Henry isn’t up for Whiskers on Wednesday, so his cousin Sasafrass (my sister’s cat) is stepping in. At family dinner last Sunday my sister had her dressed in a lovely ruffle.

Sasafrass absolutely loved her ruffle. It was a soft satin ribbon pinned with a safety pin. She has a hard time sitting still when there is so much excitement going on and I only got these photos because she was waiting for a treat (raw chicken!).

P.S. Henry is fine… but he had a vet visit today which stresses him out. He starts breathing hard, panting, and his heart races. He hates his carrier and can’t wait to get out of it. Usually a car ride is endured because we’re visiting my parents’… but a vet visit is different.

This fat-free vegan-friendly recipe will make any soup lover’s tummy smile. I combined a couple recipes to create this bad boy: a carrot-coriander soup that called for milk to make it creamy, and a butternut squash soup with ginger that is next to make on the recipe list!

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium cooking onion, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 medium potatoes, cubed
• 1 piece (2 inches) fresh ginger, peeled and minced
• 4 cups of carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 (32 fluid ounce) container of vegetable stock
• salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In a large pot, drizzle olive oil over onion, celery, potatoes, and ginger. Cook for 5 minutes or until onion is lightly browned.
2. Put in the carrots and pour stock to cover the vegetables. If not enough, use some water to cover.
3. Cover the pot and raise the heat to medium to bring to a simmer.
4. Reduce to low and gently simmer until vegetables are soft when pieced with a fork (20-25 minutes)
5. Remove from heat and let cool.
6. Working in batches, ladle soup into a food processor or blender. Process to make a smooth purée.
7. Return the purée to the large pot and add 1 cup of vegetable stock or water to thin (add more if too thick), salt and pepper to taste.

Notes/Recommendations:

• I would suggest you use bulk carrots. My mom had the pre-peeled and chopped ones left over from family dinner, so they were quick and easy to use. But you’ll get a heartier soup and flavour with unprocessed carrots.
• Either have a suuuper powerful blender or make sure to chop that ginger really fine. I didn’t chop mine very fine (as you can see in the photos) and then my Magic Bullet isn’t the bestest for this kind of work. So there are several “ginger surprises” in my semi-chunky soup. I kind of like the chunkyness with bits of carrot, onion, celery, and potatoe… but the ginger is a bit too flavourful for that.

I didn’t go to the first annual FibresWest last year, so on Friday I decided to head out to Abbotsford and take a gander. I dragged Chelle along for the ride and we had a very good time. I am the kind of person who needs to look at everything before I decide to buy, whereas Chelle would purchase when she got the urge (gift yarn only, yarn diet).

At the Abbotsford Exhibition Parkt AgRec building | Posing with “yarnpiggy“!

Indigo Moon… where I smushed different skeins of yarn together and demanded they make “yarn babies”.

Knitopia Wools (now located in White Rock)

Twist of Fate (also stocking Handmaiden Sea Silk).

Unwind Yarns with Shannon spinning … throwing sheep into rainbows! Best tagline ever.

Kensington Prairies Alpaca Farm… they do tours! They’re right in Langley too on 248th at 16th. I can’t count the number of times I’ve driven past and yelled excitedly at their alpacas.

This little display was the Mission Tartan for the Mission Spinners and Weavers Guild who are opening up a shop June 5th at the Mission Arts Council.

Sweet Georgia Yarns. Felicia had a fantastic display with “menus” displaying her prices and yarn “ingredients”.

Gone Hooking created amazing tapastries.

A hand-cranked knitting machine at Stitches Quilt and Fibre Art Supplies.

Quo Vadis Handspun — local spinner and dyer for animal-fibre-free yarns.

I didn’t get a photo of Louisa (aka damselfly) spinning at the Great Vancouver Weavers & Spinners Guild booth. They were there doing demonstrations and handing out information about the guild.

I was very good and didn’t fall off the wagon. I didn’t buy any yarn although I nearly gorged myself at Indigo Moon. I did treat myself to a ball winder though! I have been contemplating getting one and they truly are a necessity. Now when I want to knit something, I can instantly wind it up and cast on. Later today my dad and I are going to build a DIY yarn swift. Wish us luck!

I have been remiss in posting this review because I’m already absorbed in the next book in the series. However, I really enjoyed The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley and believe it should get the attention it deserves. I first heard about the book when it came into the office; Alan Bradley is a Canadian author and The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is his first work of fiction. In July 2007 Bradley received the debut fiction award from the British Crime Writers’ Association based on only 15 pages of Flavia’s adventures.

Flavia de Luce is an extremely intelligent and interesting eleven-year-old girl. She is the youngest of three sisters being raised by a single father. She is extremely interested in chemistry, particularly poisons. You instantly fall in love with Flavia and the de Luce family. I didn’t want to put the book down each night, yet felt satisfied with each chapter as it progressed.

The summer of 1950 hasn’t offered up anything out of the ordinary for eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce: bicycle explorations around the village, keeping tabs on her neighbours, relentless battles with her older sisters, Ophelia and Daphne, and brewing up poisonous concoctions while plotting revenge in their home’s abandoned Victorian chemistry lab, which Flavia has claimed for her own.

But then a series of mysterious events gets Flavia’s attention: A dead bird is found on the doormat, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. A mysterious late-night visitor argues with her aloof father, Colonel de Luce, behind closed doors. And in the early morning Flavia finds a red-headed stranger lying in the cucumber patch and watches him take his dying breath. For Flavia, the summer begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw: “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”

Did the stranger die of poisoning? There was a piece missing from Mrs. Mullet’s custard pie, and none of the de Luces would have dared to eat the awful thing. Or could he have been killed by the family’s loyal handyman, Dogger… or by the Colonel himself! At that moment, Flavia commits herself to solving the crime — even if it means keeping information from the village police, in order to protect her family. But then her father confesses to the crime, for the same reason, and it’s up to Flavia to free him of suspicion. Only she has the ingenuity to follow the clues that reveal the victim’s identity, and a conspiracy that reaches back into the de Luces’ murky past.

[From the publisher, Random House of Canada]

I really enjoyed reading Flavia’s mystery; it was a delight from beginning to end. I followed the clues with her and although the next ‘step’ in solving the mystery was occasionally predictable, I was enthralled enough with the characters and setting to not care. I love reading books that take place in England after spending so much time there, and a semi-historical period (from 1950) is also very appealing. Flavia is very quick-witted and Bradley’s writing can be quite humourous. I finished the book feeling very satisfied and contented, yet still wanted more Flavia!

I quickly picked up the second Flavia de Luce mystery, The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag. Expect a review very soon! I also intend to read A Red Herring without Mustard, which is the third Flavia book that Alan Bradley is currently writing. Some interesting links:

• The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag
• Quill & Quire Author Profile of Alan Bradley
• Flavia de Luce website (for “The Buckshaw Chronicles” series)
• Flavia Fan Club (Book Ning)
• Author Spotlight for Alan Bradley at Random House of Canada

Tuesday night I walked to the Vancouver Police Museum, which is a real hidden gem located in the former Coroner’s Courtroom. I had signed up to participate in their first-ever Forensics for Adults Workshops. Tuesday, March 16 was the first evening with Forensic Pathology, which was all about autopsies. Kim Werker has a great post up at the Vancouver Is Awesome blog about the forensic event. Not only did we get to hear, smell, and see what an autopsy was like, it took place in Vancouver’s former morgue. We got a chance to walk around the exhibits and had a personal tour from the museum’s curator, Chris Mathieson.

The Vancouver Police Museum has organized two more Forensics for Adults Workshops: tomorrow night is Blood Splatter and the following Tuesday will be Ballistics (Bullets). I loved learning creepy and gruesome things about my city’s history that I never knew (even growing up here) and would definitely recommend a visit even once the workshops are done.

Wednesday and Thursday were full of dental and doctor appointments. Let’s skip over that… I’ve got much more interesting things to talk about.

On Friday afternoon, I met up with Chelle for some sushi before going to see Handmade Nation. We arrived early at the Museum of Vancouver (MOV) and got a chance to look around the current exhibit, The Art of Craft. The Art of Craft is part of the Vancouver Cultural Olympiad and showcases handcrafted art from western Canada and Korea. The exhibit is on until April 11 and really is a gorgeous display of unique art. Our only complaint was that crafting is such a tactile activity, but the exhibit wasn’t meant to be touched (as is similar in other museums).

The main event at MOV was a screening of Handmade Nation. When Got Craft? did a couple showings in the summer, I was really bummed I missed it. When I heard that MOV was screening it on Friday, March 19th, I jumped at the chance! Overall it was a good documentary and I’m certainly glad I got to see it. Although, I initially thought it was going to focus more on the community of crafting, it was certainly interesting to explore the small business side of handmade goods. MOV had also arranged for several local craftspeople to have a Q&A afterwards: Kim Werker, crochet/knitter and author, Erin Boniferro, owner of CollageCollage, and Rob from GotCraft? Vancouver’s largest indie craft fair.

This weekend I celebrated my twenty-second birthday. I haven’t had a proper party in my new apartment (not that I’m much of a party-er) so I decided to rent a button-maker and have some friends over on the Saturday. Yes you read that right… we made buttons, and it was pretty awesome! I rented a button-maker and circle cutter from Blim Art & Craft Facility and bought button parts in bulk from Six Cent Press. I designed a bunch of buttons ahead of time but also made sure to have lots of funky paper and pens for anyone who wanted to draw button designs. We had a good time through the afternoon and it quieted down in the evening.

And last but not least, on Sunday (my actual birthday) we had a family dinner at my parents’ house with my uncles and cousins. It was a really nice night and I enjoyed sitting around and laughing with my cousins. Overall a very busy (but good) week and I am looking forward to something a little less hectic this week/weekend.