Vic Ink

My left shoulder feels very crinkly right now. I am two hours out of the tatt chair, having received a tattoo that has been in the works for hat feels like forever. In a fortuitous layover between home and family for Christmas, Moozh and I both got inked by my fortuitously talented aunt in Victoria. . It has gone through many manifestations over the course of three and a half years. Colors, shape, placement, etc. but there is a rather...sensitive area right around my spine and the color is only half done but it is MAJESTIC.It's an octopus that cruises along just below the crest if my shoulder. Sculpted in tones of maroon, browns and creams with a future balance of aqua and turquoise bubbles and watercolor background. Once it doesn't look like a sunburn with tentacles ( tomorrow) I will post pics. Because it is beautiful (did I say that already?). Watching The Fades, The Trip and Life is Too Short, I mellowed out and cringed through outline and color, put to SHAME by my husband the prior day who had twelve hours of line- and black work done on his Old Man and the Sea tatt. Which I will also post.At the moment I am sitting in the Victoria Airport, contemplating what I am going to get Zara to do next. It's a pure shame it has taken me this long to get inked by her. But to be honest, she's in demand. So shame it may be, it's still reality. If you're looking, check it: Fly the Cage. Vancouver island is not the far away. Also, The Fades. Watch it. SO good. Six eps and you will watch the scene of the last and cry yourself to sleep that you have to wait for season two. Or pray or season two. Be it the adrenaline or sheer vanity, I'm feeling good right now. Sure changed my tune from yesterday hey?BTW: have not had a great experience in the Vic airport having our plane come in on time. More time to blog!

This the season to procrastinate

When I really wish NaBloPoMo would sweep in save the day, you know, revive my flagging creativity, grab my tongue with a fascinating prompt, I scroll through every prompt within the past twelve months and can't seem to user enough for a brief vapid post about the state of my world.I hate not being able to write. This is probably why so many writers start the day with gin for breakfast because it loosens them up enough to escape their own mind, and by mind I mean the thing that governs paying bills on time, contemplating meals, and cleaning the house. This being the part of the brain that the creative side, the "flamboyant", the "free spirit", the "lush" has such a hard time playing with. What's kind of funny is I have been this way my entire life. I have always been the kind to need to 'escape' the minutiae in which I live in order to really feel peaceful and, therefore, creative. I remember in elementary school, upon getting home I would rush to my bedroom, toting my attention-starved sister who wanted to play, only to slam the door in her face. Of course here i know i'm not really talking about anti-social behavior but rather introversion but they can feel like one and the same sometimes. When my brain feels full, I do not play well with others. And my head, and my heart feel very full and heavy lately. But guess what? I still have shallow, surface level enjoyment still left to share with you. The opening sequence to The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo was just released with the kick ass cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" from the trailer. Trent Reznor is a genius. And Karen O has THE pipes.Same day I found out about this, H&M released their photos of their Girl with the Drain Tattoo winter collection. Makes me wish i was that badass.We head home in a couple of days, back to the home that holds so much nsecurity and yet so much homey feelings. I miss my sisters. I miss my parents. I miss my bro. I miss moozh's family. I miss having a place where I feel like i can just disappear for a few weeks, come home feeling refreshed. The next few weeks are going to be beautiful and stressful. I want to make myself write as much as I can because I always feel better after but sometimes it's really hard to get myself there. Mele keliki maka Bri

Holidaze

Oh Christmouse. This is what I'm excited for. At least, this is what Pinterest is telling me I'm excited for. 

Eggnog cupcakes off of Annie's Eats

Mulled Wine via Flickr

Eggnog via Cooking for Seven

Stollen via Home for the Holidays

Lemon Curd (we're doin' it again!) via
The Pastry Affair

Christmas Rice Pudding via Manifest Vegan

Snow and sun! via LesaPea Musings

Decorations via Restoration House
(BTW I think my mother-in-law would
LOVE this blog!)

Candles! via Mellow Stuff

Cute (and easy) wrapping via Anthology Mag

But I also LOVE this. Cute burlap/twine
ribbon via Anthropologie

Just like the Japanese...

Okay is this guy not a total magroot!?!?

One of our regulars at work has an adorbz li'l guy like this. Then tonight walking through Gastown with Mama and Dad D, we came across another. Her name was Honey and she had the most perfect, plushy coat. Her owner was telling us that 'Shibas can be quite standoffish, just like the Japanese'. We all laughed and then glanced over our shoulders. Honey was just tiny, maybe a foot and a half tall at four months. Others i've seen, i'm assuming full grown, have been about two and a half feet at the shoulder. I don't know how old this li'l guy is but I want one just like him. According to Wikipedia, Shibas do 'best in an environment without other small lets or children but appropriate socialization can make all the difference'. I hope so because the cuteness is killing me.

Those who hide too well away...

Ok so.

Recently, my beloved in-laws (and when I say 'beloved' I truly mean 'beyond myself with excitement upon their arrival'), we're out on the west coast for a few days prior to a trip they were taking. We headed out to whistler and basically had a totally bitchin' time. Came back into Van and got to take them around. The weather was flawless, we got to take them around our city and see the, after a long, hectic emotional Fall. We got great pictures which i wanted to post here. Of course by 'recently' I mean THREE WEEKS AGO! What is my problem!? I know I have been avoiding this lovely, comfortable beanbag chair of Internet known as blogdom because I am stressed and so once I have managed to escape the constancy of living in my brain under these circumstances, the last thing I want to do is spew, for your sake as much as mine. Life is in general upheaval lately. Everything from the practicality of working vs school (even when it is only for a time) to the emotional slog of sifting through inter-relational 'issues' has made my psyche (and the consequent outpouring of it) inhospitable and my generosity nearly non-existent. My desire is to pull a NaBloPoMo as I did last year to exercise my own internal accountability for my blog. Because I like it here. And I always feel better once I leave. (Except for the Pinterest post. I was just as pent up after I wrote it as I was before.) I am being emotionally lazy right now because I feel emotionally wasted. That's as self-pitying as I'm going to get on my blog :)

*On a side note I am blogging through a different interface right now which mainly means that I will no longer be able to blame my insufferable grammar and spelling on OS Lion. Using a new interface required I learn how to use it properly and I wasn't interested in that for a few weeks.

I want to summarize some baking successes I have had lately. This is a list for posterity when I'm feeling inept.

• I made a pumpkin loaf pimped out with hazelnuts and dried blueberries.


• Red velvet cupcakes with fudge frosting for Halloween that totally claimed me as red velvet fan. I am, however, not enough of a fan that I feel I need to convert every dessert known into red velvet. I may make red velvet crepes for Moozh on Valentine's.


• I made brown sugar pavlova for small group last weekend that was glorious and actually made me want to run for the camera when I glanced into the bowl after hearing my hand mixer shriek at hi speed for three and a half minutes. But I didn't let it deflate (even for the sake of posterity).

My project leading into December is to create a hydration starter. I am at the tail end of Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain wherein one of his many anecdotes recounts a brilliant baker he worked with on many an occasion had a giant heaving tub of sourdough starter he affectionately called "the bitch". I intend to call her the same. The only thing that makes me hesitant to start a starter is that is IS quite time consuming and requires a fair share of attention, something I do not have plenty of right now. But, as the Wild Yeast blog has convinced me, a good 100% hydration starter is a magical thing to have. And it won't take long to get a hefty return on your investment.

Come Christmas-time, I want to make stollen, reconfigure a cool take on mincemeat, made Mama Dempsey's coffee cake Christmas bread, and make peppermint pots de creme. Here we go.

I'm doing the countdown dance. Five weeks and I'm sporting my whites. Five weeks! Work just hired a new baker who graduated from PICA's pastry program in June. He has been such a great wealth of information leading into school for me. And I am even more pumped for the faculty now that I have first hand accolades from someone who has come through their leadership.

Until then, i'm going to enjoy and be present through what will likely be our last Van christmas. Ooh I totally forgot about Glogg. Making it!!!!
Next entry will be stimulating, I promise :)

Radical Grace

"The word “sinner” really signifies not moral inferiors as much as people who do not know who they are and whose they are, people who have no connection to their inherent dignity and importance."


Friar Richard, Center for Action and Contemplation

'You can only stalk your friends on Facebook for so long but Pinterest goes on forever."

Aw hey y'all.

So this post has been bubbling beneath the surface for the past week. And don't be hatin' but I'm taking on Pinterest in this one. Now I am fully aware the the awe and fulfillment I initially felt from Pinterest was maybe a little idealistic (I did just use the word 'fulfillment') and I do still find it endlessly entertaining and disturbingly addictive. It is a repository for the creative, the inspiring and definitely worthy of exclaim. But just like the rest of the interest, it is also a repository for the vain, the self-involved and the insecure. For those of you unfamiliar with Pinterest, it is a public 'pinboard' where you can pin photos and links from all over the internet onto 'boards' that you create under a profile. "Pinners" as addicts of the site are known, can repin from the site onto their boards and follow other 'pinners' and with categories like 'travel', 'humour' and 'photography' it makes for an instantaneous (if maybe unproductive) hobby. I was introduced to the site by my lovely friend BJ (who I will forever be indebted to -Pinterest has introduced me to some amazing sites, blogs, and general aesthetics).

One category, however, on the site is 'fitness'. And the fitness boards leave me…in a bit of a state when I leave the site. There is much that is affirming. There are posts and boards that advocate for exercise, strength, and health. But there is one pin in particular that I see and it makes me borderline apoplectic. It reads 'Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels'. Peeps, this pin is EVERYWHERE. And it may seem innocuous to some of you but to me it lights a fire on a very hefty and sensitive issue. From someone coming from a background of eating disorders and from someone who still very much struggles with the mental and emotional repercussions of a struggle like that, I read something like that and I feel that people not only have their priorities so fucked up but also that our culture has harboured an environment where this is something to be viewed as integrity. Some of these fitness boards link to pro-ana-mia websites and very much discuss that mindset with advocacy. This is what I take issue with. That is a SICKNESS. The mindset that propagates an opinion that 'food is the enemy', 'if you eat you have failed', ET CETERA, suffer from a distorted view of their bodies, what true health looks like but also what true VALUE looks like. The whole 'nothing tastes as good as skinny feels' totally removes the 'real life' from the body living it. It's fakery.

I have been everything from 130 lbs, where I was bitching about a body that worked like a charm, to 90 lbs where I starved myself, shook constantly, ran until I passed out, and generally never enjoyed my life. Let me tell you, ANYTHING tastes better than skinny feels. SmartWater tastes better. What I am saying is nothing that hasn't been said before but the (predominantly) women that are pursuing this 'dream' of who they should be, who 'everyone else is wishing them to be', as whom they could 'be their best them' are chasing after a sad, shrivelled conception of what makes them valuable, what makes them desirable as company for the public at large. When you aren't eating, NOBODY WANTS TO BE AROUND YOU. All you do is weigh your barf and complain about how cold you are. Your blood sugar is low and so you are ornery all the time (and that takes years to fix). YOu want a great body? Get a life. Soon you will love your big thighs because you can run faster than you could last week. You will love your broad shoulders because they power you up a ROCK FACE. Take a dance class; You'll laugh. This is not me dogging eating healthy, trying to watch your weight. We have two converse obsessions occurring right now: obesity and the obsession with thin. Know yourself and take care of yourself.

This has been in no way articulate or well thought out but I broke today. Pinterest totally ruined my break at work. But then it showed a picture of a little boy playing with cows and that seemed playful enough that I forgot.

Pinterest

Turkey Day!!

It's been too long yet again. Let's post some pics up in here.

Moozh outdid himself once again and with the creative genius of our foodie friend Alan, T-Day became a thing of beauty. We will  be eating it for easily another three weeks and it will eventually feel like less of a thing of beauty but for today's purposes, we are going to look at the beauty.

Glassware is key. We used our tasting glasses from wine and beer class. 

There was a truly absurd amount of cheese in use. I thought it worth documenting. 

Our appies. Notice the cheese. 

This is my 'boule', sliced like a pumpkin, before baking. Cranberry Rosemary Artisan bread. 

And this is it after. 

Roasted Brussies. That is bacon. 

Dressing (by yours truly). Lots of dried fruit to combat the cheese. 

Beer and Pie. A winning combination. 

This is the only picture we have of the pig, which is amazing to me. It truly was impressive.

Duh boys, kickin' it in the kooknaya (kitchen). Red T-shirt was the uniform of choice.

The evening ended happily and after an excessively loud round of Cranium at 1130pm. 

It seriously was a day of so much fun and such great people. My only disappointment is that we didn't get any swinging pictures of our great guests. So much laughter and great stories. Our party was probably 50/50 Yanks to Canucks. They shared with us the Black Friday- Green Bean and Dirt Pudding American version of Thanksgiving. It made us so excited we're going to do it all again at the end of November. But then we'll let some others do the cooking too. You can't have a monopoly on good taste.

Hope you all had a beautiful and tasty Thanksgiving dinner. I realized in the midst of it all I don't really know what Canadian Thanksgiving is all about. I wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with wanting to do it because the Americans do it but needing to do it a month earlier. I did hear a story somewhere that it had something to do with the King being sick and when he recovered they decided to celebrate the harvest. In Canada it's always about a monarch. Half of us don't even vote properly.
But a day where you are supposed to (even if it is only subconsciously) made to think about what you are thankful for. It made me thankful for my husband, who loves me when I suck'; who 'holds me close at night and thanks God for me'; who goofs around on Saturday and dreams about our future with me. I am thankful for my parents, who are broken and real. I am thankful for my sisters, who are the most beautiful and creative women I have ever know. I am thankful for the awesome guys who love them and hold them close and thank God for them. I'm thankful for my bestie in Cowtown who leads such a beautiful life and always inspires me. I'm thankful for all of the incredible people and friends that God introduced us to in Bankybear. I am thankful for my in-laws because they make me laugh and love me even though I am flaky. And I am thankful for those who love them. I am thankful for carbs and for jersey knit sheets. I am thankful a body that constantly impresses me and feet that run like the wind. I am thankful for the freedom of speech and the chance to have all my needs met in one day. I am thankful that I know God and that my life is His. I am thankful that he has planned for me beyond what I can hope or imagine (Eph 3:20 NIV). There are many things unmentioned here which I am thankful for as well, and so much for because they are still there even when I forget them. Like running water. And Skype.

Three cheers (and leg kicks) for chunky scarves and soup weather! In Bankybear the weather has been so Fall it had made me smile. What are you thankful for? 

"Sometimes you ask yourself…should I have tattooed my forehead?"

I don't know if any of you do this too but one of Moozh and I's favourite things to do is cuddle in bed at night and watch movie trailers. In most cases, it exonerates me from feeling like I have to see the movie because often the trailer is better than the movie. But sometimes I'm surprised. I just had one of those moments.

I just watched the trailer for The Other F-Word. Immediately it made me think of my sister who just got married because her journey into parenthood is likely going to be turbulent and beautiful and she and her husband are going to be those parents on the playground that none of the other parents understand. My sister is an ass kicker and she and her husband have a unique and dynamic view of life. Which means they are also going to be those parents on the playground that all the other parents wish they were as cool as. As I watched the trailer, which I suggest that all of you do, I had a serious moment of realization. A realization that what the Lord has prepared for our lives will drastically surprise and change us. Life is meant to teach us and through the process of giving your life to various things (marriage, parenthood, career) you become better, you become more. Inherently parenthood teaches wisdom, grace, patience, selflessness because those are the things that are required when you are responsible for a small, dependant being. The movie profiles all of these punk rock icons, from Mark Hoppus of Blink-182, Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers and Tony Hawk, through their processing of their fatherhood; from "the ultimate anti-authoritarians become societies ultimate authorities".

I had coffee today with a lovely good friend who is due in December. She had moved through the various baby showers, through buying a stroller and putting a car seat in her car. But the part of our conversation that had me thinking all day long, was when she spoke of becoming pregnancy, of moving through pregnancy and thinking through the permanence of having a child, and how it drastically changes how you think about your own development. You don't think about your family of origin, about conflict, about your marriage in at all the same way anymore. You have to filter it through the lens of this person who is brand new and strange to the world. Even in marriage you can remain in certain levels of selfishness (though it is hard) but in parenthood you can't. The paradigm can't survive beneath that. Yes we all know people who are selfish and act for themselves. But I don't find I ever look to those people and validate their parenting, or think of them as parents at all. Parenthood seems to be a specially designed racetrack that manages to drastically change the way we think about our world, ourselves, our life.  Because we have what feels like many friends right now that are expecting, I find myself musing often on how not ready I am for that commitment. I also think about little people running around my house one day with Moozh's mannerisms and looks of his fitted into the puzzle of their faces but I realize that there is a desire of preparation for that. The independence I struggle so hard to reconcile. My introspection. My sleep schedule. These are not things very accommodating to children. At the end of the day, Moozh can put himself to bed, he can feed himself and occupy himself while I put on makeup and surf pinterest.

But what this movie helped me to see (and did it in such a breathtaking way) is that parenthood changes people in spite of themselves. It helps to wear away at your selfishness and your personal gain slowly and discreetly. Flea has this amazing quote in it. "My children gave me life, you know. They gave me a reason." Friggin' Flea! But what I also like about the film is that it displays that the parents in it didn't just blend and bleed into this banal, khaki parent figure. They still have passions, opinions, things that set them apart. Their children will grow up understanding that their parents' life goes beyond their children.

I also find it infinitely quotable:
"Maybe punk rock was never meant to grow up. But it did."
"There's nothing in the punk rock ethos that prepares you for children."
"Maybe the way we're going to change the world is by raising better kids."

I think parenthood will also, as much as we may not want it to, help us to understand our parents even better. Undoubtedly, we will see and maybe even understand why they made certain decisions and why they thought certain things were right. Ultimately though, it will unify generations of people that have all made the same discoveries and thought the same things through the journey through becoming at times what you've despised. It's a good journey.

As promised...

Hmmmmm.

The goal:

via Smitten Kitchen. 

 The result: 

I would not put cream cheese on that. 

So the artisan bagels haven't kicked ass like the artisan bread has. They came out looking a little, dare I say, flat. And they were still doughy in the middle. I should have listened to myself the three times that I looked at the dough and said "That looks a little wet." Having wet dough and then boiling it in water doesn't foretell anything that contains the adjectives, "light", "airy" or "cooked" really. Unless you're cooking spaetzle I guess. I am determined the find a good bagel recipe. Man, it is an involved process to make bagels but I have a deep appreciation for freshly baked bagels and I am not hindered by these things that more resembled a toddler's teething ring. The above picture is Smitten Kitchen's bagel recipe and they look definitely worth a shot. 

I really want to continue with yeast breads. My friend Beej made an impressive looking challah from Smitten Kitchen. I don't' know why I had this ridiculous perception of challah that it was a ridiculous recipe and required almost a full day. Smitten's looks approachable enough. I'm going to give it a shot before Yom Kippur is over.

Maybe not hilarious as the "Cookie Monster Cupcakes" but still a good exercise in humility. Ha!

"My grandmother really did believe this rye loaf was better than cake…" Jeff Hertzberg

This artisan bread thing is starting to make me impressed with myself. 

Nothing is better than fresh bread. Nothing.

"The whole world's wrong and that's what's the matter." Thorton Wilder

So much for an Indian Summer. A girl I work with (I got a job!) is from Australia and she arrived in April. She was commenting earlier this week about how bummed she's been about the weather "lately". I almost didn't have the heart to crush her dreams of a crisp but sunny Canadian fall. But then I did. And THEN I compared vegemite to marmite. Big mistake. (Also: I have been introduced to the Australian 'Milo' and no other chocolatey, malty drink will ever do again. Thank you Tania.)

My job is a'ight. I work at a bakery that many of you in Alberta and BC probably go into frequently and buy great bread. It's a good place though the dorky uniform is a bit of a blow to my pride. All good! My pride needs a knock now and then, especially when I start thinking I'm too good for a baseball cap. I think I may graduate soon to a baking position which would be awesome. Then you get to wear the baker's cap which looks like you draped a hot water bottle on your head. But no one (not even God remember?!) is awake to see you. The bakery has just started carrying pumpkin scones as part of the fall promotion and we were absconded by people that felt the emergence of pumpkin harkened the oncoming of fall. Which it does. 

Today was an excessive form of precipitation. Saturday the North Shore was supposed to get 50 mm in a night! That is seri-yus. It is already at the point where people would be typically complaining about the fact that it's dark when they go to work and it's dark when they come home from work. Except they don't because you don't see the sun during those hours anyway. 

I think now working at a bakery, I'm going to buy a gym membership. Yep. And I've given myself a "fifteen pound window" where I will simply eat and not ask questions. Beyond that, my body and I will have to talk but until then, Operation Eat Food is a go. Capital go. Yesterday I took a Food Safe course which was, aside from painfully boring, totally gross. Especially because it is eight hours of discussing how to prevent food borne illnesses that cause food poisoning. Like Norwalk Virus which is transmitted when someone doesn't wash their hands after going to the bathroom. Or Staphyllococus when people don't ways their hands after invading their nose. Capital yuck. 

**These are the things that will begin to creep into my blog at more regular intervals. My apologies in advance.

The one thing that I am MEGA excited for today is the Vancouver International Writer's Festival. Last year I only made it to one reading at which I totally crushed out on John Gould and bought his book and had him sign it while I blushed furiously. And this year John Vaillant and Chuck Palahniuk are going to be there! And Anthony Bourdain! Those will likely be sold out sooner than I can get my act together but those are the ones I'm most excited about. Peter Behrens and Miriam Toews are coming too but I could likely just hang around outside Creative WRiting stuff at the Yoob and see them by chance. Not that they are relegated to 'less exciting' status. But Chuck Palahniuk! If I see Anthony Bourdain, he will be my John Gould. Blushing for serious. 

Anyway, I'm feeling depressed because of the rain and that is why my thoughts are more disorganized than usual. 

L'Chaim.

"Listen to the mustn'ts then listen close to me. Anything can happen, child, anything can be." Shel Silverstein

I have to start telling myself that I can't drink coffee after dinner. Ever. Because when I do, I turn into Rosie O'Donnell. I'm loud, digressive. Oy. And I usually end up talking to people I am really rather fond of and then kicking myself later as I try to gag myself with a sock. Rereading that, I make it sound like I'm drunk. Maybe the universe is trying to tell me: DRINK WATER.

It is fall. I think it's official and I only think it's official because it was foggy yesterday and has been raining all day. My weather compass is only so forgiving and the "spring" we had turned my weather-heart to stone. Or at least a semi-precious rock. But I got to wear my Fall clothes which made me happy. Layering is tough on the West Coast. Everything has to fit under a rain jacket which really doesn't breathe very well, so usually by midday you come back smelling like the inside of a rain boot.

Started some training at a bread bakery today because I obviously eat through jobs like goldfish crackers. Management turnover at the cafe I was at before and not only me but everyone else is also out of a job. Luckily, I had a kick ass opportunity right around the corner (aka the next day). This job will mean some EARLY mornings, basically before God is up but it's all good. He'll have some fresh bread, baked by me, ready for him when he gets up. Today was the first time that I felt a pang of nostalgia for school. But I thought through it and what I thought I was missing out on. And I realized, though I wish I was taking my Conversational Russian class (that's the only class I missing!), the only thing I was missing was the physical movement of routine. I miss waking up, picking out my clothes, waking up on the bus ride to school, grabbing a coffee before class, having the anonymity time of the academy. Besides that, I realized I don't miss UBC at all.

I'm feeling it's a Simple Daybook kind of day because my days are all over the place lately.
FOR TODAY
Outside my window… Rain. Blech. It's fall. But I bought in and had pumpkin spice latte yesterday. I'm a sucker.
I'm thinking...
I'm thankful…
From the Learning Rooms…I am trying to relearn all of the Russian I forgot over the summer. All I remember how to say is "I eat pizza with my hands". Not good.
In the kitchen…Newly baked caraway rye artisan bread. Win!
I am wearing…new skinnies and a tank with wooden beads. It's a mix of weather appropriate wear.
I am creating…Smitten Kitchen posted a recipe for peach butter (as opposed to apple butter) and I'm pretty stoked to give it a shot. The lemon-grapefruit is gone (Thank God! I was putting it on everything!) so I have an empty jam jar that needs fillin'!
I am going…the Alibi Room tomorrow. It's a sweet pub/restaurant in Gastown and our friend Todd is having his birthday there tomorrow night.
I am wondering…how I'm going to handle 'bakers hours'. 4 o'clock starts. Whoa.
I am reading…Flannery O'Connor. Moozh bought me one of her anthologies for Christmouse and I haven't even cracked it yet. I love her interpretation of gothic.
I am hoping…to spend tomorrow afternoon buried in some writing.
I am looking forward to…dinner with friends from the Reeg on Saturday! Some old, some new. I have a majestic cake planned and Moozh will pull one of his epic meal times out of a hat. It's gonna be a gooder.
I am hearing…Yukon Blonde. I have to give Florence and the Machine a break. Yukon Blonde is kind of a cross between Sloan and Fleet Foxes.
Around the house…a half finished baby blanket. Moozh's beer training book. The carnage left over from making bread.
One of my favourite things…Fall! The leaves are turning and that has to be one of my favourite things in the whole world. One of my Seven Favourite Things? Hmmmm…..
A few plans for the rest of the week…Seeing good friends. Praying over what this fall looks like and this year. Counting down the days until The Adventures of Tin Tin: Secret of the Unicorn comes out. Ya know, big stuff.

‎"Life's real, it's made up of little things -minutes, hours, naps, errands, routine. And it has to be enough." Barney's Version

Deep breath.

So recently I mentioned working through some hefty considerations and those considerations have given birth to some serious changes. Remember when I was a neurotic stress case about getting into my program at the Yoob? And then I did I said, "Victory"? I have spent the past four months feeling lost in the middle of it and feeling like I didn't bring my ball of string with me. Moozh went through serious self-reflection and making a really hard decisions, all the while I spent that time convincing myself that I wanted to be in my program. I don't think I've ever really given it the depth here that I feel for it but writing for me is such an emotional conviction. It has been my rescue for as long as I can remember. When I was stressed out as a kid, as young as first grade, it was how I dealt with stress. I could either develop multiple personalities or I could write. *I've always chosen the latter, just in case you're wondering.* So I faced into so many emotional road blocks when it came to actually thinking through my program, which Moozh totally had to do too. I felt somehow that saying I didn't want to do my program meant I wasn't a writer and I didn't believe that, I did't have the strength to swallow that.

But as I prayed about it, and as Moozh and I worked through it, I realized that I never wanted to leave writing behind and
Realizing that, while it seriously pains me to admit this, I"m not Virginia Woolf and I can't write ten hours a day, seven days a week. (Something makes me think Virginia Woolf couldn't either. Walking into a river with rocks in your pocket doesn't seem optimal.) I know that there are people out there that can write ad infinitum and I really admire them. But it's okay for me to not be that way, even though I say that through gritted teeth. I was in the program of my dreams and wondering why I couldn't get away from the feeling that it wasn't what I wanted. Made me feel guilty about all the people that supported me and prayed for me through the portfolio process and all of the incredible writers I know who didn't get in.

So this past Wednesday, when everyone else was catching a bus or grabbing a coffee, crunching through the leaves walking to class, I was sitting at home in my pyjamas, printing off resumes. I got from texts from awesome friends who remembered that I was supposed to be in their classes and I think all of my texts started off with "Oh yeah sooooooo…"  

But none of this was made in a void. As we worked through what I wasn't going to do, we waded through what I WAS going to do. We thought about what made me excited to do as a JOB. I could get my degree in Creative Writing and wait tables once I'm done to facilitate me writing. OR I could get my education in something I like that facilitates my writing. When I live in my head too long, I get internal. I become morbidly introspective, self-critical, aloof. I know for myself that I need B-A-L-A-N-C-E. I need something that pulls me out of my imaginary world where I talk to people that aren't real into a world where I am reminded of my husband, my life, my friends, my responsibilities, my other passions. I don't' want to be the kind of mom that is so aloof that her kids know she's not a place they can bring anything important. That sucks. This process has been an exercise in courage. I tend to hedge my bets. "If this doesn't work, it's not going to be hard or embarrassing or shocking because I have all of THESE things in place." Life is not meant to be lived like that and we were never called to live a life seeking security.
So we thought about the things that I do when I get home: look at food blogs, read cookbooks like novels, bake bread, make jam. I thought about when I have to get a summer job or a job that I can do during school, I never look for a job at  magazine or a newspaper. Because it freakin' stresses me out! I got to bakeries and cafes. I want to make things that make people feel good. I volunteer on farms.
So y'all, I'm going to bakery school. In January. Same place as Moozh. We gon' be Ma and Pa. I get to learn how to make wedding cakes! And chocolate! And profiteroles! And a whole bunch of stuff I can't even pronounce. I'm going to learn how to make the best bread you've ever had in your life. And I will find a way to share it with you over the 'inter web'. (I'll stuff it through my screen and it will pop out your USB drive.)

This all makes me want to wade into the ocean and watch the sun rise, ealize the autonomy of the world, how choices that I think are going to make me unhappy don't change the world, don't change the ticking and chugging of my life. It's like that Donald Miller quote, the beauty of the story means I matter. I can create, I can step out in courage, I can question, as the world was created for me to be in it.
My Moozh has been my exhale in a serious way. This process is one of those examples I will use when someone asks me what is so amazing about marriage. It's someone who loves you, someone you love, someone to talk you off a ledge, someone to call you to better living. But more than that, it's someone that when you feel small in the face of eternity and in the face of the the world, you have someone who as my bestie would say "holds you in the warmth of the night and thanks God for you". Someone who looks at the same future you do, a future like a three-legged race, and says in the middle of the craziness and uncertainty, "Let's do this".  And that moment, when you've totally fallen on your ass, they are there to help carry you through it (or drag your across the finish line and give you road rash on your back -the metaphor doesn't really work here but you get the gist). I had parents that showed me it is never too late to make a course correction and it has been a blessing to me. I want to be a model of the same. Course correction is hard and totally scary because it amalgamates emotions and ambitions and uncertainties and ties them into a huge monster you have to have the courage to cut down to size.

So if you see me walking around in the New Year in a white suit with my name on it, no I'm not doing probation. I'm in baking school! And if you don't see me at the Yoob, don't be mad that I don't have to stand in line for a upass every month. I have to buy a real pass :(

In so many words, next time you come to my house, you should bring a trophy with you or something because we're gonna kick the ass off of any hospitality you've ever had in your life. That's not really a joke.

Totally going to start a baking blog. Probs going to name it "You Can't Trust a Skinny Baker". Trust.

As of right now, I'm working at a little gluten-free, vegan bakery which is super cute and really chill. I'm not sure to what degree my program will deal with baking for those kind of alternative diets. Let me tell you, I am SHOCKED how much corn starch is in gluten-free baking. I want to see if I can find something at a bread bakery, where I can learn from different perspectives how people make bread. I'm gonna get so fat. Security in marriage, I'm tellin' ya.

Psalm 37:4
"Abide in me and I will give you the desires of your heart." Beaut.

P.S ~ I have to figure out how to learn Russian from here on out ON MY OWN. Guess who is always going to sound foreign?
P.P.S ~ Watched the movie "Morning Glory" which I didn't actually want to see initially because it didn't look interesting but Moozh has a crush on Rachel McAdams. She's super cute in the movie and actually redeemed it a little bit for me. But most of all the movie had a great soundtrack. Newton Faulkner, Corrine Bailey Rae and The Weepies. I freakin' LOVE THE WEEPIES. And this song kind of makes me 'weepy' (no seriously awesome right?!) but it's super relevant to my mind right now.

"Well I ask, doesn't anything stay the same.
No, No, No
Just same changes."

"I worshipped at the altar of romantic completion." Donald Miller

The magical clafaoutis fairy struck again the other night. We missed some friend's birthdays during the course of the summer so going to their house for dinner last night, I whipped up an impromptu birthday cake-clafoutis. No cherries this time but I had some beautifully firm nectarines that were begging to be thinly sliced and arranged in a way that was impressive in a baking dish. I added some rum to the batter as the JoC suggested as well as WAY too much vanilla extract. No bigs though because it was delicious. The clafoutis puffs up in the oven and the angular nectarines looked like mountains, with purply-red freckled peels poking up from the bronzed custard. It was a win. If you ever think to yourself, "I want to make an impressive dessert but I only know how to make a smoothie," clafoutis is for you. As for crepe batter, whizzing the batter in a blender produces a frothy, aerated batter that is beautiful and fluffy.

Went for a kick ass bike ride around the Sea Wall with mah fave Beej. "September is the New July" is a common sentiment in Bankybear right now because July was seriously bummed out and I've gotten a tan to rival the tan I received in the tropics. An "Indian Summer" we called it in the Beef Province. Warm long days that slither to a perfect evening, lounging in fuchsia and yellow along the horizon line. Thus, the beaches are BUMPIN' and all the kids that are back in school are feeling gipped. All of these things considered, the bike ride today was that which you write home about, which is what I'm trying to do here I guess. My legs kicked ass over every bridge and hefty hill that came my way and there was this majestic breeze that was just present enough to cool my sweaty bod while still maintaining the glory of a hot summer day. My bicey, who is presently unnamed, gave it a really good go but bummed out right after we trouped over the bridge headed home. It did so, about six blocks away from home so not bad and I had my pocket bike genius (Beej) with me so all was well. The Sea Wall is mega fun though. It's breathtakingly scenic and if you make time to do 'victory pictures' where you lift your bike over your head as Beej and I did, it definitely makes the 'Awesome Category'. Don't worry, I wore a helmet and I was really only going as fast as one of those Fisher Price motorized cars. I used all the road signals I learned in Girl Guides and, in lieu of no bike bell, I screamed "on your left!" at regular intervals.

Life is fun right now, if life is only relaxed and in a fair routine. Moozh and I saw a sign that said, "Wine is proof that God wants us to be very happy" attributed to Benjamin Franklin. Apparently, this is erroneous but I don't care because it kicks ass. I also like the one from Virginia Woolf: "One cannot think well, love well, sleep well if one has not dined well." I am doing all the above with high achievement lately :)

My bronze-bodied culinarian is making me risotto right now and it smells so profound I am overwhelmed in this moment by the beauty of marriage. Hope y'all are eating and loving well. Mwah!

"The fabric of your flesh, as pure as a wedding dress…"

I've been listening to "Howl" by Florence and the Machine for probably a half an hour. It's like when I listen to "One" by U2 and Mary J. Blige. I'm pulling a Mary J, ya know breakin' it down. Moozh always get a hefty laugh out of that because he doesn't understand the fierce bitch inside me, all locked up inside an awkward white girl. All good. At least Florence is white too. She's a ginger even! But the beats in her music matched with her howling (Ha! No pun…well yeah pun intended), practically rearranges my heartbeat. And makes me want to take my shoes off and dance on the lawn. And we have to share our lawn. Awkward.

Moozh and I took in the sunset last night playing chess and having wine and bread for dinner. Because we can. And because I grew up on the prairies and I always feel a little bit guilty when I don't take advantage of the waterfront, especially when the sun is OUT. It has been remarkably sunny lately, I will concede.

And because it sounds like a cool thing to do. There I said it. Sigh.

Made soup and popovers for dinner from the Moosewood cookbook lent to me by a lovely new friend. We swapped cookbooks after we had had too much wine. It's the female version of "I love you man."
"Make this cake. Oh my gawd, it's so good. But it's so easy. Seriously, I'm not kidding."
And so I did. No cake yet, but "Gypsy Soup". It just kinda sounds like I'd want to eat it. And popovers are always yummy. LIke puffy muffins. Puffy muffin biscuits. Puffinscuits…..new word.

I found this blog called "The Daybook" through Pinterest. She taught some of my first Photoshop photo processing. But she has this fun portion called "Awesome and Awkward" where you categorize what happened in your day. My days would be a tad one-sided methinks. IN THE AWESOME CATEGORY. Obviously.

Here goes:
Awesome -

• Handing out resumes like I was on a paper route. Let's get us a fine job!
• I didn't get beaten at chess every round last night. I never won but I managed enough stalemates to stay above water. 
• We saw someone walking their dog on the beach and the dog was a dead ringer for Stitch from Lilo and Stitch. It made me seriously want one. I think it's a French Bulldog. "I got a dog! It's a collie…that was hit by a truck." Cutester. 

Awkward -

• When it gets hot my hair gets all droopy and my bangs look like Nick Carter from The Backstreet Boys. You know, when the 90's where the 90's (said with a serious sad face). 
• Standing in my pyjamas in the sunlight pouring through our front windows, drinking my coffee and being thankful when a painter who's here because our building is being painted walks past my window and stares at me in my pjs. Awkward. 
• Giving people the 'death stare' when they stand in my way as I wait for the crosswalk. There is no way I could be in that much of a hurry. 

Happy September! Hope everyone had a nice Labor Day long weekend. I realized today…that it was yesterday. This is what happens when you're unemployed. You have absolutely no need to keep track of time. Unless you have to volunteer at a farm.

Question for today: What would your ideal meal be? Ritzy? Chill? Alone? With company?
I know mine would be a loaf of crusty bread, a chunk of cheese, a bottle of wine and my Moozh. I could eat this meal on the side of a highway and would still be beyond content. Mmm-mmm.

"Beauty in things exist merely in the mind which contemplates it..."

12 Project 2011! 

I pretty much headbutt my way through photoshop with a dunce cap on but we're working on it. 

Don't even ask me what's going on with my hair.  

Moozh and I don't have themes like I do with my bestie. But the pictures are taken because they're on our mind. There's another pic of me taken by the lovely Meggy Fowler. It's down on Granville Island, where we're going to be spending a lot more time.

bri

"…Muckers might make angels in its drafts as children do in snow, lovers in sheets, lie down and leave imprinted where they lay a feathered creature holier than they." Photos of a Salt Mine by P.K Page

Dear Y'all,


This week has drawn my summer to a close but I in fact feel less and less sure about what this Fall and, consequently this year, holds for me. I'm processing a lot of questions about school, about my writing degree and about my vision for my future. In the wake of these questions, I just decided to fill my timetable with achievable crafts and carbs to ensure a blithe contentment with what I'm working into. Discouragement can be a hard thing to work through because it unavoidably required taking a hard look at your expectations and whether they are…appropriate. It also takes examining a certain degree of romanticism in life. I would be the first proponent of maintaining the romance in life. But romanticism can also become idealistic and that is the perfect breeding ground for disappointment and discouragement. Blabbity-blab and so goes the mouth. I'll probably be digesting all this stuff here as well. And posting fun things that feed the romance of life. 


Psychosomatic Side Note: I always think of the curry Barracks Farmer's Market in Cowtown when I talk about 'romanticism'. The Farmer's Market was right across the street from where I studied Romantic literature. 


I tried out artisan bread, which has long plagued me with it's irresistible crust and upwards of 18 hour prep time. Letting it sit overnight didn't really gel with my unfettered obsession with carbs and my need for instant gratification with baking. I followed the process listed on the blog Ivory Hut, in which she uses a recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, which I now have on my bookshelf. This bread is the bomb-diggity. What made me nervous about the bread was the involved nature of it and most of the recipes I had seen required it to be baked in a Dutch Oven. This recipe, while it did require about eight hours of 'prep' time, most of it was just waited for the dough and letting t just hang out in a bowl. You don't need to knead it and you really only handle the dough for about five minutes in total (thus the name). Moist, great crust, mild flavour and endlessly adaptable. I want to make an olive-rosemary loaf next and I've seen a recipe for spinach-feta that would be fantastic.  If you have a spare Saturday where you want to make some bread that's going to make you feel like a superhero, try this bread. Plus, I split the dough into three and froze the other two. They still bake up perfect and it makes the time commitment a little bit more rewarding. I have baked two out of my three loaves and I don't have any pictures because we eat it too fast. Perfect with soup, for bruschetta, or….


Grapefruit curd! I mentioned it with baited breath earlier in the week. And on Friday I actually got around to making it work. I have been a part of making lemon curd so many times during a holiday season. It's one of my dad's favourite treats to make around Christmas. It's always made with the intention of spooning it into tarts for Christmas Day but it inevitably is eaten by the spoonful at regular intervals that come Christmas Day there is not a sniff of curd to be found. My dad makes his in the microwave but I found a recipe for a grapefruit curd made on the stovetop and given my recent track record, I found myself dreading whatever would manage to go wrong with a lemon curd, namely 'curdling the eggs'. Nothing is more disgusting to me than curdled eggs. I'm on the fence about eggs anyway (it's my veggie head brainwashing) but eggs going awry in a sweet spread: gross. But after my achievement with the bread, I felt emboldened and dare I say, a tad punch drunk that I put my hesitations aside.

Taste-wise, it was a thing of beauty. Sweet but with a refreshing citrusy tartness, it is flecked with grapefruit and lemon zest and mixed with chunks of fresh ruby red grapefruit. But as you can see, it is a bit…loose. The recipe said that cooking it for less time would result in a soft curd (read: runny). I cooked it, inspecting each flick of the whisk for any trace of opaque egg white, for almost an hour waiting for it to thicken into a spread, more like this:

from Saint Marty via google images

But it did not materialize. There is no such "dollop capacity" with my curd. Look at the definable 'hole' left by the spoon! But as I said, it tastes wonderful. I gifted some of it to some of our favourite people who just tap danced back into Bankybear and they told me they tried it by the spoonful. Which means it was a success.

Happy Monday! Eat something with zucchini in it. I know I will be. 

P.S ~ Moozh and I want to do a home brew this year. Got any tips? 

I'm going to start doing this….

I found this on Pinterest. And I am going to start posting the fails. Because at least then I can laugh about it.

I hope it eventually gets this funny. 

"hotter to me are / delights of the Lord than this dead life / loaned on the land." The Seafarer

So the first few days of my new plan: working well enough that I find it hard to get back here. Ironic? Yes. 


I think at this point of two weeks collaboratively I have spent twelve hours picking beans. That is the need at the farm right now and I'm just fillin' it. But the "Green Bean blind" starts to set in at around the hour mark so it's good that the shifts are short. Pumpkin picking is coming up if only to feed the gluttonous  and compulsive need I have to put pumpkin in everything come September 1. I hope to volunteer as long as they'll take me which sounds like late-October. Volunteering there has been awesome because it has actually shown me that I do in fact like farming as much as my obsessive self would think :) Imma get a hobby farm. With goats!


In the kitchen, this week has been an excellent exercise in managing disappointment. A good exercise because baking is kinda like that for me. I remember sharing my disappointment with the JoC because of two recipes in particular. It got better but this week in baking has been less than stellar. That zucchini I was telling you about, I decided that I would turn to the recipes that I received from people when there in a 'state' about the amount of zucchini they either had in their garden or had the misfortune of being gifted by a friend with a proliferation of zucchini invaded their yard. Don't get me wrong, I love me some zukes. I only wish I had a garden full of it, especially given the outcome of the recipes I did try, which is to say they didn't work. I made zucchini bread which I have made before, but this outing felt a bit labor intensive. I don't know if I just didn't love enough water out of that zucchini because I had to bake the sweet bread (think Banana Bread) for two hours! You bake pot roasts for two hours. You bake…pottery for two hours. Once I was reasonably satisfied with the level of 'doneness' I let it cool, wrapped it, and chucked it (and I mean chucked) into our freezer. After that, I thought I'd had enough of sweet things not turning out. Even after a dense sweet bread I still had a zucchini that was a foot long. Exaggeration is so not my thing. So with the next chunk of zucchini I grated it for zucchini fritters. I saw the recipe on Smitten Kitchen and I have a great deal of respect for her and her recipes. And now having made them I have less respect for my ability to follow a recipe. The pan was obviously too hot and didn't cool down as fast as I thought. The batter tasted just great but they came out of said pan burnt on the outside and still raw in the middle. (I'm beginning to see a pattern here) This excursion reminded me of some of my first opportunities cooking for Moozh when I essentially cooked to crud all the meat articles for him. I think part of my issue here is I learned to cook on a gas stove where the heat is much more responsive than electric elements that have to cool down and SOMETIMES THEY JUST DON'T DO IT FAST ENOUGH. We're fine. 


But then, but then! We were having friends over for dinner and I was on dessert (as I had been with the pie -gulp). I turned to the JoC. Why you ask? I really don't know. But it worked for me, for once. We had some cherries in the crisper that needed to be used and I had seen many recipes for clafoutis which is a French dessert made with cherries and almond liquor. Also known as a flognarde, which just is fun to say. It's essentially a crepe batter poured over fruit into a deep cake dish and then baked. I don't know why I do this to myself, try something new when we have company over. Not smart, but this time it didn't sting me. It was delicious. I have no pictures because 1) there were people watching me and geeking out didn't seem kosher but 2) I really didn't expect it to turn out so I didn't even get amped for it. Goo'job JoC. I will consult you again. I have picked a grapefruit curd from a jamming book I have out and it needs to turn out or else I will lose all faith in myself. But I think I have shown remarkable resilience…so far. We're gonna keep going. 


Once I have given it to her, I will likely post pictures of the scrapbook I've made for my bestie. It's been fun in a way that could become very distracting. 


Then the weekend rolled around and Sunday was a fun day. We wandered around Gastown and then chilled on the beach. But we had the camera. There was this little girl that was adorable in her little polka dot bathing suit but something in me can't post a picture of someone else's child without their permission. Here's some of what we got. 

This dude is Courtney. He's a ballet teacher. He plied for us. 

We HAD to take a picture of the steamclock. Everyone else does.

Happy Tuesday! If you have blackberry bushes near you, stalk them because their berries are getting delicious. Unless, they're near a bus stop because then they taste like exhaust more than berries. 


P.S ~ Got Ellie Goulding's album, Lights, and her voice literally stays in my mind even when I'm sleeping. I wake up tapping my feet. Moozh is not as amused as I am. 


P.P.S ~ Does anyone else find OS Lion is autocorrecting their slang and upon re-reading something you sound like a stoner? No, just me? 

"Enjoy your place in my story. The beauty of it means you matter, and you can create in my story, even as I have created you." Donald Miller

Dear Y'all,

My apologies for the infrequency of my posting lately. After our amazing vacay in the Land of Plenty and the Rapture I think I had a hard time getting back into the swing of things. But I've also been in the midst of something a little different. On our holiday, I read Donald Miller's "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years", which centres around 'living a good story'. It applies some of the theories about writing a good story and applies that to life. It was beautiful and for a writer made a ton of sense. So I looked at my story.
I have entered a period which I have deemed the "Age of Intentionality". One thing that truly frightens me when I look around at my generation is the tendency of people my age to be voyeurs in life, to not truly engage who and what is happening in their lives. When you ask people what they are about, they don't know what to say and when you ask them who they want to become and how they are going to get there, they are similarly at a loss of words. They do not invent and create community, or even engage it. They stand around in groups and assume that in doing that they are a part of people's lives.  I will not do that. But I have definitely slumped in that direction.
I have seen a tendency in my life to settle into what is easy, and what is accessible. I have let the creative pieces of my mind collect dust while I try and escape into that which is gratifying and does not require concentration, like food blogs. I let the creative outlets that I love, like baking, sewing, crafting, photography or reading, all fall into dormancy. Do you realize that this past year this blog was the only regular writing I did? I was in a friggin' writing program!!
As a wife, I want to inspire and empower my husband in his creative pursuits. He's a beautifully creative man! I want to create a space and a model for that for my children one day. And wanting that starts now. One of Moozh's courses that he took in the summer was on Vocation Work and Ministry. It really focussed on being obedient to the things that you want
Basically this is all to explain a recent absence in my posting. I definitely want to keep a record of what I am accomplishing in posting about them. If anything, that may motivate me to actually do new things because if I don't post anything, you'll think I've given up. Peer pressure has it's bonuses.

So here are my goals:

~ I will be writing a TON more. Not just for my program, but for me too. In the past week I have given myself full days worth of time where I create a space and an opportunity to write and I totally forgot how much I love it! Donald Miller writes about how there are some authors who like to be special and successful  and talk about their books to people but they actually don't enjoy the act of writing. I'm the opposite. I love to write. I don't want to talk about it, how it's going, etc. Some of this writing I hope to post here, but not all of it.
~ Craft Night! Craft nights are so fun. A cafe I worked at in Cowtown started it all. The girls who worked there would get together and crochet or knit. Then Bubby's in Victoria we did the same thing. A different person would host every couple weeks and would pick a different craft to teach to everybody. I know so many wonderful, inspiring, creative women in Bankybear that would make a craft so freakin' fun. And one of them is pregnant which puts a whole different purpose behind crafting, am I right?
~ 100 Books to Read Before you Die: Being in a literature class and a history class this summer reminded me how much I love to read, both fiction and non-fiction. To be a good writer, you have to be a good reader. It also makes you a good speller. (Speller? Spellist? I think 'speller' is kind of like 'funnest'. It doesn't sound right but it technically is.) I have tentatively decided on this list. It's not exhaustive by any means and there are a lot of classics that I want to read that aren't on there. I may have to create my own list. Any suggestions?
~ I posted a while ago about wanting to work my way through the ReBar Cookbook and the Joy of Cooking. Nothing really happened with that hey? Well I have begun. Yesterday I made bread from the JOC, which malfunctioned slightly, so I don't have a picture and last Friday I made pie crust from the JOC, which also didn't' turn out. Hmm. I will make something that will turn out :) I have a zucchini on my counter that is almost a foot and a half long so something will become of that. Maybe I'll take a break from the JOC for a few recipes. It's a gooder but my track record thus far is disappointing.
Plus: Moozh is going to culinary school so as he works through that there will definitely be pictures of his process and his yummy creations!
~ Photography: Bankybear is a physically breathtaking city and there is so much to see. I don't want to leave after three years here and not have anything to show for it. And there is nothing I love more than looking through old pictures. Friends of ours Marcus and Megs moved back to Winnipeg this spring but they really inspired us in photography. Megs does photography and Marcus is a web designer but they have the coolest creative partnership and gave us some really great ideas for getting started.
~ 12 Project: I already do this with my bestie Lacey but I've wanted to do it with Moozh for a long time and just never got around to it. (You seeing a theme?) So at least, once a month I want to have a picture of Moozh and I, ya know, for posterity. When we're grumpy and old, we can look back on our blithely happy faces and tight bodies and reminisce. So can our kids ;)

And in the midst of all of this I will be in school at the same time. So balance is key. But I didn't have any balance this past year and goals are fun. Here's to the Age of Intentionality. Kind of sounds like I should be wearing a hoop skirt.

Blue Bird Creative