have I mentioned that my sister is hilarious?

this one made me laugh even more than the last one!

from on Lisa Nova's youtube channel with Ceciley Jenkins - she's the brunette.

steak and eggs and salmon

 

I love a good deli and I really like eggs, onions and salmon. I want to love Caplansky's Deli because the menu looks good and it's around the corner. But I don't love it.

 

Perry had steak & eggs,

and my fries were good, but it's supposed to be served with latkes, which generally I can't get enough of, but at this place, not so much - too bad.

outfit of the week

I love this "vintage" Damzels dress. Back before Rory & Kelly had the store, they had these amazing studio sales that were just like a big dress-up party. I used to help out and this was a big favourite one year which got tried on over and over, but it didn't fit anyone.

I mentioned that I bet there would only be one woman who would fit into the dress and it would be meant for her - turned out that was me!

turtleneck: H&M

dress: Damzels in this Dress

boots: Miz Mooz

ebay has found me again

got it ...

want it ...

I am grateful

Unexpected good things are happening!

thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!

Marcel likes to make jewelery

He thinks blue lace agate with faceted moonstone is a lovely combination and would make a nice birthday gift for Anne.

Looks like he was right.

He put it carefully in the box.

And wrapped it up beautifully.

Nice job Marcel!

corn bread - round 2

Since my first attempt at corn bread actually produced something edible I thought I'd try it again.

This time I used canola oil instead of olive oil (which made the biggest difference) and honey with royal jelly. I also used a bit less rice milk and turned the heat down on the oven.

Turned out yummy!! Next time I think I'm going to put blueberries in there ...

and I finally figured out what to use the fig & rhubarb marmalade on - mmmmmmm!!

Marcel likes hyacinth

and I am hooked on Friday Night Lights ...

 go figure.

green eggs and ham

Brunch at Mildred's - so, so good! We also had some fennel sausage.

Anne enjoyed her 6th cup of coffee of the day.

And I had some delicious rooibos tea!

I think this is the best brunch in town.

outfit of the week

Inspired by Pushing Daisies and Ugly Betty.

Figured out how to not cut off my head!

sweater: Jacob (on sale!)

dress: H&M

jewelery: me

shoes: indigo

my sister is hilarious

"Jersey for Shore" - she's Joo!

more where that came from on Lisa Nova's youtube channel with Ceciley Jenkins

bright sunshiny day

It's cold and sunny today, so I walked to work.

Marcel is hibernating.

welcome to the spare room

The spare room is on the right as you come down the hall from the living room and is just before the kitchen. I have all sorts of crafty little ideas for this room, but I have a lovely roommate who wanted to move in early and so the projects will have to wait until it is uninhabited again.

I want to panel the headboard with some padding and lovely fabric stretched over boards that fit into the gaps in the Ikea bed I got on craigslist with the mattress for a total bargain.

I want to paint all the wood in the room: the untreated pine shelf and bed, and the Ikea "birch effect" dresser (which was found around the corner also courtesy of craigslist), and the already painted shelf.

The chair found on the sidewalk got a mini but not quite permanent makeover from a couple of pillow cases but needs to be spray painted and recovered.

But what colour do I paint all these things - do I make them all the same colour? That seems boring. What should get an accent colour - the dresser? That seems like the wrong thing to draw attention to (maybe what it needs is an upgrade).

Oh and that rice-paper blind needs to go, but I don't know if I can deal with the thought of making more curtains! Perhaps what I need first is a colour scheme.

I like the blues, purples, greens, rusts and yellows in the Van Gogh Irises and also in the sweet little switch plate.

I guess it's just as well I have a few months to mull it all over.

corn bread

Corn bread is one of my all time favourite things, and since I can't eat traditional corn bread, or really bread of any kind (thanks to that pesky wheat allergy) I decided it was time to make some myself. I actually tried to do this last year and made something the consitency of concrete.

Time to try again! I've been wanting to try out the babycakes nyc recipe which I discovered on design*sponge, but I don't have any xanthan gum handy so I gave this recipe a whirl instead.

I replaced the milk with rice milk and the vinegar with lemon juice and then I realized the only oil I had was of the olive persuasion (I am so not prepared for baking). But I was very excited to put good ol' homer into action!

I think my gas oven runs too hot and clearly olive oil is not the way to go, but this turned out not half bad - especially with a little agave!

winter flowers

I think I did pretty well with my little pink poinsettias, since I'm a bit of a plant killer.

I thought I would try and keep these lovelies alive instead of buying cut flowers.

They lasted almost 2 months, but sad to say they are done now.

Time for mccoy to strut his stuff with some ranunculous!

The Hidden Seed

Elsa Mora has a lovely blog called The Hidden Seed where she post photos of herself in beautiful outfits, usually with incredible hand-drawn backgrounds.

She has inspired me to wear some of my more fanciful outfits and post photos of them. (OK, so maybe I'm not going to wear this one to work.)

But Elsa also has the most lovely ideas about being your own home and best friend.

I'm going to work on that. Thank you Elsa.

outfit of the week

Post holiday gifts to myself.

Here is my first attempt at "outfit of the week". I need to figure out how to take a photo that actually includes my head.

sweater: Anthropolgie (on sale!)

jeans: Gap

boots: Mudd @ Sears (really? yes, on sale!)