My May Adventures!

Its hard to believe that we’ve already finished 5 months of 2021. Its been a pretty wild beginning of the year in all aspects. Things definitely feel like its slowly getting back to some form of normalcy. I’m hoping that I didn’t jinx anything especially in terms of work. This month has been quite the slow month in terms of post and one where I needed to just remind myself that I needed to be okay with slowing down blogging to get the real life stuff done. With that said, I’m slowly getting back into the groove of things and yet again, playing a little bit of catch up again by the end of the May. Not a whole lot happened since the last weekend (the past Friday) just allowed to travel inter-regions so hiking has started yet so its been very focused around the home. Either way, lets check it out!

Workout

May 2: Walk 1.17km/14 mins
May 8: Walk 3.79km/42 mins
May 9: Walk 2.17km/25 mins
May 14: Walk 3.97km/43mins
May 16: Walk 1.11km/14mins
May 21: Walk 3.13km/34mins
May 22: Walk 1.09km/15mins
May 23: Walk 2.12km/26mins
May 24: Walk 2.33km/28mins
May 28: Walk 2.10km/25mins
May 29: Walk 1.59kkm/20mins

Nothing much to say this time. I’ve been having slight sleeping issues. Not exactly insomnia but just maybe a little stress and anxiety so affecting sleep so energy level is a bit low making the running not going right away. Plus, we’ve had a pretty hot May in general so as I dig out all my running gear. I decided to maintain walking at the minimum whenever I could (within curfew hours). Curfew was lifted this past weekend also meaning that I can now go for more walks as daylight is a little longer and eventually get back to running as well as hiking.

Garden Centre Haul

We went to the garden center earlier this year to hopefully get a few more plants. Things are definitely back to normal this year as there is a wild assortment of different vegetables and herbs. With a slight expansion of the garden, we’re hoping to plant more although some of these are going into containers and being planted indoors since the zonage doesn’t work either. With that said, I’m fairly certain it won’t be the only trip to the garden center as the front yard didn’t seem to enjoy the abnormal weather fluctuations and a few plants haven’t popped up yet so its a perfect chance to rearrange it and hopefully do a little change to make it look better. Also, I’m seeing what I can do to add borders so that the plants don’t get accidentally mowed when they aren’t in blooming season.

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1st Dose of COVID-19 Vaccination

After a few months of the vaccination campaign, my age group finally was opened in May and the fastest that I could get on a weekend and not affecting work too much was on May 29th for the 1st dose. Overall, it was a decent reaction as I only had arm pain but it wasn’t anything too intense. It probably hurt the most at night but gradually subsided over the next day. I had talked to some others and they talks about staying hydrated being a big part of it and keeping the arm moving. Nothing too intense in terms of movement but just keep blood circulation going and whatnot. Not sure if that contributed it to not having a bigger reaction but a little of my own experience in case you haven’t gotten the first dose yet. My second dose is in mid-September so its a little way away. Still, its a first step.

Optometrist Check-Up

Its been a tad overdue for all kinds of check-up in general due to the pandemic so I’m slowly getting everything back on track. After a year of way too much time in front of the PC for everything including an immense amount of time doing overtime, I decided that I needed to get an eye check-up since my eyes have been not feeling too great so wondering whether I needed new glasses plus, there’s some weird scratches on the glasses and the frames are losing color so I figured I should get some new frames. Good news is that my eyes didn’t get any worse and overall pretty healthy just astigmatism went up a tiny bit. The second which is good and bad is that I got some new glasses even though I haven’t paid so much for glasses as I would get them out of province but seeing as traveling restrictions, I had no choice. However, I did find glasses that I really like. It’ll be a little while until I get them so next month’s adventures will probably be when I give an update on it.

Cute Kitty Pic

That’s it for this month’s Adventures!
What have you been up to?
Has the pandemic situation wherever you are doing better overall?

My April 2021 Adventures!

Welcome to the April 2021 Adventures! Its a tad later than usual. I have a pretty good reason is that: nothing really happened in April except work and a lot of work and then overtime and….a whole lot of nothing else. So I was debating whether to release the post. But you know what, I did get back on track with something and whatnot so I’m going to just do quick one and share some updates.

Workout

Apr.9: Run 4.35km
Apr.10: Walk 15mins.
Apr. 11: Abs Workout
Apr. 14: 34 mins/3.09km walk
Apr. 17: 30 mins/2.41km walk
Apr. 18: 53 mins/4.39 km walk
Apr. 24: 28 mins/2.58km walk
Apr. 25: 13 mins/1.22 km walk

The biggest change in April was that, despite the busy work schedule, I tried really hard to get more active. I only did one run and workout but overall, I tried to force myself to go out deliberately on walks outside of the normal routine. I put on a lot of weight in the last few months due to work and stress and the whole nine yards so its been making me feel a little unhappy about the whole thing so the best way to get active again. It was pretty good since it not only was getting me more active but also the walks helped me de-stress and refresh between work and overtime and actually made everything a little more efficient.

April is over so I’ll probably be doing more runs than walks in May as the weather steadies and I hopefully will have more time.

Tranquil Dreams Podcast

As of the last episode, Tranquil Dreams Podcast has gotten back to a weekly format covering one week of What’s Up. You can check out the last episode HERE.

In terms of schedule, I’m still posting a few days later than I would like but I’m hoping to slowly move it back to a fixed release day of the week. Plus, I have some ideas for other content lately so I’m going to see how to structure those in. Still, one step at a time and things will get back on track by the summer.

New Buys and Bubble Tea

I have some shopping therapy issue that I thought I had gotten rid of but apparently not. Although I’m not doing big buys but I was pretty interested in these Ooly stationary. I got these pastel liners and waiting for the pens to be delivered. I’m organizing stuff lately with a big notebook so its rather useful.

Other than that, we’ve been looking for a new controller for our PC since the husband and I have both gotten into streaming so its good to not have to move the controller between out two computers. Luckily, Costco sells these wireless Xbox controllers which are compatible with Steam. I’ve tested it out a few times on some games so far and really liking it. I haven’t had time to stream in April but planning to get back to it in May to play some of the games released on Xbox Game Pass in the past while. I have no set schedule yet but probably will have one set in the next month. If you watch Twitch, you can head over and give me a follow and get notifications to know when I go live HERE.

I feel like I haven’t talked about the new PresoTea opened over the last month or 2. I can’t remember but the Mango Green Tea with Mango Bubbles with less ice and lite sugar. The blend of that drink is awesome! Not sure if you all have PresoTea but if you do and like mango or iced tea, this one is so good. I don’t drink it a lot but I like to get one as a reward.

Streaming with Friend Update: Resident Evil Village on launch day

On the note of streaming and somewhat of an announcement!

For some of you who don’t know, I stream on Friday evenings with my friend playing horror games. The coming week is release of Resident Evil Village on May 7th (this coming Friday) and we’ll be playing that on release day! Its super rare that it happens and we’re going in completely blind (other than knowing that there’s the tall vampire lady) as we both haven’t played the demos or watched any videos of it or the trailer either.

If you want to come check it out, the stream starts at 8pm EST so you can head over to my friend Brandel Savage’s Twitch channel HERE.

Cute Kitty Pic

That’s it for the April Adventures!
I really stretched this one out and its not exactly exciting but pandemic protocols also doesn’t allow for a lot of variety.
At least, we can sign up for the first vaccine appointment soon so that’s progress, right?

My December Adventures!

Its the last day of December. Isn’t that crazy? I’m doing this on the last day instead of tomorrow since we have 2020 business to take care of then so shifting things up a little. We’re going through the very busy December and all kinds of recap and seemingly a bunch of shopping and gifts and fairs and outings, etc.

Fingers crossed that all will go as planned as writing in December has been a bit all over the place… (it hasn’t because this is going up much later than expected)

CRHS Annual Craft Fair (December 1)

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The @officialcrhs annual #craftfair was today! There were a lot of stalls showcasing all kinds of unique things. In the end, this was my #shoppinghaul . #Teas from #NamasteKitTea ; #Snowflake #Ornament by kids (can't remember the store name..Little Fairies something); #Anthurium from #CactusofHope #cactusdelespoir (for a charitable cause); #Crochet #Wand as a gift from #2SistersCrochetandKnitting

A post shared by Kim (@tranquildreams) on Dec 1, 2019 at 12:55pm PST

DIY Christmas

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Its December already! And it means channelling the #crafty #diy side of me! I've made a few #wreaths but couldn't resist making a #branchwreath for the first time. Here's how it turned out! #plushie #snowman #cupcakes #sparkly #glitter #gingerbreadhouse #gingerbreadman #pinecones #berries #Diywreath #christmas #christmasdecor #decorations #xmas #holly #winterberries

A post shared by Kim (@tranquildreams) on Dec 2, 2019 at 7:00pm PST

You can see the post on it HERE.

Next up, I went along and tried out some Marbled Ornaments as well! Which was mostly a failed attempt in general but did decide that its a project to further pursue and figure out. Plus, its some nice way to use up old nail polish so that its not just thrown out without some form of recycling/repurposing. You can check my post on that HERE.

Marché Casse-Noisette & Mini-Comiccon

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Went to check out the #MarcheCasseNoisette and #MiniComiccon today both at @palais_montreal #palaisdescongresdemontreal ! Here's some fun little items I picked up (and a gift) – #catcollar gift from @surprisesdephoebe for my cat at @zoelulupetboutique – #scarf at @leoncemtl (for the husband) – #maplesyrup aged with #TennesseeWhisky from @virgin.mady Then some free #posters from Mini Comiccon for upcoming #films, #TheGrudge and #FantasyIsland as well as a little card for #selfpublished #comic by @erik_teren_mullins . #mtl #events #shopping #shoppinghaul #buyinglocal #quebecproducts #quebec

A post shared by Kim (@tranquildreams) on Dec 7, 2019 at 1:28pm PST

Marche Casse -Noisette took place from November 28 to December 8 at Palais des Congres which happened to overlap with Mini Montreal Comiccon held December 7 and 8 also at Palais des Congres just one was in the main hall and the other was upstairs. With that said, it made sense to go and check out both at the same time. While the haul wasn’t particularly a lot, it was a first time visit for both place for myself. Some nice discoveries to be found. I will definitely go check the Marché Casse-Noisette again but probably not the Mini Comiccon as its rather lackluster.

Salon des Metiers d’Art 2019

• Coach House Shortbread Company: Dark Chocolate & Salt; Almond & Rose; Ginger
• La Nougaterie: Salt Flower Caramel; Dark Chocolate; Christmas
• Nutra Fruit: Chocolate Covered Cranberry; Dark Chocolate- Cranberry Spread
• Cidrerie du Minot: Des Glaces
•  Choco Chocolat: Dark Chocolate; Dark Hazelnut

A lot of the SMAQ 2019 sales is about the same as previous years, the exception being that I bought the spread from Nutra Fruit and the chocolate from Choco Chocolat, which I believe is a new booth this year at the Salon. Most of this stuff is for festival party time and gifts and whatnot.

Ottawa Day Trip

We took a quick trip with a friend to go to Ottawa to do some quick errands. We had a nice lunch at Fatboys (post about our first time HERE) and then finally found time to go grab some donuts at Mavericks Donut, which they had 4 dairy-free flavors and the husband and the friend each chose 4 to get a dozen. After that, I finally brought home Pumbaa from Disney Store to join Timon at our place and then picks up some wine at LCBO and some food in preparation for NYE dinner plans at T&T Supermarket.

Holiday Festivities: Christmas Dinners & NYE Hotpot

Christmas Eve dinner was a ton of fun with a lot of people at the in-laws. It was a fun little event with some surprise gifts for ourselves which we didn’t expect to get anything in the first place. My mom wanted to have a turkey feast (as shown above) so she held a dinner and invited us and some of her own friends for dinner and here we have the overzealous food galore. Everything was delicious as usual. NYE is a hotpot meal and part of the Battle of Ingredients festivities so a separate post will be done for that.

Boxing Day Shopping Haul

Boxing Day this year has been a little less exciting. It has to do a lot with the fact that we’ve been trying to decrease expenses and its truly changed the spending habits into being very cautious with our expenses. Its not going to seem it since we’ve done a lot of shopping this past month…seemingly..but then its all useful things or food. Either way, without further ado (as this is the last part before this post ends)..the shopping haul from Boxing Day.

• Adidas outlet: Running Shoes
• Dynamite: Sweater and 3-pack scrunchies
• Steam Sale: Life is Strange 2: Complete Edition, Detention, Gris, The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker, Glass Masquerade
• Playstation Holiday Sale: Overcooked 2, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
• Amazon: Playstation 4 Controller Charging Dock
• Walmart: John Wick 2

Cute Kitty Pic

That’s it for this December Adventures!
How was your holidays? Had a lot of fun with family? Did you do some Boxing Day shopping?

My November Adventures!

November is here and gone! Compared to the crazy October, its much calmer, especially since this year I didn’t even think about NaNoWriMo at all. Its the first year in a long time that I haven’t done it (although last year I didn’t finish it). Either way, there are a few plans scheduled in and a remote coverage for a film festival and well, just preparing for December and other little tidbits.

Let’s check it out!

MTL a Table: Rose Ross

Coregone, carrot mousseline, beluga lentilles, fennel and basil

First to kick off November is our first spot to check out for MTL a Table. This time was a more half the gang deal as it only appealed to ourselves and Phoebe and her family. Rose Ross is located in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and Rosemont in the Promenade Masson and serves French cuisine but with a lot of the local ingredients available to them. It also has some vegetarian options and even had lactose-free dessert which always wins my heart over. The menu also had an Aeroplan privilege exclusive which was fun. The full recap of the meal is HERE.

MTL a Table: La Classe

The second restaurant that the group (except my husband who had to work) went to was La Classe, a restaurant in College Lasalle with their students taking up the various tasks from host to servers to kitchen. Its one that we’ve been to before however they had changed their name this year to La Classe. The food here is always pretty good and its pricing is incredibly worth it for its quality and for French fine dining. You can check out the recap of the meal HERE.

MTL a Table: Taboo Cuisine Rebelle

Salmon gravlax marinated in lemongrass and ginger oil, Asian sauce, wasabi, pomegrenate, fried capers, shoots

The last restaurant in the MTL a Table this year is a new find for the majority of us which turned out to be fairly disappointing. Its pretty much North American food in a lounge setting with a very prominent small finger foods and drinks. Its price point outside of the MTL a table was pretty high as we looked at their menus so MTL a Table gives a general experience of it. There was a lot left to be desired. You can check out the recap HERE.

The First Snowstorm of the season

Coinciding with our week off from work, a lovely little staycation, much overdue for myself was the first snowstorm of this winter, well, late autumn to be accurate which brought in about 15cm of snow. Some neighbors told us about how most snow removal service contracts only started on November 15th, which this storm hit November 12th so some companies didn’t come around to remove snow, causing quite a few headaches. Luckily, while the storm did knock some of our road trip plans out, it did let us take our time with shovelling the snow, although we still did it in relatively one go in the morning.

Staycation Day Trip: Ottawa & Shopping Haul

Disney: Christmas Eeyore

LCBO

T&T Supermarket (without hot/cooked food)

Other than the shopping haul and just taking a moment out of town, we went to eat at Fatboys Southern Smokehouse. You can find the recap HERE.

An Afternoon with My Battle of Ingredient Co-Host

The week of staycation is almost at an end and what vacation would it be without running an errand to the dentist to pick up (very expensive and makes me thankful for benefits) Night Guard and the much more exciting hangout for my good friend and Battle of Ingredients co-host for a lunch at Kumamoto and an afternoon tea at Presotea after she helped me out a great deal with something I’ve been meaning to do for a while (but needed a kick in the pants to do).

MEGA Expo

Finally, to wrap up the staycation week once and for all was heading out to check out MEGA Expo which was held at Le Grand Quai, which is so new that I have never been in before. The venue was nice and we saw some nice games. The recap should be over at Game Warp..but it isn’t because I’ve just been hitting a writing slump and busy with work…Its still happening because there’s so many games that I really want to talk about.

Blood in the Snow Festival 2019

Blood in the Snow Festival took place on November 21 to 26 in Toronto. Of course, I didn’t have time to go but I was lucky enough to get remote coverage and it had almost all the movies available to review. Its a short festival but one that highlights a lot of Canadian genre films and while it had some meh films, there was still a lot to love and some really great stories and premise. The reviews should all be up on the BITS 2019 tab HERE. But as usual, I will do a top 3 (since there was only 8 full feature films).

• Majic
• Hunter’s Moon
• Z

Marche Ephemere EtsyMTL

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Visited the #MarcheEphemere #EtsyMTL at #GareWindsor last evening. Picked up some #goodies from @lapincee and #thescg . Some really cool stores there. Some of my faves are the cards shown here but didn't get anything yet. #quebec #tea #montreal #events #spices #naturalblends #buyinglocal #artisan #craft #food #mtlevent #mtl

A post shared by Kim (@tranquildreams) on Nov 23, 2019 at 10:26am PST

Black Friday – Shopping Haul

I actually didn’t think about Black Friday until it was literally the week of as the flyers started coming in. Its been a goal to spend less so I’ve decreased a lot of expenses. With that said, I did take a look at the sales and got a little something here and there. Not a whole lot of physical shopping as I was stuck at work rushing a deadline but here’s the general list.

Amazon

• Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
• Crawl
• Greenies Dental Treats (for cats)
• Car phone holder

Steam

• Blackwood Crossing
• Batman: The Enemy Within
• Yoku’s Island Express

Playstation Store

• Spider-Man
• Days Gone
• God of War

Michael’s (shown above): Wreath and Wreath supplies

Decathlon: Water Pouch (for backpack)

Cute Kitty Pic

That’s it for this November adventures!
A lot more packed than I expected but it had to do with the last minute vacation.

Toronto & Fan Expo Canada 2019 Haul

On a much needed weekend getaway, Toronto and Fan Expo Canada 2019 was a really great time to say the least. Arriving in the early afternoon on Friday, we all had the day to just get into town and settle into the Airbnb. My to-do list had quite a few things including Vaughan Mills to check out a few stores and stock up on stuff on sale as well as hit T&T Supermarket for groceries like breakfast and snacks and stuff to bring home and of course, taking a stop at LCBO to see what there is new there to check out.

Uniqlo

Some very normal stuff here. I was at Uniqlo looking for T-Shirts and found one. I don’t know any of the manga that they were doing T-shirts for but I liked this one the most. Other than that, I was looking for tank tops and whatnot. Its a really good selection over here so I picked up some stuff that I think will be good.

Disney Store

While there was a lot of cool plushes at this Disney store, there was no doubt that Sebastian was the one that caught my eye mostly because it was the 30th anniversary new arrival that the sales rep said just got to the store that week. Plus, I already have a lonely Flounder sitting next to my bed and have been meaning to wrap up The Little Mermaid collection.

LCBO

We also make a stop at LCBO (or whichever provincial alcohol store) whenever we head out of town to try and find something that we can’t find here. One of the things is the VQA Niagara Peninsula always has more choices and then there’s a lot more selection for the ciders. We bought a few more than these three but over the time on the trip, it was consumed between us. I had the Queen Street 501 that I had already written about before on a Wine Recap and we also had the Molson Cider as well as a few flavors from the Crazy Uncle collection other than the root beer, an orange crush version, cream soda version and lemonade version. These three are what made it back: Smirnoff Sangria (red – which means I won’t be drinking it but might give it a sip to try), Thornbury Village Craft Apple Cider and a Riesling white wine.

FAN EXPO CANADA 2019

If you didn’t catch my Fan Expo recap, I didn’t have a lot of time to do much wandering and shopping during the event so really only went through the North Building and didn’t look at any of the retailers or artist alley in the South Building.

Black Fawn Distribution

I realized that Black Fawn Distribution was going to be there really close to when I decided to head out. Luckily, they were in the North building and we had time to do that on Saturday and they had the movies that I was looking for since they haven’t been to Fantasia in a year or two (I think). We did talk to them and they are hoping to be at Fantasia next year so crossing my fingers for that. Either way, they had a whole signing thing going on so I managed to sneak back during the afternoon between some lining up to get The Heretics signed but didn’t realize that on Sunday they also had signing for I’ll Take Your Dead so that one only has the director that signed. Looking forward to watching these as always since I’ve always liked Black Fawn films and appreciated what they’d do for indie horror films.

Myth Hawker Travelling Bookstore

What’s really impressive about Fan Expo is the amount of authors and books that are sold there. Some big publishers are there also. Its incredibly amazing which makes me want to slap myself a little for not trying to find more time to go through South Building but then, where we were had a lot of choices too and they had this one: Myth Hawker Travelling Bookstore which had a lot of books that looked and sounded really good when I read their synopsis. In the end, I went back to pick up this Asian sci-fi and fantasy anthology called Where the Stars Rise. The premise and such caught my eye right away so I’m excited to check this out after my string of reading commitments is done.

Aside from this haul, we did get a free poster of The Fanatic from the advanced screening. We also each got a free Fan Expo T-Shirt from past expos that were given out. I skipped sharing T&T Supermarket stuff as there’s nothing too extraordinary except that I bought moon cakes in anticipation for the upcoming Midautumn Festival and stocked up on some drinks and such.

That’s it for this Toronto/Fan Expo haul!!
Did you go to Fan Expo Canada?

Montreal Comiccon 2019 Haul

Montreal Comiccon is come to an end! As our final wrap-up piece after all the coverage, its going to be the fun shopping haul!

There was quite a few really nice vendors this year. They may have been there previous years but I just missed it because if anyone has been to any Comiccon, you know that its just a world of everything and information overload. I went back to the Artist Alley every single day and I kid you not that I always noticed something different that I didn’t in the previous day. Lots of creativity going on which is something that I love to see. It took quite a bit to restrain myself from buying everything that I liked (just take a look at my Day 1 on all the Artist Alley that I liked HERE).

Regardless, here is the shopping haul! If you follow my Instagram, then you probably have already seen it.

Ruin World by Derek Laufman

One of the things I’ve loved to find during Montreal Comiccon is the books and comics/graphic novels from indie artists and authors, because they are really interesting to see plus its always nice to discover something new. I’ve been into cute things lately (well, always have) so not only did the art attract me over to Derek Laufman’s booth in the first place but then I saw the colorful cover for Ruin World and just loved it. I’m really looking forward to reading it soon (and then I’ll have a review for it go up as well).

Fairy Bell/Fairy Glow Necklace by The Emerald Cauldron

The Emerald Cauldron first caught my eye because of its pixie light necklace, which they call Fairy Glow on their site so I’ll use that. Of course, the debate behind that is battery power and when would I want to wear a necklace that glows in public. In the end, after a chat with them, I decided to get a smaller size pendant (sadly did not have a rose gold or titanium finish, which I would have preferred) so went with a silver finish and then chose the sacred heart shape along with Fairy Bells instead which just ring a little instead of glow. This option at $30 came with a replacement Fairy Glow LED light, which I honestly didn’t want so I asked to change it to another replacement fairy bell (which she asked for $5, which was fine since practicality mattered more than getting something I wouldn’t use). Still, she was great and still threw in a blue LED fairy glow. Service and patience here was fantastic. Not to mention, they had a good choice of colors both for the chimes (and some glow in the dark options) as well as LED light colors (and one that changes colors slowly). Anyways, I got the blue chime and the mint green chime with a sacred heart cage with a silver finish.

Pins by Art by DaDa

Seeing as I already have a lot of art and we are running out of wall space for any more prints to hang up and I wanted to support a college friend and her business, I went to Art by DaDa and got two pins. I’m a big fan of Lilo and Stitch and Fox and the Hound so these worked fine for me. I like them a ton. Plus, I think that her Disney art concept is brilliant and so creative. I always look forward to see what else she comes up with. Those pins went right onto my bag (which I use for work and going to cover events).

Tea by Sense and SensibiliTea

I honestly think its the first year we’re seeing tea booths at Montreal Comiccon. Being an Austen fan, the store name caught my attention right away. While I didn’t get any Austen themed tea, I did end up getting an Absinthe-flavored Green Tea, which is derived with ingredients from the vintage Absinthe mix which turned into this blend. The tea smells really good and I love green tea so it seemed like a good choice. When I was drafting up the Artist Alley highlights for Day 1, I landed on their Facebook page which talked about their new modern tea called Demogorgon’s Bane. I also happen to be a fan of Stranger Things so it was a decision between this one and their Princess Peach Tea (which smells like a fruit garden tisane). I’m not going to lie that I wanted to buy both but then I’m not a huge fan of tisane and who can resist the raspberry chocolate flavored Ceylon black tea, which is what Demogorgan’s Bane is. I have yet to try either of them but fun fact, all the teas are vegan which is nice for myself who has lactose intolerance.

That’s it for this shopping haul!
Definitely toned down from previous years but I think I made some pretty awesome purchases!

Black Friday Haul

Its kind of tradition now to share some of my hauls. To be honest, this year I went into Black Friday with only one specific thing in my mind and it was to get necessities. Of course, what I think and what I end up doing is completely different but I’d like to think that I kept to my budget fairly well. Its been a tough year but we’re working through stuff. Consider this my annual retail therapy as early this year, I cut that part of my lifestyle out. Its been an uphill climb but I’ve been pretty good about it.

Either way, enough about my mini reality check! Let’s check out what I managed to pick up.

Dynamite – Pants

Let’s get priorities out of the way first. I kid you not that I haven’t bought new pants for at least 3 to 4 years. I have proof on this blog because I talked about buying my previous pants and leggings in another haul, possibly Black Friday also. I also happen to not have a ton of pants so I honestly have been needing to get new pants so here we are, Dynamite Clothing is my go-to place for work clothes mostly and they had a 40% sale and free shipping online so I bought 2 pairs of the same design but different colors.

Zulily – Clothes and Accessories

In the same desperate situation for myself is getting some new clothes suitable for work. I bought 2 shirts (suitable for winter) for myself, 1 zip-up hoodie for my husband and a new pair of mittens. For those unfamiliar with Zulily, there is never ever free shipping because of whatever rules and such. I’m not sure if its a Canada thing and the duties that has to be paid. Either way, free shipping was available for any orders over $49 which is easily achievable on Zulily so yay, free shipping and handling. The order is taking a while to get there so I have nothing to show for those purchases.

Cineplex – $1 Movie Rentals

• Ready Player One
• John Wick: Chapter 2

I have completely stopped buying movies unless I know that I’ll rewatch it at some point. With that said, my main source of films are now Netflix or $1 rentals. The $1 rental choices on Cineplex vary quite a bit but with a little bit of patience, just like this Black Friday deals, I managed to rent  two films I’ve wanted to see this year. Pretty excited about that. I’ve heard good things about both of these films so they will have to be watched before the end of the year.

Michael’s – Christmas Decorations and Frames

The original plan for Michael’s was to just get the frames. It was buy one, get one free, which works well. Not quite last year’s Boxing Day sale but we had an art that we bought from this year’s Montreal Comiccon that we wanted to frame for Christmas so I bought two. Michael’s is my death especially when they have the 60% off sale. Either way, I tried to reel in my crazy and bought these new decorations for the tree and floral. The picture doesn’t do justice to the fake poinsettia decoration because it is just gorgeous.

David’s Tea – Tea

David’s Tea

• Sticky Rice Oolong

I love a lot of green teas. Dragonwell is possibly absolute favorite one. However, the year before I found Sticky Rice Oolong at David’s Tea, just before it was taken off because I never found it again. This tea is divine. I mean, it is divine and that probably has to do with the fact that I love sticky rice. So when I saw that they had it as online exclusive and there was the cyber monday sale, I was in. Even if it wasn’t originally intended and I have more than enough tea at home to get through. Let’s just hope it wasn’t fake hope and it turns out they don’t have stock. I’m having that fear as I wait for it to arrive.

Games

• The Room: Old Sins (Google Play)
• She Remembered Caterpillars (Steam)
• Life is Strange: Before the Storm – DLC Episode (Steam)

The original plan was to not get any games but some of the games or DLC episode was one that I hadn’t seen on such a discount ever so I decided to pick it up. It honestly cost like $10 all three together so I’m pretty happy with these purchases. Plus, a dive back into Life is Strange: Before the Storm to round out that playthrough and The Room is incredibly overdue.

 

Sherbrooke Public Market Haul!

I’m getting something a little quicker to put together out first today. No worries. I have a Halloween post in the works and will be released a little later today tomorrow.

Following up with the Eastern Townships this weekend, this is just a quick little haul post so you can see. We’ve already tried some of the stuff so I’ll also talk about that quickly. We made a few stops but the most noteworthy in terms of shopping was at the Sherbrooke public market, Marché de la Gare de Sherbrooke. The one thing to be careful for is the parking here. They have some odd regulations on where has a limited time free parking and which rows are paying spaces. If you do go there, double check first. Second, its surrounded by a lovely little surrounding including some beautiful wall art in the vicinities to check out.

Without further ado, let’s see what we found!

We are big fans of Kombucha. The feeling that we get from it is fantastic. It makes us feel great and thats why we drink it a few times a week if we have stocked it up. At the market, we found two brands that we’ve never seen before including very original flavors as well.

Sencha Kombucha (original Sencha flavor)

I’m a pretty big fan of Sencha in general so when I saw this kombucha flavor, let me tell you that it was an exciting moment. What works even better is that it tastes really good. Plus, its a really nice portion for the bottle so good for a nice dose of kombucha to just detox a little. The husband liked it also but not quite as much as I did.

Kombucha Fous de L’Ile (Vivace-Perennial)

The husband was a huge fan of this one. The ingredients showed lemongrass and chlorophyll which is pretty good. It had a rather floral and grassy taste and was a little more concentrated than what I’m used. However, its still not a bad one. However, if you take a look at the other flavors on their website, there’s a few that I’d love to try out eventually.

I can’t remember what the boulangerie there is called but this is the bread that my husband wanted to get. Its some risen bread or something. I’m not a bread connoisseur so I honestly don’t know what to say about it. However, the bread was fresh and delicious.

Cep d’Argent: Fleur de Lys
Cidrerie Milton: Cidre de Feu
Millebois Original
Millebois Ambré

Since I have the wine recap segment, I will be covering these ones there instead of here. So far, we’ve tried out 2 of these. However, the Fleur de Lys is one that we’ve already had before. My husband had tried this before and likes it a lot. Our taking a chance moment here is for Millebois which is a maple syrup base drink.

That’s it for the haul!
The Marché de la Gare de Sherbrooke is pretty cool. I do feel like its kind of off season. 
However, just to say that if I had cash on me, I would have bought some fresh produce as they looked really nice.
Something to remember for the next visit!
I see that they have a Christmas market or something so maybe we’ll take a trip there later this year.

Toronto Haul – August 2018

I go to Toronto more than I actually should. Actually this year was the exception to the equation. I usually just go about once a year or something unless something else comes up and well, something else came up. This past weekend was my best friend’s wedding. Her husband is from Toronto so they ended up holding their wedding there. I honestly think I’ve been to more wedding outside of Montreal than in Montreal. Its a weird thought and shows how many of my friends have moved away, I guess.

Either way, it was a really fun weekend. We ate some awesome food, tried out some new places: two of which I’ll do a restaurant overview for during this week. I’ll show more of the wedding stuff in the next Weekly Adventures, mostly because well, it seems we may have skipped the last one. I know I did and it was deliberate.

Before I jump off onto another tangent, let’s check out some stuff I got in Toronto.

Things I Bought Because I Was Forgetful..
Scarborough Town Centre – Yves Rocher & Walmart

First stop on Friday in Toronto was the hunt for everything we remembered that we forgot during packing for the wedding stuff. For myself, it was not exactly all forgot but I don’t use make-up a lot so a lot of mine had expired and I needed to get some new stuff. Nothing heavy since I don’t do eye make-up because it causes eye infections for myself so just some simple concealer to do the job and seeing Fantasia and work destroyed my sleeping schedule, I’m currently rocking some puffy panda eyes and I had forgotten my eye cream. A trip to Yves Rocher was in the stars and the closest we could find on the way to the hotel was at Scarborough Town Centre. I’ll share the eventful moment there in the Weekly Adventures but one of the great things was the great service at Yves Rocher but a lovely lady who gave me some really fantastic suggestions and actually suggested that I changed to the other skincare line as my skin had changed and its why I was having all the blemishes I’ve been having lately. I didn’t get the skincare line seeing as I was away and didn’t really want to spend so much just yet but I loved the service of just sharing the knowledge of it all. So I got some body lotion and the eye care gel at Yves Rocher.

At Walmart, I got a concealer and some nail polish. I actually ended up not painting my nails for the event but I did also pick up this interesting product called a blur stick which I’m still exploring whether its something I could use or not as it felt really oily. I’m not sure the texture works well for my skin type, so I passed on using it and am still researching. If you all know what it is and have any suggestions or dos and don’ts, please do share with me.

T&T Supermarket (2 Trips)

Most of the snacks and such were bought on the first stop. We didn’t think that we would go back but we did end up going again on Sunday. Friday was to pick up a late lunch of dimsum, which I didn’t take pictures of. We stocked up on drinks which I also didn’t take pictures so and they are all consumed. I can tell you that I was on a semi caffeine detox since March where I cut tea out of my life completely. I don’t drink coffee so its a given, I suppose. Either way, this weekend, I drank all the tea that I didn’t drink in the last few months or at least it felt that way. However, the Vita brand which usually is known for its lemon tea and such actually has this Green Tea and Japanese Green Tea which both tastes fantastic and its unsweetened so its the legit ones. Going back to the picture, look at these flavors, its like a world tour of Lay’s flavors.

During the first trip, we saw these pokemon Ocean Bomb sparkling water. Actually when we went back in the second trip, we saw one new one and lost two so I guess I shouldn’t procrastinate so much in buying stuff. Either way, that was a spontaneous purchase although I’m still fairly unsure about trying the Pikachu Cucumber flavor. We also saw this KIM brand drink for bird’s nest drink. I’m not sure how many people know about bird nest’s drinks. Regardless, the happiest purchase here is the black sesame stuff because I love black sesame paste. Its my favorite dessert. I’ve never tried this brand so hopefully it’ll be good. I ended up sharing the bag with my mom.

Big Apple & 401 Brewery

Our always must-stop location is The Big Apple. I love to grab a pie and strudel and my husband loves the brownies. It is quite amazing to see how this location as grown in size and variety of what they offer. I remember stopping there the first time and it was still known but not quite as popular as it is now. I kind of miss the quieter days but they have really diversified and made it a truly Canadian experience with what they offer also.

In the building, they have the store for 401 Brewery. We’ve never had anything from there before. Seeing as we didn’t manage to pick up anything at LCBO this time, we decided to grab some ciders. We picked the traditional apple cider and then a peach cider and a pear cider to try. We also saw a sparkling oaked cider which seems like it could be a nice smoky taste sort of experience. We are looking forward to trying it out eventually.

That wraps up this shorter Toronto haul as I get things into order!

New Brunswick/PEI Vacation Haul!

Sorry for the later than usual post, if you don’t follow up Game Warp Podcast, we got our first media pass ever and its for Montreal Comiccon and basically, that took up the entire weekend and I managed to get everything ready, except for today’s  post expecting to be at home to get it done, except everything piled up and on top of that, I was exhausted from the last two days so between doing stuff, I was just napping on and off.

Without further ado, let’s get back on track. As we hit the midpoint of the vacation recap and now that we’ve given our family their souvenirs earlier today, here is our haul!

Saint John’s City Market 

Taking a walk in the city market to pick up some fruits for the road, we came across this RCMP Santa Christmas decoration and the two suncatchers. I fell in love with the hummingbird one and we chose the butterfly  for my mother-in-law. The Santa decoration is for my father-in-law as he has a fantastic collection of santas.

Alcool NB Liquor

So why two pictures? Because I simply forgot about this bottle until afterwards, as we only found it as we cleaned the car. We were trying to find wines from New Brunswick but the second picture with Jost Vineyards is the only one from New Brunswick. The others are all from Nova Scotia, however, we wanted to get wines that we don’t get in the province of Quebec so we are still trying out the wines and ciders.

PEI Liquor

I have this thing about visiting the provincial liquor stores, mostly because our own usually doesn’t carry alcohol products from other products. With that say, my husband found a honey wheat Ale which is from Prince Edward Island and we found a wine as well.

That’s it for the haul!

A short and sweet one! Nothing really much! However, fitting for such a late post!
Things get back to normal tomorrow.