Dilbert and Workload

Jeff here. Stefanie is very busy this week with work. Here is how too much work and stress is handled in Dilbert's office.

Have a good weekend!

Laudibus In Sanctis

Psalm 150, the Psalm that talks about praising God with trumpet, cymbals, lyre, timbrel and harp, is one that has been set to music many times and for obvious reason. One of my favourite settings is one by William Byrd, that first appeared in 1591. The Jerusalem Academy Chamber Choir does a magnificent job of this piece.

Dilbert and Re-framing

Jeff here. In the midst of renovations I forgot to post a Dilbert last week. I think re-framing is a good tool in all kinds of situations.


Have a good weekend!

Laundry Progress

Our laundry room makeover continues moving forward, although slowed with us both at work during the day. Here's what we've accomplished so far this week:

We repainted the pantry shelves. I still want to go back and fill the nail holes but the difference in these from their original rough dark state until now makes me happy. We're going to give the shelves a coat of urethane tomorrow night for some added durability.

Jeff added tongue and groove pine paneling on the back entrance wall with the hanging cupboards. 

We painted the paneling it the same colour as the wall (Benjamin Moore's Wickham Grey), added chair rail trim and added the end pieces and trim to the cabinet. 

We also installed the wardrobe cabinets in the laundry room. Jeff had to build a support platform for them because the Ikea feet raised the boxes 3/4 inch higher than the sewer pipe running right on top of them. We decided building a support platform was easier than moving the poop pipe. 

Jeff said the other night that he's already forgotten how the room used to look. It's quite a transformation so far. 

In the Pink

Last weekend, while on the mainland, we met our new niece. The day before we left, I decided she needed some additions to her wardrobe with custom embellishment. With a bit of ribbon and a few butterflies, here's what I cam up with. I love my nephews dearly but it turns out that sewing "in the pink" is great fun.

Tellin' The World

Another great choir singing a great spiritual. There's nothin' better.

Here's the University of Utah Singers with Moses Hogan's arrangement of "I Can Tell The World"

Progress

Progress in the laundry room is trucking along. There is a fresh coat of Benjamin Moore "Wickham Gray" that has livened the whole place up. It's fresh and light and we both like it very much.

The first cabinets are up! Ikea's mounting system for wall cabinets is BRILLIANT and they are easy-peasy to put together. Jeff chose the "Stat" door fronts and they work very well with the whitewashed ceiling and cottage-y look of the room.

Jeff also made square panels to hang real light fixtures. Goodbye bare bulbs! We got the idea when we were looking at Ikea model kitchens and it looks great.

Jeff and his dad also stacked our washer dryer. Tracking down the right stacking kit took 2 weeks and five more phone conversations than it should have required (hear that Sears Canada?). Nevermind- it's up now and it works great. I love being able to see lost socks in the bottom of the dryer. Here's a full view of how things are shaping up. Those light fixtures are such a big improvement and the room no longer feels like a cave. 

Suckers for Punishment

After completing our bathroom renovation earlier this year, I'm pretty sure I promised we were done renovating for a while. We must be suckers for punishment because we have two renovations planned for this year... the laundry room and (gasp) the kitchen. Going over to "the mainland" for our cousin's wedding was the push we needed to start on the laundry room; on the way home we stopped at Ikea and filled Jeff's parent's truck with new cabinets.

I've not shared a lot of pictures of our laundry room here for reasons that will soon become obvious. If you remember, we replaced the basement stairs a year and a half ago. Jeff also built "The Enorma-Closet" 4 years ago (on the right side of the picture below) to address the crazy lack of closet space in our house. We call her "Norma" for short.

While these two things made made a HUGE difference, the laundry/utility room is still a little haphazard and we aren't making use of the 9-foot ceiling for storage. There's also a mess of plumbing behind the washer that drives me nuts. And notice how dark it is in the photo above?

That's because of the ceiling. It's old, dark, rough wood that sucks every ray of sunlight away. The lovely light fixtures (if you can call them that) weren't really helping the issue, either.

So that's where we started. Jeff moved the junction boxes so they were in line with each other and added a third junction box by the pantry. Voila! We had a little light! 

After we painted the ceiling white, we had a LOT more light. We kept the ceiling open because the kitchen is directly above and our kitchen renovation is going to involve moving a lot of plumbing and electrical.

I wish more projects started with paint. We're now quite motivated to keep this project moving along.

DIY Wedding

Here are some more photos of the wedding we went to last weekend. I was pretty involved in the preparations (from doing all the flowers to helping the bride pick out a dress) and Jeff created the ingenious cardboard tube vases that held the flowering branches at the outdoor "altar" and did 101 other tasks behind the scenes. Here's what we helped create:

The part that made me most nervous - making the bride's bouquet. It was a rustic hand-tied bunch of white hydrangeas, Queen Anne's lace, pink and green lisianthus, purple scabiosa, cream stocks, ivy and lime green puff balls. Against the bride's eggplant purple dress, it was very pretty and I was very pleased with how it turned out. 

What kind of boutonniere do you make for a groom allergic to most flowers? A green one. Thankfully, it looked great against his purple tie and shirt. 

Jeff's aunt, another cousin and I made the centerpieces out of thrift-store clear glass vases, greens from our gardens, mystery purple flowers from my garden, pink tulips and yellow ranunculus. The mantle was simple - just votives and ivy. 

The groom cut wood disks for under the centerpieces. My mom sewed table runners out of sheer curtains the bride found at Value Village. A trunk from our maple tree (trimmed several years ago and stashed in the garage) became the place cards. And the wedding favours? S'mores ingredients for the bonfire that happened after dinner. 

 The groom fabricated the fantastic cupcake stand out of wood disks and a brass frame. The cupcakes were from Lynne's Lovecakes in Chilliwack and they were delicious. The icing was the best icing I've ever had - light, smooth, not grainy and not sweet. They tasted as good as they looked.

The bouquet wilted during the heat of the wedding but perked up once it got back into water. It survived our day-long trip to Ikea and got home, 2 days later, looking fairly fresh.

I don't have pictures but we also did two huge arrangements of Solomon's Seal, pink snapdragons, green bells of ireland and a mass of other greens for the front of the "altar". It was great fun... and I'm happy it's over!

Thinking Outside the Box

Having creative family members is the best. My cousin-in-law and I were pretty creative cats this weekend, transforming this pile of paint cans (both full and empty), spray-painted cardboard concrete forms, and a box of scavenged moss

(with a little help from our mountain men) 

into an outdoor altar for our dear cousin's wedding. 

I think we have every right to be pleased with ourselves. 

Love is Strong as Death

Jeff mentioned that we were going to a wedding yesterday. It was the wedding of two people who have gone through an inexplicably long and painfully difficult journey to find each other. So we celebrated. And celebrated. And celebrated some more.

This morning, I'm more wistful. And thankful. The song that comes to mind is William Walton's hauntingly beautiful "Set Me As Seal" from the Song of Solomon.

Dogbert and Marriage

Jeff here. We're going to a wedding tomorrow. Here is what Dogbert has to say about marriage.

Coconut Eggs

I'm experimenting with less wheat in our diet these days. For the most part, it's going well... except breakfast. Eggs are the one thing I'm not crazy about and that leaves me with yogurt, fruit and toasted almonds every morning. In an effort to find some variety, I've been on the hunt for new breakfast options. While browsing through my friend's Make It Paleo cookbook, I came across a recipe for breakfast that was so unusual I had to try it. The verdict? I loved it. Jeff didn't. If you like coconut, it might be worth a try. 

From the Make It Paleo cookbook

2 eggs

1/4 cup of coconut

Preheat oven to 350°F.Separate egg whites and yolks, placing yolks in an individual small mixing bowls. Beat egg whites until they are very stiff. Fold in the shredded coconut. Shape the egg whites into nests on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Gently spoon the yolks into the center of the nests. Bake for 10 minutes, until the nests set, the yolks are cooked through and the peaks begin to lightly brown. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and enjoy!

Flower Garden

I'm not a pastel person. But I love this gallery wall designed by Nichole Loiacono using floral photographs taken by British photographer Cassia Beck.

Photo from Parlor Home Blog by Nichole Loiacono

The Spirit Comes to Help

I love singing the Bach motets and have been lucky to perform most of them. My favourite is 'Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf', or 'The Spirit comes to help our weakness'.  The Vocalconsort Berlin, directed by Daniel Reuss, does a very fine job of this piece. An English translation of the text can be read here. 

New Baby

My brother and sister-in-law became the proud parents of a baby girl yesterday. Little Kajsa is healthy, strong and will be exploring the world and creating glorious havoc with her older brother in no time. We're thankful for the gift of family and can't wait to meet her next week. As for her parents... with two little ones under sixteen months old, we suspect they will be singing this tune for a while.

Dilbert and Collaboration

Jeff here. I'm glad computers are cheap enough now that this doesn't happen any more.

My View

I'm in the midst of several simultaneous and complicated work projects that have required much time and energy in the past few weeks. This week has been especially tiring and a little stressful... so it's good there's lots of inspiration just outside my window.

Sitting Chicken

Have you ever made chicken this way? We had a family potluck on the weekend and it was my first time having Beer Butt Chicken (or in our case, cranberry juice in Pepsi cans Chicken). Some issues with the barbeque forced the our meat chef to roast them in the oven but they were still absolutely delicious. I'm going to have to try this myself sometime.