WIP Wednesday

Over the weekend my mans and I splurged and bought VIP passes to Rifflandia IV. We missed the first night and most of the first day, but every second after we arrived was sheer child-free drunken bliss. This week my WIP is pretty much to survive until Friday. I replied to an email earlier from Laura where she basically said, "where have we been? to busy doing life to blog?" and my answer was pretty much, yes. Tonight I worked late; tomorrow I have a Vancouver Island Derby Meeting in Parksville; Thursday I have to work late and then go to Derby; and Friday my mans' mom, grandma, and sister are coming into town (we don't have to host them, but my house is a disaster so I should clean it, no?). On top of that, I have a massive grant proposal due on Friday that's experiencing some hiccups, one of which is my exhaustion. And then next week it starts all again. But, you know what? I love it. Just some weeks I get railroaded away from my aims at a HOME SWEET HOME more than I want to. Regardless, here are my WIPS!

KITCHEN: Tonight I flaked and ordered pizza, but tomorrow I have these strange dreams of making a pesto pasta (pesto from the freezer) with roasted beets and garbanzo beans and roasted honey'd spaghetti squash on the side. Strange, I know. The boys will have theirs with grated old cheddar on top. As for Thursday, I have no idea what I'll do. I'll honestly probably boil some hot dogs and veg for the child and then go to work. No time for life. Right? This weekend I'm having my lady friends over for a potluck and want to make an apple and asian pear pie. Oh, and I should probably make some applesauce with the apples on my counter, put my squashes into cold storage, hang up and store the 50lbs of onions I bought yesterday ($10!!!), and clean out the fridge from all the nastiness. yay life!

COMMUNITY: Lots of this happening, as always. Most notably on Thursday I'm hosting a self-exploration exercise for Aboriginal youth at the Friendship Center. I'm doing an exercise called the River of Change which I will get some photos of for you and do a tutorial because it's awesome and transformative. I've been doing a handful of them lately and like doing them over asset mapping, pretty fun. The youth who participate will also receive an honorarium and food food food for participating.

CRAFT: I'm knitting my stepdad some socks for xmas (I have him this year) and may have signed myself up to test knit someone's pattern (and I might get yarn out of it!). I kind of want to finish my sweater, but have the needles working on a birthday hat for a cool almost three year old's bday this saturday! yip yip hurrah!

what are you working on this week?

Tutorial: Remember the Necklace Tree?

I posted this tutorial last year (whoa!) and I was thinking the other day that this is the perfect time of year for nature crafts. There are so many cones, branches, and leaves blowing around out there so grab some today and try out a nature craft to decorate your home. I love free art supplies! Look for ideas on Cut out and Keep and Craftzine, they're my favorite sources of inspiration!

Living on Dahl: Recipe

The last week I've been eating nothing but Dahl. Mark and Tee are away this last week and I've been trying not to spend any money because I'm really poor now. I've been working away on my practicum which happens to be full time and unpaid (boohoo). Also, since I'm generally kind of lazy when it comes to feeding myself when I'm on my own, I've been avoiding the grocery store and eating what's in the house. So that means pretty much nothing but red lentil stew.

I've also stumbled upon something that is very like a meal that I ripped off one of the traditional Eritrean dishes that an old room mate of mine made for us once. It's a tomato based lentil stew that is traditionally served on a huge round unleavened (i.e. thin) bread thing that is like a huge DeDutch Pannekoeken. The whole works is dumped on top of the bread thing and everyone digs in with their hand. It's awesome! I like to serve this over a bed of chard, both because I don't have 3 days to make the bread/pancake thinger and because my iron is always low.

This week, all I had in the house for tomato-based-something was Clamato (Bartender's mix, actually) so I used it instead of broth and found that it's a great substitute for tomato sauce. Also, it's already seasoned. The one drawback is that it isn't vegetarian or vegan. Sorry! It can be though, try substituting tomato juice or sauce then seasoning with fresh/dried jalapeno or horseradish. Or you can use actual tomatoes, just mase them up before adding them; you will need to cook for longer.

This is fast and healthy and don't be afraid to skip the tomato juice (etc.) and use broth or season as you like it. Go Indian, Lebanese, or anything else. Don't be afraid to experiment.

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, sliced

1 cup red lentils

2+ cups Clamato, Tomato juice, tomato sauce, tomatoes fresh or canned (etc.)

1 cup chopped chard

topping of your choice! (nuts and seeds will add protein, nutritional yeast adds vitamins Bs)

1. Saute onion and garlic until soft.

2. Add red lentils and cook for a couple minutes.

3. Pour in Tomato Juice/broth (etc.) and spices if using.

4. Cook until lentils are soft, adding more liquid if needed.

5. Season with pepper to taste.

6. Chop chard and scatter on serving plates.

7. Spoon dahl over chard.

8. Sprinkle the topping of you choice on top.

Eye Ball Cat Toy (Pattern)

We've all heard about the urban myth about the person who died alone at home and their cat ate their eyes after it ran out of food. Gross, right? Even though this is unlikely to happen, I thought it would be funny to have eye ball cat toys. Yes, that is probably gross too, but funny right?

I made this toy for Mark's cat, Plato who goes crazy for cat nip. Fill yours up or leave it empty. I've used these eyeballs as keychains and gifts. They make a great last minute present for the kitty in your life. I think most of all I would love to see a jar of them for a Halloween decoration, maybe something to work towards this year. They are super easy, fast a fun to whip up, so make them in pairs or singles, with bloodshot-eye red veins, and for extra fun: add an optic cord (black or yellow) braided with a strand of blue (vein) and red (artery) to use as a string to tease a cat or tie to your keys.

All you have to do is find a basic ball pattern and work it in white or off white. I used 'Oh Balls!' from ilikelemons. Then add an iris and a pupil by changing the colours at the right place.

On round 17, I changed to my iris colour, then on round 24, I changed to black for the pupil.

I like using heathered colours for irises or little bits of leftover yarn from past projects, they look awesome with fluorescents and pink rabies eyes.

Choose worsted yarns for human sized eyes and use a needle a few sizes down from what you would normally use for the particular yarn you've chosen, this will make sure that your eye is thick and densely knit and stuffing won't be visible or fall out.

Stuff the eyeball with poly fill, yarn ends, crappy yarn that you hate, and cat nip loose or in pouches.

Attach a braided (black, blue, and red) string to the end opposite your iris and pupil and voila! Done. Now sit back and watch your cat destroy it. How fun!

Friday Favourites

It's late late on Friday and Laura and I have a few super busy weeks, but since I just cut my bangs (pinner short) I can spend a little time bringing you my favourites from this past few weeks that I've been saving up on my Pinterest. I love pinterest, and often just go look at my boards, longingly, from my desk. At work. I wonder why my life, every waking minute, can't be surrounded by my pinterest boards. And I wonder what it is I have to do to have that glorious life I see on and curate for myself with pinterest. It definitely adds some pressure on to what I'm not doing, and how I'm not as hip or earthy or whatever as I think I am. Regardless, I'm hooked!

These favourites are house-y favourites that are kind of driving my want for a better space and are encouraging me to paint and re-do our bedroom, sometime in the near future.

I've really been interested in the washboard look of coastal living lately. (source)

This is pretty normal/boring for me, but I love that painted tray with the chalkboard paint idea. (source)

It's things like this neon door that make me which I owned my own home. (source)

Again with the coastal living look. (source)

I'm also in love with all these mugs! We have a carefully curated collection, but I always want to pick up more at thrift stores. Always. (source)

Do you use Pinterest? What are your favourite things to pin?

WIP Wednesday

Laura and I in Victoria, worst picture ever!

It's 10PM and I'm exhaustemated. The oven's going and the kid and the husband are in bed and for the first time in a while I actually get to sit on the couch. My still new-to-me vintage couch. We haven't spent much time together and I've kind of missed getting to know it.  And I'm surprised that even this week I've been able to do so! Check out what I've been and will be up to this week.

KITCHEN: Much to the chagrin of Laura, I'm currently in transition on my way to being vegan. It's a hard transition mainly because I'm so busy and I slip up at least once a day (eg. today I was starving and finished seth's hot dog to get something into my stomach stat and because I was about to put the hot dog in the garbage). I'd done a vegan cleanse a while back because I had felt (and smelled) disgusting. The cleanse was amazing and I've since been off caffeine, but the vegan switch feels great too, despite the challenges.  And by vegan I mean I have two caveats, I'm going to eat port-alberni salmon and eggs. If you define being vegan strictly on NOT consuming animal products then I'm not a vegan, but if you consider that animals die to produce palm oil to make vegan things like Earth Balance, and that animals die every time wheat is harvested, it's not just about the animals. It's about sustainability and eating with the environment in mind, too. For me it's better to get my hands on eggs from the valley (free range, organic, blah blah) than it is to buy tofu made with beans from who knows where. The salmon we only enjoy pretty much during the season and I ran out of time to put any up this year, so I'll have to wait until next year to enjoy this one.

COMMUNITY: This week I'm trying to tie up some loose ends with roller derby and finally get our CWRDA insurance submitted. It's a lot of work. I've been working on unloading the work that aren't really my duties for the roller derby league onto other skaters/board members which feels awesome and frees up more time for me to catch up on other derby stuff. In my work/community stuff there's LOTS going on and it's almost overwhelming... just not yet. Tonight I met with one of the local youth groups (their first meeting in a while) and they're amazing! I'll hopefully be working with them to put together a proposal for an event or something for National Aboriginal Addictions Awareness Week. Hoping they pick a dance or a kayak trip or a movie/dinner night out and presentation or something! Fun!

CRAFT: I'm plugging away on my sweater. I want it to be done yesterday. (and I'm picking up a new book to read, which isn't craft related, but I'm reading a book! I haven't done that in a few years post-grad school).

What are you working on this week?

CookBook Give-Away!

Yes! It's true! I'm the most awesome at Give Aways. Remember the Cookbook giveaway?

Here it is!!

Well, just to make this one sweeter I tossed into the vintage kitchen grab bag a brand new kitchen apron handmade by me for you!

I hope you win!

Well, here is goes...

And the winner is...erin from edinburgh, love erin! Well, I did say I would send it anywhere. Yeesh! Enjoy the treats Erin!

erin said...

My Bible: The Forgotten Skills of Cookery, by Darina Allen! Everything I need to know about growing, foraging, cheese making, preserving, cooking classic dishes and baking rustic breads. I like the way this lady, who runs her own natural cooking school in Ireland, thinks. It is both beautiful and genuine!

August 2, 2011 3:28 AM

Friday Favourites: The Fox is Black

For the past few years I've been following The Fox is Black because of his Desktop Wallpaper Project. Bobby Soloman who is at the helm of TFIB has created a number of artist-opportunities through his blog, either as inviting them to participate in his wallpaper project, or in his re-covered books (which I'll friday fave in the future).  He also does an LGBTQ Creative Series, which is (awe) inspiring. And right now he has a photography contest happening with lomography that you could so totally win! On top of that, he and his team of Bloggers post about art-nerd stuff all day every day and I LOVE IT.  Here's my favourite wallpapers... but if you just follow TFIB on Twitter you'll know about it when they come out (but they generally come out on Wednesday, no...I'm not addicted...).

The Desktop Wallpaper Project featuring Dan Cassaro of Young Jerks

Sights & Sounds: Animal Collective / ‘Strawberry Jam’ by Jen Mussari

The Desktop Wallpaper Project featuring Nate Utesch

The Desktop Wallpaper Project featuring Jared Chapman (i like this one b/c it's kind-of hipster racist)

Alberni District Fall Fair

September in my sleepy town is probably the busiest month we have going for us in the community. The Labour Day weekend is the annual Salmon Fest where thousands of people crowd around the Cluetsi Marina and watch bands play, visit booths, and eat lots and lots of super salty and delicious bbq'd salmon. My cohort, mentor, and friend Theresa took a bunch of pictures of Salmon Fest and wrote about it on her blog, Reflections of the Everyday, read about it here (and drool over the pictures of the salmon). The big deal about Salmon Fest is that the winner of the biggest salmon brought in (legally?) wins an enormous prize of $10,000 !!! This year's biggest fish was over 35lbs... but I couldn't imagine how big the fish were back in the day.
Next weekend is the annual Port Alberni Toy Run. The Toy Run here is a two day event (with a whole day for clean up). The Toy Run is all about people on bikes collecting toys for children in need and raising money (as a community organization) for children and youth programming. This year the Alberni Valley Roller Girls are going to be the heavies (read: security) for their dance. We're going to gussy up in our best roller derby short shorts and tights and be there to represent our league and maybe get a few more sponsorships!
And this weekend is the Alberni District Fall Fair. I haven't been to a fall fair in ages (since I was a child) but thought, wait, I have a child now, so I should take him to the fall fair. Ha! The fall fair here started in the depression as a way for local agriculturalists to share the products of their bounty and the event is so massive (and the prize guide so thick) that it takes a non-profit to plan for it all year to make it happen. And there's a carnival. And THOUSANDS of people come out. It's incredible. With lots of little kid rides, which is fun. My kid loves the animals and had fun trying to feed the goats. We'll definitely be going back next year.

WIP Wednesday

I'm heading to Vancouver Island to see Diandra and go to a good friend's wedding on Saturday.

After getting sales-fucked for hours at Denman Bikes (ala Lush, really!), we had a great dinner then snuck onto the last sailing to the island. I'm really looking forward to being downtown Victoria tomorrow! We'll have to go the the rebar (and bakery) as well as Smoking Lily (a must!). Do you have any suggestions for the food or stuff to do?

COMMUNITY: A few gals and I skated River Rd. in PG (it's so ugly and that makes up look so good) but it's really startling to see yourself on video tape. Any ideas that you have about what you look like are pretty much laid to waste and you are faced with the reality of how you look. And of course, we would always like to change something. Me? I'd like to tone up my upper legs a bit and take a couple inches off my back shelf, it's getting a little too big for my tastes (pant-wearing season is coming up and I do not want to have to buy a new wardrobe's worth of pants, you know?). Well, a derby WIP is a video! I am also designing the posters and tickets for the upcoming derby awesomeness! Stay tuned.

I'm working on a whole bunch of shameless self promotion using various social media sites and my networks. I've got a bunch of knitting classes and a crochet class coming up at Top Drawer Yarn Studio here in P.G.. I've designed a new hat for teaching cables and will publish it soon, Monday? It's really exciting!

CRAFT: I've started a pair of socks for Mark.

What are you working on?

Tutorial: Total Awesomeness!

The most common words out of my mouth when I first met Mark was, "I know. I'm awesome" and even though I may have been trying to convince myself if no one else, it worked! Believe that you are the best and you will be the best. Awesome! Also, did you know that 'awesomely' and 'awesomeness' are actual words? Try to use them in a sentence today, maybe not at the same time, but give it a try. Inject a little awesomeness into you day and you will be awesomely surprised at the awesome effect on your personal outlook and confidence!

Me as a proud militant craft machine at PGPride 2010

If you are having a little trouble with believing in your absolute awesomeness, craft yourself a #1 or 1st place button proclaiming your superiority to the world. That way when people ask about it you can say that no, you didn't win it somewhere, "I'm just the best". This sucker also makes a great gift; you could make one for the best activist or best feminist you know, it would make a terrific birthday present too! I gave my prototype to Diandra because she is actually THE best, but not before I wore it out a couple times.

It was awesome!

What you need:

An old or ugly button (I've got a bag full from an old Tourism PG campaign)

Lots of ribbons! Use different widths and layer them, try patterned ones!

straight pins

a lighter or matches (for burning ribbon edges)

bias tape (wider size)

scissors

hot glue gun & glue

sewing machine with zigzag function/stitch (or embroidery floss & needle)

small bit of light cotton material (enough to cover button)

marking pencil

Button Cover:

1. Trace the shape of you button on a small piece of material (make sure that it is opaque enough to cover the original design on the button) and embroider with your sewing machine (set to wide yet compact zigzag stitch) or by hand the design you want on your button.

2. Cut out your button cover to be 1/4" larger than your button. Glue the cover onto the button.

3. Cut a length of bias tape the same as the circumference of you button. Glue one end of the bias tape and then run a bead of glue along the edge of the button. Taking the button in one hand and the bias tape in the other hand, turn the button and stretch the tape while glueing them together. The tape will curl a bit to cover the edge nicely.

Ribbons:

4. Fold, pin, and glue ribbons into rosettes, layering if you want. Cut lengths for the bottom ribbons making sure to account for the width of the rosette(s), hold a burning lighter of match close to the edge to melt the edges to prevent fraying. Glue bottom ribbons at the tops if layering to create ribbon 'units'.

5. Glue rosettes to your button, then glue the bottom ribbon 'units' to the bottom. Making sure to glue them to the button and not the rosettes.

6. Let the whole thing dry while you clean up.

Now you can wear your new button with pride because it's official, you are the best!

I'm awe-awe-awesome!

Long Weekend: What did you do?

I caught up on some class prep/knitting, scraped a bunch of paint from Mark's house trim (prep for painting), finished a book, shot some derby video footage down by the river, went to derby practice, heading to the last of the year Board Meeting, got my kid ready for her first day of school tomorrow, babysat my cousin's kids, made lots of bloody pancakes, picked apples, shared a beautiful bottle of Mistura Tinto from Quinto Fereirra with Mark, picked kiwis, went the the farmer's market, and watched dinosaur movies with my kid.

How about you? How did you celebrate the long weekend?

Birthday Sides

This week is my birthday week and to celebrate I'm hosting sustain-a-table tonight. Last week when I was thinking about what I wanted to eat for my birthday dinner, all I could think was BEANS AND RICE! BEANS AND RICE! All summer I've refrained from eating beans and rice (my favourite) because I wanted to force myself to eat summer food so I didn't get all nostalgic for bbq over the winter. See, the thing is, in comparison to "winter" foods (curries, soups, stews, casseroles), I don't really like "summer" food (bbq, things on skewers, cold salads). I just want BEANS AND RICE!

The "menu" for dinner tonight highlights beans and rice with the rebar black beans and I'm going to do a modified green rice with parsley and jalapeno (instead of the whole gamut of green things like spinach). I also just got corn tortillas through our buying club (local, organic, dirt cheap) so thought I'd scrounge through the fridge to make some "summery" toppings for the beans, in case people wanted to go all burrito with their dinner.  

 
FRESH SALSA 

4 medium sized tomatoes, diced
1/4 cup diced white onion
1/4 cup minced cilantro
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
1 tsp salt

Prepare vegetables and combine in a glass or ceramic bowl. Remember to wear a glove or use a piece of plastic wrap to hold the jalapeno and don't rub your eyes! I like to put this in a closed container in the fridge for a few hours and then let it get to room temperature to devour with taco chips or on BEANS AND RICE!

 
LIMEY SLAW 


1/4 of a medium red cabbage, shredded
juice of 1 lime (and a bit of flesh too)
1/4 cup cilantro
1 tsp ground black pepper
salt to taste

Mix all of the ingredients in a ceramic or glass bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refridgerate for a few hours. Serve cold on BEANS AND RICE!

Friday Favorites: Derby Promotions

As my local derby league, the Rated PG Rollergirls are about to enter into our next season, we are getting to the point where we are thinking about our league branding, image, and promotion. We want to be taken seriously by other leagues, our community, and sponsors. Plus we want to look cool.

RPGRG was approached about appearing on some 'Healthy Living'-type posters for Northern Health (and yes, we get the irony), would we like to be part of their campaign? Of course! The only problem was (is!) that we don't have our own photographers or media people. Sure we have lots of people and friends who come to our games and then stick their photos on the interweb for our use but our league doesn't actually own those photos.

In an effort to see what others are up to I've been able to peruse other league's promo materials and here are my faves.

I really love the stuff that is coming out of Vancouver right now. I love the range of polish between each item too, this good for showing different personalities of the teams, the girls, and the organization.

TCRG's newest team, Public Frenemy takes it to the streets.

The Terminal City Roller Girls are worth keeping an eye on, they've got a new poster campaign and great bout posters.

TCRG's new campaign is kick ass.

Rat City always has great posters and promo stuff too, it all started with them designing their wicked logo, then they could sell their merch and make money doing it.

I've always loved the bout and event posters from Hammer City Roller Girls, I worship the poster queens that they are.

Have you seen this rules video? A great way to promote your league is to put together a video that everyone needs to watch.

Newest Rule video from Hammer City

Or how about some instructional videos like the ones from San Diego Derby Dolls?

Bonnie DStroir shows a power slide on the banked track

It makes me feel like I need to track down a video camera and a videographer to go along with it.

What are you doing to promote your local derby team?