ABC, Oakley's Three!

I need a new camera. I threw a birthday party for my newly 3 year old recently and I didn't take a single photo. I already regret it.

If I do say so myself, the party was pretty Pinterist-worthy - for an event held in my proudly "nifty thrifty" home and not involving a professional party planner.

I used punchbowl.com for the invitations for the second year in a row. Their free offerings are customizable yet user-friendly.

The party itself was minutely lower key than Oakley's second birthday; 23 people rather than 30. Thank goodness it was sunny and we were able to get out into the backyard at one point. I'm beginning to understand why parents host parties in rented rooms and parks now.

I never knew before having a child with an "o" name just how great it would be for him. O's are everywhere. They're circles and zeros and faces and wheels and bagels, not to mention a well-used vowel. My son notices them all the time so I did an alphabet theme. I hung Lisa DeJohn's alphabet animals cards on twine with clothes pins, stuck ABC stickers all over balloons, put ABC bathtub stickers on our bathroom mirror, planted flowers in our entrance way planters and stuck in  a couple over sized whirligigs for good measure.

I served the essential alphabet pretzels and a plethora of "o" shaped food including pineapple rings, apple chips, rice crackers, olives, carrots, cucumber, and peppers cut in rounds, and Dad's O cookies. We played a couple simple alphabet games and at the end we handed out goody bags with each child's initial on the front and stickers, a bouncy ball, a whirligig, and an ABC book inside. But really, the cute kids  - all 12 of 'em - made the party.

And yes, I admit it. This party - exemplifying my love of typography and words and pattern and food and fun - was a little bit for me. I mean, my son's only three; he loves monster trucks, Lightning McQueen, hockey, Spiderman, tigers, Dora, Diego, AND the letters of the alphabet. I just chose something he likes that I could really get behind! He had a really good time and so did I. Now it all fades into a blurry memory faster than you can say "cheese". Thank goodness Grandma took a couple photos!

I made a fresh orange and olive oil bundt cake; we just called it
"o cake". The glaze made it extra delish but it also absorbed
all the decorative powdered sugar!

Maybe my boy's really getting into toys now that he's 3
or maybe the other parents are all super in touch with
what 3 year old's like, but every gift he received has
been a major hit (including the stomp rocket they're
all crowding around here).

Working for the 'Hood

It's a whole lot better than working for the man and there are decent perks too. Since moving to my current neighbourhood and staying home full-time with my two kids I haven't been able to get involved enough in the local goings-on. I like to feel like I'm making a difference and being active on a super local level lets me see the change my efforts make; it's more gratifying than vacuuming! I've also really honed my clip art skills as you can see below.

Here's a sample of a few of the projects I've help organize.

My Local Orchard

I never would have guessed how much local fruit I'd be eating living in my central city location. This August I picked, ate, shared, baked, and froze a bowl of superb yellow plums, a handful of Italian prune plums, a couple buckets of blackberries, three colanders heaped with red Santa Rosa plums, 150 apples, and at least two dozen bunches of the best green grapes I've ever eaten - and all grown within one square block of my house! 

In our backyard we have two apple trees. Last year we had two dozen apples from the big tree and maybe two edible ones from the small tree. We pruned the trees last fall and this summer we got 100 apples off the big one and 50 off the small one!

Doin' it homesteader style

We ate and baked with the gorgeous 100 apples from the big tree but, other than giving the somewhat scabby little apples to my younger son for teething toys, I figured sauce was the solution. I was able to borrow from a neighbour (who's also a friend) an apple saucer (well, that's what I call it). She had it from her mother (who's also a neighbour) who used to use it in her homesteading days. 

I covered the apples in water, brought them to a boil, simmered them until the flesh was soft and the peels cracked, then tossed them in the apple saucer and sauced 'em. I added back in half the cooking water to lengthen the sauce (and not waste that pink gold - yes, the apple cooking water was a lovely pink lemonade color) and my boys ate it up right away. I got two mason jars out of two dozen of the worst apples and I feel right pleased about it!

Last meal ever eaten out of that tea cup;
he broke it on his way to the dishwasher.
Fortunately, no apple sauce was harmed.

Apples, sauce, and a prime example of
applesauce coma after two helpings.

Apparently our wall color is a dead ringer for homemade applesauce.
Put that on your paint chip Benjamin Moore!

Unearthing Local History

Last week I got in my first gardening days of the year. I spent hours weeding dandelions, pruning the hydrangea, planting poppies, bachelor buttons, violas, and scarlet runner beans, training the clematis, turning over the garden and getting the greens in. During this process I found countless rusty nails, a handful of porcelain chips, a couple unbelievably large rusted bolts (how could I not have come across these before?), and a four inch shard of glass. (And that's nothing compared to the bent spoon and hockey puck I found last year!)

All this takes me back to my last house where I found similar items in a similar veggie patch every spring, despite turning over the soil and double digging that dirt and sifting out the roots and rocks for five years. And then there's my parents' garden where my mom found (and likely continues to find) random flotsam from bygone eras and previous tenants since we moved in two and a half decades ago.

I enjoy thinking about this stuff. The people who lived and breathed and cried and laughed right where I am sitting now and their way of life and their trail of breadcrumbs that leads me back to them. I like thinking about what it would have been like in my neighborhood when you could still find creeks with fish in them, alleyways with outhouses, and streets with streetcars.

It's my sincere case of nostalgia that causes me to find this as fascinating as I do and so I got a kick out of it when there was a knock at my door one afternoon last week. Assuming it was a mom friend and her girls come for our play date I invited the knocker in verbally from down the hall. To my surprise a middle-aged man opened my door. Apparently he was friends with the boys who grew up in my house in the 70s. He was able to enlighten me as to the stains on my hardwood floors (black Scottie dogs), the pink 1961 license plate nailed to the ceiling of the garage (three boys lived here and worked on dirt bikes and hot rods) and that hockey puck I found beneath a dead rhododendron in my garden (alley hockey and errant pucks).

In this vein, here is a poem I wrote a few year's back after visiting a dear friend's father who found some nifty odds and ends while renovating his house in small-town Ontario.

Erinsville

Lynn’s old house hid countless relics.

During renovations he found newspapers

and a dozen shoes in the walls.
Four coins in the crossbeams for luck. 

Outside, after the thaw, there were daffodil bulbs

in the grass, a marsh, and a rowboat in the field.

Bridget O’Neil had been buried for a hundred and thirty years

when her scribbler turned up behind the stairs,

one guilt-ridden Victorian phrase per page

copied meticulously in her nine year old cursive.

The O’Neils had seven children

and a summer kitchen.

They bought the land from the Burns,

the Protestants, not the Catholic Byrnes.

Those veins of vanity ran deep enough 

to provoke a bar fight ending with a nose bite; 

bank embezzlement settled the score.

Touted tales told by cattle farmers

at the barley houses on the ridge.

This has always been a one-horse town,

though back then it had a one-room schoolhouse

and the hardware store sold two sizes of men’s pants,

34 and 42; muddy farmyards never minded suspenders.

Driveways have always meandered into the mist

and the creek in the ditch is nothing new. 

The same dandelions work at uprooting the house.

“Barnacle Bill” on the victrola, a nail for a needle,

and yes, black cherry pie on the sill.

A night in Erinsville yields more

than five toads crossing the road.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas: a Retrospective How-To

There is the "kick-start the holidays" Christmas party, the Hanukkah party, the solstice party, the apres-ski  party, the gift exchange with friends, the work Christmas party, the school or church pageant, the neighborhood party, the gift exchange with extended family, the Christmas Eve dinner, the Christmas day brunch and the ensuing feast, the Boxing Day dinner, the leftovers meal, the holiday card night with friends, and the New Year's Party - Did I forget any?

Oh yes, the online Skype party with distant loved ones! Nuts. That one was hard to remember as I didn't turn on my computer much over the big weekend this year. Hopefully an interim weeknight call will make up for it!

From someone who successfully attended or hosted many of these events, my advice would be do them all (unless you're under the weather then by all means stay home with your germs and a good book)! To keep the stress levels low and the multiple gatherings enjoyable don't make, wear, or bring something different to each one. In November and early December bake a few batches of cookies and store them in your freezer. Around this time make a list of all the people you'd like to give a little something to over the holidays - my preference is to give everyone a little something rather than half the people a big something. Make a few homemade gifts (see below) and bring these along as needed. Budget for a couple extra bottles of something at the liquor store this month to keep you in the spirit of things and stock your pantry with bulk nuts (salted and candied or in the shell), oranges and pomegranates and cranberries and decent chocolate. These items can be prettied up for a last minute gifties or placed in nice bowls and set out for unexpected guests. Collect a few pinecones and cedar boughs and light some candles; now you're set for the season.

As for shopping, I love the idea of picking up items throughout the year when you see just the right thing for someone you love, but I never actually do this. While I hope to one day shop with that much foresight, I tend to purchase most of my gifts at the same store. One year it's a bookstore, the next an outdoors store, the year after that a specialty foods store and so forth or try getting everything online from Etsy or give yourself one day at a local craft fair; there are some really fantastic shopping events out there these days. Shows like the Shiny Fuzzy Muddy show here in Vancouver or The One of a Kind Show in Vancouver, Toronto, and Chicago.

Here are a few of my favorite gift-worthy recipes from Christmas 2011:

Candied Orange Peel

 I dipped mine in chocolate and filled mini take out boxes lined with pretty scrap paper to garner oohs and ahhs.

8 oranges, 10 lemons, 6 grapefruits or any combination

3 cups sugar plus more for rolling

3 cups water

3 cups semi sweet dark chocolate chips

1. Cut the ends off the fruit and standing on one end, follow the curve of the fruit and cut away only the outermost peel leaving most of the white pith on the fruit. Slice lengthwise into 1/4 inch strips. 
2. In a medium pot of boiling water, 10-20 minutes (longer for lemons and grapefruits). With a slotted spoon transfer peel to dry surface and pat dry with paper towel.
3. In a medium saucepan, bring sugar and water to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add peel and simmer until it turns translucent and syrup thickens, 10 minutes. With slotted spoon transfer peel to wire rack set in a baking sheet to catch the drips, separating the pieces as needed.
4. Let peel dry 1 hour. Toss with cup sugar to coat.
5. Return to wire rack to dry. Place in a warm (not hot) oven to dry if you find the strips do not dry as quickly as you would like.
6. Working in batches, melt chocolate in a double boiler and dip ends of strips in the chocolate and lay on rack or brown paper to harden.
7. Package in boxes with wax paper, decorative paper, and ribbon or enjoy at home with loved ones!

Snickerdoodles

These freeze really well. Be sure not to over bake them! 

2 3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder

1 cup butter

1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 400 f.
2. In a medium bowl mix together the flour, salt, and baking powder. 
3. In a large bowl cream together the remaining ingredients. 
4. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat until dough is smooth. If soft, refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours. 
5. In a large shallow bowl mix together 1/3 cup white sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon  
6. Shape dough into 1 inch balls and roll in sugar/cinnamon mixture. Place on cookie sheets and press down each ball using the bottom of a glass to flatten to about 1/2 inch thick.  
7. Bake 8 minutes or until firm around the edges.

And finally, make the pumpkin butter recipe I posted about back in November. 

Now, on to the new year!

An Afternoon In

There was a lovely sunset today in my neck of the woods - at 4:15pm! In the slim hour between nap time and nightfall I couldn't get the momentum to bundle up the kids and get outside despite my resolution to always get out twice a day if it isn't pouring rain. And so we played indoors this afternoon - thank goodness for books, blanket forts, and play dough!

I made our play dough based on this recipe and it turned out great. I think the cream of tartar gives it a really smooth consistency. I didn't add any color to mine but I did add cinnamon to one batch and lavender oil to the other and I highly recommend doing so; it makes it more enticing for me to play with it too!


Play Dough Recipe:
1 cup white flour
1/2 cup salt
2 tablespoon cream of tartar
1 tablespoon oil
1 cup water
food coloring, optional

Mix first 4 ingredients in a pot. Add water and mix well. Cook over medium heat for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Dough will become difficult to stir.
Remove from stove and knead for 5 minutes. If using food coloring add during the kneading process. Store in a covered container in the fridge.

This Year's Xmas Cards

I've been keeping busy in the brief evenings between putting kids to bed, cleaning up from dinner, and watching episodes of Boardwalk Empire by making Christmas cards out of my favorite material: old Christmas cards! You may recognize a snippet from a card you once sent me (it's a compliment really that I kept your card for such purposes) or see the card you're about to receive from me this year!

Birds and houses

Trees

Use What Your Mama and Daddy (and Great Aunt, and Co-worker, and Sister-in-law) Gave You

Now that the holiday festivities are over (and they are for me being the mother of a baby that I am, I won't likely get up to much of anything for New Year's Eve - a rousing game of cribbage if I'm lucky) I find myself with a boatload of Christmas cards that I can't bear to part with. And there's even a few still trickling in after the Christmas postal boom. 

I have a wire card wreath (a much-loved wedding gift that has a permanent home on our dining room wall that houses cards year-round depending on whose birthday was recent or which holiday is near), but I can't leave Christmas cards in there until our next family birthday in March. And as much as I can't abide tossing the holiday notes neither can I stand storing years and years of season's greetings in a shoe box. And so I craft. It's the perfect solution: I turn these seasonal mementos into new cards or, as in this year's incarnation, ornaments. 

These super easy orbs require only old cards, scissors or straight edge paper cutter, a hole punch, and some metal page fasteners (as we used to use in duo-tangs back in my grade school days).

 Simply cut cards into same length strips, punch a hole in both ends of each strip, mix and match for the best color combos (I used about a dozen trips per orb), attach a fastener through each end of each group of strips, fan the card strips out to form a ball and voila! 

These look as good on the tree as they do on the mantle or in a glass bowl on the table.

--

Next year I'd like to tackle this wreath from goodhousekeeping.com

And these gift tags from marthastewart.com and modkidboutique.blogspot.com respectively.

Like a Kid in a Stationery Store

I love cards. I love buying, making, sending, upcycling, and, of course, receiving them. During the last winter of my undergrad degree, I baited myself into finishing essays and studying for exams by allowing myself to make one Christmas card after each portion of school work was complete. (Hey, those long, cold Montreal winters bring out the nerd in a lot of people.) I had an entire corner of my bedroom set up with organized paper scraps, glue stick, and paper cutter. The month before, I had been lucky enough to stumble upon a freelance invitation maven who was holding a paper sale in her apartment and I snagged what has proven to be a decade's worth of beautiful scraps.

A couple years later I was visiting friends on Hornby Island and found a 1960's fairytale book at the recycling depot, (aka: the free store), that had unbelievably quaint floral accents adorning each page and I've since used snippets of these pages in frames on my walls and to decorate my wedding invitations.

A sampling of my upcycled and recycled one-of-a-kind wedding invitations.

One recent November I found myself staying with friends in Manhattan and after two weeks in the Big Apple my husband had purchased more clothing than I had but I felt no remorse because I had found wooden Christmas postcards by Night Owl Paper Goods and vintage inspired, small scale Christmas notes by Yellow Bird Greetings at a stationary shop in Greenwich Village. These were the perfect souvenirs as far as I was concerned: pretty, useful, and something I could not get back home. It wasn't until I got back home to Vancouver that I noticed the fine print on the back of the paper cards that read: "Printed in Vancouver". I'm sure the cards were appreciated nonetheless.

Night Owl Paper Goods' wooden postcards 

(perhaps they should change their company name)

I also worked for a few years as a buyer for a chain of natural lifestyle stores. My favorite part of the job quickly became stationery perusing and purchasing. The perfect way to ensure I got the Christmas cards I wanted! Not only did I bring in Night Owl's wooden cards but I discovered near perfect lines like Eggpress. How do you ever choose just one of their cards?

Impressive Eggpress

Coming soon: the best ways to use old Christmas cards!