one sweet day

To celebrate Lillian's birthday, we kidnapped her and brought her to chocolate paradise: Dunk 'n Dip (241 Lakeshore Road East, Mississauga, ON L5G 1G8). We ordered the waffles, pancakes, and turkey waffle club. With the except of the sandwich, everything was drizzled in chocolate (you got to choose between white, milk and dark chocolate). I think the waffle club would've been a lot better if they used the same waffles as their dessert waffles. Other than that, the service was great and we were stuffed and full of sugar by the end of the afternoon!

I also tried Kombucha tea for the very first time. I figured I needed it after all the junk I ate. It was actually pretty tasty and reminded me a bit of grapefruit. The tea was served in a giant mug that was as big as a bowl and came with 3 mini cookies on a skewer. 

The next time I visit, I am definitely going to go for their fondue. And maybe some of their cupcakes and macarons. And gelato.

♥ j

upcycling challenge: cardboard

What better way to celebrate Earth Day than to drag Nathan over to work on an upcycling challenge I entered at work! I wanted to use something that is readily accessible and also easy enough to work with so that I wouldn't need to buy more tools or supplies than what I already had at home. So, I decided on cardboard. I had found an image of a cardboard fruit bowl online that looked simple enough to make and was really excited to get started. Initially I had asked Nathan to draft something on AutoCAD so that we'd have a template to work off of. Little did I know that it's not quite that simple and may require more time than I had (the deadline for submissions was in 3 days) - oops. I was ready to just dive into this project and just build piece by piece, but thankfully, Nathan did a bit of research and found the people who made the original cardboard bowl (SEMdesign in the Netherlands) and they actually e-mailed us the template!

The result, was more than I had expected (although a bit stretched out cause we used thicker cardboard). It was actually quite sturdy considering we only put a few globs of white glue between each sheet. Fingers crossed that I win the contest at work! I guess I should share the prize with Nathan...

♥ j

a chilly picnic

One of my most favourite things to do in the spring (and all year round, actually) is go on picnics. Normally, Nathan would organize this and take me out, so I thought I'd surprise him this time around and pick up all his favourite picnic foods! Pictured above are his lactose-free cheddar, cured meates, pâté, jalapeño crackers, apple cider, mini focaccia, pickly beans and roasted red peppers. I brought him to our usual date night spot at Mainstreet Unionville, but had to take shelter under a small gazebo as it started to drizzle. 

Naturally, we finished everything.

♥ j

another new year to celebrate (Songkran edition)

An amazing day was had with friends, good food, good music and water guns as we celebrated the Thai new year. Since we couldn't travel all the way to Thailand, we joined in on the party on this side of the pond with the help of Khao San Road (still one of my favourite Thai restaurants). I was pleasantly surprised with the food that was available at the festival. Junk served up some fantastic pork belly skewers - $6 for 3 which is a steal when it comes to food festivals! It was also quite an experience drinking milk tea from a clear plastic bag (a first for me).

Aside from the food, the actual water fight was a blast! At first I had my reservations about squirting random strangers with a water gun, but once I got into it, I didn't really think about it anymore. I just had one goal and that was to run around and get everyone wet! This is definitely a festival that I will revisit next year and hopefully I will win the Super Soaker raffle next time around...

♥ j

two for one

Things have been a bit crazy lately so time to play catch up on the blog!

To celebrate International Macaron Day and the beginning of spring a few weeks ago, Nathan surprised me with this giant green macaron! Something that I really love about spring is the sense of renewal that comes along with it. It's almost like a second new year. A second chance to get those new year's resolutions rolling. One of the biggest challenges that I struggle with quite a bit daily, is my tendency to compare. I don't know why I do it, but it just happens so naturally. In a way, I think it's my overactive imagination, my ability to remember the smallest details, and my analytical brain that leads me to do this. I think, much like the winter frost, I need to let that tendency melt away so that I can make room for more important things in my life. Like giant macarons.

And yes, if you were wondering, the macaron was inhaled shortly after this photo was taken...

♥ j