Asparagus-Strawberry-Feta Salad

Health update: Tom is still sick. The doctor gave him an inhaler and told him to cough that crap out of his lungs. So his lungs are now lighter but he is getting horrible headaches. I think he preferred the heavy chest.

Because of all this, I knew he wouldn't want a heavy dinner. But he definitely needed to eat. I thought a salad with a mix of fruit, vegetables, and protein would be just the thing.

I started by steaming some asparagus while I chopped the rest of the ingredients. I thought cauliflower was a photogenic vegetable, but asparagus is giving it a run for its money.

I chopped up some sweet orange peppers, strawberries, and feta cheese. I like the mix of sweet and savoury in the same dish.

Once the asparagus was ready, I cut it up into bite-sized pieces and added it as well. I was feeling lazy and starting to get hungry, so instead of making a dressing I just used a raspberry vinaigrette from a bottle.

Aren't the colours striking together?

I paired it with slices of pork loin that I'd roasted in the oven the night before. 

A really nice combination.

And to top it off, our neighbour brought over a fruit crumble that she had made. 

Have I mentioned that she's a chef in a test kitchen? That works out pretty nicely for us. The crumble was pear, strawberry, and cherry. So very good. We're lucky, lucky people.

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I'm linking up here this week!

"Beachy" Framed Transfer

Oh man! Another week of not getting much done. This new 3 hour commute (1.5 each way) is killing me! And Tom has been really sick since Tuesday. Right now he's having trouble breathing deeply because his chest is so congested. So it's off to the doctor tomorrow. Enough is enough.

I did play around with my freezer paper transfers again today. If you remember, I had terrific success with transferring onto a painter's drop cloth.

This is what I made today.

Before I go any further I should show you my original plan and the total failure that was. I wanted to do a transfer onto burlap but it turns out that the weave was too loose.

You can kind of see the word "beach" but not much else is legible. So I went back to my trusty drop cloth.

I used the same method as before - first using spray adhesive to attach a piece of freezer paper to a plain piece of printer paper (waxy side out).  Then I created a graphic - in this case the phrase, "Life is better at the beach" - flipped it backwards, and printed it out on the freezer paper.  I forgot to mention last time that I used PicMonkey to create the text and to flip it - it's the simplest program I've found so far.

I dampened the drop cloth, placed the print out face down on the cloth and "burnished" the back of the paper with a spoon.  Yes, this time I actually made the trip downstairs to get a spoon instead of using whatever was handy.

I printed the words in a navy blue to give it a nautical feel. Once the cloth was dry I trimmed it to 8x10 and put it in a white frame. You can see that some of the letters bled a little as they dried but I think that makes it look a little more weathered.

I think I'm going to rub some brown stain into the grooves of the frame to age it as well. Right now it's a bit too shiny. We plan on re-doing the basement in beachy colours and this is going to hang there.

Side note - Sasha was completely freaked out by the starfish I used in the picture. I guess it smelled funny to her. She was barking at it and trying to challenge it to a fight. Crazy girl. Everyone knows you can't beat a starfish.

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I'm linking up here this week!

Blue Mountain

I realized today that I neglected to tell you about our weekend at Blue Mountain.  Well let me remedy that!  I hope you like photo-heavy posts.

Our room was on the top floor and this was the view from our balcony.  It was rainy all weekend - can you imagine what this would look like on a sunny day?

We reserved a bachelor room this time. We had a suite last time but it really was a waste when it's only the two of us. Gorgeous fluffy linens on the bed.

On the first night, I closed the blackout curtains and put on my sleep mask (yes I am a diva), and I swear I could have slept until noon the next day if we didn't have things to do.

Oh! Check out the chandelier over the dining room table. Do you think they'd notice if it was missing?

And I was obsessed with this table lamp. I must have taken 15 pictures of it. Not that I want it in my own house, but it sure is fun to look at.

The bathroom was pretty standard, but I was drawn to the frame around the mirror.  

I wonder why?

Tom went mountain biking with his friends on Saturday so I hiked up the mountain as far as the trail went so that I could take some pictures. I could have taken the gondola to the top, but I was saving that for Sunday with Tom (Spoiler: it was raining too hard on Sunday and we didn't end up going.) They have a ride at the resort called the Ridge Runner Mountain Coaster. You can ride by yourself or with someone else, and you control the speed you descend at. I think there's going to be a collision in that second picture!

They're building a treetop high ropes challenge. There are suspension bridges, ladders, zip lines, and cargo nets. Part of it is open but they're expanding it all the time. At the highest level you're 60 feet above the ground.

Here is a shot with some people in it just to give you some perspective.  How much fun would that be?!  It was closed that weekend, but I definitely would have given it a shot.

And the course goes out over the roller coaster. I only grabbed this shot because this woman screamed the whole way down the mountain. I wish I'd had the shutter speed set so you could see her face.

I wandered around the village taking pictures of the buildings. It's like a mini-Disneyland.  I never get tired of it.

And I stopped into the chocolate shop. Had to. There were so many different things to choose from. This beaver candy apple was so cute.

How about some chocolate-dipped licorice? 

I really wanted one of the rice krispie clusters but the price was way too high. I settled on a Rolo-dipped pretzel and chocolate-covered marshmallows on a stick.

This is the store that I mentioned in my post about the bracelets. They have so many interesting things to look at.

 I really liked this zebra, even if it wouldn't match anything else we have. 

Maybe I could start a collection?

And what do you think of this single-person hammock?  I love it so much! If we had the room it would probably have come home with us. Though it didn't have a price on it - isn't that always a sign that it's too expensive?

That night was Tom's work dinner. Check it out, baby. 

I learned just the day before that the evening dress code was casual. I said too bad - I look good! I think I needed a higher heel, but do you know how hard it is to find navy shoes? No shots of Tom but he looked pretty handsome himself.

The dinner was fun, and Tom won a $100 Home Depot gift card in the raffle. Perfect for DIYers like us. I drank a little and was asleep in my bed by 11pm. Yep, I'm a party animal.

The next day I took Tom back up the mountain to see the rope challenge. Here he is pretending to be all athletic.

 But it was raining so hard that we decided to end it there and just go home.

We drove by this housing development on the way out. Is this not the coolest display ever? I didn't care how hard it was raining, I made Tom pull over so I could take some pictures. Whoever thought of this is brilliant.

So that was our weekend away. This is the third time Tom's company has taken us to Blue Mountain. I'm so thankful for their generosity. Even though the weather didn't co-operate we still had a terrific time. Can't wait until next year!