a dinner, out.

We went to a really cute Cuban restaurant with lots of twinkly lights and magical moments. It was the happiest restaurant I have ever been to! And, their tapas were delicious!

I should try to make my living room feel this happy.

best brunch

If you know me well, or not even that well at all, you know that brunch is my all time favorite meal. So you could imagine how happy I was when this week's Now Magazine featured Toronto's best places to brunch! I have my favorite spots to brunch, but I always love to try other gems in the city!
I cannot believe the weekend flew by already! I hope you had a great one!

quilting by hand

I quickly decided to quilt by hand after I saw the destruction my little old sewing machine did to my quilt after machine quilting a good chunk of it. I took it all apart (it took me a day, and Jin thought I was crazy!), but after I showed him how much better hand quilting looked, I hope he thinks of me as less crazy.

I thought I would get bored of quilting by hand. But I enjoy it SO MUCH! I like to watch the colours of my thread change as I go along. I want to make another quilt, just so I can sit on my couch with Mea, and quilt some more. Thanks to my precious needle book from Anabela, my needles cannot be stolen by curious little Mea. It really is a life saver.

This Sunday is quilt sunday! I can't wait! I freed up my schedule, and I should be able to make it this time!

a terrarium

We had a little taste of spring last week, but today it is cold again. But I can still feel the change in the air, and I know that spring is coming soon.

This makes me itch to plant something. This year, I am hoping to attempt to make a wood planter box. With any luck, it will hopefully be made with wood that I find on the street. I am going to try to grow some vegetables from seeds, which will be tough, as I have not had much success growing ANYTHING from seeds before!

For now, I just made a terrarium out of some moss I bought at Seedy Saturday, an annual event of all things plantatious and seeds! I do not know where else to get moss though, whether to buy, or....in nature? Can you kindly point me anywhere?

I made one small terrarium in a mason jar, and I want to make another one in a larger container. I bought a new friend to go in my future terrarium, because my old friends are missing in action. Jin dropped the bunny and now it has no ears, and Mojo swiped the piggy, and I cannot find it. The boys in this house are trouble!

I drew a picture of the layers of my terrarium so that you could make one at home too!



Look at these beautiful terrariums from etsy seller Made by Mavis. I love how simple they all are, and how she made the different pieces of moss looking like rolling hills of Scotland, or so I imagine.

goodness at my doorstep

My package arrived today from etsy seller A Little Goodness. I bought some fabric for quilt binding on a baby quilt I have been working on for what seems like.....a very long time. But I am sincerely enjoying it so much!

My quilt is mostly white, with red and blue squares on it. I promise to show some photos of it. I chose this random dot fabric from A Little Goodness' store to bind my quilt. I couldn't find anything locally that I liked in red, and I was adamant for the binding to be in red. Toronto is so lacking in the polka-dot department for fabric. I am so glad she had this red polka-dot fabric in her store! I am eyeing some other things in her store, like the newest Sylish Dress Book! But I have not even made anything from the first book yet, so I think I should hold off!

I told my mom I was making a baby quilt, and when I told her it was for Jin's friend, she was shocked! I think she thought I was making it for me. But no, I will make a different quilt if/when that time comes. Ok, there has been too much baby talk lately coming out of me. I will stop now.

The baby's name is Conner, and I am thinking of a way to put his name on the quilt. Ideas?

Tagged by Famapa

I was tagged by Famapa to do this very large questionnaire. So here goes! These are the rules:

1. Answer the questions, but replace one question with a question of your own; and also, add a question of your own.

2. Tag eight other un-tagged people.

What is your current obsession?
Spring cleaning

What are you wearing right now?
Skinny jeans, black riding boots and a loose baggy navy blue dress

Do you nap a lot?
No, I just sleep a lot at night

Who was the last person you hugged?
Jinny, before he left for his conference.

If you were a tree, what tree would you be?
A ginko tree.

What's for dinner?
Spinach Pecorino pasta

What was the last thing you bought?
Lily + Jae pants from Charlie Boutique

What are you listening to right now?
Ariane Moffatt - "Montéal"

What is your favourite weather?
Sunny weather, when it is not too hot to sit out in the park.

What's on your beside table?
Pen, my glasses, my 5 year diary

Say something to the person/s who tagged you.
Hi sweet Famapa! We should meet up to have cake the next time I visit London!

If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you want it to be?
central Paris

Favourite vacation spot?
I don’t feel like I have travelled to that many places yet……but I really loved Spain!

Name the things you can't live without.
Jinny, Princess Mea, Mr. Mojo, my small family, good friends, all my cameras, crafting and creating, dairy products

What would you like to have in your hands right now?
Fabric that I recently ordered off etsy. I am so impatient!

What is the last movie you watched?
50 first dates

What is your favourite tea flavour?
C-H-A-I! But the real chai that you make in a pot on your stove, and it is 90% milk, and 10% water, and I manually grind the cardomom on my own. yummmmmy!

If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
To London to have tea with Nav.

What do you wish to accomplish 5 years from now?
To own a house with Jin, travel at least once a year, be making a living doing what I love (whatever that may be), and maybe.....a baby?

Who would you like to get stuck in a lift with?
David Letterman. I want to give him a hug.


I tag: May, Anabela, Alexandria, Karyn, aixxx, Alison, nikole, chrrrristine

Too busy bitchin'

and not enough stitchin'!
I went to my first Stitch n' Bitch yesterday at the workroom! I brought my quilt to hand quilt, but I didn't get too much done because I was too marvelled at what everyone else was doing around me! And I met a lot of nice people. The Globe and Mail was there to interview Karyn, and other people participating at the Stitch n' Bitch. A photographer was there taking snaps of us, I want to see if I made it into the paper this Saturday! I ought to go to these things more often!

Any tips on how to take nicer photographs in artificial light? Mine are sooo yellow....

where I'll be this saturday night....

My friends and I are going to spins and needles, where you make crafty things, drink beer and listen to some very cool tunes.

The last time we went, we had so much fun! Jin made this amazing space invader, and Gabe made the pac-man enemy!
I hope to see you there!

(pac-man enemy picture taken by Gabe Li!)

.

A fancy friday dinner on the 54th floor, our friend's 39th birthday celebration, and his very charismatic 13 year old cat Jerry, and a little girl's first birthday. She ate an entire purple cupcake by herself.

This weekend was so packed, and we even had to lose an hour.

I hope I can get to work on time tomorrow.

How was your weekend?

we are so spoiled

My friend e-mailed me this video, and I find it so funny.

My favorite line is "GIVE IT A SECOND! IT IS GOING TO SPACE!"

Enjoy.