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Saturday, December 31, 2011 in crafty things

Quilts I made this year

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2011 quilts I finised

1. Isabella’s quilt, 2. all done!, 3. hot pink and yellow and orange quilt, 4. another baby quilt, 5. blue & yellow quilt close up, 6. Emma’s quilt, 7. Paddington quilt, 8. Baby quilt, 9. purple sleepover quilt – front, 10. red blue white baby quilt – front, 11. birthoween quilt front, 12. love you wall hanging

Mind you, this is just the ones I actually *finished*. We all know I made more tops and some of these tops were made the year before. ;)

Let’s see how much more backlog I can clear out in 2012.

Edit: after all that work I just realized I forgot Sarah’s blue & white quilt an I think Izzy’s quilt I gave to her last Christmas….

Clearly I need to keep better track of these things. :D

Friday, December 30, 2011 in all about me

Things I need to write about

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First, I was thinking of posting a list over on G+ but then I told myself, “Self,” (because sometimes I say that. truly. “Self, you said in your head and maybe out loud that you would post more in 2012, at the very least so you could go back and read what happened because your memory? Is like that thing with holes in it that you use to drain pasta.”

(that joke went over real well on twitter btw)

So, quilts I made:
- Addison’s halloween quilt. Biggest I’ve done so far, forgot one print glowed in the dark.
- Meaghan’s quilt. Still not finished. we have been angsting over the actual quilting.
- Sarah & Emma also got birthday quilts.

And? I totally made (HA!) Kaytlyn a quilt for her birthday too (which is today) but alas it is of course not done. The top is not even finished, but was enough to get a sense oh how it will look when done. Tip: big and bright.

I need to make more baby quilts. Like, a LOT. And have a stash handy.

Christmas was good. Adrian (my father) came up. We also drove down to see my mom. (Not with Adrian tho) Long story, which is why I need to remember to write an actual post.

I even neglected (says certain family) to upload pictures in a timely manner and even (in some cases) neglected to take actual pics. Or took them on the camera Sarah borrowed from her school. The camera is a Nikon and drool-worthy.

I should also write (here) that Ron & I are working full time for people other than ourselves. A steady predictable paycheque is really nice.

There’s also some other random stuff I want to write about and how come I never get around to it. Partly I get stuck on *where* to write it. There’s a million places now. I just need to sort that in my head. :P

Sunday, November 13, 2011 in I Forgot To Pick A Category

Toronto visit

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Yeah totally skipping over last month…

Anyway, Ron and I went to Toronto last weekend to attend and speak at what is known as a WordCamp. Basically, it’s a bunch of our nerdy friend talking code. And some normal people trying to figure out how to even use WP.

We got up a o’dark o’clock on Friday to head down to Fredericton airport. Mom met us there to take Emma & Meaghan to her place, after a shopping trip. Ron got to pick the seats on the plane, and chose the last row for us. That was an experience. At least we got on almost first. :D There were a bunch of Australian military guys also on the plane. They were headed home so were joking with each other, and eventually us too.

The flight was pretty uneventful actually. It is becoming old hat. Takes abut 2 hours or so in air time to get to Toronto. We did go into Pearson, even tho there was a special to go to the smaller airport. We just didn’t want to transfer in Montreal. It turns out we know someone who has done that way a couple times, and he pointed out all the up sides, so we might try it. It does save a $50 cab ride downtown.

Not that we had to worry about that when we got there. :D One of the organizers met us there and gave us a list. It was awesome being picked up.

By now it was lunch time locally so we were starving. I was a bit worried at the hotel check-in as our credit card company called us a few days before we left to say our cc had been lifted and they canceled it and were sending a new one. Which, naturally, did not get here before we left. But the hotel let us pay cash with a deposit. so *phew*. We dumped our stuff, grabbed a map of downtown from the lobby and headed off to Eaton Centre. Man, it seems bigger than it was 20 years ago.

We found lunch and stood around to eat it as there was only a small section with chairs nearby and all full. Then fortified, we made our way up and down. Ron bought a new hat and a book at Chapters. It was nice having time to look around, but the crowds were ugh. Completely missed the Apple store too.

After that, we hung out in our hotel room waiting for the speaker’s dinner. Some of the others from out of town were in the same hotel so we walked down with our buddy Dale. Another invisible internet friend who actually does exist!

The dinner was held in a chi-chi frou frou restaurant called the Bowery. Supposedly New York Chic with a bit of old timey farm hipster kitsch tossed in. Yes really. There were hay rakes as a ceiling decoration with ripped up half-renoed walls. Mismatched silverware. Rough wood tables. Kinda like home really. Very noisy – the music was so loud most of us were complaining.

We got there at 7, the appointed time, and finally started getting food around 8:30 or so. Seriously. Our party had a fixed menu, so we had three choices for starter, main and dessert. I am still kicking myself for not taking pictures of the food, even though I had the camera right next to me and took pictures of other people. We thought the salad was a safe pick but it has something in the vinaigrette that burned my lips off. I still have dry and flakey skin around my upper lip today. It was that spicy. I had maybe 6 bites hoping it would get better.

The chicken I had was good though. It was grilled and on a bed of chard and mushroom with some lentils. Very earthy tasting but went well with the chicken. Turns out they get their chickens from the local Mennonites. Ron had the steak. We both had cheesecake for dessert. It was very Food Network like.

The next day I was groggy and headachy because we couldn’t figure out how to close the curtains. Turns out they were hiding behind the sheers. After a full day of socializing and work stuff (basically) we skipped out on the after party and took a cab over to cousin Dave’s place.

Much quieter! :D Even with the baby occasionally protesting over the terrible indignities babies have to put up with. Like, you are using a fork I want! Sybil made me miss Izzy. :) It turns out they also have the Going To Bed book, which Ashley and I wound up reciting. I think she’s read it almost as many times as we have. Eventually, we both had to pee. This is important, I swear. Ron went first, and when he came downstairs had such a big grin on his face, even Dave & Ashley wanted to know what was up. “You’ll see when you get there.” And I did.

When I came back downstairs, I pointed at him and went “SEE? TOLD YA it would look nice!” Turns out they had renovated their bathroom exactly the way I wanted to do ours in the old house. DOH. White subway tiles halfway up the walls and hexagon tiles on the floor. And it looked really good too.

We stayed until we all were yawning, and then we called the cab guy who drove us there. I think that’s neat – they give you a card to get the same guy directly next time. We had a great conversation with him too. He wanted to know how cheap it was to live in NB. Not as many cabs here tho.

Sunday we slept better since we found the dark curtains. Well, except for the 5am wake up from the gals down the hall who left like it was 10am. And then made as much noise as possible in the courtyard, which our room overlooked. Our window was open a crack too. We lingered over breakfast, talking with other attendees who were staying in the same hotel, then worked on the laptop in turns, since wed had internet issues the day before, and called the kids. Then we checked out, lugged our stuff a few blocks to a Wendy’s and back to the venue for the afternoon.

Ron & I taught a joint workshop for 3 hours – at least that was the scheduled time. It was another half hour till we had everyone taken care of, and another half hour to finish up with the organizers. We had thought abut getting something to eat and then heading to the airport, but decided to just go to the airport instead. Good thing too, as we had to wait around for a cab, then a half hour cab ride, then go through security. We were so tired, it took us a bit to realize we really should eat supper, so we did. The cafe was slow & crowded. But again, we hopped on the free wifi to check on things.

On the plane back, we had seats in the first row, so we got on almost last. And had to check our bag, which had a book Ron wanted to read in it. I even had to put my purse in the overhead compartment as there were no seats in front of us to put our stuff under. The guy across from us was really inconsiderate too, getting in everyone’s way.

A rather uneventful and quick flight home, plus we got to see everything lit up. We even flew over Montreal. I texted Sarah as soon as we got out in the parking lot, which way maybe 5 whole minutes after the plane door opened. We got to her place and Emma was fast asleep, so I had to wake her up and we bundled her and Meaghan and all their stuff into the car and drove home in the quiet dark.

1:30am and we were halfway into our own beds.

I think I’m still recovering.

Sunday, October 16, 2011 in I Forgot To Pick A Category

potato harvest

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We went potato picking!

In case you did not know, I live in a rural spot surrounded by potato farmers. Yes, right in the french fry capital of the world. Many of the farmers supply a frozen food company, who has requirements they need to meet – not only in terms of volume but also kind of potato and size.

Earlier this week I mentioned when the harvester gang came to do the field across the road. A harvester, a potato truck, a few trucks and cars worth of people, a trailer and a port a potty. It’s a small field – about ten acres. They were done in short order.

So the harvester pulls up the plants, pulls off the taters and spits out the plants and any potatoes that are too small. While this is going on, people sort over the potatoes, chucking any bad one, too crooked ones, or small ones that got missed.

This leaves some potatoes in the field, not enough for the farmers to go back and gather up and (I guess) not enough to bother keeping.

Yesterday we were at one neighbor’s house when another stopped in with a ten pound bag of potatoes. They mentioned they gathered them up from the field (not theirs).

This is expected around here – people know afterwards there are potatoes left and the farmer leaves them, knowing some people will gather them up. As long as you;re not tearing around the field, no one cares.

So we went over tonight after supper. Ron fired up our little tractor and we grabbed 3 buckets and five feeds bags.

It was kind of astounding the amount that is left behind. When we approached the field I asked Meaghan if those were piles of rocks, because that also happens when harvesting – just pile up the rocks. While there were some rocks piles, the rest were potatoes.

We were like kids in candy stores – skipping the busted potatoes that were driven over, the spoilt ones and the really tiny ones, it was very grabby. And kind of shocking.

Even though it is considered waste, we did maybe 3-4 rows, zig zagging back and forth, going a total of maybe 200 yards in, and filled those 5 feed bags. Figure at least 50 pounds each.

I kept shaking my head at how much was left, and thinking how many people it could feed. And that’s not just cutting bad parts off of the taters. There were (and still are) plenty good potatoes there.

I hate to see them go to waste.

Thursday, October 13, 2011 in food

Even lazier bread and baguettes

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I’ve known how to make bread for a long time. It’s effort. Like all day effort and hard on the arms. Especially when you have to stand on a stool to knead effectively anyway.

So. We love fresh bread. When we went to Montreal, there was a bakery every few blocks so we had baguette. (and cheese, because it was everywhere – even gas stations. Viva Quebec! *ahem*) After we got home, Ron got to hinting at me to see if I could make baguettes. The lovely Margaret Roach even sent me her unused and languishing baguette pan.

I googled for recipes, I adjusted, I followed tips. Then one day on twitter, I saw a company having a contest where the winner got a preview copy of this new cookbook.
Ironically, I won because of my flaming loaves of bread story. And in 140 characters, no less.

In the cookbook was a recipe for artisan bread, adapted from that artisinal bread cookbook everyone raved about but I failed at making properly.

And? With my own further adjustments? We have bread perfection.

Lazy Bread

3 cups warm water
1 1/2 TBSP yeast
1 TBSP salt (yes, a tablespoon – trust me)
6 1/2 cups flour

Pop the water in the microwave for 30 seconds. That usually makes it lukewarm. You want it warm, like baby bathwater warm. Put the yeast in the water. I have a big steel bowl I mix this all up in.

Measure out the flour in another large container or huge glass measuring cup. Mix the salt in with the flour NOT the water. This amount of salt causes the yeast to grow slower than usual and adding it to the water with the yeast will hurt it.

Dump the flour/salt in the bowl with the water/yeast and mix it. I have a sturdy wooden spoon. Keep stirring. Or not, depending on if you are tired. The dough will be really sticky and quite a mess. It you don’t stir it much, the flour will soak in anyway, especially if you are going to leave it.

Now you can cover all the dough up and toss it in the fridge to use whenever you want. It will keep. It will also not rise & fall (remember the salt?). The flavor will also mellow.

Or, you can use all the dough now and make 4 loaves.

Or, cut off half the dough.

Either way, let the dough site for a couple hours. Or so. It should look like it rose, but don’t angst about how much unless your house is really cold. You can’t leave it so long it will fall, unless you completely leave it out all day.

Divide the dough in 4 if you used all of it, or two if you hacked off half a chunk. :D Resist the urge to knead it, tho you can lightly oil or flour it. If you left the dough in the fridge, you start here.

Stretch out a bit of dough in the baguette pan or on a stoneware pan. Or dump it on a stoneware pan so it’s round. Or oval. Or whatever floats your boat. In a regular loaf pan, it is disappointing. Pretend you are a farm wife and you can’t afford a loaf pan but your love (and bread) makes you happy. :P If you use a nice fancy metal baguette pan with tiny holes in it, line it with parchment paper. Letting it rise in the pan without it will make it really hard to slide the cooked loaf out of all those teeny little holes.

Come back in an hour and a half. It should look puffy and you will see air bubbles under the surface. Put the stove on the preheat at 450. If your oven runs hot, 425 will do. Go away for 15 minutes.

Come back and toss the pan with the dough on it in the oven for 25 minutes.

If you want to get really fancy and do the crusty crust thing, when the oven is preheating put a cookie sheet on the bottom rack and boil some water, about a cup or so. When the over is preheated, place the dough & pan on the middle rack, and just when you close the door, pour the boiling water on the pan on the bottom rack and quickly close the door. This will make a crunchy crust.

But this one time? Like, last week? There was oil on the bottom pan and the water rushing onto it made it WHOOSH up and the parchment paper lining the top pan caught on fire. And then your husband will give you That Look and sigh and you’ll be all, “WHAT? THe loaves themselves are not burning and.. look, see? The edges of the paper are all done burning now,” and when they are cooked he will only gently shake his head at you when brushing soot off the finished (and PERFECT!) loaves.

fresh baguettes

So there. Have butter ready. Resist the urge to slice it right away as it’s difficult and kinda hot. These go stale after a couple days, but it’s so easy to toss some dough in a pan and have the rest waiting in the fridge, why the heck not?

Baguette fights may break out if you make two at once.

baguette fight

Tuesday, October 4, 2011 in I Forgot To Pick A Category

This grandparent stuff is awesome

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So the Saturday before last, Addison & Kaytlyn & Izzy cam up for an impromptu visit. I got A & K to clear out some books & Add even brought some meat they had to eat up, so he cooked supper.

Izzy ran up and down our front hall.
She payed in the plastic drawer.
She found that bar of soap we left too low. (eww)
She took webcam pics of us together.

me & izzy on the webcam

We dug out toys we’ve been setting aside just for her, and toys that my grandmother had at her house for me to play with.
We played with the magnets on the fridge too.

Addison came over and watched us. He notcied we have the bright green silly man face magnet with the big ose. It’s a strong magnet and we got it from Grampy. I was helping Izzy pull it off the fridge and put it on again.

Addison reached down and pulled on the magnet.

“Aw, it lost its strength.”

“No it didn’t, honey.”

“But it was stronger when I was little.”

I looked way way up, because I was sitting on the floor and he was standing.

“You grew up, sweetie.”

“Awww.”

We took Izzy out to the backyard to run around (because we can!) and her Grampy showed her where apples comes from, and her Aunt Meaghan chased her in the grass and her mommy gave her airplane rides and her Nanny took pictures and got tuckered out.

End of summer

It was a good day. My cheeks hurted.

***

In other news – they came back to put the pump in the weel yesterday. A big excavator, some more digging and some clumping up and down to the basement. It is awesome.

The living room is done and we are putting furniture back into it, slightly differently. Especially since half the furniture was in the room with the stove. It’s getting cold enough to actually run the stove and the furniture was in the way, so we had to finish up.

Thursday, September 22, 2011 in I Forgot To Pick A Category

Well there

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We had the well drillers show up on Wednesday (finally) and it was really way cool in the way 8 year old boys love mud and noisy big trucks and piles of dirt kind fo way.

After the first hour, the constant drone of the drill was less than exciting. But Ron did a write up so you should read it instead of reading me repeat half of it incorrectly.

I also cut my hair really short, then tried to dye it pink.

Other than that, not much is new.

Oh! Right! I am almost done painting the living room. The up side is it looks great and the room is eleventy times lighter. The down side is the paint color is really close to the not-white they put on the ceiling so we have to paint it too. It never ends.

So the hair thing.. I just cut it short like mom’s. Pretty much exactly really. Huh.

And the pink. You can’t see much unless I am standing near a light and then it look like a pink light is on my head.

No reason. Just felt like a change and we had some pink dye from when I did Emma’s way back when.

Also I have not done near enough sewing this week and it is making me cranky.

Friday, September 16, 2011 in books

Book clear out

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While we’re been priming The Cave (the living room) I’ve been cleaning out the room. I forgot how big this room actually is without three large bookcases crammed with books in it.

Yeah, we had to move all the books. Not *all* the books in the house, as there are bookcases in every room. But the 2 large and one medium bookcase in the living room that held our homeschooling / reference / crafty books.

If you have never seen pics, it’s a lot. There’s libraries around here with less. I finally decided that if we were looking up things n the internet before looking at our own books because there were so many to go through (or even find) then maybe it was time to clean them out.

On the up side, I have thoroughly cleaned out a number of subject matters and the books I kept picking up because we liked that topic or needed it for homeschooling. But at some point you have to ask – exactly how many kid craft books do we really *need* given we have enough knowledge AND materials to write our own from scratch? Or Canadian history? Or general science knowledge? Apparently you have have too many. And I haven’t even done upstairs hallway books.

At any rate, I have a rather large pile of books we no longer want to keep. Some of them are really really god books too. Anyone who is related to me or who feels comfortable with stopping in can adopt any number of these books looking for a new home. Many of them were well loved, a few we looked at thinking “WTF?”, and there are exactly two with battery sound effects (first come first serve on those PLEASE).

If not, you’re all getting boxes of books for Christmas. I’ll deliver.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011 in family

Looking to be a new habit

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So last Sunday we all trekked up to my mom’s new place, again, this time so Ron could help Carl install some more cabinetry after the countertop was in the kitchen. Also something in there about family togetherness.

I rolled him out of bed late and he kinda forgot when he first woke up, but eventually we motored on through Fredericton, picking up Sarah just under an hour from when we said we would. :D

Because we are highly organized (LOL), when we drove by Addison’s place and could see their car in the driveway, I asked Sarah if she knew if Addison was coming to visit too. Turns out my mom DID call and did invite them as well. (As if any of us need actual invitations, right?)

Long drive was long, but the second half is not very familiar to us, so there’s new stuff to look at. And weird childhood flashbacks. Huh, I DID stay at that campground once in ’84 or thereabouts… Mom fed us a cold lunch when we got there, and I had brought the sugar and books she wanted (she left a comment last entry) and also two baguettes made the day before.

“You brought us DAY OLD bread? That’s it, outta the will!”

Addison, Kaytlyn, and the Most Beloved of All Grandbabies (plus Mare) showed up shortly thereafter. Much running around was to be had, and while Addison gleefully and joyfully set to work on the old apple tree with a hacksaw, Kaytlyn and Emma hunted for treasure in the yard with the metal detector, and Team Grandma (me and mom) and assorted aunties took Izzy for a wagon ride down the Driveway of Doom to look at the roadside apple tree.

On the way back up the wagon ride was not so much fun anymore, so Airplane rides it was for Izzy. I pulled a calf muscle. Because I am old.

Izzy decided I was okay, because I did col things like show her how to pick up dead apples and chuck them in the bucket. And draw in the gravel dirt with a stick. And let her play with sticks. And hold her hand (only when absolutely needed) while walking on the uneven spots in the yard. And basically following her pretty much everywhere and knowing when to take her to mommy. And show her where the toys were hiding, and the crayons. And Nanny takes pictures, for which Izzy will hear the camera, turn and smile. See? Smartest baby ever. Mare needs a lanyard with a tag reading “official baby photog” since she made sure to follow us all around and snap pics. You can see some here and I am uploading mine to my flickr soon as well. Izzy also decided that Grampy is not so bad either, even if he has a deep voice and a hairy face.

Then we all tried to corwd around my mom’s teeny round table to eat supper. Considering she doesn’t have enough chairs even when lugging in stools and lawn chairs, it was highly amusing.

I can’t even remember all the funny stuff that was said, but I think we all had a good time. I was wiped out. On the way back, we left first, but just outside Fredericton, Kaytyln passed us and they all waved. THAT was funny. :D

My mommy also bought me some fabric and some clearance patterns and said that the quilt top I brought to show her (that frustrated me), she would be willing, I guess, to have it at her place, just because, oh darn.

I’d also brought my laptop to check on work things while there, but after a bit I just left the lid closed. Because I was enjoying the family.

The day was sunny, the view was spectacular, the breeze just chilly enough, and kids all laughed in the background.

Monday, September 5, 2011 in I Forgot To Pick A Category

Sick house

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We broke our streak. I do’t think we’ve been sick since Sarah moved out & Ron started working at home. Tho it’s not Sarah’s fault entirely… she did come up this weekend and Ron was sort of getting over it and Meahan was all done.

Then Saturday I got sick.
Sunday Emma got sick.
Monday? Sarah. :) Just in time for her to go home.

I had to cancel our stop in to see Izzy as well, but Addison put the phone on speakerphone so I got to talk to her. Which is kinda weird and cool all the time.

“It’s Little Nanny!”

“Whossat!”

“I have Sarah here visiting me!”

“SAWAH!!!!!”

Ha! :D

Now I am just well enough to *think* I can go do something but not really. Like I opened this window an hour ago. I went to make popcorn for Emma and I, then washed my hair. See?

Otherwise, it has been movie marathon weekend. Emma & I watched most of Gremlins. “The special effects are obvious so it’s not really scary, mom.” Then I watched The Social Network with the two big girls. (better than I thought it would be.)

While lollygagging on the couch unable to use the remote, we watched Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. This was better because when we went to Montreal, we saw the Indiana Jones exhibit they had there. No pics allowed tho. Industry secrets and all.

Later, we caught more of the Star Wars marathon they seem to show every other weekend on Spike.

And now? Back to the Future 3. I’m starting to realize why I hadn’t seen it the first time around.

Also feeling really grateful for laptops. We may not have hoverboards (BttF2) but we have portable computers, so there’s that.