it's friday

(a friend and i in turks and caicos, 2010)

it's kind of a thing for me that the closer i get to a vacation, the more i need it. like, really need it. work is intense sometimes, and i am feeling like a weekend won't cut it. luckily, we are heading to costa rica in a few weeks for our honeymoon. some hiking, hot springs, yoga, vegetarian food, surfing, reading. 

lucky

i get to marry this guy soon. i am so, so lucky. also, apologies if all i talk about for the next two weeks is wedding stuff.

wordy wedding planning

wedding planning can be really fun. and it can be tough, too. when j and i first became engaged, we were going to have our wedding on a beach. we pictured having a lobster boil by a cottage somewhere for a reception. which all sounds cool, but you need to think about the less fun things like washrooms, parking, accommodations for guests, transportation. and since j and i live 2 flights away from where we wanted to have our wedding, we couldn't have any DIY. we couldn't bring anything from home, or enlist friends to help. so we "settled" on a ceremony outside, at a golf course. and we are having our reception at a hotel. almost all our guests have to travel many hours to get to our wedding, so i love that we are all staying at the same hotel for the weekend. and we are including a few really cool details (as seen in the picture) that i am really excited about. i think it is good to be flexible while wedding planning. maybe you can't do the exact things you pictured, but there are probably really cool ideas you can use. i am so happy that we hired a wedding decorator and coordinator. especially with just a few weeks to go before the wedding, i am so happy i have pros to help us.

on the weekend: comfort cove camping

(our typical camping setup) 

(my view) 

(freshly picked mussels)

on the weekend we drove the hour or so to comfort cove, nl. we found a place to camp, and set up for the night. i love heading out of town with j, even if just for a night. and camping is my favourite. j sets up our hammocks, makes our food, takes care of me. we picked mussels on the beach. i think i could pick mussels for hours. and we watched a movie on the macbook in the tent late at night. i know it's weird, but j and i love watching movies in our tent when we are camping. for some reason, it's so much better than at home. 

in other news, we are inside three weeks until we get married. despite promising myself to not sweat the small stuff about the wedding, today i found myself wondering if the wedding coordinator will remember everything, if the seating chart is getting done. dumb things. 

hotel review: all seasons b&b, twillingate, NL

twillingate is such a sweet little community. j and i are lucky to get to work there. this is the b&b we stay in every single week. as far as accommodations in twillingate go, your choices are numerous b&b's or a room in the inn. the all seasons b&b is right on the harbour where sometimes you see an iceberg or divers looking for sea urchins. 

price: average for the area. around $110 per night including breakfast
bathroom: stand up shower only. small, but modern
pool: none, of course, but awesome view of the water
breakfast: always a little different, but always with eggs, cheese, toast made with homemade bread, homemade jam, fresh fruit salad, yogurt, coffee, juice. really, an amazing breakfast.
tv: none in the rooms, but there is one in the common area. they have wifi, so we usually stream a show or read magazines
location: perfect for twillingate. ice cream shop two doors down, lobster take-out down the street.
parking: included

gander lake beach

summer has actually come here in gander. we spent the afternoon at the "beach" on sunday. the beach is actually a rocky shore of the gander lake that you have to hike about 15 minutes to get to. it really is beautiful. j and i ate a picnic and read from our book. and the countdown to our wedding weekend is 24 days. wow.

outer space iceberg

we passed this incredible iceberg on the way to work yesterday. pictures can't show how amazingly bright this iceberg was. the thick line of dark blue running through the centre made it look unreal. some locals were saying it looked like it was from outer space. loving newfoundland.

it's friday

this has been a really long week. although it is fake friday for us, i am still happy. i am really loving this pic i took of j on the monday after the moose accident. we went to little harbour to decompress a little. also, j and i will be married a month from today. i can't stop smiling when i think about that.

recent random pics

(my veggies) 

(j brought home frog legs the other day (not a fan)) 

(our new fav in st. john's: strongbow and people watching at fixed) 

(raining for the past 2 weeks, for real)

(found this amazing whale scapula in little harbour)

my fav spinach smoothie

i just want to say thank you for all the kind words about our accident. j and i are feeling super grateful.

i've been drinking a lot more green smoothies lately. maybe i'm trying to be extra healthy before the wedding/honeymoon. i dunno. this one is my fav

spinach smoothie

1 cup orange juice
1 packed cup spinach
1 frozen banana, chopped up (soo much better if the banana is frozen)

add the orange juice and spinach to the blender. blend that up until it is super smooth. if it isn't really nice and smooth at this point, add a little more juice or some water or almond milk
then add the banana.

notes:
sometimes i add a little honey.
for a while i was also adding berries, but then the colour is really ugly. but it still tastes good.

moose monday

so it happened. i saw a moose. as it was smashing in to our little car. we are completely fine, which is why i can write about it. we started off on our usual long monday morning commute to twillingate. i said that i really felt that we were going to see a moose on the drive. i even got my camera out. the road to twillingate is really bumpy and twisty, so although the speed limit was 80, we were only going 65 or so. and then all at once jon was yelling, the brakes were on, and there was a huge moose on our windshield.

we were really lucky. the moose was just a calf. there were no cars behind us. j was driving pretty slow, and he saw the moose in enough time to slow down even more. they are so fast! the moose must have broken both it's back legs on impact. but she was alive for at least 20 minutes after, just looking around helplessly. it was really hard to watch.

i think i sobbed in j's arms for at least 20 minutes. it was a crazy morning. needless to say, we didn't make it to work this morning. before the moose, i had been telling j about all these little things i have been worrying about with the wedding. little things like seating charts and bottled water vs. punch. i am so done with worrying about all the little details. more than ever, i am just so looking forward to marrying him.

easy rice flour crackers

these crackers are really good! i will be making these all the time. they are really crispy, which is important to me when it comes to crackers. parchment paper makes this whole thing really easy

rice flour crackers

1 and 1/2 cups brown rice flour
2/3 cup cooked brown rice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil
about 1/2 cup water

preheat oven to 375
mix up all the ingredients except the water in a big bowl. add water until you can make a dough. (i needed 1/2 cup water)
knead onto a floured surface a few times, and roll into a big ball
put the ball between two pieces of parchment paper, and roll dough between the paper until it's really thin. the thinner the better
place the parchment paper/dough onto a baking sheet, and take off the top parchment paper
score the dough into little squares
bake for 20-25 minutes or until the dough is browned on the bottom.
let them cool before you separate them

hotel review: hometel, st. john's

growing up, we stayed in hotels a lot. sometimes we would be in a hotel for a few months when we moved to a new city. sometimes we would be in a different hotel every night as my parents tried to show us as much of the world as possible. i grew up loving hotels. my sister and i would rate the hotels based on things like continental breakfast, indoor pool, toiletries in the bathroom. now, j and i stay in hotels pretty often. we like to get out of town at least every other week. while we definitely prefer camping, newfoundland makes it hard by being super cold. all. the. time. 

this weekend we stayed at hometel in st. john's. this place looks like a row of fancy townhouses, but hotel rooms have been created inside. the rooms are nice, bright, modern looking.

price: reasonable for downtown st. john's. we paid around $150 per night
bathroom: there was only a standup shower. water pressure was weak.
pool: none!! no hot tub, nothing
continental breakfast: super minimal. toast, cold hard-boiled eggs, apples, yogurt, cereal.
tv: lots of good channels (i like to catch up on reality shows during hotel visits-very important!)
location: awesome. it's a nice little hike to signal hill from the hotel, and it is a five minute walk from downtown and lots of restaurants, bars.
parking: awesome. lots of it. no extra charge

how we met

we met at school. it was frosh week. we were at a beach outside halifax for a frosh bbq. we ended up sitting on the same towel. he said i should rest my back against his. for comfort. like a chair. and that felt one hundred percent good, even though i had only met him 20 minutes ago. four years later he asked me to marry him close to that spot we first met. we did not take a simple path from meeting to marrying....

rings

the other day we got all our rings in the mail. the best mail ever. i had been designing my ring over email and telephone with the designer, so i didn't know exactly what i would get. it is very different from my initial idea, but so much better. j's ring is very simple and beautiful. and then j's niece sent him a ring to give me. it is made of gold coloured beads. she saw it at a craft fair, and insisted her mother buy it so that j could give it to me on our wedding day. it brings tears to my eyes, it is so sweet! i will definitely be wearing both my new rings on the big day.

happy friday

(me and jenny enjoying the sun in paris)

i am wishing for some sunny weather. it has been a long, cold, rainy week. but our wedding rings arrived in the mail today! it was so exciting, and we immediately tried them on. they fit perfectly. j wants to wear his now, but we decided to wait until the wedding. i am looking forward to making some vegetarian meals this weekend, and visiting our sauna.