3. Host Visits

This past weekend I had a delightful sleepover guest at the house for the first time.  She brought her own bed, as well as numerous stuffed an

This forced me to do a bit of child-proofing in the “office” which has been my somewhat embarrassing dumping ground for stuff that I don’t have a home for yet.   Hurrah!  Now I’ve got a room that’s almost livable.  imals, books, and stacking toys.  Yes!  My wee niece H came for a visit!

H’s dad came back the next morning to pick her up, and we had a great little play in the park before they left to drive back to Kingston.  19 month olds are exhausting, but awesomely fun.

I’ve also had some other visits from other people, but this is the first sleepover party.  Well on the way with goal #3.

4. Learn to Quilt

Another great day of quilting this Saturday.  This time, at my house – with a room set up for mass production of time bits of fabric sewn together.   Not pictured is the ironing board on the other side of the sewing machines.

Like last time, we got two blocks completed.  The first one we tackled was really complicated, but offered an opportunity for me to learn paper piecing.    For the uninitiated, that is a technique involving stenciling the pattern onto paper, and then pinning the fabric to the paper one piece at a time and sewing directly over the paper.  This allows you to more accurately sew intricate things – like lots of interlocking triangles – together, without stretching the fabric badly and with maintaining even seam distribution. I really enjoyed this technique because I am not particularly good at sewing in a straight line by eye.  However, it takes a long time, and this lovely block took us a number of hours to put together.

One of the fun parts about making a sampler is that each time we start a new block we get to play with the colours and fabric patterns to design how it will look.  We have a number of fabric, so of which are also being used in borders or ribboning between blocks, and some of which are just for the blocks, so there is a lot of planning that has to go into making sure that we have good mix of the fabrics represented each time, while also having a pleasing colour combination.

The second block we put together this weekend has a pinwheel motif on it.  K took care of the difficult asymmetrical triangle/rectangle parts, and I got to practice some of the skills I learned last weekend with the triangle parts.  I really like how this particular block turned out.  We opted for a subtler colour differentiation in the pinwheel than they have in the original pattern, and I like how that turned out.

4. Learn to Quilt

Some movement on the quilting front, with an explanation.

My aunt K decided, very generously, to make a quilt for me.  Part of the making of the quilt plan, involved my participation, as something to do together.  Being a non-quilter myself, this is my chance to learn.  Late last fall, we had a couple brief visioning discussions, and then K found the fabric that is acting as the  border and the thematic colour around which the rest is based.  It is a lovely soft yellow with muted sunflowers and butterflies on it, which I have failed to photograph.  Then, at the end of December, we went to a quilt store’s end of year fabric sale and got the rest of the fabrics we’ll be using.

This weekend, we started the cutting process.  We’ve cut all the borders and trims, or just about all, and started in on the blocks.  The quilt we’re doing is a twelve block sampler, with a triple stripe motif for the borders between the blocks.  We made up two of the blocks last night.  The rest will happen at a later date.  One thing I’ve learned so far is that you can’t rush a quilt.  It is really important to get the cutting as accurate as possible, and just as important to get the pieces together in exactly the right way.  If not, your points and joins just won’t match up.  There was definitely some stitch ripping of some of the pieces I put together going on last night.

7. Take a Pilates Class

So, as luck would have it, I’ve been able to start in on this one already.  It turns out that a City of Toronto Parks and Rec pilates class started this evening, around the corner from my house!  I spent about 20 minutes on hold with the City’s recreation phone line to set up an account on my lunch hour, registered immediately, and stopped to buy a yoga mat on the way home from work.

The class is nice and small, and she started us off fairly light, as none of us were proficient.  I’m a little sore, and imagine that I’ll be more sore by tomorrow morning, but I feel really good about getting this underway.  The class is going to last for 8 weeks, so we’re now well on the way with this particular thing.

2012

In no particular order:

1. Complete as many economically feasible upgrades to my house as possible, as suggested in my Ec0-Energy Audit.
2. Take better control of my work-life balance (eg. leave work in a timely manner).
3. Now that I have a proper home, have people over for visits on at least a semi-regular basis.
4. Learn to quilt.
5. Get back into painting, and complete and hang at least one painting (whether or not I personally feel it is well done).
6. Go one whole month without eating an processed food.
7. Take a pilates class.
8. Get back into blogging on a regular basis.
9. Find a church that I like/which is convenient to get to, and go to it.
10. Run 10km
11. Expand last year’s small vegetable garden in order to be able to actually eat from the garden for more of the summer.
12. Get all other summer produce from markets or at least sourced locally.
13. Make some form of preserves from garden produce (jam/pickles/sauce/etc.)
14. Ween self down to purchasing take away coffee no more than once per week.
15. Organize crafting chaos of bins and boxes currently occupying floor of basement into proper containable something.
16. Paint Kitchen, bathroom, and hallways.
17. Replace old lady curtains in house with more age appropriate window coverings.
18. Bring library books back to library in a timely manner, rather than racking up ridiculous fines in own place of work.
19. Finally get around to visiting the renovated Art Gallery of Ontario
20. Read at least one of the Giller nominated books for 2012
21. Reconnect with lost friends I’ve been wondering about
22. Complete at least half of the unfinished craft projects currently languishing around my home
23. Get more of my thousands of pictures printed and in albums or displayed
24. Work on finishing writing the story that has been in progress for years.   Or, if I’m not going to do that, then start on something new.
25. Set up a weekly cleaning schedule so as not to cram all of week’s cleaning tasks into one painful day
26. Go to the Ex
27. Go to an Opera
28. Go to a play
29. Visit the Distillery District
30. Read the Canada Reads books
31. Make developing a romantic relationship a priority.
32. Keep up with playing the guitar.
33. Become a responsible sender of greeting cards for Birthdays and Christmas, and Thank You notes for other events.
34. Complete an entire cryptic crossword puzzle without assistance
35. Learn how to make more informed financial decisions
36. Learn how to crochet
37. Volunteer time rather than simply donating to charity (though don’t stop donating)
38. Actively seek out new acquaintances and friendships
39. Get a family doctor
40. Learn how to cook fish that is not salmon or similar – get over fear of cooking shellfish
41. Take pictures of things that are not flowers and babies
42. Go to see a Second City improv show
43. Join a club or activity group of some sort
44. Learn to leave early for appointments so as not to arrive late/flustered/anxious
45. Become more politically active
46. Take advantage of ROM membership by attending special programming (renew lapsed membership first)
47. Go to more concerts/live music performances
48. Go to a professional sporting event
49. Play on my piano on a more regular basis
50. Learn how to meditate
51. Do a better job of keeping in touch with people
52. Make sure that there is something special or unique about each day.

2011 Round-up

I completely fell apart on this project in 2011.  It turns out that being a solo homeowner of quite an elderly home, a manager of a completely understaffed workplace in a time of big upheaval, and a family member in a time when death hits more than once in a 6 month period, is both emotionally draining, and time consuming.  Things had to fall by the wayside.  Other things slipped because I was so caught up in some of the bigger things that I didn’t get to them.

As well, some of the challenges proved unsustainable.  For example – cooking an actual recipe that is new, and so not alterable, each week, leads to a LOT of leftovers when you’re eating for one.  My freezer couldn’t handle the burden!

I did do some of my really big challenges.  And, I’m really happy about that.  I bought and moved into a house.  I built a garden out of nothing, and enjoyed the flowers as well as the vegetables it produced all summer.   I went to Alberta.

No, I haven’t read the Giller books or the Canada Reads books, but I will!  I’m on the waiting lists for them at the library.

A lot of my small adventure challenges are rather pricey, and that became something of a consideration with the change in cashflow that comes with buying a mildly decrepit house (yes, I did have to buy a new furnace this year on top of everything else!).   This is not to say that I’m destitute, but rather that I didn’t quite manage to renew my ROM membership, and didn’t quite get around to going to an Opera.

At any rate, now that I’m a bit more settled in the house, I’ve got (fingers crossed) almost a full staff again, the workplace renovations are almost done for now, and things are looking a bit up, I’ve decided to try again.  I’ll carry over some of my goals, and create some new ones.  Perhaps second try lucky is the way to go.

Everything I feel I completed is crossed off:

1. Buy a house
2. Move out of my decrepit apartment
3. Run 10km
4. Finally get around to visiting the renovated Art Gallery of Ontario
5. Read at least one of the Giller nominated books for 2011
6. Visit Western Canada
7. Take a class in an area other than the arts
8. Weed my home library although this will be an ongoing task for many years to come
9. Get rid of University notes (or at least some of them)
10. Reconnect with lost friends I’ve been wondering about
11. Wake up at a reasonable hour (and by extension, go to sleep at a reasonable hour)
12. Complete at least half of the unfinished craft projects currently languishing around my apartment
13. Get some of my thousands of pictures printed and in albums or displayed
14. Work on finishing writing the story that has been in progress for years
15. Try at least one new recipe a week
16. Go an entire month without take out foods, including coffee (and it is the coffee that will be the kicker)
17. Set up a weekly cleaning schedule so as not to cram all of week’s cleaning tasks into one painful day
18. Go to the Ex
19. Go to an Opera at the Four Seasons Centre
20. Go to a play that is not a blockbuster musical
21. Visit the Distillery District
22. Try at least 20 new fruits or vegetables
23. Read the Canada Reads books
24. Go on at least 12 first dates (one per month)
25. Learn some of the songs from new Gordon Lightfoot guitar sheet music book
26. Work in a garden
27. Eat a vegetable that I planted
28. Become a responsible sender of greeting cards for Birthdays and Christmas, and Thank You notes for other events.
29. Complete an entire cryptic crossword puzzle without assistance
30. Learn how to make more informed financial decisions
31. Learn how to crochet
32. Use up the crafting supplies I’ve got, before stocking up on further supplies, no matter how tempting the sale
33. Volunteer time rather than simply donating to charity (though don’t stop donating)
34. Actively seek out new acquaintances and friendships
35. Get a family doctor
36. Go through closets and get rid of clothes, shoes, etc., have not worn or used for over a year
37. Get paintings currently leaning against walls or in boxes framed and hung
38. Attempt to get all fruits and vegetables locally when seasonably possible
39. Learn how to cook fish that is not salmon or similar – get over fear of cooking shellfish
40. Take pictures of things that are not flowers and babies
41. Go to see a Second City improv show
42. Join a club or activity group of some sort
43. Learn to leave early for appointments so as not to arrive late/flustered/anxious
44. Become more politically active
45. Take advantage of ROM membership by attending special programming
46. Go to more concerts/live music performances
47. Go to a professional sporting event
48. Invite people over to home more frequently
49. Play on my piano on a more regular basis
50. Learn how to meditate
51. Do a better job of keeping in touch with people
52. Make sure that there is something special or unique about each day.

7. Take a Class in non-arts related subject area

So, this Spring I fulfilled this particular challenge by taking a class called Home Maintenance and Renovation for Beginners.  This was an eight week evening class offered by Toronto District School Board.  I learned how to cut and install drywall, tape and plaster the wall, and repair holes.  I also learned how to install, grout, and finish tile work.  We had some brief introduction to fixing a few minor plumbing problems and changing electrical outlets or light switches, as well as fixing cement and driveway pavement.  On the last class we looked at installing a drop ceiling.

The class was kind of terrible, but I did get to learn some skills that were valuable for a new homeowner.  I think I might look at some of the free workshops Home Depot puts on to learn more specific skills.

6. Visit Western Canada

The trip to Western Canada has come and gone.  I have now officially visited the lovely province of Alberta.  At least, I have visited some small parts of Alberta.  We flew into Calgary, and drove straight to Canmore, where we stayed in the lovely Stoneridge Mountain Resort.  For five adults and a toddler, we had 3 bedroom condo, complete with washer and dryer, BBQ,  and full kitchen.  This was a fantastic home base for our days in Banff National Park.  The first night we jumped right into our reason for being there by attending the opening night performance of Dance Masters at the Banff Summer Arts Festival.  If you ever get a chance to go to the Banff Centre, go.  It is beautiful.  Dance Masters in part of the professional dance program and features young dancers from various Canadian professional ballet companies.  This year, it also featured a new work choreographed by my brother, which was sublime.

We spent a few days in Banff National Park, visiting Sulphur Mountain, Lake Louise, Lake Minnewanka, the Columbia Ice Fields, Banff Springs Hotel, the town of Banff, and a number of other lovely natural sites.

Then, it was off to Drumheller, to see the badlands, the hoodoos, and the fantastic Royal Tyrell Museum.  The Tyrell is a fantastic museum of paleontology featuring dinosaurs and other prehistoric plants and animals.  We were there about 7 hours and still didn’t experience all it had to offer.  We stayed at a really nice three bedroom bed and breakfast called Urban Place.  Drumheller as a town is a bit rundown, but it is well worth visiting nonetheless.

A whirlwind drive through Calgary on the way back to the airport was all I saw of the city, but it looks like a nice place.

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6. Visit Western Canada

Progress!  I purchased plane tickets this week!  In July, I’ll be spending a week in Alberta.  Specifically, in the Banff area.  It is the week after the Calgary stampede.  I know I want to see Lake Louise and the ice fields.  Other suggestions???  It is time to start planning!

22. Try at least 20 new fruits and vegetables

1. Fennel – I’ve tried this raw before, but didn’t really like it as I don’t really like licorice and it tastes a bit like licorice. However, I’d heard the flavour is different when cooked, and that its quite good for you. So, now I’ve cooked and enjoyed, a few times, roasted fennel. It is very nice. There is a slight licorice flavour to it, but it is much subtler.

2. Fiddleheads – These are intriguing vegetables that you only really see in the stores during the spring. I’ve tried them before as they are quite common in Nova Scotia, but hadn’t ever cooked them, and it had been a long time. So, I bought some fiddleheads. I steamed them, and then tossed them with a little butter, salt and pepper. They were delicious.