Last Weekend in Food

Last weekend we had company! One of my good friends and her husband came to visit for a visit and an early celebration of her 30th birthday! She had very few "Must-Do" activities while visiting, but one of them was visiting the Loblaws Grocery store in the old Maple Leaf Gardens and another was eating as much yummy food as we could including a dim sum brunch!

For anyone that hasn't been, the Loblaws is pretty impressive. There is definitely a mix of Tourists and Regular Shoppers, which makes things highly annoying for the Regulars (and they didn't mind letting us know) in true Toronto fashion!

When you first enter the store, you see a large Maple Leafs blue leaf sculpture made from the old seats of the Gardens.

The bakery has a section dedicated to ACE Bakery products, and they make all kinds of fancy breads!

The Deli is massif and beautiful (spoken by someone who makes their living off sliced meats)!

Here's our group posing in front of the giant fancy cheese fridge. They will let you try a sample of any kind of cheese they have. We bought Drunken Goat and Avonlea Cloth Bound Cheddar.

The cupcake selection is amazing!

And the macarons are colourful (albeit completely overpriced)!

The loblaws was definitely a fun experience, and if you spend $20, they will validate your parking ticket for 1.5 hours!

We ate so well last weekend, here are just a few shots of our Sushi dinner, our dim sum brunch and Jess and I's trip to IHOP (also overpriced when one finds themselves in Niagara Falls)!

Thank you Jess and Jimmy for coming to visit- we had a blast!!!

Kijiji Escapades

I'm in the process of re-evaluating our space. We purchased a new couch, and it is being delivered this week. As a result, I am reviewing all of our furniture and the fit in our home. I have used kijiji before with mixed success, but thought I would try it again to sell a few items. I currently have a box spring set, a cupboard and shelving units for sale.

Here are the pictures of the cupboard and one of the shelving units. This cupboard has been with me forever, it has acted as a microwave stand, a recipe book holder and an entertainment unit. We just don't have a use for it anymore, so I'd like to find it a good home!

Here's what i've learned about selling items on Kijiji

1. Make sure you're absolutely sure you're ready to sell because sometimes things can move quickly

2. Add a bit of cushion to your price because people are expecting to negotiate

3. Be prepared to answer a lot of emails that go nowhere

4. Put "If this posting is still active, the item is still available" in your post. People will still email and ask, but it might help a bit.

Valentines Mail

We got an awesome surprise in the mail last night, just in time for Valentine's Day! Our sweet cousins Emma and Abby (who were also our sweet Flower Girls) made us some very cute Valentines! Thank you so much girls, we loved them! Hoping you have a fun snow day tomorrow!

I also got a sweet card from my card soulmate Leslie, so definitely feeling loved. Are you celebrating Valentines Day? We're having dinner at home and I am revelling in the fact this was the first year I could shop in the Husband section at the card store!

The Maui Food Scene

I planned to share this post ages ago, and didn't...and now in what has been a long winter, I am craving the sun and surf of Hawaii. Here is a post on a couple of our favourite places we ate at.

We didn't do much on our honeymoon...we planned it that way. We wanted some time to relax, and for the most part, that's exactly what we did. One day we even slept for 18 hours. The one thing we did do pretty regularly was eat really delicious food. The food scene is Maui is excellent. There are tons of great little local independant restaurants, and that's what we spent time checking out. Here is a review of some of our favourites:

Kihei Caffe

The Kihei caffe is amazing. It is a breakfast spot, it is very cheap (for Hawaii) and it is BUSY!!! You stand in line to order your meals and then you go and find a table (only after you order). It's a bit daunting, but everyone always finds a table or makes a new friend. I had the traditional breakfast which was fried rice with an egg on top. It was delicious and the portion was huge, I ended up eating it for lunch the next two days. We also got a very yummy Banana Bread muffin with chocolate chips and coconut on top, it was incredible!

808 Deli

For lunch one day we tried the 808 Deli. Everything on their menu is under $10, and the food is Fresh and Delicious. This is a picture of my yummy Turkey Sandwich (Chris said it was boring) and he got the pulled pork. We both loved our choices and the atmosphere of the Deli.

Cheeseburger in Paradise

I know Cheeseburger in Paradise is a chain, but we had some very yummy burgers here one day, and they served the Hawaiian beer that Chris really enjoyed. It's definitely worth checking out if you're craving a god burger!

Ululani's Hawaiian Shave Ice

Don't take Chris' look as an indication of how yummy this was because it was absolutely delicious and a small was HUGE!!! I think the Mister was just annoyed I was taking a picture before he could dig in! There is a lot of debate over the best shaved ice between Ululani's and a place called Local Boys, but we loved Ululani's. Make sure to ask for a snow cap add on which is a sweet cream mixture, gives it a nice creamsicle touch!


Monkeypod Kitchen Restaurant

This place is reviewed as one of the best places to eat on Maui. The food is fresh and the atmosphere is awesome. This is a picture of the homemade jalepeno poppers and they were very yummy. They have a great happy hour where all appetizers are 50% off and pizzas are only $9. This was one of my favourite places not just for the food but how awesome the decor is:

The moral of this story is, we ate very well on our honeymoon, and in this cold long winter, I can't help but think:

Favourite Spaces- Bathroom Corner

Although this room has a long way to go, and I have major plans including a full paint job and totally new light fixtures before Spring, I love this space. With the cold winter we've been having, I've spent many an evening soaking in our deep claw foot tub, which I hadn't really taken advantage of until now. I added the snowflake garland at Christmas time, and liked it so much I left it up. I think one of the reasons I like this space so much is it has so many treasures I've collected over the years, and everything has a story (like the old liquor bottle or the cracked Japanese china jar on the little shelf above the tub.

In the picture below, you can see the old metal hospital table that Chris negotiated at Christie a few years ago, a wash-stand given to my by close friends, a pretty tray I picked up at Aberfoyle, a vintage suitcase and old painting I found at Goodwill

Here is a close up of the pretty tray. I think I paid $6 for it, and loved it the moment I saw it. The frame is wooden and the tray is ceramic. No room would be complete in our house without a couple of fruit jars. I have also added an old first aid kit and tin of baby powder for good measure!

As you can see from the pictures above, I'm not the only one who likes this space. This is Missy Cat's favourite bathroom activity- catching drips on her nose. In our old house, we used to let the tap run for her, now we use an old enamel pan to catch her drips.

Happy Friday everyone! Hope you have a good weekend, we're going to see a good friend, and I am hoping to get some thrifting or antiquing in at some point, definitely in withdrawl this time of year!

Steal of a Deal

Chris is convinced we need a new sectional couch, so we went furniture browsing the other night to see what the market's like. One of the local stores is blowing out their inventory to make room for new stock, and there was a bin of clearance pillows. I fell in love with the bolster first because it reminded me of a grain sack. Chris found the linen one, and I praised his good eye immediately.

The price listed on the bolster was $55 and the price on the linen throw pillow was $89 (highway robbery only a furniture store- we paid $12 for each of them! I love a good deal, and $12 quality pillows is  good deal in my books!