Farmer's Market & Aritzia

Wow what a great way to end a work day! Kay and I went over to Aritzia on Granville Street before hitting the Farmer's Market at Main Street. I had asked her to pick up the discount postcards that Aritzia sends for their summer sale and since we moved I forgotten to update our address so it has been sitting at my mom's place for almost a week! This year, I got a free towel - FINALLY! I've spent enough money in that store to get a free gift and to get the VIP discounts that start this week :) I didn't find anything at the Granville store so we headed off to the market and boy what a great market! There were so many veggies and I was super excited to head over to Fresh Off The Boat to pick up my spot prawns and sable fish :) I spent a $100 on fish / prawns! I also got a great big basket of local strawberries and a few different kinds of asian veggies which was surprising cos I didn't think I would find asian veggies at the market! After the market, we headed home to make a quick dinner and headed over to Metrotown's Aritzia to check out some of the items I was hoping to find so I could purchase them with my discount!! Wow, the newly renovated Aritzia is so huge and they had every item I wanted!! I found my Community sweater (mix of cashmere & silk), a very cute Community dress and I picked up another silk top by Central Park West in black cos I have one in purple and I love it! All 3 pieces for a total of $260! That's an awesome price since if I purchased all 3 without the discount, it would have costs me over $350! I also bought Kay her black TNA hoodie cos she's been eyeing mine for a while and I didn't want to share mine. After our purchases, we walked around and decided to head home but not without dessert :) We picked up a frozen yogurt each from Qoola :) Mmmm....frogurt! It was a great shopping day!! Now must stay away from Aritzia ......

Granville Island, DT Shopping, Swimming & Dinner!

Wow, what an awesome day!! Today was the first really warm and beautiful day in Vancouver so I headed over to Granville Island with Jas to pick up some fresh veggies and fruit. I missed the Trout Lake market as I didn't get up in time to make it out there. I forgotten how expensive the produce is at the market on Granville Island! I picked up a few items before we decided to head into downtown so I could look at the Louis Vuitton handbag that HonHon is going to buy for my birthday :) There were only 2 left in the LV boutique, I couldn't help myself, I had to charge it right there and then cos this one is not a displayed model and it was made in France!!! It's a nice casual over the body purse which is what I'm looking for and it will be good for traveling (once I start!) and it wasn't too expensive about $900 including taxes! Before purchasing the handbag, we had walked around downtown Robson street and went to Coach cos Jas got a Coach gift card for her birthday from her co-workers. She hadn't found anything in there and she was hoping she could find something this time but I ended up using her GC on a pair of cute Coach flats! What a great sale, 50% off and the total cost of the shoes? Only $70 and they didn't even look like Coach shoes. We decided after the shopping, it was time to call it a day and I still had to get home to meet Marlo cos she was going to help me with my front crawl. Once she arrived, we decided to swim first and then we would eat dinner since we'd burn off a lot of energy in the pool. Wow, she's an awesome tutor, she really helped me with my swimming and pointed out some things to me like relaxing my shoulder and blowing air out more evenly in the water. The next time we go swimming, we decided it would be very beneficial for Cece to come with us cos she could really help her out with her swimming. After our swimming, gosh were we surprised to be swimming for more than an hour, we decided it was time to head back upstairs for dinner. Dinner menu were sauteed fresh local veggies and steamed sable fish with a little bit of sea salt, black pepper and fresh lemon. Once we finished with dinner, we went off to rent a movie, Valentine's Day and pick up some bubble tea for dessert. We had a long night of chatting and she ended up staying the night since I didn't want her driving home at 3am!! When I woke up this morning, she had already left :( I was a bit saddened that we didn't get to say good bye but I knew she had to get back to her dog, Kanye and she had a date with Mr. D. It was an awesome night and I always have a great time with Marlo! She and I are so much alike it's crazy! She can even sense me when I'm thinking of her!!!

Dinner with Lil Sis :)

Tonite, T came by for dinner cos I haven't seen her in AGES!!! We had lots to catch up on so I suggested I'd make a nice healthy dinner and she can bring a healthy or non healthy dessert! She was going to bake but ended up picking up yummy brownies from Capers :) Dinner was baked wild salmon with fresh organic dill, local organic spinach quickly sauteed with organic garlic and brown basmati brown rice with organic cilantro. So delish! It was great catching up with T! We are going to try to do this more often :)

Richmond Centre

Tonite, Kay and I headed over to Richmond cos we needed to pick up dad's meds (to be couriered to HK) and my brother was suppose to pick up some shoes for our cousin, A'Choo. After a quick dinner of organic & local kale, onions, carrots, garlic stir-fried with pasta, mmmmm... delicious! We headed over to my dad's to pick up my brother then over to the pharmacy and to Richmond Centre for the shoes. My brother ended up doing a bit of shopping, Kay ended up with a dress from Plenty that she has been eyeing for some time cos I had a 25% discount card so I picked it up for her AND I ended up with a Hello Kitty mimobot from J2! An anniversary edition for Hello Kitty's 35th birthday! After shopping, my brother was getting hungry so we headed over to Dinesty cos he hasn't been there yet and wanted to try it out. We ordered 3 dishes, a couple of sides and lots leftover cos Kay and I only had a little bit, it was so delicious! We ended up taking the stewed pork with tofu home cos my brother insisted :) It was a fun nite and good seeing my brother!

Winter's Market @ Wise Hall

Wow, what an awesome first Winter's Market at Wise Hall! There were so many vendors and even tho it was raining and a bit chilly, the market was super packed! Kay and I picked up some great veggies and I am gonna attempt to make squash soup and stem kale for the very first time. Can't wait to try out the kale, it's suppose to be full of vitamins and it's really really good for you. We also picked up some spinach, cauliflower, apples (super inexpensive, 4 lbs for $5!) and of course, we finished our shopping with a hot dog and a cinnamon bun (to go!).

Taking away the mid week blues....

with shopping ... how else do you get rid of the blues? Hehehe...

After work, Kay and I headed over to Holt Renfrew's Louis Vuitton boutique cos I had a LV limited edition book called "Louis Vuitton: Art, Fashion and Architecture" on hold for me. This is a large format book that explores 80 collaborations with the likes of Takashi Murakami and Stephen Sprouse. It is def. a collector's item and something every Louis Vuitton fan should have. The book is priced at $130USD or $160CDN and I had a few HR gift cards so I only had to pay $20.29! Gosh, the book is HEAVY and we still had quite a bit more to do so we took turns carrying the bag with the heavy book. After HR, we headed over to H&M cos Kay wanted a boyfriend blazer which she found for only $39.95, I found a cute sparkly silver shrug for $24.95 and it's perfect for my silk Kenzie dress which I want to wear during the fall/winter but need a little something to make it more wearable in the cooler months. After H&M, we walked through Browns and I found the perfect blue silver (SW colour: bluebird) shoes, this colour I have been eyeing for the past couple months but HR did not have my size and I am not in love with the style. At Browns, the style is more mine and it's dressier than HR's style plus it's a bit less expensive than the ones at HR! I will try them on when I'm ready to make the purchase :) Still on the shoe theme, Kay and I headed over to Payless cos they were having BOGO (buy one, get one 1/2 off!) and Kay really needed to replace a pair of grey flats that I threw out cos they were completely wrecked! She got a pair of black flats with a button detail (very pretty) and a pair of pink summer sandals for only $8 cos they were half off! After Payless, we headed over to the Main Street Farmer's market cos we are getting close to the end before the Winter market starts, we picked up some more candy tomatoes, romaine lettuce, apples and had a snack of bison smokie and an elephant ear (?). It was nice spending some quality time with Kay and we got a lot done this evening!

100 mile diet

Tonite, everything on our plate (with exception of a couple of the ingredients in my Caesar salad dressing) are local and organic! Since HonHon is here, we like to cook him dinner and tonite, he got a chance to see and taste what we eat daily. He couldn't believe how delicious our pork chops (no animal meat by products vegetable diet, no antibiotic treatments, no growth hormones, freedom to run and root) from Gelderman Farms were and we had only used cracked pepper and sea salt to season as we grilled it in the wrought iron pan. We also fried the shallots in the pan after the pork chops were done and that made the shallots super tasty. Our 100 mile dinner was super delish and sooo yummy!

Fresh BC Clams!

Mmm....yummy fresh BC clams for dinner tonite! My brother brought over a huge bucket of clams from the island, his BFF came back from their honeymoon and brought back tons of clams for everyone to share!

First BBQ of the Summer

Gosh, was I ever excited about throwing my first BBQ! We headed over to Canadian Tire to pick up a Centrol BBQ tool set (really nice looking stainless set on sale at half price plus it comes in it's own steel carrying case!) and a Coleman RoadTrip BBQ carrying case cos we will need it once we store the BBQ in the garage to avoid dust and cobwebs. Mmmm....BBQ'ing is so good and the grill makes everything taste BETTER! We grilled burgers, steak, corn, potatoes and I made a caesar salad with our homemade dressing. So much food but so worth it. The bbq'ing isn't that hard and it can be quite fun but the cleaning is not and with all the grease to be wiped off and food stuck on the grill, it's gonna take a little bit of muscle to clean the BBQ. It's worth it tho cos this is the best way to cook and eat your meal. I wanted to take photos but I was too busy managing the grill and the kitchen at the same time. Kay tried to help a bit by slicing the cheddar cheese but she had a headache from going to bed late and waking up early so she wasn't THAT much help. But it all turned out and was very yummy! We had lots of potatoes and corn leftover so we decided to drive out to Richmond to drop them off to my dad and also to visit cos we hadn't seen him since he came back from the Alaskan cruise. But when we arrived, my brother wanted to head over to Best Buy for some blu ray movies so we went with him, I picked up something for HonHon, The Simpsons, Season 12 with a limited edition case and the new Black Eyed Peas CD "The E.N.D." (The Energy Never Dies). Before heading back to the apartment, we stopped by Qoola in Aberdeen Centre to grab dessert, mmmm.... the frozen chocolate yogurt tastes like chocolate ice cream! It is so tasty! My two toppings were marionberry sauce with mango, a delish combination! We stayed with my dad for a few hours, chatting about his trip, looking over his photos and discussing his "maybe" upcoming trip to Hong Kong. It's always nice to just to chill with family plus what a treat to have spent the entire day with Kay :)

BBQ'ing!

OMG, I can't believe our BBQ works!! I am SO EXCITED!! We are going to have our very first BBQ here at our place with our very new (2 years old, never been used!) Coleman RoadTrip BBQ!! Off to Canadian Tire to pick up some BBQ tools, a storing cover (our BBQ had cobwebs and dust all over - ick!) and a nice juicy non medicated no hormones strip loin steak from at Famous Foods, mmm.... steak.... Thanks to R.E. for coming by and taking a look at my "broken" BBQ - it wasn't broken!! Dang it...

Earlier this afternoon, Kay and I headed over to the farmer's market at Trout Lake to pick up some amazing fruit and veggies. We picked up some really cool looking summer squashes called Patty Pans, can't wait to try those, KJ (friend at work) told me these were super yummy and sweet. Once cooked, no even need to season cos that's how tasty these squashes are! We forgot to bring our camera again and I really need to remember to bring it next Saturday. So many amazing vendors at Trout Lake, much bigger than the one at Main Street Station plus some of these vendors aren't even at the Main Street. KJ was hoping that fingerlings (small stubby potatoes) are still in season cos he did not see them at the market last Wednesday but there's a vendor at Trout Lake which sells potatoes only and she had a huge basket full of fingerlings! I might have to pick up some for him next Saturday.

100 mile diet

Tonite, I made a dish that consisted of all locally produced organic vegetables! Even the teriyaki sauce (produced in Burnaby), organic fresh basil and black pepper with dried basil/garlic (Maison Cote) are all locally produced except for my brown rice which is from California. The dish was super delicious and I can't believe how fast summer is going, there are only a few more good weeks left of summer veggies. Tomorrow I am going to the Trout Lake FM and I am hoping to find summer squashes to try cos a friend from work suggested I pick up some cos they are super sweet and delicious plus you don't have to season it, just bake and eat! Mmm...squash....

Main Street Farmer's Market

After work, Kay and I went over to pick up some local organic produce at the the Main Street Farmer's Market and was pleasantly surprised to see so many more farmers and vendors. Such a great selection of veggies and fruits that we wanted to pick up everything but could not carry it all home. We ended up with some sweet corn, romaine lettuce, lemon basil (super yummy and so fragrant), cucumber, strawberries and wow, the all sorts of tomatoes as it is in season. We must have had 6 or 7 kinds of tomatoes and we could not wait to put these in our salad for dinner. Before heading over to the market, Kay and I made a quick stop at Maxim's Bakery in Chinatown to pick up some buns to snack on cos she needs food to refuel. After the market, we headed home with our fresh veggies and I made a lovely salad with the romaine lettuce, different baby tomatoes and a homemade vinaigrette with the lemon basil herb. The vinaigrette was delish and even Kay enjoyed it! Wish I brought my camera to take some photos at the market.

Super Hot Saturday!

Ohmygosh, it is SO HOT. I can't believe it's 26C but feels like 30!! Kay and I walked down to the Farmers' Market at Trout Lake for some fresh local produce. I picked up 10 lbs of blueberries from Beckmann Berry Farm, these blueberries are award winning! The berries were HUGE and there was a long line up for them, I'm sure it's worth it. We also picked up some more romaine lettuce, yukon gold potatoes, apricots, strawberries, spring onions and we could not leave the market without a Blackberry Hill's cinnamon bun - those are the best in the market. I also decided to pick up a membership at the Vancouver Farmers' Market cos as a member you get some benefits plus it's supporting something local and close to home. After picking up our items, we started our journey home, it seemed like a very long walk back esp carrying 10 lbs of blueberries! But once we arrived home, it was time to make up a Ceasar sald (with homemade dressing) and drink some ice cold water. It was so hot that all I wanted to do was sit on the couch and read. Kay is heading out for the nite so it is going to be nice to have the entire suite to myself!

Main Street Farmer's Market

After work and summer school, Kay and I headed over to the Main Street farmer's market to check out the vendors and local items/produce we could pick up. Gosh, it is a super hot (and sticky) afternoon and both of us were feeling pretty tired after walking from Stadium station to The Boss on Main street for a snack and an iced tea. Kay usually needs a snack after school cos she doesn't eat during her 3 hours in class. After our snack, we walked over to the market and gosh, there were some great vendors! We picked up some bacon from Gelderman Farms - veggie diet, no animal meat by products, no antibiotics, no growth hormones and freedom to run with full natural lighting. I can't wait to taste this bacon! We picked up some organic corn (the last bit of the crop), some blueberries and raspberries, some sablefish from Fresh off the Boat and Szechuan Chili Sauce from Thai Princess. I did a quick stop at the market booth (next market, I'm going to purchase a membership) and picked up Carebags to reduce my carbon footprint! I have been meaning to make my own reuseable veggie bags for grocery shopping but I am talentless on the sewing machine! After our shopping, we headed home cos Kay was going to meet Tash so she had to do some homework and get out of her sticky clothes. I can't wait to taste the sweet organic corn!

Crazy Weather'd Weekend

What crazy weather we've had over this weekend!

Saturday
Can't believe it but I woke up at 8am on a Saturday morning :( Kay as usual was still sleeping like a pig and even though I was not quiet around the house, she didn't awake. Around 11am, V & M finally rang to say they were on their way to the market, I left the house without Kay and arrived in 10 minutes. I underestimate the coldness of the weather and was not dressed warmly enough. I only really had one thing that I really needed to pick up from the market and that was The Granola King's Hazelnut Granola, it is super FANtastic & FABulously delicious! I eat this with my yogurt with fruit every morning, nothing beats this granola! Before heading home, I picked up a cinnamon bun from Blackberry Hill cos it's a tradition to leave with one of these gigantic buns! Usually, Kay will have one and sometimes I'll get one for myself or I'll take a bite out of hers but she didn't come out to help so this is ALL MINE. Good timing on leaving cos once I left, it started raining and coming down hard. I was def not prepared for this rain nor dressed for it. Kay finally woke up when I arrived home and during the afternoon as Kay was getting ready for her dinner plans, I just sat back and relaxed on the couch. I don't usually chauffeur her around but she needed a ride tonite cos she was in charge of picking up the b'day cake and dinner plans were out in Richmond. I hate driving to Richmond on a weekend cos the traffic is terrible and people in Richmond do not know how to drive!! But I love her to pieces and if driving her to Richmond means spending a little bit more time with her on the weekend well I'll do it. It's strange to me tho, how she now has such a busy social life and she's going to dinners with friends just like me. She is growing up too fast :( After I helped pick out her outfit and after many hours in the bathroom getting ready, we were finally ready to go. DQ to pick up her ice cream cake, over to Superstore (Richmond) to pick up a few items since we were already out and we had some time before her meeting time, then over to Grandpa's house to pick up a camera cos she didn't want to carry her SLR around. We were stuck in traffic for 30 minutes before finally reaching her destination, Tropika at Aberdeen Centre. Once I dropped her off, I went straight home to enjoy the quiet time and the entire suite to myself! It was lovely, kicked back and watched movies and waited until it was time to pick her up. It was a nice nite to myself and I do enjoy these moments.

Sunday
Most of the day was spent either on the couch or cleaning the bathroom and kitchen. We had the strangest weather today, thankfully I woke up at noon to catch up on yesterday's sleep and when I looked out the window, it was SNOWING. I figured this would be a good day to stay in and clean house plus catch up on some TV time. We had plans to visit my father for dinner but there was no way I would be driving out in the snow, my tires won't make it. After a couple of hours, the snow stopped and the sun came out! WTF?? By 5pm, it started to turn grey and clouds were forming which would eventually lead to rain and not just rain, a downpour of rain mixed with hail / snow by dinner time! Kay and I decided to pick up a few items from Superstore before visiting my dad. Gosh, was it ever super busy and we were not pleased to be there again! We walked thru the front door to dad's apartment and this lovely smell of home cooking hit our noses, daddy was making stew pork, mmmm... one of his finest dishes! It was so nice to have a home cooked meal from dad since we haven't had one of those in ages! Plus on the way there, we were trying to figure out where to go for dinner which lead to us wanting Pho but homecooked dinner is much tastier and healthier! It was good to spend some time with dad since we haven't seen him since October! It was nice and relaxing weekend!