Weekend Mornings

There really is nothing like a weekend morning. Sleeping in, coffee in bed, some snuggles from Charlie, a yummy breakfast!

Breakfast One: Buttermilk Biscuits

Breakfast Two: Pumpkin Rolls with Brown Sugar Glaze

And Charlie, the bringer of cuddles

Things that make you say Mmmmm!

My Parents stopped by this past weekend to drop of my bike. One of my mom's favorite things about Vancouver if the food. We really are lucky to have so many great places to eat!

While my parents were here we stopped for lunch at one of my favourite lunch spots Nuba and we also tried out a new place Cafeteria which very quickly became a new favourite!

Maybe you can relate to this. You go out to dinner to that chains just down the street. You know, some place like Earls, or Joe's. And you choose it because it is close and easy. But as you are leaving think to yourself "Hmmm, I could have made something that tasted better then that." All and all a disappointing experience.

For those of us who feel this way there is Cafeteria. Everything on the menu is under 20$ (something you can't say about the chains). And more importantly the food is basically to die for. Seriously. My dinner reminded me of why I actually liked going out to eat. Because I can't make food that good at home. And dessert! OMG.

Just go.

The Pie

So Canadian Thanksgiving has long past and I'm just getting this post up now! Good work Tina. Anyway, back to the point.

This year my contribution to dinner was dessert. This was a hard one for me as I love making dessert and I had just about a million ideas. Also adding to the confusion was an ongoing discussion about homemade vs. store bought pie. I will not name names, but apparently some people believe that a store bought pie is just at delicious as a homemade pie! I beg to differ. So to prove a point I made a pie.

And I won with this ever so delicious Citrus Pumpkin Pie with Grand Marnier Cream.

Crust ingredients ready.

Ice water for a super flakey crust.

I think I still need a little work of my pie shaping skills.

Filling ready.

And mix.

Out of the oven and waiting for dinner to be eaten.

It's like a concert tour but with sketchbooks.

This year I have decided to join The Sketchbook Project. I chose my theme and my sketchbook colour and voilà a sketchbook arrive at my door!

Now I have to do is fill it up by January!

The Island

For 3 years I basically lived on Granville Island. I went to school there in the day, I studied there in the evenings and I worked in the public market on the weekends. And I have found that when you tell people that you went to school on Granville Island that standard response is "Oh wow, you're so lucky!"

But it didn't feel that way. It was a constant battle to find a parking spot or to squeeze your waythrough a mob of tourist just grab something to eat before class. The "wow factor" wore off rather quickly. When I finished school I was sure I would never be able to enjoy Granville Island ever again. But that was just about 10 years ago. And it really isn't so bad anymore.

The Best way to get to the island: the ferry.

Good company.

The Bridges

I used to work across the way from the plant store, I often went home with a new addition.

Inside the Public Market.

The cement factory.

Opus: most of my student loan was spent here.

Under the bridge.

The Waterfall building.

Pears from the Market.

Last stop, a new bike seat.

The New Addition

I am the proud co-owner of a new bike!

This is it!

The bike is a lucky bike, as it was saved from some scrap heap! My dad found it took it home. Cleaned it, polished it, painted it, replaced its broken bits and here you have it, better than new. It is a lovely little thing to ride around town on.