My Favourite Articles and Links This Week
This essay about a mother and daughter sharing stories of flashing, groping and other forcible male behaviour in front of their husbands for the first time made me laugh and cry. If there’s anything you can say about the US election this year, it’s that the regular harassment that girls and women receive seems to finally be more obvious to men.
How to hose a dinner party in a tiny space. I never host people because while I love my little townhouse, I know it’s small and I feel like the addition of guest makes it suddenly feel like a hamster cage. But no more! I was really inspired by this article, only because it helps ease my dinner party hosting anxiety.
There might only be 9 weeks left of this year (Crazy, right? I had to triple check my numbers, because I was so sure that I was wrong), but there is still time for you to achieve the goals you set for yourself for 2016.
This tip blew my mind (courtesy of the Modern Mrs. Darcy):
“You can add any web page to your phone as an app icon. Listen up, because this is so useful—and so easy! Here’s what to do: open the website you want in your Safari browser, tap the share button (the middle button at the bottom that’s a box with an arrow coming out) and select “add to home screen.” That’s it! You can do the same thing on android. In Chrome: tap the 3 vertical dots next to the address bar to open options for the website. Scroll down to “add to home screen” and it adds a direct link to your screen.”
My Favourite Pins This Week
Nutella AND banana bread in a mini muffin bite? Sign me up. I’m one of those people that finds mini anything makes me that much me likely to eat it. if it’s small it must be harmless and calorie-free, right? Pinterest link is here, and the original recipe post is here.
If you also have a bag of potatoes sitting in your kitchen (I can’t be the only one), might I suggest these delicious and very pretty lemon herb roasted potatoes? I’m a big fan of roasted veggies, because if it’s in the oven, it means you don’t have to keep stirring or check on it. You can go do other things until the timer dings, which is my kind of side dish. I will say that to call them ‘lemon and herb’ is a bit misleading, because the only herb in this recipe is parsley. But I just shook on some generic Italian seasoning and they were very tasty. Pinterest link is here, and the original recipe post is here.
This is such a great gift idea- a photo pillow! The tutorial is really clear and step by step, although if you don’t have the printer I bet you could get it printed at a print shop onto the sort of iron on paper you need. Pinterest link is here, and the original DIY post is here.
This is such a pretty embroidery design, and it’s completely free- click through for the transfer template and instructions. I wish I did more embroidery, I absolutely love it. Pinterest link is here, and the original post is here.
Okay, I know I’m not a crocheter, but did you know you can crochet cables?! Because I did not. Check out this beautiful crocheted blanket tutorial- totally free, and looks perfect for snuggling up on the coach. Pinterest link is here, and the original post is here.
Have a great weekend, everyone! I think we are going to try to take the kids to the Royal Ontario Museum this weekend, and otherwise just do our usual things. I hope you are all staying healthy (the stomach flu just finished a tour of our house), and hopefully get a bit of sunshine this weekend!
You became a writer FIRST. This is who/what you have always been.
Your nonprofit job was the SIDE job. A side job that did it’s best to convince you it was your only job. The most important job.
The hardest thing we do is get out of our own way-even when we are fully aware it is the right thing to do. You have chosen to do the write/right thing. The Universe confirmed you made the best decision by giving you a perfect SIDE job.
This is wonderful. You are a published poet-even rarer than published novelists. You’ve got this. And you’ve got us cheering you on! Hope you’ve got your Dream House picked out-you’ll be buying it with your first of many checks from your publisher.
Our world is changing quickly yet words still magically take us to places we have never been, stir emotions and stay with us long after the image moves from our eyes as the book closes or the electronic screen goes dark.
Thank you for sharing this happy news.
You have knit your bliss.
Thank you so much for all your support! It’s just the very beginning, but I know I have to give it a solid shot. It would be awful to get to the end of my life and feel like I never tried as hard as I could to chase my dream. Thank you for cheering me on!!
I have been talking with my (male) partner and many of my thoughtful male friends that if there is any lemonade to be made from the lemons that are our US election this year, it’s that even thoughtful people are realizing that even they have ‘accepted’ certain attitudes that we attribute to gender (“boys will be boys”). We’re talking about it ALOT – and it’s really good. For many of my male friends, hearing the things that the WORST PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE IN THE HISTORY OF CANDIDATES has said about women in particular has led to an increased awareness of what women truly put up with daily. (It’s not as if they ever doubted our stories – but I think the awareness has been brought to a new level.) And that is not to downplay the racist, homophobic, xenophobic and bullying statements he has made towards just about every other type of human – we were all pretty horrified about him from the beginning. Now, we’re just waiting for next Tues to be over – though the racist misogynist anger that he has made ‘ok’ has been unleashed here, and I don’t think it’s going back in the bottle anytime soon. 🙁
Anyway, it’s good that your pins are so pretty and delightful – I need more of THAT in my life right now, living here in the US in these times – so thank you!!
I hear you- the US election is so heavy in the news cycle in every country in the world, I’m feeling election fatigue and it’s not even my country! It is absolutely terrifying to think that he might be elected, and I assume that common sense will prevail when it comes to voting in the US, but you never know. It has indeed shone a light on how so many men think that Trump’s opinions on women are acceptable, and it’s probably the best lemonade to be made of a massive pile of lemons. There is a Trump tower here in Toronto, and it’s recently gone into receivership – while not all Canadians are enlightened when it comes to a woman’s right to go about her day harassment-free, we’re generally pretty appalled and I don’t think the building has done much business since the campaigns started.
Many of his buildings and businesses have been closing and failing here too – hooray! 🙂 More lemonade from this horrendous and seemingly endless election year!!!
#onemoreday
#moresanityplease
Those Nutella-Banana muffins look awesome! I’m going have to give it a try (and adjust for GF 🙂 ).
Also, my kids LOVE potatoes cooked that way. I usually just drizzle them with a bit of butter and salt to cook them. They’re like a combination of roasted potatoes and potato chips. Yummy!
That’s so true, the slices of potato do get nicely crispy and are pretty kid friendly!! I’m not usually a big potato person (I almost always will pass), but these are delicious!
You never disappoint on Friday! I read the small space party and liked the idea of a take away for guests. I think I will BAKE the cookies rather than scoop dough in a bag-kinda picture a mushy mess by the time they got home:) Also I knew that was Palm Springs on the pillow at first look-hope to visit in the winter.
So glad you like Friday’s links! Yeah, I doubt I’d hand out raw cookie dough myself, especially if you were really short on time you could buy slice and bake cookie dough and hand those out. And that’s exciting that you are planning on visiting Palm Springs this winter! I bet that will be so delightful, a nice change of winter weather!
Love the crochet blanket! I have a whole collections of cable stitches saved in my computer, but I never got to make anything with them. Thank you for reminding me! Have a wonderful weekend!
It’s funny how we often had so many resources tucked away, it’s easy to forget what we have! I didn’t even realize you could cable in crochet- shows how much I need to learn about crochet!
The link for the embroidery pattern seems to be missing 🙁
Great post, love the afghan in particular.
Oh no, I’m so sorry! I updated the post with the links, but here’s the pinterest link so you don’t have to go hunting:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/82894449372063417/
The Nutella muffins are so cute in that size. I need to check out the recipe. My Jellybean can have Nutella, something that is spread on white bread toast every weekday morning for her. I tried a similar recipe for those Hasselback potatoes; mine didn’t come out well. I feel unless you season almost in-between every slice, will they come flavorful.
You are so right- mini muffin anything seems so cute and tasty! That’s no good that your potatoes didn’t turn out well- were the potatoes big or small? I find it only works with the small potatoes, and I always have to bake them at least 20 min longer than any recipe calls for.
I love the small space entertaining tips, although it should be mentioned that entertaining 6-8 mature and well mannered adults around a coffee table is a very different sort of evening than entertaining the same number of people when half of them are under the age of 4! At least when kids are involved nobody is expecting things to be calm, organized and beautiful. As long as there is something to eat and no-one is going to get hurt, I consider it a huge success!
Yeah, small space entertaining with little kids is a totally different beast! I tend to avoid having people over for dinner because I always feel like we really don’t have the space, but this link was so empowering. Maybe for after the kids go to bed, though! 😉
Oh my, those potatoes sound and look amazing. I can eat that particular vegetable in any form it comes in!
You know, I’ve never tried Nutella. I know people love it and I should give it a go.
Hope you made it to the ROM and that it was wonderful.
I cant believe you’ve never tried nutella! If you like hazelnuts and chocolate, then it’s going to pretty much blow your mind. If you don’t like either of those, then it’s going to be gross.
That embroidery design is gorgeous! I always love reading these post, so many ideas.
I love embroidery so much, I wish I had more time! I keep thinking how fun it would be to embroider little flowers and animals on Lila’s clothes.
I’ve never been flashed/groped/whatever, and long may that continue. But then, I’m 6′ tall, so maybe potential ‘whateverers’ decide to pick on a smaller woman. I like to think that, if someone did grope me, I’d either give him the ol’ knee treatment, or grope him right back, hard! Here’s hoping I never have to find out! But I really feel for those who are so abused. & the men who just don’t get it.
Meanwhile, we have more space but, the dinner party tips were good ones.
The roast potatoes sound great, but I’m not sure how they’d sit with a post-heart-attack diet. Shame!
That photo cushion is a good idea to. You could further embellish it with embroidered details, machine or hand embroidery.
And as for that braided crochet throw – who doesn’t want a snuggly blanket now it’s turning chilly?
I love your idea of embroidering details on the photo pillow- what a great suggestion! And I totally hauled out the snuggly couch blankets recently, it’s been nice to have a little extra cozy. Lila was sick with the flue recently, and she was on the couch with me for a whole weekend, and we cuddled up under a blanket. Sadly not hand knit, but one day!
I am reading this a week later, but this article about women telling each other stories of being grabbed, harassed and more strongly resonates with me. I was a young woman in Paris, a city where men simply consider normal to chat you up or more. One evening with friends, male and female, I told about the most recent nasty encounter I had. One guy joked that I was exagerating – so I asked all the girls there to share their stories: every single of them had, more than once. Being followed, being heckled, groped in the metro, grabbed in the street. Anyway, my years in Montreal were refreshing in that regard: I never had to experience anything remotely close to my years in Paris. Also I am getting older, so I am less desirable to perverts it seems. But I am scared for my pretty young daughter, and I taught her to be very careful. She has a strong instinct for what is wrong, which I hope will protect her in case she crosses the path of a predator. Thanks for sharing this.
I remember that article, and it is so true- young women tend to get more of that harassment because they do seem more vulnerable, and I think men think they are more likely to get away with it. But men also need to hear those stories so that they better understand how ‘normal’ it is in a young woman’s life, and how not okay that is. More men need to speak up when they see that sort of thing.
Omg, 9 weeks only? (Probably even less now since I’m reading this a bit late..) Anyway, so much yum and great tips in this post… I’m going to study the one about hosting a dinner party and take notes.. Party season is upon us! (Though our place is not anywhere near ready to host anything but maybe soon?) Thanks!