yum, oatmeal

How have gone all my life without trying steel-cut oats? I knew of them, of course and even coveted the great tin they come in. I think I thought, "Oats are oats". Not so, my friend. I used the Alicia Paulson method (sans milk and sugar) and have converted to the best oatmeal ever. I had it for dinner last night and breakfast this morning. It's that good.

happy, happy

Isn't this the best diagram ever? It's always good to learn new ways to wrap things up. Via Whip Up.

Ahhh, holiday time. It's here! A and I are so looking forward to eating delicious food, ice skating, watching movies, baking cookies and taking walks.

I leave you with a yummy ginger cookie recipe from the November/December Vegetarian Times. Until next year!

3/4 c sugar
1/4 c butter
1/4 c crystallized ginger, chopped
1 tbs. blackstrap molasses
1 tbs. vanilla extract
1/4 c warm water
2 c whole wheat flour (I have used spelt to great success)
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. powdered ginger
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/8 tsp. ground black pepper

4.5 tbs. lime or lemon juice
3 c confectioner's sugar

+ Preheat oven to 375F. Coat baking sheets with cooking spray (or line with parchment paper). Whisk together sugar, butter, oil, crystallized ginger, molasses, vanilla and water. Combine flour, baking soda, salt and spices in a separate. Stir flour mixture into sugar mixture.

+ Drop spoonfuls of dough, 1" apart onto prepared baking sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes. Cool 3 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

+ Whisk lime/lemon juice and sugar until smooth. Dip cookies in glaze. Let glaze harden on wire racks, then store cookies in airtight container.

this weekend...

...yummy breakfasts were eaten...

...fresh air was enjoyed...

...cookies were baked...

...stockings were made and hung with care (A made the turquoise houndstooth with special front access pocket for me and I made the woolly argyle one for him)...

liking...

+ Knit gloves over leather gloves! I love it, the praticality, the contrast of textures and techinques...I think this is such a great idea especially if you wear vintage jackets with 3/4 length or wrist length sleeves like me. Via making things which makes me want to learn how to knit.

+ The design of the Peepshow site via Camilla.

+ The work of Jenny Bowers via Peepshow.

+This interview with illustrator Brian Cronin Camilla.

+ Jen's photographs.

+ This interview with Petra Borner via Petra.

goodness

Oh, wow, I'm blushing. What tremendous company to be included in! Thanks Mav!

4 jobs + holiday season = no blogging

It's a busy time. I am currently designing 2 shows, working 3 days a week as a project coordinator for retail store expansion and producing a docudrama. At least I finished our holidays gifts and they are in the mail.

Phew! Things got crazy just before I had finished making everything and those last few items took f-o-r-e-v-e-r to finish.

Today was my first real day off in a long time. For A as well, he graduated! We slept in, went out for breakfast, did a little grocery shopping, cleaned the depth and breadth of our apartment and made cookies. Ahhhh, it feels good.

And now, for a cozy night in, eating cookies, making our stockings and catching up with the Internet.

morning

paper cuts

Petra Borner makes the most beautiful and modern illustrations using paper cuts.

oh, tenenpompom

From this...


...to this!
I am very pleased at how this turned out. And it was so much fun! I saw this branch on the street last month after a big storm. I immediately imagined it painted glossy white, glinting with fairy lights, our holiday tree. Luckily, A agreed and I set to work creating our tenenpompom.

The idea of only pompom decorations quickly followed once I got my sketchbook out to do some planning. This year I decided on a cool holiday colour scheme - whites, neutrals, greens, blues. I usually go with red and white but, in the apartment we are subletting right now, the couch is Santa red, so I felt it might be a bit much. Plus, every store I went to seemed to be using red as their main holiday colour and I'm not so much into conforming.
A trip to Canadian Tire provided the lights and paint (latex enamel by Krylon, I <3 it). Our garbage room's free corner (people in the building leave all sorts of unwanted odds and ends) offered up 4 lengths of 1" x4" for the base. After a quick consulation with my dad (thanks!) and the loan (in exchange for homemade chocolate chip cookies) of a compund mitre saw and jigsaw from friendly neighbors and construction was underway.

We decorated it when A got home from school last night. 80% of it is thrifted or found (yarn for pompoms, branch and lumber for base) and 25% purchased new (paint and lights). My goal right now when I am making things (or have to get a replacement for something) is to aim for 90% reclaimed/repurposed/reused/recycled or sustainable (ie. organic/renewable resource/low environmental impact).

It is so nice to have decorations. I just need to make another soft tree (you can see one of the ones I made in the picture above) and finish the menorah and we're done!

pretty

Lotus lights via PAN-DAN

a flash of sun

At last! A little sunshine. It only lasted 12 seconds but it was enough to take a photo the holiday bunting I made. I have made a few soft trees but due a leak, I am not able to show them situ. Hopefully, that'll be sorted this weekend. More decorations to come.

A vague addition to WIP Friday. Most of what I'm making these days is holiday gifts and as I don't want to spoil the surprise for the recipients, that's all I can post. We are planning to send everything off by the end of next week.

Half a pomegranate is my one favorite snack these days. Must be all the vitamin C.

good mail

I received the port2port press calendar a few days ago (it's been so dark lately, it was hard to take a decent photo). It is as beautiful as I imagined. I going to savour it by only looking a the current month. I cheated already, clearly.