Today has been most uneventful. It was back to work as per usual after a wonky long weekend and I came straight home afterward to make some dinner. I made roasted mushrooms for the first time ever:

Very easy to make – some olive oil and balsamic vinegar sprinkled over the mushrooms with some garlic (minced) in the oven for 20 minutes at 425 degrees. Delicious.

I also made a black bean and avocado salad (not a big hit with Mike Browne) but a step up from dinner last week where he asked, “What’s for dinner? It smells like farts!”. That was some boiled cauliflower – not farts at all.

I’ll have the black bean salad for breakfast tomorrow. I also made some nut crusted pork chops. I need to work on that recipe a bit, the nuts didn’t really crust up at all. However, dinner was pretty tasty and I’m on a great big lime kick at the moment.

Limes, delicious and good for you. We won’t be getting scurvy any time soon. Or Cholera!

And, I’m making progress on my hexie table runner. I just need to sew big pieces all together. But after that, I’m not sure what I need to do. I have to keep the paper in all those pieces until I’ve sewn the entire thing together.

I couldn’t help myself. I already pulled out one piece. I love pulling out those paper pieces. But that’s the only one. I’ll follow the directions and pull them out when it says to.

As a general rule, I don’t really enjoy photos of partial people, but I’m patiently waiting for my photos to be approved before posting them on my blog.  But, I can show you some behind the scenes photos in the meantime…

This play is the Alice in Wonderland play – but a version done on Broadway WAY back in the 70′s. It was great and the students were all over it. It was trippy and very fun. I enjoyed this version.

But before the play started, I got to see where the magic happens! First off, I was on the agenda WITH a special top hat graphic!

I was just before the shakedown! I’m not quite sure what the shakedown entailed exactly because it happened BEHIND the curtain, but what I could hear was a count down building up with a huge intensity. It sounded like fun, that’s for sure.

This is my buddy, Fiona. She’s a teacher! A real teacher – like the kind that gets apples and stuff. A teacher that gets called Miss and then her last name. HOWEVER, someone (it wasn’t me) scratched out her last name and replaced it with this:

Heh.

During the play, I experienced first hand a “stand in”. The Queen of Hearts wasn’t able to make it to the dress rehearsal due to a driving lesson, so someone from the tech team stood in for her and read off the script. That’s a real theatre experience. SADLY, no one yelled out, “LINE!”  DARN.

After the play was done, they all had to gather ’round and talk about the “notes” from the play – basically, things that worked and things that needed a bit of improvement. They really broke it down – right to timing and everything.

A lot of work and preparation goes into this. I forgot. I’ve not been to a play in a really long time – especially not behind the scenes, so I forget all the time people spend getting ready for an event like this one.

Speaking of events, on my way to the dress rehearsal, I spotted this sign in one of the school windows:

Looks like Marco likes to party. Don’t worry, I’ve changed the last 4 numbers, so you can’t really call or text him.  Besides, why call Marco when there’s a tea party INSIDE?

More tea party & other Alice in Wonderland photos to follow…probably later this week.

I took over 700 photos today…over 500 of them were at the Alice in Wonderland play my buddy, Fiona, is directing. I just have to tell you, if you ever think the arts are not going to survive, just go to one high school play and you will see that there are people who love and can’t wait to keep the arts alive! In music! And dancing! And acting! And plays…as in, acting live, no retakes, no photoshop, just people who have taken the time to memorize so many lines and put on make up, and help each other. NOW, I’ve got photos of all those things, but I have to wait to get permission from everyone before I put any of those photos on my blog. It’s the right thing to do! I can’t wait to show you. I took all kinds of portraits at that play. It was lovely. I was the only one taking photos and could just go wherever I pleased. That is quite the privilege. I am so glad I got to do it.

After the play, I headed home to rest (because I think I’ve got a cold coming on…or something is up, but I refuse to be allergic to anything, so I’ve decided it’s a low grade cold), but got an invitation to go on a photowalk with Mike & Scott. They took me to a waste water pond and then to an overpass so we could take photos of the traffic coming off the Alex Fraser Bridge. Boy. Do they know how to show a gal a good time or what?

Even though I took photos of the cars zooming below us (ZZZZzzzz) I found it much more fun to take photos of Mike & Scott.

I brought my lensbaby and my 50 mm. I opted out of a tripod because I knew I’d have to hand hold my camera – lensbabys are tough to focus on a tripod. I was hoping to get lots of groovy bokeh photos. Here are my grooviest:

Scott, who could NOT be happier to be standing on an overpass, in the chilly wind, taking photos of cars…which, as it got darker, became just trails of lights, which, was actually pretty cool.

Mike also had  his tripod out AND his gopro:

Mike also couldn’t be happier taking photos in the cold of cars and 18 wheeler trucks as they drove by. We were in an industrial area and I counted 3 semis for Canada Bread drive by us. That’s a lot of bread to be transporting around.

So, the ONLY photo I took of the traffic that I liked was this one:

Falling stars! It’s just traffic after the sun went down (the red streaks are the rear lights of cars) and the stars above that are a combination of street lights and some lights from the bridge.

I think I’m just going to stick with candid portraits. I like them the very best.

I got them done! I will be taking these flags to Amy to take with her to the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild meeting tomorrow. If these hearts look familiar, it’s because I took them from this…I’m not even sure what I was planning when I made it in the first place, but it worked perfectly for this project.

And yes, those are roosters on the heart. For reasons unknown, I want the people of Boston to have them.

I stamped the back of both of them with some StazOn (permanent ink) and ironed it on for good measure.

Soon they will be off to the United States to go along with all of these flags. It will be beautiful.

I still have a lot to clean up in the craft room/guest bedroom.

Today I just pushed everything aside and sewed in the middle of the mess. Oscar’s been hanging out in this room a lot – he started going in there when Lorne stayed with us a couple of weeks ago. Oscar can usually be found on the bed.  In between piles of fabric and boxes. SHAMEFUL.

He doesn’t seem to mind it too much, though.

Well. Maybe he minds a little bit.

Alright, alright…I’ll get it done soon.

My long weekend is starting a day later than most, but the weekend has begun! We hung out at #21 with the Hemenways after my shift, so that was delicious and a great way to kick off my three days off. I’ve got a couple of commitments this weekend – the theatre photo shoot for the Surrey students and the possibility of going to the Vancouver Quilting Guild meeting on Monday. It could happen! If I get my Boston flag done tomorrow, I could carpool to the meeting with Amy for the evening meeting. FUN! I had better get a lot done tomorrow. After I sleep in.

Other than that, I don’t have any plans but housework and some sewing, which I’d better actually do. Even though we’ve lived here 6 months, I still don’t have curtains hung up (except in the living room), so I really need to get the curtains up for the bedroom. I’m sure the neighbours are tired of seeing us in our underpants every morning. I think I need to hang the curtains from the ceiling all the way down in puddles on the floor because the window is an odd, skinny rectangle shape and it is not placed in the centre of the room, so it’s a bit off centre. I’ve been putting off this task because I’m not sure what to do, but it’s time to try something. I’ll just try SOMETHING so at least we won’t be showing our nudities to the neighbourhood.

And when I need breaks, I’ll head over to #21. There is so much adorable there, it will be a welcome break from the chores. And I can go any time I feel like it over the next 3 days. Huzzah!

My hexies are coming together, slowly, well, compared to the sewing machine, anyway. I feel like I get a lot done on the skytrain, though. The closer I get to Granville Station, the faster I whip stitch these pieces together. I decided to keep to a traditional flower pattern for my first project and will most likely use this as a table runner. I just need to keep on stitching…just keep stitching…Despite one hexagon sewn on upside down, it’s going pretty well! I can’t wait to sew them all together.

I decided to put the lensbaby on my camera today. I haven’t used it on my new camera since Halloween. I’ll take it out while I’m out and about tomorrow as well. My photos could use more blurry edges and saturated colours. And star bokeh.

Now I’ll get back to Dr. Who and sewing. And Oscar can get back to watching me sew.

Sometimes he watches as the thread goes back and forth. Sometimes he’ll even try to bite it. I’m very careful with my spools of thread – I don’t think he learned his lesson about yarn and string after his “incident”.

It doesn’t look like much yet, but in a few weeks, I’m hopeful I’ll have the start of a lush, green garden with all sorts of edibles starting to flower.

And sweet peas. I decided to plant 4 plants (Mammoth Mix – again with the Mammoth!) right up against the fence and leave a small rose bush up front. Right between the trellis and the sweet peas, I planted a pumpkin plant. I’m not sure if it’s too close to the sweet peas, but I’m hoping I can train it to grow up the fence and I’ll figure out a way to support the pumpkins once they grow.

On the far right side, I planted the Mammoth Sunflower next to two cucumber plants. I read somewhere that cucumbers taste better when planted next to sunflowers, so I thought I’d give it a bash. Testing out Old Wives’ Tales is always a good time.

There’s not much room left for anything else, so any other herbs and stuff will be put in containers in the sunniest parts of the yard. Come on, tomatoes! You can do it, peppers!

Out front, I picked up two containers of ready made herb gardens.

I’ve got some fresh lettuce, parsley and chives all ready to go and it’s right near the kitchen, so it’s handy. I heard lettuce is pretty easy to grow and grow and grow. I can do that.

The only thing that’s missing are a couple of pots of cat grass for the boyz. They love that stuff!

Photo by Mike!

I’m not sure why I feel the need to document my haircuts, but, I got a haircut today. It feels much lighter and very summer-y. And you can hardly notice the grey hairs sprouting on the top of my head from this angle. Nice!

I also tried to take a photo of myself while waiting for Mike. I don’t usually do self portraits and I didn’t set up the tripod for this one, but I think the result is a happy accident:

I really like this one!

Mondays and Tuesdays are my late nights – I’m lucky if I’m home before 10 pm these days – tonight was no different. Mike and I stopped for a few groceries and since I was in a hurry, I picked up some ready-made, organic guacamole to have with our dinner tonight.

I was delighted by this cartoon when I lifted the lid.

Heh. Chunky guac. Sadly, that’s where the fun ended. It didn’t taste great at all. It was as though it was missing garlic, onions, salt, and ripe avocados. As my buddy, Kelly, once said, “This tastes like they put it through the blander.”. Blech. I learned that lesson. Next time, I’ll just buy the avocados and make my own guacamole. It really only takes about 15 minutes to make it anyway.

I am REALLY excited about the upcoming long weekend. My weekend will be one day delayed, so I’ll have Sunday, Monday & Tuesday off. On Monday I’ll be taking photos of some Surrey high school students in their dress rehearsal for their Alice in Wonderland play. SO FUN! I hope they will give me permission to post the photos on my blog. It will be my first theatre photo shoot!

I dropped by #21 yesterday with a big bowl of fruit we forgot to eat on Saturday. It was a selection of sliced cantaloupe, pineapples, apples and grapes. Johanna cracked it open and Bibby happily started chomping away. However, judging from these photos, it seemed like I gave her a bowl of bugs.

I can’t explain this at all. She really liked the fruit! I promise! Also, that star covered dress she’s wearing? It started as a pillowcase. CUTE! I wish they made pillowcases in my size! Heh.

Meanwhile, over on the other side of the living room, Violett spun around in her princess dress.

She was watching a Rapunzel cartoon and her dress matched Rapunzel’s. It was very cute.

That was a great visit. But my day did not end there. I headed home and planted the garden. I planted every last plant in the dirt while it rained. I was soaked by the time I planted the last sweet pea plant, but I got them all in! Hooray. I’ll take photos when it stops raining and I’ll take a photo from our bedroom – there’s a nice little view of it from up there. I think I may have planted my little pumpkin plant too close to the sweet peas. I just may have to move it – but I’m hoping they will all share the fence trellis nicely. If needed, I’ll rig up something to hold the pumpkins up – even if it’s a stool or small table!

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to pull out all the weeds between the bricks. I tried, but they are slippery and stuck pretty well in there. SO, I will make some organic weed killer, or just use some boiling water on the bricks. I’ll just cook those plants right out of the ground.

Even if that does sound a bit mean. It needs to be done.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom! Also, nice gams!

I dug out these photos of my mom and I – I’m the little one. I can’t help but notice that my mom and I do look a lot alike. I’m pretty sure we were at my Grandpa & Grandma’s place in Calgary when these were taken. Man, do I wish I had that loveseat now! And I like the shiny old TV with all the knobs and rabbit ears in the corner. GOOD TIMES. Speaking of good times, it looks like we were both enjoying some sort of gifts for ME. I also found a typed up Christening invitation for December 20th, 1970 with these pictures.

My mom is out golfing and brunching this morning, so I’ll give her a call this afternoon. We sent her one of those edible fruit arrangments for this occasion and she sent me a note that said it was, “the best gift ever”. Those pineapple hearts were a big hit! Not to mention the chocolate covered strawberries.

Have a fun time golfing, Mom! And I’ll talk to you this afternoon!