boy version versus girl version

Marvin the Martian costume - with a corset.

...the fuck?

guys guys guys

A commenter once laughed at my pencil-and-paper budgeting combo. I think I've just found a 21st century replacement, and I'm excited about it.

(The title of this post from yesterday is taken from a cheesy film called Hackers, in particular one character Joey - scene starts about 2:30 minutes into this clip if you are so inclined - who gets easily excited by computer stuff. The same film was referenced in xkcd giant comic from today - where the new kids in school get locked out on the roof looking for an imaginary pool. The venn diagram of geekiness is closing in.)

Mo on a Monday

Mo Kenney outta Halifax, debut drops next week. (Autoplay vimeo video replaced with ad-contented CBC video. Tough grapes).

Pesto, tomato, apple, huckleberry and gaudiness

Saved some money by preserving our harvest...

...spent some of it on this borderline gaudiness (love it)

Monday Music

Purity Ring - Obedear

Lesulas

New monkey species, described in a PLOS one paper, called Lesula.

No matter how many pictures I look at, it doesn't get any less weird looking.

abundance of dresses

I went looking for this seller on etsy, and freaked out a bit when I couldn't find her. Google saved the day though when another person with great taste linked to the shop on her blog. Phew!

I'm very close to ordering one of these - I just need to figure out which one!

HeartMyCloset makes affordable, custom sized dresses.

I'm leaning toward the very bottom left, but in cream colour fabric.

summer rains have arrived

It rained and rained this past week - all the rain this dry summer was saving poured from the skies. It made our backyard stream (directly behind the house and dry for two months) look like this:

But there was one glorious weekend day that I was able to go to my favourite place in the world, to pick berries for nine hours straight (until my back was sore and fingers purple and my forearms all scratched up):

I picked 15 L of huckleberries - already cleaned up and frozen or dehydrated. The next day, we harvested two winter squash, the last of the peas (hidden under the tomatoes in the photo), pounds of tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and two types of kale. A bucketful of apples (two varieties). We still need to pick our spaghetti squash, drying beans, more kale, more tomatoes and our onions (sitting in a swamp at the moment).

This means lots of yummy eating lately (in addition to desperate cravings of junk food, unfortunately). 

You see where this is going, right? Awesomesauce.

innocent fun

restoration ruination

So I bought this for about $12 at a yard sale on the weekend. I bought it mostly due to evidence of copper under the awful white paint. And, I suppose, it's retro charm.

                           

Once I got it home, I was able to search online to find this:

I friggin LOVE copper, especially in the kitchen. 

There is also a current ebay listing for a shittier version at $125 US dollars (way overpriced, most sell for between $30-$70):

Now the question becomes: Refinish it and keep it for myself? Or sell it for a profit?

I've just been introduced to the charms of heat-gun pain removal. We (read: my poor mother) tackled several pieces of original trim with the nasty chemical paint remover and much elbow work with disheartening effects. It took HOURS of work to remove a fraction of the paint. Yet the heat gun, while not that much faster, gives much better results.

Heat gun (left) versus chemical (right). 

In both instances these projects involve pre-1978 paint. As you can see in the above picture, I was set up in the grass outside of the barn with a generous cross-breeze. Hopefully this will keep the lead from materializing in my brain or bones. 

The beauty of the heat gun means I might have a chance of refinishing the canister set to it's original copper beauty. Either that or ruin it completely.

(Also in the Oh-My-God-I-Am-Officially-An-Old-Home-Owner category: I bought a set of crystal knobs on kijiji for $50. The picture below is not of the actual set although it is very similar. Except for the price that is - I got half this loot for 1/5 the price. Huzzah.)

oh hello...

...we meet again.

(This is our actual -80C.)

I knew my M.Sc would come to good use. Except now I have an elaborate system which includes a sheet of 6mm poly plastic and a few shamwow towels. August humidity - see you again next year.

Never Knew

The whole album is great.