images from the weekend

I hope you had an amazing weekend! We had a lot of facetime with friends, which always makes my heart happy. 

Happy Friday!

Oh hi! Happy Friday to all you lovely people. What are you doing with your weekend? I'm baching it with little miss tonight. After a busy day of dancing in tutus with friends, she's asleep. I have my feet up, a glass of wine poured and a Joaquin Phoenix film queued up. Bliss.

Here are a few things from the interweb this week....
Would you trust a driverless car?
What do you think of this? Vancouver is banning smoking for homeowners in this condo building. Do you think the decision is revolutionary or an infringement of rights?
I am loving the cast in this film
Have you heard this artist's remake of Britney Spears' Toxic? So fresh.
What's your take on the bootie, love or hate? I still favour this look.
one of my friends had us laughing in the dark with this clever product
the always funny amy poehler on parenthood
Thinking of travelling in October? Here are some suggestions from Lonely Planet

look alikes

My hubby has been told by some that he looks like Liam Neeson. Do you see it?

At university, some people called me Scully, after Gillian Anderson on X-Files. I don't see much of a resemblance. I am pretty sure the comparison was because we had a similar haircut with red hair.

Don't you think Nicole Scherzinger (of the Pussycat Dolls) and Kim Kardashian look alike? I promise that is the only time you will ever read their names on my blog.

To me, this is just a win-win situation. Doesn't Grey's Anatomy's Jeffrey Dean Morgan look a lot like Javier Bardem? But Javier has that voice. I'm sorry, what were we talking about again?

Have you ever been told you look like a celebrity? It's usually quite flattering, since most of Hollywood is littered with beautiful people. Okay, maybe if you were told you looked like Steve Buscemi you wouldn't be as thrilled....Who's your famous twin?

easy moroccan chicken

This recipe (from the Best of Bridge cookbook series) is really easy and magically delicious. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 1/2 lbs. ( 750 g) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
2 cups salsa 
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup currants
2 Tbsp. liquid honey
1 1/2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 325 F. Heat oil in a large frying pan and brown chicken. Place chicken in a baking dish. Lightly saute onion and garlic. Spoon over chicken. Combine salsa, water, currants, honey, cumin and cinnamon. Pour over chicken. Cover and bake 1 hour. Sprinkle with almonds. Serves 4. Cous cous makes a great accompaniment. 

look around, leaves are brown

Hi lovely people! I hope you are doing great! Last week one of my friends found a list that had blown into her yard from the neighbouring high school, containing someone's wish list of what they wanted to do in the fall. It had things like "eat more candy", "go to starbucks more" "buy uggs" and "bake cookies drunk." I decided to do my own little list to get into the spirit of fall. What would be on your list?

for scotty

You still visit me from time to time
in my dreams
with a smile
and a little conversation
of reassurance
When I wake up
I can never remember
what we spoke about
but I am grateful
for that fleeting moment
I get to see your face
and hear your laughter
frozen in time
you live in my heart
which has to be enough
because I can't call you up anymore
Five years gone
but never forgotten

Happy Weekend!

Happy Friday lovely people! What's on your line-up this weekend? We're going on a date tonight, which I am so excited about because the weeks can fly by before we get some time to ourselves. Tomorrow is the first day of Fall, my favourite season. I love the colours of the leaves, the fresh air, the clothes, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin pie, pumpkin scones.............

Here's a few little tidbits I saw in cyberspace this week.......

Have you seen the site From Me to You? I love their cinemagraphs like this one  here or here
How amazing does this porch swing look?
check out this brilliant photograph
the traveller in me yearns to go here and here
I am excited to check out this restaurant
It looks like burgundy is THE colour this fall,  as seen here, here and here
I'm swooning over the cast in this film
this is the last song I bought - I love the dreamy melody

Enjoy!

white rooms

I want to update our bedroom's look and am leaning towards painting it a fresh crisp white. I know, so daring right? I love how airy and fresh white walls can make a room look. White walls let the furniture, artwork and decor stand out. What do you think? Do you find white rooms cheery or do you find white walls too boring? 

wait for it.....

a walk in the park

These photos were taken at Darts Hill Garden park,  7.5 acres donated to the City of Surrey by Edwin and Francisca Darts to work with horticulture institutions and develop native gardens. The park is only open a few times per year to the public. We took a stroll through the gorgeous property trails on Saturday. I said to my hubby, "could you imagine if this was our land, waking up and sitting on one of these benches with our morning coffee, looking out over this beautiful piece of property?" And he said, "No, but I could imagine selling it to buy a beach house in Maui." Made me giggle. 

if I could only slow down time......

Our little peanut is nine months old today. Whenever I used to dream of being a mom, I never imagined I'd have such an extraordinary little girl. I've never learned so much about life and love as I have these past nine months.

sock buns

*image courtesy of projectcaptured.com

Now that I have longer hair, I'm quite smitten with beautiful braids and buns. What do you think of the sock bun shown above? Stylish? Or, should buns be saved for ballerinas and librarians?
Click here if you want to steal this look.

Happy Weekend!!

Hello Friends! What are you up to this weekend? This morning we're off to a private park that only open to the public a couple times a year. The photographer in me is completely hyped.
Tonight I'm going for dinner with a large group of women. Do you enjoy a girl's night out or do you prefer a mix of men and women? I admit, sometimes getting a word in is a sport itself with women, but I recognize the importance of girlfriends
12 fall activities for the family to get you in the spirit
pumpkin pie, love it or hate it? I, for one, am a HUGE fan.
Love this list of 25 things Tom Matlack wants his son to know
dreaming of a destination wedding?
I have always wanted to visit the picturesque Croatia, especially after seeing these waterfalls
the last song I bought
I am so inspired by this winner of Masterchef
a laugh for all you moms out there, from the brilliant tina fey

Savour your time with your loved ones! Chat soon xo

Hola! Fish Tacos!

These fish tacos are from Weber's Way to Grill cookbook. Our friends first made them when we were up at Whistler a few weeks ago and I was blown away. I cooked up a batch last night - they are delicious and really easy to make: 

For the Rub

• 1/2 teaspoon pure chile powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin 
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 4 halibut, salmon, or tilapia fillets (I used halibut and it was delicious!)

For the Slaw

• 3 cups very thinly sliced green cabbage
• 1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/4 c mayo (light mayo works too)
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice 
• 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon canned chipotle chile in adobo, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

6 flour tortillas (10 to 12 inches) (I warmed mine in the oven in aluminum foil)

1) Mix all the rub ingredients together in a small bowl.  Brush or spray your fish fillets with oil and apply the rub evenly over each fillet.  Cover and set aside in the refrigerator. 

2) In a large bowl, combine all the slaw ingredients and toss to make sure the cabbage is evenly coated.  Set aside until you are ready to build your tacos.

3) Prepare the fish.  The cookbook calls for grilled fish, but I pan sauteed mine.

Break the fish into large chunks once cooked.

4) Build your tacos with slaw and fish. Enjoy!

images from the weekend

I hope you had a lovely weekend! I went to Seattle for a friend's reception (they had their ceremony earlier in the year). It was such a gorgeous, relaxing setting  - six acres of property done up with beautiful lights, plenty of room for guests to camp, delicious food - they even had wood fired pizza on site - yum scrum! I'm pretty sure I celebrated with a cupcake (or six). Throughout the night, whenever I spotted Cathy and Ty, they had beaming smiles on their faces, what more could you want for your friends? I wish I had taken a photo of them at the reception, but I left the camera turned off most of the night so that I could just soak it all in. Plus, I'm pretty sure I was too busy juggling delicious food and wine to hold a pesky camera. xo 

Happy Friday!!

Hi friends! How are you? Do you have fun plans lined up for your weekend? I'm going stateside for a friend's reception while the hubby takes care of little miss. I can't wait to visit some friends I haven't seen in a long time. I'm also really excited for my husband and little girl to have their own time together. She just lights up around him and thinks he's pretty much the funniest man in town.
Do you have little ones who returned to school this week? If so, please give this article a read. I'm not a religious person, so even thought the article has a bit of a religious slant, the message it sends to kids is spot on. The focus is on being brave and standing up for kids who you see being teased or bullied for being different.
This is an excerpt from it:

"We do not care if you are the smartest or fastest or coolest or funniest. There will be lots of contests at school, and we don’t care if you win a single one of them. We don’t care if you get straight As. We don’t care if the girls think you’re cute or whether you’re picked first or last for kickball at recess. We don’t care if you are your teacher’s favorite or not. We don’t care if you have the best clothes or most Pokemon cards or coolest gadgets. We just don’t care.

We don’t send you to school to become the best at anything at all. We already love you as much as we possibly could. You do not have to earn our love or pride and you can’t lose it. That’s done.

We send you to school to practice being brave and kind.

Kind people are brave people. Brave is not a feeling that you should wait for. It is a decision. It is a decision that compassion is more important than fear, than fitting in, than following the crowd.

Trust me, baby, it is. It is more important.

Don’t try to be the best this year, honey.

Just be grateful and kind and brave. That’s all you ever need to be."

Were you ever bullied in school? I was bullied by two girls who I thought were my friends, named Tejinder and Muriel, in grade 3. They would stay after school and sabotage my projects, rip apart my art work, pull my plants out of the dirt that I was growing for science class, scribble in my notebooks, anything they could to try and make me cry. They would sneak up behind me and shove me face down on the ground (I still have a scar to remind me), call me names and get into fist fights with me(of which I held my own in). It wasn't their behaviour that upset me (well, it kind of sucked), but it was the fact that I kept waking up each morning hoping that they would act differently and be my friends again that saddens me the most. I didn't recognize that I deserved better. I was like a dog who wags her tail each time her owner comes home even though the owner is abusive. A wonderful set of girls took me in as their friend and it seemed to throw Tejinder and Muriel into a tailspin. They tried their hardest to lure me back. It seemed like their purpose, of having someone to  project all of their anger upon, was now leaving them lost. In hindsight, I am fearful of how Tejinder and Muriel's home lives must have been that bullying was part of their agenda. Teach your kids kindness. Teach them to be brave and stand up for those who need help. I was so thankful for my new circle of girls who treated me like a friend instead of a proverbial punching bag. Kids shouldn't go to school in fear or make one another feel inferior because they  aren't pretty enough, smart enough, athletic enough. Just be kids. Play. Laugh. Learn. Repeat. 

decisions, decisions

I hope you had a fantastic long weekend! Did you get out of town or stick around to enjoy the sun at home? I don't know about you but I still get that "back to school" feeling after every labour day, even though I've been out of school a LONG time. I still get those panicky dreams that I'm late for class and I have no idea where my classroom is. This weekend we decided to stick around town since we've had a lot of weekends away lately and have a more few coming up.  It was blissful. I didn't realize how much I needed a weekend of complete relaxation. We watched old movies, went on beautiful walks and I had a chance to catch up with a fantastic group of co-workers who I hadn't seen in 8 months. The photos above were taken at Burns Bog, one of my favourite spots to take the pup.

This afternoon I met with my mom's group and the biggest topic on the table is whether or not to have a second child. It seems to be forefront in everyone's mind. We haven't decided yet. I know you are reeling in shock right now, because if you know me well, you know I'm excellent and extremely speedy at decision making. I found it interesting that a higher percentage of moms in our group have decided that one child will be it for them. Some of the reasons were: affordability - they'd rather give their one child the best possible life. Some women are worried about their age - a few of us are nearing 40 (it's like an eclipse, I can't look directly at the number 40). Some women had a tough experience with their first pregnancy and can't imagine enduring it again. Some can't fathom the energy because they find one child all encompassing. It's such a personal and difficult decision. I'm torn in the sense that I'm older (again, I know you are shocked!) and simply do not know if I have the energy to go through the trials and tribulations trying to get pregnant again. I am also worried about the health risks involved with older pregnancies. Growing up with a sibling is amazing. I have nothing but awesome memories of having my brother as a sidekick on our backyard adventures and family getaways. (Except for the time he thought it'd be funny to hit my head with a hammer, but that's neither here nor there). But, I also know enough amazing "only" children who squash the lonely/selfish stereotypes.  They take friends along on family vacations, play team sports, get together with friends often - it just works. 

I just know that I am crazy about being a mom, which makes me think more children to love would be so life enriching, because Stella has been the best decision we've ever made. Did you find it hard to decide if you were going to have more than one child? What tipped you in one direction or another? I know there are also readers who have opted to have no children and I think, if you know in your heart that it's not for you, then good on you for not having children "just because."