Our Domicile

I succumbed to the Orla Kiely for Target pull
Originally uploaded by emira

Last Sunday morning, as the rain set in for the day, I decided I could not resist the pull of Orla Kiely’s line for Target and drove down to Bellis Fair (just across the Can/US border) to see what I could snag. What I hoped would be a quick trip, turned into a bit of a long drawn out affair, thanks to the border crossing. I am 100% convinced that those new signs they have on the highway that tell you the traffic at each crossing are 100$ lies. I’m also now officially convinced that there is an evil time vortex at the Pacific Truck Crossing border that turns a 30 min wait into 2 hours every. single. time. Anyway.

Down to the land of malls I did go and stuff I did buy. I was a bit disappointed with the kitchen wares to be honest. I wasn’t expecting everything to be plastic/melamine type stuff (except for some of the mugs and the canisters all the plates, bowls etc were plastic). I really wish the large bowls had been ceramic as I’d have loved one of the pear bowls and think they would have gone excellently with my fiestaware, but really: I don’t need more plastic bowls and am in fact trying to move away from plastic stuff in general. I was pretty smitten by the linens though and snatched a bunch of tea towels (as an aside, I think I may have a small tea towel “issue” as my collection is getting slightly out of hand), a lovely flower pattered table cloth that I plan to shorten and make napkins out of the excess, and one of the covered boxes (the blue one you see here). Oh, I also snagged one of the pear/apple aprons even though I have a rather lovely apron I made myself, cuz I really couldn’t resist the print.

All in all, the Bellis Fair Target was pretty darned low on Orla Kiely wares. It was mostly picked over. I’m not sure if they’ll be restocking or if this is a one time thingy, as I’m not so familiar with the ways of Target.

sneak peak domicile
Originally uploaded by emira

We’re pretty tickled to be featured on Design*Sponge’s sneak peaks this week. In fact so tickled that it just may have nudged us into getting back into blogging here. In the comments (which were all lovely, thank you!) most folks asked for more detail about the furniture that Martin makes. We’ve long thought about producing some how-to guides for a lot of Martin’s furniture projects as most are quite simple. This is an often tossed around idea in the early stages of a new table/couch/bench/shelf/bed project that gets abandoned when the project is complete and Martin has burned out his enthusiasm/energy for it. That said, seeing some of his work through other people’s eyes has reinvigorated me. So over the coming weeks, as time (and my broken camera) permit I’ll be doing my best to pass on details about a few of his stellar DIY furniture pieces in our home so that you can perhaps recreate them.

painted house
Originally uploaded by emira

The paint job is done, and (because Martin is a spontaneous kind of a guy) also included a mid-paint job door reno to replace our old leaded glass door with a more modern looking circle paned door. The paint job was not without its frustrations and I for one am SO VERY GLAD that we weren’t doing it. It took the painters nearly a week longer than they had planned, though that was in part due to needing to wait until close to the end of the day each day to let the very hot (but oh so lovely) sun go down from glaring on the house so that they could actually get paint on the house without it drying on the brushes. The other blip was caused by the house not fully drying out from its powerwashing when the first coat went on, leading to some bubbling of the first coat of paint, which then needed to be scraped off and reapplied. Let me tell you, as I talked to the painter dude on a Monday morning, after we had spent the weekend worrying about the bubbling, and he sighed, shrugged and said, “oh well, I guess I’ll need to scrape it off and start again,” I thought to myself “my lordisa am I thankful this is not me having to repaint this house.”

Anyway. We’re pretty thrilled with the colours, especially the doors. Martin got an old used door from Jack’s, a building supply place that mostly has stuff from demolitions, filled a bunch of holes in the door, reworked it a bit and then added his trademark circle glass (much like our bathroom). The door design was heavily influenced by a door we saw on an afternoon of cycling in Amsterdam (photo here, and while it certainly doesn’t look that Dutch to the common passerby, it is our version of a “Dutch Door” and has been christened as such.

The pieces left to do include some touch-up painting on the door, washing all the windows post painting, and painting the steps. We didn’t include that bit in the contract so it’s now left to us, or more correctly, probably me, as Martin has a whole host of other reno projects lined up, including taking out part of one of the newly painted exterior walls and putting in a set of French Doors (to go with the Dutch Doors don’t ya know), a project we’re hoping to complete in time to enjoy a more open access from our patio to our kitchen before summer ends.

In our house we've reached a point where we have almost too many reusable shopping bags. In this day and age when one acquires a new cloth shopping bag with every conference and gift with purchase promo it feels like reusable bags are in danger of becoming their own environmental menace. That said, of all the reusable bags we had, I didn't have any of the nice fold-up-really-small fit in your purse kind of variety. For ages now I've been meaning to make one, but when I saw the Flip and Tumble bags on Crunchy Chicken's website I folded and ordered two (one in pretty blue for me one manly black for Martin).

They arrived a few weeks ago and I'm totally smitten. I'll admit I'm totally suckered by the whole K-Way pocket approach (see a Quicktime video of the pocket in action here!) and my design snob self loves the monochromatic palette of the bag/handle combo. And, because it is as promised nice and small I've been keeping it in my bag since it arrived and using it all the time. I kept it in my purse in New York and it got plenty of use there, allowing me to not really need a bag for any purchases (until I went to Park Slope and blew my entire summer clothing budget in one afternoon, as those purchases would not fit in my lovely Flip and Tumble bag). Martin's also a fan of his svelt black/grey combo bag and has been putting it to regular use.

While I'm on the topic of Martin and reusable bags I do have to give one quick shout out to local reusable bag makers BYOB. Martin is a huge fan of their organic cotton deer bag, which he has termed "the stag bag". We use ours all the time for grocery trips, though it doesn't squash up small enough for me to carry it around all the time.

These vegan cupcakes are about to take over the world
Originally uploaded by emira

I’ll admit it: I’ve been bit by the cupcake bug. They’re just so darn cute and well delicious that I can’t resist. And, while there’s truly nothing wrong with a whole cake, cupcakes are just so very transportable and easily shared amongst friends and houses, whereas we can rarely make a decent dent in a whole cake in our wee house.

Last year for my birthday, my darling Lauren made me some truly incredible and awfully fancy cupcakes from the Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World cookbook (specifically the lemon blueberry ones on page 135) and they were stunning. This year for her birthday I decided to get the cookbook out of the library to give it a test run myself. I’ll admit I kind of wimped out on her and just made the basic chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream, but it was a particularly taxing week and I needed to keep it simple. And really, there’s nothing wrong with a chocolate cupcake at all, especially with pink sprinkles on top. The recipe was super-duper easy (particularly with the aid of my fabulous KitchenAid) and it was definitely a success. n fact, such a success that I’ve just thrown together a second batch to be enjoyed this evening over board games with a friend and Miss P (there was leftover icing, what was I to do?).

The book is due back at the library this week, so I’ll definitely be picking up my own copy for future cupcakes needs/emergencies. The recipes range from simple but satisfying (see chocolate cupcakes above) to truly awesome and gourmet cupcake treats. I’m already thinking that the Rosewater & Pistachio cupcakes would be perfect for a garden party/afternoon tea. There’s also a gluten free cupcake recipe, which is a great thing to have on hand for treating one’s beloved gluten-avoiding friends.

Excited boss ladies holding their pride and joy!
Originally uploaded by arianek

The real live box of author copies arrived on Thursday and boy howdy were we excited. (As the photo indicates). As I posted on the Boss of You website, I’ve fallen back in love with this project. Head over heels you might say. I left town early the next morning to speak at a conference and I had to bring the book along with me in my bag, just so I could keep looking at it. I’m still feeling a little stunned.

We got another awesome couple of reviews too. Someone pinch me, I must be dreaming.

Sunday morning
Originally uploaded by emira

It’s been a very busy weekend/week/month/year and as I sit here with a lasagne in the oven, I’m overwhelmed by all that is still undone, despite how exhausted I am from all that has been done. Last night I had a dance show (flamenco), for which I performed a mere four or five minutes but the adrenaline rush of performing for a live audience and the preparation for that, added to everything else that is on the list of things to do, has left me floored. Our publishers sent us fully designed pages of our book (yes, it’s available for pre-order at Amazon and do feel free to reserve your copy now — a refrain you’ll come to recognize in the new year) to be reviewed for proofing corrections this weekend. Lauren did her round over the first half of the weekend and I dragged my exhausted self (and my Tim Burton-esque post-show, post-hairspray hair) out of bed early this morning to start taking my own run through it. I must say the day when this book will be nothing but a joy seems a ways off from now. While it is exciting to get past each stage in this process — seeing the cover, seeing laid out pages, eventually getting a galley, etc. — I do truly wish I had more time to devote to each stage and enjoying it. At this point in time it’s hard to think of this as an accomplishment as it seems more like a roadblock in the way of other things in life. You know, “important” things like making gingerbread, finishing off the many ambitious sewing projects I had planned for holiday gifts, painting Miss P’s room in her big xmas surprise, etc. I find I have a bad habit of doing this, focusing on the things not achieved rather than appreciating things done. Certainly that has been the case with this year and this book and I’m very much hoping 2008 will see a shift in that perspective.

In the meantime, I’m hoping to be able to stay awake late enough to enjoy decorating the tree with Miss P and Martin this evening. It will be the first real sign of the holidays around here — aside from the pile snipped threads that keeps migrating upstairs with me.

Oven Mitts
Originally uploaded by emira

Quilting is among the fabric arts that has always fascinated/terrified me. I’ve been easing into it with my dabbling in Amy Butler patterns and for my holiday gifts I decided to dive in head first. Honestly, I thought I was taking it pretty easy. Turns out: I’m in a bit over my head.

For my grandma I’m making an apron using a modified Amy Butler pattern (actually a bit of an Amy Butler pattern mash up) which I’ll post about as soon as it’s a bit closer to done. The apron is pretty straightforward (mostly, but again more on this later) just quilted squares really. I borrowed a friend’s rotary cutter and mat for that project, and that gave me all kinds of false confidence and joy. If you’ve never used a rotary cutter you must do so now. Wow does that make things easy. Anyway. That project is coming along alright.

The over mitts? Not so much. I figured they would be pretty easy to toss off and foolishly I was most concerned about the whole “making a quilt sandwich” part, that is: layering fabric and wool and stitching it together. Given that this pattern just has a basic grid quilting stitch that part was easy as pie, much to my delight. Binding, however, not so much. I’ve unpicked and redone the binding on these three times already and I’m still not happy with it. Argh. Now, I may be making it extra hard for myself in that these are rounded edges, still. What the heck am I doing wrong?

I’ve got a few ideas and I’d love some pointers if anyone has ideas/tips for building up my binding skills. So, things I see not working quite right:

1. While making the quilt sandwich part is easy, I find that my fabric pulls to the centre so I end up with wool a fairly large (say 1/4 inch) exposed wool border around the edges. The second time I attached the binding I trimmed this off, but it means I’ve made slightly smaller mitts than intended. In the future should I cut my fabric a bit larger than my wool layers so they line up better in the end?

2. Binding widths. I made this binding to the width specified, but can I make it bigger? I don’t even know that that would help. My binding isn’t very evenly spread from front to back inspite of my best intentions to line it up. Is there a trick here? What am I missing?

3. Pinning. It’s hard to pin curves at the best of times. With binding? It seemed impossible. This kind of relates to things lining up, as described above, but still, do others pin? If I do straight lines should I pin? I did hand baste the binding on the third time I did this and that helped, but it didn’t really solve things.

Any and all quilting expertise welcomed.

Kitchen Aid Birthday Bliss
Originally uploaded by emira

The middle of November brings a whole slew of birthdays into my world. Friends, my sister and mid-month my own. My birthday also marks Mr. Pluto and my anniversary. He’s the very special birthday gift that has kept on giving for twelve years now. And, while I find myself overwhelmed with the awesome thoughtful gifts each year brings, I have to say he kind of takes the cake. This year, however, he’s got some really strong competition. My darling business partner, co-author and excellent all-round friend-extraordinaire, Ms. Lauren Bacon, orchestrated a mass-gift buying splurge to acquire a KitchenAid stand mixer, in red of course. Oh and isn’t she a beauty?! I’ve not been shy about my lust for one of these babies, which has been long building but heavily fueled by my friend Melanie who continues the constant refrain of “and then you just put the ingredients for the cookies/bread/icing/etc in and just walk away” like she’s casting a spell before my eyes. If the joy of a shiny red KitchenAid wasn’t enough to cause a girl to swoon, the joy in knowing how many of her darling friends pooled together to make it happen is practically knocking me out with happiness. You’d think that Pluto might be a bit jealous with all this inanimate object lust going on around here, but fortunately he got one of his favourite things in the world out of the deal: a box. Of his very own. Which Martin has decorated, put catnip in, and generally spent far too much time letting Pluto attack his hands/legs/feet from within the box. So he’s getting over it. Besides he knows that when bedtime rolls around and he’s snuggled up in the crook of my knees, he’ll purr his way back into the top of my affections.

Sweet shortcrust pastry
Originally uploaded by emira

My family isn’t really the religious type. My grandfather is one of those folks who liked to joke that tennis was his religion (he did play every Sunday morning), and the rest of us can typically only be found at churches for holiday concerts and the occasional wedding. We are however, a superstitious bunch, and I have inherited/carry on most of these myths in my own life. Some out of habit, and I’ll admit some with a shadowy fear of retribution from the forces that be. Most of the superstitions are classic old wives tale-garden variety. Things like: no hats on the bed, throw salt over your shoulder, never give anyone an empty purse/bag (always put a penny in it or they will be doomed to bad fortune), etc. Really, compared to some folks I know, I’d say ours are of the pretty secular, west coat variety (many east coasters I know have far more in their arsenal), but my mom has a few that may not quite count as superstitions per se, but that relate directly to the kitchen and their sway over me seems to be strong. More than one of them revolves around pastry, which, given that my mom makes a particularly lovely pastry is perhaps no surprise.

Of course, there’s cold hands = warm heart/good pastry, one which my mom repeats anytime anyone congratulates her on her pastry (my mother, is a petite woman with horrible circulation, therefore very cold hands). This is, and always has been, such a common saying of my mothers that I remember as a little girl wondering if I would be gifted with the cold handed pastry skill or be doomed to a life of tough crusts and toasty fingers. The second she didn’t really start to haul out until I started making my own pie crusts. I called her from my one bedroom apartment in the big city to complain that my quiche (using the family recipe) just hadn’t had the flaky touch that hers does, despite my attempts to keep everything chilled etc. Rather than tell me that good flaky pastry takes practice she asked me if I was stressed out, or hurrying at the time I made it. For, she declared, if you try to rush a pastry or work out your problems through it, it will be tough. As though this was something everyone knew. Since then, I have taken every quiche, tart or pie shell that I have ever made as a measure of my mental health. (Whether or not this is a very good idea). To tough = too much stress. Too crumbly and difficult to work with = tried to hurry/wasn’t being mindful of the process. Etc. And today, as I made a pumpkin pie for Miss P’s birthday pie (at her special request), today I made what seems to be a perfect pie crust. Of course, I could be jumping the gun here, as it’s not yet baked and filled, nor has it been consumed, but damn it came together easily. And it just lay in that pie plate like it was meant to be there. And, so, I did a quick check-in with my self. It’s been a hard week — to many late nights at work — and frankly this summer has kind of been a bit lackluster at best/trying and exhausting at worst, but Fall is on its way, and for the first time I can remember I’m really looking forward to it. And, this weekend, which has been filled savoury foods, board games, good friends and plenty of birthday goodness feels like it may portent a more relaxing season ahead.

(As a total aside, I really can’t say enough about the value of having small pie plates on hand. I went on at length about these two years ago, as I searched for 6″ pie plates, but really they’re the best. As ours is a small family, I typically make a 9″ pie and always seem to have plenty of pastry/filling left over. As a pie lover, throwing out that extra pastry always seemed like such a waste, a 6″ pie plate is often small enough to house the leftover bits and filling and then you can throw it unbaked in the freezer to have instant mini-pie another day. And really, does life get better than instant mini-pie? I think not.)