got craft, spring addition & a sneak peek

This weekend is the always wonderful Got Craft? Spring show. Line ups for the famous swag bags are always long and people have been known to start lining up at 6am. It's definitely the city's best craft fair and I'm so excited that I'll be having a table for this show. I also did the postcard (above) and I love seeing the poster all over Vancouver streets when I'm out walking about.

I was a wreck earlier this year when I just couldn't get inspired to make anything new. But the clouds eventually lifted and I came up with some pretty awesome new designs. I just picked them up from the printer this afternoon and I will spend the evening scoring, folding and packaging them all up. They'll be posted on my etsy shop soon, but if you are in town, please come by my table at Got Craft? and say hi! I'd love to meet you.

carts of darkness

I stumbled across this local documentary via my rad Strathcona neighbour, kntgrl. You can watch the entire thing over on her site, but I've thrown up a little You Tube teaser to get you in the mood. It's very Vancouver and well done.

friday: best day ever

Well, I'm not sure if it was the best day ever, but it was awesome. In between walking around Deer Lake in Burnaby and hanging out at the Richmond Night Market, we ate a delicious dinner of tacos and drank icy horchata at Dona Cata. Perfect.

crafty coolness

The Got Craft fair on Sunday went really well. I got some truly amazing comments from people buying my stuff which is always nice to hear. The weather was amazing and almost all the vendors moved their tables outside in the sunshine. Luckily, my table neighbour had sunscreen and an umbrella to share. I did not get burnt (just a bit of pink around my neckline). Hooray!

The next day, Cornelius and I went out for gelato...our first cones of the year! I had the coffee crisp and coconut chocolate chip scoops (pictured above) and Cornelius opted for chocolate pistachio and mint oreo. It's pretty great having a crazy huge gelato shop in our neighbourhood (218 flavours!)

birthday weekend wrap up

To say I had a pleasant birthday weekend would be an understatement. It was truly a great, great weekend. So much fun, laughter, friends and good times were had that I will mark the highlights in point format (I know, exciting!):

• Brunch made by the husband. Lovely.
  
• Sexy wooden fenders for my bike (my husband's gift to me). They're handmade in Bend, OR and they are simply beautiful.
  
• Potluck dinner with amazing chocolate cake. Lots of colours, variety and all in all, quite healthy too. And lots of leftovers to snack on.
• Teen movies! Over the Edge + Suburbia = awesome.
• Root beer floats!
• Yummy huge breakfast at Deacon's Corner.
  
• A walk and layabout in the sunny & warm Strathcona community gardens that included smelling lilacs and eyeing the new garden plots for July.
  
• Buying some tasty & tart fresh lemonade from a little girl's lemonade stand.

This weekend, we also checked out Wanted and it was such a lovely shop. Cornelius and I bought 2 tiny little plants, one succulent and one cactus for our office. They're so tiny and cute! I also just received some amazing purple tights from We Love Colors in the mail. As much as I'd like to believe that tight season is over with, the weather looks pretty grey and rainy for most of this week, so these will definitely give my legs another shot of brightness.

city of dreams

Map Custom Bicycles

Seriously, what is it about Portland, OR?! This morning I awoke to a ton of fabulous Portland things in my feed reader. What is it about Portland that supports such creativity? I was recently interviewed by a local magazine and they had asked me what makes Vancouver so creative and I answered that it's hard to be a successful creative in this city. Laws, bi-laws and so much interference by the Man make things hard, so you have to be creative to get around things.

Stardust Glass Tile via PoppyTalk

In Portland, it just seems to be so easy. Portland, the city, just seems so welcoming to great ideas. There are cool little shops and businesses and small independents thrive. My husband jokingly says it's because Portland has such short city blocks compared to Vancouver. It could also be because of the chickens. If so, Vancouver now allows backyard urban chickens. Maybe the chickens will help Vancouver win the war on creativity!

Dutch Taco on Whipped

i'd rather be anywhere but here

It's Sunday night and I actually have work that I should be doing, but instead I'm procrastinating. It's Sunday for goodness sakes! So I'm compiling a list of things I'd rather be doing instead, like visiting the newly redesigned AGO by Frank Gehry in Toronto. I'm also still sick (but getting better!). I voted yesterday in the civic election and voter apathy was well, apathetic. 26% of Vancouver-ites went out to vote. Way to go! The election results were totally based on socio-economic lines as this map points out. The wealthy west-side voted conservative (with the exception of the wealthy old hippies in Kits) and the poor east-side voted in Vision/COPE. Luckily, the east-side won. Way to go East Van!!

Now the rest of my evening should be relegated to work. Or I could just watch The Savages. Hmmm. I think I know the answer to that conundrum!

eat! vancouver festival

This weekend is the Eat! Vancouver Festival. I have a media pass and will be interviewing 2 Food Network Canada TV celebrity chefs for the Food Network Canada blog: Anna Olson and Bob Blumer. I've seen the Surreal Gourmet (Bob's old show) and caught a few episodes of Sugar (Anna's old show) when I used to have cable, but now they both have new shows so I've been researching them like crazy over the internet. I've done interviews before but always over the phone...this time I'll be meeting with them in person and just scribbling away. Needless to say, I'm a bit nervous.

The festival should be pretty fun with lots of tastings and new products to check out. Wish me luck and if you have any questions you think I should ask during my interviews, let me know in my comments!

And if you are interested in beer (who isn't?), my new post about cask beers on the Food TV blog is up.

back from vacation & still on holiday.

Our 10 day roadtrip through Washington and Oregon was pretty awesome. The natural beauty of it all was stunning as you can see from the photos above. So much driving though. I never realized just how much driving we could do between towns. At least we had our 2 ipods loaded and the scenery was pretty.

We got back into Vancouver ready for the holiday long weekend and the 30+ degree weather. So hot and summery! I loved it. On Saturday, we went out for breakfast and then over to Jericho Beach where we sat on a log and got in some sunshine. Yesterday was filled with gardening, patio meals and because we had a borrowed pick-up truck, we even went to a drive-in movie! Speed Racer was totally spazzy and colourful and awesome. I loved it. Perfect drive-in fare.

lovely leaves

Last night after bowling I clicked onto my feed reader and discovered that Sharilyn had put out a brand new print. I expected Cornelius to talk me out of ordering it, but he goaded me onwards, so soon enough I imagine, I will have this lovely new leaves poster right beside my pinecone poster. One day soon I'll head to Ikea and get frames for them both!

wally's bites the dust

Vancouver is quickly losing it's history in the rush to build up a condo or two (thousand) and this weekend marks the end of Wally's Burgers, a local burger joint. Read my write up on the Food Network Canada blog, Bazaar.


In other news, this morning's crazy snowfall is over. I know, crazy in the coconut! The snow did not stick but I'm not taking any chances with the weather. So I'm putting on my tweed skirt and heavy woolen knee highs (it might be the last time I can wear them until next fall) and heading to the store for much needed groceries. With all this weather brouhaha, I'm thinking I need to bake cake. Cake!

mixed up march

People in Vancouver like to gloat about the weather. It's just something we do to feel better about ourselves since the cost of living in this godforsaken (aka beautiful) city is so freakin' high. Well, I can't gloat about the weather today because today it is snowing! Snowing in March!!


Thankfully, I can block out nature's eyesore with the new curtains I sewed for our office this weekend. I love the Ikea print and it looks so lovely in here with our light blue walls. Pretty, pretty!

dreamin'

Yesterday the Cornelius and I spent some time looking on MLS for our dream home. Of course, we're not looking in Vancouver since the amount we can afford to pay will barely pay for a bachelor apartment in a crappy location. For awhile we were considering moving to Nelson, BC but housing prices have jumped there in the past year or so. However, if we move across the country to the very east coast (oh yes, the beautiful Maritimes), well, it's a plethora of affordable dream homes with acreage and waterfront! Originally we were thinking of Newfoundland, but figured that it would be pretty isolating what with the expensive 8 hour ferry ride to the mainland. So now we're looking at Nova Scotia or New Brunswick. Cornelius vacationed there as a kid and I've never been, so we're thinking of taking a little vacation there in the next couple of years to check it out.

What I'm wondering is how many people have moved to a place where they didn't know anyone and moved into a much smaller community. Could I really trade in the awesomeness of living in such a vibrant city for a dream home in the country and a new life? Of course, there is Serena's experience of moving to rural Saskatchewan from Vancouver. Any other similar experiences out there? Any thoughts? Valuable advice?

vapid at NU

I went to fancy pantsy NU earlier this month for Dine Out Vancouver. Little did I know that NU hosted punk bands...and an awesome punk band at that. Lead singer? Awesome. Her moves? Amazing. Next Vapid show, I'm there.

the foundation - bad, bad service

I get sad when a good restaurant goes bad. I always have high praise for The Foundation, a local vegetarian restaurant here in Vancouver. I've worked it into various posts on my other blog and while the service is always slow, I put up with it. I mean, look at that photo of some huge ass nachos I shared with Cornelius in October of 2006. But hey, that was then.

Last night after our first option for a birthday dinner was closed, we headed for our old standby favorite, The Foundation. There was a line up and we waited and waited. And then we got seated and then we waited some more and then our order was taken and we waited for our drinks. After our drinks arrived we kept on waiting. Over an hour passed before 1 meal hit the table...problem was that we ordered 2 meals for our 2 persons. So we tucked into what was on the table (we were freakin' hungry after all). When we finished my meal, Cornelius' meal finally arrived so we ate that up, begrudgingly. The server took the late meal off the bill as compensation. Was that enough? I don't think so. Should we just put up with bad service? Is a place that is hipper-than-thou untouchable? Or am I just a coward, a wimp? Right now I'm holding a serious grudge against this place.

Oh yeah, and I wrote a review of my experience over at dinehere.ca. I'm kickpleat, if you hadn't already guessed. While not a restaurant reviewer, I sure don't like to be disappointed at a restaurant. Hopefully someone at the Foundation hears my cries and banishes the slow service so I can get back to enjoying a Spicy Peanut or a Rogue Grain. Grrrrrr.

a vancouver to-do list

I was just asked by a reader to provide a visitor's guide to Vancouver on my blog and I think it's a perfectly lovely idea! Thanks Gregory. People are always asking me what things there are to do and what they should see when they visit Vancouver, so why not have somewhere to direct them to!

Vancouver is a pretty wonderful city and even though I've lived here for 12 years now, I still find new and wonderful things popping up all the time. I also tend to restrict myself to a more East Van bent, so I'm leaving off a whole ton of places that I've never been too. Vancouverites (or maybe it's just me) tend to either be from east van or west of main. I'm definitely east, so that's where my priorities lie. If anyone has any other Vancouver suggestions that I've neglected to mention, please add your list to the comments section!

Where to Stay
Penny's Place: When I was getting married, I housed my mom, brother and his girlfriend at this apartment hotel on Commercial Drive. It's nothing fancy but it's cheap and clean and it's like having a little home base in the city since you have a kitchen to cook up all that great cheap produce that you just bought at all the Italian markets nearby.

Where to Eat
Vancouver is blessed with lots of really great and inexpensive food. It's a food lovers paradise and there are always new restaurants popping up. Here are some of my favorites.


In Chinatown, I'd definitely recommend Phnom Penh for really great Cambodian/Vietnamese food. The fried rice with Chinese sausage and egg is amazing, as is their lemon garlic chicken wings and squid and green papaya salad. For great roast duck, head to Kam Gok Yuen and Hon's has really great potstickers but I'm not too crazy about the rest of their food...but it is cheap! If you are vegetarian, Chinatown is not the place to be. Hon's does have downtown location with a vegan kitchen, however!

If you like pizza, Incendio's in gastown is really yummy and you can usually find a 2 for 1 coupon in the Georgia Straight (the free entertainment paper). Lombardo's on the Drive is also really good for thin crust pizza. On Sunday nights, the Yaletown Brew Pub has a cheap pizza and beer special and I love Sunday nights there with friends and hefeweizen.

On Commercial Drive, there are plenty of great eating options! Uprising Breads Bakery is great for breakfast baked goods or snacks. Belgium Fries is great for fries (of course!) and they make a mean vegetarian poutine. Rinconcito has really great pupusas and if you want to split a meaty Memphis Feast platter with 5 of your closest friends, you eat cheaply at Memphis Blues BBQ. As for my favorite Chinese food, it's not found in Chinatown...it's on Commercial at the wonderful Szechuan Chongquing (plus they deliver!). There are tons more restaurants on The Drive and most of 'em are good!

Main Street has plenty of eating options, starting with my favorite vegetarian restaurant, The Foundation. The service isn't the best, but it's worth the wait. Slickety Jim's Chat n' Chew is the place for breakfast and Crave makes a worthy weekend brunch. I love Liberty Bakery for pitchers of fresh lemonade and sweet snacks. For really super cheap eats head to The Legendary Noodle (greasy & good) and the nearby Hawker's Delight.

More good eats around town include:
Nuba (great creative falafel plate!), Rangoli (Indian fusion...a more affordable Vij's) Rodney's Oyster Bar for drinks (caesars!) and oysters (but only go during their 3-6pm happy hour where oysters are a buck a shuck!), Sha Lin Noodle House (cheap & plentiful noodles!), The Clubhouse for sushi and okonomiyaki, Brioche for a gastown lunch/brunch, The Mouse & Bean for a great tostada lunch, Tacos Mexico Rico for wonderful jamaica & horchata beverages and tacos. And even though there is way better gelato around town, you just can't beat the 508 flavours of La Casa Gelato!

Shopping
Main street is a great place to shop. From 8th Ave to about 28th makes for a great afternoon of poking about in indie shops, antique stores and with stop offs for lemonade and coffee and good restaurants every few blocks. Standout stores include The Regional Assembly of Text, Smoking Lily, Lucky Comics, Eugene Choo, The Front & Co., The Barefoot Contessa, My Orange Bag, Red Cat Records and lots more that I can't remember the names of!

Commercial Drive is fine for checking out all the great markets and picking up a picnic lunch. J, N & Z Deli is a great place for picking out a smoky, dry Ukranian sausage and La Grotta Del Fromaggio is great for cheese (of course), olives and deli sandwiches. Santa Barbara is a grocery shopping institution with long deli counter line ups and a great selection of fruit & veggies. There's also a few cute stores and many coffee shops to keep you occupied for an afternoon.

Kitsilano has Zulu Records, a really great record shop. I'm sure Kits has other things too, I just haven't been there in a while!

Yaletown is spendy and packed with boutiques in an old warehouse district. Lots of fancy restaurants and fancy stores. It's a place for nice eye candy.

Of course, there is Robson Street, which is shopping central for Vancouver with all the big name shops. But if you continue walking down Robson Street, you will come to Denman Street which has some great Japanese noodle houses and lots of restaurants. Plus, the beach is oh so close! Grab a gelato or a cupcake and plant yourself on a log and watch the tides.

Things to Do


Go to the beach! So many options in Vancouver. Head over to Kits Beach, Jericho, English Bay or get nude at Wreck Beach. Plenty of choices for a picnic too.

Check out Van Dusen Gardens. This is a great place to relax and smell the flowers. Pick up a lunch at one of the few Jewish delis nearby and take a picnic in with you. Check out all the lovely little sheltered areas and get lost in all the beauty.

Granville Island Market. Touristy yes, but still a great place to gawk, sample and buy all kinds of fresh fruit and veggies. The donut shop at the market has the best cinnamon donuts ever and there are tons of artisan shops all around the "island".

Another touristy option....the Vancouver Aquarium...but fun for everyone! What can I say, I love looking at big fish. And the hand-holding otters are the cutest.

Take a hike! So many mountains, so little time! Vancouver has so much natural beauty you may as well go out an enjoy it.

what can you buy for $15?

Apparently, quite a bit. I headed out for some groceries at my local Chinatown market and came back with 3 really heavy bags of stuff for only $15. Not bad!

1 can each of lentils, black beans, chickpeas
2 cans of fire roasted organic tomatoes
1 box of Annie's mac & cheese (it's a rainy day guilty pleasure!)
3 doz corn tortillas
1 bag of organic carrots
1 bunch celery
2 yellow peppers
1 red pepper
2 green peppers
1 head purple cabbage
1 cauliflower
1 bag of local nugget potatoes

Where all the other Chinatown markets had 3 english cucumbers for $1, Sunrise had them 6 for a $1! I didn't end up buying any because 1 cuke keeps us going for a week. But seriously, if you want to shop cheaply, Chinatown is the place to do it. Vancouver is lucky because cheap eats are everywhere! Cheap groceries, cheap restaurants, and most of it is really, really good.

the case of the invisible city

Yikes. This is July!! Oh well. I spent the day testing out my newish Keens and my new REI rain jacket by walking like a crazy lady all over town. No busses or bikes for this lady! No way! I tested life out in the rain and i came back home 4 hours later a happy (and dry) camper. The jacket, which I bought on sale in Portland is perfect and will be coming with me to Europe where i'm certain to encounter a few days of rain.

sweetsville

For my birthday, I received some chocolates from Mink, a new Vancouver-based chocolate cafe downtown. I haven't been to the cafe yet...but I will, especially since they have little personal s'mores and fondues! I've only tried the "hot chocolate" bar, but it was perfect in the way a chocolate bar should be. I've looked on the website and there's probably about 50 different bars to try! Too bad their hours suck...only open until 6pm? I guess I'll have to make chocolate lunch date soon.

hello sunshine!

Ooh, I've been in love with this warm, sunny weather! It really feels like summer is just around the bend. After a nice lunch on the balcony today and opening all our windows to let in the fresh air, I'm looking forward to outdoor life once again!

This afternoon I finally went to the Sunrise Market...a haven for cheap groceries and fresh produce in Vancouver's Chinatown. It's funny that in the 5 years I've lived in Strathcona, I've never shopped at Sunrise. Today I put an end to that. I was amazed at all the variety and low, low prices. The produce stands are legendary and many Vancouver restaurants do their shopping here and I'm not one bit surprised. So much choice and all at great prices too. They also have a butcher, carry a wide assortment of organic, soy (they are afterall part of Sunrise Tofu), and other gourmet items. Awesome!

* Not my photograph! I nicked it. Sorry. Next time I go I won't forget my camera.