I know it was a marathon of budget talks last night and this morning, but really, Rob Ford? Really? You had to go with the 16-year-old unnecessary jerk comment? And to a fellow Queen's alumna? I just taught summer school - I just got that for 4 weeks - I don't need it from you, too. Listen carefully around 20 seconds in... Good thing I'm getting out of the city for the weekend...
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Well those were the longest 4 weeks of my life. Summer school is DONE, I have two extra paycheques and some grey hairs to show for it, but it's DONE. Oh it is not a fun way to spend summer.
Celebrated today by having lunch with Marta and Evan, who is the most adorable 6-month old EVER. I plan on kidnapping him upon my return from Europe for some bonding time (well she'll call it "babysitting" I suppose) and fun teaching him how to SWIM - which for a baby means getting dunked and splashing for a half hour. After that got my hair done - more highlights and a trim, and then went home to get organized for the weekend. Cottage bound until Monday, and then leaving for our European vacation on Wednesday! So much to do! Tomorrow I'll have a few hours in the morning to sleep in, pack, and go. Annual Camp Ooc run this weekend too - doing 5k and Matt is doing 10k. Yay real summer begins! Cottage here I come! My cousin Chris is getting married in August - it's a very small wedding, and only the aunts and uncles are going, so to have a celebration for the very big dad's side of the family with all the cousins, my mom threw them a shower. I already mentioned my contribution in this previous post. Here are some pictures of the casual afternoon family BBQ by the pool. Future sister in law! My mom picked us as "something pretty" to go behind the food Squeezed between the new home owners! The happy couple - my cousin Chris obviously dressed in his Sunday best, and his beautiful bride-to-be Meaghan Family dutifully watching the gift opening Mother of the groom playing gift model Matt and I with my aunt Jay Matching - awww... (he did this on purpose to annoy her) Aunts Uncles The chef at work Only 5 of the 17 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren Watch me dive!!!!
Wow - 2 people on the diving board? That is a totally breaking a pool rule... My brother called last night to say that he and Jessica bought a house! Yay! It's in south-east Ajax near the lake. I'm so excited for them that I wrote a spontaneous blog post for them. They have a house come September, they are getting married next July - everything's coming up Milhouse for them! A matchy-matchy picture of them this past weekend
This past Sunday my mom held a shower for my younger cousin Chris and his fiancee Meaghan. She asked us to make some desserts and a drink in our great dispenser. I cracked open the KitchenAid Mixer, and Martha Stewart Cupcakes book, and went to town. I chose some chocolate brownie cupcakes and tried two different icings - the first being a sweet icing-sugar base, and a buttercream base - the buttercream definitely won - the other icing was just too sweet in the large amounts. For mini-cupcakes it would have been better. Here's how they turned out: Mixer love, kitchen disaster, and a high-cholesterol omelette left after 5 egg whites were removed... Buttercream takes a while to go down the sink...everything was so slippery! Almost finished piped product... ...now the shimmer is added! Lavender setup for the shower at my parents' house Finished product - I was quite proud for a first try at pretty cupcakes! Old-fashioned pink lemonade - 22 fresh squeezed lemons later, some cranberry juice, a bit of lemon and raspberry garnish, and a lot of sugar makes a sweet summer drink! Next project: chocolate stout (Guiness) brownies with glaze for Matt's birthday next week! Any other requests for the near future? I do still have a ton of purple buttercream in my freezer... So I bought my beautiful cobalt blue KitchenAid mixer in December, when Killer so kindly forwarded to me a great sale that Amazon.ca was having on them. It has been sitting in my basement since we moved, unused. My mom is throwing my cousin a wedding shower this weekend, and I offered to make cupcakes in lieu of buying a cake, which would force it crack it open and use it, which I did last night.
I browsed through my Martha Stewart Cupcakes book, given to me by Jessica a few Christmases ago, and found a great recipe for chocolate brownie cupcakes with lavender icing. I wanted to make these because those are the brides' wedding colours. The brownies turned out great - decadent, moist - although I could eat a million of them, but the icing was quite sweet. It's not like cupcake icing, its more just a sugary glaze on top, that hardens, and since the brownies don't rise like cake, they look quite elegant, especially when purple food colouring is added. Unfortunately I filled the cups too full with mix, so the glaze dripped down the sides. Trial 2 will be tomorrow, but I'm wondering whether I should make regular chocolate cake instead and go with a buttercream, or do the brownies with buttercream, or just leave the recipe...so many options! I think I need to call my mom for this one, but thanks for letting me ramble. Long story short, the mixer is in use, and I'm loving it - it's so quick and fun and best of all, its bright blue (although a darker blue than the picture above). I wish I had taken pictures of my first creation (which are already half eaten), but I will for sure tomorrow and Sunday when they are on display! This past weekend Matt and I headed up to the cottage for the weekend, just the two of us, and it was so relaxing and nice that I just had to share. The weather was gorgeous and sunny every day, we had great food and wine, and enjoyed the sitting around together with no social obligations. Each day we had some sun, some surf (yep, I went into the water multiple times to beat the heat), made a great dinner together (meaning Matt BBQ'd and I drank wine, "supervising" his actions), and got cozy on the couch - we watched "The Kennedy's" mini-series - it was very well done! Here are some pictures of typical cottage life. The main cottage Our little bunkie View from the cottage of the boathouse and Lake Rosseau Relax by the water Cozy up with a book Water line and campfire pit - wow it's getting full! Site of our first "faux-engagement" pictures together with Joni The "bridge" to the boathouse deck Canoe, anyone? View of the front of the cottage Flower beds in every tree stump Day lilies everywhere - doing so much better than the ones in our front garden... They even grow wild by the water! Wood pile - organized by the boys when we open the cottage every year This owl is to keep the birds away...but it scares me every single time I see it... My smiling relaxing husband... BTW he's reading a Men's Health, despite the Chanel ad on the back that might indicate otherwise... The cook - Friday was steak, and Saturday was homemade Charcuterie burgers Recipe here Cottage perfection - right there Friday night sunset Saturday night sunset Boat trip! Windermere for lunch - great sushi bar there!
I know it's been all week, but nothing much has been going on this week! Taught summer school all week, and it's the last day tomorrow for a half day. I'm doing the second session now as well, so I still really have 2 weeks to go! It's horribly boring and long days with students who are lacking motivation, and so I am exhausted! Matt has been off since Tuesday and has started work on our hallway linen closet upstairs. He has prepped it (which took a lot of work as it has never been touched, painted, or cared for), primed it, and painted it. We went to Home Depot yesterday to get wood for the built-in shelving, which we'll get to next week. It already looks so much better and Matt has done a really great job. It's all him, this project, except for me bossing him around occasionally! Pictures to come when its complete! Cottage weekend tomorrow - just the two of us. It will be nice and relaxing and quiet - I can't wait to sleep in and enjoy the beautiful weather! Last Fall at the cottage
So this post is mainly to show off what we have done so far. Nothing is ever complete, but the basement is pretty much done, the master bedroom is mostly done, and our living and dining room are at least painted. So I looked through some of the pictures from when we moved in, and then compared them to how they look now - wow - so different! Project # 1: The Basement (Den/Home Office) |
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