lost mitten

Vegan MoFo = Vegan Month of Food!

2011-10-06T09:10:00.000-07:00

I've signed up for Vegan Mofo - or Vegan Month of Food - for this year since I now have a Vegan blog of my own (called Where The Veggies Are)! It runs for the entire month of October and right now, I've been blogging about the theme of baking vegan desserts or transforming my old favorite non-vegan desserts into vegan desserts. That means blogging everyday about Vegan desserts and baking a whole lot of desserts! It will also be quite the challenge for me as my day job has picked up quite a bit and I haven't been around the house very much lately.

Hundreds of Vegan blogs participate in Vegan Mofo, so it has been amazing to read some new blogs based on a whole variety of topics! It is interesting to see the different takes on this challenge and how creative some people can get. I'm also excited to be a part of something amazing online, a whole network of like-minded people coming together to celebrate Veganism!

So far, I've blogged about Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Blueberry Muffins, Strawberry Lavender Muffins, Peanut Butter Cookies, and Banana Everything Cookies - all with recipes so you can make them for yourself at home. Check out my blog, Where The Veggies Are for a new recipe everyday!

New Blog & Changes

2011-09-03T07:49:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about the direction of this blog, which was originally intended to be my crafty creations / daily life blog. I've been finding that while I still do love to knit and make things, I also love to cook and make recipes. I have switched from vegetarianism to veganism in the past little while so I have decided to chronicle this journey on a brand new blog! This blog is called Where The Veggies Are and it will be full of vegan recipes, all about my veggie garden, trips to animal sanctuaries, reviews of cookbooks and books about vegetarianism, helping the environment, and living in a mindful & healthy way!

If you enjoy my blog posts about the things I cook & bake, you are looking for some great new recipes to try, or you'd just like to follow another one of my blogs, please visit Where The Veggies Are - be sure to "Follow" the site while you are there!

If you enjoy reading about my knitting, crafts, geeky stuff like video games, and things of that nature, stay right where you are - I will still be posting all of that good stuff here! I have a ton of knitting that I've been accumulating without pictures over the past couple of months....so lots of good stuff to come, promise!

Oh - and I can't forget to mention my third blog, my travel blog! The Adventures of Poolie and Loolie - aren't I a busy bee blogger!

Thanks so much for reading my blogs!

Walk For Farm Animals

2011-09-01T07:23:00.001-07:00

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After visiting Farm Sanctuary, I've been reading online and visiting their website to see if there are any ways I can assist with their fundraising efforts. Right now, Farm Sanctuary is preparing one of their big fundraising initiatives, the Walk For Farm Animals! Not only that, but Canadians are also pitching in with a walk taking place right here in Toronto! I signed myself right up for this one as I would love to do some fundraising for this wonderful charitable organization.

I will be walking as a "Virtual Walker" which means that I will not be attending the official Toronto event as the date clashes with my work schedule. I will still be doing a walk here at a local park in Mississauga on a date close to the actual event on September 24th. I'll write all about it when I'm finished! The walk in Toronto is 1.75 miles but I'm going to make this walk a full 5km (3.10 miles)!

I would really appreciate any donations if you would like to sponsor me in this event. By clicking the above button, you will be taking directly to my fundraising page, where your donations will go directly to Farm Sanctuary. Any donations are appreciated and the rescued farm animals will be thankful for your support!

It would also be fantastic if you wanted to participate in the event and raise some money as well for this worthwhile cause! You can sign up as a participant in a city close to you, become a Virtual Walker in your city like I did, or "Sleep In For Farm Animals" where you'd like to raise money but might be a bit too busy to take part in a walk.

Thank you so much for your support!

Recent Travels Around New York & Pennsylvania

2011-08-31T22:38:00.000-07:00

Paul and I recently took a three day road trip to parts of New York and Pennsylvania! We had so much fun and got to visit a lot of places we really wanted to see for a long while. We went to Watkins Glen, NY to see the gorge and Farm Sanctuary; Corning, NY to see the Corning Museum of Glass; Centralia, PA to visit a true ghost town, a town with a fire that continues to burn beneath it; Tannersville, PA for the outlet mall, and Scranton, PA for some waffles! It was an extremely memorable vacation and I blogged all about it over at my Travel Blog, The Adventures of Poolie and Loolie.

Please check it out if you're interested in taking a look! Here is a sneak peak:

Visiting Sudbury Part 2 - Science North

2011-08-21T16:24:00.000-07:00

On the first day of our girls trip, we visited the Big Nickel & Dynamic Earth. On the second day, we visited Science North, an interactive science centre in Sudbury, Ontario.

Science North had many educational and informative exhibits and theatres for kids and adults of all ages to enjoy. We watched Born to Be Wild 3D at the IMAX Theatre, which was a fascinating look into two different wildlife rescue centres and the women who started the incredible rehabilitation centres to faciliatate the return of these creatures to the wild. One story takes place in Kenya where abandoned and orphaned baby elephants are rescued, and the other takes place in the rainforests of Borneo where orphaned chimps are rescued. The reasons why these animals are in such dire need is due completely to the reckless actions of humans - the elephant poachers and the destruction of the rainforests. This movie provides a look into those who devote their lives to reversing these savage acts.

We saw some forms of wildlife at Science North, including a small butterfly room where the butterflies were able to fly freely all around a tropical climate.

We also met the darling Quillan, a porcupine who lives at Science North. Quillan is unable to live in the wild so he makes his home at the science centre. He has a space to run around, twigs to chew, and a huge tree to climb up into. Quillan is a very sweet and much loved porcupine at Science North!

We also met Drifter, the beaver. Drifter is also rescued and lives at Science North as he is missing part of his tail and is unable to live in the wild. He has a big area to swim in and was sleeping happily in his habitat when we visited him. What a cutie!

We saw many more exhibits that related to nature, outer space, the environment, the human body, and many more. There was this bed of nails that you could lay on, which I tried out! Of course, this did not hurt at all because the nails were not up when you got onto the apparatus, and then you pushed a button and the nails raised up. Since your weight was distributed evenly across the bed, it didn't hurt one bit!

There was also a fantastic show at the Planetarium that we watched, followed up by a brief explanation of the stars that you can currently see in the Ontario night sky.

We walked outside on the property of Science North to the boardwalk that extends around Ramsay Lake. Just outside of the building, there were many Canada geese enjoying a swim around the lake. It was a beautiful day outside and a great day for watching the geese swim around.

Sudbury is a very interesting place to visit if you'd like to explore the Canadian Shield, the history of nickel mining and enjoy the science centre. I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent here!

Visiting Sudbury, Ontario - The Big Nickel

2011-08-17T12:29:00.000-07:00

I drove up north to Sudbury, Ontario last week with a couple of my girl friends on a road trip. We've travelled to the east two summers ago, to the south last summer, so this year it was time to drive north. Sudbury is about a four or five hour drive so we left early in the morning and spent one night there at a hotel. On the first day, we visited the Big Nickel and Dynamic Earth.

The Big Nickel is a giant roadside monument to the nickel mining in Sudbury. It is exactly what you think it is - a giant replica of a 1951 Canadian nickel! Just like a regular nickel, there is a front and back side - heads and tails. The Big Nickel is definitely one of Sudbury's most famous landmarks, and I believe it has got to be one of the world's largest coins!

After admiring the Big Nickel, we went into the building that is located directly beside it - Dynamic Earth. This area is owned by Science North (where we went the following day....blog post to follow!) and is a museum devoted to the city's mining heritage and geology.

We took a tour down into the mines several flights down into the ground. There were replicas of actual mines that existed in Sudbury - a century old mine, a mid-century mine, and what a modern mine in Sudbury looks like today.

Overall, the tour guide was incredibly knowledgable and the tour was excellent for kids and adults alike. There was a brief movie presentation on some screens as you descended into the mine in an elevator. While in the mine, our tour guide explained the differences between the three mining eras and told us all about the lives and working practices of miners. It was really awesome walking through the tunnels and passageways. We also got to see some past and current equipment that was used in actual Sudbury nickel mines.

There was a very unique experience at the end of the tour - Sudbury helped to develop some of the equipment used to rescue the Chilean miners in 2010. Some of the equipment is even owned by Chile and is on loan currently to Dynamic Earth. There was also a replica of the rescue capsule that we were able to go inside! I can imagine that it would have been a pretty tight fit for grown men to get into as I felt it to be pretty tight, and I'm just a 5'3" girl :)

There were also some other movies and displays to see at Dynamic Earth. I really enjoyed my visit here and would recommend it to anyone who finds themselves in Sudbury!

I didn't mention it yet but the scenery in Sudbury and surrounding area is really neat. It is part of the Canadian Shield and as you drive up north, the terrain starts to slowly become more rocky. Soon, you can see parts of the road where the rock has been blasted away on either side. Many people have built Inukshuks on top of the rocks and it is interesting to see them on top of the giant boulders as you drive down the highway. I wasn't able to capture many photos as I was driving at the time, unfortunately, but it was a very serene and peaceful drive up into the wilderness. Of course, Sudbury is quite the developed city, but as you drive north all you can really see along the highway are trees, rock formations, lakes and streams.

Refrigerator Dill Pickles & Pickled Green Beans

2011-08-16T16:35:00.000-07:00

I was reading some vegan blogs last night and came across these recipes for pickling that can be done just by using a few simple ingredients and by leaving these jars in your refrigerator for a couple of weeks. I decided to give it a shot! I have no idea how these are going to turn out as I have to wait at least two weeks before consuming anything, so hopefully the flavors develop nicely! I will come back in a couple of weeks and post about how good (or bad) it ended up tasting. Everything looks great so far so I can't imagine this going wrong!

I bought some mason jars at the grocery store. For the dill pickles, here is the recipe:

Refrigerator Dill Pickles

1 cucumber or 2-3 pickling cucumbers (I used 6 baby cucumbers sliced in half)
1 cup white vinegar
1 cup water
few sprigs fresh dill
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp pickling spices (I bought a pre-made one)
pinch red pepper flakes
1 clove garlic, lightly crushed (I used several)
1 tbsp sugar
(I also added a few hot peppers, sliced in half, for extra heat)

Chop the cucumbers into spears, slice the majority of seeds off if you have cucumbers with lots of seeds. Put all of the ingredients except the dill, cucumber, garlic, and hot peppers into a jar; cover and shake. Put the cucumber, garlic, hot pepper and dill into the jar. Top with water if necessary to cover the cucumbers. Refrigerate for at least 10-14 days before consuming.

I also made these pickled green beans following a very similar method.

Spicy Pickled Green Beans

1 lb green beans, trimmed
1 jalapeno (I used a few smaller hot peppers from the garden)
few sprigs of fresh dill
1 1/2 cup water
1 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp red chili flakes
1 small clove garlic, lightly crushed (I used several)

For extra spicy beans, make a cut in the jalapeno. I cut all of the peppers in half for maximum heat! Add all of the ingredients to a large jar, topping off with water if necessary to cover the beans. Refrigerate for 3 weeks before consuming.

I'll post back and let everyone know how these recipes ended up turning out. If you have tried something similar with great success, please feel free to comment below!

August Veggies Update & Fresh Salsa

2011-08-11T17:12:00.000-07:00

The veggies are ripening and new ones are fresh to pick on a daily basis! We had a couple of days with a good amount of rain coupled with some sunshine so lots of tomatoes and peppers are ready to be enjoyed.

Here are all of the peppers that we are growing and at least one of each of them were ready! The one on the left is the Little Bells Sweet Pepper. I had no idea that these grew to be so big! We used it tonight in our dinner and it was delicious! Since the pepper is so big, we ended up only using half of it, so the other half will be used in a salad tomorrow. The other peppers in order from left to right: Hungarian Wax Hot Pepper, Red Cayenne Pepper, Variegated Fish Hot Pepper, and Chinese Five Colours Hot Pepper.

Here are some of the tomatoes that I picked - Matt's Wild Cherry Tomato (the smaller ones) and Baxter's Bush Cherry Tomato (the bigger ones).

Then, I made a delicious salsa using the fresh tomatoes and hot peppers! I added some baby garlic scapes that I bought at the farmer's market, some onion, cilantro, a splash of white wine vinegar and the juice of one lime. You can see the full recipe in one of my previous blog posts. Doesn't it look delicious?

Chinese Five Color Hot Pepper

2011-08-02T16:21:00.000-07:00

Fresh from my garden, here is my Chinese Five Colour Hot Pepper plant growing with peppers in all five colors. They start out purple, then change to a creamy off-white, then yellow, orange, and red. The red one must be just about ready to be picked and the orange one isn't too far off. I haven't tasted these peppers yet but I hear that they are hot!

My plant is leaning a bit to the side so I should probably stake it. Also, next year, I will be sure to plant my peppers in big pots like the tomatoes as I keep seeing that these pepper plants can grow quite a bit larger and bushier. I am really happy that these peppers all seem to be growing really well, and I will have a great variety of hot peppers to eat throughout the rest of the summer! This plant is quite beautiful with all of the bright colours.

Ambleside Shawl - Almost Finished!

2011-07-29T15:00:00.000-07:00

I'm almost finished knitting the Ambleside Shawl that I started this past month using this beautiful Noro Cashmere Island wool. The knitting of the shawl is completely finished! I still have to block the shawl and weave in the ends. I have never blocked anything in the past so this is entirely new to me. Sweaters I have made in the past were using acrylic yarn, and the other items I have made out of wool have been smaller winter wear creations. I will post the final results hopefully modeling the shawl very soon (even though summer is a little bit warm to be wearing a shawl...I won't be able to truly enjoy this until the Fall!)

I also picked some fresh veggies from the garden today! The hot banana peppers and cayenne peppers will be used in tonight's stir fry dinner. The tiny vine tomatoes and the other cherry tomatoes are being saved to make bruschetta - within the next couple of days, there will be more ripened tomatoes to pick which will surely make enough!

Trip to Goat Island & Niagara Falls, NY

2011-07-28T11:15:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful summer day outside and we decided to take a trip across the border to Niagara Falls, USA. We drove to Goat Island to check it out because I had never been to see the American side of the Falls, and Paul hadn't been since he was a little kid. We parked our car at the island and walked all around.

The day started off a little bit overcast, but the weather was just perfect - not too hot and not too cold. Plus, the mist from the Falls cooled us off rather nicely! These views are from Terrapin Point at one edge of Goat Island. You can see the Maid of the Mist boat from one of the photos.

We found that the views from Goat Island are a lot better than from the Canadian side. While the Canadian Horseshoe Falls are the most spectacular falls and they are on the Canadian side of the border, you can see them a lot better from the USA! You get to be way closer to the water and there were less tourists. Having been to the Falls on the Canadian side many times in my life, I can say that this was a new perspective of Niagara Falls that I loved!

We walked along the edge a little bit further to take in the views of Niagara Falls and the river. You can see the Maid of the Mist boat and the Rainbow Bridge between Canada and the USA.

After our view of the Falls, we walked along the river down a scenic path on our way to the Three Sisters Islands. We were the only ones walking down the path and there were many opportunities to duck into the trees that were growing along the river to get right up next to the rushing water. The water was flowing down the Niagara River incredibly quickly!

The Three Sisters Islands are named after the three daughters of the man who originally made it across to each of the three islands. There are small bridges and a path across to each of the three small islands. We stopped at each of the bridges for the view of the river. We also went off the main path and explored around the small trails that wrapped around the edge of the islands.

After visiting the Three Sisters Islands, we walked across a Pedestrian Bridge to the mainland where there were a whole bunch of touristy activities in which you could partake. We chose to skip most of that stuff and just enjoy the beauty of nature and the view.

We walked back to Goat Island and saw the Nikola Tesla Memorial statue. He designed the first hydro-electric plant in Niagara Falls.

We departed Goat Island and Niagara Falls knowing that we had a fantastic afternoon there and thoroughly enjoyed our visit! After the trip to the Falls, we drove to Walden Galleria and did some shopping, and of course, made a trip to the Cheesecake Factory! On our way to Buffalo, we stopped at a scenic waterfowl outlook and spotted some ducks. We had a wonderful day together not having to travel too far from home!

July Veggie Garden Update!

2011-07-25T16:37:00.000-07:00

Here is an update so you can see just how much our veggies have grown! Pictured above are the Sweet Pepper Carmagnola Yellow, just beginning to turn yellow. These peppers are absolutely ginormous! There are two of the biggest peppers growing on one plant, plus three other plants that are growing a few peppers on each of them.

Here is the Chinese Five Colours Hot Pepper. Some of the peppers are beginning to change from their first colour of purple to a creamy shade of pale yellow. After that, they will turn pink, red and orange. It will be fun to see them change colors as they ripen! This plant seems to keep growing new peppers, so hopefully we will get a lot of them out of just one plant!

This is the Variegated Fish Hot Pepper with its striped peppers. They start off green with faint white stripes, and they are changing to be green and orange/yellow. I believe that they will end up being orange and yellow when they ripen and are ready to be eaten. It will be interesting to see how these ones turn out! I have two of these plants and they have many peppers on them.

Here is the Cayenne Pepper plant. Just one of the peppers is turning red but it won't take long for the others to turn from green to red. This is the only Cayenne plant that I have as the other one unfortunately died. Should still get lots of tasty hot peppers though!

Lots of Hungarian Hot Banana Peppers, ready to be picked and devoured!

Then, we have lots of tomatoes! Thankfully, none of the tomato plants died when I had to transplant them - very lucky! I am so glad that I moved them out of their previous shady location. Even though we may not get as many tomatoes as we could have gotten had they been in the full sun the entire time, these tomato plants have really grown and have lots of tomatoes growing on them! It may take a little longer for them to mature, but some of the tomatoes are starting to turn red! And that is good, because I cannot wait to make my famous salsa and bruschetta bread!

Farmer's Market Finds

2011-07-21T21:20:00.000-07:00

Even though I don't live in Dundas anymore, I love being able to shop at the local Farmer's Market whenever I can. We had one of the hottest days on record here with the weather (with humidity) topping a sweltering 50 degrees Celsius. It felt like a sauna outside and you would sweat like crazy even standing still in the shade. Many of the regular vendors weren't at the market due to the heat, but I still managed to pick up some great local and organic fruits and vegetables.

I picked up containers of blueberries, strawberries, and cherries. Juicy and delicious, perfectly in season!

I found these baby garlic scapes at one vendor who sold all organic veggies (I can't remember the name of the farm, unfortunately!), and these wonderful looking sweet onions from the Plan B Organic Farms stand. We've cooked with the scapes for the first time a couple of weeks ago, but they didn't have the garlic bulbs attached to the ends like these ones! I'm very excited to try them.

Organic cucumber, green beans, and assorted leafy salad greens.

Fresh locally grown mushrooms at the bottom of a paper bag.

I haven't tried these yet - jam and salsa by From These Roots. The Sultry Summer Salsa is made using organic vegetables from the garden and the Wild Blueberry Jam just sounds delicious!

I also bought some vegetable samosas and pakoras (not pictured) from Picone's in Dundas, as well as some of my favorite coffee beans from Detour. All in all, I had a fabulous day and did I mention, spent this wonderful day with two of my best friends in the world! That made the day even better!

The Dundas Farmer's Market is held every Thursday from 3:00-7:00pm in a parking lot on Miller's Lane in downtown Dundas, Ontario. Definitely worth checking out if you're in the area!

Indoor Plants that Brighten a Room

2011-07-20T17:45:00.000-07:00

With a corner fireplace in our family room, it is difficult to know how to decorate it. I did have a couple of larger plants that I have been growing since back when I worked at a garden centre during my university days. I bought a few new smaller tropical plants, along with some colourful pots, and the whole room feels brighter and more lively!

The middle larger blue pot is from Terra Greenhouses - it is a Scheurich ceramic pot from Germany. We also have a larger Jade plant that is now living inside a white Scheurich pot (pictured below). The smaller orange-red and yellow glass pots were purchased at Crate & Barrel.

The plants, from left to right, are: "Forget Me Knot" (the branches are shaped into a knot) Dracaena marginata, Dracaena, Money Tree, Ficus, "Autumn Splendor" from the Croton Collection.

I also have a really big Jade plant that just keeps growing and growing! It is a little bit out of control at the moment, even after being trimmed back a bit. I think I need to stake the plant a bit so the branches don't grow all over the place.

Currently Knitting: Ambleside Shawl

2011-07-18T17:54:00.000-07:00

I always have at least one project on my knitting needles. I am waiting for additional yarn to arrive for the "I Heart Aran" sweater that I'm working on - from the beautiful Tanis Fiber Arts wool that I purchased at Knitters' Frolic - of course, I ran out of wool and had to order some more just as I was finishing up the collar! While I'm waiting for my extra wool to come in the mail, I started a new project - the Ambleside Shawl. This is my first shawl and I found it while searching around Ravelry for a pattern for some new wool that I bought. I picked up a few skeins of Noro Cashmere Island in Colorway "B" - beautiful shades of blue, purple and green.

I'm almost all the way through my first ball of wool and it is knitting up pretty quickly and looks great! This is a great summer knitting project that doesn't require much thought - it is mostly just knitting with the odd yarn over here and there. I'll post the finished project when I'm done...as well as the results of the Aran Sweater once I finish that one up, too!

As I've mentioned a few times in this blog, I have some bird feeders in the backyard. We have many birds that visit our yard, including a lot of mourning doves. Some of the smaller, younger doves are very trusting of us and won't fly away even when we're up close. They must realize that we are the ones who put the bird seed out. This one happened to be hanging out around the part of the deck closest to the house and didn't fly away when I went outside. I got up pretty close to him and snapped this photo with our new camera.

Learning from Vegetable Garden Mistakes

2011-07-04T13:03:00.000-07:00

This was our first year in the new house and I had to adjust the way that I grow my veggies to the new backyard. With that said, I made plenty of mistakes this year that I will be learning from for next year! I think that everything is starting to grow a bit better now that I have tried to correct these mistakes for the rest of the growing season, but some plants may not survive - time will only tell. Here is a wrap-up of the mistakes I made so you won't make the same errors that I did!

1. Make sure everything gets enough sunlight. I planted all of my tomato plants in a wonderful bed in the ground that ended up being shaded by the neighbour's giant cherry tree. I thought the tomatoes would have gotten more sun than they did. The plants themselves looked beautiful, but this resulted in very little fruit being produced on the plants. In an attempt to correct this mistake, I dug up all of my tomato plants after they had been in the ground for over a month and transplanted them to pots. It is hard to tell if the tomato plants will survive at this point. I may not get tomato plants this year, but I will know to just plant them in containers for next year where they will receive full sun. Lesson learned: Make sure your tomatoes (and peppers!) get at least 8+ hours of full sunlight, especially the hot afternoon sun.

With that said, I had my peppers in a spot where they did receive full sun, but I moved them to a spot where they get full sun for longer and they also seem like they are growing better.

2. Make sure you purchase the correct soil for your containers. I bought a cheap potting soil at Walmart thinking it would be okay and it wasn't. There was very little (if any) nutrients in the soil, and my peppers suffered in the beginning. I transplanted some of the peppers to a better potting soil with nutrients in the soil and they seem much happier now. Then, after talking to some really nice employees at a local garden centre, I found out that it is fine to plant your vegetable garden in containers using triple mix (peat moss, manure, soil mixture). This way, the soil has an adequate amount of drainage, the plants get the nutrients they need, plus the soil is a bit heavier than potting soil so you don't need to water nearly as often. Potting soil is good to use, but triple mix works as well, so I'm glad that I learned about that tidbit of information!

3. Make sure your peppers aren't in a windy location. Sometimes this is out of your control, but I think that my peppers were in a windier spot being up high on my deck as opposed to on a lower level. One of my pepper plants ended up dying due to a combination of poor potting soil (see above) and being a tall plant in a windy location. Try to shield your plants from the wind as much as possible, especially when the plants are still small and don't have as strong of a root support system.

With that said, I have learned from these mistakes for next year and I am starting to get some nice looking peppers at least! Not too sure about the tomatoes yet, but hopefully they survive and can at least produce some tomatoes this year. I love make a fresh salsa each year with tomatoes from the garden, so I'm hoping I can do that again. One more thing - if you are going to be planting in containers, make sure the plants are off the ground in some way so they can drain easier. Mine are lifted off the ground on some plastic shelves that have spaces in them for drainage.

Paul and I received a new camera for Christmas and I finally started to learn how to use it today! I don't know how to use all of the features yet (just figured out macro....after I took these photos, d'oh!) but this camera is so much nicer than our old point-and-click one! It is the Olympus Pen E-PL1 and it is awesome! So many different features within the camera itself and it comes with a great lens to get started (you can buy different lenses for it, too). I highly recommend this camera for the average person who wants to have a bit more control over the focus, zoom, white balance, etc. than with a regular point-and-shoot camera.

Veggie Garden June Update

2011-06-29T15:19:00.001-07:00

My veggies are growing from the small seedlings that I bought at the end of May into larger plants with veggies on them, hurrah! I did have my first casualty, a cayenne pepper plant that was not happy at all. I finally determined that it was over watered and not draining properly - and an important lesson learned for next year - do not cheap out on potting soil! I bought a very cheap potting soil that was likely too heavy with few nutrients in the soil and my poor plants were paying the price. I bought some better potting soil and transplanted the sad looking plants and they are looking a lot better now. Unfortunately, the one plant didn't make it as it had already rotted apart from the roots.

My tomatoes are slowly growing, a little slower than other years but the plants look healthy. I think they are shaded for part of the day so hopefully they still grow many tomatoes as I was getting a lot in the past from the container plants in direct sunlight.

Many of the peppers that are growing so far are hot peppers, including the little purple peppers, a rare variety called Chinese Five Colors Hot Pepper. It should be interesting to see how they turn out!

I am attempting to post this blog from my cellphone using the official blogger app - I was using Blogger Droid until I started receiving spam notifications to my phone! So, if you are using the Blogger Droid android app to blog, you may want to uninstall it! such a shame as I really liked that app!

Vegetable Garden...Planted!

2011-05-26T13:25:00.000-07:00

The vegetable seedlings are fully planted and now they can grow into glorious plants with loads of fresh veggies waiting to be picked, right from my own backyard! I only have a small space in the backyard where I can plant veggies directly into the ground, so I decided to plant the tomatoes there and do the rest in containers. As you can see here, I have all of my peppers and herbs up on the deck. I decided to buy some raised shelving units just so I didn't have pots sitting directly on the deck. I found this shelf in the garage/automotive section of Walmart for a very low price of $29 - it is designed to be one 5-shelf unit, but I broke it down into a couple of shelves to allow the plants to get more sun.

Here are the tomatoes. It is a bit tricky to see from the picture as there are tons of pink petals all over the ground. Our neighbor has a beautiful large cherry tree in their backyard that is blossoming, and the tree shades part of our backyard. We have tons of pink blossoms all over our backyard and it looks so pretty! Hopefully the tomato plants don't mind!

Here is a closer-up view of the peppers, plus a snow pea plant that already has a very tiny cute snow pea growing on it.

Two balcony container planters full of herbs - you can read about them in detail if you'd like on my Richter's Herbs blog post from last week. You can also read more about the veggie plants that I bought from Urban Harvest in this blog post.

This is my first time growing veggies in the new house and I have had great successes in the past, so hopefully this year is as good as ever! Let me tell you, I haven't had to water the plants much as it has been raining here non-stop these past few days.

We like to feed the birds in our backyard, but occasionally, we will have other outdoor wildlife visit as well. Here is a picture that I took of a chubby bunny, munching happily on dandelion leaves. My apologies that it is a bit far away, I took the photo from inside the house as I didn't want to scare him away! If you click on the image, you can get a larger view.

Organic Veggie Plants from Urban Harvest

2011-05-18T17:09:00.001-07:00

Searching around online for local organic vegetable plants was rather difficult. I wanted to buy plants that were non-genetically modified, organic and heirloom varieties. Not only would I love access to fresh veggies from my own backyard, but if I am going to the trouble of growing veggies, I would like them to be non-GMO and free of pesticides.

I visited the retail location of Urban Harvest and found an amazing selection of organic veggie plants and seeds. They have a wonderful philosophy and commitment to saving our seed heritage. They also only sell open-pollinated varieties so you can save your own seeds. Their selection is quite diverse with over 350 varieties of seeds and they have been operating for 15 years.

I picked up the following organic, heirloom, and even some endangered varieties: Sweet Pepper Carmagnola Yellow, Little Bells Sweet Pepper, Chinese Five Colours Hot Pepper, Red Cayenne Pepper, Hungarian Wax Hot Pepper, Variegated Fish Hot Pepper ( apparently these will have stripes!), Tom Thumb Snap Peas, Matt's Wild Cherry Tomato, Rona Tomato, Baxter's Bush Cherry Tomato, and Principe Borghese Tomato.

I will be planting everything over the weekend, provided that we have good weather. I can't wait to start up my veggie garden again! A sure sign that Spring is here and Summer is around the corner!

I should also mention that the retail shop of Urban Harvest is in the West end of Toronto. They have their seeds at multiple retail locations near Toronto and you can order online as well. If you would like to purchase seedlings like I did, I highly recommend visiting their store. There are so many types of tomatoes and plants, you won't be disappointed!

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A Trip to Richter's Herbs

2011-05-16T17:48:00.001-07:00

Today after work, I drove out to the country, beyond Toronto and Markham to Goodwood, Ontario. What's out there, you may ask? A wonderful gem called Richter's Herbs is worth the drive!

There are so many unique varieties of herbs and seeds there; everything and anything you could possibly want! They grow the herbs there and they don't use harmful pesticides, plus many plants are organic.

I can't wait to plant some of these outside, or transplant them to bigger pots. It will be wonderful to have access to fresh herbs again! I purchased: Pedro Perpetuo Basil, African Spice Basil, Oriental Breeze Basil, Rex Rosemary, Greek Oregano, Lady Lavender, Vietnamese Cilantro, and Salad Burnet. As for seed packets, I bought Cilantro, Chia, Thai Basil, plus Mizuna, Green Leaf French Purslane and Salad Bowl Lettuce to grow indoors as I am going to try to grow some microgreens.

If you're not in the area, they have an online catalog and they do mail orders! What an amazing greenhouse full of herbs (also, a friendly orange cat was following me around the greenhouse, who instantly captured my heart!). Now, just to buy my veggies soon and it will be time to plant my garden!

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Homemade Vegetarian Sushi

2011-05-14T15:02:00.000-07:00

I have been so busy at work that I haven't even had time to blog! Last week, Paul and I had an amazing homemade vegetarian sushi dinner that I took some pictures of and just had to share! The seaweed salad was store-bought, but the sushi was lovingly handmade and then devoured by us! We made kappa maki (cucumber rolls) and inari sushi, which is rice inside a tofu pocket. Paul found the tofu/soy bean curd pockets at a Korean grocery store near his work. It was exciting to make the sushi that we normally order at a restaurant in our own kitchen!

For our cucumber rolls, we also added green onion because we had some in the fridge. The mild onion and cucumber combination was delicious! The inari sushi pockets came with a small seasoning packet of sesame seeds, dried onion and dried carrot that you add to the top of the rice.

For preparation directions on how to make sushi, I'm sure you could find them just by searching on google, but I also highly recommend a book that we own called Vegetarian Sushi by Brigid Treloar. It has step-by-step instructions on how to prepare the rice and roll the sushi with large pictures. There are also lots of great vegetarian sushi ideas! You can pretty much roll any veggies that you like into the sushi rolls, but there are some really innovative types of sushi that can be made with ingredients that you find in the Asian section of your local grocery store. I must admit that the tofu pockets aren't readily available in your local grocery store, but if you have any kind of Asian grocery store near you, you should be able to find them.

We also enjoyed a special bottle of wine with dinner that we purchased while on our Niagara-on-the-Lake Wine Tour vacation last summer - a Cabernet Franc Rose from Pondview Winery. It was such a delicious and special dinner that we made together and enjoyed together!

Bathroom Curtains made with Ikea Fabric

2011-05-04T10:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon with my sewing machine and made some new curtains for our upstairs bathrooms. We bought these fabrics from Ikea: Pink bird fabric for my bathroom and this bird/tree fabric for Paul's bathroom. I am a brand new sewer and sewing machines have always scared me a little bit - this goes back to my days of middle school home economics classes, attempting to sew a pair of shorts with the sewing machine making awful sounds at me. I am so new to sewing that I had to literally go step-by-step to wind the bobbin and threading the needle. By the end of the afternoon, not only had I conquered basic sewing, but I have these awesome curtains made and hanging up in our bathrooms!

These are the curtains hanging in Paul's bathroom. He has a bit of a tree theme going with the brown tree shower curtain, so these curtains match perfectly - trees and bird houses with a pale pink bird on each side.

The curtains themselves were very easy to make and would be a breeze for anyone who sews on a sewing machine. You could probably even hand-stitch these, although it would take quite a while. Each curtain has two panels, as you can see a bit more clearly in this photo:

Cut two pieces of fabric to the size of your window, allowing a bit of extra space around each side for the seam. Put the fabric inside out, with the right sides facing each other. Stitch around the entire outside of the fabric on the sewing machine, leaving the top completely open, plus a few inches from the top going down each side (you need to leave an open space where you will slide the top of the curtain on the curtain rod). Turn the fabric right side out. On each fabric piece, sew the seams along the sides that were left unstitched previously (don't sew the two pieces of fabric together, just fold over the fabric to create a clean seam on each side). Then, on each piece of fabric, make a clean seam by folding over the top of the fabric and sewing along each top side. Then, sew both top pieces together. Lastly, sew straight across the fabric from side to side, from the bottom of one opening to another. Slip the curtains over the curtain rods and you're done!

These last photos show how the curtains look during the day with a bit of sun coming through the window. My bathroom with the pink curtains has a wonderful dark pink glow to it now!

Knitters Frolic

2011-04-30T13:48:00.001-07:00

Today I attended the Knitters Frolic, presented by the Downtown Knit Collective of Toronto. It was a huge knitting marketplace held at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Center. There were also knitting workshops, raffles, and a small cafe. I decided to go at the last minute when my work shift got switched to a later shift, and wow- am I ever glad that I went as it was so much fun!

There were so many vendors and shops with unique hand-dyed yarns. I wish I knew how to spin as there was lots of roving and spinning supplies (better not start yet another craft just yet, though tempting!) So many knitters were there to check out all of the beautiful wool and some of the finished projects at the booths were gorgeous!

So here is what I bought! I am going to be busy!

I found this gorgeous wool by Viola - it is 80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere and 10% nylon in beautiful shades of green called "juniper". I hope to make a shawl out of it!

I bought two things from the Tanis Fiber Arts booth. I got 5 skeins of Green Label Aran Weight wool in "Atlantic" as well as the sweater pattern, "I Heart Aran". I can't wait to start this one!

I also got a kit to make the Four Seasons hat in purple. This is a complex looking pattern and something new for me to try a pattern in this style!

Last but certainly not least, I purchased the Ravinia sweater kit with Lorna's yarn from The Needle Emporium. I finally got the chance to briefly meet Julie, the owner, which was fantastic because I read her blog, A Really Good Yarn all the time!

I will be sure to post pics of all of my finished projects on my blog when I'm done! What a fun afternoon I had spent at Knitters Frolic!

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More Backyard Birds

2011-04-20T16:04:00.001-07:00

It is a bit tricky to see, but I took this photo of a new bird feeder I bought - one that feeds gold finches. Within a few days of hanging it up, gold finches began eating from the feeder! They are so pretty, such a vibrant shade of yellow.

The really neat thing is that these are the only birds that feed upside-down! You fill the feeder with the small thistle seed (also known as nyjer seed) and the holes in the feeder are below the perches. It is amazing to watch these tiny birds flip upside-down for the seed! Here is a better image to show you:

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Surprise Mail from Overseas!

2011-04-19T08:15:00.001-07:00

I received some wonderful surprise gifts in the mail this past week from some friends overseas! First, I received an amazing package of goodies from my longtime penfriend from Finland, Eeva-Liisa. She included some delicious chocolate bars and candy (I haven't tasted them yet as I wanted to post this blog first!),

A bag of coffee (she does know what I love....chocolate AND coffee!) and these cute strawberry shortcake stickers,

An amazing selection of paper and stationary! Love it and can't wait to use them!

And these super cute mini deco tapes and adorable sticky notes! I am so spoiled with these treats and paper goodies!

And I also received a package from my awesome penfriend from Japan, Emi! She is so sweet to write me and send me a gift after all that she has been through with the earthquake and tsunami. Emi knows exactly what I like, too, Rilakkuma and postcards! She mailed me a super cute Rilakkuma stationary set and some map postcards for my collection. The postcards show a map of Japan, a Hello Kitty map of Japan, and a map of Belgium.

I am so lucky to have such wonderful friends! It is just as fun also to choose items to mail in return to my friends, too!

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Exploring Streetsville, ON

2011-04-14T16:38:00.001-07:00

Today, I decided to walk around historic Streetsville, which is a small area of Mississauga with many independently owned shops along Queen St. I recently moved to Mississauga and as I am new to the area, I am still learning about the region. I am sure there is much more to this section of town than the shops and wonderful older buildings, but for today I just walked along Queen St and enjoyed the shopping and the lovely Spring sunshine.

Spring has sprung in Streetsville as some flowers are in bloom and the buds are sprouting on the trees. There was a clear blue sky today, a mild breeze and the sun was shining - perfect for a walk!

I saw some historic buildings along Queen Street, including this interesting one with the words "Old Fellows Hall" written at the top. It appears to be a bit run-down and up for sale, so hopefully it will be restored fully. There was also this interesting archway that led down a small alley towards some shops.

I hope to visit this tea room sometime with Paul. Also, I couldn't resist taking a picture from the outside of this shop window - all sorts of vintage treasures inside!

I could not resist the opportunity to buy some freshly baked treats at Swirls Cupcakes! I picked up a variety of tantalizing flavours: red velvet, mangolicuous, strawberry fields, raspberry beret, and cookies & dream. Yum!

I also stumbled upon a discount wool shop called Knit 4 Less. A really nice man was working there while knitting some socks...oh, that would be my dream, to knit at work! They carry Red Heart, Bernat, Patons and more, and all at fantastic prices. Definitely check out this store if you get the chance, I know I will be back!

All in all, I had a really great day exploring a part of my town!

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Organization and Storage for Makeup/Accessories

2011-04-11T07:43:00.001-07:00

I am a huge fan of storage and organization. Moving into a new house provides a whole new opportunity to arrange and organize! I wanted to get off to a good start and decided to organize my bathroom drawers. My makeup was stored in makeup bags and I couldn't even tell what I owned!

I purchased three clear acrylic drawer organizers at Bed Bath and Beyond - the two top drawers have a basic organizer with six divided spots and the bottom drawer has a larger cosmetics organizer with spots for lipstick and brushes.

I now have quick access to all of my accessories and makeup and I know exactly where everything is! Next challenge: displaying toiletries and items neatly on a larger white shelf in the same bathroom...I still have to figure that one out!

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A Happy Spring Day

2011-04-07T20:10:00.001-07:00

Today, I went for a walk with friends around my hometown of Dundas. My friend is taking care of her boyfriend's family's dog, Maggie while they are on vacation. Maggie is a super sweet Golden Retriever who is friendly and loves going for walks. We took her on a walk to the leash-free dog park where she could run around outside on this beautiful Spring day. Maggie met a new doggy friend and they chased each other around and played. For me, it was so much fun to walk a dog as it has been years for me, back to when I walked my family's dogs back when I lived with my parents.

I also wanted to test out the camera of my new Motorola Atrix phone! The pictures look pretty good for being taken with a phone!

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Handmade Tea Bag Coasters from Africa

2011-04-04T14:08:00.000-07:00

Recently, my father-in-law went on a vacation to South Africa (lucky!) and saw all sorts of amazing things on his travels, including some interactions with lions and lion cubs on a safari trip! I could only dream of traveling there some day. He brought back some gifts for Paul and I, including these amazing coasters that I couldn't resist posting about.

The company is called Original T Bag Designs based in Cape Town, South Africa. The company's philosophy is wonderful:

It has been said that if you are cold tea will warm you, if you are heated it will cool you. If you are depressed it will cheer you and if you are excited it will calm you. For a group of perviously disadvantaged people in Cape Town, South Africa, one cup of tea has indeed provided community, love, excitement and peace.

After used tea bags have been collected, dried, emptied and ironed, they are ready to take on their new life as a canvas that will boast intricate designs inspired by local South African life. And so it goes, that each humble tea bag is transformed into a unique piece of art.

We received these amazing handmade coasters that are each made from repurposed emptied tea bags with hand-painted designs on them. They are encased with a glass top and a cork bottom. The company also sells greeting cards, notebooks, decoupaged boxes, tea-light holders, mirrors, placemats, wrapping paper and more.

Unfortunately, I don't think that you can order from them on-line (yet) but they do have a complete website with their products pictured. Hopefully, you will be able to place orders from them online soon! Unless you find yourself in South Africa...then please feel free to visit shops where their items are available: V&A Waterfront Blue Shed and Mainstream Shopping Centre, Hout Bay.

It was lovely to receive such a thoughtful handmade gift with meaning behind it!

More Knitting and a New Phone

2011-04-02T17:55:00.001-07:00

Some progress on the Parker Cardigan that has been on my knitting needles for a little while...I am completely finished the back of the sweater. It looks great so far, the instructions have been very clear and overall, it is an easy knitting project.

I just got a brand new cellphone, the Motorola Atrix. It is an android phone and I'm loving it so far! I am using a Blogger app to post this from my phone so hopefully it works! Do any of my readers have a droid phone? Any must-have apps for android?

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Parker Cardigan and Winter Wonderland

2011-03-23T12:56:00.000-07:00

Here is the beginnings of the Parker Cardigan that I wrote about a few days ago. This is the beginning of the back and it is coming along really nicely! I'm using the Vanna's Choice acrylic yarn in a lovely shade of deep purple.

I have the day off work today and I've been organizing my craft room all day - photos to come when it is all set up! Otherwise, I've just been knitting and un-packing my Japanese Re-Ment miniatures collection, too. Just quiet stay-at-home stuff for me today....because it is a winter wonderland outside! C'mon, Mother Nature, I thought it was Spring, so why do you have to bring us more snow? Poor Paul has to drive home from work in a huge blizzard today.

As I've posted about before, we set up a bird feeder and have been putting seed out for the birds, squirrels, rabbits, and whoever else comes into our backyard that wants some seed. A pair of Mourning Doves has been eating the seed from a pile on the ground and they were looking towards the back door this morning wondering where the food was, as the remaining seeds were buried under the fresh snow. I went outside in the back yard and cleared some snow off the deck, and poured out some seeds into a pile.

I went back downstairs a couple of hours later and there was a huge bird party going on out there! Tons and tons of birds all in the feeder, on the ground, and sitting up on the trees and on smaller plants as well! There had to have been at least 40 birds in our little backyard. I took a bunch of photos with the camera, so you can take a look! I'm happy that the birds can enjoy some food in these blizzard-like conditions!

Difficult to see the birds - a view from the upstairs bedroom window looking down into the backyard.

Still snowing outside....it does look rather pretty, but I'm just about ready for spring! Besides, all the snow that we had before had completely melted, so now we have to wait for all of this new snow to melt!

FO: Go With The Flow Socks

2011-03-18T09:38:00.000-07:00

These socks have been finished for a while, but I just haven't gotten around to posting about them. They were knitted with the Go With The Flow pattern from the Favorite Socks book by Interweave. I've mentioned this book in the past when writing about other finished projects from the book, and this is a must-buy book if you are into knitting socks or would like to learn!

I used Patons Kroy Socks Jacquards in the colorway Turquoise Jacquard to create these socks. They do go a little bit higher up my leg, making them extra cozy!

Have I mentioned my "fear" of wearing hand-knit socks outside of the house? You just spend so much time making them and they are so wonderful that I don't want to wear them inside of a boot or shoe! I wear my socks around the house all the time but never outside. Maybe that will one day change. It would be really nice to someday have mostly all handmade socks and just wear the cheaper store-bought ones to the gym or working out.

I haven't knitted for a while so I decided that I am going to start a larger project again, the Parker Cardigan by Interweave. The pattern is up for sale for $5.50 at the Interweave store as it was featured in one of their magazines. I have some yarn that I purchased a long time ago at a Boxing Day sale at Michaels that I'm going to use. The last sweater that I made was the Cabled Cardigan and it took me FOREVER! I think it turned out pretty good, except the hood is a little bit too big (my only complaint, really!). Hopefully this new sweater turns out nicely!

Kitty Blog Post and the Kitties of Cat Island, Japan

2011-03-13T22:14:00.000-07:00

The newest photo of my sister's cats - I went to visit her last week and of course, took a few photos with the kitties (after snuggling with them, of course!). They used to be our cats when we lived at home with our parents, but she took them with her when she moved out. Now, I'm just the cool aunt who visits, brings them treats and toys, and loves them! (said in a high-pitched, squeaky voice)

A moment to talk about Japan - the earthquakes and tsunami are all over the news and it is so devastating. Japan is very special to me - I love Japan and it is my dream to travel there. I have met friends from Japan, both in person and online, and some of my friends either currently live there or have family that lives there. Thankfully, everyone that I know (and their families) are safe. I wish everyone all the best in re-building the country and I'm so sad over what happened there.

Speaking of cats, my favorite online cat, Maru, happens to be from Japan. Thank goodness that he and his owner are safe.

Also, speaking of cats, the cats of Cat Island, Japan are safe and they are hopefully going to focus on re-building the island. Cat Island, officially known as Tashiro Island, is a small island in Japan where the amount of cats outnumber people! The cats all roam around freely, and there are many elderly residents that live there who take great care of them. There are even buildings in the shapes of cats there, and shrines devoted to cats.

People were uncertain of the status of Cat Island, and it was rumoured to be completely submerged underwater! Thankfully, the cats and people have survived and are in need of the basic necessities, like water and cat food. I hope that they are able to get these things, and fast! A helicopter is rumoured to have stopped there with some supplies.

If you are an animal-lover who is looking to send financial assistance to help Japanese animals in need, please visit the Conscious Cat website for more details. And of course, please donate to the Red Cross to help all of the people who are in need!

Blog Followers Swap on Swap-Bot

2011-03-08T22:08:00.000-08:00

Swap Bot is so much fun, especially if you're addicted to snail mail like I am. I've posted about Swap Bot in the past - essentially, you sign up to swaps that you are interested in, you get randomly assigned partners from all over the world, and you send them some surprises in the mail or electronically depending on the swap topic. Here is a direct link to my Swap Bot profile if you'd like to check it out, or add me as a friend on there! I describe all of the things that I enjoy within my profile, as well as keep track of previous swaps/ratings/groups/etc. I must warn you...if you do join, it is rather addictive!

The newest swap I have joined is a Blog Follower Swap. You are assigned 20 partners, and you check out their blogs, post a comment, and follow it if you'd like to keep reading it in the future. In turn, 20 people visit your blog, you get some hits and comments to your page, and hopefully people like what they read and come back for more!

I'd like to take a moment to post a list of my twenty Blog Follower Swap partners, so if something strikes your fancy, you might like to take a moment to check out a new blog for yourself!

Provadia's blog, Folksy Love - a blog about Blythe and photographs of Blythe dolls. Beautiful photography, especially if you love all things Blythe! Be sure to stop by the Etsy Shop as well!

Phoerauf's blog, Screaming Mimi - a wonderful blog written by a mother of two - be sure to check out her photography picture-a-day project!

Madaboutpink's blog, Mad About Pink - Great crafty tutorials and inspirational home decor - I will be checking out this blog since I'm always looking for new decorating ideas!

Starrgazer's blog, Starrgazer Creates - Ooh, I love a good crafting blog! I adore the mini-scrapbook that starrgazer has created, as well as some other fantastic projects!

Ichigoshortcake's blog, Ichigo Shortcake - an adorable kawaii blog! Super cute, even the cursor is a small cake :)

Scamp's blog, A Drawing a Day - What a concept...what discipline! A drawing a day. A true online sketch book for all of us to see!

AsAlwaysAngela's blog, As Always Angela - Check out the beautiful handmade cards that she makes! You can visit her Etsy shop from here, or become inspired to create your own handmade greeting cards!

Tanchyka's blog, Tanja's Cupcakes - All of the baked goods on this blog are sure to make you drool! I am hungry just looking at them! What's great is that the recipes are all posted, so you can make these tasty treats yourself!

Unvlmom's blog, Unionvale Mom's Spot - Crafting and cooking and more - sound familiar? Those are things I love to do, too! Check out the cute FBs and art journal pages she has created!

Hxckendra's blog, Moon Shadow - Inspirational quotes, videos, and insightful articles!

Tamtamlee's blog, Havfaith - Check out the 50 days challenge that she's doing - 50 lists! As well as other things in her daily life!

Blackbird4's blog, Patricia's Fabric Art - Check out her gorgeous art and sewing projects!

Yarnovers' blog, Encourage One Another - I can't resist a blog with projects made from yarn! I'm in love with the super cute cupcake, complete with pattern!

Doreen247's blog, Sew Artfully Minded - you have to see these beautiful quilts that she has made! Wow!

TheArtistChick's blog, A Papered-Art Life - A brand new blog! Hope she will post some of her paper art and collages here soon, I'd love to see them!

PinkStitches' blog, Pink Stitches - I am a sucker for the colour, pink! A crafty blog by a Mom!

Chinnu's blog, Chinnu's Crafts - Some awesome ATCs and crafts - I love craft blogs so I'll be checking back in the future for sure!

Memtree's blog, Consciousness Collection - Crafts....kawaii...need I say more? Those are some of my favorite things!

Justingrid's blog, IsaTe's Designs - A wonderful crafty blog! Check out the adorable needlefelted rings!

Amy528's blog, A Random Hodgepodge of Bookishness - Love the name! A blog by a librarian! As someone who loves reading and has an English degree, I'm definitely following this one!

Well, if you're looking for new blogs to follow....that should keep you busy! :) It has been great "meeting" all of the new bloggers and SB users - hope to keep in touch with you guys!

Our Vacation to Niagara Falls and Great Wolf Lodge

2011-03-05T17:25:00.000-08:00

A highlight of photos from our recent mini-vacation for two days to Niagara Falls, ON and Great Wolf Lodge. We visited Great Wolf Lodge overnight for a day, then went to the Bird Kingdom Aviary and Niagara Falls.

To read in detail and view our many photos, be sure to visit my travel blog, The Adventures of Poolie and Loolie! I also have tons of photos posted over at my Picasa Web Album if you'd like to check those out! Please follow my travel blog - I update it every time we go on vacation!

Mario 1UP Mushroom Cake for Valentine's Day

2011-02-21T06:24:00.000-08:00

Check out this cake that I made my fiance, Paul for Valentine's Day! It is a 1UP mushroom from the Super Mario games. We're both huge Nintendo and video game geeks, and we both have been mourning the loss of the Ace of Cakes TV show on Food Network, so it seemed appropriate to try to make an Ace of Cakes-esque cake!

It was my first time using fondant ever, and now I can truly understand how difficult it is to decorate a cake! Sometimes they make it look so easy on TV!

The cake inside is a red velvet double-layer cake with vanilla frosting, topped with buttercream fondant and then decorated with the colored fondant "pixels". I cut each square out of the fondant to represent the pixels in the mushroom.

I even found Chef Duff / Charm City Cakes brand fondant to decorate the cake, making it a true Ace of Cakes cake!

The Red Velvet Cake recipe is as follows:

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 ounces red food coloring (I didn't add the food coloring - didn't care if this cake was truly red or not!)
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup oil
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon white vinegar

Directions:

Grease two 9 inch round pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Make a paste of cocoa and food coloring. Set aside.
Combine the buttermilk, salt and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the oil and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the cocoa mixture. Beat in the buttermilk mixture alternately with the flour, mixing just until incorporated. Stir together baking soda and vinegar, then gently fold into the cake batter.
Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before frosting. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

For the frosting, I took this recipe from Martha Stewart's website and doubled it.

After the cakes have cooled, be sure to apply the frosting between the layers. Then, you can cut it into a mushroom shape - I baked this cake with two 8" circular cake pans, and after they were placed one on top of the other with icing in between, I trimmed down the bottom left and right sides with a knife. Then, frost all over the top and sides of the rest of the cake. Roll out your white fondant in one big piece, and carefully apply it over the cake. Then, roll out the black and green fondant (I bought green and black fondant colors separately) and cut into tiny squares. Place them in the appropriate spots on the cake and taa-daa - you've got a Mario 1UP Mushroom Cake!

Paul totally loved his super special surprise Valentine's Day cake - what says "I love you" more than a Nintendo cake!? :)

Snow Day...not!

2011-02-02T06:06:00.000-08:00

For those of you living in many parts of the US and here in southern Ontario, you will have experienced the huge snow storm that arrived last night and this morning. Almost all of the schools/universities here are closed...but for me, it was off to work like any other day, as jobs in the television industry never take a snow day. On days like today, I'm sure that even more people will be at home watching TV...so we all have to be here to make sure the shows go to air!

I remember being a kid and listening anxiously to the radio for my school to be listed amongst those that were cancelled...loved hearing those magical words that school was closed for the day! I feel like such an adult now - no more snow days for me!

I wish I could be at home, snuggled up under a warm blanket, spending the day knitting by the fireplace! In knitting news, I am going to be finished knitting up another pair of socks soon - will post the pics when I'm finished!

To my readers, do you have any favorite snow day memories? Are you enjoying a snow day yourself today?

Oh! And I almost forgot (wow, this blog post is all over the place today!) - it is Groundhog Day, and apparently we will be having an early Spring! Hooray! Is it just me, or do you suddenly have the urge to watch the Bill Murray movie, Groundhog Day? :)

Banana Everything Cookies

2011-01-26T08:37:00.000-08:00

We ran out of muffins, so I just had to bake these cookies! I still had a banana left over that had gone very ripe, so I used it to make these Banana Everything Cookies from the book, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. It is from the same authors of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

These cookies turned out amazing! A taste of banana, oatmeal, walnuts and chocolate chips. Chewy, soft with a slight crunch and this recipe made a whole lot of cookies - 36 small cookies for me, although the recipe says it makes 24 (depends on how big you make them I guess!)

Definitely pick up this book if you love cookies and you're vegan, lactose-intolerant, or want to cut back on the dairy/animal products! It is filled with TONS of delicious cookie recipes!

1 very ripe banana
1/3 cup canola oil
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups quick cooking (not instant) oatmeal or rolled oats
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease two baking sheets.

2. In a mixing bowl, mash the banana with a fork. Add the oil, sugar, and vanilla and mix with a fork. Add the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and mix until the dry ingredients are just moistened. Add the oatmeal/oats, walnuts, and chocolate chips and mix well. If the dough is too slippery, add a few extra tablespoons of flour.
3. Clean your hands and roll the dough into balls slightly smaller than a golf ball. Flatten it a bit in your hands and place each ball about 2" apart on the cookie sheet.

Cookies on the baking sheet, ready to go in the oven!

4. Bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned. Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack.

Cookies, fresh from the oven!

Ice Skating

2011-01-25T10:13:00.000-08:00

On the weekend, I went ice skating with a group of friends for the first time in 18 years! That's me pictured above on the right, and my best friend, Sarah on the left. I bought a cheap pair of ice skates a couple of days prior, along with some hot pink skate guards (how girly of me!). We went ice skating in my hometown of Dundas, Ontario at the Market Street Arena - the very same arena that I went skating at as a kid. I have been friends with many of the people that I went skating with since the beginning of high school, and some of them have been my friends since elementary school! So, this was the very same rink that we used to go skating at during school, which means that we skated together about twenty years ago as well. Pretty cool.

I was a bit wobbly at the start, but got the hang of skating within a short while. I just love the fresh, crisp air at a skating rink, even an indoor one! It was lots of fun returning to my hometown to see great friends, and spend an afternoon at a family skating event that I went to as a child.

Here's to celebrating winter with some skating!

On an unrelated topic, going back to my bird feeder post....while we haven't seen any birds at our feeder yet, but I did sprinkle some bird seed on the ground to try to attract them. It did end up attracting one very happy bunny! He was in our backyard last night, happily munching away on the seed. I didn't realize that rabbits ate bird seed. Maybe he was just really hungry. Well, there was one happy bunny sitting in the snow and sticking his face down into the snow to eat the bird seed! He was so cute to watch, and I'm glad that at least someone is enjoying it!

Our Bird Feeder

2011-01-20T14:24:00.000-08:00

After we moved to our new house, I decided that we should set up a bird feeder in our back yard to feed the birds during the cold winter months. I bought this great wooden bird feeder with a place for bird seed, and two suet feeders so the birds can get extra high-energy food during the winter season.

As you can see, some snow has gathered on top of the feeder (I brushed some of it off) and the feeder has been out there for at least two weeks...and no one has visited it! Does anyone know how to attract birds to a new feeder? I know that there might not be as many birds here in the winter, but a lot of them do stay here and probably just aren't familiar to visiting our neighborhood for food since the previous owners of the home didn't have any bird feeders outside.

I sprinkled some bird seed on the ground in the hopes that they might see it while flying overhead. Hopefully it doesn't get covered up with snow if it ends up snowing tonight.

You can also see our super cute shed in the background - loving our backyard and can't wait to sit out there in the summer!

Banana Wheat Germ Muffins

2011-01-18T16:23:00.000-08:00

We recently moved back in December to our very first house and today was the day I got to use our oven for the very first time! We've used the stove-top burners plenty of times for dinner, but hadn't used the inside of the oven just yet. I haven't had the chance to bake in ages and had the day off from work today...and I had some bananas that were starting to go...perfect opportunity for some banana muffins!

I dug out my cookbooks (that are still packed away in boxes from the move) and searched for a banana recipe that was suitable to use up the bananas. Sure enough, my Veganomicon cookbook had a perfect recipe - Banana Wheat Germ Muffins. Wholesome, dairy-free, can't beat 'em! By the way, if you haven't picked up this cookbook yet, I highly recommend it - even for those of you who aren't vegan or vegetarian, there are tons of healthy and delicious recipes inside.

These muffins baked just perfectly - they have a slight crunch to them from the wheat germ, and they are soft and fluffy from the bananas. Baked with whole wheat flour and wheat germ, you won't feel guilty snacking on these. The recipe makes 12 muffins.

1 cup plain soy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 very ripe bananas
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour or all-purpose flour
3/4 cup wheat germ
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 375F. Add muffin liners to a muffin tin.
Pour soy milk into a measuring cup and add the vinegar to it. Set it aside to curdle.
Meanwhile, mash the bananas in a large mixing bowl. Add the soy milk mixture to the bowl along with the oil, sugar, and vanilla. Mix well.
In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, wheat germ, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. Add this to the banana mixture and use a wooden spoon to gently stir the ingredients, until all the dry ingredients are just moistened.
Fill the muffin cups three-quarters full and bake for 22 minutes. Remove from the oven and, once cool enough to handle, transfer to a cooling rack to cool the rest of the way.

I recommend serving them warm - they are just delicious!

Cast On! More Handmade Knitted Socks

2011-01-15T20:01:00.000-08:00

Casting on...a new knitting project! I have lots of sock yarn so it is time to start a new pair of socks, as I slowly knit my way through the Favorite Socks by Interweave book. If you are looking for socks to knit, I highly recommend this book. There are 25 different sock patterns and all of them are wonderful! I knitted the Uptown Boot Socks in the past from this book and they turned out great! I'd love to knit a pair of every sock in this book....handmade knitted socks are so cozy!

This newest pattern is called Go With the Flow and I'm knitting them up in a self-striping yarn (Patons Kroy) in shades of blue.

Can't wait to post the finished product!

A Weekend Indoors

2011-01-10T10:23:00.000-08:00

I don't usually get the entire weekend off work, but I did this past weekend. Unfortunately, on Thursday night, I had the symptoms of a cold which emerged fully by Friday. So, I was sick and laying in bed and on the couch for the entire weekend. I don't get sick very often, and my cold seems milder than other people around me who have caught it - including Paul, who was sick with a fever for a number of days. Some of my co-workers had a stomach flu...I seemed to just feel very weak with muscle soreness and a really bad cough.

I didn't seem to have the energy to do anything at all. I totally hate that feeling because I am the type of person who always has to be doing something. I can't even watch TV without a knitting project in my hands at the same time.

When I did have a small amount of energy, I worked away on my Sakura Cross Stitch. This is a huge cross stitch project that I hope to have finished someday to get framed and hang on the wall of our new home. The cherry blossoms are almost finished, and it is coming along quite nicely.

If only I was feeling better, this would have seemed like an amazing weekend -one where I could just sit and craft all weekend long! Today, while I am still getting over this cold, I feel much, much better.

On an unrelated note, I finally watched the movie Coraline and got to witness all of the tiny knitting that I blogged about a while ago - how amazing is that! A great movie as well, you should definitely check it out.

FO: Punch Needle Owl

2011-01-08T11:00:00.000-08:00

One day, I was at the Michaels just to browse around the store (as if I couldn't be tempted into buying something!) and came across a small selection of Punch Needle craft kits. I had heard of punch needle through a couple of blogs or crafty podcasts in the past, so I decided to pick up a kit and give it a shot.

From the Michaels website:

Also known as Russian embroidery or Japanes bunka, punch needle has been around since the turn of the 20th century. Designs are stitched by punching thread through a piece of woven fabric to create a surface of thread loops on the front of the fabric, similar to the appearance of carpet pile. Each loop is created with a simple push/pull motion using a hollow needle to create a raised ornamental design.

I found a kit at the store (made by Dimensions) that included the thread, fabric, and the hoop. I had to buy the punch needle itself separately for a few extra dollars. There were a few different designs available, but I thought the owl was the cutest one there. I'm sure by searching around online, you will be able to find a wide variety of patterns and kits to order.

Punch needle is extremely easy to learn and the projects are very quick to make. All you have to do is thread your punch needle and punch the needle through the fabric. By punching the needle through the fabric, you are making a loop and all of the various loops together create a raised texture, similar to a carpet.

You can easily finish a punch needle project within an afternoon, or even a couple of hours. As someone new to punch needle embroidery, it was very easy to learn the technique and the craft itself was very relaxing. For anyone who has ever thought embroidery or cross-stitching was too complicated or complex, you should definitely pick up a punch needle kit! Within a small amount of time, you will have a fun finished project to hang up on the wall!

Christmas Postcards from the Holidays

2011-01-05T14:14:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of postcards that I received from Germany and England, from two of my pen-friends. Thank you so much! These are my first Christmas-themed postcards and they will be a great addition to my collection. Also, a really big thank-you to everyone who mailed Christmas cards to us - they are lined up on top of our fireplace, and it is wonderful to have so many Christmas greeting cards on display in our new house!

I have my entire collection of postcards now scanned and available for you to see at my Picasa Web Album, so check it out if you'd like! My little collection of postcards is slowly building! I love receiving mail, but I also love learning about the world and seeing places in postcard-form that I hope to someday visit.

I have also scanned all of the cards that I currently have up to trade. If any of the cards interest you, let me know and we can trade! I'm currently collecting map cards and flag cards from all countries/US states, so if you have one that you'd like to trade, please just post below and hopefully we can set up a trade. I'm also collecting any UNESCO cards, anything that shows historical buildings, history of any kind, beautiful landscapes, festivals, culture, scenery - anything like that!

If you collect postcards, how do you display them? Right now, I have them all in a shoebox with little cardboard folders separating them by country/theme. I'm thinking of moving everything to binders so I can properly display the postcards (front and back) showing through a clear plastic sheet of some sort. I'm not sure how to attach them inside the plastic sheet without using tape and wrecking the cards. I'd also love to get them out of the shoeboxes as I don't want them to get damaged/folded edges/the sunlight to damage them in any way.

If you have any suggestions on how to display my postcard collection, please let me know! I'd love to hear about it!

And if you'd like to set up a trade, please post in the comments below, or feel free to send me an email - helloloolie at gmail dot com.

Who Needs Starbucks Part 2: New and Improved!

2011-01-04T09:52:00.000-08:00

Last September, I blogged about how to make a Starbucks latte in the comfort of your own home. That way worked really well...until I was talking to a coworker and realized how easy it is to make your own espresso at home, rather than using strongly brewed coffee! I decided to look into picking up a few items and it really wasn't that expensive to purchase the equipment necessary to create my own lattes at home!

First, you need to buy a stove-top espresso maker. I was told that the best one to buy is the Bialetti Espresso Maker:

So I bought this little guy - a 3 cup Italian Bialetti Espresso maker. It makes more than enough espresso to make a latte...probably two, depending on how strong you make them. I found mine for $29.99 at Home Outfitters, although you can find them at almost any kitchen or home store in person or online.

The next thing you need is a milk frother:

This is just a cheap one that I found at Kitchen Stuff Plus for $5.99. There are nicer ones out there that are fully stainless steel, which I may pick up if this one ever breaks. So far...so good!

Then, you just need your espresso coffee grounds or beans (just a couple of dollars at the grocery store):

You also need your milk of choice (mine is soy milk) and your coffee syrups. You can use a bit of vanilla, drink it plain with a bit of cinnamon on top, some cocoa powder, or you can buy the coffee syrups like they have at Starbucks.

I found these Torani syrups at a store locally in Mississauga called Espresso Planet. They have an online store that ships all over North America, and their retail store is awesome. They have two full racks of different coffee syrups in every flavor imaginable! I picked up a bottle of English Toffee and Chocolate Mint, along with the pumps to put in the top to complete the coffee barista experience!

All you have to do is fill the base of the espresso maker with water (up to the line, or just below the valve), fill the filter on top with espresso grounds, and put it on the stove. Make sure you tighten up the espresso maker very well or else you may have a bit of spillage. Set your stove-top burner to medium-low and wait for the espresso to be made. In the meantime, you can heat up your milk in the microwave right inside the frother glass for a couple of minutes. When your espresso is finished, put a couple of shot glasses full of espresso into your mug, along with a pump or two of your favorite coffee syrup. Froth up your milk and add the milk on top of the coffee, topping it off with some frothy milk.

Taa-daa! You're done! And just as easy as that, you have no need to run out to your local Starbucks and pay $5 per beverage....you can make it all in the comfort of your own home!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T20:57:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! I hope that 2011 is a great year for everyone. With the New Year comes the New Year's Resolutions...which I never really make, as I feel as though we should be continually living our lives as we feel is right, and if you aren't happy with something, anytime is good to make a change. However, with the spirit of the New Year and new beginnings, I have a few things that I would like to get back into doing for 2011.

1. Music

I have played the piano since age 4 and used to be in a post-rock band a few years back playing both guitar and keyboards. While I no longer really have the time in my life between work and other interests to play tons of live concerts/go on tour/be in a band, I really need to get back into playing the piano and maybe even recording a few songs. I used to record my own music all the time and this hobby seemed to fall by the wayside. Music and playing the piano used to be among the key things that defined who I was, and it would be truly unfortunate if I were to ever lose those abilities.

2. Japanese

I took a full semester of Japanese language courses last year in night school. When the classes were finished, I continued to learn on my own from a wonderful website called Japanese Pod 101. When Paul and I bought the house together, nearly ever spare moment in my life was spent either going to work or going to paint the house...now that we have moved in and only have a bit of painting/organizing/unpacking to do, I'd love to get back into learning how to speak, read, and write Japanese. It is a dream to travel there and it would be fun to have some basic language skills to get around.

3. Exercise

This isn't a terribly difficult "resolution" for me, as I have worked out at a gym for many years and I love to do yoga, swim, go for long walks and a bit of running. I joined a new gym near the new house and look forward to going on a regular basis. I'm thinking of setting a goal for myself of training to run a 5k...I started the Couch to 5K Running Plan back in September, but got side-tracked when we were moving and I didn't have a gym membership when moving between homes. Now that I have my gym membership again, I'm ready to get back on track!

Those are the main hobbies that I'd like to get back into this year, in amongst all of the other things that I enjoy - knitting, scrapbooking, learning how to sew/do embroidery, cross stitch, collect postcards and Re-Ment sets, read, write my penpals, play video games...hmmm, what else! I'd also love to plan a vacation at some point this year if the finances are in check and we are able to do so! I'd also just love to spend some quality time with my fiancé, Paul, as our work schedules seem to continually conflict and we don't get as much time together as I'd like!

Plenty to look forward to in 2011!

I'm Still Here! And...Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays!

2010-12-22T18:44:00.000-08:00

Hello! Wow...it has been a very long time since I have updated this blog. I really wanted to update it, but it became impossible to find the time. My last blog post was September 15th, 2010....well, on September 17th, Paul and I took possession of our very first home! YAY! We have spent the last few months living at his Dad's house while commuting to the house almost on a daily basis to work on it, paint the walls, all of that fun stuff. It was definitely the biggest DIY project I've ever undertaken, that is for sure. We decided to paint the walls of every room - and with a two-story house that has a finished basement, it has taken us a really long time.

We wanted to move in before the holiday season, and finally got to permanently move to the new place on December 12th! We haven't finished painting the basement yet, but we did finish the other two floors of the house and everything is starting to look just as we like it! Of course, there are still piles of boxes everywhere, all of my craft supplies are in boxes, much of our Ikea furniture still needs to be built, and things are in general disarray. And of course, the basement project still needs to be fully tackled. At least our wishes to live in our new place before Christmas have been granted, and we are feeling rather cozy and comfortable here!

Once we have the entire house finished and everything unpacked, I'll take some photos around the house to post some "before" and "after" shots for this blog. I can't wait to decorate the house, which I'm sure will be an ongoing project! I already plan to make some curtains for the bathroom windows using this fabric (pink birds with wood and bird houses design) and this fabric (way more vibrant pink than the picture, with birds) from Ikea!

You might wonder why I posted a picture of palm trees...well, two years ago around this time of the year, we were on a cruise and that was one of our first views from our overnight stay in San Juan, Puerto Rico before the cruise started! Ah....how I wish that I could be there again! Instead, we are surviving a very chilly start to winter with some snow up here in Canada. I am happy to be able to curl up in front of the fireplace at our new house with a warm beverage and some knitting, reading, or writing letters!

Happy to be finally getting settled in a new neighborhood and city, grateful to be cooking our own food again, and eager to create some wonderful memories for this newest chapter of life!

Hope everyone is doing great (if anyone still even reads this blog anymore after my four month hiatus!) and wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!

Miso Soup - Surprisingly Easy to Make!

2010-09-15T11:20:00.000-07:00

I always order a small bowl of miso soup when I'm eating at a sushi or Japanese restaurant. It is extremely healthy, really yummy, and surprisingly easy to make! I'm sure that there are more complex ways of making miso soup, but here is my really easy recipe!

MISO SOUP:

- 2 cups of water
- 2 tbsp of miso paste
- a couple of green onions, diced
- 1 tbsp Wakame (sea vegetable, available in the Japanese section of the grocery store)

You simply boil the water in a small pot on the stove, and once it comes to a boil, gently stir in the miso paste until it dissolves. Add the onions and wakame, let it simmer for a couple of minutes, and serve!

This is a great amount for one person - if you're making enough soup for 2 people, I suggest doubling the recipe.

I hope you enjoy a nice warm bowl of miso soup, just like I did for lunch today! Mmmm!

My Love-Hate Relationship with Running

2010-09-14T14:39:00.000-07:00

Oh, running. For the first...hmm, let's see, 27 years of my life, if I were asked about going for a jog or a run, my reply would be, "I hate running." I try to attend the gym on a daily basis (or at least three times a week if I'm really busy), and if I'm not at the gym, I'm going for a long walk outside.

At Year 28 of my life, something changed. I started to run.

I've never considered myself to be overweight by any means, but I definitely put on those extra pounds when I went to university and college. The "Freshman 15" that you always hear about just slowly crept up on me. Even though I've been attending a gym since the beginning of university, those years of just grabbing food on-the-go and making less than healthy choices when consuming way too many baked goods were catching up with me. One day after college had ended, I looked in the mirror and decided that I needed to make some changes, or else I could just keep gaining weight and put myself in an unhealthy position.

I have always embraced a fairly healthy lifestyle being raised as a vegetarian and I knew where my weaknesses were...sugary treats and chocolate! I cut back on those and started working out more regularly. But still....I did just about everything I could at the gym but run, because I had it stuck in my mind: "I hate running."

Within these past few years, after seeing some great results, I have continued my cardio activity, lifting weights to tone my muscles, and have been going to yoga classes...and in between all of the other exercises that I like to do...I gave running a chance. And...I actually don't mind it too much! Some days, I actually enjoy running! Who would have known? Not me!

A co-worker told me about the "Couch-to-5K Running Plan" that helps you basically get better at running. I could use all the help that I could get. It essentially helps you right from the beginnings as a non-runner to be able to eventually run a 5K. I totally recommend this plan if you're thinking of getting into running and you don't know where to start. I was pretty faithful to the program for the first few weeks but I'm a bit stuck at Week 3 of the plan...but that's okay. You're allowed to stay at certain weeks until you feel like you are ready to push yourself to move forward.

Has anyone else tried this plan for running before, and how are you finding it? The great thing about running is you need very little equipment (just a great pair of running shoes!) and you can run outdoors to explore new areas of town and enjoy the fresh air! I've been doing most of my running on treadmills as this summer was way too hot outside to run, but it will be nice to go for a run outdoors as the Fall weather approaches.

I no longer hate running; in fact, I am almost at the point where I can consider myself a runner. I haven't officially completed any 5K runs, but maybe that is a goal that I can set for myself in the future. Until then, I'm just enjoying the exercise and one less thing to be negative about!

Happy 25th Birthday, Mario!

2010-09-13T12:06:00.000-07:00

On September 13, 1985, the original Super Mario Bros. game was released in Japan, making Mario 25 years old today. Happy Birthday, Mario! As a celebration of Mario's birthday, I'd like to share my own personal stories of playing Super Mario Bros back when I was a kid, and how I still love the games to this day.

I can remember the day when I first played Super Mario Bros. 1 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. We were on a family vacation in Florida when I was 6 years old, and while I loved playing computer games, pinball, arcade games, you name it...I had only learned of the now legendary NES from some friends at school a short while before. My parents decided that they would purchase a Nintendo for my sister and I on our trip to Florida because it was a bit less expensive to buy in the USA at the time.

Not only was this our very first longer (2-3 week) vacation from home filled with Disney World and Mickey Mouse, but it would be a memorable experience having our very own video game system to play right on our own TV. I can remember hooking the system up to the TV at the home that we rented in Florida (which happened to be at a retirement/golf community in Winterhaven, FL) and I remember playing as Mario for the very first time. We played Mario (and Duck Hunt) non-stop while we were there, of course, in between going to Disney and spending time out by the pool in the warm Florida sunshine. I can even remember being so into Nintendo at the time that our parents bought us Nintendo cereal, which you couldn't get in Canada!

I remember my Dad playing the game with us non-stop as well. One happy memory that I have with my Dad specifically from that vacation is waking up really early one morning in Florida to find him playing through World 5, which was way farther than I had played the day before. My Dad always loved to play Nintendo games with my sister and I while we were growing up, right from the early days of Super Mario 1 through playing endless games of Mario Kart on the SNES. My Dad passed away from cancer a little over 5 years ago now, and playing video games was just one of the many happy memories that we shared together.

Thinking back to those days, Mario has really evolved in terms of the graphics, his voice (It's a Meeee, Mario!), and the fact that he is now bouncing from planet to planet and not just leaping from platform to platform. What I truly love about the whole Mario franchise is that at its core, the new games are just as fun as those from back in the 1980s. I can still hook up my NES and play through Super Mario Bros. 1, 2, or 3 and have just as much fun as playing Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario World for the SNES, or any other of the numerous Mario games that are out there.

Just as gamers like myself have such mad nostalgia for those magical times playing as Mario for the first time, I hope that more innovative Mario games in the future will continue to captivate gamers everywhere. I also hope that future generations won't just look back at those original games for the NES as their parents' generation of archaic games, but will perhaps pick up a Nintendo controller and play the games as well (or at least download the games to their Wii).

So, Happy Birthday Mario, and here's to another 25 years of gaming fun!

A New Blog to Follow!

2010-09-11T20:37:00.000-07:00

My sister now has a blog to match her shop! Chances are if you enjoy reading my blog, you'll enjoy reading hers as well. We share very similar interests in crafting, cooking vegetarian meals, video games, and lots more! She will be posting about various crafts that she has made for herself, as well as her Etsy Shop, Kittens' Mittens.

So, if you're looking for a great new blog to start reading, be sure to go over to the Kittens' Mittens Blog and "Follow" it, or add it to your blog list! If you're a fellow blogger, I'm sure she'd even love to trade links and find out about new blogs to read, as she is fairly new to blogging and everything.

Also, be sure to congratulate her on her first two Etsy sales, within days of opening her shop! Hooray! Pictured above are her adorable cat mittens...rather fitting for a shop called Kittens' Mittens (and a total steal for just $18!)

Kittens' Mittens - My Sister's Brand New Etsy Shop!

2010-09-08T21:29:00.000-07:00

The picture above shows the adorable Snowman Mittens posted for sale in my sister's brand new Etsy Shop called Kittens' Mittens! Yep, my sister, Robyn has caught the Etsy bug and has been knitting up a storm in preparation for the grand opening of her first Etsy adventure! She is such a talented knitter and has been knitting for years so it is fantastic that she is putting her talents into her own online shop! Since I had an Etsy Shop for a good while there, I helped her set everything up this afternoon.

(Yes, that's me modeling this awesome beige cable knit purse, in my neon Mario t-shirt!) We ventured out to this forest near her house to take some pictures! There was a chance of rain today, but the weather stayed bright and sunny (or at least, overcast at times!) during our little photo shoot. Most of the pictures taken for the shop so far had me using the camera and Robyn modeling her own handmade wares.

While Kittens' Mittens does have mittens for sale, there will be a huge assortment of other knit wear, including fingerless gloves! You can keep your wrists and hands super warm as the Fall weather approaches with these gorgeous red-pink fingerless gloves. They're a steal at just $12.00 for the pair!

Or maybe purple is more your style? These wrist warmers are Vegan, 100% Cotton, and will keep your hands warm while allowing you to still type at your computer! Yay! :)

Robyn will be adding plenty more items to Kittens' Mittens over the next little while, so please feel free to stop by her Etsy Shop and give her some hearts, show her some love!

FO: Crochet Kitchen Mat and Dish Cloths

2010-09-06T12:14:00.000-07:00

I made this kitchen mat to match the kitchen of our new house - it will work perfectly! The kitchen cupboards are a beautiful dark turquoise (painted wood) so I wanted to make a mat that would take those colors into consideration. I combined both cream and turquoise yarns since the pattern called for two strands to be worked together. The yarn is 100% cotton "Lily Sugar 'n Cream" and I found the pattern in the little booklet "Lily Sugar 'n Cream Kitchen Essentials". The pattern is simply called "Crochet Rug." I purchased the yarn at the Mary Maxim store in Paris, Ontario. I will miss going to this store when we move away - hopefully I can find some good yarn stores in Mississauga!

You can see in this close-up of the rug that there are little bobbles all over the rug! I love the texture, and it also ensures that you won't slip on it...which is great for me, because I'm pretty clumsy at times!

Since I had some yarn left over, I made some matching dish cloths! Yay! These were the first dish cloths that I've ever made, as I am a beginner at crocheting. The pattern was also used from the same book - "Dishcloth B".

I'm working on some mats for the bathrooms now...it is exciting to be able to create things for our very first home! The moving date is approaching very quickly - we get the keys in less than 2 weeks now! So exciting!

New Trailer for Kirby's Epic Yarn for the Wii!

2010-09-03T06:11:00.000-07:00

A few months back, I posted about the cutest new game for the Nintendo Wii that is coming out, Kirby's Epic Yarn. The game itself looks super fun with a heaping dose of sweetness! It combines an adorable pink puffball with an environment of yarn and textiles...what more could a crafty geeky girl want?!

Here is the newest trailer for the game so feel free to take a look....can't wait until the game actually comes out on October 17th, 2010 (it comes out in Japan first, on October 14th).

Dundas Farmer's Market

2010-09-02T16:26:00.000-07:00

(image from The Hamilton Eat Local Blog - hopefully you don't mind that I used it!)

I visited the Dundas Farmer's Market today in Dundas, Ontario today - I hadn't been since last year, and this year was just as good as the last! I picked up some interesting yellow zucchini and grapes from Plan B Organic Farms, some super fresh blackberries and strawberries from a fruit stand, and some of the fantastic vegan tamales from a Chilean food stand.

There are plenty of organic fruit and veggie vendors that sell foods straight from their farms, as well as stands with fresh baked goods and homemade jams. The market runs every Thursday from 3pm-7pm until October 28th, 2010. It is in a parking lot at the corner of Miller's Lane and Hatt Street. The fresh produce changes as the seasons change, so you may find new things there from week to week! I hope to go back next week to get some more fresh veg!

Wow - more than 50,000 hits!

2010-09-02T07:28:00.000-07:00

Hi all! I just wanted to thank everyone who visits and reads my blog because I just noticed that I have reached over 50,000 hits since I first started writing! Thank you so much! I apologize that I haven't been around much these days to write blogs - I just have a lot of other stuff on the go - planning to move into your own house is a lot of work! Hopefully I will be posting soon about some of the crafty things I have already made for the house, like some kitchen and bath mats! Anyway, hope everyone has a fantastic day and thanks for stopping by!

Five Fruit Blend Smoothie

2010-08-22T22:57:00.000-07:00

I stumbled upon this bag of frozen fruit at the grocery store today...well, not literally stumbled upon, but it caught my eye! I went into the grocery store just to buy whole wheat wraps and of course, came out with an armful of items. Anyway...I bought this at the Zehrs grocery store it is called President's Choice 5-fruit blend. It contains frozen strawberries, peaches, pineapple, grapes, and honeydew melon. I made amazing smoothies with it using the recipe on the back of the bag!

You blend one cup of the 5-fruit blend with 1 cup of vanilla soymilk (I used almond milk since that was what I had in the fridge), 1/2 cup orange juice, 1/2 banana (I think I ended up throwing in the whole banana), and 1/2 cup ice. It tasted a bit more tropical than your typical fruit smoothie and it sure was delicious! Lucky for me, there is still half a bag of fruit in the freezer, so I can make another one tomorrow!

Shopping for Housewares...Preparing for the Big Move!

2010-08-21T18:52:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if I really announced this yet or not on my blog (since I've been so lazy about posting lately!) but...we bought a house! It is our dream house and we will be moving in towards the end of September / beginning-middle of October. Thankfully, we are pretty flexible with our move date - even though we take possession of the house in the middle of September, we will have plenty of time to clean, perhaps do some painting, etc. before we move in!

I've been busy making lists of what we have, what we need to buy, what we need to do before moving...it is quite the big task! While we have a few things already, we need to buy many of the basics when it comes to kitchen stuff and housewares. I've managed to find some great deals so far that I'd like to share with you! These will be particularly of interest if you live in Canada, specifically the southern Ontario region.

Those lovely towels posted above are Cambridge Towels (made in Canada!) and the company is having a giant factory tent sale! It started on Thursday and unfortunately, ends tomorrow (Sunday August 22nd). Save up to 80% off towels! Let me tell you, I found some fantastic deals here - managed to get bath towels for $4.49 each, hand towels for $2.49 and small face/bath towels for $0.88! I purchased all of the towels for all of our bathrooms here in the colors that I was looking for (dark gray and a great shade of blue). The tent sale is located in Cambridge, Ontario, and you can find all of the information listed at this website.

The next great deal we found was at the Corningware Corelle Revere outlet store in St. Jacob's, Ontario. We found this fantastic Pyrex 18-piece set, including baking dishes, mixing bowls, a pie dish, storage containers, and a measuring cup. I have seen this set retail at The Bay for $89.99 - we found it at the outlet store for $59.99. But wait...we took the item up to the cash register, and it ended up being rung in at $40.00 - there was an additional percentage off the price! So, we got this set for more than 50% off. The whole store is full of great deals, so be sure to check it out. While you're there, be sure to visit the amazing Farmer's Market as well (open all year 'round!)!

Next - I'm not sure about you, but I love collecting Air Miles. I have been saving these for a really long time, thinking that I could save them up for a flight or a trip. However, I noticed that there are great kitchen gadgets and housewares available as rewards on the Airmiles website, so I took full advantage! I was able to easily order these from the site, and they will be shipped to our house within 4 weeks - shipping is included, of course! Here is what I got:

Kitchenaid^® 5-Speed Architect^® Stand Blender - Cocoa Silver (for 2000 rewards miles)

Cuisinart^® Elite Collection 12-Cup Die-Cast Food Processor (for 1900 reward miles)

J.A. Henckels International Fine Edge Pro II 13-Piece Knife Block Set (for 1400 reward miles)

That's all for now - I'll be posting more great buys as I find them! Now...to tie everything together...

Don't forget to bring a towel! :D

Space Invaders Magnets are Finalists in the Contest!

2010-08-09T06:08:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my blog last month, I entered some of my video game crafty creations into a Nintendo Craft Contest over at Happy Seamstress. The top 10 finalists have been announced, and hurray! My Space Invaders Needlepoint Magnets were chosen to be in the top 10!

You can read all about how I made these magnets last year, and I was honored to have them featured all over the web. It was even chosen as the Needlework Project of the Month for August 2009 at Craftster.org (one of my favorite crafting websites!).

Thanks so much to everyone who voted and I'm keeping fingers crossed that it wins one of the top three grand prizes!

Cupcake Surprise!

2010-08-06T14:59:00.000-07:00

Mmmm....delicious cupcakes! I picked these up as a surprise treat for Paul and I for tomorrow night when we get to spend an evening together (our work schedules seem to really clash sometimes but tomorrow is ours!) Just as long as that little Totoro doesn't eat them first :) Paul and I may have cause to celebrate tomorrow evening, as we put in an offer on a house last week and it was accepted - the home inspection is tomorrow, and if all goes well, we will be homeowners! Fingers (and toes) crossed!

These cupcakes were purchased at my very favorite cupcake bakery aptly named "Cupcakes" in Hamilton, ON (Westdale). The flavors are: Red Velvet, Mint Chocolate, Peanut Butter, and Skor Cupcakes. Heavenly!

New Postcards this Week

2010-08-03T17:08:00.000-07:00

Here are some postcards that I've either purchased in person or received by mail over the past couple of weeks. You can view my entire postcard collection at my Flickr page! I mostly trade through sites like Postcrossing and Swap-Bot, but I am always up for private trades. If you are interested in swapping postcards from your home town, region or country with me, I would love to swap! Just send me an email if you are interested! I'm interested in any card from where you live that shows the scenery or any history, really. I'm also collecting map cards and flag cards that I don't already have. I don't have many at this point, so I'm looking for mostly any flag or map cards from all over the world!

Here is a highlight of a few of the postcards that I received this week. The first one I purchased in person while on my vacation to Niagara-on-the-Lake. It shows Niagara Falls, circa 1905 in the winter, all frozen over. Niagara is quite beautiful in the winter time - most people visit in the summer, but if you ever get a chance to see it in the winter, it is very amazing as well! Of course, it doesn't look just as it does around 1905 as the area is more commercialized and industrialized, but it is still very pretty.

It's too bad that this one got a little bit damaged in the mail - but it shows the All Saints Chapel at The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. It is my first card from Tennessee and very unique! I love seeing old buildings, architecture, and churches in postcards. While I am not religious at all, churches are such beautiful places!

Here's a UNESCO card mailed to me from a Postcrossing member as an official exchange. It shows The Coast of Amalfi in Italy. I'd love to visit someday!

A very unique official Postcrossing card mailed from Russia. I just love wildlife cards as well, and this bird is very unique! What a photograph, all of the baby birds waiting to be fed!

This Estonia flag card is part of a private swap and one of the first flag cards for my collection. I hope to collect many more!

So Many Peppers....So Many Tomatoes!

2010-07-30T17:25:00.000-07:00

Picked some more fresh veggies from our potted vegetable garden! We have a great selection of peppers this year as you can see pictured above - yellow bell peppers, hot banana peppers, and chili peppers. These peppers are HOT! We put a couple into a pasta sauce tonight and I can still feel my lips burning over an hour later! We also used some fresh basil from the garden as well, and some (store-bought) onions.

There are lots of cherry tomatoes - those yellow ones that you see are the heirloom "Snow White" variety of cherry tomato. I didn't find that it tasted terribly different from a regular cherry tomato, but it adds a great variety of color if you mix them together when making something with tomatoes! We took the tomatoes and made a fresh salsa, also using some of the hot peppers. This salsa is spicy hot! We essentially followed this recipe, posted on my blog last summer, but also added a splash of white wine vinegar.

Gotta love the summer and fresh veggies, especially the kind that you grow yourself!

Work In Progress - Sakura Cross Stitch

2010-07-29T15:52:00.000-07:00

It may not look like much right now, but it will eventually be a fairly large cross stitch project that I would love to frame and hang up on the wall! My goal is to finish it by the time that we move into our new house (we are starting to look at homes tomorrow! So exciting!). Here is what it will eventually look like (the picture on the project bag):

Beautiful, isn't it? I just love beautiful Japanese/Asian inspired designs and the cherry blossoms remind me of the time that we visited the Sakura Matsuri in New York City. My only question - do any of my readers speak Chinese? What do the characters say on the pattern? I'd love to stitch them on the design but I'd love to know what they actually mean!

I also purchased these two cross stitch kits from Pinn-stitch.com yesterday! I find these to be quite beautiful as well - the kits are appropriately named Tranquil Valley and Gentle Scenery. I've never ordered from this website before so hopefully it is a positive experience. I got an email this morning saying that they have already been shipped, so that is a great sign!

Now for something completely unrelated....I've noticed since moving to Brantford a few years ago that people here LOVE to ride their bicycles on the sidewalk! Back in Dundas and Hamilton, this wasn't such an issue - people typically would ride their bikes on the side of the road, with exceptions made for extremely busy streets or little kids. I can understand if it is a really busy road or a small child, but people here tend to ride their bikes on the sidewalk even in the quietest of neighborhoods with ample room on the road. As a pedestrian who loves to go on walks, I've almost been hit by bicyclists on several occasions. People love to creep up behind you on a bike without warning you with a bell and almost run you down. I once had a father with two teenage daughters almost run right into me while going quickly around a corner.

So...to end my little rant, please be careful and mindful of pedestrians if you are riding a bike! Technically, a bicycle is a vehicle and should be used only on the road. If you must ride on the sidewalk, please use a bell as a warning and share the sidewalk with people who like to use it for walking!

Swap-Bot Blog Swap!

2010-07-27T21:23:00.000-07:00

Wow...try saying that three times fast! Swap-Bot Blog Swap...Swap-Bot Blog Swap....okay, you get the point. I have mentioned this super awesome website in the past called Swap-Bot where you get to exchange all sorts of fun things via regular snail mail or electronically, whether it be postcards, chocolate, information, crafts, and the list goes on!

I joined this super fun swap there where you basically swap blog addresses and get to read and follow some new blogs written by members! Super fun - I'm always looking for new blogs to read, especially those from fellow swappers and crafters! I'll list all of the blogs below just in case you're looking for something new to read!

Redchuckstress - http://www.redchuckstress.blogspot.com/ - A great crafting blog! Shows some really neat Etsy finds as well as the blogger's own crafty experiences!

Craftland - http://www.pookalakachicka.blogspot.com/ - From the blogger's page: "The misadventures of a crafty girl in the world of indie craftiality"

Missanne.org - http://www.missanne.org - Adventures in craft, photography, and geek chic!

Sex, Drugs and Crafts - http://zilliahbailey.blogspot.com/ - The name says it all! This blogger happens to live only about an hour away from me...the world can be such a small place sometimes!

Delicate Eccentric - http://delicate-eccentric.blogspot.com/ - From the blog: "The beautiful little gems that you didn't realise you couldn't live without until you saw them!"

Lucky XIII Creations - http://luckyxiiicreations.wordpress.com/ - "where imagination runs free"

A Life Designed, by RJ - http://www.designedbyrj.blogspot.com/ - Recipes, crafts, life! All sorts of neat stuff to read here!

Too Cute - http://overlycute.blogspot.com/ - This blog is filled with all sorts of cute crafts!

The funny thing is you're just as useless as me - http://tovesuomi.blogspot.com/ - A blog all about life, swaps, stationary, and all sorts of things that I'm interested in, too!

The girl at the traffic light junction - http://timelessbeauty.wordpress.com/ - I love this blog! All about the blogger's life, filled with inspiration!

There you have it - I hope that you enjoy these blogs just as much as I do!

Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada and Buffalo, NY (Day 2)

2010-07-25T08:26:00.000-07:00

We woke up on Thursday morning and went downstairs for our 9:00a.m. breakfast. Maddie at Copper Lane made us our delicious breakfast and she tries her best to cater to all of the guests' tastes. She specializes in various diets - vegetarian, lactose-free, gluten-free or peanut-free - whatever your allergy or preference may be. For instance, we are both vegetarians, I cannot consume yogurt, one of the guests did not like fruit, and two of the guests did not like onion. Maddie prepared our first course - a delicious baked biscuit and delicious baked pears with cinnamon. For the guest who did not like fruit, she made a yummy looking slaw type salad with zucchini, carrot, and other fresh veggies. She also prepared a main course frittata, with onion for most of us, and without onion for the other two guests. There were three couples in total (one in each room). For dessert, she made these yummy gooey brownies and cranberry oatmeal cookies. What a great cook Maddie is! We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and were so pleased with the trouble that she goes to prepare meals to please all tastes and preferences!

After our breakfast, we went for a walk to the main shops in downtown Niagara-on-the-Lake. We saw these wonderful little Japanese-inspired shop called From Japan. There were so many amazing Japanese gifts, art, tea, dishes and glasses, stationary, paper goods, and more! We absolutely adored everything in this shop! Paul purchased some stationary sets for me, as I love cute stationary sets!

Then, we just had to stop at Victoria Teas and Coffees, since I heard that their coffee is amazing. Now that I'm back home, I've brewed coffee from the coffee beans that I bought, and it is so good! I purchased a Maple Cream coffee and an After Eight coffee. They sell so many varieties of coffee beans and tea, including some unique varieties to the Niagara area, such as Icewine coffee and tea. I haven't tried either of those flavors, but I'm sure they are fantastic!

We decided (the day that we left for our trip) that we would take a little zip across the Canada-USA border for an afternoon in the States! Maddie was nice enough to keep the wines that we purchased, as well as our luggage, at the bed & breakfast so we could travel without taking anything with us, since the border guards may hassle us if they discovered alcohol or a suitcase. We wanted to go to the Wegmans to do a bit of grocery shopping (we LOVE shopping in the USA to find different foods, mostly snacks really!), so we went to one in Buffalo that was near the Cheesecake Factory at the Walden Galleria in Buffalo, NY.

After grocery shopping, we went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch! I went to the Cheesecake Factory for the first time last month while in Ohio with some girlfriends, and I really wanted Paul to experience the Cheesecake Factory first hand!

For lunch, we had the White Pizza and some Fried Mozzarella as an appetizer. The White Pizza, as shown above in the picture, has already been enjoyed a bit by us! It was so good! Paul said it was probably the best pizza he's ever had. It definitely rivals the pizza that we had in New Jersey on our NYC trip - in a totally different way, of course, but it ranks right up there for best pizza ever!

Mmmm...and when we thought lunch was totally amazing....here comes the cheesecake!

Yum yum yum! We decided to split a piece of Red Velvet Cheesecake...good decision, since we could barely finish the one slice of cake! Best cheesecake EVER. It was delicious bits of red velvet cake in between cheesecake and icing, and had white chocolate along the back of it! It was well worth the trip across the border!

We had a fantastic mini-vacation to Niagara-on-the-Lake and a quick trip to the USA! Since we're saving up to buy a house very soon, we haven't been able to travel as much as we would like to - hopefully the next trip we'll be making will be traveling for our wedding (or wherever our travels may end up taking us...!)

Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada - Dinner and Wine (Day 1)

2010-07-24T08:49:00.000-07:00

After touring the wineries, we went to Deluca's Wine Country Restaurant as a part of our wine tour & dinner with Niagara Vintage Wine Tours. Since Paul and I are both vegetarian, we inquired ahead of time about a vegetarian meal. On the menu, there were vegetarian options for us, and we were able to fully enjoy everything as there were meatless options for every course! Also, each course was paired with a wine from a local Niagara winery that fully complimented the food.

We were brought an Amuse-Bouche to begin, which was some sort of apricot-rice mouthful with many other ingredients which I can't remember. It was absolutely delicious - incredibly flavorful and all of the ingredients came together so well! I always see the Amuse-Bouches being prepared on the Food Network and various cooking shows at fine dining restaurants, so it was really fun to be able to try one!

Next, we were brought some freshly baked bread with an olive oil balsamic vinegar dip. Mmmmm... I wish that I could eat this all the time! I could have easily just filled up on bread for the rest of the evening!

We each chose to try the salad (even though the soup was vegetarian, too, and sounded delicious) - this was easily the best salad that I've ever eaten! There was a wine salad dressing that tasted delicious and topped a very complex and yummy salad! It had salad greens, radish, beets, pickled asparagus, and a sweet pepper relish underneath, as well as feta cheese. Oh my goodness....it was so good! I could have eaten this salad for the rest of my life!

Yummy....wine! We had a white wine with our salad, a red wine with our dinner, and an ice wine with dessert! For dinner, we had a handmade pasta with a tomato sauce, topped with fresh ricotta and grated parmesan cheese and fresh parsley. This was so incredibly delicious, too! It has been since our cruise that we last ate at a fine dining restaurant of this caliber and it reminded us of the delicious cruise food...perhaps on par or even better!

For dessert, we had a fresh peach cobbler, as peaches just came into season here in the Niagara region. It was warm and delicious! Paul was even impressed with the fact that I don't normally eat raisins, but I gobbled them all up in this tasty dessert! Yum!

After dinner, I enjoyed a great cup of coffee and then we were back in the shuttle van with the tour company and taken back to our bed and breakfast. We were greeted by a friendly neighborhood kitty on the front lawn - apparently, there are lots of friendly neighborhood animals that live in the area, as there are plenty of trees and areas for wildlife to enjoy. Although we never "met" him, Maddie (who owns Copper Lane) told us about a red fox that is fearless and only walks around on the sidewalks of the neighborhood!

When we arrived back at Copper Lane, we were ready to go to sleep as we had another adventure ready for us the next day!

Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada - Wine Tour (Day 1)

2010-07-23T16:10:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, July 21st, Paul and I took a mini-vacation to Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario for an overnight stay at a bed & breakfast and a wine tour. Even though the Niagara region is just a 45 minute drive from home, we had always been meaning to take a wine tour and visit Niagara-on-the-Lake. Paul and I had a couple of days off together in a row and just a week ago decided to book this trip last-minute, if we could. As it turns out, we were able to book a room for just one night at a bed & breakfast, and the wine tour happened to have some spaces available, so we were in luck!

We stayed at Copper Lane Bed & Breakfast, right in the heart of Niagara-on-the-Lake. This beautiful home is literally just steps from the main downtown shopping area! It was incredibly convenient for us, as we just parked our car at the home (parking spaces are available for all guests) and were able to walk down the street and be in the center of town.

We stayed in the Cocoa Bean room, a very warm and charming room that made you feel right at home. Each room is equipped with an LCD TV with all of the movie channels, if you feel like staying in and watching a movie at night. Each room also has air conditioning, so it was very comfortable to sleep at night during these hot summer days.

Our bathroom was just a quick step across the hall, which wasn't a problem at all. It was just our bathroom and it was incredibly close to the room. It was decorated in similar shades of chocolate and caramel, and the bathroom was beautiful, just like the room! The shower was quite large, and there was lots of room to get ready in the morning after having a shower.

After we arrived mid-afternoon and walked around town for a little while, we went back to Copper Lane to wait for our wine tour to pick us up. We sat out on the porch of Copper Lane and watched some of the horse drawn carriages pass by. Copper Lane is surrounded by many trees and has a beautiful front porch with plenty of places to sit. The home itself was built originally in 1871 and has been fully restored, retaining many original elements of the house. It is quite charming!

The wine tour company that we went with was Niagara Vintage Wine Tours. We were picked up and dropped off from our bed & breakfast and embarked on a tour of three different wineries, as well as dinner at a fancy restaurant! This tour was described on the website as the Evening Wine Tour: Tony de Luca's Wine and Country Restaurant - a Californian inspired 5 course dinner tour and wine pairing experience!

The first two wineries that we visited were Reif Estate Winery and Pondview Winery, respectively. At Reif, we tried their Vidal, Merlot, and Riesling Icewine. They were all fantastic! We ended up purchasing a bottle of Late Harvest Riesling, Late Harvest Vidal, and a small bottle of Vidal Icewine from them. Next, we visited Pondview Winery, which just opened up on June 1st, 2010! The family had been producing wine for decades and finally decided to open their own winery. At Pondview, we tried their Riesling, Gewürztraminer Riesling, and Cabernet Franc Rose. This was the very first Rose wine that Paul and I both really enjoyed, so we had to pick up a bottle of that one!

Next, we visited our third stop, Pillitteri Estates Winery. We went on an extensive tour of their property, including outside where they grow the grapes, and inside the production rooms and down to the barrel cellar. First, we were given a brief history of Pillitteri, their family and their wines. Their wines have won many awards, many of which are prominently displayed in the front foyer of the building. Their Sparkling Icewine Cabernet 2008 won the top gold medal prize for best Icewine! There was also a beautifully decorated wagon displayed in the front foyer, painted and decorated with family history and kept in the family for generations.

It was a beautiful day outside when we saw the grapes growing that go into Pillitteri wines.

There are separate barrels that produce icewine and regular white/red wine. These containers separate the skins from the grapes and press them down into wine. The room with the giant metal containers was freezing cold and store the wine at the perfect temperature until they are ready to be transferred to the barrels.

We went down into the barrel cellar, which was enormous! There were so many barrels stacked all around inside a huge concrete cellar. There was the longest concrete table in the world in the center of the room...well, apparently it is now the second largest concrete table. There were 23 chairs all bolted up high around the room that get brought down on rare occasions for the family and friends to sit at the table in the cellar. The number 23 is special to the family and the owner, so many instances of this number are represented around the room as it brings good luck to them.

After the tour, we tasted many wines at Pillitteri: a Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, a Gewürztraminer Icewine, and a rare Red Icewine! All of their wines were delicious and we ended up purchasing the Cabernet Franc and the Gewürztraminer Icewine. I would have purchased the Red Icewine, but it was a bit on the expensive side, understandably so!

After the wine tour, we went for our delicious dinner, which will be continued in the next blog post!

It's Blueberry Season!

2010-07-19T16:33:00.000-07:00

Mmmm...look at those delicious blueberries! These juicy little blueberries are one of the first things that I saw this morning, placed on the kitchen counter for us to enjoy! Paul's Dad went blueberry picking yesterday and left a huge bowl of them out for us! Yay, gotta love blueberry season! Since we didn't really have much breakfast-type-food around, I decided to whip up a quick batch of blueberry muffins! These were the quickest muffins that I've ever made - I was done in less than five minutes! Once I had brewed a pot of coffee, the muffins were nearly done baking and everything worked out just peachy....blueberry-y...eehhh you get the point!

Here is the recipe for Vegan Blueberry Muffins - easy enough to make with ingredients that I already had on hand. I found this recipe somewhere on the Internet, and it worked out great!

INGREDIENTS:
3/4 cup soymilk
1/2 cup applesauce
1/4 cup water
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (FRESH! mmmm)

Mix the wet ingredients together. Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Add the blueberries to the dry ingredients. Then, mix the wet into the dry, and bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes.

And....for good measure....

Cherry Tomatoes! I just picked these a couple of minutes ago from the garden! What to do with them....just eat them as is....or make some delicious bruschetta bread again....decisions, decisions!

Fresh Food made with Fresh Veggies

2010-07-17T10:45:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are the recipes that we made using the fresh vegetables from the garden! All of the veggies that we picked a few days ago were mostly all used up in these salads. All of these recipes are vegetarian and vegan, so enjoy! I have collected and altered these recipes from various sources, including magazines, web blogs and websites, and I never seem to record where I found them....so I apologize if I haven't been able to give credit where credit is due!

The first picture, posted above, is the Bruschetta Bread that we made - we made two of them, one for each of us to go with our dinner. The recipe isn't anything too crazy as we just wanted to use the cherry tomatoes that we picked from the garden. The bread is a loaf that I picked up at the Metro grocery store that was called something like "Organic Whole Wheat with Sprouted Grain". It was very delicious bread! I cut the bread really thick, which Paul thought was a bad idea at first, but then decided after tasting the bread that it was a very good idea after all.

The topping consists of chopped up cherry tomatoes, orange pepper, onion, and fresh basil. I brushed both sides of the bread with olive oil. Then, I put the veggies in a bowl, mixed in 1 tbsp of olive oil and splashes of balsamic vinegar. Then, you put the vegetable mix on top of the bread, and sprinkle it with cheese. I used "Daiya Cheese" which is a vegan non-dairy cheese, but you can feel free to use any vegan cheese or regular cheese. Put it in the oven at 350 degrees for a few minutes, and then switch it over to broil and let that go until the bread looks slightly browned. Yum!

This next one was a huge success - Mexican Pasta Salad!

INGREDIENTS:
1 package of penne pasta
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 peppers (red, orange or yellow), chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 cup of Veganaise (or mayonnaise, if you aren't vegan)
4 tbsp salsa
2 tsp minced chipotle in adobo sauce
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

DIRECTIONS:
Cook the pasta. Chop the tomato, pepper, and onion and place into a large bowl. In a small bowl, stir the Veganaise with the salsa, chipotle, and spices. Add drained pasta to the vegetables and drizzle with the sauce. Toss to coat. Refrigerate until cold. Add the cilantro before serving.

This one lasted us a few days - we both had it for dinner that night and brought it to work with us for lunch for the next few days. Definitely will be one that we will make again!

Another salad - Chickpea Salad! This one is always great for packing up into work lunches or works as a great side dish at dinner time. I found that I needed to add more white wine vinegar and oil to the mixture after everything was made to avoid it from being too starchy-tasting from the chickpeas. You may have to add more vinegar or oil, to taste.

INGREDIENTS:
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp white wine vinegar (more to taste)
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground cayenne
4 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 red peppers, chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
**this recipe did call for parsley, but we omitted it because Paul isn't a fan. You can add parsley or cilantro to this recipe if you'd like, as well as carrots (which we didn't have on hand)

DIRECTIONS:
In a bowl, crush together garlic and salt. Mix in olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, cumin, cayenne. In a separate bowl, stir chickpeas, pepper, onion. Mix in dressing. Cover and chill for several hours.

And lastly, here is a Bean and Rice Salad! I found that this one had too strong of a lime taste to it, so maybe instead of adding 1/3 cup of lime juice, you might want to add less than that. Next time, I think I will cut it back to 1/4 or less of lime juice, and add white wine vinegar to offset the lime flavor.

INGREDIENTS:
3 cups cooked rice
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 pepper, diced
1/3 cup lime juice
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp cilantro, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin
** we also added chopped hot peppers, fresh from the garden to spice it up a bit!

DIRECTIONS:
Combine rice, beans, and peppers. In a separate bowl, combine all of the other ingredients. Pour over the rice mixture and refrigerate.

There you have it - three simple salads that you can make for dinner, and depending on the quantities that you prepare, they could last you for days worth of lunches throughout the week!

Helloooo New Car! 2010 Toyota Prius (Hybrid car!)

2010-07-16T12:46:00.000-07:00

I know that I said in my last blog post that I was going to post three recipes that we made out of the fresh vegetables...don't worry, those recipes are coming! Something a little bit more exciting happened to me today that I wanted to write about...I got my new car!

It is a brand new 2010 Toyota Prius hybrid car in "winter gray metallic". I love it so much, it is the car of my dreams. I have been saving up for this car ever since I started my job three-and-a-half years ago.

This is my old car, a 1999 Mazda Protege with 322,000km of driving on it. This car has driven to Toronto and back hundreds of times, to New York City and back, and to Ohio and back recently (just barely!). I have been driving it since the end of high school in 2001 and I will miss this car! It just got to be way too old and needed too many repairs. I needed a reliable car for my daily commute.

Here is my new car, with just about 100km on it! It is a gas-electric hybrid, so I won't have to be at the gas pumps nearly as often, which is fantastic as a commuter. I'm so excited to drive it around!

It has a sunroof and solar panels on top of the car. There is a button on my remote that says A/C - when I press that button, it activates the air conditioner that is run just by the solar energy through the solar panels. Air conditioning run purely by the power of the sun....genius!

It has a premium sound system with a 6-CD changer. As you can see, there is actually a button to park the car instead of it being on the shifter! To move into reverse or drive, you just move the joystick and it moves back into center. Pretty darn cool. Once you stop the car and you want to put it into park, you just press that "P" button. It also has an "EV" drive mode which means that if you are driving a short distance, it will run strictly from the battery using no gas, an "Eco" drive mode (the default mode, alternating between gas and electric battery) and a "Power" drive mode that gives you a little bit more power on the highway. I'm very impressed with how the car drives and how fast it accelerates! It definitely doesn't drive any slower than a regular car.

It's hard to see here, but it also has a back-up camera that shows up in your rear view mirror. The car actually beeps when it backs up! The car is so quiet that this is a safety feature for pedestrians. Beeeeep beeeep! My car kind of sounds like a truck or bus backing up, which is pretty hilarious.

It is a hatchback with plenty of trunk space! The back seats completely fold down as well. I've got lots of room back here in case I make a trip out to Ikea or need to do any sort of moving. Or I go to Whole Foods and buy tons of groceries!

I am so completely and utterly happy with this car, I cannot even tell you! If you are looking for a new car and are a bit curious about the hybrids, you should definitely look into getting a Prius. Better yet, if you're in the Brantford area, go to Hogewoning Toyota and ask for Doug. Doug is the best salesperson I've ever had the pleasure of doing business with at a car dealership! He is friendly, helpful, and not pushy at all like your typical car salesperson.

Tonight calls for celebrations - I can't wait until Paul gets home so I can show him the new wheels and take him for a ride! We're going to enjoy a sushi dinner at Sapporo Sushi in Hamilton - can't wait!

Veggie Garden 2010: Onions, Peppers, Tomatoes!

2010-07-13T16:48:00.000-07:00

Today, Paul and I went outside to water the potted vegetable garden and decided that many of the crops were ready to be picked! Hooray - months of watering, not to mention all of the hard work buying the plants/soil and planting everything - finally, we get to enjoy some of the tasty veggies!

There is still one pot of green onions left, but we picked the majority of the green onions today. These are technically "bunching" onions, as they are a bit larger than regular green onions.

We still have soooo many hot banana peppers, but got to pick a few of them today! Some of them are still a yellow-ish color, and some have turned orange and one is almost red! These peppers are HOT! Last year, I grew some banana peppers which weren't nearly as spicy, so this year I made sure to plant hot banana peppers. Paul decided that he wanted to pop the smaller yellow one into his mouth whole (removing the top and bottom, of course). What he didn't expect was that it would be so hot! He frantically went for some water, and then downed about two glasses of milk! It was still really spicy, so he ate a couple of the cherry tomatoes that we picked, which apparently helped a bit better than the milk. Clearly, these hot peppers are meant to be enjoyed in small quantities (or at least chopped up and mixed with other ingredients!), unless you really love the heat!

Here is a picture of Paul holding the first little batch of cherry tomatoes in his hand. Mmmmm! So red and so cute! We used them tonight for some bruschetta bread....but I will make you wait for the recipes that we used all of these veggies in - at least until tomorrow when I post about those! I'll leave you in suspense!

These green beans haven't been picked....yet! But, soon! Along with the rest of the tomatoes, hot banana peppers, chili peppers, yellow bell peppers, and onions when they're finished growing! My cilantro has pretty much gone to seed and died off, but the basil and Thai basil is still going strong and being used almost daily in the fresh food we've been preparing!

A Delicious Dinner After a Long Day!

2010-07-12T17:18:00.000-07:00

I was too lazy to take a photo of the delicious dinner that we ate tonight, so I will post an image of this Wii game that Paul has been playing a lot lately, Cubello. It is a really fun puzzle game in the "Art Style" series where you have to try to eliminate all of the blocks by connecting four or more of the same color together. This may sound pretty easy, but the puzzles become quite complex and you have to work fast! If you're looking for a new Wii game to download, this may be one to check out!

ANYWAY...for those of you who commute...and those of you who are familiar with the commute in the Toronto area...you will feel my pain. My drive is about one hour to Toronto when there isn't any traffic, and I had to be at work today for 9:00am. Normally, commuting isn't too bad since I work all sorts of strange hours at all times of the day, but the shifts that are from 9:00-5:00pm are quite painful. I had to wake up at 5:30am and leave the house by 6:15am just to make sure that I wouldn't be stuck in traffic. Sure, I arrived at work an hour early, but if I left any later I would risk being late! I took the extra hour to relax and enjoy a delicious cup of coffee.

When I got home today (after suffering through another awful traffic-filled drive home!), Paul made dinner for me since he had the day off! Yay! It was a super yummy tofu stir-fry with peanut sauce. He used all sorts of fresh veggies (including Thai Basil from the garden and some hot peppers from the Farmer's market!), including some tofu marinated in chili-garlic sauce. The peanut sauce recipe is super quick to make and a lot more fresh than the pre-made kind. This recipe makes more than enough for four servings of stir-fry!

PEANUT SAUCE

1/2 cup natural peanut butter (smooth or crunchy, your choice!)
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
2 drops hot sauce (or more, to your taste)
1 clove garlic, minced

Mix ingredients together. Then add 1/2 cup of water and mix. Be sure to taste the sauce - add more soy sauce or hot sauce if needed.

Just pour this over your veggies and tofu as you're stir-frying them up and put the mixture over rice or noodles. The dinner was fabulous! I love being engaged to a man who can cook! :)

Please Vote for my NIntendo Crafty Creations!

2010-07-11T10:55:00.000-07:00

Three of my handmade Nintendo-themed crafty creations are entries in a Nintendo Craft Contest at Happy Seamstress and I need your help! I'd love for my video game crafts to be finalists in the top 10, so it would be amazing if you could vote for my crafts! It only takes a couple of seconds and you don't have to sign up for anything. All it takes is to click on the 5 stars graphic below my creations (if you like them, of course!).

Entered into the contest are three of my original handmade crafts - a set of 50 Space Invaders Needlepoint Magnets, a Nintendo Controller Tissue Cover, and a Super Mario Warp Pipe Keepsake Box (with removable Piranha Plant!). All three items have been featured in my blog in the past.

All three of my creations are on page 3 of the craft contest, and all three are at the top of the page. Simply click on the star graphic below each picture and please click on 5 stars. Hopefully this will help to raise my voting percentage in the rankings and ensure a spot in the top 10 Nintendo crafts! Here is the link to vote:

Happy Seamstress Nintendo Craft Contest (direct link to page 3)

Voting ends at the end of July with the finalists announced shortly there after. Fingers crossed! Thank you so much!

My New Favorite Coffee Place - Detour Coffee in Dundas, ON

2010-07-08T11:07:00.000-07:00

Last week, Paul and I took a trip out to St. Jacob's market (which I totally adore....but that is for an entirely different blog post!). After St. Jacob's in the morning, we weren't quite ready to just go back home, so we decided to drive into my hometown of Dundas (Dundas, Ontario, Canada for any of my blog readers who likely don't know where that is!). While doing a little bit of shopping here and there - at The Keeping Room for a mortar and pestle that I'd been meaning to buy, and at Envoke for some clothes - we stumbled upon Detour Coffee Roasters. I thought it may have been a coffee shop and I was really in the mood for a cup o' coffee, so we decided to take a look.

When we arrived at the shop, we realized that it wasn't a coffee shop, but a place that sold freshly roasted coffee beans. They have a wide variety of different coffee beans, and you are able to sample the coffee before you buy. Unfortunately, the one that I was interested in trying was sold out, but I was introduced to the "Ethiopia - Yirgacheffe, Washed". This was one of the best coffees I have ever tasted! It just tasted so fresh and aromatic. Maybe this is due to the fact that this was the first time I've had coffee directly from freshly roasted green coffee beans...but this tasted soooo delicious! It is described on their website as "Lemon, smooth, with floral finish." I'm not sure if I tasted all of those flavors, but this is the perfect type of coffee to drink when you first wake up in the morning - a very bright and smooth taste for sure.

They also just happened to have the type of coffee that I originally wanted to try, the "Rwanda - Rwabisindu" (flavors of citrus, coconut, brown sugar), except that it was no longer fresh enough to sell. The employees of the shop gave me a small partial bag of the beans to try for free! I'm not sure if this is something that they always do, but it definitely sweetened the deal in my mind! I can also attest to the fact that this kind of coffee is also delicious, as I have brewed both kinds at home!

As we discovered later, the shop was only sold out of the Rwanda coffee because we arrived within 15 minutes of the shop closing up at the end of a Saturday. The shop is open only on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays - Thursday/Friday 10am-6pm, and Saturday 9am-5pm. They only roast so much coffee that will remain fresh for the days that they are open, and we happened to arrive right near closing time. They still had many varieties of coffee for sale on Saturday, but I might go there on a Thursday or Friday next time to have a complete selection.

Detour Coffee Roasters is all nestled away behind a building on the main downtown street in Dundas, King St. It might be a little bit tricky to find for those who aren't familiar with the area, but the Detour Coffee website has directions. Also, when the shop is open, they do put a sign out on the street which is what originally caught my attention. You shouldn't have too much trouble finding the place! It is definitely worth checking out if you're a coffee lover!

A Message in a Bottle Cap

2010-07-01T20:00:00.000-07:00

I love Jones Soda and I don't drink it that often (I'm trying to stay away from soda and just have it every once in a while...Diet Coke tempts me daily) - I picked up some Cream Soda today for Paul and I.... Jones Soda makes the most delicious Cream Soda! They have these written messages underneath the cap and I found it to be pretty funny that the image posted above is mine - "Find a pen pal."

I love writing long letters and writing to pen pals from all over the world! Currently, I just have a few close pen-friends but I am always looking for new people from all over the world to connect with, learn more about different cultures and countries, and even exchange postcards and small gifts.

Inspired completely by the Jones Soda bottle cap, I invite anyone who thinks that they would like to become pen pals to post a comment below and let me know - I'm open to writing anyone from all over the world, let it be someone in my own country of Canada to someone who lives far, far away! If writing letters is something you like to do (or might like to get into doing!), just post a comment with your email address and I'll be in touch with you!

Oh...and Happy Canada Day to all of my fellow Canadians! I hope everyone enjoyed their day off work (if you had the holiday off) and I'm jealous of anyone that is traveling to a cottage or a beach this weekend! Enjoy!

Veggie Garden Update for the End of June

2010-06-27T11:05:00.000-07:00

My potted vegetable garden sure is growing! The varieties of peppers, tomatoes, green onions, green beans, and herbs are mostly still going strong. The basil, thai basil, cilantro, arugula and spinach are beginning to go to seed. I got a couple of clippings of spinach and arugula, but I think that it is mostly finished for the year. I also used a bit of the basil and cilantro, including drying some of the herbs as mentioned in a previous post. I wish that the cilantro would have lasted a bit longer than it did as I was planning on making salsa with it - I did use it with some rice though, as well as some other recipes. I'm not sure if anyone has any tips for extending the life of basil and cilantro?

Those are some images of the peppers plants I have - yellow bell peppers, hot banana peppers, and chili peppers. One plant has a HUGE bell pepper on it, while some of the other plants have several small ones that have begun to grow.

Many pots of green onions are almost finished growing! Yum!

Some of the tomato plants have tons of tomatoes that have begun to grow, while some of the heirloom varieties still have the flowers, or just a few small ones. I suppose those ones take a little bit longer to grow than the hybrid varieties.

My green beans have yet to produce any beans but they are growing wild and free all over the place! Climbing everywhere pretty much. I see some buds on the plants so hopefully they produce lots of green beans!

Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar - Another Must-Have Cookbook!

2010-06-25T18:38:00.000-07:00

Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. In my house, these Vegan cookies will be invading all of my cookie jars...until they are quickly eaten and more cookies must be made! At any rate, I just ordered the newest cookbook by best-selling Vegan cookbook authors Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero, of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and Veganomicon fame.

I am a huge fan of the Vegan Cupcakes book so naturally, I have extremely high expectations for the Vegan Cookies book. The first recipe that I decided to try was the Espresso Chip Oatmeal Cookies recipe.

Thankfully, I had some instant espresso powder around the house, mailed to me from a thoughtful Swap-bot partner in a coffee exchange. That is the only ingredient that may be difficult to find for this recipe. You can use instant coffee granules instead, but it won't give it that true caffeinated kick that make these cookies taste so amazing.

My first batch of cookies didn't turn out so great. I had enough to make two cookie trays worth (12 on each tray) and I assumed that my cookie sheet was non-stick...unfortunately, I should have followed the directions and used parchment paper, because my cookies were completely stuck to the pan! After salvaging whatever dried-up cookie bits that I could and scraping the pan clean, I grabbed the parchment paper and used it for the remaining cookies.

The second batch turned out great! The cookies are pretty flat but are quite chewy - a great combination of the espresso, oats, chocolate chips, and the slightest bit of cocoa make a delicious cookie for the coffee-lover in me!

I didn't want to publish the recipe on my blog without permission....but I happened to find this recipe posted with permission already on the web! So....yay! You can try it out for yourself. But, I do highly recommend just purchasing the book because there are over 100 dairy-free cookie recipes here that is sure to please just about any palette!

Get Fresh at Home with Strawberry Lavender Muffins

2010-06-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

Whenever I find myself in downtown Toronto, I also almost always find myself eating at Fresh, a vegetarian restaurant in Toronto. It is one of my most favorite restaurants ever where you can find all sorts of fresh foods, and the menu is 100% vegetarian (nearly 100% Vegan as well, with the choice of adding cheese here or there). Fresh also has the most delicious juices and fruit smoothies - I always make sure to get a smoothie with my meal.

Since I'm not in downtown Toronto very often, thankfully, Fresh has published a couple of cookbooks so we can make some of their delicious food at home. While I do not own any of the books (yet), I did purchase one as a Christmas present for a friend and I copied this recipe out from the book since I wanted to try it myself. Pictured above are the Strawberry Lavender Muffins - perfect to make right now, since strawberries are currently in season in Ontario! This recipe comes from the book, Fresh at Home, available in person at all Fresh locations, in bookstores, and for sale online.

The lavender adds a really interesting twist to the regular fruit muffin - the actual lavender pieces aren't inside the muffins, but infused inside the soy milk / maple syrup combination that you heat on the stove top. All of the directions are below - these muffins are very easy to make and super delicious! I don't think these will last very long around the house!

STRAWBERRY LAVENDER MUFFINS (VEGAN)
Makes 12

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups vanilla soymilk
3/4 cup and 1 tbsp maple syrup
1 1/2 tbsp dried lavender
1 cup applesauce (unsweetened)
4 cups organic light spelt flour (I substituted half all-purpose flour and half whole wheat flour. You can substitute all 4 cups of all-purpose flour, too)
1/2 cup raw sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup diced fresh strawberries
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp canola oil

Directions:

1. Line the pan with paper liners.
2. Heat soy milk, maple syrup, and lavender in a saucepan - bring to a boil over medium heat. (Keep your eye on the pan....once it starts to boil, it will boil over and FAST! So...watch out!)
3. Remove from heat, cover and infuse for 5 minutes. Strain mixture through a fine sieve and add applesauce. Set aside and cool completely.
4. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda in a large mixing bowl.
5. Add strawberries and toss to cook.
6. Add liquid and oil to dry ingredients. Mix gently until the mixture just comes together.
7. Scoop into muffin pans.
8. Bake at 350 degrees F for approx. 25 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly pressed.
9. Remove from pans, cool, and serve.

Urban Look - Crochet Dress (Work in Progress)

2010-06-22T10:56:00.000-07:00

A dark image on a rainy day here in Brantford, but an image nevertheless of a crochet dress that I've started to make. It is called Urban Look and the pattern is from Patons #862, Grace - Spring Style. I'm using the Patons Grace yarn in a shade of green called Wasabi. This is a fairly lightweight yarn, perfect for spring or summer dresses.

I am an advanced knitter but I rarely crochet - in fact, I'm quite the beginner at crochet. Since this is technically an "intermediate" pattern (says the pattern book), I have had to learn as I crocheted. I almost crocheted the entire main part of the dress, until I held up the hours and hours of work...and noticed that the sides tapered in! This is not supposed to happen - it is supposed to remain the same width the entire way. I ended up ripping out the entire thing and starting again. Ugh. I was watching the Princess Bride while I started to rip out all of those precious stitches and it took me half an hour to rip out the stitches and wrap the yarn into a ball again!

Regardless, I've started again and this time, I'm making sure that I'm watching my progress as I work along without mindlessly crocheting without looking! Hopefully I will be able to post the finished results soon enough! Here is a link to the project on my Ravelry page.

Drying Your Own Herbs

2010-06-18T10:47:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've found that I haven't been using many of my garden herbs, so I have decided to dry the herbs for later use. These fresh herbs dried will come in handy during the winter, plus I won't have to buy any at the store. Knowing that these dried herbs came fresh from my garden, completely organic, and with way less of a carbon footprint is fantastic! Drying herbs is way easier than I expected and something that you can do at home with no special equipment.

So far, I have dried basil, Thai basil and cilantro with much success. All you have to do is cut off longer stems of the herbs that you'd like to dry, shake them free of any bugs that may be present, and bring them into the house. Then, get a large paper bag for each herb, label the bag, poke a few holes in it for ventilation, and fasten the herbs hanging upside down inside the bag. I have just used Scotch tape to secure the stems of each herb to the top of the bag, hanging upside down.

Then, you just wait for a week or so - you can store them in any cool, dry place in your home - and after a week, you will have fabulous dried herbs! I have been crushing them down and placing them inside shakers in my spice rack. It is recommended that you use them within a year for optimum taste and freshness.

If you find any moldy ones (I have not in my experiences yet), throw them away. Also, some people might want to wash the herbs before drying them. I have not felt the need to wash mine since they are just potted herbs outside on the balcony, but if you do decide to wash them, make sure the herbs are completely dry before you try to dry them.

Hope this is helpful for anyone who has wanted to dry their own herbs! Have fun!

Yarn + Nintendo = Love! Kirby's Epic Yarn

2010-06-17T17:57:00.000-07:00

Here is a preview for a game that was announced at the recent E3 - Kirby's Epic Yarn for the Nintendo Wii. It combines all that I love - video games, adorable cuteness, and YARN! The entire Kirby world looks to be made out of yarn and fabric in this game. It plays similarly to all of your favorite side-scroller Kirby games of the past, with a few differences that follow the textile theme - Kirby no longer "inhales" all of his enemies; instead, he hits them with a yarn whip.

This game is also freaking adorable. That wins extra points by my books! Check out some of the screenshots that I have posted below, and check out more by going to the preview on Joystiq.

Here is a video of the game that has been posted...it looks adorable, enjoy!

Kawaii Alert! Rilakkuma Boot Keeper

2010-06-14T10:54:00.000-07:00

Check out those legs! This is a hilarious birthday gift that I received from my fiance, Paul because he knows how much I love Rilakkuma and he couldn't resist buying this funny looking gift when he saw it! You may ask....why does this bear have such long legs?

He stands inside of your boots and keeps them smelling extra fresh! All boots should have cute bears sticking out of the tops of them, shouldn't they? Now....just to get a small army of Rilakkuma to go inside my small collection of boots!

(Thank you, Paul, for this awesome present!)