domicile

Local Treasures

  new astro satchel 
  Originally uploaded by emira

The other day, as I rode my bike home from work I stopped to speak with a fellow cyclist at an intersection. She admired by gorgeous (if I may say so myself) new bag from Astrosatchel that was perched in my bike basket (pictured here), while I commented on an awesome skirt she was wearing. Both items of admiration were made by local designers, and as I rode away I realized that that day I was almost entirely much adored items by local designers (save my shoes). Vancouver is lucky to be brimming with talented local clothing, jewelry and accessories designers and I am particularly fortunate to know a few of my favorites (no bias there at all) designers and shop keepers personally. When Lauren and I ran Soapboxgirls.com,
we had a page of links called The Buyer's Guide on which we catalogued some of our personal favourite women owned small businesses. We have plans to do the same thing for Bosslady.ca soon, but the scope of that will surely extend beyond the Vancouver border. There is a special place in my heart (and my closet) for our local talent, and so I've been mulling over profiling some of those local treasures here. I figure if nothing else it might help give some of those small business folks some exposure to people from afar who visit our fair town.

On that note, if you too think this bag is just swell, check out the Astrosatchel website, she doesn't have this style available in her store yet but you can see another example at that link there, and I'm sure she'd be open to email inquiries. I'm thrilled to bits with this bag, as I've been on the hunt for a new bag since we went to Copenhagen last year. You see, while we were there I bought a patterned rain coat, that I simply adore, but which was far too busy to pair with my favourite Orla Kiely purse. In looking for something new, I kept turning up other patterned purses -- as that sort of thing is pretty popular these days, and admittedly I gravitate toward them. The thing I love about this purse is that it answers to my soft spot for patterns with the sash, but you can take the sash off for a less decorative look. You can also make your own sashes, if you're so inclined, providing one with even more outlets for coveted fabric samples.

Home Alone

  wee dress 
  Originally uploaded by emira

Well it's been a week now since we handed in our final draft of our book to the publishers and I'm just starting to feel like I've got some energy back. I spent this Sunday/Monday home alone (and took an extra day off) as Martin and Miss P went down to Seattle to visit with some friends and do some back to school shopping. This was the first time I've been alone in the house for an extended period of time, and while I love the two of them to pieces, I must admit I was kind of giddy at the thought of it. As the summer wore on I kept a little mental list in the back of my brain cataloging all the things I might do with my expanse of solitary home-time. That list included things like having a gaggle of girls over for champagne on the deck, undertaking a new garden project, starting to paint the house, countless dormant craft projects, and on and on. In the end, I flaked. Hard core. There were bubble baths (one day I even took two), there was tea, there was pie (store bought!), I plowed through a mindless novel, ate tofu and brown rice (Martin is allergic to the former and not particularly fond of the latter), and even went so far as to indulge in some truly vapid nostalgia (only one disk though). It was great. I certainly didn't "accomplish" all I had hopes of, but as I say I'm beginning to feel whole again.

I did get one project started: my gorgeous god-daughter's birthday gift. The photo you see there is of the dress I made her, and the rest of it (which will remain a surprise to the internets until it is safely in the mail to her and her mama) is well on its way. I feel like a bit of a nitwit that I hadn't yet thought of making little girl dresses out of some of the gorgeous contemporary quilting cottons out there. I think that's partly because many of the ones I've seen around have been a bit more crafty in design than I would be up for in an evening project. But earlier this summer I was at a very chic kids boutique and fell in love with a little girl's dress, that like this one here was a very straightforward pattern, but used a bright colourful print. I resisted buying it, as it was a long way from cheap, but this little number took almost no material and about an hour and half to make including hand stitching the hem. Ah the joy of little pieces of clothing. So much quicker. I hope it will fit her, I made it a bit big so she could grow into it, and if she outgrows it I figure she can wear as a tunic.

Anyway, now that I'm rejoining the world of the living I do have a number of domestic projects on my mind. Too bad summer seems to have up and left us, rather rudely. Perhaps it will come back for September.

still life with book edits

still life with book edits.
Originally uploaded by emira

Due on Wednesday. The finish line is in view. Right now I feel much as Felicia describes here -- in the hate phase that is.

Looking forward to getting through to the love.

You know what the internet needs?

More cat videos. For sure.

But seriously. Mr. Pluto is such a part of this here home, and while photos may come close to conveying his dashing looks, no still shot can capture his voice. And what a voice it is. He's a talker. Have I mentioned that before? Folks often don't believe me, just how much he talks. My dear friend (and old roommate) who gave him to me used to joke that she got him for me as a conversation partner so I could stop wandering around the apartment talking to myself. When I used to work from home, I regularly had clients ask me if I had "a baby that needed to be attended to" in a voice of thinly veiled concern.

As Mr. Pluto was an SPCA kitten, we had no idea he would grow into the mighty flame point siamese wonderkitty that he is. And so, we also had no idea he would have such a mouth on him. Anyway, for those of you who are curious click away. Now I just  need to try to get a video of he and Martin snoring together on the pillow in the morning, then the internet's cat archives will finally be complete!

the internet: now with more cats from domicile and Vimeo.

Culinary Objects of Desire

The new Ikea catalogue arrived on my doorstep yesterday morning, just in time for back patio coffee and browsing. Given how adverse to doing much more in the way of major renos to our house I currently am, I found myself focusing on wee details. Things like pots and lamp shades. Mirrors and bedding. Green seems to be the colour of 2008 for Ikea (as I know it is all over the darn place) and I was particularly thrilled to see their enamel cast iron pots are now available in green, which may just tip me in the direction of getting one in time for winter. I'm also lusting after a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, and hoping to get one in time for holiday baking. I've always been quite happy to live with my Cuisinart (though it's a smallish one), blender and electric beaters, but after spending two different afternoons baking over at Melanie's place I'm convinced that a Kitchen Aid is where it's at. Practically, I know that anyone colour is as good as the next but I must say a red one sure would look lovely with our red floors. And if you can't be so indulgent as to match your appliances with your floor, then what's the point right? Ha. Anyway, as soon as Felicia declared her intentions toward one I figured I wasn't alone in lusting after it's shiny red goodness.

Mid-Summer Garden Roundup

  beets! 
  Originally uploaded by emira

This year's veggie garden has definitely not lived up to last year. While I've got a bumper crop of tomatoes on the way -- yeah for south facing gardens! -- I've fallen behind on my ongoing rotation of the square foot garden. Turns out renovating your kitchen in Spring and then trying to finish a book during the summer is not good for garden productivity. Who knew?

Tonight, while Martin and Miss P made dinner (!), I got a couple of hours of garden time in. Moving the rainbarrel back in place, setting up the compost bin in a new home, weeding, pruning and tying up the tomatoes etc. As I was out there, I had a chance to mentally catalog the successes of this year's garden and where I'd like to improve next year. For the most part this has to do with my square foot beds, and not the rest of the yard.

Successes:

• Adding to the beds I already had (two 4x4 foot beds) with one 6ft x 1ft long bed for trellising beans and peas was a great idea. I've got a fair number of fresh beans (and peas) for kitchen use and it looks like i'll have a decent harvest of dried beans as well. I planted a number of different varieties and they seem to be quite different in their success rates. I'll give more detail on that later as we're just entering bean season in my yard.


• For the first time (in two years) I got a lovely bounty of beets. Last year I did a few subsequent beet plantings and each time came up with nothing but some tiny beet greens and maybe 2 baby beets. I'm not sure what I did differently this year, aside from generally neglecting them -- perhaps the secret to success? I'm only hoping that my replanting wasn't too late to get another crop. I'm drinking a lot of fresh beet/carrot/lemon juice these days so I'm appreciating the very local supply.


• My garlic, planted last Fall, was ready for harvest today and I had pretty much a 100% success rate in the back yard anyway. The ones planted in the side yard (facing east) seem a bit puny. I'll leave them another week and then dig them up. This means that I now have 42 bulbs of garlic hanging to dry in the garage. Want some? Unfortunately I  misjudged when these would be ready and bought 2 massive cloves from a farmer just yesterday. So roasted garlic, fresh garlic and perhaps some garlic pickles will be on the menu here over the next while.


• My chard and kale are winners again this year, I've got two strong healthy plants of each and am able to pick from them regularly for kitchen use, as they thrive. I've reseeded in hopes of having equally healthy plants for the Fall and am determined to have a cold frame this winter.


• Radishes are a sure fire winner back in my yard. And Miss P loves them. I simply can not keep on top of the demand.

Learning experiences/Things I'll change:

• I planted a few perennial crops in my squares and now they're taking over. Specifically: chives and sorrel. Both started from seed last year and now in need of constant pruning/thinning and general wrangling. I'm going to move them both out of the square foot structures because they could easily take over the entire space by next year I'm sure. It seems to me that ongoing crops -- hearty herbs like these -- are not well suited to the square foot approach, but let me know if you think differently.


• Why can't I grow dill? I just can't get it right. Out of all the seeds I plant this is always the least successful, and then just as it's succeeding it bolts on me. This annoys the heck out of me as I like having fresh dill but it's so delicate and doesn't last long once picked.


• The lettuce I bought this year hasn't been as successful as the varieties I had last year. I'm not sure if this is because of the weather this year (lots of rain, not as much sun) or the variety. I'll try it again next year I think, but will also probably try something different to see if one is more successful than the other. (By success I mean the number of seeds that actually germinate.)


• Everything is bolting. Last year my arugula was so bountiful. As was my cilantro. This year: bolt-mania. I'm not sure if this has to do with the weird weather patterns this year or my overall lack of attentiveness this year, but damn it's annoying. I love both of these plants and they seem to keep going from "nearly ready" to bolt-astic over night. I swear.


• As already mentioned, I've been a bit lame at keeping on top of replanting this year. I had the best of intentions, but then life/bookwriting/meltdowns/bad weather all got in the way. As such I've not taken full advantage of the whole square foot thing this year. Which kinda bums me out, but live and learn. Next year I'll be more committed to staying on top of things, plagued by memories of disappointment this year. I missed out entirely on a few things by just not staying on top of planting seasons, and I definitely cut things like my pea harvest and beans down by not being totally on the ball.

So, that's the state of the garden here this year. How's everybody else doing?

Oh red striped sweater. I miss you.

  my dutch bike! 
  Originally uploaded by emira

I can not for the life of me figure out where I left/lost my striped red sweater. And I so want it back. Or some version of it. Here it is in the basket of my dutch bike in Holland last Fall. I know I brought it back. I'm sure I've worn it since. But sometime this Spring it up and disappeared. It was among my most favourite accessories.

I've now officially given up hope, and on the top of my Fall wardrobe wishlist is a replacement. If you see one somewhere, do let me know will you?

Is this the face of a mouser?

  mr. pluto 
  Originally uploaded by emira

Normally, Mr. Pluto, like most of his feline brethren, is a hedonist. This translates into much lazing about, official sleeping, snuggling, purring, cuddling, eating and late evening strolls through the neighbourhood on warm summer evenings. When we go to bed, Pluto generally comes with us and chooses his favourite spot for the night. He has a few -- and like all cats he does maintain his right to change his mind on a whim -- but typically he can be found: curled up on top of the covers in the crook of my knees, curled up on top of the covers on the small of my back, or laid out "human-style" on the edge of martin's side of the bed wee cat head on the pillow. For real. Here he will generally remain until one of two things happen: 5:38am rolls around and he decides it's time to eat breakfast, so he begins his insistent siamese meow at my head, this routine always ends with me getting out of bed and putting him in the basement for roughly 30 minutes until I do get up; alternatively, he lucks out and I get up before him and then he can trot behind me to the kitchen, exclaiming his pleasure at my decision to wake and feed him. This routine is not regularly interrupted.

And so, it was that I was a bit surprised to be woken at 3am-ish earlier this week to the sound of my beloved cat wreaking havoc along the baseboards behind the bed. I tried, in vain, to call him back to bed and then tried, again in vain, to continue sleeping and ignore him. And so, to the basement he went until a more reasonable hour. Not sure what had caused the stirring I thought it might be a mouse, but hoped for a large moth or something a cat would enjoy chasing. The next night: same thing. This time I decided to investigate a bit more and discovered that Pluto was steadfastly focused on the crack between the baseboards and the floor (we still haven't replaced the quarter round in much of the house after sanding and refinishing the floors). Were it not for the fact that I outweigh him by 7 or 8 times (he's a big kitty) I would not have been able to get him to move from that spot. And, as I sat there observing him I heard a scutter behind the baseboards. Pluto sprang into action to see what was up. I determined that yes indeed, that was no moth that was a mouse. So, I decided he was better on active mouse patrol than locked in the basement and tried to get back to sleep. When I woke up three hours later he was still glued to his post  in the corner and could not be coaxed back to bed. He was reluctant to leave his post for breakfast. Clearly a mouse was in our house.

I'll admit my first thought was to call someone. I don't want mice in my house. At all. The internets all say that you need to find the hole the mice are coming in via and plug that up. But honestly, with our house? Which hole do you plug? Really, if we're counting holes that mice can get through we'd need to wrap up the entire house in steel wool I think. Martin, who grew up in the country and has more of a let nature take care of itself attitude than I sometimes, suggested that we just let Pluto deal with it. I figured I'd give it one more night.

That evening when we got home from work, Pluto was still in the bedroom at the baseboard post. By this point it was entirely possible he had not moved all day, though he showed increasingly less interest in it over the evening. I was on constant alert for "gifts" in the form of dead mouse carcasses throughout the house. Since then, no nocturnal bedroom hunting and he's been back to his usual sleeping arrangements. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that nature has indeed won out here, and that the mouse either took off, died (though hopefully not in my walls!) or became a mid-afternoon snack.

I have many stories of Pluto's failed attempts at mousing in past basement suites and apartments of mine, but he has also had a few successes. Last night, I was in bed drifting off, while Martin was up watching a movie. Pluto wasn't sure if he wanted to stay on the couch or come to bed with me so was pacing between rooms making up his wee-cat mind, when Martin noticed one of those massive moths in the livingroom. "Get it Pluto!" he cried. And, judging by the whoops of delight and praise coming from Martin, he did. Sauntering into the room he jumped up, caught it in his mouth and proceeded to ... well eat it. I could hear Martin exclaiming from the livingroom, "nice work, our cat's a ninja!" which is surely the greatest praise Martin could give. So, perhaps he did catch the mouse after all. I just hope he's letting the other rodents in the 'hood know he means business.