Going Domestic

The Siren Atargatis

About seven years ago, a girlfriend and I found ourselves in Chicago for a day and taking photos of ourselves beside a cow wearing plaid. I later found about about Cows on Parade, and thought it was really neat that other cities across North America (maybe the world? I don't know?) had planned similar art exhibits. Calgary borrowed the cow idea the summer before I moved there, but I managed to see many of the herd as they

The Siren Atargatis
Originally uploaded by goingdomestic.

found permanent homes inside some of the downtown parking complexes. A year later, Edmonton had giant buffalo. I can only remember seeing one in real life, from the passenger seat of our car zooming down Calgary Trail (I think it was still called Calgary Trail then) ...

St. John's seems to be a late adopter of this trend, but I still love the Mermaids in the City. The whimsy is perfect for this time of year, and it's a good theme for this place with a rich sea-faring history. I've spotted six of the mermaids already. The one that I drive past every day to take Chris to work vanished a couple of days ago, but I hope it's returned. My favourite one is Harbour Guardian. It was painted by Cara Kansala, the artist who did the art cards I wrote about in my previous post!  I took this photo of the newest one today - The Siren Atargatis. The entire gallery of mermaids is here.

wall candy

I was chatting with my sister this past weekend, and she mentioned that The Black Apple print that she's ordered from etsy had arrived in her mailbox. It reminded me that I'd lurked at The Black Apple before - one of my online friends was going to order some artwork to decorate her child's room. I found the site again last night, and am now trying to think up some excuse to order a copy of Stella the Mermaid and The Sleepy Tree.

I don't think that I had mentioned it, but I recently picked up a pair of art cards by Cara's Joy for one of our official souvenirs of Newfoundland. They're an odd size, so I'll have to take them to Michaels for framing. Chris brought home one of the artists' wood sculptures on this first trip to St. John's, but we left it in Calgary, with the rest of the fun stuff we have to hang on the wall.

the yogurt looked innocent enough ...

I recently bought my first package of yogurt with active bacteria cultures. I was pleasantly surprised to find a package on the grocery shelf containing only my three favourite yogurt flavours (strawberry, peach, and vanilla). Is yogurt with the active bacteria supposed to taste a wee bit different than regular yogurt? I was wondering because there was definitely something different going on flavour-wise when I opened up the first little carton (strawberry). I ate a peach one next, and it tasted a little different than I was expecting. I'm working through a vanilla one as I type this, and it's the most normal-tasting. I'm still kind of worried that maybe some of the cartons have gone bad, and I'm still eating them, and blaming the difference in taste on the active bacteria. Hmm ...

I made a batch of my fave banana/whole wheat/flax/bran/chocolate chip muffins yesterday, but I substituted blueberries and partridge berries for the chocolate chips. It was my first time baking something with partridge berries, and they turned out well. Chris and I really want to check out some u-pick berry farms before the summer is over, and pick our own local strawberries, blueberries, and partridgeberries.

I discovered the recipe section on the Whole Foods website recently, and have earmarked a few quick bread recipes! How I wish that there was something like Whole Foods in St. John's!

where's spiderman when you need him?

Everytime Madeline and I go outside to hang out on the deck, I spend a few minutes brushing away the new crop of spiderwebs, all the time marvelling at how strong the webs are!  You see, I'm in the market for strong thread. I've been repairing some fraying moccasin stitching on a pair of Madeline's shoes, and my latest attempt (dental floss) didn't hold up particularly long. Does anyone have any ideas? I have a skein of embroidery thread here, but I don't think that will do the job. I've toyed with the idea of fishing line, but I have a hunch that there probably is something better out there!

another post of the "OMG! Look what we found in St. John's!" variety

A lovely local organic salad mix. We normally pick it up at Belbins, but last weekend we drove out to the The Organic Farm and picked up our lettuce and a few bunches of herbs in person. We've gone through three bags of the greens, and I love opening up a new bag and seeing the pretty yellow and orange nasturtium blossoms sitting on top of the lettuce.  I'm not missing the Cosmic Greens from the Millarville Farmer's Market at all ...

Cheddar Bunnies! Over a month ago, a friend of mine mentioned that she'd found Annie's Organic Cheddar Bunnies at the huge Dominion grocery store in the west part of St. John's. I hadn't found them at the big Dominion nearest us in the east side, and even the Costco here didn't have any cases of Annie's Shells and White Cheddar, so I assumed that the brand wasn't available in Newfoundland. I was rather intrigued that there was a whole other world of food on the other side of town, so the three of us stepped into the other grocery store a couple of weeks ago and stocked up on Cheddar Bunnies. I also saw the Shells and White Cheddar on the shelf, so I grabbed a pair of those. I was in my regular Dominion last Sunday, and noticed for the first time, boxes of Shells and White Cheddar on their shelves, too! Whee!

seeing is believing

I'm not sure where I first heard the expression "good things come to those who wait" but I was confronted with it the other day when I was in Shoppers Drug Mart picking up a passport application from the Canada Post outlet.

It was just on a whim that I wandered over to the cleaning products section; I didn't ever expect to find the Method products! This location only had the all-purpose cleaner, wipes, and dish soap (all in the pink grapefruit fragrance), and the leather wipes, but it was still one of the highlights of my day. I can happily toss out my bottle of carcinogen-laden Fantastik with OxyPower ...

point of view, part 2

Just wait until a big-ass balconey/deck is added to the back of the monster house ...

point of view, part 1

This is what the view from our back door looked like earlier this morning:

If you look in the middle right half of the photo, you can see the Atlantic Ocean, just above where the hills from the right-hand side meet the hills from the left-hand side. It was grey and rainy this morning - on clear days the water doesn't blend into the sky quite so much! What might be harder to tell from this photo is that a house is being built next door to where we live. We're pretty sure that we'll have to say farewell to our lovely view and say hello to the new neighbour's vinyl siding.  Ever since Chris noticed this last night, I've become increasingly upset about. Quite silly, really - we don't even own this house! I guess I spend more time looking out at the ocean than I realized ...

zip-a-dee-doo-dah

I thought that I wouldn't miss my sewing machine. I left it behind when we moved, figuring that I wouldn't have much need for sewing, and if I did, my serger could handle it. My sewing machine and I have been separated for five months now, and I've discovered that it's indispensible to me for putting in zippers! I'm making yet another sleepsack for Madeline (summer-weight, out of seersucker), and the whole business of the zipper is taking far too long.

First, I'm not using a pre-made zipper but a length of zipper tape (because I need one much longer than is available at my fabric shop) and slider that is installed separately. Popping the slider on the zipper tape just might be rocket science, I'd decided!  Very tricky, even with this relatively useful zipper website!

Second, it's a slow process sewing a forty inches of zipper in by hand. This is where I miss my Bernina with it's handy zipper foot. I've been spending my evenings on the sofa, stitching away with re-runs of House or Hell's Kitchen on tv in the background. I don't know when it's going to end!