The Flight...

I realize I've made a few references to all our stairs. I figured it might help if I illustrated exactly what I was refering to. So looking down from our 6th floor landing looks like this.

From this point begins my day, or our day, or whose ever day it is. This image expanded, equates to...

6xthis!!!

I must say though, apparently there was at one time a plan to put in an elevator... but I just don't see where it would go! there's not alot of extra space in this stair well. It's pretty much a single file affair.

I should also clarify, that this is not meant as a complaint, it is by the grace of these stairs that I can eat ice cream, and wine and not gain much weight. Well it is this and the running I do in the metro, and I guess the fact that I walk everywhere. Funny not having a car is good on two fronts, great muscle toner and doesn't burn fossil fuel!

The Resolution

I mentionned that perhaps eating more Jam would be a good new years resolution... but I think I've got an even better one... Keeping up to date with my blog!

Oops!

There's still the story of my setting up for Christmas Dinner... just not enough hours in the day!

The cupboards

This has got to go quick quick... I'm currently procrastinating, which I've been doing all morning, and really needs to stop, but all of a sudden I've become quite agitated at how negligent I've been since september! (I'm also a little conscious of a difficulty of spelling in english... erg...) In any case, a long time ago I bought some lovely big glass jars on ebay, they arrived and I rearranged my kitchen cupboard. The following photos tell the story of that afternoon.

Although presented like that it doesn't sound that interesting, I had fun doing it, and documenting it.

It arrived one day... and so I carried it up my 6 flights...

 They had come all the way from Nancy, in a superbly packed box, and they were...

Perfect... alas, one soldier was lost on the journey...

In any case, the 11 that remained were washed and dried, and thus the process began!

 

The cupboard prior to the overhaul was a mess of plastic containers and plastic wrapping, although there was already the beginnings of the collection of bonne maman jam jars, reappropriated for kidney beans and peppercorns. Hopefully this collection will be added to, however for the moment I think the capacity for jam has been exhausted! Perhaps that would be a good new years resolution, I'm still looking for a resolution that I can appreciate, keep and benefit from! More jam seems reasonable, no? 

The organisation process and the purging of plastic...

And thus the final result, which is very similar to how it looks now, REALLY, even 3 months later! Although the bamboo shoots had to been thrown out along with the peanut butter... the best before date on the bamboo shoots was december 2009. (a good exemple of why you should be very consciouse when packing your kitchen cupboards in a move) The peanut butter didn't have any best before date on it, but it tasted kind of funny, and I couldn't remember buying it, so it went as well, which means there's a little more space... but not that much!

So welcome to the story of my kitchen cabinet. And now I must get back to my revision of constitutional law and the history of law in France since the Roman Empire... oh ya.. nothing much, just a few centuries!

GAH!

The Issue of Wine

So as many of you probably can attest to, I have a propensity for drinking wine out of mustard or nutella jars, or pottery barn kids glasses with spiders on them... This Christmas, I did christmas dinner in our little aparment for Mum Lyaz and I and Lyaz's family. All of which was decided 4 days before "the day".

Prior to this I had maintained that anything we did not NEED was too much, however, at this juncture it became clear that the 4 plates and 4 bowls in the cupboard paired with a rare collection of Toy Story 3 mustard jars were not going to cut it for a "Christmas spread" for 10 people.

So I went out with the newly imported set of wheels that mum had brought me and bought 12 large plates (they didn't have the same as my current plates and they only came in boxes of 6) 8 small plates (these at least matched the 4 small plates that were currently in my cupboard, 12 long drink glasses, for pop and water, and 12 wine glasses. All of which I carried home, and up the 6 flights of stairs to our little apartment.

Christmas dinner went fantastically (with much help from mum) and a good number of trips up and down the stairs!

dinner

the entrées

my favourite (actual) nephew

After the clean up, half of the new dishes and glasses etc were put away in their boxes while the cupboard was reorganized to accomodate its new burden.
So starting 2011 with a new outlook I decided that I would USE the wine glasses that were taking up valuable cupboard space, however I was soon reminded of WHY I never drank out of wine glasses prior to this.

The following photos are a testament:

my Toy Story mustard jar

the new wine glass from christmas

what happens to my wine glasses

So, I find myself at 11 wine glasses and counting. I guess I'll have to pull out all the mustard jars that got put away or else eat more mustard so as to save the wine glasses for the grown ups!

I must add, that I'm sorry for not having added more prior to this... I have about 3 backissues from the fall, that just got forgotten about before making it to the inter-web... They'll come... just perhaps not in chronological order!

The Finished Product

The couch and the chair. After A LOT of hand sewing and quite a few movies! They may not be perfect, but they're a heck of a lot better than they were before... so until I have an income, and can replace (at least the sofa) they'll be just fine!

the sofa

the chair

The sofa's the only significant problem for the time being. It really does not make a very comfortable seat for 2. One at a time it's great... but for our quiet sunday nights there's just no good angle to snuggle and watch tv!

The SPROUTS!!

So in my days of being spoilt in the west end of Toronto, I had access to all the fresh sprouts I could imagine (and a dehydrator). How I miss those ammenities (not to mention I rarely did my own laundry). In any case, my sprout intake had been at an all time low since arriving on this side, until I re-entered the Bio Co-op (Organic Co-op). I was bombarded with greatness and freshness and I was so happy! So the organic store combined with the local market, made for some pretty fantastic spreads... the following one was just the first.

the first 'fresh' dinner

A few other treasures that 'took my breath away:

dehydrated beets (and that's it)

To boot... I think they're better than chips... and they come in beet, sweet potatoe and carrot versions!

tomato purée

Tomato purée with, really, nothing but tomatos (and a little bit of salt). MMmmmmm!

The Cover Up

my workbench

So the day we moved it rained... and rained... and rained... and the couch got quite a few smears and stains on it... that I scrubbed and scrubbed to no avail. So Lyaz and I went and bought 7ms worth of basic cotton so as to fabricate some covers. Lyaz's idea was to throw a piece of fabric on upholstered item of choice, and sew up some seems so as to make more or less a form... then cut away the extra... I didn't follow that method.

the chair in pins

I decided to do the chair first, not sure why anymore, but it worked out okay. It's not quite perfect as you will see, but certainly looks better than the stains.

the couch in pins

The couch had much longer seams, and was certainly not as interesting in terms of the sewing part... long and straight... kind of like the 401! In any case... they were a fair bit of work, but some enjoyable entertainment and certainly a sense of accomplishment.