On The Needles In October

When I was in Nanaimo BC in September, I made
my way into a sweet little yarn shop-Mad About Ewe
where the very kind staff set me up with a project for
the ride home.

I bought the softest wool- Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted
and I am in LOVE with the stuff !
It's glorious to work with and I'm having fantasies about
wrapping my soon to be completed scarf around my neck.
Soon to be in the works are a hat and gloves. Told you I was in
love with the stuff!

Almost done :)

The other project I've got going on is a bit more painful.
I'm knitting a baby kimono out of an acrylic yarn.
I love the colour but the feel is not as soft and my poor
fingers are sore from the smaller needles and difference
in texture. It will make a good outer wear sweater though
so I shall carry on!

I've completed one front side and am working on the second.
It's easy work but time consuming, all those tiny stitches and
I'm going to make sure that my next knit project is in something
chunky!

I may have to give my poor arms a break though and chose a
non knit project but that's OK because I have an idea list a mile
long I swear...Happy Monday!

Recipe To Riches: Episode One

I am a Food Network fiend.

Its the not the network itself I'm in love but food overall.
Nom Nom Nom!

Food Network has a show called Recipe To Riches which is
" a new competitive reality series where each week, Canadian home cooks
battle to have their original recipes become a President’s Choice product, win
$25,000 and become eligible for a grand prize of $250,000."

It's an absolutely brilliant marketing idea as well as entertaining in itself.
I love seeing what ordinary people come up with and its neat to learn about
the day to day lives of my fellow Canadians. We sure are an interesting bunch!

I missed most of it last year but this year decided I would make it a point to
watch every week. My reward? I'd also get to treat myself to the winning recipe..
every week,yay! That will ensure I keep watching, ha ha.

Episode 1 was Cakes,Puddings and Pies and the winner was Jason Keary of
Nerepis NB. He made Honey Cheese Pastries-they are in the store as Cheesy
Bees Nests- and that's what we tried last night!


Here they are. You bake them from frozen. They are cheesy bites topped with a
mixed berry fruit and...mozzarella cheese! inside phyllo pastry cups.

Here's what they look like baked:

As you can see they are just tiny little bites. I can't remember how much they
cost but we didn't feel ripped off by what we got. They come twelve in a
package.

The flavour was very good! Creamy smooth cheese filling, tart and sweet fruit
and the mozza cheese on top was most excellent. It added a bit of salt that really
complimented the other ingredients.

The only minus was the phyllo cups. They were not crisp all the way through
and really lost their shape while baking. You can see how they look sloppy.
It did not take away from the taste though and every family member enjoyed
these sweet treats and would eat them again.

If you don't wish to buy these little guys,-available at Superstore and the like-
the recipes are up above on the link entitled Cakes, Puddings and Pies. Not only
can you try these yourself from scratch but you can make the two other recipes
as well!

Which is what I'll be doing with episode 2 but that's another post!

Use It Til It Falls Apart

and then re purpose it for something new again!

That's the motto in this house.

I get extreme satisfaction out of this practise, it
appeals to both my practical and creative nature.
Plus, I feel smugly awesome for preventing one
more item from going into the landfill!

We had an old comforter that'd been laying around
the basement floor for some time. The pets had taken
to lying on it, as pets do, so I thought "A-ha. Pet Bed!"

I folded the comforter in half the long way and then
cut it in half, across horizontally.

I was left with two squares of folded comforter.

I folded each square in half and then half again the
other way until I was left with a smaller square.

Using left over yarn I stitched all the edges together all
the way around.

I wasn't careful about doing any of this as you can
see. My method? Quick and Dirty.

I didn't want to see that ugly pattern anywhere in my house
so I rigged up a cover for it out of material I'd found at
a thrift store awhile back.

I say rigged up because I didn't even measure the material,
just folded it in half, then approximated the basic size I
needed, cut it off and sewed it together. It's basically a sloppy
pillowcase.

The finished product!

Not bad at all, and perfectly serviceable.
Sure it might not be the prettiest thing in the world but
pretty was not what I was going for. Really, I just wanted
to get that damn comforter off my floor!

Lael Creates..what?

Mostly havoc but I like to try my hand at other things too.

Let me tell you a story.

I'm an almost forty year old woman in the the tail end years
of responsible motherhood.

That is to say I am in the tail end of being responsible for
the fruit of my loins. (I'm not entirely grown up enough to
be labelled responsible ) My first child has grown up and
moved away, my second is just three years away from
doing the same. I have close to no formal education and
no skills that translate well into the work force. A place
I'm going to be heading for soon, it would seem.

It would seem because my husband is growing a wee bit
tired of watching me play Lady of Leisure.

I can understand. It's a big stressful job supporting a
household on your own and just think of all the things we could
do with double income and no kids?!

He can't wait to be a D.I.N.K (sometimes I think he's already
there) and I kinda like the idea of it too so here I am, looking
for work.

Sure I could look in the wanted ads or check out the
government job website but the thought of an ordinary job makes
me want to poke myself in the eye.

Repeatedly.

It looks like I'm going to have to create my own job. A job perfect
for me.

But what the hell is that?! I have no clue where to start.
What do I like? It's hard to narrow it down to just one thing and I keep
getting stuck in the details.

I came across an article about realising your dream job and found that the
first step was to have clarity about what you love to do. Exactly my problem.
No clarity but I decided I'd better get some so I meditated on the subject
-for about ten minutes but have you ever noticed how when you want quiet,
noises seem so much louder than usual?-and came up with a short list:

Have fun
Create

There may or may not have been something in there about helping others and
inspiring people but..eh..my ego likes that too much so I crossed them off. I'm
trying to live through spirit rather than ego these days.

ANYWAY!

I have no idea how those two ideas are going to lead to a job that's fulfilling and
produces large amounts of money but hey you never know until you try. I do
know that one needs to start heading in the direction of their intention and that is
what this blog is about.

Heading toward creation and having fun along the way!

PS. Honestly I'm too dorky to create any real havoc. I just like
to pretend I'm a bad ass. Play along, OK?