Jananas

Romeo’s discovered her true love – sleeping on Caroline’s legs/lap/chest while she’s trying to do school work. It leads to a lot of cute moments like this one.

My nana was a talented rug hooker. I still have coasters and a small rug that she made for me. Both family cottages are decorated with coasters, seat covers, and art pieces that she made. Sadly, when I was young I didn’t have an interest in learning. As part of an art series that I’m working on I realized that the best way to portray what I’m going for is through rug hooking, for two reasons – one, its a good contrast, and two, it honours her.

A few weeks ago I attended one of Barb D’arcy’s classes with a friend of the family. Barb is one of those inspirational people – talented and kickin’ it into her 80’s. [As an aside, she mentioned the importance of having hobbies because they give you a reason to get out of bed in the morning - something that becomes exceedingly important as partners and friends start to pass on. What makes you want to get out of bed in the morning?]

Being in her studio space as like getting to spend time with the holy grail of rug hooking. And it made me want to learn – about rug hooking, about dying, about fabric and weave and history. Next up on my list of classes to take is rug hooking – I’m only waiting so that I have enough free time in my schedule to make room for it!

However, just because I can’t take a class doesn’t mean that I can’t start to teach myself. I ended up going to the Hook In this past weekend up in North Toronto. I even joined the Ontario Hooking Craft Guild! Jason very kindly drove me and held my bags while I fondled wool, drooled over fleece, and oogled patterns. I bought a simple starter kit, a coarse hook, and a hoop. I took a crack at it over the weekend and spent a little more time on it today. Right now I’m playing with it as I go – learning about how far apart I can place loops, how to get straight lines, tension, how to hold the hook. Right now I can’t see myself being all gung ho about finishing, but I do think that this is the perfect change of pace project. I can pick it up and do a line or two and then put it back down again. Its my break from other things!

Even though I’ve just started out, I have some ideas of patterns that I’d like to make. Punk Rock Rug Hooking anyone?

Oh, and the fleece I picked up got spun into yarn this morning. It actually went okay for the most part – not too many parts where it went super crazy kinky. I think that the key for me is lots and lots of pre-drafting so that the combed top is pretty narrow. I’m not very good at drafting while also pinching/moving my right hand so that I can form the yarn. That’ll take more practice.

Today’s a gray Canadian winter day. So we wandered over to Black Dog Video and grabbed some movies. Because we’re all about root beer these days, we immediately snapped up two bottles of Boylan’s Root Beer. We’ve both had it before and adore it, so we thought that we’d add it into the mix.

They are a pretty amazing company. In fact, their grape soda is my favorite one thus far. From their website:

“The Boylan Bttlg. Co., founded in 1891, is honored to share very similar beginnings with the carbonated beverages of the same era that are now world-famous. But it is our differences of today of which we are most proud. For more than a century Boylan has formulated and produced, regardless of cost, only “authentic soda-pop”, unlike most bottlers in the country who have over the years compromised their original recipes and cut costs by switching to corn syrup and plastic bottles. Boylan still uses pure cane sugar which enhances the true flavor rather than leave a syrupy aftertaste and thick glass bottles to ensure freshness and proper levels of carbonation. Our in-house flavor formulations use the most expensive extracts and essences – and plenty of them. So whether you’re drinking a Boylan because you appreciate what is good and made right or just trying one for the first time, we thank you for supporting one of the oldest bottling companies and its authentic beverages of a bygone era.”

Now onto the Root Beer Review. First, Boylan only uses cane sugar – nothing artificial here. The soda itself is tasty and pleasing to drink. It has a creamy but not too sweet taste when you first take a sip. There’s a lovely and gentle mint aftertaste. It has the best of a root beer – sweet, creamy, and minty.

To put my review into context – I’ve restaurants to eat at specifically because they sell Boylan products. They are that good.

I’m not a super girly girl. I don’t do much in the way of pampering, but I admittedly like having my toe nails done (in part because the colour lasts so much longer). I get my hair cut at Barbarella, so when they opened a nail salon  I checked it out. I’ve been a diehard fan of Heartbreaker since (889 Dundas Street West Toronto, ON M6J 1V9 - (416) 869-0440). Oh and did I mention that Kathy (I think that’s spelled correctly, but don’t hate me forever if I got it wrong!) is a bright, bubbly lady who loves a good laugh. I keep going back because I really enjoy seeing her even if its only for an hour once a month because she makes me day better.

Heartbreaker has amazing polish colours. I’ve had hot pink, sparkly purple, mint green, matte gray, and even minx sugar skulls. My baby toes curl under and so the nails are hard to see. If I’m doing my own nails I don’t bother to paint them as they aren’t typically visible. I’m not entirely sure how it started, but we started painting my baby toe nails a different colour. First it was bright red with black baby toe nails. Then it was hot pink with sparkly purple.

Well, last time I went in I scanned the polish selection and grabbed two – a deep, matte red and a sparkly indigo. Problem this time is that I couldn’t decide if I wanted matte red for the ‘main’ section and indigo for my baby toes or the other way around.

To get all Rotman on your asses, having my nails done doesn’t have to be an either / or scenario. I don’t have to choose the red polish or the indigo polish. All I needed to do was to shift my mental model so that I could have two colours at once. I could have both.

To the hardcore Rotman-ites this might seem like a terrible application of such a powerful tool. I mean, pedicures as an example of integrative thinking? It seems silly and a little trite. But I don’t think that we only have to apply theories like this to wicked problems. I think that it can be applied, even in seemingly innocuous circumstances.

Integrative thinking is an every day mindset. Its not the big gun to attack the big problem. By using it every day, by showing dedication to the practice of the skill, we are already well positioned when the wicked problems present themselves. We’re ready and well versed. The practice on the little things means that we have the mental agility to see outside the box on the big things.

And that is why I currently have neon pink toe nails on my left foot (even if the picture doesn’t do justice to just how neon they are) and a turquoise-ish metallic green on my right. I couldn’t choose between them and so I choose both. And I’m happy.

What little things happen where you think ‘I don’t want to choose’? What is your pedicure vs. integrative thinking moment?

My roommate picked up some lovely lavender tea this past weekend. I’m not a fan of floral teas, but it made me start thinking about shortbread. This afternoon I decided that it was high time to make some cookies.

First up, I steeped some lavender in hot water (just under a cup). I let it sit while I got distracted by doing other household things like laundry and putting away laundry.

I used a basic shortbread recipe.

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar (I used icing, as I wanted this to be more of a melt in your mouth type treat)

I mixed the butter and icing sugar and flour together by hand. At the very end, I added the loose lavender (not the liquid, which you’ll need to keep for a later step!) from the steeping. I rolled the entire mixed out into a log, wrapped it in parchment paper and refrigerated it.

Once it had cooled, I pulled it out and just sliced it into cookies. Way easier than rolling dough out and having to deal with the sticky and flour covered mess.

I laid the cookie rounds on parchment lined cookie sheets and baked them at a 300′ oven for 25-27 minutes (until brown).

The cookies on the own have just a hint of lavender. The real gem, though, is the lavender glaze I made for the top. I mixed about 1/4 cup of the liquid saved from steeping the lavender. To this I added enough icing sugar to thicken the tea up and whisked it until it was smooth. I spooned some of the glaze over each cookie to decorate and voila, lavender shortbread cookies! At the last minute I added some of the lavender tea to the glaze – its a little added touch that makes them delightfully perfect.

Oh, and did I mention that I listed a few more things on my Etsy Shop today? Go check ‘em out.