Tuesday is a day of the week occurring after Monday and before Wednesday.

I am feeling so lazy and behind these days. Sorry for not posting and I am still not caught up on my blog reading :( You know when it seems like you have so much going on when really you don't? Or maybe I just feel that way sometimes. Or maybe it is because I'm still trying to get back into a groove from being sick. I'm finally starting to feel more like myself though and I am trying to spend a lot of time with Joe (mostly laying around watching Law and Order together) because he leaves Thursday to go to Pittsburgh and I won't be joining him for 22 days. We haven't been apart that long since he moved here almost four years ago (before then we wouldn't see each other for months at a time!). I am sad he is going and I will miss him tons, but I am really looking forward to meeting him down there for Christmas.

Soon, I'll have photos of Zoo Lights (it was really fun!) and I also got a blog award (I'm excited - even though it is from my sister, Marley) that I will post about too.

Hope you are all having a beautiful Tuesday!

PS - I'm washing my bed sheets right now, so excited, I love clean sheets!

Have a great weekend!

It seemed to take forever for the weekend to come and I am so glad it is here! Today, we had a chinook - warm winds from the coast that come over and drop down the mountains - so it was 4C today! It is crazy when the temperature can change by over 40 degrees in a few days, but that's winter!

Tonight, Joe and I are going for dinner (but I'm not sure where, he won't tell me). Tomorrow I am going for a facial, and later, Joe and I are going to Zoo Lights. During this time of year, the Calgary Zoo puts on Zoo Lights where there are Christmas lights all over the place (the photo above is from there) and some are of animals that seem to move. Then breakfast at Cora's on Sunday, yum!

Also, because I haven't been feeling too well, I need to catch up on all my favourite blogs. I feel so out of the loop.

What are your plans?

Made by Hank

I love these roundy-bottom tough ruffles zipper purses from Made By Hank.

Welcome to the second coldest place on the planet

This morning when I left for work it was -32C (-27F) but the windchill made it feel like -41C (-42F). Weather Now listed Calgary as the second coldest place on the planet.

I just checked it again right now. It is 3:32 in the afternoon, and Calgary is now the sixth coldest place on the planet. Pretty interesting.

Brrr...

It is soo cold here, brrr! I hope where you are, the weather is nice! The windchill here is -35C (-31F). I'm still not feeling great and had a fever today, so this cold is making me feel miserable.

But, now that it is snowy and cold, it is starting to seem more like Christmas - especially because the neighbours already have their Christmas lights up!

One thing I love about this time of year are the holiday movies. Here are my top 5 (which I realize are somewhat childish - but I have a special place in my heart for them!):

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Such a classic. I love it and watch it numerous times during the holidays. Every year, my mom buys me the newest Rudolph Christmas ornament, and I even have a stuffed Bumble.

Muppet Family Christmas

(not to be confused with A Muppet Christmas Carol - although that one is great too).

This one has all the Muppets, even from Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock. This one just makes me smile. I remember we taped it off tv onto VHS years ago when I was little and now it is really hard to find.

Love Actually
(finally, a more grown up one!)

I love Love Actually. It makes me feel so warm inside. It is so romantic and makes me happy. Because the story happens around Christmas, I consider it a Christmas movie (although I watch it all year round).

Frosty the Snowman

This goes hand in hand with Rudolph. I can't watch one without the other.

A Christmas Story

I actually didn't know about this movie until I was in 9th grade when my teacher, Mr. Nelson, played it for us in Language Arts class. On Boxing Day (December 26th in Canada)they play it on tv for 24 hours straight.

What are your favourite holiday movies?

Copabanana Cake

I loove banana bread, it is one of my favourites. When I was in grade school, I remember some friends and I had a Christmas party and a secret Santa. My friend, Amber, had my name, and for my gift, she gave me a loaf of banana bread that she had baked. It was one of the best secret Santa gifts ever!

Here is a recipe that I really love for Copabanana Cake from the Eat, Shrink and Be Merry cookbook. It is just a fancy name for banana bread, but it is made in a square cake pan.

Ingredients

Nonstick cooking spray
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup fat-free egg substitute, or 2 whole eggs
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup mashed, ripe bananas
1/2 cup low-fat sour cream (I actually use miracle whip instead!)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with nonstick spray and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together sugar, egg substitute and butter on medium speed of electric mixer. Add bananas, sour cream (or miracle whip) and vanilla. Beat again until smooth.

Gradually add flour mixture to banana mixture, beating after each addition. Batter will be thick. Fold in chocolate chips.

Spoon batter into prepared pan and spread evenly using a spatula. Bake for 25 to 28 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack. Cut into 16 pieces and store in an airtight container. Makes 16 servings.

ENJOY!

PS - Janet and Greta Podleski are the authors of Eat, Shrink, and Be Merry, Looneyspoons, and Crazy Plates. They contain healthy and simple to prepare recipes that have easy to find ingredients that I often already have on hand. I have never made one that I didn't like. Plus, they have really funny illustrations, hilarious recipe names, and great cooking and health tips. I recommend!

Yum in my tum!

Hollie over at and baby makes three... posted a recipe for focaccia bread that she claimed was easy and delicious, and boy, was she right! I have never made bread before and this looked pretty simple so I gave it a try. It is very yummy and was, like she said, easy.

(sorry for the very yellowish photo - the battery in our good camera was dead.)

Here is her recipe, and go check out her blog, it's awesome!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups warm water (110ºF)
1 1/2 teaspoons dry active yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 rosemary stalks, chopped finely
3 cloves garlic, chopped finely
3 cups flour + a little extra (I used half wheat flour, half unbleached all-purpose flour)
2 teaspoons olive oil

Directions:

Dissolve yeast in the water and let sit for a few minutes. Add sugar & salt and stir.

In a large bowl, mix the flours, rosemary & garlic together.

Slowly add the water mixture, stirring with a metal spoon, until you have a sticky dough.

Flour your hands, then sprinkle a little extra flour over the surface of the dough. Begin to knead the dough either in the bowl, or on a flour surface. Add a little bit of flour as needed if the dough is sticking to your hands. Knead the dough about 10-12 times.

Cover with plastic and let sit for an hour.

Preheat oven to 400ºF

Spray a baking dish with olive oil, and lightly press the dough into the dish. Pour the olive oil over the top of the bread, then poke holes all over the dough, using your finger.

Bake for 25 minutes, or until the top of the bread is golden & crisp.
(I also sprinkled the top with the grated cheese and let it melt, because I love cheese!).

Have a good weekend!

I hope you all had a good week and have a nice weekend! I've been sick the past couple days so I have been taking medicine, eating soup, and sleeping. I'm feeling better this morning but am very stuffed up. No fun. So this weekend I'm not doing much - drinking tea, staying in my pajamas, and watching movies.

What do you have planned?

Hello, Snow.

Well, on Monday night I went to sleep and there was no snow anywhere in sight. Lately, we have actually had above seasonal weather. But when winter comes, it comes. I took these photos a few hours ago, around noon on Wednesday. Winter is here!

Gift Tags

We still don't have snow here yet but there is a winter storm and heavy snowfall warning for tonight. I am going to bed and there is no snow on the ground - we'll see what I wake up to!

Even without the snow, it is starting to feel like Christmas. I love these Christmas gifts tags from Craftypagan Designs! Especially the 'Do Not Open Until Dec 25th' stickers.

Cozy

(via Oveja Negra)

I love this! Looks so cozy and I like braided belt! Lately, I have been looking in my closet and getting so frustrated. Now that it is cold, I just want wraps and sweaters.

Have a great weekend!

(photo via libertyworkshop)

This week was exhausting. Lately, I have been working at 7 am and sometimes working 10 hour days; I have been going to bed so early! It hasn't left me much time to sit down and blog - or read blogs - or think of what to blog about.

This weekend, I'm going to relax! Tomorrow I am meeting my friend Kayla for tea. Then going shopping with Joe. Sunday - I am going to do nothing. Maybe I will just stay in bed alllll day.

What are you doing this weekend?

Sufjan Stevens

Sufjan Stevens is one of my favourite artists. This one is called For the Windows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti. A few other favourite tracks of mine include: Chicago, To be Alone with You, Jacksonville, Springfield, or Bobby Got a Shadfly in His Hair, and The Predatory Wasps of the Palisades is Out to Get Us!

My Saturday

Walking to the Chinese Cultural Centre to meet Teira for Make It Calgary!

Inside! So many great booths. It took a lot of control not to buy more than I did.

Oh no. Feather headbands! After the woman selling them stopped obsessing over Teira's magnificent natural red hair, we spent probably half an hour trying to decide which headbands we wanted. It was such a tough choice and we could each only afford one. I think we made good choices in the end.

I ended up with a beautiful peacock feather one (Teira took a great picture at the market - but it was accidentally deleted when I was going through my photos last night. So this one will do). I LOVE it! What do you think?


We also each got a Scrabble tile necklace pendent. Our initial on one side and a picture on the other.

Later that day, Joe and I went to the mall and got frozen yogurt. His was chocolate pineapple peach (weird combo - but that's Joe!) and I got vanilla raspberry peach. Yummy!

I also found my perfect red lipstick. I have been looking for awhile and found one shade at Sephora I liked. I wasn't sure if it looked at good as I thought - so after approval by both Teira and Joe, I committed. It is called Courtisane by Sephora.

Later that evening, we met my little brother Cody for dinner. So it was a pretty successful and fun Saturday.

This morning Joe and I slept in (we got an extra hour thanks to the time change) then I went to the gym, and to pick up a few groceries. Pineapples were on sale which made me very, very happy - I love pineapple! So these past few days have made me feel a lot better after last week.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Have a good weekend!

Sorry for my lack of posts this week. I had hard week and was feeling pretty down about myself; but thank you all for your nice comments! It was really encouraging to read them :) Today was a nice day though. After work, I met with my family at a big mall in the city and got to spend a bit of time with my niece and nephew (that makes me so happy!). After that, I wasn't quite ready to go home yet so I met up with Teira and we hung out together. Being around people you love always seems to help.

Tomorrow I am meeting with Teira again (We are making a strong effort to see each other often) and we are going to Make It Calgary, another market full of handmade items by local designers and crafters. Maybe I will find some treasures or Christmas gifts. Then I am spending the afternoon with Joe and maybe heading to the Globe Cinema downtown because they are showing The Big Lebowski (love it!).

Sunday, I'm going to relax and maybe make some banana bread.

What are your plans for the weekend?

PS - On November 11th, it is Remembrance Day in Canada. Around this time of year, Canadians pin poppies close their hearts to show that we will never forget the sacrifices of those in military service and to remember those who have fallen in war. In Flanders, poppies grew abundant among battlegrounds and cemeteries where casualties of WWI were buried. John McCrae wrote a poem called In Flanders Fields that is often read on Remembrance Day and is also on our $10 bill. Therefore, the picture of the poppies, and why we wear them. Lest we forget.

Don Drapper says "What?"

Wow. Never realized he says 'what' so much. *sigh* I love Don Draper.

Blah

This week hasn't been very good so far, but instead of thinking sad thoughts, I am trying to think happy thoughts. This puppy makes me happy. Isn't he cute? I'll have one one day.