What's new in the Craft Zoo....

Well my crafty friends, by now you've probably noticed that Adorn Magazine is no more - yup, discontinued. And it's really too bad because it was a good magazine (even if they refused to ship to Canada).

I've found out that some of the designers are contributing to a new site, Craftstylish - check it out. It's not as good as the Craft: site but still worth a look see.

Well I haven't gotten much cross stitching done this week, but did crochet a tiny baby seal and a small doggie which I need to put together - the dog's parts are all over the place! And I made a needle felted doggie last night, but he's still in progress so I'll show you his photo later.

Why Stagette?

Dear lady friends,

Tell me - what is the point of a stagette?

Isn't it for 'one last fling at freedom'? For the girls who feel their whole world will be changed (which is what they secretly want, isn't it?) and think that they can't go out and they can't see their friends after they're married and therefore a party is required.

Most stagettes that I've been to or hear about involve party games, costumes, strippers (sometimes) and bar crawls. Some involve trips to Vegas,etc.

To me it seems like another reason to party when you're getting married in your twenties. But what about when you are in your 30's or it's your second wedding, or both?

You see JPs sister is getting married and I just received an email invite to dinner at Milestones and then to watch the Sex and The City movie. Doesn't this sound more like a 'shower'?

Oh the whole wedding thing confuses me.

Sometimes I think I'm from another planet, I just don't get it.

Do you feel like enlightening me?

Wait! Don't go! I'm still here!

Hi. The nice weather is finally here so I've been outside. I've done some gardening and some transplanting of seedlings (marigolds, peas, datura). I've done some word searches and I'm reading the new issue of Bust and I've done some stitching. I am not on the computer (much).

Last week I received my finished Tea Towel that traveled around Canada and the USA - it's now back to me, and here's the finished work - it's a large towel so everyone did their embroidery on the bottom half:

Isn't it great? I think it all works together very well. I just love it. It's even better in person. It will never be used as a tea towel.

Also finished is this little knitted baby hat. I had tried to use a multicolour confetti yarn which I liked in the skein but hated it when it's knitted or crocheted - it honestly and truly looks like clown barf to me and I could not give it away to a co-worker whom I work with on a daily basis but have only met in person twice. They're having a boy, but since I'm not sure of their tastes I decided to make it one colour:

And now, I've made me a cup o' tea and I'm going back outside. At the moment the neighbour is fairly quiet, the house behind me is up for sale and they are having an open house. I had thoughts of sabotage, especially after he cranked his stereo yesterday and I couldn't overcome the noise and crappy music choice so JP and I went shopping, but then I realized that sabotage would actually backfire! I want him to sell his house so he moves faster! I only hope that the next owners are better and not worse!

My projects? Well I actually don't have anything on the needles. It feels very strange. I'm leaving it that way at the moment as I'm trying to finish a cross stitch that I started 8 years ago. I must finish it! JP laughs at me every time I say it because, well, he's hear me say it many times in the past 8 years!

You know, I'm really beginning to think the weather department likes to tease us. Notice the long range forecast is for a week of sun, but once again, it's alluded us - today was to be sunny and warm - it's 9.9 degrees and raining. Bah! Let's hope we get our sun back soon. I know I could really use some good weather days, how about you?

And so, since we're indoors here's a video we should all watch, it is about an giving spiders drugs to see what kind of web they'll spin:

rah rah rah... Thunder! (channelling AC/DC )

Zoinks! Jazz and I found ourselves in the thunder shower this morning! Of course it starts raining when we're over 1 km away and she doesn't have her rain coat on. The thunder was almost right over us - poor noise phobic dog - what could I do? We hustled home as quickly as we could. Then I gave her some drugs and turned on the washing machine in the hopes of drowning the noise.

I guess the thunder also scares other animals because I watching two very large raccoons dash across the road this morning and the first was almost hit by a truck. Scary. At first I thought it was a dog because it was so big. Poor things, I hope they are okay. It was a mighty thunder this morning and it's still raining hard.

~~~~~

I was reading an interesting newsletter by the Vancouver painter, Robert Genn today. He talks about Shibui. Which he describes as: Shibui is a broad term that can mean irregularity of form, openness to nature, roughness of texture, and the naturalness of daily life. You can read more here.

I wanted to share this with you because as crafters, we try so very hard for perfection. We are so used to seeing commercially produced items that we forget to embrace the uniqueness of our creations. He says, "Shibui comes naturally, shows the hand of the maker, and triumphs gesture and the vagaries of process." His article goes on to give advice to painters, however, I think all of us who make things can take these concepts into consideration regardless of weather we are painting, or embroidering or knitting.

But this concept should not be kept a secret among the creators, we should also pass this on to our buyers or those that receive our creations because some of them have no qualms pointing out any imperfections - like the comments sometimes heard at a craft fair - so part of marketing our goods would also be educating the receivers that they should not expect factory perfection or identical products, or concentrate on those that appreciate our 'irregularity of form'.

Has this been an issue for you?

~~~~~

And finally - look people - a new season of CRL - launching this Thursday!

How I Spent My Victoria Day Long Weekend

I had hoped to accomplish more this weekend, but a super sized headache that woke me up Saturday morning at 4:30 am would squash my plans. TWO Tylenol 3's took about an hour to start working but I was still feeling pretty bad at 11:00am when it was time for more head-meds. By then the temperatures was almost 30 degrees so I sat in the shade and read, and did word searches, and painted some garden ornaments. Since Sunday was also supposed to be hot, I decided I'd better get the lawn cut - so I did that about 7pm and then since I was hot, sweaty and general filthy, I decided I'd try to work on that darn potato patch. Then the hubby came outside and told me dinner was ready and I should come in (man, it brought back the days of being in the garden with my dad and mom calling him for dinner... you needed to give him a 15 minute head start). I finished what I was doing and hoped that my dinner could wait until after my shower, but the cook would have none of it. So I scrubbed my hands and sat on a towel and ate my dinner. The best part was the shandy (half ginger ale, half beer) waiting in for me on the table. Oh it went down so well. I think that's about the best way for me to consume alcohol. Yum! After my shower there was another waiting for me, mmmm I sipped it as slow as I could.

Sunday, I hoped would be a quiet day, but nope - every neighbour in my vicinity had to turn on some power tool and about 5 neighbouring dogs continuously barked their little heads off (none of them mine) - I decided it was time to escape. I was just going to take Jazz down to the river, but it turned out we all went and left her at home. Jp taught the kid how to make noises with a blade of grass, and they both whacked a lot of trees along the path. We saw and old Mission Mill on fire (apparently started by squatters). I think there were 4 firetrucks and one ambulance when we drove by.

Well today I finished that dang potato patch - good thing too because I had 3 dreams about it last night - I was always interrupted and never got it done. Bah!

After the dahlias, potatoes and radishes were in the ground, I cleaned up and made the boys some Oliebollen - a dutch treat similar to fritters.

Are you still reading, or have I bored you so much? I hope I haven't. I like when you stop by for a visit.....

~~~~~~

Now it's raining which is what I had hoped, so I didn't have to hand water my gardens....which reminds me - why do we have to have watering restrictions, when we had the wettest spring EVER, we are experiencing flooding and live in a rain forest? Anyone?
~~~~~~

And finally, my latest crochet project, a shark. I named him Mark.

The sun, oh the sweet sun is back - I'm doing the Happy Day Dance - can you picture it?

I was going through my blog roll this morning and read a post on Zakka Life for a site called Kirtsy.

Oh yes, do check it out! It's very interesting. But don't look at it if you've got some work to so, because time passes very suddenly on that site.

~~~~~

I finished another sweater for my mom's dog, Finnegan (the schnauzer). I added extra to the chest because he has a big rib cage, and added some length because past sweaters didn't make it to his tail but now I think it's too big! Bah.
Perhaps my mum can send a photo with him wearing it. Maybe I should just use the same pattern each time I make him something instead of switching all the time? Or, make better gauge swatches!

Yes, I did a gauge swatch - but only of the main colour, not with the pattern - why? Wasn't thinking, that's why. Yes people, always make a gauge swatch in the pattern! Plus, I only see the dog about twice a year when I visit my mum so it's hard to imagine the size of him. That's all I got for excuses.

And I know it's also a little too late in the year, he'll have to wear it on those cool summer nights.. but I finished it and didn't want to hold it until the fall.

~~~~

So. We have a sunny long weekend in May. What shall we do with ourselves?

Well. I need to mow the lawns, and finish hoeing my potato patch, and work on other garden tidying/weeding/trimming. There is so much to do, it doesn't matter where I start or where I finish just as long as I put in the hours. It would be nice to have a helper, but there is no way JP will set one foot on that long green stuff out there!

Don't worry, my body only lets me do so much, so it's not like I can get overworked.

I do also plan to just sit in a lawn chair and do some chillaxin!

What will you do?

A purse for you

How would you like your own Hermes Kelly Bag? Well, you'll find the pattern here.
Enjoy.

Happy Thursday.


~~~~~
Yesterday Cynthia and I went to the fabric store for some summer projects. As we were leaving the store, an employee pointed out that I was losing a zipper - there was a big tear in the bag and a zipper was hanging out. But I should have trusted my instincts to check the contents of the bag right then and there, because it wasn't until I was home and showing JP what I had bought that I discovered I was missing a zipper for another project. It wasn't on my bill so the cashier must have lost it during the order process. Dang! Now I have to go back before I can finish that project.

Why don't I listen to my instincts?

Garbage

Last week was Spring Clean up - that's where you can put all sorts of crap at the end of your driveway and the city hauls it away for no extra cost. After living here for several years, I am still amazed at how much junk people can accumulate in a year. And also, I ponder the types of things that people throw away.

When I was a kid, we treasured all our possessions and treated them well. Games had all the pieces, records weren't scratched, Lego's and Barbie shoes were rarely lost. But now, at the end of many driveways sit large collections of children's ruined bicycles, fallen apart furniture and giant stuffed animals. What happens to these large stuffed animals? I guess the biggest problem is that they are too big for the washer and therefore difficult to clean - but how dirty do they get? I don't think one of my stuffed animals was ever thrown away, except maybe the really old ones that were filled with sawdust (back in the day) and either the dog got to it, or a mouse did a number on it when it was in a box in storage.

But also interesting to me is what's left a week later. There are restrictions to the type of items left on the street (such as old wood) and the amount - some people had heaps that spanned 10' across and 8' high. There seems to be a couple houses on each street that has debris left over. But these piles have not been cleaned up. They sit. And kids muck about in them and spread more debris. The weekend's passed but no one has removed them, not even for Mother's Day. The piles are just left to sit at the end of the driveway. I guess these people are too lazy - perhaps they figure they did all the work hauling their crap to the end of the driveway and that their job is done. Meanwhile their neighbours have to endure the mess. What an eyesore! It's very disappointing that they don't care that their crap is piled in front of their house for 2 weeks (or more, God forbid). I wonder how long it'll take, I'll let you know when the three houses on my street have cleaned up.

Also, while walking the dog this morning, I came across fresh graffiti on a fence next to a park. The word? "Ass Monkey". If you'd like to be enlightened in slang, here are some definitions. And this is how you can use the word in a sentence: Hey neighbour, don't be an ass monkey and clean up your garbage.

Happy Mother's Day

My mum doesn't live near me, but I sent her the fern leaf shawl so every time she puts it one she'll think of me.
My brother and SIL are making her a brunch.
I just wished she still lived in the Vancouver area so I could make her day as good as I could.

It's pouring rain today. I checked the forecast yesterday evening, it was supposed to be sunny, with only a 20% chance of rain. Poor mums - no picnics or out door activites for you. (Maybe that's a good thing?)

I decided to take advantage of the rain and planted seeds in my greenhouse. After I was done filling the pots with dirt and seeds I'd put them out in the rain so they'd be watered nicely and then I put them back in my greenhouse. I planted some vegetables: carrots, peas, pole beans, peppers, onions, lettuce, and onions. For flowers I planted: marigold, nasturtium, sunflowers, poppies, amaranth, sweet peas, hollyhocks. I know some seeds are late, but I figure with the crappy spring we're having maybe we'll have a better summer and the plants can catch up.

What did you do for Mother's Day?

The End of the Beginning

Hi. Remember me? My name is Jazz and I am afraid of noise. yeah, I know, it doesn't make sense because I'm in the house behind a locked metal door but still, the noises bother me. In the morning it is the woodpecker and in the afternoon and evening it's firecrackers. I don't know where these kids are getting firecrackers in April and May but there are a lot of them. My owner has tried so many things to calm me down when I'm scared - but I still am. I wish I understood what she was saying, maybe I could be more calm.

Can you help?

~~~~

Alright, and now back to me - I have been doing a variety of things this week. First I've been walking 4 1/2 km in the morning with my dawg, and then work has been a bit crazy (it's year end at the end of May) and then I've been gardening and knitting too.

Oh, and I made another needle felted animal, this one's a bear. I forgot to give him eyes, so right now he's my Blind Blue Bear.

And finally, y'all can have a chuckle at this one - but this is the end result of the begining of barbecue season:

Yup. These were beautiful Maui Beef Ribs - from the butcher's, I watched him cut the meat especially for me. Then they marinated all afternoon until it was time for the barbecue. I placed them on the upper rack and had them cooking with only the middle flame on low for about 30 minutes. However, while they were cooking I read in the cook book made by the manufacturer of my grill that they should be on medium heat, so I turned the heat up. I went away for a few minutes, since they were going to have to cook for an hour, but when I checked on them, they were on fire, and by the time I got the fire out that's what they looked like.

Man, the last time I saw them they were looking so good. And JP and I had been waiting all day for them.

I ended up frying some Kielbasa instead.

In all the years I have been cooking and all the stuff I've BBQ'd this has never happened to me! What a way to start the BBQ season. I'm going to consider it a sacrificial offering to the BBQ Gods and wish for a happy cooking season!

Tea Towel Tour 3 is ending

Here's my completed design for the last tea towel in the swap, the theme of the towel was 'spice girls' and I added this Sailor Jerry inspired design. The chain and the mace are done in a silver metallic thread:

Now the bad news - she should have been placed higher on the towel. I don't know what I was thinking (nothing, I guess). Yup, I ruined her towel. Don't worry, JP's already given me heck for it - but it was already done, what could I do? If I unpicked it, I'll probably ruin her towel more! I believe she's a graphic designer, so perhaps she can add something to the towel to balance it out a bit more?

Sigh ...

Mystery Foods

How comfortable are you with eating some 'ooey gooey goodness'?

That's what the people who are selling Pizza Hut's Stuffed Crust Pizza say in their current TV ads, their crust is stuffed with 'ooey gooey goodness' - not cheese, or another identifiable ingredient but this mystery product. What is it? And does it really entice you to ingest it? I know I'm not tempted.

It's kind of like the Dairy Queen's commercials that never call it ice cream, and if they do have to mention what their product is made out of, they will say 'ice milk'.

And this isn't the only example, I'm sure now that you're looking for it, you'll have some to add - do tell me please, it's interesting.

Also, do you notice how often commercials are changed? There was one for some Crockpot solutions ( the product was so fast the mum walked in the door and then called dinner immediately). The original had the daughter screaming, but later it was changed to a gasp. Why?

But the one I like recently is the Wendy's commercial where it originally said "if beef was meant to be frozen cows would live in the arctic" to which my first response was "then if that's true, if meat was meant to be cooked cows would live at the equator". But they took my fun away because that line has been edited.

Any commercials you've noticed that's been changed or super vague?

The Monday Mix

Well it wasn't a bad weekend. It rained on Saturday which was okay as I had lunch plans with a girlfriend for her birthday. I gave her this tea towel which I embroidered along with a couple of other items.

I also stitched on a tea towel for the swap, but it's not finished yet, so I'll post that later.

I mailed a package to my mum for Mother's Day last week which she received today. She opened it while we were on the phone so I could experience her response. (It was good. Very good) I'm such a 'feedback junkie' and we both couldn't wait until Mother's Day - I guess curiosity runs in the family. She received the Fern Leaf Stole (see previous posts) along with this doily which I made from the Kyuuto Lacy Crochet book, I added a draw string and in it was a Muguet soap from Roses and Rutabagas. And she was very happy to receive the presents. All the time I was making the stole, she thought it was for me and kept asking me when I was going to wear it, etc. but it was really always for her! See? I can keep some secrets.

Last week I mailed these coozies to my brother, just for some spring time fun. They were supposed to be part of his birthday present in March but I forgot completely about them, so I figured I'd give them to him now - Cinco de Mayo present maybe?

I also received something in the mail today, a small order of hair pins and barettes from Etsy, aren't they cute?

Projects on the go include a cross stitch and a secret knitting project. I'm still itching to buy the materials for the Babette blanket. Especially when I've seen Cynthia's progress I think about it every day - sometimes a couple times during the day but I try to tell myself that I should finish all my other projects before bringing in more materials first. I don't really want a stash - I'm not complaining but sometimes I'd like to see a pattern, and pick out the yarn. Instead, I do it backwards and figure out what I can do with what I have.

For the last couple of weeks I have been participating in the on line live classes for A New Earth Event but that means I can't cook dinner due to the time it starts, so JP's been bringing home the KFC Chicken Bowls for dinner. I love those things! I know, I know, it's fattening but they are so good! I feel like Joey from Friends - what's not to love? mashed potatoes - good, corn - good, gravy - good, crispy chicken nuggets - goooood! I have now called it " Chicken Bowl Monday" and I now have a dance and a song!

I know you don't care what I had for lunch, but what about dinner?

On Wednesday, the idea struck me to make meatloaf for dinner - the old fashioned way in a loaf pan. Yes, it was 2 days before payday and I had to use what I had in the house (also an old fashioned notion, no?). So I used the food processor and ground up the dried bread ends and then decided to use it to mix everything. A nice glace of brown sugar, vinegar and ketchup coated the top. While the meat was cooking I made mashed potato's which included fresh chives from my garden (mmm, we love our home grown chives). It was a very yummy dinner, however, I dubbed it the 'denture dinner' because no chewing was needed!


And, as a 'reward' for my good cooking... ok, actually just a treat that JP brought home (he's great for bringing me presents!) .... I received this lap desk and these cool matchbook style note pads. I think me complaining when he rolled over in bed the other night, thus spilling some knitting papers (of a complex plaid pattern no less!) gave him the idea that I could work off this desk and use the clip board to keep my papers in place. Very nice.