Avenue Magazine (Weekend Reads)

When we're home on a Sunday morning with nowhere to go the family always has a pretty lazy routine. Hubby sleeps in (made so much easier with a quiet room in the basement). Baby Boy plays on the floor and whines every time he spies his Mama. The girls colour. I flip through magazines. We all watch Bake with Anna Olson. Then I get pressured to spend the rest of my day baking. Um... okay.

This morning brought us hot cocoa made with almond milk and scones. I use many recipes for scones, but this morning I tried my friend Julie's recipe, with a swap for whole wheat flour from our grain CSA and using grated apples and cardamom instead of the chocolate and coconut. Oh so tender...

I also flipped through the latest issue of Avenue magazine, a local lifestyle magazine.

Speaking of both Julie and Avenue, I never told you about this great article she wrote about me for the last issue. That's me, in my Baba's apron, making pyrohy. And wow, you should go and congratulate Julie. Her latest cookbook, Spilling the Beans, just won the Taste Canada Food Writing Awards for best single subject cookbook! And that is a cookbook worthy of a Sunday morning.

Friday Favourites: Acapulco Bags

Storage! Funky retro storage!

Or...

Horribly tacky, tourist storage.

I picked these up off the floor of my Mom's garage. She'd had a garage sale a few weeks before and shockingly, shockingly, no one bought them. I do remember them hiding in the closet of my parents' room and I have a vague recollection of the trip to Acapulco where these originated. Obviously they were well loved because my Mom found a bottle of rum from the same trip in the bags.

And now they hold in progress quilt projects. Hubby even kind of likes them. Then again, anything is probably preferable to a plastic bin in the corner. The small one holds my Maple Leaf blocks (more to share on those next week).

Still Life With Chair

Behold the cuteness. And I don't mean the little guy's chubby legs or the Monsterz quilt from Rashida or the handknits. Behold my chair. In my sewing room. And in a week I will be able to park my behind in that gorgeous new chair and sew.

Until then I am packing and cleaning and researching permanent design walls and buying outlet covers and and and...

Cabinet of Natural Curiosities (Weekend Reads)

For years now I've been treated to pictures of butterflies by The Monster. She's happy, she draws a butterfly. She's sad, she draws a butterfly. She's apologizing, she draws a butterfly. We often find pictures hidden under pillows, stuffed in bags, and not so furtively placed on the table while working.

Lately, the butterflies are getting more detailed and they are evolving into fantastical bugs and birds that she invents, then names. It is quite awesome to see.

I pulled out this book this week, in hopes of feeding her imagination. It was purchased just before the baby was born, but it didn't take. Now it is a different story. We had a discussion about inspiration and catalogues, then I let her loose. I see a lot of apology snakes in my future.