golden

This is totally cornball, but I'm a pretty proud Canadian right now. I really wasn't very interested in the Olympics at first, and I'm not much of a sports person in general. But most of the events really were pretty interesting to watch, and I can't help feel some national pride about all those gold medals. The only sport I'm really into is hockey and the Olympic hockey tournament was amazing. Today's gold medal hockey game was incredible Even though I only got to watch live updates on the web at work I'm still feeling kind of tingly and high from it. If I had actually been able to watch the game I think I may have had a heart attack.

pom poms

snow and snow peas

 Image from here.

I've been feeling really lazy lately. I can hardly keep my eyes open right now, and I have no real reason to be tired. I'm working quite a bit, and not doing much with my free time. I feel like I haven't been doing or finding anything worth sharing here. This is not meant to be a 'oh poor me' post, just an explanation for the lack of action here lately. 

I've been spending most of my free time working on my garden plans for this summer, sourcing seeds and geeking out over my planting bed diagrams. The planning stage is one of my favourite parts of gardening. It's the perfect kind of design challenge for me, and it's even better the second time around now that I have had some practical experience. 

This year I'm going to try a succession planting technique of growing a lot of snow peas/snap peas in the spots where I will plant tomatoes, cucumbers and melons a little later in the season. I want to plant the peas as early as possible so I can get a good harvest from them before I have to pull them to make room for the other stuff. I've read that St. Patrick's Day is some people's standard for starting peas, which is March 17. That's in a few weeks! I was going to try for the weekend of the 20th, but now that we're getting all this snow, I'm not so sure I'll be able to plant quite so early. 

I think this snow has kind of bummed me out. It has made the city look less bleak, which is nice, but I don't think I was psychologically prepared for more winter. I really thought we were heading into spring. As a Canadian girl I suppose I should have known better.

belated birthday party post

Almost a week after the fact, here are some of the very few photos that were taken at the coe&waito birthday celebration. I was having too much fun to take pictures!  

I might have to leave my pom pom garland up forever...

...and this heart garland I made with patterned origami paper.

Jonny's pretentious pseudonym name tag.

Alissa and I wore our awesome '80's party dresses which we got no pictures of. 

In this picture we actually look kind of naked. And I look like a blowfish.

(The ones I'm in were taken by Shary.)

All that was left of two chocolate bundt cakes. I highly recommend this recipe. 

It was my first time trying it and it will definitely be my new standard.

The aftermath.

Thanks to all who came to share the evening with us! I had so much fun!

more minerals

From here. I love the colours. So Spring-like.

farm feasting

Terence's 'violent decanting' method. It's supposed to make cheap wine taste better.

The chicken is, um, mounted on a ceramic base filled with Guinness and herbs and such. 

This fills the meat with tasty juicy goodness. It's like a fancy version of barbeque beer can chicken.

And, there is bacon on top. Yeah.

Roasted potatoes and little turnips and acorn squash...mmmm

A classic breakfast.

skating at the farm

(The photos of Alissa and I were taken by Terence. I think the one of me alone was taken by Alissa)

tiny

I made some tiny thumbless mittens for Max to match his owl hat. 

They are so small they could be thumb warmers for a grown up.

self portrait at 29

I turned 29 today. Andrew surprised me with tulips when I got home from work. It was a real surprise because he has always claimed that because he is a boy, he is not able to distinguish between different types of flowers. After two and a half years with me he can finally identify my favourite flower! Now that's progress. We also had a lovely dinner at Le Select Bistro on the weekend, my favourite special occasion restaurant. And I spent a couple days at T's farm with Alissa (pics of that coming soon), and next weekend Alissa and I are celebrating both our birthdays with a little party for our mutual friends at my place. So basically I get a full week of birthday fun. I am a very lucky girl.

oh summer

I just found these pictures that I never posted from a trip to the Scarborough Bluffs on a beautiful day in early September. 

puppenhausmuseum

Elizabeth recently posted this link and it BLEW MY MIND. I had to share. I especially adore this section of shops, sales counters and tiny tiny grocery packages. I have always yearned for a dollhouse. This site has reignited that obsession.