Feeling the Indigo Blues?

Posted on March 30, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….only if it’s a feeling of joy and accomplishment

Yesterday I attended a 6 hour workshop on dyeing fabric with indigo at Articulations in the Junction. It was a Christmas gift from my youngest daughter. It was a small class with 8 students ranging in age from their 20s to 60s. We even had one man in the class who came with his partner.

Our instructor, Jane Jacobs, was truly inspirational. She had a multitude of samples for us to look at and an infinite number of objects to experiment with. Everyone brought their own fabric and articles of clothing to play with. There were also white silk scarves and infinity scarves that you could buy for the purpose of dyeing.

I experimented with a technique that involved stitching designs and pulling them tightly. I wish I had more time to make more of these but I think I may try more of these at home. The technique is called shibori and comes from Japan. The secret is to pull the thread really tightly. It will work with any kind of dye. I loved the indigo but it has a few more steps and requires more time to get it to the stage where it’s ready to use. Here is a website that demonstrates how to stitch on the fabric. Shibori from Japan.

The dyeing techniques also included folding and clamping the fabric. I wrapped string around small stones that were buried into the fabric and I pulled fabric from the middle and put elastic bands around it. This created a real retro 60s look that was reminiscent of tie dye. I also clamped buttons and metal squares between folds of fabric. Some of the students wrapped their fabric around large plastic cylinders, then wrapped string around the fabric and kept pushing the wrapped fabric up the cylinder. That was hard work but the finished product was beautiful. If I go back for another class I will try that technique with silk.

I brought a variety of fabrics to play with. I had two 100% cotton samples, one in white and one in taupe. I had a piece of linen and rayon that was also a taupe but with a tinge of green in it and my last piece that I played with was a white 100% cotton knit.

We weren’t sure how the coloured fabrics would take the dye but another student brought a grey fabric and all of them turned out well. The contrast wasn’t as dramatic as the white but the patterns showed up nicely against the blue.

Now I have to decide what I’m going to do with my pieces of fabric. I’ve already decided to make one into a pillow, one will be a table runner and the third I will sew into an infinity scarf. I’m not sure about the fourth piece but I’m sure I’ll think of something.

The following photos are my creations after they dried.

Big Huge Labs

Posted on February 22, 2014 by Mama Cormier

…..discovered a great ‘free’ website for making Photo Booth pictures and more

Big Huge Labs

Have fun!

Day 5 – Love Your Theme

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….. it’s a non-writing day for the Zero to Hero challenge

I’m being asked to check out other themes for this blog. In other words choose a new layout format. I’m a bit hesitant to do this as I know how much time it requires and I’m pretty happy with the theme that I’ve chosen. Because time is scarce tonight I think I will experiment with this challenge on the weekend when I have a bit more time. It’s not that I don’t think that the layout is unimportant, quite the contrary. There are many posts that I find difficult to read because of the colour in the background. Often the font is too small and the contrast between the font the background don’t work well together. White text on black is the worst. It works well for photos but not for lengthy articles.

Day 5 – Today’s task

On Saturday I purchased a new table to support my newly repaired table lamp. For years it sat on a make-shift table that was well hidden by the couch and sometimes I covered it with a cloth to hide the ugly design. The job today is to assemble the new table. It’s an Ikea product so hopefully it won’t take too long to put together.

Assembling all the pieces and necessary tools

Well the job took close to 2 hours. It didn’t help that I put one piece in backwards and it took at least 15 minutes to remove the piece and turn it around. In the end the stand came together quite nicely and luckily it fit into the space. Here is the finished piece. I’m pretty proud of it.

My Favourite Decorations

Posted on December 27, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..homemade are always the best and then those that have been lovingly gifted by a special friend

As I decorated my tree this year, I discovered that I was more particular as to what went on the tree. One of the reasons for cutting back on the decorations had to do with the size of the tree. Every year for the last few years I’ve been down sizing when it comes to choosing my tree. I used to look for one that was tall and full but in my little house that really didn’t make much sense and as the family has grown to include significant others space has become an issue. This Christmas Eve we had 11 adults over and when it came time to open presents the living room was jam packed with bodies.

I digress, however, so back to the topic that I started with. Decorations. As a child I used to love the glass ornaments that my mother brought with us from Germany. They were brightly painted and very delicate and more than once I remember breaking one or two because I chose to play with them when they should have been left undisturbed on the tree. Some of them were in the shape of instruments and actually played a tuned when you blew into them. Oh how tempting for a six year old to remove them from the tree and try them out. Sadly all these beautiful ornaments have disappeared over the years.

When I married I started to collect ornaments for my own tree. Over the years my friend AB gifted us unusual and beautiful ornaments to adorn our tree and in my crafty days I made numerous objects to hang on the tree. One of the simplest ornaments that I made was a walnut sprayed with gold paint and adorned with a red bow. I’ve had a box of these for over 20 years. When my oldest daughter left the nest she also started to make ornaments for the tree. Her choice of medium is felt and she has created some very unusual pieces, including a human heart (she’s a medical illustrator by profession). One of the first ornaments that she gave us was a cute felt squirrel because she knows how much my husband loves (NOT) those pesky little rodents.

Over the years my collection has grown partly because of my friend, AB who I have known for over 35 years. She has made it a tradition to give me ornaments every year. I’ve received little fans, wooden angels, apples, and numerous other glittery and mostly red ornaments.

I’ve met some very talented people over the years. One of them is a neighbour who used to paint beautiful characters onto fabric and then sew around the painting and stuff them. They were small enough to be hung on a tree and I have saved and cherished her work for many years. Another neighbour and good friend has a sister who also used to sell her handiwork and one of her Santas has become one of my favourites.

As my collection grew I started to give away some of my ornaments to my children, especially ones that I made. It’s nice to know that they have good homes and maybe some day will be passed on to other generations. One can only hope.

Hope all of you had as happy a Christmas as I did. The celebrations continue at our house. Boxing Day with my father, a trip to Niagara Falls, and a birthday celebration for our twins (going on 32). New Year’s Eve will probably be quiet but you never know.

Cheers!

Simple Christmas Cards and Tags

Posted on December 18, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….using fabric crayons and cotton swatches

During the last week of school before the Christmas holidays I needed a quick and easy project for the boys and girls to work on when they finished their art projects. For years I had fabric crayons sitting in my cupboard with no plans on how to use them. Last year I experimented with them and loved how they worked.

I gave each child a piece of photocopy paper and instructed them to fold it into four rectangles. On each rectangle the students had free reign to create any design they wanted. Many chose Christmas symbols, winter scenes or their names (the mirror image). The only thing they needed to do was fill in their design with lots of fabric crayon and sometimes they could get two or three prints from the same picture. They loved it when I ironed their designs onto a piece of cotton fabric. It was like magic.

Family Get Together, Again

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….Thanksgiving dinner at the Cormier house

Today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada but we celebrated yesterday. We enjoy having Monday has a down day, where we can relax or in our case catch up on our reading, blogging, cleaning, gardening, etc..

Yesterday the big Thanksgiving Day dinner was hosted at our place. Come to think of it, I can’t remember when it wasn’t. When my mother was alive we used to go to my parent’s house. One year they decided to go away with friends on the Thanksgiving weekend. I was devastated, after all Thanksgiving is suppose to be spent with family. I can’t remember how that turned out but I think that soon after that we hosted the annual event. My sister had it at her house a few times but she ‘didn’t cook’ back then so a lot of the food was prepared ahead of time and brought to her house.

There were only six of us at the dinner table this year. My son is still living in the Netherlands and my sister and her family and my Dad and G had made other plans this year. We were planning to deep fry our turkey again but when we woke up it was pouring rain outside. Since we do the deep frying in the backyard we had to quickly decide if we chance it and wait out the rain or do the turkey the traditional way in the oven. Deep frying takes one hour versus the oven which takes 5 hours.

We decided on the oven. Good thing because the rain continued all day and came down even heavier when we would have started the deep fryer. Of course this meant more work for me but once the bird was in the oven the rest of the meal was easy. Our daughter G brought over a great salad made with barley, tomatoes, arugula and ricotta cheese and A, our oldest daughter, made homemade pumpkin pie ice cream and roasted plum ice-cream.

After a delicious dinner, we celebrated B’s birthday. We gave him a new board game, Small World, Underground. We were all very full from dinner so we decided to go for a walk around the block before we started a new game of Ticket to Ride, Europe. A and J liked the last game so much that they went out and bought their own game.

A great day. Wishing all my Canadian friends a great Thanksgiving Monday! Cheers!
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Happy Birthday to the Love of My Life

Posted on October 2, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..I’ve known this man for 40 years

Today my husband celebrated his 62nd birthday. He started his day with a visit to the dentist where he had his teeth cleaned and had his wisdom teeth assessed. One of them has been giving him some trouble so it was decided that he should have it removed but if he has one done than he should probably have all four done at the same time. When it rains it pours. That appointment is yet to be determined.

Soon after that appointment he went to the hospital for a biopsy on his thyroid. Granted it’s not something you want to experience on a regular basis but it had to be done. Although somewhat uncomfortable it wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be. He should know the results soon if the news is bad. No news is good news.

When I called him at the end of the school day he sounded particularly chipper and he wasn’t feeling any pain or discomfort. Seeing he was feeling well I made a dinner date with him to celebrate his birthday. We went to a place that we refer to as ‘cheap and cheerful’ and have been going to for over 30 years. That alone is amazing. There aren’t too many establishments in this city that can boast of being successful for that length of time.

My husband has always been a somewhat frugal guy. His motto has always been ‘If it ain’t broke you don’t need to replace it’. He’s never been one to stand in line for the lastest technological gadget. As much as he might admire the new technology he is usually pretty satisfied with what he has and he doesn’t feel compelled to replace things as soon as new things come out. He’s always said that he wouldn’t replace our television until it breaks down. Little did he know that this TV would last more than 10 years.

Lately he’s been admiring the new LED Smart TVs. He’s been comparing prices and checking out all the features and asking our daughter about the benefits of having a smart TV versus a regular TV that relies on the cable provider. Well yesterday was his lucky day. After researching where to get the best deal I picked up a new 46 inch LED Smart TV and brought it home last night. He was pretty surprised when I dragged that huge box through the front door. Together we assembled his present and as I’m writing this blog I’m multi-tasking and watching Survivor on ‘his new TV’.

Happy Birthday, K! Love you!

How Not to Treat Poison Ivy

Posted on July 9, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..I’ve only had it 3 times in my life

In the 25 years that I’ve been coming up to the cottage I’ve become very familiar with what poison ivy looks, where it is, how to avoid it and how to treat it. I’ve only had 2 very minor rashes in all these years and I mean minor, 4 or 5 tiny blisters all in a row. In the past I’ve always left it alone, washed it with Sunlight soap and if the rash became too itchy I would apply calamine lotion.

My son and D’s son, on the other hand always managed to get some serious bouts of poison ivy when they were young boys. Somehow they managed to get it on their hands and where ever they touched themselves that’s where the rash would show up. They had poison ivy on their faces, legs and groin area.

The worst case of poison ivy, oak or sumac (we’re not sure which one she came in contact with) that I’ve ever seen happened to my cottage neighbour and friend, D. After a hike over on Hope Is. she broke out in a rash all over her body but the worst part of it was on her face. She looked like a boxer at the end of a fight. Her face puffed out and her eyes were swollen shut. Her case was so serious that it required a trip to the hospital where they prescribed a round of steroids to reduce the swelling and ease the pain.

One of the side effects of steroids is that it makes you quite aggressive and D found she had an over inflated sense of her actual strength. We had a delivery of building materials delivered to the cottage at the time and she was carrying twice as much drywall and in record speed than the rest of us. When she started to complain that her heart was racing we made her stop. This happened over 20 years ago and we still talk about it today.

This brings me to my third bout of poison ivy that I picked up two weeks ago at another friends cottage. I saw that the roadside was covered in the shiny three leafed plant and I thought I had stayed clear of it when we went for our walk; however, two days later (it takes a couple of days before the rash appears) I noticed a small patch on my right ankle. It was quite itchy and I tried not to touch it. I remembered a remedy that my friend L swears works every time so I thought I would give it a try.

The remedy involves rubbing salt into the blisters to break them open and then washing away the fluid that would normally cause the rash to spread. I recently received a wonderful salt scrub that I thought would do the job. It felt great when the blisters broke and they seemed to heal right away. The problem was that 2 days later another rash appeared somewhere else on my leg. I repeated the procedure and 2 days later another area broke out.

Now the thing with the scrub that I was using was that the salt was packed in an oil and after I rubbed it all over my legs it left the skin feeling soft and hydrated. What I didn’t realize at the time was that the oil was spreading the fluid in the blisters to other parts of my leg and because oil and water don’t mix the fluid wasn’t being washed away. Too bad it took me three treatments to realize what I was doing to myself. I’ve decided to leave this new batch of poison ivy to dry out on its own without any help from me.

Live and learn!

Birds of Prey and Our First Farmers’ Market of the Season

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..a very spontaneous day

My husband and I rarely plan our weekends in advance. This morning when we woke up we decided to get an early start for our daily walk/run to the park. It was sunny but quite cool this morning so we layered up and put on cotton gloves. When we got about half a kilometre from the house we realized that we forgot to bring the poop bags so my husband headed back to the house and I tried to continue the walk with Frances. She would have none of it. She kept pulling back on the leash so I finally gave in and started walking back until we met up with K.

When we finally got to the rugby pitch there were people on the field, setting up for a game so we decided not to do our run and changed our route. Frances is great off leash when we run around the pitch because she just runs back and forth between the two of us. When we’re on the path she’s better on the leash which makes it more difficult for running so we both walked today.

Just before the pitch we came across this beautiful flowering tree in the middle of this very green patch of land. I loved the contrast of the mauve blossoms with the bright spring greens.

The route was a little longer and different from the one we normally take when we head out to the point. Today we had an unexpected surprise because a Spring Bird Festival was taking place along the route. There were dozens of bird watchers and numerous displays under canopies. One of the displays featured raptor birds prominently perched on the arms of their handlers. They were absolutely beautiful.

Once we were far away from the Bird Festival we let Frances off the leash so that she could go for a swim in the lake. After retrieving her tennis ball out of the lake several times she ran and ran and ran. She must have checked out every last little path along the route and went back into the water at different points for more swims.

On the way home our noses were assaulted by a very bad odour coming from Frances. We realized that somewhere on the walk she must have rolled in something disgusting. Once we got to the house K took her immediately to the backyard while I went inside and prepared buckets of warm water with doggy shampoo. She let us rub her down with the sudsy water and then stood perfectly still while we rinsed her with warm clear water. She was cooperative but you could tell she wasn’t happy.Our walk covered 6k.

Today was also the first day for the Junction Farmers’ Market. We were debating whether to ride our bikes or drive the car. After our walk K made us a wonderful breakfast of bacon and eggs and by the time we finished eating we didn’t have a lot of time left before the market was scheduled to close. Consequently we drove but we parked a fair distance from the market and we managed to add another kilometre to our walking distance.

The market was small but the vendors were very friendly and we picked up some fresh baby greens, honey, radishes and more plants for the garden. We’ve already lost one tomato plant. It was dug up and destroyed. We’re thinking it was a racoon. We’re replacing it with a zebra tomato plant and we’ve bought a couple of Jerusalem artichoke plants. A couple of vendors suggested spraying the plants with pepper. We’ll have to give it a try.

Later in the afternoon I went to Curry’s Art Store to buy a Gelli plate to try a new type of mono printing. I had checked out two different art stores when we were in the Junction this morning but neither store had heard of them. I’m looking forward to trying this technique and sharing my results with you.

Cheers!

City of Crafts – Spring Show

Posted on April 21, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..a nice diversion on a cold ‘spring’ day

Yesterday, my youngest daughter and her friend, S, had a booth at the Spring City of Crafts show in downtown Toronto. The venue was at St. Paul’s Church and was considerably smaller than the venue for the Christmas show.

The girls displayed some of the products that they sell through their blogs and they set up a photobooth where people could choose from the props they brought and have their picture taken for free. On Monday they can go to G’s or S’s websites and download their photos. Uschi and Kay Have and Hold Design Becca Gilgan – Photographer

There were numerous vendors there selling anything and everything from dolls, clothing, pottery, soaps, bags and plants and everything in between. The thing that always stands out for me is how young the vendors are. Their wares tend to be very hip and trendy but there seems to be something there to suit a wide range of tastes. As you can see from my photos I tend to gravitate to hand crafted and sewn items. Some of the vendors were present at the Christmas show so I didn’t take pictures of those same items. Enjoy!