Thursday 26 April 2012

SIGNS OF SPRING

I've been sitting home writing a paper today (we don't write many papers in med school) and looking out the window at the beautiful day.  Then I realized how close summer is!  I only have three more weeks of school (which include this paper, an exam, and a clinical skills exam) and then I'm free.  Once I realized this, I started to notice signs of spring everywhere.

1. BBQ.  Last week before my exam hubby made a delicious barbecued meal - the first of the season.


2. Watermelon.  This was my afternoon snack today.  It's one of my favourite seasonal foods!


3. Something floral this way comes.  This is the fabric of a tunic I just bought online.  There's nothing better than the day your online shopping purchases arrive. :)


4. Johnny jump-ups.  I'm not sure what their true name is, but I think this is what my mom called these pretty little flowers last summer.  These grow all over our yard and they're one of the only plants I haven't tried to dig up.


5. Car rides.  It's the season of "let's just go for a drive," isn't it?  It definitely is in our family!  A certain someone loves coming along.  When we say, "Do you want to go for a car ride?" Leroy will pace around the kitchen until we finally leave.


How are you seeing signs of spring?  Doesn't it make you excited?  This is a very fun time of year as school draws to a close and summer is just around the corner!

Thursday 19 April 2012

BLOOMING TEAS

Have you ever heard of this?

On the weekend we had a couple of friends over to play board games (Ticket to Ride and Settlers of Catan).  When M asked me to boil water for tea, I had no idea what was going to happen next.  From her purse she produced a clear mug to display her blooming tea!  I am not a drinker of caffeinated beverages, (other than Coca Cola, of course), so I found this product quite surprising.  It looked something like this, (and because it's a photograph, I mean it looked exactly like this):


What do you think?!  Have you ever seen anything like this??  I said it looked like an octopus and hubby thought it looked like an alien.  Would you like to see another view - this time of the flower itself?  Of course you would.


If you're a tea drinker, here is a link where you can buy something similar from David's Tea.  I think M had it right.  Something as strange pretty as this should be put in a clear glass for all to see.  (As an aside, I won the game of Settlers we were playing in the background of these photos.  That's a very important detail.)

Sunday 15 April 2012

AUSTRIAN STYLE

Today I was glancing through my photos from Europe last summer and came across this photo of a beautiful Austrian couple.  This was taken at a vineyard outside of Vienna and I love how chic this couple looks!  They could have stepped out of the pages of a magazine with their beautiful clothing and dashing pose.  Something about this is just incredible to me.


Sorry about the not-so-wonderful quality of the photo.  I think I was trying to be discrete and was less worried about clarity...

Monday 9 April 2012

EASTER MONDAY TREATS

Last night I slaved over carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, using some fun baking supplies my mom brought me.  This included these sprinkles, these cupcake liners (shaped like a flower) and this cute little guy!


The carrot cake recipe is from my Betty Crocker cookbook.  I made this cake for Thanksgiving, but used a rectangular cake pan.  This was the first attempt as cupcakes and they seemed to turn out fine.


The cream cheese frosting (also a Betty Crocker find) is made by combining:

1 package of cream cheese
1/4 cup of butter or margarine
Vanilla
A very large amount of icing sugar (approx 4 cups)


After a couple of hours, a very messy kitchen, and sticky hands, this was the finished product.


Happy Easter until next year!

Sunday 8 April 2012

HAPPY EASTER - HE IS RISEN!

Happy Easter!

As I've gotten older, Easter has replaced Christmas as my favourite holiday.  It's so awesome to have this reminder once a year about how much God loves me (so much he calls me a child of God)!  I know it everyday, but on Good Friday and Easter Sunday it really sinks in that Jesus has saved me.

To celebrate, I wanted to share the song I have listened to probably ten times today (by David Crowder Band called "How he loves us").  My favourite line is:

If His grace is an ocean we're all sinking.

And thank heavens for grace!

Saturday 7 April 2012

MISH MASH

This post is a mish mash of things from this week!  First of all, I got a new haircut two weeks ago - my first ever dye job and bangs (for the first time since elementary school).  It was all very exciting.  As well, I have new RED pants.  They are kind of fab if I do say so myself.

Blazer H&M, t-shirt Smart Set, pants Tommy Hilfiger.
Onto the next item of business.  At school we drew names for secret buddies at the beginning of the year and we buy gifts for that person.  My wonderful secret buddy bought me a gorgeous hydrangea plant that I am in love with!!  Strangely enough, while grocery shopping the last two weeks, I have mentioned to hubby how much I loooooved the hydrangeas on display and how gooorgeous they were and how purple is sooooo wonderful.  Much to my surprise, my buddy bought me the exact plant I had been gushing over for two weeks!  This led me to believe hubby knows who my secret buddy is and gave them a hint.  However, he says this is not the case, it was just a coincidence!  How funny is that?!  Apparently my buddy knows me quite well.  They even (kind of) match my chairs!


And in case you were wondering, Leroy also liked my gift.


Finally, were you wondering where I was going in those fantastic red pants??  Hubby and I had a date night to a restaurant in the city we hadn't tried before.  We have our go-to spots we love (for sushi, Indian, Chinese, and Thai) but have decided to branch out some in the future.  We went to a little tapas bar we had heard about.  We ordered three dishes and enjoyed them all (although I forgot to take pictures of the last two...I was hungry, ok?).  The course I did remember to capture on camera is a lobster dip.  We also got bruschetta and chicken skewers - all delicious!  And there you have it.  That was Thursday.

Monday 2 April 2012

CURL UP IN YOUR FAVOURITE PLACE

Do you have a favourite place?

Mine is probably my family's cottage.  Hubby's favourite place is wherever I am (and I didn't make that up).  Leroy's is under the dishwasher.