SO LONG, BEAUTIFUL STAR...

It's official!!

I don't need a calendar to tell me it's spring. Instead, I rely on these cuties:

To me, the return of the robins from the south heralds the beginning of spring. And today I saw my first ones happily chirping in the trees! Lo and behold, it also happened to be a nice, warm sunny day and to boot, the tulips were even starting to peek! JOY!

There's no pick-me-up quite like the first signs of spring, don't you think?

A thousand cranes for Japan

Image from Japan Visitor Blog

I think I speak for everyone by saying how saddened and shocked we are about the devastating earthquake and ensuing tsunami that occurred in Japan.

I am linking you over to Flora & Purl's touching post about the origins of Zenbazuru, or a thousand origami cranes; I felt the story she describes was very touching and seemed most appropriate for these circumstances.

Waiting for my Silhouette

No, not my physical silhouette, I gave up on that a long time ago! This Silhouette:

I discovered the Silhouette SD through Roeshel's fantastic blog, the DIY Showoff, when she had her giveaway and showed us all of this device's wonderful applications. I AM TOTALLY AWED BY ITS AWESOMENESS!

With it, you can make stuff like this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

And so much more!

Awesome, right?

Roeshel, who's so well connected (lol) was giving one away, but alas, I didn't win (curses!). However, again because of Roeshel being so well connected, there was a discount offered through her blog, and I took advantage of it and I'm thankful to her for the great deal. I am now awaiting my wonderful machine and I can't wait to start using it. I have a million projects and ideas and I am going to use it till one of us runs of breath and it ain't gonna be me!

For example I have only one bare wall in our new kitchen and it's a silly rounded wall where it is impossible to hang a picture or a frame. This is a perfect application for a vinyl decal. I'm thinking of putting a clever cooking related quote there. And the frosted vinyl is also ideal for windows where more privacy is needed without losing the light.

The Silhouette is also helpful for card making and scrapbooking. It's a great little multitasker!

I can't wait to show you my creations! (Ahem, provided of course that I can figure out the technology!)

Vinegar pie? Oh my!

Sharon Santoni over at My French Country Home posted today about what looks like a fabulicious lemon tart.

This put me in mind of a very unusual dessert I had last summer, vinegar pie. Yes, you heard right. A pie made of vinegar. It sounds like an oxymoron. How can vinegar be associated with something sweet? Isn't vinegar just used on fish & chips and for cleaning, you might say?

We visited Greenfield Village at the Henry Ford museum last summer and ate at the lovely Eagle Tavern. I had no plan to have dessert but the words Vinegar Pie caught my eye. Intrigued, I asked the waiter about it and he explained that it was created out of a sense of necessity. In pioneer days, during harvest season and beyond, when fruits were abundant, so were desserts. However, after a few months of winter and with spring not so close in sight, the fruit supplies would run dry and folks would run out of ingredients for dessert. Some very ingenious person somehow who probably only had vinegar and a few other things left in their cupboard figured out how to make pie out of it!

(This is also how sugar pies were created. Sugar pie is a specialty in Quebec and other parts of the world, and I make it but at Christmas only, as it is too rich to have on a regular basis.)

Back to the vinegar pie, needless to say, I had to order a piece at the Eagle Tavern. I mean, you have to try everything once, right?

To my surprise, it was very good. While you can really taste the vinegar, it has the taste, the tartness and the consistency of a lemon pie and it's quite refreshing.

Who knew?

More info about my awesome sugar creamer set

Thank you all for your comments on my sugar creamer set post of yesterday.

Vonlipi steered me in the right direction by pointing out that the L stood for Libbey glass. From there, a little research revealed that this is from a line called Libbey Rock Sharpe (Rock Sharpe was a co. that Libbey acquired), and the pattern is aqua pinecone. I'm still trying to determine the year this pattern was issued. I'm guesstimating in the 40's?

I have seen coffee cups and drinking glasses in the same pattern on Ebay and such.

And then Vintage Christine posted about her wonderful matching coffee carafe over at her blog, a sight to behold!

We should get our glassware together and have a coffee break!

Question to all my thrifting buddies

I was out thrifting yesterday and found this incredible set of sugar and creamer. I did some research and found that a company called David Douglas produced glass items such as carafes with the same pattern, aqua and gold pinecones. However, I could not find an identical sugar & creamer set. Furthermore, I am puzzled by the fact that the only marking at the bottom is a stylized L in a circle, like a handwritten L, which leads me to think they might be from a different manufacturer perhaps?

I

If anyone knows anything about this sugar and creamer set, please do share your wisdom with me. Regardless, I think it's an awesome set and I can already see it on a Thanksgiving tablescape, with my Pyrex gold acorn dish and perhaps a butterprint Pyrex!

Give credit where credit is due

I must set the record straight. The lovely Jo from Secret Garden Cottage, bless her heart, thought I made these gorgeous cards that were featured on my post of two days ago:

I wish! No, I shamelessly uploaded the picture onto my blog because I thought it was so pretty. I am new at this blogging thing and not quite familiar with all the blogging etiquette, but I realize I have to give credit where credit is due. These cards are in fact from this lovely Etsy shop.

And her cards are so pretty that her shop is presently sold out! But please, to relieve my guilty conscience, lol, do visit her shop now and again and perhaps buy her incredible cards! I know I'm adding her to my favourite shops!

As an Etsy shop owner myself, I work hard and I know I would want to be credited for my work.

Have a great day all!

P.S. I now have 10 followers! Although it is a modest number compared to some of you, I am still proud, pleased and humbled that even one person wants to read me!

Happy Hearts Day!

Just a quick hello to wish all my followers and visitors Happy Valentine's Day!

I have mixed feelings about this holiday. I don't like the fact that it is made up and commercial, and I don't feel like I should be made to spend $6 on a Hallmark card and chocolates to express my love. By the same token, I'm a hopeless romantic, I love pink, red, hearts, lace and chocolates.

Solution? Give handmade cards and crafts, to me they are more of an expression of love, because you took the time to create something for the ones you love.

Also, don't limit your love to just one day: celebrate love in every form and every way every day of the year!

2011 Niagara Icewine Festival

A couple of Sundays ago, our friends and us went to the Niagara Icewine Festival. For those of you not familiar with the Niagara region or Icewine, this region of Ontario is an optimal fruit and grape growing area, thanks to the Niagara escarpment which extends for miles and offers a good protection from the elements. This with the right mix of soil creates the ideal condition for wine grapes. And somebody clever discovered some time ago that if you harvested the grapes after a deep freeze, you could make this wonderful, sweet, deep, syrupy nectar called icewine. Yum!!!

Most Icewines produced in the region are made with Vidal or Cabernet Franc grapes. This is a Cabernet Franc Icewine:

Don't you love this gorgeous, deep caramelly colour? It tastes heavenly. I find the Cabernet Francs to have a richer taste.

With the purchase of a Discovery Pass, we had the opportunity to visit 6 wineries. All participating wineries were offering food samples to create a pairing with their icewines. (Of course, we had a designated driver, who just had a few sips here and there.) The food pairings were heavenly, from roast pork to risotto to icewine marshmallows roasted over the fire pit (just divine!), to a delectable chocolate ganache tart. More yums!

Even if you're not into wine, it is always worthwhile to take a drive up to that gorgeous area, regardless of the season. There's so much to see on the beautiful countryside roads. In the spring, all the fruit trees are in bloom, in the summer, everything is growing, in the fall, the leaf colours are simply breathtaking. But as you can see, even the winter scenery is spectacular:

There's something peaceful and ruggedly beautiful about these dormant vines, all in neat rows.

All in all, we had a wonderful day, good friends, good food, good wines.

.........

Speaking of grapes, I recently found this oddball. Yes, this is a grape! I figure it must have grown beside a pumpkin patch and as a result, it has an identity crisis. It doesn't know what it wants to be. A grape or a pumpkin? Make up your mind!

It came from this bunch. What a funny dude! If it was not such a perishable item, I would try to sell it on Ebay!

Kitchen Reno so far

Yesterday, I showed you before pictures of the kitchen, all wired and ready for the cabinets and the new floor.

Here is what has been done so far.

The ceramic floor is in, as well as the cabinets, the island, the sink, the tap and the counter tops. The lighting is done except for the fixture that will go above the island.

We picked a traditional style, but not overly fussy. I love the contrast offered by the light cabinets and the dark island and countertops!

This is a little study off the kitchen. It too had dilapidated cabinets. We opted to have them replaced with matching cabinets. This will be handy to store all sorts of papers like bills, as well as recipe books and other odds and ends. A good place for my laptop too! I love the decorative columns, they add class, don't you think?

But the one of the main reason we fell in love with this house is this amazing feature:

Yes, it's an indoor pool! Now, we don't have a cottage and we don't get away very much, but we love to swim. Our present house has an outdoor pool and weather permitting, we swim everyday, but as you know, up here, it is a very short season.

Now we will be able to swim whenever we want to. Even on a blizzardy day like today! It will be our little cottage at home, our little oasis of peace.

Aaaah, Heaven!

Stay tuned for further progress!

Thrifting Away and Renos at the New House

Thank you to all who have left such kind comments on my recent posts. I now have 6 followers! I am read! Yeah!

As I explained in my very first post, De tout, de rien means Everything and Nothing, as I want my blog to be about anything I feel like writing about on any given day. I realize though that since joining the Pyrex collective and reading the blogs of the other contributors, I am somewhat of a closet thrifter myself. So I will occasionally post my finds and share them with all of you.

Today, I was disappointed that I didn't find any Pyrex, just the same old scratched bowls that have been there for a while.

There was a Colonial Mist bowl in mint condition like the bigger one on the right, but as you see, I have one already:

But the whole day was not wasted. I did find a glass cloche not unlike the one Sherry posted on her blog here. I paid a whole dollar for it! (Thank to Linda at À la Carte for showing me how to post a link! See, I'm really good at it now! :^)

As I told Sherry, I love cloches because you can create cute seasonal vignettes with them. So there's another project for me. (That would be project number 1,567, lol!).

I have to show a lot of self control however while out thrifting, as my husband keeps saying that things should be going out, not coming in, since we are moving. Well, I still manage to buy here and there, I just sneak things in and hide the evidence, lol! He should be grateful I'm a thrifter and not a clothes horse, it's not like I'm spending $500 on a pair of boots or a Coach purse, I buy $2 trinkets!

Meanwhile, the renovations are going strong at our new (to us) house. Here's a before look at the kitchen:

These were taken a few weeks ago and there has been a lot of progress since then, however I am keeping you in suspense till tomorrow, as I haven't taken pictures recently. In fact, I am mad at myself for not documenting every step, but I am at times either too lazy, too busy or too forgetful.

This new house is just down the street from our present house. We are lucky to be in a position to still be able to live here while the renos are going on, which saves a lot of aggravation and stress!

We were not looking for a new house, but it came up for sale and we went to the open house and then I could not stop thinking about it! It was absolute insanity to even do so, as our present house is more than adequate, but the more we thought about it, the more we could see ourselves living there! And we did it, we bought it. Chalk it up to midlife crisis.

The kitchen was very dilapidated but I looked beyond that and saw the potential to build my dream kitchen.

Tomorrow: the almost completed kitchen and the main feature of the house will be revealed! Stay tuned!

Does anybody remember clackers?

Clackers were a fad in the 70's. I remember I had to have them. Mine were made of an opaque lime green plastic. I just had a flashback to my youth recently about them and it occurred to me what a lame and dangerous toy that was!

The object of the game (if you can call it a game) consisted in holding the clackers by the ring and swinging them up and down so that the balls would knock each other, therefore "clacking". It required a certain amount of skill to master the movement.

Well, before I did master the game, let me tell you, I acquired quite a set of bruises on my forearms! Not to mention that they occasionally went flying, narrowly missing breakable targets and human beings in the process!

According to Wikipedia, they are similar in appearance to an Argentinian weapon known as "bolas"! How they were ever allowed as a child's toy, I don't know!

Aaaah, good times!

A year of changes

Well, it's the last day of the year and I haven't posted much. It's been such a busy time lately: my father-in-law passed away, then we bought a new house and so there is a lot to think about and do.

As I reflect back, 2010 has definitely been a year of changes, some good (I lost weight finally!), some sad (my FIL's passing), some exciting (the new house).

I can't wait to see what 2011 brings us. So far I can predict that it will be great moving in the new house, even though it's in the same neighbourhood, it's still exciting. I'm looking forward to decorating.

I want to keep losing weight as my 42 lb weight loss so far has meant more energy and a renewed sense of confidence. I don't know why I waited so long to do myself this favour. To my amazement, I found out that while it's hard, it's not impossible!

I'm looking forward to blogging more and hopefully learning how to make my posts more interesting and insightful. I'm amazed at how the bloggers I follow manage to present their blogs in such a professional manner. I have still lots to learn, I'm afraid. Sigh! If you have tips and advice, I'll gladly listen!

I've already established some relationships through the blogosphere and discovering that there are quite a few kindred spirits out there. I hope we get to know each other better this year through our blogging adventures!

And of course, I'll keep sharing my finds on the Pyrex Collective. I didn't know until this year how much I love Pyrex and now I have close to 20 pieces! (That should be added as a fun change.)

I hope that 2011 brings a lot of good changes to all and that you all enjoy health, happiness and prosperity. And fun. Don't forget fun.

My Grownup Christmas List

As I get older, I find I want less and less for myself at Christmas. You learn instead to value the things that are really important in life: love, family, friends, etc. So, in that mindset, here is my Grownup Christmas List. Feel free to add your own Grownup Wishes!

I wish for:

- Yes, Peace on Earth, one can always hope!

- Religious tolerance.

- The abolition of discrimination in any way, shape or form.

- Everyone to have at least one excellent friend, the kind that even if you don't talk to everyday, you can just pick up where you left off, the kind who accepts you exactly the way you are, the kind that makes you laugh through your tears!

- No more need for orphanages, for every child to have loving parents, a good home where they feel safe and warm, where they are well nourished and nurtured.

- Ditto for animal shelters! And that every pet owner was as devoted to their pet as their pets are to them, that they would care for their furry friends from beginning to end!

- Everyone who can to give to a charity of their choice this Christmas, to spread some of that joy and abundance.

- Everyone to give green gifts in containers and wrapping materials that are repurposed and/or reusable, so that we leave less of a carbon footprint behind this Christmas. (Cookies in a vintage or interesting container from a thrift store, a beautiful old picture in a frame also from a thrift store, a vintage scarf or tablecloth, etc.)

- Everyone to in fact reduce the insane consumerism that occurs this time of year to instead focus on more important things (see above about giving to charity).

For some fabulous ideas on how to reduce waste this Christmas, I invite you to visit some of the blogs I follow. I'm so greatly impressed by some of them, their creativity knows no bound!

Celebrating Halloween without much enthusiasm and "I don't like it"

I am so sick with the most rotten cold I've had in years that this Halloween was more of a chore than anything. I carved the least creative pumpkin I've carved in years, didn't decorate much (I always decorate the day of), handed out candy without much energy.

Such a bummer to be sick, I have so much to do and had no energy whatsoever to do it. Somehow, by the grace of God, I still managed to accomplish a lot: grocery shopping and other misc. errands, laundry, laundry sorting and folding, tidying up, the aforementioned pumpkin carving and Halloween decorating, washing cat litter pans and washing the bathroom floor where the cat litter pans are kept. (This is in the basement, where my present foster cat family is kept: Mama and 6 seven week old babies who make a big mess, because, well, they are just babies!)

Today I am amazed at myself for doing so much. I was basically on auto-pilot.

At least I didn't have Halloween costumes to sew for little ones. I remember one Halloween staying up all night to finish not one but two costumes. You see, having 2 girls, my younger one would generally wear the older one's hand-me-down costumes, but at 3 years old, it seems the only words she knew were "I don't like it". She'd take one look at what I had cooking for dinner, and even if it was something she had never had before, she'd say "I don't like it". So when she saw the witch costume I had for her to wear that year, she said: "I don't like it". Also, back then I felt that I had to sew the costumes to be a good Mom. So off to the fabric store we went, we looked at patterns and she agreed to a clown costume. I started on a fairy princess costume for my oldest and the clown costume for my youngest. I was working full time back then, so I ran out of time and had to sew late into the night before Halloween. As if it wasn't enough I was working under pressure, the fabric for the fairy costume kept ripping up, getting me more and more frustrated and tired, my nerves more and more frayed. However, I did finish both costumes and I felt accomplished. The clown costume turned out so nicely. And all within budget! I couldn't wait for the girls to get up and see their costumes. My oldest loved her costume, but the little one took one look at hers and, you guessed it, "I don't like it". Overtired, I burst into tears. I told her she was wearing it anyway.

Funny thing is, she let me put the costume and the make-up on without a word and toddled off to preschool without so much as a protest. This is when I realized that perhaps she was using that stupid "I don't like it" comment without really knowing what it meant or without really meaning it, in a way that only 3-year olds can do!

Believe it or not, this didn't deter me completely from making more Halloween costumes.

Well, enough time has gone by since then that I can laugh at the whole thing with my youngest, now that she's 16 years old! (Besides I know that some day, hopefully, I'll have my revenge with my grand-children!)

NEVER ASSUME!

A few years ago, when my daughters were little, we were at the oldest's first soccer game of the season and I started chatting with a man who was there with a smaller girl. I asked him if he was the grandfather, and he replied, somewhat offended, that he was the dad! Boy did I ever feel like I had my whole foot in my mouth! (From then on, my friend and I referred to him as "Grandpa", lol, but no to his face!)

Another time, I was picking my daughter up at a school chum's house. I knew the Mom vaguely and on that day, she was standing in the driveway with another lady. I said hi, then I said to her, "Oh, this is undoubtedly your mother, you two look so much alike!"

Well, the other lady replied in a very vexed tone ( and I don't blame her): "Mother?!!!? I'm her sister!!!"

Again, I had another taste of my foot...

Anyway, I was thinking about those hard learned lessons recently one day on my way to the animal shelter where I volunteer, and how it is simply better not to assume anything until you know more about someone or a situation.

It is strange how I recalled these two incidents that morning, because as life would have it, that hard-learned lesson would come in handy that very day.

A seemingly middle-aged lady walked in with a little toddler. She was interested in adopting a cat. My first impression was that this was a retired lady babysitting her grandson. But with my "never assume" lesson freshly recalled, I went instead on the assumption that this was her son. The worst thing that could happen was I would have a very flattered grandmother.

Good thing I did. When I asked her how old her little boy was, she replied "18 months" and didn't correct me by saying, "Oh, he's my grandson, not my son. But thank you!" I was very proud of myself.

As my daughter is fond of saying, "Never assume. It makes an ass of "u" and "me."

Life lesson well learned.

CUTENESS PAUSE!

This adorable cuteness pause has been brought to you by one of the kittens I am fostering. He is 3 weeks old here.

Of cats, nursing and how-to books

I am fostering a wonderful Mama cat for our local Humane Society. This is the fourth Mama we are fostering and I absolutely love it. These mama cats are usually strays or abandoned and by going to a private home rather than the shelter, they have a nice, warm, safe, quiet place to give birth. The kittens can then also get used to house noises and be socialized before going to the shelter to be adopted, once they are weaned.

I am still in wonderment over the whole process, even after four litters. I love watching the kittens nursing happily, while Mama lies there purring gently, also looking quite content.

Mama cats know exactly what to do. Nobody ever told them a thing, they just know. When they give birth, they cut the umbilical cord, they clean the kittens who somehow know to find their way by smell (their eyes being closed) to Mom to start nursing. Mom cleans everything up.

I also observed that Mom lies on one side to nurse, and the next time, she switches to the other side. How does she know to do that?

She didn't read parenting or how-to books. She didn't take birthing or breastfeeding classes. And, gasp, she didn't even consult a lactating expert!

Could it be that us humans have lost the ability to rely on our instincts and learn instead to rely on books to tell us how to do everything? It seems so if you walk through your local bookstore: there are self-help and how-to books for virtually everything these days. Same thing with information on the Internet. There's a website for everything. Information overload!

The kicker? There's even a parenting expert who wrote a book on how to learn to rely more on your instincts to raise your child.

My instincts tell me I don't need that book. So there.

Pet Peeve of the Month: Recipe Overload

You can basically buy magazines about anything these days. Today, at the book store for example, I saw a magazine completely dedicated to Poker. A whole magazine. On Poker. And there are magazines about knitting, sailing, racing, motorcycling, travelling, painting, sewing, gaming, computing and so on and so forth.

These highly specialized magazines target very specific audiences, who delight in being able to read and learn about something they are passionate about.

So tell me why then, every magazine ever printed in the world has to have recipes in it?

When I buy a decorating magazine, it seems fair to me that its whole content should be dedicated to decorating. Same goes for fashion. When I want to know what is the new in colour this fall, I don't want to know how to make petits-fours! I'm really not interested.

Yes, you know what I'm going to say next: if I wanted recipes, I WOULD BUY A RECIPE OR COOKING MAGAZINE!

I don't know why every magazine publisher thinks we're desperate for more recipes, but let me tell you, there is a gazillion recipe books out there, I think we're good as far as recipes go. Besides, everybody I've ever known ends up using the same tried and true 10 or 12 recipes over and over again.

So to anybody out there who is in the magazine business, take note. Stop using recipes as page fillers and give us more substance, more of what we're actually after. (I know, I know, what about all the ads, but that's a necessary evil.)

Magazine readers of the world, you don't need to thank me when your next issue of Cigars Monthly arrives in your mailbox, without useless recipes you don't want in the first place and more pages dedicated to your favourite subject. Enjoy!