I’m going to be reasonable now and say that from now on, I might be changing this to biweekly. Weekly commitments are a little intense. Even biweekly sometimes gets a little crazy, mostly because as much as I want intense workout schedules, its actually proving to be more stressful than it being a healthy change in my life. So I’m doing mostly workouts on day offs from work. During the week, I tend to do a lot more walking and well, with Fantasia season, its a lot of standing also.
I think right now, I have some great routine set with Zumba and pool workouts. Honestly, I know it sounds crazy but these two things combined actually do quite well plus they put me in a fairly happy place even when I’m dying of fatigue to push a little more.
Week 9
Monday
We opened our pool finally so I’m super happy to get back on a back to back day following off last week’s Sunday pool workout with a little of the same. I did do an extra round here from the day before.
To be fair, I didn’t write it here as workouts but Friday, Saturday and Sunday was Montreal Comiccon. I spent 5 hours on Friday, 6 hours on Saturday and 6 hours on Sunday pretty much walking and standing around a lot covering the event with the exception of four 45 minute conferences. Its one of the main reasons why I kind of took it easy during the week to kind of rest up for the intense weekend.
Week 10
Saturday – Zumba & Freestyle Pool Exercises
Pool exercises: Knee Tucks, Shuffle, Breaststroke, In-pool jogging
As I thought back to the past week of recuperation and trying to get a workout in, I doubled down on the Saturday workout with a longer Zumba routine than usual and put in a few more routines that I had to learn so it was harder as it switch things up. After that sweaty cardio session, because we’ve just been stuck back into a heat wave, I went into the pool to cool down but also get some freestyle pool exercises inspired from the pool workout above. I love doing a few rounds of 30 reps for knee tucks and then doing shuffles in between. I did a lot of jogging around the pool and also worked in some swimming with practicing the worst form I have which is breaststroke so I had to focus a lot on the form and getting that slow and steady but effective.
Sunday – Zumba & Pool Workout
Pool Workout (2 rounds)
Another hot day over here in Montreal! I took the time to do a normal set of Zumba workout, this time with a few more familiar routines. I did research a pool workout and this time decided to focus on abs and core. It was a 2 rounds cycle. Because my pool is different from the one here, the crunches were a little harder so I fell for a few more reps and longer times for the other workouts while adding in some knee tucks at 30 reps. I still did some cardio with jogging and again, some more swimming.
Overall, a lot of the same but I was pleased with just getting that bit in. I did have some walking around here and there to get from one spot to the next for the events, just didn’t bother to write them in. You should expect that Zumba and Pool workouts (hopefully find more workout options) to be the summer focus. If the weather cools down a little bit more, I will go back to getting in some jogging time, probably in August.
With that said, biweekly recaps is the new structure so I’ll see you with an update in 2 weeks! 🙂
Welcome back to another Battle of Ingredients! Summer is here and our Quebec provincial day was this past weekend so what better way than to meet up and do a little barbecue with friends and get back into the Battle of Ingredients action, right?
Drinks
Main Meal
We’ve done a few barbecues now for Battle of Ingredients and to make things easier this time, my lovely co-host and friend Phoebe (Starry Traveler’s Road) took care of the meats saying that she found a spot near her that supports local businesses and we love to do that. This stuff is from Fruiterie Boucherie Longueuil.
They pretty much sell barbecue boxes and she tried the Econo Mix which is $90 worth of meats and potatoes and such. Here it is!
Now for the unpacking of what is inside and preparation she did. Here you go!
And the first batch into the grill…
And finally, the results of the taking turns of cooking between the husbands and Phoebe, while I took care of their little one and helped carry the umbrella as it was raining. My skill sets unfortunately don’t extend to barbecuing so I left it to the experts. Here is how it turned out – hopefully I didn’t forget anything.
BBQ meats
Chicken leg
BBQ Foil packs
The box itself is a lovely assortment. The seasoned meat was really good. There was a good variety to share. It provided a lot of food. The meats were pretty fresh. It was a good choice to not have to worry about the preparation ourselves and just be able to get something ready to just pop onto a foil and cook on the grill. It was a smart and efficient choice for Phoebe and I’m totally supportive of it. She mentioned that there are other things to substitute in the boxes and other choices and whatnot that we could try so maybe we will talk about that in the next barbecue.
Dessert
With that said, my job was desserts. I made some Rhubarb Apple Tarts. It was a super simple recipe. I bought tarts from the grocery store since making pastry is still one of those things that I haven’t quite figured out well enough yet. Its a work in progress. Rhubarb is fresh from the garden and I used Cortland apples. It was an attempt to balance the acidity of the rhubarb a little.
The recipe for the filling was taken from here: http://www.coffeeandcrumpets.com/apple-and-rhubarb-galette/
This recipe had more than 12 tarts worth of filling so if you do intend to try it out, just keep that in mind.
The tarts turned out pretty well. They were very cinnamon-y and I think it had to do with the fact that it wasn’t in a galette but used in a tart. Although to be fair, when making apple desserts usually, there is some cinnamon. I thought they turned out pretty good since I don’t have an issue with cinnamon.
Overall
This was a lovely choice. The BBQ box made our lives a little easier. The cooking still took a long time just with the sheer amount of items in it and the variety and different cooking times and such. However, it is a good idea. The tarts turned out how I wanted them to and I think in general everyone enjoyed it well enough. Fruit tarts are always tricky especially since we have an array of allergies to take into consideration between our friends, Phoebe and myself. Hopefully by the next BBQ, I will have more vegetable harvests to work with to give it even more of a personal touch.
Before we finish, you will notice that the Battle of Ingredients will officially decrease in frequency just a little which is already in effect, due to busy schedules and just the need to not overstretch our time. It was a decision I needed to make for myself. However, we are still chugging along and planning for the August meet-up after this one.
Have you started your grills and enjoyed the first BBQ? What do you like to make?
It feels like I’ve been giving a lot of updates lately so it feels a like that there isn’t a whole lot to talk about. However, it also feels like these 15 days had like 30 days of stuff that I had worked on. I’m sure as with others doing this, everyone wishes there were more hours in the day to do everything. On one hand, I’d love that Tranquil Dreams could get all the love but I also love the Game Warp Podcast so much. Either way, regardless of it all, I’m finding a way to get back to a more healthy lifestyle (workouts and eating better) while still maintaining the garden and keeping the house clean and getting all the blogging duties done while making time for my mom. Its a little crazy at times but I’ll find a balance for it all. A new season just means more tasks than the stagnant winter months.
What’s been going on? Yet again, a lot behind the scenes or mundane stuff so those didn’t make the list however, these did!
Back to a Workout Schedule
I kind of go on this on and off workout regiment. It isn’t intentional that I fall off it. Usually something happens to hinder it. Being super motivated, I ended up doing three workouts: one arm/abs weight and a 40 minutes of Zumba (that I put together) and then finally, went out for a jog/run for 5km. My time wasn’t great but you know, its a start to getting back. Of course, my luck would have it in this fantastic “unhealthy” year of issues all the time, I had to run up the (luckily) short flights of steps and fell, making my Sunday a day spent with the ice pack watching E3 conferences and drafting posts and watching Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Obviously, that meant that the following days was in the rest zone as my knees feel better. Which they are now! So, back to weights and a run for the remaining days of this week somewhere. I’m getting a little self-conscious of my weight and health so I’m hoping this healthier lifestyle will help, or at least make me feel mentally more positive.
Grand Prix Montreal
This was supposed to be a post on its own but I just can’t and plus there isn’t a whole lot going on that I need to put more content in this one. Either way, lots of fancy and pretty cars. Mercedes Benz, Porsche, Acura and more made their appearance. The event was spread out further and expanded over an extra block where it was more events and food truck vendors. We obviously did the food truck route. Before that, let me highlight that the showstopper was in fact the Cars life size replica. As Pixar and Disney fans, it was something to be excited about.
Now for the food!
Lucille’s Lobster Roll and Taco
Le Smoking BBQ: Pulled Pork Sandwich with Fries
Jerry Ferrer: Pulled Pork Sandwich with fries
We like pulled pork, what can I say? All very delicious. However, if you are to try food truck, my must-have every single year is Lucille’s Lobster Roll. They are to die for! But Le Smoking BBQ is fantastic as well.
We ended the night with a trip to the Casino of Montreal. I don’t gamble but my friend likes to go once in a while to try his luck. Luck was not great until we saw the OMG! Kittens slot machine by the exit and gave that a go. Suffice to say, he doubled what he brought that night. From now on, he believes me that cats are awesome.
E3 Conference Live Streaming Craze
Those are my favorite conferences of this year! We have a ton of recaps for all the shows. You can find them over at That Moment In. I know that I had talked about this before. However this did take up all of my last weekend and we’ve been working hard on doing impressions and lists to come out in the next week or so while working on the featured game as well which I’ll be streaming over the next few nights. I’m trying to boost up some stream time and learn to be better at it.
Vacation SOON!
Finally, I guess the fun thing is that we have our vacation time booked in. My husband and I had conflicts in schedule so we only have a few days overlapping but it’ll be fun to just hang out and do some home projects. We might go away but since I’ll be on vacation, you won’t (or you might) notice that I’m away. And when we get back, things will jump into vacation recap phase.
Upcoming:
Battle of Ingredients (if we could figure out the topic)
And a lot more of the normal: movies, TV series and books
I did it again! There was supposed to be vlog but then I got a little intimidated of putting it up. Anyways, it was not so great since I recorded super late at night and was all rambling and stuff.
Summer festivals are here and its just the start of a lot of fun stuff here. The weather is hot and humid and while I did recap a lot of the stuff in actual full posts. I’ll talk a little a them here and I’ll have a little update of little life stuff.
Before we start, I guess the most important is that I want to address the crazy weird schedule here. I usually do have a schedule but I’m seriously thinking of going back to a five posts week and leave a break as optional days on the weekends. Especially during festival season as I need to find some time to work on some other projects. Nothing changes here but rather I think I feel a little burnt out. It could be because of the heat that kills a bit of the motivation for everything. However, I feel the energy coming back now that it isn’t 40 degrees Celsius outside. What I’m saying is that 5-7 posts from now on. I’m still working on some backlog for my upcoming vacation in a good few weeks so it’ll be fun! 🙂
I’m skipping the rambling so I’m going to just get going! 🙂
Trying Out Miss Fresh
I’m huge about being efficient as mentioned in my post unboxing the Miss Fresh meal service subscription. You can find that HERE. I think this is such a great idea. Obviously, its still a little expensive to have every week but its a nice treat when its a busy week. I won’t be unboxing my later ones since I don’t think it’ll have anything new to offer except different recipes. However, I did manage to make one of the recipes and still mix up the ingredients a little. It was a Tuna Bake. In the end, here’s how it turned out.
For a good idea of what it is, the ingredients are on the top pre-portioned for what your plan is set at. This makes for two people. However, my husband was the only one that could eat this meal and it served three meals for him.
Montreal Comiccon
Montreal Comiccon was last weekend. I only made it to the Friday but it was a ton of fun. I did a general coverage earlier this week HERE! I chatted with some cool indie game developers and tried out games, saw the Outlast 2 live demo and more. I didn’t get an autograph but walked past the autograph booths and saw a ton of celebrities from afar. I’m not sure if I mentioned in Comiccon recap post but I specifically wanted to see Bob Morley, unfortunately I had to skip Saturday so I didn’t get to his Q&A but I did walk past his autograph spot which was at the side so I got a really close look at what he looked like in real life. I was pretty happy about that.
Overall a very cool time there. I’m going to try to get a media pass for next year or simply get a 3 day pass and check it all out. Something to think and plan for in the coming year! 🙂
Song of the Deep!
With Game Warp comes great responsibility! Song of the Deep is one of my most anticipated for this year. I ended up preordering this one even if I kind of knew there really wasn’t a point but I was just so excited for it. Plus, its the first time I pre-ordered a game! Kickstarter projects don’t count. I’m still waiting for most of those to see the light of day. You know I love shameless plugs for Game Warp so maybe you’d be as excited as I am that Song of the Deep is August’s featured game!
We have a new episode for Game Warp coming up next week and we’re getting ready for the episode of the featured review for this month’s game, Oxenfree! 🙂
Garden & Harvest!
We had our first harvest! The crazy rain grew my zucchini plants so much that after two days of intense rain, my plant was like 40% larger and the zucchinis were ready for harvest. Well, two of ’em. Look at it! They are huge!
We even had some delicious lettuce to cook with it, all from the garden. It just makes me so proud that I didn’t manage to kill anything else and that the fence reinforcements have been fantastic. I’m going to probably be harvesting more lettuce and kale this week. I don’t have pictures yet but raspberries and some strawberry harvests are happening also! 🙂
Fantasia Festival!!
Fantasia Festival is here! It started on July 14th and runs till August 3rd. Unlike most years, I actually have it really easy for the first week so so far, only one movie! This was from the first film that I attended on Friday night. It started in delay so I guess its cool I was standing in line next to some cool people that I striked up an interesting conversation about everything. If some of you don’t know, Fantasia Festival usually means at least 45 minutes to an hour of line-up, at least if you want decent seats. Since I go to this alone a lot, its really nice to meet people at least for line-up company. Regardless, this was also the first time I’ve ever experienced delay at Fantasia Festival but the movie ended up starting half an hour late but I think its alright even if it meant that I couldn’t stay for all the Q&A since I needed to catch the last bus home. Thank goodness, my schedule doesn’t usually hinge on these crazy moments this year mostly.
I’m pretty excited about the rest of the movies. You can see my line-up HERE! And usually expect the review about two days later to give some time to think about what I’ve seen and gather my thoughts. Which means that my first one I saw, Rupture’s review will go up tomorrow (Monday!).
Calypso Water Park
While the heat is getting me super tired and just not want to do anything in general, I’m also loving it because it means that I can go in the pool and cool down. Last week, I actually did and enjoyed some outside reading time and Netflix time and even got in a pool workout session which was really great.
However, the thing I looked forward a lot was going to the water park with my girl friends. We’ve been trying to plan it for two summers and we’re finally going. The weather threatened us a little but we decided to give it a go. It turned out to be the perfect weather. We ended up going to Calypso Water Park near Ottawa.
Great company, nice weather, and a ton of fun! We weren’t all about doing the super adrenaline rush stuff but we ended up doing the wave pool which was definitely a winner since we went back four times. We also did two times of the Kongo Expedition (which is something like a lazy river concept). There was a part in there in a dark cave that kind of tapped into my fear of the dark but still it was really fun even if I got capsized by some stupid kids on purpose. It was more unexpected than that I got angry or scared. We also went for two rounds of the Jungle Run which is like balancing on a paddleboard and letting the current push you through the course and it was done really well. There was also the Canyon Rafting that was a ton of fun to get drifted along the sides of the tubes and then we had the fancy idea of going up one of the tallest rides thinking it wouldn’t be intense and it freaked me out. It was a ton of fun actually. Its the double-edged sword of amusement parks in general for me.
After that, we headed back home and had dinner….
Trying Out a New Restaurant Jerry Ferrer
What’s a perfect day without having a great meal at the end as well. I told you all about Jerry Ferrer on opening day and just trying a few things but we went to try it out.
We ended up sharing a fried calamari.
Fried Calamari
I loved the texture of this so much! It was super delicious!
While all the girls got burgers, I was really craving a pulled pork sandwich so I got exactly that!
Doesn’t that just look scrumptious? It was so awesome! 🙂 I think this place might be a new fave spot for me. At least I’m definitely coming back to try out a few more things. Plus the decor and service was nice and that is always a plus.
A perfect way to end a fantastic day out with friends, even if I got home and realized that I forgot sunscreen on my chest area and super sunburned…haha!
Cute Kitty Pic
Some of you that follow me on Avenue of Daydreams would have seen this pic but this is just so cute I couldn’t let you all miss out on it! 🙂
Upcoming:
Fantasia Festival Movie Reviews!!
That is the recap of the last two weeks! What have you been up to? Any festivals, summer heat, activities, etc?
Three months went by so fast! We’re here with summer edition of 2016 FabFitFun!
If the Winter 2015 and Spring 2016 wasn’t enough to keep me on board, I have no idea what would. Summer is around the corner and I know two products in the box already. At least I know one for sure because we had a choice of colors. Other than that, lets jump right into the unboxing! 🙂
Unfortunately for this time, I only kept the overview of the Unboxing video. There was some issues with the beginning that would be too much to edit. However, I did round everything in the box up in pictures as well!
FabFitFun [Summer 2016]
FabFitFun Everday Beach Waves Spray
I’m not much of a beach girl. Its also the fact that there are beaches around here but I never really know which are the good ones. I guess I prefer waterparks. Plus, my place has a pool that my husband puts a ton of effort to start up every year that it just doesn’t justify it. But I do like to sit around the pool and read so this spray to condition and protect hair is pretty cool. I’m eager to try it out because that also means the weather is fantastic and awesome!
Stemulation Daily Micro Derm Scrub
I’ve never heard of Stemulation before and to be honest, I haven’t found an exfoliating scrub that works well with my skin except for the one from Vichy products. This is a gentle exfoliating cleanser for face and body to remove dull skin cells. I’m going to give it a go and see how that works.
Summer & Rose Yoga Towel (Dream Big)
One of the choices we got to pick. I haven’t unwrapped mine but I believe it was Dream Big that is with this microfiber Yoga towel. This is extremely useful for me especially because yoga becomes a huge part of my life along with being more active during summer. Actually, all year round I try to sneak in a session here and there. Its been a while though. However, its time to get back to it. It works wonder for stress and clears my mind a lot. Plus, I’m not really flexible so its challenging and I like being challenged. 🙂
Osea Atmosphere Protection Cream
I’ve never heard of atmosphere protection cream but I think its a brilliant idea. This one can be used as an invisible base before makeup or mixed with foundation. However, it is a moisturizer that protects skin from dehydration and damage. I like that a lot! Such a useful product for the summer!
Passport to Beauty Gpyset Luminous Lips
Lip gloss right here! I don’t use gloss a lot but rather just chapsticks if I want to ease the chapped lips. However, its something to try out. This one came in three shades. Mine is called Flower Child and its packed with Vitamin E and says in the booklet that its rich in hydration and antioxidants. That sounds pretty awesome! 🙂
Betchsicles Ice Pop Molds
Its the summer! I always think about making popsicles. Last year, I didn’t end up doing it but this year, I have a ton of ideas and I just got a lot of the ingredients. I already have some popsicles molds which I could use but I can always use more and make more variety! Plus, these ones are champagnes shaped. How cool is that?
Trina Turk Canvas Tote [Seas The Day]
The other product we got to choose. I like the shade of blue they used for this one and its pretty neat as a play on words for “Seas the Day”. Perfect for a day out with friends and just heading out to parties or whatnot.
Bonus: Burt’s Bees BB Cream
I’ve never explored the world of BB Creams much. I did get one once and never ended up using it because I had that eye infection a few years back that wouldn’t go away. This is a sponsored product and some other people got the cleansing oil. I think this is pretty nifty especially because I never knew Burt’s Bee made this product.
Compeed Instant Blister Relief
My guess is this is also a sponsored product because there wasn’t a mention in the booklet. However, this is a great thing just because summer means sandals and at times, I get blisters from it and instant relief sounds like a sweet solution.
Here’s the unboxing wrap-up!
Overall…FabFitFun Summer 2016 box was full of fun goodies. Yet again, I learned about a ton of products I normally would not encounter. There’s a ton of stuff for just hanging out in the sun and skin care and those are fave things to do. Its all really useful and that is a plus. I’m most excited to try out the Osea atmosphere protection cream and really happy about the microfiber yoga towel and absolutely in love with the tote bag.
What product peaks your interest in this unboxing?
Its been forever since I’ve shared some fantastic Pinterest stuff! Mostly because while pinning is super fun and therapeutical, putting together the posts can be tiring. Just deciding what to do takes so much time that it becomes less therapeutical than it actually is even if I love putting those posts up. However, maybe this is what Pinterest is going to be: Therapy or Inspirations! Spring is pretty much almost over and hints of Summer is landing in Montreal. The last few days have been hot and humid and I love it! 🙂
This also means spring cleaning and garden/outdoors stuff needs to be taken care of! I have some rhubarb to harvest and maybe make some nice drinks. The heat also means that I kick in a much healthier lifestyle. Lots of things that I seek out Pinterest for! Lets look at some of my faves and ones I hope to pursue if not now, eventually!
The Anatomy of Sangria
Hot summer days calls out to me in the form of Sangria. I don’t drink a lot in general but a great sangria is so hard to resist. This infographic breaks it down in an interesting way and peaks some new ways to use different ingredients next time. For the record, I’ve recently realized that I’m intolerant or maybe allergic to red wine so any sangria’s now have to be with white or rose wine. I have also done a autumn sangria with brandy and that turned out pretty good.
Popsicles
I’ve tried out a few popsicle recipes before and I’m not really good at it but its something I’m trying to learn to do better. This one looks delicious. They are called Fruit Salad Ice Pops. I love fruits and especially fruit salads and wrapped up in a popsicle. Yummy! I’m already thinking of what fruits to get to make it and wondering where those popsicle molds are.
Infused Water Combinations
Last year I started getting into infused water. I like cold drinks and water is super healthy so I’ve tried something with blueberry and basil before if I remember correctly. This summer, I want to keep with the healthy stuff and try some other ones. These ones are pretty neat especially detox and weight/sugar control and metabolism booster. I guess everything but the lower blood pressure one looks like choices I want to try out.
Watermelon Strawberry Sorbet
For those of you who are new here, I’m lactose intolerant or at least it seems to be in an extreme phase again. Its really built a love and appreciation for Sorbets in my life. I’ve been wanting to try to make sorbet for a while and if these recipes say its easy, I’ll believe it! Its one of my goals this summer to give it a try. This combination particularly looks great. I love strawberries and watermelons and yet, no one really pairs these two together. I wonder what it’ll taste like.
Liquid Sunshine
I know, its a lot of alcoholic beverages here! In general, there’s a lot of drinks. Thing is, I was going to do a cruise dedicated post after my cruise recap last year and I forgot about it. I flat out forgot. That’s just how I am. A year after, I remembered and was thinking maybe this year, I’ll start a little drinks segment to experiment different recipes. I don’t mean alcoholic cocktails, even if they are resistible, I don’t usually drink that much but even for like lemonades or infused waters and other healthy stuff. I think its well worth a shot! 🙂
That’s it for this Pinterest Inspirations! Originally, it had a ton of other stuff for the garden and whatnot, but I just wanted to keep this fun and short! 🙂
**Sorry for the later than usual Podcast update here! I just came back from weekend away helping a friend out with the Ottawa Marathon Race Weekend! I’ll have a post on that soon! :)**
This week on The Random Chat Show, we’re kicking things off with a little Summer Blockbusters Trivia! This leads to our main feature today: Our Top Three Favorite Summer Blockbusters Ever! We count down from our third choice to our absolute best Number One! There’s an awesome random chat that might have you exercising your brain a little and some random news as always!
Enjoy!
What are your favorite Summer Blockbusters?
Head over to That Moment In HERE or tweet us your choices on @RandomChatShow !
Its actually feeling like summer in here as the rain has pushed out of the picture this weekend and we were in the low 30s Celsius. I finally wore my shorts, tank top and flip flops and did a ton of garden work and started working on harvesting stuff. I’ll give a garden update very soon with My Weekly Adventures. However, my basil has grown a lot while being indoors and it was time to do a harvest for it. Then our little visit to Costco reaped a big package of strawberries. Then I found my pitcher for infused water so everything worked out perfectly great to make another infused water to help with a little refreshing detox.
STRAWBERRY-BASIL INFUSED WATER
Ingredients:
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves
1 cup sliced fresh strawberries
Water
Depending on how your pitcher is or whether you use it in those infusion bottles, the quantity will vary. It’ll also depend whether your ingredients will float all together. My pitcher here is pretty cool because it has a tube to put ice, another netted layer where I put my herbs and then directly in the pitcher (as you see) are the sliced strawberries.
I kept it in the fridge to infuse for more than 4 hours before I tasted it at night. The strawberry and basil both came out very well. And the mix was rather delicious. What I worried about initially was that the basil was such a strong herb that it would mask the taste of the strawberries but I was wrong. While you could taste the basil, it balanced really well with the strawberries. What’s nice is that you can adjust the amount of each ingredient to your liking. If you like basil more, then go for it. You can add more to make it taste more of basil than strawberries.
I’m pretty happy that this time’s infused water was a lot more successful than last year’s try at blueberry and lemon mix. I think a huge part is in choosing the right combo and also slicing the fruits so that it infuses better. Now, onwards to try out a few more blends over the summer. I’ve been thinking of putting more drinks (cocktails included) section. It sounds like a fun idea, don’t you think?
Here you go! A nice simple summer drink to help refresh and stay healthy! 🙂
I realize I talk about weather a lot but its the Montrealer in me. The proof is right HERE in #14 ;). Well, at least you all gain knowledge about how Montreal’s weather is doing, right?
This week has been calm for the most part (although a lot of you still seem to find my life crazy busy…which it isn’t). The goal of this post is to see the positives in the little thing. Even when its just the simplest things going on. Sure, my weekend is busy especially on hot days because I’m accepting that its the part of owning a house. Plus, its slowing down at work so I find myself trying to fit in what I didn’t have time to do before August.
Anyways, this week has been rather special for various reasons and I’m about to get into my next little steps that I’d like to share.
1) Surprise Sunflowers
Sunflowers
Some of you would agree that July is kind of the dead season for flowers and gardening. The garden is just green. A few weeks ago, I talked about the hard work of squirrels burying sunflower seeds in our front yard and after a few small ones bloomed, a gigantic one bloomed last week and its just a lovely yellow delight.
Flowers always make me happy 🙂
Do you like flowers? Whats your favorite ones?
2) Harvests
Raspberry and Tomato
I haven’t gotten a picture of my raspberry harvests to show yet. This week’s was by far the best harvest so far and I see lots coming out. I just need to find a way to prop up the leaves so it has room to grow freely. I actually need to do the same for my yellow zucchini plant as well.
3) Winning an Advanced Screening
I never win anything. EVER. My luck is shot. I think it has to do with having used up a lot of luck finding the amazing people that entered my life so I have none for anything else. So, when I got the email that I won these advanced screening tickets for Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. I was skeptical until I actually got the pass in the mail. Which I did on Monday and invited my best friend to go with me. Although, I’ve been completely ridiculously slow at putting up my post for Guardians of the Galaxy, I pushed myself to at least put this one up because its a significant event in my life, one that makes me feel so very lucky 🙂 If you missed my double review of Sin City 1&2, head on over HERE.
Have you seen Sin City: A Dame to Kill For? What did you think?
4) Cleaning Plushies
First batch of plushies
As said in the beginning, this weekend was gorgeous. It was just so hot with a nice little cool breeze here and there. I’m at the stage of moving where its the dusty little plushies that need to move so I brought the first batch over and gave them all a nice wash. The first batch are the smaller ones and my non-Disney collection ones. Oh right, I collect Disney plushies but its really for the goal of hitting ALL the Disney stores eventually 😉 So, feeling a little bit more accomplished, I hung these up and they pretty much spent a good part of the weekend drying off. The small took only the Saturday whereas, there was two larger ones (not here) that are still drying today 🙂
Next batch is next weekend for the Disney, my guess is Zazu, Classic Mickey and Stitch might get the second round 😉 Maybe a few more…I don’t know yet. Maybe I’ll let the relatively new Bambi join in. Dumbo, Lady and Tramp are the oldest bunch so they might be the hardest to clean.
Do you own collections? What do you like to collect?
5) New Fruit Discoveries
Pluot/Plumcots
I love Costco for many reasons. Oh yeah, so many reasons, one of them is the gluten-free choices I talk about all the time. Now, the other one includes having all these awesome fruit selections. I find Costco fruit a bit pricey but when I saw these little beauties and had no idea what they were. I figured they must be those hybrid fruits and they were. These are called Pluots or online says, Plumcots. Its a mix of plums and apricots except its closer to the plum taste (whereas if you had aprium then it’d be more apricot taste). These taste very delightful and I can see them going very well in pies, tarts, even crumb bars. If we don’t finish them before they get completely ripe, I’ll probably have to use them to bake 😉
Have you tried any hybrid fruits? Have you tried Pluots/Plumcots/Apriums?
6) Garden Mission
Garden Mission
The downside of buying the house in winter is not seeing what the garden looks like or how the previous owners cared for it. Thats something I’ve learned. My previous owners were certainly not in the green thumb category because now that everything has pretty much grown, I can just see how disastrous and neglected it was. So after I went crazy cutting and freeing one of the plants in the back so that they have some sort of space and order, I started pulling out weeds (still!). Now I have patches of empty soil sitting around waiting for some grass seeds to fill up the space.
My mission on Sunday ended with this patch which could look so nice but with the ungroomed overgrown hedges here, it just looks like a mess. Do you see the chrysanthemum? No, right? Well, its there. And this picture was after I already pulled out a ton of plants and vine-y weeds. How to fix this mess?
I have so many plants to pull out because its just way overgrown and too much. This is the final month before things switch around.
And please, someone tell me what leaves bear tiny apple-like fruits and sheds bark, leaves and twigs in the middle of August? I’m stumped! I’ve been searching for the two gigantic trees and the type and I just can’t find it. Maybe I should have taken a picture but I’m still a bit angry that I’m the only crazy person raking leaves in August..haha!
7) The Lion King Musical
I love musicals. This year, I already gave up a bunch of concerts because I’m trying to budget my money better. I was about to give up The Lion King musical until there was a 25% off coupon online for some pretty awesome seats. Yesterday, me and my girl friends went out to see it at Place des Arts. We had balcony seats, which is a completely different experience. Plus, whats nice is that being in the balcony, you get to see the animals walking down the aisles and then the people in the upper balconies and around. The show is just so fun. The singing, the costumes and the props: all so beautiful. Its really one of the best musicals I’ve seen. My favorite was the starting of the second part and there was the bird props soaring all over the room. It was so magical 🙂
Have you seen The Lion King Musical before?
8) Inspiring (and Energetic) Music
Shattered Glass – Brad Paisley
Footprints (Kaaze remix) – Tiesto
Just two really nice songs with different styles depending on what you like that has really caught my attention. I love Brad Paisley’s new single Shattered Glass because the video is amazing and the message is inspiring. As for electronic music, I love to listen to it to sort of detach a little and relax.
What songs/music have you been listening to?
Its been an epic week! I spent time with a lot of my girl friends, my garden is progressing, the move is going well and we even started painting the dining room which is making my head spin because its a leap of faith whether the walls and color will match.
I’m not sure if its the heat or the sudden change in weather or just a lack of sleep causing it, but I’m feeling a little under the weather with a sore throat creeping up. Hopefully, with more sleep and more water, I’ll get rid of it. Today’s energy level is a bit low so I’ll end it here. I’ll get something fun tomorrow.
Also, this week, look forward to FINALLY the Guardians of the Galaxy post and a few posts from my Saguenay weekend getaway 🙂
Tranquil Dreams 