abby tries again

Remember awhile ago when I mentioned that I liked some of Abby's prints? Well, we worked out a swap, and look what arrived in today's mail! The giant print that I love, along with some fabulous other treats. I love the bowl photo in the upper left so much that I framed it right away and it's on the kitchen wall. The vintage tablecloth kills me, I love it so much. And look in the bottom left at her apricot blossom business card - I wish you could touch it. It's a beautiful, thick paper with a perfect finish.

Abby's blog is here, and her online shop is here. Happy browsing!

cupcakes and eels (yes, eels)

I treated myself to a copy of Martha Stewart's Cupcakes today. It was the first Martha cookbook that I really wasn't that keen on, since I have never made cupcakes. Never. Nope, I'm not kidding. But when I opened it up in the store aisle, I knew that my life would have to change its course.
These look much like Queen Elizabeth Cake I've posted about several times, only in cupcake form and with chocolate added. Martha's Snickerdoodles recipe is one of my favourite cookies, ever. So I'm willing to try it in cupcake form!

And are these not the cutest cupcakes you've ever seen? Sheep! Fenced in and everything.

And I do love a good dose of lemon.
I can see some serious weight gain in my future.

Today was better. I laughed and meant it twice, and it felt good. Once was over misheard song lyrics, which never fails to make me collapse in fits of laughter. The one that put me over the edge today was "the girl with colitis goes by", misheard, of course in Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds where the actual line is "a girl with kaleidoscope eyes". The other thing that made me laugh was a bit more unusual, and was noticed by Adam in the 'From the Cruiser' section in today's Vanguard, our local paper. Ahem:

"May 18, 7:39 am, received a 911 call reporting a possible traffic hazard at the intersection of Vancouver and Main streets. The reported hazard was hundreds of live eels that had spilled onto the road. The RCMP located a fisherman who had spilled his load of eels. The police assisted with traffic control while the mess was cleaned up."

abc

Phillip knew just what I needed this weekend, and gave me repeated concerts of this, his favourite song to sing. (Notice the 'guitar' in hand.)

ground cover and thanks

I love this invasive ground cover, whatever it's called. (I'm not huge on finding out real names of things unless they're in need of something. I enjoy them just as well whether they have a proper name or not.) Phillip and I spent a bit of time in the garden together this afternoon, and he enjoyed examining these, too.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of the well wishes. I am so glad that I decided to share with everyone right away. For me, just knowing that people care and have lived through this is very helpful. The best thing is learning that so many other people I know have gone and are going through the same misery. That sounds terrible - of course I'm not happy in their sadness, but it is comforting to know that you're not alone. So thank you.

I did manage to take this picture (and some other pretty ones, too) today, and make eight batches of soap. So I'm learning that productivity in misery is my thing, too, and that a few tears (or a lot, really) don't ruin a batch of soap. I felt like Keri Russell in Waitress, making her pies, only for me it was soap. There may me more batches coming.