The Quilt (Link)

Check this link in case you miss 'The Quilt' post, which I actually posted today but Blogger thinks it was Dec. 10th. Long story....

http://cafejabbaccino.blogspot.com/2009/12/quilt.html

Mysteries of Udolpho

So, I'm reading The Mysteries of Udolpho because I'm a ridiculous Jane Austen fan and a complete nerd.

In Northanger Abbey, Catherine Morland gets into trouble when she reads too many "trashy novels". Of course I had to know what was considered a "trashy novel" back in 1803..... plus the novel is mentioned enough that it almost seems like a minor character.

So, I'm on page 230 and Emily has finally arrived at the Castle Udolpho. Oooohhhh....so creepy*. The first 1/3 of the book set up her life with her father, how she met her true love Valancourt and how she ended up separated from both of them and in her wretched circumstances.

Five pages after she arrived at the castle, she discovered a mysterious painting, found a secret staircase and learned of the ghosts that are hanging out in the castle. Sweet. The book reads just like I expected a really old gothic novel would - super dramatic and way more descriptive than any kind of trashy novel written these days.**

So, yesterday I met up with as good friend of mine - J. He is absolutely hilarious and often makes me crack up unexpectedly. So I told him about Udolpho and his immediate comeback?

"Oooh! Like Scooby Doo?"

Great, now I'll be expecting Shaggy to come around the corner any minute and discover that the evil Montoni has a fake beard and is really Emily's long-lost cousin out for revenge.


*Claire - if you survive reading Dracula, you might want to put this one on your list of creepy reads.
**My only, complaint is, the amount of punctuation!!! Damn, Ann needed, to learn to edit. (Then again it almost adds to the dramatic effect of the book. It's like William Shatner is reading it to me.)

Bad Room Mate #16

This is one of my favourite sights that only happens around Christmas.

No, seriously!! It's absolutely hilarious when you are hanging out on the sofa and you hear a soft *tinkle* sound, look around and notice the tree gently shaking all over...ornaments swaying....gentle rustling....

It's only then that you look down and see the culprit: a stripey tail hanging out at the bottom.

Etsy Favourites

I've never given friends or family a "list" of gifts for myself, that's just not what it's about for me. Sure, some people are really hard to buy for and for those people in my life I keep lists of ideas throughout the year - seriously I do.

But, now that my mom and I live so far apart it's really hard for her to think of things that I would want or need so she usually asks me for ideas, not specific items but ideas. This year I had a most excellent idea - I shared my Etsy Favourites with her.

This way if she wanted she could buy something that she knew I would like or simply get ideas and go shopping herself. Brilliant!!

I emailed her when I found this bag on Etsy because I loved it so much. I told her in the email that if she had no intention of buying it for me to let me know because I would buy it myself.


A few days later we were chatting on the phone and I asked her if she saw the bag. Here is how our conversation went:

J: So, what do you think?
M: Well, I'm not sure.......
J: If you totally aren't interested just let me know.
M: Well......
J: I'm in front of the computer now, let me just look at it again.....oh NO. It SOLD!!!
M: (silence)
J: (panicking) Oh crap! She only had one, maybe I'll write her and ask her to make me another one...
M: No, DON'T. Merry Fucking Christmas, I BOUGHT IT.

Mom's dropping the f-bomb, Jabba's laughing her head off. It was one great Christmas moment.

The Quilt

I've been waiting all year to post about this...

In February I decided to make a quilt for my parents. I went into Vancouver to go to Fabricana with Rawbean so she could help me pick out the fabric. I need her guidance because I tend to lose focus in that store. So these are the fabrics - my mom loves green, yellow and browns so it wasn't too hard.

Rawbean also lent me her cutting mat, straight edge and rotary cutter - thank GOD. Can you imagine cutting all these squares out with scissors?! Not happening.

Then the most fun part was laying out the fabric for the top.

(Keep in mind that I wasn't working when I made this. If I was, I'm estimating it would have taken me approximately 5 years to make this thing. Plus, I totally winged it when it came to the assembly. I planned my moves as they came and only thought one step ahead. Otherwise I would have given up.)

So anyway, next came sewing together all the squares. At first I started pinning the squares together, but realized after the first two squares that this seemed to be a waste of time. Instead I zipped them through the machine two squares at a time, making a long row. Then I added the next row to the one I just did......24 times or whatever. Then I sewed the other way.
After that, I attached the borders...yeah......I tend to over-complicate things. I took an easy detail and made it ridiculously difficult but got it right in the end after going to the local quilting fabric shop and begging the ladies to help me.

After this, honestly - it wasn't much fun - attaching the batting and the back. Do you know how hard it is to get pieces of fabric this big to lay flat, nevertheless three pieces of fabric to sandwich together and be flat?!

I finally ended up taping the top fabric down to the floor, then putting the batting on top of that. Still, it was frustrating and hard and after that it seemed to even take forever to sew everything together.

After this, I tied french knots at every intersection of squares to bind everything together.
I do not hand sew - ever.

I should also mention here that The Bad Room Mate wouldn't leave me alone the entire time. There is a reason he is in a lot of these pictures: wheneverI left the quilt lying around he was all over it. Whether I was putting it through the machine or working with it on my lap, I couldn't get away from him.

Then, in typical Jabba style, I procrastinated until almost the last night before we left for my parents. As Brad predicated in June - I was up panicking the night before trying to finish it.

So now it's done, and I've given it to my parents. We've been sitting next to the fireplace and huddling under The Quilt since Christmas morning because they live in "the frozen tundra" (Saskatchewan).

Seriously, tonight it's -25C.

Prawn Santa!

Behold.

It's Prawn Santa! We bought him last year to mark the year we got married and moved to Victoria. Again, please note his fishing-line-antennae and his sparkly Santa suit.

Next to him is another mental ornament that I'm quite fond of. I found this gem at a fantastic little shop on Granville and West 7th. I bought it for Brad and kept it hidden for a year, well worth it. Please note his sparkly red toe nail polish and fuzzy lime-green trim.

Because we live with The Bad Room Mate, every year we hang cheap plastic candy canes along the bottom of our tree to keep him distracted from the fabulous ornaments like Prawn Santa and the mental elephant. Our tree is also ornament-top-heavy because anything near the bottom is fair game for chewing or bashing around.

These candy canes have been through three years of abuse now and are in various states of disrepair. Some are completely chewed up and others are totally intact. Ziggy hates them, he'll walk all the way across the room only to give one of them a whack and send it flying.

So our tree is up, the plastic mistletoe is hanging in the door way, and we'll finish our Christmas shopping this weekend. After that I'm really looking forward to just sitting back next to the tree with a good book and a glass of rum for the rest of the season.

In between ordering the Bad Room Mate away from the tree of course.

IT Guys are the Best

I use Windows at work. Window 64-bit. Apparently this is a good thing for Revit, but it really sucks for Itunes, meaning that I can't install Itunes at all.

Too bad because I love sharing music and seeing what other people are listening to. But I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to work without Itunes at my new job.

So today I was chatting with a guy in my office who is the unofficial IT guy. His eyes lit up as he pointed to an empty workstation piled up with a bunch of junk. He said "Oh! I just found a way to get you Itunes!"


He rummaged around and emerged victoriously holding an iMac. My eyes got huge as he walked over to my desk and plopped it down next to my monitor, plugged it in and it came to life.

Seriously.

I am now one of those Two-Monitor people, except one of them is a Mac and is there solely for the purpose of Itunes.

See? It always pays off to befriend the IT guy.

Chip

Chip the Canadian Beaver

Can you handle him? I can't.

Check out this link to see his tail - it's the best ever.

The stars were aligned. My buddy Rawbean made Chip a few months ago and I saw him right after she made him, he's always been my favourite creature in her shop.

Then Rawbean was asked to be in a craft fair and of course she took Chip to sell him. It didn't really cross my mind that someone else would buy him, even though he had been in her Etsy shop all this time. Check out her table at the craft fair - so cute!

She did really well at the craft fair and sold lots of creatures, but Chip remained! Phew!! When I learned that he didn't sell I immediately got on the computer and bought him - actually I bought him while I was having a conversation with Rawbean on the phone about something else.

I love him, every time I see him I smile. If you haven't visited Rawbean's shop - DO. IT. NOW.

My Sewing Table

I've been busy sewing these days.


I decided to put my perfectionism aside and finished up the bag from this post. If anyone has a good idea for what I should name this bag, I would really appreciate it. I'm at a complete loss.

I made a market bag for my Mom to give away as a gift - it's the green one in the photo - I think she picked some great fabric!

And of course the Buttercup Bags for my Etsy shop, always so satisfying and super cute. It's interesting putting colours together that I wouldn't necessarily choose for myself. As I'm sewing it up I'm wondering if anyone will like it, then when the project is complete I always consider keeping it for myself - even the pink one.

Exterior Detailing

Behold.

This has been my life at work for the last three weeks. Exterior detailing.
My old work mate R sums up the way I feel about this perfectly when he said "What is that? Is it outside? Oh. Well when I go outside my brain starts to fade.....but when I come back inside I can think clearly again. And by the way, where is the fabulous wallcovering and fabric??"

Exactly. The closest thing to specifying any colours is when I get to say that the flashing should match the cladding. CLADDING. What a strange word.

My favourite is when I get sketches like this to go from.

It's a good thing I'm not a liar - I told my bosses in my interview that my experience with this stuff is limited. I've worked on a couple exterior projects so I know what stuff is, I just don't necessarily know all the rules and how it's put together.

Actually I'm learning a lot and I've also realized how much I learned from an old friend and former work mate. Holy crap was he ever anal, but damn did his details look SWEET.

Island Time at Work

All right, I've been at my new job for a little while now. Enough time to notice a few things and compare with my last job. There are a few things that are standing out.

1. Start Times

When I worked for a yacht manufacturer (no, really) we started at 7:15 am and it was in the burbs. I had no car, I turned into an early riser. So at my last job in Vancouver I was starting at 7:30. When I walked into the office in the mornings, there were people. Lights were on.

In my new office I'm sometimes the first one in. I'm the one opening the door and turning the alarm off. And I'm starting at 8:00 am. Um......where is everyone?! It's EIGHT!

I think it's an island thing.

2. Late Openings

The front door to the building and the elvator is locked until 8:00 am.

Really?The building I used to work in was open long before 7:30 am.

I think it's an island thing.

3. Printing

I'm so used to using an out-of-house printer for large scale stuff that I never thought I'd have to deal with plotters again. no such luck. We use our in-house plotter a lot. It's so slow and I hate loading the paper.

I used to use Dominion Blue and they were fantastic. The Victoria equivalent is called Island Blue. I thought my work mates were pulling my leg when they warned me to call ahead to make sure I could get one full size set in two days. Seriously, Dominion Blue would turn stuff around for me in an HOUR. Delivered.

I think it's an island thing.

Pants, Football and Flour

Obviously since I wasn't working I wasn't spending money - on anything. I've been rationing my contacts lenses (I hate wearing glasses), wearing clothes that are starting to come apart, shaving my legs with soap (I normally wax) and worst of all wearing pants that are all 2-3 sizes too big.

See, in the last year or so I've lost a ton of weight - we're talking 20 pounds off a butt that was already not overweight at all. So my pants just don't fit. Brad would look at me and say "just put a belt on", which I would do, but when you're cinching that much fabric.....yeah, it just doesn't work. Not to mention how uncomfortable too-big-pants feel.

So last weekend I finally went out and bought new jeans. Ohmigod how good does it feel to wear jeans that fit?! And thanks to Sarah, I found a great little store downtown that has a great selection!

In other randomness that I'm sure you're interested in - it's football season. Brad has gotten into this sport (no really, he even watches college football) and I'm sorry to offend anyone out there but I just. Don't. Get. It.

Seriously. When I watch it, it looks like complete chaos. It's totally complicated and the games seem to go on forever. He's in the living room right now and I can hear him "Let's go boys!" Yeah...so I'm spending the day working on some new bags for my Etsy shop.

I've saved the best news for last. I've finally brought wheat back into my diet.* Yesterday we made hamburgers from scratch, I ate pie and had toast with jam for breakfast for the first time in 9 months and last week I ate a cinnamon bun.

*This ties back into my first piece of randomness - honestly - eliminate wheat and dairy from you life and you will lose weight.

Teleconferencing II

Man, I have the worst luck. Remember the super uncomfortable teleconferencing experience I had a couple weeks ago?

Today our whole office gathered together for a big announcement. We were all drinking wine and sitting in the board room together. I chose my seat carefully near the back because of the camera. So, we teleconferenced into the Vancouver and Kelowna offices like before, but this time everyone in all three offices was watching.

So they make a great announcement about a project! Suddenly the guy sitting next to me started to talk about it. Then my boss picked up a remote control and made the camera zoom in on him while he was talking - but I was sitting right next to him.

So the camera is totally zoomed in on the two of us. Me in the background looking like an extreme dork and the guy talking.

This time I KNOW the ENTIRE company was watching. Seriously, this kind of crap could only happen to me.

Chance Meeting

The craziest thing happened today!

I was sitting at my desk working away when I swore I heard my old boss laughing. I shook my head, had thoughts about my sanity for a moment and kept working. A couple hours later, I heard it again! This time it was accompanied by a completely familiar voice of another partner from my old company.

I got up and walked around the corner - smack into my old boss!!


We were both totally shocked and super happy to see each other. He had just finished meeting with my two new bosses about a project that is just starting up.

He couldn't believe it when he saw me, because he had no idea that I was working there! We quickly caught up, shook each others hands warmly and then he totally complimented me. All of this right in front of my new boss, who then threw another compliment about me right back.

It was a fabulous moment and carried me through the rest of my day.

Halloween 2009

Hmph. Well, compared to Halloweens of the past this one was super mellow.

I guess it's not a surprise though, since we don't know many people in Victoria and there was no big party planned like other years. This is why I was completely uninspired to make costumes and lost my Halloween spirit. We didn't even decorate until Halloween night, and even then Brad had to practically force me!

But we had a great night. We carved a pumpkin, roasted the seeds and watched a horror movie while we were at it. April Fool's Day which is one of my favourites.

We also scared the crap out of The Bad Room Mate. To begin with, he didn't appreciate the giant flies, spiders and tombstone I set up next to his food bowl. Then I dug out this super hilarious, incredibly lame decoration that an old buddy gave me a few years ago. It's a cheesy plastic skull with black garbage bag hair. It makes the most mental noise and it's eyes light up with little red lights when you touch it. Obviously I put it next to Ziggy's bowl and then gave him his dinner.

After that we curled up with some rum and watched another great horror movie called Teeth. Ohmigod, this is worth watching.

Teleconferencing

I signed up to watch a supplier put on a "Lunch and Learn", they are totally common and I've been to lots of them. The only catch is that the presentation was being made in the office in Vancouver, so I would be teleconferenced in. No worries, I can deal.

So the first bit of oddness was that I was the only one in the Victoria office attending. Great, so little me in the big boardroom all by myself. No worries, I can deal.

The next bit of oddness, I couldn't handle.

I walk into the boardroom with my lunch and see that the big screen is all set up. I sit down and get my lunch ready and the presentation begins. I look up at the screen and I see.......myself.*

Oh God.

Everyone else can likely see me too! Everyone else who works there who I haven't met or talked to yet.

And I'm eating chicken.

I already have issues eating while these guys do their presentations and I usually grab my free lunch and eat later. But eating while all these people could also be watching me on a big screen and I can see myself on a big screen......it wasn't happening.

Then halfway through the presentation the entire thing froze and disconnected. I just left.



* The screen was split three ways, one for each of the offices teleconferencing in. So I could see the presentation in Vancouver, the boardroom in the Kelowna office and the boardroom in Victoria with me in it. Eating chicken.

Stuff on my Ipod

The other day a new workmate was kind enough to share his music with me. I felt bad only taking a couple of Bob Dylan and Pink Floyd albums........everything else was just....well.....just not up my alley.

Here are a few things I'm listening to these days:
(Just remember I. Am. Not. A. Music. Critic.)

1. The xx
Yet another great recommendation from Rawbean. They have an interesting sound, kind of like The Submarines but a little darker.

2. Midnight Juggernauts
I'm so pleased and proud to say that I stumbled across these guys all by myself. (ie: with no recommendations from Rawbean!) They remind me of an electronic, slightly happier version of She Wants Revenge with Empire of the Sun mixed in. I don't know where I get that, I'm sure you will listen and think 'What is she TALKING about?"



3. Holy Fuck
I've been wanting to check these guys out forever. I haven't really had a chance to sit down and listen yet, but there seem to be a few really good songs on here. One of them for sure reminded me of Shout Out Out Out Out.


4. Faunts
A recommendation from IG, these guys deliver the best in the first song Feel. Love. Thinking. Of. After that, the best song is Alarmed/Lights, the only fault is that the song is too long!
Yup, that's all I've got.

Oh - one more story:
I'm again freaked out by the size of this city. While making plans with Dana she mentioned that they are good friends with one of my new work mates. Not just any work mate either, they are friends with the guy I'm working with the most.

What the hell?!

A Day in Photos (July 2, 2008)

Rawbean and I came up with this idea forever ago. We would choose a day - an average day and document it with photos. I chose a day over a year ago when I was still living in Vancouver and made a little book and sent it to her because I didn't have a blog then.

So I'm going to post that day and compare it with an average day here in Victoria which I'll post later when I get into a routine.

A Day in Photos July 2, 2008

Of course I have to have my Ipod for the walk to work in the morning.

The view on my way to work, over the Cambie Bridge.

One of the construction sites I pass on my way. This is the Skytrain station on the south side of the Cambie Bridge.

I've always wondered what this thing is...you can see it from the bridge.

My desk at work.

Some work I did today.

I like to hook up with friends after work for coffee. Today I met my buddy R for an iced coffee at Mink.

Today I took the bus home. Here is the inside.

And here is the outside, after I got off.

Here is my street on the way home.

After work I headed over to Rawbean's place for a quick visit.

On the way I mail a letter.

When I get home, I cook dinner.

I read for a while when I get into bed.

This was a fun, mental project. So for kicks I'm going to "challenge" a few people to do it too, NO PRESSURE.

Claire, Dana, Ben, and IG.

No seriously - there is no pressure to do this.

As If By Magic

There is a song on the La Roux album called As If by Magic. I listen to it all the time, in fact the entire album is amazing and if it's possible to put a permanent groove in an Ipod by over-listening to something, I've done it with this album.* The lyrics go like this:

And although you're the only home I know
As if by magic, thoughts of you are gone
And now I'm keeping my head in the clouds
And it's not so tragic, if I don't look down

I relate this song to the way I feel about leaving Vancouver, obviously. It really is the only home I know because I haven't been working in Victoria until now. When I got this job I honestly felt like Victoria reached out even more to me, and I'm starting to arrive in my new home.

Sometimes it is like magic and I don't think about Vancouver at all, and sometimes I still miss it like crazy.


*The best part of the entire album is 31 seconds into Fascination. I'm pretty sure Rawbean will be the only one who will bother to check this out and possibly even agree with me? heh heh....