Well Hello Faithful Readers

Merry Christmas! It is 3.15am on December 22, 2008 and I braved the snow in my Toyota Echo to go to Metrotown to do my shopping for the entire Christmas season! Ok, I exaggerate, however, I will point out that other than most of the stocking stuffers that I am responsible for and 3 or 4 gifts, I was completely ill prepared for Christmas. Except of course, I did manage to get the tree and decorations done early. Priorities right? :)

I got up today, showered, prepared a list, dug out my car, cleaned off my driveway of nearly a foot of snow and headed out into the jungle.

But of course before I even got off my street, I first had to make it out of my driveway, and believe me that took a fair bit of tire spinning! Then once I actually made it out, a garbage truck came down our road and forced me into the snowy sides and that got me stuck for an additional 5 minutes of mind blowing, heart thumping frenzy before finally my tires stuck to some piece of the road and I was safely on my way again! Curse those garbage men!

Anyways, Metrotown was 'f&%ed up' seriously! Winners, had a 100 person lineup (no kidding) and some stores were closing their doors and only allowing a person in when a person left! How messed is that?

I arrived at just after 2pm, and I left the mall with all of my Christmas packages and groceries at 9.45 pm! It was amazing. Oh, and while there I ran into my salsa dancer and his friends! I've been invited with as many girlfriends as I would like to bring to a huge Colombian party on both Christmas eve and New Years eve - and it is a private after hours party so no being sent home at 2am! Salsa all night! yeah!

Anyways, the reality of the road conditions is that they are very good on all main arteries, but get off them and my little echo likes to spin around.

I went over to a girlfriends just after all of this and she made a kickass chicken dish - mmmmm spicy and sweet! It was truly delicious - props out to you Susan! And we watched some movies, drank some wine, and whined some more because there is nothing to do on a Monday in this City! I got home around 2am, dragged all of the groceries out, all of the gifts out, and realized that my fridge was disgusting! So I cleaned it and I got finished putting everything away at 3am. I am finally getting tired, but before I went to bed, I thought I should write in this blog because my good good friend Becca has been hounding me.

So Becca, Merry Christmas! I love you girl.

My Jolly Rancher Ring (aka Liu Li)

A new jewellery story opened up below my office building on Water Street in Gastown. It is called Chic Winds and they sell some interesting pieces of jewellery. One of the more interesting designs they are showcasing is Liu Li jewellery.

An ancient form of glass making from China's Kingdom of Yue, circa 462BC. There is an ancient and complex technique for creating a mold that can only be used once. Expensive, naturally colored glass material is turned into a paste under fire, it has to stay inside the mold for 9 days to gradually cool down. During this period it is very difficult to control the movement of the liquid paste and therefore identical replicas are near impossible to create. Each piece once cooled is then put through a polishing process so that the final artwork can take upwards of 20 days of meticulous craftsmanship to complete. Because of the difficulties and the delicate nature of these techniques, the success rate for classic style Liu Li is less than 70%. No wonder in ancient times that Liu Li belonged exclusively to China's royalties.

But today, it belongs to me; one more happy single-hood present to myself.

I finally sewed the last stitch

Last Tuesday, I sat with Carla and Lisa and over some terrible soya pizza puffs, mini halloween chocolates, and Pelegrino I finished the final stitches which were in the Welcome sign just above the sewing machine. I guess, I could also sign it with my signature, heleno.

Now I need to wash, stretch and dry, mount and frame it. Then all that is left is Christmas wrap, a bow, a card with a big kiss to mom!

I will post a photo of it when it is framed.

Rowan and the Mighty Fraser

I took a new friend for a drive here a while back and realized it has been too long since I brought Rowan down to the river. So today, with my Canon Rebel hanging from my neck with a plastic bag in pocket incase of rain, we started off. It has changed a little from the last time Rowan and I took a stroll down here, but remarkably not that much.

There was a lovely little cubby hole that looks like lover's lane from all of the used condom wrappers lying around, but it offered a great lookout place to watch a bald eagle perched on a topless tree about 40 feet from his nest.

We also met a Beagle, who wasn't too friendly, and an australian shepherd named Mel who was extremely friendly. Rowan and Mel frolicked while Jan, Marilynn and I discussed the beauty of living so close to the water. They live on a sail boat and own a larger boat that they offer for small trips. Nice couple.

Right after the frolicking the rains started so I wrapped my camera in a bag and off we headed for home. We were soaked, but happy. Now for a warm cup of soup and some toasty fingers.

This mornings skyline

As seen from my back porch. Isn't it lovely? I just had to grab the camera and take a shot. The first shot was with the flash, and the second one is without. Amazing how the camera picked up mostly the reds with a flash and mostly the blues without it. I love it!

I have broken my streak

Ok, so, for the last 5 months, I have been eating nothing but Porridge Oats by Rogers with skim milk, a tsp of splenda and a handful of fruit. It is pathetic. I was diagnosed with diabetes and the next thing you know, I am being forced to eat breakfast every morning and the doc tells me it can't be bacon and eggs because the blood sugar levels have elevated my cholesterol levels! So off I go to the store to find a healthy alternative. Then, for the next five months, I eat nothing but what you see in the photo above. I mean it is tasty, it is healthy, it is acceptable on my glucose levels and it keeps me full for the morning. It is also easy, while I am waiting for the water to boil for coffee, I put 1/3 of a cup of the oats in with 2/3 cups of water, hit a minute on the microwave, hit another minute on the microwave, give a stir, and hit the final minute on the microwave. Take it out, watch the fingers this is one step down from molten lava, splash in some skim milk, toss in some rat poison (erhhh i mean splenda) and a handful of fruit and voila! coffee is just sitting in the bodum waiting to poured. Nice? absolutely.
Then, one morning I am stuck as I have to go to the lab to have some blood work done and I can't eat until after the tests. I mean, sure some people are better than me at keeping their streak alive, they perhaps would have brought some porridge in a baggie, waited until they could get back into work, starving the entire duration of the skytrain ride. But, hey, I guess I am just not that anal, I instead, ran across the street to Couzie's Deli, looked forlornly at the menu of egg benny's, and bacon numbers and decided on a "parfait". Now, who is the best damn diabetic on this side of the effin pacific? I know, moi! I could have said, hey, I just had my cholesterol checked, who's to know? What better time to cheat on your cholesterol than the moment after taking the test, I mean, I have three more months to worry. But, hey, I rocked the silly bacon and egg test, I stuck with a parfait. Now, it wasn't perfect, Joan's parfait is made with vanilla yoghurt, and it had dessicated coconut in the granola and while tasty, each of these are just a tad bit too sugary for my sweet blood. But, tasty! So tasty in fact that I went out and procured the ingredients, and voila! Look below. I will be rockin this for the next 5 months! Only thing is, I have it all ass backwards; I should have been eating the hot cereal in the winter and saving these bad boys for the summer! C'est la vie.

Just how does one post a flickr photo?

I did it! Yeah, I am amazing! I figured it out! woohoo!

Oh, this is me!!!

So my project tonight was to figure out how to post a photo from my flickr account. And I finished! Yeah Helen. I feel a sense of accomplishment. At first I thought that I had to download something, but that wasn't the case. Then I thought that you could just post the flickr web address of the photo, but that didn't work either. Then I finally went to my flickr page, chose a photo, clicked on all sizes, chose the large format, scanned the page and noticed a button that said "Grab the photo's URL", I then copied and pasted it into the blogger space for photo URL's. However, the large format of the photo was much too large and I ended up with half a photo. I then thought that if I specified small photo on the blogger site that this would fix it, but it didn't. So I deleted the image, and went back to the flickr page, selected a smaller availabe size (500*333) and copied the URL, pasted it into the blogger page and selected medium size, and voila!

I did it!

So, you are probably wondering about the photo... well, it is me, and no, I didn't have collagen injected into my lips! :) And no, I haven't gone crazy with "fuck me I'm a waitress colored lipstick". I have a folded poppy between my lips, don't ask, I do it for a three year old, she thinks I am amazingly funny. She took the photo, amazing isn't she? Not sure if you can tell, but I am just as smitten with her as she is with me.

So, now if someone could please show me how I put the photo in and when you click on it, it takes you to flickr? Then I would rule the blog world!

The Rats

Have you ever purchased an item and then immediately had buyer's regret? How about if that purchase was a warm-blooded pet for your child? How about if it was a rodent that seemed sweet, never bit, came when he was called, helped out with eating your compost refuse? How about the fact that you purchased another one to keep the first one company so you wouldn't have to feel sad because your daughter was not keeping it enough company?
This is my guilt.
Now, how about if you had to clean the cage every 3 days just to keep the smell from making you want to vomit? How about if at the bottom of the cage was always wet stinky soggy sawdust that required using a scraper to get off of the bottom? And no one else in the house was willing to do this chore, even after they promised they would? Oh, and how about the fact that the two rodents were not tidy, always kicking up the sawdust and creating a zone of litter around their cages? And, that once you took the plunge, and got rid of the little chore creators no one else in the house noticed that they were missing until after 4 days you prompt them with, "what is missing around here?" and then fill in the 20 questions without actually saying "I got rid of the rats" only to finally ask, "hmmm, I haven't seen the rats in a while"? To which you hear, and I kid you not. "My rats! How could you? I loved them! I know I said I didn't care if you got rid of them, but I was only kidding, I never actually believed you would? stomp, stomp slam!
So you ask, what did you do?
Well, I suppose I could have just opened the back door, put the cage out there, and left their door open. But that is cruel, I mean how long would they actually last in the real world? So, I cleaned them for the last time, made them a lovely fruit salad, and poisoned it! no, i am kidding. I bundled the little guys up after cleaning them and feeding them their favourites, then I put them in the car, drove to where we bought them and placed a note on the cage leaving them just outside the main doors. I know, I am a coward. I could have taken them in and gave a lengthy explanation, however, I was ashamed to be giving them up. They were cute, and sweet after all. I had spent the last 3 months asking everyone I know if they were interested in taking them, I had even put up an ad on Craig's List, however, no one was interested. So I took them to Pet Smart and left them with this letter:
Hi, we are two male rats, Raticus and Templeton. Our mom can't look after us anymore and we are looking for a new home. We don't bite, we are clean and healthy, and we love to eat all of your vegetable refuse. We are looking for a good home with kids to play with. We don't mind dogs, however, we would prefer a home with no snakes!
I dropped them off, left to shop for 30 minutes, then came back and they were gone. I hope they find a good home for them. Oh dear, I do feel guilty!

Chalkware

A few years back now, my father brought over a box of stuff that my grandmother had given to him for me. The box contained a large assortment of completed crewel and crossstitch which was done by either my grandmother Helen or her sister, Great Aunt Agnes. I still need to go through these items and choose something to have framed. Also in the box was a couple of items I was shocked to have received, chalkware plaques; a red and a yellow rose.
These plaques had hung in my grandparents kitchen for as long as I remember. They are certainly not fine china by any stretch of the imagination, the back of both of them is rough, with no apparent etchings to show where or by whom they were made, and the hook in the back is an archaic piece of metal simply bent into a tear shape and plased into the plaster before drying. I suppose from the back of the piece one may be tempted to believe that they are hand made, but the finish of the rose is too polished to have been made at home as there is definitely some form of a glaze over them both.
The front of the red rose has faired worse than that of the yellow; with many chips of paint missing. I read an article which states that a lot of chalkware was produced during the Depression as it was a cheap alternative to porcelain. It makes sense that these would be around the age of these plaques. I have done some preliminary research on the internet, however, I have been unable to find replicas of these items and have no idea as to their age outside of the fact that they must be atleast the same age as me give or take 5 years.
If anyone has any particular interest in chalkware and can give any details as to how to find out just how old they are I would appreciate it, both of my grandparents are gone now so I have lost any opportunity to ask them.

A Sewing Machine!

Is now sitting in my kitchen, at a table that has a view of my backyard and nothing on it, except for the dog's food, for now; but eventually, nothing but unfinished sewing projects!

I sat down today, using the loo, when I noticed I could see the bathroom floor through the crotch my brand new Mario Serrani's. What has this world come to when you can't even find quality workmanship in your Designer Italian trousers? The hole must have been there since I bought them as they are not tight and I have not heard any telltale signs of ripping ones' seat. So I spent an entire day at work wondering if anyone would notice the 5 inch gaping hole when I walked with more than an 8 inch stride.

I got home today, trudged upstairs to the pig sty, aka teenage portion of the house and dragged down my 17 year old's sewing machine. I wiped off the one inch layer of dust, found an extension cord and appropriate coloured thread, took off my trousers, and in my tightie whitie hanes for her, I put a new reinforced crotch into those Italian beauties.

Another job well done, not even Mario Serrani would be able to tell that I stitched overtop of the original child labour seams. Voila, life is good.

Chili on a cold October Day

Today I made chili for the family and it turned out well. Good enough to put the recipe up here:

Helen's Chili

• 1 pound of lean ground beef
• 2 large onions chopped
• 1 large yellow pepper
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 - 19oz tin kidney beans drained and rinsed
• 1 - 19oz tin black beans drained and rinsed
• 1 - 10oz tin of canned peaches and cream corn drained (or 1 cup of frozen corn)
• 2 - 25oz tins of canned plum tomatoes
• 1/2 - small tin of tomato paste
• 1 small hot pepper minced (I freeze the peppers and then cut them coarsely and they breakdown easily when cooked)
• 2 Tbsp chili powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp basil
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp black pepper

In large pot, cook beef, onion, garlic and sweet pepper until meat is brown and onions are tender, drain any fat. Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes.

I top each bowl with fresh grated cheddar cheese and a dollop of balkan style plain yoghurt.

Bon appetit!

Another Day at the Off-Leash Dog Park

Thank you Aunty Mimi

2007 August long weekend, the girls and I travelled up to Lac Des Roches, a lake in the inter-lake area of the caribou tucked between 100 Mile House and Little Fort. We went up to see my paternal family who live up in the area year round and host a bocci tournament every August. Just before we were leaving my aunt came out of her spare room with a small package in her hand, in it was a green and cream doily and a set of dish towels. The photo above is one of the set. It is an interesting spin on the kitchen hand towel. You start with a dish towel and you cut it down the middle width-wise, leaving you with two halves. Next you crochet the top portion, decreasing your stitches in half every two to three rows until you have only 5ish stitches left, which you create into the long portion you can see just above the button. At the end of this long piece you create a button hole with a chain of stitches that you then attach back into the other side of the long piece.

Once this piece is done, you cut your towel in half, and with a large darning needle you stitch between each crochet stitch onto the rough edge of your towel. Before doing this it would be smart to either serge the rough edge or sew a small seam to keep the fabric from fraying. Once this is done, you simply sew on a button.

Here are the tea towels I purchased for my attempt at making these. I bought 10 of them in total, which will make 10 sets, but means I will need to make a total of 20.


And, here are two sets of crochet tops to these towels.

Once they are complete, I will post a photo of them. Until then, 4 down of the crochet tops, 16 more to go! :)

Old Tired Eyes

My 20/20 vision is gone; however, my very cute, but very married eye doctor, who did flirt with me, told me that my distance vision is amazing. I am the hawk! :) True, what most people can see at 20 feet, I can see at 40 feet, yet seeing the eye of a needle two inches from my face is near impossible. A total blur.
So, he told me that I need a 1.25 prescription which he says is best suited to purchasing cheap London Drugs specials. "Who needs to spend $300 on designer frames?" I followed that up with a very shallow and self interested, "uhhh, but do they look cheap? Will I look sophisticated in a pair of $14.95 glasses?", so he filled in a prescription and said with a very cute wink "I'm sure you'll look great in anything, but here is a prescription."
During the exam, he put these really silly looking glasses on me and then dug around this tray of lenses for the appropriate strength. I was feeling pretty low with needing glasses until I recognized that the tray was very organized from least to greatest strength. My lens was in the bottom left hand corner of the tray, up near the top of the right hand corner I spied a 20 strength! If this is progressive, I wonder when the doctor will be reaching for that corner? Perhaps 1.25 isn't so bad afterall.
The 1.25 makes reading close much better but I have a very hard time seeing anything further away than my computer monitor or reading material. Who knew getting older would be so hard?

Kicking it Old School

Ok this one I created when I was a teenager. I spent a lot of time with my grandparents when I was a kid. I don't know why I did, if I look back I remember that I always loved their large old home bustling with people coming and going. They had nine children and lots of friends, who stopped by without prior notice as good manners would dictate. Every day was open to opportunities for something flavourful to happen.

My grandmother's eldest sister, Aggie was such a sweet old lady, she was hard of hearing, wore horn-rimmed glasses, and had a penchant for a cold beer. She was also the woman who opened up my experience to needlework. Her and my grandmother both enjoyed needlework. Aunt Aggie would come over and spend a weekend with my grandparents occasionally, she had been a widow for some time and she enjoyed coming to my grandparents home as it was the home that her and her husband, uncle Charlie had built in the 1920's. My grandparents bought it from them just after WWII.

She would sit in a comfortable chair in the livingroom and bring out some needlework and sew away. I would sit and watch her and my grandmother both, asking questions about the neat fabric stretchers they used to hold the work taut. It wasn't long before they came in with a box of projects and asked me to pick out one that I liked. I chose one that wasn't too big and had some pretty flowers on it. I worked on that project for quite a few months before it was finished. In the process of working on it, I even managed to stain it with something unforgiving. When I was finished, I took a long last look, and promptly forgot about it.

In 1991, just after the birth of my first daughter, my mother brought out a wrapped package and handed it to me. With starting a new home, my mother wanted me to have something very special to hang on our walls. It was my first needlepoint. It has hung there ever since. Thanks mom.

A new chapter

It seems like I have completed a chapter in my life. It was hard to let go, like a good book it is always sad to reach the end and realize that you will be saying goodbye to much loved characters, but sometimes it is inevitable and the author loses interest in devising ways to keep the characters story alive. This is the metaphor of the past nine years of my life. It is time to start a new chapter. Once upon a time...........

Christmas 2008 Timeline

I found this in a rubbermaid container in my closet last month. I started this in the past millenium, it sounds funny to say that but I believe it to be true. It was probably sometime in the late 1990's, somewhere around 97 or 98. When I found it, the top portion running parallel from the quilt in the top right corner over and the blue quilt hanging off the trouseau in the left lower corner were the only thing finished. It's been just over a month, perhaps two, who's counting in months when this project is approaching a decade or more?

The project is crossstitch. It is a stamped cross stitch. The trick with working cross stitches is to always work the thread in the same direction, so for instance, I always work my crosses from the lower left hand side to the upper right hand side first and then finish the cross off with a stitch moving from the lower left hand side to the upper right hand side. This allows the pixel effect of cross stitch to look clean.

After all of the cross stitches are complete, you then go through a process of detailing the work. This is what I am currently doing. I have completed 3/4 of the detail work. I started in the top right hand side and worked across the top to the left, down the left hand side and I got to the point of the sewing machine and now I have probably 5 or 6 more hours left before I can wash, dry, press and mount the work into a frame.

I am giving this piece to my mother for Christmas this year. I originally purchased the piece to make for her, but the year I started it, I had already made my mother a crewel stitch piece. The piece was large and I still really love that work that I did; it was of a window looking out. An old fashioned style window with four panes and wood framed. There was a hanging flowering plant, and a bunch of knickknacks along the frames. I will post it as one of my completed projects if I can remember to take a photo of it the next time I am at my mother's. Anyways, I then decided that since I had just made the crewel piece for my mom, that I may perhaps make this project for one of two aunts who also love to sew (my mother is an amazing seamstress). But now that a decade has gone by, I feel pretty good about giving my mother another project so it is back where it was originally meant to go.

I hope to finish it this week at our community meeting and have it ready for framing by the end of October. I still haven't decided whether I will attempt to frame it or not. Either way, I will post a photo of the finished product when it is complete.

Ok, I am embarassed!

Have you ever created something that you are not completely proud about, but you did it and you might as well prove that you can complete projects even if they don't totally speak to who you are or what or how you want to represent yourself. So have a good laugh.

Ok, so now that you have laughed yourself off your computer task chair, are you finished yet? No? Ok, I will wait a moment longer...

Alright. I made it for my dad, because I thought he liked stuff like that, though i must admit that I never really asked him, I assumed he enjoyed this sort of thing. I look at it and I am mortified that I made it. My dad died in 2001 of ALS, and about a week before he passed away my sister and I went out to his place for a weeks holiday to spend some time with him. We were up one night and I asked him if he wanted to watch Ben Hur with me. Now just so you have some background here, I had watched this movie about 7 to 10 times over the years with my dad. I had assumed all these years that he loved the movie, I enjoyed the movie, but I really thought that it was one of my dad's all time favourites. So when I asked him if he would like to watch it again, he said, "only if you really want to" to which I responded, "of course, I want to watch your all time favourite movie with you, who knows when we will be able to get to do it again" and he said (and I have to say I am still perplexed to this day) "well I never really much cared for it, I watched it because I thought it was your favourite" after I picked my jaw up off the floor, we both had a great laugh. We didn't watch Ben Hur that week, now I wish we had.

So, this Chief head with full headdress and wolf, may actually have been something along the same lines. My father may have feigned interest because he loved me. It's funny that. Anyways, I made it for him, a project I completed out of love for someone rather than love for the task at hand. That piece now graces my bedroom wall, for the same reasons; love for a small girls' hero. Sometimes I wince when I look at it for its content, then I think of how he hung it in a place of honour when I gave it to him, and a pang of guilt courses its way through me when I realize I have hidden it from the eyes of most. So, here is to you dad, a project I completed and gave to you.

Some of you may actually be interested in what it is. It is a piece of canvas with a print on it, the headdress, and medallion are crewel stitched with yarn. The medallion and the headband portion of the headdress are actually a zillion little french knots. The workmanship is actually ok, I think that I did a great job on it. I have another one of these projects that I purchased but never actually started, it has birds in it in a flower garden. Perhaps one day I will pull it out.... or perhaps not. :)

Hayleigh's Applique Quilt

Started sometime between 1998 and 2003, but I believe it was the earlier date, because I remember coloring the fabric of the large face with tea in my home on Jardine Street. My intention was to create quilts for each of the girls with 9 appliqued squares in the middle. Each square would be created with each of the girls in mind. My eldest was very good at gymnastics and was extremely agile and flexible so I created the square of a girl doing the splits. My youngest always enjoyed keeping her hair natural in an afro, so I created the the face showing all of her hair, freestyle!

So you ask, is this it? You needed 18 squares and you managed 2? Well, no. These are just the two that I took a photo of. I managed to make a floral design, some ducks, a heart, and a partially complete NO!. :-) I pulled them out the other day, and now my eldest is adamant that she wants the quilt completed for Christmas. I asked "which one?". Which Christmas that is. I think I will pull it out and make another attempt. Who knows, maybe Xmas 2010! Just in time for the Olympics, perhaps I will put a big olympic emblem in the middle.

I will keep you posted...

Just How Many Unfinished Projects Do I Have?

Have you really taken a look lately and realized how many projects you have started with every intention of finishing and there they sit, partially complete? Or is it just me? Come on... it couldn't be.

My unfinished projects are unbelievable in scale. And I don't just mean projects that I have started, I also mean all those hobbies I got started, usually at some premium expense only to let fizzle before I even became intermediate at them. Every second day following this entry I am going to focus on one of my unfinished projects, on alternate days I will either write about a current project that I am working on, or a completed project from my past. We can't focus entirely on doom and gloom, this is a blog about hope and the joy of tying up loose ends.

Something completely off topic, but interesting none the less (hey is that one word or three?), is how delicious fresh cut crisp apples are with a chunk of cheddar! Amazing. Bon appetit!

Forgiveness

Is sublime.

Project Timelapse

I have decided on a new project, one I have never attempted. I am going to create a video from a collection of photos of a new development going in across the street from my house in Queensborough. Today it looks like they are starting with the pile driving. This should be interesting, I wonder what I will come home to? Wall hanging photos all off their kilter would be the best possible outcome, structural damage to the home, the worst possible. Every day I will take atleast one photo from exactly the same place and then I will string them together with a software package (haven't researched this at all yet, but I am certain there must be something out there that will take a selection of still photos and turn them into video) . I hope it turns out as well as I think it will.

Look Ma, I can tie knots!

I took a 2 hour course on crochet, and I have now completed my 29th dishcloth! I am in a dishcloth making frenzy. The last few years I created oodles of knitted scarves, culminating in my triumphant finish of a grey men's merino wool scarf that was knitted with 6.0 knitting needles and contained over 10,000 stitches! It was my masterpiece! Then I put down the needles and took a long rest from that 2 year project. I know I could have finished it earlier, but I must suffer from some type of attention deficit as I had the hardest time concentrating on that piece! One stitch, over and over until you hit 10,000 and then you put the needles down! have I mentioned that I only have one stitch? I know no others, I continue back and forth until the scarf is long enough! You want choice, choose a color or a different size of needles, the pattern never changes. :)

I keep telling myself that I am crocheting all of the dishcloths to get better at learning my tension as I have a project in mind that I am wanting to do. It is a long tubular bag that you carry over your shoulder with straps that come from the bottom to the top, somewhere between a backpack and a duffel bag? I saw a woman with one and I coveted it immediately. I want to do it in a beautiful khaki green, with a couple of soft pink stripes somewhere around the top of it, with a wool yarn and then felt it. Felting is cool and I have been doing it for years and never even knew it. You know those beautiful cashmere sweaters, or wool sweaters that you put in the wash and then the dryer and they come out all thick and shrunk? Well you've been felting! This is a skill that I should be good at, as I have loads of experience. I have been a couple of places on the internet looking for the replica of what I am looking for, and it is exhaustive looking at bag after bag and not seeing what you are wanting. I have also been to a few stores and looked through magazines and books to no avail. I am not even sure what will happen when I do find a pattern, I don't know how to read them. They are all c28, dh44, codes that mean nothing to me! I need help. Perhaps someone will show up to our community meeting that knows how to read a crochet pattern and they can assist me.

Anyways, getting back to my dishcloths. I now have started my 30th, and you may wonder, what on earth is she going to do with them all? Good question. If you know me, you will probably find a ribbon wrapped round a couple of them this Christmas! I already gave the first three away. My first prized one I gave to my best friend, and the next two I gave to two girls at my work. The other 26 of them are tucked in a drawer at home waiting for xmas. They are made with 100% cotton, so they should hold up well, and I managed to find large balls of this yarn at Walmart's for only $7.77 (what is it with Walmart and their ridiculous pricing methods!?!) and I am getting approx. 8 or 9 dishcloths out. I went to a craft market the other day, they are sold for 2.50 each on average. Ok, so here is the math! How exciting!

I can do one dishcloth per day riding the skytrain in and out of work, if I work 48 weeks per year and manage one every workday that is:

48weeks times 5days = 240 dishcloths in a year.

On average it costs approxiamately .91 cents in textiles to complete a dishcloth that I can sell at 2.50, so my profit per dishcloth would be:

2.50 less .91 = 1.59

If I make 240 of them per year, that would be a sweet sweet profit of:

1.59 times 240 = $381.60

woot! woot! In ten years, I could afford a 1 week holiday in Cancun! How sweet is that!

ok, I am kidding. But I am pretty stoked about crochet, it is the ability to focus in on a simple project, and forget about all that is bothering you, a form of meditation. The silence of my mind when I am busy with crochet is a welcome relief at times.

Get out there and crochet!

Photography

I pulled out my camera yesterday and took off to the Richmond Offleash Dog Park in my neighbourhood. I haven't played with it for quite some time. I was pleasantly pleased to be reminded what it feels like to splay yourself on the ground and create a stable tripod out of your arms bent at the elbow, this is great support and allows for you to get a minimal amount of movement. It did flash through my mind once or twice that I was laying on the surface of a giant toilet, however I didn't let that interfere with my mission.

I like taking photos of flowers. The best flower I ever wanted to take a photo of was one that was growing out of a small crack in a local nearby road. A pretty blue wildflower popped up through a crack in the road, and it was amazing to see this small fragile blossom finding enough nourishment in an asphalt crack to blossom into such a beautiful and delicate flower. I went home with the best intentions of getting my camera and setting up an interesting shot. I wanted to capture the flower in perfect focus with the background blurred showing cars and the road. The light was amazing, it was about 5pm in the afternoon and it was a slightly overcast day, so no bright light to give glare. When I got home, I got sidetracked with day to day business and by the time I got back, the flower was gone. I imagined some small little girl walking alongside her mom and their pet dog named Rover, bending over and picking it to take home and put in a small vase.

Anyways, I digress. It has been a while, but while Rowan ran around the dog park in absolute bliss, I lay amongst the long grass and took some photos. Here are a couple of the better ones. I hope to spend more time on this hobby, and perhaps with time, I will get better.

And so it begins

i am amazed as to how easy it is to blog. i am uncertain why i felt it wouldn't be, almost everyone has one. I chose the design template because Dave Shea designed it, and i have met him.

this is a place for me to compose my thoughts about life, but mostly a place to share ideas around finishing projects, procrastinating and how life seems to find the silliest ways to get in the way of doing all we wish we could do.

i, along with a friend created a community program to enable women to meet in a comfortable space and create and finish all that seems unfinished in their busy lives. over our needles, or unfinished christmas cards we commiserate and laugh at all our futile attempts at managing it all. it is afterall the journey and not the destination which most of life surrounds; it is important to find warmth and enjoyment in that journey rather than looking for a triumphant finish.

the program runs bi-weekly, so certainly not enough to fill a blog, so in between these evenings i will fill the remaining days with fodder for any of you out there insane enough to come back and read it!

i will start with a new recipe that i bastardized to make more acceptable for a diabetic, since i am one.

i started with company's coming - mostly muffins recipe and changed it around to suit my needs. i hope i am not breaking any rules of plagiarism.

1 cup sour skim milk (use some vinegar)
1 cup wheat bran
let sit together for 10 minutes (i mean mix them, putting them beside each other on the table isn't going to produce anything here)
1.25 cups whole wheat flour
1/8 cup splenda brown sugar substitute
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
mix these together in a bowl
2 tbsp egg white (from the carton, i mean it, they come in a carton, they are amazing)
1/4 cup fancy molasses
1/8 cup cooking oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 grated carrot
1/2 cup blueberries
mix these in with milk and bran mixture
mix the wet and dry ingredients until just moist
pour into 12 muffin tins, i use paper cups in my muffin tins, it helps with the clean up.
bake in 375 F oven for 20 to 22 minutes
voila - delicious!