Growwwlllll... a mish-mash post

Is the Growler a standard beer-holding vessel that I just never new about (apparently it is... why didn't anyone tell me?)? Here in Halifax, it's a must for economical drinking. You can't get the Growler at the provincial beer and liquor stores - you have to go to the source! Here is a post I found about Haligonian beer. You buy the bottle and just take it back to the brewery when you need a refill. Can't go wrong with a 64-ounce jug!

We tried Hop Yard Pale Ale from Garrison: "Deep golden and crisp, Hopyard Pale is exceptional in the West Coast style with a refreshingly bitter finish." Yum. I prefer the west coast style of exceptional in most categories.

We are buying a house in Dartmouth. It's blue. Inspection is today!


You know how Rita Wilson goes on a rant in Sleepless in Seattle about how men don't replace the empty roll of toilet paper but rather leave the new roll sitting on top of the old empty roll? I do that.



We went to Ross Farm Museum in New Ross last weekend. It was awesome. The girl loved the sheep, chickens, cows, geese, and hiking around. Not so fond of the enormous black hairy pigs. Scott and I thought it was pretty good too. Lots of cool, well-maintained historical stuff: farm house, barns, woodworking shop, lumber mill, etc. There was more there but since it was still the "winter" season, not everything was open and working. I definitely recommend it.

I decided to quilt a simple grid, stitched in the ditch for my chubby chicks quilt.  I wanted to just get 'er done on this one since it felt so nice to finish the pillow before.  So the quilting is nothing fancy, but that's ok since the part I really like is the the chicks.  Using the stitch in the ditch sole for my walking foot, I had to adjust the needle position since I didn't have the right tool to adjust the foot guide thingie and things weren't lining up quite right. It works ok. I might try just using the open sole and doing it by eye next time. Guess I'm giving away what's on the back in this photo... I was trying to show you the stitch in the ditch sole.

The girl wearing a disguise:

I"ll claim responsibility for the mismatched outfit and crazy hairdo.

A Finish! In Record Time!

Maybe I should join the mini-quilt craze.  Actually finishing a project is a great feeling!  It's a 24"x 24" floor pillow. I think it looks so cute, never mind a few little boo boos or things I'd do differently next time! And I felt comfortable quilting this little thing with my home sewing machine. It seemed like it could be a challenge to wrestle with a much bigger quilt. I'll have to do another one for our house some day - if we ever have a house :)

Here's what we woke up to on Easter morning: lots of snow (a view of the neighbor's place). 

Happily it melted by the end of the day.

 

Weird Things

Here in Canada, generic grocery store cheese seems to come in these long flat slabs, not like a brick, like in the US. So random - wish I had a picture.

A couple of days ago it hit 31C here in Halifax and it was sunny and hot and scantily-clad pasty people came out of the WOODWORK! I felt melty! ...and sorta silly driving around with snow tires still on the car - but now I don't since it's cold again already and it's going to snow this week. Glad I'm off to Florida! :)

I had tons of fun making this:

It's from Oh Fransson's Mod Mosaic Floor Pillow tutorial. I think if I had to start over, I'd be a bit less wonky, because some pieces got really tiny when I did my trimming, and the two full-length pieces of sashing in the middle look odd since they're pretty much parallel. But it was really fun to make and I like how it came out. It's pink because pink and red are mostly what I have leftover as scraps. Now... who would like to be gifted a big pink floor pillow....? I think I know a couple little princesses in California who might. They shouldn't hold their breath, though. This might join my pile of UFO's for a while.

The small one wanted to put on the tank top I was wearing on the hot day. With the help of a binder clip, it made a nice dress. Guess I shouldn't leave my clothes on the floor so much. You see a green elephant butt on the back. The front of the elephant is on the front ;)

Hanging Out Inside

Finished the chubby chicks top. Who knows how long it will be before it's quilted and bound. I only work at night :) I made a bold choice for the backing fabric. We'll see how I like it when it's done.

Mutant cinnamon raisin bread. It wasn't pretty but it tasted good. I've made this bread a few times before and it came out looking pretty, but this time I had distractions. The swirl of goodness inside still looked nice.  Thank you Joy of Cooking!

Bea had a stomach bug and then a bad cold back to back. At least her bum was looking cute while she rested thanks to her buddy Everett.

Bay of Fundy

We decided to take a drive to the Bay of Fundy this weekend 'cause we felt like getting outta town and taking our new snow tires for a spin. Blomidon Provincial Park was the destination, though we knew we wouldn't be doing much hiking since A) Bea was with us, of course, and it was freakin' cold; -10C or so and windy and B) most of Nova Scotia seems to be closed from October to April. Yep, the trails and roads were closed, but we did cruise around the parking/picnic area until our noses and toeses frozes.

 

LOVE this snowsuit!!

 

cute waddle-prints :)

 

What's that weird white stuff on the beach? The beaches in California didn't have icicles!

 

It's sunny, it's sunny! Quick, capture this on film!!

It was still neat to see, and we got to check out some more of our new province. We'll definitely be heading out this way again when the weather gets better...

Here are Monday's tide data from Fisheries and Oceans Canada for a spot near where we were:
# High and Low Tides
# Date;Time;Height
2012-02-06;05:41;2.3
2012-02-06;11:31;13.4
2012-02-06;18:11;1.6
2012-02-06;23:58;13.1

Did you catch that? The low tide is 1.6 meters and the high tide is 13.4 meters. That's about a 35-foot swing over 6 or 7 hours. When we were there the tide was low and going out.

On the way, we spotted the Just Us! cafe, roastery, and fair trade museum in Grand Pre (how do I put an accent mark over the e?). I have already developed a weakness for the two Just Us! coffee shops here in Halifax, so we had to stop. Fun for the whole family :)

Remove stones and chaff; Roast; Cool; Package; Mmmmmm....

 Circle of coffee flavors: On the "tastes" side I'll skip acrid and caustic in favor of nippy or soft. On the aroma side, maybe something "nutty" like "toast" would be better than the "charred, ashy" scent :)

In the Kitchen

I goofed this morning and made a huge amount of oatmeal. This is the third dish I've messed up while trying to half or double in the last week. I blame mommy brain. I hear that leftover cooked oatmeal reheats nicely, but I don't like to see that slimy goo looking out at me from the fridge. Also had some leftover cream cheese frosting from Scott's birthday carrot cake - which I made as cupcakes this time, so you don't need as much frosting as you would for a layer cake. What to do? I found these scones and I had all the ingredients, so I whipped them up and tried the frosting on top. The combo was so so, but I'll eat anything with cream cheese frosting on it. The scones are going to be really good with butter and jam, mmmm. They're pretty much just oats and whole wheat flour, so I guess I can say they're healthy :)

I also couldn't resist these cute pasta hearts for Valentine's Day. The way to Scott's heart isn't always though his stomach - sometimes it's through running socks, but I'll try the stomach this year. Adding beer helps.

Chicks

I got one chubby chick completely finished today - appliqued the eye on and trimmed the block to size. Is it sick to make a chick out of duck fabric? I didn't want to use buttons as the eyes like they suggest in the pattern. I had some circle templates to make applique ones and I used some spray starch to keep things in place since the eye is so small. It went quicker than I thought and the eye stayed pretty round (I'm no expert and appliqueing tiny things). I'm looking forward to putting this top together, but I guess it's going to be a while before it's all ready. I've got other things going on!

One of the other things is the girl. She's so funny - already saying lots of words like car, doggie, more, all done, cracker, and of course, no no no.  She's been eating quinoa, hooray! Too bad she's over the tofu. What other hippie foods can I try?  :)