Adventures and Knitting in the Arctic

Moving Over to the New Blog!

2009-08-27T02:54:00.004-06:00

I've started my new blog to keep track of my new adventures.

Visit From the Arctic to Australia for the latest updates!

See you over there!

Temperature: +5C
Sunrise: 7:01am
Sunset: 10:46pm

Trying to Keep My Head Above Water...

2009-08-12T02:48:00.004-06:00

Ahhh!!!

We're getting down to the wire! 2½ weeks left before I fly out. Things have been crazy at work and I've done almost 20 hours of overtime this last week. That leaves a whole lot of time for... NOTHING.
Cue me freaking out...

A friend came over tonight to kick my arse into gear so that I could finally get a bit more done since the movers can't give me a quote or - of course - take my stuff until it's all packed. I'm almost there. I'd say if I do a bit more in the next two or so days I'll be ready... It's a lot of work... And it's a lot of work I'm not so thrilled to be doing myself. It's mostly because I severely lack the motivation to do it. There's so many other things I'd rather be doing like sleeping. I've also given up any hope (or illusion!) I had of having a garage sale which was evident by me letting my friend take home 3 rubbermaind bins (PLUS) of stuff home for free lol...

We had a crazy heat wave two weeks ago and now we're back to it being cold, rainy and miserable... There were even murmurings of the "S" word... That's right... Snow... I was kind of hoping to miss all of that lol. I'm actually kind of hoping that if I sleep late enough into the day I'll miss it haha
It's actually getting dark at night now which sucks. It makes me pretty sad to know that summer is definitely over (I know I'm moving but man, I love the summers up here).

So yeah... I plan to take a picture of the apartment when everything is all packed I just need to get it all packed...

I really wish I had a more exciting update!

Temperature: +5C
Sunrise: 5:59am
Sunset: 11:55pm

Yowza!

2009-07-28T17:22:00.005-06:00

It's hot!!!

I missed what is typically the nicest part of the Inuvik summer - late June/early July. We had one really nice day during the festival and I missed it because I was inside all day. Since then it's been a combination of rainy and rather chilly (you know it's bad when you cheer when it's +16C!) so I figured that was it for summer. A few days ago I thought I noticed that it was a bit smoky (just enough that the sun was kind of orange) then the next day there was noticeable smoke in the delta and a faint smoky smell. Well, with the arrival of the smoke came some warmer weather and humidity (very typical).

This is what we're dealing with right now:

(taken from the site where I get my temp/sunrise/sunset stats 29C = 84F).

It's actually a little less humid right now than it was when I got up (hovering around 50%). The Arctic is like a desert so even 35% humidity makes it feel very muggy out.

I think I've acclimated too well to Arctic life and this kind of heat feels hotter than it should!

In other news, in exactly one month I'll be in Edmonton and officially moved out of Inuvik. I called to confirm my flight today (I didn't book it so I wanted to call to make sure it was for real lol). I still haven't done any extra packing. I need to get that done ASAP. I have a BBQ to go to tonight and then I might try to get a few things done.

Temperature: +29C (feels like +32C)
Sunrise: 4:42am
Sunset: 1:21am

One Week Down!

2009-07-26T00:34:00.005-06:00

I've almost survived my first week back to work. It's gone surprisingly well - and quick! (the parts before and after work are kind of dragging though.. The house is quiet and boring! I of course have no motivation to pack or clean!)

This past week I got to meet a fellow knitter/Ravelry member while she was on her way home from an adventure of a lifetime - a trip to the north of Banks Island. We went out for dinner and I took her and a fellow research team member on a tour of Inuvik then we went and hung out by the river and got eaten alive by mosquitoes.

Fireweed close-up

I saw a grizzly bear in the back of a pick-up truck* (ENR I think?) drive through the first half of town on Wednesday. Of course CBC North hasn't updated on why that would be. Hopefully the newspaper has some juicy info this week. I was walking from my doctor's appointment to work when it passed me - it took me a couple seconds to register that it was 1. a bear and 2. not normal! I first though "dead thing in the back of a truck, nothing new" and then "!!!!!!! That's a grizzly!!!!"

(*to clarify, I'm pretty sure the bear was dead because it was just in the back of the truck - no cage or anything. I don't think they'd drive a sedated bear back into town.)

Temperature: +16C
Sunrise: 4:30am
Sunset: 1:25am

Surfacing After the Festival

2009-07-20T14:17:00.005-06:00

Now that we're on the other side of the festival it seems like it went quickly even though during the festival things seemed to drag on. Things were different this year. Different in a bad way. People were grouchy and rude and there was complaining from the start. This was probably my last festival due to the move so I went into it with excitement. I was especially excited to see old friends and to see what they've been up to this last year. That excitement quickly drained after listening to person after person complain about such-and-such a thing not being perfect and listening to a few racist comments from artists from isolated communities. Then there was the high school politics that crept into things.
I think I'm only disappointed because I might not get a next year so my final festival was a little less than stellar.

On the upside, I made a few new friends, I got to see some fabulous art and I got to do some experimenting in my own art.

While I was there I decided to do some 3D needle felting. It's something that I've wanted to do for a long time but haven't really had the chance. What better time to do it when you're sitting there anyway? (all the "non messy" artists like sewers and even water colour painters can sit in the gallery and demonstrate their art).

I thoroughly enjoyed creating something new and pushing myself to try something on a whim (especially to try something new with a bunch of people watching!). Just to give you an idea of size, the tree is about 15" tall from the base of the tree to the tip of the longest branch.

Here's a blurry picture of my display at the beginning of the festival (my stuff is just the three large and five small pictures on the centre panel):

A few days ago it was moved to a different spot and I didn't really end up getting a good picture of it after (it turned out to be right beside the stage so I have a few shots from the closing ceremonies that have my work in it).

So there you have it! Now it's time to go back to a regular routine of work, home, sleep, repeat. I have a month of work left before I move. I'm going to take today to relax and sort out the emotions of the last 10 days and then I might get some packing done. Turns out I have a little more artwork to pack than I was anticipating.

Temperature: +18C
Sunrise: 3:38am
Sunset: 2:11am

It's Good To Be Back

2009-07-09T15:27:00.007-06:00

You know how it's always great to go on vacation but it's almost greater to be back home in familiar surroundings? Your own bed, your own fridge, your own TV, your own bathroom (some people might not care about this but I can't tell you how happy I am to be able to use my own bathroom!).

Our trip was great even though it was a pretty emotional trip on a lot of levels (wedding, memorial, seeing family, parting ways for a while). I'm glad Glen and I got to spend his last few weeks in Canada doing fun, touristy stuff and visiting with family. The only bad thing about being back home is the fact that he's not here with me. I think it's helped that I was travelling the same day and I wasn't left in Inuvik while he spent a day and a half flying across the world. We both flew out of Vancouver the same day (he flew out a few hours later) and due to me having to stay the night in Whitehorse we both got to our destinations a few hours apart. Another thing that makes this whole thing easier is knowing HOW happy his family is to have him home. I'm glad they have the next little while together to get reacquainted before I arrive.
I'm hoping to keep myself as busy as possible the next month and a half (especially) so that I can enjoy my last few weeks with family in September. The arts festival starts tomorrow (!) and then after that's over I have about a month left of work before I fly out.
When I got home yesterday, my festival prints were already waiting for me and they are incredible. I'm not bragging about my actual photo taking skills (bad form) but my photos look the best that they can possibly look. I'm really impressed (impressed enough that I called the place I got them from to tell them). So I did festival inventory yesterday and got some groceries. Today I'm going to borrow the landlord's truck to go pick up some heavier groceries and that's pretty much all I have planned for today. Tomorrow is the opening for the festival and then it's pretty much 10-12 hour days demonstrating and catching up with old friends (someone described it as summer camp and that's exactly how it feels).

So, a recap of our trip:
We spent 10 days in Victoria hanging out with family and doing some touristy things. We went to the museum and an IMAX show (Ocean Oasis - unfortunately it was crappy), went whale watching on my birthday which was probably the highlight of the whole trip.

We also spent the weekend on Galiano Island with my Aunt & Uncle.

Bodega Ridge, Galiano Island

We were so lucky to have fabulous weather the whole time. I think it only rained once the whole time we were there. We also got to meet up with an old friend from Inuvik so that was also a lot of fun.

After that we flew to Edmonton and spent a few days in my hometown with my mum at her best friend's then drove to Fairview for my cousin's wedding.

The wedding was great. Typical Prairie wedding complete with perogies and cabbage rolls.
The day after the wedding we drove half an hour north to Hines Creek to do a memorial thing for my dad. He passed away in 1996 and we've been waiting to do something with his ashes (I was 12 and my brother was 10 so my mum wanted to wait to make sure we were old enough to make the right decision as to where the ashes would go).
My dad's grandparents homesteaded in the area and they are buried in a small cemetery just outside of town near the homestead so that's where we decided he should go too. My grandparents drove up from Edmonton to be there and my Aunt, Uncle and Cousin (the ones from Victoria --- it was my Aunt's son getting married) were there as well as an old friend of mum's. It wasn't a big thing, my Aunt read a passage and said a few words and that was pretty much it.

Glen and I spent the night in Vancouver and met up with one of his old school friends before our flights.
After staying at our modest hotel in Whitehorse, the room we had in Vancouver was pretty awesome - we stayed at the Sandman and got upgraded to a suite (?!!!) so besides an awesome king sized bed we also had a living room lol it was insane.

So yeah! That's pretty much it! It's taken me a few hours to get this done - between phone calls and running errands.

Also: thanks to Teri for hanging out in Whitehorse and keeping me occupied for a few hours! I hope you enjoyed the leftover sushi! I'm definitely craving it now!

Temperature: +18C
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a

mini update!

2009-06-29T23:02:00.002-06:00

So I realised I forgot to write a "OK we're going on vacation now!!" post.

So yes, we're about a week away from the end of our vacation (and a week away from Glen and I parting ways for a few months *cries*). We're having a great time and have been extremely busy. Our internet access is really spotty but for some reason my laptop has connected to the wireless upstairs and has been working for almost an hour (this is a first!!).

So I'll leave you with this and hope that everyone is well. I'll hopefully have more updates and pictures when I get back north!

(yes I really did take this)

Reflecting and Looking Forward

2009-06-10T12:36:00.002-06:00

Now that I have all my flights booked, things are starting to feel a little more real. Calling Air New Zealand to confirm things and have my booking actually be on their computer, waiting for the charges to show up on my credit card, weeding through the endless piles of stuff and packing...

In general I read a fair amount of ex-pat blogs - part by coincidence and part because I enjoy reading about people discovering new places. Seeing the world through the eyes of someone seeing it and experiencing it for the first time is something I enjoy. I've started searching for a few more ex-pat blogs - specifically people in Australia and I've been thinking a lot about what my own experience is going to be like.
The thing with reading about ex-pats (and if I'm lucky, Canadians) in Australia is I'm interested to see what they found difficult and then gauge what my reaction to the specific situation would be.
I've had the privilege to do a bit of travelling. I spent a total of 6 months living in Germany (1 month the first time as a "tester" and then went back a few months later for a 5 month stay), I've been to England, Holland and Australia.

I've thankfully (? haha) had my rough ex-pat experience (Germany) and I think my time in the Arctic has prepared me and might even make the transition a bit easier.

When I first moved up here there was a HUGE list of things I couldn't get here (and there's still a pretty sizeable list) so even though I'm still in Canada it's almost like living in a different country - the culture and customs up here are even different. I've gotten used to things not being like they were "back home", I've managed to survive for the last 6 years and I even kind of forget how things were before. I almost get culture shock when I go south (especially with all the people, the traffic, the bright lights, loud noises/etc).

I think with this move I have more things working for me than against me and the major "for" is my support system. For me, it's not about having a hard time finding my favourite foods it's ALL about being homesick and missing family (#1 reason my experience in Germany was tough). This is going to be the first time that I will have family and a built in network of friends ready and waiting for me.

So this long winded post is basically me saying that I'm optimistic that this is going to turn out OK (because trust me, when you have one bad living abroad experience, it makes you worry!).

I hope you guys aren't getting sick of all this trip talk!

Temperature: +9C
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a

Needle Felting! (and a confirmed moving day)

2009-06-03T12:30:00.004-06:00

The arts festival is almost a month away so this week I have started a little more in earnest to get ready for it.

My workshop supplies arrived on Monday (needle felting again), I sent a disc with pictures to my Aunt in BC to get printed and I've started doing a bit of needle felting. This is what I finished yesterday:

For those of you that don't know, it's the Igloo Church - Inuvik's most famous landmark. I've been wanting to do a needle felting of this for quite a while now and finally sat down and did it.
Needle felting doesn't really photograph well --- the grass at the bottom is significantly more filled in than it looks and I don't think the cross on top is as crooked as it looks there (that spot might not be as filled in as the rest so the colour doesn't show up in the picture). The piece of felt is 12"x12" so it's pretty big.

My landlady comes back today which means I'm going to be truckless again (after having it since February I think?) so I'm going to haul out the bike again this year (I didn't use it at all last year :-( ). I have to run by the hardware store to get a new lock and a tire pump though.

I got confirmation today that I have a flight booked to leave Inuvik (it was booked on points so it took a few days). I'll be leaving on August 28th - almost a year to the day that my brother left (and actually the 28th is his birthday). I have mixed feelings - I mean, I really want to move and I'm excited but I've been here for six years it's kind of hard to imagine not being here - if you get what I mean?

Temperature: +14C
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a

What's That Sound?

2009-05-31T13:24:00.003-06:00

So we were laying in bed last night (more accurately, this morning at 5am) chatting when we both stopped and were like "What is that?!". I crawled over the bed to the window and it was... RAIN! I don't think we've had rain in 8 or 9 months!
Even though rain is awesome (because well it means it's at least warm enough that it isn't snow!) I'm kind of glad it didn't last. The reason for this is because weather up here in the delta is kind of funny. It seems that weather kind of gets "stuck" so if we have sun we'll have sun for a while and then if it rains it seems we have clouds and rain for weeks. (this happens a lot in the summer, we'll have a few weeks of AWESOME weather and then it'll rain and then our summer is over).

So I've been spending a good majority of my time packing and I have 8 boxes sealed up with another 4 in progress... I have one empty 2cu box left and I'm not done the packrat room yet so I'll have to go get more boxes tomorrow I think.
I think the packrat room is the biggest packing job and once I'm done that things should go quicker.
My tentative leaving date is the end of August (my boss is actually trying to book me a points ticket right now) but I'd like to be packed up before we go to Victoria on the 19th. Just because then it's done and I won't have to worry about it since I won't be back until July 8th and then I have the festival to concentrate on.

So I thought that once I had my visa a lot of the stress & anxiety would be gone. Yeah, SO wrong. I had the WORST dream last night (why I was up at 5am). I suppose having anxiety attacks in the middle of the night is preferable to having them during the day while I'm at work or the grocery store or something though...

Temperature: +13C+
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a

The Wait is Over!

2009-05-26T01:45:00.006-06:00

Look what I got in the mail today:

We weren't sure how I was going to find out. A lot of people get emails from their case officers and I got a surprise when I picked up the mail (I'm not going to lie, I cried a little at the post office).

*phew!*

Here is my timeline in case anyone is interested:

16/03/09: Sent application to processing centre in Ottawa
20/03/09: Application received by Australian High Commission in Ottawa, case officer assigned.
08/04/09: Letter received requesting medical check and passport to be sent to AHC in Ottawa.
22/04/09: Medical complete.
29/04/09: Medical information received by AHC in Ottawa.
07/05/09: Passport sent to AHC in Ottawa.
12/05/09: Passport received by AHC in Ottawa.
20/05/09: VISA APPROVED!!
25/05/09: Passport received by me with visa sticker!!!!

So it turns out that on paper my visa was approved exactly two months after my application was received by them.

We are SO relieved that it's been approved and we can start planning how the next 4 months are going to go. I can actually start packing, I can start selling all the stuff we won't take with us and I can start just "letting go" of all the stuff that doesn't matter - especially when it comes to work.
Now to start making lists of stuff I have to do and figure out the logistics of it all... Getting there isn't what I'm worried about, it's the whole forwarding mail/taxes/CPP/EI/keeping credit cards stuff that I'm most worried about actually.

Wow!

Temperature: +9C
Sunrise: n/a*
Sunset: n/a*

*We're a day or two into 24 hours daylight now. Worrying about my visa being denied had me TOTALLY distracted and I forgot about it until today. It's such a gradual thing so you don't really notice when you have sunset for 2 hours vs 0hrs.

Whole Lotta Nothin'

2009-05-20T13:24:00.002-06:00

There hasn't been much bloggable activity going on up here lately. I've been way stressed out with everything that's been going on so I've been trying to not do too much besides relax and lay in bed.

No news on the visa front (they've had my passport for a week now) which is the source of most of my stress and is actually causing me to have anxiety attacks and really awful anxiety dreams. Fun times. Yay for ativan!

One semi exciting thing we did was go to the Giant Colon Tour. The nerd in me was super excited to go (I've gotten pretty acquainted with this body part over the last year with having Crohn's) but I was actually a bit disappointed. The sound wasn't working properly inside the colon and with all the air pumps (it was inflatable) you could hardly hear all the nifty facts on the TVs inside.

Our weather has finally gotten a bit better - we had over a week of snow, clouds and freezing cold (sorry Alberta, I think you got it from us!!) so that's improved my mood a bit -- SUN!! We're probably about 4 days away from 24hrs of daylight and even though we have a (brief) sunset now, it's not getting dark.

There has been no crafting going on (maybe another source of my misery?) so I've got to get back on that... I need to get some pieces for the arts festival done (as well as order prints... Oh man :-( ) and I need to start working on my quilts again.

Anyway! I better get ready for work!

Temperature: +8C
Sunrise: 3:56am
Sunset: 1:52pm

mini update

2009-05-09T12:50:00.005-06:00

About a week ago I emailed my Immigration Case Officer regarding sending in my passport (basically my question was if I should attn it to him or send it to the regular address) and I asked if they were able to let me know if/when my medical had been received by the office.

The date that my passport had to be in was coming up quick so I sent it on Thursday before I'd heard back from my CO (they want it by the 14th)
I got an email yesterday letting me know that they received my medical on the 29th of April (I wasn't expecting it that soon! And of course I get the email the day after I send my passport!)

So I wonder if we're getting close? Yesterday was the 7 week mark from when they received my application and they told me that decisions are usually made between 12 and 16 weeks. 12 weeks is on June 12th (yes, we printed out a calendar and we've numbered the weeks and are crossing off the days!) and I'm wondering if it's going to take that long or if we'll hear back soonish?

You better believe I've been scouring the internet for stories of how long it's taken other people (even joined a few forums!) but there aren't a lot of people in a similar situation (applying offshore for a spouse visa). There are A LOT of people applying for skilled worker visas and those take waaaaaaay longer than spouse ones.

Definitely resisting the urge to spend all my time looking at the photos from our trip to Australia in 2007!

Temperature: -3C (feels like -9C ---- we had snow yesterday!! booo)
Sunrise: 5:05am
Sunset: 12:39am

Furniture Tetris

2009-05-07T12:42:00.006-06:00

So you'd think that not blogging for a few days would mean that I'd actually have something to write about today, right? Wrong!
I haven't been doing a whole lot (of interesting things) since I got home. I worked on the weekend and had two days off which was spent rearranging the house. Normally I don't mind moving furniture around but this was kind of done to save my sanity. Someone extra has joined the two people that live upstairs and he stomps around the apartment right above my head while I'm trying to sleep. We've complained which didn't change a damn thing so the only thing left to do was to move the bedroom. I didn't think that our bed was going to fit in the other room but it actually does (I swear I measured it when we first moved in otherwise our bed would've gone into that room the second time we moved the house around).
Granted I sleep a little later than most people due to my work schedule but this dude's stomping starts the moment he gets up (so y'know if I liked to sleep until 9am I'd be outta luck). The last straw on Monday was that he woke me up stomp-stomping at 10am so I got up for a few hours and AS SOON as I went back to bed he started again. It was like he knew I was going back to bed!***

Anyway that's seriously what my life has been filled with since getting back from my trip. So now the "packrat room" is in the room where our bed used to be and it's the biggest disaster EVER. So that's what my life is going to be filled with.

I desperately want to be doing some sewing but I don't have the time or the space right now (our apartment is so small that in order to move rooms around things have to be emptied into the kitchen AND livingroom and the livingroom hasn't quite recovered). Hopefully soon!

A beach on Galiano Island
(totally random lol but I figured I'd throw in something nice after my angry rant)

Temperature: -7C
Sunrise: 5:15am
Sunset: 12:29am

(*** We never heard the other two people upstairs -under normal circumstances- Sometimes the teenager would have friends over and they'd run around and scream at lunch time. But their daily comings/goings/watching TV/walking around was never heard. This whole getting woken up thing is new since this dude has started spending A LOT of time up there.)

I'm Back!

2009-05-02T10:33:00.005-06:00

I made it back home yesterday after two very long days of travelling... I can't even tell you how nice it is to be back home in my own space. Not that my trip was totally crappy or anything, it's just nice to be back home (my bed! my computer!). And without sounding too sappy, I really missed Glen. 10 days is a long time and I really missed his company.

I just put all my pictures from my camera onto the computer and there actually isn't a lot. I think it means I was really busy -- too busy to carry my camera around with me. I'm pretty sure there will be more picture taking when we're back in June.

So a summary... Monday I flew to Whitehorse and did some running around (yay Wal-Mart and A&W!) and went to bed super early so I could catch my flight to Vancouver. I was so paranoid I'd over-sleep (since I normally wake up at 1pm) or that my clock would malfunction that I set my alarm clock, my phone alarm AND called for a wake-up call. It did prove to be over-kill but better safe than sorry! I don't think I would've been so paranoid if I didn't actually have things to do on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Tuesday I flew into Vancouver and took the PCL bus from the airport into Victoria. This turned out to be a nice stress-free/affordable way to get over to the island. I met a really nice South African woman at the airport and we hung out on the ferry. It was her first time in Canada and she was really nervous about making sure she was getting on the right bus/right ferry and getting off in the right place. The only hitch about the whole trip down was the fact that PCL misplaced one of my pieces of luggage. It came on the next bus so that was good but pretty annoying none the less.
Tuesday night I dragged my cousin with me to see Leonard Cohen. It was SO awesome. Our seats weren't the greatest (to the right of the stage on the side - so basically a profile view) but it was still pretty awesome to be there.

Wednesday I had my Immigration Doctor's appointment. Despite being sent on what felt like a treasure hunt, I think it went well. The place I had my x-rays done was pretty far away from the doctor's office. It had the same street name so it sounded close - thankfully my cousin came with me because I would've walked (and walked and walked) and it would've taken a billion years to get there.

Friday-Sunday was spent at Galiano Island where my Aunt & Uncle have a place. It was REALLY nice to be out there. We went down to the beach on Saturday and it was SO warm. We nad a nice afternoon looking for shells and other treasures.

Monday I met up with someone from the knittyboard for lunch - yay! (mmm Noodle Box!) I have to mention I was really good about resisting some beautiful locally made yarn. I think I deserve a prize in general for resisting many (many!) shopping temptations!

Tuesday I went with my cousin and her friend to the Maritime Museum.

Thursday I got up at the crack of dawn (seriously... 4:15am) to catch the first PCL bus out of Victoria to get on the first ferry to Vancouver. I was so nervous about getting on the bus and about them possibly losing my bags again that I didn't anticpate another kind of delay... Our bus broke down on the highway!!!! Thankfully (if you can say that?) it didn't break down until we were on our way to the airport so we didn't miss the ferry or anything but geez... What a pain. We had to wait an hour for a new bus to come and get us and I made it to the airport right on time (I checked in and basically had to go straight through security).
Once in Whitehorse, Teri picked me up from my hotel and we went back to her place where she cooked me dinner (mmm spaghetti! Seriously one of my favourite home made meals) and we went for a walk. It has to be said that her daughter is probably the happiest most relaxed baby I've ever met. We were best buddies by the end of the evening.

And that pretty much brings us to yesterday/today. All the days where I didn't list something specific were pretty much spent walking around and window shopping. The weather was fabulous the whole time I was there so I managed to get out every day and do something (that pretty much equals walking over to the mall to hang out and getting my fountain pop fix!)

It was SO strange to go from ice and snow to green grass and flowers (oh, the flowers!!!) but I think I went at a good time because it really feels like spring here now. There's water on the lake, all the roads are clear (I'll be putting the truck back in 2WD today!) and it's A LOT warmer than it was when I left!

So it's back to work today for two days before my days off. I'll go through my pictures and post a few more in the next few days. I have a panorama or two to put together. Right now, I'm going back to bed for a few hours.

Temperature: -1C
Sunrise: 5:45am
Sunset: 11:59pm

Million Miles an Hour

2009-04-19T14:04:00.005-06:00

That's how my brain feels right now!

Normally I'm not nervous about a trip south but I'm VERY nervous about this trip. First I think it's because I'm actually going down with a purpose and I'm worried that I'll forget something (like my passport, the forms the doctors have to sign, my retainer, my meds, etc etc) and another reason is I'm pretty broke. Typically trips south are for SHOPPING and this trip is going to be pretty light on the shopping. I need a few essentials I can't get here (like dress socks) but I can't shop with wild abandon ;-)
One major (MAJOR) splurge that I've purchased already is.... Leonard Cohen tickets! I actually think I bought the last two! They aren't the greatest seats but I'm SO excited. I pretty much grew up listening to Leonard Cohen and to see him live is going to be pretty awesome.

So I'm sitting here mentally running lists and details in my head (what times I'll have to get up, where to get the PCL bus at the Vancouver airport, what I'll be filling my afternoon in Whitehorse with tomorrow etc) and instead of packing I'm procrastinating!

Posting will be pretty light for the next 10 days or so. I have no idea what my internet access is going to be. My uncle has their connection locked up so tight that the last two times I've been there I couldn't connect to their wifi even with him doing all sorts of things that would apparently let me.

Temperature: -15C
Sunrise: 6:41am
Sunset: 11:07pm

Drumroll Please!

2009-04-18T01:10:00.004-06:00

And the winners are:

1st: tea-na

2nd: merlinthecat

3rd: fireweedroots

Thank you all for entering and for all of the wonderful comments!! I'm really pleased that you all think posting the temperature/sunrise/sunset is a cool thing. I enjoy looking at it every time I post and seeing how much it's changed. I get immense joy in the summer when I can write n/a! (I don't know if anyone has noticed but I've started putting the temperature in the labels so you can click on it and read posts from other days with the same temperature. The nerd in me LOVES this!)

I'll be emailing the winners shortly! (I seriously wish I could send a present to everyone, all the comments really cheered me up this week - it has been a seriously INSANE week... My vent on the knittyboard doesn't even cover it!!).

Now for some Q&A:

Q: One of my favourite parts is the sunrise/set and temperature part. Will you keep doing that when you move?

A: I'll definitely keep up the temperature thing. I'm not sure about the sunrise/sunset. Not because I don't want to but I'd have to find a website that lists it. Right now I use weather.ca/theweathernetwork.com and they don't post Melbourne's sunrise/sunset. I'll look into it though!

Q: I still think that New Zealand is the land of your dreams.

A: Ok I know this isn't a question but I wanted to say that we actually thought about moving to NZ because then it would be a little more fair to not be somewhere that's "home" for either of us. The thought of going through this immigration process for two people makes my head spin! I don't think NZ has a special "Eligible Australian Citizen" section like Australia has for NZers so it would probably be impossible for us to get in because neither of us are skilled workers. I can tell you though that we'll be heading to NZ soon after I arrive for a nice vacation!

Q: My daughters (8 & 10) and I read your blog from time to time. Since we watched the ice road truckers they are fascinated by living up in Inuvik - so different from us - they have so many questions - like do you get to eat bananas?

A: We're just getting to see ice road truckers this year! Yup, I eat bananas! Actually, it's one of the only fruit (besides apples and oranges) we can get up here all year round that is pretty reliable, quality wise. They do get VERY expensive in the winter though (and during freeze up/break up) I took a picture and posted it on this entry - click - on November 30th Bananas were $8.38/kg (one kilo is 2.2lbs). Yikes!

Q: Where did you live before?

A: I grew up in Alberta, Canada but essentially before I moved up here I was living in Germany. I went to Germany for the fall 2002/2003 semester and then when I got home at the end of February and didn't have anything better to do my stepdad (who was up here teaching at the time) suggested that I move up. So I decided on a Friday and hopped on a plane on the Monday. And I'm still here! My whole family (mum, brother, stepdad) lived up here at one point and my brother has been back and forth a few times but I'm the only one that has stuck it out. (side note, besides my boss who is technically disqualified due to the kerfuffle that happened this fall, I've been at my job longer than anyone else. A lady that I work with now started a week after me. I know it's only a week but I'm pretty proud of that week!)

Q: I assume the merino is extra lovely because it's grown in a colder climate?

A: Quite possibly? I don't know actually (shame)... I haven't used it much even though I have a TONNE of it (my mum's friend has the sheep and he gets the yarn commercially processed and dyed). BUT!!! Guess what project I've used this yarn for? (long time readers will laugh).... The Hat of Doom!!

Q: Did I ever show you the cowl I made with the lovely blue yarn you sent?

A: I don't think so! I remember the tea cozy! (my memory is insanely bad ATM so if you actually have, I feel really bad!)

--------------------------------------------------------

Thanks again everyone!! If any of you have any other Arctic/life in the Arctic type questions, feel free to ask and I'll do my best!

Temperature: -13C (feels like -21C)
Sunrise: 6:45am
Sunset: 11:03pm

6 Years in Inuvik & 100 Posts Give-away !

2009-04-14T16:55:00.006-06:00

Ok! So today marks my 6 year anniversary in Inuvik and it happens to coincide with my 100 post mark.

To enter my give-away all you have to do is leave a comment. In your comment please let me know if you're a long-time/regular reader, occasional reader or if you've just popped by for the contest (it doesn't matter if you just commented for the contest, I'm curious ;-)). Also please leave me your email address so I can get ahold of you (see bottom of post).
There are no restrictions on where you live but I can't guarantee shipping times.

I've put together 3 prizes:

1st:

Inukshuk bag with zipped top (100% cotton), Inukshuk mug, Northern Delights Tea, A book on the Western Arctic, a 50th anniversary Inuvik license plate and yarn (the green yarn is 100% Saskatchwan Merino and the other is dyed by me).

2nd:

Inukshuk mug, Northern Delights Tea, 50th anniversary Inuvik license plate, and yarn (the teal and blue is 100% Saskatchwan Merino and the other is dyed by me).

3rd:

Inuvik license plate, and yarn (the pinky/maroon, green, and blue is 100% Saskatchewan Merino and the other is dyed by me).

The contest closes Friday April 17th at midnight and the winners will be emailed --- please leave me your email address in the comments! If you don't leave your email address you need to check back on the blog after midnight on Friday. The winners will be notified and I'll need to hear back from them by Sunday so things can go in the mail on Monday before I head to Victoria.
If I can't get ahold of you I reserve the right to give the prize to someone else or cancel that particular prize altogether.

Good Luck!

Temperature: -2C
Sunrise: 7:03am
Sunset: 10:47pm

Bor-ring!

2009-04-13T22:32:00.006-06:00

Holiday Mondays make for boring blog material.
I have Mondays off and when the rest of the world does it means I can't go out and do my running around because all the stores are closed. booo... I had to get up early today to drive one of the residents to the airport only to find out AFTER we get there that the flight was cancelled. Nice. So I spent a lot of the day napping (because I can). I get to do the whole getting up early thing again tomorrow now.
But tomorrow is an exciting day! 100 posts and 6 years in Inuvik! Check back to find out what to do to enter to win some awesome Inuvik and yarn-y presents.

We went for a walk just a little while ago so that I could maybe have an exciting story or picture to share but nope. I got a bunch of pictures of Glen pulling funny faces. I think he might kill me if I post those :-p

Temperature: -4C
Sunrise: 7:08am
Sunset: 10:43pm

Unexpected Vacation

2009-04-10T12:39:00.005-06:00

We got word on Wednesday from immigration that I have to go and have my medical check done... By May 14th. So I get an unplanned and expensive vacation. I can't just go to any doctor, I have to go to one of their designated doctors and of course there aren't any in the territories (mind you, it would probably be more expensive to see one in Yellowknife or Whitehorse because I'd have to pay for a hotel). My choices were basically to go down to Edmonton or go to Victoria. 4 months ago I would've just sucked it up and gone to Edmonton but after finding out how cheap it is to fly to Vancouver (comparatively) I pretty much can't justify spending the extra $400 to go to Edmonton. There's also the pain of finding my way around Edmonton and a few other kind of annoying things. I know my way around Victoria and it's pretty hassle-free as far as seeing family goes (mostly because if I want to take the bus downtown or go for a walk they tell me to have a good time instead of "you want to go WHERE?" "I don't know how to get there" "I'm too tired to take you" blah blah).

I've been reading more northern blogs lately and we all seem to be writing and thinking about the same thing. The cost of air travel in the north is FAR too expensive. As it is, my "cheap" ticket to Vancouver is costing us the same amount of money as Glen's ticket back to Australia. Where does that make sense? (and yes, I got the lowest available fare give or take $40).
If we hadn't already planned a trip out in June this probably wouldn't be so annoying but now I'm having to pay for a second vacation we can't afford (being that the work contracts got switched in December I don't have much vacation time as it is and I'm using it in June/July). Also, what happens if for some freak reason they have to re-do tests? There's no way I'm spending another $1100 to fly back down!

So, I'm finding it hard to get excited about this trip even though it's to my absolute favourite place in Canada. The last time I was in Victoria was in 2003 so it's been a while. I've been looking at pictures from my last trip and thought I'd share one of my favourites.

Galiano Island

Temperature: -12C
Sunrise: 7:21am
Sunset: 10:31pm

Even More Sewing!

2009-04-07T18:13:00.005-06:00

EDIT: We went outside to take pictures of the quilts so I'm editing this post and the previous one to put in the better pictures.

I've got the pink quilts all sewn together!

"lap sized"

"baby sized"

Here's a link to a picture of the bundle I used for these two quilts: click - I'm going to use the brown fabric in the top left as the borders and then the pink check and the pink chocolate bar fabric as the backings (depending on how much I need for the lap quilt will depend on if it gets the check or the bar fabric -- they were ½ a yard short of check fabric but it might fit - I usually order ½ a yard extra just in case and they had the exact amount listed in the pattern.).
We've figured out fabric for Glen's oldest nephew. Here's a link to the picture of the bundle: click - I'm going to use all but the four flowery ones in the top left. And I've decided on the two fabrics in the second row on the right as my border/backing. I hope it's boy enough. Looking at the bigger pictures of the fabric it looks like it will be and there's a bit of cheating you can do with the fabric - like using the more "girly" fabrics for the small squares so you only get little snippets of the pattern.

The fabric for my cousin's quilts is at customs so hopefully it will be here soon. The ladies at quilting are going to be so surprised when I show up with a bunch of stuff pretty much finished!

In the next few days I'm going to run around and get some of the stuff for my 100 posts thing. I'm going to try to make it for the 14th (one week!) which will be my 6 year anniversary of moving to Inuvik (yikes!!!).

Hope you guys aren't getting bored with all the sewing talk!

Temperature: -15C
Sunrise: 7:34am
Sunset: 10:19pm

More Sewing!

2009-04-05T01:41:00.007-06:00

I've been sewing like a mad-woman the last few days. I got the top of one of the quilts almost done (just have to add the border). I decided to start on the second of my YBR quilts. I'm glad I did because I was doing that one in "lap sized" and it turns out that it will actually fit a single bed (I dunno who's lap they were going by!?!). So now that I know that, I can turn the pink one into a lap & baby sized quilt instead of a twin. I've got the pink quilts all laid out, all I have to do is sew it together (which I was going to start on tonight but my back is killing me!). I still have the border to put on before I sew the backing/etc on.

(how is this lap sized? Glen's holding his arms above his head!)

close up

The camp-out quilt is going to Glen's nephew who will be 1 in June and then I thought I'd give the "lap sized" pink quilt to his niece who will be 5 in September and then I couldn't leave out his oldest nephew (he's 12) so I'm going to make him one too.

Now that my mum has seen the quilts I'm doing she wants me to make one for my cousin's kids. Actually she wants me to make one for EACH of the kids. Yup, 4 more YBR quilts to make. 5 new ones in total. I've ordered the fabric for the ones my mum wants me to make and I still have to order the fabric for the one for Glen's oldest nephew. There isn't a lot of boy fabrics (for older boys) so I might struggle finding something (or get really creative).

Temperature: -21C
Sunrise: 7:43am
Sunset: 10:12pm

Fabric Fun

2009-03-31T23:58:00.004-06:00

I just spent the last 4 hours sewing together, ironing and squaring up a bunch of quilt squares for a quilt I'm making ("Yellow Brick Road" by Atkinson Designs).

I haven't decided what size I'm making since I have a few options... I can make a twin sized quilt, a lap and a baby quilt or two baby quilts and have squares left over. I'm going to wait until quilting night on Monday to put it all together. A friend of ours just had a baby so I could make one of the smaller sizes for them.

(even the scraps look nice!)

After that I have another YBR quilt to make (I'm seriously loving this pattern, it makes a visually interesting quilt without a lot of pain in the arse. After spending AGES staring at my silly ½ square blocks and running in to problems with running out of fabric for other quilts, I'm loving working with a pattern where you can get a twin sized quilt with 18 fat quarters -- and oh my, there are a lot of REALLY cute fat quarter packs out there!).

Then after that, I want to try and tackle the colour wheel quilt I've mentioned before. I thought about using all my dyed fabric for it until purlsoho got their colour wheel fabric bundles back in. I figured I'd spend less money ordering one of those than trying to order individual pieces of fabric to fill in the gaps. No idea what I'll use my dyed fabric for... Maybe a YBR quilt haha

Then on top of all of that I just got in some REALLY cute fabric. I thought I could make a few baby mei tai slings but now that the fabric is here I'm not so sure - it's SO cute! It makes me want to sew up curtains or sheets for a kid's room. The owl fabric is for my second YBR quilt. It'll be enough for the borders but probably not quite enough for the back. I'm torn between putting cotton or flannel on the back. hmmm

So yeah! That's pretty much what I've been up to! Not having hockey on Tuesdays has freed up a whole day for more crafting and I actually got to run errands (and go out for "dinner" - sandwiches) without feeling pressured to get home so I could relax/get ready for hockey. I'm sure Glen isn't too thrilled with me taking over the living room two days in a row with the card table & sewing machine! I can't wait until I can have a dedicated craft room (that's all I've been dreaming of lately and I've been spending a ridiculous amount of time on realestate.com.au!)

This is post 95! Only a few left to go until my my 100 post give-away!

Temperature: -23C
Sunrise: 8:00am
Sunset: 9:57pm

I've been meaning to post...

2009-03-26T13:02:00.006-06:00

For close to a week I've been meaning to sit down and write a post and for whatever reason it hasn't happened.

This past weekend I took part in a class offered by our quilting guild. We made Easter wall hangings (12"x21"). While hanging decorative quilts on my wall isn't really my thing, I decided to take it to learn some new techniques and to brush up on some basics.

How cute is that? I'm going to send it to my grandma for Easter. Generally I'm not a pattern follower when I quilt - mostly because I just make patchwork quilts - so this was a bit of a step for me. Even though I know how to sew I felt like a total newb because I've never followed a quilting pattern. Because I like to torture myself I'm doing another quilt on Mondays using a pattern. Actually, using a pattern is good because you at least know how much fabric you'll need to make a quilt X size but sewing random 5" squares together uses a lot less brain power lol

Tuesday was our last night of hockey for the season :-( I really wish the ice was in for a few more weeks especially since I probably won't be here for the next season.

My visa application has been recieved by Ottawa, I have a case number, a case worker and my visa has been charged the application fee (!). In the email I got from them on Monday, they said that the typical processing time is 12-16 weeks and I'll be notified if we need to send in any other documentation or have to go in for medical checks.

So there ya go! Probably a better post than if I would've written yesterday. All you would've heard about was me ranting about doctor's appointments and having a flat tire (suffice to say yesterday was crappy).

Temperature: -23C
Sunrise: 8:26am
Sunset: 9:34pm

My Life's Work...

2009-03-17T00:41:00.006-06:00

Because I'm not about to write a novel any time soon!!

So there she is... My 200 page immigration application.

We started gathering stuff (like long form birth certificates) last year and in the last 3 months have been working on part of it every day. There was a lot of waiting for things to come in (we could've had this sent off 2 weeks ago if we didn't add more pictures at the last minute) and a lot of re-reading of forms and discovering we needed something else - I think there were a few days in a row when had one more letter from XYZ that needed to be written or one more photocopy of ABC document needed to be made - it seemed we were never going to have everything.

As of 3:00pm my application was tucked away into an express post envelope and handed over to the post office to be whisked away to Ottawa to be processed. The lady on the phone this afternoon said there's about a 3 month processing time so we'll hopefully have some sort of word by the time Glen has to fly home.

We're excited and relieved to have completed everything but now the waiting begins. We're also really happy to not have to answer any more "Is your application done yet? Have you sent it in yet?" questions.

Should I start posting weather comparisons at the bottoms of my posts now?

Temperature: -32C
Sunrise: 9:04am
Sunset: 9:01pm

March: In like a lamb out like a lion/in like a lion out like a lamb.

2009-03-13T13:11:00.004-06:00

What happens when the middle of March is lion-like?

We are having a pretty intense cold-snap at the moment. The wind chill has been in the -40s (closer to -50 at some points!) and the ambient temperature isn't much warmer! (Cambridge Bay has been outrageously cold -57C with the windchill for the last few days!!)

I had to keep two of the residents home yesterday (due to the cold) and let me tell you, I was insanely unpopular last night because of it. The main issue is that it's SO sunny out - not a cloud in the sky - and for people that don't understand how the weather works, they think we're having a lovely winter day. Not so much. So I got to hear all night "It's sunny out! It's not cold!!" "I'll wear a coat! It's NICE out!" when really, it's minus a bajillion degrees.

I really hope we don't have another 2½ weeks of this...

Temperature: -34C
Sunrise: 9:21am
Sunset: 8:46pm

Better Late Than Never!!

2009-03-11T00:00:00.004-06:00

After much anticipation my v-day secret pal package has arrived!

Normally when something takes AGES to get here I say it's come by dog sled but I think even a dog team would've gotten the package here faster.
I got: two lovely skeins of Knit Picks Imagination in "Lost Boys" , a cute paisley tin (I'm in the process of doing a paisley glass etched mug!!), stitch markers (awesome! I actually need some more!), an incredible skein of Manos silk blend <3 <3 and some tea (smells yummy! I'm going to have a cup after I write this post). yay!! Thank you!!!!

I was going to pair this post with my latest sewing creation but that's going to have to wait for another day - I'll tell you about it now though! I made the Mei Tai baby carrier from Sew Liberated. It only took a few hours and it turned out really well! The distinct lack of a baby and my helmet hair prevents me from taking a picture of it but I'll try to get one soon. I'm definitely going to make a few more - they'd be a great gift for all those people that seem to keep popping out babies!

Only two more nights of hockey left :-( I'm really sad, I've been having SO much fun. I even got two goals today (grand total 5!) and my skating is definitely improving. Hopefully Glen will come along next week and take some more pictures.

Temperature: -23C (feels like -31C)
Sunrise: 9:30am
Sunset: 8:39pm

Plans

2009-03-08T13:27:00.005-06:00

So I don't think I really have anything exciting report (do I ever?). The second little sweater is coming along (started on the second sleeve) but has been put on hold for a top secret birthday project for Glen (his birthday is on the 22nd).

We booked tickets last week for a trip to BC & Alberta. We hadn't really planned for me to go as well but we found some cheap tickets flying through Whitehorse & Vancouver and couldn't really pass it up. My cousin is getting married in Alberta in July so we were trying to figure out how we could make it down for that as well as there being time for me to go to GNAF (which is the weekend after). So instead of just going down for the wedding we're going to spend a week-ish in Victoria with my Aunt, Uncle and other cousin (it's her brother that's getting married) and then we're going to somehow make it out to Alberta for the 4th of July and then make it BACK to Vancouver to fly on the 7th. I'm SO excited to get back to Victoria (probably the only place in Canada where I could see myself living) but there's a crappy part to all of this... Glen's visa runs out at the end of July... It's silly to fly him all the way back to Inuvik for 2 or 3 weeks so he's going to fly back home when I fly back to Inuvik (his flight leaves 3 hours after mine in Vancouver). [insert me crying at the drop of a hat for the last week HERE].
So all of that means kicking my visa preparation into overdrive. And I can't believe I'm saying this but we're SO close to being ready. I'm getting some documents notarised tomorrow and then all we need to do is wait for a few more pictures to come in the mail and then that's it! We're of course going to scour the site and make sure we have everything before we send it off... We both finished writing all the letters we needed to (hello 2000+ word essay about how we met and our life together for the last 3 years) which has been my least favourite part so far (I don't like writing formal letters) but at least it's done! Before we send everything off I'm going to take a picture of the giant stack of papers - there's easily over 200 pages to this thing.

And the only other news I have to report is that this is post 90 and in 10 more I'm seriously going to be holding a blogiversary party (not like the last time I said I was going to and then got too busy to plan one). I don't think there's going to be any sort of skill testing questions involved but I'll have a draw for prizes.

Temperature: -29C
Sunrise: 8:42am
Sunset: 8:28pm

edited sunset time.. The website had it wrong and the sun clearly set after 8pm tonight (love it!!)

A Little Sweater!

2009-03-01T11:54:00.004-07:00

Finally a knitting FO!

For the last few months I've been itching to knit an adult sized sweater (my first) and I've been scouring my books/magazines and websites trying to find a pattern. The urge was getting pretty strong and I hadn't found a pattern that was going to satisfy what I wanted to make so I decided to knit a baby sweater. I decided on the Placket-Neck Pullover from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.

(Harry Potter book shown for scale)

First the bad news: It didn't satisfy my urge to knit an adult sized sweater lol
Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with how this little sweater turned out. It's my first completed non BSJ sweater (I have a partial Trellis in the depths of the packrat room) and I really enjoyed knitting it. It was quick enough that I didn't get second sleeve syndrome (hah!) and it was easy enough to do while not having to focus 200% of my attention on it (hello Trellis!). I didn't have enough of the yellow yarn so that's why I put the pink trim - which was a good idea at the time - y'know until I got to the placket part and had to intarsia from both ends of the ball.

Specs:
Pattern: Placket-Neck Pullover (0-6months), Last Minute Knitted Gifts
Yarn: Knit Picks Shine Sport in Butter and Blush
Needles: Size 6 or 7
Mods: Added a second colour and changed the length. I used the lengths for the 1-2 years version because the 0-6 month measurements looked like it was going to make a short, fat sweater.
I have no real baby to compare this sweater to so I have no idea what size of baby it will fit or if the mods I made would make a sweater dress for said baby or not. If anything, the arms are probably a pinch too long. Oh well!

So, being as unsatisfied as I am, I cast on for another one of these sweaters last night! I'm making the 1-2 years size now.

Temperature: -8C
Sunrise: 9:12am
Sunset: 7:01pm

Needle Felting

2009-02-23T22:54:00.005-07:00

I've been doing some needle felting lately. If I want to apply for the arts festival I need a few more things in my portfolio.

I did this the other night - it's a needle felting of one of my pictures. I think it turned out really good and I was pretty impressed with myself.
I have a pair of felted slippers that I'm about to sit down and embroider. I'm trying to get a bunch more of those done too.

We're getting pretty close to sending all my paperwork in. It seems every day we re-read what we need to send in and find something else we need to write or some other form we have to fill out. Today we realised that we need certified copies of birth certificates/passports from the people that wrote statutory declarations for us --- ugh! I went and did my criminal records check stuff last week and found out that I didn't actually need my finger prints taken. Oh well. I have them now in case I need them I guess. I'm hoping we can send everything off in about two weeks. We're also waiting on some pictures we ordered to come in (but if we're ready to send everything and those aren't here yet then we'll just send our forms off. We have some pictures and these were just going to be extra).

Other than that! I'm just trying to survive work until my boss makes it back on Friday. I'll be very happy when he's back and I'm not the boss any more!!

Temperature: -22C (feels like -32C)
Sunrise: 9:33am
Sunset: 6:42pm

Quilting Challenge

2009-02-15T12:54:00.004-07:00

To add to my growing list of unfinished projects, I'm about to start another one... Our quilting guild is having a creative challenge and I'm taking part (because I'm crazy!!). The challenge is quilting a deck of cards. Each person takes as many cards they want (I took one to start) then they interpret the design how they want and turn it into a 6"x10" quilted piece.
Some people are translating the card literally onto the fabric and others are thinking a bit more outside the box. It should be interesting to see what we all come up with.

I ended up getting the ace of clubs and have finally planned my design and what I'm going to do. I ended up buying a bunch of wool felt to use instead of fabric (for some reason I'm less scared to work with felt than actual fabric?!) and I'm going to do some free motion quilting on it (yikes!) and maybe some needle felting.

So my task for tomorrow during quilting is going to be working on my free motion quilting. My machine is being kind of picky with the tension so I want to get all those issues worked out before I try it on my piece. I have a feeling that depending on my filler and the felt you might not actually be able to see a lot of my stitches so we'll see... I might pick a couple of colours I'm not going to use and see what things will look like.

Once I get all my pieces cut out and put down then I'll take a picture - I'll spare you the photos of my sketches (there are many!).

I'm still trying to figure out what my plans are for this summer... There's a family wedding and the arts festival but if I go to one I can't go to the other AND if I go to the wedding I'm probably not coming back up here (because I'll probably *hopefully* - be moving soon after that anyway and there's no sense spending money on plane tickets TWICE)...
We've started to buckle down and get my immigration forms sorted out. We're making lists of things we need and it seems right now the only thing that might take a while getting is my police clearance thing. Otherwise it's just up to us to write letters about our relationship, compile pictures and all that sort of stuff.. I'm hoping that we'll have all that stuff done by the time my police thing comes through so we can send everything. ugh... It's a lot of work and I'm paranoid about screwing it up...

Temperature: -6C
Sunrise: 10:11am
Sunset: 6:05pm

Fabric Dyeing Workshop pt. 2

2009-02-08T19:07:00.005-07:00

Here are my results from the workshop:

I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. Most of the pieces are lightly marbled (instead of a tie-dyed effect) which is quite nice (I was too lazy to take a picture of each individual colour). Today we did some two colour experimenting (ie: put one colour in the bottom of the cup, then the fabric, then pour another colour over top) and some people painted with the dyes. Rinsing all the colours took quite a while and then when we got home we put everything in the washer/dryer then ironed it.
I would love to do another workshop like this - I had fun doing the rainbow thing with the three primary colours and I think it would be fun to do more experimenting with different shades of red/yellow/blue.

I'm planning on making a colour wheel quilt (pattern in Last Minute Patchwork & Quilted Gifts) and have about half my fabric with what I have dyed. Hopefully it won't be too tedious to find the other half.

Here's a picture I took yesterday on my way home from the workshop:

Temperature: -35C
Sunrise: 10:42am
Sunset: 5:35pm

Fabric Dyeing Workshop pt. 1

2009-02-07T19:08:00.004-07:00

We had our first day of our fabric dyeing workshop today - it was a lot of fun! I'm really excited to see how my fabric will turn out.

For the workshop we got a booklet that explained the process as well as "recipe cards" so we could make certain colours - or in our case - a rainbow of colours.
We started out making a basic rainbow that involved using 12 cups and mixing various amounts of 3 colours into them (red, blue, yellow). Some people used different shades of red, blue and yellow but for the first batch I stuck with true red/etc.

For our second batch we were encouraged to do our own thing (ie: more rainbows, doing mixes with two colours or making batches of specific colours). I chose to do another 12 cup rainbow but I used hot pink, bright blue and yellow. I'd like to do another one using a lighter blue.

As you can tell from the pictures - we uses plastic beer cups. They seemed to be large enough to fit our dye and our fabric (we were using an eighth of a yard - ie: a "fat eighth"). Some of the fabrics might have a kind of tie-dyed/marbled/mottled look depending on how much you scrunch and fold the fabric into the cup.

Tomorrow we're going to go back and rinse/fix the dyes and then start on more experimental things (ie: stretching a piece of fabric, putting dye on and then sprinkling salt on the dye, painting with the dyes etc).

It's all a great experiment and a lot different than what I'm used to with kool aid dyeing.

I'll update tomorrow with our results once I get home (and have a nap!).

Temperature: -27C
Sunrise: 10:46am
Sunset: 5:31pm

Dyeing Results

2009-02-03T01:15:00.005-07:00

I took my swift and ball winder to sewing tonight to re-skein my newly dyed yarn. One of the reasons I did this was because we have good tables to clamp everything to (we only have a crappy card table here and it wobbles) and another reason is because I'm in a sewing funk. I have about a jillion projects on the go but don't feel like working on any of them. I'm getting a few new sewing books so hopefully that will help (they should be in the mail any day now!)

Re-skeining is my least favourite part about dyeing yarn (tedious!!) but it's SO rewarding when that blobbly skein turns into something really awesome. The skein on the right was a bit of an experiment - I was using powdered Ukrainian egg dye and I noticed it did funky things when I put it in the water (some spread out, some sunk, some sort of fizzled) so I put my skein in some water and just tapped dye on top of the water and let it do it's thing. I need to get some more yarn so I can fully try out my Ukrainan dyes. My mum's friend sent me one package of each colour.

Temperature: -34C
Sunrise: 11:03am
Sunset: 5:12pm

A Little Bit of Yarn Dyeing

2009-01-31T12:54:00.004-07:00

This is what I've been up to:

I always hate the way the yarn looks before it has been reskeined so I try not to lose faith until then ;-)

I haven't done any knitting in a few weeks now.. I don't know why, I just haven't felt like pulling it out. That's one reason why I decided to dye some yarn because then I at least felt like I was doing something. My Cricut has been getting some action lately too but it's all a surprise :-)

Other than that, things have been pretty quiet around here. We've been spending most of our evenings watching tennis (ok, evening to us is 11pm and later!) and that's pretty much it. A typical evening looks like this:
I get home at 11pm from work. Go on the computer or do Cricut stuff until 1/1:30am when the tennis comes on. We watch the tennis until it's over or I flake out and go to bed (the second part is usually the case!).

Fun times at my house, I tell ya!

Temperature: -35C (feels like -47C - !!!!)
Sunrise: 11:17am
Sunset: 4:58pm

Trying to Getting Used to the Silence

2009-01-27T14:09:00.005-07:00

Thanks to everyone for your kind comments. It's been pretty tough to get used to not having him around. Like I mentioned before, Finnegan was very demanding of your attention and he let you know it if he didn't think he was getting enough. Sure it was annoying sometimes (like when we were trying to sleep - or when your arms and shoulders were too sore from carrying him around all day) but now that he's not here, everything is so quiet. Tilley is not a cuddly, affectionate cat and I miss getting those kitty snuggles and headbutts (he loved being kissed on the forehead). Finnegan was pretty much everything I wanted in a cat (minus the near constant meowing). I wanted a cat that would sit on my lap and want to be cuddled and snuggled when I wanted to and not just when they were feeling like it - it was a pretty rare day when Finnegan wasn't up for a good snuggle.
I'm having a bit of a hard time with just Tilley because she isn't cuddly and affectionate - she was the reason I got Finnegan in the first place...

Anyway... It's all about adjusting to how things are now and we're trying our best to look back at all the funny any annoying things Finnegan did and laugh (instead of cry which has been a pretty common occurrance lately). The one that got us laughing the hardest the other day (and my mum later when I told her) was the rivalry Finnegan had with Glen. Finnegan knew that he was here before Glen and took every chance he could to show how absolutely jealous he was anytime Glen and I were near eachother (ie: if we were sitting together on the couch or even worse if we were laying on the bed). Finnegan would physically get between us but the worst (and funniest) thing of all was that any time Finnegan had to jump up where we were or walk past Glen he ALWAYS (and I really mean always) stepped or jumped on Glen's crotch. Every.Single.Time. Any time Finnegan would go near Glen, Glen would be covering himself to avoid the inevitable.

I'm going in for a massage at 6 tonight and hopefully that will help me feel a bit better physically. Besides the stress at work (which, honestly has been pretty minimal - there's usually a once weekly occurrance of ridiculousness but it's usually been resolved in a few days) the Finnegan thing has really messed my body up (oh, I have a cold on top of it all too - great!). After my scope and getting my new stomach meds, things were going pretty good and now... Yikes... Things are worse than they were before the scope... I'm not getting too worried (though my doctor will probably freak the fuck out tomorrow if I tell him) because I'm pretty confident that it's the stress causing it and if I give it a few more weeks, things will be back to normal. Waiting out the symptoms is the toughest part.

We're getting our new hockey jersys tonight too. I'll try to post a picture soon wearing it. (I'm looking forward to hockey tonight - good stress reliever!).

Thanks again for all the comments.

Temperature: -25C
Sunrise: 11:34am
Sunset: 4:39pm

Finnegan: 2005 - January 2009

2009-01-23T00:18:00.006-07:00

I'm really sad to report that we put Finnegan down a few minutes ago. I woke up this morning and found out that he had another urinary blockage. He spent most of the day in the window seat or under the couch. By the end of the evening he was visibly more uncomfortable and we knew that we couldn't make him go through what he went through the last time.
We waited until I got home from work tonight and the vet came over to the house.

One of the last pictures I took of Finnegan (this morning).

He passed away peacefully just before midnight surrounded by me, Glen and Tilley. Tilley seems a bit more upset than I thought she would. We cleared a space on our small counter for the vet and put some towels down and that's where Tilley is laying right now. I'm going to miss him emensly. He was always by my side either on the computer or snuggling with me in bed. He loved playing fetch and just graduated from fetching recipts and candy wrappers to thick hair elastics. He also loved catching elastics and recipts in mid-air and doing flips.

He had such a personality and I'm going to miss his constant opinions about everything and him greeting me at the door every day when I came home.

Temperature: -24C (feels like -35C)
Sunrise: 11:53am
Sunset: 4:19pm

Behind the Scenes

2009-01-22T02:10:00.004-07:00

I just spent the last hour or so going through all my posts and tagging them (too much spare time?). I thought it would be fun to put the temperature in the tags because it might be interesting to see how many days had the same temperature - or even to see which months had similar temperatures.. Anyway... I was basically sitting up waiting for my boss to email me (I wanted to make sure I got the email before I went to bed) so I had time to kill... bleh.

Another interesting note is that this is my 80th post... I know I said I was going to have a contest for my blogiversary (which never happened - woo, go me!) but I think I've decided to have one for my 100th - only 20 posts left!! That should give me enough time to think of something awesome.

I thought I'd post a funny - but washed out - picture of me with the cat.. Notice him on my shoulders... This is where he spends most of his time now-a-days...

Basically, he is still super high needs (attention wise) and will wander around the house meowing if he's not on your lap or of you're not carrying him around with you. He didn't like the sling I improvised for him (hah!) and so this was the next best solution.
So because I titled this post "Behind the Scenes" I figured it was appropriate because he's usually sitting on my shoulders while I write my posts (he's not at the moment because he's running around the house being a menace!). And yeah, I can assure you that I'm not that pale in real life... In my defence it was 2:30am and I haven't been feeling well/getting enough sleep.

Temperature: -31C
Sunrise: 11:57am
Sunset: 4:14pm

A Bit More Crafting

2009-01-18T12:43:00.005-07:00

Looks like our heatwave is coming to an end. It was 5 or 6C yesterday and everything was melting like crazy. It didn't feel like January AT ALL. Now that we've had our short taste of warm weather, we're going to get a harsh wake-up call when we get into the -30s and -40s again! The only crappy thing about all the melting is that it didn't melt enough. All the roads and parking lots have deep -now- frozen tracks in them and it makes it hard to walk through. .. It would've been nice if it melted enough so all the roads & parking lots were clear! With everything melting and freezing again it's REALLY slippery... I almost fell a few times yesterday!

January at work means the start of the resident's birthdays. For whatever reason, all our residents have birthdays between the middle of January and the middle of May and yesterday was the first of 5.
I of course couldn't pass up this prime Cricut using opportunity!

Sorry the second picture is kind of crappy. I only brought my small camera with me to work and didn't use the flash.
I took down the "JOE" and the dog and put it on his bedroom door. He was pretty happy with the dog cut-out (loves dogs).
We have another birthday in about 2 weeks so I'll probably cut out some more letters (maybe something a bit more girly?).

Temperature: -2C (feels like -6C)
Sunrise: 12:16pm
Sunset: 3:52pm

Heatwave!

2009-01-15T16:45:00.004-07:00

We're having a heatwave here in the Arctic! It's currently -1C but it was 0C about an hour ago when we went to the store. The forecast keeps changing every time I look at the weather site - they said it was supposed to be +4 tomorrow and +3 on Saturday but that's changed now.

Here's a picture I took on Monday when it was around -38C

Brrr...

I have a bit of a rant about IVs... I just had some medical stuff done yesterday that required me to have an IV (sedation) and do you think they could get the frigging thing in?! Guess how many times it took? FOUR. It's bad enough getting poked with that massive needle once but four times was pretty unbearable. They tried three times in one hand and once in the other (they tried it on the left first, then the right and then decided to leave it to the anaesthesiologist. Great! Except the nurse that wheeled me in decided to have a go before he got there - she got it on her second attempt). For someone that gets needles on a semi-regular basis it's not a big deal to get poked but I'm seriously scared about IVs now and I think next time I'm just going to ask that they wait and let the anaesthesiologist do it (since they won't put it in the night before). It wouldn't be so bad if it didn't hurt so much!! At least the side of one of my fingers isn't numb like last time...

So yeah.. I have another day off work before I go back for two shifts (then my days off again) so besides taking a lot of naps I'm hoping to get some time with my Cricut. I want to get a "Happy Birthday" sign cut out for one of the residents.

Temperature: -1C
Sunrise: 12:32pm
Sunset: 3:35pm

Are You Sick of Crafts Yet?

2009-01-11T01:04:00.004-07:00

The sunrise I noted for the last entry was actually for the next day (which is probably going to be the case any time I make an entry after a certain time).
The sunrise festival was tonight. I had to work though so no fireworks pictures. Thankfully we can see most of the fireworks from work so we didn't have to traipse out in the freezing cold.

I have a few more craft pictures to post tonight. A picture of part of my brother's fiancée's birthday present and her birthday card (belated - whoops!)

Mug - Says Cristine and has a seahorse

Envelope - used my Cricut markers (I coloured in the letters & picture)

Card

And here's a picture of two little bunnies I finished a few days ago. I've been meaning to get pictures of them so I took some quick ones tonight. Now that the sun is back my FO pictures should be a little better.

Other than that I've been really busy work work (I wonder how many times you're going to hear that over the next 6 weeks?). Thankfully it's one week down, 6 to go and hopefully the shenanigans that went on, on Thursday and Friday won't be repeated. I think I'll need a vacation when this is all said and done!

Temperature: -36C
Sunrise: 12:54pm
Sunset: 3:10pm

Cricut Crafting and Possibly a Sunrise?

2009-01-05T23:39:00.006-07:00

I can't say our weather has improved much since my last post but it's not -40C at least! (Ok, it's not much warmer than -40 but those few degrees mean the difference of getting freeze burn unlocking and closing your door and your hand just being friggin cold).

I'm happy that things have returned to their regular schedule now that the holidays are over! I of course excitedly rushed to the stationary store today to get cardstock only to find out... They don't have any! (Ok, they had some but only MASSIVE packs of one colour... I was looking more for packs of multi colour since I don't need like 500 sheets of emerald green cardstock...). hrumph... Here I've been pining away for the stationary store to be open for two weeks only to find out that they don't have what I want anyway (apparently there's some coming in).

Quilting started back up tonight too which was fun. I took my Cricut in with me since I told the girls I'd bring it when it got here (and then we didn't have quilting for two weeks). I did my first fabirc cutting project - woo! I'm SO not used to layering things so it took me a while to figure out what fabrics to use and what I even wanted to make! I ended up settling on a snow globe:

It's not quite finished. I'm probably going to put a moon on it (in the same fabric as the trees only yellow). It's too bad I didn't have a wider strip of the blue "snow" but I don't thing the seam line is as prominent in person as on the camera. The snow globe is 7½" and the trees are 3". I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it? One of the ladies suggested making a quilt and each block having an appliqué (or every other block). It would definitely give me an excuse to cut a bunch more fabric!
The snow globe cut fine but the trees were a bit more finicky and I ended up using scissors to cut part of a few of the trees out (it really didn't like cutting the stars on top!). I used max. pressure, low speed and blade depth of 5.

Going back to the topic of weather (only because this info is on the same site): Apparently we had a sunrise today? I don't think we did I think the website updates in a later time zone and this info is for tomorrow (I guess we'll see tomorrow). So yay for the sunrise! We made it through the darkness! It's only going to get lighter from here!

Temperature: -35C
Sunrise: 1:25pm
Sunset: 2:36pm

You Don't Want to Know How Cold it is Out There...

2009-01-01T23:56:00.006-07:00

Here's a picture of Tilley I took the other day:

And here's a picture of the card I made for my boss (sorry for the crappy dark photo):

Other than that... We didn't do anything for New Years... I worked until 11pm and had an incredible headache. We watched the Edmonton fireworks on TV (compared to the Sydney fireworks we watched 5 minutes beforehand they were pretty disappointing... There isn't a lot of competition when Sydney spends $5M AUS compared to Edmonton's $200,000 - or there abouts) and then watched some Lost and went to bed. As you can see, we live a pretty exciting life :-p

Temperature: -42C (yikes...)
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a

Dudes, it's cold out!!

2008-12-29T12:11:00.003-07:00

Ok so in rather short order our not-so-cold weather has dramatically disappeared.
Remember that huge icicle we had in front of our living room window? It fell off last night. The only thing I can think of was that the -35C temps last night finally did it in (it hasn't been this cold in weeks). I'm just glad it didn't break the window on the way down.

It's FINALLY Monday today which means that all the stores in town should be open again after being closed for the holidays - even boxing day - What retail store closes on boxing day?! I normally don't miss the stores down south but I really did this week when I wanted to go and buy stuff and have it NOW instead of ordering stuff online and waiting a week or more (which, I normally quite enjoy but I'm being impatient this week!). gah... Of course New Years puts a kink in the whole stores (and post office) being open thing... Annoying... Another annoying thing? My favourite hardware store in town is closed now - for good (and yes, I have a favourite hardware store). grrr... In a town with limited stores basically every store has at least one thing you can't buy in all the others and this hardware store was FULL of stuff that you could only get there (and for a decent price). I even buy my shampoo at the friggin' hardware store! I of course only find out about this news AFTER the store closes so I even miss out on all the deals! I'm really getting shafted with the shopping this week!

I took some crafty pictures last night but haven't had a chance to upload them. I wanted to write this quickly before I go out to some meetings to let everyone know that it's -37C bleh!

Temperature: -37C (it needs repeating!)
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a

Done for Another Year

2008-12-26T13:46:00.004-07:00

So I didn't really end up getting any pictures of our dinner... I took a few of our tray of roasted veggies (before they went into the oven) and a picture of my first purple potato (have you eve had a purple potato? They're actually quite tasty if you can get over the fact it's purple) but no pictures of the lamb. A few reasons for that were 1. I didn't think anyone wanted to see a picture of a raw leg of lamb pre-roasting and 2. When it was finally done I was in a hurry to get it on the table. Despite the lack of pictures, everyone enjoyed the dinner - the landlords especially (*phew!*). Glen also enjoyed having lambie leftovers for two days.

Yesterday I took two of our residents to a friend/co-worker's house for Christmas dinner. The dinner was incredibly tasty especially since I didn't have to make any of it myself (ok, that's a lie, I made buns and brought them along with 2 lemon meringue pies - but y'know the main stuff I didn't have to do - yay!).

Since she was going to be pulling out the nice linens and the silver I thought I'd make her some place cards for the table with my Cricut (see how handy this damn machine is?!)

We all left pretty stuffed and I got to go back to work for 2 hours and try not to fall asleep (tough task!).

All in all it was pretty relaxing and the residents were on their best behaviour which was nice (sometimes you never know what might happen). Now that the stress of Christmas is over I can focus on the stress of being supervisor and being in charge on the 2nd when my boss goes on vacation for 7 weeks - ahhhhhh!

Temperature: -21C
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a

Fast Approaching...

2008-12-23T12:33:00.004-07:00

Well, it's practically here! We're having out big dinner tonight because I work on Christmas Day. Since it's only Glen and I and the landlords are in town for the holidays (first time in 5 or 6 years) we're having them up for dinner. We do a very untraditional dinner for Christmas so I thought I'd share since I didn't blog about it last year.
Glen isn't a fan of turkey or ham (he'll eat it if he's invited to someone's house but it's a waste and a bit excessive to cook a whole turkey just for him) so I decided that on our first Christmas together we'd cook a leg of lamb (they eat a lot of lamb in Australia and he doesn't get to eat it nearly as often here). So a roast leg of lamb has become our Christmas tradition. Normally I roast some veggies with it (potatoes and carrots) and this year I'm adding brussel sprouts and corn on the cob to the menu (If you're going un-tradtional you might as well REALLY go un-traditional!).
My landlord's last lamb experience was a bad one so I'm hoping I change their mind about it ;-)

So yeah... I have some cookies to bake today and maybe some buns (maybe not on the buns... We'll see) aaaaaaaaaaand my Cricut arrived yesterday! Wooo!

I'd planned to use it to cut out some vinyl to etch some glasses for my landlords so I'm glad it's here! My original plan was to etch a pie plate and put cookies in it but certain types of pyrex don't etch... grrr... I got everything cut out and arranged on the pie plate and put the etching cream on only to find out it didn't work... bleh

So yeah! I should get going and start everything! Hopefully I'll be back soon to post pictures of our dinner!

Temperature: -20C
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a

Busy, busy, busy!

2008-12-17T01:37:00.003-07:00

Ahhh I think I need two more weeks to finish all my Christmas prep! I've started the Christmas baking at work (40 tarts and 5 dozen chocolate cookies so far) and I'm kind of not into it this year... Part of the reason is I accidentally baked my cookies a little too long and their crunchier than I'd like (which is no big deal but I hate to give over-done cookies to people). bleh... I have to get a move-on though because the boxes should be handed out by next Monday.
I've had super lots to do at work too because I've been made supervisor (surprise!) so I've been typing up new forms, doing a lot of running around etc. At least being busy makes the day go faster.
I have a bunch of knitting that my landlord wants me to do for them and I've had NO time to do it. I've hardly knit anything since the craft fair - boo!
And on top of all that I'm way behind in shipping presents out. I have two more to send and I don't think they'll make it in time (damn).

I've been doing a bit more cleaning to get ready to have some company next week (landlords over for dinner, some friends over for a small get-together). AND I'm getting the packrat room cleaned and useable because I'm getting a Cricut Expression. I'm SO excited! I've been looking for something that does this for a long time... I've been diligently tracking it and it's just cleared Canada customs.. Hopefully it's here soon!

We had a bit of a blizzard today but I guess it was all done by the time I got up so that's kind of boring! I was expecting something a little more substantial than a few hours. Also, Glen hasn't really seen a blizzard so I was kind of hoping to get a good one.

Temperature: -17C (feels like -26C)
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a

Christmas Prep

2008-12-11T03:01:00.007-07:00

Well! The tree is up here, the house at work is decorated and I'm about to start my massive Christmas baking at work. Yikes! I can't believe it's the 10th (ok technically the 11th) already! Last year I did over 400 cookies (as well as an unknown amount of tarts) and put together close to a dozen boxes to hand out (long term care, people that have done favours for us through the year, resident's families etc) and this year probably won't be much different. Our butter didn't get delivered so I have to wait for that (probably tomorrow).
I'm going to bring my camera to work because I'm really proud of how everything there turned out. For now though here are pictures from my own house (click for big):

We don't do a lot of decorating here - mainly just put the tree up. Our place isn't really big enough to go all-out. Now that I have my new lenses and a remote switch (in my opinion), I'm getting some great close-up tree pictures - probably the best Christmas pictures yet. I'm already thinking of next year's Christmas card design (I know, crazy).

The Hat of Doom is still in my possession even though my co-worker sounded DESPERATE for me not to give it away/sell it and she was FOR SURE coming to pick it up. Annoying.

I'm knitting some cute animals to hand out with a few of my presents this year. I bought some "gifts that give more" - among the ones I bought was a microloan for a pig and a microloan for a bunch of chickens. The people that get these gifts are getting a little knit pig/chickens. I thought about knitting trees for the tree ones I bought but I don't think I have time now. I have some knitted ornaments to make for the landlords and ideally for some other family (and myself) but again, with all the baking and stuff happening at work I doubt I'll have time now. Oh well though :-) The ornaments were so popular that I might knit some through the year so I'll have a bunch. Grand plans, right?

It has gotten REALLY cold here (which the current temperature doesn't really reflect). I think it has mostly been the wind chill but, walking just from the vehicle into the arena yesterday was BRUTAL! I was so cold! And even the arena itself was freezing (I know the arena is generally chilly but this was unusually cold). brrrr...

Temperature: -27C
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a

In Which I Throw My Knitting Across the Room... And Then My Brain Explodes....

2008-12-07T02:04:00.006-07:00

A few weeks ago a co-worker (whom I greatly dislike) told me she had a pattern book for some hats and was wondering if I could knit her one. I told her to bring the book and I'd see what I could do. So she brought over the Paton's booklet "Where Did You Get That Hat!" (which I happen to own anyway). She picked out TWO hats the red beret on the front and the main cover image. I basically told her that I'd only knit one and I was only going to knit the red one. I ended up making it in black because I don't have any red yarn that was suitable...

This hat has been one pain in the arse after another!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I told the co-worker that I'd be able to knit her hat after the craft fair but I managed to find some spare time before-hand and got 90% of it done by then. On the last day of the craft fair (2 minutes before we're supposed to pack up) she comes by with a ball of yarn (a lady at the CF was selling her home-spun) and asked me how much of it I'd need to knit her hat. So I told her that I'd already started. THEN she decides that I should knit her TWO hats of doom! I leveled with her and told her I HATED knitting the Hat of Doom and there would be NO WAY I'd make another... Her reply? "Maybe I'll twist your arm and get you to make me another" - aksdflkajs!!!
She walked away and I thought that was the end of it... NO! She came back and starts talking to me about the Hat of Doom and I had to try to explain to her that knitting something you hate takes ALL the fun out of it (combined with hating the person makes for a pretty miserable experience).
The Hat of Doom is a shitty hat to knit and I disliked every.single.stitch.... Dislikeing something in such a way doesn't really lend itself to making you want to mass produce them! You know what she finally said to me? "Oh, I get it, you hate knitting hats" *cough* She totally didn't get that I didn't like knitting this SPECIFIC hat. My reply? "Yes, you're right. I hate knitting hats."

*blinks*

Temperature: -25C
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a

I Guess We Don't Open Our Curtains That Often...

2008-12-03T13:46:00.006-07:00

Look what I found yesterday when I opened the curtains:

Yikes!

Where did THAT come from? And how come we didn't notice it a looooooong time ago?! I don't think something like that grows overnight - it would've had to be a few days - or at least a week! And we thought the one we had last year was massive...

Today's my first day at my new-old job. I had 5 days off (3 for the craft fair and my regular 2) and managed to get A LOT done. I took pretty much everything out of the packrat room and am trying to get it to be a more functional room rather than a room stuff gets tossed when we can't put it away... I should've taken a before picture but it was embarrassing (think NO floor space and things piled everywhere -- when we showed a friend that room she said "you can call one of the community groups and they could come and take all that stuff to the dump for you" haha :-( Its not all garbage just... stuff... We are clearly living in too small an apartment for my things...). Anyway, there's floor space now and things are a bit more organized but there's a long way to go. Our main hallway is cleaned out too and as soon as the livingroom is done I'll put our tree up (for the livingroom to be clean all the stuff has to be moved into the hall where the tree is going). Progress though!

I had hockey lastnight and it was fun minus the fact I think I'm getting a cold so it turned out to be pretty hardcore... I felt OK before I started and when I got home I was pretty exhausted and miserable... Almost got a few goals - it means I'm at least getting the puck and getting a chance to shoot!

Temperature: -29C (whaaaaaaaaat?!?!)
Sunrise: 1:03om
Sunset: 2:24pm
(only 3 days left!)

Craft Fair Wrap-Up and Arctic Life

2008-11-30T23:41:00.004-07:00

Well! The craft fair is done for another year. If I wouldn't have ordered prints and cards (it was a last minute decision to do it) it would've been a raging success this year. But because of that up-front cost... Not so much. I just barely broke even which is pretty disappointing especially because I have to find somewhere in my tiny place to store 14 canvas photos (I didn't sell a single one) and I need to make about 150 friends to send Christmas cards to.
My ornaments however, HUGE hit. That's pretty much all I sold. I counted up my totals and I sold 49 items - one table top snowman, 4 baby sweaters, 3 or 4 packs of cards a pair of mittens and the rest was ornaments.

Small rant and one example of the few rude people I had this weekend:
I had a lady come by about 4 times looking at one of the little sweaters I had - I had 4 different sizes - the largest one was $50 and the one smaller than that was $40 (I also had two smaller ones for $30 and an even smaller one for $20). She was looking at the two and then rudely commented "$50?! What's the difference!?" so I explained to her what the difference was (size and different yarn) and she walked away. She came back a few other times to look at it and once brought her husband by to look at it. She came back today to look at it AGAIN and then was pissed off that I hadn't lowered my price on the last day (I'm not desperate to sell everything so I didn't lower my prices today - and plus I feel like it rips off the people that buy stuff the first day). Then she came back again and looked at it and was asking me about it (etc) and then starts to take out her money. Once she paid for it she still bitched about how expensive it was! Like I'd twisted her arm to buy it or something... sheesh...
Also - I still can't get over the people that will stand at your table and talk about your stuff (negatively) when you're sitting RIGHT THERE... I can hear youuuuuuu!

And now for a segment on Arctic Life... Or at least Inuvik Life and what happens when the road is open (kind of - I think it's still only light traffic) and the stores haven't lowered their prices.

Exhibit A: Bananas

Exhibit B: Beef Jerky

This looks like pretty tasty beef jerky - I hope someone looks at the price before they buy it... Get ready for a shock!

Yikes!!!!!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Temperature: -14C
Sunrise: 12:46pm
Sunset: 2:39pm

The Backdrop Hasn't Fallen Over Yet!

2008-11-28T21:49:00.004-07:00

Well! The first night is finished! It was pretty busy (as it usually is on the first night) one minute there were only a few people milling about and then there were people EVERYWHERE!
Here's my table:

So I've done pretty good for the first day (about half of what I made the first year total - so that's good) hopefully things will pick up tomorrow and Sunday and some prints will sell.

Temperature: -14C
Sunrise: 12:26pm
Sunset: 2:57pm

Last Minute Preparation!

2008-11-27T13:47:00.005-07:00

Well! The craft fair is tomorrow and I hate to jinx it but I think I'm ready!
I ended up building the cursed backdrop myself. I sucked it up and went to the hardware store and explained what I wanted - thankfully a nice person was working and didn't laugh at me and was even able to suggest the thickness of plywood to use. My main piece is 4"x6½" and then I have two side panels that are 2"x6½" (that way I only needed two pieces of plywood because they come in 4"x8" sheets). I got it painted and hinged together and I think it should be pretty good! (we're going to ignore the HILARIOUS story about me painting it first THEN hinging it and the hinges being on the wrong side and me having to repaint it - I wasn't about to move the hinges!) . I'm just waiting for Glen to get up so we can go downstairs and take the pins out of the hinges so we can move it easier tomorrow (because if we didn't I could bet money that the damn thing would bust).

I sewed up another bear -no pictures yet- he's blue with yellow accents (inside of ears, paws, back of head, bow). I still like my first one better and I seemed to have more trouble with the second one. We did an appliqué tea towel project at quilting on Monday - my first appliqué - no pictures of that either. It turned out pretty cute I think (I put three stars on a white towel).

I got my first goal in hockey on Tuesday! Glen just happened to come that night to take pictures for me and even managed to get a picture of me scoring! woo!

Maybe now that the first goal is out of the way I'll get more ;-)

Today is my last day of work under the old contract. If I didn't get my position back it would be my last day at the group home - weird!! I have the next three days off because of the craft fair so when I go back on Wednesday I'll be working for my old boss. There's been "goodbye" notes at the end of reports all week now... WEIRD!

Cross your fingers that the craft fair goes well and my backdrop doesn't fall and crush me mid-way through!!!

Temperature: -18C
Sunrise: 12:20pm
Sunset: 3:02pm

Sewing

2008-11-23T03:38:00.005-07:00

I finished a cute little Christmas print bear tonight. He would've been finished yesterday but I forgot a piece and had to take the head apart (the head was turning out narrow and duck-like and I was getting disappointed - no kidding! I forgot the piece that goes on the back of the head - ugh - and btw - having to photocopy and enlarge pieces is a giant pain).

I think he turned out pretty cute. He was a bit fiddly to do and isn't perfect but it was a great start and I'm sure the next one will go a bit better (and the picture isn't great since it's almost 4am).

Temperature: -20C (feels like: -28C)
Sunrise: 11:56am
Sunset: 3:23pm

Getting down to the wire...

2008-11-21T13:13:00.004-07:00

Craft fair knitting has definitely slowed to a crawl... I've been getting some sewing done though. I wanted to make some fabric baskets to hold things on my table so I made a few of those. I also thought I'd make some for presents so I made a few extra (and once I get more cording I'll probably do a bunch more). A co-worker's husband is hopefully coming by tonight to look at my plans for a backdrop thingy. In exactly one week I'll be hauling my stuff over to the rec. centre to set up!

I've been cutting out blocks for a quilt too (I have one on the go that is driving me insane so I've started cutting out stuff for a new one just to give me a mental break from it). No pictures of it yet but I'm pretty excited about both of them (my first attempts at triangle pieces). I don't have enough fabric for the first one so I bought some extra and it *kind of* matches --- That's what happens when you buy fabric 7 years ago and only get around to finish sewing stuff together now. So I'm hoping it will work out afterall...

It has gotten outrageously cold here - or it was outrageously cold yesterday anyway. -38C with the windchill - wtf? I got into the truck yesterday and it said -29C (no windchill) brrrr! It's not supposed to be this cold yet!!! I've been waiting to pull out my parka and my warm mitts but I think I might be doing it sooner than planned. It's also super dark out now (doesn't help that it's been overcast). Not enjoying that much either... blehhh!

Temperature: -18C (winchill: -28C)
Sunrise: 11:45am
Sunset: 3:33pm

Whoops! Scolded Again!

2008-11-14T23:03:00.003-07:00

Not much is happening really... I'm trying to finish up craft fair stuff - I've gotten everything priced now and everything I ordered has arrived (finally!) and now the only thing left is to build some sort of background/backdrop thing... I've made a few calls around town but no one has gotten back to me yet so I might have to suck it up and build it myself (and then have it fall and crush me during the craft fair!). bleh! I really wish I had some carpentry experience (y'know besides nailing pre-fab stuff together!!).

Work is pretty much the same.

I did a photoshoot with a friend on Tuesday which was pretty fun. I haven't gotten around to looking at the pictures yet but I think we got a few good ones (we were basically going for standard portrait kind of photos).

I know things have been getting kind of boring around here - no photos even! I've pretty much been doing the same things every day and my days off are getting eaten up by quilting and hockey - feels like I have no time off! So not very inspiring stuff to blog about...

Temperature: -14C (feels like -20C - brrrrrr!)
Sunrise: 11:14am
Sunset: 4:01pm

I've been scolded!

2008-11-02T23:36:00.003-07:00

Sorry for the long silence it's been a long and confusing two weeks.
I don't really have any news so that's the main reason I've been waiting to update. I've been offered my regular position back but haven't signed any papers. I don't think I'll get screwed over but I wouldn't be surprised if something random happened. Things at work are really confusing because there are some staff members that aren't getting their job back and they are WAY disgruntled (don't blame them really) BUT they're making everyone else's life difficult. So much so that a few of us aren't telling that we've been offered positions. Yikes... It also means all the things I wasn't going to have to do (like putting together Christmas lists for 5 people) I'm going to do. So I brought all the latest Sears catalogues home with me tonight to hopefully compile some lists on my days off.

My days off lately have been rather unproductive due to me deciding to get a life. I've been faithfully going to quilting every Monday (not really getting a lot done though... hmmm) and then hockey on Tuesdays. Hockey is SO.MUCH.FUN. I'm having a blast. I hurt myself pretty bad last week but I should be good to go by Tuesday again - thank goodness for pads and a helmet!!! My head bounced off the ice (I don't even know how I fell but I lost my balance, my feet came out from under me and I landed on my back) so I've been recovering from what I imagine is ice whiplash :-P And a lot of soreness. But, totally worth it.

Knitting wise, I haven't gotten a lot of big things done but many, many small mittens. I'm embellishing them (and some mini sweaters) with felt cut-outs (Christmas trees, presents, stockings, snowmen, hearts etc). I spent my evening yesterday tracing out, cutting and embelishing little felt things. I'm really pleased with how they're turning out. I'm seriously going to make an effort to unpack everything and take a picture of it!
Speaking of the craft fair, I got my big box of "table stuff" on Thursday (table cloth, cash box, gift bags etc) the only major thing I have left to do is figure out a backdrop thing for my photos. I'll either borrow one or build one (yikes!). Only a few more weeks!

So there ya go! I think that's a pretty decent update --- Oh! And if there are people reading that I owe letters to I'm going to try super hard to get them written this week! Sorry I'm such a terrible penpal! ugh! :-(

Temperature: -12C (feels like -18C)
Sunrise: 10:19am
Sunset: 4:54pm
(stupid time change! Only a month of daylight left!)

Something Unexpected...

2008-10-19T23:32:00.003-06:00

Ok, I know everyone (or just Teri!!) is expecting me to post craft fair progress photos and I totally plan to do that but it might be a few days. I like to take pictures during the day because I hate (hate, hate) using my flash. Tomorrow and the next few days are going to be a bit busy and stressful so I don't know if I'll have time.

The place I work for came up for tender and someone -not my current employer- was awarded the contract so I'm technically out of a job in a month or so. We all just found out on Friday so things have been a little crazy. We're not really sure what's going to happen and if our employer will be able to accommodate us at the other home or what.. We're (all the full timers - 6 of us) hopefully going to have a conference call with them tomorrow to see what's up. I have no idea about how any of this works and if we're entitled to anything.

Anyone want to drive up and help me pack?

Temperature: -14C
Sunrise: 10:20am
Sunset: 6:54pm

Craft Fair Knitting

2008-10-14T14:41:00.002-06:00

Well, I've had the week off work (they're replacing the carpet and linoleum with industrial linoleum stuff - wooo!) so that would explain why I haven't posted since last week. I've been super busy with craft fair knitting and I've managed to keep up with my self-imposed quota of completing at least one thing a day (doesn't matter how big or small as long as something is done). I've seemed to have misplaced my size 6 Knit Picks interchangeable needle tips though - grrr... I'm making some snowmen and I've found knitting with size 4 and size 6 (same yarn) give me a pretty noticeable size difference so I wanted to do a few on size 6's and a few on size 4s to give people a bit of choice (I also did one on size 8s with chunky yarn and he's HUGE! 15"!). I've also gone through my huge "random FO" bag and dug out all the things that didn't have a specific home. I figured it's as good a time as any to weed out that sort of thing since a lot of the things I won't need when we move (scarves, mittens, toques etc).

I'm going to hockey tonight - woo! I'm excpecting it to thouroughly kick my butt since it's a power skate workshop.

So yeah! I have a tonne of errands to run today since yesterday was a holiday (holiday Mondays totally mess with my days off!) and the landlord's truck is in the shop again... Last week it was getting a new windshield (not because of us - the landlords wanted a new one for the winter since the old one might've broke with the extreme cold & warming up the vehicle) and now the fan belt is all crazy.. So the mechanic is towing it in sometime today (man, I hope that's what's wrong!!!).

I hope everyone that can goes out to vote today!! (I've been pissed off about this whole election thing but I'm sad I won't get to watch all of it on TV tonight - I like watching the numbers go up and down).

Temperature: -6C
Sunrise: 9:57pm
Sunset: 7:20pm

Hockey Night In Inuvik

2008-10-07T23:04:00.005-06:00

Had my first night of hockey tonight! I had a lot of fun despite falling a few times and not being the best skater (I did pretty good though).

Glen came and took some pictures (I'm the one in all black):

Next week is a power skating clinic so that should be fun - wearing all the pads helps feeling more secure on the ice!

I've been super busy with knitting for the craft fair (Nov 28-30). I've managed to get one thing per day done even if it has meant staying up until silly times to sew the last little bit on. Hopefully I'll have a nice full table by the time it's all said and done!

Temperature: -6C
Sunrise: 9:27am
Sunset: 7:54pm

Thrummed Mittens Term Position: Now until June...

2008-09-28T13:24:00.005-06:00

I finished my thrummed mittens last night! I hate to say that I'm relieved to have them finished because that might sound like I didn't enjoy knitting them - I did. I just lost the momentum after the first one and it was hard to get that back and get the second one done. Once I started, it was quick (I'm sure I could've finished it in an evening but it took me a few hours over two days - The longest part was making all my little thrums).

The mittens are more even than they look in the picture!

I'm not 100% sure what I want to work on next... I have a sock that's partially started from my Whitehorse trip... But then my knitted Nativity that needs some attention... I'd love to have the Nativity done by this Christmas (totally possible if I work at it) so I should maybe get some work done on it.

Speaking of the dreaded "C" word... I have NO idea what I want to do for gifts this year... I toyed around with making stuff but I have NO idea what to make everyone... I guess I should figure that out ASAP!

We got a tonne of snow overnight! Usually the snow is good because that means all the mud is gone but that's not really the case - there's still mud around hiding under all the wet snow... I got totally covered in mud yesterday trying to wipe the truck off - grr! Maybe before it gets too cold I'll try to wash the truck...

Temperature: -1C (feels like -5C)
Sunrise: 8:58am
Sunset: 8:27pm

Winter Wonderland

2008-09-25T12:01:00.004-06:00

Look what I woke up to this morning:

I don't a lot of progress on the second thrummed mitten. I haven't really felt like knitting the last few days. I did some reorganising in the "packrat room" on my days off though. We went and bought some HUGE clear storage bins so I could get my yarn out of the random bags and boxes they were in (you know you have too much yarn when all the yarn you have of ONE brand won't fit into the bin!).

We went to the community sign up night on Monday so I could register for hockey and I also signed up for the quilting guild. One of the girls that runs it has been bugging me for over a year to join. They meet on Monday nights (day off!) and they have a better location than they did before. It'll give me an excuse to get some quilting done! And I'll probably learn some new techniques. I was taught to quilt by my grandma (basic patchwork quilting) and obviously there's SO much more to quilting than basic patchwork (which I really enjoy but it would be nice to do patterns and appliqué and all that sort of thing). The girls also want me to teach them needle felting so that should be fun too.

Temperature: -1C
Sunrise: 8:48am
Sunset: 8:40pm

Thrum-tastic (a WIP)

2008-09-20T11:37:00.005-06:00

I have LOTS of roving left over from my needle felting workshop this summer so I decided I needed some thrummed mittens (I LOVE mittens!).

I used the Yarn Harlot's pattern and instructions. I only made minor changes in the top shaping and the thumb (to get the right amount of thrums on the thumb I needed to decrease 4 stitches) and I didn't make my thrums quite as large - I did half a mitten then decided to rip it all out and start again with smaller thrums - one reason was because I was running out of green roving and another was because they were kind of distorting all the other stitches. Oh and I changed the measurements - I did more thrums before the thumb section and a longer cuff (3").

An example of how big my thrums are (size 3.75mm needles)

I'm still working on mitten number two since I didn't bring it on the trip (I started a pair of socks though and managed to knit in the truck for about 5 hours! I get car sick SO easily - especially lately for some reason - so this is a huge accomplishment since all I can normally do is stare out the windows).

Another knitting thing I'm kind of contemplating is knitting a pair of hockey socks (which are really leg warmers and not socks). I've decided to start playing hockey this fall because the women's team plays on Tuesdays (one of my nights off!) and it sounds like a fun thing to do. I've never played hockey outside of school so this should be kind of an interesting experience lol They welcome players of all ages and a friend of mine (one of the girls I went to Whitehorse with) is going to be playing too. I picked up all my gear in Whitehorse so I'm all ready to go. Registration is on Monday and the first night is the 7th. I'm super excited and if all the gear wasn't so hot to wear I'd totally be wearing it around the house lol.

Temperature: +5C
Sunrise: 8:30am
Sunset: 9:01pm

Our Trip to Whitehorse

2008-09-18T13:16:00.007-06:00

We're back and our trip to Whitehorse has been declared a success on all levels. We left Inuvik a little later than we wanted to on Friday evening and didn't get in to Eagle Plains until 11:30pm (Yukon time). We hit some funky weather on the other side of the Peel River ferry that lasted pretty much into Eagle Plains. We woke up early and head breakfast and got back on the road by 9am. Lots of fog and snow but also LOTS of mud.

The fog and miserable weather lasted until Engineer Creek and then it cleared off for the rest of the drive as the weather got nicer, the temperature got warmer - we cheered every time it went up a degree.

After a long drive, we arrived in Whitehorse at 8:30pm on Saturday. We checked into our hotel and went and had some A&W then drove around to see what time stores would be open the next day.
Sunday was spent shopping. Mostly Wal-Mart, Superstore and Canadian Tire. I stocked up on a lot of things that are going to be pretty expensive when the road is closed (and things that are already expensive now). So things like toilet paper, paper towel, kleenex, laundry soap, kitty litter and pop. Pop was SO cheap in Whitehorse! For a case (12 cans) it's between $10 and $12 here, at Superstore, it was $5.98. I also found a soup that I had while visiting my mum and stocked up on that.
Sunday night we went out for sushi - yay! Then went and saw a movie - Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2. I think I enjoyed it way more than the first one.

On Monday we woke up at the crack of dawn so we could take the truck in for some minor repairs (stuff that needed to be repaired before the trip). I got to meet up with Jo's sister Teri. We went and had tea/hot chocolate and then went to the yarn store! I had a lot of fun and wish we had a little bit longer. (I hope you had fun too Teri!!).
We finished our last bit of shopping, packed up the truck and got on the road. We got to Dawson City Monday evening, had dinner and then spent a few hours at Diamond Tooth Gerties - they do three shows a night and we missed the first one which ended up being the one I wanted to see the most (the Cancan girl part).

We got up on Tuesday and went and got some old time pictures done and got back on the road for the last leg of our trip. We arrived in Inuvik at midnight. We didn't see a lot of wildlife - three foxes a bunch of ptarmigan and then a mother grizzly and two cubs.

Here's a link to the pictures on my Flickr set - I don't have time to caption them right now so I'll try to do that when I get home from work tonight.

Temperature: +6C
Sunrise: 8:22am
Sunset: 9:10pm

Ready to Go!

2008-09-12T17:33:00.003-06:00

Just waiting for a friend to pick me up and then we'll be on the road to Whitehorse!
Hopefully when I get back on Tuesday I'll have fun pictures and stories to share.

Have a great weekend!

Temperature: +2C (feels like -2C) [dare I mention the "s" word?]
Sunrise: 8:01am
Sunset: 9:36pm

Whoops!

2008-09-08T12:57:00.005-06:00

I didn't realise it had been so long since I updated!
Well, since the last time I wrote, Finnegan has come home from the vet (two and a half weeks home and still not blocked!) and is still recovering. I'd say he's about 90% back to how he was before. My brother has made the quickest cross country drive ever (it took them just over a week to get from here to southern Ontario and that's with 4 days visiting family) AND got engaged! And I've finished two pairs of socks and started on a pair of thrummed mittens!

My brother, Cristine and her dad driving away

Finnegan (the fur is taking a while to grow back).

Afterthought heel socks in Knit Picks Felici - Coney Island and OnLine Tropic.

On Friday I'm going on a road trip with some friends to Whitehorse (we'll get back on Tuesday). We want to stock up on some supplies before winter sets in and prices go up like crazy and I also need to pick up some special cat food for Finnegan (one of the friends has a cat that had the same problems as Finnegan and she needs cat food too). I'm thinking of joining the women's hockey team in town (Tuesday nights - one of my days off!) so I'm going to pick up some gear when I'm down. I'm really excited about this trip since I've never been to Whitehorse before and the furthest I've been down the road is the Arctic Circle sign. The Dempster is supposed to be really nice in fall too so I'll have my camera for lots of pictures.

Temperature: +3C
Sunrise: 7:46am
Sunset: 9:53pm

In Knitting News...

2008-08-21T13:51:00.004-06:00

Well since I don't have good news to share with you (I don't really even have terrible news either) I figured I'd better post about that bear I mentioned a while a go. He's very small - maybe 4 or 5" sitting. I thread jointed his arms and legs so he can sort of stand but I think he looks better sitting.

Pattern: Oliver from The Knitted Teddy Bear by Sandra Polley
Yarn: Elann Peruvian Highland Wool
Needles: 3.25mm

I'm in the process of doing another one with the knit side out but that might be put aside because I have a sudden urge to make myself some mittens (debating fingerless mittens or full on gloves... Haven't really decided yet).

In kitty news, Finnegan is still at the vet... He's very slowly getting better - we're basically waiting for the pH of his urine to be more acidic to dissolve the last of the crystal chunks. The amount of large crystals has decreased but it only takes one to block him back up. We're hoping a special food will be in for him in the next day or two because that should really get things going. He'll be home very soon if the food is in and I'm not really 100% sure what will happen if the food isn't here by tomorrow. It's been rough waiting and thinking about those tough decisions.

Temperature: +7C
Sunrise: 6:28am
Sunset: 11:12pm

Update...

2008-08-17T00:36:00.003-06:00

Just an update to let everyone know, Finnegan is back at the vet's.

He reblocked on Thursday and I took him back in early Friday morning. The vet had troubles with the catheter but finally got it inserted this morning (Saturday). Finnegan is doing well (considering) and is on IV fluids & antibiotics and still has the catheter in place.
The vet wants to keep him hooked up to everything for another 72 hours at least - he said the crystals in Finnegan's urine are so bad that when he put the sample on the slide for the microscope then put the cover slip on it, it actually "crunched" *sigh*
Finnegan will likely have a few more shaved spots when he comes home too because the vet had to extract urine with a needle through his abdomen when the catheter wouldn't go in.

Cross your fingers that things continue to get better the other alternative is a very drastic (and not 100% successful) surgery.

War Wounds

2008-08-14T00:41:00.006-06:00

Well, we've gone through quite the ordeal & emotional roller coaster the last few days.
My (youngest) cat Finnegan got sick on Friday and because of our lack of high-tech vet equipment up here it was a bit of a long process figuring out what was wrong with him. First we thought he might've swallowed something, then we thought it might be a kitty disease and then on Monday the vet felt a mass in Finnegan's stomach. We made the heart wrenching decision of deciding on exploratory surgery (it was that or send him out of town and at that point we thought they'd end up doing surgery anyway) and made what could've been the "good-bye visit" at the vet's. Thankfully before the surgery part came, the vet discovered that Finnegan was experiencing urinary issues (yay for catheters!). Finnegan is back home recuperating, on antibiotics and will be on a special diet for the rest of his life.

Finnegan sporting a shaved leg from his IV (he chewed it out the first night, little bugger!!)

I hope I never have to make any of those heart wrenching decisions again. And I wish that pet care didn't have to come down to "how much are you willing to spend to save your pet's life?". I'm thankful the vet is a family friend and extremely compassionate but also very frank about what problems and risks we were potentially facing.
I ended up having to take two days off of work because I was so upset and because I wanted to watch Finnegan to see if he was getting sicker (he started getting sick on Friday and I ended up taking him in for fluids on Sunday night because he wasn't eating or drinking and kept throwing up - he was still peeing a tiny bit though which was probably the only thing that kept him going for so long).

Like children you're not really supposed to have a favourite and I hate to admit it but he's my favourite. I love my other cat Tilley (she's 5, Finnegan is 3) but she wants nothing to do with me. It's a female thing - she LOVES Glen. Finnegan is THE MOST affectionate cat ever and will cuddle and snuggle and purr all day long if you'd let him. He runs to greet me at the door and follows me around the house. He also spends a lot of time laying across my shoulders (where he is right now) - it's either that or carry him around in my arms all day. He reminds me a lot of one of our first cats. We called him Boogity (Boogie for short - his mum's name was Squirrel - lol) he slept on my bed with me, under the covers with his head on my pillow.

Me with my buddy Boogie.

Unfortunately Boogie got into the neighbour's antifreeze and passed away at a very young age (probably not long after that picture was taken). I'll never forget the day my mum met me half-way on my way home from school to tell me the news.

I don't really want to end on such a sad note so I'll say that I finished knitting a small bear. I'll post about it another day though. He's quite cute and I've already started another.

Temperature: +11C
Sunrise: 6:08am
Sunset: 11:44pm

Achoo!!!

2008-08-02T13:49:00.004-06:00

I have a cold... Colds should be illegal in the summer - especially during the Arctic summer - especially, especially during an Arctic summer in August when it's 18C after being rainy and cold for a week. humph...

I'm glad it's August only because my poor picture folder is about to explode (by all other accounts August = shitty because summer is practically over then we're back to evil, cold winter)... I had to do more sorting today (I start getting paranoid when my folder takes a while to load) and hopefully organising things into MORE folders (251 folders in my one huge "Megan's Folder") will help my "July 2008" folder a bit... I still haven't uploaded photos from the last photo session either... eek...
I'm getting the itch to set up my studio set again... I need to find the time to clean the space I need and then the time to actually set everything up... And then I need to find a willing model lol... Glen is not a fan of having his picture taken (especially with my honkin' lens) so he's sort of out... hmmmm

We're looking at getting one of those portable hard drive thingies. Does anyone know if there's much difference between different brands? I found a site that does cool coloured/customisable ones for a decent price. I don't know about anyone else but it's hard for me to resist fun colours (evident in my Elann Peruvian Highland Wool collection) ;-)

Not much knitting happening. I'm getting bored with felted clogs (already). I'm going to try to pace myself and make a few pairs between projects instead of trying to do like 10 pairs at once like I'd sort of planned. The hard part is deciding what I should do next... Another toy perhaps?

Here's a pretty picture to make up for a crappy post:

(the bees are getting really dopey - this one just sat there - we thought it was dead then I blew on it and it started moving a bit)

Temperature: +18C
Sunrise: 5:12am
Sunset: 12:43am

Knitting & Berries

2008-07-26T00:51:00.006-06:00

Finished the Emily doll I started at the beginning of the month. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I would've gotten it finished sooner but I didn't have a chance to knit at the arts festival like I thought I would (wayyyyy too many people coming by to talk and there were a few sections I had to keep count of rows/stitches/etc).

I forgot that I didn't post the sweater that I made for Glen's sister's new baby! I made a BSJ and some booties. They really liked them and I can't wait to get a picture of baby Jai in his new sweater!

I've been taking so many pictures this month that my July folder is getting angry with me every time I open it (all my pictures are hyper-sorted too so it's not like it's ALL the pictures I've taken in July - it's my July 2008 Arctic Pictures folder that's getting grouchy!).
We went out on Tuesday and took some Cloudberry/Aqpik/Bake Apple pictures for a top secret project. Here's one of the pictures I took:

I know a lot of people really love these little berries but I think I'm missing what makes them so good. The few I had were good at first but had a really gross taste after the initial taste wore off :-/ bleh... But they're kind of pretty and they're hard to find (no one will tell you where they pick berries!) so it's kind of worth being massacred by mosquitoes to take pictures of them.

Temperature: +16C
Sunrise: 4:31am
Sunset: 1:23am

Some GNAF Stuff

2008-07-22T13:03:00.005-06:00

I've finally gotten around to resizing a few pictures from the festival. The first picture (well, group of pictures) is what everyone finished in my needle felting workshop. The whole thing went really well I think and people really enjoyed themselves

I'd definitely do a workshop like that again next year. I had 6 people total (one person did two pieces) and it was a pretty good amount - I'm sure if I had a full class of 10 it would've been ok too.

Next up are some of the needle felting things I finished at the festival. Basically, the people that do sewing and stuff set up in the gallery and do their craft for 10 days. People come by and ask questions/sit down and talk to you etc. I had A LOT of people come up and ask about needle felting!

I had a few custom orders so that kept me pretty busy. It was great to be able to have so much time to really get stuff done! Both butterflies are approx 12"x12" and the muskox one is about 6"x6"

Temperature: +8C
Sunrise: 4:01am
Sunset: 1:51am

Braces Be Gone!

2008-07-20T10:33:00.005-06:00

My braces are off!!!!!
I admit, they could've stayed on another month to really fine tune things but I wanted them off and the ortho was happy to take them off for me. I'm so happy :-D The first thing we did was go to the store and buy corn on the cob - mmmmm! I also got to eat a whole apple without cutting it (first time in over 3½ years since I cut them up even before the braces went on). I have a clear retainer now and in a few months I'll get one of the more traditional ones.

I have all sorts of exciting festival news to share as well but that's going to have to wait for tomorrow or Tuesday. The closing ceremonies are today at 4pm. I'm sad it's the end, I've had so much fun.

Temperature: +10C
Sunrise: 3:41am
Sunset: 2:08am

GNAF

2008-07-11T23:09:00.006-06:00

Tonight was the grand opening of the Great Northern Arts Festival. I spent most of the day there helping get things ready and then went back for the ceremonies. Everything looks GREAT I took a few pictures with my new lens (another one). I got a 10-22mm ultra wide-angle lens. I'm really impressed with it - you can get SO much in the shot! I also got an AWESOME gear bag - Lowepro Stealth Reporter (link takes you to a photo) - I love it because I can fit everything in it PLUS my laptop and it's a shoulder bag. I have a Lowepro backpack and it was always a bit of a pain to take it off to get gear out - and I was constantly worried that I'd drop a lens out or something.

Here a few pictures I took tonight while they were still getting things set up:

Here's a (crappy) picture of my display:

I'm hoping to get a better one tomorrow morning when I go back and get my table set up.

And here are a few just for fun shots I took on the way home (LOVE the ultra wide angle!!!)

Temperature: +14C
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a

Edit: Yesterday was my one year blogiversary! If I was more on the ball and not so busy I would've had a contest... I'll think about having a belated one after the festival so stay tuned ;-)

New Lens!

2008-07-04T00:21:00.004-06:00

I ordered a new lens last week and it came today! I'm so excited! It's a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8II. Great for portraits and close-up nature stuff (it would work ok for just plain landscape stuff too but it doesn't zoom). Even though it's a bit cloudy out and the mosquitoes are outrageous, I put on some bug repellent and took some shots on the road (this picture was taken around 11:45pm).

I'm really looking forward to getting out in some better light and hopefully less bees (one chased me around and almost got caught in my hair - ahhhh!). My camera is SO light now with this tiny lens (the other one is a 28-135mm - a bit of a monster and not a very "sneaky" lens).
In a few weeks I'm planning on ordering a 10-22mm lens unless something more interesting in the same price range catches my eye.

The festival is a week away! I have all my prints in so I'm ready to go!

Glen's sister had her baby this week and I knit up some cute things. Once they get the package I'll post pictures (we sent it priority so it should be there next week).

Temperature: +18C
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a

Heat Wave!

2008-06-25T13:25:00.004-06:00

The weather has been really hot here (between 25 & 30C) so we haven't been doing too much. My computer has been mostly off because it's been WAY too hot in here (I think it's cooler outside!).
This past weekend we went and hung out with some friends out at one of the camp grounds. I went out on Saturday night after work and then back out on Sunday and spent the day out there. We went swimming in one of the lakes (whoa, COLD!) and by the time we walked back to the site we were all dry!
On Monday we had a BBQ for my birthday. Everyone was tired from the weekend so it was a pretty quiet day. I had a lot of fun though.
Because it was so hot, yesterday was pretty much spent on the couch playing Mario Kart (yay birthday present!).

I need to get some new pictures of my plants - they're going crazy! My tomatoes came up in one afternoon!

Anyway! Just a mini update before I get ready to go to work. Once it cools down a little I'll try to do a proper post

Temperature: +25C
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a

Gardening

2008-06-17T18:44:00.005-06:00

Inspired by Bezzie's container gardening, a few weeks ago I went and bought some pots, dirt and seeds and planted my own little container garden:

I'm worried that I might've planted a bit late but I figured our 24hrs of daylight will make up for it. On the package of corn it said it's specially selected for colder environments with shorter growing times so we'll see! The only things sprouting right now are my peas (woo!) and my morning glory. Sometime this week I'll go pick up some netting for my peas. I wasn't sure if the landlady wanted to put anything in the raised beds in the yard otherwise I guess I could've used those.

I've been trying to get out and take more pictures lately. It's a bit hard because I've been going to bed fairly early and during the day there isn't really anything remarkable happening (a photography book I just got said that the only two times a day a landscape photographer should be out taking pictures is dawn and dusk --- dusk here is 2-3am!). Anyway, we went for a walk around the lake yesterday evening and I got a few nice shots and then around 2am I noticed the light was doing some pretty cool things outside so we took a drive. I don't normally put my "professional" photos up on here but I really wanted to share this shot:

Robin Update:
Mum said the baby robins have left the nest so unfortunately there aren't any more pictures :-( That happened faster than I thought it would!

Temperature: +13C
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a

Robin Update

2008-06-09T17:15:00.005-06:00

I'm a little late posting this picture but mum sent me a picture of the Robins from Friday.

There hasn't been too much knitting happening lately but I've been dyeing quite a bit. I have 5 or 6 skeins dyed, dried and reskeined. All I need to do is make tags and take pictures of them.

I might be getting my braces off next month - woo! There's a bit of a kerfuffle though... Because of budget cuts the hospital doesn't think they can continue the orthodontist's contract which leaves me pretty screwed... The ortho is going to try to come up once more and if my teeth aren't quite ready I'll have to fly to Yellowknife (at my own expense) to get ortho treatment. I'm pretty mad since I never would've decided to get braces if I knew this would happen and we're SO close to being done too! I can't afford to fly to Yellowknife every 6 weeks to have adjustments (that would make my braces probably the most expensive ones on the planet if they cost $5000 already and then an extra $1000 for every flight to YK... ugh!!!).
I really hope they can work something out because I don't want to get the braces off before I'm 100% satisfied but at the same time they HAVE TO come off if the ortho is only coming up once more - ugh!! At the moment we're trying to speed things along so I'll be done in 6ish weeks so I have the most ridiculous elastics configuration EVER. Here's a picture of the two I could find:

The first one is on my left side the second one goes right across the front of my teeth basically making it impossible to eat, drink (yay straws!) and talk and then the third one is a box configuration on my right side starting at my canine tooth (it goes from that tooth to the premolar next to it and then to the two teeth below). It's also extremely painful :(

Anyway! I'm off to figure out what to do about dinner!

(P.S. My "Artist Bio" is up on gnaf.org!)

Temperature: +21C
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a

Exciting News From the Park!

2008-06-02T15:55:00.006-06:00

My mum called me collect on Saturday from the payphone out at the park to tell me some exciting news. Remember those Robin's eggs? Well, there are three babies in the nest now!

Since she'll be out there so much she's going to try to get a picture of them ever few days/week.

I got all my kits put together for my workshop (took all evening!) and I even got a really great piece done (it's a picture of fireweed a plant that is REALLY common around here).

I have another picture done too but it's not as great. I don't draw or paint so it's a bit tough for me to get perspective just right. I find needle felting to be a bit more forgiving than drawing or painting so I don't get so frustrated.

Here's a picture of the first batch of canvases I ordered:

These are all 8x10s. I put in another order with a few more 8x10s and some 16x20s. I also ordered two 16x20s of our Australia pictures (a Koala picture and a Twelve Apostles picture). I LOVE how these turned out and I'm so excited.

Anyway! I should get ready to go downtown... I was going to get my drivers license renewed today but I think I'll put it off until tomorrow.

Temperature: +9C
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a

The Rain Followed Me Home...

2008-05-29T14:41:00.003-06:00

Well, I'm home! Apparently a week and a half of rain wasn't enough because it followed me up here - it's been raining since I landed - arg!!!! Rain up here is pretty miserable - it gets COLD when it rains. Not like other places where summer rain is nice and refreshing and can even be warm. Oh no, not here. Rain means the temperature plunges and you get icy raindrops and freezing wind. And for me it means I get nice and sore/achy. My friggin hips are killing me and all I want to do is sleep - but I can't since sleeping hurts too much :-(

So remember how I was going to have this great post with pictures of the antelope I saw (the closest one yet)? Well genius Glen was playing with the new camera and somehow erased ALL the pictures - ?!?!?! - I hadn't even found the erase all button! So all my pictures from the last day (antelope and pictures from the park) are all gone :-( booo!!!!

So going along with our lack of pictures theme for the day, I made a great dinner last night and didn't even get pictures of it. I bought a Crohn's book while I was south and the last 200ish pages are all recipes. It has a killer falafel recipe in it that I've made twice now. We went to two grocery stores yesterday and neither of them had pitas so I decided to make my own. They turned out REALLY good!
First off, the falafel itself was better than the first time (coarsely chopped the chickpeas with my manual starfrit thinger instead of blending them too much made it MUCH easier to work with and I made them into patties instead of balls). They could've used a bit more spice but it was still good. Secondly, home made pita is friggin amazing! Besides the fact that it tasted like actual pita, the fact that they puff up in the oven and actually make a pocket is so cool! Another bonus is the fact that it didn't upset my stomach at all - woo!

On the yarn-y front, I've been dyeing a few skeins a day since I got home. I'm seriously thinking of starting an etsy shop but I have to look into a few things (like fees for paypal and all that?). If I start one up it probably won't be until August-ish. I'm knee deep in arts festival prep right now and that's taking a lot of my time and concentration. I got my preliminary canvas prints yesterday and am really thrilled. I've ordered a bunch more and I'm thinking about doing cards and calendars again. I'm having a problem finding a place that does printing and doesn't plaster their logo on everything. I have all my workshop stuff too - woo! - I have to make up a few example pieces and put the kits together and I'll be ready for that too. I'll try to get some of that done tonight during Lost.

Anyway! This is getting rather long. I'll get a picture of those canvases and post that soon!

Temperature: +2C (feels like -2C)
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a

I'm up too early...

2008-05-26T07:55:00.004-06:00

I'm up WAY too early!! grr! As much as I like being here and not at work/etc, I can't wait to get home and sleep in my own bed in my own quiet (smoke free!) house!
I was totally going to post pictures of the antelope we saw yesterday but my camera is upstairs and it's too early to talk to anyone. I guess it'll have to wait until Tuesday or Wednesday.

I was tagged for a meme - My first one! I figure I'd better do it now so I don't forget!

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
In May 1998, I was getting ready to finish grade 9 and move on up to High School. Our school was getting ready to be torn down and rebuilt so there was a lot of packing up of stuff and also a lot of sitting around playing cards in some classes.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today?
Pack, figure out if I need to send some stuff home by mail, drive to Medicine Hat to catch the plane, have my last fast food for probably another year, and go to Michael's Crafts.

3. Snacks I enjoy:
Fruit, popcorn, chips & dip, Almond M&Ms

4. Places I’ve lived:
Inuvik NT, Germany (Stendal --- Does 1 month in Marburg count too?), Victoria BC, Wetaskiwin AB (5 places there)

5. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Travel, buy some land and build a house (maybe a little hobby farm too?), do charity work and do programs that help children go to school/get vaccinated/buy medicine/buy livestock for families/etc

I'm supposed to tag people but honestly I don't know who to tag. How about if you decide to do it let me know? haha

Shaunavon
Temperature: +2C (feels like -3C ---- WTF?!?!)
Sunrise: 5:09am
Sunset: 9:06pm

Prairie Days

2008-05-25T13:33:00.004-06:00

Today is the last full day I'm here. Tomorrow we'll drive out to Medicine Hat so I can hop on a tiny plane to fly to Edmonton then on Tuesday I'll fly back home (ahhh I hope my flights are better than the barfy ones I had on the way down!!!)

We've spent most of our afternoons out at the regional park where mum is the caretaker. Yesterday we went for a walk around the country-side since there wasn't anyone around camping and it was too wet to mow lawns and stuff.
There's a robin's nest at the end of one of the sites near the road. Every time someone walks or drives by the robin flies away - silly bird, you'd think she'd pick a better spot for her nest... I got a great picture of her eggs though:

Most of the days we've driven out to the park or up to Swift Current we've seen antelope. They're hard to get a picture of since they're usually laying down in fields or running away (not to mention the fact that we're driving on a highway past them). On our last trip to Swift Current we stopped as a group of them ran across the road so I managed to get a good shot (compared to all the other ones I've tried to get).

Other than that, we saw a fox yesterday or the day before but I didn't get a good picture of it (once again with it running away and us driving fast). Mum keeps saying that there are moose in the park but I haven't seen any.

Other that, I've just been playing around with the new camera. As much as I love my ultra expensive Canon camera the one thing it doesn't do well (with my current lens situation) is close-up shots. I wish I could afford a macro lens (and a fish eye and.... haha). So yeah, I now have a really good second camera that will do close up shots, self portraits (whoa, ever try one of those with a DSLR? You almost break your wrist!) and it's small enough that I can just throw it in my purse (instead of lugging around a whole dedicated backpack). It's handy for getting those "up close and personal" shots like the bird egg pictures... I couldn't imagine trying to wrangle my other camera into there (I mean, I could but it's a bit of a hassle).

mmm, strawberries!

Glennie Puss-Puss cuddling my slipper (it's hard to resist moose hide and beaver when you're a cat!)

Tumbleweed! They do exist!

So yeah! We're going to head out to the park in a while to see if anyone is out there (I doubt it, who wants to camp in the rain?) and I'm going to try to get some pictures so I can post them when I get home (or tonight if I get bored and don't want to pack)

Inuvik
Temperature: +15C
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a
24hrs of daylight is here!!!

Shaunavon
Temperature: +10C (how sad that it's warmer in the Arctic!)
Sunrise: 5:10am
Sunset: 9:05pm

Small Town Saskatchewan

2008-05-20T22:23:00.004-06:00

What a change from Inuvik!!
The weather since Thursday has been fabulous. Even Yellowknife was "hot" when we flew through! Unfortunately my Inuvik - Edmonton flight was rough and I ended up getting sick as we were landing in YK. It was my first time actually getting sick on a plane - how embarassing!! The flight was absolutely packed so I was squashed between two people and we were landing so I couldn't get up to go be sick in private - yuck! Thankfully my Edmonton - Medicine Hat flight was better and I had gravol & ativan on board. Of course now I'm paranoid about all the

Mum and I spent Monday out at the regional park cleaning up after May Long campers and today was spent getting groceries, going to the greenhouse and planting things in the garden. We weren't out there for very long (2hrs at most?) and I managed to get a little sunburnt on my shoulders - damn! The weather has been in the mid to high 20s (25C = 77F) a pretty big jump from 0 - +5C! All the leaves are starting to really come out and there are flowers blooming.
I think we're planning on going back out to the park tomorrow to do the garbages and then I don't know what the plan for the rest of the day is.

Main Street

Tulip in Mum's garden

I've got a small amount of knitting done (BSJ #5!) but nothing too exciting progress wise. I'll probably have more time to do some knitting since it's supposed to rain for most of the rest of the time I'm here (boo!!).

Inuvik
Temperature: -1C (feels like -5C)
Sunrise: 3:54am
Sunset: 1:54am
(coming up to the home stretch!!)

Shaunavon
Temperature: +18C
Sunrise: 5:16am
Sunset: 8:58pm

Baby Surprise Jackets

2008-05-12T14:37:00.004-06:00

I finished my third BSJ over the weekend and have already started a fourth (addictive little things!). I'm making a few sizes since you never know when something like this could come in handy (and I have no idea what size children are! ie: I can't look at one of these sweaters and say "oh! That will fit a ___ year/month old").

The green one is by far the biggest one I've knit so far (I was starting to think I could wear it as a shrug!) and the pink one is the smallest. I don't really have a lot of experience with newborn babies so I don't know if the pink sweater would actually fit a baby or if it's too small... I have a doll that my mum made and it's wearing an outfit I wore when I was a few months old and, the sweater fit the doll so I'm thinking as long as the baby isn't 10lbs it'll probably fit (I was a smallish baby at 6lbs 6ish oz).

I'm going out of town at the end of the week (another medical trip!) so I'm trying to decide what projects I should take with me. I might have my fourth BSJ done by the time I leave so I could either start another one and bring it or bring something completely different (felted slippers, the socks I've been working on, ???)... Ahhh decisions!
I'm trying to decide if I want to take knitting with me on the plane. I've never had problems before but I don't really fancy losing a set of KP Options tips when I go through security in Yellowknife and Edmonton.
I'm extending my trip so I can go down to Saskatchewan and see my mum. I haven't seen her since last year when we got back from Australia. Since she lives so close to the US (75km to the border) we're thinking of taking a day trip into Montana (either Havre or Great Falls). I'm going to take my camera and my laptop so I should have time to update my blog while I'm gone (we don't really have any concrete plans - I'll be there from the 18th-26th).

Temperature: +3C (feels like -1C)
Sunrise: 4:47am
Sunset: 12:57am

Dyed Yarn and Needle Felting!

2008-05-06T17:57:00.004-06:00

I've finally gotten around to taking pictures of my latest dyeing. I'm not too happy with the pictures though - it's been overcast for a few days now so it was hard to get accurate colours. I did some photoshop work and they're as close as I can get them (I hate editing colours in photos, sort of feels like cheating). The red skeins have a lot more pink and orange in them than it shows.

I've also started some more elaborate needle felting (branching out from the inuksuks I've been doing!). I'm planning on running a needle felting workshop this summer so I figured I'd better get some example pieces done. I've ordered all my supplies and a few books (more examples and I'd love to do some 3D animals!). I'm getting really excited! For the people that have been reading from the beginning, one of my first posts (or was it my first?) was about the craft-y stuff I did at the art festival last summer - that is where I'll be running the workshop. Normally the workshop you run is related to the art you have in the gallery but since I can't really think of a good photography workshop I got the OK to do a needle felting one.

I got another BSJ done the other day but forgot to take a picture of it earlier. It's A LOT smaller than the previous one I made. I'm almost wondering if it'll be too small for an actual baby? If all else fails it can go on a doll!

Temperature: -3C (feels like -7C)
Sunrise: 5:19am
Sunset: 12:29am

Dog Sledding!

2008-04-23T23:38:00.008-06:00

What a great day!
Glen, Marc, Cristine and Kendra and I went dog sledding today from 7pm-9:30pm. We all got our own teams (Glen, Marc and Cristine and I had 4 dogs - Kendra had 3). We got a briefing on how to control the sled (brakes, drag pad and snow hook) and the basic commands for the dogs (cha = left and chi/chee=right)

Me with my team!

Basically, the dogs know what they're doing and control themselves. There's a network of trails with multiple paths side by side - at one point you'll be riding along side someone and then their path will turn into the woods and it's pretty much you and your dogs (unless you're behind/in front of someone). You get the opportunity to shout your commands when you want to switch trails. I got a really fast, well behaved team. At one point I was at the front of the pack with the lady who owns the teams and we had a race - what a blast!

Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. Glen fell 3 times mostly because he switched sleds/teams with Marc and Marc's sled was really hard to control.
It's a lot more work than you'd think it is and we're all probably going to be sore in the morning.

Here's a link to my Flickr set (click). The site is being weird so I haven't had a chance to add descriptions or anything yet.

I can't believe I've been here 5 years and hadn't had a chance to get out there. It would be something neat to do every year.

Temperature: -8C (windchill -13C)
Sunrise: 6:17am
Sunset: 11:29pm

Crumpets (take two!)

2008-04-22T21:15:00.004-06:00

I finally got around to re-attempting crumpets. My first batch the last time left something to be desired and apparently didn't taste like a crumpet at all.
Armed with a new recipe and a bit of patience we have SUCCESS!

They got the nod of approval from the resident crumpet connoisseur (unfortunately he ate his token crumpet before I could get a picture for posterity). Thanks again Mary Alyce for the crumpet rings!

Tomorrow evening we're going dog sledding with my brother, his gf and a friend. Our friend went last week and had so much fun that when she heard we were going she asked if she could join us. We're going to do a dinner here before we head out (I want to make veggie chili but we also have a bunch of random roasts in the freezer from a friend that we should cook up so I'll throw a roast in the slow cooker overnight and maybe make a pot of meaty chili for everyone else... I'm also planning a strawberry pound cake for dessert - how fancy!).

Check back late tomorrow evening or early Thursday for pictures!

Temperature: -8C (feels like -15C)
Sunrise: 6:26am
Sunset: 11:21pm

Spring Forward Package!

2008-04-17T23:48:00.006-06:00

Here's my latest secret pal package (for our single box "Spring Forward" swap)!!

This is what I got: Burts bees lotion (!!!), two boxes of tea: Earl Grey and green tea (my favourites! I had a cup of green tea today and it was SO good), a Kentucky magnet, a bag to put around my wrist for knitting in public - so handy!, a pencil, a ball of Austerman Step, a crazy sproingy sheep toy - scared the crap out of my cats haha, peep toys (woo! I don't like peeps but these toys are cute!!), some mints in a cool tin, dpn point protectors and a really cute card :-D
My SP also sent me all sorts of really cute e-cards. Thanks!!!!!!!

(and if you look close enough in the picture, you can see that we still have a tonne of snow!!)

I started doing some needle felting on another pair of slippers but no photos yet... I would've been done last night but I went straight to bed when I got home from work.

Temperature: -18C
Sunrise: 6:44am
Sunset: 11:04pm

Knitting Content (and lots of it!)

2008-04-15T21:39:00.005-06:00

Well, I've been a bit busy on the knitting front again. About a week or so ago I got a big box from Knit Picks with my order of "Bare" yarn (in fingering and worsted weight). I planned to dye up some yarn for my Secret Pal (and mys
elf). I got four skeins done and now I have to decide whether I want to send all four to her or not - I'm thinking I will since I have plenty of yarn left to dye. All that's left is to think of names for the yarns - I already have all my little tags printed out!

I also have quite a few pairs of slippers knit up (four to be exact!). I'm in the process of embellishing them so I'll post them as they're completely finished. Right now I have one pair finished. I've been wanting to do embroidery on my felted things for a really long time now so I had a look around Ravelry to see if anyone had done something similar. I found some really awesome FO's out there. This first pair is just an experiment to see how my free-hand embroidery skills are (I've only done cross stitch before). I'm actually really pleased with how they turned out.

I bought two sets of shoe stretchers (women's size 5-8 and women's size 9-11) and they have totally changed my slipper blocking! I used to stuff them full of shopping bags and put elastics around them to keep their shape then, a few weeks ago I made duct tape forms of my feet (stuffed them with shopping bags) but those didn't work as well and didn't keep their shape when stuffed into a stubborn slipper.
Shoe stretchers are BRILLIANT. The little black slippers went from a women's size 8ish (maybe even smaller, they wouldn't fit properly onto my size 9 feet) to a comfortable size 9 - the heel is in the proper spot, my toes aren't stretching out the ends - AWESOME! I'm blocking a pair of felted clogs that got very small in only one run-through in the washer. With my incredible shoe stretchers, they've gone from being teeny-tiny to adult size. Can you tell I'm totally impressed? They give the slippers/clogs a really nice shape to them too.

My next big excitement is about the BSJ (baby surprise jacket). I got the pattern from a lovely lady on Knitty quite a while ago and for the life of me couldn't wrap my head around it (I'm not so good at reading a pattern and then knowing in my head what it should look like). I have to say, I was really embarrassed I couldn't figure this pattern out. Anyway, I bought the BSJ video done by Meg Swansen and I totally got how to knit it. I ended up doing a "trail run" and using some scrap kitchen cotton and it took me about 12hrs. I'm totally impressed with this pattern and how it turned out that I think this might become my default baby sweater pattern - I love the fact that you only have to sew two seams and it's all in one piece (hello my languishing trellis baby sweater I'm looking at you!).

Anyway! That's my big update for now! Anyone with good ideas for spring-y names for that yarn, leave a comment!

Oh! As of today I've been in Inuvik for 5 years! Whoa!

Temperature: -13C
Sunrise: 6:58am
Sunset: 10:52pm

SP 10 Final Package!

2008-03-29T12:30:00.003-06:00

Here's the last package from my Knitty SP 10. I got 2 balls of Patons SWS and two balls of Freedom Spirit. I also got a toblerone, hubba bubba gum and some lavender body wash.

Thanks SP!

I really want to do some more dyeing but I only have 2 balls of highland wool left and Elann occasionally runs out of white - it's going to be my luck that I'll dye it up and I'll desperately need white for something.. I guess I'll just have to be patient until my knitpicks comes in or I should just suck it up and order a bunch more highland wool from Elann... Decisions decisions :-P (ohhh there's some in stock.....)

Temperature: -26C
Sunrise: 8:12am
Sunset: 9:46pm

Easter Egg Dying Experiment

2008-03-25T21:19:00.005-06:00

It's the that time of year - the time of year you can get Easter egg dyes and cheap! Today I went out to the drugstore (the only store in town that I know carried the kits) and bought 20 kits. The girls at the store gave me a funny look when I told them what I was using the dye for ("What? That'll work?" was their reply). Even at a discount the kits were more expensive than they could've been but they came out to almost the price of two packets of kool aid (and you get 6 pellets!).

I had some Elann Peruvian Highland wool in white that I decided to use (I ordered some KnitPicks bare a few days ago). The kits came with blue, purple, yellow, orange, pink and green. The purple doesn't really turn out purple unless you add a bit of the pink to it and then it turns a really nice shade (if you add pink to the blue, it turns a really dark bluey-purple). All in all, I think my little experiment turned out really good. The colours are a lot different than how kool aid turns out (I think the colours are a lot more vivid).

Here are the results:

Number one is my favourite and number four is my least favourite. When I was dying #4 I thought I grabbed a pink pellet but it was orange. I don't think I can really over dye it since orange doesn't really go with anything (I keep forgetting and putting orange next to purple - yuck!!!). Anyone like orange and blue?

Temperature: -29C
Sunrise: 8:29am
Sunset: 9:32pm

Guinness & a Hat!

2008-03-22T23:48:00.004-06:00

Finally got a bit of knitting done! I have 3 "work" projects on the go right now. I started a baby blanket for Glen's sister but I've been really dizzy lately and looking at it was making my dizziness (& nausea!) worse. So I decided to knit up a few hats since they're quick and are hopefully something I can knit without feeling too sick.

Pattern: No pattern, cast on 92 stitches and went from there
Needles: 4.0, 16" circ
Yarn: Kool-Aid dyed Classic Elite Attitude. I don't know how much of the colour is going to stay since it's cotton & silk. It seems the silk really picked the colour up so it's like a muted colour with bright sort of streaks in it. The colour started to spiral but then stopped a few inches in (I think because I attempted to change to stst and then had to rip it back. My gauge must have changed).
Notes: The hat is a little short so who ever gets it will have to have a small head or not care if the hat doesn't cover all of their ears.

And in other news, I tried my first Guinness tonight. I'm NOT a beer person but I really liked the Guinness. It has a more mellow taste and it's not fizzy (I think part of the reason I don't like beer is because it's too fizzy). I couldn't drink a whole can of it (no pub here to have a proper one) but I think I'd be able to in the future.

Temperature: -29C
Sunrise: 8:37am
Sunset: 9:24pm

RAK

2008-03-11T20:52:00.004-06:00

I received a great RAK yesterday from amaryllis on the knitty board. I got a set of crumpet/english muffin rings and some other goodies (chocolate, key rings and some very pretty stitch markers --- the crumpet rings are busy making crumpets that's why they're not in the picture)

I tried making crumpets yesterday but they turned out more english muffin-y... While the recipes are pretty straight forward the batter doesn't turn out how it should when you add all the flour. It turns into more of a dough - definitely not batter-like and definitely not pourable like the recipes say. I tried it twice yesterday, once using the specified amount of flour and the crumpets didn't cook in the middle (too thick) so I tossed them and tried again with a cup less flour. They turned out (muffin-y like I said) so we kept them but they still weren't crumpet-y enough. I think I'm going to find a recipe that uses baking powder instead of yeast because our crumpfins tasted a bit too yeasty. Interesting... Thanks again amaryllis!!!

Not a lot of knitting has been happening... My days off have been spent relaxing/sleeping and running various errands... I tried knitting more on my sock the other day at work but my finger was too sore (the needle was sitting funny on one of my fingers - must've been a pressure point or something because OUCH!).

Oh, I've been meaning to post this for a while.... A few weeks ago I made a greek salad (2 green peppers, a cucumber, a red onion, some carrots, a few vine tomatoes and feta cheese) and it cost me $40!! How much would it cost to make something like that where you live?

Temperature: -19C (windchill: -26C)
Sunrise: 9:29am
Sunset: 8:40pm <-!!!!!!!!

SP Package!

2008-02-26T15:40:00.004-07:00

Thank you SP for another package!

Puffin Postcard, Yellow Sock Yarn (!), Bert's Bees Lip Balm, Lindt Chocolate and some dark chocolate with orange.

Not a lot of knitting going on at the moment. I'm still feeling under the weather from some medical stuff last week. I was hoping to get that pair of felted clogs done but that doesn't look like it's going to happen.

Temperature: -23C
Sunrise: 9:28am
Sunset: 6:46pm

More FO's!

2008-02-19T22:50:00.005-07:00

Wow, I'm just churning them out!!
Back in January, Glen decided that we (I!) needed to make his brother a Jayne hat for his birthday. I scoured the 'net for appropriate coloured yarn (it was tough!!!) and finally settled on ordering from WEBS. All of the yarn but the yellow arrived a few weeks ago so I waited for the backorder to be shipped and it arrived today! I cast on right away since we're now 18 days past Glen's brother's birthday and it still has to ship to Australia. This was probably one of the quickest hats I've ever made.

Pattern: Jayne Hat by Dryope
Yarn: Valley Yarns Berkshire Bulky
Colour: 10, 12, 15
Needle: Size 8 (16"circ and 4 DPNs)
Mods: Pretty much followed the pattern exactly. It's a bit small so next time I'd cast on 7 or 14 more stitches.

Next we have a pair of felted clogs that have been languishing in one of many WIP bags... It requires too much concentration to be able to knit it at work so that's why it hasn't been worked on. I always forget how fast these are to knit, I've already started on another random pair and have one (minus the second sole) done.

Yarn: Gjestal Naturgarn No. 1
Needle: Size 13
Mods: I work these on straight needles instead of a circular. I don't mind sewing them up.

And then!! Another pair of socks. Basic 64 stitch plain sock. Socks have become my work knitting. They're super simple and any concentration you have to do (turning the heel) is quick and it's easy to put down without losing your place.

Yarn: OnLine Supersocke 100 Tropic
Colour: 929
Needle: Size 1 DPNs

Another FO!

2008-02-12T17:04:00.001-07:00

I'm on a roll!
I finished my earflap hat yesterday and got some pictures of me wearing it today. I wanted to get a shot too of how frosty my eyelashes get just from the walk home from the post office (less than a 10 minute walk). It wasn't as cold here as it has been for the last couple of weeks so my eyelashes aren't as frosty as they normally are. I know I look a bit dorky but at least my ears won't get frostbite and I won't have to keep taking my massive mitts off to tug my toque down all the time. (sidenote: My parka makes me look HUGE... I'm really not that big...)

Pattern: Official Kittyville Hat (no cat ears or devil horns)
Yarn: Bernat Big Value
Needles: Size 7, 16" circular and size 8 DPNs
Interesting tidbit: I bought the yarn in the summer a number of years ago and it happened to match my parka perfectly. I've been meaning to make some sort of winter accessory for ages.

When the weather gets cold again I'm going to see if I can get an even frostier picture than that.

Temperature: -26C (windchill -35C)
Sunrise: 10:28am
Sunset: 5:49pm

New socks in less than a week!

2008-02-08T23:16:00.001-07:00

I just finished a pair of self-striping socks for me!
I did the heel flap experiment and it all turned out! No pooling!! Once again, I made them "identical" for the hell of it. The only thing different again is the colour on the ends of the toes.
I think I'm going to take a break from socks and knit a few hats now... I have a Jayne hat to make for Glen's brother (just waiting on yellow yarn) and I desperately need an ear flap hat for myself. I have a really nice black cabled hat that I made but for some reason it doesn't like to stay over my ears. So I think a modified Kittyville hat is in my future. Off to dig in my stash I guess (which btw, I think I might be having a huge destash coming up... We're running into visa/immigration issues with Glen and are getting papers ready for my eventual exit to Australia so, if and when we do go only my "special" fibres will be joining us over there...) Stay tuned!!

Temperature: -37C
Sunrise: 10:41am
Sunset: 5:36pm

Self-striping short-row heel socks!

2008-02-04T14:13:00.001-07:00

My first pair of self-striping, short-row heel socks are done and in the mail!
I got them finished on Saturday and they are virtually identical. The only thing is that the end colour for the toes is longer on one sock. I normally don't go to the extra trouble to make two socks exactly the same colour-wise but I thought I might as well since they striped so nice. It also helped with not having to do a lot of measuring haha.
Like I said in my previous post, I'm not as thrilled with the heel as I thought I would be which makes the whole thing a little disappointing for me. The heel seemed to want to sit more towards the bottom of my heel rather than towards the back of it. Since I'm new at this short-row heel thing I don't know if this is a matter of fit, pattern, my foot, or if this is just the nature of the heel.
They're going to my mum (like A LOT of my "first tries" do) so we'll see how they fit her (her foot is a touch wider and shorter so I think they might fit her better).
I've started a heel-flap sock with the same yarn so I'll see how the stripes work out for them. I'm not too concerned if the stripes are a little thinner for a few rounds around the instep as long as the colour doesn't pool (yuck!)

Temperature: -33C
Sunrise: 11:04am
Sunset: 5:14pm

(we're gaining 4 minutes in the morning and 4 minutes in the evening per day).

Warning! Knitting Content!

2008-01-28T17:35:00.001-07:00

Knitting finally!
I got my first self striping sock yarn the other day (OnLine - Tropic) and decided to try out my first short row heel (tried a toe up-short row once but it didn't work out). I messed up the first time but the second time it turned out - woo! I was planning on making these for my mum who has slightly smaller feet than me so they don't quite fit me... I have to say though, I don't like the fit of short row heels as much as I like the heel flap method.... I'm going to try another pair with a heel flap and cross my fingers that it doesn't mess up the self striping. I'm a bit disappointed because I've been scouring the 'net for months now trying to find a short row heel (ended up using the Priscilla's Dream Socks pattern for the heel and just a regular toe). I love the way it looks but yeah, it seems that when I put the sock on (even before I started the toe) I really had to pull the sock to get my heel where the heel of the sock is. That doesn't happen with the heel flap. And because I've knit enough flap heels they seem waaaaaay quicker than the short row (and take a lot less concentration).

My second project that I've been meaning to blog about is my entrelac project. I'm using the instructions for the Lady Eleanore Stole with a couple extra repeats thrown in. I'm using Knit Picks Shine Sport and alternating the colours every row - huge PITA btw... I have another yarn I'm looking at using for another entrelac project once this is out of the way. I'm making this in hopes of it becoming a baby blanket (I'll line it and probably do an applied i-cord edging or a crochet one). I definitely am fond of entrelac but it's not as good work knitting as say a sock or mitten.

Temperature: -32C (windchill: -42C --- It only takes 11km/h winds to drop the temp! They're having a blizzard where my mum lives and the windchill is in the -50s!!!)
Sunrise: 11:33am
Sunset: 4:40pm

SP Packages (and also bad news from family)....

2008-01-21T15:36:00.001-07:00

I just typed up a paragraph about some bad news I got from home this afternoon (the husband of one of my mum's friends passed away extremely young - 35 - and this situation surrounding what happened isn't great - doctor malpractice maybe?). But because I don't know the route the family is taking it's probably best I don't go into what happened. But I'm also very concerned because this doctor was also my mum's doctor. My mum has some severe undiagnosed health issue and this doctor (only a month or so ago) basically told my mum that all her -visible- health concerns were all in her head and she needs to get over herself. Whoa... Besides the terrible loss of this friend of the family, I'm extremely concerned for my mum - to have this doctor completely ignore her and also this friend and have the friend die makes you worry a bit (even though they had completely different symptoms). Anyway... I'm waiting for my mum to call me back since she's gone to spend some time with the family.
I'm not even going to go into the 3 hours I spent at the ER/Drs office on Friday due to some extremely unpleasant health issues and my rant about one of the doctors I saw (first doctor was great, the surgeon I saw for a consult after that, not so much).

So to take my mind off things a bit, I went and did some running around (bank, got my hair trimmed, checked the mail). I got some great mail today. One of the packages I got was from my Knitty SP10. I got the Interweave Favorite Socks book (I've been looking at buying it for a while now!) some yummy dark chocolate, some hot chocolate (mm!) and tea! I love, love Tazo tea - reminds me of staying at my Aunt's in BC. The other package I got was just toiletries from London Drugs. Fun and exciting none the less!

Our weather here has been extremely bizarre - it's all people are talking about downtown. The last 2 days it's been between +2 and -5C - In January!! To make it even stranger, the sun is out! Usually when it gets warm like this it's cloudy (we have to get some pretty cold weather for the sun to come out usually). I'm definitely not complaining but you can't help but think that this weather can't be good for all the ice further north. Speaking of other weird events, there was an earthquake 90km south of here and it registered a 5.8. Apparently people in town felt it but I didn't :( I'm really sad actually. As my mum said this morning, the one person who is on earthquake watch (me!!) didn't even feel it. I was probably asleep or just getting up when it happened (just before 1pm on Thursday). I have an earthquake tracker thing on my google home page and mum and I are always keeping track of the latest ones (big, small, unusual locations). There have been a few smaller ones (3s) a few hundred kms from here in the last few months but this was the closest and the biggest.

Temperature: -4C
Sunrise: 12:06pm
Sunset: 4:05pm