If only
If adults kept their baby smell throughout their lives, no one would ever argue.
Permalink to Article
~ Posted: January 18, 2012
Permalink to Article
~ Posted: January 17, 2012
I wish…
…we lived in an era when it was still socially acceptable to give your baby laudanum.
Dear Jian: A love letter to Kingston, cultural capital
This is Jian Ghomeshi.
Sexy, no? But that’s not why I want him to come visit Kingston.*
Jian Ghomeshi hosts CBC Radio’s culture-vulture program Q, and he is holding a contest to decide which city in Ontario will play host to a live taping of the show. Several cities in Canada are vying for this opportunity, mostly because of Jian. Not only because of his deep brown bedroom eyes (see above) and excellent singing voice (all her ideas were like smoke rings…), but also because Q has so much in common with our city.
Q is about culture, the pulse of the creative and social world across Canada and beyond, and all of that world’s implications. Believe it or not, Kingston, Ontario, is a microcosm for that world. A wander downtown will illustrate what I mean. Bordering Market Square, independent movie rental store Classic Video is approaching its twenty-fifth year on Clarence Street. Novel Idea caters to the lover of books with a taste for independence. The Screening Room plays indie and unusual films as well as playing host to events such as Mouthy, a monthly community storytelling event. The Sleepless Goat is a workers’ co-op serving up fair-trade organic coffee alongside amazing treats, or grab some tea at local independent brewer The Tea Store. Play board games at weekly games nights at Minotaur Games and Gifts, or head to their Sunday crafternoons to get some crocheting done. Bring your pet; oddly enough, most of the stores downtown are dog-friendly.
The local music scene is hopping at venues such as the Mansion, the Merchant, the Toucan — I could write another whole article about the live music scene here, and it wouldn’t even touch on the bands that visit from outside of Kingston (and it probably wouldn’t have room to mention Sarah Harmer, the Gertrudes, Rueben de Groot, the Tragically Hip, the Wolfe Island Music Festival, or Cantabile Choirs). Then there’s the theatre world, at the Grand, the Wellington, and all over town. And let’s not even get started on sporting events — heard of the Kingston Derby Girls? Or Writers’ Fest. Or the boating and sailing worlds. Or the unparallelled foodie scene, from Chien Noir to Chez Piggy. Or what’s on the calendar every month at Queen’s.
I guess what I’m saying is that you won’t find another city in Ontario where you can get this amount of culture per square foot or per capita. I moved here very deliberately three years ago because I fell in love with this town and its cultural scene as an undergraduate, and since I got here I’ve come to love both even more. I love living on the water. I love that my car sits in the driveway most days of the week since I can walk just about everywhere. I love that Kingston is small enough that I knew a lot of people at the Hallowe’en kids’ parade in Skeleton Park, but big enough that it has a Pride Parade. I moved here on purpose, because I wanted to be a party of this city and all it has to offer. Since moving here, I have met a whole community of people who live here on purpose, not because they have to.** What better recommendation can a town have than that?
* Well, not the only reason.
** Except the people in the prisons. I’m pretty sure they have to be here.
Are you even listening to yourself?
We have to get Squidge’s hearing tested again because she had meningitis and sometimes that can damage your ear bits. So I called Public Health and they got someone from the local otiology clinic to call me back.
Her: So we’ve got an appointment for you January fifth. We like the babies to sleep through the test if at all possible, so we ask that you bring her tired.
Me: How long is the test?
Her: Usually about forty-five minutes, maybe longer.
Me: If you can get my baby to sleep for forty-five minutes during the day, I will give you one million dollars.
Her: Well, if you can maybe bring her tired but awake — but not cranky, you know?
Me: …
Permalink to Article
~ Posted: November 3, 2011
Operation move baby’s bedtime back
Has resulted in a baby who no longer sleeps through the night.
Amazing.
Challenge the eighth: All the stuff you’re supposed to do for babies
I used to work freelance and be my own boss. This occasionally involved fourteen-hour days, but mostly it involved a lot of afternoons off, walking my large orange dog, hanging out with friends, and enjoying a variety of creative and culinary pursuits. Sometimes it involved a nap on the lawn swing in our backyard if the weather was nice.
Things are a little different now that I have a baby.
Because I can’t produce enough breastmilk to feed the Squidge, I spend a lot of time pumping milk to get as much as I can for her. This cuts about three hours from my day, leaving me the rest to try to fit in all the stuff you’re supposed to do with a baby. Which is an astonishing list if you buy into the current baby culture. It’s a good thing I don’t, because if I did, this is what my day would look like.
Feed baby. Pump. Read to baby. Laundry. Teach baby sign language. TUMMY TIME! Bathe baby. Feed baby. Pump. Skin to skin time. Oh my god more laundry. Read to baby. Sing to baby. Feed baby. Pump. Play music from a variety of ethnic backgrounds for baby. Shop online for couture bamboo onesies. Or make them myself. Show baby high-contrast images to stimulate visual and mental development. Infant massage. More tummy time! Baby yoga. Baby pilates. Feed baby. Pump. Speak French and Spanish to baby. Soak baby in hand sanitizer. With baby in a sling for attachment parenting purposes, cook an organic, local, healthy, delicious, seasonally appropriate and beautifully presented meal that freezes well and will provide a minimum of four meals of leftovers. Get thirty to forty-five minutes of cardio and toning exercise myself, and then “make time” (out of baby poop, perhaps?) to pursue the activities I enjoy. Feed baby. Pump. More tummy time. More skin to skin time. More bloody laundry! Feed baby. Pump.
Annnnd…start all over again because there was no time for either of us to sleep in there.
It’s a damn good thing that (according to current baby culture) I’m not a very good mom. Because if I were, I’d be one seriously insane mom.
Yesterday some of my book club came over to watch Jaws. Last month we read The Raw Shark Texts by Stephen Hall, a really interesting sort of metaphysical read whose ending parallels Jaws in many ways. Some people had never seen Jaws; some, like me, hadn’t seen it in years. So part of the book was lost on us, and we decided to remedy the situation with a viewing.
The film has not lost its creepiness and the shark is still scary, even if the acting is a little campy. Regardless, it gave me an excuse to make some interesting cupcakes. You see, I haven’t had much of an opportunity to entertain since having a baby, and I used to love having people over for dinner parties and whatnot. So I may have gone a little overboard getting ready — shark gummies, shark ice floating in blood-red punch, and the pièce de résistance: shark-fin cupcakes. They were pumpkin cupcakes with cream-cheese icing, and they were, ahem, to die for.
Recipe — from PrettyGirlFood — below. I didn’t use the candied pecans or caramel sauce, but I bet they would have been extra awesome! The icing was light and fluffy and easy to work with.
Pumpkin Cupcakes
adapted from Martha
1 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup pumpkin puree
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 cupcake cups with paper liners; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice; set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together, brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and eggs. Add dry ingredients, and whisk until smooth. Whisk in pumpkin puree.
Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about halfway. Bake until tops spring back when touched, and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.
Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting
adapted from Allrecipes
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup heavy cream
In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar salt and vanilla until smooth. In a small bowl, whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Fold into the cream cheese mixture.
Caramel Sauce
from Simply Recipes
1/2 cup of sugar
3 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
Heat sugar on moderately high heat in a heavy-bottomed 2-quart or 3-quart saucepan. As the sugar begins to melt, stir vigorously with a whisk or wooden spoon. As soon as the sugar comes to a boil, stop stirring. You can swirl the pan a bit if you want, from this point on.
As soon as all of the sugar crystals have melted (the liquid sugar should be dark amber in color), immediately add the butter to the pan. Whisk until the butter has melted.
Once the butter has melted, take the pan off the heat. Count to three, then slowly add the cream to the pan and continue to whisk to incorporate. Note than when you add the butter and the cream, the mixture will foam up considerably.
Whisk until caramel sauce is smooth. Let cool in the pan for a couple minutes, then pour into a glass mason jar and let sit to cool to room temperature.
Candied Pecans
from Gourmet
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon honey
1/2 teaspoon water
3/4 cup pecan halves
Warm brown sugar with honey and water in a small saucepan, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Stir in pecans, tossing to coat, then transfer to a lightly oiled 4-sided sheet pan.
Bake, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and shiny, about 15 minutes. Transfer pecans with a metal spatula to a rack to cool.
(Source: fakeginger.com, via prettygirlfood)
Permalink to Article
~ Posted: October 18, 2011
Matt’s on stockingisthenewplanking.com!
This is a very poor impression of my husband. And of my photo. Also, I wish they had paid for it.
Creativity, uncorked!
This past weekend I attended a bookbinding workshop run by Sabrina Scott (sabrinascott) in Toronto — something I don’t think I would have known about if not for Tumblr, so thanks Tumblr!
We made a couple of simple books: an accordian-fold book and a single-signature sewn sketchbook. Sabrina had tons of paper to choose from, and half the fun was sifting through the pile and choosing what materials to use. The covers for both were made from cereal and beer boxes — a nice opportunity for upcycling! The two projects we did were simple and I know I could have learned the techniques online, but the value I find in workshops like this has more to do with having a set period of time dedicated to crafting, with someone around to answer questions, and a deadline to finish. We only had three hours, so I couldn’t spend half an hour being a perfectionist measuring out every millimetre and worrying about whether one colour choice was better than another. More than half of creativity is just sitting down and making something — it’s too easy to get bogged down in worrying about the final product and to give up before you even really get going. When you go to a workshop, you’re surrounded by people with similar interests who do all kinds of great stuff with the same techniques you’re learning and you’ve got someone there who’s done this tons of times, so it’s no-excuses creating. Anyway, here is a pic of my final three books (I made the little blue one in just fifteen minutes because I couldn’t stand to leave behind the beautiful blue slip of patterned paper I found in the supply). They’re a long way from perfect, but they were easy to make and I’m excited to make more. I have a huge paper stash that rarely gets used because of my creative indecision and hesitancy. No more! Christmas mini-gifts? I think so!
This Theme is proudly powered by: 
subscribe to 
