Sunny days and kiwi tunes

Hello! Thanks so much to everyone for the birthday wishes, I had a lovely weekend! The weather in Vancouver has been amazing for the past couple of days so we made the most of it by spending as much of our time outside as possible. I had my first iced chai of the season, wore a skirt with bare legs (and no doubt blinded some people, hello whiteness!), went to a funny little jumble sale and ate delicious Belgian chocolate cake (for breakfast today, also). It was a pretty low key weekend as I realise now how I am friends with a lot of very busy people and getting them all together is damn near impossible, but it was kind of fun to spread it all out over brunches and cocktail dates (raspberry vodka and lemonade, so delicious). It's funny, I'll admit that I did let myself get a little bummed that I didn't have a big fancy party....until I remembered I don't at all feel comfortable at big fancy parties, especially not if the focus was to be all on me!

I bought myself some new shoes as a bit of a birthday present to myself, the black Toms I'd been thinking of. Definitely not a super glamorous shoe purchase but cute nonetheless and so comfy. Oh man, if you're in search of a comfy shoe for general walking about then look no further. I'm completely smitten. I'm really terrible for buying cheap and easy shoes but with the amount of walking I do with the kids and not being a driver I really needed something that was going to hold up a bit better than a pair of flats from Army & Navy (I did say cheap and easy) and I'm pretty sure these are going to do the trick! I will say that it might pay to try some on before buying these as they do fit a little narrow for those of us blessed with wide feet, but they've worn in so quickly and now fit my feet perfectly. Hooray!

It's New Zealand Music Month at the moment, so I wanted to make a kiwi mixtape for you all. It was much harder than I imagined! I knew NZ music might be a little obscure but I didn't expect things to be so easy to find, and that it would be pretty much lady free. While there are a lot of amazing female musicians from back home it was nearly impossible to find them online, and when I looked at Nature's Best, a compilation of the top NZ songs of all time, there were only 5 female tracks in the top 30! Shocking. I've decided to split it up into two mixes, one being the oldies and the kiwi music I grew up on, and the second being some of the more recent stuff to come out of the New Zealand music scene. I've tried to include as many ladies as I could, but I sadly couldn't find this gem that I enjoyed dancing around to as a young gal, or this one with the extremely questionable lyrics but secretly fantastic video clip (I was obsessed with their outfits), or even this one where none of them look at all like rock stars, but man could Jenny Morris sing.

Anyway, here it is. Enjoy!

Sunshiny Days.

technicolor eden by rod graves

As much as I love stormy evenings and grey Fall skies, it is amazing how much the sun coming out can lift my mood. It is a gloriously sunny here today, and having the sun still streaming into our apartment at 7.30 in the evening makes me so happy. Everything is that little bit brighter and I find the motivation that seems to hibernate during the winter. It looks like this weather is sticking around for the weekend and I plan to make the most of it by getting outside as much as possible. I see sidewalk cafes and patio beers in my not too distant future. Here's my weeks reflection, a Five Senses Friday, I hope you join in and that you all have lovely weekends!

:Tasting:

Rhubarb. Rhubarb crumble, rhubarb pastry pockets, rhubarb stewed on granola or ice cream, rhubarb muffins. I love rhubarb, a lot.

:Feeling:

The sun on my back as I ran errands.

:Seeing:

The excitement of a mother as she talked about the upcoming birth of her second babe, and the relief I was able to give her by letting her know that I'll be with her all the way.

:Smelling:

New peppermint conditioner and lavender dish soap.

:Hearing:

The lovely Laura Gibson on repeat during my bus ride to work.

You might like to check out a post over here where I talk about my love of Farmer's Markets, and over here where I did a little interview.

Happy weekend!

Monday Morning Goodness

The start of my little window sill garden, ready to be potted and soaking up the sun.

Morning! I hope you've all had lovely, relaxing weekends! We've been so lucky with the weather in Vancouver lately and this weekend was no exception. Beautiful blue skies and sunshine (sorry the rest of North America!), and for the most part I've been able to go coat free! So after a lovely brunch on Saturday morning with a bunch of local knitters, Richard and I ditched the inside chores and headed out for the day. It's amazing how much this weather can really lift my mood! We went out to Karmavore to pick up some vegan treats and cheese and then wandered around New West a bit to take a look at some thrift stores. Living downtown during the Olympics, it was really nice to get out of the city for a bit of a breather.

~ Mondays Mix, 'Here Comes the Sun' to celebrate soaking up some Vitamin D and to hopefully inject some sunshine into the more wintery areas of the world!

~ I made these delicious treats over the weekend with our vegan marshmallows and oh goodness were they good! The brown butter and salt combo? Amazing!

~ I'm really hoping I can snag myself a utility pouch soon (although perhaps a linen one), they're flying out of the store though so I think I'll have to camp out if she makes more!

~ We've spent some time in this community over the past week or so, trying to raise awareness about the lack of homes in Vancouver and the lack of a National Housing Project in Canada. For me it has been the best thing I've seen during the Winter Olympics.

Alright, off to (hopefully) catch a bus! I hope Monday is good to you!

xo