tania howells

post birthday hangover

Well, not really, but you know that anti-climatic feeling after an anticipated event? I got that. Snore pie with yawn sauce. This was not a birthday cake, though I do have a picture of that still on my camera. This is a cake I baked in my new bundt cake pan from the rummage sale last week. I was over joyed that it actually came out of the pan since I have never made a cake like this. It was a basic blueberry/yogurt/pound cakey thing I found in the joy of cooking and because it required 5 tablespoons of butter, I somehow read the conversion chart to mean it needed 1 1/4 cups of butter. Clever girl.
Needless to say it was really yummy and buttery!

One of my birthday gifts from Paul was this book which I tore through in one day, I enjoyed it so much. Check it out!

great days

It has been a couple of action packed fun days and I will start with Saturday. First we saw a snail, which was a great thing to start with because he was really cute. It was the day of the famous Estonian rummage sale. My friend Grace timed her vacation to be able to go to it! We met her and her friend Gaby there and then fanned out.

I found some fantastic bits and pieces as usual. Some great vintage linens, a Dick bruna book, a picture book about a mockingbird and cake pans. I was so exited about the cake pans as such things never registerd on my radar before now. The thoughts of future cakes filled my head...
I also scored a genuine Ookpik which is such a nostalgic piece of Canadiana, I could not leave it behind. Plus, I loved the page about Ookpiks in Douglas Coupland's book "A Souvenir of Canada". That is one of my favorite books.
Lastly, we visited Allen Gardens and took in the wonderful plants.
Later that day, My mum arrived by train and she and Paul took me out for an early birthday dinner at Langolino and I had ther most fantasic seafood pasta ever.

round-up!

This is a moment in our cake class last week- it illustrates the chaos that ensues once we get started. I have always associated baking with a relaxing Sunday, but this class becomes a whirlwind of madness! I think our teacher gets a bit overwhelmed with all the things he has to do. A table full of ladies giggling probably does not help! Look at that nice mixer though.

He showed us how to make these pretty chocolate wafery things to place on the mocha cake, we shaved chocolate, made creamy icings, dipped strawberries in chocolate for the strawberry shortcake. Lovely!




He assembled these cakes to show us how and I was happy to watch. I love taking a class just for fun!
Some students wished they got to do more of this part but I was happy either way. Look at those cakes! The most delicious cake was the strawberry shortcake because it had the least shortening- whip cream for icing! We got to eat them all! Well, I still have some inmy fridge but still!
My first daffodilly! I planted these for my dad last fall. It is not quite in focus- I am getting the hang of Paul's snazzy little camera because my old 3.2 mega pixel friend finally gave up the ghost.


A zoom in of my best friend. I LOVE robins and i watched this guy hopping around, pecking for worms and then burst into song between worms, for no reason. How cheerful! I think I need to be more like him.
My view is being chopped down by rail workers. They are cutting trees along the rail line whcih is my green view and I am so anxious about it. I need to sing for no reason. It will be ok- sigh.

A little flower brooch I made this week. I just felt I needed a flower brooch. ( hah- felt- get it? felt flower brooch! groan)
I could not resist these dollies in Mexico. They are made by hand by these beautiful women and girls in amazing sort of traditional looking outfits, who walk around town selling them for too cheap. The big one was only $5 and I wished I had given them $10, which still would not be enough based on the work that goes into them. I like the faces which have a bit if a Japenses cute thing going on.
This is a pretty jar of wildflower honey from Germany which is replacing Mr. Tibbs the guinea pig, who has now gone home to his real family. I will miss the little feller. He really did fit right in to our household. The honey was a lovely thank-you gift because I had been lying in bed this mornign thinking I wanted toast with honey and cinnamon, but did not have honey!

koo koo crazy

Just came across this amazingly crazy video in the latest Stash DVD we subscribe to at work. It is so nutty and so surreal it makes me happy and I know if I was a kid I would be mesmerised. I am an adult, and I am mesmerised. You can ask my brother, all I cared about when I was a kid was cute stuff like this and I have not changed.

Also, I am loving all the fabric people are doing lately, which I have linked to (gushed about) before, but it is making me so inspired today-

Lara Cameron's wonderful work

Aunty Cookie- AWESOME!

Patapri- desperately good

Jessica Jones (AKA- How About Orange) gorgeous designs

-and I know there are many more I have not even found yet. Mainly, what I am saying is "I want to play too!" Nuts about fabric, I have somehow been good in the last year. I have not bought any because I know until I have a proper project in mind, it will just languish in studio purgatory.

Oh! And have you seen the new dangerousness that is Yvestown selling Paumes books. I dropped $75 in the time it took me to sneeze yesterday. Its so easy and I love to pay with paypal- it almost seems free...almost. Yay Yves!

It is a rainy spring day here! I don't mind, it will bring the tulips up faster. My Baking class yesterday was fun again. Here are icing leaves to add to our roses basket. And here is the basket, for which we used all our roses, from last week- a centerpiece of hard icing. Here is my CAKE! Well, it is a styrofoam one. We all got to ice our own and I was bursting with wanting to squeeze that icing out of my piping bag. I was the first one done of course which ended up being a good thing. I scraped off all my icing for the next girl to use because our bowl was empty by then. The only bad thing is now I have a stryofoam cake shape all naked.
This I swear happend all by itself , naturally. I had taken Mr. Tibbs out of his cage when I got home, for a little cuddle. The girl cat jumped up and plonked herself right down next to him! I could not believe it. I think she is a little bit worried Mr. Tibbs is my new best friend so I make sure to tell her "You are my favorite!" a few times.

Mr. Tibbs

We have a house guest named Mr. Tibbs! He is a very handsome guinea pig and he will be staying here for a week, while my neighbor is away. I must say, a new animal in the house adds a whole new dimension and girl cat seems bemused by him. I was afraid her carniverous background instincts would come out, but she merely seems cautiously curious. Still, while we are out or asleep I will put him in a closed room just in case!

Here is a bluberry muffin baked on Sunday for brunch. I was quite pleased with them because I had not planned on making them and they turned out very nice. Cakes really, nice little cakes. That is a pretty dish I bought in Mexico.

Seedlings! There are my geraniums, just making an appearance now. I am exited about them. I also have a packet of columbine and shasta daisy seeds to soak. They are perennials so I am hopeful of future gardens full of them... When I was a little girl, there was a park we walked our dog in that was covered in daisies and we would pick them, even though that was frowned upon. There were just so many, all down by the rivers edge. The columbines have just always reminded me of flower fairies. I think they are so pretty.

mexico

I am back! Our break included visiting my mother in San Miguel D'Allende, Mexico. I have uploaded a pile of pics to flickr to show you.
Some of my favorite things, apart from seeing mum, were:

the market

exploding judas figures

lovely bakery

bouganvillia

colors everywhere

fantastic craft work

manzanilla for the Easter procession

cafe cha cha cha.

dessert at cafe cha cha cha.

Paul got his suitcase today and mine is still lost- oh well!
It is hard to get back into the swing of things again after a warm, lazy, restful holiday, but I am setting my sights on spring. I am soaking some geranium seeds, inspired by pots of them all over San Miguel and
I start my cake class on Thursday!

flying south or north

I found this great pin in the summer at a garage sale for 25¢! I snatched it up immediatley. It had a broken pin back that was soldered on, and it has taken me until now to snip it off and glue on a new pin back. It has a signature on it -Carole Conklirti (or Conklinti- I can't quite read it )- 1975. The year I was born! It is good for this time of year when my wardrobe consists mainly of four plain, warm turtleneck sweaters, rotated over the weeks- with pants or a skirt of course! I have four exactly the same chunky knit turtlenecks which I have found over the years at goodwill. They are all by gap- a style I was too mean to splurge on when they were new- in pale blue, pale green, black and pink! A little boring, but cozy. I like a nice pin to liven things up. Just in case you were wondering...which you probably weren't...but what are blogs for!

cookie starts with C

I have made 4 batches of chocolate chip cookies since Christmas. I seem to be addicted to them, especially right out of the oven with a glass of milk. mmmmm.
Here are some innessential pretty things I treated myself to on the weekend. Flower shaped cookie cutters! I love that they are all different sizes. I have this distant dreamy fantasy of sugar cookie sandwiches with jam in the middle, the top layer has a smaller flower window cut out and the tops are dusted with icing sugar... how nice.
Speaking of icing sugar, we have gotten snow upon snow lately. I really could have taken a prettier picure, because the trees are iced with it on every branch and the park looks so nice. This was last friday though, and the scene has been repeated twice since with more coming tonight.

tea of the day - fake coffee

I got a jar of that grain drink that is a coffee substitute and it's so good! I was surprised. Look at that yummy brownie - my knitting neighbor made them for Monday knitting and insisted we take some home. You don't have t ask me twice!
After my post lunch "coffee" break I decided to go for a skate before my shift at work, which was not untill 4:00. I had been itching for a skate and had not gone once this year yet! It was a good day to go because it was warm but not melty.
These guys were so cute! They were helping the girl in the middle learn to skate, holding her hands the whole time. That's friendship.
After my skate, I still had about half and hour so I stopped into the National Film Board to watch the The Danish Poet for the second time. This is one of the sweetest little films I have ever seen, it's just so lovely on so many levels. I like to go and watch it when I need to feel all happy again. It won an Oscar as well! So that is what yesterday was about- doing little happy things, which I seem to have less and less time for these days. I have decided that is a crime and I must MAKE time for this stuff, otherwise I will evaporate. Something nice, everyday.

Speaking of owls, look what my neighbor brought me back from Mexico for babysitting her cat!! Talk about cuteness, I love this guy. (sorry, he is a tad blurry)
I wanted to show you some stuff I have been coveting lately!
I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of this awesome calendar from Happymeat. She still has a couple left, so grab 'em while you can!
I think This is so cool. Penguin has released a pile of new book titles with the old vintage covers! Brilliant!
I finally got my mitts on a copy of Apples for Jam at the book store the other day before work. It was $50 so I left it behind, but not without much oohing and ahhing. It is a gorgeous book!!! I see it is much cheaper online, so I will have to investigate my cookie jar and see what I can scrape up.

And how about this great print from the geniuses over at Keep-Calm.com. So true. I love me some tea.

Also, a great big thank-you for all the sweet comments about my book!! I love reading them so much, it makes the whole thing seem REAL!

tea of the day - Vanilla Rooibos

Here we have the paperwhites that were mere bulbs a few weeks ago! I am now experiencing the peculiar smell I have read about. I can't decide if they smell nice or naughty. In a dramatic turn of events, I have discovered that these are poisonous for cats! I have placed this high up on the microwave now, but it had been on the kitchen table since I bought them and thankfully girl cat has not gnawed on them at all- and she gnaws on all things. My mum is bringing a poinsettia which will also have to be kept far from her. We can have no more sick pussycats around here for a long while.

Behold my awesome calendar for the new year. My knitting neighbor to the east - her kids' school made them and I had to have one. They are just so perfect. I have always wanted to create my own calendar, so perhaps if I start in the new year I will have one ready to sell for 2009. Boy, that sounds far far away...but can you believe it is nearly 2008?

To end on a perfect note-look !! A gift which I was unable to save for Christmas. It is from the lovely In Fact I do believe I gave it away in the first picture...It is one of the great re-usable shopping bags she and the knitters of Hexham have made. It has this link added MORSBAGS.Look! Here they are giving the bags away! How great. Ande Here they are being made! I love it. Thank-you Katie! I love the bag and stickers , lovely buttons and card-:)

multi-packet

A good Monday morning to you!

I finally re-vamped my coasters. They had teddy bears on them and while cute in a way, they just weren't me. I knew I had been saving groovy papers for years for some reason.

Snow! Boy did we get snow. This was only halfway through. I shovelled again at night and we have a huge mountain at the front and at the back. I lay back onto it after I finished and enjoyed the total quiet (apart from the neighbors radio, which is always on - OUTSIDE. yes.) and lovliness of a snow fall. Today it is bright and sparkley and wonderful.

Here are those mitts I started a while back. I have been wearing them for a few weeks now and forgot to take a picture. I also threw in a hat as well for good measure, which I made from my head.
I have had to sew a polar fleece lining in it since, to add extra warmth.

I got a picture of the awesome publicity that has happened for my favorite tv show ever, Intelligence. They are always so clever with this stuff. It is always a crazy ad campaign like this and I love it. It was on during my Monday knitting and I have missed a lot! I plan to get the DVD because it is really that good. I hope they put a DVD out...

Ahh. that's nice.

Here is the picture of my coffee date on Saturday. I took it with Pam's camera because of course, I always forget mine when there are nice pictures to be taken! I also missed a really cool shot of a flock of geese flying high up in the sky, with an airplane flying near them as well. It looked amazing from the ground, but no camera!


What is it??






Well it is a draft snake of course, for the back door, which I made this weekend. It is the final use for the first scarf I ever knitted, when I was unable to get my ribbing organised and ended up with a mess of stitches all over the place. It had been sitting in a box for years until Sunday when I discovered it on my quest for something to make this snake with. As soon as it gets cold, I become an old man, constantly feeling for drafts and heat leaks. I *THINK* the plastic on the window helps some, it is a teeny bit warmer upstairs now.

assorted selection

Here are the buttons I have collected over the years. I keep them in a little metal box on my desk.

Our posh party was fun, except the last half of the event, a big party and silent auction at the museum to raise money for AIDS research, was cancelled due to a bomb threat!! I won't even link to the news items because it ended up being AN ART PROJECT. I don't want to give the dumb kid any more publicity than he already has. He was so arrogant and so unapologetic insisting that it was "an important piece" that I just wanted to be sick. I am so glad my art school days (and my days of dating artists ) are long behind me!

Instead look at these gorgeous patterns, now available on MOO. They are by Rachel Cave and I am nuts about them.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!!

start the week off with a cake!

I am enjoying having a bit of free time these days to undertake important projects like baking a cake for knitting night instead of serving cookies from a package! How nice. I will dust it with some icing sugar just before we eat it. It was a Martha Stewart recipe from last christmas for orange yogurt cake.

On Friday we went to a lovely lovely concert. It was the Glen and Marketa- The Swell Season- from the film ONCE, (this site plays you the songs!) and I mean it when I say it was really one of the best concerts I ever saw. The songs are perfect, the two of them are delightful and it was great. Not only that but Toronto legend, Mary Margaret O'Hara was the opening band!! It was like spotting a rare bird, I don't think she hardly ever performs. It was just fantastic. If you were to ask me for a soundtrack that to me IS Toronto, I would give you her name. Here is an inadequate picture of a wonderful night.

first snow

I love the first snow. It is crisp, sunny and freezing out. I always feel so grateful these days for freezing cold, fearing a time when maybe my beloved winters will be history?? I so very much hope not. The cold always makes me feel ...sort of...tough or something. I love being from the north and surviving winters! Stomping around in my sleeping bag of a coat all toasty and thinking about the reward- a cup of tea!

This was the night before- my view from the streetcar window on the way home- rainy and horrible but didn't the steamy windows and lights look pretty?




On a designy note, I came across this cereal ad from 1961 while searching for a picture of a stick of dynamite in the explosions file. This was on the back of something. I love the leaf motif. Very Orla!

friday round up

You can't take a bad picture of pretty eggs.
A necklace I made recently- experimenting with these little rolled up puffy things. Not sure I will wear this but I like the way it looks on the table.
And a baby drawing since you have not seen many illustrations lately. I wonder if I have already posted this before? I was cleaning out my pictures file and this was in it. It was for a project ages ago.

Some flickr faves too!

-Fantastic Quilt

-Great chicken on the wall

-I love Gertie

-More fabulousness from M. Patrizio

-Because I love bigfoot and sasquatch lately.

-Kids with fake moustaches crack me up.

finishing and beginning

.
I spent much of the weekend knitting. I had Monday off for Remembrance Day. I finished off this cute siamese cat who shall be called toy cat in remembrance of boy cat. I am still not thrilled with his face- I can never seem to get faces right on toys- but I love him anyway. It was made with a pattern from very very cute Fuzzy Mitten!

I also FINALLY finished these socks which I started last Christmas. You have seen them in progress on many occaisions -like here or here. I decided I must get them done for Paul's birthday this coming Monday as he had hinted that they should be his socks.

Then I treated myself to some new yarn from Zellers and started a pair of mitts from this mag. I love how these are coming out. I had to lengthen them a weensy bit because my middle finger is too long and I used a slightly smaller needle than required because that's all I had, so they are actually snug and perfect instead of gargantuan and yeti sized like my first pair of mittens- bless them. Speaking of yetis, my brother had the spookiest bigfoot documentary that we watched on the weekend. I believe the sasquatch is REAL!!! They showed the full footage from this famous big foot film and did a close up zoom-
It is real!

:)

Now my brother has gone home to England and there will be no more Yeti movies or coffee breaks for a while- sniffle. We all had a great visit and we'll miss you!

Before my brother came out here just now, he innocently asked if there was anything I wanted from London. "Well...." I said, "I have always always wanted an Orla Kiely mug..." and then immediately felt guilty for asking. Look though! What a kind brother I have. Of course I love the bag and little card thing as much as the awesome mugs- woo!

Mum needed me to be a witness signature on a document yesterday at the American consulate. She needed some form notarized. I naively brought my normal purse with my normal things in it and was told I had to leave my camera and ofcourse knitting OUTSIDE! Anywhere across the street. They had no where to put it so I had to hide it under a bush. This is my first test shot after being reunited with my camera and knitting and being relieved it was not stolen. Also the x-ray security machine discovered I had a packet of cheese for my snack later and -horror- an APPLE! These things I also had to trot across the street and leave on the curb. My cheese was stepped on after but the apple was fine after a wash. I don't need to tell you I got all furious but had to push it down lest I be suspected a person of interest. How tiresome! and rather stressful!
Here is me and mum reflecting on our morning over coffee. Ahh that's better.


..and here is a bag I bought after that because I was early for work. Curses to the cheap and cheerful shops! I probably could have just made this myself but I didn't and I like to think about a line from Amy's book where she says - "It's ok to have long periods of being "uncrafty". That's often when you can get the most inspiration- when you aren't looking for it." Thanks Amy! Permission ! On that note I am working away on the book so that is sapping up most of my creative impulses. I am cautiously optimisticly nearing the end of it. I imagine there will be various things to re-do but I can see the light at the end a little bit! Deep breath.
In boy cat news, he is stable I guess, skinny as a rail and not super interested in food but still eating a bit and purring and sitting on our laps. I fear I may have to make a decision soon about his pussycat future and whether to send him on to the big cat grass patch in the sky... I am trying to prolong that sad decision because, well, it is horrible.

jam tarts

This picture is awful and ofcourse, I ate all the jam tarts and could not take a second one so you will just have to take my word for it. I made them in a fit of busyness last night before knitting night. I love jam tarts! I have not had them since I was little and my mum would make them with the leftover dough from a pie. I have been thinking about them ever since...MMM!
Yestreday on top of havnig a lovely , long overdue lunch with Krissy and buying myself a new expensive british elle deco mag as a treat, there was a box on my desk when I got to work. It said "fabrics for Tanya". I have no problems wiith my name being spelled wrong if those 2 words are in front of it. They were from the amazing woman who is my co-workers best friend. She is the one who makes remarkable quilts and who I talked about here. She is moving and clearing up and thought I might like these. This table runner had me leaping up and down and embarrassing myself at work. It is FAB. The One on the left looks like IKEA and the right is vintage- I love them. There were 2 more- one a kitcheny-scandinavian one with maps overlayed with fishes and foods and another more modern kitcheny one. I took a photo of the first one but it was all blurry. WOW- how kind- I was so grateful and exited to get this stuff. yay!

Kniting night seems to be a permanent thing and I am loving it. Last night we all had a good cackle over a movie we had all seen - 2 days in Paris. I had no expectations going in to see it and boy was I impressed. It was just so funny and so familiar somehow. I really loved it. And I believe Julie Delpy did it all on her own steam, directing, acting , producing etc- impressive!

visitation thursday

Well! I have been about as cheerful as a box of weasels all week, so no posting. I thought today I would check in and tell you what I have been up to.
On the weekend we visited friends in Goderich, Ontario. It was lovely, I had a good long swim in lake Huron, we saw hundreds of monarch butterflies resting in a park on route to mexico (pictures to come!), saw a play and generally had a lovely time. The play was about the last public hanging in Ontario, done in 1868 and was performed at the very spot of the hanging (shudder)- at the old jail which is now a cultural center. The reason we went was mainly because this last man hung, Nicholas Melady, is a distant relative of our friends!

This is where we slept, in the attic which was painted wonderful happy colors.

This is a quilt made by our friend and her mum, which was on our bed. Gorgeous and all hand quilted!

Otherwise, I have managed to spend money.

Here are my MOO cards. I got these for you lisa!

:)

I like them. They make a nice little bookmark and will be great gift tags. Here are some more great ideas to use them for. I plan to reconfigure my bulletin board set up soon - I got a great free HUGE one at work, just have to get it home- and I expect to make a little clothes line on it for my favorite cards.

I also treated myself to this great cute awesome charm by Marilyn Partizio. I. LOVE. IT.

Ofcourse there are the things that cost a lot and are not exiting like the $230 hard drive I bought to back up my files for this kids book I am working on. I plugged it in this morning and felt triumphant to have conquered yet another task on my list. It had been sitting suspiciouly on my counter for a week, but I finally made friends with it and it will prove essential, I think. Whenever I spend a pile of cash on something, it always takes me a week or so to get used to it. Ugh. Coming up - a new furnace at some point. They cost a fortune and don't even come in pink!

summer weekends

We have really been getting around this summer. Ths past weekend we finally got the mummies to meet. Paul's mum drove us out to my mum's house for a nice weekend of knitting and loafing. I say knitting because Paul's mum made 6 dish cloths in the time we were there and gave them to my mum for her new place. She is moving you see, by the fall, to a smaller place. I love her house now but it really is too big for just her, especially since she spends some of her year in Mexico. This is her awesome porch where I finished a blue scarf. Mum's whole house is this colorful and I just love her style! I am glad to report the mum's got along just fine.
I was so glad to fit in a walk at the beach. It was a bit cool so I didn't swim but Paul took a quick dip. This is Sandbanks Provincial Park- isn't it gorgeous?

friday cool stuff round-up

These are the coolest mugs that my friend Beta thoughtfully got me at the annual Estonian rummage sale in May that I missed for some reason and then we only just got around to me getting them last week. I love these mugs! They have a sort of Canadiana feel to them. Bonus! Two owl mugs!

She also decided that I should have this awesome birdy banner even though she had bought it for herself. Thanks so much, it is going in my hall!

Last week I found Amy's great book and treated myself to it. Of course I love it- it is so nice in every way. Can't wait till it is cooler and I feel like making stuff again. Also pictured is a cute apple Astro Satchel pouch that I was drooling over on our trip in Tofino BC and Paul secretly went back to buy for me. I Love her bags so much and saw them all over BC.

Well! I hadn't expected to be missing for so long. Last week I was working hard to meet a deadline, then the weekend came with a lovely lazy Saturday- brunch, a little garage sale-ing, some free magazines in a box and an afternoon on the porch reading and knitting.

Sunday we went to a wedding on lake Simcoe. One of my oldest and closest friends married her lovely fella and it was a great day.
These are some cute ducks I saw- ten babies! Quite a handful. We stayed over there and I swam in lake Simcoe on the Monday which was a holiday called Simcoe Day. I felt quite pleased about that. I also saw a tiny bat sleeping up in a corner by the pool. It was so cute and I whispered to Paul "shh- he's sleeping!" which seemed funny to me.

Mum drove up that evening and early on Tuesday morning we drove up to Crane Lake to hang out with my brother and sister in law and our friend B. This is me reading Martha on the dock- bliss! It was so wonderful to hang out with my family again chatting away for hours, eating chips and swimming. We were so lucky to be able to get away and go to this perfect place.





Today I am in Monday mode and keep comforting myself by remembering it is actually Thursday and on the weekend I get to see all of them again for a special dinner to celebrate our wedding. Yay!

ahhh...

After a fairly busy Sunday, making brunch for Paul's family, hanging out with them and cleaning etc, I declared it time for the beach! It is something that I often think about and usually decide it is too much trouble with the bikes and all. This time though I plowed through that thought and made Paul come too- what a treat! As we lay out a blanket and I got out our thermos of tea and some peaches ( fresh Ontario peaches! ) and biscuits it occurred to me that happiness is partly about making the effort. I always always enjoy the things that I originally have thought "Ohh- can i really be bothered?". Without fail I am always glad that I have bothered. We discovered that sunnyside pool now has a beach front cafe on top of the all day swimming that I have never been to in all my years here. ( MUST GO! ) It was like a European scene with the umbrellas and people in beach clothing. Of course, no loafing is complete without an amazing book to read and I SO SO enjoyed The Right Attitude to Rain By Alexander McCall Smith. I won't tell you what happens because it was a fantastic surprise and I am so exited about volume four in this series whenever it may appear. Good old library!
This was our dinner on Saturday night, my summer favorite of basil, olive oil, tomatoes, garlic and pasta- yum. Please ignore our unfortunate cement bunker of a back patio in the background.

I also managed to get some scrapbook glueing time. All in all a perfect weekend with a good balance of chores and tidying up against nice fun relaxing things.





Oh and one last thing, look at this fabulous handmade bike lane some wonderful people are now adding to our streets! The city keeps promising them to us with no results and whoever is taking matters into their own hands deserves a hug and a piece of cake- a big piece!

old pictures

Photo borrowed from the City of Toronto Archives site.
This is where I get my groceries. In the 1890's it was a rope factory, can you imagine? I love old pictures and the Toronto Archives search is just fascinating to me. When I feel jittery or worried, old pictures calm me down instantly. They remind me of the big picture, that it will all be ok and life just goes on. I love to see pictures of people bustling around town 100 years ago, crossing streets I walk on regularly and I love to wonder what worries or joys they may have had at the time the picture was taken. Are those two little boys in this photo chatting about who is taking the picture? Those old cars are busily going somewhere too. It all reminds me how grateful I am to be busy and working and living, like all those before and after me, life just goes on. Time for lunch.

grey water

After being in BC and so near the ocean, I decided to bike home along the lake after work yesterday which was a nice idea in theory but harder to actually do. The sad part is that some dusty city planner back in the olden days thought putting a huge rail line and two highways along the water would be a good idea. So my dear lake Ontario is not easily accessible by foot or bike without a fair amount of inconvenience as well condo construction blocking sidewalks, etc. You CAN get there eventually though and it is rather nice once you get to a calm portion of it, like here. I sat and watched some rowers speed by, sailboats and geese drifting about. Very calming.

Grey water is a concept I had never heard about until recently. I have been rather frightened/ concerned about environmental issues since I was around 13 and I am always trying my best to lessen my footprint in new ways. Grey water is about re-using water you might pour down the drain to then water your plants or even flush the toilet. I loved to read all the recent great ideas over at the wonderful Sew Green. Please take some time to read and think about these ideas too. As something I had hardly given a thought to a year ago, it all now seems so very sensible. I am trying my best, but there is always more- it gets a bit overwhelming sometimes.

excellent water conservation tips.

How many gallons?

How much water does it take to make a liter of pop?

using a rain barrel