Garden porn....

I had sooo much trouble downloading this picture you wouldn't believe!!! LOL
Just after the Holidays the seed catalogs start filling my mail box, some even came at the beginning of December. Now that the festivities are over.....It is time to read, and devour and post-it and bend pages and put X on the desired vegetable....

We don't have a lot of seed 'pushers' in Quebec and the big commercial one I can never understand their catalog (too mixed up!). I do support a couple of kitchen table operations like Semences Solana (they have really exotic veggies) But my 2 faves are West Coast Seeds and Vesey's.
Every year I try new vegetables, some are hits others misses. 2007 hits were Kale and Butternut Squash! Misses? Celeriac and Fennel and Asparagus peas (I had 2). For this year I will be trying Edamame, Lemon cucumbers, Collards and Long Keeper Tomatoes (are supposed to stay fresh for 12 weeks after picking.....Can't wait to see that) and Fennel from seed (last year I bought a plant and I didn't know anything about it...). Most of the seeds I buy is Heirloom or Organic. Organic is still hard to find around here....
I placed my order today because last year by the time I ordered Edamame was sold out!!! I will still be sewing kale and Butternut Squash and bush beans, Arugula,basil,groud cherries, peas,cherry tomatoes,beefsteak tomatoes,watermelon and cantalope. It's a miracle I have room for flowers!!!

New Year lunch

If you're ever in Hudson, Qc and feel a tad hungry be sure to stop to the Willow Place Inn on the shore of Lake-of-two-Mountains.
Situated in a beautiful old house built in 1820, you can either enjoy luch or supper in the pub or the dinning room and if the weather is nice they have a wonderful lawn where you can eat or have a drink in a nice Adirondack chair.
The food is pub grub with flair ( Is this a restaurant review?lol) You can order kidney pie, fish and chips or tandoori salmon. Their specialty is The Willow Dip a delicious rib roast sandwich with an au jus bowl and fresh cut french fries...TO DIE FOR....
I had one just yesterday .....YUM!
Their desserts look absolutely delightful but I never ordered one (I never have room....)

In winter you can cross lake-of-two-mountains on the ice bridge and in the summer the ferry is there to take you to Oka.
From the pub you can see people ice fishing,ATV-ing and snow gliding.


After lunc you can take a drive to see the beautiful Hudson houses and take a walk in the village for a spot of shopping.

I love Hudson village, it reminds me of quaint New England villages. I wish I could live there one day....

Happy New Year!!!

I wish everybody a truly wonderful New Year full of possibilities (aren't possibilities the best?), tons of thrifting finds and JOY (laughter is a must) and let's not forget Health (where would we be without it).

I love the idea that we have a new year to explore!

2008 was certainly an interesting year (to say the least!!!).
I got canned, I did most of my TO DO list, really I mean REALLY enjoyed the company of my cats, started a blog, became an ebay seller (when people actually pay for the stuff...LOL), opened my little boutique on Etsy, went crazy in the Pyrex collecting and started to really appreciate who I am. Aaaaaah! The wonderfulness of me! I found out in 2008 that I was much better and talented then I thought and certainly more creative.....I can't wait to discover what 2009 has in store for me!

The picture is of Hoppin' John, a traditionnal New Year's day dish that is supposed to bring you money....I made a big batch....LOL, it's delicious...Rice and black eyed peas, tomatoes and bacon (What's not to like! lol) I saw it on Paula Deen's show, thought it was a good idea and found one on the web...I do add some chicken stock, parsley and tons of green onions. Delicious!

Later my friends!

My new creation

I have been wanting to make stuffed animals for a while now...And I made my first yesterday!

It does look handmade a lot and when I look at it I feel proud and warm and fuzzy inside!!! You can see that this kitten had a little snack earlier....hehehe

I had never worked with fleece before and it kept stretching on the sewing machine! I'll surely know what to expect next time.

I have the crafting fever....I'm itching to create jewelry, stray sock animals and more fleece kittens....One of my Xmas gift from Dan was a work lamp with magnifying glass...I can't wait to try it...I might tomorrow 'coz we have no celebration scheduled! Which I find kinda cool, it's certainely different....and full of potential

Later!

Cold as a witch's tit....

That means that it is real, REAL cold!!! And the wind! OMG

I love to walk and it was getting difficult with the cold and the wind from the river....So I got some ski goggles for Xmas from Dan. And I got to try them on today! It makes all the difference in the world....The cold wasn't the same at all. And these are specially designed to wear with glasses...Delicious!

Next I give you the Gravlax Chronicles! It has been a couple of years since I made any, but salmon was on sale and it is a nice change especially since it will be ready for New Year's day!

For those who don't know Gravlax is cured salmon as opposed to smoked salmon. It is cured with kosher salt, sugar, dill,pepper and sometimes some kind of vodka or other alcool . You need to cut your salmon filet in half and place a generous amount of curing mixture in the middle, underneath and over the salmon 'sandwich' wrap in plastic wrap put a pan on top of it (in this case Pyrex!) that you will weight with cans. You need to turn it every 12 hours and discard the liquid after 3 days it ready to be thinly sliced and devoured!

It is delicious with a fennel salad. I took my recipe from Martha Stewart's hors d'oeuvres handbook. See you soon! :)

I scanned, I scanned!!!

Last night, on my to do list I wrote: Find postcards and put in frames.

In 2007 I had a vision for the bathroom..Why not a beach theme? Pale blue (aqua) walls, a lot of white, a chandelier, sea glass, shells...(see previous post...we are now just finishing the bathroom...LOL) We went to the Lachute flea market and I found these wonderful vintage postcards. I put them in a drawer for safe keeping and since we never started the bathroon redo, I forgot about them....and basically I lost them! What else is new? We got around to the bathroom in late August 2008 did the paint installed the chandelier, but still had some details to think of....I was still thinking about the postcards...but not finding them. On canadian Thanksgiving we went to OOB (Old Orchard Beach) and I got some frames at the Christmas tree shop for the postcards....And then I lost the frames...lol

I had a flash of genius this morning and I remembered where I stashed them and 15 min later I found the frames....Guess what? I need to trim them so they can fit....But I wanted to scan them first so I have an intact picture. I had to learn how to scan....install the software etc....But I' really proud of myself I did it!
Now to trim and frame!

New energy

Filled with new energy (or is it a sugar buzz???)

We decided to complete a couple of unfinished projects....First to clean and install the gorgoeus oval mirror. This is one of my favorite finds of 2008! One of my neighbor is selling his house and every Sunday night he takes out his trash....And me being a curious girl....I usually put my coat over my PJs and run over to see if there are any treasures....I found a coffee table base that is in the workshop waiting for a top. It will eventually go to Veronic (SD) for her living room-she's furniture challenged...lol

And I found this gorgeous mirror, full of snow and quite dirty, but I saw the potential....It was one of my proudest thrifting moments. It took nearly an hour to clean....all those nooks and crannies!

And we also installed the Old Orchard Beach frame I got more than a year ago at Cottage Decor (in OOB Maine). It fits perfectly with my beachy vision....The bathroom keeps looking better and better....We do move really slow when we fix something.....The bathroom is nearly finished and then on to the kitchen! It needs paint soooooo bad. We had painted the melamine cabinets and it chipped. So now even when I clean everything it looks dirty!!!