Since leaving home at 18 I have lived in 14 different apartments or houses and only one of them had a shed or garage to store a bike.(Yay 188!)  This predicament is familiar to many city dwellers. Outside of renting a storage locker or leaving a bike to the elements and potential theft what can you do?  I have gathered a few solutions that might help you out. Many thanks to Cort, Diana, Emma, Mike, and Manny!!

Full size.

Half size.

Folding bikes are all the rage these days. And you don’t need to spend a fortune on them. This little vintage lovely folds into half it’s original size and could be tucked into a small closet in your condo! Some of the newer models fold into the size of a suitcase. Seriously small. Seriously easy to store!

Classic storage!

This is a classic way to store a bike in a house or loft. Check out this sexy set up. Hooks, wooden ceiling beams. Done.

Yup, 6!!!

Do you have a basement? Check this out. 6 bikes in 20 square feet, all accessible and yet out of the way and safe from winter’s wrath and bolt cutters!

Keeping it together.

Wall mounts. These little guys by Flinger work great for these X-country and Downhill tires and are easy to install. (These are from Cycle Shoppe in T.O.)

Bike Decor.

Bikes don’t always have to be stored out of site. They can live in your space with you as furniture. I have been doing this for years, usually on the landings of my 2^nd floor apartments for easy access.

Our cats don't get at the plants this way either!

In the winter the baskets store hats, mitts, scarves or grocery bags or plants! The basket makes for great storage in a confined space. Cheeky and functional.

A bike jacket!

This bike cover seems to work well if bringing your bike in from the elements is just not possible. This cover was not expensive, (about $10.00) and kept this bike in decent shape through a pretty snowy winter. Lock the heck out of your bike if you are keeping it outside or on a balcony…I have heard way too many sad stories of balconies being ripped apart and bikes taken!

Pic from http://www.cycloc.com/

I saw this cool bike storage solution at shop in T.O. ages ago and fell in love with it. I went back to get a picture of it, but they had taken the display of the wall. It’s called a Cycloc. It’s modern and comes in lots of different colours and will hang your bike like the piece of art.

There are other alternatives too, like bike hangers and storage racks that don’t require drilling into your walls or ceilings and even pulley systems. You can check out cycling section at MEC.

You can always visit your local bike shop with questions about your specific requirements and get them to give you their expertise!

Emma.

I was struggling away in a yoga class the other day when I looked over at my sister Emma as she (try to visualize this.) balanced on her left hand with her left leg over her shoulder and her right leg levitating off the mat behind her. All of her body weight was balanced on her hand. I was in awe. How was she doing that? The answer: she practices.

Em’s pose got me thinking about the art of practice. I talked to a number of people about why and how they practice and checked in myself.  It’s interesting stuff: Take a read.

Emma practicing.

Emma Fletcher: Yoga.

Do you practice to achieve a certain goals?
Sometimes, I am driven to accomplish a specific posture and set about to practice until I have achieved it. That’s great, as long as you are still enjoying the journey and your happiness is not dependent on the outcome, i.e. whether or not you actually achieve it. That’s a tall order – many of us are driven to achieve, so that in itself becomes the practice, giving your full attention and embracing the effort wholeheartedly AND not being attached to the fruits of your labour. Where the whole thing gets a bit dodgy is when you practice “comparison-asana”. That’s right, you know what it is, looking around the class and comparing yourself (in either a positive or negative light) to people around you. That generally comes to no good. Everybody’s body is different – literally, we’re all put together with different bone lengths, insertion points and varying degrees of muscle elasticity etc. In that sense, there is no such thing as the “perfect posture”, it is going to look different on every person, so the question begs, what are you comparing? It is so important in this practice to honour where you are at in this moment, not only to avoid injuring yourself physically but also to prevent those mental formations from convincing you that you suck or conversely that you rock! This type of practice is an ego-driven practice AND yes, most of us indulge in it from time to time.

Does your practice change from day to day?

How you feel and what drives your practice will be different everyday – that’s simply how it is. For me, the best practices are when I get out of my head and immerse myself fully in the movement. And yes, I’ll admit, I love the practices where my body feels uber strong, where I can go a little deeper than I did the time before and when the sequence flows effortlessly for me.  What is key though is being aware of where your thoughts are taking you.

Emma is a certified yoga instructor, amongst many other things, and practices mindfulness meditation.

Stephanie Lavoie

Stephanie Lavoie: Trumpet.

How much practice do you do in a day?

Typically I practice 3-4 hours a day, in 30-40 minute sessions; I split up the sessions partly because as a brass player, playing is tiring, but mostly, to be able to keep my focus.  Each session is organized ahead of time.  I keep a journal so that I can plan what to practice in each session, and how long to practice each element I’m working on.  This seems ridiculous, but if I don’t do this, I can spend the entire session on one thing, and as a result the other things that need work don’t get looked at.

As a freelance musician, it’s important to stay in shape in several different areas all the time, as you never know what kind of work is around the corner.  The journal is a great way to keep practicing balanced; the tools I develop in these sessions are skills that I rely on in various situation.    The journal also helps to keep track of progress.  Improvement can feel very slow at times; looking back and reading my comments reminds me that there is progress and helps me to stay motivated.

Could you describe how your practice works?

While preparation for a solo recital, like the show Sunday, versus an orchestral concert (which is really what I focused on in school), is different in many ways, there are common elements.  The first thing I do is listen to recordings; recordings help to familiarize myself with a piece, to learn how my part fits into the piece, and most importantly to develop a connection with the piece.  I often make up stories to go along with what I’m playing; the stronger the story line, the clearer the narration (i.e. my performance).  When the piece is ready to be performed, it is the story that I’ve developed that I am presenting. Not just the notes.  (That’s the idea anyway. I’m not always successful!)

Do you break the pieces down and practice phrases and then put the whole thing together?

Once I’m familiar with the piece, the woodshedding starts.  I work on the piece in sections.  I break sections down to find sequences and other tricks that make the technical aspect easier.  I work on the piece under tempo, and over time increase speed.  If I prepare this way, I can rely on muscle memory for technical passages, which is important in performance when nerves are involved.

How do you know when the piece is ready?

Knowing when a piece is ready to be performed is difficult.  I think performers are perfectionists who always strive to push the bar higher; I don’t know if there is such a thing as feeling completely content with a performance.  In the end though, music is meant to be played!  Nothing is ever perfect.

Sunday August 30, 4pm. Trinity-St. Paul's United Church.

You can hear Stephanie play in her solo recital this Sunday August 30 at Trinity -St.Paul’s United Church at 4pm. Visit www.urbanbrass.com/events for more info.

Jeffrey R. Smith

Jeffrey Smith: Actor

How do you rehearse or practice for an audition?

I read the scene a few times and look for a few initial gut instincts to pop up from it. Then I let it be for a while.  If I have a couple of days to prepare, then I will look at the script again the next day, but will be thinking of it sporadically. Then I work at it again, with the intent of learning the lines. Then I leave it again and let the lines float around until it feels right in my body and the lines are coming out in a natural way.

What is the goal when you practice?

Ultimately I practice with the intent of getting the part. Not perfect, but confident that I am ready to walk in the room and play with the director and show him what I’ve come up with, my take on the role.

You can see Jeffrey in the upcoming AMC Series The Prisoner with Ian McKellen and the feature Casino Jack with Kevin Spacey.

Hinna practicing her banjo.

Hinna: The Banjo.

Why do you practice the banjo?

I practice purely for pleasure! It relaxes me to drum out the roll patterns, alternating chords. I can do this forever. I never chart my progress, but you can tell what pages in my “So you want to play Banjo” book I have worked on from the tea rings and various spills, scratches from my attentive kitty audience.

Why did you choose the banjo?

I chose the banjo because I was drawn to bluegrass and the wonderful (Often humorous!) sound it makes. The roundness of it also pleases me.

As well as being a beautiful banjo player Hinna also bakes amazing cakes! Read more in the Cakes on Cakes post.

Practicing pod casts.

Vic: Learning Cantonese.

I am always practicing something and my practice styles change depending on the requirements. Some things demand extremely structured, focused practice with a specific end goal in mind. Other projects require structured practice, but the practice is about exploration and surprise and the outcome is decided when it is discovered.  Other things are long-term projects (maybe even lifetime) with no real outcome expected and the practice is just for the love of practicing. I enjoy mixing all of these forms of practice. It keeps things fresh.

I am trying to practice Cantonese at the moment. I would like to get to a point where I can carry on a conversation, but I think that my I tunes “Learn Cantonese” pod casts may not be the only help I need, and some classes may be in order in the future. I try and practice a little bit every day. It is fun and practicing is tuning my ears even more to the tiniest change of inflection, melody and tone. This is definitely a lifetime practice. (Along with doing the splits.)

Choosing a score.

Michael Chan: Violin

When did you start to play?

I started practicing when I started playing at age 3. HOWEVER, my mom directed the first few years of practice as no child that age really has a concept of practice yet.

Did you like to practice?

I did not always love it. Most of the time when I was young, I hated practicing. But knowing that I had a lesson every week was motivation to practice; otherwise I would face my teacher unprepared (like not doing your homework). I enjoyed making music, and I knew that practicing was the only way that I would be able to sound good. After playing for many years, I knew I had progressed a great deal, and knew that if I didn’t practice, I would lose a lot of what I had worked so hard for, so that became a motivation to practice too.

Why did you stop practicing?

I stopped practicing after I stopped taking lessons (when I was about 24). I didn’t feel like I needed to perform for someone every week anymore, so everyday life took over. I played occasionally after that, and would practice for a few weeks leading up to a little performance, but then it would stop again.

Do you think you will focus on it again in the future?

I will always play. It may be on and off, but I will always play. Perhaps if one day I have someone to play for, or play with, I will be motivated to practice more regularly, but once the momentum stops it is difficult to get back into it again, like anything else in life.

As a surprise gift Michael secretly practiced his violin and played on Christmas morning. It was the best gift.

Taking a test drive.

Finally: A friend of mine was learning to ride her bike in the city for her daily commute and decided to try her route out on a weekend when there was less traffic so she could gain confidence before riding in Monday morning rush. She practiced over a couple of weekends before she felt ready and it paid off. With a little practice and knowing her boundaries, she now rides to work on a daily basis.

What are you practicing these days?

The hardware.

I have long wanted to make a coat rack out of old doorknobs but never really got around to it until now. So, on the advice of my friend Kerri I went to a little shop in the east end that is packed to the rafters full of old stuff: fans, radios, records, windows and yes, baskets of old doorknobs and plates. While I was there, I saw some old door locks and couldn’t resist.

$2.00 at a yard sale.

I bought 3 doorknobs, 3 plates, and 2 old locks for $13.00. The three old hooks I got at a yard sale for $2.00 total and a 1/2″ x 6” piece of wood cost about $6.00, (I had this piece left over from a former project.) The paint was left over trim paint, the screw covers were 15 cents apiece, the glue was around $8.00 and the screws were kicking around in a jar from a million years ago.  So the cost of making this little guy was around $30.00.

Here we go!

Knobs and plates.

Prep: At least 24 hours before, paint your wood and allow for drying time. The knobs and plates I bought were separate. I sorted through dozens of them to make sure they fit together, cleaned them up with a bit of steel wool and then I glued them together with a high performance glue that bonds metal. I let it sit for 24 hours to ensure it was secure.

Before

The Day of: The bare wall before, we marked out the studs in the wall with a pencil so we knew where to attach the rack securely. If you aren’t good with finding studs be sure to use plugs to hang the rack.

Cut your wood to the size you require.

Michael cut the wood to the size we needed with a saw we found in the basement. Very high tech. Many hardware stores with lumber departments will make one cut for you for free if you purchase the wood there. (Most people cut the wood prior to painting but this wood was already painted.)

Create your design and trace.

We then traced the hooks, doorknobs and locks and the screw placement for each with a pencil.

Mike attaches the board into the studs.

After tracing, we hung the board.

The fun part!

Then attached the knobs, hooks and locks to the wood with screws.

The caps to cover the heads of the screws.

We quickly realized that we couldn’t cover the screw heads with filler and paint as planned so I ran to the hardware store and got these nifty caps to go over the screw heads. I gave the board a touch up of paint in the spots that needed them and let it dry for an hour.

After: The finished rack.

All done!  A one of a kind rack for a little cash!

Little details.

The rack filled up with summer goodies.

Rack Detail.

A rack like this is a perfect landing spot for your keys, purse, helmet, grocery bags, and coats. This project is an easy DIY where anything goes. Add whatever you like, upside down faucets, mismatched hooks, anything that stuff can hang from!

Say Hello to Amy!

Suitably Cool welcomes Guest writer Amy Adilman today. (You guessed it, she’s my sister!) You may remember Amy jumping high in the post on Play a while back. Her post today is on “Banana Dreamboats.” A campfire treat we enjoyed as kids that her kids and fellow campers are well…bananas about today. This is her first post for Suitably Cool although she has been writing secretly for years. See Amy’s full bio here.

Oh you Dreamy Dreamboat you!

My family loves camping and being outdoors. With just a few weeks of summer left and finally nice weather, I wanted to share a favorite camping treat that was passed down to me and is a MUST when we are camping.

Gather your ingredients.

I have a very laid back approach to meal times and snacking while we are camping and structured meals just don’t fit for me in the great outdoors. Kids eat their meals sitting in their lawn chairs around the campfire with grubby little hands and huge smiles on their faces as they talk about the day.

Cut your banana.

We camp for 8 days every summer and 2 of the nights the kids really look forward to are called “Banana Dreamboat Nights!” We book the same two weeks every summer, as do many families, so we meet up with the same “camping friends” every year. It only takes a few minutes after pulling into our site for the “camping kids” to find one another and inevitably one or more kids will ask me if I brought the bananas. I pack about 20 of them and then mid week go to town for more. This simple recipe has now been passed on to many families, who look forward to dropping by our tent to share in our camping ritual. It is not unheard of to have 20 people around the fire each making Banana Dreamboats.

Open the banana up.

Growing up out west, Banana Dreamboats were a big part of our summer experience. We had a little cottage on a lake with a huge fire pit, which was the center of our social lives every evening, from the time we were really little, right through our teenage years. At least once a week we would make Banana Dreamboats on the open fire. I love that I have passed this down to my kids and that they enjoy it as much as we did. The simple steps for Banana Dreamboats are below. Kids seem to make the best ones as they stuff them so full and max out on the chocolate!!!

Put it on tinfoil.

Banana Dreamboat Ingredients:

• Large Bananas – Not Too Ripe
• Miniature Marshmallows
• Jersey Milk Chocolate Bars – These work the best as they have no filling and are just plain Chocolate that breaks easily. I love buying the Darker chocolate for myself,
• Chocolate Chips
• White Chocolate Chips

Add your marshmallows first! They are glue that holds it all together!

Take a firm banana and slit through the peel by the stem. Run the knife the length of the banana until about ½” from the end. Press hard enough that you are cutting through the banana but not through the bottom of the peel. Grasp the banana in your hand and push the two ends towards each other to “open up” the middle for stuffing.

Go crazy!

Place the banana on a square of tin foil. Go crazy and fill it up!!! Start with the marshmallows first because as they melt they get gooey and hold everything else inside.

Ready for cooking.

Once done the stuffing, form a “little handbag” around the banana, crimping the top. Keep it loose on the top so the foil is not touching the stuffing, forming a “carry handle” on either end with the foil.

Why not add some dark chocolate and almonds to your ingredient list for a less sweet choice.

Place the entire package in the coals of the fire. Some fire pits have grates on top so you could place them on top of the grate. Wait about 5 minutes and carefully lift the package out by one of the “carry handles” with an oven mitt or tongs. Open up the foil along the crimped top area and see if the marshmallows and chocolate have melted. Depending on the coals and where you placed it, another 5 minutes may be needed. Don’t over cook or burn, or the chocolate will get bitter. The banana will get soft and become wonderfully sweet when it is cooked. The foil does not get hot but the insides do, so be careful when handing to children.

Cinnamon is a nice extra too!

Some great variations to the Dreamboat are cinnamon, almonds, and cocoa powder. Let your imagination run wild! I usually try to eat clean so I just treat myself to a couple of pieces of really dark chocolate and some almond slices in mine and it is fabulous.

Autumn is on our doorstep and the shops are full of fabulous fall fashions to take you through until next spring. It’s great if you have cash in the bank, but a bit of downer if you don’t. But wait don’t despair!  The perfect solution is here: The Clothing Swap.

Here’s how it works. Invite a bunch of friends over at a specified time. Ask everyone to bring 5 clean, cute items in good repair that they wish to exchange and voila, you have a clothing swap. (That being said, you don’t just have to limit yourself to clothing. Accessories such as scarves, belts, and jewelry as well as home wares are a big hit.)

As the host you should have a place where your friends can put their items on display (A living room works.) and a change room to try on the clothing. (A bathroom does the trick).

Diana Coatsworth has held swaps before and says she lets people chose what they want and doesn’t worry if two people want the same item. “That’s when all the fun starts.” she says.  Perhaps a game could be devised and the winner gets the item…be creative.

Diana says clothing swaps can be as big or as small as you like. 5 friends or 25 friends.  You can set up your exchange anyway you like: Bring 5 items and leave with 5 items or keep things looser, just bring 5 items and go from there, first come first serve- whatever you like.

Any unpicked items can be donated to a Women’s shelter and if you are having a big swap you could ask the guests to bring a $5.00 donation to go towards the shelter you are donating the clothes to.

Maybe I'll get a teapot for one of my scarves...

It’s all about having fun and going home with a few new pieces to brighten up your wardrobe and keeping your wallet happy.

Oh poor old “small stuff” can’t catch a break these days.

Perfect patterns in a jar.

We are not supposed to sweat the small stuff, not supposed to make a mountain out of a molehill, or get wrapped up the details. I say it’s time to make a big deal out the small stuff, the diminutive details and minuscule moments.  Maybe we are too busy seeing the big flashy picture to see the lovely quiet one, but it is there, it’s gentle beauty calling to us. Can you hear it?

An early morning visit.

Tree bark.

Skeletons of flowers. Petals like fairy wings.

Stone flowers.

Climbing structure.

Can you hear it?

Carrots?

Spider webs.

Small exquisite details.

Feels like the sun.

Real Golden arches.

An old bulletin board or the bark of a tree?

Oil Drum.

Tree bark pattern #2.

Why not stop today and take a closer look at something? Who knows what kind of beauty may greet you there?

Until Tomorrow, Vic.

Happy Friday.  I am sitting in my house, sweating as I write this. It’s a funny post for a hot day. Are you hot where you are?

The contents of the fridge.

I looked in the fridge the other night to discover that we had a lot of vegetables that were on their way out if we didn’t do something about them quickly. The thought of tossing all of these veggies made me sad.

Chop chop.

So at 10 pm, I took all of my veggies out of the fridge, and some stewing meat I had defrosted, and put it all into the slow cooker. (Crock-pot) Yes, the cooking device of my childhood made new again in modern, sparkling, stainless steel. It was the perfect solution as it wouldn’t heat up the house and would make a lovely meal out of all my veggies without much help from me!

Snow peas to keep you cool.

This is what we had:

• 7 fresh tomatoes
• 2 handful of snow peas
• 3 zucchini
• 1 yellow pepper
• 2 red pepper
• 1 small red onion
• A handful of fresh oregano, basil, thyme
• 1/2 pound of stewing beef,
• 1/2 tetra pack of veggie soup stock
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 can mushrooms
• 1/4 cup reduced sodium Tamari
• Splash of Worcestershire sauce
• 1 bottle of beer
• Pepper

Gardening at night.

(I had a head of cauliflower too, but it just wasn’t going to happen.) I put it all in the slow cooker on low and let it go for 8 hours.

Adding meat and broth.

We woke up in the morning and lunch was ready. We had some left over brown rice in the fridge, so we warmed it up and served the stew on top for lunch and froze the rest for a cooler day. It was really good. Michael says he would have ditched the snow peas and I would’ve added some chickpeas, but there you go.

Stew for lunch.

If you have a fridge full of veggies and say…some chicken, Google ” chicken, vegetables, stew” and see what comes up, modify what you don’t have with what you do or go wild and throw it in together and see what happens.

Brown rice with beer- beef stew.

A slow cooker is a great investment. Last winter we cooked many hearty stews, oatmeal and even whole chickens with slow cooker recipes from the Internet. It is a great time saver and the meals are delicious. You should be able to buy a slow cooker for around $30.00 new or call around to your friends and family and see if they have one they are not using.

Have a super cool weekend.

Hello there composter!

It had been a long time coming but I finally got my composter yesterday!  Yes, on a sunny Wednesday, I drove to the City of Toronto depot, paid $15.00 and packed my brand new composter into the back of the car. (I had tried Craig’s List to try to find a used one for months, but no luck.) I gathered my 4 bags of garden waste (that have been sitting for almost 2 months), my Alys Fowler “Garden Anywhere” book that makes gardening seem like a brilliant adventure, the composting manual that came with my composter and started my mission.

The step-by-step instructions are simple. I actually read them. I want to do this right!

Pre-assembly.

The pieces pop together easily.

Add the little harvest door.

Attaching the composter to the ground. I thought this would be harder to do than it is!

Read before proceeding.

All set up. Time to do a bit of reading before I start mixing my compost. I need a combination of carbon rich material (stale bread, twigs, leaves dried grass) and nitrogen rich material (kitchen fruit and veggie scraps, flowers, plants and weeds from the garden). According to Alys Fowler this ratio should be 2/3 carbon to 1/3 nitrogen.

Some of the bags of yard waste.

Some of the bags had already started to decompose and the clippings inside had started to compost just by sitting there.

Started with a layer of Carbon.

Adding some nitrogen.

I really get into my work.

I still had some bags of carbon rich material left over, so I used some old blue and grey bins that I had, to store it. This stuff is good to have around to cover up your kitchen scraps once they are in the bin.

Old bins full of supplies.

This afternoon I am going to the hardware store to purchase a pitchfork or a compost turner. Turning your compost is one of the most important aspects of the process as it adds oxygen.  I’ll keep you posted.

Add the lid and let it begin.

Maybe late fall or next spring I won’t be buying my compost at the garden center, but harvesting the gold from my own backyard.  I know there is an art to composting-any comments, advice, funny stories are always appreciated!

The art of washing dishes.

I was at my dentist’s office a couple of weeks ago and was talking about the sc website launch. I was explaining that sc celebrated “the art of everyday things, like planting things, being a tourist in your own city or the finding the joy in chores like …washing dishes.” I had no sooner said that when three people piped in, “Oh I love washing dishes…” and a post was born.

Warm and soapy.

What is it about washing dishes that is so appealing? The smell of the lavender dish soap? The warmth of the soapy water and suds on my hands? (Especially in winter.) The fact I never had a dishwasher growing up? The immediate sense of accomplishment? Knowing that there will be no left over stuff stuck on plates that the dishwasher misses?

Glassware always first!

Or is it having the time to reflect, to stare out the window, to enjoy a moment of peace and quiet, to let the day go and daydream? Yes, dishes are a perfect excuse for daydreaming.

No window to daydream out of? Hang up your favorite photo or painting over the sink.

In our new house, we have a dishwasher, but I still use the sink. It drives Michael crazy.

Washing up in Tree.

My friend Kerri showed me how to stand in “Tree” pose while washing dishes to improve my balance and core strength!

I changed my skirt so you could see what I was talking about.

At parties I will inevitably end up in the kitchen and I will have my hands in a sink full of warm water and suds, happily scrubbing away, sipping wine and chatting. (The host is usually mortified.)

Letting dishes dry the natural way!

If I am at a big party or I don’t know a lot of people, I seek the comfort of the chilled out kitchen and the dishes. There are always people in the kitchen looking for a little break from the party and I end up making some great acquaintances. And I can usually get them to dry. (Drying the dishes? Yuck, that’s another story.)

Maybe just for today try to make washing your dishes a meditation rather than a chore.