Link Love

Just a little sprinkling of blogs I’ve come across in the last while that I check regularly, and love.  I especially love all the lovely ladies from Hamilton blogging about our little city.  It gets a lot of slack, but it is really a great place to be and it really is a city with a heart.

Hope you like them as much as I do!

Loveitalot

These two ladies own a shop called white elephant vintage on James Street North in Hamilton.  I love their blog, and their store.  You should go and check out both.

Shutterbean

I have such a girl crush on Tracy, who writes this blog.  She is so crafty, and makes delicious food and is super mom.  Her recipes are simply, delicious, and sure to impress!

The Ebb and Flow

A bit of a “quarter life crisis” survival guide.  Smart, insightful and full of good advice and heart.  Oh, and written by my fabulous bff.

City Love

Meg writes about living in Hamilton, being crafty, other people who are crafty, and her life.  I think Hamilton loves her as much as she loves Hamilton.

Crackers

I originally put this blog off, thinking it would be all “uppity” because it’s based on being very conscious about where you food is coming from, and how to make things as natural and close to the earth as possible.  I was so wrong.  I loooove crackers, and I’m always so interested to see what they are getting up to next.  And because they are from my area, I can check out all their cool finds for myself.

Ok, that’s all for now.  No need to overwhelm yous.

This is the way we walk, walk, walk.

Currently, Iris is sitting on the mat by my front door looking at me with her “I’d like to go for a walk” eyes.  Now, as a dog owner you would think this is something I’d be used to.  However, we have a problem.  I am anti-walk.  The problem I have with walking is not the physical aspect of the walk, walking I can handle.  The part of walking I take issue with is the time aspect.

First of all, she decides when it is time to go for a walk, and I resent that.  I am the boss, I will decide when we go for walks, not you with your pathetic eyeballs and door sitting.  Second, I don’t enjoy that open-endedness of the walk.  I like rules, regulations and boundaries.  I would like to know specifically when the walk will begin, and when it will end.  Walking seems pointless and time wasting to me.  Unless you are walking to go and get something to eat, or walking to the LCBO to get some delicious cocktails, I really just feel like the walk is an exercise in futility.

So, after this little rant I still have to talk the bean for a walk.  I wouldn’t mind if someone was around to go with me on my walk, that serves as a distraction and I can deal with that.  So, if you would like to come over and walk her with me, that would be great.  Even better, you come over and take her for a walk while I sit on the couch and watch Intervention, because it’s Monday night and that’s what I do on Mondays.  You can come in and watch too, after the walk.  If you’re not too creepy.

Poop scoop bags included.

These are the people in your neighbourhood

I have evil neighbours.  Well, they are not all evil, but 2 out of 3 of them are.  The other ones are really nice and I wish they would invite me over for dinner.

Neighbour #1- A couple who take up TWO parking spaces, when I get none.  Not that I have a car, but people who visit me do and I would like to use one once in a while.  They are always fighting, but about boring things.  He doesn’t like things she cooks, or he works too much and other such things.  How mundane.  When I stand in the hallways listening to yelling I want juicy gossip not same old, same old.  The male half of this couple owns the Mr.Sub above which I reside, but staunchly refuse to patronize.  The reason for this is because one time, he accused me of using his Mr. Sub dumpster (which I did NOT), took a big bag of garbage and put it right in front of my door.  How. Rude.  I am not a very confrontational person, but this spurred me to knock on his door and tell him off.  It felt good.

Neighbour #2- Crotchety old chain smoker lady.  This woman has lived in her apartment for 25 years.  That is a very long time to live in a bachelor apartment, and also a very long time to be filling it with smoke.  I’m not even joking, the smell of smoke comes through the wall I share with her and then I spray Febreeze on it.  I rarely see her, and when I do she gives me a dirty look I did nothing to deserve.  I can see in her kitchen window when I take Iris out to pee, and sometimes I try to sneak a peek, but I never get a good luck.  I don’t have too many other complaints, but the stink alone is enough.  Believe you me.

Neighbour #3- Nice Chinese family.  These neighbours are lovely, and they cook delicious smelling food that I wish I could be invited over to enjoy.  The run the convenience store across the street, and my bf is like totally their new bff.  They love him, and he always goes to their store and buys things that we need, like noodles and chapstick.  They have a very cute little baby who waves at me, and a son who plays the piano really well for his age (he’s like 8).

Those are my neighbours.  Welcome to my life.  If you’re ever in my area, please for my sake do not buy the rude man’s subs.  Please.

5 Things I Like This Week

Welcome to this edition of “5 Things I Like This Week”.  We have some guest hosts this week, my fabulous friends! *APPLAUSE*  So, everybody told me something they love and I internet sleuthed the fabulous photo accompaniments, and VOILA, we have our post.

Dinner and Prizes

Wondering what that is?  It’s a little blade.  That I found in my dinner.  I was eating a (delicious) veggie pie from a little arabic corner store near my house, which I have enjoyed on numerous occasions in the past and apparently I got the “special” pie.  Like at Christmas, when you have the christmas pudding and someone gets money inside theirs….except dangerous.  Wtf?!? I don’t even know what to do.  I’m sure it will involve some yelling.  I will keep you posted. 

 

On a lighter note, I got a prize today!  From Sweetspot.ca!  They did a huge give away a couple weeks ago and I won a french press from Kitchen Stuff Plus.  I just went to pick it up today, it was all very exciting.  I can’t wait to use it.  Again, keeping you posted.  

 

The new edition to my kitchen!

Recently, i’ve been pretty lucky with the internet winnings.  I won this awesome grown up business lady laptop bag a few months ago from Career Bags.

It even had my initials embossed on it!  I love it, and the girls in my office love it and I feel very grown up when I have it with me.  My advice for internet contest winnings is quantity!  I spend a gross amount of time entering contests online.  Magazine websites are a great place to start!  They have tons of giveaways (because they have tons of stuff to give away).  Also, TV channel websites are another great place to look for internet contests.  Check out FoodTV, W Network and City TV.  

Good luck!  And be careful what you eat tonight!

Long Weekend Shenanigans.

 

Ah, the long weekend. Canadians love them. Cheap domestic beer companies love them as well. And sunscreen companies maybe too. And I love them! How could you not? It’s an excuse to be outside and drink during the day, and if you’re lucky enough to have a campfire then you get that awesome campfire smell in your sweatshirt. Mmmm.

If I Was The Boss….

 

If I was the boss, Iris would be allowed to come to the office with me a few times a week, but only if she promised to behave herself.

If I was the boss, wearing hoodies and sweat pants would be acceptable, but only one or two times a month. Or three, if it’s one of those months.

If I was the boss, I would understand if you had to come in at noon because you were up really late or had a really bad sleep but still wanted to leave at five. Or, if you had to leave at lunch because you were really tired and feeling uncreative.

If I was the boss, I would let people use the spare office with a couch to have a little nap if they were feeling sleepy as long as they didn’t abuse the privilege.

If I was the boss, we would have a pizza party sometimes when I didn’t want to bring a lunch or didn’t have time to buy groceries.

If I was the boss, it would be ok to walk around the office in bare feet, but only if they were all painted and pretty. Boys with ugly feet have to keep their shoes on.

If I was the boss, I would understand that sometimes it’s just hard to do work so you have to go on the internet to relieve stress.

But I’m not the boss. Yet.

BACON!

 

Ok, my apologies.  I read an article on Twitter on ways to increase the traffic flow to your blog, and one of them was to write about bacon or title your blog bacon, or tag your posts with the word bacon.  I swear.  Apparently, the world really REALLY likes bacon!  

 

5 Things I Like This Week

I’ve decided to make this a regular feature.  The theme this week is “Stuff that does what it says it will”.  [Which is different then the upcoming "Cheap stuff that's good quality"...stay tuned]

Meet Iris!

I have found a major faux pas in my little online world here.  There has been minimal mention of my roommate, best friend and source of endless entertainment: IRIS THE DOG.  Aka Irene, Bean, Iricle, Monster, Peanut.  Iris is a Cajun, she is a Katrina dog and I adopted her from the Hamilton/Burlington SPCA.  We’ve been together for about a year.  Adopting a shelter dog is a really great thing, its cheaper then buying a dog from a breeder, it gives a poor little orphan a home and they are crazy loyal.  Highly recommended by me.