Saturday, March 29, 2008

Saturday Night!

Wow what a crazy night! First of all, it was freaking SNOWING!! WTF? It's spring! We could NOT believe this crazy weather we are having. Tonight, Jas and I were invited to a couple of events. The first one being a costume dinner party at RL's apartment and clubbing at Crush with Rhoda and friends. Jas and I arrived to RL's dinner party (without costumes) a bit later than the invite since we didn't really know anyone at the party besides the two people we knew that would be super late (Vincent and Meryl). Tonight was Earth Hour and lights were out at 8:00pm which is the time we arrived. The lights were out and the candles were lit. Dinner was ready and being served but I couldn't eat right away cos I have a huge problem eating in the dark. Well it wasn't totally dark, there were candles but I need to see what I am eating. After a few hours, we decided it was time to hit the club and it was terrible (the scene not the friends)! The music wasn't really to my liking, the crowd, eh alright although it was kinda cool that we were invited into the VIP room cos the birthday girl's friend booked her a room in the club, we had a bouncer and a bar! Jas and I enjoyed that a bit :) I don't have any photos tonight cos I didn't bring my camera. But there are some photos from the group on facebook but I am not in any of them so I am not going to post them. After the nightclub, Jas and I decided to leave early, we decided to walk (we didn't have the patience for a cab) back to Granville skytrain to get home but before heading home, we shared a hot dog from a hot dog street vendor, those hot dogs are really good after the club. A very brisky and cold night and I think I am way too old to be doing this!

Monday, March 24, 2008

Workout

What a workout I had tonight! I wanted to only do 30 mins of cardio and that was it but Jess made me continue the workout with 4 reps of 25 squats and 15 minutes of weights for my arms! I am soooo tired!! We had a really light dinner, 2 rolls of sushi, a bit of fresh strawberries and a small piece of my pineapple cake. Jess is so silly! She realized as soon as we walked through the door of her condo that she had parked her car at Patterson skytrain! Oops! That was pretty funny! She texted Billy to come by and pick us up so she could drive me home and pick up the car. Just the other day, we were laughing at Rhoda for leaving her car keys at the office right before the stop that we had to get off to pick up her car!! How can you tell those two are related :) Funny girls! Since it was only the two of us, we decided to work out upstairs instead of the gym. Working on her machine in her 2nd bedroom was pretty intense, the machine is not as smooth so you are using more strength and the room is small so I was sweating pretty badly! 30 minutes on that machine is like 1 hour downstairs in the gym! It was a good workout though and nice to spend some time with Jess, she's like my little sis :)

Xmas Present 2008

Yes I know I am a bit early with this one but I need to do a little bit of research and check out the newest and latest styles when it comes to purchasing a new handbag for my collection. I do not have and really need a basic black handbag since I do not own one, well I do have a tiny black Fendi clutch but it's too small and I like my every day purses to be roomy. I was really excited about getting a Katherine Kwei black "Donna" lambskin tote but Holt Renfrew only carries a few items from her spring/summer 08 collection and this one is not available. I did send Katherine Kwei an email about this and she replied back that I could order one in from her to be shipped to HR but the mark up at HR is RIDICULOUSLY HIGH so no thank you.

I do love the Dior handbags so I am considering one of the following two:





Ethnic Croc-Stamped Patent Bag
$1,390.00 USD on eluxury.com

Croc-embossed patent leather and Dior logo jacquard
Antiqued silver metal hardware
Braided patent shoulder strap with flat patent handle; 12" drop
Patent tassel and heart patch with studs and logo embossing dangle from shoulder strap
Whipstitched detail down front and back
Open top with magnetic snap closure
Nylon lining
Interior cell phone pocket, patch pocket, and zipped pocket
Flat Dior logo jacquard bottom
14"x 15"x 6.5"
Made in Italy







Soft Lady Dior Large Hobo
$1,375.00 USD on eluxury.com


Soft lambskin with signature cannage pattern embroidery
Polished silver metal hardware
Oversized link chain strap with leather handle; 12.5" drop
Dangling "Dior" letter charms at side
Slouchy open top with magnetic closure
Sumptuous suede lining
Interior zipped pocket and leather cell phone pocket
14.5"x 14.5" (at sides)x 4"
Made in Italy

What do you think?? Any thoughts or comments??

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Pizza Pizza!

Before

After

Tonight, Kay and I felt like pizza pizza! I decided to make a pesto chicken yellow pepper pizza. Mmmm... it was pretty yummy except that we burnt the crust cos I don't think I added enough olive oil around the dough when baking it the first time. Also, I made it a lot thinner than usual or maybe I didn't add enough flour? Although, we couldn't eat the crust, the rest of the pizza was pretty delish! I googled "freezing pizza dough" and have decided I will have to try freezing it so we can have it during the work week! Enjoy the photos!

PS. What is the order of the toppings? How do you do it?!?! Kay and I disagreed on when the cheese goes on! Her way: pesto sauce, cheese, chicken, skip the peppers (as you can see she lost this one!), cheese. My way: pesto sauce, chicken, pile on the peppers, cheese! Who's right?!?!

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Pineapple Upside Down Cake



Mmmmmm.....yummy! Although we didn't have any pineapple rings (mom gave us a can of pineapple chunks!), it still turned out pretty yummy. We are always craving dessert over the weekend and since I don't mind baking for dessert, we decided to try out the Pineapple Upside Down cake recipe we got from Rhoda. We cut the sugars in half and I used raw sugar instead of granulated sugar (I am trying to cut out white sugar from our diet) which turned out pretty yummy. Hmmm... I wonder how it would taste with whole wheat flour??!!?? Maybe we'll try again next weekend! But we'll be sure to pick up some pineapple rings from the grocery store. The cake did not have enough pineapples in it! Grandma loved the cake and we let mom (who's on a diet) to sample a small piece. Mmmm... delish!

Friday, March 21, 2008

Good Friday

Today, I hung out with my BFF for the day. Rhoda had to go to the mall to pick up a bridal gift and we found a beautiful necklace and bracelet at Piccini. She wanted to pick up something from Swarovski but didn't want to pay full retail price for it when she can get it at a member's discount. We hit many of our favorite stores and I was such a good girl, I didn't buy anything! Even though there were a few items I wanted to buy but realized no, I should not use my credit cards since I am trying to pay them off! I did buy Ari a box of dog treats cos they were inexpensive and he doesn't have many treats left at home. We were planning on taking the dogs to the dog park but we ended up staying in the mall for 3 hours!! We decided to chill at her place while she worked on her puzzle, she's a huge puzzle freak and we wanted let the dogs play since they were in their dog bags with us at the mall for so long! Gosh, those two play so cute!! Next time, I have to bring my camera so I can catch them playing wrestling. So cute! After a couple of hours, we decided to eat zong for dinner since Rhoda's mom didn't want us to join her and Jess for dinner. We had hoped that we could eat whatever Rhoda's mom was cooking but no such luck, apparently those two were going to have a "talk". We assume the talk went well since both came back from dinner with smiles. After our dinner, we googled Matt & Nat on Jess's ibook and talked about owning one of these handbags, very vegan friendly. Today, Rhoda was a bad girl and ended up buying (another!) a Matt & Nat handbag from the spring collection. Although I saw a really nice white one online that I liked (style and colour) I'm not so sure how long I would use it if I bought one. So I am going to hold off for now cos I'm eyeing a new black Dior handbag. I love my pink Dior handbag which I haven't had a chance to use cos of the rain but once spring/summer is here, I'm sure I'll be using it daily. After a little bit, Rhoda and I were ready for dessert since I had a very bad lava cake last night, I didn't want anything with chocolate so we headed over to Cheesecake etc on Granville street so she could have chocolate cheesecake and I could have a plain cheesecake with strawberry topping. Mmmm.... so yummy! After that, we headed home and decided to call it a night! It was a great day cos it's always great company and great times with my BFF.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Simply Thai and Urban Fare



Yeah it's a long weekend! Tonight, Jas and I decided to head out for dinner cos she felt like Asian. We decided to grab Thai food in Yaletown cos there really isn't anything in downtown and I did not want to eat at Tropika. I just had lunch at Tropika with Jen and Rae, Jen's last lunch with us. Plus I am not a huge fan of Tropika, chinese food disguised as malay. Simply Thai in Yaletown is where I made reservations at and it's a new Thai place since neither of us have ever been. Before heading over to the restaurant, we headed over to Beautymark to check out beauty supplies. It's quite a nice store with a lot of different brands that are not carried anywhere else. It's weird how Jas wanted to check out Beautymark cos I wanted to check it out too! I had just received an email from them about an item I was interested in. Bliss is a spa line from New York which carries spa products and an item I am very interested in is called Bliss Naked Body Butter and gosh, I didn't realize it was so expensive! I didn't pick it up since I have so many body lotions left from Bath & Bodyworks. Our reservations were at 6.30 but we were arrived at 6.00 and it wasn't super busy so we were seated right by the window. The dinner was pretty good but a little bit pricey for me since I knew I could get really great Thai food for a better price and larger portions. After dinner, we walked over to Urban Fare cos we felt like Cupcakes but Denman was way too far for us to go just for a cupcake or two. We couldn't believe our luck when we noticed Cupcakes were available at Urban Fare! Although we noticed these cupcakes are not as perfect as the ones at the store, it helped our craving! While waiting in line to pay for our dessert (I picked up two cupcakes and a lava cake from the bakery), I noticed that there were Christian Lacroix Evian water bottles available and on sale! $7.99 to $3.49! What a great price, I had to pick up one for myself! I wanted to buy a couple more but I was taking the train home and didn't want to carry all those bottles. Late last year, I had read in one of my fashion magazines about how Christian Lacroix had designed a bottle for Evian but didn't think it was available in our area. Maybe I'll head back over there to pick up a few more! Great housewarming gifts, non? At the checkout, the cashier didn't see the sku for my cupcakes cos it got rubbed off while I was carrying it around the store (the girl at the bakery wrote the sku on the plastic window of the cupcake box) so the cashier had to guess the prices and he rang it through as $1.99 a cupcake but it is actually $2.99 a cupcake! Hehehe, I get the BEST deals ever! After we paid for our grocery items, we sat outside to enjoy our cupcakes, it was a bit chilly as it was getting dark but we were craving sweets!! All worth it, mmmmm....cupcakes. After our cupcakes, we decided to call it a night and headed towards the skytrain. Jas decided to go over to Safeway at Broadway station to pick up some fruits and veggies and I headed home. After a few hours, I couldn't help myself and ate half of the lava cake, blah! It was gross!! Never again, will I pick up a lava cake from the bakery! But I know I'll be paying for all this sugar, I bet I won't be able to sleep until really really late!

Monday, March 17, 2008

Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins & More


My newest cookbook has arrived! Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins & More by Carole Walter. This book has so many tantalizing and mouth watering recipes and the one I am most excited about is the one on the cover! Those sticky buns look so delish! I am so looking forward to trying those...mmmmm....sticky buns......

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Shopping Weekend

Gosh, what a weekend! These weekends go by so fast and it never seems like I have enough time over the weekend to do everything! On Sunday, I ran errands with mom and we headed over to New Westminster Toyota to pick up a few items but Saturdays are the busiest days for the dealership and we waited around for almost 40 minutes just to see my mom's sales guy! After Toyota, we were pretty close to Walmart so we headed over there cos my mom has never been to the Canadian Walmart and even though there are a ton of great deals, it doesn't seem likely that we would drive all the way out there just to hit Walmart. We didn't end up buying too much and only picked up a few things. After Walmart, we headed over to the new commercial area of Marine Drive in Burnaby. It's pretty developed now with the Price Smart foods, London Drugs, Canadian Tire etc. We headed over to PetSmart cos I need to pick up a few items for Ari and over to the Shoe Warehouse which my mom ended up buying a pair of really cute and comfy sandals. There was a Winners and Home Sense right next door so we had to go there cos we love Winners. Wow, this Winners is HUGE and with so many shoes and clothes, one hour before closing was def. not enough time! I ended up picking up a cute top for only $16.99 and mom bought me a Calvin Klein trench coat which I saw downtown but not in my size:( for my birthday cos this Winners had a few XS and yes, the XS def. fit me so much better than the S. Mom also bought two pairs of cute flats by Anne Klein which are really comfy and it's about time she bought herself some shoes! She can't wear heels anymore and she has a ton of shoes in the shoe cupboard that need to be given away! I found a pair of really cute heels for Spring but remember that I shouldn't be buying any more shoes and if I am going to buy a pair, I really want those cute little heels from HR by Michael Kors. Cute little heels in a gold tone. After Winners, we headed over to Superstore to pick up a few items cos my mom is officially on a diet starting Monday. She needs to lose about 20 lbs and she is finally going to follow my advice to drop the weight.

Sunday was another shopping day only with Rhoda (my BFF) and Jess (little sis) cos Jess has nothing in the condo! When I mean nothing, I mean not much in the kitchen. She doesn't have a can opener! Who's kitchen doesn't have a can opener?!?! I headed over to Rhoda's place and Jess picked us both up and back to where I was yesterday, shopping at Winners/Home Sense (found another great pair of shoes by Ralph Lauren but didn't buy them!), London Drugs for more home items, Price Smart Foods (a division of Save On Foods) for grocery items. After our shopping expedition, we headed back to Rhoda's to drop off some stuff and pick up the dogs to head over to Jess's place where she was going to try out her new kitchen gadgets and cook us a dinner. Wow, very impressive, she did a pretty good job! It was a lovely day with my girls.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Welcome Home Jen!



It was so great to see Jen tonight, she's in Vancouver for two weeks and Rae and I got to spend some time with her just one on one to catch up on life. Wow, so much has gone on and the travelling bug def. bit her! She's been all over the place and she'll be back in Vancouver in September but off to Australia for another year to work and travel. Lucky girl and she is so independent since she has no fear about being on her own and living in a totally different country. I could never do that, I like it here in Vancouver, home is home. After work, we headed over for dinner at Oysi Oysi and spent almost 3 hours there just talking. It was lovely and of course, such a silly girl, she brought over gifts from London and Egypt. She hadn't changed at all and it was so good to spend some time with Jen. Hopefully, we can catch her one more time before she heads back to London. We miss you tons Jen!!

Lifestyles


Look what Kay got at school today! Part of sex education! She is soooo embarrassed but it's good that they are trying to get these kids prepared and aware of safe sex. Although I hope she won't have to use the condom until she's mature enough to make THAT decision. Gosh, I can't believe she's a teenager and soon I'll have to deal with SEX......

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Swimming

Tonight, I finally tested out my new swimming suit in the new pool. It's a very nice and complimenting swimming suit. Although I think I need to get another one so I can alternate the suits, don't want to wear this one out too fast! Gosh, swimming 6 laps is hard work, I haven't gone swimming in a long time and I can't believe how tired I am. But it def. beats going to the gym! I hate the gym. I hate working out with weights and those machines, umm.... BORING. After the swim, Jess and I were ready to eat, we were starving, well Jess was starving, I was just getting slightly hungry as I am always sure to have a snack before leaving the office cos I know I won't be eating until 6! Charly couldn't stay for dinner cos his mom was heading over to his place so he left us with the chicken breast that he made. I made a spinach strawberry salad with goat cheese and a raspberry balsamic vinaigrette. Mmmm.... it was so yummy! Jess had some homemade soup leftover and that is all we had, very yummy and light. It was a nice way to end the evening, just the two of us and we talked a lot about everything. We had lots to catch up as I've missed out so much in the last 10 years!! It was a great swim / workout and I am very excited to continue the swimming with Rhoda and Jess cos it's way better than hitting the gym!!

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Congrats!

Jess got engaged this morning!!! Congrats!!! She is no longer a wittle girl anymore...... I've known her since she was 13 or 14 (about Kay's age) and in my mind, she's always my cute little sister.... gosh, I knew it was going to happen and I knew it was going to happen soon! We are so happy for her. Love you Jess!

Sunday, March 02, 2008

Homemade Scones!



For brunch....mmmm.....scones.... with cheese.... with jam....