painting folkart for Christmas

By special request by one of my readers, I have posted some of the (many) folk-art Christmas ornaments that I have painted over the years.  I started painting in or about 1996.  Painting is an act of self-discipline and repetition for me.  I started taking folk-art painting classes to exercise the right side of my brain (which is regularly overwhelmed by the rigourous workouts given to the left side of my brain being the analytical side) and as a way of getting me out of the office.  (I had discovered that my legal practice absorbed all of my "leisure time" so I needed an activity that required my attendance).  I discovered taking folk-art classes could be quite a social activity as all the class participants learned step-by-step within the class, all seated in a square.  Regretfully, there are no classes offered currently that I am aware of in my city so my painting is more in spurts to respond to seasonal demands!

Here's an early project completed in a class:

This ornament shows my progress from another class at a later date:

I painted this ornament (along with others donated for a Christmas tree) and kept this one for K's first Christmas ornament:

The remaining ornaments have been painted on my own, often based upon patterns found within folkart painting books:

do you see the angels?

 Today's prompt was to take a photo of a candle so I broke a 28 year old tradition by lighting this vintage candle on this vintage angel candle-holder that was given to me by a friend in high school!  I suppose I should have done this long ago; it is astonishing it hasn't melted or somehow became mis-shaped by now!

 We were supposed to take photos of lights yesterday.  As I didn't want to venture outside, I took this photo of K & N's tree!  Do you see angels in the tree too?  We purchased a short strand of lights for this tree this year so they will be on most evenings from September through to Easter due to K and N's various seasonal tree decorating spurts!  (It drives my dh crazy & now it is lit!!)

Earlier this week, we were urged to take a photo of something sacred.  I took a photo of my view of the local cathedral from my office window.

sincerely yours photo prompt

Today's photo prompt was to take a photo of cards/letters sent or received for the holiday season.  The teacher is accurate that handwritten letters/cards is almost a lost art in our age of almost instantaneous communication.  I do miss tangible communication methods although it takes so much longer and more effort to write and send a letter!

As I had just sent out the last of my Christmas cards yesterday (plus a letter to Santa ~ ho ho ho!), I took a photo of the cards received thusfar this holiday season!  We were encouraged to consider "antiquing" the photo.

 It so happened that I realized late last evening that I needed to create a tag or card for a co-worker who recently left my office.  Early this morning, I finished "ad libbing" the card so I took a photo of it as well!

2010 ornaments

Today's photography class prompt is to take a photo of a smile.  As I didn't capture any smiles early enough in the day, I decided to feature the 2010 hand-painted Christmas ornaments.  As I paint each of the girls a new ornament each every year, they chose the snowman 'Peace' ornament.  Little N painted the Noel ornament (and was smart to choose glitter glue to decorate her ornament instead of fiddling around with glue and glitter!)

reflections

Today's photography class prompt is "reflections".  Here is what I caught reflecting this holiday season:

 The Christmas tree lights reflect onto my grandmother's china cabinet.

Reflections of our livingroom from our hallway mirrored closet.

the pensive season

We've been having spectacular hoar frost here for the last 2 days.  Here is a close-up that I took for my class:

 I also took this shot last evening while contemplating the "Road less traveled". 

I was reflecting on how children run all over through snow and adults generally keep to the traveled road and how this is mirrored through everything that children and adults do (ie: how children do crafts versus adults).  As time passes, and likely too soon, there will be just the one well-worn foot-path to the garage.

Reframing: Frohe weihnachten

Today's photo prompt for my class was to re-frame a subject.  Technically, I didn't reframe an object (as the Advent calendar doesn't have a frame) but I was home ill with the flu so searching for a better subject was out of the question!

My dh and I bought this Advent calendar at a huge Christmas store in (Rottenberg?) Germany in 2002.  We've hung it annually ever since and now use it daily with the children as there is a little chocolate Santa waiting for them each morning following a discussion about Advent.

I don't speak German but Frohe Weihnachten is translated as "Merry Christmas".

gratitude: the gift of sound

As you may have noticed on my sidebar, I am taking a photography class this holiday season.  I know: just one more thing to do daily is contemplate what photo to take based upon email prompts!  I hope to capture a different perspective of Christmas this year.

Christmas is my favourite time of year.  It is a season of all our senses.  It is tactile with different ribbons, glitter and evergreens.  I love the smells and tastes of Christmas (baking, Christmas dinner).  I adore the brightness and warmth of Christmas.  Most of all, I love the sounds of Christmas, so seeped with music both classical and contemporary.

Yesterday's email prompt was "gratitude".  I have so much to be grateful for but I couldn't shake the need to focus responding to the daily prompt with a focus on hearing.  It was tough to photograph hearing or sound so I played around with music and CDs.  The reality is that one of my greatest joys at Christmas is playing Christmas music on the piano.  Voila!

I've continued to have ongoing periodic challenges of hearing this year, most recently in October and November.  I am continuing to explore the source of these hearing challenges with Western medicine; I am plugging along on the naturopathic diet albeit I don't feel any better or energetic for following it for almost 1.5 months).  The good news is that I'm not allergic to dust (following allergy tests) & I have no brain tumour (following MRI)!

the gift of marketing

A couple weeks ago, I trudged through snow to the office in the morning and discovered a journalist for a national news service had left a message for me to return his call.  Of course I did so promptly.  Within 2 hours, he and his cameraman presented themselves at my office wanting to interview me on issues respecting access enforcement and father's parenting rights.  Fully aware of the marketing potential (which is very important to private bar counsel), I cooperated (and carefully worded my phrases knowing they would be edited anyway and designed my replies with the intent of making them gender-neutral).  I had been told it would be on the news that evening.  It wasn't so I stopped thinking about it and went on my merry way.

Today I reached the office to discover an email from my dh that someone had heard the interview on the local segment of the national service's radio show at 7:40 a.m. ( ~ prime time for those preparing or commuting to work).  The journalist left a voice message yesterday alerting me that the interview would be on the news at 6 p.m. last evening and web-based archives as well as today on the morning show (and available on podcast and possibly also in archives).

I'm aware that it is asserted that there is no such thing as "bad publicity".  It will be intriguing to observe the effects of this gift of marketing.

And what is so absolutely amazing about it is that the journalist didn't know me personally.  It was completely random that I was chosen for the interview aside from the fact that he did a search on the internet and then read my biography, likely on my firm's website.

It was all about luck.

going uphill without gluten

I've been trying really hard to eliminate gluten from my diet (even though I'm not celiac and don't have  a food allergy that I'm aware of) and have been trying recipes with different flours to see whether they can substitute for wheat-based flour.  So far?  Not so good.  I've discovered that my tolerated Spelt bread has low amounts of glutten in it.

Spelt flour pancakes are tolerable and have a bit of a cinnamon flavour to them; the girls complained of their brown flour colour but agreed to eat them under threat of not being permitted to watch Saddle Club.

I managed to sneak spelt flour into the gravy with no one noticing.

My latest baking effort was to make an apple crisp with spelt flour and maple syrup (substituting brown sugar).  The crisp had a cake-like finish to it which was unappealing to me (but my dh still thought it was tastey).  I've concluded that any future apple crisps will need to have an oatmeal topping.

My family will not eat my quinoa pasta and aren't keen on eating quinoa at all (although I have managed to convince N of its nutritional benefits which she'll crow about yet generally refuse to eat quinoa).

quilting fabrics in the kitchen

I neglected to mention that I finally finished making the cafe curtains for the kitchen in July.  They were a bit of a nuisance to make as I had to piece together the curtain fabric because it wasn't wide enough to fit the window.

As Christmas is coming way to soon, I finally finished making the double-sided placemats for the kitchen.  The reverse side of the mats are the same yellow cupcake pattern found on the curtains.  The actual mats were easy enough to pull together.  It was the binding that was a nuisance to create and sew!  Next time(??!), I'll use a wider binding!

The pink, yellow and turquoise patterns are all Robert Kaufman Fabric from the Sweet Tooth Collection and named Camellia Cupcakes.  N loves the fabric and keeps commenting that she could just eat our curtains!  Considering I ad libbed the curtains and the placemats, I am pleased enough with their outcomes!

we have not forgotten

Just as I decorate seasonally, I tend to read children's books seasonally too to K and N.  As they are getting older, I try to read books with more depth so that they understand the contexts and history of our holidays.

Today is no exception.  Although the children have participated in Remembrance Day activities through school, for the last week or so at home, we've been reading Hana's Suitcase.

I recall reading Anne Frank's Diary as well as other Holocaust books starting when I was in Grade 3.  World War II history has been of significant influence within my childhood and, in fact, my adult life as it paved the foundation for my interest in the area of human rights.

I guessed correctly that K (in Grade 2) was ready to explore this historic period with me.  Hana's Suitcase has presented an opportunity to discuss discrimination and the role of individual and collective freedoms in society.  We have discussed how fortunate we are to live where and when we are.  We have discussed the importance of reading books such as these so that those who have gone through such traumatic events are not forgotten.

Meanwhile, Remembrance Day is observed in our home. Due to poor weather and roads, we observed the ceremony on television.  We spoke of my dh's grandfathers and father's involvement in World War I and World War II.

We have not forgotten.

can you pronounce Quinoa?

I will admit to having difficulties pronouncing Quinoa when I read or try to spell it.  It is pronounced "keen-wah" or "kee-NO-wah" and I am trying to make it one of my newest friends.  It is supposed to be a "super-grain" as described here.

On my naturopathic diet, I am not permitted glutten and dairy and am discouraged from eating corn-based products and sugar amongst other foods.  Although I have not really paid much attention to the concept, I live to eat.  I have discovered the "foodie" world is much bleaker without glutten and corn.  I have tried some of the pre-packaged cereals, granola bars, "cookies" and the taste and textures aren't right.  I even tried a spelt fruit pie on the weekend but the crust was so "not flakey" that it didn't qualify for crust (although I give the baker "E" for effort).

I am already tired of eating hard-boiled eggs or plain salmon (with no mayo permitted because it is dairy) for lunch at work.  I have claimed all the bison sausage in our freezer for myself and prepare extra cooked sausage once per week so that I can take leftover sausage for work (because I have troubles locating proteins that are within the dietary restrictions, especially for work purposes unless I roast bison or chicken).

I started searching out recipe books last week. If the prepackaged stuff doesn't meet my palate and/or is not within my dietary restrictions, I'll prepare food for myself. When at Costco last week, I discovered this recipe book for $17.95 (instead of close to $30 retail):

Quinoa 365 has pictures (plus a website ~ see above)!  The recipes read appetizing!  Many of the ingredients are within my dietary restrictions!  Can you tell I'm excited?  I clutched the recipe book and goat cheese encircled by a blueberry/vanilla mixture close to me as I headed to the check-out!

I have already tested 2 recipes, both for breakfast.  I have discovered that Quinoa (grain) with cranberries and raisins (with a dash of maple syrup) as a hot cereal is too chewy for my liking in the morning but certainly more tolerable flavor-wise than the prepackaged Rice-O's (to replace Cheerios) cereal as a quick morning breakfast.  Although I have been focussing on this hot cereal first, N specifically requested the Quinoa granola I made (which is less time-consuming and labour-intensive than my usual granola recipe).  I am well-stocked with Quinoa flour, flakes and grain and with a determination to find tasty foods to keep me on track.

All the spirits around here

The week o' Hallow'een activities is over!  The festivities started last weekend with a Halloween party where K chose to be a cowgirl, N a witch.  We skipped N's musical theatre class as I was running short time-wise and she was supposed to dress up for class on Monday!  Of course we had the school costume parade on Friday where K was Anne of Green Gables and N was tickled pink gold with purple bobbles to join the horde of kindergarten princesses.

To my astonishment, K and N both decided to don the furry costumes this evening ~ no doubt they were wary of being cold outside!  Not once while wearing their furry costumes did they complain of being cold (although we had to come home to get their mitts once we had canvassed our slushy/snowy block for treats).  As I look at this photo of K, it is apparent that she has now outgrown all the furry warm costumes I have on hand!  We will have to plan a better "outside" costume for her next year (although we had planned for her to be a cowgirl this evening but she insisted on a furry costume)!

There weren't many kids out hallow'eening this year.  We had merely 19 kids at our door.  It could be that it is an "old" neighbourhood, or perhaps some families don't participate for religious reasons or safety concerns.  We participate in it because we don't have a chance to see our neighbours very often and it is a good opportunity to have a chat before we hibernate for winter!  For me, Hallow'een is about the spirit of community and making sure that children feel safe within their neighbourhood.

As K readied for bed this evening, her mind was already set on the next event: St Nicholas' Day when gifts arrive unexpectedly at our door in early December.  We had a chat about the spirit of giving.  One day, we will have a chat about the spirit of friendship, the foundation of St Nicholas' Day.

naturopathic diet, round #2, week 1

As there has been no Western explanation for the fluctuations in my hearing (& I am awaiting referral to ENT #2), I have decided to re-try the wacky naturopathic diet in an attempt to detoxify my system.

This time I have the kitchen renovation behind me.  (The thought of trying to prepare 2 separate meals on a 2-burner hot-pad for 5 or more weeks was too daunting to attempt).

This time, I have already substituted bison for beef and have 1/2 a bison in our freezer.  (Bison roasts faster than beef and is significantly more lean than beef.  There is barely a discernible flavour difference between bison and beef).

This time, the naturopath and I negotiated more reasonable dietary restrictions.  I can drink Almond or soy milk (instead of just the brown rice milk ~ blah).  The almond milk "vanilla" flavour is actually lower in fat than 2% dairy milk and has greater quantity of fibre than dairy milk.  I can periodically eat corn-based products.  My fruit restrictions are somewhat less restrictive (ie: discouraging citrus but I am permitted bananas this time).  Ultimately, the primary focus is on reducing sugars and refined white products (ie: Basmati rice, gluten based breads and pastas).

This time, I encountered a very helpful store-clerk who has dietary issues similar to mine in a newly opened local store.  She introduced me to her favourite brand of Quinoa pasta (so tonight I made 2 different pots of pasta ~ one for my family and one for me plus leftovers for me) and the store's favoured cheese substitute (which is tolerable).  The store bakes fresh bread so I picked up some spelt bread.  I tried the bakery's breakfast bar which was quite tasty.  It appears I have a new weekend hangout as I try new products over the next 5 to 6 months.  There has apparently been an explosion of new products entering the market from the United States within the last 6 months (which would have been after round #1).  The store-clerk has disclosed her Saturday work-schedule to me so I anticipate we will be very good friends within the next few months!

Wish me luck on round #2!

autumn breezes

 We've spent a lot of time at our farm this autumn.  We had a farm party complete with hot dogs & marshmellows roasted over an open fire and then watched the kids race around playing hide-n'-seek while trying to avoid running through cow-patties in the dark, armed merely with flashlights.  (Somebody's cows ventured into our farm yard earlier in the week of the farm party and I was "dismayed" to discover that they don't use pooper-scoopers for cow deposits!)

Later in September, the girls have enjoyed bouncing around while riding in the 1957 Land Rover after they helped pick the potato harvest.  (We had blight this year so our potato crop has been affected.)

We've been busy getting ready for Halloween.  The girls did most of the Halloween decorating this year.  My dh strongly dislikes tolerates having the Christmas Halloween tree in the hallway for a full 30+ days before Halloween so we decorated it just for him.  (He knows that this tree will be following him into the nursing home & we will decorate it seasonally for him there too!)  I am so glad that I got those glass decorations on sale following Halloween last year!

Meanwhile, I've been working up a storm, including evenings and weekends on family law files.  It has been an exhausting autumn but we've got a lot done!

autumn weekend

We had such a cool and wet spring and summer this year!  I've been waiting (impatiently) for some warm days this autumn and this weekend seemed to have been the first sunny one in a long time!

We made great use of today's sun.  My sister-in-law and her family were supposed to come to get their cattle off our pasture land today so I packed up some lemonade and pumpkin muffins and we headed out to the farm hoping to see some cattle wrangling with riders on horseback!

While waiting for them to arrive, we tried to fly kites but the wind wouldn't cooperate!

We noticed how the frost caused the trees to lose their leaves but the grass remains green due to all the moisture this year!  Unfortunately, the frost wasn't harsh enough to kill the mosquitos!

We checked out our crop!

The afternoon ended with disappointment as my sister-in-law had vehicle problems so the girls and I came home for supper.  Still, it was a lovely day!

scrappin'

Although I've been really occupied with work lately, I have managed to squeeze a little time for crafting on the side.  I have been taking a Big Picture Class, "Adventures in Scrapbooking: Use Your Stash", but haven't been following it as attentively as my first class, "Baker's Dozen".  (I really enjoyed Baker's Dozen.)

I have managed to do a couple baby layouts using photos that have been hanging around with my baby stash (and yes, I have my stash organized based upon seasons/occasions ~ call me "uptight" but I can usually find things reasonably quickly!) ...

I was delighted to finally able to incorporate K's baby barrettes into a layout!  Every time I see them, I think of her!

This layout didn't turn out as I had planned.  Its title is "Sweet Dreams" and the word "dreams" is designed into the patterned paper and located below "Sweet".  I just couldn't figure out a way of raising attention to dreams.  Working on a layout is like working on a puzzle to me.

Journalling is a very important part of my scrapbooking.  It is fun to play with paper and tangible things (buttons, accessories) but the journalling gets me each time.  It is a wonderful way to record memories!

last week's find

Well before the beginning of the kitchen reno, I realized that a regular table would not fit into the reno-ed kitchen.  A dining area, other than the peninsula, was not going to be feasible so I started my quest for the "perfect" vintage desk so that I could hover around spy upon the children while they worked on the computer.  For months, I have vigilantly visited antique stores and mid-century stores with my measuring tape in hand; I have cruised the internet searching for "Herman Miller vintage desk".  All for naught.  I finally relented and agreed that my dh's grandfather's 29"-wide arborite table would work for the desk but this table was still too wide.

True story:  last Saturday the phone rang and my dh was on the line phoning from our farm.  "Guess what I found!", he encouraged me.  I guessed gold.

But it was better than gold: it was a vintage table with grey arborite that my father-in-law purchased from an office auction in the 1980s.  It is 20" in depth and perfect in every way (altho I'm a little undecided whether we should paint the legs and apron of the table).  The table has sat holding "stuff" in the machine-shed since the 1980s.

My dh picked up our Acme stools and desk chair yesterday.  We are elated with the stools and chair and feel that much closer to the kitchen starting to function as planned!

Miele steam oven review

We have been completely delighted by our new kitchen appliances.  You may recall that I was very enthusiastic about getting a steam oven to replace the microwave.  However, it took a long time before our Miele steam oven was functional; we don't believe the oven's problem was the oven but that the oven wasn't getting sufficient electricity.  (Simply put, the electrician didn't read the manual closely and thought the steam oven was functional with lesser power supplied to it).

We've had the steam oven operational for a few weeks now.  We use it virtually every day, at least once per day.  It makes phenomenal rice.  We cook most of our vegetables in the steam oven.  My dh makes his morning oatmeal in the steam oven (which is nice because you just plunk the pan into the oven, trot to the shower and return and it is ready to eat ~ you don't have to babysit the steam oven like you do the cooktop).  I make better scrambled eggs in the steam oven than on the stove.

We My dh used it last week to make canned peaches: we my dh blanched the peaches in the oven (to remove the skins), we sterilized the jars in the steam oven, and, once we filled the jars with peaches and juice, we cooked the peaches in the steam oven which eliminated the heavy canner.  It will be a dream to use the steam oven to blanch and freeze yellow beans next year!

We haven't done much reheating of casseroles yet in the steam oven but that will be attempted in the future.  We tend to still (periodically) microwave frozen breads (as the microwave has been banished to the basement).  Also on my to-do list is to make creme brulee in the steam oven.

My dh is delighted to clean the steam oven now that he has found Shamwow which soaks up any residue steam water like a dream!  He thinks the time it takes to clean the steam oven would be about equivalent to the time he would spend washing/drying a pot and we just place the used pan in the dishwasher.  It is so nice that it's really hard to burn food in a steam oven either!
 

golden oldies

As I type this post, I hear an energetic discussion by two girls, aged 5 & 7 years, as they try to organize my dh's collection of 1960s and 1970s CD (music).  They are organizing the CDs into the "girl pile" or the "boy pile".  Where they don't know if the performer is male or female which happens most frequently, they load up the CD to check it out. (ie: "I've got to check this one out... I don't know if it's a boy" ~ happens to be Cat Stevens).  (Oops, here's Sweet Home Alabama which was conclusively decided as "boy stuff".  They then grumble how there is too much boy stuff.)

Earlier, they had a heated debate over care of the CDs.  As they pointed out, these CDs are really old because they make reference to 1960s Greatest Hits or 1970s Greatest Hits and, considering they constantly hear me talk about taking good care of vintage household goodies, they have been carrying the CDs carefully because they are, after all, very old.

Wait until they discover his LPs.  If only we had a record player for them to listen to the LPs.

the school year begins!

It's that time of year: the beginning of school.  This morning, K woke up around 4 a.m. wondering whether it was morning yet as she was anxious to go to school to start grade 2.  N attended her kindergarten orientation this afternoon.  Both K & N took apples for their teachers this afternoon.  They both had a great first day and are excited to return to school.

I never realized how much of parenting was an act of self-discipline.  In the early years, self-discipline consisted mostly of eating good and healthy food groups.  Now, as we start the school year, I am bracing myself to do the daily reading (in French) with K.

Last week, I started piano lessons K started group piano lessons with Music for Young Children (MYC) which is an excellent program to introduce children to piano, music theory and ear training.  I really wish I had the opportunity to participate in elementary group piano lessons as a child as they are so much more fun than having personal piano study with a teacher.  However, I have already done my 6+ years of piano study as a child so I find attending one-hour long group lessons and monitoring practices a bit burdensome!

Today, I registered K in Kumon so that she can practice and improve her math skills.  I'm hoping that she'll see the fruits of her labour herself so that she will develop self-discipline.  Yup, I know: wishful thinking.  My dh has volunteered to take her to Kumon class once per week.

With all this self-discipline that I am exercising and modelling, you'd think that I'd be able to climb mountains.  Nicht.  I suspect my personal self-discipline is fully consumed in parenting.

one font at a time

The other night, my dh and I were reflecting on how his nephew would be starting university.  We contemplated how he would fare considering he was taking an old laptop to university which likely would be sufficient for word processing but not for research.

As we furthered the discussion, we recalled how we dealt with university essays:

My dh hired a typist to type his papers (and, as a child, I vividly recall my mother going into the basement to type up papers for a fee as a way of earning money; I can still hear the tapping of the electric typewriter!).

I recall borrowing a fellow dorm-mate's typewriter and having to pay for typing (ink) ribbon (which seemed expensive!).  In my 3rd year, I purchased a higher-tech typewriter/printer (~ a Canon Typestar, I believe) which permitted me to correct one line at a time before printing the line.  What luxury!  I still had to proof-read and correct my paper by cutting and pasting and photocopying the corrected page!  My roommate had a superior Canon Typestar which was capable of holding enough words to fill one full page before printing!

It wasn't until 1990 when I was really forced to encounter a computer for the first time during summer student employment.  I recall entering into a federal Ministry and being shown a laptop.  When I indicated that I didn't know how to use WordPerfect, I was told that I would be learning that task that summer!  Computer research was just starting to be taught at law school!  We did most legal research manually.  (In fact, just this week I was trying to locate the Statute of Elizabeth (circa 1571!) and will have to get a hard-copy from the library!)

bending backwards

Yes, I know I've been neglectful.  Worse, I haven't even been away travelling.  Instead, I took K and N to see Cirque du Soleil's

which was very good.  However, I saw Cirque du Soleil in the early 1990s (before it became an international phenomenon) in its circus tent which hosted a smaller audience and was a more intimate experience.   (I recall tickets were extremely expensive to attend Cirque Du Soleil in the 1990s as a result.) Although Alegria was very well done, I missed the circus tent feel to it!

My dh and I also saw Bryan Adams on his Bare Bones tour.  For the Bryan Adams' fan (me), it was a delightful concert.  He encouraged us to sing along and interacted with the audience.  It was a lot of fun!  I was a bit disheartened that he didn't sing, "Cuts like a Knife"!  He's had a lot of hits!

Last weekend's excuse for not blogging was that we had a storm Saturday evening which knocked out television and internet capacity until Monday morning.  What a step back into the 1980s that was!  So bored with nothing to do, everyone got lots of shut-eye that weekend!  The weather on Sunday evening was awful and we actually had to listen to the radio to determine whether there was a weather watch (although we could have phoned the weather hotline).

Also, I've had the opportunity to test-try my kitchen which was deliberately made ergonomic because of my chronic back issues.  (I've had 2 series of back issues in August, more recently last weekend when my back went out.)  This is what I loved about the kitchen last weekend because my back wouldn't permit me to reach lower than my upper thighs:

I love my Liebherr fridge!  Everything that I needed from the fridge was within reach; the freezer is located below the fridge but was basically unaccessible by me because of my back.  (Our fruits and dairy products are in the other identical fridge adjacent to this fridge.) Brilliant!

My back hasn't recovered fully by this weekend yet so I enjoyed using my Mixer Lifter to make cookie batter.  Even if I didn't have a poor back, I would still install the Mixer Lifter (which could be used for any heavy appliance such as a food processor as it accommodates up to about 60 lbs) in the kitchen.  My mixer is about 18 lbs and I know, bad back or not, I wouldn't be bringing it out regularly to use because it is too cumbersome to get out of a lower cabinet.  Now I bring it out just because I have the Mixer Lifter!  If you have it, use it!

Victoria highlights

It seems like so long ago that we were in Victoria!  As you may recall, we travelled there so that I could attend a Conference.  It was delightfully set in a very central location at Victoria's Fairmont Empress Hotel:

The grounds of the Hotel were heavenly maintained.  The view of the harbour from the Hotel is exquisite.  The hallways and the public areas of the Hotel were enchanting and stately.  Even the hallways to the hotel rooms were filled with period details.

Even though its standard rooms are adequate with two double beds and teeny tiny toilet facilities for a family of 4, the Empress' central location couldn't be beat.

I had forgot what it is like to sit at a conference crammed with too many registrants, without tables, for 7 hours per day.  The conference itself had highlights and I much appreciated having the long days (Monday & Friday) sandwiched in between short days (Tuesday & Thursday).  Without a question, a highlight of the Conference occurred the Sunday evening with the entry and meeting and greeting of Queen Elizabeth:

I rounded up K and N and returned them to the reception to meet "the Queen".  You could just picture K's little bucket-list where she must have had written "Meet the Queen" and a nice big check-mark beside it that evening!  I have pondered telling them the truth about "the Queen" but it would likely be futile: I broke the news about the Easter Bunny myth to them a couple Easters ago and, within seconds of my explanation, they turned to me and inquired when the Easter Bunny would be coming.  It's more fun to let them think they met the Queen.

woof!

K had her 7th birthday this past week.  Yesterday was her dog-themed party with her friends!  We had black Scottish terrier dog licorice and dog-earred head-bands greeting the girls at the door along with black face-paint for whiskers and doggie-nose (and some of the girls wanted dots like dalmatians).  After the craft (using clay to decorate mirror and box ~ not specifically doggie themed!), I felt sadistic watching the girls play:

• plush puppy toss (no cruelty to animals intended here)
•  pin the paw on the puppy
• rawhide bone scavenger hunt
• waterbowl races (individual carrying of spoons of water to the puppy's bowl and team-work in carrying 1/4 cups of water to the water-bowl)

Following a hot-dog supper, a birthday cake with Mary Engelbreit scottish terrier and cherry toppings were served.  It was a cake from a bakery (because I had run out of cocoa and steam after making 2 cakes for her for daycare and family parties) and the best thing about the cake were the Mary Engelbreit toppings!

Of course, the treat bags for her friends included doggie themed treats including puppy tattoos, candy-necklace collars, and Claire's happened to have lots of dog-themed doodads like little lip-glosses.  Mary Engelbreit scottish terrier chipboard and "friends" ribbon was used to dress up the Dollarama treat bags.

K was quite determined that her party with her friends include no gifts.  Instead, she requested donations for the local Humane Society so we have quite the collection of rawhide bones.  I wonder where we'll be heading sometime soon?

glimpses of Victoria

 Our first stop was a visit to Victoria's Butterfly Gardens.  The adults were a little disappointed with it although the tour and visit was the right length of time for children, especially following two flights.

 

This is a view of Victoria's Provincial Legislature from the viewpoint of the front of Empress.

It seems that no trip to Victoria is complete without a visit to the beautiful Butchart Gardens.  It was worth the admission to visit as we gasped in awe at the beauty of the Sunken Gardens.  It was impressive reclamation of land which used to be a mine until it was abandoned and converted into the gardens.  Much to our surprise, the girls were enthusiastic about walking through the gardens and K visited each one (but N didn't visit the Japanese Garden as her feet were sore).   The girls were delighted by the Carousel but didn't pay much mind to the nearby totem poles which were made traditionally by First Nations in parts of British Columbia.

We visited the nearby Fort Rodd Hill National Historic Site.  The Fort itself wasn't terribly interesting as it was not engaged in any particular battle although it served active duty until after World War II.  The nearby lighthouse was a worthwhile visit as it described what life would have been like for the families who worked and lived in the lighthouse and was quite interactive for children.

We lucked out by encountering a Cadillac reunion at Fort Rodd.  This was my favorite from the early 1950s!

I didn't have much time for sightseeing as I was at a conference.  Near the end of our stay, we visited Fisherman's Wharf as part of a Harbour Tour.  It never occurred to me that people set up residence in boats on the West Coast!  It was very picturesque!