Best Of: March

/// quality time in Jarry Park && sun for longer && the last of winter /// Mars and Josie being adorable /// dog parking at Marche Jean Talon /// Consulting the cards /// Spring flowers to brighten grey days ///

I can’t believe its the end of March already! I feel like I just wrote the Best of Feb and Best of Blogs: Feb posts. If this blog is any indication of what my life is like, I pretty much DID just write those posts….March flew by and I have been fighting to keep on track with my life schedule. I didn’t blog as much as I would have liked to unfortunately. It slipped away in a flurry of sewing, applying for jobs, marking, and writing. And a little friend and couple time mixed in.

Here are some highlights:

Life:

/// me lovin my new talent. Is it possible to be a bowling alley shark? /// Mars celebrating yet another spare, he is also better at bowling than pool ///

I think the thing I was the most excited about this month (besides sewing) was the oncoming spring. Winter is not my favourite. At all. I get really depressed with all the grey and I hate trying to get around in the snow. Montreal is a walking/biking city, the transit is decent but ALL of these modes of transport are a pain in the winter. Walking is hard, biking is impossible (for me, some people I know still do it), and transit is packed, hot and often late. Because of all of this I stay home a lot, taking my vitamin D pills and trying to remember times when I could go outside without 18 layers. Spring was in the air early this year, and although we got one last snow storm this month it has been warmer, sunnier and the snow is mostly gone. Which pleases me to no end. Also daylight savings means its lighter in the hours I’m awake, which does wonders for my mood. Saskatchewan has it right with the no daylight savings, its the worst.

2 of my favourite friends have birthdays in March. My platonic wife Corrie lives in Winnipeg so I didn’t get to celebrate her like I want to but my longest friend Felicia moved back to Montreal and we went bowling like a bunch of REALLY COOL 30 year olds. I turned out to be a lot better at bowling than pool and got TONS of strikes! It was a black light, jams from 1999 kind of night and we all danced and sang and cheered on each other for hours. I loved it. More bowling on the menu from now on.

Speaking of birthdays, we had a very belated birthday party for Mars on Corrie’s birthday. Since we were out west for his birthday and he didn’t get to celebrate with friends I wanted to make sure that he was celebrated properly in Montreal. An awesome group of people showed up to our favourite Salvadorian restaurant to eat a ridiculous amount of pupusas, then came back to our place for cake (a flourless chili chocolate cake I should post about), tequila sunrises and late night confessions of childhood crushes (mine was Leonardo Dicaprio). It was really lovely and I think my guy had a nice, if very bemused time. The flowers above are the leftovers from the bouquet I got him in celebration. The next day we went and saw a play about Mahalia Jackson. Which felt fancy and was a nice night out for the two of us.

I went to a few great shows this month, including a jam packed with talent show headlined by Invincible (Detroit) and hometown hero Akua. I got to meet a bunch of really talented people and sway to really great music (including my all time favourite MC who jumped on stage for a track <3).

Other than that it was all job applications, academic articles, marking and sick days on the couch. A classic March.

Crafts:

Sewing away to my heart’s content, which I’m planning a whole separate post for. So far I’ve made 3 dresses and 2 skirts. They turned out really well and I wear them all the time! I love planning up new things and trying to figure out how to make them. I’m still pretty impatient when I sew. I want to wear them immediately! I have to learn how to enjoy the process more, and also iron… I’m pretty proud of myself for not using patterns and still having pretty awesome results. I could use access to a serger though, jersey is kind of hard to sew with a regular machine.

Books:

Still reading White Teeth. BUT I’m almost done!

Recipes:

/// my winning ribs before they were cooked, no after picture. I was too ready to eat a million ribs by the time they were done and forgot to take a photo /// one of my favourite, filling soup recipes from 101 cookbooks. Its especially good when sick like I was a few times this month ///

Mid month a group of friends and us had a rib off, where we all submitted a rack of ribs, ate our faces off and voted. I WON!! It was my first time ever making ribs and I won! I’m pretty damn chuffed with myself for it because I had some stiff competition. Also, I’m not usually the come-in-first type so it did wonders for my ego. Everyone’s were really really good though and the real winner was my stomach! We’ve been organizing chosen-family get togethers pretty often these days and its awesome. I love having amazing people to laugh with and talk about real shit with. Makes life so much sweeter.

And because I’m a firm believer is sharing recipes I’m going to post my Keetha’s 2 Die 4 Dry Rubbed Ribs this week!

In the meantime check out 101 cookbooks for the above soup’s recipe, Red Lentil Soup with Lemon. 101 cookbooks is one of the best cooking sites I know. I have one of Heidi’s books [super natural every day] and its great but you don’t need to buy a book (though I recommend it!) to access her recipes. The 101 cookbooks site is incredible, searchable, and super varied. Her food is healthy, simple, seasonal,and delicious. I really like this soup because its so hearty with the lentil and rice, it has greens and is flavoured with tumeric, cumin and mustard seeds. Add a the suggested spinach, and some yogurt or peppers goat cheese and its basically the best ever.  I ate it for 2 whole days when I was sick this month and it made me feel so much better. I actually made it again yesterday and I’m still loving it.

Music:

I’m still obsessed with songza and have been exploring all sorts of genres. My current favs (besides 90ies), are latin lady MCs, reggae, and bluegrass.

Sidenote:

I’m still trying to figure out good ways to post pictures. Sorry if things are weird. I’m struggling with sizing…

March in a nutshell. I can’t believe its over. April is going to have to be a bang up month so that I can catch up!

Eating: Apple Cider Caramels (more from homemade holidays)

I LOVE smitten kitchen, I’ve posted stuff of Deb’s many times (like here, here, and here). The recipes she creates are low maintenance, usually from things I have around the house (depending on if I have groceries at that particular point), and always delicious. I had the pleasure of flipping through her cookbook a while back and lemmetellyouwhat. Its amazing. I can’t wait to get my grubby little kitchen hands on it.

I made these Apple Cider Caramels as part of my homemade holidays challenge. My step-dad is a hard guy to buy for but he does love candy because he can’t eat chocolate anymore. They went over well, he was touched I made something for him and happy with the gift. Their fanciness to time ratio is awesome. People are pretty impressed by all the individually wrapped and handmade candies, though I think it took me less than 2 hrs to make and all with common ingredients.

These were straight forward to make, even without investing in a candy thermometer. Mine turned out a little soft so maybe I need to reduce them down a little more next time. They were ridiculously delicious though and much appreciated in my house and my mom’s. Mars was a little sad that I didn’t make any for him so I snuck a few in his stocking.

Odds & Sods

photos of my everyday lately.

1. some great graffiti that totally speaks to me // 2. neighbourhood near dusk. Check out all the steeples. Montreal is the city of 1,000 churches // 3. Pumped about my lengthening ponytail. Long hair here I come! // 4. A window full of buttons at a shop devoted especially to buttons on St Hubert // 5. Components for my favourite coffee // 6. My living room has been taken over by sewing projects // 7. My favourite photo right now of vintage pop bottles in a nearby cafe window.

Best of Blogs: February

Blogs! I’m in love. I can’t remember when I started getting into them…I’ve had my own blog (in various locations) since 2007/2008 ish but I never really read other people’s until the last year and a bit. I have an app on my ipad that I have all my favourite (ie: checked daily) blogs on it and I have a good 18-20 on it. I should do a post on the blogs I really like sometime soon but for now I want to profile the blogs that I’m particularly excited about right now.

NOTE: all the photos belong to the blogger they are associated with, click each photo to be taken to their corresponding post.

click above (or here) to be taken to pencil box

I talked about Katie over at pencil box earlier but only briefly. Her blog is my all time favourite new blog, and up there in my all time favourite ever. I came across her blog the other week when I was searching for something new to read and so was looking through blog recommendations over at a beautiful mess. I waswas instantly hooked. Her photos alone were enough to make me swoon, I’m such a sucker for light and airy photography with good colours. She’s pretty amazing at taking really creative and impressive self portraits too. I need to learn that talent…

After I got past the gorgeousness of the photography I found equally beautiful writing. She writes about the stuff of every day. Whether its raising her kids and their shenanigans, her love life (which is so sweet its almost enviable), projects, inspiration, and daily goings-on she describes it all in a way that’s almost poetic. Also she has incredible style. I’m not ashamed to say that I was so taken with her writing style and positive outlook on life that I read nearly all her archives. It sounds like I’m gushing and I am. She rocks, go read her blog!

Katie is an artist, and not just in photography, she is a lovely painter as well. She lives in Ohio with her 2 kids and fiancee.

click above (or here) to be taken to the site

I found Liz’s blog very recently. In fact it was the inspiration for my recent sewing spree. I spent one whole night reading through the tutorials and posts on this blog and then went out the next day and bought/spent a little too much on a bunch of fabric. Its been 3 days and I’ve already made 2 dresses and a skirt. The tutorials are super easy and straight forward, you don’t need to make a pattern you just need a measuring tape, some scissors, a sewing machine and (in some cases) some clothes to trace. She focuses a lot on thrifted and refashioned fabric and clothes, which I appreciate because that’s where I’m at in terms of what I like to wear (and what I can afford to!). I haven’t tried any of the refashioning tutorials but they are up next on my list! I love refashioning old clothes into new, exciting ones. She has incredible taste in clothing and basically I want to dress like her forever. This means that the tutorials are super and I’ve pinned just about every one. The photos are lovely and Liz styles her creations so well that I can totally see myself wearing them (minus the high heels, I live in snow bound Montreal and that’s dangerous).  If you’re into making your own clothes or want to learn. I highly HIGHLY suggest cotton & curls

Last but not least!

made by andi

Made by Andi is the brand new blog from the creator of Hoakon and Helga bags. While I was devastated when she stopped making her bags to pursue other things in life (only because I hadn’t had the chance to save up enough pennies for one yet) this blog is really promising and I’m excited to see where she takes it.  There are a few DIY’s up, and some info about running your own business (she successfully lived off making her bags for 3 years) which is super inspiring and I’m pumped to learn more about it through her creative business tips. I have a certain soft spot for this blog too because she lives in one of my hometowns (calgary) and I get to see familiar places in her photos. I don’t follow too many canadian blogs, mostly because I haven’t found that many yet, and while that’s not the reason I follow Andi, its definitely fun. She’s still building her blog but I very much recommend reading as she goes because she is a very talented lady and let’s be honest, talented people are awesome.

********

Best of Feb for sure here. These are all blogs I imagine reading for a while and all three have made it to the front page of my blog app. I check them first every day. Give them a look and some love because they really deserve it.

What are your favourite blogs?

Best Of: February

For such a short month February sure seemed long. I always feel this way about February though, when I’m dying from the cold and grey. February is the month that I most want to hibernate. Its too far past the holidays to still have that excitement in my system and too far from spring to feel like winter might possibly end. I still had an interesting month regardless of that. Mars and I took a short trip to Ottawa, I started swimming a few times a week to beat the trap of living and working in the same place and the inertia that came with that. I started thinking about what it means to be truly happy in what I do (no answers to that yet though, I image it will take more than a month), Mars and I had a really cute, at home, homemade Valentine’s day. It snowed A LOT. I baked a fair bit. February in a nutshell.

Here are some highlights:

Life:

Mars and I drove up to Ottawa for the weekend. He took me on a date to a pool hall and we both discovered we are far FAR worse at pool than either of us imagined (and I had no illusions of being a pool shark). It was super funny and I think we scandalized the other patrons by laughing so much…and kissing.

I’ve been working on creating a schedule for myself so that I am in a routine. Working from home is a trap of constantly flexible time and its easy to sleep in really late, get groceries at 9pm, clean the house at 3pm on a wednesday, etc. I’m trying to create a work/life/play schedule that is regular and consistent. I hear that that’s good for me or whatever. Part of this is getting exercise so I started taking myself off to the pool 3 times a week to swim 45mins of laps. Its a nice quiet time where I can kind of zone my brain out and remind my body that as much as I’d like to be hibernating, I’m not that kind of creature. Mars and I have been huge homebodies this month, partly because we’re broke and partly because its winter. We’re both working away on projects, watching a fair bit of netflix and having couch dates. Sometimes its nice to not go out for a while.

Crafts:

With the exception of massive amount of sewing I started on the night of the last day of Feb (and am therefore counting as a March activity). The only thing I think I made this month was the crochet heart mobile for Mars’ Valentine’s day present. Which I mostly made in January anyway. It was a variation of this pattern but I’m not much for following patterns (with the exception of lace, I don’t toy with those patterns!) so I can’t exactly say out to make it. Basically I made a bunch of hearts of different sizes, then made a crocheted top part (based kind of on this collar pattern). I attached the hearts to the top and to each other with crochet chains. That’s it! It took a while to make, partly because I was hiding it from Mars but it was nice to do in front of tv shows at night (I’m not super good at just sitting and watching tv without doing anything else).

Sorry for the fuzzy phone photo, its all I have.

Books:

I’m still reading White Teeth by Zadie Smith on my kobo. I’m going to have to pick up the pace a little if I want to reach my reading goal for the year. I’m enjoying the book but I have been busy with other things (and reading things on the internet). I mostly only read when I’m on the metro.

Photography:

I’ve recently become a huge fan of astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield who is currently in space and is taking absolutely incredible photos of the earth. He posts several a day to his facebook page and I check them every day. They are humbling and beautiful. A daily reminder that the world is a really special place.

Here’s an example from yesterday of the southernmost tip of Canada (click the photo to be taken to the source):

Recipes:

(photo belongs to smitten kitchen. Click to be taken to the site/recipe)

I love soup in the fall/winter and this carrot soup with lemon tahini and crisped chickpeas from smitten kitchen is my new absolute favourite. The lemon tahini is what really makes it. The light lemon flavour and the creaminess of the tahini in the soup is amazing. I had some difficulty with the chickpeas because they kept popping like pop corn in my oven and I was afraid of causing a fire so they didn’t get as crispy as I would have liked them. But still a nice texture. I made it with this flat bread (also from smitten kitchen) instead of pita because its fast and a staple in our house. We eat it a couple of times a week usually.

Music:

I was introduced to songza this past month and have been obsessed with it ever since. Its a curated site of SO many playlists. Basically when I log in it asks me what kind of mood I’m in then suggests playlists that work for that mood. I’ve been discovering lots of new (to me) music in between listening to hours and hours of 90ies jams. I’ve been on songza about a week and have a whole bunch of playlists saved. I think songza is my favourite new music this past month but here are some individual artists that got me toe tapping.

Nerina Pallot

Haim

So long February. Looking forward to March, I can feel the spring in the air….

Best of:

I’m starting a new monthly series where i profile my favourite things from the past month. This will include music, recipes, crafts, books, photography, my own trips or adventures, and (the one I’m most excited about) other people’s blogs that I’m excited to be reading. The point of this is to talk a bit about my inspiration witho

ut having to do the daily posts (which, let’s be honest I’m not great at *ahem small things project ahem*), and so record regular life since this place is a bit of a journal for me. Its also to rave about the amazing world of blogs that I’ve gotten into the past while. Seriously, there are some very cool people out there.

Ideally these posts will mostly come out at the end of the month/beginning of the next month. I’m a little late this month, because I just got the idea and have been scrambling to come up with a plan/list but mostly because I’ve been on a massive sewing spree and have been neglecting most other things in favour of making more things. More on that in another post.

Check out my first edition. Next up: Blogs!

Old Family Photos

 My mom’s family (she’s the littlest in this picture sitting in my grandfather’s lap). Sitting is my grandfather (Fred) & grandmother (Marie), I never met either of them. Standing are my uncles Don (left) and Gerry (right), and aunts Elaine (left) and Shelley (right). 

My grandfather (Fred Woloshyn) on my mom’s side. This is his candidate picture from when he ran as an MP.My dad’s parents. Grandma (Verna) and grandpa (Harald) on their wedding day. I don’t know what year.

My great aunt Thelma (grandfather’s sister) and my grandparents on my dad’s side wedding day.

My dad’s mom (Verna) as a teenager in Dartmouth, NS I believe.

ps. I’ve written about this grandma lots, you can find it here, here, here, here and especially here

This one is a doozy. Its my great grandfather (Richard) and HIS parents (my great great grandparents on my dad’s paternal side) Georgina and William in 1916. This was taken when Richard was on leave from WW!.

After my trip home in December and this winter what with my dad digging into old family history this winter I’ve amassed a bit of an old family photo collection that I thought I’d share. They are pretty special to me. I tweaked them a little with photoshop to make them clearer but otherwise they are mostly photos or scans of originals floating around family houses these days.

In other news…

It felt like spring was in the air while I was out and about this morning but by afternoon there was another snow storm blowing. I guess its still going to be winter for a while here.

Today was a really get things done day. I had my office hours for the class I’m assisting this semester (nobody came to see me, foolish students). I came home and did some looking for articles for the terrorism section of my lit review (tomorrow is searching and reading day). I jammed out to songza, my new favourite way to listen to music (you can find me under keetham but all there is there are playlists I’ve been excited about the past few days). I found a new blog that I’m excited about. I’m going to post about it tomorrow so I won’t get too into what its about. Suffice to say I pinned A LOT of things from it tonight.

I’m sending love to my step dad and my mom who are on their way to Poland right now. My step dad’s mom passed away last night. I never met her but I’ve heard many stories over the years and am feeling a little sad that I never got to. Mostly I’m feeling sad for my step dad, who just lost his mom and that hurts no matter how old you are.

Weekend Roundup: Feb 23/24

This weekend was incredibly quiet. It was snowy and grey and neither Mars or I were particularly interested in leaving our bed let alone the house.

I did a little baking, making a variation of these dulce de leche chocolate banana muffins minus the chocolate but plusing some very liquid vanilla buttercream. With some a couple muffiin/cupcakes and a cup of my absolute favorite cream earl grey tea with honey and milk I spent most of Saturday reading the archives of my new favourite blog Pencil Box. I came across Katie’s blog through some references from other blogs I read and its really so wonderful. Her writing is so lovely and real, I really want to enjoy things like she does. Her photography is pretty incredible as well, I’m already trying out new photo editing techniques based on her advice. I highly recommend reading her blog for a sweet insight into life as a artistic mom of 2 in Ohio.

We spent all day Sunday at our next door neighbour and good friend Jackie’s house. We were supposed to only do brunch but brunch went from eating, to doing nails, to Mars braiding Jackie’s hair to dinner. It was a nice vacation from our winter homebody-ing.

I don’t have any pictures of that day but I made crepes and thought I would share my recipe which came from a mix of advice from friends and my dad’s method. My base recipe is 1cup of flour, 1cup of milk (or water), 1 egg, 1 teaspoon of almond extract. Whisk until well blended and refrigerate for at least 30mins. Pour a small amount of batter onto a grease pan and tilt to spread the batter around as thin as possible. I use a cast iron pan and butter, or an oil (I use olive or coconut). Cook on one side until it doesn’t look raw then flip to cook the other side. Makes about 8 or 9 crepes. Serve with whatever toppings you like. This sunday we made a strawberry, blueberry, blackberry, raspberry syrup by cooking down frozen berries with maple syrup. Mixed that with yogurt and some dulce de leche and we had a really good sweet brunch. For savoury, I really like scrambled eggs, bacon and cheese wrapped in crepes with maple syrup on top.

Hope you had a nice weekend and are beating the winter doldrums.

 

Grey Friday

//wearing my green pants  & my robot shopping/swim bag from Jared because I needed something bright in my life. Listening to Solange because I needed something uptempo//

Is it grey or gray? I can never remember. Either way it was not sunny at all today. I accidentally slept in really late because I turned off my alarm and so my body didn’t recognize the time as day time.

I was feeling sluggish and sleepy but I promised myself that I would go swimming 3 times this week. Plus I really like swimming. So I packed myself up and went to the pool. The pool was packed but I still managed a good 30mins of laps. The city pools in Montreal are free and this one is less than a 10min walk from my house. I like a good free adult swim in the afternoon to make me feel like I’m taking care of myself. Its nice to have some quiet time with no screens and the only sound is people swimming. Gives me time to let my mind wander, or think of nothing in particular.

I took the long way home from the pool because it was nice out despite the grey/gray and took some pictures of my beloved neighbourhood to remind myself that it can be beautiful in the winter too.

Afternoon snack of my homemade granola with yogurt and a boozy bourbon marmalade by Silvie to finish off my little time off and now back to work on looking for work. At least with a fresh mind and stretched out body.

Happy friday everyone.

 

 

 

On doing what you love

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about what makes me happy and what I want to do with my life. This is not to say that I don’t always think about things like this (ahem, my yearly birthday meltdown). This process has just been a lot more productive lately.

I turned 30 this year which made me sit back a bit and think about what my next steps are. That coupled with my near constant job hunting (boo economy), and my decision that academia really isn’t for me (don’t get me started on ranting about my thesis), has set me on a track of trying to figure out how to have the life that I want. Part of my conclusion has been to stop “going with the flow” so much and start making intentional decisions about what to do next. Life may work out in its own way, and will whether I make plans or not, but I want to be a more active participant in what that looks like.

Another source of this inspiration is that I’ve been reading a lot of blogs from people who are working for themselves in creative ways and making a living while doing what they love. I want to wake up every day excited about what I do and not going through the motions to get a pay cheque. Going through the motions is no kind of life. Life is short, people always say, but it can also be really long if you spend it sitting at a desk for hours a day not doing things that inspire you.

So to that end I’ve been starting to do some research into things that I only ever considered to be hobbies before and figuring out how I can do those things as my life’s work. I’ve been trying to allow myself to imagine what it would be like to get to do those things all day every day, instead of trying to fit them in at the end of work days. Part of that is putting more intention into this blog and how I can do what I love and share it (which I also love). I don’t want to spill too many of the beans before I know what they all are. Suffice to say that I’ll be experimenting around with this space a bit for the next while. It may be a little scattered and the look will change often. I’m new at this and I’m doing a lot of behind the scenes research too. Hopefully I’ll be able to launch something exciting sometime this spring