Moco Loco

 Burger

 Gravy, in this case, curry gravy.

 Fried onions in curry gravy.

 Burger on rice.

 Fried egg on burger on rice.

 

Gravy on egg on burger on rice = Moco Loco. It's cheap, easy, and delicious. Dan made this at Christmas time for the family, and included a veggie version with Yves Ground Round. Fun for everyone!

today's adventures: Logging Roads

 Second Bridge. We've been fishing here, have picked rosehips here, and have wondered what is on the other side of the bridge.

 A view of Kennedy Lake and Second Bridge.

  Dan taking a picture of Second Bridge.

 Logs washed up on shore. The waterline was the highest we've ever seen it, and there was much evidence of higher water levels.

 Tree art? Litter?

 So the campsites (this is an untended free campground, there are no services or garbage buckets here) are mostly on the left side, where water is now.

 Previously one of the campsites was on this side of the trees.

 Another flooded campsite.

 The things I found on the shore...

 When I lived in Victoria, a former co-worker from the library, Jonathan, once remarked on the huge amount of clothing he used to come across in the streets of the city. There were quite a few garments here too.

 An empty campstove fuel container. There was a disturbing amount of these.

 Styrofoam.

 I'm guessing this used to be a pillow or some other fluffy like object.

 The view from the opposite end of the beach.

 Ok this is weird. A painted pole. What was the point of this?

 A faux-Totem pole?

 My new T-shirt. Really. It was in pretty good condition so I salvaged it. It's in the washing machine as I write.

 I like this - someone carved seats out of this log.

 Our new fork.

 View from the spot we ate our picnic lunch. It was cold.

 We kept on our driving adventure and occasionally had to jump out of the truck with our axe and hatchet and play lumberjack so we could get past. This is Before.

 My Sweety!

 Watch out! I have a weapon!

 After. On we go.

Rats. This is the After but the Before for this spot in the road was WAY more impressive. We were here hacking away for a good 20 minutes. I did take a photo but it came out as a blur.

This week: on/off the needles/hook

The Candy poncho is coming along swimmingly. I put my slippered foot next to it for scale - the slipper is felted and I can't locate the photos of those, but there you are. Two in one. I am about halfway through the last ball of pink yarn (I have more of this yarn, but that's all I'm devoting to this project) and I'll finish with a red. Then I will be done. 

These are coming along rather well too. But you work for two days on something like this and only come out with two more inches, it seems a little defeating. O well, it's lovely yarn to knit with and I am enjoying this. 

O no. I really shouldn't have started another project. And yet... This is going to be another Sideways Single Crochet scarf. I think I have enough pink yarns now that I can do this, to wear with my Brattleboro hat and my pink/white stranded mittens (when I finish them). 

 
Now these little things were out of the premiere issue of a magazine called Knitting today!. It's not a great magazine, in my opinion, but I was absolutely intrigued by these ornaments. The gingerbread man was knit first. He came together pretty quickly, but the finishing is what took a long time. The candy cane is knit flat, if you can believe it, seamed (not very tidily), and then a string pulled through to make it bend. Given how much time each of these took, I'm unlikely to ever knit them again.

This was knit last fall - a test piece for the felting process. I really should have before pictures so you can see the difference felting makes. It was fun and annoying all at the same time. 

Gratuitous Cute Kitty shot. Actually, I knit this hat a few years ago. It's unwearable (I didn't use a pattern, completely botched the shaping) so now it goes on things like kitties and fish. If you got a Christmas card from me, you might have seen a photo of fish with this hat on...

Oh! I know why I feel like I've done a lot of knitting but have nothing to show for it! I'm test knitting a Thing for a designer and I'm not allowed to talk about it yet. I can't wait though, as soon as she says Go, I will have two or more of the things to show you - I like the pattern that much.

Something I sewed: aprons for the kiddies

  This is an apron for Charlize, my niece who just turned six. I should have set this next to something so you can see the scale of it, because it's big enough for an adult. That was not by design, but as I wasn't using a pattern, it just sort of came out this way.

This is the other side - I used lilac eyelet on one side, then a pale yellow striped fabric on the other. (yes, I did iron it later).

This is the apron for Chase, who is 3 1/2. This one turned out, ironically, way smaller than I was planning, but there you go. He's a boy's boy and likes bright colours, but also likes to help out in the kitchen so thought an apron would be a good thing for him too. 

The other side. Being a novice sewer, I used interfacing to stick these two bits of fabric together. It made them nice and stiff but I don't think I'd do it again.

With my craft room shaping up and getting organized, I'm really hoping to get more sewing done. Dan currently has my sewing machine in the living room where he is working on a Big Project for the home. It's taking a lot of work but it will be spectacular when it's finished. I will post about it!

At some point soon I'll dig out the fabric and pattern I bought some time ago for a sleeveless jumper (not 'sweater' as in the British sense, but as in dress). I'm dying to have some more clothing and since I have no money and TONS of fabric, it seems obvious that I need to step up my game with my seamstress skills.

the point of social media

Today I will tell you about Twitter.

I'm on Twitter all the time, way more than I am on Facebook. It's been great for me as a way of keeping in touch with people I've met, meeting new people, and participating in online dialogue about any number of interesting topics.

Without going into too much detail, the company we moved here for (but my husband didn't end up with)  recently joined Twitter and, in my opinion, don't seem to get the point of it. Or realize that not only are they on the Internet, but when someone goes to Google the name of their company, these stupid Tweets will show up on the list.

Now if you have a business and are on Twitter and are using Twitter to promote said business, you want to be professional, relevant, interesting, and interested. But if you are Tweeting about how this whole 'work' thing is interfering with your surfing, how working on the weekend sucks (um hello, welcome to being a business owner), only talking about music and things entirely unrelated to your business, then your potential clients will lose interest fast. They may start to think "wow, these people are wholly uninterested in what the rest of the industry is doing". That's the impression I get. The ironic part of this story is that they were recently featured in a local newspaper article about business who are 'using social media'.

Um, Tweeting three times a month about asinine topics is not using social media, it's just embarrassing you and your company. 

Ucluelet /= Burnaby

If you look at the FeedJit tool at the side of my blog, for some reason you will not see "Ucluelet". That's where I live. When I come to the page, it shows up as Burnaby.

??

This makes no sense. Burnaby is hundreds of kilometers away from here. I'm on the far west coast of Vancouver Island, Burnaby is on the mainland. But the computer is reading the location of my Internet Service Provider, and although I get my Internet through Ukee Cable, for some reason it goes through Burnaby.

It's the same with Tofino - if someone from Tofino reads my blog, it says "Courtenay".

Ah, living in a remote community. Gotta love it.