Cross Canada Etsy: Montreal, Quebec

Montreal is one of my favourite cities. When Scooter and I first started dating it was one of our first "weekend getaways". We fell in love with the great old European feel, the awesome BBQ place we found, and the music coming out of this amazing Canadian city.  

As we were leaving Montreal at the end of the weekend we kept thinking of ways that we could move there, all of them included French classes :)

 

Shira Sela

Original art and fine art prints. 

Her work has been featured on TV and in magazines and I think its just beautiful.

Little Lion Studio

Baby room decor: baby prints and kids wall decals. Baby Abe's room is nautical themed so I totally fell in love with this decal!

Run System 63

I really love the beautiful fabrics and milatary inspiration in this clothing collection. Her military leggings rock!

>Cassie

Homemade Donuts

Last week we had Family Day. My sister in law came down and we all went out for lunch and then came home to make donuts with the kids - and with the kids I mean, Lily played with flour and Maya only wanted to help with cutting them out!

Here is the recipe (it is an old family one), they look a little flat, but they still tasted just like old fashion donuts!

Ingredients

2 eggs

1/2 tsp nutmeg

3/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup milk

1-1/2 tsp vanilla

2-3/4 cups flour

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt
1/4 cup oil

with mixer combine eggs, nutmeg, sugar, oil. Stir in milk & vanilla. Add flour, baking powder & salt and beat until batter is well blended (will look crumbly-ish). Form ball and chill for 2 hours. Heat oil to 375 degrees ( I use my deep fryer at the french fry setting) separate into 2 balls and roll out at 1/2" thickness. Cut out 3 at a time (if you don't have a donut cutter, use a glass and bottle cap). With a flat spatula carefully put them in the oil. They will sink at first and then float to the top, when the underside is browned, turn it over and allow the other side to brown. Remove and place on paper towel to drain

> Jessi

Congrats Captain Von Trapp!

So excited to see Christopher Plummer FINALLY win an oscar! (oh and Canadians don't win that often either - so another plus!)

Did you watch? 

> Jessi

Blog Lovin Love {48}

Here's what we loved on Blog Lovin this week

diy modern cuckoo clock > curbly

diy leather lunch tote > design*sponge

literary themed birthday party > the kitchen

pillows! > daydream lily

play food roundup > apartment therapy

geometric nails  - design*sponge

Japanese Sweaters

If anything was going to inspire me to learn how to read Japanese, it's this sweater book! 

So creative and beautiful!

>this one is my fave!!!

>Cassie

Jessi & Gwyneth {9}

Can you tell I am on a bit of a cooking binge right now?

Tomato and Arugula Pasta

Another pasta recipe with my new attachments! Spaghetti went a lot quicker than the Ravioli, though it is still a bit of work, but the novelty of it has not worn off yet!

This was a really easy recipe, just tomatoes, arugula (which have now become staples in our house!) and a handful of spices. 

We opted to cut the recipe in half as we had so much when we made the ravioli, but it wasn't enough for this pasta loving household...and we ended up picking up so burgers later to fill us up (I was going to a going away party later that night and needed to have something a little more solid to drink on!) I am sure that's how Gwyneth would roll to :P

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> Jessi

From My Bookshelf: Cinder

Title: Cinder

Author: Marissa Meyer

I have been waiting for this to come out since I saw previews for it online. Cyborg Cinderella? Uh, hello! Sign me up!  Plus the cover is pretty rad.

I thought it was pretty well written for the YA genre for which I usually  have low expectations. What I liked the most though was her concepts of how cyborgs would be treated and the twists on the classic fairy tale.  There were enough changes that the text didn't become stale, but still gave you the links to it's origins you were looking for.

I will say the heroine is kinda slow. I knew what was going to happen chapters before she did, but that may be because I had glimpses into what was happening with other characters. Either way, I spent a good amount of time yelling at the book :P

I'm glad I went into this knowing it's the first part of a trilogy otherwise I would have been pretty miffed but I was surprised that they did wrap up one of the major plot points before the end.  I can't wait for the next one, my sister Shmemadoo has been asking me "How long 'til the next one?!?"

> Cassie

Re-Style > Kitchen Benches

We have a great little table with bench seats that my father in law found and fixed up for us, what wasn't working was the fabric on the seats - probably worked fine for a house with no kids, but many spills later and some matted down play doh, we were left with some pretty gross looking seats. 

This was a super simple project and I can't believe how long I stalled on it. First we took the seats off the benches, stapled down some fabric, then stapled down a layer of plastic, and voila new spill retardant seats! We will probably stick to them in the summer, but we will deal with that when the time comes:)

BEFORE

AFTER

> Jessi

Feed the Birds

Happy Monday! It's family day here in Ontario, so no work or school yeah! This weekend we had a little gathering for a friends b-day (I will share some pics later) and Kaitlyn and I commenced our Twilight marathon - making it to number 3, so we will  need to finish that tonight!

Hope you had a great weekend, here are some pics of a little nature walk we had last week (we saw some robins..does that mean spring is around the corner??)

> Jessi

Blog Lovin Love {47}

Here's what we loved on Blog Lovin this week

over sized cross stitch > design*sponge

wall paper > bloesem

doily dream catcher > handmade con amour

book organization > apartment therapy

pretty fabric > remodelista

Winter Weekend

We are having the prettiest snowfall today - to bad this wasn't Christmas! Today we are throwing together a little impromptu birthday party for a friend - I am attempting to make pulled pork for the first time (I stole Aminah's crockpot while she is away in Cuba!). Hope your weekends are going well!

> Jessi

Cross Canada Etsy: Ottawa, Ontario

I went to school in Ottawa and the thing I remember most about the city is the great museums and the market there. I walked everywhere, spent hours in the Museum of Contemporary Photography, and felt like a big city girl for the first time in my life. It's the Capital of Canada and I think speaks loads about our country that anyone can just walk onto the parliamentary grounds without even seeing a security person.


Interesting fact: at the back of the grounds and just over the fence there is a village for cats. Seriously. Someone built a bunch of cat homes and there's a donation box to raise funds to feed them. The cats are pretty feral though, I should know, I spent one evening trying to catch myself a parliamentary kitten :)

Faroe Viking

Beautiful handspun! Also has some really great art yarns :)

Doodle Dollies

Super cute critters! Abe totally needs one.

And Gretel

I am a scarf junkie and there are so many great vintage scarves here that I just might be in love!

>Cassie

Jessi & Gwyneth {8}

Sweet Potato Ravioli

We have wanted the pasta maker attachment forever and have never been able to justify it, until Gwyneth. Getting it opened up another section of her recipe book I could not have done without it :)

I have never made pasta before - it actually really fun- time consuming but fun! The inside of the ravioli is a sweet potato and mascarpone mixture. We had so much pasta that for variety we made a batch with spinach and mascarpone ...but the sweet potato was better. We invited our friend Suzanne over who is not a sweet potato fan - but liked these! The sauce is a butter and sage mix - which again I never would have thought to do - I probably would have dumped a jar of tomato sauce on it!

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> Jessi

Scene In: Parks and Rec

I am totally in love with Parks and Rec and have been pining forever for Ann's afghan!

It's based on a simple circle center granny square with a great retro palette. The colours are olive green, red, yellow, pink, lavender, purple and a light orange. It looks like the yarn weight is probably DK, which would mean that you could probably use a 3.5mm hook. I did a test square in random worsted colours and it's a pretty close match! The only changes I made to the pattern was to use half double crochets on the second row, and add in two extra rows.

  If I ever get the time I'll make the rest :P 

>Cassie