So Here's the Thing:

I'm a bitch in the mornings and a bit of a slob. I'm impatient and sometimes a little obsessive. I sometimes need time on my own yet other times I push too much. I can be overly emotional and needy or combative. I've never been one for moderation and sometimes don't know where my line is.

This is who I am and I'm okay with that. In spite of all my flaws there are many great things about me too. So if you can accept me along with my worst, then you can have my best...

Le Love

"Is that a good idea?" he said. "I don't know," she replied, "but it would be really nice."

Booze Under a Microscope

I am forever amazed how you can find art in nature, in science or even in that glass of alcohol you're sipping. Place anything under a microscope and it will most certainly reveal another world unbeknownst to the naked eye. Micro-miniature Art, the brainchild of Florida State researcher Micheal Davidson, was developed as a way to fund his lab (he originally printed the images on neck ties). He placed various alcohols or cocktails under a microscope produced there beautiful kaleidoscope images. The alcohols were crystalized on a microscope slide, then polarized light was passed through it and magnifying it 1000x. Even more interesting is that each image seems to evoke the same mood that associated with each drink. Next time I'm sipping a glass  of chilled Rosé, I'll have to imagine all the colours dancing around in my mouth like tiny snowflakes.

Margarita

Tequila

Rosé

Vodka

Sake

Whiskey

Daiquiri

Champagne

White Russian

Pina Colada

Pencil This In: Dalton Ghetti’s Awesome Graphite Art

"Pencil This In: Dalton Ghetti’s Awesome Graphite Art: "

I don't even have the patience to sharpen a pencil any more. With the internet, iPhones, email, texting, tweeting, facebook updates, etc, how often you do really have to pick up a writing tool? I think students and educators may be the only remaining consumers of these otherwise obsolete relics. When I think of the writing-induced hand cramps I get after using a pencil for a couple of hours, it's amazing to think the Brazilian-American carpenter, Dalton Ghetti, spent 25 years carving these remarkable mini graphite works of art using only a sculpting knife, razor blade, and sewing needle.

Happy Sequential Day

Fly Me to the Moon

Sometimes it's just nice to imagine...

Nostalgic Rainy Sundays

Teacher's Pet Shortbread Cookies

Anyone who knows me, knows I am chronically disorganized. I consistently forget to charge my cell phone, misplace everything and always forget things that I'm suppose to do. Such is the case every end of school year when it comes time to give my daughter's teachers a little something thank you for resisting the urge to strap my child. Every year I mean to bake cookies but only end up remembering late the night before and rushing out to Jean Coutu to buy the last remaining $5-boxes of chocolates on the shelf. However considering there's roughly a dozen people I need to thank for their restaint, this adds up to being quite expensive. Again this year I forgot till the night before but decided to make them anyways and avoid the expense... it was early enough in the evening.


These are about the easiest cookies you can make, in terms of minimal number of ingredients.


Shortbread Cookies
1 lb unsalted butter (make sure it's unsalted!!)
1 cup fructose (fruit sugar)
4 cups white flour


Make sure the butter is still firm but not too hard to work with. Leaving it out for an hour or two usually does the trick. Cream the butter and sugar then add the 1 cup of flour at a time. This is the fun part where you can get your hands all gooey.

The worst part of making shortbread would have to be the time and trouble it takes to roll out the dough and carve it up with cookie-cutters, so we just decided to make little discs out of the dough. Er, well I tried to make little ones anyway.

Bake at 275 F for 20-25 minutes and transfer to another try for cooling.

We decided that to make them extra yummy we'd drizzle melted chocolate over them. Just throw a square or two of semi-sweet chocolate in the microwave, drizzle over them with a spoon and voila! Make sure to put them in the fridge so the chocolate can harden. (And for some reason these cookies taste so much better after they've been chilled).

Lastly—after a trip to the dollar store—we put them in bags, tied them with ribbon and added some little flowers to make our efforts extra pretty. 

The whole thing took under two hours and rang in at a cost of under $15. I hope they like them!

My December

Snow flakes dance upon the window sill

sparkling in their own delight

majestic and wondrous

making everything seems anew

and vivid with possibilities

inside ballerinas dance 

churning the room beneath their feet

their laughter seeps into our souls

the air thickened by cocoa

and the sweet smell of serenity

tucked in, safe and warm

in calm calamity

your timid smile reaches mine

your eyes say it all

I've found my place

home.

Felicity's School Concerts

Ok, ok, so I suck at taking video with a camera—the picture is fuzzy, the sound is off and at one point I almost fall over and dropped the camera—but these kids were amazing none the less. Felicity isn't in the choir but the kids did such an amazing job singing Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen and Waving Flag by K'Naan. Plus the choreography to waving flag is so adorable.

Verdun Elementary Senior Band Concert from Stephanie Little on Vimeo.


Verdun Elementary Senior Band Concert, Part 2 from Stephanie Little on Vimeo.


Verdun Elementary Choir from Stephanie Little on Vimeo.