Going Domestic

so clean you could eat off it!

One of the things that we've purchased at the Currie Farmers Market (besides champagne mangos and the $9.45 bunch of asparagus that I picked up this week - eek) are a few natural cleaning products from Small Planet, a local company. We have the carpet deodorizer and two bottles of the Germs-Be-Gone disinfectant. My interest in chemical-free cleaning products piqued again when Madeline became mobile and I realized that she'd be mouthing a lot more than I'd been worrying about previously. 

I'm currently using a Seventh Generation bathroom cleaner for scrubbing the bathtub - I picked that one up sooner when Madelien outgrew the baby bathtub and I needed to keep the real tub a lot cleaner that I used to. It smells very nice and citrus-y, but I might try something else when that's used up.  The bathroom cleaner leaves a bit of an oily residue which I'm not overly fond of.

Eating for a Cause

Chris told me once that either he or his mom had a tradition of preparing celebrating important days with traditional food items - pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, something Mexican for Cinqo de Mayo, turkey for Thanksgiving (I know, lame example, but my brain is fuzzy).  Today I attempted to do the same, by making a batch of Anzac cookies to commemorate Anzac Day. It's really April 25, but it's already April 25 in Australia and New Zealand.  Oatmeal and coconut make a very yummy pair!

The wrinkles are good sign!

At the Currie Farmer's Market this past weekend, we picked up a couple of *champagne* mangos. I never heard of them before, but they're smaller than the ones we regular see around these parts, and they're all yellow when ripe. I'm not sure what colour they are when they're not ripe, actually. I used one in a chicken dish for Madeline, and the other is reserved for Chris and I to enjoy.  I must admit to slurping a bit off of the stone when I was slicing the fruit for Madeline's dinner - it was very good and I can't wait to cut open the other one!

'tis the season to be stressed

Yes, this is an edit. That post was way too long.  Really, I just could have summarized it with the following:

1. I no longer look forward to Christmas holidays.  I hope that I can be optimistic that Christmas 2006 will be enjoyable instead of stressful.  Maybe George Costanza's dad was onto something, you know.

2. Chris rightly pointed out that I don't update this site very often. To be honest, I don't sew, do crafty stuff, or take cooking lessons much these days.

Hug a tree, raise a glass

I must admit that I had no idea that something as tasty as birch beer could come from a tree!  Chris and I stumbled upon Boylan's Original Birch Beer quite by accident at the neighbourhood supermarket which we don't frequent.  I'd heard of this years ago when an old friend from undergrad was musing about investing in birch beer, and had assumed that it was a variation of the kind of beer that usually comes in kegs, because that was the kind of beer that I usually saw him drink. Anyway, we bought a bottle to split, and it was quite good!  More like spasparilla than root beer ...

So not at your service ...

Argh!  Today, when I checked our mailbox, I found a slip of paper from ATCO Gas saying that they had been by to read our natural gas meter. I'm not sure how badly they've wanted to read our meter because their rep didn't ring doorbell so that he or she could see it in person. I've been home all day, too. This has happened for the last three months - does ATCO, or their marketing arm, Direct Energy, know that they're paying employees to stuff mailboxes instead of read meters?

My junk is your junk ...

Am I the last person on earth not to be participating in Freecycle?  I applied to join the Calgary group a few weeks ago, but I think I had some technical difficulties.

Also, Calgary now has a local Craigslist. Not very active yet, though.

Fabric dreams ...

I ducked into Fabricland not once but twice this week.  First trip was to take advantage of their March membership specials where I loaded up on fleece, and the second trip was for their April Fools Day sale, where everything cotton seemed to be half price! One of the other women in the store was buying an unbelieveable quantity of a product called Steam-a-Seam, which I haven't used, but sounds like something I'd like! From what I've gathered, it's the latest fusible webbing product and the Fabricland staff member I chatted with said that it would perform better (ie. last through washings) than the Stitch Witchery I used for the one and only quilt I've made. Must try some.

I grow more and more tempted each day to order some of the sushi print broadcloth from Reprodepot.  I'm not sure what I'd make, but I'm sure that I want some :)

I've also been admiring the craftmanship and creativity of A Month of Softies over at Loobylu lately ... wish I had more time to sew!