This Week In Winnipeg

It's November 25th and still no snow - that's crazy for Winnipeg! We did get a couple of previews, but nothing has stuck so far. We are planning on decorating this upcoming weekend and it just feels weird without snow. It will come soon enough and last longer than anyone wants, so for now, just enjoy! (I wonder if I could convince David to do first day snowfall chinese food again?)

On the crafty front, here's the finished scarf and a matching beret... though, I'm aware that it doesn't suit me. That's okay - it was fun to try. The scarf is simply a double crochet base with an increasing single crochet ruffle.  It's really quite long though you can't tell from the picture. It's cheapy yarn, so not very soft, but I love how it turned out. The beret is from this tutorial - though I used a smaller hook and added one extra row of increase to compensate.

David and I got to go out on a double date last night and it was so great. October was a bit of a crazy month and we didn't get  a sitter for date night the whole month, so we were blessed to enjoy the night out. We went to see A Christmas Carol in digital 3D and WOW, it was stunning! The story was bang on with the book, right down to some direct dialogue quotes. Of course, I wouldn't recommend the movie for children, but face it, if you know the story you wouldn't be quick to take your kids without a preview. 3D has come a long way since I was a little child and it was so real, you had to reach out and try to catch the falling snow.

David and I whipped up three more puzzles since last week, too. (two of them were only 100 pieces and then a 500 piece puzzle which was really quite a challenge for me).

and lastly, I just had an un-nerving telephone experience. I got one of those phone calls where you are asked a lot of personal financial information with no way to authenticate the validity of the company/person calling. I won't go into all the details, except to say that I had this company representative on my landline and the credit card emergency guy on my cell phone and my Abigail screaming in the background and it was a tense half and hour! I have a new credit card coming in the mail, my old one blocked and I finally just hung up on the other guy. I changed a dirty diaper while cradling my cell phone (on hold) and prayed for the peace of God to wash over all this mess. Thank God, all is well and there is peace in my spirit. Some days, I wish I just didn't answer my phone.

Some sewing and some shoulder to shoulder time

Well, this week was a little slow on the productivity, but I've finished the apron (Butterick 4945 view D)

Also, David and I spent some time doing 300 piece puzzles on our date night last night. David's really good at puzzles, I'm not, but we enjoyed ourselves. Ladies, this is a great shoulder to shoulder thing to do with your spouse - just remember not to talk his ears off!

Lastly, I've finished another great scarf - pictures on my next post!

I'm not Julia Child by any stretch!

For any of you who know me, the title probably made you snort your coffee out your nose followed by the phrase "no kidding!". No worries, I'm the first to admit that I'm not domestic, especially in the kitchen. There are three main reasons I don't like to cook.

1. my kitchen is the size of a walk in closet (and uglier).
2. I have normal ingredients in my cupboards and I can pronounce them all (most recipes call for weird or obscure things)
3. I like to spend no more than one hour at a time in the kitchen and if I have to clean it first (which is usually the case) then I've already spent half of my alloted time in there.

These are my excuses. I think I would enjoy cooking if I took a proper class (of normal foods - nothing too fancy). I think I would also enjoy it more if I didn't have to increase my grocery budget by large amounts of money - this month we already went over budget and we didn't get anything out of the ordinary. Why oh why is it so expensive to eat healthier foods than junk?!?!

Now, having said all of that, I've had a few urges to improve in this area of my life. It's little things, really. For instance some cooking based movies I've seen lately, Ratatouille and Julie & Julia (which I loved and blogged about already). Maybe it was the ladies ministry fall event "Cooking with John Storey" that I attended at my church. John made it look so easy and I could pronounce his ingredients, too. Then I found this super fun cooking video blog, The Working Class Foodies - so good! I actually baked the apple cake that they posted and it turned out great. 

One thing that I've been doing that helps me out is a meal plan. It is now incorporated into my organizer and I do about 2 weeks at a time. This helps me to better plan my grocery list and I'm not trying to decide what to cook at 4 o'clock. I've written down a list of meals that we know and love and pull from that list, adding a new recipe now and then that I want to try. For example I am going to try this recipe this week from the Sobey's inspired magazine. I also tried a broccoli and cheese stromboli from the 2010 milk calendar that David brought home for me (available for free at Sobeys right now).

What's my point? I don't think I really have one, except to say that I'm getting better and if I can spend time cooking.... anybody can! Check out the many links throughout this post - some great resources!

Poor Neglected Blog

Oh dear! I never meant to leave you hanging this long. I so wanted this to be such a great post that I've shied away from my dear blog until I had time to do this right. Well, (head hung down) I am posting anyway with what I have. First things first. My 100th post giveaway... I had so wanted to put together such a delicious package and well, it hasn't happened yet. I have a few things put aside, but I've decided to delay the prize until it's so delicious you'll be drooling on your computer screens. (Well, at least really want to win!) I hope you aren't too disappointed. I am a little, but I'd rather do it right!

My sewing pile feels like a mile high and I don't even mind. At least I have a lot of variety to work with and won't be bored. I took some pictures of my works in progress to share.

My first crochet scarf on my favourite model.

payment for some amazing fabric... an apron

(this pattern is so cute, can't wait to see the finished product)

kimono pj's for Abigail (from Amy Butler's Little Stitches book)

Still to go: finish the above sewing projects, David's christmas housecoat, Abigail's christmas doll and chair re-con, diapers (this is never ending in Coralee's world), nightgown (for me) to match Abby's pjs and that's just the list of things I want to finish before Christmas. I've got a lot of work to do, but I love it!

In other news, we had an UP party for David's birthday and it was such fun! We showed the movie, ate food and even had a guest from the movie attend! (I forgot to get a picture!) Here's a picture of the little decoration we put together in honor of the day:

(it's the next day, so a little deflated)