vomit_unicorn

TLDR: I like cooking, baking, preserving and trying new things in the kitchen. I spend sunny days working in the yard and making my gardens bigger. I have four cats. I do all the crafts, and like learning new skills. I read as much as I can and don't write often enough. I collect and enjoy strange things like the macabre. I enjoy photography.

And now the long version. Apologies for length and stream of thought mess.

A little about me, my husband and I live on a little island on the east coast. We moved here a couple years ago and love it. We spend our time doing never ending renovations and projects around the property. I am an avid gardener and have slowly been transforming our yard into my own little oasis with a mini orchard, large flower garden, big vegetable patch and more. My problem is having too many new ideas before I finish something else.

When I’m not in the garden you might find me reading on my deck with one, two, or three (next year I hope all four will come out but the kitten is too little right now). I have loads of books as well as a Kobo and Kindle (ebooks and digital library books for the win.) I also love spending time in the kitchen. I really enjoy cooking and baking and trying new things. My sourdough skills are really coming along and I'm always up to try something new. I've been dabbling with cakes and other pastry treats lately too.

I love coffee and tea and probably drink too much of them.

I have a lot of other hobbies since I like trying new things. My newest hobby that I am really enjoying is sewing. I recently upgraded my sewing machine and it has been awesome to see the difference and ease now. I’m hoping to become proficient at making my own clothes and aprons. Also eventually quilts. At the very least I am adding pockets to everything. I'm hoping to get a Serger machine and a Coverstitch machine to up my game soon. I like to knit, although I'm still a beginner. I have done a lot of projects with knitting looms though, they're awesome. I made and sold my own jewelry for a while. I like drawing but don't do it often enough. Same with photography- I have a Canon 6D. I have a button maker and make buttons some times. Gardening, give me all the plants. And propagating plants. Cooking and baking. A few things I like watching on Youtube are Brad Leone's It's Alive series, Barry Lewis, Claire Saffitz, old episodes of Antiques Roadshow and restoration videos of things that have been rusting in a shed for like 50 years, Crime Scene Cleaners, SourSweet, Let's Game it Out. Also all the sewing tutorials and videos about bee rescues. During my quarantine I discovered magnet fishing on YouTube and wish we had more hidden treasure here.

I collect old photographs from the early 20th century and before. The older the better. I use the photos as inspiration for writing prompts. I also like collecting really old postcards both written on and not written on from the same time periods. And my new obsession is really old recipe cards and personal cookbooks. As well as old personal journals and stacks of old letters.

When it comes to reading I like mystery, true crime, biography and history lately, but I read a lot of classics too and like fiction and literature (cough cough I have a degree in English Lit). A couple recent favorites I’ve read are “Hench” by Natalie Zina Walschots and “The Very Marrow of our Bones” by Christine Higdon. And Richard Osman's two recent books. Next up on my to read pile are "Martha Gellhorn a Life", "Hitch hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" "By Heart", "Butter Honey Pig Bread" and "The Stranger Beside Me" I don't really like sci-fi, horror, westerns or especially romance. And while I enjoy the convenience of ereaders for access to library books or subscriptions (especially these days), if I had to choose I would always choose a print book over an ereader. Some books I'm always interested in reading are the five Scotiabank Giller Prize finalists and the CBC Reads Finalists.

I really like canning/preserving and recently have been getting into fermenting things. I've made mustard, pickled onions, pineapple tepache and vinegar, hot sauce and hope to do some saurkraut soon. And of course sourdough.

Oh and I like playing Nintendo Switch every now and again. I have had every console and Gameboy except the GameCube. I usually go through phases where I will play for weeks at a time, beat a game and then not play again for months. Obviously my favorites are Mario and Link/Zelda. Recently I finished the new Paper Mario game. Now I think I'll go back and finish Breath of the Wild.

I will admit I like macabre things. Not disgusting things but stuff like what Ryan Cohn collects. Old artifacts and interesting items that show how the world thought and worked only decades to hundreds of years ago.

I’m sorry this seemed to get really long. I wanted to give you a lot to work from. Thanks for taking the time to read this and participating in givinifts If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to message me!