You is kind. You is smart. You is important.

I've been watching a lot of movies lately.  Yup.  Movies in place of blogging!  It's award season, the buzz for movies is everywhere!  After the Oscars this past Sunday, I've been compelled to watch even more!  Tonight, I watched The Help and I have to say it is one of the best movies I have seen in awhile.  I cried with my tubs of Haags from beginning to end! :*) saaao good.

This movie kinda reminds me of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which was one of my favourite childhood novels!  YAYYYYYY for rekindling highschool memories! ♥

Don't tell me not to fly I've simply got to! Who told you you're allowed to rain on my parade?

Today was pretty ordinary.  We're pretty much winding down for the weekend.  Oh glorious weekend, how slowly you come!  Anyway, I thought I'd share a couple of un-ordinary, unique things that are on my "I need, I want, I die" list!

Prada Baroque sunnies ♥

Why do they have to be so awesome and look so stunning on my fat face and yet be so unaffordable?! 

CRUELTY IS THY NAME!

They're $290 USD at Nordstrom and $365 CDN at Sunglass Hut. 

YSL Arty Oval Ring in Turquoise - $250 USD on YSL.com

"Oh excuse me while I look into my hundred dollar compact mirror and touch up on my lashes with a gajillion dollars worth of rings on my hands"

Proenza Schouler Resort 2011 PS1 Keep All - $1200 USD

I can't have chocolate? But don't you want my kisses to be ooey-gooey sweet?

CHYEAAAAAHHHH look what the Cat brought home!

To construct this leaning tower of edible sensation, I had to use a dollop of peanut butter between each macaroon to stack them.  Just in case you're wondering, it's "no".  NO the peanut butter did NOT go well with the macaroons.  In fact, it completely overpowered all the flavours these little delights had to offer.  But you know what, it was delicious anyway.  And it had to be done!  This is one of the many sacrifices that I make for the viewing pleasure of my minions!  And by "sacrifice" I mean having to eat a stack of french macaroons and dollops of peanut butter with scoops of green tea & vanilla honey ice cream on the side. ..... THANK YOU FOR READING MY BLOG SO I HAVE AN EXCUSE TO PIG OUT..... jerks.

So how did I come by macaroons here in the land of moo-moos?  I was actually on my way to the bank to pay an extremely overdue credit card bill when all of a sudden, I was intercepted by the very attractive window display of a French bakery called Sandrine!  *DOOM DOOM DOOM*  Every product in the store is supposedly handmade including all the artisan chocolates and sorbet cakes.  Honestly, chocolate to me is chocolate.  I really don't care if it's made by a pair of dead-skin-cells-shedding-hands or a Kitchen Aid appliance.  All I care about is the cocoa content and how much of it I can buy with the least amount of ka-ching ka-ching.  YOU FEEL ME?  Anyway, there were a variety of goodies for sale including macaroons and french pastries.  The pricing was typical of a French bakery, I paid $1.75+tax per macaroon.  The quality... well it was alright I guess.  It's no Thomas Haas or Thierry or Faubourg or Baguette & Co. or Fratelli or ...  ok you get my point, I'm a Vancouverian snob.  (SHOUT OUT VANCOUVAH!!! ♥)

Anyway, I treated myself to some macaroons, drove back to the office, made myself a nice hot cup of tea and realized that I had forgotten to actually go into the bank and pay my bill.....

Oh food, you ARE the death of me.

I don't need to flirt. I will seduce you with my grossness.

GROSSNESS (noun) - the condition of having an excess of body fat.  i.e. That level of grossness is more than simply unsightly - it's seriously unhealthy.

- Merriam-Webster

On the topic of being gross, mon petit fleur (flower variety is Iris) dropped off a couple of tubs of ice cream for me on Sunday night.  I spooned the entire tub of Häagen-Daz's Green Tea & Honey Vanilla....  It was so gross and yet so good and so fulfilling and so delicious and SO GUUD!  ZOMGWTFBBQ!!!

Anyway, going on a tangent, I purchased a milk frother on sale at Chapters last week before I flew home.  And this was no ordinary frother my friends, this was a BODIUM frother!  I love Bodium products, they're so innovative and colourful!  STORY OF MY LIFE, thank you very much.

I have always wanted a milk frother.  For those of you who are not familiar with this enchanting mechanism, shame on you!  I kid, I kid.  KISSES!!!  A milk frother froths milk.  Yup.  It aerates it.  How it aerates it, I have no idea.  By definition, it adds air so it's all airy and aerated.  Ok, what do you want from me?!?!  I'm a business major, not a doctor!  All I know is when the barista at Starbucks turns on the frother and sticks it into my milk, it turns my milk foamy, fluffy & heavenly!   ... I love fluffy things!  Like fluffy pillows, fluffy cotton candy, fluffy puppies, fluffy boyfriends ... so it only makes sense that I like my milk fluffy too.  And indeed I do!

There are different types of frothers, prices ranging from $10 to $100.  My Bodium is a simple propeller frother that's operated by AA batteries, it was on sale for $10.  *teeth sparkles*

And here it is in action assisting in the making of my daily Awake Tea Latte!

You will need the following: 

hot water, milk (I drink 2%), vanilla syrup & Tazo's Awake tea

Starbucks syrups cost $10/litre jug.  Make sure you ask for your free pump, some places don't offer it even thought it's your prerogative!

Add 2 pumps vanilla syrup to 1/2 a cup of hot water and let the teabag steep while you prepare your milk

Nuke 1/2 a cup of milk in the microwave for 1.5-2 minutes OR until hot OR until the desired temperature.  Do whatever pleases you, this is your drink.

And not your bestfriend's girlfriend or boyfriend where you CAN'T do whatever you want. 

Froth until foam forms.

I stop when it starts to look like this.

If you don't have a frother, here's how I've been doing it for the last 10 months without a frother.  

Simply pour your cold milk into a seal-able container.  And SHAKE THE CRAZY OUT OF IT.   Seriously.

Uncap and it should look like this. 

It should also spoon like this.  

Pour into a cup and nuke in the microwave until hot.

Pour the frothy milk into the steeped tea.

Look at those sexy stiff peaks!  LIKE A MERINGUE PIEEEE ♥

Here's my version of Mount Everest, towering like a BOSS.

It's not your money or your body or your intellect that compels me to want to stay with you. But that I can be gross with you. And I want to be gross with you and grow old together.

*** HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY ***

How creepy is this photo eh?  But I laughed sao hard!

I`d like to just take this opportunity to remind all you October babies out there that if you do the math, this is around the time when we were conceived.  YUP.  And I think that in itself is worth drinking to celebrating!  Because if they didn`t do the dirty then you and I would not be here.  And the world would be so lost without us. ♥  

"And the time you fed me caviar, I was in physical pain. I hate being fed like a toddler - that's how much of a control freak I am."

Mondays are difficult.   And boring.  And disappointing.  I hate Mondays.  To emulate the boredom of Mondays, let's take care of a couple of administrative things shall we?

Firstly, I'm sorry it has been such pain for people to comment on my blog.  But pain no more!!!  You no longer have to register for an OpenID in order to leave a comment.  I'd like to take this opportunity to thank those who did nonetheless!  $100 BILLS FOR EVERYONE!!!

Just kidding.  You all have my love though.  And that's priceless. (;  ooohh BOW CHICKA WOW WOWWW

Second...ly.  You can now follow my blog with email!  Just enter your email in the text box in the column to the right.  YA-YA-YA-!!! DO IT!!!  (:  

And well, that's it.  Callin it a night guys.  I told you Mondays are boring.

Dang it woman! You should be in the kitchen, making me a steak dinner; not talking to me, taking me away from the game, confusing me.

I tend to stay away from trying new recipes that call for fresh herbs because for the most part THEY SUCK.  I don't mean that they don't taste good, they're just hard to prepare for.  Especially recipes that call for small measurements of fresh herbs, like "a pinch" or "a dash" or "1/2 teaspoon".  Because you can never buy just a pinch or a dash.  Fresh herbs always come in a big bunch, or in a container.  WHY?!?!  Like, it doesn't take much to fill 1/2 a teaspoon of chopped herbs.  You would just need a twig or two ......  What always happens to me is I would purchase a bunch of parsley and cilantro, use a few twigs of each and then the rest would rot away in my fridge!  It drives me absolutely insane!  I mean, at $0.99/ bunch (which is what Parsley and Cilantro usually cost), it's not expensive, but it's the fact that it's going to waste that bothers me.  Wait, what?  Since when did C develop a conscience about wasting food?!  

A simple solution would be to just exclude those ingredients and not be fussy, I know.  But I just feel that if I'm going to spend $10-$20 on everything else in a recipe, I might as well follow through and go the whole nine yards.  And sometimes you just can't exclude an ingredient and compromise taste/flavour for convenience.  Would you leave out the chocolate chips in a chocolate chip cookie recipe? 

Anyway, I decided to plant my very own kitchen herb pot!  I was inspired to do so after reading my friend's post on how she made Apple Thyme Martinis using fresh thyme from her herb pot!  

So I stopped by Art Knapp on Friday after work and picked up a few things:  potting soil, pots and herb plants.  You can find all of the above at a local nursery or a big box including Home Depot or Home Hardware.

You can use any container or pot to grow your plants, you don't need anything fancy.  You just have to make sure that it's at least 6 inches deep so that there's room for the roots to grow.  Also, ensure that there's a hole at the bottom of your pot/container for drainage.

 Say hello to Cilantro, Parsley and Mint!  I chose these 3 variety to start off for several reasons: they don't grow too wide or tall and I use them quite often in my cooking.  Except mint - I'm going to use mint solely for the purpose of making all variations of Mojitos!

Here they are, all planted!  I basically put a couple of inches of soil into each pot then potted the plants and filled in the spaces with more soil.  Make sure to pat the soil firmly into the pot so that you don't leave any air pockets.  Otherwise, air pockets will dry out the roots!  I left about an inch at the top of each pot so that when I water, displacement won't cause overflow.

And here's my first cilantro harvest! 

Hola, ¿cómo estás amigos?

I've always wondered what Old El Paso's dinner kits are like.  The families in the commercials always look so happy eating!  Well, over this past weekend I was at Shoppers and saw the Fajita kit on sale for $2.99 with an additional "Save $2" coupon stuck on the box.  $0.99?!?!  SHOOT!  I thought I scored an amazing deal but then I went home, opened the box and realized that it wasn't much of a kit.  It came with the following three things: 10 tortillas, filling seasoning and "sauce".  At this point, $0.99 was starting to look like a rip-off.  Why call it a "kit" when it doesn't include even HALF of what you need to prepare a decent meal?  

10 tortillas, filling seasoning & "sauce"

Here is what you will need to buy in addition to what comes with the "kit":  bell peppers (thinly sliced), 1/2 an onion (thinly sliced), tomato (diced) & mushrooms (sliced)

Oh and you will need a couple of chicken breasts.  Slice thinly.

 The "sauce" is absolutely horrendous by the way.  It's so terrible that it should be illegal.  Regardless, I didn't want to waste it.  Afterall, it cost 1/3 of $0.99.   So I diced a whole tomato and 1/4 of an onion, muddled in some cilantro leaves, threw in a dash of salt & pepper and mixed everything with 2 tablespoons of the "sauce".   The end result was a surprisingly tasty salsa.  Although, I wish I had some lemon & lime at my disposal - it would've added a nice tangy kick.

Pan fry your chicken slices until they're no longer pink.

Then throw in all your veggies, add the seasoning and 1/4 cup of water.  Keep stirring on high heat until the chicken is thoroughly cooked and the sauce has thickened.

Then assemble, top with dollop of salsa & EAT!  ¡Buen apetito!

Crikey! Let's put another shrimp on the barbie, mate!

Recently, a friend of mine traveled to Australia and New Zealand.  And for a month in duration too!  WHATTTTTTTTTT!  'Jealousy' doesn't even begin to explain it.

I was pleasantly surprised today when I opened my mailbox to find a small package waiting patiently for me.  Aw shucks, I love packages!  I love receiving them but more than anything I love opening them!  Especially when the contents are unknown!  I literally ripped the thing apart and so vigorously that I almost shred the letter accompanying my new kitty cat.   KOALA kitty!!!  And now my Hawaii kitty has a friend.  Amazeballs. 

This may just be the start to something beautiful - a new obsessive compulsion to hoard worldly Hello Kitties!

My friend also takes the most amazing photographs imo. You may disagree but I cannot stop you from being wrong (haha I kid, my loves!)  :D  You can witness his mad skillz here mkzthxbye.

It's not you. It's me. I hope we can still be friends. And on the rare-but-not-TOO-rare occasion get together and let me woo-hoo your who-who.

Oh!  The infamous pseudo-compassionate break-up opener!  It's like a shard of glass disguised in a coat of arsenic infused chocolate, enticing you to buy into it and bite hard!  And then what happens?  You bleed from every orifice and DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!  True story.


Well I haven't personally witnessed this line *knocks on wood* but I do imagine it to be quite displeasing ... to say the least.  I often fantasize how I would respond if it did happen.  Naturally, it would involve a lot of ass-kicking but not before I ball my eyes out and confess how my life is over!  And possibly take out a rope noose for theatrics.  The trick is NOT to seem fine.  Nooo. The trick is to fall apart and COMPLETELY.  The only intent behind someone using a cheap platitude such as "It's not you, it's me" is to ease their own guilt for making you feel like poops.  Why give them that?   Nooo.  You are fabulous!  And fabulous people deserve to feel unpoopy.


In the event of such an occasion, I recommend running a hot bath to formally rid yourself of ALL scum.


I ALSO recommend THE EX-FACTOR (hahaha what smooth transitioning!)

PREPARE FOR DEATH & DESTRUCTION!!!

I have to be honest, as cute as it is, I don't particularly fancy the scent of this one.  "It's not a sweet vanilla smell, a little musky in a great way."  


Well, which is it?  Sweet or musky?  Vanilla or great?  I mean, it's either vanilla scented or it's not.  Don't say that it is and then imply that it's not?!  I confuse easily! 

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

I'm going to have to keep it short today ....  short but sweet.  BADA BOOM! :D

Let me unveil to you (if you haven't already seen it) the new Starbucks' 2012 Valentine's Day cup!  Not only is the cup visually appealing, it's MAGICAL. (:  You just have to read the fine print....  Initially I was a bit upset with the barrista for not putting a sleeve on my cup.  Especially since I asked for "extra hot".  (I love burning my tongue not my hands damnit!)  But luckily she didn't, otherwise I would never have discovered this neat little trick!

FINE PRINT:  "Download our CUP MAGIC mobile app, then scan this cup to see it comes to life."

 Breathe easy my friends, the app is FREE.

Notice something...different?

O-M-G what's happening?!

O-M-G it's all happening so fast? 

Love is in the air (;

 Okay, I admit that it's not superbly extravagant but for $4, I was pretty entertained and for the whole of my coffee break too! (:

Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring. - Marilyn Monroe

I've been holding back from purchasing a new tube of mascara for the last couple of weeks now, despite being low.  And I mean low, like to the point where the only thing left to do is to saw open the tube and scrape out the remaining cosmetic.  Yeah, I've completely milked it dry.  Anyway, I went to the mall only to find that Sephora did not have my Make up For Ever Smokey Lash Mascara in stock.  I didn't know what to do, so I wandered the mall like a lost soul.  And then I followed my nose to Rocky Mountain where they were making a fresh batch of double trouble chocolate chip fudge.  Not being a huge fan of fudge... wait, excuse me.   Please allow me to rephrase.  Not being a huge fan of Rocky Mountain's exorbitant prices for their positively sinful fudge, I forged onward and arrived at the mall entrance to Sears.  And I saw the following advertisement for a free gift.  (Keyword being FREE.)  What caught my attention with the gift set  was the mini Hypnôse Doll Lash Mascara, which I've heard does wonders for your lashes.  Plus I'm a complete sucker for anything with the word "doll" in it.  You also get a full size tube of lipstick in a pretty decent shade of soft/neutral pink.  

So the way to redeem this little sucker is pretty straightforward - you just need to spend $34 before taxes on any product by Lancôme.  Unfortunately, the prices of most Lancôme products fall in the $80-$200 range.  Their mascara line averages around $31 per tube.  The predicament is obvious.  Unless you use Lancôme products and you plan to take this opportunity to stock up, then you probably don't want to spend anymore than you really have to to redeem this gift.  Well, I recommend purchasing the following mascara set.  It's $34 bang on and a bit of a steal really.  Their make-up remover is AMAZING!  

Hypnôse Black Mascara 6.5g, Mini Crayon Khol Black 0.7g, Mini Bi-Facil 30ml

Offer ends February 20th, 2012 and/or until supplies last.  JUST SAYIN' ;D