Seeing spots...

Polka dots seem to be popping up everywhere these days, 

and I have to say, I'm loving it!

(via J Crew)

Lately Up North: it's the season for celebrating

Every July, the entire village packs up and spends a week camping on a nearby island. It has made for a very easy work week at the hospital (almost no patients!). 

But this weekend we finally got to join in on the festivities.

There was lots of traditional dances and music... that literally went on all night long.

Luckily we had nice weather, and stayed warm & dry in our tents at night.

Also luckily, we found lots of wild northern strawberries to snack on.

We woke up at sunrise on Saturday morning to watch a Walking Out Ceremony. I've mentioned these before on the blog, but a Walking Out is a special ceremony that the Crees do to honour a young child's first steps into the world.

The little one dresses in traditional clothes and gear, and everyone watches as he or she walks outside of the teepee and touches ground for the very first time. 

It's incredibly sweet.

Otherwise this weekend, we did a lot of lazing around on those surprisingly comfy teepee floors.

Turns out, camping while 6 months pregnant isn't as hard as I thought it would be, 

and I'm glad we did it.

Hope you had a great weekend.

oxo

The newest, coolest way to cook corn on the cob

Ok, not only is Ken one of the cutest old men ever... he also makes youtube videos, and has a real nifty trick for cooking corn on the cob!

Have a look...

(Picture credit: Bruce Hutchison via Bon Appetit.com)

The hubby turns 31 and we eat ice cream cake

Yesterday was my darling husband's birthday. 

He never asks for anything, my husband (which makes him really hard to buy for), but this time he requested an ice cream cake. 

So an ice cream cake he got!

You can't find that kind of thing up here in the north. 

But luckily I recently bought an ice-cream machine (something I've wanted for a while now). So I decided to try making an ice cream cake from scratch. I made a basic vanilla ice cream, and loaded it with score bits, peanuts and chocolate chips. I made a cookie crumb crust and poured a thick layer of my decadent ice cream on top.

We ate it with fresh strawberries and hot chocolate sauce. 

It doesn't get any more indulgent than that! 

And for the record, it tasted AMAZING!

Adorable DIY garden idea...

I saw this great idea on Inhabitat the other day... 

Turn an old window into a gorgeous vintage flower box.

Isn't that sweet?

(pictures from inhabitat.com)

Weekend Moments: Beautiful Northern Solitude

We had a truly wonderful weekend up here in the great north. 

We set out exploring and discovered the most incredible lake for canoeing. The water was so clear and so still, and seemed to go on forever. 

The wilderness is so vast up here, 

the solitude so humbling,

and it's weekends like this that make all the craziness of living so far in the north so very worthwhile.

 And speaking of craziness... look how big my belly is at only 24 weeks of pregnancy!

(I think the little guy is going to love canoeing too one day)

I hope you had a beautiful weekend.

oxo

Music for a chilled out weekend...

Here's a gorgeous new song by The xx, from their new album Coexist due out this September....

Hope you're having a lovely weekend.

oxo

Overwhelmed in Baby Land....

I'm almost 6 months pregnant now and people keep asking me if I've started shopping for baby stuff. And I always answer "no" in a scared and somewhat ashamed voice. The reason is, I have NO CLUE what I'm doing! I have no clue what I need, and how to choose it. 

I went on the Babies-R-Us website tonight and became instantly overwhelmed and a little freaked out by the incredible variety and volume of baby paraphernalia that exists out there. Honestly, it's terrifying.

I don't even know what a "receiving blanket" is!

Probably the only thing I know about baby stuff is that every baby I've encountered in the last few years owns and adores this Sophie the Giraffe thingy. For some weird reason, all babies apparently love it. Babies puzzle me!

So for those of you out there who have children, or those of you who just know about this kind of thing, any suggestions on what the bare essentials are for a first-time mom?

Oh Summer, Sensational Summer!

It's always a little hard for me to keep up with blogging in the summertime. Being inside on my computer is often the last place I want to be... especially on my last week in Montreal before heading back up north.

I've been soaking up summer's lusciousness in every way possible (well mostly by eating tons of fresh market produce),  basking away in that glorious sunshine, picking wild flowers, and tending to my city balcony garden.

I hope you're soaking up all of summer's sensations too : )

Fourth of July at the Beach

I love having American in-laws, 

and I love celebrating fourth of July... especially at the beach!

 

(it was baby's first visit to the beach too!)

This is what the lifeguard was sporting... I couldn't help snapping a photo : )

I helped my little cousin-in-law decorate her first ever cake... in very patriotic style.

I hope you're having a fun fourth of July too!

Weekend Moments - July! July!

Oh isn't July such a fabulous month?!

It's full-on summer now, and I'm getting my fill in every way I can.

We drove down from the north this weekend... through gorgeous summer sunsets and fields of wild flowers for as far as the eye can see.

Being back in Montreal really made it feel like summer holidays. We ate breakfasts on our balcony garden, indulged in tons of fresh fruit, and roamed around the bustling city streets (I forgot how many tourists there are here in the summer... it's so busy!).

We spent Canada Day out in the country with my parents. 

I couldn't stop taking pictures of their beautiful gardens... we just don't get flowers like these in the north.

And now we're off to the beach in New Jersey for 4th of July celebrations with my in-laws.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend, and a happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians out there.