Lobster Fest! (a hot night for Larry)

We bought Jacob 3 new pets today. We named them Larry, Larry and Larry just in case they were offended if we couldn’t tell them apart.

 

 

 

 

Cici reluctantly met the lobsters, but mostly she just cowered in the corner.

 

 

 

 

She was wise to keep her keep her distance as it wasn’t long until Larry, Larry and Larry got into things, and soon a lobster knife fight broke out.

 

 

 

 

In the end, things didn’t go so well for the lobsters. What they thought was a hot tub turned out to be a bit more than they bargained for.

Pre-Golden Globe Goodness

A bit of a extra mini post for today....


We are getting ready to settle into the Golden Globes, so we have a tiny feast planned.

Some chili and guacamole (inspired by Dina Pugliese).

I'll add in a margarita and be ready to watch the Golden Globe arrivals and awards!

Back to Basics - Embroidery

As noted in my last post, I need to sew a pillow for our couch. The requirements were simple – removable cover for washability; something that looks good on the brown leather couch; and preferably fake suede, since that is the material the last pillow was made from, that we have loved to death.

As part of the New Year’s shopping adventures, Cathy and I hit Fabricland which was a fine place to find a cheap piece of fake suede. I picked out a nice camel coloured piece and expected to have a pillow that looked plain but functional.

The more I thought about it that was just too plain. I contemplated adding some tucks for visual interest, but that didn’t quite do it for me. After giving it more thought, and being thwarted by not having enough yarn to start a specific knitting project, I came up with a plan… embroidery. Embroidery is probably the first needlework my mother taught me how to do. It is quick and easy to learn. It can be used for a simple embellishment, or to create a grand, artistic masterpiece. (In this instance, I’m going for simple embellishment.)

After a quick trip to Mary Maxim yesterday, and I was equipped with a $.49 bit of embroidery floss that is helping me turn this…

Into this…

Here is a close-up of the detail. A simple chain stitch applied in a swirling pattern.

 Tonight I’m taking my new stock pot out for a run, and making a pot of beef barley soup. I hope it is good, because I doubled the recipe, just to justify using the stock pot!

Big Plans for 2013

Happy New Year!

 

The first days of January are always so wonderful. A vast, full year of potential lies ahead. For me the potential holds the following:
 

More blogging

I won’t promise to achieve this immediately, but I do know my blog has dwindled lately, and I miss it. My day job (the one that pays!) has been very greedy with my time lately, which is why the blogging has slowed. I have a plan in place to help correct this situation, but it doesn’t take effect for another few weeks, so you won’t see an immediate change, but I hope there will be more frequent posting in the future.

 

More pictures

I’ve just bought myself a wonderful new camera. It isn’t state of the art (in fact, it is last year’s model), but it is a wonderfully compact Nikon Coolpix S6200 that will live in my purse so I’m more frequently ready to take a picture or two, to share with you.

I didn’t actually use it much over Christmas, because we were either talking or eating, but I did take a moment to snap the following picture while I was eating my lunch today. The view of the decorations from my food court table, at First Canadian Place, was quite stunning. This picture doesn’t quite do the holiday décor justice, but I’ll share it as just one example of pictures to come.

 

 

More cooking

We spent the weekend with our great friends in Niagara Falls. We were there long enough to enjoy some spectacular food and drink. In addition to hanging out in their kitchen we had some time to kill during the day. What are two women most apt to do with time on their hands? Shopping!

We stumbled upon a Stokes store that was having a great sale and so I bought some great new toys. I’m not much of a cook, but I do love a good kitchen gadget. I recently decided that my hand mashed potatoes were not good enough, and that I NEEDED a potato ricer to improve things. So, into the store we went and I bought a potato ricer, micro plane grater, stainless steel measuring cups and a 14L stock pot.

The cooking fun begins tonight with some mashed potatoes, but there will need to be future recipes that involve a large quantity of soup or stew in the stock pot, and something with lemon zest so I can try out my new grater.

For the sake of a gratuitous picture… I give you Cici and her New Year’s friend. Sally played hostess to Cici and the two dogs played, and played, and played. Cici is still exhausted.

More sewing

The weekend shopping spree also saw the purchase of quilt batting, to stuff the quilt I’m making. And, I bought a new pillow form and some fabric for a new pillow for our couch, to replace the current one which Cici has claimed as her dog bed.

More knitting

And finally, I have great plans for more knitting. I’m afraid to look into my stash, as I know I will be overwhelmed, but there is plenty of yarn to keep me busy.

I’ve started my first 2013 knitting project, with plans to complete a lace cardigan in 2013.

I’ve already distracted myself from that project, and decided I need to complete a new pair of mittens before the end of January.

The “I make mittens” group on Ravelry, has been highly active in 2012. Mary Elizabeth, one of the moderators, proactively sought me out this weekend, and had me count up the mittens I made in 2012. I came up with six pairs, which means I now want to knit at least 7 pairs in 2013. Must get started now!

I’m sure I’ll knit some socks, and I’ve got yarn that would make a good hat, and of course there is the Leftover Blanket which would be great to finish in 2013.

So much yarn, so little time!

More time with friends!

I have had some good times with friends in 2012. You know who you are - if you were laughing with me, and not at me. J I hope there will be more coffees, lunches, dinners and drinks in our future!

I’ve also made some online friends for the first time in my life. My introverted, cautious side has held me back from calling people friends, if I haven’t met them face to face, but all that changed in 2012. Sharing a common love of all things Walt Disney World, I’ve been able to virtually meet some great people, that I truly call my friends. Again, you know who you are, if we’ve shared some laughter and support together in 2012. I wish you more laughter and only good times ahead for 2013! (And of course, I wish you many trips to Disney, which some of you are well on your way to accomplishing!)

Soooo…. That should be enough to keep my busy this year!

Autumn Mittens

Where did my week go? I can't believe it has been 7 days since my last post. I'm not sure what I've been doing in that time, since there aren't too many quilt squares trimmed and there's been minimal knitting progress, but according to the calendar 7 days have indeed passed by.

I did manage to get started on a new pair of mittens that I plan to finish this month. They have a distinctly autumn palette going on.

Much like the past week, today has also slipped by. I had a good day roaming the city with a friend and wrapped it up with a trip to the grocery store to make some soup. I'm trying the Sirloin Soup recipe from the Mennonite Girls. It won't be ready until 8 pm ish, so by then we should be hungry enough that it tastes good, no matter how successful I am. So far all the ingredients are in the pot and it is smelling pretty good.

While at the store I picked up a nice loaf of French bread, so there will be some French toast for breakfast tomorrow. Mmmm.

I Love Stuffing

I’m in the midst of preparing our Thanksgiving dinner. There are just four of us at our meal, so we are keeping it relatively simple – turkey, mashed potatoes (loaded with butter and sour cream), broccoli, dinner rolls, gravy and most importantly, stuffing.

 

I get lazy, where possible without sacrificing taste, so the gravy, dinner rolls and pie are bought from Summerhill Market, the grocery store to the rich and pampered, just up the street from us. (For my grammar freak friends, that sentence works no matter how you punctuate or read it, as the grocery store, as well as the rich and pampered are both located up the street from us.) The lazy version of turkey is to go to St. Lawrence Market and buy a prepared boneless turkey breast to roast without any bones to clean up.

 

The one place where I don’t get lazy is the stuffing. I love stuffing and will dedicate 50% of my thanksgiving dinner prep to the stuffing. This year’s version includes bread, celery, onion, butter, turkey broth and chorizo sausage (also from St. Lawrence Market.) As usual, I’ve made way too much, so I’ll be eating stuffing every day for the next week.

 

Here is my stuffing, prepped and ready to go in the oven.

Minestrone and Fresh Buns

Today it feels like fall out, and I have responded by making a big pot of homemade Minestrone soup, and some fresh homemade buns to accompany it. Sooo good!

The makings of the Minestrone…

And the buns…

For my Disney friends… we always eat this soup out of our Disney mugs.

Love French Toast

In the hot summer months, one of our go to meals is to get a baguette and find some no-cook food to go with it. Steve like jalapeno Havarti cheese, Jacob like kielbasa, and I love having enough baguette leftovers for French toast, the next morning.

Here is today’s batch of French toast on the griddle.

It is so simple to make:

• Whisk together a few eggs
• Add a splash of milk
• Throw in a dash of salt
• Sprinkle on some cinnamon
• Add a bit of vanilla
• Dip some baguette slices into the mix and place them on the griddle

In just a few minutes you have a delicious breakfast treat. Mmmm.

The 2 Things That Will Change My Life

Over the years I have convinced myself that there are two things I need to acquire to dramatically change my life - the right 30-minute cookbook and the right lotion.
 

The Right 30-minute Cookbook

As I stand in the grocery store checkout each week, I see the tempting displays of cookbooks and magazines that promise life-altering 30-minute recipes that will allow me to have my career and feed my family satisfying meals. I'm convinced that if I just buy the right one, I will be cooking meals every day from fresh ingredients that will have us all be healthier and wealthier in no time.

Here are some of the cookbooks I have amassed that I'm hopeful will one day deliver on the promise to cook meals in minutes and give me a new lease on life. (So far, I haven't seen the results.)

The Right Lotion

When I watch TV or read magazines I am always drawn in by lotion ads. Surely, if I buy the latest lotion my skin will be smoother; I will look healthier; and I will have a youthful appearance that will have high-paying employers clamouring to offer me jobs that I will turn down, because my cookbooks and lotions will have enabled me to be independently wealthy.

I don't bother with makeup on a daily basis and I'm so lazy I barely convince myself to floss each day, but I'm convinced there is some magical lotion product that will be so satisfying and easy to apply that I will want to use it every minute of every day. Some of the products I've tried have come close to the perfection I seek.

• Oil of Olay makes some great daily face lotions with a hint of foundation and sunscreen (can't go wrong with the right SPF). What's not to love about a lotion that reduces wrinkles, acts as foundation, and serves as sunscreen in one quick application?
• Aveeno lotions have an oatmeal base which makes the product smell yummy and sound healthy.
• Bath and Body Works sells some amazing lotions, but they have a mine-field of scents that must be carefully navigated.
• The Body Shop offers many appealing lotions that are perfectly scented and displayed in ways that make me want to buy one of everything in the store.

Recently, I was fortunate to receive a Body Shop gift card from some generous friends. I thought carefully about what to do with this gift and came up with the following options:

• I could savour it and keep it until Christmas and treat myself to some wonderful Christmassy lotion that would make me feel festive.
• Or, I could use it to buy some useful implements of torture to use for the perfect at-home pedicure.
• Or, I could use it to buy one product at a time to slowly dissipate the card as I run out of lotion and need more.

Did I go with any of those options? No, of course not! I went running to the Body Shop after work today and spent the entire gift card in one sitting and bought myself all these products.

Yay!

I love that the Body Shop lets you stack up the discounts. Today I scored 50% off gift baskets, used a $10 off coupon, layered on a loyalty club discount, and I received a free gift. All that combined has me coming home with a crazy amount of stuff. Good value for the dollar.

Look out world - the newly transformed me is clearly just a lotion away!

(If any of you are spending time with me in the next year, let me know what scent you prefer. With some advance notice I can show up smelling like strawberry, lemon, mango, cherry blossom, shea butter, brazil nut or peppermint.)

Indulgent Saturday

Today has been a great day. The weather is amazing so I have been out and about. My wonderful husband did all the cleaning earlier this week so with no laundry or vacuuming nagging at me, I could do whatever I wanted today. I decided that I wanted to make a couple of our favourite foods.

I began by baking chocolate cookies.

The recipe is one handed to me by my sister a few (many few) years ago, and I’ve been making it ever since. It contains a package of vanilla pudding for some extra goodness.

Next up I made a bowl of 7-layer dip which we will consume in place of supper. I will claim to have made this in honour of Cinco De Mayo.

Healthy eating be dammed. Today we will eat dip and cookies and not worry about it.

The Best Mail Week Ever!

So yesterday was great when the Kindle arrived, but today was even more exciting when my Kool-Aid minis arrived!

The oh so wonderful Christine from New Hampshire sent me 12 mini skeins of yarn she dyed with Kool-Aid. The absolute best part is that she labelled each skein with the flavour of Kool-Aid. I want to knit them all up immediately, but also want to save them forever because they are so wonderful.

I love the subtlety of the Lemonade, and Cherry is always my favourite, but the Black Cherry is really nice, and the Peach Mango is wonderful, and the Lemon Lime is perfectly bright, and…. I want to use them all NOW.

In other news…

Supper was very good.

Mmmm Guacamole!

IF ... I had more time

It has been a busy week. There isn’t much to post. I could show you a picture of my socks that are on the needles, or the beads that are being strung, but that’s not interesting – you’ve already seen the raw materials, so I’d like to wait until I have a finished product to show off.

I have had time this week to day dream and think about what I would do if I had more time. Here are some of the things that come to mind.

·         Knit a new pair of mittens every week

·         Make another quilt

·         Take a Running Room class (well, no not really, but I would go for a super long walk every day)

·         Read more books

·         Learn to cook

·         Learn to take a good picture

·         Become a Lady who Lunches (even  if I learned to cook, I would still want others to cook for me)

The title of this post was inspired by a vintage clothing store I used to live near in Winnipeg (waayyy back in the day). The store was called “IF… you have to get dressed in the morning”. I loved that name and also loved that they called it “IF” for short.

Happy Pancake Tuesday!

Nothing better than panycakes and bacon!

Cici worshipping the dog dish that contains bacon - practicing her telekinesis without success.

Hoping a high five will work to get me to move the bowl down to the floor.

We Made Chili

Tonight for supper we are eating this…

It has been a group effort. A couple of weekends ago I made the chili and put it in the freezer and today my son came home from school and put it in the slow cooker. Sometimes having a teenager is handy!


I will never get over the joy of coming home from work and having supper ready to eat. Mmmm!


In other news… Gotta love having a temperature of 9°C on an evening in January!