hit the road jack

Only one thing stands between me and adventure: a job interview tomorrow morning. Yikes! I am really good at people... but i am terrible at interviews, i tell you. I have trouble remembering examples for all those leading questions about effective communication, conflict resolution, embracing diversity, demonstrating leadership, etc. I wish i could just say "Take my word for it, I am awesome. Hire me." But alas... wish me luck!

And then, dear readers, .... do i even have readers? No, but dear internet world of obscurity, THEN i get to hop on a float plane to catch up with my ride for a south-bound road trip along the west coast. Seattle > San Fran and beyond! Fingers crossed that route remain clear of inclement weather and other disasters as we negotiate travel during the week of American Thanksgiving.

What's your favourite road trip?

One of my favourite road trip memories is being crammed into a tiny pickup cab with five friends, storming down the Malahat, singing to the radio and playing hot&cold (blast the heat with the windows closed for as long as the riders can stand, then switch to air con). Hilarious. Also driving all the way from Victoria to Cathedral Grove and back in one day. Everything about that day and everybody in it was beautiful (except all the driving which I have conveniently blocked out). And then there was the bus trip across Canada with my dear friend Jess.......

recyclo beads - phase 2, 3, 4?

The recyclo beads are coming along... pretty labour intensive though.

If you see the last post about the recyclo beads, they were all smooth after I finished rolling them into bead shapes, but they dry super wrinkly. Unlike the instructions for the beads I decided to embrace the wrinkles and not bother sanding them down with the dremel. I got a small drill bit for my borrowed dremel tool, and drilled the holes in my beads once they had dried for about 3 days, 4 for the bigger ones. The bigger beads I was brave enough to hand hold while drilling, but the smaller beads I gripped with pliers (N.B. drill into a scrap piece of wood to protect your desk or work surface). Since I was painting my beads white it took 3 coats of paint to make sure the natural grey colour wasn't showing through. Then I did 2 coats of glossy top coat to seal it all in (see what I mean about labour intensive?). With all the painted and glossed layers they look a little less wrinkly, i like the amount of wrinkle they still have - makes them look homemade.

I look forward to posting again once I've got a pretty necklace to show you! I'm thinking of combining them with some of my felted beads I just finished! (p.s. felted beads = way faster/easier than recyclo beads).

an apple cider tradition...

This is part of what I've been up to lately. It involves apples... loooooots of apples. Fingers crossed for another successful cider adventure! Only several months of fermentation and aging will tell.

cook's kitchen: day of the dead cake

This Monday, Nov 2, marked the Mexican holiday, the Day of the Dead. It was also a good friend's birthday so we had a themed party. We chowed down on Mexican food, celebrated under colourful garlands & skeleton decorations, set up an alter with candles, photos & offerings for our ancestors, and played a short-lived game of making up epitaphs for our friends (out of practice for making up clever rhymes on the spot i guess). I made a red velvet skull cake for the birthday girl. I cut out a wax paper stencil to dust a skull on the top with cocoa.



The best part was the surprise when you cut into it: the vividly red cake against the white icing looked super dramatic.



Day of the Dead birthday party = morbid+delicious good times.

Though i have to say, candlelit party = difficulty photographing cakes.

Recipe credit: joyofbaking.com

recyclo beads - phase 1

these aren't stones! these are beads i'm making out of recycled newspapers. this is step one... well technically I guess step two after you've reduced your pile of old newspapers to pulp. now i just have to wait a few days while these dry out... stay tuned for more. i can barely wait to paint these!