In which I go to Fibrations 2012

....and forget to bring my camera - FAIL!

BUT, I had a great time, hanging out with my sister-in-law and also my friend Melissa from MisoCraftyKnits. Fibrations 2012 was once again held on the St. Ann's Academy grounds in their beautiful orchard. I must say, I was really impressed with the number of booths; quite a few Bees were representing as vendors (Emma from Everything Old and Linz, who I'm not sure if she has a website, but is one of the fastest crochetters I know!). I also finally got to meet in person Rebecca from Nook, and her lovely handknit monsters (I so need to pick one of those up for Z for Christmas!), as well as Shannon from Luv in the Mommyhood fame ;). I met Jane of Jane Richmond patterns, though not for the first time as I met her a few years ago at the once annual Victoria Fiber Fest, which is now no-longer running (hence Fibrations). Oh, how I wish I had my camera with my today to snap photos of everyone's great booths! Jane had this great line hanging above her booth with all of her pattern cards attached and fluttering in the breeze, it looked great! Plus she had all of her patterns on cards kindof how you would see a paint sample deck, with the bare details (ie yarn requirements, etc) on the back... genius idea!

One of my favorite finds this year was Kattikloo Fibre Studio which my friend Melissa pointed out to me. Oh my goodness, what beautiful yarn she had on display. I was immediately drawn to this gray merino mulberry silk lace blend. It's tonal variegation was stunning going from a soft light dove gray to a darker graphite. I squished it with my hand and it felt cool to the touch. Turned out it had just been dyed last night and was still drying! You can't get much fresher than that! I bought a skein (over 800yds at $20, what a steal!), my friend Carol bought another, and when we swung by the booth only 45 minutes later the other two skeins were gone! Popular colourway indeed! Kattikloo also had stunning felted silk scarves. I would have loved to have purchased one, but I had to draw the spending line somewhere! Fiona Duthie (the artisan of Kattikloo) was very lovely. I'm so glad I got to meet her and enjoy her beautiful creations!

So, that was today. Yesterday the hubster and I (and Z) trucked it to home depot to get supplies for a little home improvement project. HD was disappointing, so we went instead to Lumberworld and were very impressed with their selection (and their customer service... plus I've been told that they're locally owned, so let's support them!). What did we buy? Well, our gutters have been failing at the corners (ah, homeownership), so we needed some caulking to fix those. We also needed another downspout as we only have one for the entire stretch of the back of the house. We also decided to buy a rain barrel to tie the new downspout into! So, with no more further ado, meet our new rain barrel!

 
Any name suggestions? And, of course, it wouldn't be a true update without a snapshot of my tomato plants. We're just starting to get some ripe ones (though hubby gobbles them up pretty quick!)

  

 

Weekend Fun!

I had a great weekend. On Saturday I met up with a dear friend at the Journeys Victoria Quilter's Guild Show and Sale. It was absolute bliss to just walk around together, sans kids, and fawn over all the different fabrics and quilts. I should really save all my fabric purchasing for craft fairs and shows, the deals can be really good. Considering I still have fabric that I bought especially for Z, when I was still pregnant, waiting to be turned into a quilt, I was careful not to go overboard in my purchases. I ended up buying a panel of Halloween fabric from Satin Moon Quilt shop that will be perfect for turning into a trick-or-treat bag, and perhaps some decorative panels for the season. Z's first Halloween; I can hardly wait!

 
I also bought a jelly roll (I think that's what you call them) of Ten Little Things by Jenn Ski for Moda (from Hamels Fabric and Quilting). The colours are super cute, not too stereotypically boyish, and I think they would make the perfect bedspread for Zachary (or any other little kidlet that might be added to our family).

That was Saturday. On Sunday the weather was absolutely fantastic. Hubby and I decided to take advantage of it, and as soon as the little one went down for his morning nap, we were outside. Hubby washed the cars while I worked on planting tomato plants. We have this planter right below our living room window. Since our house faces South, the planter gets a TON of sunlight, but very little water as it's protected by the roof overhang. It's also gets protected somewhat from any late-spring frost. We're hoping the heat will help produce some great tomatoes, as long as we keep it well watered, and hopefully the dear aren't keen on coming that close to the house (I'm not banking on it).

As you can see, I need to get a couple more tomato cages. In other garden news, through the act of weeding our veggie garden, we discovered that we already had a crop of radishes for eating. Can I just say that there aren't a lot of recipes out there for radishes outside of the realm of salads? These grow great, not sure how the two of us are going to eat them all though!

By this point, little Z had woken up from his nap, and was outside with us, under the protection of a beach umbrella, watching mom and dad huff and puff in the sun!

 
Aside from that, my brother stopped by for a visit, and helped me plant two bushes/vines that I bought during the week. The top one is Star Jasmine. We planted it by the fence, and I'm really hoping that with minimal training, it'll take over the side of the fence (there's not much nice over there at the moment. The bottom image is a shrub called Golden-Leaved Mock Orange. All I know is, I like the bright green foliage, it's supposed to bloom in the summer, it can grow to 2m x 2m in size, and it only cost me $12.99 at the garden center. Score!

Anyone else get up to some fun over the weekend?

Recycling

Z is having an extra long morning nap, which has afforded me some extra alone time that I normally do not have. In my mind, this can only signal one thing, there is some serious development going on in that little body and brain. The hubby and I have been noticing just how much more of a little person Z is becoming, and his grunts and shrieks have increasingly expressed his frustration at not being able to reach a toy or go somewhere he wants to go. I wouldn't be surprised if the little guy starts crawling soon. As I said to my husband the other day, we'll soon be making more use of the higher shelving that we have in the living room!

As I was tidying up around the kitchen, pears baking in the oven for some future baby food, my mind was mulling over a post idea - recycling. When hubby and I took our prenatal class, one of our sessions focused on family life and we participated in brainstorming ways to help stay sane during the first few weeks home with new baby. One of our ideas was "throw recycling out". It sounds horrendous, but when you're just trying to survive during those sleep-deprived, hormone and emotion-ruled first few weeks, the last thing you want to do is sort garbage. Of course, we've been out of that time for a while now, and it's nice to take another look at how we run our home and how we deal with our waste.

I've gotten in the habit of keeping a plastic bag hanging off of one of the cupboard handles. In this bag I toss any bit of thin plastic I would normally dispose of in the garbage. I got this idea after the upteenth time of tossing a used bread bag into the garbage and thinking to myself, "now, how long is THAT going to take to decompose?". So, now I strip used kleenex boxes of their plastic liners, I collect (after dumping out any crumbs) the bread bags, any produce bags or additional plastic that always seems to accompany anything you buy (think toilet paper and paper towels) - everything! I place it in this hanging plastic bag and when it's full, which is usually by the end of a week or two (just imagine all that in the landfill!), I tie the bag, take it to my local supermarket, and shove it in the bag recycling bin. VOILA!

I should say that I also got the idea from the numerous schools I've worked at where recycling towers are present for students and staff to place everything from foil and yogurt cups to granola bar wrappers and sandwich bags. Teachers and students volunteer their time to collect all of the recycling and send it off to the appropriate place. Just one thing that BC schools are doing to help reduce waste.

Anyone out there have any other handy recycling tricks? I found this pretty easy, and to me, that is what makes it easy to continue!