Monthly Archives: December 2012

Pinspiration

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I am not much of a home crafter. I see things at craft fairs, or in stores, and think “I could make that” but, of course, I never do.

Same thing with Pinterest. The stuff is really cool, but the chances of me making sliding drawers that fit under my stairs or a pillowcase out of old socks are pretty slim.

But then I saw the frozen coloured water balloons. And, I knew I’d be in the frozen east (aka Ottawa) over the holidays. And, I knew my niece, M, would be totally into trying these.

So, in the spirit of the Pintester (f**king up pins so we don’t have to), we acquired some balloons and some minus a million degrees weather and we were good to go.

The instructions say, “fill the balloons with water and then add food colouring.” Yeah, right.

First off, we didn’t have liquid food colouring, just paste. So, we mixed up a bowl of pink water, stuck a funnel in the balloon and attempted to fill it. No go. The water just sat in the funnel.

Then, we tried using the turkey baster to squeeze the pink water into the balloon. Which resulted in pink water sprayed all over the kitchen. Oh, M and I now have pink hands (turns out food colouring stains) and my sister now has a pink turkey baster.

We needed a forceful way to get the water into the balloon. We tried the bathroom tap. Which worked great except that once the balloon was filled with water, there was no way to get the food colouring into it without spraying the whole bathroom with water. Plus, I think the giggling wasn’t helping.

But, having cleaned up most of the kitchen and now the bathroom we weren’t about to give up. We put the food colouring paste into the balloon, then filled it with water. Slightly messy but success!!

We made three – pink, blue and green – and left two outside to freeze and put one in the freezer to, well, freeze.

They turned out totally awesome. The freezer green one has lots of cool cracks in it, the pink one has bubbles and the blue one froze to a dark blue inner core with an outer lighter edge.

Now, if we can just keep the dog from licking them into oblivion hopefully they last a few days.

M wants to try something else from Pinterest. I’m sure my brother-in-law won’t mind if we renovate the stairs?!

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Does this mammogram make me look fat?

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This week, one two separate occasions, I was trapped where I only had access to “women’s magazines” as reading material.

I’m thinking these things should come with a warning. Caution – reading these magazines will give you a warped sense of what is important in this world. Do not touch!!

One of those places was the nail salon. So, okay, part of the nail salon experience is reading trashy mags, I suppose. There was an article on how some magazines are adding weight to models using photoshop because they look too thin and unhealthy. When the author? journalist? reported how shocking and wrong this was because we should all be allowed to look like however we are, I decided to PUT THE THING DOWN. I mean, that is warped!!

And so, I sat there having my nails done staring into space. I think that might have been better for me than continuing to read. Especially since I was already feeling bad that I fell off the nail-biting wagon in October and have had to resort to gel nails to try and put a halt to the habit again.

But, the second of those places was during my mammogram! In the waiting room, you have to turn off your cell phone so that you don’t interfere with someones x-rays while you’re updating your Facebook status. Or, whatever. There was a sign saying turn off your phone. I’m Canadian, I followed directions.

There was a range of magazines. Not as trashy as the nail salon but every one of them was about women’s style or health. If health means an endless discussion on what to eat to lose weight, increase your brain power, be a better parent and earn more. And this was the mammogram clinic at my local women’s health centre!!!

Before I started to care too much about whether I was still wearing last year’s fashions or drinking enough coconut milk, I dug to the bottom of the pile and found a Mclean’s magazine from October. I had already read it but at least it was news about what is actually going on in the world. Thank goodness for Mclean’s!!

And then it happened. Yesterday my weekly Mclean’s arrived in the mail. Complete with a 25 page special supplement on the pregnancy of Kate. TWENTY-FIVE PAGES!!!! Including a whole page of pictures from the last 18 months of Kate’s stomach with her hand on it challenging the reader to identify the “baby bump”.

I may have to cancel my Mclean’s subscription. Sigh.

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Hope and chocolate-dipped cherries

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When I am having a bad day, I am really not a nice person.

I am easily irritated, grumpy, controlling and, I’m sure, give off an energy of “touch me at your own risk”.

As I learn to not numb out using my addictive substance of choice (food), I am also slowly learning to recognize this about myself and try to “head it off at the pass”. With reaching out to friends, going for a walk, journalling. It certainly has given me some compassion for other grumpy people and for times when others might be just having a bad day.

If it gets really bad, I usually stay home and out of the world. It’s a hard line to balance against isolating myself vs. realizing that it’s okay to tell the world to f**k off. But, better the figurative third finger from home than that actual one, I suppose.

Yesterday was such a day. It was bad. I just wanted to curl up on the couch and repeat “I am enough” until my head somehow convinced my heart. To give up on trying to fake wind in my sails and just accept the becalmed, grey fog and trust that it would pass.

Thing is, this weekend is one of my favourite of the year. I have a group of wonderful women friends and we get together for the whole weekend and make chocolates for holiday gift-giving. A lot of chocolates. Usually about 3500 over the weekend.

This group of women in my life is a gift beyond compare. We range in age from our 30s to our 70s. We are married, divorced and single. Some are childless and some have grown kids, teenagers and toddlers. In less that a dozen women, we are the full range of life.

And, the opportunity to share our stories, to learn from the collective life experience of these women who walk their paths with such courage, to share the workload together, to look after each other (more tea, anyone?!) and to support and encourage each other makes me feel incredibly lucky.

So, off I went, hoping I could keep a curb on my irritability and “don’t touch” attitude, and saying a small prayer that my heart could be open to the love and hugs.

I’m not sure how I did. But, as we were wrapping the cherries with fondant to get them ready to be dipped in dark chocolate, we found this little guy. Still with his leaf attached even after a whole year of soaking in brandy.

Somehow, the hope and optimism in that cherry and leaf partnership lifted my spirits. We shared a laugh and marveled at the leaf, keen to see if survives the dipping process.

Hope is such a precious thing. I am grateful for these women in my life, who give me hope that things will be okay. Who help me refill my sails, even when I’m a grumpy chocolatier.

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