Boston

These guys were mostly my motivation for wanting to visit Boston as a young girl. Them, and being a big Cheers fan (Oh, Woody). And now I've finally made it, although for slightly different reasons. After a crazy day of travel, that included a flight taking 4 hours longer than expected, sitting in Oklahoma City while waiting for thunderstorms to clear over Dallas, arriving in Boston at 1.30am as my ride (not knowing where I was) was pulling into her house an hour away, thinking I'd lost my luggage (it came on the second flight) and freakin' Madagascar 2 as the in flight movie...I made it back to where I was staying at around 4am. Sheesh. Needless to say I wasn't too pleased with Boston at first, but now it has completely charmed me and I want to move here. The history, leafy streets and cute houses have sealed the deal

I'm here to attend WAM!, which is a conference looking at the involvement of women in media and activism. There are some awesome speakers, including the amazingly hilarious Sarah Haskins of Target Women as the keynote speaker tomorrow night. If you are not already aware of Target Women, you must go check it out now. She is one of the funniest people I have seen, and her take on how the media targets women is so on point and ridiculous at the same time.

The conference registration starts tomorrow morning, so I've spent the day taking in Cambridge, knitting and eating amazing cupcakes. I went to check out Magpie, an awesome store that sells all kinds of crafty goodness from locals and other well known crafters (My Paper Crane, The Small Object and Nikki McClure amongst others) and is run (in part) by Leah Kramer of craftster.org fame. I pretty much wanted to buy everything in there. I then went and found Kick Ass Cupcakes, which is as amazing as the name wants you to believe. There were so many exciting flavours from the standard vanilla, to red velvet, chai nut, berry and peanutbutter/carob for dogs and catnip for cats. The chocolate with chocolate fudge icing I chose was out.of.control. Yum, yum.

Alrighty, I must get up early tomorrow so I should really call it a night. I'm going to take lots and lots of photos of the neighbourhood I'm staying in so that you will all want to move here with me.

Goodnight!

Sick Days

Since about last Thursday-ish I've developed a fairly brutal cough and almost constant headache. Today whatever bug it is decided to go the whole way to sore/itchy eyes and blocked ears. So, I've been laying low and generally feeling sorry for myself. The grey and drizzly weather hasn't been helping much, so I've been loving the afternoon sun when it decides to show itself.

In other news I completed a knitting order which I was really happy with (long charcoal arm warmers).Over the weekend we had a delicious dinner at All India (all you can eat vegetarian Indian food, it's perfect) with Henry and Lili, and picked up some craft supplies at a stash sale. Last night, we watched Saturday Night Fever in bed with mint slices that I found at the Candy Aisle, which sells a selection of treats from Australia and New Zealand. There is nothing like Tony and Stephanie to make you feel better.

Speaking of making one feel better, behold my constant companions during these sick days.

It feels amazing on my throat.

Ira Glass and This American Life has been the (perfect and hilarious) sick days soundtrack.


My two favourite loves, one of which is warming my feet as we speak.

Enjoy the start to your week!

xx

Walls notebook

Knowing my love of notebooks, my Dad sent me the link to this amazing one today. It is filled with 80 New York city walls for you to doodle on, or just look at. I think I probably need it.

Funny, Richard and I had been talking recently about the reclaiming of public space following a school assignment and an interview with Shepard Fairey on The Rachel Maddow show about his arrest in....Boston? I think. While I'm all for what artists and culture jammers like Fairey and Banksy do, maybe this is a safer start. As the notebook write up says, 'You'll be one step closer to being the graffiti artist you've always wanted to be . . . minus the jail time.' Haha. Love it.

I've always loved the carrot & parsnip combo, mashed together as part of our meat & three veg. Yum. So the other night when we had an abundance of both, plus potato and leek (another delicious combo, especially in soup) I saw the perfect soup opportunity. It was totally made up, and also involved cumin, coriander and a healthy dose of coconut. Oh goodness, so so good. Those flavours are perfect together, and I love the way the sweetness of the carrot and coconut compliment the onion-y leek. I'm going to rework it a little, I'd love to try it with coconut milk this time, and then actually record the recipe to share with you all.

Of course, biscuits are a must too, as with any soup or stew. For now, here is my go to recipe for those...

2 cups sifted flour

2 tsp. baking powder

4 tablespoons butter or shortening

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 cup milk

Sift Flour once, measure, add baking powder and salt, and sift again. Cut in shortening or butter. (this is where I use my hands by rubbing the butter into the flour). Add milk gradually, stirring until soft dough is formed. Turn out on slightly floured board and lightly "knead" for 30 seconds, enough to shape. Roll 1/2 inch thick and cut with 2 inch floured biscuit cutter. Bake on ungreased sheet in a 400 degree oven for 12-15 minutes. Makes 12 biscuits. You can also make tiny tea biscuits that are only 1 1/2 inches wide with a small cutter or glass bottom. These are great served with tea, jam or honey. Makes 24

Taken from Old Fashioned Living.

Bakers Dozen

You all should go and check out this lovely online store, Bakers Dozen, run by Amy Borrell of tummy-ache (both Amy and her blog are also rather lovely). In the store you will find limited editions of 13, from artists and crafters all over the world.

I am quite smitten with these crocheted macarons by Sian Keegan. I think having a few around would serve me well, until I attempt to bake the finicky little things....and for once said finicky little things are eaten.

I also adore this embroidery from Fieldguided, makers of many favourite things and keepers of one of my favourite reads. The text is taken from a Joanna Newsom (yet another, absolute favourite) quote and I promise I saw these after I started that embroidery I showed you a couple posts ago!

Off you go!

Stay golden.

On the days (today definitely not included) where Vancouver is sunny instead of grey and drizzly, our apartment gets transformed for about 10minutes each afternoon. I walked into the living room the other day, just as the sunlight was streaming in. I promise these photos haven't been retouched in anyway, but this is actually the intensity of the golden afternoon light our little home was bathed in. So dreamy!

I will not.

A little something I have been working on for a friend. The text is taken from a quote by the amazing bell hooks, educational theorist, feminist and anti-racist /social activist. The full quote says, 'I will not have my life narrowed down. I will not bow down to somebody else's whim or to someone else's ignorance.'

Stitching these words over, and over was (at the risk of sounding extremely hippy) actually quite meditative and empowering. I love the defiance and certainty of the statement. I will not have my life narrowed down.

Angela Davis

We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society.

- Angela Davis

I mentioned earlier that in celebration of Women's History Month I was going to write about some of the woman who have really influenced me, and who I greatly admire. It has taken me a little longer than anticipated to get this going, but here we are. Angela Davis has probably been the woman who most influenced me as a feminist. Before reading her autobiography, I knew little about her save from once being on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List (the third woman ever) for something she most likely didn't do (turns out she didn't, and was acquitted by an all white jury), and that she had amazing hair. By the end of reading about her incredible life I was challenged to examine the way I think about my place in society, and the importance of social justice.

One of the things that struck me most about Angela Davis was that she not only talked about feminism and critiqued society as patriarchal and misogynistic, but she seems to live her life as if viewing everything through a feminist lens. She is an unapologetically strong, intellectual and often times outspoken woman. When she took on leadership roles in the Black Power movement, the Black Panther movement and also within the communist party, she was often met with resistance from male leaders and seen as a threat. In fact she is still accused of being 'anti-male', although from slightly weirder sources. This didn't ever seem to deter her, but if anything spurred her on.

The second, and perhaps most important thing that struck me about Angela Davis was her commitment to intersectionality, the idea that 'traditional' forms of oppression do not happen in isolation from each other, but that oppression in areas of gender, race/ethnicity, class, etc intercede with one another. In her book 'Women, Culture and Politics' she writes;

"Rape bears a direct relationship to all of the existing power structures in a given society. This relationship is not a simple, mechanical one, but rather involves complex structures reflecting the interconnectedness of the race, gender, and class oppression that characterize the society"

After becoming familiar with communist and socialist political theory, and especially after a trip to Cuba where she worked amongst Cubans cutting sugar cane, Angela Davis became convinced that the only way to eradicate racism, sexism, classism and other forms of oppression, was to radically revolutionise society into one where every individual is valued. A society where the state looks after it's people, where all people are seen as valuable just by virtue of them....being. Her experiences in Cuba, in spending time in women's prisons, and being just in being a black woman, caused her to come to the conclusion that a capitalist, free-market system is one where marginalised minority (women, black people, the working class, etc) groups are going to continually be oppressed. It is the nature of the system, and the system needs this in order to function. Therefore the overhaul of this system to create a more egalitarian one of socialist democracy is the only way to truly liberate women, homosexuals, the working class, people of colour, the poor...I could go on.

She is an incredible woman, who is still constantly working and advocating for the rights of women, the eradication of racism, the abolishment of prisons and a more socially just world. I couldn't recommend her autobiography highly enough. Her story of coming of age in the civil rights movement, to living underground while being stalked by the FBI, to Ronald Reagan attempting to get her banned from teaching is an incredible one. I'd also recommend checking out her lectures on the University of California youtube channel.

What women have influenced you? Who do you admire? I would love to hear your thoughts on this!

Treats

There is a candy jar at Richard's work, actually I think it's a bowl but that doesn't sound as good, and so every now and then I get some little treat or another brought home for me. Once he even brought home a whole donut. Haha, so sweet. Last night I got these pretty eggs. I love the colours and almost want to just leave them out to look at rather than eat.

Haha, who am I kidding?

This, that and the other.

It is way past my bedtime, but Richard is working late tonight and knowing that he'll be home in half an hour makes it all the harder to go to sleep.

So, instead I have been...
- listening to the latest Bitch Tape: Crush Edition, which features both The Zombies and Linda Ronstadt.
- preparing for a prenatal visit I have with a mama tomorrow, and getting excited all over again about how incredible our bodies are.
- watching Democracy Now! , which was excellent this evening. There was an interview with Rachel Corrie's parents who recently travelled back to Gaza, and also with the partner of another American who was shot by the IDF just today I think. If you're not familiar with Rachel Corrie, she was an American who went to Gaza in 2003 with the International Solidarity Movement to oppose the destruction of houses by the Israeli Defense Forces. She was killed by an IDF bulldozer.
- pondering on how pretty the afternoon light makes our apartment look.
- thinking that the singer from Wolf Parade has a funny voice.
- strangely feeling hungry at 12:45am.
- wondering why the Belle and Sebastian radio on last.fm is half good and half torturous, and why Cypress Hill is on it.
- and how Brandy got on the Sufjan Stevens radio for that matter.

Some of you may have noticed the little postcard over to the left there. I would really love to hear from you, if I don't yet know you and even if I do! I love to get (e)mail! Really, truly.

Happiness is...

A few things that are making me happy on this cold, rainy evening.

Purple flowers in old jars.

Bird stickers, for making magnets with.

Polka-dot and lilac tissue paper found at Urban Source.

Thank you so much for all the encouragement you have given me over this post. I was really honored to have some of you share you own experiences with me, and excited to see that there are others who are also passionate and outraged by the way Vancouver treats its most vulnerable. I am going to submit the post as either a letter to the editor (one of the larger newspapers) and also maybe as an article (smaller, probably more lefty newspaper). I also would like to continue to blog about what is going on in the DTES, and about other issues I think need to be spoken about. I love craft, design, baking and pretty things. I really do, and I will continue to write about that. However, I find that it is only one aspect of who I am. I completely respect the people who choose not to blog about things they perceive to be "negative", but I think if I did that I would feel like I was denying a whole part of my thinking and who I am. A blogger I really respect recently told me that blogging was her activism, I think that is so true.

So, you've been warned. Not only will you continue to find etsy treats, knitting/stitching/drawing wips (works in progress, come on), teacups and recounts of thrifting expeditions, but there may also be some posts on breastfeeding awareness and feminist rantings thrown in there too. For good measure, of course.

Oh Susannah!

The latest purchase in The Brittain household. He is very, very excited. I've tried my hand at it a bit too, and the best part about it is that no matter what you play it has a lovely old-timey clinky sound that makes you feel like you're off in the Appalachian mountains somewhere.

Go check out one of my favourite banjo players, here.

Weekend Fun with The Sadies

What a fun day, despite the crazy rain. So far I have been to Birthfest, a matinee movie (The Watchmen) and after a quick cup o' tea we're off to see The Sadies, for which we are extremely excited.

Birthfest was....busy! But cool. There were a lot of awesome Vancouver crafters (click on the links to take a look for yourselves!), along side the great midwives, doulas and various others involved in the vibrant birth community we have here in this city. Definitely inspiring!

Ugh, I think I'm getting sick. Something to do with my cute but not at all waterproof boots that I wore today, perhaps?

Enjoy your weekend!

xx

Disparity

United We Can Bottle Depot, Hastings St

In many ways Vancouver is a beautiful city. Dramatic mountains, beautiful beaches, a lively arts and music scene, great restaurants and cafes, etc, etc. Not surprisingly, my neighbourhood doesn't make it onto the post cards. We live in the Downtown Eastside, Canada's poorest postal code.

Peoples Pigeon Park, Hastings and Carrall

A couple of days ago I had to drop off my grocery bags for the tv shoot, which meant walking about 3 or 4 blocks from my house. Having lived in the area for awhile now, just like living in any other community, I have gotten to know some of my neighbours. It's a familiar feeling, and I really do enjoy the sense of community here. Often when people hear where we live, they seem a little shocked and worried for my safety...and maybe think we're a little crazy. I have never once felt unsafe in my community. Not once. The misconception that because people are poor and/or homeless, they must therefor be violent is simply not true. This is not just a misconception, but a lie that is constantly told to us by the media and government in order to continue on in the marginalisation of the city's most vulnerable people. As I heard Barbara Ehrenreich say once, 'Poverty isn't a character flaw, it's a lack of money'.

My neighbours are literally struggling for survival on a day to day basis. When I say there is poverty in my community, it is (to my mind, and I'm sure many others) on a third world scale. I have truly never seen anything like it. The HIV/AIDS rate in the DTES (Downtown Eastside) is worse than the epidemic in Africa, not to mention hepatitis. The people you see outside the United We Can building in that first photo are a fraction, not just of the homeless population in Vancouver, but of the people you would usually see there.

Gastown, Vancouver

So, back to dropping off the grocery bags. When I leave my house, I cross E Hastings St, which has become synonymous with poverty and homelessness. I walk over needles, past people hanging out and sleeping on the steps of First United Church (this has become an unofficial emergency shelter) and sex workers working their corners and alleyways. I walk past the Buddhist temple, amongst young girls shooting up and turning down offers for crack. Then, as I pass Sunrise Market and near the rice market I notice something across the street that looks a little odd (by now I have walked about three blocks). I see a couple of young hipster girls standing and chatting outside a building I hadn't really noticed before. As I walk up to it, I quickly realise that it is a rather trendy new cafe. I turn around to look behind me and see shopping carts full of cans for the depot and the entirety of the owners belongings.

Within the width of a street I had gone from abject poverty to a $30 lunch. See that photo up there of Gastown? That is two blocks from Pigeon Park (which takes up a block). Two freaking blocks! Two blocks from people sleeping in the doorways of empty buildings (while either the building owners are waiting out the market to be able to make more from selling or leasing, or they are currently being converted into fancy apartment buildings and office spaces to keep up with the gentrification two blocks north), to the most expensive real estate in the city. Two blocks from indigenous peoples making up a large majority of the homeless and marginalised community, to souvenir store after souvenir store selling ridiculous appropriations of their culture.

Like I said, this is my community. I have become accustomed to (although still outraged by) homelessness and poverty. I don't usually go into Gastown though, and so I often forget the incredible disparity that is seen in Vancouver. This is a city that is hosting the Winter Olympics (on stolen land) and spending millions and millions of dollars to do so, yet can't house and feed its citizens. That has closed down mental health facilities and then not only do they not replace that with anything that works, but they then actively marginalise and criminalise the people who we should be looking after and protecting. A city where DTES residents who actually do have homes are being evicted to prepare for the Olympics, where DTES residents are being ticketed for minor offences (jaywalking, being in a park after 10am, etc) and can obviously not pay the fines which means they are banned from the neighbourhood at best, and jailed at worst. How can we still believe that this is not intentional?

Thankfully, the DTES also has a strong history of activism, community and protest. Although, it isn't always easy to get people to listen to you when you're not viewed as a person of any worth in the first place.

I wasn't exactly sure why I was going to write this post initially. I have no solutions to offer right now, I'm just angry. I'm angry because an entire group of people are ignored, systematically marginalised, ghettoised and basically left to self destruct. I'm angry because so often as a society, we see fit to cast off entire groups of people and that we are so unwilling to critically look at why homelessness and poverty occur. It is not because people are lazy, or because they're 'bad', or because they expect a hand out, or because they're indigenous. Homelessness isn't a career choice, people are forced into it because they have no other option. Women who are unable to find work enough to support themselves find themselves with very few options but prostitution. People with mental illness (and others) use drugs as a means of coping with the hell that is their life on the streets.

I don't know. For those of you in Vancouver, please think critically about us hosting the Olympics and what this means for the city. Please think about the injustice of buildings sitting empty for years, while people freeze to death on the streets. For those of you not in this city, please think critically about who is not being heard in your city. Please think critically about who is being heard, and what this means for the most vulnerable.

Please, make yourself heard for those who are having their voices taken away from them.

Thank you for being a friend.

These ladies were a staple of my childhood. I totally remember watching them in that 5pm-ish slot (the same slot where Charles In Charge, Happy Days, The Facts of Life, etc lived) while waiting for tea (dinner) to be ready....or even more exciting on the days we got to have a 'picnic' of fish and chips in front of the tv. Ah, life was good.

I still really love the Golden Girls, and I think that it is only as I have gotten older that I have appreciated the amazing strong women characters that the show portrayed.

Here's a letter that Melissa wrote to the fab four, over on Shakesville. I think she pretty much sums it up.

Dorothy was by far my favourite. What about you?

Reuse, Recycle

I (along with most of you, I'm sure) really dislike plastic bags. Unfortunately, I am not known to be the most organised girl and often find I am caught without a reusable bag, so it always helps to have a few around the house, in my handbag, etc.

Recently, the Vancouver Craft Mafia was asked to do a crafty spot on a local tv show, that showcased quick an easy crafts. Ones that showed what you can do with things around the house, and something you can whip up pretty quickly without needing too much time or a whole lot of crafty knowledge. My contribution was a super easy t-shirt grocery bag that takes about 10min and works like a dream!

I find that small or medium size shirts work best, as the fabric will stretch a bit with stuff in it so you don't want it dragging along behind you. I would also recommend using...I don't really know what you call it, but the t-shirt fabric that is a little thicker and more sturdy, not that really soft kind. So precise, I know.

What you want to do, is turn the t-shirt inside out and sew up the bottom (remember to back stitch at the beginning and end). I like to use the bottom seam as a guide, sewing just on the left of it.

You're then going to lay the t-shirt out flat, with the neck facing you. Once you've done this, cut off both the sleeves at their seam. Again, cut to the left of the seam about half an inch or so.

You will then be left with a what is basically a muscle tee (thankfully you've already sewn the bottom up, so as to not be tempted to pop it on and relive the glory of the 80s). You're now going to cut out the neckline in a big scoop to form the top opening/handles. I tend to start cutting about an inch or two out from the neck seam, how far down you cut is up to you, remembering to keep enough room to hold your groceries!

Sadly, I forgot to take a shot of this bag all finished, but I'm sure you get the idea from the image up top there.

So there you go, eco-friendly craft in minutes!

Winter-ish

Despite being fairly convinced it was Spring, this is what we woke up to yesterday morning. At first I just thought it was really overcast, until I heard a 'What the.....?' from Richard as he peered through the blinds.

Hmmm. It is now all the more unfortunate that this is all I have to show for my mittens. Especially as, although it is rather sunny out today, I hear talk of -5degrees still. I guess I'll just have to (let the cat in!) and put the kettle on to warm up!

International Women's Day

Image via Obey Giant

It is International Women's Day today, and also Women's History Month throughout March. For quite sometime, I wouldn't identify myself as a feminist, despite finding sexism extremely offensive and believing in all the root elements of feminism. The radical notion that women are equal to men. That gender or sex should have no bearing on your self worth, rights and opportunities.

It is no hidden fact that feminism has been demonized and feminists portrayed as man-hating lesbian feminazis (thank you Rush Limbaugh), and this is something that I believed to be true until I looked into it further. There are many women who have hugely influenced my thinking, and I plan to write about them to celebrate the rest of this month.

I think many people believe that feminism is no longer relevant. I mean, we have the vote, we can attend school all the way up until college or university. We have women doctors, lawyers and even an almost president of the United States.

Along with all of these achievements, we also have women experiencing extreme violence on a day to day basis all over the world. We have yet to have achieved pay parity between men and women. In many, many places, women still do not have full reproductive rights or control over their own bodies.

I have recently discovered Womanist Musings, a blog written by a Canadian woman who writes predominantly about feminism/womanism and race. You should definitely all go check her out, she is excellent and I am constantly challenged and educated by reading what she has to write. Recently she has had a series of interviews of various feminist and womanist bloggers, writers and activists which I highly recommend.

One of those interviews was with Cara Kulwicki of The Curvature and Feministe (also excellent blogs), who had such an amazing answer to one of the questions I wanted to post it here. It completely sums up both my dreams for women (and society in general) and also why I feel so passionately about continuing the feminist fight.

10) If you had to set goals for feminist advancement what would they be?

Since this is for International Women’s Day, I’ve decided that I’m just going to be incredibly outlandish and ostentatious by not saying “I want this bill passed,” but instead saying what it really is that we ought to all want.

I want an end to rape culture. No more victim-blaming, no more excuses for rapists, just real prevention efforts, and fair, efficient trials. I want economic justice for women all over the world, and that means not only equal pay but also creating a path to economic prosperity and sustainability in those places where men live on extremely little, too. I want reproductive justice – not just a right to abortion and birth control, but a right to have a child, a right to parental leave, day care, and health care. I want a world where no one is “illegal,” where, sex is not seen as bad, where physical and emotional abuse is not tolerated, and where no one is murdered because her genitals didn’t meet someone else’s expectations for what makes a woman. I want a world where police don’t go around killing people of color, where job discrimination is not tolerated, and where children and adults alike don’t go hungry under the banner of “personal responsibility.”

These are really not outlandish wishes. I look at this list, and I see things that we should already have, that in a just world would be givens. But they are also far off goals. They will require a whole lot of those small bills being passed, alongside lots of big ones, a lot of education, community building and minds changed. And though I’m young, I doubt I’ll see most of them in my lifetime. I hope that I’ll see more than I expect, but it’s going to take work, and it’s going to take a bigger and stronger movement. But those things above, along with the many things I certainly forgot, should sure as hell be our goals. If they’re not, I’m not sure what we’re in this for.

I love where I live.

A sign we noticed while waiting for the bus this morning.

Falco

This is how Richard and I spent our Friday night, killing ourselves laughing over the 80s brilliance that was Falco. His voice gets me everytime!

Catching up (with vegan blueberry muffins).

I am so, so tired tonight. I feel like I've been constantly on the go in the last wee while and I think it all just hit me tonight once I got home from work. In saying that, I've been getting lots done and I'm looking forward to sharing secret projects with you once they're finished!

Tonight, instead of 'working' I decided to pop on the radio and do some baking. I am a sucker for a good blueberry muffin, and believe me these are good. I've realised recently that I'm not actually a huge muffin fan, despite thinking that I am. I can make an exception for these though.

The recipe is largely made up, and vegan partly because we had no eggs and partly because we're meant to be cleansing at the moment so no refined sugar....sigh.

Ingredients
2 1/2 c flour (I used white, but would normally use whole wheat if we have it)
1 c agave nectar
1 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
2 ripe banana (mashed)
2/3 c soy milk
2/3 c vegetable oil
2 c blueberries

Method
1. Preheat oven at 400 F. Combine all dry ingredients and set aside.
2. Combine mashed banana, milk, oil and agave
3. Combine wet and dry ingredients, then throw in the blueberries and give it a bit of a mix. Remembering that you don't want to over mix muffin mixture as they won't be lovely and fluffy.
4. Spoon mixture into greased muffin tins and sprinkle a mixture of sugar and cinnamon on top.
5. Bake for 20-25min.

Just so you all know, there is a large can of Kilkenny Cream Ale that only just made it out of the photo up above. I found it in the fridge tonight and decided to drink it while baking, straight from the can. I'm a classy wee thing, I'll tell you that.

Spring

It hasn't quite sprung, but is definitely springing. The weather keeps tricking me, for every day that I get excited about sunshine there is a grey and rainy day to follow. Seeing these little flowers shooting up made me smile, such lovely bursts of colour (in this seasons colours, no less) amongst the grey and brown winter left overs.


I wore some flowers in my hair to celebrate.



Welcome, March!