Wednesday, May 31, 2017

What I Ate Wednesday


I'm finally back with a What I Ate Wednesday post. If you normally visit the blog for vegan food ideas, thanks for sticking with me. I was caught up in the busiest of springs. We were beautifying our dining room over a 6-week period for the One Room Challenge. You can see the big dining room reveal here! That's in addition to all the parenting stuff that comes along with spring. It feels like winter is for hibernation and we try to fit EVERYTHING into the short weeks of spring. Basketball tournaments, dance competitions, birthday parties - it's all good fun but it doesn't exactly leave time or energy for the greatest meals.

To tell the truth, not much of our food over the past couple of months felt photo-worthy. And time for picture-taking was at a premium. Not that I'm creating genius meals now. I fully believe that vegan food preparation can be easy and quick. Certainly you can prepare more elaborate dishes (with lots of vegetable cutting involved!) when you have the time and energy, but on regular days, we keep it simple. Here's a sample day of easy vegan eats - what I had this past Monday actually. The kids went off to school and I just thought, "pancakes." Why not make a stack of pancakes to enjoy all by my lonesome? Right? A perfect way to ease into Monday. So I made vegan pancakes with a light touch of cinnamon and a bunch of berries. And then I drowned those pancakes in maple syrup. Because that's the way to do it.

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Why the Tech World Needs More Girls & A Level Up Kids Summer Camp Giveaway


I'm guilty. Guilty of steering my 12-year-old daughter towards a love of reading and writing and photography - all of the pursuits that I enjoy and have always believed I'm good at. Recently she told me, "I actually really like science." Alarm bells went off in my head. I was happy to hear she liked science. But a realization dawned on me - had we done nothing to encourage her to explore pursuits such as science, technology and math? Sure she has had a science kit or two, but did we ever sell any of these traditionally male subjects as career options? Fortunately there's still time. I would love to see her take courses exploring coding, science and math.

Thursday, May 25, 2017

How To Learn a New Language Easily & Affordably


I'm a bit embarrassed to say that I can't speak any Italian. No more than a few words anyway. Why is this born and bred mangiacake embarrassed? Because I've known my husband almost three decades. Which means I've known his Italian-born and raised parents for almost three decades. And they speak Italian at home. We went to Italy on our honeymoon. I sat in silence as my husband's lovely family members attempted to make conversation while my husband translated (reluctantly I might add).

But this isn't a story about me and my ignorance. Rather it's about my 12-year-old daughter. I begged my husband to teach the kids some conversational Italian when they were little. "Even just at feeding times," I helpfully suggested. That way they would learn Italian words related to food. And we all know those are the most important Italian words to learn. But it didn't happen.

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

What materials can I cut with the Cricut? & A Canada-inspired iron-on tank top & tote


This upcoming weekend is the unofficial start of summer here in Canada. My Canadian friends and I call this long weekend “May two-four." For one thing, Monday is Victoria Day (this year on May 22nd), and the birthday of Queen Victoria fell on May 24th. For another thing, the long weekend launches cottage/camping/party season and many "two-fours" (24-packs) of beer will be consumed over the next three months (starting this holiday Monday no doubt). I thought it would be fun to mark this distinctly Canadian holiday by making a couple of Cricut iron-on projects that celebrate our much-beloved country.

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

One Room Challenge Dining Room Makeover Week #6: The Big Reveal!


Six blog posts. Five weeks. A completely different dining room. I'm not going to say it's been easy. Spare time was hard to come by. And I picked up a cold at dance competition this past weekend (tight quarters in those dressing rooms!), so I'm writing this with itchy eyes and tissue in hand. But our One Room Challenge dining room makeover is done! And we love our new dining room space. We might actually eat in there now. (Or at the very least, not pile random items on the dining table.) Let's have a wee look at the before and after pics to see how far we've come.

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

One Room Challenge Dining Room Makeover Week #5: Crown Moulding & Cabinet Paint

The "Before" - this room is long gone now!

It was glorious to have a whole weekend to dedicate to our One Room Challenge dining room makeover this past weekend. No sporting events to take the kids to - just uninterrupted painting and installation time. (Okay it wasn't entirely uninterrupted - that would be impossible - but we got in a good stretch of work hours.)