March 31, 2012: Rewind

Jamie

I love this picture from Easter 2007! I love having Mom and Shannon over to celebrate the holiday. this year I had been thinking of another pierogi-making party but thought it might be good to do that in April instead. So today it's nice to peek back to an earlier celebration and look forward to the ones to come!

Suzie

It was so hard saying good-bye to you both the last time I was in Toronto, as it always is. But today I can look back on that day and smile.

March 30, 2013

Jamie

I think I'm finding a rhythm for Project Life. I'm must loving taking time on Fridays to create an impression of my week. Just on this side I have my Full Worm Moon Dreamboard, our trip to Ikea, some words that inspired me, a book and a card that I received from interviewees at Creative Living with Jamie. On the other side is the raccoon I saw, the Dance the Body Divine card I shared during stART, where we went out for dinner and how much we love Jerk Chicken. It's a wonderful peek into my life each week and a really fun ritual for Fridays.

Shannon
I had a moment when I was like..where is the cat? And yes, of course, he found a new spot where I just shifted some things and there he was basking in the newly found sunlight! Cats are amazing at finding new spots!

 

Suzie

After saying we don't have any wildlife around here, I saw this beautiful white cat skulking around our little river and a duck going for a walk on a lawn with a cat in the window above him. I guess I just don't get to see much because I am home most of the time. 

March 29, 2013

Jamie

Shannon and I were out and about for the day yesterday, which ended up including an impromptu trip to IKEA! There were good finds, good company and a surprisingly good lunch!



Shannon
I totally feel in love with this wee sofabed/couch at IKEA! It reminded me of the one I had that was Justin's and was so perfectly Shannon sized. I forgot how often stuff *isn't* Shannon sized! It's so nice to find stuff that fits, maybe one day I'll even get it!

Suzie

Other than picking up weekend food and a ton of medication, yesterday was all about making my puff pastry video. I am definitely pushing my computer to its movie-making limits but I managed to trim down over an hour of footage to a 10-minute video. Still needs finessing but I am happier with it than I thought I would be. 

March 28, 2013

 

Jamie 

Yesterday I went for my regular dental cleaning. I always find it incredibly taxing and was making myself a tea to settle in and ground myself when I noticed this little one through the window. She was climbing everywhere, looking for some shelter. At one point she was completely upside down, tail and bum in the air, as she tried to find her way in to a tree! When I stepped outside to take her picture, clearly she was concerned that I could see her. There we were, eye to eye for a moment. I hope she found shelter from the rain.

Suzie

Yesterday of course I did Hexed with Shannon! But I also put together the video for my musing. It was challenging because as I did my musing I realized how lost I really feel about blogging and how sad that makes me. I hope it isn't a downer video. I am really going to have to sit with this one for a while and figure things out.

March 27, 2013

Jamie

I know this was a part of stART yesterday so.. hey... that means this pic can represent the joy of filming stART together and that I went to the store and grabbed some notebooks and journals. The ones on the left are for a new idea I have for gathering thoughts, resources, plans and to-dos per project area and the ones on the right are the official beginning of my Give a Girl a Journal project. I guess it's time to get that started! (Oh, there's that word again!)

Shannon
Hurt my ankle! GRRRR!!! So frustrating. And it's too early for me to be making sense... so.. yep...that's all I got.

Suzie

Love hanging out with my sisters for stART! I include Jinx in that comment. It was lovely to see her make an appearance too!

March 26, 2013

Jamie

Not a terribly good picture of what was actually a terribly good meal! Jerk chicken, sweet potato latkes and papay salad. I think we said, "Mmmm..." with every bite! It was a beautiful, long day of good, good work and so wonderful to finish it off with a delicious dinner.

Shannon

Okay...so I meant to have broccoli and something for dinner...but I ended up with mini farmer plate.  I think my meals are a bit off kilter these days!

Suzie

For this photo yesterday there was no point saying cheese. Say "buttah!" instead! Yup, worked on the puff pastry video all day yesterday and I am still not done. It has been an interesting journey so far, filled with drama, decisions, stress and oh so much butter. 

March 25, 2013

Jamie

This weekend I was absolutely delighted to spend some time catching up with Project Life. I was weeks behind and thought it would be onerous but, in fact, it was lots of fun. I am enjoying finding my way with this project. It helps to be a blogger and have pictures of everything! I also found it helps to keep notes in my day book about some of the little things I'm doing and enjoying. We're still working on improving our printer situation so honestly al of the pictures are just printed in colour on regular printer paper. They look just fine and perhaps at a later date I'll be able to exchange them with real photos. That would be awesome.

Shannon
I know I've only had Netflix a while, but I find it funny how most of the time I watch stuff I've already seen on it! This weekend I decided to try something I hadn't seen, and hadn't even heard about. It reminded me that it's been a while since I've watched something foreign and that I knew nothing about, which was kind of cool to dive in and chance it.

Suzie

As much getting out to buy butter on sale this weekend was exciting for me, I thought I would share this photograph of Reg all dressed up for probably his last "office party". 

March 24, 2013: Rewind

Jamie

I've missed a few rewinds by working on my computer elsewhere on Sundays and being unattached to my scanner or my external hard drive. I've been thinking a lot lately about how long we've been blogging and how much life has changed over the past 5 years. Here I am at the subway 5 years ago on my way to my day job and with my old camera. I love working at home but lately have been missing the opportunity to put on my shiny boots and get out!

March 23, 2013

Jamie

After a very busy week and a very busy day it was absolutely awesome to hang out with Shannon and Gobo and Charmed! And with spring and daylight savings it was wonderful to feel like it was early and light out as we chatted over dinner and tea and TV. A great time!

March 22, 2013

 

Jamie

This is one of the murals on the wall where we take guitar. We had our third lesson yesterday. And my truly big excitement yesterday was that in the afternoon I found a song I know and love that is made up of chords that we already know!! I pulled out the guitar and played and sang! My voice and the guitar - together for the first time EVER!!! It was such an amazing experience. Just to imagine that 2 weeks ago that was impossible and yesterday I did it!! *beam*

Shannon
New computer set up! Got the docking station set up (on the left) which is awesome, now I have a USB port for everything that needs USB-ness, and also did the whole raise the screen / add external keyboard (which took ages to clean out). I think it's better, but it's too early to tell. And I forgot this keyboard is mucho noisy (which is fine) but the space bar sticks a bit (a little less fine). But...I'm sure I'll get used to it.

Suzie

I had a huge candy-making disaster yesterday (imagine scorched oranges!) so it meant an extra lot to me to make balsamic vinegar pearls. Yes, I got our my gastronomy kit! And it worked!

March 21, 2013

Suzie

You can tell it is the spring equinox when you can balance an egg! I learned this when I lived in Victoria, isn't it the coolest? Funny thing is I haven't been able to get it to work since I moved here. Reg asked me again this year to try and I got it to stand on its end my first try. Something about the balancing of the polarities. All I know is, it works. And is so cool! Talk about food magic.

I had to include this one too, it is just so cute!

March 20, 2013

Jamie 

Yesterday was a creative and busy day! We had another wonderful Creativity Coffee and I had a chance to record my stART musing and my response to Suzie.  I also took some time to practice guitar. That's a pretty awesome way to spend the day!

Suzie

Yesterday I was just going to do an unboxing video of the meat grinder but I had the pork ready so I thought, what the heck, I will just shoot it and make my own ground pork. It was amazing! So easy and fast, I could not believe the difference between the mechanical grinder and a hand grinder. This photo makes me very happy. High tech food project in the kitchen. Totally rocks.

March 19, 2013

Jamie

I was so moved by these colourful boots and shoes set so perfectly at the side of the road. They became the intro picture to my newsletter, which is what I was immersed in yesterday. This morning I'm up early to give it a fresh look-through and then send.

Shannon
An out and about moment from yesterday. I totally forgot my camera, but was happy I could use my phone to capture a moment.

Suzie

I had to cab to the doctor's yesterday (the windchill was -20C when Reg got up) and ended up not having enough money to get back home. Normally this would have put me in a state of panic because there are no cash machines anywhere but I used my new PC MasterCard and got points as a result. At first the cabby didn't want me to pay with it but when I explained my situation, he relented. I miss the debit cabs from Victoria. It cost me a fortune to get home because there was a big accident. Ugh! But at least I did it and now I don't have to go back for quite a while. 

March 18, 2013

 

 Jamie 

 Our Valentine's Day gift to ourselves was to go to the ballet! I was just thrilled to see Romeo & Juliet. This is probably the ballet that I have seen the most often and I was excited to share it with Justin. As we watched, I couldn't believe how much of the music had seeped right into my heart. I remembered this trill and that boom. The dancing had changed though. Recently the National Ballet commissioned new choreography and I am so sorry to say that it simply resulted in me missing the pervious version. There were lovely moments and Juliet was extraordinary but for the most part the choreography never seemed to live up to the bigness of the music or the moments. Regardless, it was a thrill to be in this beautiful space, drinking it all in!

Shannon

I have to say, one of the joys of having Netflix so far is being able to watch things like X-Men (the animated series from the 90's).  I remember watching it at home, but I have absolutely no clue how many of the episodes I've seen.  Plus, at 22-ish minutes it's the perfect companion piece for getting a quick workout in.  And only know realized that the pic I picked is totally fuzzy!  Ah, well!  You can see Storm, no?  She's ah.... affecting the ... perception via weather control, of course!

Suzie

It was stressful, gross, anxiety-producing and at times upsetting but Reg figured out how to unclog our bathroom sink. It took me back to when I was a kid when the swear words would go around the house and the sizzle of frustration was in the air and how much that freaked me out. But I am an adult now and I got out my latex gloves and I helped and now our sink is running awesome and it is one less thing for us to stress about. Woot!

March 16, 2013

Jamie

Yesterday after filming stART, I made some fresh rock cakes (this time with whatever was in my pantry - mint chocolate chips and coffee) and headed over to Shannon's. On the way to Shannon's, I had this hilarious moment when this cat and I crossed paths and we almost missed each other and then both stopped in our tracks and turned around for cuddles! Afterwards, Shannon and I had a great time over a farmer's plate, tea, treats and watching the first two episodes of Charmed!

March 15, 2013

Jamie

Yesterday was a full day. It included everything from early morning subway meetups to conversations about healing temples inspired by Superman, from spiced chocolate biscotti to big fat burritos, from dealing with IVs to learning new chords. Perhaps the most surreal moment was sitting with Shannon in a waiting room watching old Star Trek! The best part of the day was everything being okay.

Shannon
The final step on the list yesterday was... Burritos. Here's me hamming it up a little with Jamie on getting the last check box filled. And our tummies. Wow. Those burritos are HUGE. And Yummy.

Suzie

Had a very frustrating day yesterday. Was assured over the phone that my Staples was open and when I got there, no, it was closed. I walked around to everyone seeing if anyone provided fax services. Nobody does. I also went to the post office to pick up that package that should have been left when I was home and the post office said they did not have it. And that the postal carrier screwed something up and I might not have had a package in the first place. But my nightgown should be here by now. Ugh! Still, I am glad things went well for others yesterday. Very grateful for that.

March 14, 2013

 

Jamie

It's always so nice to work at Tanya's. Look at the happy spring flowers she had at her table! I felt better too because I'd made some progress with my tech stuff and was able to continue to do so, tackling one task at a time. I'm feeling a bit relieved about it all.

Shannon
You never know what you are going to run across online, and I think the coolest thing recently was the YouTube recommendation that because I watched stART sisters, I should also check out some Ted Talks. I hope those recommends go both ways!!!

Suzie

I ordered this Tony Stark shirt for Reg and he had such a hard time getting it to work at first but a tweak to the cable and it came on! He wanted it so badly for the opening of the next Iron Man movie. I think it looks awesome! 

March 13, 2013

 Jamie

I had a really hard day yesterday. I dedicated the entire day to making tech progress and for the entire day made no progress at all. There's a whole lot of learning in this jumbled mess, not only tech learning but me learning. It's been uncomfortable, frustrating and hard. Luckily the interloper showed up last night and cheered me up a bit. His visit, Justin's help and many guitar breaks really helped nourish me through this difficulty.

Shannon
Whelp, I resisted it for probably around 2+ years, but I've not finally signed up for Netflix. And the first thing I watched was Star Trek, naturally. I was surprized that what felt the most different was the sound was better - my BluRay player has something in it that does that, which is pretty cool. Of course I spent a lot of time adding stuff to My List. It will be interesting to see how it goes!

Suzie

I spent the last couple of days working on a complicated Danish recipe that required lots of folding and and chilling of dough, almost as though I was making puff pastry. But then the recipe totally let me down. It confirmed to me why I think it is so important to have the best instructions possible and why my blog is different. I show people what to do and how to do it. And I am honest when a recipe pisses me off. Even if it is by Anna Olson! 

March 12, 2012

Jamie

I truly can't believe how excited I am that we now have a family calendar in the kitchen. As soon as we put it up it felt like something I'd been missing. Not only that, we've got stickers for when we work out (blue) and for when we practice guitar (orange). So much fun! And totally motivating.



Shannon
I finally caught up with Season 6 of The Deadliest Catch, and it was a bit of a different season and harder to watch but I'm glad I stuck it through. I just have Season 7 to watch before the new season (which is Season 9) starts mid-April. I think I might actually be caught up by then! Huge irony of all of this is I likely won't have CABLE by then, but I hope they will air them online at Discovery.ca, it looks like they will...but until I see it I won't know for sure!

Suzie

It was almost warm yesterday (although not on the walk to the store... Brr!) so I went and got these red peppers on sale for 50% off. One of the benefits of getting there on Mondays. I roasted them and today I hope to make a soup with them. Often red pepper soups and sauces can be a bit bitter but I found a recipe that incorporates sundried tomatoes so I am very curious to see if that offsets the bitterness. 

March 11, 2013

Jamie

I spent the weekend really digging in to tech stuff but also managed to try two new recipes! I figured pictures of the latter would be more interesting, though it will overlap with stART! On Saturday we made crockpot Jerk Chicken, which was hot and delicious, and last night I whipped up these rock cakes. Why did I decide I needed to bake them at 9:30 pm on a Sunday, I have no idea, but I'm glad I did. I'd never heard of rock cakes before but they looked so good in The Simple Things magazine that I had to try them out. They were incredibly simple once I sorted out the British measurements, and really yummy. Once you've got the process down, if you have a food processor, you could probably get these in the oven in about 15 minutes!

Shannon
I spend a lot of the weekend enjoying re-visiting the film Breaking Dawn: Part 2 as well as ALL the extras on the DVD in preparation for an upcoming episode of Before the Dawn. I can't quite believe that The Twilight Saga really has summed up. Wow. What a ride.

Suzie

A new pizza place opened up in our neighbourhood so on International Women's Day (we were supposed to go out with friends but the event was cancelled) I ordered one of their pizzas. It tasted freezer-burned (probably the dough) and Reg said it tasted like hot dogs. Every pizza at the place seemed to have bacon on it so I had to request no bacon. Oh well, at least I didn't have to cook!