The other New Year's day....

Maybe it's because we're programmed with the first day of school in our formative years, but Labour Day always feels more like a New Year's day to me than January 1.  Maybe because through 18 or so years of education, Labour Day always signaled a new beginning, new teachers, new classes, new notebooks, a time when you couldn't be behind on anything yet because you hadn't started yet.   And though I haven't been in school for many years, it still signals the "real" end of summer (really September 21?  You are the end of summer in name only.)

Dave had to work today so I had the day to myself.  I didn't do much.  I watched 3 movies Definitely Maybe (which i had seen before but didn't realize I had until about midway through, obviously not a great movie), The Town (pretty decent), and Love Actually (an older movie I never saw but was pretty good) all while knitting these:

The pattern for these can be found here

Yes I know it's September.   Here's the thing.  Dave and I have never really done that much for Christmas.  Once we had a New Year's party and when people came over they were like "Um, where's Christmas?" - because we did not have one decoration up.  It literally could have been July, that's how bare our house was.  Truthfully, not to be a grinch, but I think Christmas is for kids.  As it has just been Dave and I, it hasn't been necessary to go through the whole tree/decoration thing in my eyes.

This year however, our nephews from NJ are going to be coming up for Christmas so that changes everything.  Hudson will be almost 3, kind of the magic number for Christmas don't you think?  Plus, I gotta make Canada Christmas as good as American Christmas in his eyes, so I feel like a have a responsibility to my country to make sure Hudson doesn't go home thinking Canada Christmas sucks.  Jonah is going to be 14 months, so I'm not worried about impressing him.  I think the wrapping paper from Hudson's presents should suffice.  Seriously if you've ever seen Jonah, he gets all happy and smiley if you even look vaguely in his direction - you don't even have to look directly at him.

So Dave and I are going to have a tree for the first time.  Never had my own tree.  It will likely be the fake one from my parent's house.  I don't see the point of cutting down a tree (yeah yeah, pine tree smell whatever whatever), and yes, I realize making a fake tree is probably equally harmful to the environment to produce.  But as I am using a tree that my parents already own (and won't be using - see, I come by my feelings for Christmas honestly), I feel fine about it.  I've always said when I had my own tree, I want only handmade ornaments on it.  Not counting the lights.  And the candy canes.  Hence, the Christmas crafting Labour day.  So far our tree will be barely not naked.  But it's only September right?

Any suggestions for handmade ornaments?  Leave me a message with any links.  No suggestions using pasta pieces, ok?

out with the old....

My first "single girl with her own apartment" purchase

Dave and I are getting our kitchen/family room renovated and this week we had to do some purging and cleaning and this included getting rid of some furniture.  This was all furniture from our old apartment that made the move with us to where we live now.  Stuff that I had bought many years ago when my roommate moved out, all the furniture was hers and I was left with an empty apartment to fill.

It was an exciting time in my life.  I was single, living in the city, I had just started my dream job and had my own apartment for the first time in my life.  Kind of like Sex in the City, minus the sex and all the fabulous clothes and shoes.

The couch above was my first major purchase as an adult on my own.  At $800 was the most expensive thing I had ever bought up to that point in my life (if only that were still true!).   I spent evenings and weekends hunting for the "perfect couch".  It was like a real quest, my co-workers got involved, giving me advice on what to look for and where to go.  "So did you get a couch yet?" was the first thing I was asked every Monday morning.  It took me so long at one point someone commented "Holy shit, just buy a fucking couch already."  I should mention that I worked on a trading floor, where a) people bought their kids ponies for Christmas, so watching someone drag their heels on a $800 purchase was probably a bit irritating for them and b) people used very bad language but not always in a mean way.  Anyway, when I finally bought that couch it was more like a collective triumph than a personal one.

My one regret about that couch was that for an extra $100 they would have converted it into a fold out bed, but I didn't have an extra $100 at the time.  Over the years many many friends have spent the night on that couch, that $100 really would have been well spent, probably like $1 per stay.   But I was always a responsible spender and I felt like I couldn't afford it.  If I knew at the time that one day I would be dropping $100 on vitamins at the naturopath on almost a weekly basis, or on a single trip to Whole Foods to buy some gluten free bread and dairy free cheese, I think it would have put it all in perspective, but sorry friends, I had no such foresight.

Yes, it is just a couch.  Just a piece of furniture.  But in a way, getting rid of that couch kind of symbolizes a tangible good bye to that time in my life when I made decisions on my own, scrimped and saved for the things I needed (actually needed not wanted), when every purchase felt "major".  It's not that I don't love the life I have now.  It's recognizing that I had to go through all that, to get to this, and that all that is a time you can never go back to.

Where did the couch go you might ask.  Thank you for asking.  We found a wonderful organization in Toronto called the Furniture Bank.  They collect gently used furniture and household items and transfer them to women escaping violence, refugees, new immigrants, and people transitioning out of homelessness.   These individuals or families are referred to the Furniture Bank by registered agencies and shelters and they can go in and "shop" for furnishings for their homes.  Everything is given to them at no charge.  

So the couch that symbolized a big transition in my life, now will do the same for someone else.

so little and then so much.....

What?  August already?  Second week of August even!

No posting for a while because at first, nothing was really going on....nothing worth posting anyways....just the regular hum drum stuff....work, eat, sleep, repeat.

Then all of a sudden too much was happening.  And all at once.  I can't get into it all really because some of it really sucked and I don't have the energy to go through it all at the moment.

One thing of note is that I've started seeing a naturopath.  And she discovered that I have some food intolerances - to gluten, eggs, and dairy and recommended that I cut all three out of my diet.  And for those of you who know me, you know that I've been a vegetarian for almost 20 years now.  So I have now effectively become a vegan and pretty much the worst dinner guest ever.  Or the best because I think I'm just going to start brown bagging it to dinner parties.

Gluten is in EVERYTHING.  For instance soy sauce should actually be called Wheat sauce, because if you've ever read the ingredients, they go in this order "water, wheat, soy.....".  I know - who knew?

So it's been about two months and to be honest, I do feel better.  How better?  I can't explain, but I just feel better.   That is, when I'm not effing starving.  No gluten, eggs, or dairy effectively means no baked goods.  No cupcakes, cookies, banana bread, pie...I think you get the picture.  It has really cut down on my extra-curricular eating.  Like do you ever just buy yourself something to eat when you are at the mall, just for the sake of eating?  For me it was always a pretzel or some kind of baked snack.  Now there is pretty much next to nothing for me to eat at your average mall food court.  Which I guess is not a bad thing.

from projectwedding.com

I don't know what would happen if you put those in front of my face right now.  Like if I would even bother using my hands or if I would just smash my whole face into that plate mouth wide open.

And cheeeeeese....I want cheese.  Brie, parmesan, chedder, omg I'll even take disgusting Velveeta.

Okay enough, this post is just making me sad.

I discovered Bunners on the internet today and I can't wait to get over to the junction to check it out.  It is a gluten-free vegan bakery and the reviews are fantastic.  I'll let you know.  Although if you were to put frosting on a potato right now I would probably savour every bite.

Why none of my clothes are fitting me right now.....

My friend Jen and I wanted to do something to raise money for the Red Cross specifically for the Japan Earthquake/Asia Pacific Tsunami efforts.  And because Jen is such a great baker and I am not, we decided to have an Easter bake sale.

The first point of business was finding the perfect location.  We needed lots of customers.  Hungry customers.  We thought about churches (neither of us belong to a church so that was a no).  We were thinking about my office which was a possibility.  But we put the request in first at Jen's "office" which just happens to be Pearson Airport.  You see when she is not baking, Jen is a flight attendant for Air Canada.  In fact, many people probably don't know this about me, but I was a flight attendant for Air Canada for one summer right out of university.  That's how Jen and I met, on the first day of training.  I'm not sure why but when she walked into the class I practically yelled "Come sit next to ME!" And she's not sure why, but she did.  The rest, as they say, is history.

Anyway, Jen was able to get us permission to sell in the Air Canada employee area.  Over the course of a day, there are probably hundreds of flight attendants, pilots, ramp attendants and ticket/gate agents that pass through the area so we had the perfect customer base for our sale.

Most of the baking was done by Jen over 2 weeks.  I was able to help out on weekends but unfortunately Jen and I live really far apart.  But maybe it is fortunate, any closer and I'd be over at her house begging for cookies on a daily basis.  Just the weekends of tasting and more tasting has made me the opposite of ready for summer clothes.  I'll still be wearing my fat winter sweaters in July thanks to this sale.

Baking, packaging, transporting.  A lot goes into a bake sale.  The day of the sale was pretty exciting.  We were up at 5am and at the airport setting up by 6.  Jen's husband Mike and two lovely employees of Air Canada Carin and Mike helped us set everything up.

I wish we had more pictures, but we were too busy selling to take very many!  Jen has some more on her blog post here.  We had planned to sell from 7am to 3pm but by 12:30 we had sold out of everything!  People were so generous and kind.  Jen and I agonized over pricing, which is funny because many people told us to keep the change, or would just give us an extra $5 for the cause.  One woman came by and told us "I gave up sweets for Lent, but I just want to give you this", and handed us $20.

Doing something like this reminds you of the kindness of people.

At the end of the day we had raise $1461 for the Canadian Red Cross.

Dave contributed to this total by selling $100 worth of cookies at his office for us.

Many thanks to:

Carin Brown and Mike Trauzzi
The employees of Air Canada for their support as well as our friends and families
Dave's co-workers at RBC
Jen's mom, Paty
Jen's husband, Mike
Dave

Not to brag, but I'm pretty proud of Jen and myself.  I guess that is bragging.
Oh well.

Proof that persistence pays off

Ever since I first used a serger at the workroom, several years ago now, I knew I had to have one.  Well, maybe I should back this up a bit.  The first time I ever tried using a sewing machine was at the workroom.  I took a beginner sewing class with Karyn who is pretty much my crafty idol, and she taught us how to use a sewing machine and make a pillow case.  Since then I've taken a few more classes with her and also became the proud owner of my own sewing machine a Bernina Activa 230 which I love love love.

In one of those classes I was introduced to the serger.  Having never used one before I was amazed by how it neatened up all your work and made it very professional looking.  I had to have one.  No matter that I didn't actually NEED one and the one that I wanted was well over $1000.  I just started telling Dave that I had to have it.  It didn't really help that I couldn't really describe what it does..."you know, makes all your sewing better"  "How?"  "you know, by making it all neat and stuff".

It actually just started to become like when I would ask my parents for a puppy when I was younger.  Kind of like second nature, almost absentminded.  "So are we going to get my serger today?" "no" " Oh, tomorrow then?".  Maybe not daily, but on at least a bi-weekly basis, I would ask about the delivery status of my serger.

Well this year for Christmas:  Tah Dah!  Someone (Dave) got tired of someone else (me) asking for a serger all the time.  Look at the new addition to the squirrel's workshop:

Bernina 1150MDA

Don't they look lovely together?  Both were purchased from Karyn at the workroom.

I don't really know how to thread it yet, or do most of the stitches or anything with it, but that's not the point.  It's mine.  I kind of have the best husband ever.  And the lag time on getting what I want is only about two years or so....so by 2013, I should be getting that diamond tiara I've started asking for.

I'm taking a t-shirt making class at the workroom in May, so that serger will be seeing some t-shirt making action then.

In other news, I got all the supplies for my next knitting project in the mail today:

I know.  Dave says that being married to me is like being married to a 60 year old.  

I'm pretty sure he means that in a good way.

Heavy Heart

It's been almost a week since Japan was hit by one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded.  Followed by the tsunami.  And now the uncertain nuclear situation.  Of course it is snowing, to compound the misery of the rescue workers and all the people without power, food, and any kind of comfort.  And throughout it all the Japanese people remain calm, kind, dignified.

I feel like we were just there experiencing the kindness and hospitality of the people of Japan.  And since we've returned, when I think of vacations, I can only think of going back to Japan. It hurts my heart to see all the devastating photos and footage that have come out in the past 6 days.

Something that helps is to see how ordinary people rally to try and help.  For instance go to etsy.com and type in the word Japan, and you will get a list that if you dig you will find people donating a portion of their sales to Japan relief.  These are not huge conglomerates, just small business owners doing what they can.

I bought this from such a person from her shop on etsy:

The picture is called Thinking of Home, and the artist Naoko Stoop is originally from Tokyo, Japan now living in Brooklyn, NY.  There is something so sweet and wistful about the picture, it reminds me of being homesick when I lived in England.  The picture is $20 with $10 going to the Red Cross Japan.  While there browse her other pictures, all will take you back to being a kid and the wonderful ways you would fill the hours of the day.

Japan, I can't stop thinking about you.  Thank you for teaching the world a lesson about grace in the face of disaster.

I wish this was MY name.....

MACKIE MAKAPANPAN.

OMG I can't stop saying it.  I think it's spelled with a C but I have deliberately misspelled it so that if he/she googles him/herself, it won't lead him/her to my blog, and thereby leading me to be fired, as I came across this person's name in the line of work last week.  Not that I should be fired for loving a name so much.  I just worry that this post may be construed as sarcastic and that said person might think that by saying I LOVE his/her name, I am actually saying I DO NOT love it.  But I DO love it.  Man I wish it were my name.

If it were my name, I could name my blog MackieMakapanpan.com and start a Mackie Makapanpan Empire.  I don't know what that empire would consist of, but it would be awesome.

But since it's too late for me,  after work that day I asked Dave if we ever have a kid if we could name him/her Mackie Makapanpan Mun.  He said no.  So then I asked how about just Mackie Mun.  He said WHAT THE...NO.  I said but it's my DREAM to name my kid Mackie Makapanpan Mun, and he said how can it be your dream, you never even heard of that name until today.  

Well, guess what smarty-pants.  If we have a kid I get a year off for maternity leave.  SO, you might think your kid's name is Dave or Ashley or whatever "normal" name you come up with.  But all day long while you're at work, I'm going to be calling our kid by his/her SECRET REAL name--Mackie Makapanpan (Mun).  And you'll be wondering why he/she never turns around when you call him/her by what you THINK is his/her name.

I win (again).