fraggle rock knitting song

stop motion knitting commerical

happy new year!

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

this is cool

i made this!

i get most of my inspiration online and my latest adventure is no different. artisan bread in 5 minutes a day? sign me up! i ordered the book weeks ago and we finally found a weekend to give it a whirl.

5 minutes is a bit of a stretch but i do agree they've taken the fussing out of making bread. mix your ingredients (with a spoon, for only a couple minutes), let it rise. shape it on a peel, let it rest, heat up your stone and with a quick sharp snap of the wrist, you're 30 minutes away from mouth watering goodness.

my first loaf is rather small. it was tricky to grab a large glob of dough. next time i'll be more aggressive. but oh it was tasty. and there's loads of dough left in the fridge, just waiting for its turn on the stone.

we slathered our slices with butter and ginger jam. yum.

so sensitive

i'm finding as i get older that i am more and more sensitive to various dermal irritants. when i was pregnant, i had the most horrible rash dotted over my body -- legs, arms, breasts, butt, stomach. my gp prescribed steroids and a skin-thinning cream(!). i was going crazy. i got no help determining the cause so i started a vague elimination plan and luckily hit on the cause almost immediately: dryer sheets.

lately it seems that i cannot wear eye makeup. i tend to buy eye makeup from the same manufacturer (l'oreal, because i'm worth it) and have been using it for years, but for some reason, i'm reacting. time to research hypo-allergenic products. i hope i can find some that are reasonably priced, wear well, and easy to find. i hope this doesn't mean i'm done wearing makeup for good. 

maybe i just need to embrace the au natural. 

btw, we are on day 3 of potty bootcamp and (fingers crossed) it seems to be working. i'll post more after the day is done.

such a charmer

last week, the boy and i headed to toronto for our big date. we had tickets to see Kings of Leon at the ACC, a room booked at the Gladstone hotel, and a day off to play in the big city.

i was so excited to see the kings. our seats were meh; 100 level but so very far away from the stage. the show was awesome. the band sounded really good. even mix of old and new tunes. i'm new to the band like the majority of the screaming fans in the ACC but i've been digging through their back catalog thanks to youtube and downloading older tracks from iTunes. (question: why are "old" fans so proprietary? why are they so down on new fans to the band? does it really matter? yes, going from the warehouse with a capacity of 2000 to a hockey arena sucks but how can you resent the band's success? get over yourself.)

i was so excited to be staying at the gladstone again. it is such a funky little place and so much better than some generic hotel. the food is still really good. my little man will be 3 in july and this is the first time i've spent the night away from him. Nona stayed with him and he did great.

We spent our day wandering up Queen West. We hit up coffee shops, we ate, we looked at all the things we would spend our money on if we lived in the city. i picked up some superwash merino at romni, the boy got a t-shirt at american apparel (that store gives me the heebie-jeebies), we got a streamlined coat rack at umbra. it was fun. we checked out the gehry addition at the AGO but declined to spend $18 each to walk into the exhibits. we had less than 2 hours and decided we needed more time to soak it all in.

it was all kinds of amazing to walk around without dividing our attention between our surroundings and a 2 year old. it was nice to look around at a leisurely pace; there was no rushing. it's been about 3 years since we've done that.

for the firefly fans

click this and prepare to be amazed.

this is amazing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FX9rviEhw

sheep art. i'm not kidding.

butterflies

this song, my latest musical obsession, gives me butterflies. for reals.

dr. horrible & other stuff

skipping over the fact i have not blogged in months, let's get right down to it. i was on amazon looking for a birthday present for the boy and noticed dr. horrbile's singalong blog was available on DVD for  $10. of course i bought it. we watch it last night and giggled all the way through. then i checked the special features. there's a musical commentary. i'm not kidding. it's hilarious. the entire casts sings the commentary. there's a song about the writer's strike last year, why nate is better than neil, another about why asians are never cast in the lead, and a song by groupie #3. of course the lines are witty and laugh out loud funny. groupie #3 gets her solo because she gave joss $10. nathan fillion takes over her solo with a "suck it. i gave him $15." one of the last lines is something like "we've reached the end, you've listen to all our words, and that makes you a great big fucking nerd." yup, for joss, absolutely. loves it.

i've cast on another clapotis. i have small problem, i know. i tried to knit something else but it was just not working. instead, a fire engine red clapotis using collinette jitterbug (sock yarn). if i get organized, i might even take pictures and put it on ravelry. it makes me happy. and is there such a thing as too many clapotis?

i turned 34 this past week.  the boy bought me a great present. a couple years ago, i picked up the "keep calm and carry on" poster. some genius spoofed it and there are limited edition prints available on threadless that read "now panic and freak out" hee hee. my mom gave me david rocco's cookbook. yum.

we're off to a delish dinner at bhima's tonight and are going snowboarding on monday to celebrate the boy's birthday.

my baby boy is 2.5 today. he started in the preschool room at day care. he's a non-stop dynamo. he knows his numbers from 1-9 and is working on letters. he's fully into the "i want to do it!" stage. he usually says please and thank you. he has discovered thomas the tank engine and dinky cars.

we are in the preliminary stages of a basement renovation. i cannot wait to have the extra room. it'll be a place to chuck all of the kidlet's toys and hopefully a place where we can entertain as well. we're putting a bathroom in down there with a shower. the eventual plan is to replace the bathroom upstairs (original 1947 features!) but first we need the basement bathroom.

and i made one resolution for 2009: i want to be a milf.

domestic

today i:

baked banana bread

made pancakes for lunch

cooked a meal of citrus poached salmon on basmati rice with broccoli spears

threw together vegetarian chili in the crock pot for a meal and lunches this week

next up:

laundry

bathing the boy

dude.

cutest little hat

is actually done except for the i-cord ties. free pattern here.

completely off topic, now that we are finally done watching the sorpranos, we've been renting movies again. atonement which was fantastic and very true to the book, across the universe which was meh but has me humming beatles tunes, juno which was quirky and cute but a little too neat and tidy, goodfellas because the boy is on a gangster kick and half of the sorpranos are in it, and harold and kumar escape from guantanamo bay which was another stellar NPH role. speaking of, go watch dr. horrible's singalong blog if you haven't already. you can download it on itunes or watch crappy versions on youtube.

meme

dunno why, but i'm feeling the need to do this one.

1. what was i doing 10 years ago?
the boy and i had just graduated from the university of waterloo with shiny new degrees in rhetoric and professional writing. the boy had started at quarry and i was helping a friend with a tech writing contract while shelving books at the kpl part time. we were living in our bright apartment on caroline street, right off waterloo park and close to uptown. i drive by that apartment daily. i think, hk, that you were still living with us then.

2. 5 things on my to-do this this weekend
play with the monkey
get groceries, hopefully visit hurrley's and the farmer's market
finish reading the 100 mile diet
take the monkey to the splash pad
nap

3. snacks i enjoy
chocolate frozen yogurt
chocolate
cookies

4. things that i would do if i were a billionaire
stop working immediately
travel
sleep

5. places i have lived
i was born in mississauga. we moved to teeswater when i was 16. we moved to mildmay when i was 18. i moved to waterloo when i was 19. i lived in stratford for 4 months when i was 20.

6. jobs that i have had
babysitter
counted inventory at a huge warehouse
data entry in an accounting department
odd jobs at the teeswater news
i sold wedding dresses and shoes (at the same store)
dishwasher in the kitchen at NDC
maid at a bed and breakfast in stratford
residence don at NDC
university tour guide
shelver at the kpl
program coordinator
technical writer & team lead
mom (though i get paid in hugs and kisses and dirty diapers, not cold hard cash)

gang signs

i was just outside chatting with my neighbour when a couple walked by. the guy was wearing the cobblestone sweater. i gawked. i was so tempted to say, that's the cobblestone sweater! but i bit my tongue lest they thing i'm some kind of nut.

i've decided knitters need gang sings to flash at each other.

ps. i am alive but barely. i'm at work right now which explains some of my absence from the blog. lots of work. too much work. far too many evenings spent tucking the wee one into bed and running back the office to get shit done. also, we're addicted to the sorprano's and are currently on season 5. and, sick. been sick for ages. i had a chest x-ray yesterday to rule out pneumonia; i'm still waiting for the results.

ohhhh!

Camilla Engman designed these for converse. i wants some!

when it rains

i go for weeks and weeks and feel like i don't have anything new to say. and wham-o, everything seems to be happening all at one.

so here's what's been going on in the 'loo.

i turned 33 last monday. john woke up before the boy and nipped downstairs to make lattes. i got to open presents in bed, sipping my morning cup of pick me up. nice.

he got me the daring book for girls and how to be the best at everything. which of course i strive to be so yea! perfect presents. and there was one more on the way.

the one more arrived today. knit picks options. i lurve them! i will keep the denise set i have but will probably only every use them in an emergency. plastic, blecky. the knit picks are metal and pointy and sharp! love 'em!

the (big) boy turned 43 on saturday. i celebrated by going to shall we knit? and buying some myself birthday yarn. i made him french toast and put the monkey down for his nap first. then went to buy yarn.

shall we knit? is the perfect store. karen is awesome. her stock is amazing. her husband is the sweetest. they have a large table with chairs for friday nights knit and chat. perfect. janelle was being so helpful and friendly i thought she worked there too but no, just hanging out and helping out. totally worth the drive to new hamburg.

then i came home and made a catalan flam for the boy's birthday dessert. mmm, flam.

i picked up odd balls of yarn. one ball of malabrigo and two balls of marisol because so many knit bloggers drool over it. two balls of sumblime cashmere merino in black. one cone of bamboo for baby hats. i got home, got on ravelry and checked out all the things i could make with my odd balls of yarn. i love ravelry. i can't wait to cast on!

the monkey turned 1.5 years old last week. his first sentence was "i got you." which mostly comes out "i gah chu" or "gah chu" but sometime is crystal clear before he runs away shrieking with laughter. he'll say "ee i ee i o" to get us to sing old mcdonald to him. he knows most of his alphabet and can count to ten though he tends to forget 9. he is starting to assert his will and has brief moments of resistance or frustration but it usually over in a flash. he's got bruises on his left shin from climbing up on chairs, the toilet, the trunk, whatever he can get his fat little leg on, and on his forehead from bumping into things or falling over, or just being a boy. he makes many animal noises and will fill in the sounds for us when we read "moo, baa, lalala" by sandra bouynton. he loves reading and has practically no interest in tv even though we wish he'd sometimes sit still and chill for a minute. he loves to cuddle and always wants hugs and kisses. he's lovely.

anniversary

booties

evening light