When I was in highschool (many many moons ago) I filled in a questionnaire that was supposed to help people figure out what they were best suited for in their adult career - back when you were supposed to only have one career per lifetime. The magic ball was shaken, and the questionnaire told me I should be one of three things: a secretary, a librarian, or a seamstress. Oddly enough, a book on my Chinese year (rooster) also told me I should be a seamstress.

I was highly embarassed by these answers. Everyone else had cool answers like lawyer or architect - they were becoming professional business people. To me, the answers I got made me feel like an old spinster at age 15. The only secretaries I knew were dumpy and nerdy with really big glasses. The only librarians I knew were... well kind of the same. I didn't know any seamstresses except my mother, and at age 15, who the hell wants to be their mother???

But at the same time as I was feeling embarassed by the answers, I knew deep down they were true. There were any number of clues to indicate the accuracy. I was already sewing my own clothes at 15. When I was about 12 I created my own entirely new library cataloguing system for all the books in my bedroom (there were a lot), and had cards and a pencil ready for anyone to fill in if they wished to borrow any. When I was about 9 my grandfather gave me one of his old typewriters (that I still have) and I used to type notes and recipes to practice typing. When I got bored, I copied and typed out pages of the novel I was reading. Just for fun. The depths of my awkward childhood knew no bounds.

So, I grew older, and almost registered for Library Sciences, but was steered away into taking something that would be teachable. I was supposed to become a teacher or professor like my parents. I took Anthropology classes and French classes and Linguistics and Latin and Philosophy and then more French. I started teaching French, and realized I didn't want to be a French teacher. So, I went back and did Geography, for two reasons: I loved Geography; and, lots of hot guys took Geography. Sad but true.

In between all of that, I became a shop girl working at a photography store at the mall. I LOVED it. I loved the people I worked with (even the ones I didn't like) for being so weird, I loved doing the transactions of the final sales, I love organizing the frames and setting up displays in the windows. I even loved windexing the glass counters. I just loved being a shop girl. Years went by, I got new jobs, went back to school (yeah, I like that too), and I ended up working in Ottawa as a public servant.

I still want to be a shop girl, dammit.

So, I'm opening a shop. It will be an etsy shop. What?! You don't know what etsy is? It's only the best internet marketplace for all handmade stuff! Go to etsy and check it out! The Manusmade etsy shop will open at the end of November. I will definitely keep you posted on the exact date and all sorts of goodies involved in opening my new shop. I will also be hosting an open house shop launch here in Ottawa for those who are local. It will be in early December, and there will be cocktails! Yay! Who doesn't like Christmas shopping with a drink in their hand? Actually, I seriously think the malls should allow people to carry drinks with them during the Christmas season - there would be a hell of a lot more falalalala than the bahumbug you often see when you are 30th in line to get some MUSTGET item of the season!

I'm off to France today for just under three weeks. It's my birthday! And my ten year wedding anniversary! I'm hoping to post a bit while I'm there about all the wonderful things I'm seeing. Talk to you soon!

I've mentioned before that I live life gluten- and dairy-free. I was only diagnosed about 2 years ago, which means I spent most of my life uncomfortable. I won't go into the specifics of the symptoms, but for those of you who know, it's not pleasant. Dairy lets me know it's there by waking me up at 4 in the morning totally sweating and having a histamine reaction. It makes me over-produce phlegm and make me feel like I'm getting a cold. I'm pretty sure it's the reason for the bad skin, too. Gluten, on the other hand, is more centralized in my gut. So all your basic GI symptoms apply. My dairy allergy is to casein, which is the protein in all animal-based dairy (cows, goats, etc). Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, and malt.

I'm not sure when I became allergic to these two things, or if I was always allergic and just didn't know. I do have a suspicion that the gluten allergy came later in life - ie around 30. How do I know? In university, I used to be able to drink anyone under the table in beer. Later on, just having one beer would make me only capable of barfing anyone under the table. My stomach used to hurt a lot and I could never figure it out.

A couple of years ago I went to a naturopath as I was tired of being tired and sick, and sick of being sick and tired. 2 months later I cut them both out. I've felt a lot better since then, and life has been grand!

Except that I no longer have dairy or gluten in my life. This makes me very sad.

I wasn't a huge dairy eater (hadn't had a glass of milk since I was about 12 and not a huge cheese eater). However, when you can no longer have a cheeseburger, or a plate of nachos with cheese, or butter on your mashed potatoes, or milk in your coffee, or yogurt in the morning, it kinda sucks sometimes. Especially the melty cheese parts - have you ever seen the mess that is vegan/soy/rice/non-casein cheese? Made with yeast? and flour? and god knows what else? Believe me, I've tried them all. There is no replicating the ooey gooey goodness of melted cheese.

Gluten. Aah. Gluten. We used to be friends. But now you want to be frenemies. Not good, gluten, not good. Remember the joy of eating a warm French baquette? Of a flaky croissant? Of crumpets? Of anything wrapped in philo pastry? I do.

I used to consider myself a decent baker. Not the best, but certainly not the worst. My mother used to make all her bread by hand when we were growing up, and I learned from her. You could take out all your daily frustrations just kneeding that lovely stretchy dough! So when I cut out gluten, I bought every cook book I could find on baking gluten-free and tried tons of recipes. I've now tried a gazillion recipes in the past two years, and I've had only about two, well, maybe even just the one success. It is freaking hard people! Gluten is what gives bread it's elasticity - the stretchiness, the airiness, the bubbles, the fluffiness - all gluten. I use 42 different flours now - white rice, brown rice, potato, arrowroot, chick pea, buckwheat, soy, tapioca, the list is endless. You usually have to mix several flours together to get a decent consistency. Then you add the xanthan gum or the guar gum, both of which sound as though they were invented by Klingons. This is supposed to replicate gluten. IT DOESN'T. Nothing does.

So, after another failure in gf breadmaking last week, I got so frustrated I wrote "I HATE YOU, GF BREAD" on my little blackboard by our door. I forgot about it until a friend of my husband's came over. He took one look at it and said, "Oh, who's celiac?" He was diagnosed years ago and makes his own bread and dough for all sorts of things like muffins. He uses a breadmachine with a gluten-free setting! Apprarently one of the KitchenAid machines makes GF bread really well. He's going to send me his bread recipe, too.

Listening to him was like having the skies open and the angels heralding and the butterflies of the world alighting on beautiful flowers everywhere.

I haven't bought the machine yet - we are going on vacation soon for about three weeks, but I'm going to get it when I get back and try it out. Look for further adventures in breadmaking!!

My name is Tania, and it's been 3 years since I entered a craft show. And before that it was another three years. I just applied to enter my very first juried craft show and it's sent me in eighteen different directions. For those of you who know me, you truly understand how much time I can spend inside my own head. Sometimes it gets a little loud in there with all the pro-ing and con-ing and to-in and fro-ing. I either make jumpy in-the-moment decisions or spend an inordinate amount of time obsessing about little decisions (off-white or ecru - I can't decide!!!)

So when the opportunity came up to apply to the Craftalicious / Craft Co-op's Craft Show coming up in November, my mind started racing:

• A craft show! I love craft shows! Put on by people I want to meet and get involved with! Do it!
• What?! Are you serious? You don't have time to go in a show! You have a real job! Seriously, don't do it.
• It will get me out of my head and into my hands! I'll make things that I love!
• Ya, and you'll be making things until 4am the night before the show - you won't be loving them then, will you? You'll be at the craft show with a craft hangover.
• Entering the show will get my name out there again. I want to meet craft-loving people!
• You met some craft-loving people at that weird show you did about 6 years ago - you remember, the people were LINING UP at the booth next to yours to buy really big t-shirts with chickens on them. Do you remember that? It was SHOCKING. They weren't even ironic chickens, they were just plain chickens.
• Those people won't be at this show - it's different! It's in the Glebe! Glebe people love handmade goods.
• That's true, Glebe people are awesome. So are all Ottawans. But seriously, do you have the time? The energy? The materials?
• Not really, but maybe putting my mind and energy towards this goal will actually give me more energy. I will get more materials, and I will make the time. How many hours of Gossip Girl do I really need to watch?
• Lots. You love Gossip Girl.
• True. But I also love making things. Remember?
• Yeah, I remember. But what if no one wants to buy what you are selling?
• Well then, we deal with that later and figure out why. For now, why don't we just focus on making things we love to make and then hopefully our Right People will find us.
• Sounds like a .... well sort of like a plan. Let's do it!

And we did.... er... I mean, I did. I already had pictures of a couple of items that I wanted to make for the show. For the rest, I decided I would just sit in my craft room and figure it out. I just picked up some material and thought of things that people could give as gifts (the show is in November, so I would suspect that people will have Christmas/Hannukah on their minds by then). The process of figuring out what I would make, how long each item took to make, and an estimate of what each item would cost was such a great exercise for me this weekend.

I've been traveling so much recently for my day job (again, I'm currently out of town for a couple of days) that I have become attached to my home-time. I have felt a bit depleted recently, and the idea of planning for, and preparing to go into a craft show was exhausting. But then I just remembered how much I love to figure out designs, and how much I love to work with paper and fabric. I just jumped in, and started creating and let the fabric take control of where it wanted to take me. The fabric just became lowly tea towels, but I love them! They're some of my favourite towels in the house now, mainly because they are so simple. I'm not sure why just a rectangle of linen, some machine sewing and a bit of embroidery can make me so happy, but it just does. I think it's all part of the "practical but beautiful at the same time" policy I seem to be adhering to.

I'll definitely let you know if I get accepted into this show. If I don't, I'm still really happy to have gone through the process - so many great things came out of it!

I finally finished the table runner that I started back in early August. I needed to get a couple of things finished as I'm hoping to be ready to apply for the Craftalicious/Craft Co-op show in the Glebe in November. I couldn't get enough light in the house for picture, so I took it ouside. Our really old rickety table now looks less like it's going to fall apart, and more like it's ready for a party! Just need some crusty French bread and some Roquefort cheese and some yummy prosciutto to go with the lemonade.

Since I'd finished both the top and bottom pieces (bottom just cut out to the right size, and top pices all put together), I simply needed to sew the two big pieces together. I put them both right sides together, pinned and sewed around the edges, leaving about 6 inches along one side. I then turned it inside out to the right side through the hole, and ironed it all flat. When ironing, I also ironed in a hem fold for the opening, and then hand stitched it all closed. Super easy!

What have you guys made recently? Share!