Saturday Adventures

So we had planned to go to The Taco Lot (usually I would link to them but they have zero online pressence atm aside from all the foor bloggers and fans) that just opened this week in Hintoburg. It's been selling out every day since they opened. But today was SUPER cold out and it is legit just a little shack with a walk up window so we decided to stock up on some donuts from Suzy Q's next door and head down the street to Hintonburger so that we could sit inside and be warm while enjoying wildly unhealthy food lol.

 Alright so here's what we got from Suzy Q's this time around

On the left are Dirty Chocolate, In the middle are caramel dipped with roasted almonds on top ( so far I have only had one of these and it was AMAZING) and on the left Is lemon donut with rasepberry coating  and white chocolate donut. Nate ate that one and said it was  delish!

Now onto Hintonburger. This burger spot is right up the street and used to be in Suzy Q's spot. They have AMAZING home made tasting burger and the best fries! And now the bonus is that you can sit down and enjoying it with the extra space they got!

This was our first time and we went with the classic order of of course the hintonburger which is a bacon cheese burger. We have heard soooo many great things about this place and it lived upto all our expectations!

Afterwards we took a nice little walk around to try and get rid of our food coma lol. Me and Nate ended up getting some cute little trinkets at Heavens to Betsey . We headed home and my mom measured all our windows for new curtains! She helped me pick out the paint colours for the place too! All in all it was a very nice Saturday afternoon spent with two of my favorite people!

Hope you're all having a good weekend!

Retail Therapy Home Edition: Taxidermy and Wax

Recently I bought some stuff online for around the house. They magically both showed up together on a friday night! Best way to come home from work and start off my weekend.

First off I got some mounted antlers to go into our livingroom. We are going to paint the plaques all teal and remount the antlers.

 

Second I ordered some new Scentsy products! My mom got  me hooked on this company just before Christmas. We are both big on scented candles and oils for the house but have never found the perfect balance between too strong, ones that burn too fast, or ones that don't smell the same when you burn them as they do in store. 

These are marketed as scented flameless candles. It's pretty much a ceramic base with a lightbulb inside that lights the top ceraminc piece. You put scented wax in the top and it melts and fills up your home with the most amazing smells! They have hundreds of scents so you can never get bored. I find half a bar lasts about one week if you have it on every night.

I ordered a new full sized heater for the living room the other one we have is going into our bedroom and I ordered a plug in one for the kitchen.

Need to ordered some sample tabs to find some spring / summer smells soon!

Also on the home front we've decided not to move but just to make our current place nicer. We had the weigh the pros and cons of moving and decided we will be much happier here with some much needed fixing up! I still have the same plans colour wise for the living room and kitchen. My moms doing curtains for the whole house and new bedding for our bedroom! Our landlords are getting a laminate wood floor put in through out all of the living space and having the nasty carpet taken out. We'll get new floors and cupboards in the kitchen as well! Fresh paint throughout the whole space and we're doing something really cool with that stairs that I have wanted to do since we moved in

Not in those colours but it's wallpaper! Doesn't it look cool? I'll be sure to post lots of update pics as we give our place a facelift!

Hintonburg Adventures: Suzy Q Doughnuts

So for those of you not from Ottawa, Hintonburg is an up and coming downtown neighbourhood just outside of Centertown where me and Nate live. It contains many awesome little shops, my favorite pho place The Springroll House, Hintonburger it also plays host to the Ottawa Urban Craft Market once a month and new on the block is Suzy Q Doughnuts (which took over the original Hintonburger location as they moved up the block for more space).

Suzy Q Doughnuts is a local gourmet doughnut shop. I heard about it from a couple people over the last week and decided we have to go! It doesn`t look like much on the outside (pretty much like two trailers shoved together). Inside is where the magic happens! They had a pretty great selection today here are a few pictures.

Alright so here is what we got! The Grasshopper (chocolate dipped w mint chocolate drizzle and mint chips, marshmallows and graham cracker crumbs) The Fruitloop, Margarita (lime flavoured honey glazed with a sprinkle of salt), Spicy Chocolate, And Salted Caramel

So far we have shared a grasshopper and a margarita and they were both AMAZIIINGG. Like better than Voodoo Donuts in Portland by far! The actual doughnut part is so light and airy but crispy on the outside and the mix of topings they use is just top notch! Nate was really hoping for something pink ( he loves berry very flavoured doughnuts) so he was semi dissapointed to not find anything of the sort when we were there but thats not to say they don`t make them!

If you are local this a must but just a few little warnings. They only take cash and they are only open Thursday - Sunday starting at 9am. I wouldn`t worry about getting there early cause we wen`t at about 1:30 pm and they had fresh batches coming out as we were in there. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Adventures in Slow cooking: HealthyTurkey Chili!

Alright so yesterday I made my first attempt at slow cooker chili. It turned olut delish! So here is my recipe for you guys to try out!

Ingredients

-1 pound ground turkey
-2 thin turkey breasts
-1 can pinto beans
-1 can white kidney beans
-3 14oz cans of diced tomatoes
- 1/2 a large onion
-2 tsp chili powder
-1 1/2 tsp cumin
- Salt and Pepper to taste

Brown your ground turkey drain all fat and add to your crockpot. Chop onion cook till translucent but not mushy and add to crockpot. Fill frying pan with water bring to a boil and add in thinly sliced pieces of turkey breast cook about 5 mins and add to crockpot. Add remaining ingredients give and give a good stir. Set slowcooker on low and leave for 5 to 6 hours.

 

I turned it off after the 6 hours and went to bed. Woke up did our mornning stuff and opened it up to enjoy a delish super easy lunch. 

 

I haven't used my slow cooker much and now I am wondering why because it took me maybe 20 minutes to prepair this and then I didn't have to think about it. I will now be on a slowcooker binge lol.

Alright I am off to get ready for our little adventure to Hintonburg with the pups! We're going to try out this gourmet donut place we heard about!

Sick Days, Slow Cookers and Sideshows

Taking a sick day and it's rainy out so I'm gonna try my hand at some slowcooker turkey chili... Never tried the recipe before but I'll post some pictures and the recipe once it's all made.

Packed up the Ebay orders so if you got something it's on its way to you as we speak.

 Got some fun things in the mail this week! First was a birthday card from one of my best friends Chelsea. Made me cry a little lol I miss her guts. lol at who she addressed the letter too...

 I also got some fun jewelry in  from the gorgeous Kristen Leanne who owns Sideshow by the Sea . I will be shooting some new headers for the blog soon and you might just see either of these in the images!

 Hoping the sun will come out tomorrow and I will feel better so we can have a nice little dog park adventure with Nate and the pups! Rain rain go away!

Hope everyones weekend is off to a good start!

Our New Place!

Alright guys! Since I already just got a few msgs on Tumblr asking to see our new apartment I figured I would post some pictures of it!

Bathroom

Bedroom

Livingroom

Hallway

 

Kitchen (this is getting renovated with all new cabinets, stove and more counter space)

Dining Room right off the kitchen

Can't wait to decorate it all!! My mom is making us custom bedding, pillows for the livingroom and drapes for all the windows!  My mom makes custom Drapes and Bedding for a living shes pretty magical at what she does check out her blog HERE . If you are local feel free to contact her to help beautify your home! 

Birthdays and BBQ!

So this week I celebrated my 27th birthday and I have never felt so blessed. It started off with overnights at work for the new spring concept flip. I work with such awesome people who got me cupcakes and sang me happy birthday late at night! And Germaine's mom made me her spring rolls that I am addicted too! You guys can't grasp how epic her vietnamese spring rolls are!

The next day me and Nate slept in and enjoyed a nice relaxing day to ourselves cause we don't get to do either of those often these days! It was much needed. I made homemade salsa which is one of my weeknesses!

Here's a picture and my recipe!

-3 large tomatoes chopped
-1/2 a white onion chopped
-1/2 a head of fresh cilantro chopped
-1 lime juiced
-salt to taste

Thats it let it sit for about half a day and it is the most delish fresh salsa! I love it!

Today we had a fun and busy day. We went on a little Bulk Barn spree, which to me is like heaven! We got a redic amount of candy and snacks along with some awesome new baking goodies for me! Including dog bone cookie cutters so I can start making my pups homemade treats! A cross cake pan which pretty much made my day, a great new anchor 2 cup liquid measuring cup and some really cute cupcake covers!

We got home and had fun with my new camera taking pictures of the cutest dogs you know miss Dolly and little Lem!

Then we headed off to my FAVORITE restaurant for dinner The SmoQue Shack . We are legit addicted to this place which just opened up in town this fall if you haven't been yet it is a must! Nate got steak, and I had brisket, we both had their AMAAZING mac & cheese and I had their creamy coleslaw ( I am a coleslaw addict and this is one of my favorites!). They have a BBQ ceaser which is to die for too! We haven't had anything there we didn't like

After we went to EQ3 and scored an amazing new couch on spring clearence! We got this model but in a light grey.

And lastly as if our day couldn't get any better we  decided on an awesome new apartment that we are moving into May 1st! Lots of packing painting and decorating in my near future and I love EVERY second of it! I already have two design inspirations for our new place. The first is for our new living room and the second is just the colour scheme insipration for our new kitchen dining space (for which I am on the hunt for a table and chairs cause we don't have any)

CANNOT WAIT!

So on an end note, this has actually been the best birthday I can even remember. Me and Nate have a great year ahead of us and I couldn't be more excited! Great way to kick off our 27th year! I am so blessed to have such great friends, an amazing husband and the best parents on earth!