kate the hunter

hexipuffs and hexiflats!

2012-01-24T21:34:00.000-05:00

I've been in serious hexagon mode lately. I've been working on making The Beekeeper's knit quilt with scrap sock yarn. Hexipuffs are so fun to knit! I was going to knit a sweater over the break, but instead I knit hexipuffs.

A few weeks after I started with the hexipuffs, a future Needlework customer expressed interest in English paper piecing classes, so I decided to investigate that as well. More hexagons! Except I call these guys hexiflats. I'm using random scraps of light weight cotton to make them. I realized going through all my fabric that my "stash" of quilting cottons is very limited. Sort of ironic, considering I'm opening a fabric shop. That is definitely going to change soon. We have SO MANY amazing fabrics coming in! Yay! Anyways, Meg is going to do a Beehive post soon about what us Bees are up to, and she'll be saying some more about this over there. Oh, and speaking of the Beehive, one year ago today the Beehive Craft Collective formed! Such an amazing group to be a part of. I'm very excited for our second year of crafting, making, and community adventures.

24 days.

2012-01-17T22:51:00.001-05:00

Counting down.

Jenna Rose, Etsy star!

2012-01-16T18:11:00.000-05:00

My friend, fellow Beehive member, and sometimes employer, Jenna Rose, is the featured seller on Etsy today! Jenna's work is wonderful, just as wonderful as is she! So you should check out her lovely interview. Then go buy a super cute ship pillow.

photos by Hollie and Jenna.

family photo friday: young mum

2012-01-13T11:14:00.002-05:00

Mum, 1970s.

cozy kitty.

2012-01-12T16:33:00.002-05:00

Sookie loves laundry day.

belated christmas dogs.

2012-01-11T10:38:00.001-05:00

Oh hi Christmas dogs. Peanut is sporting her christmas hat with elf ears (no, those aren't her ears), and Gypsy is modeling her cute baby reindeer hat, which my sister, Ros, knit and felted for her. Gypsy is almost 19, and has reverted back to puppy mode in her old age. She's skinny and wobbly, so she really looks like a new born baby deer walking around the house in that hat.

brushes, rollers, drop cloths, and scaffolding.

2012-01-08T20:35:00.000-05:00

There's been non-stop painting happening at Needlework lately.

my 2011 in pictures

2012-01-03T18:11:00.001-05:00

Holy moly, 2011 was an eventful year. It was really hard to choose photos for this post because so much happened! Without a doubt the busiest year of my life.

January: Homemade fettucini with Erick, and tried on vintage wedding dresses with Amanda! Plus some lovely winter walks, and a fondue-y new years.

February: The Beehive formed! Wedding planning started to come into full swing, and I made duffle bags for a school project.

March: Dyeing coffee filters to make poufs for the wedding, and starting seeds for our vegetable garden. The Beehive got together for some fun pysanky egg decorating, and my wedding dress came in the mail!

April: The end of the semester always means lots of school work. In this case, embroidery.

May: My wonderful grandpa, who lived a long and lovely life, passed away. Went to Doors Open Hamilton for the first time, and Erick and I went to Nova Scotia for a wedding and road trip.

June: Bridal shower s and farming. As well as homemade wontons, lemon rosemary rhubarb spritzers for Mel's Beehive baby shower, Jenna's 5 year anniversary of her business, Liz and I announced our initial plans for Needlework!

July: We got MARRIED!! And also had a great "bachelorette weekend" at the cottage, went to long point beach and made a cool sand castle, made tons of strawberry jam for wedding favours, made beeswax candles with the lovely Beehive girls, and basically made all the decorations for the wedding. FUN!

August: An amazing honeymoon at my aunt and uncle's cottage in New Brunswick, and the first ever Beehive Summer Craft Fair took place.

September: Super Crawl, and The Beehive's large scale knit installation, Knit Night on The Brain! And canning tomatoes with Amanda, more farming, and the Toronto Garlic Festival at the Brickworks.

October: Lots of school work, combined with Needlework business planning. A delicious pie competition for Roisin's birthday, and apple picking and the Rockton World's Fair!

November: Babysitting Beau and a late garlic planting. And some fun weeknight bowling, plus lots more schoolwork and business planning.

December: A busy month of finishing and presenting our business plan for Needlework to CYBF, got approval for the loan, and started our business! Plus there was The One of A Kind Show, City of Craft, end of semester projects, making sea salt caramels and lemon rosemary shortbread with the Beehive gals. And many holiday parties.

WHOA!

Such a great year! It's going to be tough to top this one. But 2012 has lots in store, and I'm sure it's going to be just as amazing.

Needlework!

2011-12-20T14:26:00.000-05:00

Liz and I have some super exciting news!!! A couple of Wednesdays ago (November 30th to be precise - yes, I haven't blogged in forever) we presented our business plan for Needlework to the loan review committee at the Canadian Youth Business Foundation. The presentation went well, with lots of good positive and constructive feedback. That afternoon (while I was sitting at the One of a Kind Show) my phone rang and I got the wonderful news that we were approved for the loan!! Amazing! All systems are a go!

We've started placing fabric orders, signed the lease on our new space, bought a couch for the shop, and have cutting tables waiting to be assembled. We just need to set up our website (a work in progress), order a lot more fabric, finalize and order notions, buy some sewing machines, tables, chairs, check out counter, paint the building, get a sign made...and do a gajillion other things!!! Neither Liz or I have any background in business, so this is going to be a fun and interesting learning process. But we're up for it!

Since we had the keys to 174 James Street North (!) in time, we decided to whip something up for the December Art Crawl. We set up a quick window display, and handed out candy canes and coupons for a free 1/2 hour of our sew by the hour studio time. We'll be doing this again at the January Art Crawl. Probably without the candy canes, but maybe with something else!

We're so excited, and hope that you will join us on this adventure! Soon we'll have a Needlework blog (and twitter and facebook accounts!) up and running, and you'll be able to follow our progress there.

FUN!! EXCITING! YAY! HOORAY!

Thanks to friends and family for all your input and help! This is just the beginning.

jenna rose at OOAK

2011-12-01T17:14:00.000-05:00

It has been One of a Kind Show busy this week! Every day I've been at Jenna's booth selling her beautiful wares. Oh, and going to school and planning a business as well. And knitting a lot. And eating lots of meals out of tupperware.

Jenna has some really great customers, many of which come back every year and already own some of her products. It's great when people come in and say "Oh, I have that treehouse pillow! And that blanket! I just love Jenna Rose!". As they should. Jenna's stuff is AMAZING! I want everything.

If you're looking to do some Christmas shopping, the OOAK show goes until this Sunday! And tonight is the super late night shopping event, where the show is open until 11pm. I'll be there.

family photo friday: punch and appetizers

2011-11-26T23:16:00.001-05:00

1968. From the far left, clockwise: uncle John, mum, uncle Bob, mum's cousin Sue. My mum is 15.

It's almost that time of year again. The time of year when you consider including some velvet in your wardrobe. When you eat way too much delicious food off of makeshift surfaces (e.g. your lap or a folding card table). When you can stop stressing about daily things and worry more about what presents you're going to give to friends and family, what to wear to that christmas party, and which new cookie recipe to try. The countdown is on, for me at least. December 16th is the day I officially welcome the holidays into my life. I CANNOT WAIT!

tomato soup.

2011-11-22T23:59:00.001-05:00

Tomato soup. A delicious hearty and healthy meal, appreciated even more so on cold November days. I canned a lot of whole tomatoes in August, but hadn't used a single jar until this weekend. I feel like tomato season is officially good and done now that I've ripped up the plants from the garden. Permission to open the preserves granted!

I wanted a basic recipe, so I looked at the above one from the Joy of Cooking, and this one from Martha. Then I added on from there.

There's something fantastic about the smell of butter and onions cooking together. Even if onions consistently make me cry every time I chop them up. It's worth it.

This photo has nothing to do with tomato soup, but I just wanted to point out my cute tiny cactus. I love cacti, they're impossible to kill. And Sookie doesn't try to eat them. You can also see the adorable Le Creuset honey pot that Amanda gave us.

Et voila! Tomato soup.

I love making soup because I find that as long as you start with some butter, onions, and garlic, you can do almost anything else and get delicious results.

This particular soup contained:

a big 1L jar of canned whole tomatoes
1 big yellow onion
2 cloves of garlic
5 tbsp of butter (why not?)

I pureed the onions and garlic after I'd softened them in the butter for 20 minutes, and pureed the tomatoes before adding them to the pot. Then I threw in:

4 cups of vegetable stock
about 1/2 cup quinoa
about 1/2 cup barley
diced carrots
some paprika
oregano
salt and pepper
and chopped basil and spinach at the last minute.

And brought it all to a boil, then let it simmer for about 20 minutes with the lid half on.

Delish. Best served with a crusty piece of bread spread with goat cheese and topped with some chutney. The smell of this soup was much appreciated when I warmed it up for lunch at school the next day.

monday night bowling

2011-11-22T11:20:00.001-05:00

You know what's fun? Ignoring all the work you have in order to go bowling!

Last night a whole bunch of us went to Splitsville up on the mountain. Erick took any opportunity he could to say "welcome to Splitsville, population YOU!". If he ever decides to break up with me, I'm sure that's what he'll say. Anyways, we had lots of fun - it was a great "let's forget all our cares and go bowling!" sort of night. Oh, and there were bumper cars too. And Kieran has AMAZING bowling moves (see the photos). Though Jen definitely rivaled him in that category.

Yay for bowling!

family photo friday: siblings in a blue room.

2011-11-18T11:05:00.000-05:00

1963. My mum's siblings: John, Margo, Bob, and Trisha. Hanging out in their fancy clothes at my grandma's house.

holy busy life, batman.

2011-11-16T23:00:00.001-05:00

This photo cracks me up. Sookie looks like she could be singing. Or yelling. In reality she was yawning. Which is something I've been doing a lot of lately. So busy! Let's make a list:

1. Finish assembling knit wall (as always). Installation happens sometime before November 30th

2. Laser cut digital design assignment, due tomorrow

3. Paper making samples - three 3D forms, due next Tuesday

4. Weaving sample, due next Tuesday

5. Come up with an idea for a product line (multiples) before this weekend, come up with imagery if I decide to incorporate screen printing, finalize design. Coat a screen, shoot a screen, buy fabric, start printing by Monday.

6. November 24th-December 4th. One of a Kind Show with Jenna whenever I'm not at school.

7. Come up with an idea for a knit structure made with hand spun yarn. Specifically something I can knit while at the OOAK show (two birds, one stone)

8. Needlework business. This could have its own list.

9. Write 3000 words on alpaca farming

10. Clean the house

11. Count down to December 16th. Last day of class

12. Make christmas presents

family photo friday: remembrance day

2011-11-11T14:13:00.001-05:00

I've posted these photos of my grandparents' wedding before, but I'm posting them again since they fit with today's theme of remembrance. My grandpa was a doctor on a navy ship in WWII. My great uncle Westie (on the far right) was a pilot.

book making. fun!

2011-11-10T14:33:00.001-05:00

In my Dye and Print class on Monday we had a workshop on buttonhole book binding! For that class we have two teachers, and we just switched to the second one for our next assignment. Ana is quite into book making, and while our upcoming assignment has nothing to do with making books, she decided to share some of her skills with a little afternoon workshop.

Initially I wasn't sure how much I'd be into this process, but it was quite fun and satisfying! With just a bit of illustration board, paper, glue, and string, you can make a cute little custom made book! Unfortunately I didn't have appropriately sized pretty paper, so I used some blue ikea wrapping paper for the cover, and a wallpaper sample for the floral bit. But you could make this book with the most beautiful materials. Now I have an excuse to buy some of the gorgeous paper I've drooled over at The Paper Place.

first weekend of NOVEMBER!!!

2011-11-06T16:30:00.002-05:00

How is it already November?!? I can't wait until 2012 - I'm really hoping it will bring a slight decrease in how busy I am. Or at least a change in what it is I'm busy with. I'll be done school at the very least. But I also really don't want 2011 to be over - I have so many things to do still! Finish the knit wall, write essays (including a big one on alpaca farming), stay on top of school assignments, work for Jenna, do the One of A Kind Show with her, wrap up a business plan, present the business plan, cross fingers for the future of said business plan. Plus the usual life stuff. All in the next month.

Anyways, this weekend was nice. Jenna and Jeff went away and asked Erick and I to look after Beau for them!

Jenna left us this adorable guide for babysitting Beau.

We went for a nice hike along the Bruce Trail in Ancaster. Then did a bunch of yard work at our house - raked leaves, pulled up dead plants, planted bulbs. Fun! Also, Erick is growing a mustache for movember. Can you tell? I didn't think so.

We (though really mostly Erick) made this DELICIOUS salmon and leek chowder. It was so good. But then again anything with bacon, salmon, leeks, potatoes, and cream can't possibly be bad. Mmm, I'm looking forward to the leftovers. FYI, we left the clam juice out of the recipe. Not exactly something we had on hand, and it wasn't missed.

Beau thinks he's a person and really prefers to sleep like a person - in bed. He's the size of a large child, so there may as well have been three of us in bed!

It was such a beautiful weekend, so it was really great having a dog as an excuse to go out on numerous walks.

When Beau's mama and papa came home, I went home to my Sookie cat. And way too much school work.

family photo friday: cozy at the cottage

2011-11-04T12:07:00.001-04:00

1979, My aunt Margo working away on something at the dining room table at the cottage. Such a cozy photo.

hand and lock embroidery project. complete.

2011-11-03T14:15:00.000-04:00

I consider myself to be relatively computer savvy, but sometimes I get totally stumped with silly things. Like trying to make a multi-page PDF file the right size to upload onto Issuu. Yeah. So that's why this blog post is occurring today and not this past Monday, when we had our critiques.So voila, an online version of my Hand and Lock embroidery project "lookbook". With the help of my sleep deprived post-call husband's photography skills, I whipped this bad boy up on Sunday.

This was the brief I chose to interpret:

"Faded summers:Remembered summers and memories of past celebration. Using faded colours and surfaces bleached by the sun, take yourself back to childhood memories on old postcards or old photos of the sea side and family parties. Beach houses, huts and sheds. Vintage street parties, bunting and national flags. Pride. Vintage and loose looks. Light canvas, worn knits, embossed and relief surfaces. Shaded stripes and prints. Relief surfaces and faded brights all should come into play, with textures of worn mesh, old ropes, tattered flags draping and wrinkling, chipped surfaces, rust, large knits and perforations.Faded colours: Pastels, dull pinks, oranges and reds. Greys, coral, lobster, musk. Yellow khaki and beige. Sepia."

I focused on using natural materials, some fabric dyed with golden rod, and only hand embroidery techniques (no machine embroidery). I really like knitting with natural cotton string (it reminds me of nautical things), so I incorporated that into the epaulettes, the belt, and the knit side panels on the shirt.

It was a fun project. I do wish I'd had more time to play around with other ideas I had, more natural dyeing, and different techniques, but a little thing called the #$%%* Knit Vertical Garden was a little time consuming. But that's ok! It's almost done! And this project is done! On to other projects!

family photo friday: cat hat.

2011-10-28T15:57:00.001-04:00

1986, me in my cat hat. I don't have any old Halloween family photos scanned in, so I figured this is close enough.

bulbs galore

2011-10-27T18:43:00.000-04:00

I used to work at Garden Import during school breaks when I was in high school. My mum worked there and it was a pretty handy and sweet part time job. I'd either be in the garden watering plants and moving things around, or inside packing away bulbs and seeds with amazing names. On Tuesday we received a box full of bulbs from Dugald and Lynn, the owners of the company. So nice! Tulips and crocuses and narcissus and alliums! I'm super excited to plant these bulbs. Especially since our landlord just gave us the go ahead to do whatever we want with the front yard. YAY! Now we just need to make some time to do it. ASAP! Before the ground freezes.

knit, sew, embroider, repeat.

2011-10-25T13:35:00.000-04:00

Meg is going to be doing a blog post about what some of the Bees are up to on their own lately. This is what I'm up to RIGHT NOW. Live, from Kate's house. Nonstop crafting.

family photo friday: dogs.

2011-10-21T10:55:00.002-04:00

1985, Joe and Tibby hanging out in my mum and dad's backyard. Joe was my parents' first dog, and Tibby was my great great aunt Nan's dog.

I want a dog. Badly. I'd specifically like this dog. Please and thanks.

October is almost over. Once it is over I will have more time on my hands for things besides knitting and embroidering. Not that I don't enjoy doing those things, but it will be nice to be able to do something else and not feel extreme guilt and anxiety. So that's good! Next week I'll be assembling the knit wall. I can't wait to be done!!!! I'll have time to search for my camera battery, take photos, and have better blog posts. Yay.

pies and cats and embroidery

2011-10-17T23:35:00.000-04:00

Still haven't located my camera's battery charger...

On Friday it was art crawl, and also a pie competition in celebration of Roisin's birthday. Amazing! I made a banana cream pie and Erick made an apple pie. It was his first (and according to him, his last) pie ever, and it was pretty delish!

10 pies were submitted in total, and there were 10 winners! Yeah, all the pies were pretty amazing. They smelled and tasted so good. Those are Ted's gourmet pies that Liz is sniffing. The tall one was duck, brandied pears, and caramelized onions, and the one beside it contained roasted golden beets, sour apples, caramelized onions, and smoked ham hocks in cheddar mornay sauce. That one was my absolute favourite. It was to die for! Roisin, you're one lucky gal.

There were 2 apple pies, a pumpkin pie, Gary's poutine pie, a deep dish pizza pie, a chocolate cream pie, and a number of other delicious pastry wrapped desserts. Everyone who contributed brought home a pound of Stirling butter, which is considered one of the top 30 butters in the world! Fact.

That was the exciting part of my weekend. The remaining days were spent inside embroidering and knitting non stop, and watching movies/shows on Netflix, or listening to podcasts. I left the house 3 times: once to drop Erick off at work, once to pick him up, and once to go for a walk in the lovely windy weather.
Now back to knitting and Manhattan.

family photo friday: train tracks

2011-10-14T09:51:00.000-04:00

1979. Mum and dad.

flowers and leaves and felt.

2011-10-13T11:21:00.000-04:00

Last night I finally bit the bullet and laid out the felt and the flowers and leaves that have been knit for the Hazel McCallion Sheridan campus wall hanging. I had been avoiding doing that for so long because I was super afraid that I'd do it and realize that I wasn't even close to being done. I just didn't want to know!

BUT I'M ALMOST DONE. I cannot wait until it's done. It will be such a huge weight off my shoulders. And thank you to my friends who are helping with the knitting! So helpful!I just tossed the knit pieces down to get a sense of it all, and I think I'm doing ok! I WILL finish in time. That's my mantra anyways. It needs to be completed by early November I think (still haven't been given an official completion date...). I also have a big school project due around that time, and other things to do. It's all the other life commitments that makes finishing this piece in a speedy manner quite difficult.

Oh, and clearly I haven't found my battery charger yet.

ponies and chickens and ducks, oh my!

2011-10-11T18:24:00.000-04:00

We had the most amazing weather for this past Thanksgiving weekend. Probably the warmest one I've ever experienced. It felt like summer. And we definitely made the most of it.

On Saturday morning Erick and I followed the lead of Jane and Jenna and went apple picking at Myers Apple Farm in Copetown. We picked 10 pounds of apples, pet a pot bellied pig, a goat, and a pony. And bought a whole bunch of apple cider and a pumpkin. Afterwards we went to Detour for a delicious lunch on their patio. It was perfection.

Saturday evening a whole group of us went to the Rockton World's Fair. I've wanted to go ever since I heard about it a few years ago, and it did not disappoint! The fancy poultry and fowl that they had on display was probably my favourite part. I totally want to raise fancy chickens and ducks!

There were many other livestock competitions and demonstrations, but we didn't see them because we came in the evening. Next year I definitely want to make a day of it. On Sunday there was an Alpaca show!! And I could have milked a goat. Next year...

The other AMAZING highlight of the fair was the demolition derby. O.M.G. I have never been to a demolition derby, and I didn't really even know what was involved. Basically it's cars ramming into each other (usually in reverse), and the last car running is the winner. It was so amazing and hilarious. And Mike's brother was in it! Amazing. I took a movie with my iphone. It doesn't fully capture the awesomeness of it all. I quite enjoy listening to Roisin laugh throughout the video though.

Then we went to Thornhill for Thanksgiving dinner (times 2) and got very full. A winning weekend.

family photo friday: a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

2011-10-07T12:53:00.000-04:00

1972, a beautiful blue bird in my mum's hands.

I tried to identify the bird, and I'm thinking it's a tree swallow.

wedding sneak peek.

2011-10-04T12:10:00.003-04:00

A sneak peek of our wedding photos! I'll be doing a post with wedding photos soon. I have them all in hand (thanks Hollie!!!), but I'm pretty darn busy right now. So one day when I want to spend some time procrastinating in other areas of my life, I'll do a big wedding post. Or maybe a few little wedding posts. SOON!

Also, my camera battery charger is AWOL. I need to track it down soon so I can take photos for other blog posts! I might have to supplement with iphone photos.

family photo friday: a retro chinese dinner.

2011-09-30T09:34:00.002-04:00

1967. A McCulloch family dinner. According to my mum, this is "an unprecedented supper at Sai Woo; a 'real' chinese restaurant in Chinatown. Trisha was about to go to Neuchatel - a farewell supper". My mum and all her sisters went to Neuchatel Junior College in Switzerland for a year before going to University. My aunt Trisha (in blue) was the first to go. Then my mum (in yellow on the right), then my aunt Margo (the little girl on the left). I almost went too, but opted not to.

I wish all Chinese restaurants had awesome flocked damask wallpaper like that.

a farm evening.

2011-09-29T22:22:00.000-04:00

There is fear of a possible frost on Sunday night, so for the next few days we're harvesting as much of the remaining crops as possible up at the farm. This evening a few of us went up and picked lots of tomatoes, as well as some peppers, watermelon, strawberries (yes there still were some!), and beets. Erick and I will be up again on Sunday afternoon. We like the farm. Erick loves going after a day cooped up in the hospital. I love it after a day crouched over knitting/the computer. Such a wonderful relief to be outside doing some manual labour. Thank you farm.

garlic breath.

2011-09-27T11:34:00.000-04:00

Went to the first annual Toronto Garlic Festival at the Brickworks on Sunday. Garlic is delicious. I did a post about it on the Beehive Blog.

family photo friday: grandpa's farm

2011-09-23T12:24:00.003-04:00

My aunt Margo and grandma at grandpa's farm, 1985.

"Grandpa's farm" wasn't really a farm, we just called it that. My grandparents bought a plot of land a few minutes away from the cottage years and years ago. I'm not entirely sure why. I'd say as an investment, but within the past decade my grandparents donated the land to Nature Conservancy Canada, so no money was made with it. It really was a decent sized plot of land, and included forest, fields, and a big swamp with beaver dams and the whole shebang. My grandpa (and other family members) established some gardens up there. There were zinnias and gladioli, daffodils, lilies, and some vegetables. I vaguely remember digging up potatoes one year. I do remember having to close the gate to the garden so the deer wouldn't get in. There were lots of apple trees too (you can seed some in the photo). And a small wood shed that sort of creeped me out for some reason. Almost every fall we'd have a big family picnic up there, and cook hotdogs and sausages over the fire. I miss that.

Fall picnic anyone?? One with a bonfire, sausages, apples, pie, wine and pumpkin beer? Mmm, good idea Kate.

canned kate.

2011-09-22T15:21:00.001-04:00

I'm currently in my digital textiles design class. We're making double sided hang tags. So easy. This 3 hour class could really be a 15 minutes one today. Anways, I made a whole bunch of different ones, but keeping with the canning mode I've been in lately, these are my fave.

Time to GO HOME!

pickled beets in a nut shell.

2011-09-20T23:24:00.004-04:00

Chop some beets, remove tops and roots.

Boil some beets.

Peel some beets and shove them in sterilized jars and pour brine over them.

Ta da! Pickled beets.

I got the recipe from Canadian Living and the beets from the farm.

fall harvesting.

2011-09-19T20:59:00.000-04:00

Sometimes iphone photos just have to suffice.

Yesterday a bunch of us went up to the farm. It was such a beautiful day to be out in the fresh air pulling weeds and harvesting food. Sunny, with a nice breeze to keep us cool. September is a bountiful month. Tomatoes, squash, melons, peppers, broccoli, beets, and zinnia. There was even another round of delicious strawberries!

And farm days have their own signature drink now. Fresh squeezed lime juice by Amanda, plus gin. Most excellent.

family photo friday: autumn

2011-09-16T00:02:00.000-04:00

At the cottage, 1970.

Fall is coming. My favourite season. Bring on the sweaters and socks.

knit night on the brain: COMPLETED!

2011-09-13T23:03:00.003-04:00

This past weekend in Hamilton was amazing. Supercrawl was so so good. The best ever. I was so impressed and thrilled to share such a great Hamilton event with some friends and family who were visiting. And The Beehive completed our giant knit façade of The Brain, which we've been working on since June/July.

We were literally knitting and piecing the installation together as it was going up. And many of us were knitting non-stop in the week leading up to the deadline. Towards the end we pulled out the big guns to speed things up - mega huge knitting needles! Thank goodness for chunky yarn and big needles.

We couldn't have done this without our friends and family. In addition to all the knitters that helped with the actual creation of the piece, we could never have installed it without the tireless help of Gary. THANK YOU GARY! Sky Jack operator extraordinaire. And Kieran and Mike. HEROES. And thank you Heather who patiently let us take over The Brain, inside and out.

Oh, and that amazing knit recreation of The Brain logo? Yeah, that was Courtney. She's the mastermind behind this entire thing. Not only is she speediest knitter I've ever met, she's also a genius when it comes to making up patterns. Three cheers for Courtney!!!

And now it's done. It was only up for 2.5 days, but it was totally worth it. Our first giant Beehive project! If you swing by in the next little while, you can still check out the yellow section with the The Brain sign, which is still up.

Now that knitting bricks and giant sections of yellow is behind me, it's time to get back to knitting flowers non-stop again. Oh, and school. Yeah, another year of school.

family photo friday: sister portraits.

2011-09-09T11:40:00.000-04:00

Mum and my aunt Margo, 1963.

melons.

2011-09-07T14:08:00.000-04:00

Amanda's cute apartment!

I had a nice extra long weekend. On Thursday I met my mum and grandma for sushi in Toronto. Then I spent Friday with Amanda. We had a day of doing what we used to do most weekends in high school - met up at the Eaton's centre and went shopping! Haven't done that in AGES. Though we spent little time actually at the Eaton Centre. I think we're both completely over malls. Then we walked to her place on Palmerston and College, Erick joined us, and we had a lovely evening of dinner and drinks with friends. On Saturday we went to the cottage and stayed up there until Monday.

These are some of the GIGANTIC melons that Amanda's Chinese landlord has growing in the backyard. They're pretty impressive.

p.s. Today is Amanda's birthday!! Happy birthday Amanda!

family photo friday: dad and will.

2011-09-02T07:00:00.000-04:00

Serious bearded dad and confused baby William, at the cottage, 1990.

tomatoes galore!

2011-09-01T23:59:00.000-04:00

Preserving tomatoes. On Wednesday I canned pasta sauce (with basil and swiss chard) and whole tomatoes with Amanda. On Thursday I canned salsa. And I still have some tomatoes left. Salsa and pasta sauce are very time consuming - so much peeling and seeding and chopping. Canning whole tomatoes is easiest, but it's nice having pasta sauce and salsa all ready to go, made entirely with fresh summer ingredients.

a peach galette. yum!

2011-08-29T10:24:00.004-04:00

I LOVE peaches. They are so sweet and delicious right now. I've been buying at least 1 basket a week and eating them on my cereal, in smoothies, on ice cream, and just straight out of my hand.

Last week I decided to make some into a peach galette. Galettes are awesome. They're basically just like a pie, but even easier to make. I made a delicious savory zucchini and ricotta galette last year, and had yet to make a sweet version. I used this as the basis of my recipe.

Take a bunch of peaches (maybe 6-8), peel them, and cut them into slices. Mix in sugar, cinnamon, corn starch, salt, and vanilla.

Roll out some dough to about an 1/8th of an inch thick. I used some pâte brisée that I had in the freezer left over from when I made a rhubarb pie. It's a simple multi-functional pie dough.

Transfer your rolled out dough to a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Then dump your tasty peaches into the middle of it. Fold the crust over the fruit. Brush the dough with some buttermilk, and sprinkle with sugar. I had some buttermilk in the fridge leftover from wedding cake making, but it had gone bad. So I just skipped this part.

Bake in the oven at 350F for 30 minutes or so.

And peaches like cream, so if you want to you can whip up some whipping cream and plop a dollop of that on top. YUM.

Peach Galette

1 pie crust
6-8 large freestone peaches
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons cornstarch
pinch salt
1 tablespoon buttermilk
granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment.

family photo friday. cousins at the cottage

2011-08-26T15:56:00.003-04:00

early '90s, at the cottage with the cousins.

I wish I was there right now!

bread and butter pickles.

2011-08-25T11:10:00.005-04:00

I apologize for my complete lack of posts lately. We've been busy busy busy since we returned to Hamilton, and I got out of the swing of blogging. But no longer! I'm back.

I think August is my favourite summer month. Blueberries, peaches, corn, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers...there's just so much delicious local produce out there! And the weather is starting to cool down a little too, which makes me want to spend some more time in the kitchen.

Last week I took advantage of all the pickling cucumbers available at the farmers' markets and made bread and butter pickles. YUM! Not everyone I know likes sweet pickles, but I love 'em. I love all pickles though, so maybe that's just me. I grew up on these kind of pickles and they're probably one of my faves.

Anyways, I grabbed a basket of pickling cucumbers from the Hamilton Farmer's Market and used this recipe from Canadian Living.

First off, sterilize six 500mL jars.

Thinly slice 4 lbs of cucumbers, 2 onions, and 1 red pepper. Toss them together with a bunch of ice cubes and a 1/4 cup of pickling salt, then put some more ice on top of them. Let them sit like that for 3 hours, then drain, rinse, and drain again. Set aside.

In a pot, measure out sugar, cider vinegar, mustard seeds, celery seeds, turmeric, and ground cloves. I actually ran out of brine just over halfway through canning and had to make more (pain in the bum!), so I would actually double the brine recipe to be safe.

Bring it to a boil, then add the vegetables, and bring to a boil again.

Pack the pickles and the brine into the 500mL jars, leaving a 1/2'' headspace. Wipe the rims if necessary, put the lids on, et voila! Bread and butter pickles! Wait 2-3 weeks before trying them. I haven't sampled mine yet, but I can't wait. Yum.

Bread and Butter Pickles, by Canadian Living

4lbs of small cucumbers

2 onions

1 red pepper

1/4 cup pickling salt

a bunch of ice cubes (around 32)

the brine (I suggest doubling it to be safe...):

3 cups of granulated sugar

2 1/2 cups of cider vinegar

3 tbsp mustard seed

1 tbsp celery seed

1 tsp turmeric

1/4 tsp ground cloves

a honeymoon in New Brunswick.

2011-08-15T11:33:00.004-04:00

Last Wednesday we somewhat reluctantly returned home from our extremely relaxing and stress free honeymoon at my aunt and uncle's cottage on Lake Magaguadavic in New Brunswick. We had a great time, and it was so nice to not have any responsibilities or tasks to worry about. I think this is one of the first vacations that I actually truly felt I needed. Wedding planning is exhausting!

My aunt and uncle have a 75 year old canoe that they bought off kijiji in Maine a few years ago. They attach a motor to its squared off back and use it for put-putting around the lake. When we visited their cottage 3 years ago, my little cousins referred to the boat as "the dork-mobile". Perhaps that name is somewhat appropriate, but it was fun for exploring the lake. We saw "mow-your-lawn-mountain", "boring bay" and "squatters point" (all named by my cousins). We also spent an afternoon lounging on a nice sandy beach on the other side of the lake. Most of the property around the lake is crown land, so it's free for exploration. One morning we went fishing in the rain and Erick caught a decent sized bass. I made him put it back though (we had haddock in the fridge).

I think my aunt and uncle took all the best parts of my family cottage on Lake Simcoe (where my aunt spent all her childhood summers), added some more awesomeness, and came up with the perfect cottage. The windows are all reclaimed and make the cottage feel like it was built decades ago, when it was actually built within the past decade. And the wrap around porch is amazing.

The cottage is on a pretty large property, and includes a marshy area where they put a boardwalk in. And there are wild blueberries EVERYWHERE! We made two batches of wild blueberry jam. I couldn't get enough of those darn berries.

We spent a day in St. Andrew's by the sea, which was a 1.5 hr drive away. Strolled along the beach, visited the Kingsbrae Gardens and some of it's occupants (hello alpaca, goats, and chickens!), relaxed under a tree with some good books, then had an indulgent dinner at the Kingsbrae Arms.

Beach fires are always excellent. When you get hot from the fire you can go for a swim. Then dry off by the fire again. Rinse and repeat.

We picked up some delicious scallops in St. Andrew's. Erick cooked every dinner we had while we were at the cottage. He often says that if he didn't love medicine so much he'd want to be a chef. I reap the benefits of his love of cooking. These scallops were probably my favourite meal. Followed closely by the fried halibut sandwiches we made. Mmm, fresh seafood is so good.

Mmm, wild blueberry pancakes and bacon for breakfast.

We had such a lovely and carefree time. But we were excited to get back to Hamilton for the Beehive Summer Craft Fair! Which went amazingly and was so much fun! I even managed to lose my voice over the course of the fair, and still haven't got it back! I'm so proud of the Beehive, the vendors, and everyone else who helped pull off such an awesome event.

we're married!!!

2011-08-02T00:39:00.007-04:00

It was an amazing day!! Actually the best day ever. Absolutely perfect. We were so happy to spend it with wonderful friends and family, the food was delicious, everyone was amazing, and we had a super fun dance party to wrap it all up!!! Yay marriage!

I've barely seen any pictures of the actual day, but I do have these photos from the day before when we decorated the barn. All those flowers are from my mum's garden, my aunt's garden, and a very generous amish lady's garden! The milk glass is a collection of mine, my mum's and my aunt's. Oh, and I made my own wedding cake! Mildly stressful, but totally worth it.

Now we're off to my aunt and uncle's cottage in New Brunswick for a week! Solar and propane powered, accessed only by a fire road. Should be awesome!!

I can't wait to see the pictures that Hollie took!

holy poop, it's almost wedding time.

2011-07-27T22:17:00.001-04:00

What have I been up to? Oh, you know, just planning and executing the majority of the wedding details in the week before the big day. Cause it's on Saturday.

busy bees!

2011-07-25T11:13:00.008-04:00

A couple of week ago, the lovely ladies of The Beehive got together and arranged a beeswax candle making party for me in honour my upcoming wedding! Candles for the tables at the wedding! So thoughtful and sweet. They got two huge chunks of beeswax from the Dundas farmer's market, candle making supplies (wicking etc), and mason jars, and we all gathered together at Hollie's house for the fun event.

The hardest part of the entire process was breaking up the huge blocks of wax. They'd been in Jenna's car for a day or two, and had gotten soft and sticky. First we tried using a handsaw to cut it up - a complete fail as the teeth gummed up immediately. Then Mike came to the rescue with a chisel and hammer, which worked much better. We eventually discovered that freezing the beeswax so that it's hard and brittle is the best way to prepare it before trying to break it up.

Big chunks of beeswax! Smaller chunks work best though, so we broke these ones down even more.

Hollie's cat Tanooki was intrigued by the whole process. At least he was until he fell asleep.

For each jar we tied the wicking to a pipe cleaner to keep it centred and taut.

(Oh, and a Beehive meeting isn't complete without tasty drinks and food! Especially when they're custard tarts from Ola's and strawberry lemonade made by Hollie!)

It took the whole evening to get most of the jars half full (melting wax is a slow process), so we finished the second half at our meeting the following week.

I'm super excited to have these adorable candles on the tables at the wedding. They smell so good, are super cute, and match all my other yellow decor. Thanks girls, you're the best!

family photo friday. siblings on a bed.

2011-07-22T12:18:00.003-04:00

1990: Ros, Will, Kate, hanging out on a bed.

When it's hot out (as it has been the past few days), one of my favourite things to do is to lay on my bed with just a flat sheet. And a book. There's something about cool crisp cotton pulled taut around a mattress. It helps if there's an air conditioner pointed at you too.

cheese louise.

2011-07-22T12:11:00.002-04:00

Sampling cheese: one of my new favourite wedding related activities.

in the garden

2011-07-20T20:45:00.008-04:00

Our first summer with a vegetable garden, and I'm loving it.

Sweet potato plant, hanging out in a pot. I didn't trust it to not sprawl all over the garden.

Jalapenos.

I can't wait until these tomatoes are ready to eat! Since this heat wave started I've been craving toasted tomato sandwiches. So simple, so delicious.

Lettuce.

Chard.

An onion flower, about to bloom.

The neighbour's grape vine is trespassing quite significantly on our backyard. If those grapes turn out extra tasty, I won't mind.

And the one lone craspedia bloom from my patch of 30ish craspedia plants. I seriously doubt they'll be ready for the wedding, so we ordered some in at a flower shop.

Last night I was in Thornhill meeting with my mum and her florist friend to discuss flowers. There aren't quite as many zinnias as we'd hoped, so we'll be using almost anything that's pretty from my mum's garden in addition to the planned flowers. My aunt Cheryl kindly grew some zinnias too (hopefully they're doing alright), and is also offering anything from her garden (e.g. asters, crocosmia, daisies). So that's great! I'm both nervous and excited to see how the flowers turn out. Only 10 more days!!!!

a day at the beach

2011-07-18T22:42:00.003-04:00

We had a wonderful relaxing time at Long Point Beach on Sunday. We swam, read, lounged, snacked, swam some more, and built sandcastles. One of the highlights was turning Kieran into a mermaid.

family photo friday. a swim in the lake.

2011-07-17T23:51:00.003-04:00

Friday came and went without the obligatory family photo friday post. Oops! So this photo (another one from an old family album) is late.

Erick and I spent a lovely time at the beach today. We lounged, we snacked, we tossed the frisbee, and we floated around in the lake with friends. So I thought this picture was a fitting choice for this week's post. My great great aunt Nan is the girl in the middle.

wedding favours

2011-07-12T11:56:00.006-04:00

We're almost done making the favours for our wedding. I had a few different ideas for gifts, but ultimately decided to go with homemade strawberry jam. I've made it once by myself before, and many times with my mum in the past, and it's pretty easy. Plus if you pick your own strawberries and use a smaller jar (we used 125mL), it's not too pricey. It requires a fair amount of time though, so it's good if you can get help with the strawberry picking, hulling, and crushing.

There are lots of different recipes for jam, but we keep it pretty simple. We use Certo for the pectin, specifically Certo Light. It doesn't have any weird ingredients like aspartame, which many "light" products do. It just has a higher acidity in it which allows you to use less sugar in the recipe (4.5 cups instead of 6) and results in a more pure strawberry flavour and a brighter colour.

It's so easy. You just crush the berries, bring them to a boil with 1/4 cup of the sugar and the pectin. Then you add the rest of the sugar, bring it to a boil again and let it boil for 1 min, then take it off the heat and stir it and remove the "scum" (the foamy light coloured stuff - it's delicious) for 5 minutes, then put it in your sterilized jars. Et voila! Jam.

Now I just need to make one more batch and put their cute little fabric hats and bows on.

super summer weekends.

2011-07-11T13:21:00.007-04:00

Another excellent summer weekend. Had a wonderful time at the cottage with some lovely ladies. We swam, picked strawberries, went to the market, ate tasty food (like Amanda's mac and cheese in the first photo), worked on wedding favours, and relaxed. It was very enjoyable and productive.

After the cottage I came back to Hamilton and headed straight to a fun Beehive picnic at Bayfront Park with Erick. I forgot my camera, so I don't have any photos, but it was excellent. Everyone brought delicious food, we flew Jenna's kite, played catch and frisbee, and enjoyed the company of a great group of people. Then Erick and I dashed away a little early to play our first softball game of the summer. I hadn't played baseball since elementary school, but I managed to actually hit the ball once...go me!

This summer has been packed with activities and awesomeness. I like it.

family photo friday: hair washing

2011-07-08T09:46:00.002-04:00

Late 1800s/early 1900s: unidentifiable relatives washing their hair in the lake.

This photo was in the same family photo album that the photos of my great aunt Nan were in. I'm not sure who these two ladies are since the photo wasn't labelled, but they seem to be having a nice time washing their hair. Nice bathing suits too.

I'm off to the cottage again for my "bachelorette" weekend. The term "bachelor/ bachelorette party" comes with visions of wild crazy shenanigans. But it'll just be a few of us girls up there, probably making jam, getting wedding crafts done, swimming, eating, chatting, enjoying some wine. No penis shaped straws please.

pea time.

2011-07-06T08:35:00.002-04:00

Erick and I made this delicious pea pesto by Smitten Kitchen the other day. Peas are one of my favourite seasonal veggies, so it was a no brainer that I had to try this recipe. And it was delish.

solace at the cottage

2011-07-04T17:08:00.006-04:00

Wild strawberries found in abundance on a hike through the nature trails.

The family cottage, built by my great grandfather.

Strawberry picking at Ego's.

The first batch of strawberry jam of the season.

Tons of garlic scapes from the Orillia Farmer's Market.

Not pictured: lounging on the patio for hours, the delicious food we ate, teaching Erick to knit, swimming in the lake.

sweet relief.

2011-06-29T11:43:00.001-04:00

I received the best news yesterday: the deadline for the knit vertical garden wall hanging that I've been working on (and stressing about) has been extended to October/November!!! AMAZING. The original deadline was the end of August, which was going to be cutting it extremely close. I really wasn't sure that I'd be able to finish it on time. But because of the logistics of hanging it, the powers that be decided that installation should occur at the same time that they're putting up a giant glass mobile piece. That way they can use the same equipment and trained professionals for both.

PHEW! My stress level has lowered significantly. Being up at the cottage for the week also helps. Now I can focus more on wedding planning and business planning.

The above photos are from Monday, when I finally got the 4 yards of 5mm thick designer felt required for the hanging. With the help of Erick I got it all cut up in the textile studio at Sheridan. Progress.

family photo friday. at the lake.

2011-06-24T21:55:00.002-04:00

1970s, my aunt Margo, snorkeling at the cottage. (a dusty slide, oops)

Erick has a week off as of today. In fact, he's up in Honey Harbour on Georgian Bay right now for his "bachelor weekend". He'll be enjoying fishing, video games, and beer. I'm jealous, but it's ok because next week we'll be heading up to the cottage. So I'll get my share of lakes and beer as well.

a loose recipe for wontons, as taught by Erick.

2011-06-21T22:05:00.002-04:00

Erick came home from work today and decided that he wanted to make wontons. We had some Black Walnut Lane ground beef in the freezer, so we used that instead of pork. And in addition to the usual ginger and green onions, we decided to use some produce from the garden. Like these radishes.

And this chard!

Mush some beef, fresh grated ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, green onions, radishes, and chard together.

Then comes the trickier party: making the actual wonton. Step 1: take a small amount of the meat and place it in the middle of a wrapper. Wet two perpindicular edges of the wrapper with a finger that's been dipped in a bowl of water.

Fold the wrapper sort of diagonally...

...so that it looks like this.

Then magically wrap it around your finger.

Et voila! Wontons galore.

Once you have a whole bunch, toss them (gently) in a pot of boiling water. This is the last picture I took because I was STARVING! Sorry.

After they've cooked for a little while and look sort of wrinkly, open one up to check that the meat is cooked. Then remove them from the water and add them to a pot of simmering stock (vegetable or chicken) that has some soy sauce, sesame oil, and any sort of leafy green added to it (we used lettuce from the garden). Consume as is, or do what I did and add some garlic chili sauce and a tsp of peanut butter. Yum!

family photo friday. farmer's market.

2011-06-17T18:27:00.002-04:00

1987, at the Orillia farmer's market with dad.

Happy father's day!

lemon rosemary rhubarb spritzers

2011-06-15T12:09:00.007-04:00

The other day I was searching for new ways to use up some extra rhubarb when I came across this tasty looking recipe for lemon rosemary rhubarb spritzers! Erick and I were hosting a Beehive barbeque to celebrate Melanie's upcoming new baby, so I decided that this event would be the perfect excuse to try it out.

First things first, chop up a pound or so of rhubarb.

Then chop up some fresh rosemary. The original recipe called for 3 tbsp, but I used 2 and found that to be enough.

Dump the rhubarb and rosemary in a medium sized saucepan along with the water and sugar. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 15 minutes.

After letting it cool for a little bit I strained out the solids with a cheese cloth, then added the juice of 1 lemon. Et voila! You have your tasty simple syrup. To make it into a spritzer, add an equal amount of soda water (or prosecco, or champagne! anything bubbly). Yummo!

Enjoy it with with some delicious food and great friends.

Lemon Rosemary Rhubarb Spritzers:

1 pound rhubarb, cut crosswise into 1/2'' slices
2 cups of water
1 1/2 cups of sugar
3 Tbsp of chopped fresh rosemary leaves
1/2 of cup lemon juice
Soda water or carbonated water or sparkling wine

recipe from here

a hot day at the farm.

2011-06-13T23:49:00.005-04:00

Drowning evil potato beetles.

Sorting good potatoes from bad, planting good potatoes. And weeding carrots. And removing strawberry flowers from plants so they redirect their energy to becoming big and strong. They can save their strawberries for next season.

Hoeing the weeds around the rhubarb.

Planting tomatoes.

bonne fête Jenna Rose!

2011-06-13T23:16:00.004-04:00

At the James North Art Crawl this past Friday, Jenna celebrated 5 years of being in business. The party was hosted by White Elephant, with cupcakes and gold balloons! I helped set things up, which was quite fun. Her adorable Downtown Hamilton totes and tea towels were a huge hit, and I made sure that one of those bags wound up in my possession. It's beautiful and so sturdy! Jenna sewed the bags herself, so they're not your everyday screen printed tote. She also had cute 'charm packs' of her printed fabric, which I'm kicking myself for not buying. Any leftover Jenna?

Needlework

2011-06-10T09:49:00.009-04:00

So I've got some news. Big news. And it's not just my news, it's also fellow Beehive member Elizabeth Simpson's. For the past four months or so Elizabeth and I have been brainstorming and researching and scheming. And now we have a plan. The plan is to open a textile based store and workspace on James Street North in the very near future. The store will be called Needlework.

Our vision is to bring together the DIY and craft community in the Hamilton area by offering them a creative workspace and a local source for a thoughtfully curated selection of fabric, yarn, notions, patterns, and books. We hope to offer specialized sewing and knitting workshops in addition to a sew by the hour space.

We've been inspired by similar creative spaces such as The Workroom, Emmeline & Annabelle, Spool of Thread, and Purl Soho. But we are still very much in the beginning stages of our version of this project, and we would like to kindly ask for your input. We have created a survey to gather your thoughts and ideas, and would be extremely grateful if you could take a few minutes to complete it and pass it on to friends and family in the Hamilton area and beyond. By participating in our survey, you also have a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to either White Elephant, or Mixed Media. Yay!

Thank you so much! We hope you're as excited about this as we are! We're also mildly terrified, but with the amazing support of friends and family, we think we can pull this off.

If you have any more questions about Needlework, or if you'd like to be added to our mailing list, please feel free to email us at needleworkhamilton@gmail.com.

p.s. regarding yesterdays hint: naadlwerk is Dutch for needlework.

family photo friday. picnic!

2011-06-10T00:38:00.004-04:00

1987, a summer picnic with dad, Kate, and mum in attendance.

I have a very exciting announcement to make that I really should have started hinting at months ago to build up the anticipation. But my first hint is today, and the post will come later on today. So...pretend I mentioned this awhile ago and that you've been waiting forever to hear the big news. Ok? Ok!

The semi-obscure hint is...naaldwerk.

on the line.

2011-06-08T00:20:00.002-04:00

We installed our new clothesline on Saturday. I couldn't be happier. Now I actually want to do laundry.

my weekend, by my iphone.

2011-06-06T12:00:00.004-04:00

Saturday: slept in a tad too late, then as we left the house in search of garage sales it started pouring rain. Went to the Ottawa Street market in the torrential downpour and bought some rhubarb, asparagus, and carrots. Then we went to Detour for lunch. Mmm, macaroni and cheese, homemade burger, raspberry lemonade, then some coffee and this delicious carrot cake for dessert.

Buskerfest was happening in Dundas while we were there, so we watched some performances. Then we came home, installed a new clothesline (yay!), and had a delicious cobb salad for dinner that included freshly picked lettuce from our garden. The first thing we've eaten from it this summer! Yum.

Sunday: co-ed bridal shower at my aunt and uncles' house in Oakville. My uncle John collects vintage cars (he has around 12, mostly Citroëns). He decorated his Morris Minor for the shower, it was tres cute. My aunt Linda made tons of delicious food, and Erick's family met my medium sized extended family. Very nice.

I should really make more of an effort to bring my camera around with me on weekends. Iphone photos will have to suffice this time.

knittin'

2011-06-03T14:37:00.003-04:00

A glance at what I've been working on lately: the colours Sheridan is going to be using on the walls at the new campus, and some of the leaves I've knit so far. I'm doing leaves first, flowers second.

I'm sort of bummed because just as I had my invitations all ready to mail out, Canada Post went on strike. And of course Hamilton just happens to be the second Canadian city striking. How convenient! Ah well, I'll hand deliver as many as I can and just hope that the strike resolves soon.

family photo friday. puff ball!

2011-06-03T13:28:00.002-04:00

1975, grandma, uncle bobby, and a surprisingly giant puffball!

Puffballs are huge fungi. We find them up at the cottage some times. Chop 'em up, fry 'em in some butter, and nom. Tastes good.

Nova Scotia

2011-05-31T16:14:00.004-04:00

We had a wonderful vacation in Nova Scotia. We were there for a month three years ago when Erick did an elective in Antigonish, but it feels like it was just last summer. Our friends' wedding in Halifax was great, Halifax was super, and our road trip was fun! It was overcast most of the time we were there, but we were lucky and only had a few hours of rain the entire time.

After visiting friends and Erick's sister in Halifax on the weekend, we headed out on a road trip to Cape Breton. On the way we visited Pomquet beach just outside of Antigonish. I took photos with my Pentax as well, but later realized that the film had not caught on the winder thing (professional terminology) properly, and I hadn't taken a single picture. Uncool.

Lichen along the Cabot Trail.

Yeah, that's moose poo. We saw 2 moose, but I'm surprised we didn't see more considering how ubiquitous their droppings were.

The Skyline hike off of the Cabot trail is definitely one of my favourite. Beautiful views and crazy wind.

There are so many amazing hikes and sights to be seen along the Cabot Trail. It was nice having an entire day of just nature, and it was good to have some enthusiastic travel companions to convince me to do some hikes I likely would have wimped out on (like the one hour hike that was straight up the entire way and I was hungry, and the 8am hike in the pouring rain with no rain coat).

After our three day road trip to Cape Breton, we drove to the picturesque coastal town of Lunenberg. I can understand why Anna (one of the Bees) wants to live there one day! It's adorable, and I think we were able to really appreciate it since it was definitely not quite tourist season when we were there.

We visited the Lunenberg farmer's market on Thursday and were introduced to Ironworks Distillery. They use almost entirely local ingredients in their alcohol. The owners are a husband and wife team (probably around the same age as my parents) who had no experience whatsoever doing anything like this until a couple of years ago. They read a magazine article, got interested, and just did it! Entrepreneurial, adventurous, and inspiring.

We brought home a bottle of their cranberry liqueur. I think it will be delicious over ice with something fizzy in the summer.

While in Lunenberg we visited the Bluenose. Its bow was majorly hogged, so now they're spending over 14 million dollars rebuilding it.

And that, in a nut shell, was our trip to Nova Scotia. Oh, I failed to mention how tasty the food was. So much seafood! And I had 5 bowls of chowder in 5 days. I would have continue on my spree, but started to feel mildly guilty about all the cream was I was consuming. Mmm, so good though. Oh, and we did go to Peggy's Cove as well, but it was so foggy and for some reason I only took a couple of photos with my digital camera. Maybe I'll do an iphone photo blog post with food and other photos. We'll see.

Now back to reality! Not that reality is so bad, it's just busier.

family photo friday. morgan the cat.

2011-05-28T10:39:00.005-04:00

Another family photo posted on a Saturday. They may not be human family members, but I do consider pets to be family. This is Morgan, one of the cats my grandparents owned. He's chilling on the giant sun burst rug that is in the living room at the cottage. My grandpa made that rug (and many others) himself.

We got back from Nova Scotia last night. I'll post about that later this week. Right now I am stressing to the max. I at that point where I feel like I have a million things to do but just don't know where to start. Clean the house first? Do laundry? Work on invitations? Figure out where to get them printed? Knit commission? Order large amount of expensive felt? Figure out how to install the Sheridan piece? Gah! 63 days until the wedding, 94 until the commission is due, and a million other things to do.

I'm going to go make a list so I can start checking things off.

Skyline

2011-05-24T20:36:00.002-04:00

This is our 4th day in Nova Scotia. We had an awesome time at our friends' wedding and enjoyed Halifax immensely. Yesterday we rented a couple of cars and eight of us drove out to Cape Breton. We stayed in Cheticamp last night, and today we ventured out on a number of hikes that branch off the Cabot Trail. This photo was taken on the Sky Line hike. Beautiful views. And that's the end if this post cause It's no fun typing on an iPad!

family photo friday. jump rope.

2011-05-20T09:19:00.004-04:00

1994, jump rope outside my parents' house. A typical scene from my childhood.

Erick and I are off to Halifax for a week! Our friends Pete and Noella are getting married tomorrow. Yay! We'll hang out in Halifax for the weekend (Erick's sister is out there for school, and we have a number of other friends to visit), then we're renting 2 cars and piling 8 of us in it and driving out to Cape Breton for the week, then back to visit Lunenberg, Peggy's Cove, Mahone Bay, etc.

Should be FUN!

Sheridan college commission

2011-05-19T22:07:00.007-04:00

I apologize for the poopie cell phone photos, but I thought I'd do a little post about the commission I'm working on. I mentioned it without photos about a month ago. Anyways, yesterday Natalie (one of my classmates who designed wallpaper for a "nook" at the college) and I went to check out the spaces where our work will be placed. The new campus is literally right beside Square One, and is still under major construction.

Anyways, the first photo is of my proposal, with samples of the knit elements and possible colours for the felt I will use for the panels.

The second photo shows where the piece will be located. It should start around the base of the second floor, and go up to the base of the third floor. The final measurements will be around 5' wide by 20-24' long. Lots. Of. Knitting. And the third photo shows how the atrium goes up many more stories. Iryna, the Sheridan rep who's been coordinating all of this, informed me that perhaps the college would want to commission me to add to the knit vertical garden every year, until it reaches up to the ceiling. WHOA.

Combined with wedding planning, other big exciting planning (oooh, mysterious...will reveal soon), and life in general, this project is sort of stressing me out. But it's ok. I'm sure it'll work out in the end.

wedding invitation prototypes!

2011-05-18T00:04:00.009-04:00

Over the past week I've been trying to get the design of our wedding invitations figured out. My first sketch was the image on the left. I scanned it into my computer and fiddled around with it in photoshop. I did a few more doodles and played with those too. I'm definitely not a pro at this (really, I barely know what I'm doing), but it was fun to play around with the colours, layout, etc.

These are by no means finished pieces, but one of them might resemble our final invitations! Who knows! Cause I don't. The end results might look completely different. I'll likely fiddle around some more. But I MUST FINISH SOON! We're going to Halifax for a friend's wedding on Friday, and are staying out there for a week (fun!), which means this needs to be done ASAP.

p.s. if anyone has suggestions for a good place to get this sort of thing printed in Hamilton, I'd be much obliged.

p.p.s. thank you oncewed and green wedding shoes for lots of invitation inspiration.

duffle bags again.

2011-05-17T10:47:00.004-04:00

I realized recently that I have only posted cell photo photos of my duffle bags. Well, here they are again. I still consider these prototypes. As soon as I can get my hands on a heat gun (my parents have one), I'm going to experiment with waxing the canvas. And I think I'm going to play around with the handle material/structure/attachment.

Some finished bags might be available at the Beehive Craft Fair in August...

family photo friday (on sunday). baby kate in switzerland.

2011-05-15T22:53:00.006-04:00

Switzerland, 1986.

The summer after I was born my parents took a trip to Switzerland to visit my aunt Trisha who lives in Geneva. They hiked through the alps with baby Kate in a carrier on their backs.

p.s. since blogger was down for a couple of days last week, this post is late and other potential posts never occurred. Next week will have more posts.

a busy spring weekend

2011-05-09T15:08:00.008-04:00

This weekend was absolutely packed full of potential activities: Doors Open Hamilton, the Spring Special Show at the Aberfoyle Antique Market, the AGH Spring Art Sale, The West Hamilton Artist Tour, and veggie/fruit planting activities up at Gary's farm. We were sadly only able to participate in a few of them.

After doing a little bit of gardening at home, Erick and I headed out with Thea to check out a few Doors Open locations.

First we visited William Reid's Cottage near Dundurn castle. It used to be home to William Reid, the gardener to Sir Allan Napier MacNab who was the owner of Dundurn Castle. It is over 150 years old, and the City of Hamilton has bought it and is in the process of restoring it back to the way it once was. This awesome linoleum flooring was peaking out from under some new flooring in one of the rooms. And I have no idea what that kitten thing is (maybe the lid to a cookie tin?), but I think they found it under the walls above the fireplace and decided to leave it there. I like it.

Next, we walked over to the kitchen garden itself. I was beyond impressed and extremely jealous of it. They were growing a large variety of vegetables, including asparagus. They had some of the asparagus covered with wicker baskets to keep them from turning green. This process is called etiolation. Since the plant is kept in the dark it does not produce chlorophyll (thus remains white) and allocates more of its energy to growing. Neat!

Thea will be doing a more detailed post on the Beehive blog about Dundurn Castle's kitchen garden later this summer, so keep an eye out for it!

Our last stop on the Doors Open tour was the Mohawk Trail School (we started late, and got mildly lost, so didn't have the time to see everything we wanted). Built in 1882, it is one of Hamilton's first one room brick school houses. It was actually in use until 1965. It was very cute. I loved the little enamel cups hanging in the hall.

After we visited the school, we went to up the farm where we planted a whole bunch of strawberry plants and 140 rhubarb plants. A lovely Saturday.

Sunday we got together at my grandma's house to celebrate the life of my grandpa. He didn't want a funeral, so just family got together to share memories instead. It was lovely. In addition to celebrating his life, we also celebrated mother's day and my brother's birthday.

A good weekend.

family photo friday. grandpa.

2011-05-06T16:38:00.007-04:00

Dr. John McCulloch.
August 18th, 1916 - May 1st, 2011.

He lived a full and wonderful life, and passed away peacefully at the age of 95 at Sunnybrook Hospital's Veterans Centre.

Grandpa was known for quoting poetry, and William Blake's "The Tyger" was one of his favourites:

Tyger, Tyger, burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? what dread grasp

Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears

And water'd heaven with their tears,

Did he smile his work to see?

Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger, Tyger, burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

engagement.

2011-05-05T18:34:00.007-04:00

This past Sunday, Thea, Hollie, Mike, Erick, and I headed up Hwy 6 to visit the Aberfoyle Antique Market. It was the opening day for the season, and I had desperately missed it while it was closed over the winter. We went up with the intention of doing a little engagement photo shoot with Hollie in addition to checking out the wares. We decided that if there was an absolute downpour (which was forecast) we could always take pictures later. Well, it did rain. A lot (though you can't really tell from the photos). But we decided to give it a go regardless.

Hollie is amazing! Even in the pouring rain, with a foggy lens and no umbrella, she managed to produce a selection of really great photos! She was absolutely drenched, and it was cold, so we're very grateful. And we're super happy with the results. Especially since we were mildly apprehensive about engagement photos initially. We're not big PDA people, and the thought of expressing affection in front of a camera (without being slightly inebriated) was sort of scary. But I'm glad we did it. It was a practice round for the big day, which I'm really looking forward to. Only 86 more days! Holy poop. I hope it doesn't rain.

p.s. I don't know what we're doing in that last photo.

photos by Hollie

my new instrument of choice: the ukulele!

2011-05-03T19:23:00.008-04:00

When I was home over Easter my brother had a new toy: a ukulele. He showed me how to play part of Beirut's Postcards from Italy, and it was pretty easy to pick up. I knew then that I needed to get a ukulele of my own. On Saturday, Erick and I walked over to Picks and Sticks on Locke Street. They had a pretty good selection, and we opted for a BeaverCreek ukulele. The model we were looking at came in a whole bunch of colours (including natural wood), and I chose white! It's tres cute, and quite affordable (around $40). Our method for learning has been going like this: I learn a song and show Erick, then Erick learns another song and shows me, and so on.

So, if you're like me and found learning guitar a little intimidating and frustrating, try a ukulele! Only 4 strings! Only 12 frets! Good times.

Some useful tips:
1. if you have an iphone/ipad, the Cleartune app is very handy for tuning (something you need to do a lot since the strings stretch out as you play).
2. this guy's tutorials are hilarious and useful.

And for your viewing pleasure (or amusement, I'm no pro), here's a video (unedited) of yours truly showing off what I've learned over the past few days. Please excuse the angry face I make when I play. And the strumming patterns are most definitely not correct. But that's OK!

family photo friday. grandma and spring

2011-04-29T15:41:00.003-04:00

1970s, grandma Betty.

I don't think I mentioned it, but the same week that my parents celebrated their 28th wedding anniversary, my grandma and grandpa celebrated their 68th wedding anniversary.

april showers.

2011-04-28T10:00:00.003-04:00

This is about all the gardening I've been able to do so far, what with school being busy and all the wet weather we've been having. I planted some ranunculi, pansies, and lettuce in the containers on our deck.

Since Erick is post-call today (and actually got some sleep last night) I was really hoping we could start working on this section of the garden today:

Unfortunately it is super windy, and raining, so I don't know if we'll be able to. This area is essentially the only reliably sunny spot in our backyard. We're planning on doubling the size of that little plot and growing some vegetables and maybe some zinna or craspedia. While they aren't visible, there are bricks stuck solidly in the ground along the border of the current garden, so we'll need to dig those out, then dig up the grass in rows, and flip it upside down so the grass dies, but we don't lose much top soil...that's what was suggested to us anyways. Then add some more soil and manure and whatnot...then plant! I have zero experience working on a garden from the beginning of a season to the end of one, so fingers crossed that all things go at least somewhat according to plan!

golden bits

2011-04-27T18:12:00.004-04:00

This past weekend I was at my parents' house in Thornhill for Easter. I always enjoy digging around for hidden treasures, so I decided to investigate my mum's stash of old valuables.

The first box in this series of photos contains bits of gold: broken jewelry, glasses frames, dental work, etc. I believe my mum inherited this box from my great great aunt Nan. There are teeth in there as well, and I don't know who's they were.

The Astro yogurt container holds family jewelry; some of it valuable, some of it just sentimental. My mother keeps it hidden in a pretty hilarious location. Let's just say that its neighbours are typically of the vegetable variety. The charm bracelet in the last photo has my grandparents (mother's side) and all their progeny (including grandchildren) on it. Neat-o.

the dresses that didn't quite make the cut.

2011-04-23T10:24:00.005-04:00

Since I'm getting back into the swing of wedding planning, and since I have officially figured out my wedding dress, I thought I'd share all of the dresses that I tried on that didn't quite make the cut. My friend Amanda and I spent a day dress hunting back in January. It wound up being the only day that I tried on dresses, because a couple of weeks later I saw the one that I had to have in the new BHLDN collection. Which made me very happy, because the whole dress thing was stressing me out.

Anyways, my budget was around $600, and all these dresses were within that price. I really didn't have a specific style in mind when we set out, I just knew that I did NOT want it to be satin.

Numero uno: the flowy dress from The Brides' Project. Located in Toronto in an old house on Broadview Ave near Gerrard, this place was pretty neat. All of the dresses they sell are donated by generous former brides who don't need their wedding dress anymore, or bridal stores. And all the proceeds from their sales go to cancer research! This made me really want to find a dress here, but unfortunately none of the dresses that they had in stock at the time were exactly what I was looking for.

After visiting the Brides' Project, Amanda and I went to Vintage Bride, which is located in Mirvish Village, just South of Bloor on Markham St. I was really looking forward to checking out this store, and it did not disappoint. The owner also runs another vintage store called The Refinery, and when we called to let her know we were coming by, she closed up The Refinery and we had a private appointment with her at Vintage Bride. She was very nice, and her selection of dresses REALLY impressed me. She had so many dresses from a range of eras, so if you're interested in a vintage wedding dress I highly recommend checking this store out.

Anyways, this was the first dress I tried on there. A 1950s tulle number, which was quite adorable, if a little large.

This dress was a little bit too 1950s prom for me. But very fun!

Now this dress was almost a winner. I absolutely loved the shape, and it fit perfectly! It was flowy and comfortable and pretty! In the end I decided not to get it because the ruffles were a tiny bit too much for me. And the fabric on the bodice was this sort of silver grey satin with tiny grey circles, which was cute, but made the dress just a tad busier than I would have preferred.

Amanda lives just around the corner from Vintage Bride, and she said that she saw this dress on display in the window a couple of weeks ago. So if you're interested, it might still be there!

This was the last dress, and it was more boho chic than the others. I didn't really expect to like it, but I did! It was cotton and very airy, so it would have been an excellent dress for a hot summer day. But it was too short and a little bit more casual than what I had in mind.

So there you have it. The dresses that were pretty great, but not quite perfect.

family photo friday. kate and a bonnet.

2011-04-22T12:34:00.002-04:00

Kate, 1986

Babies in bonnets remind me of Easter.

Yesterday was my last day of school for the year. Now it's time to work on all the other non-school related projects that were pushed to the side for awhile: figuring out wedding details, gardening, working on the Sheridan commission piece, Beehive business, and other potentially fruitful endeavors.

weekend.

2011-04-18T22:51:00.005-04:00

It was the last weekend of the school year. I'm done on Thursday.

1. The zinnia and tomato seedlings are up.

2. Chocolate chip oatmeal peanut butter cookie.

3. Sookie confused by the falling snow. It's spring for goodness sake! Just stop already.

4. A roast chicken for dinner. Chicken soup all weekend.

5. I normally only buy berries when they're in season. But this winter had been too long. I gave in, and had some with my breakfast.

6. Homework galore.

family photo friday. my parents' wedding.

2011-04-15T09:58:00.006-04:00

April 16th, 1983.

My parents' 28th anniversary is this weekend. Here are some pictures from their wedding day. Check out my dad's moustache.

I tried on my mum's dress a few months ago. I looked like Glinda the Good Witch. And man oh man was it itchy! I don't know how she could stand it!

procrastinator extraordinaire.

2011-04-13T15:25:00.003-04:00

Still working away. Nothing else is new. I've been finding excellent ways to procrastinate. I made this apple bread and it was delish. I've been searching for wedding shoes. All the windows in the house have been cleaned (on the inside at least). My desk is extra tidy. And I might make some chocolate chip peanut butter oatmeal cookies this afternoon. Because that's what I do when I have assignments to work on.

a busy bee!

2011-04-11T17:05:00.007-04:00

Just over one more week of school left! This week will be a mad dash to finish a number of assignments.

Oh, I don't think I mentioned this here yet: for my last dye and print project we had to propose an idea for a large wall hanging be located in a modern open concept stairwell at the new Sheridan campus that is opening in Mississauga. Everyone in the class came up with a concept, samples, and a presentation board to show their intended idea. On the day of our critique, a panel of judges came in to decide which student would be commissioned to create their idea in full scale for the space. And guess who was chosen? MOI! My idea was to create a large (i.e. 5 by 23 feet) "living wall" (aka green wall, or vertical garden) which will be composed of varying sized panels of green designer felt and many MANY knit leaves and flowers (eventually I'll post a photo so you have a better idea of what it will look like). Anyways, now that I've won I've got a lot of knitting to do once school ends. Lots. In addition to the continued wedding planning/decoration making, Beehive events, farming, etc. I'm going to be bee-sy! Buzzing with activity! A genuine certified worker bee!

family photo friday. building a garage.

2011-04-08T10:32:00.005-04:00

1983, Dad, uncle Bob, and grandpa. Building the garage at the cottage, with the help of Joe, the dog.

p.s. you've probably noticed that you can see the frame of the slide in most of the recent photos I've posted. That's mainly because I've been too lazy to crop each photo. But I do also like how it looks sometimes. So there you go.

Erick is a rad dude.

2011-04-05T17:26:00.005-04:00

I have a super duper fiancé. (Agh, fiancé! I find that word too fancy. But I suppose I'll use it since it is only applicable for a limited period of time).

While I was away this weekend Erick decided to go out and get me a present, just because he missed me and is super thoughtful. He surprised me with these adorable moveable paper dolls by Jordan Grace Owens, which I'd been eyeballing at White Elephant for awhile. And he also gave me that super cute card from Mixed Media. Isn't he the best? YES!

Erick, you're a keeper.

St. Lawrence Market and the Brickworks

2011-04-03T23:21:00.009-04:00

I worked at the One of A Kind Show for Jenna on Friday and Saturday night. Always a fun job! After Friday's shift, I took the subway up to my parents' house in Thornhill. Saturday morning my mum and I ventured out to the St. Lawrence market. One vendor was selling freshly made pasta and pasta sauce. I had a sample, it was DELISH. Pasta is one of my favourite foods. And bread. I love carbs. Anyway, I am now super inspired to get back to making fresh pasta! I haven't done so since I posted about it back in January. I think I need that ravioli maker.

After the St. Lawrence market, we paid a visit to the Brickworks. My parents have been frequenting it for a long time now, and are always raving about it. I failed to take photos of all the activity that was going on while we were there, but trust me, it was hopping.

The site was previously known as the Don Valley Brickworks, and operated for nearly 100 years. It provided bricks for numerous historical buildings in Toronto (Casa Loma, Osgoode Hall, and Massey Hall, to name a few). Evergreen, a national charity group that is dedicated to restoring nature in urban environments, is now renovating and revitalizing the site. They have a weekly farmers' market, activities for kids happening all the time, hiking trails, ponds, a garden market where they sell native plants, organic and heritage food plants, etc, etc. It doesn't feel like you're in the city when you're there. And you can rent some of the buildings and spaces for events. I did consider it for our wedding. It would be spectacular to get married there. You can actually have your reception where all the old brick kilns are! That would be SO COOL! I can't remember why we didn't go with it...price was likely the deterrent. But it's ok, Ball's falls will do.

Anyways, good weekend.

family photo friday. crokinole.

2011-04-01T10:22:00.005-04:00

1975

Spring is the time of year that you bring the newspaper and crokinole board outside. If you're my uncle Bob or grandpa that is.

Hopefully it will be nice enough to move all these sorts of inside activities outside soon!

germination! cotelydons! life!

2011-04-01T10:17:00.002-04:00

My tomato and craspedia seeds poked their cute little heads out of the soil two days ago! Sookie has already managed to decapitate a couple of tomato plants. I'm going to have to rig up some sort of cat proof set up for when I take the plastic dome off of the plants for good.

cat

2011-03-29T16:00:00.000-04:00

Meow.