Category: Uncategorized

I’m still here…

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…and I’ve aged a year since the last time you saw me!

This will be rather a lame post as I don’t have a lot of guid photos on my own camera.  They turned out blurry.  However, on my 38th birthday I convened a party of 40 plus people to celebrate both my birthday and my mother’s nameday. 

Where are the photos of my mother, you ask?  I’m not posting them because she actually looks younger than me.  No joke.  Those of my friends who hadn’t met her already were shocked that she was my mother.  

So, I’m posting a photo of our mystery guest in her place: 

She brought along some mystery gifts:

(I guess she didn’t know that I’m a knitter!)

I also got lots of other fab gifts, including these:

… and these:

… and these… 

This was despite the fact that I said “no gifts or you’re not getting fed”.  But the friends who brought the gifts all told me “We can’t really read… so we didn’t understand what your Email said”. I had to accept this and feed them anyway. 

There was a little mishap with the cakes in the photo with me above, by the way.  I managed to give out the wrong buzzer code to my apartment, which was a problem with the cake delivery that my friend and colleague KP had arranged for me and my mother.  This caused a bit of drama at the party… but then every party needs drama – and the cakes got here eventually, more joy to us. The cakes were amazing – and for those in the Toronto area they were ordered from She Takes the Cake.  And surely she does take the cake as they spent an hour trying to deliver the cakes before the mishap was made known.  Sigh.  

There are photos of the big spread that we prepared, but apparently not on my camera.  I catered 20 different middle eastern / greek dishes, my mother prepared a tremendous tiropita (greek cheese pie) and my friend Jennifer provided tofu kebabs which disappeared pretty quickly.   I will be boring you with all of those photos when I get them, no doubt. 

The “I’d like to bore you with photos of my food” will be made far easier once I manage to get this gift from JJ installed:

(I guess he got sick and tired of me saying “I have to print out it out at work!!”)

I also got this fabulous lawyerly gift from my mother, who got it from ECCO Shoes where she works (in case anyone is looking…):

… and she threw these in among other gifts:

We also acquired eight bottles of wine and 50 beers from various generous friends, so we don’t need to hit the LCBO for a week some time. Not to mention a fabulous cookbook from my friend MT at work!

So, I had the best birthday ever, really.  And since I’ve been away more than a week from here, I have LOTS to rant about in the current events realm but I will save it for tomorrow whenever it seems appropriate.

As for my family emergency – thank you for all the kind Emails off list!  The emergency is sorted now and everything is fine.  

I wish you all a guid week, and leave you with a parting recipe for two salads which were an unexpected big hit at my party.  

Baby Spinach and Pea Salad

(original idea for the recipe from Jamie Oliver’s “Naked Chef” book)

– 4 cups/1 litre baby spinach

– 2 – 3 cups green peas (fresh if you can get them, but frozen and thawed would work)

– 113 g/4 oz crumbled feta

Combine all of the above.  Dress with extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice (the original recipe) or strawberry vinegar (my version).  Add salt and pepper to taste.  

Carrot and Orange Salad

(original recipe came from Claudia Roden’s book on Middle Eastern food, now out of print). 

– 1 1/2 lbs carrots, grated

– 2 tins of mandarin oranges, drained of all syrup

– 1/2 c lemon juice

– 2 T rosewater (which you can get at a middle eastern shop)

– 1/2 bunch of coriander (cilantro), ripped off the stems – don’t chop

– salt and pepper to taste. 

Combine all of the above in no particular order. 

A happy rest of the week to you all!

Regards, 

Kristina

dereliction of blogging duty…

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Hi all: to those kind people who keep reading, I realise that I haven’t been following my regular blog posting schedule.  I wanted to let you know that I will not be posting anything again until Tuesday 20 August… between my new job and a family emergency (fret not – both JJ and I are OK!) I need to take a wee break.

I will return on Tuesday 20 August refreshed, relaxed and re-witted (I hope, anyway!)
Wishing you all a wonderful week,

Kristina

cartoon research and who comes here anyway?

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Now that I have a brand spanking new job back with the Tenant Advocates, I’ve been doing some high-end legal research. Here are some of the results:

The more things change…. I figured JJ would like that one too, because of the puir wee scottish tenant wearin the kilt. That should be guid for a full scale “bloody English” rant! Heh heh.

Here’s a more modern depiction of The Landlord, just to be fair:


 
Yeah, OK, landlord – now, can you replace my 20 year old stove and 25 year old fridge, do you think?!

And then of course there are those situations dealing with luxury rental accommodations:

Sigh.

I’m depressed now, so I’d best get back to my real job. But before I do… something that has been plaguing me. I must admit I’m very curious to know how many people read this blog for some reason. In my brain, I have it at a dozen people or so – but I think there are a few more than that.

Anyway, I thought a poll would be a safe way for people to let me know whether they read or not, and still keep lurking. So, if you wouldn’t mind, would you just take a moment and answer the poll below? I can’t find out who you are, but I may get to learn that it is actually a baker’s dozen who read the blog, which would make me happy (my standards are rather low).

So, many thanks in advance. I wish I could promise all respondents a prize… but then again, I won’t know who you are. So, I’m off the hook. ($#*$&@$#*&#* lawyers, eh?!)

Happy Wednesday!

Canada Day continued…

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Look at these fabulous pies for Canada Day to take to Robert’s place:

I must confess that I had great assistance from the very American Amy, who, when I was whining on Email about trying to make a quiche without being able to make a crust, reminded me that Bisquick exists.

So, here’s how the cooking began.  I made up a batch of Moonblush Tomatoes courtesy of Nigella Lawson (rough idea – preheat oven to 450 F, meanwhile cut your small tomatoes in half, sprinkle over then a bit a sugar, salt and pepper and some olive oil.  Put them in the oven then turn it off and let them sit overnight.

This was the result (although I’ll confess that I added oregano):

I made two batches of these, actually, and canned the first bunch:

But back to the tart recipes.  I just added this magic ingredient:

I also made a yogourt/egg quiche mixture for the one pie, and threw in a whole bunch of parmesan cheese for the next pie.  If you want the separate recipes, do contact me!

I also made a salad to take as well… with pineapple.  I know it sounds strange.  However, one of the big TV chefs up here did it, so I thought I could manage as well.  Here’s his recipe, by the way.

It called for a couple of grilled fruits/vegetables, including pineapple:

… and onions grilled until they were caramelised and nice and sweet:

I also threw in some roasted red peppers, and used lime and lemon juice and zest instead of only the lemon called for. This was the end result:

Now, this was popular, but the pies really, really went over quite well:

I was quite happy to be at Robert’s place today with all of these food offerings, and he responded by putting my Canada Day mosaic in the pride of place:

But it seems that I can’t escape from the duckies after all.

Sigh.  But this is a photo I took from Robert’s balcony, well, well north of the waterfront:

… and here is another picture from his balcony:

Clearly it pays to live on the 19th floor facing south in Toronto.  I couldn’t myself live above floor five or so, but I’m clearly missing some great views.  Sigh.

stream of consciousness (oh no not again!)

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Well, last evening there was a marvellous sunset for a change… partly, doubtless, because yet another thunderstorm looms.  But hey.

Isn’t it good and spooky-looking?  It actually made me covet (even more) one of these masks which I had seen on the Globe and Mail web photo page yesterday

Now, how’s THAT for a craft project?!?  They’re called “devil masks”.  The photo above is of dancers about to do a Spanish folk performance in Barcelona.

Ah, Barcelona.  Home of Gaudi mosaics!

I wish I could be 1/10 this talented… but at the very least I will definetely visit Barcelona as soon as humanly possible (although with the fuel prices where they’re at and the response of the airlines, I will likely need divine intervention to afford an overseas ticket before long.  Sigh.)

But something else is nagging me about Barcelona.  What the hell is it?!

Ah, yes.

I do hope you’ve all seen Fawlty Towers at some point. If so, you must remember Manuel – don’t you?! “I am from Barthelona” Manuel”, who has even been known to talk to Canadians from time to time!

And, there’s even a pinko poster starring Manuel, much to my general amusement!

I was still laughing at this by the time I came home yesterday.  So much so that the new balcony decoration escaped my normally keen eye until I went out to take the sunset photos:

Now, I do have a black thumb and all, but even stunned little me managed to pick up that these are actually fake flowers, not real ones.  I couldn’t figure out what they were doing in a planter with real dirt. So I asked J “His Master’s Voice” J, who is responsible for the landscaping at the House of Brouhaha (and who, I might add, has fallen down severely on the task this year).

JJ: Ah was waiting to see how long it wuid tek ye to notice… (consulting the ever present watch)…only 3 and a half hours.  No’ bad, hen.

KB: What?!?!?  What do you mean?!?  Are you testing me?  Where the hell did you get those anyway?!?

JJ: Ah’m surprised ye don’t recognise them – we’ve both bin trippin over them on the balcony floor this past month or so.

KB: Hey, there are two adults in this house.  If you noticed them a month ago, why didn’t you pick them up then????

JJ:  Ah was waitin to see how long it wuid tek ye to notice…

You see what I put up with?!?  Lucky for me, despite the global warming, the smog, etc., the sunsets in Toronto can still be lovely.

May I say it’s been pleasant chatting with you all?  But now I must away to get the first coffee of the morning…

Happy Wednesday!

some objets d’art

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I know, I know… I’ve been rather slack on posting project photos. This is partly because my work on Seascape is going rather slowly, and partly because I’ve taken up work on a rather large-scale mosaic project which I don’t wish to reveal until finished.

(Oh – I’ve also taken up practicing the piano – or in my case, the electric piano-style keyboard, which was until two weeks ago the largest and most expensive dust-collector in my apartment.

However, just to remind my faithful readers (and myself!) that this is primarily a crafts-based blog, here are some photos of the recent balcony work in the House of Brouhaha.

First up, a freeform mosaic (“freeform” meaning nothing is glued down, and so this work can change at a moment’s notice) featuring rocks I collected at the seashore in Inverness, Nova Scotia

Although you probably can’t tell from the photo, this is a water bowl. (Oh, and I should note, the table it’s on was rescued from the back of the apartment building last year but I finally got around to spraypainting it on Saturday). I got the idea from a mosaic book, although that water bowl featured tiles.

Actually, the use of the base bowl (which is a terra cotta thing that is meant to go underneath large planter pots – to this day I don’t know the name) is long overdue as there is a bit of a story behind its acquisition. I had read this idea about a Moroccan style “water bowl” with tiles more than two years ago, and of course needed to find the base right away. I searched up and down the garden centres close to me in Toronto but none of them sold this size (20″) in the clay version, only in plastic.
I had just about given up when JJ and I took a trip down to Kingston to visit my mother. We went for a day journey to Gananoque, about 20 minutes from Kingston, and found a very old-school hardware shop: here’s their blurb on line:

A Tradition in Gananoque, Since 1872
We at Donevan’s Hardware pride ourselves in being a 5th generation family owned and operated business for the past 135 years.
We are an old fashioned down to earth Hardware store. Typically customers come into our store for those hard to find items that no other stores carry.

Well, I am living proof of that statement, really I am. Why? Because I went into this wonderful shop (the type of shop I adore – all sorts of stuff jammed in) and asked if they had such a thing as a 20″ terra cotta dish. Well! I got taken up to the storage attic by one of the proprietors (who was 80 if she was a day) and got a tour of the storage while she looked for this dish, which she “just knew” was there. And so it was. And it cost… gasp!… $35! I had not wanted to spend more than $20 – but just could not refuse. She even insisted on calling up her (80 year old) husband from the cash to come and bring it down for me.

So, sale by sheer embarrassment. Having said that, do check out this shop if it’s still there. You won’t regret it – but just don’t ask for anything you don’t see on the shelf.

But, as ever, I digress.  Anyway, JJ got jealous of my water bowl and rocks so I let him have some of the rocks to put into his special fountain:

Having come across some rather decrepit candles in glasses, I then decided to try a wee experiment – salvaging and chopping up the wax from the dead candles, then putting them back in the pretty glasses with another candle in the middle:

I also put some sea glass in the one at the left as a little experiment.  I’ll let you know how it goes.  So far, so guid.

Oh, and I can’t help but show off another of my Nova Scotia acquisitions: a basalt tea light holder!

Huh?!?  Well, here’s what it looks like at the top:

So, all to say, our balcony is now all ship shape and ready for the party season… day or night!

Happy Tuesday!

moot post?

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Hello all: I’m sure this is probably moot, so bear with me.  I’ve been advised (and I can see) that Bloglines is way behind in my feed.  Maybe they’re upset that I wasn’t posting every day… 🙂  Anyway, just so’s you know – I’m here.

Sitting on my balcony, enjoying the party atmosphere amongst the balcony dwellers, full of fabulous cheap Italian food from Eden on St Clair, and admiring the lack of grey in the above photo produced by my Mac’s PhotoBooth programme (I guess there’s a reason I paid $$$ for the Mac after all!)

Anyway, if you’ve had a delay problem, maybe you could drop me a quick line at BespokeByBrouhaha@gmail.com?  But if you have better things to do, I certainly understand!
Happy weekend,

Kristina

How to feel like you’ve just dropped LSD at 9:45 a.m.*

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*Disclaimer: Not that I’ve ever actually dropped LSD, of course. That would have been an illegal activity, and thus something I most certainly do not condone. Just some poetic licence here, folks. Really. I mean it.

Easy! (and cheap, and not as bad for you as the real thing, either). Just take a look at the Photo Exhibit at the Globe and Mail website on any given day.

I think you’ll get what I mean when you have a look at some of today’s offerings:

What?!?!?!?

(Here’s the caption from the Globe: “Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s work, called Dots Obsession: Infinity Mirrored Room is on exhibit at the contemporary art centre Le Spot in Le Havre, France, as part of the Arts Le Havre 2008 contemporary art biennial.”)

This, on the other hand, is a Dutch football supporter at the Eurocup. Nuff said.

And these? Well:

Maybe not too ersatz LSD-head of me, but these make me very, very glad that I was not of age during the 70s. Apologies to anyone who actually had a pair of these at the time.

And finally, this just frightened me, frankly:

Was I wrong?

Really, I should just stick to looking at knitting stuff from now on.

Hmm.

Then again…

Well, I think I’d best tune out, drop out, etc. now. I’m really, really starting to fear for my sanity!

Happy Thursday!

yet another meme!

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Man alive… a girl goes on (hard-earned, by the way) vacation for two weeks and, in addition to facing the 1,027 work Emails which will have arrived in my inbox tomorrow, gets tagged for not one but two memes! Sheesh!!

But I do like Clarabelle quite a bit, so I will indulge her curiosity. However, Clarabelle, in exchange, I am tagging YOU for the meme sent to me by Amy, which you can find right here.  All guid? heh heh

In the interval, here are my responses to Clarabelle’s meme:

1) What was I doing ten years ago?

Skiving off attending the second year of law school, and working three jobs to pay for my beer tab tuition.  Those jobs were: doing data entry at a hospital fundraising department, slinging beer at a student pub, and tying up and whipping men for big bucks.  Not necessarily in that order.

I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up at that point.  I still don’t, but at least I’m using the law degree, more or less.

2) What are five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today/tomorrow:

– get highly irritated by cell-phone wielding SUV driving maniacs

– go for plenty of smoke breaks to catch up on all the work gossip while I’ve been away

– scheming about where I can buy a rock polisher to fix up all my ocean rock booty from vacation

– have a coupla three Keiths

– decide what next I should knit in the face of having lost motivation on all the WIPs

3) Snacks I enjoy:

Anything involving the words “potato” and “chips” (or “crisps”, for my British friends) in the same sentence.  Oh, and of course… spinach and broccoli.  Can’t forget that

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

– Quit my job immediately (and by the way, all those ones who win the multi-millions and say their lives won’t change and that they will still work at WalMart or wherever?  I don’t believe it).

– Buy the entire shoe inventory of John Fluevog in my size and others (to give to friends)

– Get my hands on to the entire world inventory of Tilli Tomas swarovski crystal silk

– Buy a waterfront property in each of the following locations: Greece, Cape Breton, Australia

– Acquire enough smalti mosaic tile, stained glass, yarn and needles to keep me busy for the next ten years at least, and also a sewing machine and a really guid camer

5) Places I have lived:

Kingston, Ontario.  About 17 locations in Toronto, Ontario.  Ho-HUM.

6) Jobs I have had:

Dishwasher in a breakfast joint.  Library page in the Kingston Public Library (where I got asked to leave after the probationary period as I was too “rowdy” and “distracting to the other pages”). Waitress. Bartender.  Doughnut slinger next to a Greek Jehovah Witness Hall in Scarborough.  Various boring office / data entry gigs. Translator/interpreter (not as interesting as that might sound). Dancer.  Library page at the law school.  Dominatrix.  Articling student.  Legal secretary.  Articling student again.  Lawyer of last resort at the Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal.  Legal clinic lawyer.  Legal researcher.

7. Peeps I want to know more about:

All of you!!! So, if any of you want to grab this meme and do it on your blog, please do let me know when you post your responses. I don’t think that I should tag anyone specifically at this point… except, well, perhaps Amy in heartfelt thanks for tagging me earlier.

neatness: just say no!

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While at the office yesterday, I was quite tickled to read this tagline to a story in the Toronto Star:

You may see a disaster, a desk that looks hurricane-ravaged, strewn with papers and debris. Josh Freed sees creativity in the making.

This is the office of Josh Freed, a journalist who has just made a documentary about the “evangelism of neat freaks”.  He suggests that they worship at big churches otherwise known as container shops.  But he’s had it with being judged as a lazy slob just because he is messy.

His theory: a messy office means a creative mind:

I find almost everything fairly quickly. I think the issue with a mess is the aesthetics. There is an organizing principle underneath. I work with the archaeological system – the farther down in the pile, the more years back. While thrashing through, you find other things that give you ideas. It creates accidental thinking.

I love this guy! So, there is a method to my madness in not cleaning up that spare room after all!

Now, ironically enough, the head office of the organisation I work for just instituted a “clean desk policy”.  Ordinarily a neat freak myself at the workplace, I’ve noticed that clutter seems to have built up on my des, perhaps as a form of rebellion.  How dare some big shadowy boss/CEO make rules about how I organise my work, anyway! Sheesh!

Perhaps I could bring a constitutional challenge on the grounds that the clean desk policy stifles my inner creativity… hmm.

Anyone care to join me?!

Happy Saturday.  Now that I don’t have to tidy up the house, I’m going to indulge in some knitting.