Happy Monday you beauty cats.
Look what happened today!
And tonight!
Also, around these here parts we’ve recently taken our first steps into official internet MEMEbership.
If you like Lord of the Rings and Arrested Development as much as we do, I sure hope you like this little piece of M’s and my handiwork:
Goodness gracious.
In the meantime, we’ll will be doing a little of this:
And I wish for you all nothing but this:
Strap on those snow boots! A very, merry week to you all.
Yesterday M and I braved the elements and suited up to do retail combat with all the other Haligonian boxing day shoppers.
Little known fact – here in Halifax, everything remains closed on December 26th and the shopping extravaganza doesn’t start until the 27th.
(I like to refer to it as Boxing Day Part II – Box Harder.)
When we first left the house it was bitter cold, but the air was clear of any snow flurries (or cloud debris if you will). However, about ten minutes into our walk downtown, the white stuff started in earnest and didn’t stop for the next couple of hours.
I’m pretty sure that between the time we left the house, and by the time we pried our boots off our feet upon our return, it had snowed a good ten centimeters.
Ch-ch-check it:
Mr. M bought two new pairs of shoes – running and dress – and I bought this little green number:
(Please excuse the rumpled state of this dress – I haven’t had a chance to iron out the creases. Rufus also refuses to take part.)
(As does Simon.)
We were so cold walking back that we had to make a pit stop to warm up. We chose a little Vietnamese cafe and I ate this delicious coconut curry tofu soup:
Good grief that broth packed a punch – hot, spicy, delicious.
Elsewhere in the cosmic kitchen, we’ve been playing games like the game nutters that we are, eating delicious and decadent food, running like Forrest Gump, listening to great music, dancing about the kitchen, and watching movies late into the night (and sometimes into the early morning. I officially don’t need to watch another Bond flick for the rest of my days here on this here planet.)
We even suited up and worked a shift at my sister’s butcher shop and storehouse. (Stay tuned for a much longer post on this incredibly business venture.)
Here I am in full shop regalia:
This was pretty much one of the most fun things EVER – talk about fam jam teamwork (although I was pretty adement working the cash, as handling large quantities of meat isn’t exactly my bag.) We even had a family photo taken in the store last night.
I cannot wait to see the final results.
What’s been happening in your necks of the woods? Did you purchase anything on boxing day?
I’m so sorry that I have been lax in keeping up with all your brilliant blogs. I’ll be back to normal soon – at present I’m just soaking up all the family time I can get.
Hi friends.
I am so excited to be writing today’s post it’s a little silly.
So let’s just get right to it shall we?
Fry-up time!
Minty fresh.
On Tuesday I made mint pea soup and parmesan toast:
Out here on the west coast, it has been raining like a raining thing and I find that once our days reach a certain level of murk, all I want to do is make (and eat) hot, healthy foods and curl up in front of the fire.
Hence the need to whip up a fresh batch of this glorious green concoction.
Now, whenever I eat/make pea soup, I always think about that scene at the beginning of The Rescuers Down Under (we’re talking high art here folks), where Bernard takes Bianca out for a really fancy dinner (with the express intention of proposing to her).
Side note: I will always stand by my opinion that The Rescuers – the original movie – was always the better movie of the two.
Anyway, the mice and all the other animals are actually dining in the chandelier of an incredibly well-to-do (human) restaurant. A pea falls off the plate of one of the human dishes, only to be promptly scooped up by one of the animal waiters (a very posh-looking grasshopper), who then slingshots it up to the animal kitchen.
There, a chef – also a grasshopper – takes the pea and turns it into soup.
Now, what made this short, but memorable scene so brilliant (to six year old me) is the way both of these characters exclaim “pea soup!” with such enthusiasm and hilarity.
And as a child I could never, ever, get enough of their enunciation and tone.
And to this day, it still cracks me up.
So of course, every time I sit down to a bowl I absolutely have to say “pea soup!” just like a posh grasshopper waiter-or-chef.
Seriously, check it out for yourself:
And believe me, once you start, you won’t stop.
Onwards!
Taking a stand.
So.
I promised to post it as soon as I had the chance, and well, here it is!
My stand-up routine.
Meep.
Full disclaimer – this video contains some not-so-safe for work language. I make a concerted effort to communicate in this here blog without any swears, but I must confess that when I get on stage they are much harder to contain.
I do so hope that you enjoy it.
p.s. My name is Vanessa Woznow. Erm…hi?
A good word.
One of my most-loved things to do in preparation for the holidays is purchase beautiful little cards and send them to all my family and friends.
This year I chose gorgeous doves! And penguins sledding down a hill!
(This photo is also excellent evidence that I cannot keep myself away from sparkle – even in card form.)
Last night I prepared all of my cards for my rad work mates and for my family’s cousin Christmas card swap – a tradition born out of my grandfather’s passing five years ago.
He used to send us each a personalized card every December 25th, and we want to keep the memory alive by making sure we stay in touch over the holiday season.
What makes it even more special is that this year I will get to see so many of them in person.
And goodness knows I CANNOT WAIT.
(Double eep!)
…
So there you have it beauty cats.
Soup, comedy, and cards – the trifecta dominating my thoughts on these dark and dreary, and oh-so late autumn evenings.
I hope all of your weekends are filled with love, laughter, and light.
Because goodness knows, Nymeria and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Happy Friday friends!
You know it’s going to be a good day when you wake up to this kind of magic.
Tonight M and I are going round two with our local movie theatre in an effort to finally see Skyfall. We went last week, but the film was already sold out.
My excitement is palpable (and growing!)
I keep hearing about this electric scene between Javier Bardem and Daniel Craig that makes my tummy feel all a-flutter.
Ahem.
In the mean time, Nymeria is cute-ing up the joint like nobody’s business. Last night she snuggled up next to my legs and slept on my feet, purring up a storm.
I managed to catch her with one of her mice friends:
This also gives my stomach butterflies (for monstrously different reasons, of course.)
In the meantime, fry-up time!
An apple a day.
Arriving home last night the only thing I wanted to do was make something that tasted of autumn deliciousness.
So I baked an apple-blueberry crisp.
I have a few recipes committed to memory, and this one is so easy-peasy that I feel as though I could put it together with my eyes closed.
(What with how zonked I have been for the past couple of days – or, ahem, weeks – this a boon and a half.)
First, start with your ingredients:
Then, don’t take any other photos of putting the crisp together, save this one:
Eat the remainder of your triscuits. While the crisp is in the oven, go see your Little Sister, help her with her math homework, and make plans to take her to the Vancouver Christmas Market in December.
Upon your return home thank your husband for taking the dessert out of the oven. Then turn on the fire, curl up on the couch with your love, and dig in.
Also, a little vanilla ice cream never hurt anyone (or a crisp for that matter.)
Dee-lish.
Prairie Royalty.
Being the good Canadian girl that I am, I pride myself on being a fan of the Tragically Hip.
Gord Downie and his posse make some darn fine music, and as such I was shocked to hear a song of theirs just the other day on CBC that I had never before heard.
Wheat Kings is a beautiful, haunting song.
I am currently doing the thing I always do when I crown a new favourite tune – listening to it over and over again until I cannot stomach hearing it again for at the very least the foreseeable future.
As of today, I am still very much in love with it and I implore you to take a moment and let this magic into your lives:
Werner Herzog.
I’ve written before about Herzog and his films, and the other night M and I watched Happy People: A Year in the Taiga.
This. Guy.
What a film maker.
I cannot say much besides I have no idea how this man has never before won an academy award.
He is a absolute master.
(Also, I really wish he narrated my dreams.)
Happy People is a documentary that looks at the life of the indigenous people of the village Bakhtia at the river Yenisei in the Siberian Taiga.
It is beautiful and smart and touching and inspiring. And it will really make you want to get a husky.
Watch this movie. Please.
…
So that’s all she wrote you crazy cats.
Joyeux fin de semaine to you all!
Good morrow friends!
Well that weekend absolutely flew by.
M and I keep saying that one of these days we are going to have a laid back, solitary fin de semain – but until that day, we seem to just jam pack our Saturdays and Sundays with as much activity as humanly possible.
On Friday night I made a massive batch of mint pea soup, and parmesan toast and just barely managed break away from the beckoning comfort of my pajamas and the cozy heat of the fireplace, and instead ventured out into the rain to meet up with a bunch of M’s colleagues.
Two of them play in a ridiculously awesome surf band, so we enjoyed a drink (stout for M, white wine for me) and listened to the sweet sounds of what can only be described as a live rendition of a Quentin Tarantino soundtrack.
(Which, to be honest, is pretty the only way I can stand Tarantino – his music, or otherwise.)
The rest of the weekend was a blur of house hunting, runs in the rain, meet ups with friends, runs in the sun, pumpkin carving, shopping for birthday presents, family dinners, and a couple of episodes of Top Gear, just to keep things fresh.
Phew.
At one point this weekend, conversation turned to bucket lists, and I began to ponder what events or achievements I may choose to populate my own list.
Without spending copious amounts of time thinking it over, I did come across three things that I would really like to achieve within the next year.
They include:
1.) Dying my hair blonde. This was only further exacerbated by my friend Tracy’s e-mail which read:
Wow, imagine you a blondie!!! Doooo it! It would look so hot :) And it’s just fun to muck around with hair colour.
I cannot argue with this logic.
2.) Run a half-marathon in under 1:30:00, a 10km in under 40:00, and just run a marathon PERIOD.
3.) Send at least five separate pieces of writing to publications in the aim of getting them published.
It’s good to have goals right? And now that they are out here in the interwebs, there’s no going back. I expect all of you brilliant chaps to keep me to my word, okay?
No faffing around allowed.
In the interim, let’s have a dance why don’t we?
Aaaaaaaaand SNAPS:
What did you cats get up to this weekend?
And what’s on your bucket list (yearly, or lifetime?)
And if you’re looking for a hair dying partner in crime, well then, I’m your gal.
Rant and Roll 