Introducing: Silverplate Press!

Posted on July 25, 2011 by admin

We’re mostly all finished with the wedding planning — in fact, I had pretty much everything figured out for it around the end of June. Now it’s simply a matter of booking everything, paying deposits, etc. It’s been going very smoothly and overall it’s been a pretty chill experience.

One of the things I’m super excited about is being the very first letterpress customer for Amanda Keenan of Silverplate Press! I know Amanda through my job at OCAD U and have had the pleasure of working with her there while she was our graphic design student monitor. She has since graduated and over the last year or so been working towards establishing her letterpress studio. She has two letterpresses — a wee small one and a Vandercook, which can handle larger jobs — I think up to 20 x 30 inches (although I’m not sure — she’s the expert!).

She’s been chronicling the development of the studio via her blog, and just last week, with the help of her husband Justin, posted an instructional video about how to remove rollers from the Vandercook. From what I know about letterpress, which isn’t a lot, there just aren’t a lot of experts around anymore that know how to work these babies.

I’m pretty excited about what’s to come off the press, and Amanda is pretty psyched too! It’s a huge pleasure for me to be able to help her get the business off the ground — both Chris and I are thrilled about being able to showcase Amanda’s great design skills in the very special art (and design) form of letterpress, as part of the lead up to our wedding. For a sneak peek at our design, click here. Bring on the ink!

A little something for me

Posted on May 19, 2011 by admin

Last week my iPad arrived. It’s taken me some time to get it set up and figure out what apps are good for what and what I want to put on it, but today I really put it to the test, taking it with me to the PSEWeb conference. I had to find an app for note taking after I got there — in my cold-induced haze I didn’t think overly hard about that before I left this morning. Thankfully they had WiFi there so I could connect and download what I needed.

my iPad and the case I made

You know I had to make myself a case for it. I had made one for Chris as well which he loves but I felt I could have done a better job. I guess the first time you do something is always a bit of a test run. However I hadn’t taken good notes about the width of binding I used on his and I made the binding too wide on mine at first. The stitching was inset too tightly for the iPad with the SmartCover on it, so I had to redo with a narrower binding (after I talked myself off the ledge that I didn’t need to redo the whole thing over again!).

iPad Case for Me

I wanted to try a rounded corner on mine because I didn’t like how the square corners of the flap on Chris’s stuck out. I’m not totally thrilled with how the binding looks on those rounded corners but for my first try, it will do. I need to watch a few more tutorials to get that figured out.

It’s a pretty straightforward pattern, and maybe if I do a few more for other people and perfect it, I might decide to write it out and post it. I noted that on Etsy there are many handmade iPad cases available, but none that I saw were quilted! You could easily do this with random patchwork like I did, or just with a single piece of fabric that you love. Certainly quilting it gives it a nice extra padding for protection, and it just feels nice to carry around.

Backside of the case

As for the note taking at the conference — I am so done with paper! On Chris’s advice I used SoundNote — an app that lets you record audio and type (or hand write or draw with a stylus if you like) notes. I haven’t tried it with the audio yet, just used the typing functionality, but you can email yourself the notes and apparently also the audio if you want. I was recommending this app to my colleague Larissa before I had even tried it, thinking she would love that as an alternative to transcribing interviews.

I’m also loving the magazine app Zinio, and I’ve even started reading a book with the Kindle app. I wasn’t sure at first how I’d like reading a book on the iPad but it was fine. And while sick in bed on Tuesday I watched some Netflix on it too. Flipboard is amazing for all your feeds — everything from Facebook and Twitter to Flickr and Google Reader. This thing is incredible. Even the mail and calendar apps are putting my poor old (and I stress old) iPhone to shame. I’m officially geeking out on this thing. It just may hold me until I can get an upgrade on my iPhone — if Rogers ever lets me (they keep expanding their equipment upgrade waiting period every time a new iPhone comes out). Phones will be tiny microchips embedded into your body before I’m ever eligible again for a free phone!

The jury is still out on the best recipe app. I’m trying out Paprika but I was disappointed it came with absolutely nothing pre-programmed, and it took me a while to figure out how to capture recipes. It’s a lot like the Mac app Sous Chef, and I wasn’t thrilled with that app. I also bought the Epicurious app (of course!) which is fabulous, and also the President’s Choice app is so far pretty impressive. Both of these come with libraries of recipes, which is great to start out with. I’m guessing I’ll use all of the apps interchangeably, depending on what I need to do.

Another backpack with owls, another sleepless morning

Posted on May 6, 2011 by admin

Backpack for Auria

Here I sit, at 4 a.m., when all other reasonable people and creatures (at least in my household) are sawing logs (rather loudly). This has been an extraordinary week at the ol’ day job, and as a result of the insane number of balls in the air, my brain just can’t let go. Even though all the crazy (or most of it) culminated in a big bash last night celebrating OCAD University graduates; even though the end is in sight. Even though by mid-day tomorrow (Friday) I’ll finally be able to relax. Sleep alludes. I realized about a half hour ago (at 3:30 a.m.) that I was hungry. And then… oh yeah! I didn’t get dinner last night! Sigh.

Backpack for Auria

Up until this week I’ve actually gotten quite a bit of sewing and a little bit of knitting done. I’m prepping some gifts for overseas that my parents will take to a friend and her family in Norway. I made the toddler backpack above for my coworker’s little girl, too. I simply adore this fabric. I think my friend Alice’s infatuation with owls has rubbed off! And there is just so much great owl-themed ephemera out there these days. This fabric is called “It’s a Hoot, Jewel” by P Kaufman, and I picked it up via Tonic Living. Isn’t it adorable?

I’ve also continued on with my bread experiments using the methods in the book Tartine Bread. The first batch of loaves turned out not so edible (a post to come soon) but the second batch was really fabulous. This week hasn’t been a good bread week but I intend to get right back on the bandwagon this weekend. I think I can safely say that I now have a really good grasp on the properties and procedures to making great artisan sourdough breads.

Anyway, time for me to try my hand at courting the Sandman again.

Hanging out with the owls

Posted on April 7, 2011 by admin

After a bit of a rough day yesterday, I sit here coming at you at 2:30 a.m. wide awake and yet sleep deprived. Have I mentioned before that I’m an occasional insomniac? The problem has improved since I started my treadmill routine last fall, and then added on the yoga once a week this year, but sometimes there’s just too much stress that even a good work out can’t cure. Yesterday was one of those days.

So perhaps it’s appropriate to post a couple projects featuring owls, since right now, I kind of feel like one.

Quilt for Baby Crummell

Recently I discovered the fabulous online fabric retailer, Tonic Living, where I found most of the above fabrics. Besides their excellent wide-ranging selection of not only quality quilt fabrics but also outdoor and upholstery fabrics, they offer FREE SHIPPING to folks like me who are in the GTA (I believe the deal is available to those with postal codes that begin with L or M, although its not stated on their ‘about us’ section of the site — it must come up when you’re in the check out) if you order over $50, which is of course not hard to do at all when you’re buying fabric.

The baby quilt above was made for my friend Alice, who is a couple months away from having her second child, this time a girl. Alice is a little owl crazy, as is her little 3 and a half year old Calvin, so it wasn’t hard to know what direction I should go with in choosing fabrics for this quilt. I also wanted to steer clear of typical pastel baby colours, which are so not Alice’s thing. Oranges and limey greens are way more her style.

"Aromatherapy" and "Zen Garden" by Patty Young.

"Urban Zoologie Owls" by Robert Kaufman, with Kona in Pomegranate

"Kiss Me Owls" by Suzanne Ultman and "Zen Garden" by Patty Young.

The fabrics I can identify by designer and manufacture are:

“Kiss Me Owls” designed by Suzanne Ultman produced by Robert Kaufman;
“Urban Zoologie Owls” by Robert Kaufman;
“Aromatherapy, Sherbert” designed by by Patty Young produced by Michael Miller;
“Glass Tiles, Sherbert” by Patty Young produced by Michael Miller;
“Zen Garden” by Patty Young produced by Michael Miller
Kona solid in Pomegranate and Charcoal, and
“Meadowsweet Citrus” by Michael Miller.

The square with the lime green two-tone pattern is the only fabric pair I’m not certain about the designer or manufacturer. I got those through the monthly stash-building subscription I have going with Sew Sisters, another fabulous quilt fabric retailer I order from often.

When I found the above owl prints, I also came across this super cute print, called “Night Owl” (not sure who the designer is) in a heavier 10 oz. duck canvas. I thought it would make for a really cute little tote bag for Calvin, who I thought might appreciate a little present all for him that features owls. Then I found this adorable toddler backpack pattern by Rae Hoekstra of made-by-rae.com, and knew it was perfect for the little man.

Backpack for Cal

This was a unique project that tested my sewing skills; I’d never sewn piping into anything before, and really it’s the first zipper I’ve done in likely 20 years. It was actually ridiculously easy and the project took only a couple of hours to complete. I’m telling you, buying that new Baby Lock was the best investment I’ve made in years. I can’t believe I held out for so long before doing it. All I want to do now is sew all the time.

Backpack for Cal

I gifted both these projects to Alice on the weekend at a clothing swap we had planned, when we decided last minute to take advantage of our all being together to give the mama-to-be some well wishes, and they were of course, a huge hit. I already know some other little people in my life who just might need toddler backpacks of their own!

Baby Shower Cookies

And lastly, check out the yummy cookies I whipped up for the event! My icing skills are improving ever so slowly!

What the boys were doing last week

Posted on March 11, 2011 by admin

So every year the boys go on a big ski trip. I don’t know how to downhill ski so I never get to go on these vacations. I should probably learn I guess!

For this year’s trek, Chris and Cass decided to buy a pair of ski goggles with a camera built in. This was partly inspired by a discussion the weekend before with my Dad about scuba diving goggles with a camera built in, as my Dad is looking for an underwater camera for his own vacations.

This video is what makes the purchase worthwhile. Awesome capture Cass!

This was filmed in Whitefish, Montana. Enjoy!

I want to go back

Posted on March 4, 2011 by admin

The Newfoundland & Labrador tourism people have recently released a new series of their award-winning, beautiful and powerful television ads, and every time I catch one of them I just ache for the place. Something about the Rock has totally captured my heart. I’ve never felt so strongly for a place, besides home. Anyway, this lovely little film about St. John’s came across the NLTweets feed today and I just have to share. St. John’s is gorgeous even in the winter.

And in case you haven’t seen them, the latest Newfoundland & Labrador TV ads:

Turkey Parade

Posted on February 21, 2011 by admin

How I spent my Family Day weekend…

These guys put on a show for my parents, who accompanied us at the cottage in Coboconk for the first time this Family Day Weekend. In fact, all the wildlife was out putting on a show — we had swans flying over, geese and ducks, and a pair of bald eagles hanging out across the lake. Unfortunately they were out of range for any good photos or video. But the turkeys were plentiful, driving the dogs crazy (one of the neighbours feeds them, so they hang around and are quite abundant). This is the first time we’ve ever seen them walk across the frozen lake like this though. Oh, and apparently a group of turkeys is called a ‘rafter.’ Who knew?

Boston, we barely knew ye

Posted on February 5, 2011 by admin

It’s now long since we sang Auld Lang Syne at the stroke of midnight in Boston, but I’m comfortable in my position now as a negligent blogger, so here is a much delayed post about that trip.

We opted to drive down since the flight prices were nutso and it’s a scenic drive. We were meeting our friends Cass and Liz (flying), and Bruce and Youngja (driving) there, and we decided to leave a day earlier than the others to break up the drive. It was the holidays after all, and we weren’t in a hurry. Our first stop was Burlington Vermont, a very happening university/ski town with a fabulously walkable downtown core, complete with a pedestrian-only outdoor mall. As with most good-sized US towns, it had several very promising craft beer choices, but we quickly discovered that every single well-rated restaurant and brew pub had at least an hour wait.

My top choice was the Farmhouse Tap & Grill, with their local charcuterie and cheese platters, free-range meat entrees and beet and chevre salad, but they are obviously incredibly popular — we couldn’t even get far enough inside the place to find out how long the wait was. I’m sure it was at least 90 minutes. I guess this just means we have to go back.

Two other failed attempts left us throwing in the towel to wait for a table at the Vermont Pub & Brewery. They had a good bar and a selection of craft brews so we settled in at the bar, and waited. And waited. And waited. Even though we had a pager, something happened at the host’s lectern because an hour and a half went by before we noticed that hey, the line was long gone and why hadn’t we been called? Perhaps we were enjoying the beer that much. Ah well — they through in a round on the house for the mishap so all is forgiven.

Vermont Pub & Brewery draft list

We wanted to drive bit along the coast because we’d been told it was such a pretty area, and so while it took us a little out of our way we made our way to Boston through Rockport, MA. This was mostly just a pee-break and a walk about the harbour. We were looking for a good place for lunch, but apparently, so was everyone else. We continued on to Salem and stopped in for nourishment at the Salem Beer Works.

Stopover in Rockport

Salem Beer Works

Unfortunately for me, a major sinus headache (migraine?) had started the evening before and I’d been trying to quell it all drive long with more than the recommended amount of Sinutab, one of the only things that eventually seems to work to kill the ice-pick-in-my-skull pain. This was an especially difficult one (I get them fairly regularly), and it wasn’t until the afternoon of New Year’s Eve that it finally gave up the ghost. Making it about a 48-hour super fun ride. So our first evening in Boston was all a bit hazy for me. But I do remember the incredible wall-o-beer at the Sunset Grill & Tap.

Sunset Grill & Tap (and bottles)

I do also recall the excellent couple of bottles of Lindemans Framboise I settled into. If you’ve never had it, it’s a delicious Belgian lambic that you absolutely must try.

Ice horse in Boston Common

On New Year’s Eve Chris and I spent the day wandering about the city, with no real agenda except to see what we could see. It was incredibly warm, despite the recent blizzard the city had been hit with, and temperatures reached about 12 degrees C. All I’d brought was my Canada Goose (blessed be the city that does NOT have one for every 3 people) but I had to carry it and just walk around in a t-shirt to avoid cooking myself to death. That said, I’m not complaining about how gorgeous the weather was.

Badly written sign

Squat snowlady

Squat snowman

Boston alley

Commonwealth Ave

I took a chunk of the afternoon to take a nap and sleep off the rest of the Sinutab, while Chris, Bruce and Cass took in a special behind-the-scenes tour of the Samuel Adams Brewery. So the following photos are all Chris’s, but damn — I really wish I’d gone now. They were raving about it when they finally came back.

Portrait of a beer man (Cass)

Chris's trip to Sam Adams Brewery

Samuel Adams Barrel Room Collection

They got to see some top secret brewing processes, and got to check out the Barrel Room Collection barrels, which are huge, and even got to taste the Barrel Room Collection ‘Mother Funk.’ The collection includes American Kriek, New World Tripel and Stony Brook Red, and each of the guys were gifted with a set of the three beers. Nice.

Commonwealth Ave on New Year's Eve

While I waited for the guys to get back I started hearing all kinds of sirens and honking and vuvuzelas (hatesss them!) and I eventually realized that there was a huge parade going on right outside our hotel, the Lenox. I didn’t know where Liz and Youngja were, so I went down to check it out. It was incredible, and everyone was out enjoying it. Once the guys got back we made our way to Eastern Standard for our reservation, and that’s where we rang in the new year.

I wasn’t totally impressed with the place; it was packed with skinny-minis in their six-inch pumps and sparkly cocktail dresses. I hated the clubby-poshness of the place. SO not me. But the food and the service was good, and it was certainly a happening spot.

Enormous Christmas Tree, gifted from Halifax

On New Year’s Day everything was open, so we made our way towards the New England Aquarium, with a stop at the Union Oyster House, touted as America’s oldest restaurant. And I can believe it. This place is a must, if you can get a table, which isn’t too hard because it’s quite a big restaurant, if not a little compartmentalized. We were told to sit at the oyster bar by friends but we couldn’t get a spot so we took up one of the booths. Their clam chowder was magnificent, and we ordered a couple trays of oysters. So good and quite cheap too.

Funky squishy thing

The aquarium was packed with kids and families but it was well worth the visit despite the crazy. Their 4-story fish tank is the highlight of the attraction, with it’s giant leatherback sea turtle, several sharks, tuna and many other fishes. The facility is built around this central tank, so you walk around the tank, with ramps taking you from floor to floor, and all kinds of tanks on the outside to check out too. I love the anemones.

Sea Anemone

The Rockhopper Penguins are pretty fun too, with their funky ear feathers. Don’t they look like they’re having a conference?

Penguins at the New England Aquarium

Boston Beer Works

And we finished off our day with a drink at Boston Beer Works before walking over to Cambridge, over the Charles River, to meet up with our peeps at Lord Hobo. Here, we were clearly the only Canadians in the bar because we were the only ones reacting to the hockey games on TV (the Winter Classic and a Bruins game was on).

Charles River, Boston

It was a good trip. Not exactly a stunning or mind-blowing trip, but it was nice to experience another city. I’ve learned over the last few years that despite my rural roots, I really like discovering other cities. Always, always I want to eventually not live in one, but I do appreciate them. We also realized we haven’t spent NYE in our home city for the last three years. This is kind of becoming a bit of a tradition it would seem!

Why hello there blog; oh and happy new year!

Posted on January 21, 2011 by admin

I guess if my new year’s resolution had been to blog more often, or at least regularly, I’d be failing miserably. Thankfully I didn’t set myself up for such failure!

I blame the post-holiday lull. It’s not that I have nothing to say, just no motivation to get online and say it. But here we are enjoying our second cottage weekend in a row and I finally have gone through out Boston trip photos, so I figure I ought to post those (coming soon). And as for new year’s resolutions, I have a few. The one that is proving to be most successful is my resolution to lead a more active, healthy lifestyle — namely, to make regular exercise a proper routine in my daily life.

Now to be completely honest, I’ve made this a resolution every year for years, just like millions of others, and every other year I’ve totally failed, despite many attempts. I joined a gym about three years ago and went off and on for a few months here, a few months there, but never really constantly. Life got busy and I just couldn’t get there. The membership was cheap so I didn’t feel much of an impact on my wallet by not going.

This summer I got on a scale for the first time in ages (I was purposely avoiding the brutally honest truth about my weight) and was shocked and dismayed by what I saw. I got to brooding again about how to get myself into some kind of exercise routine. While I’m sure I could start some strict calorie-counting, ultimately I feel I eat a relatively healthy diet, and that my slowly creeping weight gain had much more to do with my extremely sedentary lifestyle wherein I sat at a computer all day, and then mostly parked myself on the sofa at nights. That had to change.

My most successful stretch at the gym had been a period of about 4 months wherein I was working up towards running on the treadmill, and I went about 3 times a week. For me, if the exercise is mindless and I can be distracted by watching TV, it is perfect. Some people hate the monotony of the treadmill — find it too boring — but if I can do something like watch TV while I’m on it, I can walk for an hour and not notice. I’d debated with Chris for years about buying a treadmill but we knew the basement ceiling was too low to accommodate one, and I couldn’t imagine where else to put it. But then I got to thinking about rearranging our office, and Chris agreed that we could probably squeeze one in there if we moved some things around. So last October we bought a beast of a treadmill, and I’ve been working out on it several times a week since then, mostly walking, and aiming to make it a daily affair whenever possible. My workouts are about 30-45 minutes long — the average amount of time it takes to watch a TV show.

In the last month or so I’ve started working in short bursts of jogging, so now I’m up to about 4-5 stints of jogging for about 2-3 minutes each with walking in between, and it feels great. My plan for the new year was to investigate the yoga studio next to my office, and consider going there weekly as well, and if that worked out, I’d cancel the gym membership, since their yoga class was the only hold-out for me in keeping the membership, and their classes were not convenient, and required traveling by car. I’ve now been to two yoga classes — classes that have totally kicked my ass — and I’m enjoying it thoroughly! The class is at 5 p.m. on Tuesdays, and I can’t really excuse that as inconvenient since I hardly even need a jacket to walk there. Yesterday, I canceled the gym membership once and for all.

And you know what? I’ve lost about 10 to 12 lbs according to the scale, depending on what time of day I weigh myself, and I’m down a pant size from 16 to 14. My bra has come in a hook-width. In fact, I’m even very close to being down a fraction of cup size. I think I feel the weight loss more than I see it on the scale, but it is freakin’ awesome. Photos of myself from the holidays don’t make me cringe. So now I have even more motivation to keep going. Chris and I have even started going bowling once a week, which is a total blast (this week I bowled a turkey for goodness sake! That means three strikes in a row for those not in the know). I sleep better, my digestion is better, and my general mood is greatly improved. I’m well on my way to being a smaller, stronger, fitter version of myself. And this makes me incredibly happy.

Me and my man ringing in 2011

So happy new year y’all — here’s to a healthy one where all your resolutions come true!

Sick puppy and some knitting FAIL (and success)

Posted on December 21, 2010 by admin

After an epic holiday party on Saturday night at the home of Ecoholic with great friends, great food and great tunes, Chris and I expected to get down to business on Sunday and get this attic insulated already. All the weather reports suggested the conditions would be precipitation-free, but we woke up, hungover, to discover that it was snowing. Steadily. All day. So that was FAIL #1.

FAIL #2: In my attempt to trim Luna’s toenails, I inadvertently got one of them too short (damn black toes!) and she bled like a stuck pig, off and on all day. We tried sealing it up with Crazy Glue (a trick every good survivalist ought to have in his/her back pocket) but she just chewed it off. I finally ran out to get some styptic powder, which helped, but the trick was to keep her from licking at it. You see, she freezes in a kind of panic attack if you put a buster collar on her (one of those cone-head things) so that isn’t really an option. We wrapped it up, we doused it in bitter apple. It was a day-long affair trying to manage her bleeding toe. And I think it caused Monday’s EPIC FAIL (more on this shortly).

Christmas Luna, sporting one of her many new bandannas

FAIL #3: My second batch of French macarons this holiday weren’t exactly an epic fail, but they were yet again missing the proper ‘foot’ and just not the right texture at all. This was after following David Lebovitz’s recipe, in which he chronicled his seven attempts to get them right. They are tasty, yes, and I guess that counts for something. I don’t know if I’ll get another batch going in time for the holidays, even though I swore I would master those suckers this year, and likely I ought to give my poor pancreas a break before I end up in a sugar coma.

Gingerbreads -- success!

FAIL #4: Sock with Pints On fails to fit boyfriend as planned — also nearly fails to fit me. After I finished the sock up to about halfway along the foot section, I decided to ask Chris to try it on, so I could see how much length I needed to give his foot. I haven’t knit socks in ages, but I’ve put in my sock time and I am no novice. What I haven’t done before is colourwork socks, socks with multiple strands of colour carried along to create a design. For the uninitiated, it takes some practice to get the hang of carrying your yarn along at such a tension as to avoid puckering of the fabric and to ensure the fabric has the stretch it needs. Stretch being an important factor for socks. Well. I could barely get this sock over my own heel, let alone Chris’s. I’ve blocked it, but I need the boy to bring his feet home from work so we can see where we stand.

Sock with Pints On

This was perhaps the most stunning fail of Sunday, and the one that really was the last straw for me. For weeks I’d just accepted that Chris’s Christmas present was going to be late, but then I got started and things were going swimmingly, much faster than I’d hoped. I saw light at the end of the tunnel — I had a whole week to get a second sock done! Plenty of time! But alas. This sock is likely not made for walking (…in…by Chris). So perhaps I’ll be the proud new owners of Socks with Pints On.

I do have a plan of attack to start over. I have what appears to be plenty of yarn. I will try, try again, but I plan to expand the pint chart, and I plan to just do the pints on the sock cuff — not the foot. This will mean that the heel, gusset, instep and toes will have lots of stretch because I won’t be carrying along extra colours that could cause more fail. This is my plan, once Chris brings those clunkers home so I can test the lonely singleton sock and see if the blocking made any difference.

I thought perhaps our fail streak had come to an end but alas, we were due for an explosion of fail last night. Luna had experienced some runny poops Monday morning but this isn’t entirely unusual for her. We opted to crate her for the day in case she got that toe bleeding again, at least so the blood could be contained to one place in the house. Chris got home early, felt sorry for the pup and let her out while he dealt with his own bodily needs before taking her out. Those 5 minutes proved to be fatal. An explosion of canine diarrhea like we’ve never seen before found it’s way into nearly every part of the house. I was out enjoying a beer with a friend when I finally noticed the frantic texts. Poor Chris was running multiple batches of laundry on the sanitary setting, had bathed Luna twice, washed the floors three times and cleaned the rug as best he could, all before I got home, but the house still wreaked of poo. FAIL #5.

While he ran out for a meeting I continued to clean the house, the rug at the front door, the towels, re-washed the floor and tried in vein to make the place smell better, simmering some cinnamon sticks on the stove. I was still shampooing the carpet by about midnight. Luna had several messes in her crate despite our getting up in the wee hours to take her out. This morning things were getting much worse and so a trip to the vet ensued. So far as we know it’s purely a stress reaction; we suspect the bleeding toe nightmare might be the cause (so I guess that makes it my fault). Results of a poop sample are pending. She’s had a shot and some pills and some super high-fibre food that should help but as of 3:30 this afternoon she is still needing frequent trips outside to take care of business. Poor girl. She’s all locked up in her crate until we can be sure there won’t be any accidents. Happy start to my holidays!

All this to say that if things really do come in threes like they say, we’re all stocked up, thanks.

But it hasn’t all been fail. I also ended up with quite a nice beret and matching scarf set for my Grama for Christmas. That’s something.

Beret and scarf for Grama

The beret is from More Last Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson, and the pattern is super easy and quite quick. I never thought I was a fan of berets but after trying this on, I just might have to make one for me. The scarf is a free pattern from Ravelry called Openwork Eyelet Scarf by Jennifer Pace. It was also super easy and the texture is lovely.

Let’s hope it only goes up from here.

Diggin' the Dirt

A little gardening, quilting, knitting, cookin' and more.

Category Archives: Odds & Sods