Photos From a Frosty Weekend

We had our first snowfall this weekend. I woke up on Saturday morning to white dusted treetops, and everything looked so much brighter. The snow is very welcomed. It's been so dark & gloomy up here lately.

We walked around our icy little town, and crunched frozen puddles under our feet. 

I never seem to get too old to find this amusing : )

There's definitely something magical about the first snowfall.

I hope you had a warm & cozy weekend. 

oxo

If you can't find a pumpkin (because you live 1500km north of civilization), make one instead!

It will be a pumpkinless halloween in this here northern town. 

I spoke with the manager of The Northern (our only store up here) and she explained to me that she accidentally ordered the pumpkins too late, and they'll probably only arrive after the 31st.

This is the first year that the hubs and I can actually give out candy on halloween.  

For the past 6 years we've lived in a high rise Montreal apartment, and no kids ever went trick-or-treating up there. Now that we have a street level front door we have to be prepared! So we stocked up on a variety of delicious mini chocolate bars (our favourite kinds, of course, in case no kids come by). But then we discovered the whole lack of pumpkins fiasco.

Without a pumpkin outside our door, how will the kids know we have the goods?!

So I decided to make one instead.

It's no candlelit jack-o-lantern, but I think it does the trick : )

Happy Halloween!

Have a Spooky Weekend!

This time of year truly does feel spooky. The sky is dark and overcast, the trees are bare, and everything feels a little bit restless.

No big plans for me this weekend, just taking it easy. 

I have to figure out if kids actually go trick-or-treating around here. 

By the crazy amounts of candy on sale at The Northern, I'm guessing they do.

Have a great weekend folks!

xo

Montreal + Anthropologie

It's finally happening.

In exactly one month, Anthropologie will open it's doors on de la Montagne street in Montreal.

I've only been waiting for this for years!

Strangely, I wonder if this will change things for me?

There's something so enticing about what you can't have. The fact that I could only go to Anthropologie when I visited New York or Toronto, made the store that much more special.

Either way, it doesn't matter. I'm completely thrilled that my favourite store is finally opening in Montreal. And I alone vow to keep it in business!

Drastic Plastic

A new "recycled bridge" was recently built in the UK, and it's made from 50 tonnes of plastic waste!

 It doesn't rust, doesn't require paint, and is strong enough to support the weight of traffic. Not to mention that it transformed 50 tonnes of plastic waste (that was destined for some landfill in china) into something incredibly functional.

I say cool beans to that!

Via World Architectural News

Lady Grey Loves: Vintage Fjällräven Bags

I love the retro feel of these Swedish backpacks. 

Perfect for a day hike in the alps, I imagine.

Fjällräven, means arctic fox in Swedish. 

I really do love that cute little fox logo : )

Weekend Moments: A weekend in Montreal as a dog owner

My sister-in-law and her husband drove up from NYC to spend the weekend with us. They brought us delicious new york city treats from Crumbs Bakery, and they also brought along their adorable dog, Charlie. 

I've never owned a dog before, so I had a total blast pretending that we were dog people for the weekend. I took Charlie for walks, we hung out on the couch and drank lattés... it was just as I imagined having a dog would be like ; )

 Turns out we live close to a very elite dog park in Montreal, on Dr. Penfield Avenue. If you are a dog in Montreal - this is the place to see and be seen! So Charlie got to hobnob with all the who's who of the Montreal dog world.

Now remember, Charlie is a Manhattan dog, so once we let him off his leash in this gigantic open green space he just went wild!

 Then we took Charlie up Mount Royal for a proper view of the city.

 Unfortunately we had to leave him behind when we went out for an amazing dinner at one of my favourite Montreal restaurants, O'Thym. But at least he got to partake in pre-dinner wine & cheese at my apartment (and by partake I mean sneak a gigantic lick of triple cream brie when no one was looking!)

All in all it was a wonderful autumn weekend in Montreal. 

It was great to get my fill of this beautiful city, since we're now back up north for the next 7 weeks.

I hope you had a great weekend too.

xo

Have a lovely autumn weekend

It really feels like fall these days. The colours have passed their peak, most of the leaves have browned and fallen. It's beautiful, but also a bit sad.

The weather in Montreal has been a little wild lately. Today it hailed... big chunks of ice collected on my balcony garden. It was kind of treacherous trying to get a picture of it ; )

My lovely sister-in-law and her husband are driving up from NYC to spend the weekend with us. It will be our last weekend in Montreal for a while, before we head back up north... so we're going to try to make the most of it.

I wish you a wonderful weekend.

oxo

The Art of Powder

How cool is this graffiti eye shadow by M.A.C?!

Not sure how practical it is, but the concept is awesome. 

Also it might just be too pretty to actually use.

Oh but I love it though.

Bundle Up - it's getting blustery out there!

"Oh the wind is lashing lustily

And the trees are thrashing thrustily

And the leaves are rustling gustily

So it's rather safe to say,

 that it seems that it may turn out to be

a rather blustery day today"

This kind of weather always makes me think of that Winnie the Pooh song.

Hope you're staying warm out there. 

Winter's coming, I can feel it in my bones ; )

Weekend Moments in and around Toronto

We spent Saturday night at Hotel Le Germain in Toronto - what a gorgeous place! My favourite part - the free espresso machine in the lobby. All hotels should have that!

We spent the rest of the weekend visiting with my in-laws, enjoying good food and wine, and catching up on sleep.

 It's been really chilly out these last few days  - so I've been bundled up in my new scarf 24/7 and drinking lots of warm tea & coffee.

Oh and it's Autumn Colours Week over at Poppytalk, which always inspires me to go out with my camera and take pictures of all the fall beauty around me.

I hope you had a colourful weekend as well.

xo

Chic Wedding at Toronto's Fermenting Cellar

I wanted to share a few photos from our friends Trina & Greg's gorgeous wedding this weekend. It was held at The Fermenting Cellar in Toronto's distillery district. 

Picture this: a huge industrial warehouse, filled with flowers and tall autumn grasses, completely glowing with warm candlelight. It was incredibly beautiful.

Oh and the food was to die for!

Instead of having a traditional sit down meal, the bride and groom chose a variety of gourmet food stations, each one complete with its own wine pairing. There was a sushi station, a shawarma station, take out asian food... I'm not even sure I got to try it all! Basically, everything was amazing!

Trina looked absolutely stunning in her dress, and the room just overflowed with love for this fabulous, fun-loving couple.

Then, at around midnight, just in case we didn't get enough to eat, the bride & groom hired one of Toronto's famous food trucks to serve street food outside the party. It was awesome!

Trina & Greg, I'm so happy for you two!

So we're off to Toronto this weekend for our friends wedding. I have a feeling it's going to be an incredibly gorgeous event. 

Then we're going to spend the rest of the week in Montreal. I need to stock up on winter stuff, because after this trip we're going to be in the north until Christmas. I'm on the quest for the world's warmest winter boots! Any suggestions?

I hope you have a lovely weekend.

oxo

Zucchini, Carrot & Cranberry Muffins (incredibly delicious & mighty healthy too!)

I'm not going to lie - these muffins are crazy good! So good, that I ate two of them back to back for dinner. Yup, and that was my dinner. Can you tell I was flying solo last night?!

At least these muffins contain carrots & zucchini ; )

Read on for the recipe....

Thanksgiving Weekend Up North

Since we couldn't make it down to visit our families for thanksgiving this year, we decided to try hosting our own little feast up here.

My hat goes off to all of you who have ever successfully accomplished this before. Wow! I spent 12 hours straight in the kitchen on Saturday.

There were a few narrowly averted disasters, but I managed to cook our still partially frozen turkey in time for thanksgiving dinner. And miraculously it turned out perfectly!

It was definitely a learn-as-you-go thanksgiving. We had the computers out the whole time... how to rapidly defrost, how to stuff, how to roast, and how to carve a turkey. It was hilarious! 

Dear internet, thank you. I don't know how we would have done it without you.

Since there are no pumpkins or flowers to be found around here for decorative centrepieces, I picked some tall grasses and placed them in vases around the apartment. It did the trick.

And the feast was a feast just like our mothers make. We felt pretty darn proud of ourselves!

And my wild cranberry cranberry sauce turned out amazing : )

And the next day I honoured the bird in the best way I could think of: by using every last bit of it. So I made stock from all the leftover bones. Again, this was a definite first for me - but totally worth it, as I now have tons of richly flavoured soup stock in my freezer. Just in time for the long, cold winter.

Although there's no replacing family on holidays, it was a wonderful thanksgiving weekend up here in the north.