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!).

Hello Kitty 35th Anniversary Hoodie

Kay and I went down to Super Bored to check out the Hello Kitty LE hoodie and it was so cute that I had to have it! I felt bad that she didn't have any money to purchase a cap so I bought her a SuperBored cap as well but she's paying for half which I will be docking off her allowance. My hoodie came with a free phone strap also LE and celebrating Hello Kitty's 35th anniversary! After SuperBored, we headed over to Granville Street so I could pick up a body butter for my eczema at Rocky Mountain Soap cos the body butter works awesome and with the drier air and the office heating, I'm pretty sure I'm going to need a lot of body butter! Once we finished, we headed home cos tonite is out Thanksgiving Dinner! Mmmm....turkey, mama's stuffing and spaghetti, butter corn, purple mash potatoes and so much more!

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!

Homemade Whole Wheat Pasta

Tonite, I tested our bread machine's function for pasta. It didn't turn out too bad altho, I think the next time, I'm gonna mix the eggs and the flour first before putting it in the machine for kneading. Also after making the pasta, we were finally able to use our pasta maker that my mom bought us last Xmas! I think I need to practice rolling out the dough cos the pasta was a bit thicker than I wanted it. But overall, it was a big hit with HonHon and Kay! Yeah!!

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!

Saturday Afternoon

This morning, Kay and I woke up early to hit the Winter's market a bit earlier than the last time cos we wanted to make sure we didn't miss out on the good stuff! Gosh, was it ever super busy today and with the sun out, I think people were more willing to come out! It was a great market, lots of great stuff and I'm happy that we arrived early, there were tons of farmers outside and much more inside with a lot of winter veggies on display. Kay and I picked up our apples (of course!), a winter squash, potatoes, mushrooms, onions and cauliflower. We also picked up some yummy Artichoke Pesto from Golda's and artisan all natural yogurt from Ridgecrest Dairy Ltd, a farm from Mission. To my surprise, the Hazelnut guy was there as well! I had fallen in love with the hazelnut oil that we brought back from Agassiz and could not locate this oil anywhere in Vancouver! He didn't have any hazelnut oil on display as he didn't have any available yet but he did have a new product, hazelnut butter (which I did end up buying one) and the sample was really yummy! He will be at the next Winter market and he will def have some hazelnut oil by that time. I am really excited about that cos this oil goes really well in any salad with a handful of his roasted hazelnuts! Very delish and yummy. After walking through and picking up our fruits/veggies for the next two weeks, we decided to check out Bosa Foods on Victoria since we were in the area and they are known to stock a lot of Italian goods. Wow, did it smell nice in there with all the freshly baked italian bread! Kay and I were quite excited to see the selection of pasta, dried cured meats, sauces and CHEESE. But we still have some cheese left from our last trip to the market so we didn't pick any up although we now know where we can get some good imported cheese for our pasta dishes! We did manage to leave the store with one item, an inexpensive bag of dried pasta :) Once we were finished, we headed home to drop off our items before heading over to Metrotown. I had to return the digital box I picked up from FS cos I need a new hard drive instead. I guess I will have to pick up the digital box next month as right now it's more important to fix and upgrade the PC. We headed over to FS to return the item and to see if FS would price match the Western Digital 500GB internal hard drive cos it was cheaper at Best Buy. But the aggressive sales person said he had to call BB to make sure it was in stock or else they would not price match it. I was like what? are you serious?!?! I know it's in stock cos I checked online before coming here! Since I didn't like the SP anyways, I decided to head over to BB instead and buy it there. Plus I have a BB rewards card altho (doh!) I forgot to bring it. Also, I like BB customer service, it is so much better and BB price matched an item for me yesterday without having to call FS to see if they had stock (which FS did not, of course!). Stupid FS, I hate that store and their sales staff. Maybe that's why FS has this policy cos their sales items are never in stock, it seems they sell out what little stock they have at the beginning of their sales. I think it's a conspiracy! After our purchase, we decided to walk around Shoppers Drug Mart and then over to Metrotown as we had about 45 minutes left on our parking ticket. Gosh, the mall is super packed which surprises me since it was such a beautiful and sunny day! I guess it's all about the holiday shopping! Wandering around the mall for a bit, we decided to call it an afternoon since we still had to go to HonHon's place to check his mail, I've been pretty lazy and hadn't checked his mail in three weeks! Yikes! Now it's time to get ready for Andy's birthday dinner and party!

Mom and Daughter Day

Today, Kay and I spent the day together, going to the last Trout Lake Farmer's Market and running some errands for HonHon. We headed off to the last market for the season at Trout Lake and since we got there so late (we both woke up late!!) arriving after 12.00pm, there wasn't much of anything left so we didn't get many veggies. We did stock up on apples though cos the apples there are the BESTEST! These ones from Apple Lane Orchards from Denman Island does not go brown after you slice them and every bite is delish and super sweet! After wandering around what was left of the market, we headed over to Safeway to drop off some recycling and to pick up some soy milk (Kay and I are cutting out dairy altho we are not cutting out good quality cheese) cos too much of cow's milk (esp non organic) is not good for you plus cow's milk is harder for your digestion system. I managed to convince Kay to use Silk Soy Milk instead of cow's milk cos it really almost taste like milk so I've heard and I still prefer the regular soy milk, I know Kay had a bit of an issue with the idea of using soy milk with her cereal. After Safeway, we headed down Broadway to pick up HonHon's contact lenses that I pre-ordered a couple days before. Gosh, what a nightmare! The traffic on Broadway is horrendous and right after we crossed Main street, on our way down to Willow Street, it took us nearly 30 minutes!! Once we finally arrived, we drove around the block for parking and once we found one, we dropped some coins to give us about 20 minutes. We picked up the contact lenses and since we had a bit of time on the meter, we decided to check out Steeps which is a tea house on Broadway. I didn't pick up any loose tea as I had already bought tons of the tea the last time I went tea shopping on Main Street. Since we were in the Cambie area, we decided to do some shopping in the Cambie Village right by our old apartment. We didn't get any organic onions at the farmer's market so we stopped into Capers to pick up some and there were these local organic raspberries that we couldn't resist! We also stopped into Shop Cocoon cos that used to be one of my fave boutiques to find local designers with a unique style, I ended up picking up a pretty green shirt by Cici (again, my fave local designer!) for only $35!! After Cambie Village, we decided to hit Oakridge Centre before calling it a day. There wasn't much in the mall that we haven't seen before but I could not resist and had to stop into Michael Kors. Darn it, I shouldn't have cos now I found the perfect black handbag!! Micheal Kors, large Skorpios shopper in black leather with silver hardware, $1295 but only 1 in the store and I don't think HonHon will buy it for me cos it's a lot for a handbag. I have been eyeing the white one for 2 years but decided against the white cos it's so hard to care for! Oh well, a girl can dream..... After Oakridge, Kay and I headed home so she could finish her homework and I walked over to Famous Foods to pick up some organic unbleached white flour, organic ground beef for pasta and organic (locally made) pasta sauce! Yes, we are trying to do as much organic as possible, now if I could only figure out how to buy organic meat directly from the farmer, I think that would really help keep our costs down!

Shopping in the Sun!

Wow, what beautiful weather we had today! Sunshine and even a touch of spring with the warm temperatures! Perfect day for a drive out to PoCo to buy natural ingredients for my plans on making my own beauty products for my face routine. There aren't many places around here in Vancouver that carry natural products (or have a huge selection) like herbs, essential oils / carrier oils or clay (for masks) etc. I needed to drive way out to PoCo to a place called Cranberrylane (which I just found out were sold to new owners in early 2000) to pick up some items to make a Green Tea Toner and a Green Tea Mask. The sales lady was very helpful and I ended up with some ingredients and more! Plus lots of tips on how and what to use with my Epson Salts. I have def noticed the difference on my skin since switching over to a more natural and/or organic beauty regime!! Plus my eczema is finally clearing up all thanks to the Rocky Mountain Soap Co Body Butter!!! After picking up the items, we headed over to Costco to do a bit of bulk shopping and ran a few more errands at LD, Walmart and Superstore. Finishing off the day with a nice organic salad and organic corn on the cob from yesterday's farmer's market! What a beautiful day it was to be outside!

Farmer's Market!

This afternoon, Kay and I (finally!) headed over to Trout Lake to shop at the Farmer's Market, we have been meaning to go for the entire summer but we can't seem to get up early enough on a Saturday, market is open from 9am to 2pm. Gosh, I can't believe what we have been missing! There were so many local farmers and most of the seasonal veggies were organic! I wasn't sure if I would have enough money on me to pick up the fruit and veggies since I had forgotten to go to the bank machine to take out money but to my surprise, $25 was enough to cover more than a week's worth of veggies and fruit plus more! Now, I def regret not going any sooner (when it first opened back in May) cos I am sure there would have been tons more produce and fruit, all the lovely and sweet berries we must have missed! AND we love berries any kind of berry! Well there is always next Spring :) There are two more Saturdays before the market is closed for the season but there is a Winter's Market at Wise Hall in Vancouver.

There is also a UBC Farm Market which also has a lot of fruits and veggies but they are opened from 9am to 1pm and I have no idea how I would get there cos I always get lost when driving through UBC. I would love to check out their market as I have done some researching on it and they carry a pretty good selection of seasonal veggies! Also I am excited about the UBC Apple Festival cos:

Every year, between 11,500 and 13,500 kilograms (25,000 and 30,000 lbs) of apples are sold to a hungry public. Over 60 varieties of heritage, new and "tried and true" varieties are available, grown both conventionally and organically. These include the heritage apple 'Grimes Golden' and 'Ambrosia', recently discovered in Cawston, British Columbia.

Now with that quote, how can you NOT be excited??!!?? :)

We have been trying to buy local and organic fruits from BC whenever we can as we are trying to eat more local and organic. I just finished reading the 100 mile diet by Alisa Smith and JB MacKinnon and it was a very interesting read although, I cannot give up coffee or sugar, I am very impressed by their way of life for an entire year. The book was well written, witty, entertaining and didn't make you feel guilty (about your own lifestyle) or pushy. This is a really good read and I highly recommend it.

Granville Shopping District

Today, Jas and I headed over to Granville street to have lunch at Red Door Pan Asian Grill and to do a little bit of window shopping on Granville street. We really wanted to eat at CHOW but it's not open for lunch on weekends and it is really too bad cos I'm not so sure I want to pay the dinner prices! Red Door is asian fusion and the food was good not spectacular but pretty good. I had another reason to head over to Granville street, I didn't realize that there was a Rocky Mountain Soap Company in Vancouver!! I wanted to pick up a few more items and I had planned to order these items online but checked the store locations, to my suprise there is a store in Vancouver! After lunch, we headed over to RMSC to pick up my items and we decided to walk up and down Granville (to Broadway) to do a bit of window shopping. We realized that most of these stores cater to the older women and really nothing for us. The weather wasn't too nice so we decided to head back once we reached Broadway. It was a lovely lunch and shopping trip!

Suki Pure

At lunch time, I decided to go for a walk to Capers to check out their natural and organic beauty products. I knew that Capers/Whole Foods would carry Suki Pure cos I saw it on their distribution list on their websites. I can't wait to test this product out, I am sure it will do wonders for my face and complexion!