A Craft Fair Addict's 4-Step Guide to Enlightenment

Today's practical wisdom comes from scrabble tiles, buttons and woolly socks. Conscious crafts.

A Four-Step Guide to Enlightenment

(Glue-gun may be required)

1. Be creative.

'Cuz you just don't know how life is going to unfold -
and as it does, you might have to rearrange your letters.

 2. Dream.

And don't be buttoned-down about it...

3. Love. It's a verb.

Fly the 'love' banner. 
Not just another good idea. It actually makes the world go round

4. Connect.

Wherever you go, go with friends.
Find your tribe.
(And when you do,  have some fun monkeying around with them.)

Photos by Vicki McLeod
Bunting by Barnesgirl
Pillow by Michelle Taylor 'Giraffe and Bunny'

If you love craft fairs and are keen on vintage cool, then you're a kindred spirit - check out the Fieldstone Vintage Market on December 3. I'll be there, like all good seekers.

Finding the Centre

Happily moodling with my new Nikon this morning. Working with focusing on a small, close-in subject. Very appropriate I thought, for the blog - being all about having a macro-focus, or exquisite awareness of the little, tiny, everyday things that bring joy, contentment and peace. Here's my experiment:

Using P:Mode (a kind of flexible auto-mode).
Metaphorically, I can say I spend a fair bit of time in this mode...

Using the auto macro-zoom setting (added richness...better focus)

Using the auto macro-zoom with flash (exquisite awareness with just a little more dash!)

Variations on a theme  - yet with a common thread: the beautiful still centre that is the heart of the composition. Remind you of anything?



And the big boy that makes it all possible...

This is love.
(Taken with my trusty Canon compact)

Cunning Cannisters

I love happy little projects. The kind of activities where I find myself humming along while I dream them up, or while I start to put them together.

For many years I have had a beautiful set of pottery canisters. They were made by Betty Warren of Texada Island, a potter who was a dear theatre friend of my mothers. My mom had the cannisters for years and when I moved out she passed three of them on to me. One had been broken along the way, and of the three that remained, one had a chipped lid. I loved them and used them in all my kitchens right up until this year. Another lid is chipped and the set is looking weary. I still use them in my cupboards to store dried beans and back-up sugar for jam-making, but they have become decidedly shabby *sigh*.

First, I replaced them with a second-hand set of copper ones from the local Value Village. They worked well enough but were a bit 'kitschy' for me. I've got my eyes open for a perfect set, but in the meantime, I decided that I'd like glass. This summer, while out stocking up on new jam jars (how is it these jars never really make it back? I know they are being lovingly reused somewhere...), I came across large glass canning jars from Bernardin. Now as most of you know, I have an imaginary French Country kitchen, so these jars gave me a little frisson of excitement.

And, I suppose, since I acquired my first set of cannisters when I was 17, I reverted back to my broker-than-broke, first-out-on-my-own days and came up with a happy little decoration project to make a temporary set of glass cannisters to hold my day-to-day staples. This is a perfect simple fall project and a great idea for cash-strapped students or others who might be on a budget. And I offer it here, as November really settles in and we are well and truly in deep autumn.




Select a fabric you love. (Mine is 100% cotton gingham that I purchased in a market in Provence). Measure according to the canning jar lids. Use pinking shears to cut.



Trace a circle around the lid with a pencil. Trim along line with pinking shears. Using an old craft paintbrush (one you don't mind throwing away) coat the lid with Mod Podge (I LOVE this stuff - it's my one weakness - you can use it for all kinds of craft projects) and while still wet, attach the fabric circle. Coat with another layer of Mod Podge. Let dry and and add rings and lids to jars. Voila!



Another side benefit of this project is that when I finally do find my perfect replacement cannisters, I can re-use the jars to preserve some kind of delicious monster foodstuff. Next year's squash, perhaps?

And as an extra fall bonus, here are a couple of links to some great canning sites. Dreaming up next year's harvest!

 http://www.bernardin.ca/pages/home/1.php

http://www.punkdomestics.com/





A Salute to Summer: Gone but not Forgotten.

One of the ways I pursue happy idleness is messing around with technology. I have to admit that my curiosity about gadgets, apps and their technological possibilities far outweighs my skill. An ambition of my middle age, and one I am sure will take me well into old age, is to at least keep up! I said to my sister-in-law today that I will probably still be using my laptop in my 90's. She said I probably won't have one. I assumed she meant lap. But I digress.

In my work (which I promise not to focus on in this blog, hand over heart!) I advocate for social media and help my clients apply it to their work. I also love to play on Facebook and Twitter, and am a self-confessed Farmville addict.

Blogging is fun, too.

Lately, I have been moodling around with online video production programs. And, oh my! A new weakness. So my blog this week is a video tribute to summer, capturing some of my favourite elements of the season we are saying farewell to - at least here in the Northern Hemisphere - and celebrating summer food. In happy anticipation of the autumn and then the winter, I offer my Salute to Summertime.





With heartfelt thanks to the fine young folks at Animoto.
http://www.animoto.com/

Free Fall Advice: 4 Ways to Welcome Winter

Back from my late summer holiday and a short trip to the Okanagan Valley and I am tucking in for fall. What can I say about fall? So love the turning of the season - long, warm days getting shorter and turning into clear, cool nights...

The vibration of excitement in the air: for some back to school and for others the planning out of winter projects. Work is serious again and I become industrious about organizing home, office and garden. I am much more inclined to resolution in September than in December - what about you?

Here are 4 ways I am welcoming winter at my house:

1. Organizing my books: Yes. I mean it this time. I have books in every room of the house. Shelves full of them, stacks tucked away in closets and cupboards, borrowed books waiting to be returned to rightful owners, bedside books on the bureau, cookbooks in the kichen (by the baker's dozens!) paperback thrillers in bags to send to my uncle, many patient volumes awaiting winter reading (or possibly spring!), and more books on the way from those lovely online providers ... this will result in the Great Fall Book Giveaway. Friends, look out. (Readers: send me one of your fall resolutions and I'll send you a lovely used book).

2. House Weeding: House weeding is a term coined by my friend and fellow-blogstress barnesgirl, and it is just what it sounds like. Winnowing through cupboards, closets and drawers and getting re-organized or ridding yourself of unloved junk and generally smartening the place up. My triumphs: t-shirt & nightie drawer, landry-room cupboards and - yes, under the kitchen sink! More to come.

3. Changing up housewares: With the changing of the seasons, I like to change up bedding, dishes, draperies and other household sundries. I stash away my cheerful fruit-patterned Mikasa and bring out my more sedate ceramics. Light summer sheets get replaced with cozy flannelettes and bright pillow-covers are exchanged with serene neutrals.

4. Watching Season Two of Larkrise to Candleford - (after all this is a blog about idleness). One of my guily pleasures is getting DVDs of favourite shows and watching them end-to-end night after night. Regular television pales in comparison - especially when it is feel-good period drama! My hubby bought me Season One of this charming British series for my birthday in the spring and Season Two arrived in the middle of summer. We both agreed to tuck it away for winter pleasure. The anticipation!

Don't forget: send me (via comment ) one of your great fall resolutions, activities or goals, and I'll send you a gently used book. Please include your email address so we can communicate directly :)

Link to information about Larkrise to Candleford: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lark_Rise_to_Candleford_(TV_series)

Link to Barnesgirl's blog: Time to Spend - http://barnes-girl.blogspot.com/

A Perfect Saturday

I have been working really hard lately. Being self- employed is a bit like farming: you've got to make hay while the sun shines, and I've been involved in an exciting and challenging social media project for past few weeks that has meant little down time and lots of hours on and offline.

Add into the mix, opportunities to design and co-lead a couple of really dynamic coaching workshops and my usual roster of consulting and 1:1 coaching clients and - whew! - I'm happy to have landed on a sunny Saturday in mid-July with a day off.

And it has been a perfect day off.

Started with a nice cup of tea and a quick cruise through Facebook and some tending of my cartoon farm on Farmville. Cartoon lavender, Swiss chard and goats all doing well, I'm happy to report. Hubby and I donned packs, slathered on the sunscreen, stuffed our pockets with smallish bills and coins and headed to the Haney Farmer's Market.

It was a perfect day for the market with vendors selling all manner of seasonal produce, fruit, fresh bread and pies, flowers, and herbs. We returned with packs stuffed with tomatoes, carrots, herbs, and real versions of swiss chard and lavender. I spent some time puttering in my real garden admiring peas, climbing beans, a flourishing herb bed and some promising looking heritage tomatoes.

Satisfiedly grubby after my watering, weeding and self-congratulation, I headed for a bubble bath complete with a stack of magazines - Vanity Fair, Bon Appetit and Simple Living. A bouquet of fresh lavender on the edge of the bathtub and an ice-filled glass of organic lemonade. Ahhhh.

Inspired by the fresh chard and my recent splurges on goat cheese I put together a new version of goat cheese tart, and - oh my - I did outdo myself. While the tart was in its various stages of assembling, chilling, baking and resting, I dragged my sewing machine out, set it up in the dining room and sewed up a cute little basket liner from a 'fat quarter' sent to me by a dear friend and amazing seamstress. The fabric is an Englebright print, featuring cherries - that most cheerful of all fruits.

By now, feeling very smug and also not wanting to waste having the sewing machine set up - I started on an apron project. By the time the tart came out of the oven, I had the skirt, waistband and ties done. All that's left is to design and sew the pockets and hem it. That can happily wait for my next day off.

Served myself Swiss Chard & Goat Cheese Tart accompanied by a salad with fresh lettuce from my funny garden and, on TV - an episode of Midsomer Murders. Could it be more perfect? Tomorrow, brunch in a friend's garden. More to come...

Become a fan of Midsomer Murders: http://www.midsomermurders.net/


Visit the Haney Farmer's Market: http://www.haneyfarmersmarket.org/

A Home for Herbs

A home for herbs! Having been gifted some lovely scented herbs and being woefully short of available garden space, I decided to plant them in a box - which means I can move them into different locations as the mood strikes or space requires, and at the same time contain their growth - anything in the mint family can rapidly take over (although to be honest, I can't say I really mind). Mint is good for the tummy, a delicious addition to lamb dishes and iced teas and, I hear, discourages ants. I planted up the start of the scented herb collection in a cheapest-of-the-cheap wooden box that my hubby painted with a light stain - purposely leaving it rough. I added some touches in keeping with the bird motif using a combination of decoupage and stencilling. Catmint, spearmint and lemon balm are all happily crowding together in the new box and I plan to add scented geraniums and bee balm (bergamot). These herbs smell great, add colour and zing to cookery, soothe nerves and are a paradise for local bees. As we exclaimed in the 70's..."Mint!"

"What is Paradise? But a Garden, an Orchard of Trees and Herbs, full of pleasure, and nothing there but delights." ~ William Lawson, 1618.

Amy, Rusty & Herb

Ahhh - a long weekend! A great time to moodle about projects. A rainy weekend, too. Which means no pressure to do the projects and lots of time to dream them up. A perfect moodling matrix! A few daydreams on my list: a scented herb window box (partway there as a dear friend happened to bring some herbs by - catmint and lemon balm - and hubby painted up a rustic wooden box for me), drawstring utility bags (pretty ones, natch) inspired by my affection for Rusty the Rooster of Friendly Giant fame, and something FABULOUS with the Amy Butler fabric given to me by the same friend of the herbs (am I lucky, or what?). I'm thinking a reversible apron -- for special summer occasions like dinner in the garden and deck picnics. I need to scrounge up some complimentary fabric - a great excuse for a toddle through the thrift stores if the rain keeps up. And then to find a quiet Sunday afternoon to spend with scissors and pins....

The fabric has a really lovely William Morris feel, with a bright retro 'vibe' as my friend would say. I can't claim to be much of a fabric expert, but I do recommend a browse through the Amy Butler Designs site: http://www.amybutlerdesign.com/mainmenu.php.

There is something very cheery and sunshiny about it - and how perfect is that on a wet spring weekend?