Tag Archives: photography

Mercatino Usato

17 Jan

Today I discovered, with the help of a friend, a new mercatino usato (second hand shop).  Amazingly enough it is only a 15 minute drive from my house.  Why did I not know of this place this past 10 years!?  It is absolutely gigantic and filled with everything under the sun.  There are buildings upon buildings jam packed with old accordians, wrought iron bed frames, antique cameras, hand painted eggs, ceramic vases, horse saddles, crystal glassware, fireplaces, wash basins, wooden closets/desks/drawers/beds.  Among all the garbage there are treasures to be found.  At one point we were poking through one of the derelict warehouses to find an actual tree growing in the middle of it and poking out of the roof.   Here are a few photos I took incognito while wandering around (never know if these shop owners appreciate people taking photos of their wares).

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Bran Muffins

15 Jan

This morning I made some bran muffins for the family.  For some reason bran muffins have been a favorite of my kids since they were wee little ones.  They started calling them” chocolate muffins” ages ago and I always “forgot” to correct them and tell them that they’re actually made from a very healthy whole grain that keeps you regular.  This morning I did indeed tell them that I had made their “favorite bran muffins” and they all looked at me quite strangely and asked me what bran was exactly.  I told them, they shrugged like it wasn’t very interesting and continued to eat.

Recipe for Bran Muffins:

1 cup flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup All Bran

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup molasses

1 egg

1/4 cup shortening (or butter)

1/2 cup raisins or dates (we skip this ingredient)

1. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt

2. Mix milk and molasses together and add all bran.  Let sit for a few minutes.

3. Add egg and shortening (or butter) to milk mixture and stir.

4.  Pour wet mixture into dry mixture.  Stir together but don’t overmix.

5. Bake in muffin tins at 400 f/200 c for 15-20 minutes.

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The fix

15 Jan

During my recent trip to Canada I enabled my not so secret addiction and bought some very nice new fabrics (or actually they were very generously bought for me).  Not that I am in NEED of any new fabrics (see post about my “addiction” and you’ll notice that I’m not lacking in material of any sort).  In any case, I’m very happy with my new fabrics and I’m already busy thinking about some new sewing projects for 2012.

Thank goodness for Canada and their buy one metre get two metres free fabric shops!

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Jan Fabre

13 Jan

I don’t know why but the last few days I’ve been thinking about the Belgian artist Jan Fabre.  We went to see an exhibit of his at the Kroller Muller Museum in Holland last year and I still catch myself thinking about him and his art.  The exhibit that we saw was one with his jewel beetle pieces.  Paintings, sculptures and installation pieces were covered with these beetles.  At first glance you can’t even tell that it’sactual  beetle shells that are the medium he uses.  He actually did a mural of jewel beetles on the ceiling of the Royal Palace in Brussels (1.6 million were used).  His art definitely lingers in the mind for a very long time.

The famous jewel beetles.

The whole foreground is made of thousands of beetles.  The paintings in the back as well.

Beetle covered street lamp.

In the garden of the Kroller Muller Museum there were some of Fabre’s bronze head statues.

If I remember correctly a lot of these statues are actually of the artist himself.

We all found the whole exhibit very fascinating.  The kids still mention the beetle exhibit often and are still in awe of the works of art that they saw that day.

For an interesting article about Jan Fabre (with explanation of his human bone pieces) look here…

http://www.sculpture.org/documents/scmag04/march04/fabre/fabre.shtml

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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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