Making cheap art

When we put up the new art earlier this month, we had to take down our trusty bulletin board. Ananda thought it was the end of an era. And while Michael is a little tired of the bulletin board and might have been happy to prove her right, I decided it would find a new home in the office.

We've used bulletin boards as a cheap way to decorate our walls since we moved into our first apartment in Vancouver. That'd be about, oh, eight years ago. Back then, we had three of these giant bulletin boards lined up in our living room, and they were full of cards, flyers, photos and posters. So much design goes into little bits of paper. It's fun to have a place to collect it all.


When we moved to Victoria, Michael convinced me to leave two of our boards behind. They weren't bulletin boards per se (cork board is expensive on such a grand scale). Rather, we bought these sheets of cork-like board at Home Depot from the flooring section for under 10 bucks each. They shed a little dust, but have otherwise served their purpose.



Now that I've taken these photos, I wish I had captured the original boards as they evolved. They can feature such funny moments. That photo of Michael wrestling the deer, for instance. It was taken on a shooting range when we lived in Whitehorse (the deer isn't real, friends).

I also love that picture of my Uncle Stephen(s) in the bottom photo. He used Photoshop to capture his three citizenship identities at once. I'm just plain old Canadian, but I have tentative plans to have more fun with Photoshop.

Heck, I love everything on the board (especially since I updated it during the move to the office).

So there you have it. The bulletin board collage is such an easy way to decorate, I couldn't let it go.

TV only softens the brain, like a ripe banana

Even though my other blogging friends spotted this before me, I'm going to go ahead and post it because, well, I'm the biggest Alec Baldwin fan of all. (And I've been ranting about TV a lot lately.)

Teaser

I'm planning to write a post about what you should do when you visit Tofino (or Ucluelet) by the end of the week. I think we've got it down, and I want to share the wealth. I've emailed tips to friends on a number of occasions, so I figure I may as well get everything down in one place before I forget I lived there. Tofino is one of those places that you can enjoy without knowing the dirt (e.g. see photo from Long Beach, above), but knowing the dirt makes a good thing even better. Stay tuned (and hold on to your own tips until the official post is published).

Making a Dutch baby

This isn't the best photo, but I hope you can see how this Dutch baby pancake is a show stopper. You should have heard the exclamations when I pulled this out of the oven for Sunday brunch. It's basically a giant yorkshire pudding! But sweeter!

I have happy memories of baked pancakes because we used to eat them on Christmas morning when my dad could still eat wheat. The main attraction (other than the name) is the efficiency of the meal. First, there are only four ingredients. Second, you don't have to hover over the stove flipping pancakes to enjoy the pancake experience. I understand that some people (e.g. Jen) enjoy flipping pancakes (she loves Smitten Kitchen's recipe for blueberry pancakes), but not me. I bake my pancakes. Save the frying pan for the bacon. (I think I might have to put those last two sentences on some T-shirts.)

I found my recipe for the dutch baby pancake in the Joy of Cooking, but I found an online version for you here. I made the double dutch version, which entails doubling the recipe and using a 9x13 baking dish intead of a cast iron frying pan. I suggest you top the pancake with icing sugar to liven it up a bit, and maybe even try adding some apples to the batter for some variety. We served the pancake with whipped cream and maple syrup, and there were no complaints.

It's really good, friends. I hope you give it a try.

P.S. This recipe resembles one that I put in the cookbook we made for Christmas, one that I have never tried but wanted to keep on my radar. I haven't made it because it requires a cast iron frying pan, which I don't own. It looks like I've got a reason to get my act in gear.

Checking in

I'm sure you've noticed that I've been favouring Things Worth Making lately (I just published a post about my new scarf). What can I say? I've been productive!

But I've been up to other fun things. I had a great weekend where I finished all of my chores on Saturday morning so I could completely relax for what remained. Michael, Jen and I had a lovely afternoon shopping around town and eating at Pig. We needed the iron, yo.

We had friends (including a baby friend) over for brunch on Sunday, and I made a baked pancake that I'll be writing about (on the other blog, obviously) in the near future. It was such a great weekend that I forgot that I had to work on Monday. Monday morning was hard on me. So was this morning, come to think of it.

I'm already looking forward to next weekend because we're going to Tofino with Ananda, who planned the trip with her upcoming birthday in mind. None of us have been back much since we lived there three years ago, which is a real shame. Here's to correcting the error of our ways! Michael and Ananda are planning to surf, and while I was against the idea at first, I might be warming up to the notion of jumping around in the waves. We'll see.

Making a scarf for myself

Remember that scarf I started a while back (i.e. in October)? I finished it! I'm taking a hint from Robyn and keeping it for myself.

It was nice having an easy, no-pressure project on the go for a few months. I just picked it up whenever I had time and took a break whenever I got annoyed with the fact that a scarf can take so long to knit.


I've never blocked a knitting project before, but it was necessary this time. Usually one doesn't need to block a simple scarf, but in this case the lacy pattern looked a little wonky, and I wanted to even it out. I laid the scarf on my futon, got it damp with a spray bottle, pinned it into shape and let it dry overnight. It worked! If you don't want to pin a project into your upholstry, I hear other people pin their projects onto a towel.

It's warming up around here, so I might put the knitting needles away for another year. At least I made it through one project, as planned. Next winter I might focus on neck warmers and big needles, to save myself some angst.