Ooh, the drama.

The sky can be so dramatic sometimes! I thought I'd share a few photos from a couple of weeks ago:












The sky was in much turmoil and it stormed and raged for a while. I snapped these shots with my Canon 50D and then transferred them onto the iPad using the Apple Connection Kit. Wow, plug & play at its finest!! I plugged the camera into the iPad with my USB cable and BANG! The pictures were there, displaying on the screen. I am impressed.

Back to knitting for me for now. I'm furiously making Christmas gifts. Have a great rest of day to all!

:o)B



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Trying Another App

I really want to find an easy way to blog from the iPad. I found this app called BlogPress that seems to be what I need. Time will tell.

This picture is from the other night. It was a stormy/rainy and very grey day but near the end of the day the sky started to break. The pink setting sun is shining off the remaining clouds as the sun set.

It looked like pink cotton candy against a beautiful blue sky. This is the blue that has inspired my newest Girasole.



Here's a picture of the centre of my second Girasole. I'm making it with worsted weight Patons Decor yarn which is 25% wool for warmth but 75% acrylic so it can be machine washed/dry. I'm using 6.5mm Addi Turbos in varying lengths. The longest one I have is 120 cm.





I think I might like this app. If it makes it easier for me to post blog entries, I might be more apt to actually do that more often ;o)

Cheers and Happy Sunday all!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Curry a la Currie

A twitter friend has requested my curry recipe and for lack of a better place to post it, here it is:

Meat Curry


* Meat
* 2 large leeks
* 2 tbsp curry powder
* oil for cooking

Whatever meat you want, cut into 1" cubes. I use chicken, lamb, beef and sometimes pork.

I use 2 leeks diced, you could also use any other type of onion..chopped. About a cup.

In a heavy bottom large pot, use some oil (I use grapeseed but you could use whatever you like, olive, sunflower, etc) and brown meat with leek (onion) and 2 tbsp of curry powder for about 5 minutes.

nb: Here you can adjust to your taste. I used 2 tbsp as a base, we use 3 good heapers but we like it curry-ful.

Add:

* 6 cups of sodium reduced chicken stock
* 4 cups diced potatoes
* 3 large carrots, diced
* 3 stalks of celery, sliced

Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

That is the base recipe for the curry. You pretty much want those ingredients in it. Now whatever veggie you have you can add when you add the potatoes. We use green and/or yellow beans, fresh peas, broccoli, cauliflower...anything that's around. That last one you saw the picture of had some Brussels sprouts that I found in the fridge. If you add something like snow peas, I'd wait about 10 minutes after you add the potatoes before adding them. They might get too squishy otherwise.

We really like this served over a nice bed of Basmati rice.

Trying Blog Writer Lite for the iPhone

I was cruising around the app store to see if I could find a decent blogging app.
This one doesn't seem to have a way of imbedding photos.
Guess I'll have to keep searching.

Does anyone know a good blogging app for the iPhone?

A Lovely Day in March

1965 Chevy G10 in the Snow
Originally uploaded by BevKnits

11:00 am, 2009-March-09
Wow, what a day! The sun is shining and it's above zero. I'm sitting in the funky folding chairs beside the trailer hanging out with my dogs and enjoying this beautiful weather. We still have lots of snow, the grass is only now exposed where the snow was thin.

There is almost no wind today and only some birds are back. There are a lot of crows cawing all around me. I saw a flock of Canadian Geese this morning as I headed into town for morning coffee.

What little wind there is today is coming the "regular" way. That is, from the west so I can't hear the windmills today. I can just now hear the neighbour's sheep bleating away in their barn. Haha, I guess that's what the three dogs I have out here with me heard as well because they are staring in that direction even though there's 100 acres of evergreen bush between us.

I know I said I'd blog more often and during the day when I'm bust doing chores and whatnot, I compose wonderful blog entries in my head but when it's time to sit at the computer and compose them, they're no where to be found in my brain.

Sitting here in this wooden folding chair that I made I felt compelled to blog so out comes the iPhone but of course what pops up? The "you're at 20% battery life" warning. Of course!
I'm really gonna be pissed if I lose this text. Haha. I guess I better save my note and finish this blog entry later when I can include some pictures from this beautiful day.

3:30 pm
Many hours later, my battery is fully charged now. I'm just sitting at our kitchen table listening to my old fashioned coffee percolator brewing a wonderful pot of butterscotch flavoured coffee. Yeah, I know! All the coffee conniseurs out there just cringed when I said "butterscotch" but I love this coffee. I got the beans at the Foodland in Shelburne, Ontario. The town nearest to us doesn't carry flavoured coffee. Freshly ground just before I brew a pot, it smells so wonderful. Even people that don't really like coffee like this! As soon as it finishes it brew cycle, I'm going to get a cup and go out onto the deck to try and read a bit while the sun is still shining. I'll be back in a while :o)

10:00pm
Just uploading photos to include with this post. Hopefully I won't run out of disk space!

1:40pm, 2009-March-10
Just a quick note, my Internet went down last night so I couldn't finish my blog post and today is Wednesday so I'm very busy but I thought I'd do a quick post of this blog entry from yesterday.

The World's Worst Blogger

Yup, crown me queen please. Almost one full year since my last blog post. I have thought many times about writing one but always find something else that's more important.

This is just a brief entry right now as I am busy (see!) but I promise to start a proper blog in here. I PROMISE! Having said that, I just added the Google Friend Connect thing on my blog. I don't know anything about it yet, I just discovered it this morning. Anyway, back to paint stripping, etc.

See you soon!

The Dresser and the Tapestry

The story of the dresser and the tapestry begins in the mid-90s in Mississauga. Our friend Dave gave us a dresser from his house. He had inherited the house and its contents from his mother, his father passed away in (I think) the 70s. When Dave decided that the house was too much for him and was selling to move to a condo he called me over and gave the dresser to me.

Click on any of the images to see larger.

Inside one of the drawers there was a paper Eatons bag. Inside the bag was a long narrow needlepoint tapestry with a few other items.

Dave's father worked at Eatons all of his working life. It was over 50 years that he was there. I remember seeing the 1/2 century club certificate that was awarded to him.

I remember Dave telling me that his father did needlepoints. He had made all the seats of the chairs for his dining room suite. They were very beautiful. Dave told me that he was working on this needlepoint when he died so it's still a WIP.

Well, if I want to finish it, at least I have all the stuff I need! Check out what was in the bag. There's the tapestry with treaded needle and two extra skeins of the tapestry wool.

Check this out! The original product tag from the tapestry with its original price sticker! I love old stuff! I love Canadian stuff (Eatons) but it cracks me up that even back in the early 70s this item was made in China! And it wasn't a cheap item. $13.99 was a good chunk of change back then .

The two birds are worked using Petit-point which is very fine needlepoint that yields a much finer image than the larger needlepoint areas. Amazing work eh?! I really should finish the row that was being worked and then take this to a professional to frame.

These three pictures show the details of the tapestry.

























Yeah, I know...I have a really old ironing board but I LOVE it! My step-mother bought it around 1971 at a Rummage Sale held by the Brownies for a whomping 50 cents! My dad did the "repair" on the leg where it was broken. He wrapped a bunch of masking tape around it and I can remember my step-mother going on and on to him about how it wouldn't hold and such...hahaha. More than 4 decades later I'm still using this ironing board and the tape is still perfectly in tact. Way to go daddy!