Wedding Wear

My most observant readers will have noticed that I was wearing this dress in my photos from Tuesday (with my vintage shawl):

The "blue" stripe is actually a bit more on the turquoise side - apologies for the bad lighting and blurry shots!

This is the new dress I found to wear to the wedding we're attending this weekend. After trying on roughly three dozen dresses (give or take), I settled on the first one I saw (isn't that always the case?). It was the first one that really made me smile when putting it on - and the most comfortable of all the dresses I donned. Pat preferred the tighter dresses, and I almost chose a gorgeous floral instead, but in the end, this one is the one that felt right (though I wish I could have also gotten the floral one for everyday / work...).

When I first tried on this dress at Sears, I didn't have a belt with me but I definitely think it needed one. Luckily, I found this one at Sears too - I think it's the perfect shape. Now I just need to settle on jewelry!

Details:

• dress: Sears
• belt: Sears
• heels: Guess

My Creative Space

Here's a look at some new pages from my SMASH* book. I love flipping through this random scrapbook!

I love sticking movie stubs and dinner receipts in here:

I especially like the dinner receipts because I like to remember what I ate - like Mandarin on my birthday (above).

Here are the rest of my birthday pages:

You can find more Creative Spaces here.

Wordless Wednesday

My Vintage: Shawl

In July, my great-aunt gave me this vintage shawl (along with a hat and a collar I'll show you later) - it used to belong to my great-grandmother (my mom's mom's mom).

Made in Japan of acrylic yarn (exclusively for Adorit, according to the tag), it isn't especially costly or unique... but it is very special to me. My mom even remembers her grandmother having worn it.

The weave is especially beautiful:

 I'm sure it's versatility and warmth will come in handy this winter!

Baking with Peaches

One day early last week I was blogging and smelled something deliciously sweet and fruity. I kept sniffing the air, wondering what it could be. Turns out, it was my bowl of peaches - they were ripe! After eating one raw (and knowing we wouldn't get around to eating all of them before they went bad), I decided to search for some peach recipes. That night, I made this galette:

 You can find the recipe here.

No, of course I didn't think of taking a photo before slicing into it. I was too excited. And I wasn't disappointed. It was delicious, especially with a dollop of whipped cream (again, too excited to take a photo before digging in).

Last night, the galette long gone, I made a crisp.

Crisps are the only thing I can bake without a recipe. I simply improvise. For this one, I used 5 peaches, which was enough to half fill this 8"x8" pan. I tossed the peaches with a scant 1/4 cup of sugar, juice from 1/2 a lemon, a pinch of cinnamon and a tsp of cornstarch. I topped the filling with the following crumbed together: 1 cup oats, 1 cup flour, a drizzle of honey and 1/3 cup soft butter. Bake at 350F until golden, about 35min.

Quick, easy and so tasty! Again, no pictures before we devoured half of it (also with whipped cream). Yum.

Now I only have 2 peaches left. I can't decide if I want to eat them just like that or do something with them...    Have any recipe suggestions for me?

Sunday Seven

Here are a few things I'm grateful for this week:

Sunday: picking pears and wine tasting at my favourite farm / winery 

Monday: birthday packages and anticipation 

Tuesday: my birthday and all the love I received!

Wednesday: having a productive day, finding a dry cleaner for Pat 

Thursday: trying a new recipe (delicious peach galette)

Friday: cooking some amazing ribs, doodling + drinking 

Saturday: trying on dresses (and buying one)  

What are you thankful for this week? 

Project 52: 33 and 34/52

I missed last week, so here are my two photos.

Week 33:

My delicious leftover ratatouille soup.

Week 34:

My vintage juice serving set.

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I'd love it if you'd participate with me in this challenge! The rules are simple - take 1 photo a week, for 52 weeks. No theme, just a photo of something that sparked your interest during the week. Feel free to use my Project 52 banner as well. Either right click on the image above and save it on your computer, or follow this link and download it from Flickr.

Once you've taken your photo, post it online somewhere and add your link in the submission box below.

Graph Paper

Graph paper is so much fun!

My Vintage: Pitcher and Juice Glasses

I think out of all the pieces my mom chose for me from my grandparents house, my favourite is this serving set (mirror tray not included, I found that on Etsy - please ignore the crack, I need to get the glass replaced):

I don't have anything else like this, and it's extra special knowing my grandma served juice with it decades ago. The beautiful gold floral design and the smoky glass make this a classic set that I'll be using for many more decades to come.

The glasses don't hold all that much, but they're such a cute shape. I've been using it for lemonade the last couple days - seems like such a shame to hide the set away in a cupboard!

Do you have a pitcher or serving set you use for juice? I'd love to see!

An Early Birthday Gift

When I went up North for a week at the end of July, my sister-in-law gave me my birthday present early for two reasons: she likes to see me open my gifts and there were a couple very breakable items she didn't want to ship in the mail. I've already shown you the mini wine glasses but here are a few other gifts that have made their way into my decor:

A darling little birthstone figurine. I love the abstract heart and his sweet party hat.

Terri-Anne had no idea I had this blue globe and two stained glass birds hanging in my window, but she knows me pretty well. The white glass egg with lime green and light pink swirls is a perfect addition.

She also added to my collection of tiny spoons:

This one is vintage, and although it may be missing the decal at the top, the etchings in the bowl were too pretty to pass up.

This one is really cool - a totem pole spoon - originally carved in argillite, a stone owned exclusively by the Haidas, and then caste in pewter. It's very intricate and all the more interesting after spending some time learning about Emily Carr (again, something my sister-in-law didn't know about but she still had the uncanny ability to know I would love this spoon).

There were a few other little things in my package including some pyjamas and a Christmas decoration. As you might have guessed, I love presents that are composed of a number of smaller gifts - a fact my family knows all to well (to my benefit)! I must say, I am very blessed!

My Creative Space

I was going to post an update on my SMASH* book today since it's both been a while and I have a few new pages finished from my birthday, but then I had a spark of inspiration yesterday. I pulled out my envelopes of magazine bits and sorted out a few favourite words and images. Soon, I had three separate ideas going and completed three quick collages in my large sketchbook:

I was working fast, so I simply used a glue stick and went for it. I arranged the pieces first, glued them in place, then added the masking and washi tapes. In the case of the first and last pages, I glued the words down after the tape. Quick and dirty, but I really like how they turned out. Each of them has a different feel and style: warm, trendy and quirky.

Here are a few more photos of each one:

This one is warm and woodsy with a dash of something like steampunk. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, go on, go in. (I think I gasped when I noticed - after pairing these pieces together because of their colours - that the door is #5.)

This one is modern, trendy and edgy. I love the pops of cobalt blue. I also really like the white space - the pieces were textured enough that I didn't need to fill the entire page, but all the different patterns still really go well together.

This one also has a lot going on - but in a good way. It just makes me smile. Again, similar tones and shapes bring this one together. I like how my eyes wander over the page. I love how it makes me want to pack my bags and go!

You can see more photos in my Flickr photostream. You can find more Creative Spaces here.

A SMASH* update is in the works - promise!