broken internet

my internet has been broken since the day after my last post. my roommate unplugged our modem a little too fast, and it sparked and blew (less dramatic than it sounds).

life without the internet has been weird.

our nations mail system is on strike. our new modem FINALLY arrived today, and I spent a good hour on the phone with their friendly customer service rep - who found me quite amsuing. not anyone will liken fixing the internet to a new years countdown, tell him about the cookie dough she is eaating, or complain about keyboards when the French button has been pressed and (shift)2 is no longer @.

I'll make up for my absence tomorrow. as for now, I'm going to go play on the internet...

weekend

 Good Friends

(I'm on the left)

Good Games

Stilts and Washer Toss! (My 1st ever ringer in Washer Toss!! woooot woooot)

Good Drinks

Good Sunset

Good weekend!

things for friday

Boy am I ready for the weekend. I've got 1 quiet night and 1 wild night planned. Equally looking forward to both.
Here are a few things I am loving lately. My "things for friday", round 1.

I first saw Jackie over on http://mealsandmovesblog.com/ . I see a lot of things over there I like :) Jackie is rocking my core and my arms with this dvd.

 

NEW SHOES!!! I saw a girl wearing the top pair while I was out a few weeks ago. I asked her where she got them, and went out the other day to buy them! I do this all the time and enjoy it when someone does it to me. It just shows you made a great purchase.  The 2 on the bottom are a big change for me. Being 5'9, I NEVER wear heels. Until now. I don't know what happened, but I'm loving (small) heels. Feel free to mock me for calling these heels. All my friends do, as they walk around in 4-inchers.

An acceptance letter for my Master's Degree! WAhoooooooo! Back to school (while continuing to work) I go !

My sweet baby niece, Violet. She is 2.5 months old, and is smiling on her own, which is just the sweetest thing I have ever seen. (photo credit - lance lee photography)

Happy Weekend.

Will you weekend be quiet or wild? Or a nice mix of both?

peanut butter and chocolate procrastination

Sup Blogworld!

Life is busy! This is one of (if not THE) busiest times of the year for me. Lucky for you (me? I don't think anyone reads this but me), I am awesome at procrastinating .  For example, tonight instead of doing work that needs to be done, I vacuumed the apartment, put away the clothes off the drying rack, baked cookies, filled all my jars with dry goods, and am now blogging.  Typical.

The other day, when I was making those 12 lovely enveloped and their contents, while reading blogs of course, my eyes fell upon a recipe. A combination of things I don't usually enjoy - peanut butter and chocolate. I LOVE chocolate, and I LOVE peanut butter. So much so in fact, when I was younger, my brother used to tease me for only eating 2 things (besides dessert), peanut butter sandwiches and pancakes. I love them both, independently of one another. I've tasted many a combo and it's been allright, but never love. Well this my friends, was true love.

As I was melting the butter on the stove, I realized I was out of brown sugar. Had this been any other evening, I would have scrapped the whole thing, but as I was procrastinating, I decided to run out and get some. Am I ever glad I did.

I also picked up some chocolate chips to be on the safe side.

Although I took no pictures of the process, here it is when I put it in the oven.

Have you ever seen the episode of Sex and the City when Miranda is eating a chocolate cake. Every time she walks past the cake, she slices off a little piece. Eventually she throws the damn thing in the garbage......and then fishes it out of the garbage to have another piece. These squares were like this for me.... except I didn't throw them in the garbage. I did drop the L bomb about them earlier, and that is a word I won't waste on the garbage.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, peanut butter and chocolate, who knew?

Recipe is here*:

http://www.eatliverun.com/chocolate-chip-peanut-butter-swirl-blondies/

*seeing as I am new to blogging, I am not familiar with blog etiquette. I love this recipe, and feel the need to share this recipe, so I am linking this recipe. I hope that is how it works. If not, my sincerest apologies.

crafty, winey love

This weekend I celebrated the anniversary with my love. We have been together for one short year, but it`s been the best year I have ever spent with someone.

I got the idea for my gift to him here:
http://jordanferney.blogspot.com/2011/04/envelope-surprise.html

So, I made 12 envelopes, and put a different gift in each one. Things like cd`s (he just got a new car that doesn`t fit his i-pod. His old car ONLY fit an i-pod), a bottle of wine, batch of cookies, homemade coupons, etc. He loved it!! He brought me to my favourite area of our provience, and took me on a few Wineary tours. It was a lovely, lovely weekend.

It started with breakfast in bed. He brought me my summertime favourite. Greek yog, strawberries and granola. Not just any granola, but my homemade granola. I have been trying out granola recipes for ages, searching and modifiying to find the perfect one. I think I may have found it.

I used this ``basic granola formula``
http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2010/11/basic_granola_formula.php

Here are my specifics:
3 cups oats
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup quinoa
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1/2 tsp sea salt
3 tbsp coconut oil
5-6 tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
5 tbsp of ground flax soaked in 5 tbsp of water
small handful chocolate chips
bake at 300 for 25 ish minutes. I stirred every 7 minutes or so. I took it out when it looked just about done, then let it sit a bit. (and tested a bit;) SOOOOO delish.

I personally don`t like dried fruit. I personally LOVE and need chocolate. I used the nuts I had on hand. I had tried quinoa in granola I made before and enjoyed it, which is why I added it here.

Squares from last post coming soon. In the meantime, go make this granola. Add what you like. You WON`T be sorry !

crafting

I have been busy crafting this evening....

I have also been busy eating this evening.....

.......It takes a lot of squares to fuel such crafting!

More to come soon...

to box or not to box?

Helllllooooo!
Yes, I am still alive. Medium forgot I created this blog. Definetly forgot to photo document my life. Whoops! I had to wait until my lovey tax return came back to buy a camera. If you are thinking about starting a blog, I'd say the 2 most neessary items are a computer and a camera. I only had half of these items. Silly time to start a blog, eh? Ah well, now I'm ready to go.

The title of this post does not refer to boxing the sport. Not a big fan actually.  Can't say I like seeing people fight. It's all about boxed baking mixes-you know, just add water. You know, no fail. Well, let me tell you, blog land, I fail at boxed baking mixes a lot. Brownies, cakes, doesn't matter, I eff it up. I don't know how this is possible, but somehow, it is.

Anyways, I thought I'd try a new-to-me pancake mix. I have read all about Kodiak on several blogs, but hae never, ever seen it in stores. Being from Canada that is no surprise. Lots and lots of products reviewed on blogs is unavaiable in my dear country. I just put the product name in my brain bank for my next visit to the US. Then I saw a box of Kodiak Cakes in Winners. WOOOOOOAH momma!

It was the May 2-4 long weekend. I decided to celebrate with pancakes. So, I poured myself a cup of coffee (or 3....), threw on my favourite cartigan, and got to work!

1/2 cup of mix and a 1/2 cup of water. No fail. Although it was really watery. I prefer my pancakes to be a little thicker. I guess I should have put in a bit more mix at this point.... but I thought, maybe they will magically thicken up on their own?

After they didn't magically thicken up on their own (speaking of magic, I saw the preview for the final Harry Potter movie last night, looks amazzzzzzzing!!!), I got all my fixings ready. Pancakes topped with greek yogurt (new to Canada and my heart), strawberries (bring on summer!), local pure maple syrup, and unsweetened coconut flakes. I believe almond butter was also in the mix.

And the grand finale...... I forgot to take a picture of. Whoops!!! Being a blogger is hard work. I don't know how y'all do it.  These pancakes were devine (although next time I will add less water). Made with all natural, prounancable ingredients, and 100% whole grains, they were 100% my style. One of the best mixes I`ve ever used.