Sugar Pop

Almost makes me want to break out into a Justin Timberlake chorus that throws back to his 'N Sync days. Yeah you know the one. Lame! Anyway, onto the real sugar -- in keeping with my resolutions while still maintaining a pretty solid hibernation strategy until Winter packs up and takes a long walk off a short pier, I ordered my fabric for my first quilt. The books I ordered from Amazon came a couple days ago but I've decided that my first project is going to be made with some pre-cuts and a tutorial I've found online. I decided to order fabric online as I'm less than impressed with the prices and selection found locally (I'm talking to you Fabricville and Sewing World).

The line of fabric I picked is foolishly fun and most often used with projects for babies and small children. And yet somehow it said 28-year-old female to me. These fabrics make me smile.

Can't wait until they arrive!

Quilt Happy

After an impressive first few weeks of blogging in January I totally flaked off. Sorry blog. Time to refocus my efforts on all that I want to accomplish this year. Speaking of which, remember when I told you what my New Year's Resolutions are? Well for the past month and a bit I've been doing some research, thinking about what kind of quilt I want to sew. My mom took a book out of the library for me and I've been reading through it to give myself a little overview of all the things I don't know about quilting; which is pretty much everything. No, I did not know what it meant to "stitch in the ditch". Anyway, with the snow closing in on me I figure it's time to order up some books and get started on some projects.

I liked what I saw in this book. This video gets me excited about quilting. I feel like I'm watching the trailer for a movie that I really really want to see. Have a peek:

I'm also going to pick up this book to have a resource/how-to guide on hand:

I had my eye on this book as well but figured I would get my start with the first two and wait until I need some new projects/inspiration:

I was a little curious to see how I'd do with finding modern and interesting patterns and fabrics. A lot of people discount quilting as something only old women would do. In fact, Dave's reaction to my New Year's Resolution was "you're like an 80-year-old woman". That may be but with Spring feeling a million miles away I could use a little indoor distraction and inspiration.

I hope Amazon gets these gems to me in a jiffy!

Multitasking is...

...finding a couple dollops of paint on your perogies at lunchtime

Love Thy Neighbour

Or at least try not to hate them...

I've been thinking a lot lately about how interesting neighbours are. It's such a strange relationship compared to most others. In what other circumstance do you often see the same people every day without often even knowing their names. You can grow to like or dislike people without ever having a conversation with them. Just because of how they drive their car, and how tidy (or untidy) they keep their lawn.

One neighbour I'm never pleased to see is the guy who plows the snow from his driveway onto our lawn and drops his plow low enough that it digs up all the grass. He also baby-sits his preschool-aged children by sticking them in his truck unsupervised and lets them honk the horn for hours on end.

One neighbour I'm always happy to see is Bill Murray. 

Which is weirder, naming your neighbour's cat, letting it into your house whenever it wants and feeding it treats, or taking its picture and posting it on your blog? Bill even made an appearance at my birthday party this year.

Wait a minute....

So am I a Scorpio?

Or a Virgo?

Guess I'll just have to wait for the next issue of The Coffee News to find out...

Don't know what I'm talking about? Click here.

DIY Calf Stretcher

Along with the meditation bench, my dad and I built an adjustable platform calf stretcher for my sister that folds for easy storage when you're not using it. She has had one on her wishlist for a few years now but they are hard to find and sometimes expensive. She describes her calves as stubbornly tight and although we built it because we knew she wanted one, I was skeptical of how useful a piece of equipment it would be. To my way of thinking there was really no difference between the old "prop your foot against a wall" method. From what I read while researching them, a platform stretcher is really useful because not only can you stretch both legs at once, it shows you instantly how tight your calves are and if one is consistently worse than the other. Once we got it together I stepped on to try it out and fell in love. It feels SO good. I may just have to whip one up for myself.

If you want more details on how we built it just leave a comment and ask!



Credenza Influenza

I don't know what it means but it sure has a ring to it, doesn't it? After the busy evening I had, and a couple of nights with lacklustre sleep, I'm feeling a little low energy. This resulted in the pick-up of my latest kijiji purchase being a tad painful. Ah well, I managed. With a compact car and a boyfriend out of town I had to rely on a commenting comrade for help (and a vehicle large enough to carry it). Thanks Bray! Behold my heavy heavenly friend in all her (former) glory. After photo to follow.

(photo via kijiji)

Bachelordom

For some reason when Dave goes away I turn into such a.... Bachelor. And not in any kind of skeevy way. It's worse. A disgusting, I've forgotten how to clean up after myself, what personal hygiene and a nutritional balanced meal is kind of way. When Dave went to Montreal last month I didn't shower for days, I lived off of pizza delivery, taquitos and mail-order danishes for the entire long weekend. I let the house get messy. No, slothenly. It was so entirely out of character. And now that I've painted that dazzling picture of myself, let me just say: although I miss Dave when he's not here, I don't think that that's the reason for my complete disregard for all things I normally stand for. I think I just do it because I can. Dave left very early this morning for a (very) short business trip and before I even realized what I was doing it was Montreal all over again. By noon the house was a mess and there were dishes everywhere. I went through the Wendy's drive-thru for supper. And then I decided to do something very me. I tackled my to-do list. Take that silly bachelordom. I will fight you and I will win!

To-Do:

-Clean/scrub bathroom
-Wash shower curtain
-Take down and pack away remaining Christmas decorations
-Sew and hang curtains in bedroom
-Water plants
-Fold and put away bedding
-Wash, dry and put away baking dishes
-Empty and reload dishwasher
-Take out garbage
-Salt walkway and deck
-Blog
-Straighten/tidy house
-Hand wash sweaters and winter gloves and hats
-Finish cleaning/organizing bedroom closet
-Do load of laundry

And now I feel like shouting, "Yatta!"

and going to bed...

I'm weird. But only as weird as my mum. But that's still pretty weird.

For as long as I can remember my mum would gaze out the window watching birds, calling me over and telling me what species she spotted and exactly how many of each visited her feeders regularly. She would excitedly point out the birds, and proudly tell stories about them like they were her own. I would usually try to humour her for a minute or two but would quickly grow impatient as she would call me back to the window again and again when a robin, or finch or blue-jay would appear. It always seemed so silly. So boring. I've wanted to hang a feeder up in our yard for awhile and I figured that Winter; when a lot of people stop putting seed out, would be a good time to start. A day and a half after I hung it, three or four chickadees came calling and have been feeding from it for the last two weeks. Today was the first day other species came calling. And I didn't know what they were. I immediately called my mother and described them to her. I googled. I tried to take pictures with my cellphone. I tried to take pictures with my Nikon. They were too quick for me. They disappeared before I had the chance. I had a birdwatching adrenaline rush. I think it was a finch and a sapsucker but only time will tell. And don't worry, I'll keep you posted.

Sorry Mum. I get it now. 

(Chickadee that wasn't camera-shy)

Meditation Bench and Zabuton

Dave has been starting to practice meditation some but found he was struggling with maintaining posture and that back pain was distracting him. I built him a meditation bench out of pine for Christmas and sewed a cushion (zabuton) out of grey canvas with blue piping.

I won't bother to write out a tutorial or directions but if you found this post while looking for a how-to for either of these items and are interested in measurements or how I made them, just leave a comment and I'll add more information.

(image from here)