Tall Poppy

We had a bit of a mini vacation last weekend, starting in one of my favourite places in Ontario; Prince Edward County and then making our way up North to spend the weekend at a cottage with friends. We had a wonderful time, and it was so nice to getaway before the baby arrives!

We ate very well while in Prince Edward County, but my favourite dining experience was definitely our visit to the Tall Poppy Cafe each morning. It was conveniently across the street from our little hotel, and it had such a great vibe! The food was amazing and the decor was awesome. This is the kind of cafe that everyone wants in their home town. It has a serve yourself coffee station, which just makes you feel at home. All in all it was a fabulous little place that I fell in love with, and I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting the County!

My delicious breakfast on day one!

Breakfast in a Bite

Last weekend a few of my friends and I headed to the first annual Craft Beer and Food Trick Festival in our township. It was a great event. 

The drink of choice for the non-pregnant participants

My drink of choice

We tasted a lot of yummy food including fries and gravy, poutine, tacos, nachos, pizza, etc, but probably the best thing we tasted all day were deep friend cookies from the Wickedly Sinful food truck. We tried both flavours: red velvet deep fried oreos with cream cheese frosting and deep fried maple cookies with salted bacon topping. 

I thought for sure the Oreos would be by favourite since I don't really like maple cookies, but the maple cookie came out on top. It was amazing, and tasted exactly like breakfast in a bite. It was absolutely delicious. 

Surviving Christmas

I was so looking forward to our first Christmas in our new home, and it certainly was a memorable one. We lost our power on December 21st and it did not come back on for good until the 24th. We were so lucky to have it come back before Christmas, as many were without power much longer than us.

Before the power went off, I captured a few images of surviving the ice storm. Here are a few of the tree branches that fell on our roof before tumbling to the ground. Our sitting room has skylights and is surrounded by windows, falling trees are terrifying. From what we can tell, the only major damage was to our eves trough. We'll find out more in the Spring.

We weren't the only ones terrified. Every time a branch fell, one cat ran upstairs and the other ran to the basement. We set up shop in the sitting room, and they were very happy to comply.

On day 3 of no power, I went to my local gym for a hot shower. I couldn't help but take in the ice crystal landscape.

All in all we had a great holiday despite the storm. My mom came to visit after Christmas and we got to see Chris' family after they returned from vacation. We capped it off with a party with friends and taking down all of the decorations. I am looking forward to 2014, and hope to learn how to use the DSLR we got from my parents as a wedding present.

Harvest Share: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

This post should probably be called "Why I'm Not Participating in Harvest Share Next Year", but I did want to share some of the positives as well.

The Good: We got to try a few vegetables that we had never tried before, the produce tasted better and lasted longer because it was so fresh, we got some good recipes each week with our list of produce. Probably my favourite thing about the program was creating the photo project

The Bad: We wasted a lot of food- I tried hard to use everything and freeze what I could, but I still found the personal size boxes too much for just the two of us. I found it was difficult to stuff everything on my fridge on pick up days, and we got a few things that I never would have bought myself, and really didn't enjoy.

The Ugly: I don't really know how to explain this, but as excited as I was to participate in this program, it created a lot of unnecessary anxiety and stress for me. We always had to worry about picking up the basket before the farm closed (they do offer a drop off program for $7/week), I had anxiety about packing everything up to properly store, Chris complained about never being able to find anything in the fridge, I stressed myself out trying to incorporate all of these veggies into our dinner meals, I made some epic disaster dinners just to use the vegetables (hint: celery root soup is a bad idea).

All in all, it wasn't awful, but there are enough lessons learned that I won't be participating again. Next summer, I will be buying my produce from all the local farmers markets and plan to grow a few more things in my garden!

Last 4 weeks of Farm Baskets

Scenes From the Weekend

We had a gorgeous holiday weekend, here's a little bit of what I saw

I went for a walk on Saturday morning and captured some of the colours and fruits of the season.

I finally took some photos of my fall decorations, I made a friend with a neighbourhood barn cat, and our sweet family made a special Thanksgiving wedding cake, so we could celebrate with all of the family members that couldn't make it to New Brunswick for the wedding.

It was also a baking weekend. I roasted my own pumpkin for the pumpkin spice cupcakes, and the carrot cake recipe from a family friend was a big hit with our first Thanksgiving crowd.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Harvest Share- 8 Weeks In

We're almost halfway through our Harvest Share program. I have been photographing my basket each week and posting on Instagram. My favourite part has definitely been experiencing new vegetables like kale, golden beets, heirloom carrots. I also really like having fresh produce at my fingertips; it reminds me of home. The downside is that even at the personal size, sometimes we can't eat everything. I've been freezing what I can, but sometimes we end up throwing things out. All in all, the pluses definitely outweigh the minuses, and it certainly makes for a fun photo project!

Country Living

I have driven by this sign several times and each time I have thought to myself "You know you live in the country when..." I love our town and all the the quirks that come with it. Horses need clean blankets after all:)

Small Town Love: Library Stamps

Since moving to our small town, I have found myself romantically admiring all that it has to offer. For example, our town has not one but two movie stores. In the city, movie stores don't really exist any more, but in small towns- they're booming. In fact, when I went to find a movie on Saturday night, there were three other people browsing the racks!

One of my favourite small town finds so far is that our local library still stamps the due date on the inside of the books! Although they've moved to an electronic catalogue, they don't give you receipts like most libraries...and that just makes me happy!

Happy Monday Everyone!

Things I Left Behind

I stopped in at a few Antique shops this weekend, once on the way home from Stratford in Shakespeare (unfortunately there was only one shop open), then the red barn on the way to the Cookstown Antique Market and then in Cookstown. I can't always bring home everything I love, so here is a glimpse at the things that didn't come home.

Clockwise from top: Cute vintage stools, great tall chimney cupbard, a beautiful iron crib converted to a daybed and ornate ladder back chairs.

I loved this chalkboard and thought it would look sweet in a child's room one day!

Hope you all had a great Canada Day long weekend!

We're In!

Well, we got everything out of the old house on Saturday and everything moved into the new place, including the cats. Despite losing Missy for almost 10 hours yesterday, so far so good.

And because my kitchen looks like this:

I opted to share a picture of my backyard on facebook Saturday night:)

We'll be digging out for a few weeks now, but we're in our home and we're happy to be here:)

No-mad's Land

You'll have to excuse the lack of posting, it's moving week and we're beyond buried in boxes, meetings, and last minute details. I am taking a break to share some images of the weekend with you.

Turns out cats can sleep through anything on anything when they want to. Missy found comfort in the back of the lazyboy set on the kitchen table and Boy-Cat ignored all of the movement and boxes around him and gravitated to the warmth of the laptop on the couch.

I took this picture on the way home from a trip out to our new house and village. I love how small town it is, I love that there is a local coffee shop, community activities like fairs, scarecrow contests and bonfires, and the fact that I can walk to town in twenty minutes. 

We're moving on Saturday and thanks to a number of good friends pitching in, it shouldn't be too bad. I can't wait to be there and to introduce the kitties to their new home and a world outside of the burbs. 

Things I Love: Wine Barrel Cutting Board

When my girlfriend and I were in wine country just before the holidays, we stopped in at Thirty Bench. They had a lovely boutique in their store that carried these great cutting boards. They are the ends of wine barrels. and I just fell in love. They come with handles for serving trays or without for a true cutting board. I love how big and rustic looking they are!

A Stop in Wine Country

Last weekend we stopped into a few wineries on our Beamsville adventure! It always amazes me how unique and different each winery is. Here are a few of the ones that caught out eye:)

Angels Gate

Peninsula Ridge

This one definitely wins most beautiful. They have a fancy little restaurant inside as well that looks like it's worth checking out!

Thirty Bench

This guy was my favourite, the grapevine wreath on the side of the barn is my new phone wallpaper!

Hapy Friday! I'm hoping to get to some Christmas decorations up this weekend:)

Handmade Market

On Saturday I made my way to Beamsville with one of my best pals. We had a great day (despite the frigid weather), and I was able to get a few things knocked off my Christmas shopping list in the process. Here are some pictures of the day!

I loved the soy candles in the vintage crown jars of course!

Les and I devoured the apple twist with caramel drizzle, and the apple cider was delicious!

Loved the cutting boards made out of wine barrel tops!

Day Off

Today I took the day off in all senses of the word...we spent the better portion of our weekend right here...and we did not want to leave...if it weren't for the rain this morning, we probably wouldn't have headed home early...and I likely wouldn't feel like i had time to organize myself for the week ahead...but we would have been here...

Atlantic Tour: Georgetown PEI

As I mentioned in Friday's post, Georgetown is PEI's hidden gem...not terribly hidden as they have a famous restaurant in the Tourism guide, but a wonderful sleepy little town with so much maritime charm! Here are some of my favourite shots of Georgetown!

The Kings Playhouse has a traditional Ceilidh every Tuesday night! 

The little harbour/marina had tons of old fishing shacks, great patina and awesome nautical images.

I couldn't stop taking pictures!

CHRIS' GUEST POST: SANS PATINA

CAR-tiquing

So, we've just returned home from a great weekend up north in Gravenhurst. We had travelled all that way to celebrate the marriage of our good friends Shreyansh and Archana, and decided to stick around for the weekend. We had a great stay at Inn on Bay in Gravenhurst, where the host and the Inn exceeded our expectations. This is #1 reason why I agree to let Jessica book B&B's as opposed to hotels when we go away. #1A is the awesome value as B&Bs are generally well below the cost of a hotel. I'm sure Jessica will get into more detail on this in one of her regular blog posts. 

AS FOR ME, I'm going to showcase some meat and potatoes as opposed to the usual girly stuff Jessica posts.

Case and Point Below. Cudos to BALA Legion for ensuring that I didn't spend the entire day Sunday inside the arena at the Antique Show.

Bala Legion Car Show: Sunday, July 1st, 2012.

1ST GENERATION (1964-1973)

FORD MUSTANG 302 - CUSTOM ENGINE

The 302 was originally
introduced in 1968

This Custom Built Ford Race Engine
is definitely not original but clearly
this was built with both beauty and power in mind

The interior has been completely restored. The driver's seat is just inviting you to sit down and go for a ride. The dash has a sleek and sexy black/wood design, and the oversized steering wheel, and wonderful PEARL WHITE shift knob makes it easy to clear all four gears, without realizing you've topped out the speedometer in what I'm assuming will only take mere seconds with this custom engine. The original 1968 included two engine options that would give most modern cars a run for their money in the half mile. 

These two engine options from 1968 carry more horses than the current base model 2012 Mustang, and the 427cid is only 20 horses short of the current 412 hp 2012 GT model.

427cid 4V V-8 390hp

428cid 4V V-8 335hp (Cobra Jet)

This vehicle will turn heads on any roadway it drives down. I call this SANS PATINA, because this car has completely removed any signs of PATINA it may have once had, and would look sexy beside any of its younger sisters produced today. THE BEST NEWS IS THAT JESSICA HAS ALREADY AGREED THAT I CAN BUY IT ONE DAY! (Only a few expenses to take care of before then, wedding, house, car loans, student loans...). 

Ahh well, a man can have a dream can't he?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRx2xzz7cJc

Prince Edward County- What we brought home!

Here is a picture of all of our loot from PEC! We visited some great places on our trip, and certainly had to bring a taste of the county home.

We picked up:
1. 2010 Medium Dry Riesling and 2007 Merlot from Huff Estates where we stayed
2. Some Raspberry and mango jam as well as a maple apple butter from Pat's Jams (now Price Edward County Fare
3. Delicious chocolates from Copper Kettle chocolates...the sponge toffee was amazing!
4. Maple Syrup and Old Cheddar Cheese (not pictured) from Black River Cheese
5. Peach apple waupoos cider from County Cider

Prince Edward County- The Sights

This is the first of three posts on our trip last weekend to Prince Edward County. This is the Sights edition, I will also be posting about "What we Brought Home" and our Antiques visit. I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked because somebody (not naming names) said I looked like a foreign exchange student and walked a number of feet ahead or behind me, hoping for disassociation!

This is the Regent Theatre in Picton. It is a beautiful old theatre (since 1918) that still plays movies and hosts many other local events today!

French Country was one of my favourite stores in Picton! It was absolutely gorgeous, and the shop owner has actually lived in France for many years. They had everything from french linens, scents, glassware and jewelry.

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I took this shot for all my MTA/Sackville readers, as we had a Stedmans in Sackville, with a Frenchy's in the basement no-less and it brought back good memories!

This store puts brings the Island and the County together and reminded me of home just a little! Chris and I have a visit to PEI planned in July, and I can't wait to enjoy the Island!

This is the town hall in Bloomfield, erected in 1869! I tried taking numerous shots of this building, and it wasn't until we were in the car, parked in the middle of the road that I got this shot...somebody warmed up to the photo-taking and I couldn't have got this one without him! There's hope yet!