| Brighten your décor with lamps and shades
Improving lighting in a home can be as involved as bringing in a lighting designer or as simple as heading to a hardware store for a dimmer. For those looking for minimal change, yet wanting a fresh look, changing a lampshade is one way to add another design element to a room. Floor and table lamps create a cozy mood that can be enhanced by simply plugging the lamp into affordable dimmers that plug into the wall, available at most hardware stores. "The room will feel a little warmer, cozy because you want to go sit next to that lamp and curl up," said Jeff Boone, a lighting consultant and manager at Lamps Plus in Bellevue. "If it's brightly lit, it will feel like activity." And interesting lampshades are widely available at discount and high-end stores.
Ice snaps lamps along city's river walk
ABOUT 30 decorative lamps that illuminate the Assiniboine river walk are lying toppled and broken along the riverbed this weekend, after nearby residents said the metal posts were snapped by river ice during the spring breakup. Several angry Osborne Village residents told the Free Press they're wondering why city crews didn't take the light standards down, as they did last March. The light standards from the Osborne Bridge to the Main Street Bridge were put back later last year after flooding of the river walk ended. "I was looking at the lights two or three days before the water rose, and I thought, 'There's going to be trouble,'" said an Assiniboine Avenue resident, who did not want his name used. "The ice just pushed them over -- snap, snap, snap." Saturday morning, city crews working near the flooded river walk said the approximately 2.5-metre-tall light standards are usually removed every spring to prevent ice damage.
Grilled lamp chops take on a German accent
When one thinks about German cooking techniques, outdoor grilling is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. After all, barbecuing is something that most of us think of as a great American pastime -- not something that applies to European food. Fabrizio Wiest, chef-owner of Suppenkuche in San Francisco's Hayes Valley, offers us two recipes from his native Germany that are perfectly suited to this outdoor tradition: Grilled Lamb Chops and Red Beet Salad. Both dishes come from his mother's repertoire. Although this beet recipe is thoroughly German, the lamb chops' Mediterranean flair reflect the influence of a wave of Italy-to-Germany immigration that took place in the 1950s and '60s. The lamb's tangy marinade is a melange of flavors from all over -- from Worcestershire to Tabasco -- but shows its German roots with hot yellow mustard.
Dead piglets under heat lamp: fire chief
Three piglets that died in a Severn Township house fire Tuesday were being kept warm in the basement under heat lamps, fire Chief Eric Dowell said yesterday.
Dowell said he does not believe the animals were being kept as pets at the Brennan Line farmhouse, pointing out mature pigs are kept in the barn at the hobby farm. .
Prize piecework puts three in quilting finals
Emmy Schmidt recalls she couldn't please her mother, a crocheter, so she took up quilting in her teens. And now, at 76, she's working on a wedding quilt for her grandson, Ezra. He's 7. "By the time he's 27, I'll be 96, and I still have two more of these wedding quilts to do!" This farmer's wife actually, she's retired from the hothouse tomato business on Darmstadt Road is pretty good at keeping people in stitches. Until she explains why her Criss Cross Quilt, with 296 different fabrics, 118 different patterns, 15 colors of thread and 2,729 individual pieces representing hundreds of hours of work, has a hot pink block in the center. "I'm a breast cancer survivor." The so-called "charm quilt" is one of 412 semifinalists from 47 states and 14 countries vying for top honors in the American Quilters Society's 23rd annual Quilt Show & Contest, from Wednesday through Saturday in Paducah, Ky.
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