My Weekly Adventures: Shopping Hauls Recap

We’re already halfway through December! Its kind of crazy to think there’s only 16 more days and its 2019. I’m pretty happy to see 2018 go away because it seems to have been a tough year for everyone that I’ve talked to. I know on my end that as bad as things are, when I look back, I see that things did turn out to have the best results out of a bad situation, so glass half full, right? Its how I stay positive. I’ll do a year in review in the next weekly adventures. Not sure together or separate post yet. I guess it depends on time and how I want to structure it. Its a lot of housekeeping behind the scenes going on for the blogs and projects right now. However, there were a few little things that went on this past 2 weeks so let’s check it out! If you follow my Instagram, then you might have seen some of this…

Salon des Metiers D’Art de Montreal

The Salon is back in town and smaller and shorter than previous years. However, I am now a veteran at this place. There are places that I haven’t tried before and some cool ideas but somehow I ended up picking up stuff from the usual and some returning stalls that weren’t there last year (or I missed it? I don’t remember). So let’s take a look at what I picked up:

• Cidrerie du Minot – Ice Cider
• Cryo – Ice Cider
• La Nougaterie – Nougat – Christmas, Lavender, Chocolate, Classic
• Coach House Shortbread – Sugar Plum, Rose and Almond, Ginger flavors
• Nutra Fruit – Dark Chocolate covered Cranberries
• Courtesy of my friend’s honey wine purchase, a gift of Confit of Onions

Most of these are either gifts or things to share for upcoming festivities with family and friends.

Signé Local – Square Dix30

The husband and I finally went to Signé Local in Quartier Dix30 which is a store full of local artisan products. Its like Salon des Metiers d’arts everyday. I’m really trying to support more local products because I’ve bought some really durable and great stuff so I’ve been wanting to go see this spot since it opened earlier this year. Its nice that we went because I found a few things:

• Oomph Popcorn Seasoning- Vegan Maple BBQ Flavor
• Les As Du Fumoir – Smoked Salt
• U’nhiver – Handmade Winter Hat + Extra Pompom

Ooomph is one that we’ve bought before and its pretty nice. The sales rep there told us that some people actually use the seasoning for other things. It is a pretty good idea. As for the hat, its pretty cool because you can remove the pompom. It has a snap button (is that what you call it?) and the second pompom was an extra $10. Its pretty nice because not only is being able to change the pompom pretty fun but whenever these hats go into wash (which this one needs to be handwashed anyways) its nice to remove the pompom because its what wears out the most.

Grocery Trip to Plattsburgh, USA

TARGET Haul:

• Winter Oreo
• Sugar Cookie Pop Tarts
• Frosted Nerds
• Quaker Oatmeal Medleys
• Lacroix: Passionfruit, Cran-raspberry, Tangerine
• Sierra Mist
• Candy Cane
• Larabar: Snickerdoodle, Strawberry Chocolate Chip

PRICECHOPPER Haul:

• Fresh Bagels
• KIND Granola Bars
• Popcorn (because it was on sale and we needed it)

WALMART Haul:

• Cape Cod: Wave Reduced Salt, Waffle Cut
• Crunchy Rice Rollers: Mixed Berry
• Larabar: Mint Chip Brownie
• KIND granola bars 12-bar value pack
• Ritz Bacon

I haven’t gone across the border (a lot, like once earlier this year) for many reasons in the past few years. Mostly it is because of the fact that our exchange rate is absolutely stupid low. After I saw the foreign exchange on my transactions, I kind of regret it again but then it had some cool vegan snacks and whatnot, flavors and such that aren’t sold here. Most of the stuff I bought aren’t sold in Canada or else I would feel that it wasn’t exactly worth it. However, it was a nice trip.

Holiday Marathon Update

We’re two weeks into the holiday marathon. Its been going pretty on track with posts related to Christmas every other day. Its been quite a batch of stuff from books to movies to TV binges. You can find it all updated as the reviews go up on the page HERE.

We have another 10 days to go and a few other things in my plans. Hopefully you’ll stick around and keep checking out what I’ve dug up from Netflix and my Kindle and such.

Housekeeping/Planning Ahead/Catching Up

December also brings on a bunch of housekeeping. You will see that most of my indexes are being updated and should be all ready by the time we hit the new year. They are all currently updated to the end of November (if I remember correctly). As for planning ahead, I’ve talked about a few things here and there between this and the What’s Up posts so I’m debating a few structural things but unsure about how committed I will be to a fixed schedule because that is usually when things fall apart. Considering that sort of thing and figuring out how to fit everything I want to keep and maybe what I’m not so dedicated to anymore because I added a good few new segments last year and revived a few as well. Suffice to say, taking everything into consideration, I also have a lot of catching up and backlog. I’m fairly confident that by the end of the year all the movie backlog will be done because its all double features that I’ve already paired off. And books is all done except for one which I can’t figure out how to do for the past few months and ended up rereading at least 2 times. The main thing is TV series and the fact that I’m debating something really ambitiously stupid or doing something more sensible but something I had wanted to do for the past few years but never figured out how to structure it around what’s here. A lot of thinking going on but 2019 overview will talk about all of that and we’ll even go back and talk about some of the achievements this year in 2018 in the next weekly adventures to wrap up the year (if not in a separate post).

I’m sorry to keep talking about this if I’ve talked about it before. To be honest, I don’t remember much sometimes and this adventures post has felt slightly empty so I just wanted to use this space to share some vague thoughts.

Cute Kitty Pics

**I realized that I forgot to post a cute kitty pic in the last weekly adventures so here’s two this time to make up for it! My cat is enjoying the fireplace and basement hangout time a lot to say the least. **

That’s it for this Weekly Adventures!
What have you been up to? Have you started Christmas shopping yet?

Salon des Metiers d’Arts de Montreal Haul & Recap

And its the final weekend for Salon des Metiers d’Arts de Montreal. If you didn’t get a chance to check out the show this year, well, there’s probably next year since its been going for quite a few years already. Granted the structure has changed quite a bit in their vendors and such, its always a fun tradition to go every year and just see whats there and look around. This year, I was holding back on spending too heavily and particularly the food and wine area had much less choices so it helped a lot.

Unfortunately, I didn’t end up picking anything too different from previous years. I will however highlight some cool vendors that I saw to change things up a bit. Just because I can’t afford it right now, doesn’t mean that I can’t share some unique ideas and products that I would have totally picked up something if I had the chance in the future. I’ve been really into highlighting local art and food and all that sort of stuff lately. Just goes to show that you don’t need to speak perfect French or be hardcore Quebecois all for separation to support the things you love about the beautiful city and province.

Let’s check it out!

Haul

The first visit to the Salon was all about the food. I picked up:

• Cidrerie du Minot – Des Glaces: Winter Harvest (Limited Edition)
• Coach House Shortbread: Ginger
• Coach House Shortbread: Almond & Sugared Rose
• La Nougaterie: Christmas
• La Nougaterie: Lavender
• La Nougaterie: Classic
• La Nougaterie: Dark Chocolate

Everything here is really very typical. I actually skipped out on Cidrerie du Minot last year however I did remember liking their ice ciders a lot the year before so I ended up picking the Winter Harvest (Recolte Hivernale) up which is something of a reserve product and it has some delicious flavors. We’re a big fan of the La Nougaterie nougats and this year, they brought back the Christmas and had the Dark Chocolate which I totally love. As for the Coach House Shortbread, its a big favorite for the holidays as it is smaller cookies and work really well to share with friends and just take little bites that melt. Its so awesome. Ginger is my normal fave flavor but I remember trying out almond and sugared rose last year (and this year) and it was really good as well.

The second visit to the Salon happened yesterday with my co-worker (as we usually do go together) and we check out the art and craft area instead of the food part. I ended up picking up a few things:

Pottery Hazama

I’ve put off buying from Pottery Hazama for a few years and finally this year, I decided to buy one. There are a few different designs like hearts, cats and christmas trees. This year, they had a star design. The designer told me that it represents good fortune (or something along the line). It looks beautiful and I just couldn’t resist and its hung on the Christmas tree now.

Ana Maria Dessin

I’ve been searching for a wallet for a long time. My wallet is actually falling apart but to find one that fit everything I had in there as well was always a challenge. Then I saw Ana Maria Dessin at the show and originally I was captured by the hot air balloon print originally but then I turned around to take a second look and saw the floral collection which leads to me finding this wallet which is exactly what I want. After thinking for it long and hard, since it is $68CAD for it, I went back to get it especially because its made with leather and print canvas and the design said that its very durable. I’m sure hoping it will be because I love it.

Places I Love
(but put on the backburner)

• De Tete et De Bois: This stall has been one that catches my eye every single year that I go except I never can figure out where to put the little canvas if I end up picking one up. We still have art and puzzles to put on the walls so I can’t justify buying one yet. Hopefully next year I’ll sort it out and pick one up.
• Sol Designs: I believe this one is new to the show this year and they had these really cool wood-looking purses. Its a very unique product.
• Ju et les imparfaits: This store makes little lamps with wood bases and it looks absolutely adorable.
• Fil de Fee: If you love hanging designs and cute fairies, this one is absolutely recommended. I saw them and fell in love with it.
• Baltic Club: Stationery and gifts with some great design
• Ana N Jay: Geometrical jewellery which looks so very cool.
• Christophe Poly: Handmade Crono Design jewellery. I actually have a few of these but they designed some new bangles that are absolutely beautiful.
• Lolipop: Blown Glass jewellery is what this place offered and has some nice designs and especially catchy colors.

That’s it for recap and haul for Salon des Metiers D’art!
I’m really happy with the stuff I got and wishing that I had more money so I could pick up some of the stuff I mentioned at the end one day.

Salon des Metiers d’Arts of Montreal Haul!

Winter is here! Christmas is right around the corner. What does this mean? Gift shopping and every year for the last few years, I would go with friends to check out the Salon des Metiers d’Arts de Montreal. In translation, it is the Montreal Arts and Crafts Show.

This show has free entrance and especially for the food and wine vendors, there are free tastings. Another addition is that it focuses on smaller Quebec vendors (at least nearby). It is a great place to see what is new on the market and learn about the new products.

Usually, I go to these shows and pick up ice ciders or ice wines but this year, somehow I had a change of heart and focused on other things. Maybe its because we went to the Magog event: Festival des Vendanges (post HERE). Lets check it out! 🙂

Timothee Tartinier Gourmand

I actually picked up two items from this place. The other one I split with my friend and I forgot to take it back which is a roasted hazelnut spread. This one up there is gourmet popcorn with flavors of chocolate, vanilla and caramel. It was my husband’s gift for all the hard work and long hours he’s had to endure the last few weeks. He tasted it and loved it. You can check out this place HERE.

Ferme Guy Rivest

Have you ever tasted fruit pearls? I haven’t. I’ve seen them before and they look cool. I just never figured out how it would work with what we eat and didn’t see the need for it. This year, I wanted to try something new and these ladies looked nice so I went over to try it out. The passion they have for these products are fantastic. Ferme Guy Rivest sells five flavors (I believe): strawberry, raspberry, apple, blueberry and cranberry. If I’m missing well, you can always go check out their site HERE. I ended up getting the raspberry. They suggested to use it either as a topping on appetizers like cracker and cheese (which was their display product) or its good to put inside champagne or wine which is what I intend on doing.

i-Sens

A  new vendor at the show (I think) is this gourmet maple syrup/fruit pearls/organic tea place called iSens. The owner is chef and world traveller Philippe Morin and the maple syrup, from what he tells me is sold internationally. I bought this vanilla flavored maple syrup but also tried their Yuzu flavor and Ginseng one as well. While those latter two were pretty good, I just couldn’t decide who I could give it to that would appreciate it the same way and how to use it. However, Vanilla is also quite gourmet and there was no hesitation in getting it. It seems good to make desserts or pancakes. You can check out iSens and their products, including the fruit pearls which have mango and passion fruit flavors HERE.

La Nougaterie

I buy from La Nougaterie every year. They make delicious soft nougat. My absolute fave is Christmas Nougat which they didn’t have last year so I made it point to get it this year. Its great to cut up into pieces and serve at parties. My husband likes the honey and almond and chocolate ones so I get those for him. I’m thinking of giving away the Lavender as a little gift. Lavender is a tricky ingredient to use but they actually retain a good balance, floral but never overpowering. We also went to their shop at Ile d’Orleans a year or two ago. You can check it out HERE. Did I mention that they expanded their line quite a bit with meringue and candies and my absolute fave, marshmallows!

Coach House Shortbread Company

Also, a recent addition to annual buys which works so cute as gifts. I believe in giving food as gifts a lot because its absolutely great to have and its something to share with everyone especially as a general gift. While they come in salty flavors with cheese and herbs in four different varieties, I always go for these sweet ones. I usually would get sugar plum since its so festive but this year, I changed that up for Lavender and the other two flavors are Ginger (which is for myself) and Dark Chocolate/Fleur de Sel. There’s a ton of other flavors and you can find them HERE.

Domaine Labranche

I can’t go to these shows and not buy at least one bottle of ice cider, right? C’mon! That just wouldn’t be right. Fire Cider didn’t quite originate in this show with Domain Labranche but we’re not here to talk about that company. However, Domaine Labranche stole my heart last year when they introduced Fire Cider but as a hot cider drink. You can make it with cinnomon stick and it’ll have this delicious apple and cinnamon smell that just gives off a lovely scent through the house. Its like the drink you picture drinking on a cold winter’s night and its snowing outside and the fireplace is roaring. Yeah…the thought of it all was what happened when I had the fire cider so there was no question when I tasted it again and just fell in love again. I’m actually starting to like fire ciders quite a bit. The way its made gives the drink a nice smooth taste. You can check out Domaine Labranche HERE.

We learned at the show that they also are a vineyard, orchard and maple shack. Maybe we’ll consider it the next time we look for those activities.

Rustique Design by Pascal Normand

Surprising that it isn’t food to end it all off, right? I’ve been looking for artwork for some walls on my house. We’ve moved in for two years and its been a gradual climb to getting it all decorated. As much as I do have complaints about Montreal here and now, which I don’t share here, Montreal is a beautiful city and adding in the rustic feeling on some of the landmarks makes for a really nice touch. This art is called Rustique Design by Pascal Normand. You can check out more HERE.

And thats it! Montreal Crafts Show had a few new vendors. There are still a lot of the same but in general, its a nice place to get gift ideas and seeing as its free entrance, even if you don’t pick up anything, its a nice 2 to 3 hour walking away activity, which is always fun.