My Weekly Adventures: Birthday Post!

Welcome to the weekly adventures!

I’m 33 today! Just taking it easy like every other year. Some plans are postponed to next week and some keeping to this one. However, this post might seem a bit long although very suitable that its a food heavy post seeing as I love to try new things and hang out with friends over meals.

Festival G: Perles et Paddock

Kicking off was the replacement for Battle of Ingredients in March and we went to check out Perles et Paddock and their menu for the Festival G, a new festival in Griffintown area of Montreal. I’ve already talked extensively about it in a post before so I’m not going to talk too much about it.

You can find the post HERE.

Casino de Montreal: L’Instant

My office move finally happened after much delay. Its a whole lot of adapting and such. I have no pictures as I don’t really want to share that part of my life. However, after that early start, things wrapped up a tad early as well and my friend who eats some expensive meals at the casino wanted to redeem some points so picked me up from work and we went to eat at the deli there called L’Instant. I hadn’t been there since it had been renovated. I got the pasta quattro which is a fairly good deal at $15.95 for pasta (where you can choose out of 4 types of pasta, 3 kinds of sauce and 4 groups of ingredients), soup, garlic bread and a drink. I like the whole having a choice to DIY your own pasta.

March Birthdays Group Celebration

Last Saturday, we had a big family party as the whole in-laws side (almost) has their birthdays in March, just like myself. We got together for a delivery chicken meal like previous years and spent time just catching up and chatting. Its always a nice time with family to just hang out. We’re all busy with our own lives so we take these moments when we can.

Plattsburgh US Grocery/Snack Haul

Market 32 by Pricechoppers

Walmart

Target

Last Sunday, I headed out with my friend to Plattsburgh to do a little grocery run. It was more for snacks and such and it was to pick up some goodies for the husband’s birthday. We had an early start so came back fairly early as well. We went to Target where I stocked up on some Spring & Easter Oreos, Easter Lindt bunnies, some L’arabar flavors that we don’t have in Montreal and some Pressed Coconut Coconut Water. The coconut water isn’t here either the last time I checked. Next stop was Walmart where I kept it fairly tight as I picked up unfrosted Pop Tarts (which I don’t get why isn’t in Montreal), Birthday Oreos (they are my husband’s favorite), and some Love Crunch granola which are super expensive and much smaller package. Last stop was Market 32 by Pricechoppers where I picked up some discounted Kind bars. They were $10 for 10 which is, even after exchange, a better deal. I’m stocked up for snacks for at least 2 to 3 months now.

Restaurant: Le Belle et La Boeuf

For the husband’s birthday, I took him out for a long-awaited date together. We rarely go eat out together unless its for film festivals or something so we wanted to go try something new. I already posted about La Belle et La Boeuf HERE.

Birthday Breakfast & Marché Jean Talon

Every year for my birthday, my friend takes me out for a big meal. Although I get to choose any breakfast place, I can’t seem to get past going to Le Cartet which is super delicious. My fave is their Brunch Canton which I absolutely love. The ham is so awesome and the sausages are good. Its really great. I probably talked about it in previous posts but still, if you are in Montreal, like breakfasts and want somewhere delicious in the Old Montreal area, this one is definitely one to consider and probably go to.

Marché Jean Talon

Westrose

After that, we had some parking left so we headed to a new bakery that opened around the corner that I walk by to go to work called Westrose and picked up a loaf of bread for my husband. We took a quick run to Marché Jean Talon. I haven’t been there since at least 15 years ago. I remember going when I was really young so it was nice to head back. I didn’t buy a ton of food since we still had stuff at home but got so beautiful looking brussel sprouts and since I can’t eat most cakes and don’t want to bake a cake for myself, I decided to pick up a strawberry-rhubarb pie at Creations Madeleine. Its a really delicious pie.

Its my Birthday so shameless selfie time 😉

That’s it for this Adventures post!
It was a bit overloaded with stuff but hey, promise April will be much less adventurous!

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!

South Burlington Haul

Its been a few months since our last haul. I’m trying to cut my expenses in the past while. Overall, its been alright, plus it was a nice chance to give ourselves time to declutter and whatnot. However, you will see that this one is mostly groceries.

If you didn’t drop by because of My Weekly Adventures teasing it earlier today, I went to South Burlington, Vermont for a quick day trip since my friend had to run an errand there and I had discovered something at Trader Joe’s and it was the closest one that we have. Give it to buying food to make me cross into the border, it always does the trick.

We made a few stops, some for his errand and others just for checking stuff out which ended up being three spots that I had a little haul from.

First Stop: Trader Joe’s

• Trader Joe’s Speculoos Cookie Butter
• Trader Joe’s Speculoos Cookies
• Trader Joe’s Organic Super Fruit Jam
• Trader Joe’s 72% Swiss Dark Chocolate
• Trader Joe’s Cold Pressed Juice – Red
• L’Arabar *2 (Apple Pie and Cherry Pie flavors)

Since I did go to Trader Joe’s, I tried to pick up  mostly things from their own house brand since the items are guaranteed to not only represent what it offered but also unique to their brand and I couldn’t get it anywhere else. To be honest, a lot of cool products there that were organic and had very healthy ingredients. I’m definitely impressed. As of now, I’ve only tasted the Cookie Butter, the Red juice and the Super Fruit Jam, plus the cookies. Cookie Butter is absolutely delicious as well as the Super Fruit Jam which has officially gotten me back into the jam mood. The Red juice was odd at first with this overpowering beet and celery flavor, not surprising since it has those two ingredients to start but then a few more sips and you get the acidity from the lemon juice and the apple juice. There are some other fruits and veggies in there, ginger and cucumber if I remember correctly also are listed. I can’t say it tastes bad but it tasted healthy because it is. As for the cookies, I’d expect that is what the cookie butter is made from and they are quite delicious. Its supposedly a traditional European cookie which are thin, crisp cinnamon flavored from Belgian. I’m a sucker with cookies with this texture and just enough cinnamon-y and this was pretty great.

Second stop: Barnes & Noble

Next stop was Barnes & Noble. I’ve only ever heard of Barnes & Noble since we don’t have those in Canada. I love books so bookstores are fascinating to me. Barnes & Noble is pretty special. Not only did I walk into the front door and see a bunch of hiking books on sale, which is right up my alley for more hiking destinations. I walked around and saw a whole area of unique board games and then around there was also an entire cabinet full of Studio Ghibli items and collectibles. I wanted to take them all home but of course, I didn’t. Instead I went to the back and saw some cool puzzles. The ones I liked were in a 4 pack so I ended up getting it since the price was pretty economical also. I haven’t done puzzles in a long time but it is something I want to get back to.

Walmart

Last stop before heading back home was to check out the Walmart. Its not really like we don’t have Walmart at home but Walmart in the US stocks brands and items that we don’t have. My favorite is to unfrosted Pop Tarts. They had a limited choice in this Walmart but I still appreciate it. There are usually cool Oreo flavors that we haven’t gotten yet. I think Lemon is in Canada but I grabbed it in case and then caught a glimpse of the chocolate creme Oreos for my husband. Toss that keeping fit out the window for a moment, right? And then I saw the Ritz Summer Limited Edition, which had me curious but I found out that it is really just four individually packaged Ritz crackers but its essentially the same thing. Finally, it hit me at Walmart that I’ve heard so many people talking about La Croix and I said I would go down to get some and then I only remembered at Walmart so obviously got it there. They only had two flavors and I decided to try the Cherry-Lime Flavor. Its actually not that bad. I’m not a huge fan of Sparkling Water but I did enjoy it especially since cold water is not my jam but flavored cold water is decent. Hopefully I’ll remember to check out Target or something when I head down to Plattsburgh which is in the planning since its also not that far away.

That’s it for this haul! 🙂
A quick and not that expensive trip, even considering the crazy exchange rate.
Some nice cool discoveries and I do like Trader Joe’s so if I ever come across another one, I’ll definitely check out more items.

Petalled Cat Collar!

Halloween party is tonight for us.  We have our costumes pretty much done.  Since we’re leaving our little kitty, Flea at home, I had this fantastic idea to mash up crafts and a little something for her.

I got inspired by Martha Stewart to make a Petalled Collar.  Flea is going to be a little red flower for Halloween!

I know she doesn’t like collars much except for her own. So I just kept her in it for 5 minutes to take some quick pictures.  I’m actually glad she was still, very  much less sitting up.  Still, I think it was a fun project.

So some of the things I used and the final product looked like this:

I used black and green thread, red wool felt, purple ribbon.  You don’t see it here but I also used velcro as the fasteners

Not too bad, right? I used the ribbon to imitate the idea of having it around something so it’d curve up a bit as well.  I think its pretty nice for a first attempt.  I had a few road bumps along the way and I had to make some finishing touches today to make up for the mistake I made.

Here’s how Flea looked in it.  Of course, this was an extremely short photo shoot so I didn’t get to take too many and a lot of them were a bit blurry.

Pretty cute, right?

If you have a cat that is a bit more still than her, then this will work perfectly.  At least she won’t try to rip it off..this is what happened as a cue to stop.

If you want to know how to make this, check it at this link on Martha Stewart’s site: http://www.marthastewart.com/852543/petaled-collar-costume

I did this one over a course of a month or so.  From buying the materials from arts and crafts supplies store and Walmart. Then  another day, using the template to cut out the petals and sewing it to look like petals. These last two days have been intensive on sewing it onto the ribbon.  I thought it still turned out okay.  It will get better once I get the hang of sewing for starters.

Hopefully, I will get a few more crafts done by the end of the year.