Sparkler Writing

12 Jan

This year we decided to stay in Italy for Christmas.  We really enjoyed the stress-free holidays and although we really missed our families in Belgium and Canada we absolutely didn’t miss the holiday travelling.  We had a very low key Christmas Eve with fancy hors d’oeuvres, roast duck dinner, boardgames and even a little dancing.  To top off the festivities we headed out into the garden at midnight with our sparklers, camera and tripod. 

The kids had a blast and so did we.  The neighbours were watching us like we were lunatics but they have accepted the fact they live next to some “stranieri matti” (crazy foreigners).  And to top off the evening we actually saw dozens of shooting stars as well.  Over all a very magical Christmas Eve.

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Birthday Crowns

12 Jan

Something I do for every birthday of my three children is make them a birthday crown.  When they were small I would design it myself but as the kids get older they get to tell me the colours and fabrics that they prefer.  I have a series of photos from the past years with the birthday crowns and they are great to look back on and see how much they’ve changed and grown.  My daughters display all of their crowns on the top of the bookcase in their room.

This year my daughters turn 10 in March and I’m already wondering what kind of special crown I can make to commemorat them turning double digits.  I vow to sew these crowns for many years to come.  When my son turns 34 he will be receiving an envelope from his mama with a homemade crown.  Whether he likes it or not.

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Monte Rosa (yet again)

11 Jan

Once again I woke up to this sight of the mountains from my bedroom window.  I’ve been looking at this view for over a decade and I still stop and stare in awe.  On clear winter mornings there is a fuzzy pink cloudy hue to everything outside that is just amazingly beautiful.

There is something about mountains and moon in the morning that make my day that much happier.

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Fred’s Mini Cupcakes

11 Jan

My mother catered my grandmother’s 90th birthday party last week and there were these mini cupcakes that were divine (baked by Fred’s Salon Cafe & Gallery in Halifax).  There was Chocolate Pomegranate and Salted Caramel (or Apple butterscotch…dang I forget).  So delicious.

I think I’ll be giving these recipes a try very soon.

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Good Bye House

10 Jan

I just got back from a quick visit to my childhood home in Canada.  It was a busy week full of all sorts of special events: meeting my nephew (and godson) for the first time, attending his christening in my grandmother’s church, meeting my sister-in-law’s family from Australia, spending time with my grandmother, parents, step-parents, siblings and good friends and attending my Grandmother’s 90th birthday party.  It was a beautiful week.

I also had to say goodbye to my childhood home.  My mother recently sold it and last week my last time staying there.  It is a lovely old wooden house that I lived in from the time I was five until twenty years old.  I’ll miss it’s nightly creaks, the “secret room”, the fifties bathroom tiles, the walk-in cold room in the basement, the etched glass doors to the living and dining room, the sunroom, the front porch and the tangled garden.  It was a great place to grow up and a great place to take my children to visit.  We’ll all have many fond memories of the house for many years to come.

I think this is a pretty perfect way to remember 2422 Harvard Street.

 

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Reupolstering

30 Dec

Reupolster is one of those words that looks so wrong when you write it.  Or maybe I’ve just simply spelled it incorrectly.

I woke up this morning with the idea in my head that my dining room chairs NEEDED to be reupolstered (there’s that word again).  I had bought some great fabric for it over 6 months ago.  I tend to let these ideas sit for a while before acting on them.  These are chairs that the kids use at their “art table” in the living room.  In other words they get absolutey stained and filthy within  days of being reupolstered.

This new fabric is bright and sunny and just makes me happy. 

Old upholstered chair on far left.  Newly upholstered chair on far right.

Luckily the men of the house decided they wanted to do the actual upholstering.

Finished product.  Now we just need to work on re-painting the woodwork on the chairs.  Oh and maybe getting rid of those ugly stone floors and replacing it with lovely wood….

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Consolation Bagels

30 Dec

Tomorrow I am leaving my whole family and going alone to Canada.  Just the thought of an 8 hour flight alone is something that’s hard to get my head around.  I will miss them all terribly.  But I’m sure I’ll be able to enjoy myself as well.  A least a little bit.  Or maybe a lot.

There was a lot of protest from various family members for various reasons.  One being the fact I will be able to eat bagels every single day.  So to make them all feel slightly less slighted by the whole ordeal I made a huge batch of fresh bagels for them all this morning.

I made my usual recipe from Nigella Lawson’s book How to be a Domestic Goddess.  So easy.  And so delicious.

Recipe: Bagels

1 kilo strong flour

1 Tbsp salt

7g (1 satchet) dry yeast

2 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

500 ml warm water

2 Tbsp sugar or malt for poaching bagels

1.  Combine flour, salt and yeast.  Add sugar and oil to the warm water.  Make well in dry ingredients and add liquid.

2.  Knead dough for 10 minutes.

3. Put kneaded dough in oiled boil and cover with saran wrap.  Let sit for an hour.

4.  How punch down dough and divide into 16 pieces and form into bagels shapes.

5. Boil a big pot of water and add the sugar or malt.  Add batches of 3 or 4 bagels and boil for 1 minutes turning over half way through,

6.  Now is the time to dip bagels in any sesame seeds or poppy seeds or anything else you can think of.

7.  Bake in a 240 degree  (celcius) oven for 10-15 minutes.

Enjoy!

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Hipstamatic

30 Dec

After many wonderful years with my beloved old school nokia my husband bought me an iphone for Christmas.  I could have managed for another decade with my nokia but even my kids were telling me to enter into the new millenium (12 years late).  Over the last few days I’ve been experimenting with my hipstamatic app.  It’s fun.  I still prefer my good old fashioned camera though.

New Christmas boots.

Boxing day mini golf.

Milano-Genova highway on a sunny clear day.

Neighbourhood dog.

Bosco walk.

Miss Coco.

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River Walk

28 Dec

Another vacation day, another walk in the woods.  These walks are amazingly beautiful and fun.  But the effort it takes to get this family of mine out the door can sometimes become exhausting.  It seems as though my kids would be content to stay at home in their pajamas (the same pair) for two weeks straight.  But once I get them out the front door they are running and skipping and enthusiastic to discover something new or some new place.

Since the kids got new rain boots for Christmas they were all very keen to try them out in a little creek just up the road from us.   So off we set.  Boots and all.

After a long walk up the river and a even longer walk in the woods we settled in a patch of sun and lazed and snacked on clementines.

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Elfing

24 Dec

This year one of my daughters had the idea to do a sort of Secret Santa with the family.  We all drew names out of a hat and were told we had to make something for that person (without telling anyone who we have).  Some people’s gifts were done five minutes later.  Some were put under the tree exactly 5 minutes ago (on Christmas Eve!).  I was a bit behind schedule with all the homemade gifts for friends this year so I finished mine yesterday afternoon (in between parties and cleaning the house).  Here’s the result…

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