life is unsure...so eat your desert first

I am not baker. The only thing I have successfully baked is bread. But I am fascinated by people's passionate reactions to desert. Desert represents everything that you don't need but you really want...with a cherry on top. Desert is the extra - the thing that makes us happy, it's the crowning glory; desert is the oohs and ahhs after the dinner party, it's Christmas and every other most important event, ....it's cashmere yarn...it's the bliss that comes after satisfaction. So, appropriately, my first baking experiment needed to be desert in its sweetest, most decadent form...the chocolate cake.

Chocolate is swirling around me of late - the Babe is the chocoholic in our house; I have just finished knitting socks in scrumptious Dark Chocolate from Apple Laine, and there has been witty reviews of microwaved chocolate cake (here) and hilarious rebuttals with recipes for the real thing (here). The recipe I chose is from the brilliant Vanille et Cannelle...Aran's photo was so amazing that I challenged myself to recreate it in all its chocolate splendour. I chose the best ingredients I could find - the most sumptuous chocolate, the biggest, glossiest cherries I could find and vanilla bean for scent and additional flavour.

I constantly browse books, magazines, and blogs to learn and to garner inspiration...so it was immensely satisfying to follow Aran's instructions and blend ingredient on top of ingredient to construct this wonderful visual. Happy weekend everyone.

how to procrastinate effectively

See that picture of me above, lounging around on the garden steps? Well, I am supposed to be putting compost in my flower beds and weeding - but, I got this new little wireless remote shutter thingy for my camera and so I set up the tripod to take some pictures of myself in socks for a post. But, then I got distracted by the August issue of Gourmet magazine that has some amazing photos in it (I don't actually cook anything from the magazine, I just look at it), and so I decided to take a picture of myself procrastinating. A critical rule of procrastination is a great glass of wine and a supply of Crave cupcakes. Being still nervous from the rodent rabbit incident, I have my rubber gardening clogs nearby to use as missiles. I tend to procrastinate more when I have pressing things to do...I think a lot of people do that...I am certain it is a coping mechanism of some kind :)

I should also be knitting socks because I am doing a swap with the lovely Beth of Acorn Collective - some stripey socks for one of her fabulous basket bags. I am simply enjoying the concept that I am making 'traveling socks', which will make their way to the land down under - Australia. I love these swaps. I had some amazing ShiBui yarn in my stash that should be perfect for her.

I want to thank a couple of sweet blogger friends for gifting me with awards. Ladybug-zen nominated me for the arte y pico award and Ginny of the flour loft nominated me for the 'I love your blog' award. Both of these gals have wonderful blogs that I love perusing on a very regular basis. These awards comprise rules, but you know, we are all busy with life and I am feeling rebellious, so I am bestowing these awards on all the absolutely wonderful people who commented on the killer rabbit post. I felt so good when I saw all those comments. Thank you.

...and now you all must check out this blog Cannelle et Vanille, go ahead, just click on it...do it...all I can say is "divine"!

killer rabbits and other things

Thank you everyone for all the encouraging comments about my photos. It's great to know that many people have the same issues about their own artwork sometimes. I got tired of sock pictures and had a bit of a guilt attack because I bought another knitting book - out of which I will never make anything!! I have all these terrific knitting, sewing, and decorating books...because I love looking at the pictures. So, to make myself feel justified about all these acquisitions, I decided to knit the toque above. The pattern is from Knitted Gifts. The glorious homespun yarn is by talented Jessi. The homespun was wonderful to work with, so soft and I got two toques out of it. The one I am modeling is the child's size.

On a completely different note - have any of you ever been attacked by a rabbit? I was watering my flowers in the garden and my cat was lounging around; I noticed my cat was cowering by the patio doors. I turned around and staring at me was this UGLY, grey rabbit. I am not talking about a cute thumper, floppy ears here - I mean this thing was a huge, giant rodent-like creature, and was glaring at me with little rabbity, beady eyes. I was so freaked out I started screaming and sprayed it with my hose. Well...the thing just kept advancing towards me, ugh, my skin is crawling just writing about it. I kept spraying and it kept inching towards me. I just ran into the house and closed the patio door shut. The Babe was completely bewildered by my outburst - I never scream, not even for snakes or anything! I was trying to explain to him that there was an ugly rabbit outside who wanted to bite me. Well, the thing hopped onto our patio steps and sat there. The Babe went outside and threw a shoe at it and it finally disappeared - have not seen it since, but is that not strange?

monday, tuesday, wednesday...at home!

Honestly, I love living in Canada because we do get quite a few long weekends and employers tend to be a bit more generous on holidays (though not as generous as in Europe!). Monday was a long weekend here and I still have a few weeks of holidays to use up before the end of the year. The Babe was on some climbing epic so I had a lovely, lazy weekend at home doing ....well, pretty much nothing. Bliss. I thought I would share one of my mornings in pictures with you - even the cat enjoyed being lazy.

I am progressing on my Annikki - I have 3/4 of the back done and 3/4 of both fronts. I had to stop at that point because I am stuck in the pattern and need to go to a drop-in knitting class to get past there. I am also working on some cable socks - one is almost done.

I have been doing a lot of photography, but right now I am a bit flummoxed. I am trying to capture something in a certain way and in a certain style and it is not working - the pictures are not turning out the way I want them to. I don't know if any of you have the same issues, however, I am frustrated by it. It's like I can't transfer what I see and feel through the lens to the image. Composition is really hard...I look at other people's photos and see something that is missing in mine. Oh well, I am going to a photo show tonight - maybe some of the pros will give me some pointers.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

socks for helen

Blogging is such an amazing little trip because sometimes the most wonderful opportunities are presented because of a post. A few weeks ago I posted about buying a lovely print from Jennifer over at Littlebird. Through Jennifer's blog, I was introduced to the amazingly talented Helen and her fun blog zukzuk. The trifecta above shows the 'Weird Hair Feeding Birds" print I purchased from Helen's shop here . Helen then visited my blog and fell in love with my stripey socks. So a perfect deal was struck - I would make Helen socks in exchange for one of her wonderful prints. If you visit her shop, you will see she loves bright colors, has an amazing imagination and likes to have fun in her art - and she is a fellow Canadian. I had a wonderful yarn from Claudia's Handpainted yarn series in a bright, sunny colorway and I thought the yarn would knit up into perfect socks for Helen. Now I just hope they fit her (cross my fingers and toes).

On another lovely note, my blogging friend Tracy nominated me for a Brillante award:

That is so sweet. I am tickled pink! Tracy is also a talented artist and makes wonderful jewelry - but that will be another post! She also tagged me to share six random facts about myself - again I think I will save that for my next post :) I would say one of the top benefits of blogging is meeting wonderful, talented people and through these relationships opening oneself to opportunities we would not have otherwise.



Have a great weekend everyone.