Friday fun

Rather than bore you with anything more regarding my impending move this weekend, I thought I would showcase my current non-move related likings:

Essie's 'a crewed interest' nail polish (image courtesy of Essie)

Bodum French press (image courtesy of Amazon)

Vase - for fresh flowers (image courtesy of IKEA)

Book 2 of the Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy - available Tuesday (image courtesy of Chapters)

I promise on Monday I will have a new baking project to share, well as long as we have electricity hooked up. Be warned though that I might just try to squeeze in a few words about my new place. How can I not when it is just so exciting. Have a lovely weekend!

Messages and mementos

As you can imagine my mind and my to do list have been full of all things related to moving home. Last night I did the majority of my packing and came to realise I have a lot of stuff, which shouldn't surprise me seeing as I have been in Vancouver now for almost two and a half years. Its just that the reality of how much I have accumulated really hit home when I saw it all piled up in front of me in an assortment of bags and boxes. I am not quite done and am hoping that the pile won't grow too much bigger by the time I have finished. However, my imagination is already fast-forwarding past the transportation of said stuff as I begin to think about little purchases and ideas that can turn a new place into a home. I have always wanted a message board to put in a common area for either writing messages/grocery lists or attaching photos/mementos to. Below is some inspiration:

Woodburned Cork Board - Etsy (image courtesy of Etsy)

Magnetic Board - kikki.K (image courtesy of kikki.K)

Chalk Board - Etsy (image courtesy of Etsy)

And my very biased favourites come courtesy of my big sister's company Little Missy:

Magnetic/Chalk Board - Little Missy (image courtesy of Little Missy)

Photo Board - Little Missy (image courtesy of Little Missy)

This is one of a few ideas I have at the moment, but I have come to realise that I need to seriously consider my purchases before I make them considering the pile of possessions I am staring at as I type this.

Welcome to Kitsilano

This weekend didn't involve a new baking project, although I did make pizza for dinner last night using the dough recipe mentioned here. Instead the focus of my weekend was finding a new home with a move in date of the first of May, hence why it was the top priority. Armed with sunshine and a lot of hope, we made a few appointments for Saturday in the Kitsilano area. Kitsilano, or Kits as it is affectionately referred to by the locals, is located on the west side of Vancouver and bordered, in part, by the beach. It is full of an array of interesting stores and restaurants/cafes. So by Saturday afternoon it was determined that the second viewing was our top choice, a cute smallish two-bedroom apartment just a few blocks from the beach. It was even closer to all the essential stores such as for grocery shopping, as well as the bus stop to get downtown for work. After a little bit of an anxious wait on Saturday evening for the call that would decide our housing fate, we were relieved by Sunday morning to find that it was ours. Now the real fun begins with packing and moving. I can't wait to be settled in and to start exploring my new neighbourhood, especially when summertime sets in.

Musical musings for April

Its that time of month again where I talk about the music that has found its way into my iTunes library and onto repeat. As a result, lyrics get incidentally learnt, not memorized, which is for the best when you are as tone deaf as I am and cannot carry a tune. There really isn't anything better than getting ready for work in the morning with a backdrop of beats. These are what have been getting me going in April:  

1. The A Team - Ed Sheeran
2. We Are Young (feat. Janelle Monae) - Fun.
3. Glad You Came - The Wanted
4. Crawling Back to You - Daughtry
5. Young Blood - The Naked and Famous
6. Invincible - Hedley
7. Lullaby - Nickelback
8. Prince of Nothing Charming - Tyler Hilton
9. One Life - Hedley

Again Canada represents with the likes of Hedley and Nickelback, who I was fortunate enough to see in concert in Adelaide a while ago. Once more there is the UK boy band cameo with The Wanted, just can't seem to shake this type of music at the moment. What is left is a random collection of tunes and artists. A majority of them have come from television viewing i.e. Young Blood featured on the pilot episode of The Secret Circle, We are Young was covered on Glee and Tyler Hilton played the fun reoccurring character of Chris Keller on One Tree Hill. You just never know where the inspiration to purchase a tune is going to come from next!

April's music can be found on these albums (images courtesy of iTunes)

Going green

Once more I avoided tackling my to do list because it seems so tough to action any of it after a long day at work. I think I am getting too good at diversion tactics and this time it all started when I found myself in the nail polish aisle at Rexall. They didn't have the Essie nail polish colours that I have had my eye on for a little while. Instead, I settled for a Sally Hansen colour, that of mint sorbet. I had no idea when I selected this colour to purchase that a few short hours later it would end up on my fingers rather than my toes. Nail polish and my fingernails have never been friends, not even remotely close, but times seem to have changed. I was only meaning to see the exact colour I had purchased by painting my thumb then removing it. However, before I knew it all ten digits were painted with two shiny coats and I had to admit that I liked the result. For some reason I didn't stop there, I had to get all creative with a second colour from my existing collection. Green was the colour of the night with the second one a deeper metallic shade courtesy of Rimmel's green with envy. I painted the tips of my fingers freehand, hence the photo of my right hand, which looked better than my left hand due to being left-handed. What followed were many minutes of daintiness as I allowed my nails to dry. I was trying to avoid any tasks that would lead to chips, which used to happen quickly after I had finished. Hence, why I had resigned myself to the ease of toenail painting only. Unfortunately, I didn't quite master the task at hand and a few touch-ups were required, yet in the light of day they looked pretty polished.  

Experimenting with cookies

Apparently I haven't baked cookies since before Christmas as shown here. This surprised me and also made me glad that I chose to bake some this weekend instead of losing myself in more cupcake creations. I don't want to seem lame, but my baking did involve putting a bit of a spin on an old faithful recipe, that of the chocolate chip cookie as baked here. The recipe I use is the Original Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookie one as found here. However, I am still to find this brand of chocolate chips anywhere in Vancouver. I have only seen them in Walmart on a trek across the border. The little twists I put on this recipe are as follows:

• 2 tbsp sifted cocoa powder added to the flour mixture
• 2 tbsp smooth peanut butter added to the vanilla, sugars and butter before creaming
• Instead of 2 cups chocolate chips I used 3/4 cup with 1 & 1/4 cups peanut butter chips and 1/4 cup skor toffee bits

All of the additional flavours were subtle enough so as not to overpower each other, yet still create an element of surprise with each bite.

Once again it was fun to experiment with an established recipe that I had already had success with. The more I bake, the more I really enjoy putting my own little touches on recipes.

Warming up with blues and birds

There may be an air of uncertainty at the moment when it comes to the areas of my favourite team and the Stanley Cup playoffs as well as the ever-changing weather. However, you cannot dispute the fact that clothes stores are gearing up for the warmer weather to come. During this week I had to excuse myself from being home so that my room could be shown to prospective new tenants. I took this opportunity to head to the stores and see what was new on the racks. I didn't have too high an expectation of what I would find because I didn't know what I was looking for. This seemed to be the truth of the matter as the minutes grew longer and the search grew more hopeless. However, the saving grace was the last store I went into and not one of my usual choices, that of Sirens. It has been a while since I have been exposed to the possibility of wanting to buy everything I tried on, but this was definitely the case on this particular venture into the store. Instead, I exerted some self-control and walked out with only a pair of blue jeans (not your normal kind of blue) and a very cute ladybird top. Needless to say, I did promise myself I would visit again on the weekend and if luck should have it that the other items remained then maybe they would walk out of the door with me too. I guess I shall see tomorrow, but until then check out my purchases, which might just inspire you!

One hundred posts young

When life gives you lemons you make lemonade. I was hoping to mark this occasion, that of my one hundredth blog post, with the knowledge that my beloved Vancouver Canucks had won game one of round one of the playoff series, but alas it wasn't to be. Thus, the opening line of this post and its relevance to the words that follow. Life is like that though, you have your ups and downs, highs and lows, and you just get on with it the best you can whatever your situation. For me this blog started out as a creative outlet seeing as I don't really have an artistic bone in my body and I don't feel like I have any hidden talents. However, it has grown into so much more and this is why I am so pleased to have gotten to my one hundredth post with only a few minor burns from the kitchen and yet with a lot of blogger knowledge still to gain. The possibility and the potential of this still excites me. The sense of accomplishment I feel every time I hit the 'publish post' button is still immeasurable. So I come back week after week and I write and I hope that people read and appreciate my way with words, even if I use too many of them sometimes. Please do stick around and keep coming back, it means a lot to me, and spread the word because words are powerful things. In honour of the nail polish I applied to my toes tonight, Essie's eternal optimist, be optimistic and strive to be the best version of yourself whatever that may be. Ultimately, you should do what makes you happy and do it for yourself not anyone else. If you can hold your head up high and be proud of yourself then that is all that matters. Anything is possible and even when it doesn't seem that way try to smile through it because this little action can have the most profound effect. Anyway, these are just a few thoughts to reflect upon as you go about the rest of your week and beyond.

Choc cross scones

I bet I was one of many that reluctantly turned off their alarm this morning and got ready for work after a lovely Easter long weekend. This annual celebration was the inspiration for my baking project on Sunday. It is usually around the holidays that I miss being surrounded by my family and tucking into the obligatory roast dinner so I like to keep myself busy. I really wanted to make traditional hot cross buns minus the fruit peel, as I have never been a fan of fruit in sweet buns. However, after searching online I couldn't find a time friendly recipe. Instead, I settled for the alternative of chocolate chip hot cross scones. I adapted a scone recipe that I found here. For the recipe I omitted the banana and added 1/8 teaspoon of cinnamon to the dry ingredients. I also used ten tablespoons of milk, as I found nine wasn't quite enough. Lastly, I used 3/4 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips because I always feel like more is best when it comes to this ingredient. 

I let the scones cool before adding the finishing touch. For the cross on top of the scones, I put some semi-sweet chocolate chips in a zip lock bag, sealed the bag and popped it in the microwave for approximately one and a half minutes, checking it at twenty second intervals. I cut off one of the corners of the zip lock bag and piped on the chocolate cross freehand, which is quite obvious when you see the end result.

Regardless of my questionable artistic flair, the end result tasted delicious and I was pretty happy with the overall effort. With this post, I will consider Easter over for another year, but not before I say a big thank you to my big sister for sending me my all-time favourite Easter chocolate from home:

Nothing beats yummy Cadbury chocolate and their fun selection of mini eggs...so delicious!

Tea time inspiration

One of my favourite things to do during the colder weather is to drink copious amounts of tea, whether it is in combination with housework, television viewing, reading or surfing the Internet. I was reminded of this earlier today when I was out and about enjoying a rare moment of sunshine. Well, more so, I was reminded of how many pretty items you could purchase and use as part of tea drinking. Chapters, for example, had an array of delightful pieces fit for the loveliest of tea parties if one was to host such an event. Below, courtesy of their website, are just a few of said items:

The display in Chapters made these adorable items even more appealing and the visual merchandising team clearly didn't miss a trick as they were surrounded by relevant books including one that caught my eye:

Miette: Recipes from San Francisco's Most Charming Pastry Shop (image courtesy of Chapters)

If I plan on buying a recipe book anytime soon, which I don't often do as online recipe hunting is easier, then I would definitely snap up this book for the front cover alone. Furthermore, if I get to San Francisco again, the first incredibly fleeting time doesn't count, I must visit Miette in person. Chapters isn't the only place I have come across in Vancouver where you can get cute tea accessories. Murchies not only have stuff for tea lovers but also those who need their coffee fix, myself included. Better still, they have a cafe onsite and a large range of tea and coffee varieties. On my last few visits there I have had my eye on a jumbo cup and saucer set. However, I am moving at the end of the month so I cannot buy new things at the moment. Plus I am still not convinced that I need a jumbo cup and saucer set. I think if it is still there after I move home then it was clearly meant to be mine and so it shall be. 

Crazy Daisy Jumbo Cup & Saucer Set (image courtesy of Portmeirion)

The next destination on my impromptu tea tour has to be Davidstea, which I have seen from afar whilst on the bus and heard some positive things about. However, hopefully I will be switching hot tea for delicious iced tea very soon!

Farewell One Tree Hill

Tonight marked the series finale of what had quickly grown into one of my favourite TV shows, One Tree Hill. Whilst I have watched all nine seasons, I actually did not start watching it until I arrived in Vancouver just over two years ago. Fast forward past seven seasons of DVD box sets and two whole seasons on television and you arrive to tonight and the end. I felt I had to mark this occasion with a quick post and honour a TV show that has had significant longevity on our television screens. Lets be honest though, some of the storylines at times were interesting to say the least. However, when all is said and done, the growth of the characters and the emotional rollercoaster ride of the nine seasons made the show addictive. It is for these reasons and of course the gorgeous James Lafferty that I am glad it randomly made its way into my life and has become one of many memories courtesy of my time in Vancouver.    

Good luck to all the cast with their future endeavours beyond the wonderful world of One Tree Hill!

Marbled raspberry vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting

Baking cupcakes was one of the highlights of my weekend along with seeing The Hunger Games and doing some volunteer work. When it comes to baking, I'm still not ready yet to create my own recipe from scratch. Therefore, after a look at what I had on hand, I decided to make some marbled raspberry vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting. Mainly because I came across the frozen raspberries left over from the raspberry white chocolate scones I made recently. 

The recipe I chose for the cupcakes can be found here, but I again decided to create my own batch of frosting. I gave the cupcakes a bit of an Easter theme in honour of the upcoming weekend and the supplies I had previously bought.

I didn't use the decorative picks this time, but I figured I would probably make more cupcakes during the long weekend or find an alternate use for them. The trickiest part of the recipe was the swirling of the raspberry through the vanilla portion of the cupcake. Although, I would have to say that the cupcake batter was one of the tastiest I have ever come across. Furthermore, it was the perfect amount of batter, creating exactly twelve cupcakes.

I baked them for the full twenty minutes and the swirled effect did look pretty cool once I had taken the cupcakes out of the oven.

For the batch of chocolate frosting, I used the following:

• 1 & 1/4 cups butter, softened
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 & 1/2 cups icing sugar
• 2 tbsp milk

I chopped up the butter and whipped it for approximately one minute before I added the sifted cocoa powder for further mixing. To this, I added the vanilla essence then the first cup of icing sugar, scrapping down the sides of the bowl as it combined. At this stage I poured in the milk and finally the remainder of the icing sugar. Once it was all combined I whipped it for a further minute. Applying the frosting to the cupcakes involved my Wilton 1M decorating tip of course. The Easter theme wasn't done with either as I added a sprinkling of colourful egg mix sprinkles. These delightful cupcakes were the perfect treat to eat whilst waiting in the cinema line yesterday. What better way to transport them there then in a very cute cupcake box courtesy of Wilton. They sure do think of everything!

And in case you were wondering, The Hunger Games was fantastic, worth seeing more than once on the big screen. I so cannot wait for the second movie!