ummmm sick

Gwen Stefani

Random factoid: I collect Gwen Stefani magazine covers. I have been for about 8 years now and i might have maybe 30 of them? since we've been packing to move i took them out of their hiding spot and had a look at Gwen through the years. it's really funny how different she looks from year to year but one thing that doesn't change is this woman is SO gorgeous. my girl crush remains in full effect.

It doesn't hurt that she's a mom, business woman, musician and one of those celebrities who doesn't get massive amounts of plastic surgery or get drunk and get into fist fights with paparazzi. she seems like a seriously cool mom and her husband - well he's not too hard on the eyes either.

crabby patties

As always I forgot that I have a subscription to Clean Eating and again, as always I was super happy when it came to the house the other day! Jimmy and I decided to try something new for dinner on Saturday night and since he is a crab cake aficionado, it made sense to go straight for the cover recipe.

While I made a salad to go with the crab cakes, Jimmy made them and omg they were delicious. The recipe replaces the standard cup or more of mayo with dijon mustard which personally I think made it taste way better than mayo ever could. also, a staple crab cake partner is an aioli of some sort which again is comprised mostly of mayo. we decided to bypass that ingredient again and mixed 1 cup of low fat 1% sour cream with 2 tsps of thai chili sauce and whoa, that sauce had some bite. i am not a huge lover of dairy products at all and am usually the one trying to avoid them any chance i get but i do think in this case that the sour cream might have been the lesser of two evils. for your body anyway, not the source - but that's a whole other conversation all together.

ANYWAY :) they were lightly dusted with some flour to help the browning effect and I think next time we make these it should definitely be with coconut oil instead of the safflower oil the recipe called for. it's always a little disheartening when "clean food" magazines call for ingredients that are well, less than heart healthy. either way, with a good non stick pan, you can definitely get away with only using half of the oil they suggest you use and we ended up with about 8 good sized cakes. i love that i'm marrying a man who loves to cook!!

we topped those crab cakes with some fresh homemade guacamole and boom - healthy, whole foods dinner that was absolutely delicious.

which hopefully somewhat makes up for the lunch we had on friday.

hey, sometimes, you just have to give in to these things ;)

momma

miss cheerleader... needless to say shannon and i did not follow in her footsteps in this regard

but how cool are these pics? that's one seriously cool chick right there. xo

kittens & showers

there has been a development in the kitten situation - that being that we are going to be the proud parents to two little girls, not boys. this threw me for a loop for a minute or two since i have a female cat at my parent's house and if ever the term for female dog fit another species, it would be mollie. however i am optimistic that since these little ladies are going to be indoor kitties that we can hopefully spare them the inevitable chip that grows on the shoulder of most outdoor cats i have ever come in contact with.

apparently there is a runt in the litter and i know i will immediately be drawn to her because, well, she'll be the teeniest and in my estimation that will also make her the cutest. i can't wait to go get them - only two more weeks! there will be many, many more pictures of them up here soon i can assure you.

in other news, this past sunday we had a bridal shower for my sister and it was absolutely lovely. it was amazing to see some cousins i hadn't seen in years and years and a it of a reality check to see one that was 6 the last time i saw her, now a gorgeous 17 year old woman. where is this time all going?

i had to make a speech and as per usual i was a nervous shaky mess with red cheeks and a terrified look on my face. it doesn't matter who i am speaking in front of, i am always petrified! anyway, she was happy and looked more gorgeous than i had ever seen her look. i can't tell you how amazing it is to see my sister so happy. it really does my heart so well to help celebrate the fabulous things happening to her!! i definitely got a little teary towards the end of the speech too - but that's to be expected.

such a nice day. my mum and dad worked pretty tirelessly to make sure it was great - as always!

and babies make 4

this is so exciting, i kind of can't believe it. jimmy and i have been talking about expanding our small family for a while now. no, it's not what you're thinking (well at least not yet), we have been talking about adopting two furry little felines to round us out to four. after living with spaghetti and megatron (and loving them equally!) for a year we have become total cat people.

don't get me wrong, i still LOVE dogs and think they're the coolest but our lifestyle and apt size right now just doesn't seem to be right for a pooch right now. some day though i will have a pup for sure. but for now, we began our search for two little kittens. our search was simple - seeking 2 male tabbies. so i began to look on kijiji and i found a girl who had 4 new tabby babies for free. 2 male, 2 female. amazing.

i didn't get my hopes up too high because there was a lot to consider. these little dudes didn't have any of their shots and that is super important. so i began calling around to vets in toronto and asking friends who they go to for their little ones. i found a spot that seemed to be the most reasonably priced and got the lowdown on what we'd need to do for our new kitties. i presented the info to jimmy, in fine project management form, breaking down all the costs, vaccines, exams etc that we would need to do and how much it would be over 3 months.

it took very little convincing once i sent him the picture i got from the lady in kijiji of the boys with their sisters

meet little brandon & albert (bertie for short) - they're the guy on the bottom and to the right. heart-meltingly-adorable.

because they are only 5 weeks old we aren't 100% that they are boys just yet. one more week and they should be able to confirm. either way, we're taking those 2 and making them our very own.

new house, new babies, wedding, honeymoon, good friends, friend's babies, great families. life if good. no actually, it's friggin fantastic :)

granny square part 2

slightly better than the first try - i think i need some different yarn. also i haven't figured out how to even hold this thing properly while i'm making it so hopefully they'll just get better and better!

thanks goodness for youtube

seriously, you can learn pretty much anything from youtube. tonight i crossed another thing i wanted to learn how to do off the list and spent an hour learning how to crochet. i've been sick for the past 3 days and this is definitely the most productive (unless producing used kleenex counts) i've been since Saturday morning.

this was my first attempt. the lesson was on making a washcloth but i resigned myself to this being a first try and not worrying about how it turned out. as you can see the bottom chains are too tight so it was going in a serious curve. i abandoned it after i felt i had gotten the hang of the whole process.

my first attempt at a granny square and i feel ok about it, it's not nearly as nice as the one the lady on youtube made but she seems like she's been doing this for years. the thing i like about crochet right off the bat is that it seems to just be a lot of repetition but not the same boring kind that knitting is. it's quick and you see the results of your work right away. not bad for first attempt. i definitely have aspirations for something like this:

but we'll see if i can get to that level. grandma mode in full effect!

love love this

give a little love

blankets for the band babies

i have signed up for a sewing course that begins in 1 week - i am SO pumped. i have been wanting to do this for so long and am really happy i am finally following through with it. i have been trying to brush up on what minimal sewing machine skills i have over the past few weeks and managed to (with my mum's help) to make a couple of blankets for two of the special little ones in my life.

i made sofia this double sided flannelette blanket for getting cuddled up with. i was a kid who definitely had a favourite blanket and have held on to it for 30 years - i am hoping to remake it into something for my first baby. i am going to give this to sof tonight, i hope she likes it! i was pretty much a breeze to make but it did take a lot of patience, something i am trying to get better at.

this one is for little theodore tree. i was trying to make the equivalent of a bath sheet (those ridiculously huge bath towels) but for a baby. this is for him to get snuggled in post bath so he can be warm and extra cozy in this extra large towel which i double sided with some adorable baby giraffe flannelette. 

hopefully these are just the first of many projects i am able to accomplish on the sewing machine my mum gave me for my 25th birthday. it was one of her first and she had it completely tuned up and refurbished to pass along to me. i am sure the love she's passed along to me through it will be in every project it produces.

spring cleaning

it's a new and fresh start for me over here and i couldn't be happier about it. this time of year is perfect for stepping back and taking a look at what you have and what you want. life is changing quickly and as i approach my 30th birthday (in a few months) i am more certain than ever that i am going down the right route.

this is a big year. i am, as i mentioned, turning 30. i am totally at peace with that though and am certain that my 30's are going to be super fantatsic. i enjoyed my 20's but really, i am ready for a little more stability in my work, finances and relationships than i had 10 years ago.

i am getting married soon and am more and more convinced every day that i am the luckiest girl in the world to have the partner that i do. he is genuinely my absolute best friend and well, it doesn't get better than that.

i am moving forward in my career and enjoying my work everyday. now, not every day is a great day but the good outweighs the bad and i don't think i could really ask for much more than that.

and finally, we are moving into a new house. it's not actually new (although it's new to us) and it's not actually ours (we're still renting) but it's the first home we'll share together just the two of us since we started dating over 3 years ago, and i could not be more excited for it.

with all of this going on there are relationships in my life that are ending. there are some that are just beginning. there are also one's that were always there that i am putting a better effort into developing. people come in and out of your life for a reason i think and i know i am taking the ones with me that i am supposed to.

this blog doesn't necessarily have a purpose or even a true direction. let's see where this takes us.