Red Cedar

Making, Meditation, Movement, Music.

This weekend marked the passing of my 41st birthday, which was spent in Victoria with my niece and nephew at the Shaw Discovery Centre – this is my niece grace pointing at the starfish. She’s awesome.

It was a really nice, low-key way to spend my birthday after a month of being sick (not to mention a pretty rocking birthday party a week earlier) and I was glad to have a little travel with Brian (whom I’ve been feeling particularly close to recently).

I’ve decided that for this, my 41st year, my focus will be on the four activities listed at the head of this post – making, meditation, movement and music. I’m almost close to finishing my master’s degree (could be done as early as fall) and I am naturally shifting gears towards other activities (besides coursework and hanging out with folks from uni) – like playing music, making stuff for the house and for friends, and regular meditation practice and study. The movement piece is one I’ve dropped the ball on for awhile due to rain and sickness, but I’m eager to start walking to work again now that the days are lighter and less cold — (I just ordered a new pair of walking shoes since I entirely wore out the pair I bought last year on my birthday). I’m also looking forward to getting back to our little piece of land and doing some work on it.

So yes. I suppose my theme for 2014 is setting my direction towards the things which give me the greatest sense of my ever-becoming-self.

As many of you know, I have been sick for the better part of January and am only now considering myself mostly recovered. Even so, I managed to make all but five of the meals I scheduled in January. Those meals that I missed out on have been added to this month’s plan so I can at least try them and see what I think.

One thing I found with being sick is that even though the meal plan was overwhelming on my sickest days, for the most part I found that it helped me to shop for and make decent meals when I didn’t feel in the least inspired or creative.

(And for the record – yes I do look that spotlessly made-up in the kitchen after a full day of work – naturally).

Saturday, February 1: Birthday Party Dinner – Moroccan Chicken with Lemon and Olives, Cardamom Meatballs, Hummus and Laffa Bread, Couscous, Cucumber/Mint Salad
Monday, February 3: Curry Chicken and Rice Casserole
Tuesday, February 4: Leftovers
Wednesday, February 5: Thai Pork and Noodle Soup
February 6-9: Out and/or away

Monday, February 10: Claypot chicken rice with shitake mushrooms w/Stir-fry bok choi
Tuesday, February 11: Pacific Pork Kebabs with Pineapple Rice w/cold-sliced veggies
Wednesday, February 12: Artichoke, Sundried Tomato and Goat Cheese Pasta w/mixed greens
Thursday, February 13: Leftovers
Friday, February 14: Frittata w/greek salad
Saturday, February 15: Smokey Gouda Mac and Cheese w/steamed broccoli
Sunday, February 16: Seafood Stew w/bread and sliced cold veggies

Monday, February 17: Claypot Roast Duck w/stir-fry green beans and carrots
Tuesday, February 18: Lemon Shrimp with Rice w/roasted beets
Wednesday, February 19: Roast Pork Loin with Carrots and Mustard Gravy w/green salad
Thursday, February 20: Asian Dumpling Soup
Friday, February 21: Red Lentil Curry w/brown basmati rice and cold sliced veggies
Saturday, February 22: Polenta Pizza with Spinach, Mushrooms, Bacon & Tomatoes and green salad on side
Sunday, February 23: Pork Ragu w/spinach salad

Monday, February 24: Seared Duck Breast with Amarula w/roasted yams and green salad
Tuesday, February 25: Totchos Salad (Finally, a salad recipe that includes tater tots!)
Wednesday, February 26: Cold Marinated Sirloin Noodle Bowl
Thursday, February 27: Spinach Artichoke Orzo w/roasted beet salad (beets roasted night before)
Friday, February 28: Saffron Risotto with Butternut Squash

The only thing that being sick was good for was keeping me around the house – which meant lots of hand sewing, and a little bit of machine work when I felt well enough to sit up for a couple of hours. This resulted in making good headway on some projects as follows:These horses (template by Ann Wood) have several friends in various shades and textures. I’m in love with them – and they will comprise a collage for my niece’s 2nd birthday. She is learning about horse riding right now – and I hope these brings some cheery dreams of riding to her bedroom wall! Finished piece by next week.

I cut out all the fabric for this lovely Denyse Schmidt pattern in 2013 before realizing there was an errata on the petal template which meant that all my pieces were the wrong size. Frustrated, I set all the cut fabric aside and let it be until December when I pulled out the petals and re-cut them. Over the last month I’ve appliqued and pieced this queen-size quilt top which I am preparing to start quilting next week (time willing). I have only ever made one queen-size quilt for myself, so I’m excited to get this done in time to grace our bed top in the spring.

And this! I had this table runner half-pieced in 2013 and then it languished in the sewing basket until I had endless hours and not much more than bad TV to keep me company. I went for a really primitive quilting style which matches my less than perfect patchwork – this is my first ever hand-pieced project of any substance and I’m pretty pleased with the overall feel.

For February I am planning to finish two Cooper bags (one for me and one for my partner), a crochet sweater that I started last year and only needs sleeves, and the above quilt. I also would like to cut out a pattern for a cape that I’m dreaming about making – we’ll see, it’s not at all season-appropriate but I feel inspired to work on it now. Really back into sewing all of a sudden and loving it…..

As you might have noticed January has been a bit of a wash for me. I have now been sick for one full month – starting with a late December cold and then morphing into either a worse cold or the flu – I have missed out on countless fun activities and good times, not to mention the fact that my work targets have all gone entirely out the window due to excessive absence.

But most of all, what has really sucked about this is the timing. As someone who looks forward to the turning of the year for all the psychic relief and goal-setting it brings me – January 1st is a time of great intentionality as I think about all the possibilities for the year ahead. But this year? I was too busy blowing my nose to come up with anything resembling a sustained thought — and the 1st came and went without a single wiry resolution poking its head up.

You’d think I could let it go, just this one year – but sadly, no. I’m all pent up with my need to resolve — not to mention stir-crazy with being stuck inside during all these nice days we’ve had lately. So I’m going to use February as my New Year – which is appropriate not only because I’m finally well enough to care about life, but also because my birthday happens in the first week of the month — so it’s a new year for me regardless!

I haven’t quite worked them all yet so I’m going to wait to post on this until tomorrow or Saturday – which is the actual start of the new year according to me.