Ladies Night!

Last night was girls night for M, J and me.  Being the busy gals we are, we don't get to hang out as often as we'd like, but when we do, we always make it festive.  This time M hosted and we decided to have a chardonnay and pizza party!  We each chipped in a few ingredients without really making a plan, other than we were making pizza from scratch - it's so much more exciting that way since you never know what you might end up with!

M picked up some uncooked pizza dough from Salvatore's for our base, and made some yummy tomato sauce.  She also had on hand, pesto, artichokes, sundried tomatoes, and mushrooms. J brought bacon, some spicy pepperoni and black and green olives.  I brought brie, pineapple and walnuts.

These beauties are what we ended up with, just before they went in the oven:

On the left, M is holding the pizza with basil pesto, brie, pineapple, bacon, sauteed mushrooms, black olives and toasted walnuts.  On the right, J is holding the one with M's sauce, artichokes, sundried tomatoes, spicy pepperoni, mozzarella and green olives.

The anticipation was great but in the interim, a lovely glass of wine and some great conversation certainly took the edge off.  :)  We also exchanged our Christmas presents, since we hadn't been able to get together during the holidays.   

An adorable black bunny pendant from J.

From M, lovely bone china S&P shakers in the shape of spools of thread!

Aww, my girlfriends know me so well!  

Anyhoo, immediately following our better-late-than-never-holiday-present-extravaganza, we popped our two pizza pies out of the oven.  This is what they looked like:

and:

Oh baby.  It's possible I've said this a million times about a million things, but what evs - is there anything better than a homemade pizza?!

Oh wait, there is!  Homemade pizza, a bottle of wine and an evening with a couple of your besties.

Till next time!

Bookends

The one good thing I can say about the dead of winter is that you can easily witness both a sunrise and sunset in one day without loosing sleep.  

As I was leaving work today I noticed the sky was ablaze with colour and so, there I went again, making the second mad dash of the day up Citadel Hill, this time the steep, west-facing side.  Holy moly friends, I tell you what - do that a couple times a day and you'd be whipped into shape in no time.  But once again, worth the effort.  Just look!

Adios amigos!  Till next time.

Good Morning Sunshine!

I took one look out the living room window this morning and I knew what I had to do.  I frantically bundled myself in whatever semi-reasonably-possible-outdoor clothes within arms reach, pulled on some boots and a jacket, grabbed my camera and mitts and flew out the door.  Approximately half way up my mad dash of the east side of Citadel Hill I realized the error in my ways (another "feels like" -21 day here in the 'Fax) but I kept on until I reached the top.

I'm not going to lie, this hurt a little, but ill prepared as I was for the cruel winds that whipped across and around our city's highest point, I was glad I'd made the effort.  The sunrise this morning was nothing short of stunning.  I feel like this is another case of not being able to capture exactly what I see but I did my best considering my hands started to freeze pretty much the second I took my mittens off and couldn't bring myself to fumble around too much with settings.  (I really should take another photography course!)

Anyhoo, just wanted to share the pretty with you this morning, friends!  Hope you're warm.  

Till next time!!

Graffiti on Granville

The other day BF was getting his hair did at Saint Lou's, and since Rob was having a pretty busy afternoon and there was no room for me to plunk down and have a sip whilst waiting, I decided to mosey on up to Scotia Square to peruse the dollar store's selection of plastic animals for a project I am going to get into soon.  On my way back I saw this:

I love coming across random bits of street art.  I can't wait for the weather to get nice so I can make a day of it some time and just wander around the city discovering pieces I haven't seen yet, and rediscovering ones I have forgotten.  

Till next time folks!

The Tragically Hip

I'm not even going to try to think of a clever name for this post.  Last night, friends, we went to see the Hip!  :D

It's the fourth time I've seen them, and though it's been years, man, they never disappoint.

Here they are with a few thousand of their closest friends.

Gord, telling us how it is.

The rest are a bit blurry, but I feel like you can still almost sense the energy in the room.

I noticed, when the show was over and I was checking through my photos, that many of them focussed on Gord Downie.  

That is most certainly not to say that the rest of the band weren't their usual amazing selves too (and man, as my brother D pointed out, those guys NEVER age!) but Gord just has this amazing stage presence that you can't simply look away from. 

He gets SOOOO into each and every song, it's like he's telling the stories with every cell in his being, just getting down in his famous spasmodically groovy way. . . . . 

. . . . . and belting them out like his head would explode if he didn't.

It was a thrill to be able to see them again.  And hey, look at the manners!

Thank YOU, Tragically Hip!

So, not gonna claim I'm a rock photographer.  Sure, I could have changed my setting and used a flash for better pics, but what evs, I chose good concert etiquette instead, and to not blind my neighbours - you are welcome D and BF, and crotchety anti-dance man! Plus the Hip are such a GREAT, fun, really extraordinary band that I just couldn't justify spending a bunch of time taking photos when there was so much rocking to do. 

Hope your weekend is going great!  Till next time

Blue and Green

an out and about on Saturday theme

Sunny window seat for brunch at Tempo
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Sea foam glass near Brunswick
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Neglected but beautiful on Doyle
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Pretty copper top on a kinda Frankensteinish building on George
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Another copper top; St. Paul's Church, Halifax's oldest building
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Keeping watch at the Grand Parade
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Tagged on Spring Garden
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Hope you're all having a really great weekend so far!  Till next time!

A Penny Saved.....

...or six thousand, four hundred and fifty.....

This, friends, is what one hundred and twenty-nine rolls of pennies looks like:

I know what you're thinking:  Why on earth would anyone save that many pennies, especially when, here in Canada, the penny is being completely phased out, starting on February 4th. 

Well it all started about a year ago when BF and I were on a little vacation visiting friends in Toronto and we happened to end up at Bar Neon on Bloor.  Great little bar, cool vibe, good tunes, and in the bathroom, the coolest floors ever, tiled in pennies.  I started saving immediately.  I mean check this photo out:

http://www.designtrawler.com/2011/04/tread-softly-you-tread-on-my-dreams.html

Pretty, right?  The copper has SUCH a lovely, warm glow.  I also came across the blog Honey Sweet Home recently in which was posted all kinds of other beautiful penny projects too. 

Careful research, dummy trials and calculations have given me what I am pretty sure is the right amount of pennies (it ends up being about 16 kilograms - that's 35 and a half pounds, American friends) to cover the space I have in mind that I'm just gonna penny tile the hell out of.   I can't wait!  I'll definitely be documenting the project when I get around to it too, so stay tuned.

Anyhoo, Happy Friday all of yous out there!  Till next time!