with cer­tain cir­cum­stances I find myself in late­ly. At first I thought it has to do with inter­per­son­al stuff. I cer­tain­ly get intim­i­dat­ed (i.e. pushed around) quite eas­i­ly. But then I thought push­ing oth­er peo­ple back isn’t an appro­pri­ate response nei­ther, is it?

Then I start­ed to think about the feel­ings around being intim­i­dat­ed. Anx­i­ety feels the most promi­nent to me. Maybe this is real­ly about rela­tion­ships, but not so much my rela­tion­ship with oth­er peo­ple but my rela­tion­ship with anxiety.

It’s very sim­ple: when I feel anx­ious, I try to make the anx­i­ety go away, and that makes me feel even more anxious. 

Like throw­ing clay on the wheel, the idea is not to fight against the clay, because the more I fight it to bring it back to the cen­tre the more it wob­bles about and wig­gles away. The idea is to find the right angle and the right pres­sure to move with the clay, and apply gen­tle pres­sure con­sis­tent­ly and per­sis­tent­ly, give it time, and it will even­tu­al­ly spin between my two palms in (near) per­fect symmetry. 

So how does that apply to anxiety?

It’s what I already know: sit with it. I know this from super­vi­sors who teach mind­ful­ness prac­tices. I know this from being in ther­a­py. I know this from being trained as a ther­a­pist. But I don’t do it myself. I give in to my nat­ur­al ten­den­cy, my auto­mat­ic response to fight the anx­i­ety as soon as I feel my heart rate increases.

So how did we move from but­tons to this ram­bling about anxiety?

Such is the pow­er of art to evoke sto­ries and metaphors and insight.

 

Wish­ing you a week of hap­py adven­tures and new discoveries!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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