week 2: secret project



This is a post in my weekly series of "Create" posts that will be things I have made by hand or am in the process of making. Enjoy!

I have been working on this project for about three weeks.  It's just over half way done and I CANT WAIT for it to fully done.  Both so I can share it and just stare at it and admire it!  This project has taught me so many things so far and I'm quite proud of myself.  I've ripped it out twice and started from scratch and, as frustrating as that was, I'm glad I did!  I can't wait to show you when it's all done!!!

week 1: homemade granola






This is the first post in my weekly series of "Create", posts that will be things I have made by hand or am in the process of making. Enjoy!

Last night I made granola.  My mom made some delicious granola over the Christmas break and I just ran out so I decided to make some more!  It was super easy and fun to pick what I was going to put in it.

Recipe:
3 cups of oats
3 tbsp of brown sugar
1 tsp of cinnamon
¼ cup of oil
⅓ cup of honey
1 tsp of vanilla
handfuls of nuts and dried fruit

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
Combine the remaining ingredients [with the exception of the nuts and fruit] in a measuring cup.
Pour the liquid mixture over the dry ingredients and combine until the oat mixture is completely covered (might be helpful to use your hands)
Spread out over a cookie sheet with sides and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes (until the oats are a golden brown)
Mix the granola, try to flip it over so it bakes evenly and let it continue to bake for another 5 to 10 minutes.
Let granola cool on the pan, mixing occasionally.
Pour granola into a mixing bowl and add the nuts and dried fruit.
Store in airtight containers and enjoy for days and days to come!


a year of creation


Hello there!

I have recently come up with a “new years resolution” for the blog.  Each week I will share something that I have created.  It can either be a work in progress or something recently completed. It will range from a meal to a knitted or crocheted thing to a picture I drew.  It’s going to be slightly random but I think it will be a fun way to document a year of little projects.  I am aware that I'm a few weeks behind so instead of 52 projects there will only be 50 official ones...  but technically I made donuts and a coffee cozee so really I'm right on schedule! 


I hope that the weekend treated you well and gave you an opportunity to take some time to relax, create things and connect with the people you love!




Homemade Donuts









we made donuts! 

we decided that this weekend was going to be tasty.  roomie made muffins,  we made apple chips together and we made donuts!

The muffins burnt a bit on the bottoms (stupid oven, we still can’t get it to cook our food properly and we’ve been living here for 4 months), the apple chips didn’t really turn out super great either  but they were pretty good.  The donuts, however, were DELISH!  We kind of cheated tho…we didn’t make our own dough… we used safeway white dinner rolls instead!  They may not be as authentic but they still tasted great!  

We dipped them in oil, fried them up, drained the oil and coated them in a cinnamon/sugar mixture.  They were great on the first day, nice and soft and slightly warm but by the next day they were a little harder..

Needless to say, these will be made again!  I’d like to try and make a different glaze and decorate them a bit to make them even more fun!


Hope you have a great week and get to make and eat lots of yummy things!

Coffee Cozee





The other day, roomie and I made tea before heading out to school.  Having just purchased our reusable Starbucks cups we were quite excited to put them to use.  We boiled the water, put the tea bags in and poured the tea into our new cups.  We finished getting ready, grabbed our cups and HOLY SMOKES were they ever hot!  Too hot, in fact, to even hold them without some sort of buffer.  We grabbed our mitts and headed out the door.  Thinking about a way I could make the cups more comfortable and useful, I came up with the idea to make a cozee!  Any excuse to pull out my knitting needles or crochet hook.  So that night I got busy making something that would protect my hands and keep my drink insulated!  Win, win, win!

So here's the (very rough) pattern:
Yarn: size 4 or 5
Needles: honestly not sure... my nana gave them to me and they have no markings on them but I would recommend using whatever size needle your yarn calls for.

Cast on 28 stitches
Knit one row, purl the next.  Repeat twice.
Begin working in the colours using the fair isle method and continuing with the knit one purl one rule.
Continue until all the letters are complete.
Finish off with 4 rows of knit one purl one of the solid colour you started with and bind off.  Voila!

This project was a real learning experience for me.  I'm not exactly thrilled with how it turned out, but hey, it's functional.  If I were to do it again (and I most likely will) I would probably do a number of things differently...  For example, when working the colours into the letters, rather than doing each stitch twice (once as a knit and once as a purl) I would only do each stitch once.   This would probably result in a smaller cozee unless I added more of the plain colour at both the beginning and the end.

So if you make this, let me know what worked for you, what didn't and what you would do differently!

Hope you're having a great weekend!

New Things



It is the start of a whole new year which means a set of whole new things is to come! Some of these new things will include experiences, people, stuff and goals!  I thought I'd share a few my goals for 2014 with you, if for no other reason to be accountable to someone..
Most people usually do this right as the beginning of the month but it’s better late than never, right?! I didn't really want to make a list of "resolutions" this year.  Instead, I came up with a few goals that I hope to work on throughout the year.
Create More:  in all aspects of my life.  I've gotten really into knitting and crocheting and I'd really like to continue to do this throughout the year [I know this is really far away but I think it would be really neat to sell some of my creations at some Christmas craft fairs next year!]  I also want to spend more time in the kitchen.  I am not one who enjoys cooking but I think it would be really good for me to try and be more adventuresome with the food.
Do My Readings:  when it comes to doing the assigned readings for my classes I usually don't.  Or at least not until the nights leading up to an exam…  This semester I’d really like to keep on top of my readings so that I don't feel overwhelmed and underprepared come exams.


I also recently started the Happiness Project and have found that to be really inspiring.  I'll share more on that as I get further into it.  Happy almost weekend!

A Year in Review

Some of my favourite moments of 2013: 1. making candles on a rainy day 2. folk fest awesomeness 3. day at the lake 4. perks of the summer job 5. lunch breaks on the summer job 6. getting new wheels in Victoria 7. folk fest treasures 8. finding our apartment! 9. getting into crocheting and knitting 10. making a new friend!!!! 11. getting a new tattoo 12. a snowy day before Christmas


Merry belated Christmas and Happy belated New Year!  I hope you have all had a really wonderful holiday and have been able to spend some time with loved ones.  I am always amazed at how quickly Christmas goes by.  The hype lasts for weeks and weeks and then, in one day, it’s all over!  Well at least Christmas is.  The holidays continues and the New Year approaches.  I have to admit, I’m not sad to say goodbye to 2013.  It was a tough year for me.  Lots of things changed, school got harder, I spent a lot of time  feeling confused and unsure of where I wanted to go and our family experienced some changes.  This is not to say that 2013 was an awful year.  I made a really great new friendship and learned a lot from the relationships I already had.  I went to a number of concerts and got to see some of my favourite musicians.  I spent my summer working hard and was able to move into a beautiful apartment..  

As I look back on the year I'm grateful for the opportunities I had and the things I went through. That being said, hopefully 2014 will be a little bit better, for everyone!