Category: gardening

Recent Finds

I met up with Denny at the Textile Museum’s “More than just a yardage sale” on Friday and found some great stuff! See previous years’ haul posts here and here!

Usually the sale is held partly in the building and partly in tents in the adjacent parking lot – but the lot was filled with huge production vehicles, probably for the Suicide Squad movie filming here. They moved the whole sale inside and it was INSANE. If you’ve ever been before, you know that it’s already a crowded affair. It was even worse inside! But people are (mostly) polite and want to work together to keep the cash line moving and such.

Fewer purchases than previous years, but I have more fabric than time to sew, so…

Wool-ish plaid flannel, a little over 2m.

Crinkly cotton, nearly 4m – more than enough for a dress! Maybe lined with voile since it’s a little sheer? (Look at me, talking about making dresses like I’ve ever sewn a successful one.)

Jersey, 2m! I’m always on the lookout for decent jersey. This one has a bit of a slub to it, feels like it might be wool.

Fun plaid – I didn’t notice this pulled section until I took it out to photograph, but I can work around it. The fabric is nice and light, maybe for a tank top?

Oooh pretty silk.

A couple of lining fabrics, because I always forget to buy them and then obviously I don’t have it when I want it! It’s pretty difficult to discern the type of fabric, but I tried to pick ones that had a good drape and smoothness and weren’t too crunchy.

Other bits – a little bit of Aida, an assortment of buttons (there was one real mother of pearl button in there along with the plastic ones!), a roll of ribbon and a tin. It does have the ‘decorative cams’ inside (for a sewing machine) but I really just bought it for the tin!

Then on Saturday I went to check out a yard sale up the street, and got this Sigma lens for $30! It doesn’t autofocus with my camera body, but that’s okay. I should probably practice my manual focusing, for fun at least.

Preliminary testing indicates nice photos! Happy marigolds.

So, a consumption-y post for sure, but at least everything is from a previous home. I’m usually pretty bad at finding cool things at the thrift shop, yard sales, on the street (and have friends who are awesome at it), so it was really pretty satisfying to come up with some gems this time.

June 3, 2015
A Flowery Monday

Pretty things to brighten up your Monday!

Viewing the cherry blossoms at High Park (along with everyone else in town!), May 8 2015.

They’re growing! Dianthus (carnations), peas, radishes.

May 11, 2015
more and more plants

I apologize if you’re not a plant person! There’s a little knitting at the bottom of the post.

Last weekend we ventured out on a gorgeous day to do some shopping (City of Craft) and eating – here’s the soft serve we had after lunch at Momofuku Milk Bar – one cereal milk, one fried apple pie, both with cornflake crunch. Man that apple pie one was really delicious.

Crown Flora was having a plant sale and Dale’s been wanting some new cacti or houseplants so we checked it out. There was a line-up to get in still, but it wasn’t nearly as long as it had been before the shop opened, so I heard.

Things were getting a little picked over, but we still managed to find some gems. It was one of those small spots where the line to pay snakes around the store, so once you join the line you can still check out all the plants on your way to the cash! Ha!

It was quite windy, and I saw a few people struggling to protect their new plants while walking around. I’m super glad I took my basket as it made it very easy to carry them on the rest of our outing (with a box in the bottom for stability). Still managed to get poked by those cacti a few times though.

Some beauty shots:

In the garden, the radishes popped right up and need thinning. The peas are just starting to come up – there was a bit of snow yesterday and today, hopefully they’re okay.

And since it’s been so gloomy, I set up my desk lamp to be a grow light for the tomatoes (with a daylight bulb). They’re looking good and I think they’ll appreciate the extra light.

A little bit of knitting, since I don’t have much I can share – I started this sweater out of Indochine silk from Lantern Moon, but I was a bit unsure about the amount of yarn I have, and it got ripped out.

But the good news is, the yarn is much happier being knit up into a cowl.

READING

A bunch! A whole bunch of holds on e-books came in from the library all at once, isn’t that always how it is?

Bios, The Chronoliths, and Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson: good straight-up scifi. I like this author a lot.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Marukami: long and definitely winding. Like when I read 1Q84, I had to concentrate a bit to keep the thread as I’m reading. Lots of weirdness. I liked it but it was kind of hard to keep going sometimes.
Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch #1) by Ann Leckie: Interesting premise, I’m definitely going to read the other books.
Edge of Dark by Brenda Cooper (The Glittering Edge #1): Another good scifi world from a woman author! I really enjoyed this one.
The Martian by Andy Weir: Read this one really fast as I only had a few days left on the book! It really does read like a movie – the film is supposed to come out in November. Really draws you in, and amidst the science there’s humour too. Loved it!

EATING

The very first tiny leaves of chard from the windowsill; Oatmeal Date sandwich cookies (I made them smaller, and cooked the dates just with water and some sugar); shepherd’s pie. It’s still cold after all.

April 23, 2015