the obvious solution

There I was, happily playing the piano... it's functional now! Well, mostly. When we got it, two of the pedals were broken in half. And cast iron is either difficult or impossible to weld, depending on whom you ask. But the ever-handy-around-the-house husband moved the unimportant (to me) mute pedal from the left side over to the right side so that I could have a sustain. Of course, it faced the wrong way, and crawled into the hole in the bottom of my slipper, but it worked.

And then it didn't.

It broke in half too. Suddenly.

It's very annoying to play the piano with no sustain pedal. It makes songs sound chirpy in places where they should be mournful. It's just wrong.

So the ever-handy-around-the-house husband made me a new pedal.

Yep.

sister weekend

I went away last weekend, sans kids and husband, with my sisters. I think it's the first time we've ever done that... but it won't be the last. At least, not if I have anything to say about it!

We took the ferry across from the mainland to Vancouver Island and spent the afternoon in Victoria. I'd have happily spent a whole week there. What a pretty city! Of course, we were blessed with perfect weather, too, which didn't hurt.

And, oh, the cherry blossoms!!!

We had lunch at Rebar, of course. Ever since we were made aware of their cookbook, it's been a favourite. I've made so many things from it, and they've all been spectacularly wonderful.


The rest of the weekend was spent with our cousins up-island. We visited the farmer's market, and walked around town, and went to the beach, and had an all-round wonderful time visiting and catching up on old family stories.




I didn't get nearly as many pictures as I would've liked to, and the only one of the three of us that really turned out only included half of my sisters' faces...
good thing they know that I really do love them, hey?

unsatisfactory

I've now made my first attempt at screenprinting.

I must say, I'm not terribly impressed with the results I got.

I used this admirable tutorial and made my screen on a piece of old sheer curtain fabric. It was a bit of a nerve-wracking process, painting out the negative spaces with mod-podge and an eensy-teensy paintbrush... especially since Ellie was running around at the time, and I had to keep saying "don't bump the table!"

The screen turned out beautifully, and I used some Yudu ink for printing. I found the ink a little thick... then again, this was my first time, so I don't really know what I'm talking about, do I?!.. and the images didn't come out quite as clear as I would've liked, and I had to do quite a bit of touching up.

It was definitely a fun thing to try, and I'd like to make another attempt at it some time... maybe try a different brand or type of ink and see if I like it any better.

These are linen teatowels, and were made for a swap hosted by Soozs (how like me, to try out a new technique on something for other people!!!)

it all makes sense now

So, this is a conversation that's happened many times* over the last 20-odd years betwixt the husband and me.

Him: Why are you buying q-tips again? What a waste of money!

Me: Ummm... to clean my ears with. I do it every day. Don't you clean your ears???

Him: No.

Me: Are you kidding me? If I don't clean my ears out every day, they get all gooey and itchy and I go deaf.

Him: ????????? What do you mean? My ear wax dries up and falls out of my ears.

Me: ?????????????? How is that even possible??? Never mind; I'm buying the q-tips. Leave me alone.


Yeah. 

So, anyhow, as I'm doing random web-hopping the other day, I come across this interesting little tidbit: there is a recessive gene for dry earwax.

Who knew???


*don't ask me how many times; I don't keep track of things like that. I only know it's been more than a few.