shimmery Japanese fabric goodies

My eye was recently caught by some lovely Japanese fabric on Etsy, but when it arrived I was even happier with the real thing! The fabric was stunning. The colours were rich and vibrant and had a slight shimmer to it.

I immediately went to work and created some really pretty new accessories for my shop, pandacub.

snail hunting

My parents have a a decent-sized front and back yard and growing up, I spent a lot of time playing outside. But I had NEVER seen a snail before. Ants, worms and all the other yucky bugs were in full force, but never snails.

In the past year, every time I'm in the yard, I've noticed snails. It's quite odd. I'm not sure if the snail population in Toronto has boomed, or if there's something in our yard that's more favourable to snails, but there they always are, these teeny little snails, on the grass, on the bushes, under our barbecue (my husband accidentally stepped on one and thought it was an egg until we looked closer - ugh).


Now I'm fascinated with them. I've even said a couple of times that I want to start a terrarium and collect a few of the snails and raise them. As I announced, "free pets!" - my husband looked at me like I was crazy. Then I started reading about what I needed to do to keep snails and I kind of gave up. Of course, the next time I see another snail in the yard, I'll probably have the exact same thoughts again anyway.

I also don't think I'd find them so fascinating without their cute little shells - yuck - slugs!

All these snail photos were taken of teeny, tiny snails in our yard that I found within a 3 minute span.

is it spring yet?

It's been raining about about 4 days straight, and I'm having a serious bout of Spring Fever. I really, really, REALLY want the warm weather to get here!

One sign that warmer weather is on the way is all the flowers that are blooming. I was hanging out in my mom's backyard (my mom is an excellent gardener) and her flowers are coming in already. They really put me in a spring mood.

i have the best sister ever

My sister recently went to London and there was only one thing I asked her to bring back for me.

When I went to London a couple of years I went crazy and had a lot of chocolate and candy there. The European chocolate just tastes better than what we have in North America. I can't explain it.

Besides the chocolate though, I also fell in love with these chewy bonbons that I found at Harrod's. I've had a couple of people go to England and bring me back bonbons, but they were always the wrong ones. Not that I'm upset when anyone brings me back candy, but I hadn't had the real bonbons since my trip.

The bonbons I lust for are round, powder-coated, chewy candies and come in many flavours, including green apple, lemon, strawberry, etc. I regretfully only brought back two small packs to Canada, so they didn't last very long.

Anyhow, my sister came through! She brought me back a pack of lemon bonbonbs from Harrod's! I'm trying to pace myself so they'll last longer than a week, but it's so hard!


If anyone knows where I can find these awesome candies here in Toronto, I'll be forever grateful!

deep fryer frenzy

Yesterday my husband decided to break out our Waring Pro deep fryer, which we got as a wedding gift several years ago, but have never used.


We decided to deep fry chicken wings, french fries and Mars bars. Ambitious, but it was surprisingly easy. Probably not the healthiest dinner, but we were both really excited to try this out.

We didn't do anything to the wings, we just cut them up and tossed them in.


The potatoes - I scrubbed them clean because we decided to fry them with their skins on - and then we cut them nice and thick.


And of course, for dessert, the Mars bars. I cut them into small, bite size pieces and tossed them into the freezer for a spell.


The results? Soooo yummy. The chicken wings were awesome and just as good as any wing place we've ever been to. The fries were very nice too, a touch soggy, but still well cooked.



I was most disappointed with the Mars bars. They were so messy and really gunked up the oil in the deep fryer. Plus, the batter I used for the chocolate was too thin, so it didn't stay on the chocolate and therefore the chocolate bar started to melt away. I decided to fry a second batch of the little bars in the batter I had made for some of the wings and because that batter was thicker, it ended up coating the chocolate much better.

Ok, so it didn't look like much, but they're soooo good. A little bit chewy on the outside and super melted and gooey in the middle. Mmmmm.

congratulations to my first giveaway winner!

Ok, I'm a day behind, but I'm very excited and happy to announce the winner of my first ever giveaway!

The winner is: "Becky Pool" - Congratulations!

The prize pack included the winner's choice of their fabric button goodies:
- 2 pairs of fabric button bobby pins
- 2 pairs of ponytail elastics
- 1 fabric button ring
- 2 fabric button pinbacks

I had thrown the giveaway to celebrate hitting 100 sales, and I'm happy to report that I'm now at 163 sales, so I'm sure I'll be throwing another giveaway very soon! Keep your eyes open and thanks for reading!

last day for my giveaway!

if you haven't already, don't forget that today is the LAST day for you to enter my super-fantabulous giveaway!

Details found on this post.

The giveaway was to celebrate my 100th sale - and now I'm at 158 sales, so who knows, maybe I'll be hosting another giveaway sooner than I thought! :D

stressed...

*sigh* I have been really stressed lately and I think it's starting to affect my health.

There have been some changes at work in the past two weeks and because of that, my workload and responsibilities have almost doubled, which I am not happy about. I thought I was handling it all, and I was getting everything done and my managers were all complimenting my great work under the circumstances.

And then yesterday, things just hit a wall. I got up in the morning and felt horrible. I just felt dizzy and "off". I can't describe it but I felt like I was going to pass out at any minute. Of course, I had to go to work because I had an event that I couldn't miss. But by midday I couldn't take it and had to leave work. Luckily my husband picked me up.

As soon as I got hom I felt better. So, I definitely think it was because I had a long weekend to look forward to. But I am concerned that things are just going to be getting worse and my health is going to suffer.

What do you when you're stressed?

50 books in 2009 - update 4

Here's update 4 for my "50 books in 2009" goal. OMG - I'm soooo behind! At this rate, I'm seriously doubting I'll be able to hit 50 books before December 31 hits. I think it's because I'm reading some seriously heavy books lately and it's taking me a little while to get through them.

Also, I just glanced at the list and I haven't read anything besides Tudor/Elizabethan historical fiction! Is that a little obsessive?

If you have any favourite books that you think I might enjoy, please leave me a comment or send me an email! I'd love to hear some of your book suggestions as I'm always look for something good to read!

1. I, Elizabeth by Rosalind Miles, finished Jan. 18
2. Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir, finished Jan. 27
3. Miss Marple's Final Cases by Agatha Christie, finished Jan. 30
4. Brief Gaudy Hour by Margaret Campbell Barnes, finished Feb. 8
5. The Last Wife of Henry VIII by Carolly Erickson, finished Feb. 18
6. The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir, finished Mar. 3
7. Elizabeth by David Starkey, finished Mar. 11
8. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, finished Mar. 31