Dia de los Muertos

So, its November. November!! When did this happen? I'm going to chime right in there with everyone else with the 'where has the time/year/Fall gone?' refrain. Because seriously, where has it gone? Christmas is coming scarily (ok, and also secretly excitingly) closer and there is a most definite chill in the air. This past weekend was so fun and perfect for welcoming in the changing seasons. Last night we attended the Day of the Dead celebration at Rhizome, which was lovely and cozy. We brought fruit for the altar that was lit up with candles, lights and decorated with beautiful paper cuts. People placed photos of loved ones, their favourite foods, coffee, beans, Zapatista corn, chili and of course Pan de muerto. I really, really love Rhizome and it is so perfect on a cold Vancouver night. We warmed up on their amazing lentil stew, home made chai and the Guatemalan hot chocolate. Not only that, but on all the company and good conversation that overflowed from all the family there celebrating.

Of course there was also Halloween, for which we dressed up and headed out the Vampyre Movie weekend I'd mentioned. We saw Let the Right One In and Habit, and I loved them both! I must be clear that I am not by any means a scary movie fan, but neither of these were actually that scary. For sure I got frights because, you know, people were jumping onto people in order to suck their blood and kill them.....but, still, so very good. In between our movies we had just enough time to head over to The Templeton for some fries and a shake, served to us by a lovely bearded lady (sadly no photos, I wish I'd asked!), as we watched the parade of costumes going down Granville Street. Can you guess who we were?

Ok, you don't actually have to guess who I was as I'm not too sure myself. My initial costume idea was a bust, so I grabbed this crazy lace mask, dressed all in black, wore a giant piece of amber around my neck and was some kind of Super Villianess/Labyrinth masquerade ball goer.

Happy Halloween!

Possibly one of the best Halloween costumes I have ever seen! I love that Richard didn't even realise there was a small child in it at first, ha. More costume amazing-ness found here via these lovelies. So far today we have; eaten way (way) too much candy, dressed up, filled up on roasted pumpkin seeds and poutine, watched 2 Vampyre Weekend movies and seen a lifetimes worth of short skirts and hot pants. Tomorrow we will be celebrating the Day of the Dead with papercutting and Guatemalan hot chocolate and no doubt further harvest-y Samhain goodness.

Hope all your nights were lovely and spooky!

A walk in the woods.

This past weekend Richard and I decided to slip out of the city for the day and head over to Deep Cove. Since we don't have a car, it is a bit of a trek which admittedly almost changed our mind, but I'm so glad we did it! The bus ride over there is lovely, and quite relaxing, and the day was so perfect for a day in the cove! We've decided that we need to do something like this every couple of weeks, otherwise it is just too easy to get caught up in all the business and get frustrated and stressed, you know? Also, being able to relax and spend the day together away from normal life was really great to brainstorm and get excited about new creative ideas. We visited Room 6, which is so cute and chocka with handmade goodness. I picked myself up the latest Uppercase and some Blue Sky Alpaca, while Richard scored a Louis Riel button! After that, we found a little track (although perhaps not a real one...) that wound its way through the forest and along the water, so we walked, chatted amongst all the mossy trees. Sadly our camera battery was dying, but I did manage to get a few shots of all the beautiful colours and textures we saw. The light was so blue and eerie, I loved it!

Of course we finished off the day with some donuts from Honeys, that every single person (stranger or not) told me to go to when I mentioned our mini-trip. The were huge, doughy and most definitely did not disappoint!

I hope all your weeks are going well so far, anyone got any exciting plans for Halloween? I'm beside myself with excitement as I get to carve my very first pumpkin tonight! The apple cider is hot, pumpkin cupcakes are laid out and now I'm just waiting on some lovelies to join me for a carving party!

xo

A Fall Weekend

Weekend-ing meant; a new quilt for the bed, new bookmarks in the making (apple and orange wood, that smell amazing), found wooden shoe forms, neighbourhood walks and flannel shirts, fabric scraps (I love how this photo tricks you into thinking that save from that one piece of fabric, our floor is spotless. Ahem..), collections, autumn leaves, new boots in need of new laces, kitten snuggling.

(You know that shop update I said was coming? It is, I promise! Only I found more clock parts and got distracted by embroidery, so it is now this coming Friday. Also, Jessica has done a wee interview with us over on her lovely blog. Go take a peek, there is a giveaway there, too!)

Rested and relaxed

Our weekend away was so, so good. Lovely and mellow, filled with friends, good conversation, delicious foods and lots of cuddles from crazy cute wee ones. We've both come home feeling so relaxed and just generally full of goodness. We spent the weekend really just hanging out with our friends, going antiquing, eating veggies direct from their garden and the like. It's amazing how enriching and refreshing spending time with like minded people can be. I've come home feeling so much more content and focused than when I left. Julie is such a kindred spirit (we're both big Anne of Green Gables fans...), and it was really nice just to soak that up.

I have a full day off tomorrow, which excites me to no end, and so I plan to put this house in order. Fall is almost completely here and I feel a nesting bug coming on.

I hope you are all well where you are!

xo

God Bless (North) America

So perhaps I am a little late to the party, with it already being November and all, but can I just say that Vancouver is putting on a Fall like no other! I'm not sure if it is just due to being away from home, but I really don't think I have seen colours quite like I have been when walking the Vancouver streets this past month. Not only are the trees celebrating, but thanks to Thanksgiving and Halloween it seems like everyone is celebrating the very fact that it is Fall. I love it. Those holidays add a whole new meaning to this longtime favourite season, and I love that it means you decorate with pumpkins, drink tea, wrap up in quilts and smell the leaves.

Living in the Southern Hemisphere you don't have pumpkins in October, so not only do we not decorate with them, we don't really bake with them either. I've noticed many a pumpkin recipe in blog-land and this unspoken understanding that pumpkin baking/cooking is just what you do in October. Strangely, I hated HATED pumpkin when I was little, so I guess making up for lost time (and just being way too excited at North America and is decorating holiday festiveness) means that I have embraced it wholeheartedly.

These pumpkin chocolate-chip cookies were my first pumpkin baking attempt, and boy were they good! I used Celine's recipe from Have Cake, Will Travel and can I just say - that woman is a genius, and will probably be the death of me. If I keep reading her blog for much longer you may literally have to roll me out of the house.

My pumpkin excited-ness got the better of me and I ended up with WAY too much puree, which lead to these delicious treats. Very easy, moist and with a slight nutty crunch due to the seeds.

Ingredients

2 Eggs (or equivalent egg replacer)

1 1/4 c Sugar

1/3 c Oil (I used sunflower)

1 c Pumpkin Puree

2 1/4 c flour

2 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

Pinch of salt

1/2 tsp each Cinnamon, ground Cloves, Nutmeg

1/4 c Yogurt

1/4-1/2 pumpkin seeds

What to do...

1. Mix 'eggs', sugar and oil.

2. Sift (really, I am very rarely bothered to do this) dry ingredients together.

3. Add egg mixture, pumpkin and finally yogurt to the dry ingredients. Fold in pumpkin seeds, but be sure not to overwork.

4. Bake at 375 degrees F for 20-25 minutes. You might want to sprinkle some sugar and cinnamon on top before doing this, to add a little extra crunch.

A quick note...if you're using canned pumpkin puree, make sure to get the unsweetened sort. Also, for an egg substitute I usually use half a banana per egg needed.

Happy Fall everyone, and Happy November too!

xx