Quebec City {the views + the skiing}

Yesterday I posted all about the food in Quebec City (so good!). Today I'll show more photos of some of the beautiful scenery we saw while we were there. To start, we checked into our hotel (The Hilton Quebec City) located beside Parliament and just outside of the walled "Vieux Quebec".

View of Parliament from our hotel room

We went skiing at Le Massif the second day we were there - conditions were amazing and we made it to the mountain for "first tracks". The moutain is really unique in that most skiiers will start at the summit - you arrive, put your equipment on and off you go - no waiting for lifts until you ski to the bottom! That said, there was really good flow on the moutain and it never seemed too busy.

One of the other best parts of Le Massif is that it's like you're skiing into the fleuve (Fleuve St Laurent).

We spent the rest of our time in the city wandering and exploring...our usual travel approach :) And yes, there was TONS of snow (and it was COLD! We picked a great day for skiing, around -10C, but the next day was -25C with the wind!). If you haven't been to Quebec City I highly recommend it, it was great to do a winter vacation in a place where winter is what it's all about.

Quebec City {the food}

The Mr. and I escaped to Quebec City over the holidays. Neither of us had been, which is surprising since we both grew up in Ottawa. It definitely met our expectations and we loved the little sense of Europe it gave (the closest you can get within driving distance!).

The food in Quebec City was delicious! We enjoyed a lovely dinner at Le Pain Beni - their menu is focused on gourmet local winter comfort food (and I'm not talking poutine). The Mr. had deer and I had lamb - both were phenomenal. We also went to the Bar St Laurent in the Chateau Frontenac for a drink (a must-do in the city).

 1 - Le Pain Beni; 2 - Le Petit Cochon Dingue; 3 - Chez L'Autre; 4 - Le Petit Cochon Dingue; 5 - Chez L'Autre

Another food highlight was the little cafe we found - Le Petit Cochon Dingue (The Crazy Little Pig). The first morning we went there (yes, we went twice in 3 days) we got pain au chocolats (aka chocolatines aka chocolate croissants) directly out of the oven. They were heaven.

After a hard day of skiing, we rewarded ourselves with this (followed by a dinner at St Hubert! Not everything needs to be high class to be good :) )

For dinner on our last night we went to Chez L'Autre, a snazzy little place we saw while walking around. We had classic steak frites and the meal did not disappoint!

Check back tomorrow for more photos from Quebec City and our ski adventure at Le Massif!

Boo! happy halloween

Happy Halloween all!

Truth be told, I am not a huge Halloween fan. Sure, I like the candy (who doesn't??) but the whole costume-gory-fake-blood-evil-spirits thing doesn't really get me going. I'm happy to be "grown up" enough to like handing out candy more than anything else about the day. Today's supposed to be pretty chilly so hopefully we'll still get a good crowd of kids through! Here's our pumpkin this year:

(simple is as simple does)

And yes, I did save and clean all the pumpkin seeds to roast them up - that's my favourite thing about carving a pumpkin! (Oh, and the smell of pumpkins with candles in them. Just me?). And I saw this a little too late - totally going on my list for next year's pumpkin (now just to remember...).

Hope you all have a safe and happy halloween!

Back to school, back to blog

Hi friends!

I know I have been...hmmm...here and there, let's say, over the last month or so. It's just that with the summer weather being as spectacular as it was (is??) I really have relished outdoor unplugged time. It seems like that was a bit of a trend amongst my bloggy friends and really - summer only lasts so long so I decided to soak it all in.

This past weekend was no exception. The Mr. and I stayed in the city which is lovely because you do not need to fight traffic. My weekend started with an early escape from work where I did some shopping and picked up these beauties:

The plan was never to keep both...cause I don't think I NEED 2 ostrich bags this year...but the winner of this duo is the teal bag to the left...I wasn't sure about the size (it's pretty big), but I like the size with the structured shape and I LOVE the teal, and how it will look with my trench in the fall. Hooray for back to school shopping!

Another hooray - that couch you see in the background is no longer in my living room...it has been replaced with a similar, but larger and more loungey version...will post soon, promise.

 

Aside from this little shopping expedition, the Mr. and I spent about as much time outside as we could over the weekend. We logged serious km's on our bikes: Saturday we biked out to the Scarborough Bluffs (GORGEOUS), Sunday we biked to the west end of the city for a picnic in High Park, and Monday we biked not too far to our friends' rooftop pool. Great way to spend the weekend in Toronto. Here are some of my photos from the bluffs - who said Toronto doesn't have beauty??

 









 

 

Happy September, y'all!



Toronto home store tour

A friend is coming to visit this weekend, and asked if we could go home store shopping. I mean really, did she have to ask?? She'll be moving into a new home at the end of the year so it's a perfect time to browse for inspiration!


Of course I took this to the nth degree to plan out which stores to hit and in which order. In true "Type A" style, I mapped them all out:

View Home Stores Toronto in a full screen map


Don't you just love all the nifty interweb gadgets out there? This map was made by Batchgeo. If you are having trouble viewing my map above you can see it here: http://batchgeo.com/map/5740eb2fad175d30d42802d0ec30472f
You can hover over each "flag" for the name of the store, but I've listed them below too.

A - GH Johnson

B - West Elm
C - Elte
D - Crate and Barrel
E - 1212
F - Cornerstone
G - CB2
H - L'Atelier
I - Pottery Barn
J - Restoration Hardware
K - Artifacts


We won't be able to make it to all of them - so for some unique, Toronto centric ones, I was thinking of hitting up the western strip - West Elm, CB2 (I still haven't been there), GH Johnson, and Cornerstone. I could see if we could squeeze in a trip to Elte too since it's just soo fun to go there!


Do you have any favourites that I missed but should check out?

Musings...

My blog is an outlet for my writing, projects, and creativity. Since it's an outlet and I decide what goes up and what doesn't, here are some random musings for you...

1. I love my 1.5 sink and new faucet. I made 2 batches of muffins tonight and clean up was spectacular. Who knew I'd ever say that about clean up?

2. Undermount sinks are right up there with the telephone on lists of good inventions. You should have seen the "gunk" that was caught under the lip of our old sink when we removed it. I am not sure how many years contributed to that, but it was a LOT of nastiness. With the undermount sink I just wipe the counter right into the sink, no lip to get caught on. Amazing.

3. Speaking of the sink...in my post about the counters and sink I didn't give any credit to the "plumbers" that hooked up the sink. However...an anonymous comment showed up saying: "Looks great but who did the plumbing to make it all functional?". Hmm...whoever could that be? Definitely the Mr. He DOES have a point - him and his friend spent 5 hours on Saturday planning,shopping for parts, and installing the piping for the sinks and garborator. And it all works! No leaks, and above all that not hiring a plumber saved us a bunch of money. (Thanks dear, and our friend F).

4. While they were hard at work I may or may not have been doing this:



via

...getting my first ever facial, and then I may or may not have browsed one of my favourite home store strips along Yonge in Summerhill. I reasoned that I was "getting out of their hair". Right?

5. Poll: Who knew Kraft Dinner could go bad? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? I was going to have some for dinner tonight - the Mr. is out at hockey, I made 2 batches of muffins, and I have been battling a cold all week so I thought a little KD might be a step up from eggs and toast (which was my dinner last night). I usually make homemade mac & cheese,which means the KD in the cupboard had been there for a while but I figured it would be fine. When I went to stir in the "cheese" powder, it was more of a "burnt orange" colour, not the neon orange like on the front of the box. I tasted some and it was NOT good. Then I looked at the box. It DOES have a best before date. It said 27 Jun 10. Woops.

6. I know a post full of words is no fun...so here are some photos that inspire the bevelled subway tile we're going to use on our backsplash.

via

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via

via Eye Poetry shop

Tag! You're it

Oh, tag. I wish we still had recess. I wish I still thought running and chasing people was a fun idea.  I wish my day was as simple as deciding whether to play tag or double dutch at recess.

HOWEVER...we're not talking playground running games, we're talking blogger games!

The lovely Tess over at Tea Time with Tess (have you read her blog yet? Pop on over!) tagged me with this game...essentially a blogger version of notes you passed around to friends in grade 7. Enjoy reading a bit more about me, and check out the list of blogs I have tagged at the bottom of the post to see if you're it!

Oh yah - here are the rules:
**You must post the rules
**Answer the 11 questions that the tagger posted for you & then create 11 questions to ask the people you've tagged
**Tag 11 people and link them in your post
**Let them know you have tagged them

Respond to these questions:
1. What is your profession? I do HR (a bit of everything HR related) for a national engineering firm, and recently obtained my CHRP (Certified Human Resrouces Professional) designation.

2. How would you describe your style? Updated traditional - which means mainly classic inspiration, with some twists to bring it all up to date.

3. What one make-up product can you not live without? Blush (MAC). It gives my pale cheeks life! I had a number of runners up though, including: Moisturizer (Marcelle Oil Free Multi Defense Lotion),  eylash curler, Mascara (I always wish that I had naturally dark lashes...I guess blondes get blonde lashes, so I use Marcelle Lash Extreme .I have sensitive eyes and this stuff does the trick, but can be removed easily with warm water)

4. If you could be besties with one celebrity, who would it be? Gwyneth Paltrow. I know a lot of people think she's just too much but seriously...she can cook, she's hot, she's got classic style, she travels, and she is married to a freaking rock star (oh, and if I was her BFF I probably would have gently suggested other creative kids' names. Just sayin...). Oh yah, and Sliding Doors is one of my favourite movies.

via GOOP - doesn't this look like a snapshot I took from across the table? I wish...

5. What is your dream vacation? Hmm...I have been fortunate enough to travel a fair bit, so any vacation that includes airport lounges, 1st class flights, and an opportunity to get to know local people once I'm there is totally up my alley (I don't always travel this way, but I can wish). I went travelling for 5 months after Uni, and SE Asia was a huge highlight - would love to go back to Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia. A few places that are on my list that I have not yet been to include: Morocco, Croatia, Czech Republic, and Portugal. Hawaii (Kauai) has a special place in my heart as the perfect summer vacation.

6. What magazines do you subscribe to? Style at Home, Canadian Living (that's a new one this Christmas!), MoneySense (that's the Mr's new one but I'll definitely read it).

7. If you could have a special talent {that you don't currently have}, what would it be? Drawing. I was always way better at colouring than drawing...wish I had some sort of artsy talent! I always marvel at people who have a way with art, graphics, drawing, etc.

8. What is your favorite breakfast food? I'd have to say the good old standby of bacon and eggs. Oh, and mimosas!



via Martha Stewart

9. If you could do anything, what is your dream job? See travelling - above. My dream job would be a travel editor / writer / insider, where I would get shuttled off, first class treatment, and the opportunity to do a lot of fun things for a tv show and/or magazine (for pay). Since this is a dream job, I would be able to take my time and enjoy the places I visit, not have deadlines, and be able to plan some of it myself.

10. What is your guilty pleasure? Savoury foods - I will always be the one snacking on a leftover, piece of toast, or for a 3pm snack: cheese sticks (the bread ones with crusty baked cheese on them...love).

11. What is the best piece of advice you've ever received, and who gave it to you? Ok this is likely (hopefully) not the best piece of advice I've EVER received , but it's the first one that comes to mind: You never wake up the next morning wishing you had one more drink (think about it. I have no idea where I got it from but my husband thinks it's my mantra when I go out - haha. I don't think that I can apply this to champagne though...if good bubbly is flowing, let it be).

Now to tag the next 11 bloggers:

1. RowHouseNest
2. LGRecreated
3. Dans Le Townhouse
4. Walks with Bella
5. The Design Pages
6. Calmly Chaotic
7. The236
8. First Time Fancy
9. View Along the Way
10. Oh It's Just Perfect
11. This Dusty House

Here are my 11 questions for you:
1. What is your profession?
2. How would you describe your style?
3. Salty or sweet?
4. How would you describe your ideal Sunday morning?
5. Which celeb would you want to have as a bestie?
6. What's the best book you read last year?
7. What is your dream vacation?
8. What's your guilty pleasure?
9. What are your top 3 must have make-up items?
10. What is your dream job?
11. What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?