The Do-tique

Can't sit still...

2011-12-13T13:30:00.000-05:00

Today is Christmas tree day! That means that the natural tree is (finally) home, it's in the living room in its stand and the branches have just barely opened up enough to be lighted and decorated.

It feels like we're the last family on our side of town to get with the program - I keep seeing beautiful, lit and decorated tannenbaums adorning the front windows of all our neighbors in the evenings.

The decor theme this year will be much like the theme of many years in the past - birds and snowflakes and forest creatures. I picked up some great ornaments on sale at Superstore and some other cute ones at Indigo this year. I kind of like the partridge in a pear tree look, I guess.

As much as I fret that we're late in getting started, I have to remind myself that we're still only in Advent, the Christmas season really starts December 24th and carries on for nearly two weeks until the Feast of the Epiphany in January, so there isn't much of a rush. The part that makes me sad is that for most people, the Christmas trimmings are on the curb side by the time we're only onto three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree...

Photos (hopefully) to come!

DIY Rating: 10

Who doesn't love decorating a tree? Seriously!

The caveat here?

Stay away from all those crazy magazine tree photos - they will drive you nutso!

Unless (and only maybe) the tree photo is from a real person's house,

yours will not look like theirs unless you have a team of

5 designers and a lighting crew and a

fancy schmancy prop room and backdrop!

In Principio...

2011-12-02T19:50:00.001-05:00

Every endeavor has to start somewhere...

For those who are less nerdy than myself, the title of this post can be translated to "In the Beginning"...

And that's pretty much where we're at over here at The Do-tique.

Luckily, there has been some progress and I can show you where we've gotten to so far.

When we started, things were brown, very brown...The front entry was sort of like a dance party between the 70's and the 90's and no one was really getting along.

But after a bit of Sarah Richardson's Bisque paint and a few Restoration Hardware knock-offs found in the clearance bin at Homesense...this is what happened:

Still debating whether we should paint the inside of the door in a dark colour or possibly paint the wall around the door in a dark grey...
Kinda like this:

Sarah's House Season 4
Photo Credit: Stacey Brandford

I regret that we don't have the original photos of the living room any more, but here's where things are at so far - we carried the Bisque through into the living and dining areas:

Workin' on that equestrian chic part with the saddle (beside hutch)

I picked up almost all of the pieces in this room at an antique auction in Napanee and in barns north of Kingston before we moved west. The trouble was choosing furniture for a home I hadn't lived in yet that didn't really go together in the first place. Plans are to have the side chairs re-upholstered in more modern fabric with a bold red pattern and a cream/neutral field. The footstool will probably go and this is the sofa that will arrive on Monday and be placed facing the blue love seat:

Fabric will be a lighter, neutral natural linen colour and
I changed out the legs for a turned shape to go with the antiques.

For fabrics, I'm thinking of drapery and accent pillows and like styles like these:

All three fabrics available through Tonic Living in Toronto

Next will be a coffee table and different dining room chairs.

Maybe this one from Urban Barn?

So, what do you think? What would you add? Take away?

As for the DIY aspect here, the light fixture was pretty easy to change. The long story is that we had an antique brass fixture that we inherited from my mom and it got dropped part way through installation and broke. The more modern light was easier to install...and made it up in one piece. The mirror involved Hubby driving home with his head poking up through the sunroof since it only barely fit into our pick-up truck, uh, I mean sub-compact, 2002 Mazda Protege. My mom contributed the painting part, which saved us a tonne of work.

As for the combo of antique + new furnishings (including new sofa), I put out roughly $3,850 to decorate everything you see in the entry and living room including paint. Expecting to spend another $1,000+ on drapes, coffee table and lamps/accessories. My fave Ralph Lauren lamps just got marked down at Homesense to $80 from over $200, so those might be coming home tomorrow...

We could have an entire blog post on my journey through antique shopping and auction bidding but I'll summarize to say that before you hit the auction scene, spend a LOT of time going around to different shops and dealers to develop a taste for what styles and items you like and what they cost retail. It will really help you decide what to bid on and how high to go in an auction sale that can get pretty overwhelming, pretty quickly.

DIY Rating: 5

You could bring in a consultant from almost any furniture store

for roughly $100/hr to help you do a room like this pretty quickly.

It just might not look quite as unique.

This project is more like a personal hobby or labour of love.

Time invested hunting out interesting and bargain priced items is probably

well above what any sane person would put in but very enjoyable for me.

I also think that though my time input was higher, that I got

some great pieces for a fraction of the retail price.

Equestrienne

2011-11-04T00:48:00.004-04:00

Lord Denver Horse Tryptich Print - which I really want, but is too big for my house...

For a long time, I've been looking for a way to bring a little bit of that equestrian element into my home-decor style in a way that it sophisticated and not over-done. I'm talking a little something Ralph Lauren, a little something Badgley Mischka a little something Madonna at Ashcombe House, a touch of Lady Amanda Harlech, but a bit more modernized. So far, the look includes one small block print of a farmer's horse that I got at Pioneer Village when I was a kid.

When I get my English country manor house, I'll have something like this in the mud room so that I'll always be ready for a morning hunt...

In reality, I'm thinking of something more along these lines:

I'd love to put my saddle on display in the front entryway in place of where this photo shows a wood pail, but my biggest worry is that my saddle, surprise, surprise, kind of smells like horse. Maybe a low bench instead with a couple of old riding helmets might work better.

On a side note, if I were a slightly strange looking statuesque model, this is how I'd probably dress for work - forget about a handbag, just grab a Hermes saddle for the road...

But finally, the Piece de resistance that inspired this post in the first place, a suburban California horse stable cum art studio designed by million-dollar designer Kathryn Ireland. It's probably the most true-to-life representation of my dream club-house and hangout spot.

Some of the photos I've seen online show the equestrian occupants hanging out in the studio part of the stable, which makes this space purely the stuff of fantasy - I have a toddler who wrecks my house already, there is NO WAY even a horse I really like would ever be allowed near anything designed for by Ms. Ireland! Interestingly, the room is painted in exactly the shade of white that we nearly (but didn't) painted our ground floor in last week...enjoy!

Stable Tour 1 Stable Tour 2

DIY Rating: TBD

Still have to give this look a bit of a try -

will probably aim for artwork

and stay away from more fanciful decor choices

like adding a real horse to my art room

or placing the boots I really ride in anywhere near my bed

(which is something I see in a lot of magazines!).

Brown-out!

2011-10-23T17:23:00.004-04:00

Muddy Bath in Guilin Shanshui

This is pretty much what it feels like in my living room. For that matter, in my dining room, family room, kitchen, stairwell and basement! Yes, my whole house is painted in various shades of dark brown.

At first, I kinda liked it. It looked pretty good when I viewed the house before buying it. But, after a couple of months of living here, I'm feeling like it's really getting under my skin. Part of the problem is that a lot of our furnishings are wood, our flooring is honey-oak and every time I like a photo in a design magazine or blog, the walls are a shade of off-white.

I've been speaking to a few different design folks and they agree with me that for some reason, brown is a very, very popular colour in Regina. Even the "Fine Living" magazines here featuring million-dollar homes show most rooms painted in brown. I'm not sure I get it.

So, after our last White, but not Quite Right adventure, we've decided to return to Sarah Richardson's palette and give this one a try as an overall main floor living colour:

Bisque
Bisque lends a softening effect when applied to cabinetry as an alternative to bright white.

We're only one coat in, but so far, it's coming out as a nice, soft, warm white. Photos to come!

I should also share that it was a bit of a mishap that led to this choice... We started out with Benjamin Moore's White Dove but when we put some samples on the wall, it didn't look at all right. After some thinking, I discovered that the chips have a date code on the back and the chip we'd chosen was produced in 2001 - it had yellowed over time! With a fresh chip, we realized the sample was in fact the correct colour (and was also too stark for me). This was a good learning experience!

DIY Rating: 10 for testing out sample pots before buying

(I'm learning my lesson after two failed attempts at white!)

As for my colour choice...I'll let you decide once the before and after photos are ready!

Shop'n DROP!

2011-10-19T19:16:00.002-04:00

Sophia Loren in her bedroom

Do you ever buy your furniture in sets?

What's strange is that most furniture showrooms are designed to show shoppers a full matching suite for each room, but real-life professional designers never buy furniture that way. If you take a close look at design magazines or tv shows, they way that they put rooms together looks good because they use an eclectic mix of pieces that work, but don't match. You won't often see anything that looks like a furniture showroom in Canadian House and Home!

It's this kind of matchey-matchness that makes
this site so hilarious to look at!
Image via Catalogue Living

However, dear reader, do not be deceived into thinking that look this is easy for us mere mortals to achieve! There is a unique talent at work in creating a certain unique and seamless looking decor. I've recently decided that the reason it's such hard work is that one must be an expert shopper in addition to having a flair for colour and space.

Image via HGTV.ca (Sarah's House Season 4)

Just to get a sense of what I mean, take a look at the shopping guide for the new Sarah Richardson House Season 4 main living room here.

It's amazing the number of different stores and fabrics and paint colours that she sources for the room and is able to manage and pull together for a seamless look. I sometimes get overwhelmed in just one store trying to pick just one item - it gives me a new respect for what a designer is able to manage in their mind's eye.

Some of the tricks that I've heard of and/or used are to put together inspiration boards and to shop slowly and accumulate things you love over a longer period of time.

I've recently started an account with Pinterest to try to organize my thoughts and save digital images of what I like. It's frankly a lot of fun. I want to find a use for it in business by saving images of great marketing pieces that I see online and in real-life - still need to get around to that...

Here's my board

On the tv shows about decorating, like Sarah's House, it appears that they are working in a linear fashion and decorating the room in one shot, start to finish, in about two weeks time. Maybe you can do that if you're a superstar with a great support staff. I suspect what's really happening is that they're shopping out different parts of the house simultaneously and just showing a linear documentation of the process. I think in a regular house, you're going to have a lot of incomplete spaces for quite a while adding bits and pieces to each room as you find things that work.

So, as you sit in your matching love seat, sofa, chair combination with the slightly too small rug and side tables that match your coffee table, don't fret too much! It takes time and talent to shop out that quintessential eclectic look that is you and isn't as easy as it looks! There are basements and guest rooms and used furniture websites to help you split up those sets and keep only the pieces that work with other things you love.

DIY Rating: 5

Reading the source list for Sarah's living room helps

one to realize there is a lot of work and talent to pulling together a completed space.

It might be worth bringing in a designer to give some direction to your plans.

Start small and don't be surprised if it takes 1-2 years to create what happens in 30 minutes on TV!

Let's Talk Turkey

2011-10-07T00:43:00.002-04:00

External Turkey Roaster via Life.com

Starting tomorrow (and actually, a little bit tonight) your grocery store is going to be a madhouse. Haven't got your wine cellar stocked yet? The parking lot at the liquor store will need traffic police. Sharpen your knives, break out the pie dish, dust off the extra leaves for your dining table, it's Thanksgiving weekend and it's time to whip up the big feast.

Except not for me.

Don't get me wrong. Thanksgiving is my favourite holiday of the year. I love turkey dinners and I love having a big bunch of family and friends over at my place to celebrate.

With moving only 6 weeks ago, looking after little B. full-time and both of us working, The Do-tique just isn't quite ready for a big holiday production yet.

That's why we're choosing not to do-it-ourselves this year and opting to leave dinner to the experts instead. You'll find us trying out the Thanksgiving buffet at the Hotel Saskatchewan with another young family that just moved here about the same time that we did.

Hotel Saskatchewan

No shopping, no prep or cooking or clean up. Lots of time to take naps and walks and have friends over for dessert and maybe even unpack a few boxes.

The other upside? Works out to be considerably less expensive than DIY (especially when you consider labour). The only downside is that you'll be the only one in the office not having a turkey sandwich next Wednesday since leftovers aren't usually included!

Missing all our far-away friends and wishing all my dear readers a Happy Thanksgiving!

DIY Rating: 0 Sometimes, you just have to choose your DIY battles

When life gets way too hectic, no shame in leaving

the hard work to the experts and heading

out to a hotel or restaurant for a holiday meal.

Most places have special event menus and seating times

and though things get tight closer to the date, we've always managed

to find a last-minute reservation when we've needed to.

White, but not quite right...

2011-09-23T17:41:00.002-04:00

Have you ever tried looking up advice online about picking paint colours? Let me tell you, there are a lot of tips out there! However, it's fairly well-accepted that this is one of the most difficult steps in decorating and you really have to be in the exact space with the exact chips/samples to make a final call.

This time, I thought I'd try out the new(ish) line of Sarah Richardson paint colours offered through Para. If you're a newbie to this sort of marketing, the plan is that the famous designer picks out their top colours from a paint line and they are sold sort of as a feature set. So, if you like a particular person's style, you can get their look by choosing their top colour picks from the line fairly easily. It can make the job of looking at a full range of tints much more approachable.

Here is a clip of SR talking about her line and the process of picking colours:

Did anyone else catch the Christie Mansion in the

background for the Tommy Smythe comments here?

The truth is that most people get paint colours wrong and that includes even the real super-star designers. (I don't have the clip, but there are even scenes on TV where the illustrious Sarah Richardson realizes she's got a miss!)

Our goal was to pick out a creamy white for the office. Something like this:

I may also mention that Benjamin Moore alone has 160+ shades of white, so it's not an easy colour to get right!

This is what I picked out:

Sunbeam
SR45
Sunbeam is a toasty white that can be used to warm a cooler palette.

And this is how it turned out on my wall:

(The photos are quite dark, but you can hopefully see how golden yellow this turned out!)

Quite a bit more yellow than expected.

What went wrong here? I mis-judged my own instinct to go with something that looked paler and muddier on the chip and took this one at the suggestion of the paint rep at Lowes - who did also admit that she herself had never worked with these colours. (Mistake #1! Never take product advice from someone who has never used what they're selling you!)

So, loyal reader, what can you do if the same thing happens to you? If you have a reasonably good understanding of how colours work, you can almost always have a gallon of paint re-tinted. What I did was request a small shot of brown tint to tone down the yellow and a few shots of white to pale the colour and reduce the saturation. The end result looks like this:

Even with daylight and overhead lighting, this room is still dark and the shade
came out more "french vanilla" or yellow than creamy white.

I'm not 100% happy, but we'll see if we can work with it once furniture goes in. What do you think?

The lucky part is that the actual painting is the easy step and our hard work prepping the walls won't have to be repeated in order to adjust the final look of the room.

DIY Rating: 6

It takes time and practice to master the art of choosing paint colours.

Look for an experienced sales person at the store

to help give some suggestions on good tints

AND

to offer their expertise in re-tinting your choice in case it doesn't work out!

New, but not you?

2011-09-17T17:56:00.000-04:00

We're all used to TV shows and renovation blogs where we see horrible images of dated wall coverings and green shag carpeting being ripped out and painted over in order to create something non-offensive, reasonably updated and boring that will easily sell on the real-estate market.

But what happens if you buy one of these houses and the decor just isn't you?

That's kind of what happened to us in our last move.

The choice was between a house that hadn't been updated AT ALL since 1975 - I'm talking museum worthy kitchen, green shag and a lot of original (expensive to replace) fixtures - and a house that had been through quite a bit of upgrading since 1975, but still needed a bit of coaxing to fully bring into the 21st century.

While we decided against a major reno project and took the fixed up house, a lot of the decor choices that the previous owners made fall into the category of "Home-Depot Decor." Not to say that the Depot is a bad place, it's just that it's kind of overpowering when you make all your decorating choices at one store. What I'm talking about here is a lot of brushed nickel and dark, taupey-brown paint. (ok, I have found quite a bit of Canadian Tire decor in here too, but you get the picture!)

Back in 1989, my parents bought a house that had also been newly decorated. It was awful, but because it was new, they kept the bizarre wallpaper up and decorated around it. I hated it, but they refused to rip it out.

Do you change it even though it's in good shape? We were dealing with a dark, olive-green in the office, which has very little natural light. Though I love all those images of dark, moody rooms in Elle Decor, somehow, it just doesn't work as part of the 1970's architectural aesthetic.

Dark looks good when...high ceilings, large window, use of mirrors and white rug/furniture/mantel piece

Sadly, I have 8ft ceilings, small window and dark furniture!

After a month, I decided to bite the bullet and start priming it out. My save-a-dime instincts rebel at the thought of re-painting a freshly-painted room BUT sometimes, there are colors (like dusty rose in that 1989 kitchen) that just cannot work.

(This is my second attempt at priming over dark green and let me tell you, it's a pain in the A**!)

Here are the "before" shots:

Way darker at night - these were daytime with all the lights on and using flash!

I'm hoping that I will like the finished product more than what we had and still not fully decided that I made the right choice to change this out, but maybe there was a reason that this was the only room not included in the online sale photos?

If you're thinking about a dark color like this, my suggestion would be to seriously consider whether you have the architectural details in place - like windows and higher ceilings. Our window is covered by the porch, so the light is very filtered.

Secondly, this type of green works well as an accent colour - let's say, like above white wainscot or around a wall with cream/off-white cabinetry. Four, full-sized walls was way too much of a good thing!

Finally, the person who picked this paint should also have aimed a few shades lighter to get the cozy, saturated feel they were looking for that was still green - paint always looks darker on the walls and this one was verging into black in the evening.

DIY Rating: 5

About the same amount of work to "live with it"

and decorate around something I didn't love

as the work involved in changing it right off the bat.

Still wish someone else was doing the painting work for me though!

The Mov-tique

2011-08-18T13:49:00.000-04:00

It has been almost a month. We moved away from our beloved Kingston home on July 25th and this Saturday is the big move-in day for Regina.

I spent some time the other night looking at before and after photos of the Kingston home and enjoyed the satisfaction of how well the place turned out in the end. It will be interesting to start again and incorporate some new elements as well as some repeats from the last house into this place.

The transition will be from a 1956 1 1/2 storey home to a 1976 split-level. Both, interestingly, are mainly white on the exterior and somewhat similar in size.

Stay tuned for some exciting reveals of the new rooms and of the interesting antique furniture that I scoured the Eastern Ontario countryside to find in the last few weeks leading up to the move. I know, who buys furniture BEFORE they move?? It's just that I've developed a love for antiques during our years in Kingston and this was my last chance to be able to bring some of those pieces to the West, where they are much more scarce.

Luckily, our shipping container weighed in finally at about 8,000 pounds, which was considerably lighter than the 11,000 pounds we had been quoted. We'd literally assessed each item in our home and tried to decide whether it was worth keeping at $1.50/pound - a lot went the way of the garage sale to make room for the new furniture!

In terms of DIY planning, it made sense to have the house moved professionally and the china/dishes and pictures packed by experts. We packed the rest ourselves. Overall, the cost and effort involved in going the 100% DIY route and picking up a self-move truck wasn't worth it. We decided that Hubby should drive the car west instead of shipping it, so I'll find out in a couple of days whether he'd ever recommend that method to anyone else!

Hope you are all enjoying the summer!

(promise more pictures next post!)

Christmas in July?

2011-07-14T10:22:00.000-04:00

Caneel Bay Resort

With a cross-Canada move coming up for us in a matter of mere weeks, it's time here at The Do-tique to begin the process of de-cluttering and de-provisioning. Estimates coming in on the moving costs are suggesting that the cost of moving will work out to about $1 per pound of stuff. That means that unless something is literally worth its weight in gold, it has to be let go. That also goes for all the provisions and dry goods around the house - which I'd naturally re-stocked mid-spring unaware that we'd be moving so soon.

This all brings me to the topic of Christmas in July...How do you use up Christmas-like ingredients in the middle of the summer?

I had a can of pumpkin filling in the pantry and a tonne of oatmeal - They became delicious breakfast granola for a week or two. We also had a small turkey that we bought on sale right after the holidays that turned itself into a BBQ feast - quartered the bird, brined it for a day and grilled it with homemade BBQ sauce - better than Thanksgiving! Finally, I found a package of gingerbread cookie dough that I'd stashed away in the freezer and thought it would work pretty well as a base for ice-cream sandwiches.

My methodology here was to take the same approach as if I were using brownies and bake the gingerbread as large squares.

Fill them with ice cream, freeze the whole lot and then cut them into smaller bars with a hot knife:

The results were amazing and the sandwiches got better after a few days once the gingerbread spices had begun to flavor the vanilla ice cream. Interestingly, Chatelaine stole my idea for the cover of their August issue!

Photo by James Tse via www.chatelaine.com

Here's the link to the Chatelaine recipe.

DIY Rating: 10

Yes, go, NOW and de-stock that freezer

and pantry before the end of summer!

You have some crazy tasty stuff in there waiting

for you if you get creative about it!

Overall, all three of these options were easy to make

and helped stretch the grocery budget a tiny bit.

What's Been Done?

2011-06-25T04:08:00.000-04:00

So, what's been doin' at The Do-tique?

Yes, dear readers, it has been a while! I didn't know how loved this blog was until it went quiet for a while and the emails and requests for more started coming in.

To be honest, the picture above from the movie "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" pretty much describes it all. Here's what has been happening:

Yves St. Laurent Tuxedo Image courtesy of Retro Threadz

There hasn't been quite as much baking, crafting, decorating or home projecting this spring at The Do-tique. The DIY projects have all been centered around building a format for my "real job" which is philanthropic advisory - helping charities ask for support and showing donors how to plan their giving.

I wanted to take the time to learn about and create an online marketing strategy for my planned giving work through LinkedIn, Twitter, blogging and a website. It's been an interesting journey so far and the best part has been the chance to meet and work together with people from across North America. I didn't realize at first that such amazing connections could develop out of Twitter!

You can check out my DIY website project for this whole initiative at www.christinaattard.com

(On the overall, I'd get a web-expert to set up the site for me next time, but more on that another time!)

Usually, I'm blogged and tweeted out by the end of the day and have neglected to post updates here.

Roger's House Truck Image via House Trucks

In other news, we learned at the end of May that my husband was going to need to move to Regina, Saskatchewan this summer. That meant prepping, staging and selling the house in a very short amount of time and setting up a crazy shopping trip where I had only a few days to buy a house in city I'd never visited before. (It's left me a little in shock!) Luckily, everything worked out and we'll have a whole new set of home projects starting this August.

Lessons learned: a deadline can make Hubby move very, very quickly on all those little house maintenance and touch-up projects that have been sitting around for two years. Our basement was looking wonderful and I think that effort did, in the end, add great value to the house when it came time to sell.

I'm battling my DIY mentality and struggling with whether we should hire the moving company to do a full-pack. It will all be in the numbers in terms of time vs. money / sanity.

Finally, the leader of the Junior Small Society here at home, Baby, is really not much of a baby any more these days! We're also having a lot of fun going to the park, taking her for bike rides and generally running around after her.

What's been happening with you? Anyone want to challenge the DIY mystique and share a guest blog post on their most recent projects? (I'm hearing of other house moves, people getting chickens, bathrooms getting renovated...so lots to share, dear readers!)

Submission guidelines: 1-2 photos, paragraph describing what you did or decided not to do, DIY rating.

DIY Rating: 10

Really, can you stop life from taking over sometimes?

Promise to get back to this blog,

but also feel great about my new ventures over at

www.christinaattard.com/blog.html

A Basement Vocation?

2011-03-09T16:56:00.000-05:00

We all know the rule, you live at home in the basement until you're married, right? And if that marriage, job, move to a yoga centre in California doesn't work out, the basement will be ready for your return, still decked-out in fake wood panelling and orange curtains with mom upstairs making meals and doing your laundry. Just like in That 70's Show...

I have recently had an idea for a book that I'd like to publish on financial advice that I would give to my Millennial generation peers entitled, How to Move Out of the Basement and Never Come Back. Since I'm not a professional financial advisor (yet, anyway), my words of wisdom are mostly anecdotal and gained from my own experiences. Since writing a book won't do much to keep me out of the basement personally, I thought I'd just share a few of the ideas I have in mind here at The Do-tique.

Xylophone jobs were harder to get than anticipated!

Living at Home Does Not Help Save Money

How often have you, your siblings or your friends used the old adage, "I'm just living at home for a while to save some money so that..."?

The problem is that a few years go by and the bank accounts are still pretty much empty.

Living at home doesn't save anyone money - I mean if it's between street life and basement dwelling, by all means, live at home - but the tactic that really helps anyone save money is to have a savings goal and a savings plan. Usually, if you're working and not getting resourceful about supporting yourself - ie. get a roommate, cut expenses - than you might have some work to do in terms of developing better spending and saving habits before you can expect your parents to help you.

Paying rent is not always throwing money away - do the math on property taxes and interest rates and sometimes renting can be better than buying.

Pact with the Devil (1633)

Avoid Unnecessary Debts

When I graduated, I had a student loan that was worth more than my annual starting salary in my first job after graduation. I graduated in 2003 and cleared my loan by 2007.

The key is to continue living like a student for as long as you can while you still can and pay those suckers down. My strategy was to set up a savings account and move an amount over at the start of each month from my paycheck. If I needed the money later in the month, it was there for me. I would make a lump-sum payment on my loans each time the savings account balance reached $1,000. Soon, bigger purchases like cars, weddings, mortgages are going to start coming around and no one wants to be stuck at 30 still paying off purchases they made at 19.

Part of this mentality is choosing not to make luxury purchases that you have to borrow to acquire. This does not mean always use cash, but the bottom line is to re-claim a mentality that you have to save for things like clothes, electronics, trips.

By living as debt-free as possible, if your income changes suddenly, you're not carrying monthly debt payments as part of your fixed expenses. It might help you close the gap on a few more rent payments until times get better.

Saving Can "Buy" Time

Granted, young, single people rarely have room in their budgets for major savings, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't start looking at the small things. Finance gurus are always showing us how much those Starbucks trips and magazine purchases add up to annually. We noticed a huge difference just by taking bagged lunches to work and cutting down our restaurant visits to once a week or less.

So few people in my generation are working in full-time jobs with benefits and insurance. Most people are surprised to find out that EI benefit payments do not equal their regular salary or they are simply not eligible to make a claim. Events like job loss or the birth of a child might mean you need to rely on your savings to stay out of the basement. Do you have a good idea of what your monthly expenses are and how many months you could survive for on savings?

Once you've saved an emergency amount, you can start thinking about moving excesses into your retirement fund. The days of jobs with pensions are pretty well over for the Millennial generation and it's going to be up to us to self-manage this process.

Their mommies wouldn't let them
bring their guns home from work!

Build Your "A" Team

There are all kinds of professionals who can guide you through the steps that will help keep you out of the basement. Some are amazing and will treat you as well as their own children. You need to start looking for these people and getting to know them long before you'll need their help.

Your Parents - seriously and honestly think about their spending and saving habits and how they have managed their money, careers and hard times in the past. Ask them about these things if you can. The key to understanding your own ways of dealing with financial matters is buried in your experience as part of that family. It will help you to know what worked and what behavior you need to avoid.

Financial Advisor - these folks do more than just help the wealthy! Often, their advice is free and they get paid on commission through products you may eventually purchase through them. Shop around until you find someone you trust and ask them to help you create a financial plan.

Insurance and Mortgage Brokers - yes, you are indeed invincible, but just in case something happens, you are going to need to be insured. Agents can shop out the best policies for your needs. Question those automatic insurance checkboxes on major purchases and make sure you are getting the right coverage at the best prices.

As for a mortgage broker, you will be glad that you got pre-approval on a fantastic interest rate when you happen to find that perfect home to buy rather than having to scramble and risk losing a chance to make an offer. He or she can identify what you need to do to become eligible for a mortgage in case you do have some other major debts or bad credit in your past.

Real Estate Agent - buying a home for the first time is a major emotional and administrative experience. An agent can help you to get realistic about what your dream house costs and this will help you with developing a specific dollar amount you need to save for your down-payment. Get to know their personality long before that 2 AM negotiation session when you're ready to buy. Stay in touch with them afterward to discuss market prices and recoup values on renovations in your area before you put in a $10,000 hot tub. We'd spent three years getting to know our agent casually and it paid off when we ended up in a fast-moving bidding war over our dream home.

I am going to share this post with some professionals and perhaps they will have their own comments to add. What are your thoughts as a reader? Agree? Disagree?

DIY Rating: 10 and 0!

Unless you experience some very unlucky circumstances,

staying out of the basement is a total DIY project!

That means get resourceful about bringing in experts who

can help you get yourself the lifestyle you actually want.

And a bedtime that's as late as YOU want it to be!

Double Doing

2011-03-07T22:08:00.000-05:00

Over the past few months, I've been thinking about these two TV pals of mine: June Cleaver (Leave it to Beaver) and Don Draper (MadMen).

Mrs. Cleaver made a daily appearance in my childhood via television.

Strangely, we had some of the same office furniture at home as appears in the offices of Sterling Cooper, so that world somehow feels familiar to me - my grandfather was a building superintendent just off Wall St. in the 1960's and we had some cast-away pieces still floating around.

It feels like I grew up around both June and Don.

Interestingly, I often feel torn between the need to ask both, What would June do? and What would Don do? What's interesting in the television shows is that their worlds were shown as completely divorced from one another while today, I sense that many of us, especially parents, are forced into both lifestyles at the same time.

Don is a leader. He's suave, he demands and receives respect at work, he delegates and manages, he has freedom and martinis at lunch and he regularly has moments of brilliance leading to adulation from his superiors and cash flow. He works late a lot, is not accountable at home for his day at work and is free to either show up for dinner in his kitchen decked out in plaid wallpaper or hit the bar and female company in a hotel room afterward.

June is a proper wife. She's dressed to the nines and her boys rarely have dirty faces. The house is orderly, the briefcase and lunch bags are ready to go, the roasts are cooked on time and there is a large glass of milk at everyone's place at the table. Everything, except for a few mischievous mishaps with her boys, is under control and she appears at ease and has time for social and leisure activities.

Don is a jerk at home and June is helpless in the office.

Many of don't have the luxury of either foible!

This Mom Loves published a post yesterday on "Millennial Moms" noting the trend toward seeing fathers as equal partners in parenting and household management. Women, in my experience, seem to participate as equal partners in the workforce, taking on jobs as or more demanding than those held by their husbands.

Are we all trying to be both Don and June - the "powersuit" who can divorce themselves from the cares of the home during the day and then come home to put on an apron and pull together a roast of beef and pour a glass of milk and even have the leisure to wash the dishes as a couple afterward since none of the children ever seemed to need a ride to soccer practice back then?

Do you ever feel only half as good as you'd like to be at either of your two roles?

How do you find balance?

How do we make the home and the workforce accommodate this reality of spouses both working and both parenting equally when the boss demands Don Draper during the day and our kids' teachers are still expecting to get June Cleaver on the line when Beaver gets sick at school?

My continuing goal has been to speak with working moms (and some dads) whose children are into their teenage years or older and to ask how they made it work for them when their kids were younger. The answers are surprising. They are always creative. They all involve sacrifice and they give me a lot of hope. My thanks to the successful and unsuccessful career-oriented women and men who have been sharing their knowledge with me. If you are someone like this, there is a lot you can share with us Millennial parents!

DIY Rating: 0

The pull to be an impressive leader at work and have

a perfectly oiled machine for a home life can seem irresistible.

This often results in insanity,

even with some serious hired help (think daycare here).

There are experts around you who have walked this road before -

find out their secrets and start drawing up your own battle plan.

Books and Miscellanea at The Do-tique

2011-03-04T13:06:00.001-05:00

Dear Readers,

Please do not lose hope and assume that I have abandoned my work here at The Do-tique! The fact is that most of my internet publishing time has been taken up with designing and assembling a web site that I intend to launch shortly. Truth be told, this was most certainly a project best left up to the experts! While I have come to learn quite a bit about using online templates to design a page, the frustrating hours spent trying to learn how to do this sort of work myself have caused me to develop a new-found appreciation for the skills of a technician. The knowledge and experience gained have been higly valuable and I can now say that I'm capable of creating a basic web page, but the time investment has also been quite a bit larger than I anticipated and my plans are to find an expert to help me finish and polish up my work before the big reveal. I've realized that my skills are in concept and layout, but that I still have some technical learning to do before I can use the technology to manufacture what I see in my mind's eye!

DIY Rating: 4

WYSIWYG site design was not as straightforward for a

novice user as I anticipated. Consider an expert here if

you cannot afford to invest the DIY time.

Part of the small remainder of my free time has been spent reading Where Nests the Water Hen by Gabrielle Roy. This book appeared in the New Fiction section at the library and I was attracted to a title that included the key words "nest" and "hen" - they sounded like just the sort of thing I'd be interested in.

What I was not aware of is that water hen in the title refers to a settlement on a body of water (I think connected to Lake Winneopegis) located in southern Manitoba. Depsite this tome's placement in the public library, it was originally published in 1951 and this is a new edition of that publication.

The author, Gabrielle Roy, spent a number of years as a school teacher in Manitoba and this book is loosley based on characters and events that she experienced during that time. She writes here about these events some years later and her voice appears here as an anonymous, thrid person narrator.

There are two story lines in the novel that are joined together at the end. The first concerns the Tousignant family headed by the hen-like Luzina and her husband Hyppolite and their many children. I think the final tally works out to ten children in 14 years and I don't think that includes the surprise baby that arrives some years later. The family lives on a small island set on the river and the tale opens with Luzina's myterious annual business trip. I will leave the reason for the trip a surprise and note only that once the business is revealed, it is a delightful surprise for the reader. The main theme here is the relationship between the family and the "outside world" partly represented by the correspondence that they exchange with the government and the three school teachers that are deployed to the island by that same government. The family demonstrates and interesting reflection of Canadian nationalism in that they hold the founders of French Canada and the country of France in high esteeem as their heroes and champions while at the same time reserving no guile for the current anglophone government, even allowing one of the school teachers to raise the Union Jack on their property - indeed there is an awe for the authority of the British Empire and the miracles that it can acheive.

The second story line concerns the character of a Capuchin father who visits the Tousignants annually in July. He is an authentic mendicant living as a constant traveller with a genuine innocence in his belief that Providence will provide for his needs through the kindness and charity of others. He provides the reader with a gentle and heartfelt reflection on life on and around the Water Hen from the perspective of a loving outsider. He is bold in his belief that God will assist him and guide him in helping these people - his indulgences include making a child-like request to the head of the CPR to gain a bell for his small chapel and his intervention with the poor fur trappers where he takes their furs all the way to Toronto and ends up receiving in payment many times what they had been able to sell their goods for locally. The Imperial Fur Company rewards him with a beautiful fur coat that he dons but once a year for his trip to Toronto and eventually divests himself of lest he should become too accustomed to luxuries of the flesh. In contrast, when Luzina is asked to repair his habit, she finds it to be so threadbare that she can barely piece it back together.

Birds are a recurring image in the book. We hear of their coming and going with the seasons and their presence in the poetic descriptions of the landscape. The family is disconcerted by the teacher, Armand Dubriel, who comes to live with them for the season and spends more time massacring the island's bird population for rifle sport than he seems to spend teaching the children. The author spells it out most plainly through the Capuchin's use of bird species to describe different types of souls in his annual sermon. There is also the Capuchin father's reflection on the "dance of the birds" that so closely mirrors the evening of dance on the prairie at the end of the novel. For the most part, the souls that live in the area are not soaring eagles or hawks, but rather homey water hens who like to nest and roost and raise their families in lonely peace. Some, like the older Tousignant children, tend to "fly the nest" in search of greater education and careers others are migratory like the Capuchin himself.

As a reader, what was strange was how disconnected I felt from this story as a part of my own cultural heritage. As someone growing up and living in modern southern Ontario, life in rural Manitoba in the 1930's is like hearing about an exotic foreign country. Embarrassingly I barely know anything of the French-Canadian culture of the prairies let alone the history of all the other immigrants that are mentioned in the book. I was reminded a bit of Tolstoy's character Dmitriy Olenin from The Cossacks in so far as it was a bit of a journey into a culture and experience as Canadian as my own, but so very foreign and in the end, unchangeable by the reader's visit to that time and place.

RIY (Read it yourself) Rating: 10

Very much enjoyed this short and delightful novel.

The translation is also excellent and flows beautifully.

Linchpinning

2011-02-23T10:59:00.001-05:00

Last week, I encountered two Linchpins. One at a Starbucks and the other at Computer Depot in Kingston.

What on earth is a "Linchpin," you ask? It is a term used by Seth Godin to describe a person who goes above and beyond just performing a job or task to create "art" by interacting or performing in a new and creative way that adds something human and irreplaceable to the work the person does.

Image Credit: NY Daily News

So, how is it that a barista at Starbucks was able to create "art"for me? It turns out that a man that I've seen working at another Starbucks has moved to a new downtown location and I recognized him. He's a fair bit older than most of the baristas that I've come across, not the usual university student type, and it's clear that he's happy to be there rather than grouchy about serving coffee when he could/should be in a more "senior level" position somewhere.

His name is Bruce and sitting there watching him out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that he knew the names of most of his customers and greeted them by name and actually remembered what all of their "regular" drinks were. Now, I used to work in the coffee business and I know that it takes a high level of caring about your job to create an atmosphere of welcoming guests into your shop rather than just processing through your 3,000th espresso shot of the week. It was great to watch him at work and he was friendly to me as well.

Now what happened is that he actually made a mistake at the cash and nearly charged me almost triple for my cup of tea. The "art" part here is that he took the opportunity to make a personal connection over the mistake and made a quick decision to make the drink "on the house" because of the error. An act of generosity. Will I be going back to that shop? Absolutely!

Contrast this to my experience last weekend where I went to claim my free birthday drink at another Starbucks. I asked twice whether they offered a free birthday drink with a registered card and was told that I could have anything on the drink menu. I was also ordering a few other things for Hubby who was in the car. When it came time to ring everything up, the girl turned to ask her manager whether it really was in fact their policy to offer a free birthday drink and the manager said only with a coupon that I should have gotten in the mail (but didn't receive, unfortunately).

It wasn't a big deal to pay for my drink, but I left feeling embarrassed in front of the other customers behind me and will probably avoid that location from now on. Should they have honored what the girl had said was their policy in the first place?

I think Starbucks is the new local for most of our communities. This book talks about their corporate philosophy and explains a lot of what you see in the stores: The Starbucks Experience

Onward to the computer situation...I've mentioned a few times that we're getting set up with a new TV here at The Do-tique. It has been a major ordeal and hassle to figure out exactly what cables I need to get my TV to show content from my MacBook. Five electronics stores later and I finally came across Trevor at Computer Depot here in Kingston. Can you create art in selling some basic cables to a confused non-tekkie? Absolutely!

Trevor was calm. He seemed to have time to go through my questions and take a look at my laptop and try to figure out the most affordable solution for me with the best picture results. He didn't throw a lot of letters and number at me. He didn't bad-mouth the other guys. He took the time to grab a TV monitor in the store and actually test out the cables for me with my own laptop and didn't rush the sale or try to up-sell me. It was clear, it was easy, it was low-pressure. Somehow, he made a connection, which is key as a sales person. Chances are pretty good that I'm going to be going back there again or at least telling other people that it's a good place to get help.

At the other stores, I got a lot of fast talking. I got a lot of numbers and letters and products thrown at me with little or no explanation of how the whole system worked or what all the bits and pieces were for. I had sales guys arguing with each other in front of me about what the best solution would be. I had guys walk away to go ask someone else in the store without saying something like, "hang on a second while I go ask..." leaving me just standing there wondering what was going on.

Both Bruce at Starbucks and Trevor at Computer Depot were able to create order out of chaos for me - first out of the chaos that was an incorrect price for my tea and second out of the chaos that is A/V equipment for me.

Bruce is over at the new Starbucks on Princess at Sydenham.

Trevor is at Computer Depot on Gardiner's Road.

699 Gardiners Rd.

Kingston, ON

Canada K7M 3Y4

http://www.computer-depot.ca

DIY Rating: 2

When you can get people like Chris and Trevor on your side,

why make your own coffee or figure out

that computer problem on your own?

What can you do today that creates

a similar experience for someone else?

Unblogging and DIY Dinner Party

2011-02-22T12:33:00.001-05:00

Dear Readers, please forgive my longish absence after that last bomb-dropping style post on will writing! I didn't mean to be away for so long! Things have been busy with my new full-time job which is trying to land a new full-time job. Add in a few computer crashes timed right as posts were just about finished and a certain adorable toddler needed rescuing from daycare and you have my best excuse for why nothing has appeared here in a while.

I received a special request from my guests to share the recipes used for an impromtu dinner party that I hosted last night.

In order to convince you that really anyone regardless of their skill in the kitchen can have dinner guests:

Over the Christmas holiday, I was invited to a dinner party that featured a menu that absolutely topped any easy DIY suggestion from every single magazine and website that I have ever read! What did these clever hosts serve? Pea soup a la Habitant (meaning "from a can"), baguette with a tray of cold meats and pie from the grocery store with home made whipped cream. Add in a touch of wonderful company and genuine lack of cooking skills and you have the easiest DIY dinner party every. I rate it 10!

If you are a small step more ambitious than that, you can try out my menu from last night, which worked out to be a low-stress quick dinner idea that seemed to impress my guests:

Tourtiere a la Alex Trebek

Oven French Fries

Steamed Broccoli

I have no idea whether this recipe actually originates with Alex Trebek, but I discovered it a few years ago and here it is with my adaptations:

1 pound ground pork
3/4 pound ground beef (or veal)
1 large onion, chopped
1/4 teaspoon sage
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

salt and pepper
1/4 cup red wine, beef stock or water
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
1 Pastry for double-crust pie (9 inch)
(I use tenderflake frozen pie crusts)

In large pan, combine meat, onions, seasonings and wine; cook over low heat for 1 hour.

Drain fat. Stir in bread crumbs, and salt and pepper to taste. Let cool for about 45 minutes.

Defrost pastry according to instructions. Spoon in filling; cover with second pastry shell. Cut steam vents in top and seal edges. Bake in 350degrees F (180 degrees C) oven for 1 hour or until pastry is golden brown.

Serve with maple syrup

This works out to be a one-pot meal, with little labour and a longish inactive cook time and finally, an impressive home-baked/home-faked dish.

Unfortunately, no leftovers were available for a photo-opp today!

DIY Rating: 10

This tourtiere is easier than it may look and comes out quite yummy!

Stick to the "keep it simple" mantra and dinner

entertaining can be a DIY for just about anyone.

A Serious Matter

2011-02-07T11:02:00.003-05:00

Photo Source: Life

Today, I am going to take a look at a project that I hope all of my readers will think about undertaking, but that I hope in doing so, no one will choose the DIY approach! What I'm talking about here is making a will (specifically for Canadians). Though I'm not a lawyer by profession, those who know me personally will be aware that I have what's probably an unusual interest in this sort of stuff.

What you should know is that only 30% of Canadians currently have an up-to-date legal will, but everyone over the age of majority should have one in place. Basically speaking, this is your chance to determine what happens to your family, assets and possessions rather than leaving it up to your Provincial Government to decide for you. (You may not like their estate plan!) All I'm saying is seriously question your reasons for choosing not to have a will in place.

A second point is that there are practically a million and one DIY will kits out there that offer a cheap and easy alternative to using a lawyer to draft your will. The problem is that a will can be a fairly technical document even for a simple estate and a lot can go wrong with a cheap kit. The reason to have a live person drafting this document for you is that they are aware of what can go wrong and can ask all the in-depth questions necessary to get the right fit for your family. You just can't get that for $29.95!

For us, guardianship and custody was probably the most difficult hurdle to address in the planning process. This morning, an article appeared in my inbox from another blog that I follow. The article was titled, EENY, MEENY, MINEY, MO, WHO WILL GET YOUR KIDS AFTER YOU GO…

It talks about some of the ins and outs of how the law (in Canada) handles minor children when both of their parents are deceased and I thought I'd share the information in case this is something that you are also thinking about.

What you can do yourself is begin the process of getting organized to make a will. It took us about a year to get all the pieces in place and I don't think that's an unusual time frame. A good place to start getting basic information about the process is from your bank/financial institution. A lot of them have will planning kits available online. Another great resource is your church - I've seen the kits distributed by the Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto as well as by the Canadian Anglican and United Churches and they are all top-notch and free.

Keep an eye open in May 2011 as that is a time of year when there are dozens of free public information sessions available nationally on making a will/leaving a legacy.

PS. This just in:

39% Amount of Canadian millionaires who don't have an estate plan

22% Amount of Canadian millionaires who haven't even thought about it

http://www.nationalpost.com/Golden+Years/4200124/story.html#ixzz1DI6lUuGf

DIY Rating: 0

Make this a priority, but be sure to hire an expert to help!

Google search: "dying intestate ontario" for a good

summary on why this needs to be on your 2011 To-Do list.

Whole Wheat Flour - Reader Question

2011-02-05T18:58:00.001-05:00

Photo Credit: Filia Artis

A good question from KvD, a regular reader here at The Do-tique about substituting whole wheat flour for all-purpose in my stew recipe.

In this recipe, I used flour to thicken the sauce for the stew and to make the dumplings that went in.

Corn starch would likely have worked equally well if not better as a sauce thickener here.

As for whole wheat flour, there are lots of recipes online that call for a percentage of whole wheat mixed with all-purpose flour to make whole wheat dumplings and that sounds like a route that I would recommend trying. 100% whole wheat would probably work, but they'd be pretty heavy tasting dumplings.

Often, when I want to sub-in whole wheat into a recipe, I limit myself to replacing about 1/3 - 1/2 of the white flour with whole wheat since things can get a bit too dense otherwise. For instance, I made whole wheat pizza dough last night, but only replaced about 1/3 of the white flour and that was about right to create something that still had the correct texture.

With regard to using whole wheat flour as a thickener in sauces and gravies, I wasn't able to find a great answer online, so if any of my readers have tried this, please let me know how it turned out.

If I had to do this in a pinch, I would make sure to grind the flour in a coffee grinder or food processor and then sift out the larger bran particles with a sieve before proceeding to give myself the best chance of a sauce that is somewhat smooth.

In reality, flour as a thickener for sauces is kind of a cheating method in the first place. So, if you're a more accomplished chef, you can adjust recipes to allow for sauces to reduce properly rather than artificially rushing that process with thickening agents. Another option would be to allow the cream in this recipe to do more of the work for you as a thickening agent.

I'm hoping that C.F. of Ma Vie Provencal may chime in since I know that she follows an allergen-free diet and will know all sorts of tricks for making things without flour.

Bon Appetit!

DIY Rating: I leave it up to you, dear reader,

to assign a rating from your own experience!

Does whole wheat flour work?

Books and Miscellanea at The Do-tique

2011-02-04T16:21:00.001-05:00

Image Credit: Crosseyed_doll

This time, I am going to feature for you, dear reader, a few songs from Baby's current play list. Now most young children are probably listening to wholesome tunes by the likes of Raffi and The Wiggles (ok, I have no idea who the children's musicians are these days!). However, our little scalliwag seems to enjoy dancing around the house carrying an empty beer bottle while listening to Irish Pirate Ballads and Other Songs of the Sea.

Here are samples of some of the favorites:

(You may have to scroll down and hit "play" for the track, the artist's site won't let me embed the links!)

All For Me Grog

Larry Maher’s Big Five-Gallon Jar

The Lowlands Low

DIY Rating: 10

Really, is there anything more entertaining than

watching a small person enjoying a few pirate tunes?

Snow Day

2011-02-02T19:41:00.000-05:00

No real breakthroughs to report from here today on the DIY front. We decided to all stay in since about a foot of snow and high winds were forecast for our area. Everyone had a nap, everyone did some work, Hubby shoveled the driveway and Baby supervised. I got caught up on my blog reading.

In thinking about the ultimate Do-tique project, the dream of having a top designer come in and decorate one of my rooms for me is quite close to the top. That's exactly what happened to one of the regular blog readers over at Rambling Renovators. Check out the interview with Geeta where she discusses what it was like to have Sarah Richardson and Tommy re-do their dining room for the show Sarah 101 on HGTV.

I've always wondered how the costs are shared on one of those shows and what the behind the scenes experience is like. My guess has always been that what they show on TV as a fairly smooth design process with short time frames is in reality much more complex than it appears. I give kudos to Sarah Richardson for occasionally showing where things go wrong in the decorating process, but I suspect, like Martha Stewart, she is not fully showing the team of interns and assistants and specialty designer source catalogues that help her pull it all together. Geeta's interview gives us a bit more of an insider's look into the process and I want to thank her for sharing her insights with the RR readership.

Since this blog questions a prevailing DIY culture and the concept of Sarah 101 is that by learning the basic building blocks of design, anyone can create what she is putting together - especially since she relies heavily on out of the box solutions like IKEA. I wonder, if having seen the behind the scenes process, whether those people whose homes appeared on the show would agree that what Sarah creates is really something that anyone could do themselves?

In a slight shift of topics: We're trying to get a renovation project I'm working with onto Mike Holmes' radar - or maybe someone like him. Can anyone comment on what it's like to be on one of these TV shows? Any tips on how to get on and how to negotiate what will happen? If you are someone or know someone who can help, let me know. This is truly an incredible project, but it's going to be a huge challenge to get the building from where it is now to where it needs to be. This particular place serves the poorest of the poor; it is a refuge to these people and it is falling apart.

DIY Rating: Undetermined

I wonder what Geeta would rate her experience as and whether you,

dear reader, would ever agree to lending your home to a TV show or not?

I would consider doing it, but worry that by only decorating one room,

that room would look out of place with the rest of my house.

Stewlicious!

2011-02-01T21:06:00.000-05:00

Image Credit: Life

So far this winter, I have planned twice to make chicken pot pie. The first time around, I had all the ingredients ready to go, but realized early in the process that my chicken had spoiled (my own fault for leaving it a day too long in the fridge!). I ended up with a vegetarian strudel using the puff pastry that I'd defrosted and vegetables I was already preparing for the pie.

Second time around, I never got around to buying frozen pastry or having the energy to make some from scratch, so my next failed attempt became chicken stew with dumplings. I thought I'd share the recipe here as it turned out pretty delicious.

Image Credit: Filia Artis

The recipe is an adaptation from Canadian Living and the main reason for the adaptations was that I didn't have the right ingredients in the right amounts, so I had to do some improvisation. An accidental addition of much more cream than was called for also occurred, but the stew came out so creamy and delicious, I decided to keep that error in my version.

Overall, I liked the results. I repeat one of my favorite mantras that the secret to being a home chef is to know how and when substitutions and alterations can be made. Dare to experiment and see what happens!

My time start to finish on this one was 1 hr 15 mins, so a bit longer than I like to spend on a weeknight dinner, but we got two nights out of it, so if you average it out, pretty quick and easy. The preparation mess factor was about medium with all the chopping and ingredient preparation, but it was still a one pot meal, which is my favorite kind!

I'm dying to hear from anyone who makes this recipe or has made anything that has previously appeared on The Do-tique! Please let me know how things went and feel free to document your experience with at least one photo and I'd be pleased to feature you as a guest blogger. Now THAT's an invitation that should be impossible to resist!!!

DIY Rating: 8 definitely doable and easier than pot pie!

If you're not a chef by nature, save this one for

the weekend when you can take your time.

Overall, quite simple and extremely tasty, but though the prep was all

straightforward, it did create a moderate amount of mess to clean up.

Ingredients

2.5 cups chicken stock

(I used a boullion cube to make stock and ended up adding additional 2 cups of stock at end)
4 (0.6 kg) skinned chicken thighs with bone in

2 medium carrots, peeled and cut in cubes
1 potato, peeled and cubed
1 head broccoli cut into florets
1-2 tbsp butter
2 chopped celery stalks
1 chopped onion
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup whipping cream

Dumplings
1 cup flour
1 tsp dried parsley / 1 tbsp fresh parsley if preferred
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup milk, (approx)

Preparation:

In a large Dutch oven, bring chicken stock to boil. Add chicken; cover and simmer over medium-low heat until juices run clear when chicken is pierced, about 20-30 minutes. With slotted spoon, transfer to plate; let cool. Remove meat from bones; cut into bite-size chunks.

Add carrots, broccoli and potatoes to stock; cover and cook for 10 minutes. With slotted spoon, transfer vegetables to plate. Pour stock into large measuring cup; if necessary, add more chicken stock to make 2.5 cups.

In same pan, melt butter over medium-high heat; cook celery, onion and mushrooms, stirring often, until softened, about 8 minutes. Add flour, thyme, salt and pepper; cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Gradually whisk in reserved stock; bring to boil, stirring. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer, stirring often, for about 5 minutes or until thick enough to coat back of spoon. Return chicken and any accumulated juices to pan. Add carrot mixture and cream, stirring to combine.

Dumplings: In bowl, whisk together flour, parsley, baking powder and salt. Using pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in butter until in coarse crumbs. Using fork, stir in enough milk to make sticky spoonable dough. Alternately, you can mix the butter and dried ingredients in a food processor and add the milk that way also. Leaving space around each, drop by tablespoonfuls onto simmering stew; cover and cook, without lifting lid, for 15 minutes or until dumplings are no longer doughy underneath.

Takes about 1 hr 15 min and makes 4 servings.

The E-Domain

2011-01-26T09:38:00.001-05:00

Though the focus of The Do-tique is life in our physical domains, I wanted to take a look at the world of the virtual home as it is full of DIY projects waiting for attention!

Over the past few months, in anticipation of an effort to connect face-to-face with colleagues in my own industry and to meet and learn from new contacts in another related industry, I thought it would be wise to create a business card that represented me as a professional contact.

Wikipedia: Attorney's Card, 1895

The personal business card is about acknowledging that networking takes place on both a personal and professional level in many sectors. We network with other professionals to learn from each other as colleagues. In the business/sales setting, we work to create connections on behalf of our employers when we are representing them to potential or existing clients. Two functions, two cards - use each appropriately.

Some options I looked at for personalized cards were: Moo.com and Tinyprints.com
Both had great design templates, but I went with the local (and awesome!) student print shop this time around since they had the best price, quickest turnaround and it allowed me to order a small "tester batch" and I'll save the larger order until I'm done "testing" this look.

The big question that came out of this thinking was how to create an email address that would be connected to my "personal brand" and communicate professionalism. I understood that myname@hotmail.com was going to make me look like a teenager. See Marketing Actuary for a discussion on this very topic.

I ended up with a custom website and matching email address that are perfect for my purposes. The process was not as intuitive as I thought, so I wanted to share what I learned in case it is something you might be considering yourself.

Step 1 - Purchase your site name

Did you know that you have to buy a URL? I didn't.

I spoke with my telephone and internet provider about purchasing the name from them. The service included email addresses at that URL, but their pricing was fairly high.

Instead, I purchased my site from an online retailer called www.Netfirms.com

I chose the very most basic plan and the cost was $4.95 per year and I got that pricing by searching "netfirms promo code 2011" in Google and finding a coupon code that was valid.

Step 2 - Create a Google Apps account

The reason for this is that there is a cost to create an email account at your URL through Netfirms. Google allows you to create an email account with the ending @yoururl.com for free through their Apps program. In essence, it is a Gmail account without any visual association to Google.

Google will take you through a process to confirm that you own that URL before initiating the account. You can also migrate the website over to Google Apps and use their free templates for web design if you are a novice like me.

Step 3 - Download onto your desktop

Do you want to deal with more webmail? Really? The answer for me is, "NO."

The solution: I was able to set everything up as a POP account that automatically downloads into my MacMail program. I can check email remotely through webmail if I want to, but for everyday use, it's all nicely automated.

I am certain that there must be another way to set all of this up at a low cost, but this was the path of least resistance that I was able to find. What do you think? Is there an easier way? Is anyone else thinking along the lines of carrying two cards?

As Joan tells Peggy about her typewriter in Episode 1 of Mad Men:

"Try not to be overwhelmed with all this technology. It looks complicated,

but the men who designed it made it simple enough for a woman to use."

DIY Rating: 5

As the Marketing Actuary suggested, the most knowledgeable

person I spoke to happened to be an undergraduate student.

In terms of the DIY aspect, I regret that I didn't employ

an expert here who could have set this up in much less time.

Perhaps my road map will help other DIY'ers!

Score at the Grocery Store!!

2011-01-25T13:00:00.000-05:00

Image Credit: Life

Ok, so just a quick post today since time is short and I want to get cooking!

I scored big time at FreshCo today in Kingston where almost all of their meat was 50% off! The best before on everything is January 27th (today is the 25th) so if I get cooking and freezing today, I'm not too worried about anything spoiling.

The strategy here at The Do-tique is always about frozen dinners. We cook about once or twice a month in a big way and then the rest of the month we cook up quick stuff and work through the freezer stash. By setting aside one or two afternoons (usually Sundays) a month to make up some extra meals for the freezer, the week seems to go smoother with way less clean up and hassle.

Here are some ideas of things I'll be making up in the next day or so and maybe the list will inspire others in terms of good ideas for make ahead meals:

(All of the meat ingredients were on sale today)

Frozen pie crusts + ground pork + ground beef = Tourtiere
Frozen pie crusts + eggs + bacon + broccoli = Quiche
Simmering steaks + veggies = Beef Stew
Ground beef + veggies + beans = Chili
Sausages + tomatoes = Pasta Sauce
Chicken thighs + spices = Indian Curry
Leeks + potatoes + bacon = Potato leek soup
Ground beef + carrots + potatoes = Shepherd's Pie

The recipes are just samples. All of these allow for some play to adjust ingredients to what you have on hand - so feel free to substitute or search the web until you find a recipe that matches what you have in the kitchen.

My two best tips here are if you see a cut of meat on sale that doesn't look like what you're looking for, you can get creative about butchering it yourself. For example, if you are looking to make stew, look for a roast on sale and cut it up yourself. If you need pork chops, a roast pork may be more affordable and you can cut the chops from that. Whole chickens are often cheaper than chicken quarters and you can make soup broth from the leftover parts when you quarter it yourself.

My second tip is that if you are at the store and thinking about doing some pre-cooking, pick up some ziploc containers and aluminum casserole trays so that you can easily portion out servings for your freezer without tying up your more permanent dishes.

Avoid intensely complicated recipes for maximum bang for your time input!

DIY Rating: 7

The ease and convenience of frozen dinners at

a fraction of the cost and without the unhealthy stuff.

The time commitment here is front-end loaded,

so you will need at least a couple of half-days a month

to get ahead, but the time saved during the week is substantial.

God Bless this Mess!

2011-01-24T12:50:00.000-05:00

J. over at Rambling Renovators decided to share one of her family's messy secrets today. Namely, a dysfunctional entry closet that they cleaned up this past week. Inspired by J., I thought I would share our family's not-so-secret mess and show off my toy storage solution. It looks like this:

Yes, I realize that this is a tiny, tiny amount of toys - there are in fact a few other similarly sized piles elsewhere in the house - however, I still think a pile on the floor is not quite the level of decor solution that I'm looking for in my main living room.

We went to IKEA yesterday to do some brainstorming on solutions and came up with this option. This Hemnes cabinet would work well with Baby's books and we thought a good idea might be to mount something behind the glass - fabric or peel and stick frosting - to hide some of the chaos inside.

A much more affordable solution would be the Expedit bookcase below that can be left vertical or used horizontally. I think it might provide more storage, but without doors, the toy-jumble remains exposed and the cubbies aren't very wide.

Anywhere besides IKEA that I should be looking? Anyone have some ideas I could use?

In answer to, "where are the rest of Baby's toys?" there are quite a few downstairs in the den and a whole bunch up in her bedroom. We are trying to keep the toys to a reasonable minimum without reducing the fun factor around here by letting Baby play with other safe items around the house that she finds interesting like plastic water bottles and cardboard boxes and containers with rice or pasta and the pots, pans and tupperware. Her stash currently includes some wrapping paper from Christmas that she is interested in scrunching up. Another strategy was to take her to free play groups run by the Ontario Early Years program where you could play for a while with their toys and sign a few out to bring home and borrow.

I often remind myself that children all over the world and in past ages were quite satisfied with only 2 or 3 toys and that the pile we have is indeed quite substantial!

That being said, I still want to get the ones we have up and off the floor!

Warn Graphic Design

2011-01-18T09:45:00.000-05:00

I took a course in Photoshop way back in the early 1990s. It was brand new back then and we were working on "386's" - being lucky enough to go to a high school that could afford to build such a state of the art computer lab in those days! Needless to say, though the concepts I learned haven't changed that much, my skills are seriously rusty these days.

That being said, when I needed a photo for my professional image, the DIY avenue was not really an option. Thankfully, my friend Warren Nowosad stepped up to help me out at the last minute and transformed my pic into something that looks good and will be useful to me. I want to send out a big "Thank You" to Warren and I thought I would showcase his online portfolio here so that you can get an idea of the work that he does as a designer.

Warn Graphic Design

Before

After

I'm hesitant to reveal the "magic" that Warren worked, but since Brittney Spears decided recently to release her raw images, I thought I could follow her suit! (Needless to say, but Brittney does not really look bad at all in her more realistic photos!)

Do you use LinkedIn as part of your own professional networking strategy? Have you thought about investing in a professional photo? I see some out there that haven't been updated since I took that photoshop course in the 90's! Others are low-res or look like they belong on Facebook. What does yours say about you?

DIY Rating: 0

Leave this one to the experts!

It would have taken me hours to do this myself

and since I need the image for business,

the professional job looks, well, more professional!

More Adminitrivia...

2011-01-13T10:52:00.000-05:00

This wouldn't be rightly called The Do-tique if we didn't tackle the question of To-Do lists! Yes, they are a major part of life around here and sometimes we even resort to taping a big page out of one of my sketchbooks onto the wall and working out the list that way! All the ideas go on the big sheet, but only the most important or doable tasks end up on the final list.

Promod Sharma included this link in his regular newsletter. It provides some tips on tackling your own to-do list. If you are running a business, thinking about business, working for anyone or really trying to accomplish just about anything, Promod does a great job of sharing his own insights on how to be better and do better. I have become a fairly regular reader of his blogs, so I'd like to welcome him to my blogroll here at The Do-tique.

As for my list, it's pretty short today. There are only about two things I need to "ship" today. Unfortunately, they're buried under a huge pile of stuff on my desktop! Wish me luck as I start digging!

Before I sign off, I'd like to thank my first two fans who have joined as "followers" of this site! Welcome to you both! As for the rest of my readers and regular commentators, a special thanks to all of you for visiting and for your support over the past few months!

xoxo
Filia Artis

PS. The offer of $50 off your next furnace cleaning or servicing is still open. No one has taken me up on the free coupons yet!

Craft-tastic! Bulletin Board

2011-01-12T19:53:00.000-05:00

Image Credit: Mamacos, Cape Town

Above is a beautiful photograph I found for a company that does reupholstering in Cape Town.

I watch a fair amount of HGTV and the folks on those shows are always doing stuff involving staplers and fabric and they make it look pretty easy to reupholster just about anything.

Since I'm often dubious about the actual time needed to do crafts like this vs. the time it takes thanks to the magic of television, I've always been hesitant to try the technique myself.

Despite my doubts, I thought I might try something easy and cover a boring bulletin board that I bought for my office.

The "stains" in the fabric are just a bit of excess water from the iron!

Taking a piece of scrap fabric I had stowed away - it is a simple cotton that originally came from IKEA about ten years ago - I used a regular stapler to attach it to the back of the bulletin board. I followed the technique I've seen suggested on TV where you start on the long side in the middle, tack down in a few spots and then pull the fabric gently into place and work from the opposite side and then around the rest of the perimeter. For the corners, you just fold the edges over like gift wrap and staple everything into place.

Total time on this was extremely minimal - I think it actually came out in the twenty minute range including giving a quick ironing to the fabric before stapling.

My cool new office closet turned into a printing and filing station!

The results? It looks very simple but pretty good in my opinion. I probably could have used a more interesting fabric and done some embellishing with ribbon, etc., but then it would have been much more involved and I was in for the quick and dirty crafting here.

The cost was about $25 for the bulletin board and the fabric was a free leftover from another person. If you are not crafty, there are lots of this type of thing for sale on Etsy.com from $15 to $150.

Now, all I need are these super funky push pins for my board. My birthday is coming....

From Etsy.com seller Pegsboards

DIY Rating: 9

The test run on this came out at 20 minutes,

so it's an easy craft and way cooler

than a boring old cork board.

However, as I always say, if you're not a crafter yourself,

Etsy has some great "home faked" options too!

Books and Miscellanea at The Do-tique

2011-01-11T13:42:00.001-05:00

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

A little update on the viewing culture here at The Do-tique:

The big news is that Behemoth (our 1979 RCA floor TV) is going to be moving to the basement to make room for a new LCD TV. We're seriously moving from 1979 to 2010 in one fell swoop in terms of technology!

Since the new TV comes with a grounded plug, we'll be replacing the old receptacle with a GFCI outlet that will provide the necessary grounding without re-wiring the whole house. If you live in an older home like we do, you might want to do some research on installing these in locations like kitchens, bathrooms, and living rooms - the job is pretty easy and it's a smarter way to go than the traditional jury-rigging that happens when you either cut off the grounded prong (not recommended!) or put in a regular grounded outlet and simply don't connect the ground to anything (also not recommended!).

In short, our viewing experience will hopefully improve greatly when New TV arrives - especially since the sound on our Behemoth was pre-stereo, which made a lot of DVDs hard to hear properly!

Up in the Air with George Clooney was the most recent flick playing at The Do-tique. The main character, Ryan Bingham is a guy whose job it is to travel across the country firing people on behalf of their employers. He is the quintessential road warrior and he only spends about 40 (miserable) days a year living in his apartment, which he has set up exactly like a hotel room. His major goal is to amass 10 million frequent flyer miles and become member number 7 of an exclusive club of individuals who have attained this status.

One of the best quotes in the movie is, "Loyalty is valuable" and this becomes a theme that runs throughout. Ryan's most loyal relationships are with American Airlines, the hotel chains he uses and his car rental company. He is loyal to the company that he works for and also to his beliefs about how their business should be done. He resists the push to outsource the job of notifying employees from video call centers manned by "human automatons," but it's clear that if he doesn't get with the program soon, he might be the one without a job.

The question of loyalty is also examined in the reactions of the employees that are being fired: "This is what I get (ie. a hired gun coming in with a package) after 18 years of loyal service to this company!?!" The supporting actress, Natalie Keener, is fresh out of Cornell's business program and passes up a better job opportunity in San Diego to move to Omaha with her boyfriend. He later dumps her in a text message!

When Ryan finally decides to choose a human relationship based on love rather than a consumer exchange, it turns out that what he gets is exactly what he "paid" for - a casual, sexual relationship - as his girlfriend ultimately chooses to remain loyal to her "real life" of a husband and children and can offer no more in return to him than precisely the causal relationship he bargained for in the first place.

DIY Rating: 8

for both installing GFCIs yourself

and for watching this movie!

Serious Business

2011-01-10T21:02:00.001-05:00

Photo Credit: Filia Artis

Apparently, since Mrs. Blankenship is no longer available, Baby has decided she should help us step up our game around here and spent some time pitching in with the filing and office cleaning.

Administrative Assistance

2011-01-10T12:44:00.000-05:00

“I’d have my secretary do it, but she’s dead.”

(Don Draper, MadMen)

How do you stay organized?

Since this is the time of year for resolutions about getting organized, I thought I'd share my best tip from 2010.

A friend of mine swears by the Moleskine notebook. Here is a crazy cool tip sheet that he found online for the many ways that you can put your notebook to work for you: Freelanceswitch.com

And why Moleskine? Is it because they are trendy and available at places that attract literati and latte drinkers like Indigo? Maybe...

For some of us, the key is to find a notebook that fits into your lifestyle. I wanted something that could fit into my purse or pocket with pages that could be torn out easily and a handy pouch in the back.

Over the years, I've had every sort of PDA and Blackberry and nifty electronic thing imaginable, but none of them have lasted more than a year or two and so, they have no archival value for me. They need to be charged and they provide other distractions like email and photos when what I really need is a calendar and a place to make notes.

My system for the past year has been to use the iCal function on my MacBook for tracking dates and appointments and to keep a small Moleskine in my purse to track things I need to do, ideas, prices, notes from meetings, grocery/shopping lists, etc. On January 1, 2010, I started a list of major tasks that needed to be address over the course of the year and every week, I'd return to that list and see if there was anything that I could do to advance any of the items. By December 2010, all of the tasks were completed.

There is a freedom inherent in this system because if it is in the book it will get done and there is no need to worry about trying to remember what those blue sky goals were at the beginning of the year - they're right here with me in my pocket!

I even created a price chart for diapers in my notebook! Since every store sells packages with different quantities, it's hard to compare when a sale price is actually a good deal and doing math on the spot is kind of hard with an unhappy infant along for the ride!

DIY Rating: 10

Unless you can afford to hire a secretary,

you're going to need to get organized on your own!

Keeping it simple works for me and maybe all we need in this world

is that ancient little packet of paper in our pockets

rather than the newest and most-advanced electronic gadget!

Guest Post - My Lucky Pencil

2011-01-08T11:49:00.000-05:00

Mark J. Lacey Completing his 1945 taxes Photo Credit: Life

Check out my guest post over at My Lucky Pencil!

The post contains some information for Canadian writers, consultants, etc. who might be thinking about working with customers in the US market. The question arose from a conundrum that a friend of mine found herself in when negotiations began with a US publisher for her upcoming book.

If you're thinking of DIY-ing this sort of thing yourself, I hope my research might be helpful to you! (I am also happy to hear of any corrections that might be needed in case you are an expert in this sort of thing, which I am not!)

xoxo

Filia Artis

PS. Thanks to the folks over at My Lucky Pencil for their support!

$50 Giveaway!

2011-01-05T18:47:00.000-05:00

Announcing my first official Do-tique giveaway!!

You might know that in my professional life as a fundraiser, direct mail solicitations are part of the "bread and butter" of keeping business going. One of the best ways to generate new interest is to remember to start by saying "thank you." This is probably no breakthrough when I say that it goes for the businesses that we deal with regularly as well.

Tonight I received a thank you letter from my furnace maintenance company 21 Degrees One Hour Heating and Air Conditioning. The letter was good. It was short, it was concise, it created a connection. It came with a $50 coupon for me to use toward their services and two $50 coupons to share with friends. There are no terms or conditions on the offers.

Here at The Do-tique, we have had our furnace cleaned and serviced twice and the motor for our furnace replaced once. For both cleanings, I received very good discount prices for booking during special promotions and the motor repair charges were discounted because we were members of their service program.

So, if you are in or near one of the areas that 21 Degrees services, let me know and I'll mail you one of my $50 coupons. (email me with your address at chris.attard@hotmail.com)

Service areas include:

Trenton
Port Hope
Cobourg
Belleville
Kingston
Gananoque
Napanee
Picton

Good work on your letter, Kevin!

DIY Rating: 0 for servicing your own furnace!

Leave it to the experts! Good customer service from 21 Degrees!

Going Forth

2011-01-05T13:50:00.000-05:00

The Lizard King Image Credit: Art Car Central

Have you heard of The Lizard Brain? (Stick with me here, this IS heading somewhere...)

I read about the Lizard Brain a few times in 2010. What I'm talking about here is what is known as the Amygdala, the part of our brains that is in charge of the Limbic System - our fear, anger, revenge, instinct centre - functioning on the level just above the stuff in our brains that keeps us breathing.

Seth Godin talks a lot about the Lizard Brain. When the Lizard Brain is in charge, all higher mental functioning shuts down. I think of it as the "panic button." It will provide us any excuse to be afraid, to stop, to stall, to fight or to run away. It helps us to survive, but as Seth puts it, "survival and success are not the same thing."

I realize that the Lizard has had a few too many hours in the driver's seat of my life. Maybe you are in a similar situation? Tell-tale signs are procrastination, sticking with a course/job/plan/routine that doesn't make you feel happy or fulfilled, always putting off what it is you really want to be doing with your time, etc.

So I got to thinking about the New Year and what my resolutions would be for 2011. In so many ways, I faced several of my biggest and most obvious fears in the past year. And you know what, these things weren't as scary in the end as I thought they were going to be.

It helped me come to understand that living in fear of letting go of the stable and the constant things in life was not worth the trouble. Now, granted, here on the side where there is no longer any real "secure" future, things are not necessarily comfortable, but I'm less panicked about the future than I was when I feared losing that security.

This brings me to think about my resolutions for the coming year, 2011. There are so many things in my life that I have done that were big and scary and a hell of a lot of fun. At the same time, there are so many more that I've never made a serious effort to go about because of what the Lizard Brain tells us about fearing failure, fearing art, fearing to go "off track" in life. The fear that comes from not simply jumping though hoops, but choosing to chart a new course.

This year is going to be about listening to the Lizard Brain. Acknowledging the fear. But taking away his car keys for a while. He and I are going to be doing some trip planning in the next few months, maybe it will even take longer than that.

Seth Godin sometimes calls the Lizard Brain the Resistance. He writes:

"Making something that matters is hard. The resistance will help you find the thing you most need to do because it is the thing the resistance most wants to stop."

My resolution for 2011 will be to look for the resistance, question it and use it to guide me toward the things I need to be doing.

DIY Rating:

10 for having coffee with the Lizard Brain!

0 for doing this all by yourself;

as with all good resolutions,

get some friends to help you stay on track!

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T20:04:00.000-05:00

" Wild Turkey," by John James Audubon, 1830

An ode to Christmas Dinner...

Dear Mr. Turkey,

At first you were quick

You tried to run away

You were happy being free range.

But then, the butcher caught you

And delivered you into my hands.

I introduced you to a new sort of range.

Three hours later,

and I can barely move.

Little chance now

That I'll be fast enough to catch your friends!

With all the Christmas celebrations going on, I've been thinking this week about the opening scene in this cult classic, Die Feuerzangenbowle. It's Christmastime and the characters are sitting around a bowl of Feuerzangenbowle toasting their days together as schoolboys...I think it translates well even if you don't follow the dialogue at all!

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas from here under the Christmas tree at The Do-tique!

Solace on the Solstice

2010-12-21T14:29:00.000-05:00

Alphonse Mucha, A Winter Tale (1917)

It is a bright, sunny day outside and not too cold, though wintry enough with a nice covering of snow. Hard to believe that today is the darkest day of the year. All the same, I have found something that has helped me to look forward celebrating today! I recently came across a beer from Montreal brewed specially for this occasion and since the sun will be "over the yardarm" earlier than usual today, I won't have to wait too much longer to enjoy...

Photo Credit: Filia Artis

My snowman is keeping a bottle of Solstice d'hiver by Dieu du Ciel! cold for me.

The website explains: This noble winter beer is brown in colour with flaming red highlights. Its taste is delicately sweet and liquor-like with a hint of burnt caramel coming from the malt and a prolonged boiling time. It is a very bitter beer with aromas of hops and alcohol, and flavours reminiscent of red fruit brought by the English-type yeast we use to ferment it. The aftertaste is accentuated by the wonderful flavour of hops. Solstice d’Hiver is brewed only once a year, and is then aged for 4 to 5 months before being sold. This aging process is necessary to achieve an ideal equilibrium between the sharp bitterness and the other flavours in the beer.

Hard to resist!

The good news? The days will start to get longer from here on forward!

Happy Solstice!

xoxo

Filia Artis

PS. The stereo is playing a mix CD entitled "Scotch on the Rocks" a friend once made for me. Full of Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Nick Cave and other "life is tough" singers. Perfect for a "dark" day!

Bread Goes Viral!

2010-12-20T10:44:00.000-05:00

Are you friends with Sarah Richardson yet? We recently became Facebook buddies. Ok, well me and about oh 5,500 people! She has been baking some mysterious bread and uploading photos onto her profile. I say "mysterious" because her photos show the bread baking in covered casserole dishes. (For those who have never baked bread, this is highly unusual!)

Photo Credit: Sarah Richardson

Since today is going to be a bread and gingerbread making day - at least eventually...I was curious about Sarah's recipe. It turns out that she seems to be using a recipe that appeared in the New York Times recently.

It also turns out that I have another crafty friend, Corina, who just happened to email me the very same recipe last week. It is from Jim Lahey at the Sullivan Street Bakery. You can view the recipe on my recipe page.

Photo Credit: Sarah Richardson

The finished product from Sarah's kitchen looked awesome. I mean really, does anything she makes look bad?

If you are a novice baker and hesitant about the kneading part or want to try out something kind of experimental, this sounds like an interesting recipe. From my perspective, the prep mess required to make this is about the same as regular bread and the time requirement, though mostly taken up by waiting, is a pretty big commitment.

The temptation is that having heard about the recipe now from two different places in a single week is to take this as a sign from above that perhaps THIS is the bread to make.

I wonder how many kitchens are whipping up a batch as I speak thanks to the ease of sharing the recipe via the internet? Imagine how wide the recipe has spread in just a short amount of time thanks to Facebook posts, online newspapers, email and blogs? Truly amazing!

If you give this one a go, be sure to email or write in with a pic and I'll post your very own handy work on The Do-tique!

DIY Rating:

Give it a try and let me know!

I'd say probably a 6. No-knead sounds easy,

but 20 hours of rising time vs. 2 for normal bread

seems like a bit of a pain.

PS. Besides being a crafty lady, Corina runs a great blog on writing and teaching children. Check her out at MyLuckyPencil!

Winter Solstice

2010-12-19T15:22:00.001-05:00

Winter Horse Riding

We are coming up to the darkest days of the year this week with the Winter Solstice occurring on December 21st (Tuesday).

I was listening to some beautiful music on CBC radio this afternoon live from Háteigs Church, Reykjavík, Iceland. It is the perfect time of year to think about Iceland, since they are so close to the Arctic Circle and the contrast between the darkness of the days and the light of Christmas is so stark. (Yes, Canada is kind of an Arctic Circle sort of place too, but let's face it, most Canadians live pretty far from it, which is not the case for the Icelandic people!)

Music samples are at Amazon.

The feast day of the patron saint and only native saint of Iceland, St. Thorlakur Thornalli (1133-1193), is also celebrated this week on December 23. He happens to have lived during my favourite century, by the way. The traditional celebrations very much resemble my own plans for this week.

According to Wikipedia, St. Thorlak's Day (Þorláksmessa) is considered the last day of preparations before Christmas. Therefore, on St. Thorlak's Day, the house is cleaned and preparations for the Christmas meal are begun. Most people in Reykjavík go into town in the night to meet others and do the last shopping before Christmas. Fish was usually eaten on Þorláksmessa since December 23 was the last day of the Catholic Christmas fast.

Speaking of Christmas fasts and Advent, did you know that beer is traditionally a penitential drink especially appropriate for Advent and Lent? My favorite right now is the Great Lakes Brewery Winter Beer.

I guess it's time to get back to all that house cleaning, meal preparing, present wrapping and beer drinking and in the name of St. Thorlak, enjoy this last week of Advent!

Whaz' Up?

2010-12-17T10:25:00.002-05:00

Photo Credit: SuperStock

Quiz

1. When is the last time your kitchen looked this clean?

A. Yesterday, my cleaning lady came. It lasted an hour.

2. When is the last time you wore heels in your kitchen?

A. It hasn't happened yet.

And now, for a little update from The Do-tique...

We are all a bit in shock that Christmas is only a week away! The tree is up and has stayed up with almost no damage inflicted by Baby (yet!). Oh, I'm so glad that I have a girl and not a little boy! The Nativity scene is also displayed and we've sent all our Christmas cards and I even had time to build a little drinks bar to spread some festive sauce (uh, I mean Cheer!).

All Photos: Filia Artis

The cookie baking bonanza has also begun. And yes, I looked at the Martha Stewart Christmas book. I even brought it home from the library. However, Hubby has forbidden me from trying to make the victorian cottage out of gingerbread.

Image Credit: Martha Stewart

A few years ago, I attempted just the dutch townhouse gingerbread cookies from this Martha cake. It was an eight hour process for one batch of cookies. (This cake gets a DIY Rating of 1! Don't go there unless you really, really like baking!)

Photo Credit and Recipe: Martha Stewart

There was once a blogger in Holland who was brave enough to make this cake herself. Check out Heleen's awesome work at Cookie Journey.

If you're looking for a much more idiot-proof type of Christmas cookie, I can suggest these sugar cookies from Joy of Baking. I made them last night and they are very straightforward. My strategy is to do a few cookie dough batches in advance of Christmas and then freeze or refrigerate until closer to the date and save the rolling and baking for then.

Another easy recipe that has been suggested to me by Maureen in my craft group is this one for No-Fail Sugar N' Spice cookies. It is supposed to be resistant to damage from rolling and re-rolling and generally being over-handled by children.

Top tips for Christmas cookies - use unsalted butter and use lots of it! When the recipe says "cream" they mean it, so make sure your butter is nice and fluffy before proceeding to the next step. Handling the dough too much is what makes for tough cookies - tread lightly with your fingers! Finally, when in doubt, hit up the bakery! Nothing like home-faked if it means avoiding a pre-Christmas stress attack!

In other news...

The big DIY project of the month has been the job of exploring and researching the idea of starting my own business or at least a new way of doing business as an employee. I am inspired by all the other mother-bloggers out there who are raising children and running successful businesses. The main goal is to find a way of continuing my career that is somewhat compatible with family life. I don't believe there is really such a thing as a perfect "work-life balance," it will always be a game of tug and pull, but I do believe there can be a better way for women to make it function. Any tips or ideas or suggestions are welcome!

DIY Ratings:

O for wearing high heels to clean the house,

10 for setting up a festive holiday bar at home,

7 for easy cookies, but 10 for home faking if you hate home baking!

Readers can assign a DIY rating for me on the business idea...

Welcome to Canada!

2010-12-10T20:46:00.000-05:00

Warning Note: Christmas Gift Spoilers!

If you are Hubby or on my card list, you may not want to read further...

1939 Map of Canada Image Credit: Etsy

Though I mentioned earlier that we are observing Advent and trying not to get too caught up in "Crazy Preparation for Christmas Commercial Season," I decided to get going on my Christmas shopping yesterday, which officially counts as a commercial Christmas preparation activity.

My shopping often begins with a trip to the mall. I rarely buy much at the mall, but it satisfies my curiosity and confirms my usual feeling that there is little there of interest to me.

For the first time, I decided to try out online shopping this year. It is something that is pretty established in the US, but really hadn't fully taken root in Canada. Most of my favorite stores didn't ship to Canada and often the websites were cumbersome and the shipping costs unaffordable. Maybe you are one of those people who have an auntie or friend with a US shipping address who hordes your online purchases until your next visit???

This year, a new world has dawned and yes, the times have definitely changed! I would say that if you already have an idea of what you are looking for this year, online shopping is absolutely the way to go! This new world offers discounts, prices in Canadian dollars, free shipping and quick and easy to use websites. I'm so much happier at home in front of my tree than I would be slogging through a busy parking lot.

The other innovation in our fair country, which has brought us up to the US standard, is that most of the retailers will now allow you to return the items ordered online to their store locations, so there is no concern about having to pay for return shipping.

A big tip that I would give is to search online for coupon codes before hitting the checkout button. I was amazed to pick up a 25% and a 10% off code by searching the name of the store and "online coupon code 2010" on google!

My first online purchase of the year was the Christmas cards that I ordered from Tiny Prints. Free shipping and a $10 discount for personalized cards that I didn't have to drive anywhere to get. They arrived on time and I'm delighted with the outcome. The only downside is that 30 cards cost me about $50, so more than a boxed set on sale, but about right for something personalized and custom ordered.

Next, I tried out Sears which has free shipping right now and some sales. It went very smoothly and I found the exact sleigh for Baby that I wanted and that I was having trouble finding in the stores. I wish that The Bay would get with the online shopping program since they are so big into gift registries!

One of the newest retailers in the Canadian market is Gap, which also sells Old Navy and Banana Republic. They were offering free shipping on orders of $50 or more, the items I wanted were on sale, I picked up some further discount codes and they have in-store returns.

Photo Credit: Getty

Next on the list, classic online retailers Amazon.ca and ChaptersIndigo.ca. Both had free shipping on orders over $25 and the pricing on the actual items was good on each site. An advantage is that they sell such a wide variety of items that you can cover almost all your books, music, toys, electronics and accessories in one place!

Prezies for Hubby...Done!

Image Credit: Kidscreen

All this multi-national commercial online retailing aside, I also love being able to go to the downtown shopping area and find specialty items that aren't available anywhere else. Since I like having stores in that part of town, I do my best to support them by shopping there as much as possible. We've picked up a few handmade wooden toys in the farmer's market and at the independent toy shop as well as some hand knitted items from another store. I also try to support the local butcher and baker by skipping those items at the supermarket and relying on their businesses.

Now, if only the Beer Store and the LCBO would get into online retail...Have you ever shopped at the liquor store before 10am on a weekday? I tried it today just to beat the Friday afternoon holiday crowds. It is a very, very strange experience! Apparently most of the customers were using their pockets rather than shopping bags to transport their goods home!

DIY Rating: 8 for Christmas shopping online

It has gotten a lot easier and more affordable in

Canada compared to a year or two ago.

Mix up online shopping for generic items with some specialty shopping

in your local neighborhood and avoid a major trip to the mall!

Spotted!

2010-12-09T17:39:00.000-05:00

Image Credit: Getty

In case you are still shopping for a tree skirt to complete your ultimate Christmas tannenbaum, I have spotted some nice looking ones at Zellers in the Alfred Sung Home collection and at The Bay. All Christmas decor is on sale at The Bay right now and both stores had some pretty decorations!

Happy hunting!

Filia Artis

Do Not Attempt at Home

2010-12-04T13:57:00.000-05:00

So just a quick note for today...

Hubby decided to get an early start this morning on the office closet which we're turning into a printing and filing station. I was proud of him and grateful since I've been hoping to get this project done for a while. At the same time, he used a power sander to smooth his plaster patch-up work without removing anything from the room or sealing the area off or putting down a drop cloth. Now, I've got at least a day's worth of dust to clean up from the living room, dining room and kitchen let alone the office, which is full of book shelves and paperwork.

Do you ever feel like home improvements are all about one step forward and one step backward all at the same time?

My good friend once reminded me, "They do this to say they love you."

DIY Rating: 0

If you're a handy hubby, always check with your wife before doing a messy job.

She'll either tell you how to minimize the mess or if she approves

your approach, you can tell her it was her idea to do it that way

and hope for the best!

Reader Question: Tree Skirt

2010-12-03T14:55:00.000-05:00

Vintage Ornaments Advent Calendar

Dear Mistress of Home Decor,

I need advice. We need to buy a "tree skirt" for our Christmas tree. I've looked at the ones at Canadian Tire, and they are functional, but nearly as ugly as sin. Can you think of a store that might sell Christmas tree stands and skirts that have some aesthetic appeal?

I received the missive above from a loyal reader recently and thought that I would share the advice that I gave to him here.

To address the easy part of the question first, we bought our tree stand about two years ago from Canadian Tire and were extremely satisfied with it. As one person commented online, "it should be called the Marriagesaver." Easy to use, easy to store because the legs come off and the tree didn't fall over. Just a bit pricey at $30+ since it's really just plastic.

The Omega Tree Stand

My first instinct here would be to head to HomeSense. Their merchandise tends to be a hodge-podge of styles, but usually there is at least something luxurious and traditional looking if you happen to be there on the right day. As I clarified for my reader, it is not the same as Home Outfitters but possibly the same as Home Goods (in the US) - not confusing in the least!

The Bay in Toronto at Yonge and Bloor always has a lovely Christmas section and might be a good place to try. I also saw some awesome red velvet skirts and other pretty decorations last night at Loblaws.

I was surprised to find that Restoration Hardware didn't have any on their website and that the selection at Pottery Barn is limited and very pricey!

And then there is my favorite Christmas decor theme-park, IKEA! I would suggest just doing a one-stop shop right there for your decorations! Sadly, of all the interesting decorations that IKEA sells, they did not seem to have a tree skirt on their website. I would offer this up as an idea - purchase a throw blanket and drape it around the bottom of your tree.

Felicia Throw - at $14.99, a good option for a DIY tree skirt!

Finally, you might head for a fabric store and create your own tree skirt. I know, I know, is this going to involve sewing?? The answer is not necessarily. The first option would be to take the fabric and cut it into the correct shape and try to use fabric glue or iron-on tape to close up the ends. The second option is just to creatively drape the fabric so that the ends are folded under and concealed. Since it's not a garment, it doesn't really matter if the ends are unfinished. Some nice red satin or velvet or even a piece of coarsely woven linen?

Fabric samples from Designer Fabrics

I once had a full-length, red satin bridesmaid's dress shortened to calf length and then used the cut off part as a tree skirt by just folding the cut end under and draping the rest around the base of the tree. For a tree skirt on the cheap, you can always try to see if there is a curtain or sheet or blanket or fabric remnant at your local thrift shop in a desirable color and see if you can use that to cover up the bottom of the tree.

I keep thinking that it's a bit early to set up a Christmas tree, but the live ones seem to be for sale all over town, so I'm wondering whether perhaps it IS time to get going on this? When do you set yours up?

DIY Rating: 7

I hope I have given my shopping-phobic readers a few options here

both in terms of where to look and how to "Macgyver" something

themselves using a little creativity!

This is a hard decision and the shopping part can be painful,

but luckily, whatever you choose should last a number of years!

Miscellaneous Purse Panic

2010-12-02T21:13:00.000-05:00

Image Credit: New York Times

I was struck by this image a number of months ago when I saw it in a magazine. It is an advertisement for Louis Vuitton showing Gorbachev in a limousine with one of their bags. I found the whole ad a bit odd at the time, but it is definitely thought-provoking advertising. Even at a superficial level, it is a novel idea to use a middle-aged man (let alone a public political figure) to sell designer handbags to women.

It came to mind this evening as I was thinking about my afternoon. I never thought it would come to this, but I had a moment of panic in Starbucks when I couldn't remember exactly where I'd place my purse. (Yes, my mother would have these panics when we were kids and it used to drive me nuts back then!) It was only momentary and the bag was right beside me, but if you ever have this feeling, you'll know it's a terrible one! I'm blaming it all on lack of sleep.

Though I'm not a crazy designer purse collecting woman, it's amazing how much a part of life a simple leather bag can be. I'd lost mine once at a highway road stop and was pretty much useless for a week as I'd lost my house keys, wallet and phone. I think LV is playing on the importance of their bag by placing it almost as an indispensable companion to an important icon.

I realize this is a bit of a digressive post so I'll end with a music video to complete the wacky ride! I was thinking of "panic" and wanted to share this video which I've always loved and which I just happened to remember tonight for the first time in a while. It kind of cheered me up in a strange way...

Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Murder on the Dancefloor

DIY Rating: Numbers cannot express

the value of keeping your purse in sight at all times

and of avoiding getting murdered at a dance contest!

Christmas Cards

2010-11-30T19:07:00.000-05:00

The first commercially produced Christmas Card (London, 1843)

Image Credit: Wikipedia

For the very first time, I decided it might be a good idea to start thinking about Christmas cards a bit earlier than usual. Typically, it only dawns on me sometime around December 23rd that I should get going on that project!

Thanks to a tip on Rambling Renovators, I decided to try making my own cards this year the "New Fashioned Way," that is, online. J. at Rambling Renovators has used Tiny Prints in the past to make cute cards and I thought I would give the site a try.

I've looked at a few different sites this week that offer a similar service and I have to say that I like the designs and ease of use on Tiny Prints the best so far. My only difficulty was in uploading photos directly from iPhoto. I had to upload them onto Picassaweb, where I have an account, and then pull them from there. If you don't use iPhoto or have most of your photos online on Facebook or Picassa (etc.) already, you shouldn't have any trouble.

Here are some mockups so far, though I am keeping the one we'll actually send a secret for now:

One of the best parts is that you get something that is personalized without having to take on a major DIY project and they will even address and mail them to your friends if you have your list ready. There is a promotion on right now for these in case it is something you might think about doing!

DIY Rating: 8

Took some time to pick out a design and the photos,

but overall, one of the better websites for this type of thing

and the cards were fun to make.

My only criticism is that iPhoto was not well supported.

PS. This is not a paid promotion!

PPS. All photos are the property of Filia Artis at The Do-tique, please do not use or reproduce without permission.

Getting Ready with Eddie!

2010-11-29T13:38:00.000-05:00

To: Eddie Ross

K-Mart

Decorator Station, North Pole

International

From: Filia Artis

The Do-tique

Kingston, Ontario

Canada

Dear Eddie,

Your video on using materials from K-Mart to decorate for Christmas this year reminded me of my childhood. My parents saved the packaging from their K-Mart decorations from the 1970s and used them to store those decorations for years!

I had a nightmare recently that I decorated my whole house and you were coming over to visit, but then when you got here, all the decorations had disappeared!! I hope this never happens!

Thank you for your awesome ideas on how to use artificial wreaths and garlands and make them look great! The Christmas Elves here at The Do-tique will be briefed later this afternoon and I expect they will get to work very soon!

Please tell Santa that I have been a good little homemaker.

Your Reader,

Filia Artis at The Do-tique

Holiday Planter

2010-11-29T13:22:00.000-05:00

British Christmas Card (1880)

I love the mistletoe wreath in the illustration. Mistletoe doesn't actually grow in Canada, and since it is a parasitic plant, it may even be banned here, which is why it is rarely seen at Christmastime. When I lived in Germany, it was a novelty for me to see it being sold at the Christmas Markets in town.

Since it is officially Advent, it's time to get started on some decorating around the house. I did put up my first outdoor decoration yesterday. I can't resist putting up fresh evergreen garlands and wreaths! My plan was to put together a holiday planter for my front walkway. I keep seeing them at the grocery store for about $20 and I was sure that I could make one myself.

Here is how mine turned out:

Here is the how-to:

1. Take a summer planter or urn and empty out the flowers and leave the potting soil in the pot.

2. Cut 5-6 stems of dogwood (bush with red branches) or another woody bush (you can spray paint the branches to red, white or gold or leave them natural). Cut about 8 small branches from two different types of evergreen tree (I used spruce and cedar). Find something with berries and cut about 8 small branches.

3. Stand the branches in the middle of the planter in the potting soil. Add the evergreen foliage in a circle around the edges of the planter. Fill in with berry branches.

4. Take two apples (or some lemons or some pine cones) and spear them with a straw or small stick or piece of wire and then push them into the soil as well. Add a ribbon somewhere if you like.

Total time: 20 Minutes and all the materials came from overgrown bushes in my own yard.

The added bonus, I'll have something to cheer me when the ground is covered in snow and all my flowers are having their winter sleeps.

DIY Rating: 9

Pretty easy and possible to do

with a small child trying to help!

PS. Ok, the apples that I put into the planter were eaten by morning and not a trace remains...you might want to stick with pine cones! I'm going to try to replace them with some ribbon.

The Advent Season

2010-11-28T15:41:00.000-05:00

Painting by Jan Provoost Image Credit: Secret Harbour

One of the very last holiday seasons to remain outside the purview of commercialization is the Advent Season. It tends to get buried in what I like to call the "Commercial Christmas Preparation Marketing Season," which typically starts on November 1st. The advent season, in fact, is the time of year that some Christians celebrate as a time of waiting and preparation for Christmas. Whereas the actual Christmas Season runs from Christmas Eve to the Epiphany, early in January. You are probably familiar with the famous chocolate advent calendars.

The very word, "Advent," translates to "a coming" or "an arrival". We celebrate the Advent of the Emmanuel, which translates to, "the coming of God among us."

This year, Advent begins today, Sunday, November 28th. To me, the painting above symbolizes the meaning of Advent. In the image, the Virgin and Child are shown with St. Jerome, St. John the Baptist, and a Carthusian Monk. To me, Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Christ. St. John the Baptist's life was spent proclaiming the Nativity of Christ to come and St. Jerome and the Carthusian monk represent the praying, meditation and fasting that go along with preparing for the coming of Christmas during the Advent Season.

With all that is happening in the hustle and bustle of The Do-tique, we will be striving to take some time each day to slow down and enjoy our family and to reflect on what Christmas means for us. I hope you will consider joining us.

Photo Credit: Here

DIY Rating: 10

Taking some quiet time in the middle of the mayhem

of the Holiday Season is always a good idea!

PS. Yes, there is an associated craft to go with the season...Check out Mom's Party Cafe for instructions!

Reader Question: Coat Hooks

2010-11-26T17:03:00.000-05:00

"This reminds me of a project I have been stuck on: installing new coat hooks at the back entrance. It is possible to buy a board with coat hooks to attach to the wall, but to buy enough would cost about $300! Instead, I would like to buy a couple of pieces of wood (about 48" x 5" x 1"), screw in some hooks, and then attach the wood to the wall. But I have no saw, sander, etc. I had assumed that the lumber yard would not have appropriate wood for me. Do you think I am wrong? (Do you think they would paint the wood for me too?)" Posted by Cburrell

Dear Gentlereader,

Oh my, $300 and all that work to hang some coats? That's almost enough to employ an elf to do it for you! I am not sure whether I understand your project completely, but I think I get the idea of what you are trying to do and I am pleased to let you know that there are products on the market that have taken most of the work out of this for you.

Did you know that you can buy "boards" with the hooks mounted on them and then just mount the boards onto the wall? If you need a wider width, just purchase a few of them and hang them in succession.

Here are two carried by IKEA, both for well under $20/each. Similar items can be found at places like the Home Depot.

Leksvik Coat Hooks $16.99 at IKEA

Tjusig hooks $12.99 at IKEA

What you will need for this project are the following basic tools:

Drill with bits and a screwdriver
Stud finder
Small level
Screws and drywall plugs
Hammer and measuring tape

Since typically these racks don't come with hardware, you might want to take the whole thing to the store and have someone there help you pick out the right screws and advise you as to whether you need drywall plugs. Another tip is to ask that person which drill bit to use for that hardware and write it down. It will save trying out different bits and possibly drilling a hole that's too big (been there, done that!).

It will also help to have the stud finder so that you can try to align some of your screws into the wall studs for extra sturdiness.

For those readers with more time on their hands than others, it's worth checking out thrift stores, online auctions, kijiji and the Habitat for Humanity Re-stores for second hand tools. For the rest of us mere mortals who have to pay full price at an ordinary store to save on time, the good news is that they are pretty useful for a variety of basic home projects.

To CBurrell, good luck in your mission!

DIY Rating: 7

It's pretty easy to install this type of coat hook system,

but it involves some measuring and a level to get it to look good

and a drill is a key power tool for this one!

Lumbering Along

2010-11-26T11:08:00.000-05:00

Photo Credit: Life

Today's topic is about buying lumber. To be honest, I find the process a bit intimidating and usually leave this job to others. There is also a paucity of power tools around The Do-tique, so we don't often engage in projects requiring more than a couple of 2x4s or some trim. And is anyone else out there totally confused about why a 2x4 is still called a 2x4 when those aren't the modern dimensions for this piece of wood?

Last weekend, we packed Baby up and headed out to the Home Depot to see if we could find some wood to build two shelves into the closet in our home office. (The shelves will hopefully create a place for a printer and additional file storage.) Yes, this meant tackling the lumber aisle! Hubby started out in the closet organization section and picked up two pre-fab shelves with a melamine coating that didn't quite fit our dimensions and cost $17.99 each (we would have needed 4). The advantage here was that everything was pre-finished, so just cut to size and install...

However, I insisted that we go forth into the lumber section to see if there were any options that might be a better fit with our dimensions.

Often, when I think of lumber, I assume that all I will be able to find is an enormous piece of wood that won't fit into our car, that will have to be cut to size, sanded, primed, painted and then installed. It seems like just too much work.

The truth is that someone must have figured this out and created lumber that comes pre-finished for projects. You do not need to buy raw lumber and do all the work! There were a number of sizes and colors available and even the gigantic pieces cost less than a single shelf from the closet organization section.

In the end, we came home with two pre-cut, pre-finished shelves from an off-cut bin in the lumber section for significantly less than the closet organizer shelves would have cost.

A few things to keep in mind:

Always come with your exact measurements handy - we spent 15 minutes in disagreement over whether the closet was 31 or 32 inches wide (settled for 31 1/2!)
Since most of the "storage kits" have to be assembled by you anyway, consider whether you are handy enough to put your own simple shelving together out of the pre-finished wood in the lumber aisle
Home Depot offers a cutting service, so if you know your measurements, the store can pre-cut the wood for your project. The first three cuts are free and in our case, we only needed two cuts
Check the off-cut section for smaller projects - since we were only installing two shelves, we were able to find an off-cut of the wood we were looking for at a deep discount (material cost ended up being under $10 with hardware)

Now, all that is left is carefully nagging Hubby to help me install them over the weekend...

DIY Rating: 6

Anything involving building from the lumber aisle is for the handy at heart,

BUT if you do need something very simple, check the off-cut section,

you might be able to find just what you need in a pre-finished, pre-cut material.

PS. I did honestly try to make a nifty Google SketchUp drawing of my closet plan for the blog, but now I don't know how to get that image onto Blogger!

Public Service Announcment

2010-11-25T22:32:00.000-05:00

Photo Credit: Newark News Radio Club

This is a public service announcement to all readers to inform you that Knitting Addiction Disorder, otherwise known as KAD has been detected at The Do-tique. This not uncommon affliction is not deadly, but can cause midnight finger twitching should the affected person run out of yarn and be left without a knitting project for 48 hours or longer. It has caused the author of this very blog to visit Wool Tyme, a store well-known to Kingston authorities, to purchase further wool and receive needle training. Her symptoms include compulsive knitting and an escalating obsession that began with garter stitch and has now progressed to a rib stitch. Individuals affected with KAD can be heard muttering, "knit the knit and purl the purl," in living rooms across the nation. I repeat, KAD is not deadly, but citizens are cautioned to avoid yarn aisles at craft stores and elderly ladies on the internet offering knitting advice via video.

Infected individuals can often experience an over-growth of warming fluff cells such as scarves, socks and gloves eventually progressing to sweaters, a signal of chronic illness.

http://www.wool-tyme.com/

Offers materials, lessons, workshops and a knitting community.

The store clerk was kind enough to show

me how to get started on a rib-stitch.

The Plague

2010-11-22T18:52:00.001-05:00

About two weeks ago, Baby started attending her day care. It was a big moment for us to see her go off to "school" and we've already noticed some big developments in a short time. For instance, she can feed herself dinner now and doesn't need our help anymore.

However, as all you parents out there can relate, out of the ten days that she's been attending, she has already been home sick for five of those days. She has been sick over the weekends, which is our special time with her and it looks like we are going to have to keep her home tomorrow and maybe the day afterward too.

All this is making for a slow work-week for me and Hubby and most of the doing around The Do-tique has been cleaning up sickness related messes and giving baths and cuddles. I'm beginning to wonder whether childcare works better as a DIY project...

A Stitch in Time

2010-11-18T18:45:00.001-05:00

Photo Credit: Life

It occurred to me last week that it might be time to join the esteemed ranks of those women who are always knitting. I usually pick up a craft each winter to keep me busy in the evenings and I felt the knit-itch following my first visit to a local "Craft n' Chat" group. I had brought some computer work to do, but everyone else was knitting away. Of all the crafts and needlework that I can do, knitting is the one task that has always eluded me. I don't know why, but I have never been able to master it in the past.

So, with some doubts about my abilities, I headed to the yarn section of Michael's and after spending about 25 minutes scanning through all the different types of yarn they have there, I broke down and asked a couple of ladies who were shopping in the same section for their advice. They helped me to pick out a fat, easy to work with yarn and the right needles for making a scarf. A basic, idiot-proof scarf...I hoped!

Thus armed, I turned to the internet and found these great videos online that show exactly how to get started:

Knitting:

How To Cast On

Knitting:

How To Knit The Knit Stitch

The result? So far, pretty good. The instructions online and the help I got in the store did work out for me and I'm a fair way into an easy scarf. I only wish I hadn't made it quite as wide as I did.

Photo Credit: Filia Artis

This was made with a pair of #9 metal needles and two balls of Lion Brand, Wool-Ease Thick and Quick yarn. What I've learned so far from the gurus is that it's all about tension, even tension and not knitting too tightly, and that you need to learn to knit, unknit and knit again. There is apparently no project that doesn't need to be unknit at some point.

If you enjoy crafting and your fine motor skills are decent, this could be for you. I was surprised that I finally got this to work out for me but probably wouldn't recommend it to someone who hates fine work.

DIY Rating: 6

An easy scarf was actually pretty easy,

but this is an activity for people who like crafting.

Pot-Luck Lucky!

2010-11-14T18:19:00.000-05:00

Photo Credit: Filia Artis

As I mentioned earlier today, we hosted a gathering this afternoon to celebrate the birthdays of all the babies that were in our Baby's pre-natal preparation class more than a year ago. None of us fully knew then what the outcome would be, but everyone ended up with wonderful, healthy children and they have had a chance to play and grow together on a few occasions over the past year.

Festive Buffet Table - Mix n' Match

You might ask how on earth one goes about preparing for a party with a little one running around and without going totally crazy...The key here is pot-luck. Each family brought one item, so it was just a matter of tidying up the house - we did the set up and decorating a day ahead of time - and to clean up, we just popped everything into the dishwasher and give most of the toys a bit of a wipe down (there was a fair amount of communal toy chewing!). The total clean up time was 15 minutes and the food arrangements took place over email.

Photo Credit: Filia Artis

A nice mix of home-made and store-bought treats made for a lovely lunch buffet. The only cooking that I did was to make a super-easy pizza that took about 15 minutes to make.

Photo Credit: Filia Artis

One mom, S., brought these awesome cupcakes she'd ordered with each of the children's names on them!

Photo Credit: Filia Artis

Much fun was had by the birthday children.

All in all, it was a wonderful day and we couldn't get over how easy the pot-luck aspect made things. I would definitely consider doing this again.

DIY Rating: 8

Though I'm typically a fan of catering and restaurants for larger parties, organizing a pot-luck party made hosting at home a breeze.

If you are a guest, don't feel daunted by having to make a masterpiece, something simple or store-bought can be a great addition.

Quiet Before the Storm

2010-11-14T09:22:00.000-05:00

Photo Credit: Life

Thankfully, Hubby volunteered to take Baby out of the house early this morning to pick up some groceries for the week leaving me at home with a few minutes of quiet.

I'm always ambitious about these precious moments, "Oooohhh goody! I'll get the whole house cleaned and bake some bread and make up the pizza for the birthday party this afternoon!"

Five minutes later and I find myself relaxing on the sofa with a cup of coffee catching up on my blog reading...

I think I find blog reading so relaxing because it lets me into the lives of other women (and one man) out there for a brief moment and I feel that I am not alone in my quest to juggle all the aspects that life as a parent/homemaker/career woman/artist brings.

One of my newer blog interests is at A Laborer in the Vineyard authored by one of my former classmates at St. Joseph's College at the University of Toronto. I am impressed with A.'s beautiful crafts, beautiful daughters and reflections on life and childbearing.

The reason I've titled this "Quiet Before the Storm" is that a group of eight wonderful one-year-olds and their parents is about to descend on my house later this afternoon for a birthday party. It will be an afternoon of crazy toddler fun with the group of parents that we met at our childbirth preparation class last fall. We've stayed in touch now for over a year and since most of the kids have their birthdays in November/December, we decided to just have a big party to celebrate everyone's birthdays.

Maybe wasting a bit of time enjoying the quiet of this morning isn't such a bad idea after all...

DIY Rating: 10

for taking a few minutes out of the day

to just do nothing important at all...

Confessions from the Upper East Side

2010-11-12T16:12:00.001-05:00

Dear Reader,

I confess that I am a follower of the tv show Gossip Girl. For all its fluffy plots and repetitive drama, I somehow love seeing the scenes of New York and the glamorous characters and their outfits.

If you are not already a fan, you may not have met the two characters pictured above: the handsome Nate Archibald and his mysterious new girlfriend Juliet. In this week's episode, Nate ran a bit of a sting operation with his sometimes friend, sometimes enemy, Vanessa to find out what exactly Juliet has been hiding behind all of her thin lies.

It turns out that she does not live on the Upper East Side, like the rest of the characters, but rather inhabits a small studio somewhere around 126th St. Her big confession is that she takes the metro north bus to shop at Woodbury Commons twice a month, does her own hair and has an apartment with fluorescent lights full of IKEA furniture that she had to put together herself! She keeps the tags on clothes that she wears so that she can return them. In the photo above, she is arriving as a penitent to the NY Ballet opening night wearing a dress from Woodbury Commons instead of a couture piece like her "frenemies" Serena and Blair.

The purpose of this letter is to let you know my shock in learning that these tendencies (minus the tags on the clothes!) were deemed such reprehensible sins! I would like to inform you that I myself do not live just off Park Ave., only recently shopped at Woodbury Commons (a designer outlet mall about an hour north of Manhattan) and also have a house full of IKEA furniture. I also have to do my own hair regularly. It was very hilarious to see Nate extend his "acceptance of others" and forgive Juliet for these "low-class" tendencies.

For the Big Confession,

check out: Much Music

Clip 2, 5:45

xoxo

Filia Artis

PS. Does this mean no more Dollarama for me?

Greeting Cards

2010-11-06T18:55:00.001-04:00

Remember back in grade school how you used to make cards for your mom and she loved them, no matter how they turned out???

It has been raining non-stop here for a couple of days, so I have been trying to find ways of entertaining myself and Baby in the house. We had a birthday party to go to today for one of Baby's friends and yesterday I thought it might be a fun time to try out my new craft area in the basement and make a personalized card.

Baby had fun signing the card herself and washing off the crayola marker from her hands was pretty easy.

Some of the best cards I have ever received have been home-made ones. My friend Ise made one that I decided to frame above the diaper changing table.

If only I could find the birthday card a friend, KvD, once made me that was based on this image from a medieval book. The image depicts the owner, the Duke Jean de Berry, seated at his table with many of his actual possessions and courtiers present.

My version showed me at the table with drawings of all my friends standing around the table. Sadly, it is filed away for safe keeping somewhere and I'll probably un-earth it in about ten years!

If you are less than crafty yourself, there is a program you can use called Smilebox that I have been using for the past year. You can create all sorts of cards and invitations and either print them or email them out. It allows you to add photos from your own computer as well. Here is an invite I sent out for Baby's baptism this past spring:

Create your own invite

So next time you have a chance, try making a card either by hand or on the computer. It doesn't have to be Martha Stewart perfect to be cool!

DIY Rating: 7 for making your own card

Lots of fun and very personal if you have the time!

PS. A special Do-tique shout-out to K.G. who threw an awesome birthday party today for her little boy!

Good Housekeeping

2010-11-04T22:30:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: Getty Images

I will begin by admitting that I grew up in one of those homes that had rooms that remind some people of a museum. They were immaculately clean, everything was perfectly displayed, the furniture all matched and was never used and woe be to the child whose footprints were detected on the area rug. Some of my classmates' mothers even kept plastic on the couches to ensure that they were suitably preserved for all eternity.

Needless to say, I can be a bit of a clean freak in my own home. There are no display rooms, but I do get a certain sense of peace when things are clean and tidy. The problem is that many of us don't have the time anymore between jobs, family, activities and traveling to keep up with housework, which we all assume is a DIY project.

So today, I want to put a question out there to my readers. It goes something like this:

If you are busy with anything you love more than sweeping, mopping and doing toilets and you can find room in your budget to hire help...
WHY are you wasting precious time cleaning your own house???

When I was 4 months pregnant and too ill to do much of anything, I had to make the painful admission that I was unable to help with the cleaning and Hubby was too busy working and writing a book to keep things up to my standards. Hubby stepped in and hired a lady to come twice a month to take care of dusting, sweeping, mopping, the kitchen and the bathroom. It was a godsend. Even before my pregnancy, we would spend every precious Saturday cleaning the apartment when we could have been enjoying some leisure time together instead.

The options here are to hire a cleaning company or an independent individual.

The advantage of bringing in a company is that they should have insurance and do background checks on their employees. From my experience, they tend to be more expensive and one company I sought a quote from requires that you have them in for one or more comprehensive deep cleaning sessions (for a fairly high charge) and then they come regularly after that and maintain your home.

We decided to go with an independent woman who had been cleaning the home of one of our friends for a while. We had the reference from that friend and references she provided from a few of her other clients and we have been happy with her work. We discussed what I wanted taken care of each time and she provided a flat rate based on that combination of tasks with the size of our home in mind. She enjoys it as a retirement job where she gets to be her own boss and work at her own pace.

Knowing that every second Thursday of the month is cleaning day helps me to relax a bit more during the week because I know when the mess will end and I don't have to stress about doing it all myself.

DIY Rating: 2 for picking up that mop and bucket yourself!

Shop around, you might be surprised

to find that you can leave this one to the pros!

Fightin' Words!

2010-11-04T13:03:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: The Vibe

I have been hearing about martial arts for about a year from my horseback riding coach who has become addicted to Jiu Jitsu. I've been thinking about joining up and trying to get in shape for a while now and decided that last night would be the "maiden voyage" to the dojo for a ladies' drop-in kickboxing class.

Overall, it was a fun work out and there was a good vibe with the other ladies that were there. As someone who often has trouble with "right" and "left," my general lack of coordination didn't hinder things too much. The Sensei was good with helping me pace myself as a beginner. If you're looking to get into shape, this is a good overall workout.

If you're a little more hard-core, they have all kinds of activities involving serious martial arts and fighting. For now, I think the only knife seminar I'm up for is one that involves making stir-fry!

If you're in the Kingston or Belleville area, the dojo is located in Odessa:

Sensei Stan Chisholm

Martial Concepts

119 Main Street Odessa

613 449-3828

Women's Fitness Kickboxing - Wednesdays from 7-8pm

$10 per session

DIY Rating: 8

Since I don't believe in running and

prefer a social fitness activity,

this is a good fit for me and may bring me

closer to fitting back into my pre-maternity clothes...

You will hurt in the morning!

Books and Miscellanea at the Do-tique 5

2010-10-31T20:07:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone is enjoying a lovely Halloween evening...The weather and the fall colours here today were just perfect.

I've been a bit absent from the blogosphere lately thanks to some crazy stuff going on over the past week and most of my "doing" has taken place in front of the computer instead of with paintbrush in hand.

I did manage to bake some more bread and some more granola last week and start on the final touches of our basement make-over. This afternoon featured a trip to IKEA for cozy fall/winter bedding for the master bedroom, which I'm excited to put together tomorrow.

So for this Sunday night, I leave you with an update on the books and miscellanea here at The Do-tique:

Image Credit: Kitty Kelley

I was delighted to finally come across a copy of the newest biography on Oprah at the public library instead of having to read it in snippets at the local bookstore. As much as it might seem that an unauthorized biography of America's "Queen of Talk" would be low-brow reading, I couldn't resist wanting to read more about a woman who has been on TV daily for almost the entirety of my own lifetime. Ms. Kelley's writing is that of an "investigative journalist" and I feel that she seeks to be somewhat sensationalistic in places and gives us an almost tabloid like "tell-all" story. In one place it is mentioned that Oprah was so good at the smutty shows she used to do in the 80's and 90's because there really wasn't much that hadn't happened in her life, so it was easy for her to relate personally to her guests and their wacky situations.

My readings in university took a turn into documents about well-known mediaeval figures written by their peers. We would read what the individual had written to his audiences and about himself and then read two or three accounts written about that same person by his friends and his adversaries and at the end, try to devise an idea of what was behind what was motivating each person to paint such a different picture of the same individual. Ms. Kelley accuses Oprah of sometimes painting an embellished image of herself - she shows her childhood and adolescence as worse than it may have been and her current public image as much warmer and friendlier than those who work with her might think. Ms. Kelley's picture certainly highlights all of the most sensationalistic moment's in Oprah's life. My guess (and Ms. Kelley's guess in the intro) is that her friends and her "official biographer" would choose to reflect longer on Oprah's good works and astoundingly generous and talented personality. I imagine that the truth is somewhere in between.

The biography talks a fair bit about Oprah's aspirations as an actress and both her successful and less-glowing appearances in movies over the years. The interesting part is that it seems that Oprah's greatest role is the one that she has played in the process of acting out her own life. The biography almost reads as a very dramatic movie script and I understand that it may indeed be turned into a movie one day.

Overall, it is satisfying my curiosity about this very important media icon and makes me wonder if we will ever have an answer to why Oprah's staying power seems to have surpassed that of most of her daytime television competitors and her own icons of popular culture like Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley. As did Oprah, these stars also suffered a litany of childhood traumas, experienced overwhelming, godlike status through fame and fortune, had the power to block out those who were not willing to accept the untruths they wanted to hear about themselves, but unlike Oprah (so far), they ended up succumbing to their own self-destructive behavior. Maybe an addiction to pecan pies and fried chicken isn't quite as deadly as prescription drugs?...

A decent and thankfully brief review appeared at the time of publication in the Globe and Mail.

DIY Rating: 6

Interesting but fluffy reading on a woman

who has truly captured the "zeitgeist" of female

American media consumers for two generations.

Apple Bliss

2010-10-21T09:21:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: Filia Artis

Back in elementary school, my friends and I made up a secret language so that we could sit behind the teacher's desk during free time and talk privately. The one word that I remember best was "a-pop-pop-lop-e" which meant "apple".

Needless to say, apple also is usually another word for "autumn" around here. We've already been through a bushel of Macintosh apples, which is an early crop, and I was able to pick up another bushel of Ida Reds, which are usually the last ones to be ready in a season. It seems this year that the entire season is about two weeks earlier than usual thanks to a warm spring and hot summer.

Photo Credit: Filia Artis

So, "what's in the oven," you ask? Apple crumble, naturally! It's about the easiest dessert known to mankind. You can learn all my secrets on my recipe page. The great thing is that with this one, if you don't have an ingredient, just substitute something else, it will taste good - guaranteed! There will be a gluten-dairy-free version there as well.

Photo Credit: Filia Artis

Baby and I stopped off at Ostrander's during our tour of the County on Monday to buy the apples. I love their sign and I love their apples. There is an option to pick your own or pick up a basket of ready-picked. You can find them on County Rd. 8 just outside of Waupoos.

DIY Rating: 10

The drive to the apple orchard features beautiful views

of autumn leaves turning, pumpkin farms, rolling hills and the lake.

The apples are also excellent and the Ida Reds

will keep for some time in a cool place.

The Barley Days of Autumn

2010-10-19T20:05:00.000-04:00

Cottage on the Bay of Quinte - Manly MacDonald

Image Credit: Gallery Gevik

No trip to Prince Edward County is complete without a few tasty treat stops...

After antique hunting in and around Belleville, our crew headed over to the Barley Days Brewery between Bloomfield and Picton to pick up some beer.

Photo Credit: Filia Artis

Baby was a most skillful taster and was made "Official Brew Mascot" for the day.

Photo Credit: Filia Artis

The beers are made in small batches and custom brewed by their Brewmeister, Alex. (He was there, but moving around so quickly, we didn't get a chance to snap his picture!) The summer beer that we tried and enjoyed this year was the Loyalist Lager and the new one that I brought home was called the County IPA.

An interesting thing about the brewery is that some of the beer labels feature artwork by Canadian Artist Manly MacDonald 1889-1971 (shown above and at top of post). MacDonald was a contemporary of the Group of Seven. Anyone who is familiar with those painters will recognize the loose resemblance of the MacDonald's impressionistic style with their work. What is unique is that he painted such pastoral and soft landscapes in contrast to several of the Group of Seven artists whose works show the more rugged landscapes of northern Ontario. You can see some of MacDonald's artwork on the beer labels below:

The amazing thing about MacDonald's art is that he really captured beautifully what the county actually looks like! When one gazes out the window of the brewery, the agricultural scene with the rolling grain fields and the lake just beyond are just like in the paintings!

A short biography about MacDonald can be found here.

Barley Days Brewery

13730 Loyalist Parkway ( Highway 33 )

Picton, Ontario

http://barleydaysbrewery.com/

DIY Rating: 10

Well, are you surprised I would rate this so highly??

It's beer, and good beer at that, and all you have to do is show up and enjoy a few samples!

I could DIY that daily for sure!

Notes from the County

2010-10-19T11:03:00.001-04:00

The beautiful October weather yesterday lent itself wonderfully to a drive out to Belleville to visit Funk & Gruven A-Z antiques and to have a chance to meet Mike, the shop owner.

There are different levels of antiques out there. The first kind are the "finds". These are usually items that no one would ever normally bring into their home. It just so happens that the finder discovers one of these marvelous pieces hidden under a pile of other stuff and can envision how it would look after some "renovation". Typically, "finds" come cheap, but cost dearly in terms of work input to make them great showpieces.

The second kind of antiques are what I like to call "founds" meaning that they are pieces that are ready to be installed and enjoyed without much, if any, work. Funk & Gruven seems to specialize more in "founds" than "finds" as most of their stock was made up of beautiful pieces that seems pretty much ready to be loved. They were on target in terms of having classic items that are certainly in-vogue at the moment.

Here are a few pieces I would have gladly taken home with me:

Wheat Sheaf Table

Detail of Carving on Oak Desk

China Cupboard from Ireland

Oak Headboard

Loved this mirror

All photos: Filia Artis

Funk & Gruven A-Z

52 Bridge Street East

Belleville, Ontario

www.funkandgruven.com

DIY Rating: 10

Worth a visit in person or check out

their wares though their online catalogue.

Most items were ready to go, so no need for a

major "fixing up" project if you're not a DIY'er.

Antiquing we will go...

2010-10-18T09:54:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: American Collector Magazine

Today, I will be leaving all the projects and recipes behind to head out on an antiquing adventure with long-time friend, fellow blogger and creative master-mind, Jane Speed of Carte Blanche Creative in Toronto.

Jane

We'll be scoping out Funk & Gruven Antiques in Belleville (among other antique shops), trying out lunch on the beach and hunting down some apples and local cheeses.

Be sure to check out Jane and her team's blog at Carte Blanche Creative Blog and if you're looking for a creative group that is simply awesome, these are the people!

PS, This is an unsolicited rave about their excellence!