Saturday, March 30, 2013

She & Him, 13/52



A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013.


She: is colourful all around
Him: can't get enough vegetarian sushi




Friday, March 29, 2013

Insta-Friday in real life...a real life mess edition


Happy Easter! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend of celebration, relaxation and fun.

With the family home for a four-day weekend, I can't help but think we have more time for...cleaning! I know, exciting, huh? I promised the kids that if they help clean up today we will have a sushi and a movie party tonight. That seemed to inspire them a bit.

Here's a little look at our process, using cell phone photos.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

What I Ate Wednesday


Happy Wednesday folks! I hope you are having a good week. I believe some of you are on spring break. Enjoy!

We have some sunshine here, and that's about all I can ask for. Some of the snow has not melted yet, but the withered grass in our backyard is completely exposed, along with some things the dog left behind over the winter. But perhaps that's not appropriate to discuss when talking about food.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Kid Thrift


Last week, I told you about thrifting with my sister. For our first stop, at the Bibles for Missions store, my sister and I were joined by my niece, my husband and our two kids. The thing is, I warned the husband that we would be in the store for a good long while. My sister takes even longer than me to browse. But he wanted to come along. Of course, he ended up sitting in the car complaining.

We dropped him and the kids off at my sister's house before we went to the next two stores. My daughter did manage to find a few things at the Bibles for Missions shop though. She and I picked out these fabrics, above, thinking that we can either make doll clothes or do some kind of craft project with them one day (hopefully before she enters university in nine years).

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Menu Plan, 13/52



This week I am dispensing with my usual review of the previous week's meals. I have been watching my son's team play in a basketball tournament all weekend and I am frankly just plain tired.

I will say that this tofu carrot scramble, above, although certainly not pretty, does make a quick, delicious and healthy breakfast, lunch or dinner.

A gift for my son



A few weeks ago, Blurb offered me an early trial of their new Designer Photo Book TemplatesThe last photo book I made (in November) was for my "Beautiful Girl." You can see that one here.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

She & Him, 12/52


A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013.


She: has a fun sense of fashion
Him: is reviewing his basketball game




Friday, March 22, 2013

Insta-Friday in real life


I'm late with my Insta-Friday post today. In fact, I was so busy this week that I took very few cell phone photos. I just went around the house taking a few now. Kind of cheating, I know.

The new Target store in our area opened this week. The chain is brand new to Canada and I was pretty excited because I have seen the great things my American blogger friends have bought in the past. I forgot my phone though, so I just now snapped a pic of the two dresses I bought. They are the black and white striped one and the blue striped one, above. Target has cute summer spring dresses for $30 to $35. I'm not sure how that compares to their American prices. Let me know, if you know.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

What I Ate Wednesday, with a new superfood


Before I get to this week's What I Ate Wednesday, I have two winners to announce. Congratulations to K.S. Barrett, the winner of Lucy's delicious vegan and gluten-free cookies. Congratulations to Brenda W. too! She won the Crofter's organic jam. I have sent you both emails. Enjoy these wonderful products!

This week I have been consuming smoothies almost every morning. I have been experimenting with smoothies that don't contain non-dairy milks for a change. This one, above, is pure fruit and water (I think so anyway. Sometimes I forget what I threw in there.)

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Dreaming of Spring


It snowed again last night. This pretending it's not winter isn't working for me anymore. I'm dreaming of spring...warm sunshine, increased energy, tulips peeping through the soil...even rain would be fine.

The other day, my sister-in-law and I were chatting about spring dresses. We are both over the age of 40 (although I still think of her as a young thing) and we are suddenly finding ourselves wanting to try out a different style of clothing. We are craving more colour, more pretty...something fun.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Thrifting Sisters...part three


I'm back with another edition of Thrifting Sisters. My last post was in November. If I lived closer to my sister, you can be sure there would be many more of these posts. Having someone to shop with fuels the addiction, doesn't it? Our first stop was Bibles for Missions in St. Catharines, where I picked up this piece of pottery made in Vineland, Ontario.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Menu Plan, 12/52


Happy St. Patrick's Day and Happy Anniversary to my sister and her husband! We celebrated well into the night in Clearwater Beach, Florida two years ago on this day.

On to the menu planning. Last week's menu plan was what my son would call an "epic fail." We were away from home Sunday to Wednesday, but that didn't really cause the plan to fail. I had accounted for our absence in the plan.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

She & Him, 11/52



A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013.

She: provided "maid service" at our hotel in Niagara Falls
Him: wants to be back with his boy cousins




Friday, March 15, 2013

March Break, Day Five


March Break, Day Five - Back at home. We returned with several gifts from my sister (because we hadn't seen each other since before Christmas). She gave me this lovely wooden owl. March Break is officially over for me as I have several writing deadlines looming. The kids and husband are still hanging about.

Insta-Friday in real life, Niagara Falls edition



Happy Friday! For those of you who had a spring break this week, I'm sorry the week has passed so quickly...because I'm quite sure it has.

As is generally my habit on Fridays, I am sharing a look at our cell phone photos from the past week. This week, they are mostly photos I shared on Instagram. You can follow me @ziajojo. I'll be sure to be nice and follow back.

My goal was to start off March Break with a clean house. I gathered the kids and husband for a quick family meeting on Saturday morning to enlist their help. I was treated to lots of groans and twisted faces, but they eventually did help...a bit.

Here's my clean dining room. A couple of people on Instagram admired the chandelier. I like it too. It was in our entryway growing up. My parents bought it at some point years ago when they used to attend auctions and flea markets regularly.

The large picture on the far wall is a John Hartman lithograph from the McMaster Museum of Art where my husband used to work.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

March Break, Day Four


March Break, Day Four - My sister and I spent the day thrift store shopping in St. Catharines, Ontario. She always heads for the clothes and accessories, while I head straight for the dishes. She often finds clothes for me too, so I don't have to do the grunt work.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

What I Ate Wednesday, fruit edition


It's What I Ate Wednesday and I am taking a look back at some food highlights from the past week.

I discovered a lot of fruit pictures on my camera. I'm continuing to serve fruit for me and my family as often as possible.

March Break, Day Three


March Break, Day Three - Enjoying Niagara Falls, Ontario and the unlikely pairing of odd tourist attractions with the natural beauty of the falls.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

March Break, Day Two


March Break, Day Two - Hanging out in Niagara Falls. Check out this upside down house. Next time we might actually pay to go in. Or maybe we'll just go check out the falls instead.

Monday, March 11, 2013

March Break, Day One


March Break, Day One - My guy (right) is happy as he can be, just playing in the mud with his cousins.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Menu Plan, 11/52

 

Last week's meal plan went well. Pictured above is Friday's meal. My husband made pizza, roasted vegetables and salad. This is my vegan pizza with Daiya cheese.

Monday's Sesame Broccoli Stir-fry from "Vegan Planet" was tasty. We ate it all up for dinner and I didn't get a photo.

Saturday, March 9, 2013

She & Him, 10/52





A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013.

She: sets up shop in whatever room I just cleaned
Him: has given up on his winter coat




Friday, March 8, 2013

Insta-Friday in real life with a visit to Steven and Chris


It's Insta-Friday again and time to share simple photos from the past week.

The highlight of my week was when my friend Jackie and I attended a taping of the "Steven and Chris" show. Chris from DK Canada invited me to be in the studio audience while they presented DK's Smithsonian Fashion book.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Vegan Oatmeal Jam Muffins


The kind people at Crofter’s Organic recently sent me samples of their strawberry and blueberry organic premium fruit spreads. 

Truth be told, I buy Crofter's jam all the time. I don't like nasty extra ingredients in my jam. Crofter's spreads are mostly made up of organic fruit. They are sweetened with Rainforest Alliance-certified organic cane sugar and contain one-third less sugar than standard jam. The strawberry is my absolute favourite, with chunks of tasty organic strawberries.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

What I Ate Wednesday with a cookie giveaway



I called my last What I Ate Wednesday the "sweet tooth edition." I could just as easily give this week's edition the same name. I guess my sweet tooth has a hold on me lately. More on that later.

I had a couple more of my usual toast-for-breakfast days this week. At least I made my own spelt bread in the breadmaker this time. It's so much better than the dry stuff you buy at the stores.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Dressing Up


I have had very few custom-sized dresses in my lifetime so far. I think the most recent was the bridesmaid's dress I wore over a decade ago for my sister-in-law's wedding. So, when eShakti contacted me offering me a free custom dress in exchange for a review, I was pretty excited. To be honest, at first I thought the dresses might be unappealing. But I couldn't have been more wrong.

Monday, March 4, 2013

March Break Madness (Book Review) part two


I've said it before...occupying the kiddies over a March Break spent in your own house can be challenging. I recently picked out a few special craft books to feed us with ongoing projects ideas. While the kids and I had a great time sewing these fun sprinkle doughnuts, I thought it would be wise to have them pick out their own books for personal inspiration. It's always best if kids find books that appeal to their own interests and tastes, right?

The kids browsed the selection of books available in DK's March Break boutique. I secretly hoped that one of them would select a learning to cook type of book, because then they could learn to cook in place of Mom. Alas, they chose otherwise.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Menu Plan, 10/52



Time for another vegan weekly meal plan. But first, another week in review.

Last week's plan was fairly successful. We had to make a couple of changes to the schedule, but for the most part the plan ensured that we made decent meals. Yesterday's scheduled meal was Roasted Fall Vegetables and Lentil Salad, but my son's basketball game was right around dinner time so we postponed that particular meal until today (pictured above). The family had lasagna (from frozen) instead and I had a quick fried rice.

Saturday, March 2, 2013

She & Him, 9/52



"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013."

She: knows what she likes
Him: enjoys photobombing his sister's pictures...over and over again




Friday, March 1, 2013

Insta-Friday in real life, a week with the kids edition


Happy Friday! Are you looking forward to the weekend?

I have had an interesting week. My son stayed home with me one day when his class went tubing. He didn't want to go tubing for an entire day.

Unfortunately, the trip fell on a day when he had lost his TV and iPod privileges. This was the result, above.