This past weekend I decided to take a day trip out to Prince Edward County.

I had never been and since I couldn't afford a weekend away, I figured this would just have to do.

And it did!

The drive was very pretty to say the least. Most of the leaves have changed colour already, but there was still areas that were a fiery orange. I drove through Wellington, stopped and had a lovely lunch at the Bloomsfield Carriage House in Bloomsfield and made my way to Sandbanks Provincial Park.


The beach was white and I loved the sound of the crashing waves! I think I was a bit surprised how many people were out and about including the amount of kite surfers. (Although considering how windy it was by the water, made sense - they really seemed to be able to go far!)


From there I went off to Picton. I was hoping to hit Buddha Dog but this time of year everything closes early! Boo for me.

I strolled around and walked into a store called Rose Haven. It was SO not my intention to hit a yarn store or buy anything, but I did. Picked up some black roving (which I needed), replacement felting needles (again something I needed) and made an impromptu purchase of some Habu silk stainless thread (?) yarn (?) - not sure what you'd call it and some Habu bamboo. I'm rather excited about what I'll be making with that!

On the way home I stopped and picked up a couple of small pumpkins - they were free - and then at George's Fish & Chip. The poutine was perfect. Crispy fries drowned in gravy and melted cheese. Very fitting for a cool, crisp Fall day.


I've got another day off today. It's started with laundry so far (I know not exciting, but necessary) and the rest of day... who knows!

Have a good one!

Over the summer I managed to score a brand new full-size crock pot for $8 (yes $8!) at a friend's garage sale.

Today I have finally pulled it out, plugged it in and am ready to see if this appliance will become my new best friend in the kitchen.

I also thought it'd be smarter to try this out while at home the first time versus plugging it in, going to work and spending the whole day wondering if my meal is indeed cooking or whether I'll even have a place to come home to!)

I opted to try out a simple Beef Stew. It's a crisp and cool Fall day and it seems fitting. Plus, when I hit the farmer's market this morning they seemed to have all the ingredients just waiting for me to take them home and drop them into the crock pot: beef, onions, carrots and potatoes.

Side note: the carrots smelled so fresh and yummy! And I picked the tri-coloured little potatoes, just cuz I think the extra colour will look good on a plate.)

Everything's been chopped, sliced and diced and placed into the pot with some homemade broth (courtesy of my Mom) and spices.

Apparently in six hours I will have a lovely dinner just waiting to be eaten!
(Note, technically everything's already been cooking for two hours. Laundry, cleaning, knitting and the internet will all make lovely distractions til then.)

I just gone through my stash (yarn stash that is) looking for inspiration.

It's been a while since I've actually knit anything.

I've also gone through my stack of books (specifically my three favourite ones) and I've decided it's time to actually make something from them. Would make sense no?






And I now have a plan. I've tagged each pattern I want to try. And where possible, use up my stash.

The problem (only slight!) with my stash though is that I have too little of each colour/type of yarn for most of the projects I want to do... So I'll have to mix'n'match I think and keep my fingers crossed that it will all work out.

At any rate I think this will be fun!

Every year growing up Easter was all about good food, company and decorating eggs.

I can't say much has changed except that I now partake in the decorating aspect of things. My parents are Slovenian, so decorating eggs is done in traditional old school style. My Dad was taught by his Dad and he has now passed on the tradition to me.

It starts by dying the eggs using onion peels (all natural baby!) They make the eggs this lovely golden red/brown colour.

Then using a sharp blade, you etch/scratch your design into the egg. My Dad's style is all about portraits of famous people (usually of the political variety). When I finally grasped the technique (meaning stopped breaking eggs) I went with a more abstract patterns and designs. (I can't draw portraits for the life of me!)

Anyways, check out all the egg decorating pics here!

The violets in my windows have been blooming like crazy for the last couple of weeks. Clearly this is a sign of Spring!

Eagles of Death Metal - WannaBe in LA

So Saturday I was at the Traditions of Christmas Craft Show which was awesome! I had a great time and it was so well organized. The people who came were really nice and friendly and the girls volunteering were really sweet.

The night before though, I was at the Chris Cornell concert. I know that has nothing to do with crafts, and knitting and felting. But it was such an AWESOME concert that I feels worth commenting on. Chris Cornell was the front man for Soundgarden and Audioslave. He played for 2.5 hours straight doing new stuff, old solo stuff, Soundgarden stuff, Temple of the Dog stuff and even requests from the audience. In the middle he did an acoustic set. It is definitely going into my top 5 shows. Made it to the front of the stage too which was great. Even caught a guitar pik which I've never done before. Actually, the pik landed in my hair. But that still counts right?

Now I just have to pick up the new album.

Ok, I am SO loving this song right now.
Love is Noise by the Verve from their latest album Fourth.
Awesome.

Lately I have been slacking.

In pretty much all areas.

Knitting included.

But this weekend, I began to unslack. My home is clean, laundry done (even managed to rid myself of two bags of clothes which will be used in a clothes swapping party I think!) and I was all set to go grocery shopping, when (due to my slow start this morning) I will now not do. I made it out of the building and around the block. I wanted to go to Loblaws so I could do a "big" grocery shop and use my points. But there is a marathon of some sort going on, so the best I could do was go around the block. And as much as I would love to go to Metro (the Dominion replacement which I loved), I can't use my points there and this was the whole point.

Means I will have to come up with a make-shift dinner with the limited food items in my fridge.

In the meantime, I will pick up my knitting again. Today's project: 60 condom socks. It's for charity. (That sounds so funny to me.) A friend (Janine) is fundraising for an AIDS groups.