Thursday, February 28, 2013

Now It's a Parade!

Three's a parade, right?

Spotted while driving down Gottingen.


I've got a collection of these guys on the go now.  The amazing BF even volunteered to drive around the block when I caught sight of this one at the last second and didn't have enough time to snap a photo (what a guy! <3).  

I'm so looking forward to being able to stroll around town at leisure, discovering the sketches and drawings and paintings people have left here and there for our enjoyment.  Looks like another bit of weather is on it's way for us in the next day or so, so it won't happen too soon . . . . but, hey, soon enough!  

Hope you all have couch and movies plans this eve, folks!  Till next time!


Wednesday, February 27, 2013

This Is Wednesday

Getting things ready for the noon skate at the Oval:
Shiny red Zamboni.

Mural on Quinpool:
Look out behind you little ladybug!

They think it's spring:
Part of a giant flock hanging around Citadel Hill today.

So do they:
Green things sprouting already in our new backyard!

This used to be CD Plus:
Remember cd stores?

Pretty evening sky on the way to dinner:
Over the old Spring Garden library.

Dinner:
The super delicious Electric Blue and the Man-O-War at the new The Works on Doyle.

Thinking about getting a nice bottle of Scotch for BF:
Not gonna happen @ Port of Wines on Doyle.

Now it's time to settle in with BF and have some red and watch The Tempest.  Ahhh, what a day!

Till next time!

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

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It's 5:30, Friends. . . .




. . . do you know where YOUR sunshine is?

Oh, don't worry, I do.  It's here, still up in the sky. . . .


. . . so bright and shiny (and vaguely Saturn-looking) that my little camera could barely capture it.

Ah, it's happening folks, the days are getting longer and longer!  Soon, March 10th in fact, it's Spring Ahead time and it'll be this bright at 6:30.  In fact, as I am actually writing this post, it's 6 and it's still bright out there.

Siiiighhhhhh.  I am a long days kind of girl.  The gloomy, short, dark days of winter really get to me, and as soon as December 21st arrives, I take great joy in watching every tiny increment of the lengthening days.  

The next thing you know it's gonna be back yard barbeques, walks along the busy waterfront and day trips to the beach.  Holy heck, I can't wait!

Hope you got to enjoy the beautiful day!

Till next time friends!  

Monday, February 25, 2013

Full Moon Fever   

Tonight in Halifax there is a bright, cold, full moon.  


Hopefully all the craziness that supposedly happens during the full moon will be kept at bay by the cold, but just in case, it might not be a bad idea to avoid emergency rooms, and while you're at it, better stock up on some anti-lycanthropic silver bullets.  That is, of course, unless you're, you know, into that sort of thing.  ;)

Till next time!












Sunday, February 24, 2013

Thank You, Delivery

Sometimes you just do not feel like cooking, you know?  And on those occasions we can be grateful for the plethora of choices there are out there that we can simply look up, make a call and and then sit back and wait for.  Tonight is one of those nights.

Helllooooo roasted garlic, bacon, sauteed mushrooms and onions!  Welcome to our home.

Thanks for feeding us tonight Tomavino's!

Till next time!

Saturday, February 23, 2013

The Big Reveal II

So far, it's been quite a year.

I SAID YES!!! 
<3 <3 <3

How lovely is that little gem?  It is an heirloom, belonged to BF's (soon to be Husband's!!!) aunt.  It's so perfect, so unusual, I absolutely love it!  Sometimes I just find myself staring at it!

It actually happened in the very first few hours of this year, and many of you know already, but now y'all do!  We're well into the planning stage at this point (tiny and intimate, pretty much entirely DIY), making playlists, thinking about cake flavours, Pinteresting shoes and dresses (well that's just me).  I suspect that this'll be another one of those topics that will begin to show its face on my little blog regularly from here on in.

Till next time friends!  Happy weekend!

Friday, February 22, 2013

Spoiled!

Yes, spoiled - that's what I am.  I walked in the door this afternoon, after a somewhat trying day at the job, and the first thing I saw was this:


BF and I spotted this chair outside an antiques shop on Creighton a week or so ago and intended to go back for it after our errands.   Of course one thing led to another and days went by and we still weren't able to pick it up, which made me somewhat nervous because, you see, I had fallen in love and I'd have been awful sad if someone else had too.  That's why, when it showed up in our hallway today, I was reminded of how I have the best BF in the world.  :)

Though the leather is pretty icky in places, and the seat needs some better padding, I immediately saw the potential.  I mean look:


Beautiful, right?

And:


The thing has great bones, as they say, and I have been dying to try my hand at a re-upholstering project, so right away my mind went to a gorgeous Ikat print fabric I had seen at Fabricville.  My darling friend J had emailed me a 50% off coupon just a couple days before, so BF printed it off and we went and grabbed some.  Upholstery fabric is expensive, yo!


Ack, so great!

I can not WAIT to move and have the space to start doing projects like this and I have so many ideas that I can't wait to try!  Our house is going to be a marvelous DIY bonanza!  

Anyhoo, on another topic entirely, I'd like to take the opportunity to wish one of my very best friends in the world a wonderful birthday.  Happy Birthday T, I love you!  See you soon!  

Till next time folks!

Thursday, February 21, 2013

It Has Begun

On my one day off this week, I packed and sorted.


It's amazing how much packing you can do and you can still look around and it seems like you haven't really accomplished much at all!  I, at least, managed to pare my closet down to the essentials.  Well, the essentials in my opinion anyway.


Something I am not looking forward to during this moving thing, is packing our books.  Books are a heavy task and between the two of us, we have a lot.





Plus.....




When I moved into this apartment, as my darling friend T can testify to, (you can truly tell who your real friends are by seeing who is willing to help you move) I packed too many books into several boxes and a couple of them split and spilled all over the back of the moving truck.  Lesson learned. The one thing I can comfort myself with as we pack everything away this time, is that all these guys are finding a long term resting place.  

This space is going to be our little library.



And this wall is where I plan to build floor to ceiling, wall to wall bookshelves.



That's about nine feet of 'em!  Should do for now!  ;)

Wait till you see our movies and music, friends!

Till next time!


Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Farewell, Sweet Bookstore!

A while back I decided I was going to do a post about my top five favourite bookstores.  BF and I are bookstore junkies of the most non-discriminating kind, meaning we'll spend hours in any type of bookstore - musty, dusty old second-hand ones where the shopkeep barely looks up from his novel as you explore, fancy specialized ones where the books are displayed like art, the ones where little book reviews are written by staff on recipe cards, even Chapters has hosted us on many a rainy saturday afternoon.  I chose to hold off on this potential post until the future as one of my very faves is a store in Toronto called Nicholas Hoare, and I wanted to be able to snap some photos of its gorgeousness myself.

Well, turns out I'm not going to be able to.  Last night as I was checking my emails, I received the news: as of April 1st of this year, Nicholas Hoare the bookseller is retiring and the flagship shop on Front Street will be closing.  

from http://www.nicholashoare.com/locations_to.html
Nicholas Hoare, the bookstore, was a thing of beauty, along the lines of what I described above as a store which displays its books like art.  High ceilings, tonnes of sunshine, comfy couches, plants, brick walls, creaky old wooden floors and exquisitely organized shelves added to the cozy character.

A snap from the Nicholas Hoare website.
The book selection was obviously carefully curated by real book lovers, with plenty of new and classic literature, and a bit of a lean toward big, beautiful hardcovers, with lots of art and culture, travel, food, homemaking, fun, quirky books - the good life, one might say.  

It was like the shop was my own personal book-heaven so it was always hard to choose what to get.  When I visited, I would walk around filling my arms, until I'd been around the whole place, then I'd sit down and narrow my selection down to a list I could afford money-wise, AND luggage-wise, haha.  BF and I picked up these gems there, among others:

The Gashlycrumb Tinies, by Edward Gorey; New Rings, by Nicolas Estrada; Books V. Cigarettes, by George Orwell
Restaurant Man, by Joe Bastianich; The Polysyllabic Spree, by Nick Hornby; Three Sheets to the Wind, by Pete Brown

Nicholas Hoare was on our Must Do list when we visited Toronto, so it's sad to see such a unique, charming, comprehensive and independent shop close down.  The only consolation is that Mr. Hoare is, at seventy, happily retiring (to Nova Scotia at that!) from his forty-one year old business.  Check out the NH blog, and see his stunning house and property in the Valley, and follow his plans to build an 18, 000 volume library!  Jealous!

Sorry to see the shop close, but glad it's under positive circumstances.

Till next time friends and book lovers!

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Buried Treasure

This past week and weekend, BF and I started to pack things up things we don't need for the next month - cds we don't often listen to, some clothes, kitchen stuff we don't often use.  One fun thing about moving and packing is when you unearth something you had forgotten you'd ever even owned.  A few of these have come up over the week, but none so exciting a discovery as this:



A little bag of coffee beans from Moonbean in Kensington Market in Toronto!  We immediately made a pot and sat and luxuriated in it's deliciousness.

Sadly there are only enough beans left for one, maybe two more pots and then it'll be gonzo, and a trip to Ontario for coffee beans seems excessive, even for us caffeine addicts.  What's that Toronto friends? You'd love to head down to St. Andrew Street and pick us up a one pound bag of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Oromia beans and send them to us in Halifax?  Oh, ok, if you insist! ;)

Hope you're all pleasantly caffeinated folks!  Till next time!

Monday, February 18, 2013

Eden

Among the myriad reasons BF and I are so happy to have found our awesome little house, and so anxious to get into it, is, as you all know well by now, the goings-on across the street.  I have bemoaned the construction and it's symptoms many a time on here; the noise, the constant disruption, the loss of our cool urban view.  Here's the scene out our windows this morning as I have my coffee:


I'm not going to deny that it's been interesting at times to observe the work in the lot and see how these things go in their first stages, but that interest has waned.  Especially now that we've got this to look forward to:


This, friends, is apparently what our backyard looks like in the summer!  

Along with a little note, the representatives of the former owners left a few photos of our backyard in all it's glory to welcome us home.  How amazing is that?!  

I have to admit, I'm super intimidated.  I mean sure, I've kept the garlic babies alive for a month or so, and I've had a few houseplants survive past their infancy, but THIS is the big time.  It's like getting everywhere on a tricycle for years and then suddenly buying a Ferrari.  Luckily BF is really excited to get his hands dirty, and we both know a bunch of Super Gardeners (how 'bout a weekend visit, Pops?), so I'm sure we'll get all kinds of great advice on how to keep our beautiful backyard a little piece of paradise.  

I am really excited to start growing some herbs and veggies out there somewhere, but mostly, if I'm being honest here, I just can't wait to sit.  I can't wait to grab my coffee cup in the morning and stroll outside and sit out there.  Maybe I'll read a book.  Maybe I'll sneak treats to the neighbour's Labs.  Maybe I'll just stare into space.  We'll have barbeques!  We'll build a little fire every nice night and relax with a glass of wine.  We'll get a dog!

Ahhhh, heaven.  Can't wait!

Till next time!

Sunday, February 17, 2013

That's So Socks-y!

I like socks: funny socks, weird socks, funky socks, knee socks, toe socks, striped socks, socks, socks, socks.  This is my current favourite pair:


Sugar skulls, whaaa?!?!  (I also have a pair of knee socks, green with the head and neck of a giraffe wrapped around and eating leaves at the top.  I wanted to take a picture of those too but, well, they are lost in the disarray that is my closet.)

Anyhoo, recently Reddit introduced a new batch of random gift exchanges and socks was one of them!  I signed up for it (and a book exchange) immediately.  I filled out my profile in detail a couple weeks ago in hopes that I'll receive a really wacky, unusual pair.  I can't wait!  Tomorrow is the match day, so I'll find out about the person for whom I'll be shopping for socks, and the deadline for mailing out is March 1st so I'll be waiting excitedly for both my giftee to receive whatever I send to them and to get my own new socks!

I think the Reddit gift exchanges are such a fun idea! I participated in the Secret Santa one this past Christmas and my match was so stoked about the gift I sent her that I just couldn't wait to do it again.  There's something to be said for making some random person you've never met super happy.

Have any of you participated in an exchange like this before?

Till next time friends!

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Elephants, Elephants, All Over Town

Look familiar at all?

Graffiti on Barrington.

I wonder how many of these plywood pachyderms are hanging out around Halifax. I find them strangely charming!

Anyone spot any more?  

Till next time, friends!

Friday, February 15, 2013

This is Friday!


Another view of the building on Gottingen that the Blue Lady is on, as we're driving by.
An amazing, terrific discovery at the Italian Market.  I've been looking for this stuff FOREVER!
I'm sad that the Henhouse isn't going to be around anymore, but I'm stoked to have found this beautiful, old, ceramic lamp base there for $5! The only question is: to paint, or not to paint?
 
Look at the detail.  YAY!
When we got home from errands, BF picked up the mail and there was a parcel from Amazon.  He'd secretly ordered this film by one of my favorite directors, Julie Taymor, as a surprise for me! <3 <3 <3
 
Before we got home, we swung by the new house because we noticed the sun was setting and we wanted to see how it looked from our future front porch.  YAY!

Till next time friends!  Happy Friday!




Thursday, February 14, 2013

Love Day

Awww, sure does!  <3


Well friends, I've got things to do this evening so this is a short one, but I had to leave you with one of my favorite sweet love type songs by one of my favorite songwriters in the world, Bees In Jars, by Steven Bowers, live at the Carleton:


Hope you're all feeling the love today friends!  Till next time!

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

House Tour Part I

So BF and I spent this morning and into the early afternoon at our new house!!!! :D


We were there interviewing contractors about our kitchen and the renovations that we want / need to do to it, and while we were there I snapped a bunch of photos that I thought I'd share with y'all.  I'm only going to do bits of the house at a time so I can take the time to explain ideas we have and so on, and since it was the topic of the day, here is the kitchen:


Yeah.  I know.  It's pretty dreadful.  Tiny and impractical and virtually ancient in terms of kitchens.  As people who love to cook, and often cook together, it would be impossible to do in this space - a one butt kitchen for sure.  Most of the super limited counter space is in the corners!  And look at this:


That's a corner cabinet.  The opening you are observing is about ten inches wide and the debt of the area to the left of the opening is about four feet, aka a bunch of useless space.  

Plus, the whole space is, despite the nice big window, pretty dim, dark and dull.  So, we're gonna knock this wall out:


And take out all the icky old cabinets.  We're going to put new, modern and practical base cabs in, and build a counter/bar peninsula along where the above wall is now, as far as about a foot past the door jamb you see.  The room with the green carpet (yes, we are getting rid of the carpet!) and the kitchen will be one big, bright open space.  I mean lookit these windows!

I stole this photo from the Viewpoint website (the best realty website out there, btw) as I forgot to take a pic of the east facing window.  The wall to the left is the one that we're removing, and the peninsula counter will extend pretty much right up to the window frame:


And this, on the opposite side of the green room, our west facing window.


I can't freaking wait!  It's going to be so bright and sunny and open, it'll be a pleasure to spend time there!  I am so stoked I can barely stand it!  BF totally agrees!


We're also hoping to install a couple pantry cabinets on the wall BF is in front of, which will allow us to eliminate any wall cabs in the kitchen prep space, in keeping with the wide open concept we like.

So that's just a tiny peek at our new place.  Our plans are just getting off the ground and could change drastically, but the kitchen is by far the biggest project we have to deal with, and the one we're the most excited / anxious about.  We don't know for sure what is going to happen and how it's going to go down, but I'll keep you posted!  Wish us luck, friends!

Till next time!