cinco de mayo

Kidnapped to celebrate Cinco de Mayo at Planeta Mexico with some churros and ice cream. Mmm...

♥ j

may the fourth be with you

With our lightsaber freezies. Nathan gave me the evil colour...

♥ 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

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

tealicious

When Nathan parked the car and said that he had a surprise mini date planned, I was worried that he was bringing me to this small convenience store ...

But it turns out, we were going for tea and pastries! We tried out some iced teas at tealish - an almond milk chai latte for him and a hibiscus and pear iced tea for me. Then we walked over to Nadege and ate, what I believe to be, the best chocolate pistachio pastry I've ever had. We also had a pistachio and salted caramel macaron, but the salted caramel just doesn't compare to Moroco's. It was tasty nonetheless!

i ♥ surprises

two eight on twenty

1 invitation to dîner en blanc

2 kidnapped to a market

3 surprise dinner number one at diana's oyster bar & grill

4 surprise lunch at goody's diner

5-8 surprise picnic dinner and shakespeare in high park

9 picnic & paint party with my signature lychee raspberry lemonade

10 homemade paint

11 painting competition

12 drying canvases

13 one happy birthday girl

My birthday weekend was a whirlwind of surprises, painting, and picnics. It was a roll-out-of-bed-no-make-up-don't-brush-your-hair-and-wear-comfy-clothes kind of weekend and I must say, I loved every moment of it! I have the most fantastic friends in the world who are always willing to embrace and participate in all my silly ideas - even if it involves using jelly paint under the hot sun. I don't think there could've been a better way to celebrate adding another tally to my age :)

p.s I am definitely going to blog about number 3 and 4, but have way too many restaurants on my to-blog list dating back to January. Where does the time go?

♪ :: simple plan featuring sean paul :: summer paradise

restaurantacular

 

Lately, I've been feeling like I'm missing out on all the events in the city - Taste of Little Italy, Taste of Asia, Rib Fest to name a few. So today, Nathan whisked me away after work to Restaurantacular! It took place midtown with many of the local restaurants offering $2, $4, and $6 nibbles and samplers.

on our menu

$6 halibut & chips @ penrose fish and chips

$4 mango salad @ the friendly thai

$12 assorted tapas, a chipotle pulled pork sandwich & a goji berry green tea (very refreshing) @ pimenton

$2 salad @ culinarium

$5 fruit tart & a slice of apple blueberry pie @ the flaky tart

I am absolutely in love with the pie and tart crust from the flaky tart. I wish they made a pie filled with just crumble crumbs. Culinarium, an interesting little shop that supports local, organic and sustainable products, also stood out during our food adventure so I will definitely revisit this one in the future. And although I'm no fish & chips connoisseuse, I really enjoyed the halibut & chips at penrose...though I might have been more smitten by the look and feel of the shop than the food itself (it gives me an excuse to visit this place again).

Since I was caught off guard with this mini date, I didn't have my camera so my pictures are a bit grainy - I'm just happy I was able to capture the evening at all!

I ate entirely too much, but am feeling over the moon!

♪ :: ingrid michaelson :: you and i

275/425 pages

275/425 pages makes Nathan take me out on a break date with a crispy bubble waffle and pear juice :)

♪ :: jason aldean featuring kelly clarkson :: don't you wanna stay

back to reality

What a trip! My three weeks in Hong Kong were definitely a blast, but by the end of it I was exhausted and couldn't have been more excited to go home to my family and friends. So when I saw Nathan at the airport with a sign with my name on it holding a flower, I melted a little :)

I'll miss you Hong Kong, but there's really no place like home.

take me away

surprise flowers from nathan when I was having a bad day

one of the flowers fell off before it blossomed so I gave it a little home in a mini jam jar

(nathan didn't believe that it'd blossom!) 

I have been horrible with my blog lately, but I do have a pretty awesome excuse: Japh is taking on Hong Kong for 3 weeks! This is why the past little while has been filled with getting everything ready for the trip and also trying to tie up any loose ends at work. This will be the first time I'm visiting Hong Kong and so I have made a list of to-dos while I'm there which really is just a list of restaurants that I want to eat at...

à bientôt tout le monde!

little surprises

November has been filled with little surprises from all directions. First, my aunt decided to buy me my long sought after perfume that finally went on sale. Then Nathan surprised me with a mini care package and a slice of my favourite cake when I was feeling under the weather. All this combined with a lot of Christmas shopping (yes, I've already started...) is turning November into quite a therapeutic month - of the retail variety!

Happy retail therapy-ing everyone!

wires and beads

 

tools that look like little chimney sweeper brushes

Roughly 3 weeks ago (I am playing catch up on my blog), my thoughtful and super fantastic friend, Shannon, took me out on a surprise birthday celebration. Although my birthday isn't actually until the middle of July, the "thing" that she wanted to do was only offered once every several months which is why we celebrated a tad early. Where did she take me? To a jewelry making class! I had thought about starting this new hobby roughly a year ago, but like with many of my hobbies, I tend to start and not follow through with any of them - not out of lack of interest, but more because of poor time management and my surprisingly busy life.

the Devil's Workshop is the little black shop on the left 2 doors down from the green Fresh shop

She enrolled us in Wire Work Basics at The Devil's Workshop. It was a small class with only 3 other people that day. The instructor was friendly and most of all, very encouraging. It seems that I am a natural at working with wire! It must be from that one independent project that I did in high school for my art class that involved making a head our of wire. We were taught how to make 2 types of earrings (I should maybe consider getting my ears pierced one of these days...) and 1 ring (we had seen a similar one being sold at the One of a Kind Arts & Crafts show for $20+).

Shannon hard at work at her workstation

What made the day even more wonderful was knowing that Shannon is not one to participate in such activities but she took the time and effort to plan the event and actually go through the class with me. I later told Nathan about Shannon's birthday surprise and told him that he has a lot to live up to. He then said that he wouldn't be able to top Shannon's gift so he's decided to just not do anything for my birthday this year. Men...

 our unfinished rings

quatre

On Tuesday June 14th, Nathan and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary. He had schemed with my friend to surprise me after class with a picnic at our local park :) We found a shady spot under a tree and had ourselves a relaxing afternoon sipping on lemonade and stuffing ourselves with hummus and pâté.

 Nathan layered our berry dessert so that it'd look like a cake - after the picture was taken, I destroyed the layers by picking out all the raspberries

the raspberries tasted like candy

 there is something extra delicious about drinking ice cold lemonade out of a re-used Grolsch bottle

 the bird that hung out with us all afternoon

 baking on a giant rock

Later in the evening, Nathan brought me downtown for dinner at a secret restaurant. At first I thought he was going to take me to Mercatto's (the new location at Eaton Centre) because we went to the mall to kill some time. But then I later found out that we were going to Terroni's instead! I've been wanting to try this restaurant for quite some time now.

cool wall decor

 our lightbulb

a pear nectar drink that ended up tasting a bit like raisins

I had thought that dinner was the last surprise of the day because it was a weekday and we old folk need to rest early, but Nathan said that we were going to do a bit of walking before heading home. I was thinking we'd head somewhere outdoors for an evening stroll, but after 2 minutes of walking, he stops in front of the Canon Theatre. He had bought us tickets for Billy Elliot! I was surprised and thrilled and squealing like a high school girl! Although we were 10 minutes late for the show (Nathan had thought that the show started at 7:30) and some people stole our awesome seats (we got them back after intermission), I had an amazing time. What a great show and a great day! It was definitely the perfect kick start to year 5 :)

did I mention that he had flowers waiting for me in the car seat when he picked me up from school?
dreamy sigh

♥