On the lookout: white pottery & dinnerware

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I have a ledge over my stove where I have a couple frames and where I put some of my pitchers and tea pots. I like it, but the photos are leaning and not really attached to the wall in any way leaving them a tad vulnerable over the stove. Last year during a party, one of the frames flipped forward knocking one of my white milk pitchers on the stove breaking the handle. Then last week the same thing happened again breaking one of our wedding creamers. It goes without saying I wasn't very pleased.

I love, love, love white pottery and dishes and I'm always on a look out for them when I'm out and about. Now I'm on a mission to find some replacements for the ones that have broken--especially since Thanksgiving and Christmas are around the corner. 

I found so many on Etsy that I started a folder just for white pottery and dinnerware because, ya know, I found way more then just milk pitchers. Here are a few other gorgeous things I found.

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Check out more white beauties here!

BlogPodium bound

Like many other bloggers in this great country, I'm headed off to BlogPodium tomorrow. It will be my third one and I'm pretty excited to see what this year has in store for us. I'm excited to see Sarah Richardson speak and meet many of the bloggers I follow on a regular basis.

As for the what am I going to wear question: it won't be anything too crazy. There will be some green and a bit of leopard print though (in a small dose in the way of footwear) so come say hi if you see me!

See y'all downtown!

Sneak Peek: Family Photo Session

This past weekend we took a drive to Paletta Lakefront Park in Burlington, Ontario for a family photo session with photographer and designer extraordinaire Nataal Colalillo. Let me just say this up front: taking photos with a 1-year-old and an almost 3-year-old is not easy. The kids just weren't into it, but Nataal worked her magic and produced some lovely photos. We've only seen these four shots so far as a little sneak peek. I'm looking forward to seeing many more!

Kitchen island of happiness

The house we stayed at in Tremblant had an amazing butcher block island. I loved having the extra counter space in the middle of the room to chop, cook and plate food. I really missed it when we got home and we started looking for options we could use in our kitchen.

We have a quite a bit of space in the middle of the kitchen with no counter space by the stove (really annoying btw) which made it kind of cumbersome for cooking. We'd have to chop something on one side and drag it over to the other. I tried to find a before pic, but I could only find this to show how much space is in between. You can kind of get the picture.

Anyway we were spoiled by our vacation rental. The thing is that we didn't want to spend a ton of money. The plan is to gut the kitchen in about five years which will include taking down the wall between the kitchen and dining room to build a big island. We wanted something decent quality, affordable, functional and that we could easily sell down the road.

We saw the Stenstorp at Ikea and it met all of the requirements. It was a bit more than we wanted to spend but we loved the clean lines and the fact that it doesn't really look like typical Ikea furniture.

We took a little family trip on Saturday and came home with one!

We love it! We weren't sure if we'd find it annoying that we have to go around something in the middle of the kitchen now to cook or grab something from the fridge but honestly it's like it has always been there. Mark found the little stools on kijiji for $50 and picked them up today. I think we should paint them red.

 I love the stainless steel shelves on the side - I was able to move my cookbooks off the counter giving me even more space to work with.

The only problem is that now that we have the island, I'm looking at the dark in the kitchen and thinking of jumping on the two-tone cupboards bandwagon. It would definitely help to hide stuff like this :).

We'll see!

ps - I apologize for the weird photos - I took these at night with my iphone because I was too lazy to get my regular camera...

Le Coq Rouge Antiquités in St. Jovite

While in Tremblant, we stumbled on this sweet store in St. Jovite known as Le Coq Rouge Antiquités. These were my favourite picks from the store. I loved the blood orange chairs and the stools on the porch and I tried to talk my hubby into buying the starburst pendant for the washroom - no dice. He loved the metal drum shade and I thought the rooted tree table was pretty fun. Check it out if you're ever in the area.

Happy Friday 13th!

Hope it's spooky!

Cute kids stuff

I was looking around on Etsy over the weekend for some headbands for Mila and found some super sweet kids clothing to add to my favourites. The first t-shirt just kills me. So cute.

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My month with no phone

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When I was working, I was eligible to get a new phone every year. Pretty silly, but phones get dropped and used quite a bit in the corporate world so I suppose it makes sense.

I used to be a BlackBerry gal through-and-through, but when it came time for me to get a new phone after my mat leave with Leo, I thought I'd give iPhone a chance. I love it (hello Instagram!) and hated it at the same time (texting is still taking some getting used to). When I went on my second mat leave and then decided I wouldn't return to work I requested to keep the phone and my number. In the past I had kept old phones or sent them in for recycling so I didn't think it would be a problem.

Well I was wrong. I could keep number, but I had to give the phone back.* When HR broke the news I broke out in an instant sweat and I was a little short of breath.



Apparently they've changed their policies and all phones have to be sent back. Hmf. But hey I could keep my number. It was something I suppose.

So I cleaned out my phone, backed it all up on iCloud, wrote down all my apps that I had (I'm sure there's a way I could have transferred them but I'm not that tech savvy) and gave.the.phone.back.

At first I didn't know what to do. What would I do without, what had become, a third arm? What would happen if I got in an accident on the way home? What would happen if someone texted me and didn't realize I didn't have my phone?!

Turns out nothing. It turns out I would be just fine. In fact, I would be better than fine. Part of me felt a little free at times. Previously, if I forgot my phone at home when I would go for a walk or to get groceries, I would have panicked and raced back to get it. But since I didn't have it, there was nothing to worry about. If I started to get stressed about not having it, I'd just shrug my shoulders and carry on. I didn't have a phone so that's it. End of story. Get on with it.

In the end, I didn't really miss it all that much. I would have to remind people over again: "Remember - I don't have a phone!!!" so they would know to email or gasp, call me on the landline. Only once was there a time when I left home to meet up with my neighbourhood girlfriends for bootcamp only to find my friend in her PJs when I knocked on her door. I didn't get her message that she wasn't coming. But it was ok. I was fine.

Before I knew it, I had been without a phone for a month. I think other people were more concerned about it than I was. "When are you getting a phone?" they'd ask over and over. My mom even asked if she was still able to email me because I didn't have a phone.

Throughout the month, I had been talking to my husband about getting a phone through his work plan and one evening after work he came home with a phone for me. I didn't go to it right away and just let it sit in the box because once I opened it, I knew it would be the end of my little sabbatical, and once again, I would be thrown into the iPhone abyss.

So yes, I have a phone again. I'd like to say I learned a lesson. I kind of did, but the reality is that it's never far from my side.

*I am well aware that this is a post that should end with a #firstworldproblems hashtag 

Apple Pancakes

Ok so these are a bit of a no-brainer but they were fun so I thought I'd share them. I love feeding my kids pancakes and I'm always trying to find different ways of serving them. I had a couple of apples and decided to slice them up and dip them in the pancake batter which gave me apple pancakes. Or pancake dipped apples or pancake blobs with apples. Whatever suits your fancy.

Easy peasy and really addictive. I believe I ate more of these than the kids did.

Have a great weekend!

Chickpea & Rosemary Birdie Crackers (goldfish cracker alternative)

So ya I made crackers. I'm actually not sure what possessed me to choose yesterday to make them either. I had spent the early morning at the hospital with Mila where she got a procedure done to unblock a tear duct. We were home at 9:30. She was exhausted so she went to bed for a few hours. Leo was playing very nicely with his trucks. I was exhausted. I know... let's make crackers! Even better... let's make birdie crackers!

I wanted something that was gluten free so I used this recipe and thought it would be cute to use my little Easter birdie cookie cutter for them (don't have a cute cookie cutter? Check out these fun ones I found on etsy!).

As the commenters to the recipe suggest, add more salt. I didn't and they needed it. Also I added some dried rosemary and garlic powder to the mix for some extra zip. I will add some sort of cheese next time for fun.

They're so cute! I smooshed a few heads and gave a few of the chickies some leg amputations when I was lifting them off the mat but overall they turned out quite nice.

When they were all done I put them in a fancy Ball jar to keep in the cupboard. The kids love them. Well Leo loves the chicks. Mila just shoves them in her mouth and likely couldn't care less what it looked like.

Happy chirping!

kamut pasta with roasted veggies

I have a few food posts coming up so I'm deeming this food week! Why not? First up - the easiest, yummiest, go-to pasta ever: pasta with roasted veggies. I actually typically make this with quinoa but last week I wanted pasta so that's how I made it.

I use kamut pasta a lot because it's considered an ancient grain so not overly processed, it's organic and also has loads (loads!!!) of protein (13g per 85g serving [!] which is about 0.35927 cups in case you were curious :)).

NOTE: this pasta isn't gluten free but it works with any type of GF pasta!

Here are the steps and oh are they hard!

Step 1: Cut veggies in chunks & slices. Here I used eggplant, zucchini, a red pepper, a yellow pepper, a pint of cherry tomatoes, garlic and onions.

Step 2: Mix in oil of choice. Add salt, pepper, oregano, basil and whatever else you fancy.

Step 3: Throw them on a tray and then onto the BBQ (or oven). Roast for 15-20 mins at 400 degrees.

Step 4: Cook your pasta according to directions. 

Step 5: Do a taste test for your veggies and add more spices if needed.

Step 6: Add pasta to your fancy pasta bowls and top with veggies, goat cheese and pepper. If you're vegan use this vegan parmesan. I keep some in my fridge and use it all the time.

Step 7: EAT IT.

Step 8: Eat more if you want!

That's it! Enjoy!