strieudal: eat, make, do

I've moved!

2011-06-07T23:46:00.004-04:00

You'll find future posts over at Strieudal.com where I'll be blogging and sharing photos, crafting, cooking and more!

-Sam

[DO] Bought a domain...stared into the abyss of the web and a voice said 'welcome home'

2011-06-01T22:29:00.011-04:00

As part of the ENGL 392 reputation management project that the class in undertaking, I've taken the first few newbie steps towards building a site. And it's a powerfully heady feeling to stake your claim on a piece of the internet....

But there was work:

Tip the First: Plan your personality online

Before even getting to the logistics of building out a website, I had to look at content. What sort of information and vibe did I want future employers/stalkers/whathaveyou to get from me?

I sketched out what topics I wanted to cover on my site, and the modes of representation: blog entries for marketing commentary and a weekly round up of related articles; full size pictures for showcasing my amateur photography; a mix of both to showcase past and present academic or field projects. Sections would separate and house my interests - a mental wireframe was mapped.

I also wanted to maintain and extend a brand identity around the strieudal handle. The reasoning was because I had an established history that could be traced to it on search engines: it's my Twitter handle and LinkedIn vanity URL. I also had it across a variety of email services.

Plus, phonetically, it sounds like the most delicious pastry in the world. A win-win scenario for all. I had to keep it.

Tip the Second: Crowdsource your options from people who've been there, and done that.

I got great tweets and Facebook responses when I asked for web hosting suggestions.

From a Facebook recommendation, I ended up selecting the very user friendly (and to be honest, least likely to make me want to stab the screen from SEO bullshit) web hosting service, SquareSpace. Gorgeous, and the folks who own the site have a sense of humor. Try looking up SquareSpace coupons. Go on, I dare you.

Tip the Third: Monkey around with a pro

After hearing from the collective intelligence of my social network, it was time to hit up a CS guru I knew from residence, who very kindly spent about 2 hours of his time walking (handholding, really) me through the process of purchasing a domain and web hosting.

GoDaddy sold me the .com domain for about $12 bucks Canadian for a year (with tempting options for .ca, .ru, .net, .org and so on). Jeremy helped me sign up for SquareSpace (which was about $100 bucks or so for a year for a customizable CMS) and point the custom domain to the new site.

I had a home!

Now, when you typed in this:

You got this generic template!

So, a third of the battle completed. Content creation and updates to come!

[DO] Summer crafting: Leather headband

2011-05-28T12:53:00.002-04:00

Craftzine recently reposted this tutorial from Ruffles and Stuff for a handmade leather headband. I'm digging the delicate, summery look.

In Kitchener, Lens Mill Store is a local Mennonite outlet that sells whole bolts of fabrics, yarn as well as odds and ends. It's a crazy warehouse scene.

Looking forward to biking there and snapping up some suede and faux leather fabric ends for cheapo and wearing this cute headhand with a summer dress.

Love!

[DO] When Worlds Collide!

2011-05-26T19:46:00.006-04:00

Ontario is experiencing a sly, teasing taste of summer. While gas prices inch up, the weather swings like a manic depressive between skin peeling sun and a slow Vancouver-drizzle.

< end poetic shizznik >

Those who check out the entries here know that I've been doing a university undergraduate victory lap for several terms now. The final course of my academic career (fingers crossed) is called Visual Rhetoric, and run by this wizardly fellow, Professor N. Randall. It's been a hoot so far. We spent a bout of time analyzing Bin Laden news reports. Then looked at maps and artistic resumes. A final project involves the entire class doing analysis for a local mobile communications company. One of the other projects is about building a robust online persona.

So, while I usually keep my corporate/academic stuff clear from this blog, I will give an update on the latter 'robust online persona' project:

I'm going to build a website. Crowd sourcing a hosting service, checking out templates, and figuring out if anyone's taken a squat on strieudal yet.

That'll come along and then, hopefully, I will be able to subsume the strieudal blogspot as a personal blog under the main site. Along with a professional, marketing persona with links, commentary and opinionated posts, and an academic persona with pop culture analysis.

That's the tentative plan rolling out this summer. My nose is bleeding from the excitement.

(And I'm using Google like it's Madame Zora..."How can I do XYZ?")

Operation Dog-along: Week Four Through Six (because school ate my face)

2011-04-24T18:55:00.010-04:00

My last full term of uni swept away any resolution to track the new dog's progress for the month of April.

The Good:

Annabelle the dachshund-mix is young and healthy as heck. Her first visit ended with the vet urging me to come over and check out how spotless the inside of her bat caverns were.
The dogs get along. No love, but also no war.
She excels in beginner doggy training class at the local Petsmart.
She wears the doggie backpack like a champ!
The sits are fabulous.

The Bad:

Holy mother of Moses, the barking. I can't figure how to cut that out on walks, chasing sticks, meeting other dogs.
The pulling. I'm still working on getting her to not pull on the leash to the point where she'll wheeze in excitement and it'll be this gargling, emphysema hork.
The sits are shit around distractions. Like motherhumping squirrels. Other dogs. Garbage bags.
The aggressive love. I'm going to say love because Annabelle always wants to say hello to other dogs but she does so in this batshit insane yappy way.

The Blah-er news:

Her playmate Summer and the owners are moving to Seattle. I've lost my go-to pet buddy for walks and training. (Bye, guys!)

Anyways, in light of the mixed reviews, I present some spring photos from my Flickr as an analogous visual element. Because like the process of adoption, this spring has been a mixed bag of rain and snow and sleet and sun. And hopefully like spring, this training process will lead to brighter days.

Coming up: looking forward to pulling out the bike and seeing if they can coordinate enough to run beside!

Waterloo pet lovers come out in packs for animal rights rally

2011-03-19T15:16:00.016-04:00

On March 18, a peaceful rally by 50-75 residents of Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge took place in uptown Waterloo in support of Paws for the Cause .

Pet lovers and their four-legged friends came out to show their commitment for a much-needed update to the animal cruelty sections of the Criminal Code of Canada, laws that have remained remarkably unchanged since their introduction in the late 1800s.

The walk wound its way from the Waterloo Zoo to Town Square, culminating in a talk by Liberal MP Mark Holland on his proposed Bill C-229 . Participants signed a petition,

...while their pets signed a pawtition.

Having picked up a flyer at my local pet food store earlier in the week, I found the rally to be a great affair, with some familiar faces from work. The vibe was positive and casual - it was like a giant pack doing their evening walk together, and loads of families came out to support the cause. We even picked up folks as we made our way through the city!

There was plenty of treats and water for the dogs when we stopped at Waterloo Town Square. The speech that Liberal MP Mark Holland made was a sobering one -he very graphically described animal abuse cases across Canada, ones that had gone without legal conviction. But both his speech and the one Liz, one of the rally organizers made, were hopeful for change.

(That's Liz, by the way. She is a communications pro-star.)

There was also a raffle at the end, with prizes donated by one of the sponsors, Bark and Fitz. I found it amusing that the raffle bucket had also done double-duty during the walk as a treat bucket :).

All in all, I'm proud that KW and Cambridge folks showed up in force for a great cause. We have a fantastic community.

For more pictures, visit my Flickr page.

Sunday Interlude

2011-03-13T16:51:00.004-04:00

Today's post is brought to you by Lazy Sundays: Better Than Hot Fudge Sundaes.

On names
I'm thinking about christening Annabelle to Emma. Mainly because Annabelle is a Southern Belle in frothy white petticoats and a soft drawl and this dog is a shit disturber. Like Jane Austen's Emma - nosy, excitable. And considering I named Tobey after my favorite Animorph character, it seems fitting.

And Emma is easier to bellow. Two syllables instead of three.

Operation Dog-a-long. Week Three

2011-03-07T12:01:00.015-05:00

Some fun facts...

Fact #1: Call for one dog and you'll get the other.

Fact #2: Dog the First will learn new tricks. Like counter surfing off of a 4 ft high breakfast bar via the stools. And eating six cupcakes. And pooping it out in a remarkable imitation of the original batter.

Fact #3: You'll make your Contemporary Critical Theory prof type in your Flickr web address and project photos of your little shitheads to the class. Yes, you will.

Fact #4: Learning the difference between a bored crate whine and an I'm-going- to-have-explosive-diarrhea-now whine: Crucial.

Pop Quiz! What's worse than a soft serve surprise from one doggie butt?
A) Two doggie butts. In unison.
B) The smell.
C) Having your housemate step in it barefoot one time.
D) All the above.

(Poop is an important topic.)

(It is.)

Fact #Ilosttrack: In a bid to establish a pecking order, toys will be torn asunder as dogs wage war on soft things with legs. Toys that may include Nixon, the sad beanie baby dog you got in first year university. You'll find blue fake fur, gnawed off limbs, and rope chunks in the oddest places. Like your laundry basket. Or your bathroom. Or backpack.

Nixoooon.

Fact #...: At the local upscale pet store, your dogs will get to try emu jerky. You've never even eaten emu jerky.

Fact #?: Walking around retiree neighborhoods is the best way to get compliments on the midget pack. Little dogs with bulgy eyes are like old people aphrodisiac.

Summary? It's been alright.

Operation Dog-a-long. Week Two

2011-02-28T21:13:00.007-05:00

Alls quiet in Casa Westmount in the Week One of Operation Dog-a-long. Tobey, the 3.5 year old beagle seems resigned to the newest resident, allowing her to step on his jowls, thwump his face with her fire hydrant tail and even snuggle up in a shared sunbeam in the sun room (though not for long). She follows his lead always, except for his penchance for three hour siestas. The puppy in her rebels and she runs around looking for fun.

As I type, they're fast asleep in each others crate. Annabelle's gutted his toy sheep; he's gnawed on her beef tendon stick.

They've been hanging out with Summer, a friend's dog pretty frequently. Even when the dog park is slushed up and akin to walking in a marsh, the three have gotten ample time to carouse outside. On Sunday's Bark and Fitz walk, we got to see the three in action - to our surprise, the mini pack stayed in step with each other in the middle of a herd of humans, clompity booted feet, and excited, nervous, goofy dogs of all shapes and sizes. The three stuck close to each other. What a tiny, inconceivable gang.

They also hung out in the car while a friend practiced her driving. They gave her goals - she was to accelerate and brake softly and smoothly enough so that there weren't triple THUMP-THUMP-THUMPs of dogs flying around in the back.

On treats:
As a reward for such a good walk on Sunday, I got A&T identical spirals of cow jerky, the length of each dog. That was a good half hour of contented chewing in their crates and beds.

As a self reward, there was a good couple hours of cupcake making.

On toys:
Previously, I thought that introducing toys wasn't a good idea. Well, the toys are coming off the shelf one, if only to replace the deer antler that Annabelle drags around and drops with methodical frequency. The downstairs neighbours can't be in love with the CLUNK CLUNK sound, so ergo, down comes the plush toys. She's picked off arms with alarming determination.

On walks:
I suspect prior to the adoption, Annabelle hadn't gotten regular leashed walks - she hops on her back legs in the excitement of walking. I've been practicing walking like a leader - deep breathes, shoulders back, in front of the dogs. They pull, but not in a fixated 'I gotta get there now' demand. Still, since they walk on one side, my right arm is going to be in pro-baseball condition by spring.

She goes to her crate after walks for down time. I'm hoping it'll be her safe place. For now, it's an uphill battle paved with bribery, to get her inside and quiet.

Tv learnin':
Cesar does this thing on tv where he intentionally holds the dog close to his hip, rather than let them have the length of the flexi-leash on walks. Brad Pattison (Canada's answer to the Dog Whisperer) does this thing where to establish pack order, you let yourself and then the senior dog in first through doors, for feeding, etc. I'm doing this thing where I combine all my couch learning and attempt to lead two already chill dogs.

On nicknames:
The dogs have had a stream of visitors these last couple of days. Annabelle's gotten 'Amelia', Peepers (for whizzing on her first night here and her goobery big eyes), White Tobey, and Number Two. Also Dog.

Tobes is still Tobes. Occasionally Number One. And Dog.

Waiting:
They're wonderful dogs and I'm holding my breathe, for the other shoe to follow.

As I end this, they've switched crates again.

Do: Operation Dog-a-long. Week One

2011-02-23T13:59:00.015-05:00

The Setup:
This is going to be a six week blogging endeavor in which I post about the day by day process of introducing a second dog into the household. I chose six weeks because of a useful, informative video series by Kevin Simpson, Director of the Washington Humane Society.

I chose a blog because there aren't any first hand accounts of the process online that I could find. Just first-day tutorials on introducing dog to dog and warnings against owners who assumed that because dogs are pack animals, they'd instantly bond as best friends.

My goal is to document the prospective issues and challenges, as well as gains from a second adoption.

The Background:
I adopted a 3.5 year old beagle/rat-terrier mix a few years ago. Tobey is a 17.5 lb male. He's calm and low-energy, and isn't too big a fan of puppies or hyperactive, rough and tumble types.
He like warm sunbeams, naps, food at anytime and finding a warm body and blanket to burrow against. He snores. Dude looks like this:

The day after Family Day (a provincial holiday in Ontario), I adopted a dachshund/chihuahua(?) mutt named Annabelle. Originally from a county in New York, she was picked up as a stray. She was listed as 11 months, and weighed in at a skinny 14 lbs, most of it ribs and a garden hose tail.

Her ears are perpetually flapping. So far, she seems to love those leathery chews, her rope, and napping in the blue bowl chair. She looks like this:

Week One, Day One:
I went to the foster home in Mississauga and Annabelle was in a pack of tiny dogs - beagles, jacks, pugs - that ran up, demanding attention and love.

She was calm when I picked her up, and weighed next to nothing. Her backside pretty much wiggled all the time so that tail went fwump, fwump, fwump against anything in the way. I got bashed a couple times in the face.

I took her to my Mom's place to meet Tobey. The new dog rushed him in greeting, licking at his face, trying to climb into his ears, dipping under, and knocking into him. Tobey started out excited, but as she kept pressing too close, his hackles went up - a ridge of fur rose on his back and he growled.

Then she tried to mount him.

He nipped, she yelped, there was a storm of snarling and barking. I pulled her back. Some meeting. The rest of the time at Mom's consisted of the two of them rushing to any person who called for one, and Tobes studiously ignoring her.

After the hour long drive back to Waterloo, on the leash, she was allowed to check out the condo layout. The rest of the day consisted of walks, dinner, more walks, and just hanging out together in the living room.

She still tried to get him to play but no response other than growling and hackles. Dinner time was weird - I had to separate them for feeding, otherwise a new round of growling would start. At bedtime, she was crated, whining for a little bit. I Ceaser Millan'ed her with an explosive hissy sound. My hissing, it strikes fear in the heart of men and dogs alike.

Day Two:
The next day was the first of many in which the sole goal was to establish a steady schedule - they started with: wake up, go outside for a quick pee, inside for breakfast, back outside for a long walk, and then some quiet time. Reverse schedule around 5-6pm.

(My goal is to get her on the same feeding, and eliminating routine as Tobey, so that I'm not waiting an hour or more for them to go. This training process will need to run parallel with my hours - I have a full week of vacation, then another 2 months of full time school - which is still a forgiving schedule - then back to a full time 8 hour workday at the beginning of May.)

With Annebelle, I went to Petcetera. Research indicated that in the first few weeks, dogs can't share the same items because it stresses them out and gives them an issue to fight over as they figure out a hierarchy and rank. So she got new bowls, crate, toothbrush, new beds, and an identical rope toy. She also got an older couple down on their knees because she was so cute and friendly.

The rest of the day consisted of more walks and (trying for) equal affection to both. I tried to teach her how to sit, and with Tobey being such a great model, Annebelle got it! Sort of. Once in every five, and only when I used my God-voice. A friend suggested some cool tucking tricks to naturally establish the sit and lie down motion.

She tried to get him to play a couple more times, but he was not interested, either turning away or growling when she a) stepped on his head on the couch or b) licked at his muzzle. She barked in frustration. (A friend suggested water spray bottle to counter the bark indoors.)

But there was a brief moment of non-hate! Behold:

The evening was introduction to the toothbrush and meat-flavoured dog toothpaste. She was...not impressed. Tobey as always, ate it up.

Day Three:
The third day was similar - wake up, potty, breakfast, walk and inside for quiet time. But on the third day, she initiated play and he was game. There was bowing and light batting and belly flipping and I literally held my breath hoping to preserve the peaceful moment in amber.

There was also enforced crate time in which the new dog whined but settled down with a chew. That allowed me to shower. Apparently, I'm not supposed to let her out when she whines - but hang out in the room and surreptitiously open the game to keep it casual and relaxed.

Walk and dinner went off without a hitch, although I had to pull Tobes away because his beagle heritage made him dive headfirst into any bowl of unfinished food. During down time, Annabelle conked out in front of Tobey. She really likes to be near him. He's still not 100% in the game.

Day Four:
A revelation of consistent potty in the AM! We hit the dog park with a friend, whose dog Summer had grown up from puppyhood on with Tobes. It was a balmy -11 degrees Celsius. Freezing, but the dogs got some socialization time in, and Annabelle got chased down by other dogs who asserted their dominance - and I was glad. I'm hoping that'll rein in any assertive streak that she might have. That said, she's been comfortable whenever my friend reached out and flipped her on her back.

Back at the condo, it was lesson time. My friend gave me pointers on bark busting, and mouthing; and Summer was great for teaching the new dog to respect Tobey by gently and nicely licking at his face - rather than nipping at his ears the Annabelle way. Remember, Summer had grown up with Tobey. She used to be pint sized compared to him.

Plus, being closer in age, Summer and Annabelle got some energy burning romp time together. Lots of play fighting and flipping.

After the huge chunk of time outdoors and romping, the dogs conked out and I briefly got a shot of them being near each other.

Day six, or Sunday will be the big Bark & Fitz end of the month dog walk - a great socializing outing and a chance for me to practice being out in a crowd of people and dogs with my two own.

Random Notes:

I've read that it would be up to six weeks of supervised together time, and separated/crate time when I'm not at home. I'm hopeful it might be less.
Annabelle usually trots around with a leash around her neck. Silly looking but effective for correcting.

I figure that between the two of them, I'm going to need to factor in an extra 30 mins in the morning for potty and walking.
There are now a series of dog condo units under my bedroom desk - his and hers.

My roommate called her Peepers- because she kept peering out at him from behind things, and because she whizzed on the first night.

If you have any pointers, tips, (words of encouragement), or stories - I'd love to hear them. Because you rock. Yes you, reading.

[MAKE] Herb roasted chicken

2011-02-12T18:40:00.009-05:00

I tried Mark Bittman's recipe for herb roasted chicken tonight. A simple coat of garlic, butter and fresh herbs (dill, parsley, cilantro) and an hour in the oven transformed the condo into something brighter, flooded it with the smell of homecooking and the promise of comfort. So that I also got my vitamins in, there were roasted cremini mushrooms soaked in the juices, and baby carrots swimming in butter.

Mmm. Vitamins.

More often now, cooking presents an opportunity to do something manual, something honest and rewarding. In my current sphere of digital services/interaction, convenience food, and the theory-bound world of academia, cooking for pleasure absolves the nagging feeling I have that I am living in an insubstantial, e-driven world.

Plus, slowly roasting a chicken makes the three papers, 1 video project and 1 Critical Theory exam I have next week so much easier to bear on a full stomach. Time to man up and hup to it.

(After an episode of three or Fringe.)

Speaking of the man, here's the little man himself, hanging around. Tobey had three teeth pulled last week, to the distress of us both. I sincerely hope he was at least able to enjoy whatever drugs they pumped into him for the surgery. Hopefully he was high as a kite.

Sprinting for the finish line

2011-01-28T16:44:00.004-05:00

I'm alive and well, though limited online to passively experiencing life through Reddit posts, Facebook streams and Google Reader. Otherwise, school is the end all and be all, ATM.

For a Digital Media Studies course (introductory 200-level; I did it backwards and did the advanced 400-level course last January), my team has created a *whispers* Wordpress blog.

Click here to see what sort of projects we're up to in the University of Waterloo's ENGL 293. It's taught by Marcel O'Gorman, aka the guy behind sweet cow tweets.

Have a picture of Tobey. I call it 'Y U NO LOVE'.

One day, I will post the painting that I made of him, and all will draw back in fear.

Update: Behold.

Dreamy, creamy custard

2010-11-29T20:00:00.015-05:00

With the sun disappearing earlier these winter days, comfort food cravings are starting to rise, like some epicurious leviathan.

I tried out Mark Bittman's Old Fashioned Custard this week at a potluck with friends visiting from Toronto, and they were a hit.

Topped with chocolate covered expresso beans, this creamy dessert can be elegantly served in a little ramekins, or baked all in one bowl if you want to eat them by the spoonful later that night. And being four steps, it was fairly easy to make before dinner, and present for dessert.

Here's what you need:
Whisk these:
- 2 eggs + 2 additional yolks
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 c. sugar

Heat these:
- 2 c. cream
- 1/2 tsp each nutmeg, cinnamon

Pour mixture in these:
-6 ramekins, or ovenproof bowl

Set in this:
- glass baking dish filled with hot water

Tips and step-by-step below!

Gather the ingredients. The fresher the better. I'm university-poor, so I was only able to spring for free range eggs.

Simmer the cream, nutmeg and cinnamon on stove, low heat. Be careful not to bubble the mixture or scald the cream. This won't really mix together, since the spices will float - but I think they flavour the cream.
In a bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar and salt. You'll want a thickish pancake-like mixture. I accidentally dropped in extra egg white and the contents ended up runny. Delicious, but without the custard jiggle later on. My life didn't flash before my eyes, and yours won't either.
Preheat the oven to 300, and boil a kettle of water. You'll want hot water to pour it into an oven-safe glass dish.
The ramekins will sit in the hot water. The water should be about an inch from the top of the ramekins. Below, I needed to fill the pan up with more water, but stopped to do some paparazzi shots:
When the saucepan of cream is hot, slowly pour it into the egg bowl while whisking. Dump in too much at a time and you'll end up with scrambled eggs. Go with a slow and steady stream.
That's it! Fill in the ramekins with an even mixture...
Set the timer to 30 mins...
And walk away. Eat dinner. Watch tv. Crochet. Whatever.

And come back to this!

Final thoughts: Use mitts or potholders to pull them out of the hot water. They're done when they jiggle. You can add higher heat and more time for a firmer texture. Delicious warm out of the oven or cold.

Thanks, Mr. Bittman! I learned something new and crowd-pleasing this weekend.

PS - Variations can be found at Food.com, (formerly Recipezaar).

PPS - Pictures where I'm stirring and pouring were not due to my third arm, but because the awesome Grieben took the stellar shots. Thanks, dude!

Home again

2010-11-15T10:20:00.017-05:00

Back! After 10 days on the road, I am now enjoying 3 glorious days of downtime. As part of the crew working Content World , I visited Washington, DC and stayed at the massive hotel-citadel, the Gaylord National which perched on the banks of the Potomac River. It afforded a gorgeous, dramatic view from the outside:

And within:
Most folks who entered the hotel lobby immediately cranked their heads back and gaped. Se those rows bordering the glass? There were 18 stories of suites that looked over an indoor courtyard. Swanky!
The Gaylord sat flush against the Potomac River and featured translucent, tiny pink and white quartz; crushed bone-white shell fragments; and masses of hairy weed on the shore.

(Squatting by the riverbank, arranging stones. That's how I party.)

After a solid week of exhausting, face paced, convention-eering, I was lucky enough to get out and enjoy some of the tourist offerings of the Capital. (PS: It's roasting in DC right now; a far cry from the 1 ° C of Waterloo, Ontario), with emphasis on a couple of the Smithsonian museums.

Cool fact: Smithsonians are free of charge, only asking that you donate a small admission fee to offset the cost of operations. Otherwise, DCers enjoyed carte blanche to some of the most astounding art, dioramas and specimens collected down one street.

Then, before I knew it, the work week abroad came to an end. Before we flew Air Canada this past Saturday, I was treated to one last sight from the Washington Dulles Airport.

---------------

Upon arrival back home, I had a great surprise delivery - a signed and framed print from the infinitely cool Toronto artist Hyein Lee which Boyfriend had gotten a frame cut to measure and match the wood grain of the print.

All in all, a good week. Now to tackle an unwanted mountain of clothes that need washing.

Enter the Butterfly House

2010-09-18T18:58:00.043-04:00

Last weekend, the boy and I went to the Butterfly conservatory in Cambridge, Ontario. But why did we travel 30 minutes to see flying (albeit gorgeously patterned) bugs?

Partly because it had been our anniversary about a billion years ago. Between school (for him) and work (for me), neither of us had had enough energy to muster up enthusiasm for a weekday outing.

And partly because the morning before we were to drive to the Wings of Paradise butterfly sanctuary, Jables had whipped out (hehe) a serious looking lens his uncle had kindly sent along. The Sigma 70mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro lens was provided for use on "a long term loan".

(Thanks, Gordon!)

We set out on a brisk fall morning. Once there, I discovered that I was...not in love being trapped inside a glass house with a swarm of living, beating wings.

But there were other denizens in the glass house. Little tough guys...

Swift moving reptiles...

And many, many ants, but no pictures. Lots of flowers as well - I read later that butterflies are no great pollinators.

After I got over (desensitized, really) the sight of them fluttering towards me, I understood why butterflies have enjoyed appeal across most cultures - as symbols for rebirth, for new hope, for fragility and femininity.

Weightless, they would drift up, or land in front of fascinated families, all spindly insect legs. Suddenly, this stick would unfold its wings and a burst of colour would look back.

I saw a lot of people reach out, unable to resist the urge to touch.

I really, really wanted to scream when this one opened up its wings:

A cute story:
As I watched, a grandmother babysitting her grandson saw a butterfly rest on the little boy; and just as she pulled out her cellphone, the charge ran out. She was desperate and asked the first person she saw to help her take a picture to show the parents. Which luckily, among all the point and shoot cameras, was me and my excellent on-loan lens.

The kid was very good; he didn't move or try to touch the wings, just watched it crawl around his palm. She gave me her email address, and I sent her the results. She got her pictures, I got the practice!

So all in all, a nice date for Jables and me.

For the next few posts, I hope to improve my skills with this challenging prime lens. As fall settles into Southern Ontario, I hope to have more opportunities to capture some landscapes and close ups of the fauna.

Oh Canadiana

2010-08-08T20:26:00.011-04:00

Summer in Ontario is like a sun-warmed basket of fresh peaches. You gorge on these gorgeous, juicy slices of summer and it's only good now before it's gone, gone gone. And you can grab the canned version in the fall, in the winter; but it's heavily syrupy, processed, inauthentic. You can try to recreate it and it's good enough, but not great.

A roundabout way of saying I'm outside.

More Ontario-goodness at my Flickr page.

Catching Up

2010-06-27T22:18:00.014-04:00

Hey, what's up? What have you been up to? I miss you bunches.

Me? It's summertime in Canada, man. That means my legs are getting browned and brawny from biking everyday, and fat Tobey is now the 'slightly less rotund' Tobias.

Finished a term of school, started a new one. I also passed my Driver's Test, narrowly escaping the cut-off date before the whole shebang expired. I would have had to repeat the whole graduated licensing program over the course of another 5 years. Ptooey. Certified awesome driver now.

The boy and I have been inspired to sew and and revamp on the cheap. We went to Len Mills this weekend and found a bolt of jersey for $5.00/meter. A pair of booty shorts therefore, would be less than $3.00. I eyeballed a pair of shorts from last summer and templated it on an old copy of the UWaterloo Alumni magazine.

Lessons learned on the first pair: Stretch fabric are a godsend. Assume you are wider than you are. Do NOT use contrasting thread unless you want a line down your crotch.
[Frankencrotch sez: HRAUGHHH.]

Next pair will be aces!

Jable's is going to England to visit family on Wednesday. He wanted a lightweight pouch for his passport. After making himself a pair of cutoff (and hemmed!) shorts from cargos, he used the scrap fabric for a zip-style wallet. I say it beats the dead zebra hide wallet he bought last summer from an African curio store.

To organize the scrap fabrics that I will never throw away, and the pack of bear eyes that I will one day use to make fabric monsters, I bought this super hippy sewing box. Cool: It has LEGS.

Speaking of fabric stash, do you see the little sweetie hanging her laundry? She's also hanging her bunny up by the ears. Hurgleblaaa. So cute.

Turned that into a nice lightweight go-to bag! Market bag, book bag, grab 'n go style. No interfacing, wide pockets and eggplant lining.

This weekend: mini-putt. I played Happy Gilmore style, which is to say, dangerously and without regard for human life.

And on the last note: Hippy Dog sez HI. CAN HAZ ORGANIC COMPOST TO NOM?

When life gives you lemons...bake with em.

2010-05-09T01:23:00.014-04:00

Bad things come in threes.

Thing the First
I found out this week that I won't be graduating with my B.A. this September, as planned. Although I've fulfilled the requirements of my degree, and a specialization in Digital Media Studies, I'm still 4 credits (or 8 courses) short. Doing part time school means I might be looking at a deferred finish in late 2011.

Thing the Second
Because of the DriveTest strike in Ontario (which went from the fall of 2009 til January 2010), there was a backlog of car drivers in the graduated license process who had expired while in their learner's stage; as well as first timers who hadn't been able to start the license process. The strike has only just ended, thus, a glut of people have been trying to book their tests. Because I expired during the 3 month strike, I was granted an extension until July 1st.

So I did my first practice drive on a rainy, gloomy Friday during rush hour. It was a miserable experience - the instructor commented on my lead foot, my inability to concentrate on his instructions as well as maintain speed and safety scans, and I think I scared a couple of drivers on the highway enough that they changed lanes. I was not ready for my June 2nd road test. Looks like I'll be doing more of these hour long stress sessions for the next 3 weeks.

Please Sir, May I Have Another
Jable's grandma died. His extended family immediately flew across the globe to mourn her passing and celebrate her life. As a result, Jables has been in his hometown helping his parents these last few weeks.

I missed him.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To beat off the blues this weekend, and to stop the hamster cage in my brain from spinning with worry, I decided to make sticky, dense lemon squares today. It seemed fitting.

I used the Luscious Lemon Bars Recipe from Santa's Favorites Cookies, a stout little book borrowed indefinitely from Jable's mum. Virtually the same recipe can be found on Recipezaar; I've found gardenz version very good.

During the baking process, I also made some friends. Say hello to the Eggbert, Eggnacus and Eggleburt Humperdinck...

Who were promptly cracked along with some lemon juice and sugar, to create a lemony layer atop the shortbread crust.

Another twenty minutes, and out came this gorgeousness. Free aromatherapy too:

(Yes, they were really this nuclear-yellow up-close.)

There's a lesson here, I think:

When life hands you lemons, hand them back in a more awesome form.

Bloomin Earth (Bonus: Procession of the Species)

2010-04-25T10:53:00.021-04:00

This Saturday marked the return of the annual Kitchener-Waterloo Bloomin Earth handmade market- home of the upcycled, vintage and kitschy craft shenanigans from sellers in the GTA and Tri City area.

The craft fair was situated in the heart of downtown at the indoor/outdoor Kitchener Market, which also played host to an outdoor farmers market, and an eclectic mix of ethnic specialty vendors who operate indoors, on the upper floor of this building:

I headed to the event at noon, and biked the 6 km through university turf, uptown Waterloo and downtown Kitchener.

On my way, I ran into a strange and wonderful parade- parents with strollerbabies, children, and teens, all dressed up in animal costumes for the annual Procession of Species. From the site:

"Procession of the species is a community arts-based Earth Day celebration where people flood the street to flaunt their favourite species or natural element whether it is flora, fauna or fungi, the sky is just the beginning! "

I found out later that it was started in Olympia, Washington, and brought to Kitchener by local shops, the City, and community centres. A line of people, flapping, squacking, bopping, crawling, hissing, weaving along King Street, led by these guys:

They marched from Uptown Waterloo towards Victoria Park in Kitchener...

An assortment of glittering monsters...
Sturdy mammals...
Flashing and flapping avians...

and cool duck dudes.

With regret, I left the parade and went onwards, to the Bloomin Earth market, which lined the the streets and steps surrounding the Market. And man oh man, was it awesome. A force of community involvement and low key, creative culture.

The upper levels outside of the Kitchener Market:

The craft fair had everything. Reusable nappies, embroidered patches, vintage scarves, felt pins, upcycled book cover notebooks, delicate cloth coasters, eco-friendly totes and purses, cloth menstrual pads, handmade glass jewelery and cabochons, stuffed critters, organic soaps, etched glass and MORE!

I ran into familiar faces, including my coworker lealou who was selling some cute purses with her hubby Mark, this dude named Sunshine, who tipped me off to a really good apartment near Union Street, and more coworkers (Alison and Sarah) who were shopping.

Music from the cafe across the street and the thrum of shoppers and the scent of eateries and the shush of the wind. If you got hungry, you wandered indoors for fresh produce:

My haul from the event:

I heart Ontario buttons from Knotted Nest, local tomatoes, silky paisley scarf from A Touch Of Vintage, organic doggie soap for the tubby dog from Enfleurage Organics, and wicked retro glass pendants from Diane Iovanov.Every vendor was super friendly, laid back, and sweet. I chatted with a bunch- Enfluerage was giving a $1 from every dog bar sale towards the Project Maddie (Toronto Star article), a one-woman organization which aims to help economically-hit people keep their pets. The duo behind a Touch of Vintage pointed me to a website on how to tie a scarf.

Loved the event, AND caught wind of a second craft fair in the KWs- the Stitch 'N Kitsch on Saturday, May 1st. Viva la craft revolution!

Earth Week in Review

2010-04-24T10:04:00.009-04:00

It's a load of horse manure, I didn't actually do anything for Earth Day. Though this nifty tutorial by Ruffles And Stuff inspired me to dig through the giveaway bag of clothes (mostly filled with a motley crew of slogan tees, oversized sleep shirts & old jeans) and whip together a vintage inspired kitchen apron. Ended up not going with jersey t-fabric like the tut suggested, but a nice cotton button up shirt. Recycle, reuse and reduce, baby!

The only fly in that self satisfied ointment was when Jables told me that the western button up wasn't a hilarious Value Village find (as I'd thought) but a $$$ shirt from the Bay that had been a tetch too big for him. Oops. Enjoy your new life as an apron, dude.

Other than that, it's been a quiet week of observing the natural...

And baking some less natural goodies for class I'm taking called Wilton Decorating. Housed in the back alley room room* of the local Micheals craft store, a bunch of 40-somethings and I huddle to watch our instructor Shay execute flawless sugar roses, decorative borders, script and more. Then we heave our way through the same, eating the evidence when our globs get too wonky.

*It's not really a back alley. There is a sunroof! And shellaced cakes bolted to the wall!
Which leads me to my last story. During exams, while I was dicking around on the highest floor of the university library (read: studying), I poked a finger in my mouth and found a rough part on the back, on my wisdom teeth. Because there was nothing I wanted to do more than study at that moment, I went to the washroom and opened wide to find to dark spots in the baaaack, on those damned teeth. Google said that it was cavities, of a sort that would burrow into the root of the tooth and rot it, split it, send torrents of blood and blackened gum matter and the fetid breath of a toothless hag would come roiling out of my mouth. Like a poison cloud erupting from my maw.

So I booked an appointment for a cavity drilling. Psyched myself out by switching to sugar free Red Bulls, chewed dental gum, brushed HARD. Moaned over the images in Wikipedia. Begged my boyfriend never to reveal my shame to his dad, a dentist. Told everyone met, and collected their horror stories.

The appointment (which they had booked a specialist who came in only two days a week to deal with such Brit-teeth cases) was a bust. And dude was pissed off since I was last appointment, it was dinnertime. Picture a towering swarthy guy with long wavy bleach blond hair, top two inches all root. He checked, and in disbelief, in impatience said "It's not a cavity. You have caffeine staining. And stop brushing so hard, you're receding your gumline." He was nice enough to do a cleaning (although when I asked, dude was all "I don't do cleanings. My girls do cleanings") and was freakishly, efficiently and brutally fast.

Then I got my ass kicked out and went for sushi to sulk over being mocked for self-diagnosing over the innertubes.

The End

OMNOM Snickerdoodles

2010-03-26T20:59:00.013-04:00

With their light coating of cinnamon and sugar, snickerdoodles have the mouth-feel cross between a sugar cookie and a timbit.

I tried Juju Bee's Recipezaar version a few months ago, and pretty much have this earmarked as the best comfort cookie ever. It's good fresh out of the oven or a couple days old- either way, you're going to get a yielding crust of cinnamon sugar, and a soft, puffy interior.

I won't post the recipe here, since the link will take you to enthused testimonials (which really pumps you up if the reviews are favorable), but be forewarned: great snickerdoodles will reward you with an amazing taste...just don't skimp on the butter.

Tip: the smaller you roll out your cookie dough, the less likely they will be to flatten out and get a cracked crispy top. If you'd prefer puffy timbits, go small. For traditional flatter cookies, use a bigger measuring spoon. If you don't care about the regularity, roll em out in your palms.

You can put more balls of dough into the sugar and cinnamon mix. Give it a gentle toss to cover the surface. I just liked the look of this.

Some of them, we stuffed with apple pie filling (chopped apples baked in brown sugar, a little lemon juice and cinnamon). Keeping the dough small allowed them to keep their timbit shape, and hold the filling.

Delicious! A batch was gone in minutes the first time these were tested.

Coming Soon...

2010-03-24T18:39:00.005-04:00

A snickerdoodle recipe from Recipezaar that is foolproof, contains about a pound of butter and will knock your socks (and belt) off.

(Sadly, not taste-tested by this guy.)

Turkey Cordon Bleu

2010-03-12T22:51:00.015-05:00

A few weeks ago, I bought a Canon Rebel Xsi, an entry level SLR well liked by the innerwebs. It's been a blast learning how to go from a point and shoot to a manual machine where aperture, shutter, focus and lens really get the chance to throw their weight around. Like knitting, crochet and making a fondant cake, I hit up YouTube for community created tutorials - and tried to go out and shoot every chance I could. The long suffering (mostly sleeping) dog was an integral part to figuring out what buttons did what.

A Picture of Desolation and Deprivation of Liberty. Would like the basic right to sleep, unmolested by a lens in the face. Would also like bacon.

Have you seen the 'I Am Not A Paper Cup'? It's a reusable porcelain mug with a silicon lid, made to look like the disposable paper cup. On my university campus and the nearby Starbucks, you get a discount on your hot drink when you bring your own mug. I stole the one that belonged to Jables, burned myself a couple times when the lid leaked. So then I crocheted a coffee sleeve:

You can find a roundup of DIY knit/crochet/sewn coffee sleeves in this post by ThreadBanger. I modified the one by Hooks and Knives to include a ring in the third-to last round.
To do it, you'll want to pause from your rounds and chain 10 to 12.

Skip first chain, and single crochet along the rest of the row.
Repeat for 2nd row.
Slip stitch the beginning of the chain (which should be three rows tall) to the main body.
Continue your round as usual. It'll look like this:

The coffee sleeve helps soak up any errant drips of coffee, and the ring gives you a more secure grip so if you trip or slip, the cup and sleeve stay on. I usually put the ring on my middle finger, while humming Beyoncé's Single Ladies and throwing my giant, winter jacket clad self from side to side. Sort of like this:

See? It always goes back to YouTube. What a mecca of information.

Finally, if you're looking for something tasty this weekend, why not try a new spin on Chicken Cordon Bleu? Jables and I were asked to housesit his parent's place and their crotchety old dame dog, Molly. Faced with a torrential downpour and gnarly traffic, we stayed home and made dinner instead. We mixed our usual standby recipe with great results.

-------------------------------
Turkey Cordon Bleu (for 2)
Ingredients:
3 turkey breasts, pounded evenly thin (a can works great as a mallet)
(Bowl #1) 1 cup flour with salt and pepper
(Bowl #2) 3 small eggs,
(Bowl #3) 2 cups breadcrumbs
3 slices Jalapeno Havarti cheese
3 slices baked ham
Toothpicks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Pound turkey breasts with mallet, to 1/4 inch thickness
Coating: Dredge in flour mix. Dip in egg quickly. Roll in breadcrumbs.
Lay flat. Layer with cheese and ham.
Roll the bundle up, with turkey on the outside. Pin with toothpick.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 mins.

So good. The jalepeno havarti gave it a kick, while the turkey breast remained moist from the coating. Teamwork makes the assembly line process go by fast. (And by teamwork, I mean pull out your camera and take pictures of the guy doing all the work.)

<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gAohr3fEIq8/S5xWlNrAFuI/AAAAAAAAAGc/PvPylvixPy4/s1600-h/Crochet+cup+cozy.jpg"></a></div>A few weeks ago, I bought a Canon Rebel Xsi,  an entry level SLR <a href="http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EOS-Rebel-XSi-450D-Digital-SLR-Camera-Review.aspx">well  liked</a> <a href="http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-cameras/canon-eos-rebel-xsi/4505-6501_7-32891057.html">by  the</a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/cameras/canon/eos_digital_rebel_xsi/">innerwebs</a>.  It's been a blast learning how to go from a point and shoot to a manual  machine where aperture, shutter, focus and lens really get the chance  to throw their weight around. Like knitting, crochet and making a  fondant cake, I learned by hitting up <a href="http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EOS-Rebel-XSi-450D-Digital-SLR-Camera-Review.aspx">YouTube</a>  and tried to go out and shoot every chance I could. The long suffering  (mostly sleeping) dog was an integral part to figuring out what buttons  did what.  <span style="font-style: italic;">A Picture of Desolation and  Deprivation of Liberty. Would like the basic right to sleep, unmolested  by a lens in the face. Would also like bacon. </span>  <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e)  {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gAohr3fEIq8/S5xc-Z7xcqI/AAAAAAAAAGs/XUGzN_xTk9c/s1600-h/sadbelovedtobes.jpg"></a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/DCI-Paper-10-Ounce-Porcelain-Travel/dp/B0016CSBJS">Have  you seen the 'I Am Not A Paper Cup'? </a> It's a reusable  porcelain mug with a silicon lid, made to look like the disposable paper  cup.<span style="visibility: visible;" id="main"><span style="visibility: visible;" id="search"><em></em></span></span> On my  university campus and the nearby Starbucks, you get a discount on your  hot drink when you bring your own mug. I stole the one that belonged to  Jables, burned myself a couple times when the lid leaked. So then I  crocheted a coffee sleeve:  <div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try  {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gAohr3fEIq8/S5xYHlAcnfI/AAAAAAAAAGk/COWc1rsoxFE/s1600-h/crochetmugring.jpg"></a> </div> You can find a roundup of DIY knit/crochet/sewn coffee sleeves in this  post by<a href="http://www.threadbanger.com/post/11093/weekly-diy-roundup-coffee-sleeves-and-mug-cozies">  ThreadBanger</a>. I modified the one by <a href="http://hooksandknives.blogspot.com/2008/08/coffee-cup-cozy.html">Hooks  and Knives</a> to include a ring in the third-to last round. To do it, you'll want to pause from your rounds and chain 10 to 12. <ol><li>Skip first chain, and single crochet along the rest  of the row. </li><li>Repeat for 2nd row. </li><li>Slip stitch the beginning of the chain (which  should be three rows tall) to the main  body.</li><li>Continue your round as  usual.</li></ol>The coffee sleeve helps soak up any errant  drips of coffee, and the ring gives you a more secure grip so if you  trip or slip, the cup and sleeve stay on. I usually put the ring on my  middle finger, while humming Beyonc<span class="description">é</span>'s Single Ladies and throwing my  giant, winter jacket clad self from side to side. Sort of like this:   <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jX8zGsIDeXU&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param></object>  See? It always goes back to YouTube.

Warning: Don't drive after noshing on these. The turkey had us flat on our backs on the couch minutes after we ate. Instant Zzzz's from the tryptophan.

A deadly yet delicious way to spend an evening.

On creation and unsustainability. And snow.

2010-02-22T18:29:00.005-05:00

This is the kind of Canadian weather that's gorgeous to look at when you're separated by a thin pane of glass. Then it's all 'tally ho, stupendous view' and 'Prithee, the hills lie in sweet repose beneath winter's curtain.'

When your day is marked by walking through it, now that's another story. All day, I was dodging traffic that crawled through unmarked lanes; tromping through slush the consistency of putty, feeling the moist wormy tracks that melted snow traced down my neck. At one point, having been smacked in the eye by an ice dart, I fell down. Mine left another set of skidding bootprints, another signpost in the road that shouted 'You'll Only See Me When It's Too Late'.

It was but a great bookend to the ARTS 301 public lecture series presentation by Professor Andy McMurray on Sustainable vs Unsustainable Culture, an acerbic, hour long meditation on just how badly human ambition fucked up. After the rage inducing commute, I sat down to a presentation of what I privately subtitled Humans are Leeches: the Movie.

Drawing on Thoreau, Joy Williams, David Watson and poet Hsiang-yen, his talk went like this: Our drive to handle, create and destroy outside Nature's boundaries is now coming to head; critically impacting natural resources and the long view ecosystem. (Note: picture this being channeled by James Earl Jones in all his rumbling soothsayer glory). Cast aside false Hope, that audacious and misleading instinct! Hope has doomed us all to walking blindfolded into a self deluded, and mechanized world while the land is mutilated by chemical waste and inorganic byproducts and we promise to discuss sustainable living later. "Everything must go somewhere in Nature." he quoted, "There is no nowhere."

The class responded, minds torn between rationalization ("well, if we're screwed, we should accept that we were born in the dying end of the continuum and be matter of fact about the whole thing") and optimism ("corporatization will save us by making the message more palatable, pushing people to action") and hostility ("without hope, without ambition and drive, we wouldn't have the humanitarian efforts that mark Haiti and New Orleans") and economics ("humans have always been on the brink of something or other. This will act as an impetus and opportunity for change. This could be another cyclical example of boom and bust").

Professor McMurray laughed, and said he hoped that he would be able to look back at 80, and marvel at how wrong he'd been.

I think we all secretly hoped he could.

------

After that critical mind blast, I had to end the day off by cleansing the palate. Here are some Etsy finds that have been lovingly crafted by the makers of the world:

DharmaClub Ceramic Pincushion by alleluja

Hello Listen by laurageorge

Owls on Elephant by leearthaus

Lue and Sue Monkeys by LueandSue

Penny Farthing by heartsworkbylori

Wobble Bowl by speechlessstudios

Happy Monday.

Roast away the blues

2010-02-10T14:59:00.006-05:00

Jables has a collection of pocket watches. The funny thing is, they drive him crazy at night with their chorus of ticking. So for his birthday, I painted a cigar box with this picture of a Hardy Boys-era plane found online. Inside, I glued scrap balsa wood to create partitions, and covered it with sateen left over from an old Halloween costume.

He likes it, but still the ticking escapes at night.

~ ~ ~

Last week, I was an irritable little shit. Stressed from the daily wintry trek between the office and class, and with a course load that kept me in the university library til 10 pm at night, I was not happy. I liberally substituted caffeine for a balanced meal.

I lived in my jacket, pausing only to shuffle out of it for quick pit stops. Home-bed. Work-office. Library-cage. My boots were scarred with the remnants of road salt and stunk like a dead horse.

So I went shopping. Came back with a whole chicken. Snipped off the string that bound its plump legs together. Ran a pair of kitchen scissors through the breast bone with a resounding crunch. Rubbed it with garlic, salt, pepper and get this: basted the thing in sparkling wine.

(Partially because it was what I had on hand. I don't drink often, so this Christmas bottle of wine had been chilling for weeks, deprived of purpose.)

A quick google search verified that yes, this had been done before. I was impressed: you can pretty much baste chicken in anything and it would still come out kablammo awesome.

I tweeted this photo already, comparing it to a coworker's mangled limb. But the sight of a freshly marinated, dusted and rubbed whole chicken; ready for the oven? Ripe with the potential to become a fragrant, roasted dinner? That's art.

Into the oven for 2 hours, and out came roasted perfection. Added some buttery potatoes, mushrooms, a boyfriend. My blood sugar went up, I was happy, the end.

Lesson? Food is mood.

On world peace and cookie piece.

2010-01-24T22:52:00.006-05:00

There's a line from the satirical movie Drop Dead Gorgeous where the reigning high school queen, asked to describe her role model delivers this well rehearsed gem:

"My mother, cause she could solve world hunger with one of her blue-ribbon rhubarb pies, create world peace with one of her prayers and still find time to look beautiful...for my dad, Lester Leeman."

Hurk. Women's lib aside you guys, I think I've found the answer to world peace. It starts with Mark Bittman and ends with cookies.

Picked up a massive cooking tome by Mark Bittman, he of New York Times fame. It was this no-fuss, taxi cab yellow phone book called How To Cook Everything. I am notoriously stingy; and only took it up because Chapters had it on sale, but it was worth its salt (and weight). How to debone a fish? Check. How to make a roux? Check. The difference between baking soda and baking powder? Ohhh.

This weekend, the rain started to come down and with it, my spirits. So, with the options being crackers or some cereal, I opted to go the make-it routine with his basic chocolate chip cookies. And boy howdy, were they good.

-------------------------------
Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
(Bittman, Mark. How to Cook Everything. New Jersey:Wiley Publishing, 1998 )

1/2 pound unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375 F
2. Use an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugars; add the eggs one at a time and beat until well blended.
3. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and add them to the batter by hand, stirring to blend. Stir in the vanilla and then the chocolate chips.
4. Drop by tablespoons onto ungreased baking sheets and bake until lightly browned about 10 minutes. Cool for about 2 minutes on the sheets before using a spatula to transfer...
-------------------------------

My changes? For the sake of my teeth, I lessened the white sugar, theorizing that the caramel colour from the brown sugar made it more necessary.

And I used up some leftover chocolate bars that were kicking around. In went half a chunk of chopped Nestle Noir; a 64% cocoa bar with some caramel pieces, and some Hershey's semisweet chips. A second batch contained the remaining quarter of a Christmas Toblerone milk chocolate, diced on a cutting board. It was enough to buckle the knees of any girl.

The recipe noted that the ingredients would make a cookie with a bit of lift; so I flattened 'em with my steamroller (wooden spoon, actually) Can't be OM NOM NOMing on a chocolate chip ball.

10 mins later, I pulled them out to continue cooking on the counter. Holy, the colours were beautiful. The dark chocolate had this evil, decadent sheen; the Toblerone a pale toffee.

They were boss. Just undercooked enough inside and crisp on the bottom. Moaning ensued.

Newbie Photography TIP: I used an Olympus point and shoot, which doesn't do too well with the indoors. You can see that in the landscape shots above- there's a yellowish tint. So, to achieve a bright backlight for my cookie closeups and to compensate for the florescent tube in the kitchen, I shot inside a giant white plastic bowl, which diffused the light. Score! It was a buck at the Dollarama for a nice salad bowl-cum-shooting station.

On my list of To-Dos is this tutorial from Digital Photography School by Darren Rowse. He shows you how to make an inexpensive light box/light tent - for the cost of a sheet of bristol board, a cardboard box and a cheapo desk lamp. Love it.

To Do, Toujour

2010-01-21T22:09:00.002-05:00

Wallets! Holders! Organizers and bins for your fiddly bits. Bright patterned and quirky IKEA storage units. These are what I daydream about.

It's nearing the end of January and I still haven't done the Ultimate Clean Sweep yet. Not good, especially since the landlord is coming tomorrow to show the apartment to the prospectives.

So I've got a to-do list for the next couple of week. I don't work well without goals that aren't constantly written down on calendars, notepads, scrap sheets- the process of reiterating helps to bolster my mental resolve, like a line that is creased more firmly into paper each time the fold is gone over. Here are my crafting get-to-its.

TO DO:
-Finish painting the cigar box for Jables, to hold his prized collection of pocket watches.
-Start on a sewing a wallet for self, so self does not have to lug around envelope-style pocketbook that will not (ironically) fit in pockets.
-Help Jables with his wardrobe building project; learn to design and carve wood.
-Evaluate bringing bedroom furniture into uniformity- second hand cast offs do not have to be so, if Design*Sponge has taught me anything.
-Look into building, staining a wooden plank bookshelf. I saw the most rustic, comforting space in the student centre, the other day. In the WPIRG (a social change group) office, there was a section that housed the activist-themed books and VHS tapes on these wide plank backed bookcases, stained a deep glossy black-brown. It smelled fantastic- part library, part childhood.

Up to it! I can't wait for the weekend to start.

On winter and busy hands

2010-01-13T18:20:00.010-05:00

The best part about winter is enforced stillness.

When it's cold enough outside to freeze nose hairs and make your ears feel like they've been boxed by Jack Frost (the bastard), I stay inside. I drink out of thick mugs that are hefty and reassuring in the hand. I put on my comfort clothes, thick woolens that are free of discernible shape. My favorite sweaters are hand-me-downs: one is from my deceased Grandma. It's a lumpy off-white thing with a pair of deer lounging around on my chest. The different stitches turn indents and bumps into mountains, into forests and a river- a whole forest clearing is suggested in yarn. It's fantastic. I love it because of its homeliness.

(I digress.)

Then I sit, sometimes alone, sometime with the Tubs attached to my leg (who grumbling, occasionally lets out a fart that will waft up on the winds of death), and I make. I bend over a craft project for hours, straightening up only to rub a sore back, or shift off of a sleeping foot. It's satisfying. The process of creation is a lingering glow that bathes me into a crack-addled state of contentment.

I'm working on a pair of fingerless mitts by Jennifer Tucker (found as a free download on the Ravelry community). These sweeties are coming along fine, although white may not have been the best choice for accessories that will constantly be in touch with doors, coffee cups, etc.

And what's with that picture above? After making Heaven's Hellcat Totoro stuffed plush toy in a bout of crafting frenzy, my fingers were war-torn. Instead of getting off the couch (where I nest like a chicken; settling the bulk of my weight on my poor feet which later stab back with pins-and-needles) for scissors, I would rip the yarn with my hands. Multiply that a couple times and my hands had whip-thin burns from the yarn tension having garroted through my fingers.

Whoops.

So these mitts are my reminder to take it easy. And to cover the carnage.

Kick start the new year with pizza

2010-01-02T11:42:00.022-05:00

My New Year's resolution is to recognize a greater DIY ethos for 2010. I like making my one-off fancies, but when I've spent time and eyeball juice on making-doing, I want to make sure that the end result is recognizably branded.

To make my tchotchkes distinct, I thought I'd add a fabric tag (like the ones on the back of your shirt). Good news - they exist online, and with a goodly amount of choice.

Check out the eco-friendly suggestions from Crafting a Green World.
Find small quantity label orders from independant sellers on Etsy.
Make your own from tutorials like Sew Take A Hike's fabric print tags and Instructables' rubber stamped tags.

While clicking through, I put together a list of needs:

Know whether your end item will be laundered (clothes, bags) or not (toys).
Have an idea of your tag look and feel: tags can be customized to differ in fabric, texture, matte/glossiness.
Design your signature or logo. Use free fonts from FontFreak or Da Font, and open source editing program Paint.ne t (Windows) or GIMP (Mac, Linux).

I'm looking forward to expanding my crafting from homemade to hand made this year.

On an related note, Jables made some quick and tasty pizza during our cottage getaway. The recipe we used for Thin Crust Pizza was featured in Apartment Therapy. (With the exception of honey and rosemary, the crust is similar to this recipe by everybody likes sandwiches.) The end result was heaven for both classic toppings (shredded mozzarella, assorted sausage meats) and grown-up tastes (pesto, spinach, sun dried tomatoes).

It was easy as stirring the yeast in warm water, adding the flour and salt, and mixing it all with a wooden spoon. He started out with the mixture in a bowl and gradually kneaded onto the counter by hand.

While the recipe could have yielded two smaller pizza, Jables went with one large; the size of a rectangular cookie sheet. He left the edges for a rustic look. We also used a sheet of tinfoil for lack of parchment paper, but it made no discernible difference.

The pesto base was layered with colour from the spinach, sundried tomatoes and green peppers. We also threw some pepperoni, to satisfy the carnivores at the table.

It was good to the last slice.

Can You Spare Me a Light, Brother?

2009-12-31T13:28:00.020-05:00

As like the last, I and the Tubs (real name: Tobey Tobias) rang in the New Year at the Brockhouse family cottage. Note that I am not a Brockhouse, and have only successfully bummed my way into their lives by way of their studly son (hi Jables!).

In addition to eating them out of house and home, and having my dog unleash a pungent, post-dinner bouquet of gas in the middle of movie night, (I threatened to throw him out into the snow, causing Jable`s mother to hunch over my dog's stout form, eyes watering) Jables and I have tried to help out where we can.

For their annual New Year`s celebration, we modified this tutorial from HGTV and made Ice Vases to decorate the cottage porch. Here's the quick version, which turns them into outdoor candles.

Simplified Ice Vase:
Recycled juice carton (we used the 1.89 L Tropicana cartons)
Recycled tallboy can (we used Guiness cans)
Optional: Poinsettia leaves and petals
Gravel
Serrated knife
Scissors
Can opener
Water

Everything You Need To Bring Light In Your Life™:

Rinse out both containers and lop off their tops with knife/can opener.
Fill the juice carton with an inch of water, and freeze to provide a platform for the can to stand on.
Fill the can with gravel.
Stand the can inside the frozen juice carton. (Centre the can by placing toothpicks inserted crosswise through the four corners of the carton. Remember to keep the toothpicks above water level, and remove before the ice vase is completely frozen.*)
Fill the remainder of the carton with water and freeze. Don`t fill it past the edge of the can of gravel, then have to claw at the frozen gravel mixture later, while your boyfriend laughs and laughs with his own can in hand.

Optional: When filling the juice carton with water, add snipped poinsettia leaves and petals. Push them down to distribute throughout the vase.

To remove the ice vase, pour out the gravel from the can. Then fill the can with hot water and twist it out. You can cut off the juice carton with scissors.

The poinsettia vase was a favorite for its splash of colour.

We inserted a tealight to turn them into flickering outdoor candles. (*Note the toothpick frozen in the ice vase, haunting us as a sad, sad reminder of the fate of the forgotten. Woe.)

We also provided unskilled labour at the New Year's party, but I think these ice vases were more appreciated than our filthy kitchen drudgery. Although, Jables does throw a mean homemade pizza...

To be continued...

(The Tubs would like to remind readers that his gas is an aromatic bouquet of turkey skin and sewage, to be savoured like fine wine. Also, he has the sleeps.)