Author: Tanie

Work has been going pretty well so far this year. It’s been a super lazy month- one kid was away for a week on vacation and another is away for two weeks right now, so most days it’s just been one or two kids, plus Sym. Of course, that’s all changing this week! I have a new baby starting graduated entry this week, and in March she’ll be here 4 days a week as well as a new preschooler five days a week! It’s going to be crazy hectic for a while as I get settled into a new routine, but at least I have a mid-month week of relaxing in Maui to break up the crazy!

It’s not just new clients that have been making me busy recently- I’ve gotten tons of calls from prospective clients, as well as people coming up to talk to me at Sym’s school and in one instance, jumping out of her friend’s car and running across the street to catch up with me! Before Christmas I had zero kids on my waiting list, and now I have over a dozen!

When people come up to me or come to the house for a meeting I always end up having to write my phone number and email address on a scrap of paper, which is annoying and not very professional, so earlier this month I finally got around to ordering the business cards that Cassandra Warren designed for me. I’m excited to get them (I’ve never had REAL business cards before), but when I check the tracking number it just says

Status: Electronic Shipping Info Received

The U.S. Postal Service was electronically notified by the shipper on February 10, 2010 to expect your package for mailing. This does not indicate receipt by the USPS or the actual mailing date. Delivery status information will be provided if / when available. Information, if available, is updated periodically throughout the day. Please check again later.

That is like, the LEAST satisfying tracking info EVER >:/

Sometimes I can’t believe what a giant dork I am. This afternoon Taylor and I took Kichou for a walk along the Seawall from Sunset Beach to English Bay, and before we left I stuffed my pockets with my vinyl Olympic mascots so I could take pictures of them ~out in the world~


clockwise from left: Sumi the Spirit Animal, Quatchi the Sasquatch, Miga the Seabear, and Mukmuk the Vancouver Island Marmot (which is a real animal)

Taylor took this picture of me and titled it “Tanie – Professional Whimsilist”

I took this one of him and titled it “Taylor: Mascot Portrait Photographer”

Miga on the beach.

Sumi at the Aids memorial.

Quatchi in the grass.

Mukmuk in the moss.

We also photographed some non-embarrassing things:

These two girls actually went swimming. IT’S FEBRUARY.

This is a really cool sculpture called “WE” at the top of the hill above Sunset Beach. It’s made of letters in all different alphabets. At night it’s all dramatically lit from within but during the day it almost seems to disappear. It’s also super muddy from people climbing it.

My proof that we DO have snow for the Winter Olympics. Just not. Well. Anywhere close to the city!

Whoever did this is basically the most patriotic person in the country. Canadian flag on a hockey stick, genius. (Aside: our men’s team actually just lost to the US. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we DON’T have another embarrassing hockey riot tonight.)

This guy is less ambitious but no less patriotic.

Looking east and west on Sunset Beach.

This is a sculpture called “A-maze-ing Laughter” and it’s a bunch of self-portrait statues of the artist standing in different positions and laughing. They are quite big and SO. CREEPY.

I mean:

AAHHH! Sym and I walk by this every Tuesday night on the way to her dad’s after piano and she haaaaaaates it. Kichou was also not impressed when I picked him up and put him in one statues hand.

He’s thinking :”I want to die right now.”

After we left the beach we stopped for frozen yogurt at Qoola on Denman.

chocolate w/chocolate shavings & strawberries; original w/pineapple & cantaloupe

It was delicious but FREEZING- we had to sit outside because of Kichou and it really isn’t warm enough yet! When we got home I climbed straight into some cozy sweatpants and a heap of blankets on the couch.

We also did other things this weekend that I didn’t take pictures of- On Saturday Taylor, Symphony and I went to the pet store to buy dog food (Taylor) and freak out over the cage full of hamsters that were all trying to run on the wheel at the same time (me and Sym). Afterwards we had a super-late brunch at Hamburger Mary’s and then Sym had a playdate with her friend Ali and I read while Taylor napped for four hours. Later, after Sym had gone to her dad’s house, Taylor and I went to our friends Richard and Jenn’s for their Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games Wii party (Taylor played; I drank wine and stuffed myself with humus and brownies).

Earlier today we had brunch with Richard and Jenn and then headed into the craziness of downtown so I could go to American Apparel to buy a tri-black raglan pullover. I have the grey one and I love it so much that I’ve been wearing it to death. After that I kind of wanted to wander around some more, but Taylor’s knee was starting to get sore- he hurt it last month almost bailing on the treadmill, so instead we came home. I was kind of bummed out- it was so nice and I really didn’t want to just sit around the house, or worse, clean it, but I also didn’t want Taylor to be in pain. I worked on my new unicorn painting for a little while and then Taylor said his knee felt better so we were able to go out and take all those awesome mascot photographs! I’m so glad- not just because it was fun but because Sunday afternoons are practically the only time Taylor and I can spend together, with just us, during the day.

Symphony always thought she didn’t like Nutella. Then she discovered you can just eat it straight out of the jar.

(This is my favorite way to eat it too.)

I made Taylor a cute snack before he went to bed (at 1 pm): apple juice, little cheeses, grapes and slices of apple cut into the shape of an apple. Not pictured: my own, less cute snack of garlic potato chips.

The unbearable fatness of Claire.

Tulips are my favorite flowers. I got these at a 3-bunches-for $5 stand, except I accidentally (I swear!) grabbed 4 bunches. Twenty tulips for $5, I’m not complaining.

I should make a regular feature on this blog, the Daily Dougal.

Last night while Symphony was at her dad’s, Taylor and I went out the Voltage on Main St to buy toys. I got this set of little vinyl 2010 Olympic mascots (with bonus Mukmuk). I think they are so cute! When Sym gets home she is going to FREAK OUT.

I learned about these from one of my favorite blogs/websites: Vancouver Is Awesome. The contributors there are always posting cool or fun or interesting things about or to do in our city, and with a consistently positive attitude (which is something you know I am on board with).

Last night’s dinner was Messed-Up Shepherd’s Pie a la Tanie (modified from a recipe in the February 2010 issue of Martha Stewart Living).

Topping:
2 russet potatoes (about 1 lb), peeled & cut into 1 inch pieces
1 parsnip, peeled & cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 cup of plain yogurt
salt & pepper

Filling
3.4 tbsp olive oil
2 celery stalks, sliced
1 carrot, peeled & sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 an onion, chopped horribly because I hate cutting onions
1 lb of ground turkey, unless you are me and then you buy ground chicken by mistake
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 slightly overfilled tbsp cornstarch
1/3 cup frozen peas
salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 425°F

Boil up the potatoes & parsnips for about twenty minutes. Drain, saving 1 cup of the cooking water for the topping. Mash the potatoes and parsnips with the yogurt, pepper and salt.

Heat the olive oil on medium heat in a skillet. Throw in the celery, carrots, garlic and onion and stir them around for 10 minutes or so. Add in the turkey (or chicken if you’re me) and cook for five minutes, breaking up any large pieces. Add some salt and pepper as well as the chili powder. There was also supposed to be fresh thyme in this but I don’t have an herb garden and it’s February so no dice.

Whisk together the potato water & cornstarch & add to the turkey/veggies mix. Boil for one minute, then add the frozen peas. I had to mix it around for another minute or two because my frozen peas were kind of old and had formed into a comet of ice and peas that needed to be broken up.

Dump the whole thing into a 1 or 1 1/2 quart baking dish (I didn’t even think I had one of these, hooray for my Pyrex collection!), scoop the potatoes on top and bake for 35 minutes.

I would say this meal was about 60% delicious. My main problem was with the topping. News flash: parsnips are gross. If I was to make this again I would just make my own Most Delicious Mashed Potatoes in the World for the topping.

Tanie’s Most Delicious Mashed Potatoes in the World

2 or 3 potatoes, cut up but not peeled. Once I used a mix of white skinned, red skinned and PURPLE nugget potatoes and it turned out white with subtle swirls of lavender. AMAZING.

Boil the potatoes to within an inch of their lives. After draining set aside, and in the pot melt a couple tsp of butter and mix minced garlic into it so that it’s nice and garlicky. Add the potatoes back in and mash them up with about five tons of sour cream and a tsp of lemon juice.

Serve with anything and prepare to die from delicious potato bliss.

Last year I replaced this truly heinous fluorescent light (think ivy pattern and crown molding) a previous tenant had installed in the kitchen with a less offensive fixture from Ikea. It was the first light I installed all by myself and I was really pleased with how it turned out, except for one thing: the bulbs! It came with 25w halogen bulbs that look like this on the back:

… and when they started burning out I realized that NOWHERE except Ikea sells 25w bulbs shaped like that. I did find 50w ones but I didn’t want to blow up my kitchen, and since I also didn’t want to go all the way out to Ikea every time I needed a lightbulb I was in the dark for a while. Then I found these great LED bulbs- they fit the fixture, last for approximately one million years and use like, a drop of energy. PERFECT!

Except for one problem: LED light is cold and way harsh, Tai. My dining room chandelier is made from LED rope light and since the whole dining room is blue I don’t mind, but I wanted something a little warmer for the kitchen (which is silly because they are technically in the same room). I came up with a plan a few weeks ago and today I put it into action. Using some flexible cutting boards and a pink report cover from the dollar store, and a template of my own design I would make shades for the LED bulbs.

First I put the cutting board over the template and traced over the design to score it. This shows me where to cut with my scissors and also makes fold lines.

After cutting out the cover with some teeny embroidery scissors I cut out a 4cm square from the pink plastic to go in the front of the cover. The bulbs give of next to no heat so I’m not worried about these melting or warping.

Originally I planned to glue the pink square into the cover but my rubber cement was all dried out :/ As it turns out, it’s a good thing because I need to be able to push on the front of the bulb to get it into the fixture. Instead, I just put a little triangles of double-stick tape in the corners to help hold it in place.

Once the pieces are together I put the cover around the bulb, with the four small holes fitting over the back of the bulb.

Et voilà! My handmade plastic light covers in action! I’ve only made three so far because the other two bulbs are halogen still, but I have enough materials left to make more once I need them. These will also be removable and reusable when (if?) the LED bulbs ever burn out.

Last night Symphony and I were looking through her visual journal from school last year and I found this great picture she drew:

This is my mommy. My mommy is nice, funny and lots of fun ♥ See? SEE??!! I’m nice and funny and fun! Also please note my crown and the computer in the bottom left corner displaying the “Teddy Blog,” lol

Of course I can’t turn on photobooth without her wanting to take a picture…

… and I can’t start taking pictures without it taking A TURN FOR THE WORSE.

Hunger: A Gone Novel 11/104, The Magicians 12/104, Shiver 13/104

These are the first three books I read on my Kindle!

Hunger is the second book in the Gone series- I read the first book last month and liked it, and I enjoyed this one as well. It explained some of the mysteries put forth in the first book and like that book, it did not shy away from gruesomeness! In this book it’s been several months since all the adults have vanished from the town and the kids are now facing the fact that they are basically running out of food, as well as growing tensions between the normal kids and the ones with powers, and they must also fight the creepy glowing underground monster! Exciting stuff. This is planned to be a six-book series and the third is due this spring, yay!

I chose The Magicians after seeing it recommended over and over again in a general discussion community I’m a member of- I actually planned on buying it as a book before my birthday but held off just in case. I really liked this book. It was funny and sad and sick and tragic. The story takes you from Brooklyn to a school of magic then to Manhattan and through to the magical world of Fillory, where the characters embark upon a quest to try and inject meaning into their fairly meaningless lives and things basically go horribly awry. There is a sequel coming out in I think 2011 and I’m excited!

I got a pdf of Shiver from some random website and I thought it was pretty stupid. If I had to describe it I would say it’s kind of like Twilight except with only werewolves and no vampires. Plus a little sex. Also, if you were a werewolf whose transformation depended on the ambient temperature (warm= human, cold= wolf), and you were trying to cling to your humanity then WHYYYYYYYYYYY would you spend your winters in MINNESOTA? It drove me crazy the whole way through the book. Near the end it’s explained that spending winters in warmer places makes them super-sensitive to any temperature fluctuations, and just walking past the opened door of an air-conditioned building can trigger a transformation, but I’m pretty sure there are places that are both warm in winter and not cities filled with air-conditioning (parts of Mexico? idk). There is also a sequel coming out for this book this summer but I am NOT excited about it. I’ll probably read it anyway though, haha.

So, here we are six and a half weeks into 2010 and I’ve read 13 books, which puts me perfectly on pace with my goal of reading 104 books this year! I have no time for slacking though- I need to finish #14 before Friday!

For the past couple years I’ve been slowly painting and decorating my apartment, and as I finish it I’d like to share it with you, one room at a time.

As you can see from the floor plan, most of my apartment is one big “greatroom.” This is fantastic from a family child care perspective- less walls means more space for playing, and I can easily see what the kids are up to from almost anywhere! However, I didn’t really want to paint this huge space all one colour. That would have taken forever, and been totally BORING and just not me. I decided to divide it up into several distinct areas: the living room, the children’s living room, the library-slash-music room, and the dining room. First up is what I call the children’s living room.

There is only one wall in this “room,” which is painted in an eggshell Light Blue and a semi-gloss Pear Green (both by Benjamin Moore). I chose the semi-gloss for the “hills” because it’s more durable, and I chose those colours because they are one shade lighter than the Honolulu Blue dining room and two shades darker than the Celadon Green living room, both of which I’d already painted. I was going to make a mask to make painting the hills easier but I couldn’t figure out how to tape it to the wall efficiently so I ended up drawing the outline and just trying my best to colour in the lines!

I created the details for the mural by painting them on individual canvases and mounting them to the wall. This saved me the trouble of having the sit there on the floor for hours working on it, plus if I ever move I’ll be able to take them down and won’t have to sand the crap out of the wall! To make sure they are secure on the wall and can’t be pulled or knocked down by the kids, I screwed wooden blocks into the wall, snapped the canvases over them, and screwed the canvases to the blocks from the sides. I used five canvases altogether- two for the tree and one each for the others. I think I got all of them at various dollar stores.

The tree was the biggest nightmare, partially because it took forever to paint and partially because when I went to put it up, I thought it would be easier if I screwed the two canvases together first and ended up jamming a screwdriver right through the painting. I had to come up with my own repair technique involving tissues, white glue and panic.

The child-size beanbag armchairs I bought at a store here called Urban Barn. The mushroom table I made from a piece of mdf and one of four nesting cubes I got at this weird florist-slash-tacky housewares store down near Davie and Granville. The cube was originally green-I painted it white and also painted the red and white table top and then liberally coated it with polyurethane.

The bird canvas was the last one I painted. I put Symphony’s name on it with mine because she helped paint the wall, and she also drew the original baby deer that inspired my whole design for this room.

This third beanbag chair is actually Symphony’s, although Claire also enjoys it. It was a gift from Taylor’s Dad & his boyfriend for our wedding (I put it on our registry for her and it was so awesome I ended up buying the others). To the left is my mushroom painting and to the right is, of course, Symphony’s deer.

Last but not least is a project I just finished this morning: a tree bookcase!

I used the last two nesting cubes (the fourth is packed away with my Christmas decorations- I use it to hide the tree base) and the pieces of wood I cut last week. After I sanded them I screwed them together, painted them with a raw sienna acrylic, drew wood-y lines with a black Sharpie and then did a second coat of the paint. The nesting cubes were actually already the perfect shade of green so I didn’t have to do anything extra to them.

This morning I drilled holes in the cubes to screw the pieces of the “trunk” and “branches” to them. You can see I have a couple little brackets attaching the top cube to the wall and the back of the bottom cube sits on the baseboard. Now I have somewhere to store the kid’s books that is cute and easily accessible!