Knocking things off my list

Listmania!

I am enamored with the list idea. First, I made minestrone:


...it turned out damn good, and it was a lifesaver on Monday after the snow-induced busstop nightmare. So nice to come home from a cold and wet and sucky day to beautiful homemade soup!

Also, I got to working on #13- make something with the wool I bought in Victoria. I am so freaking happy with the outcome of this project! Not only did I knock an item off my list, and make something cool, but I learned a bunch of new knitting techniques (check out the round needle AND double-pointed needle action I got up to- go me!).

Casting on

Halfway done!

Double pointed needles - I actually know what to do with these!

Hat!

I AM CANADIAN

Left work: 5:45pm
Stopped at the grocery store
Got to the bus stop: 6:25pm
Bus arrived: 8:11pm

Stupid snow, really stupid drivers. But I survived, so I call it a win.

List

So, my friend Victoria started the year off with this list. It wasn’t a resolutions list, it was more like a goals list, mostly aimed at her artistic interests. Her list intrigued me, but I wasn’t about to go out and compose my own list…or at least, I hadn’t intended to.

But I think we all have a few ideas rolling around in our heads of things we want to do, dream of doing, keep intending on getting to…and it seemed natural to gather these persistent stray thoughts and set them down on paper (or at least in a word file). My list is neither as long nor as ambitious as Victoria’s (you can take a gander at her list here). It's not so focused on art (though it certainly includes some projects therein). Some things are beyond the mundane (check out #6), and it may be an embarrassingly short list (especially compared to Victoria's). But they are goals, and I do intend to get through them, within the year. At the very least, it’s a way to get some stuff done.

1. Make Minestrone soup
2. Upgrade blog template
3. Visit Textile Museum
4. Complete and submit Distillery collection
5. Create ‘frame’ print series
6. Make appointment with new dentist
7. Clean out closet, donate clothes
8. Bring books to used book store
9. Buy and install new shelves in hallway
10. Plant garden (sugar snap peas, green onions, lettuce, tomatoes)
11. Wallpaper closet doors
12. Take a looong walk at night with a friend
13. Use wool I got in Victoria

Meet Esme!

The good thing about my birthday is that, hello- it's my birthday. The bad thing is that (though I love February), its always cold, always grey. When I was young, this meant a decided lack of pool parties, as an adult, this means that I (and everyone else) is most interested in celebrating through hibernation.
Of course, hanging about the house (or apartment), no matter how cozy, sucks without a cat. So on my birthday we rectified my situation and got me a cat!

The brother and his roommate kindly drove me all over the GTA hunting. Well, not the entire GTA, just the downtown Humane Society and then the THS cat adoption centre out in Scarberia. The adoption centre was great! The cats weren't all shut up in cages, and there were cat toys and beds and scratching posts everywhere, and you could actually interact with the animals, which is the best (read: only) way to choose a new pet.

I chose a little 3 year old Tortie they called 'Oaks'. She's small and light (I'm actually guessing she might be less than three), and she's got zero fear. The car ride didn't bother her in the slightest, and when we opened up the cage in the apartment, far from hiding under the bed as I'd expected, she strolled out and started looking around immediately. She examined nearly everything, even ate a little, and then settled onto the couch for the brother to pet while we had dinner.

I discovered the next day that she likes to be up high! She made her way onto the tall shelf in my hallway, and she spent the next night curled up on top of my bookcase. I'm going to get a kitty mattress for up there (the book case is tall, but probably really uncomfortable).

After careful deliberation, I've decided to name her Esme. I think she likes the name- her cuddliness is improving!

Beads!

So, this one kind of came about in a roundabout way.

For Hanukkah, I made my aunt a bracelet, and she got me a purse - it's a gorgeous, very unique stiff-felt purse she got in the Distillery district. I'd admired those purses before, so when the holidays rolled around, she went back there to get me one (thanks!). The problem was the store was low in stock, and they didn't have any of my colours. My aunt got me a purple one.
It was lovely, but it was purple.
In its defence, it wasn't pink.
But still...purple.

So a few weeks after Christmas, when we each had a spare day, my aunt and I and the purple purse went back to the Distillery district, back to the hip, unique little boutique from whence it came. And they had a pile of new stock! Gorgeous neat purses in all the good colours of the rainbow. It was hard, but eventually I settled on a heather gray purse with cobalt and grass-coloured dots. Sounds weird, looks unbearably stylish.

While we were there, we did some browsing. The shop features mostly jewelry, mostly very unique, elegant but edgy stuff that both my aunt and I admire (she buys, I don't). While we're walking around the glass cases, admiring the shiny wonderfulness that is being sold there, she speaks up, saying that the bracelet I made her would fit in well with the store's inventory.

Now, I'm a bead artist. Its just a hobby, but I have developed a few skills, though I've never made any real profit off of it. Selling has never been a big priority of mine. But the guy running the shop comes over with a business card and tells me how to submit images of my work for evaluation by the owner.

And I love this idea! I've been working a lot on new projects, trying to get a portfolio of sorts made up, to show the type of stuff I'm interested in making for them. Very sleek, simple, elegant, with a little fun thrown in. Beads, strung by hand, but no single-string silliness (the type of thing I dislike seeing in shops, cause it's so easy to make it yourself, often better, and probably cheaper). My friend Victoria (of Sonnet & Mayhem fame) gifted me with a new notebook so I could keep track of new ideas (which for the last month have been pouring out like water) and important facts on current pieces (time involved, prices of materials, etc). I've been beading up a storm. I've visited Sassy Bead Store four times this month, and the brother drove me out to Bead FX last weekend. I RAN OUT OF BEADS (seriously!) and had to special-order more. At this point, it's becoming obvious that if this venture goes forward (and I'm aware that there is no guarantee of it doing so - I am trying not to count the chickens, I swear!), I might have to start ordering my beads online, in BULK. I've never created pieces like this before, and I'm loving it.

I really hope the shop is interested in my stuff, if only because at this point, I'm having so much damn fun!

Empty home

It's sad coming home to an empty house.

I spent the day with my aunt, and we did some shopping, and eating of cupcakes, and watching of movies. It was a good day, and a good way to spend my first day back home after a week in Texas at a very busy sales conference.

But while I was away in Texas (and I feel very guilty for being there and not here at the time), my cat Punkin passed away. It was sudden (he had a stroke), though not entirely out of the blue (he was 19 years old, at least). Still, it was hard to come home to my brother and his dog waiting for me, rather than loud and insistent meowing. I regret that it was the brother who had to deal with all of that, without help. I regret that my Smelly Old Man (as I'd taken to calling him) was alone, even if it was for a short while. I loved him, and I'm going to miss him.

Especially when I come home, even after good days, to a very quiet apartment.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

After much too little sleep, I'm up again bright and early Christmas morning...to clean. There are no presents, yet. Santa did not visit. But the Mom arrives in eight hours, and by then I should have my apartment looking presentable.
I'm joking, of course, if only a little. Mostly I'm just too wound up to sleep. I keep making lists in my head, of things still to do (put away that load of dishes, clean the mirrors...), and when I tell myself to stop, I end up with excited thoughts (Boxing Day sales? I want to buy boots! Black ones, tall, not thigh-highs though...) so finally I decided it's better to get up and be productive. If I get enough done, then I'll take a nap later.
I really shouldn't be spending my time blogging, but I decided to put on the TV, to that channel with the fireplace that they play all day- and there's two of them! How does one choose between 'Yule Log Carols' and 'Christmas Fireplace'? And I thought this day was going to be so simple!

Merry Christmas, all - from one who doesn't celebrate it (much)!

Busy holidays

So, this week is so busy that I actually had to make a list of the days and outline my activities for each one. And revise said list. Over and over again.
Keep in mind that I also use the outlook calendar on my work computer, and I have wall calendars at the office, and at home. Yes, they're all the same- its just how I roll.
So when I add to all those a list of daily activities, you know I've got a lot on my plate.

Lucky me, it's almost all really fun.

Saturday was my work holiday party. Kev went with me, and we sat at a table with a bunch of friends of mine from work. The dinner was good, the talk was good, and we left after a few dances. For once, there was no major winter storm the night of the event, as there has been the last three years running...that was nice. Did I win anything, I hear you ask? No, for the third year in a row, I did not. Planning for rigging next year's prize draw starts now.

Sunday I went shopping with Erica, a friend from grade school whom I've recently(ish) reconnected with. I love introducing people to fun shops and things I know about that they've never been to or heard of. We went all over Yorkville, and had a pretty productive day. Then I went to the Robins' place to hang out for a bit, and they let me borrow a mixer.

This morning was the one un-fun part of my week. I got to go to the doctor! I had to get a Havrix booster (protection against Hepatitis-something you get for vacations to places like Mexico). While I was there, the doc offered an H1N1 shot (that I've been meaning to get anyway), so I got that, and then she wanted to send me for blood work (basic stuff), and since I hadn't had time for breakfast I was good to go to have blood taken just then and there. So basically I spent the first half of my day impersonating a pin cushion. Woot.

But then I came home and finished a beading project (yes, its a gift), and made shortbread cookies, with the mixer I borrowed, which made it super fast and really easy. I decided to save the dishes for tomorrow, when my arm doesn't hurt so much.

Tuesday I get to go to the mall! after work to shop! for presents! YAY! Then I'm going to come home and maybe I'll make meringue cookies...I haven't decided yet.

Wednesday I have a holiday party and gift exchange with a bunch of girlfriends. Its a potluck and I'm bringing puff pastry onion tart I made, and some of my cookies (and maybe meringues).

Thursday Erica has invited me over to her place for dinner. I get to meet her fiance and her cat (though strangely I think she's more excited about me meeting the cat). Should I bring something?

Friday I have more baking to do (in case you have yet to realize it, I've set myself out to be everyone else's worst influence this year!), and then the weekend is brunch and more shopping and more baking, and another holiday party and everything is just so much fun!!!

...if only my arm would stop hurting. Damn shot.

Yay Christmas!

So, Hanukkah is very early this year (like, it starts on Friday), and the Mom is coming to visit on the 25th. This means that presents (which would normally be shipped across the country) are being delayed. It means that the finger food night (a tradition from childhood that the brother and I have kept going) is being delayed. In fact, all the usual festivies are being timed to the Mom's arrival. And since she arrives on the 25th, that means that for the first time in years I'm kind of doing Christmas.

And its fun.
And totally going to my head.

I made cookies, with food colouring in them, and those little edible metallic balls on top. I'm planning menus. I've even bought those little LED lights and strung them up...on my potted palm.

I'm still lighting the candles, of course.
It's just the opening act to, well, a whole lot of cookies, as far as I'm concerned.

Yay Christmas!

Ill fate

The signs were there. 

My lips have been chapped.

I got to bed at a decent hour last night, but felt like I'd only had a few hours sleep.

And on the way to work, I stopped at Tim's for a hot chocolate – a large one.  Hot chocolate in the morning is not a good sign.  Needing it even before I get to work is a really bad sign.

Add to that, I got in to the office at the same time as my boss.  The same time!  That has never happened.

 

In hindsight, I know I should have been much more cognizant of what was coming, that dark cloud that was looming on the horizon, that ill fate that was about to befall me.

Literally, ill fate.

 

But still, I find myself unprepared.  By halfway through the workday, I am down to four tissues.  Four.  Even my most carful rationing can only take me so far, and I tremble for the moment when that meager supply runs dry.  I'm sneezing at the office, and it's not a good thing.

 

My boss already commented on it.  A friend said I sound like I'm coming down with something.  I contradict them, I am not getting sick.  It's allergies, it's dust.  Cat dander.  The fact that there are no cats at the office makes no nevermind.  I'm not getting sick.

 

And yet, I've sent off an email to let the group know that I will not be attending our book club meeting tonight, after all.

I have plans to stop at the grocery store tonight for tissues.  And maybe soup.

And I want my large, warm sweatshirt really, really bad right now.

 

But I'm not getting sick.

---

Windows Live: Make it easier for your friends to see what you're up to on Facebook.

Inventory was a mistake

We're in the middle of a fabulously gorgeous autumn. Cold, yes, and a little rainy, but freaking beautiful. The view off my balcony is made up of all my favourite colours, and looks like it belongs in a magazine. Ironic, since the last time I went to buy my favourite magazine (a bead mag called Bead & Button), instead of a bright orange cover and projects that celebrated this very colourful time of year, it was all full of purple (meh) gold (ick) and crystal (ugh). I left it in the bookstore, and ended up buying Real Simple, which I've never read before, but the cover was very orange, so I decided to give it a shot.

And while I would be pretty disappointed that my newest bead-fix has been denied me, I'm not sweating it, cause the end of this month is the semi-annual Toronto Bead show (woot)! Not only is this an event I look forward to every day of the six months since the last show, but this time, I get to introduce a friend to the quietly wild bead show atmosphere. Victoria and I will grab brunch and then walk to the show from there.

In anticipation (and preparation) for the show, I decided to sort through my stores, take a note of what I have and what I'm lacking, and make up a shopping list. This, I believed, would solve two problems that I have run into before in my shopping: avoiding getting two or more of the same thing (what am I going to do with three vials of scarab-green beads, seriously?), and making sure that when I get home, I have everything I'll need (avoiding the I can't work on that project cause I'm out of freaking glue! moment).

This was a mistake. What started as a shopping list turned out to be surprisingly long, and evolved into something of a wish list as well. The result? Come next weekend, I'm likely to be broke.

Happy as a kitten in a yarn store, but broke.

Nuit Blanche - gone

This weekend was pretty good. I went to the market (it's well into autumn here, and the apples are amazing), then I went out to Nuit Blanche.

I ended up seeing five exhibits (I'd planned out a route that covered twelve, knowing fully that I wouldn't get to all of them), and only three of the five were actually on my list. I started at the Bata shoe museum, where they were taking pictures of people's shoes and doing an art-installation based on the photos. There was also supposed to be poetry, I thought, but maybe all the poets were on a break while I was there. Anyway, because there were no poets (just an empty microphone where the public were being encouraged to 'share their stories - and no one was), and because there wasn't a large group of people together (they were letting in small groups at a time, and there was no main large gathering place), the atmosphere was kind of hum-drum. Basically, what I had thought was an intriguing idea was executed disappointingly.

So after that, I figured I'd head straight downtown where more of the action would be. Lucky me, on the way back to the subway I passed by the ROM, and there was a street performer out front. He was great - nothing shockingly original performance-wise (a basic sword juggling routine, a really tall unicycle, and a bit of fire eating thrown in for flavour), but his showmanship was fabulous - he had the crowd laughing like crazy. He was good enough that I stayed until the end of his show, and I put money in the hat he held out.

Downtown I went to see a giant silver bunny balloon by Jeff Koons that was set up inside the Eaton Centre - very cool. On the way there I passed by this woman wearing a dress that was made out of an igloo-looking tent, doing a performance piece that seemed to be about waking up, though I didn't stay very long to see it.

Then I got in line for Massey Hall. There was a sound installation there called Space Becomes The Instrument by Gordon Monahan. I stood in line for 90 minutes- UGH. It was cold, we were standing on the sidewalk, which was decidedly uncomfortable, and there was nothing going on around us to take our minds off the wait. Clever me, I don't leave the house without a book in my purse, and it doesn't matter if it's 4am, in downtown Toronto, there's always enough light to read by, easily (for the record, I am against light pollution, but just this once it worked well in my favour). On the other hand, once I got in, it was pretty much worth it. The audience all sat in a group, on the stage. Just getting to see Massey Hall from that perspective, to be able to say "I've stood on that stage before" was neat. The performers were all in the orchestra and balconies. They had piano wires strung up, right to the ceiling and across the entire space from left to right, and there was a microphone attached to the point where all the wires crossed. Then one girl grabbed one wire, and dragged the mic along the wires, jiggling them and waving them and increasing and decreasing the tension on them, and the mic picked up all these weird tones and variations. That noise was combined with techno sounds and pumped into speakers all around us, with the sound moving from one to the next, so it seemed to come from different directions. It was very neat sounding, and kind of reminded me of the thunder storm we'd had earlier that day.

Then came the second part of the performance. Three people climbed up in the balconies, and held speakers that started emitting steady tones - each one different. Then they started swinging the speakers around their heads, at different (and changing) speeds. The sound was eerie, and it got more eerie when all the lights went out, and the three swinging speakers each lit up. The ceiling of Massey Hall is scalloped, and the lights made the shadows oscillate- it kind of looked like waves. The effect worked well, since the sounds made me think of Sirens (the mythic kind, not the ambulance kind). All of it was strange - I need a work halfway between music and noise, cause that's what this was. I liked it a lot.

By the time I got back outside, it was about 5am, and I decided that I was tired enough (and had enjoyed the sound installation enough) that I would end on a high note (no pun intended), and headed back home. I got in at about 530, took a little time to wind down (and eat something; by then my circadian rhythms were screwed up enough to leave me starving), and then I hit my pillow, hard. For about four hours, when I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. I was just trying to decide if I wanted to attempt doing anything (no), when Kev called - he'd been at a house party the night before, and was about as beat as I was. We decided that the best thing to do was as close to nothing as possible. So today Kev and I ordered in Thai food and watched nine hours of Boy Meets World.

Awesome weekend. Awesome.

Nuit Blanche - going

Ever heard of Nuit Blanche? Its this all-night modern art thing that fills up Toronto streets once a year, and it's tonight. Its very strange to be getting ready to go out at midnight, but here I go. Check out the webpage for the basics, and I'll blog tomorrow (after sleeping in, of course) about all the things I see.

http://www.scotiabanknuitblanche.ca

Fresh look

So, I spent the greater part of the weekend painting my apartment, and I'm super pleased with how it turned out. Check it out:

My tools

My intrepid helper
Getting started
Final result - gorgeous!

So, I hope you don't mind the image-based blog, but frankly, I can't think of anything else to say about a now-brown wall. Shockingly, watching paint dry doesn't make for scintillating commentary.

I bought paint!

I've decided one of the walls in my apartments needs to be a different colour, so today after work (last day of summer hours, so I took advantage) I went to the bead store and found a fabulous citrine to wear to a friends' wedding next week, and then I went to the hardware store and got paint! I'm so excited!

Stupid Tuesday

Everything at work blew up in my face today.

This morning I had to peel myself out of bed, and I knew it would be nice outside, and I have laundry to do and my apartment needs cleaning and I am very eager to start painting that one wall in my place that I've decided needs to be different, and I thought about all the things I could do that weren't work, and then I told myself to go to the office like a good girl, even if I do have plenty of paid sick days that I haven't taken yet this year.

I should have stayed home.

I had minor questions - minor!- about the process for using this new system the US is using, and what should have been very, very simple answers ended up being the openings of multiple cans of worms, which result in very very much more work for yours truly (and others). None of this is my fault, so there's none of the guilt I would have if I'd actually screwed something up, there's just that feeling of naivete that comes from weeks of people telling me that this would be 'simple to implement' and me blithely following, ignoring the voice in the back of my brain that was trying to tell me 'this will be harder than you think'.

I should listen more to my inner voices. More the one that whispers 'stay home' than the one that tells me new projects are destined to be nightmares.

We saw a tempest, not The Tempest

Last week, several friends and I came up with the lovely idea of going to Shakespeare in the Park after work. We decided to meet right after work and have a pot-luck picnic before the show. I made pasta salad. We left work, and the sky got a little darker. We got to the park, and the sky got a little darker. We took out our picnic, and the sky got real dark, and started growling. We ran to the nearest gazebo (don't think round, arch-roofed romantic 'you-are-sixteen-going-on-seventeen' structure, think barn roof on stilts with lines of picnic tables beneath), and the sky opened up and...well, 'rained down hell' is only slightly melodramatic. Winds raged, rain came in sideways, lightening crashed like mad. We screamed a bit, laughed a lot, and once the winds calmed enough to let the rain come down more vertical-like, we shrugged our shoulders and unpacked our now slightly damp, but just as tasty, picnic, and finished our adventure...and dinner. By the time we were done eating, the storm was finished and the sky was orange and calm(ish), and we all went home- damp, kinda cold, and with a good story (bad decisions often lead to those).

Weekend at the Cottage

So, late last night, we got back from the cottage. I love that place. It's very relaxing - I love not having any clue (or care) about what time it is...or what day it is. The weather was better than it called for (meaning that it didn't rain every minute)- we actually had some nice, sunny days. There was swimming and tons of reading, we played several games of Trivial Pursuit, great (and very plentiful) food...

I brought a chunk of soapstone with me (yes, the one I maimed myself with- see previous post), and the plan was to work on it a bit each day and have it done by the end of the weekend. Well, I kind of got into it, so I carved the whole thing in one, several-hours-long stint. It was great, especially as I had Steven (hereby known as my carving guru) sitting with me, showing me techniques and telling me what tools I'd need and such. Check out what I made!

I hope you all had a great long weekend like me!

Who knew preparing for the cottage was so hazardous?

I'm a freaking genius! (The English language really has to come up with punctuation that denotes sarcasm).

Tomorrow the brother and I are off to the Robins' cottage. Sweet! Though the weather hasn't been the greatest, we have high hopes. But, just in case, I'm also bringing along a lot of things to do- I bought beading magazines, I'll have a pile of sudoku puzzles with me...you know how much a brain weighs? That's how much candy I bought.

Also, I have some new pieces of soapstone from my trip to BC, and I wanted to bring some along to carve. I don't want to tote along ALL my tools and stuff, though, just a set of files and some sandpaper, so I was trying to do everything to prepare the stone ahead of time. Thus, I figured out (last night, in my head, in my bed, while I was supposed to be sleeping), that it needed a hole. Skip forward to this morning, which found me freshly showered and dressed for work, using a towel as an apron, and drilling into a piece of stone.

It's not a huge thing- I didn't need to get out my whole Dremel set or anything - I've got my grandfather's drill, this awesome, ancient hand-crank thing.

So, I'm trying to carve this hole, trying not to get dusty, and trying to not be late for work. I'm changing drill bits, which you do by either a) holding the crank still while you twist the chuck at the top open, or the reverse, by holding the chuck still while turning the crank. Now, you see those gears on the drill? See that space between them that doesn't exist? Yeah, that's where my pinkie finger went.

I spent all day at work doing my best to avoid typing 'cause it turns out I use my pinkie a lot when typing. Ow. I also stopped to buy band-aids on my way home - I'd used my last one.

Poor pinkie. On the other hand, now the damn stone is ready for the cottage!

Peas!

Isn't it beautiful?! It's one of my first batch of sugar snap peas that I grew all by myself! Seriously, these started out as seeds and now I have something edible, people.

I'm thinking of becoming a farmer.