Making It

I kicked off this weekend with Friday night drinks with the girls at Hotel Georgia.  For the rest of the weekend I laid low and spent my time crafting and cooking.  Quite frankly, it was exactly the kind of weekend I needed.

My first project was a belated birthday present for my friend Bridgette.  Bridgette and I are both super into anything nautical and  I noticed awhile back that in Bridgette's new apartment building everyone had fancy decorations on the outside of their doors except for her.  Inspired by this Winter wreath by P.S.- I made this... I made this nautical themed rope wreath.

Nautical Wreath

Message in a Bottle

The supplies you need for this project are a foam circle, rope, glue gun, and any decorations you want to add.  I went through a LOT of glue for this project and it took quite awhile to wrap the rope around the sphere but I think that the end result was worth it.  I hope she likes it!

For tonight's dinner I whipped up some of my favourite quinoa salad.  I love this salad, it is quite delish!

Ingredients

Peppers, Tomato, and Green Onion

Quinoa, Black Beans, and Corn added in

Final touch: Avocado and Lime Juice

This salad is amazing and healthy - chock full of vitamins :)

Hope everyone had an amazing weekend!!

 

Bright Lights

Last night as I walked home from our annual Superbowl party I was waiting to cross the street and happened to look up at the Hotel Georgia sign and just loved this angle.  Hope you like it!

Strolling Through Ambleside

This afternoon my friend Bridgette and I went for a nice leisurely walk in West Vancouver.  First we stopped for amazing caramel macchiatos at Crema (the best coffee shop in West Van).  Then we set off on the Ambleside seawall with Bridgette's adorable dog Gracie in tow.

Ambleside holds a special place in my heart.  When I was a kid my Grandpa would take us to the beach all the time.  Now I know I may seem biased, but I really do have the most amazing family in the world and the memories I have of our time spent at Ambleside are truly precious to me.

Lions Gate

Sailing

Birds Nest

Beach

Lions Gate

Graffiti Under the Railroad

Reflections

Blue Painted Trees

I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!

DC

The final leg of our trip was spent in DC.  I have to say, I really loved DC.  It is such a gorgeous city, so full of history!  We stayed right down the street from the Capitol Building and spent the bulk of our two days in the city exploring the National Mall.

What a great vacation!  I am so excited to go back to New York next year - it will be hard to not let myself go back to all the amazing places I saw this year.

Have a fantastic weekend everyone!

Chesapeake Bay

After visiting Boston we flew to DC, hopped straight into the car, and drove straight to a friend's place in Chesapeake Bay.  Chesapeake is absolutely beautiful - relaxing and picturesque.  We spent two days eating fantastic meals and sightseeing.  We even managed to get out on to the boat for an afternoon sail!

The orange of this sunset reminded me so much of the sunsets we used to see in Indonesia.  I remember thinking when I moved back to Canada that the sunsets were so boring compared to the orange and red of the South East Asian sunsets.  Turns out we get red sunsets like this in North America too!

If you're ever in St Michaels be sure to check out the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.  It is a fantastic museum!

 

Boston

After leaving Cape Cod we had a short stay in Boston before catching our flight to Washington DC.  I have to say, I was quite impressed by how tourist friendly Boston is.  Sure, it is terrifying to drive in downtown Boston but the city itself is perfect for tourists.  To get our bearings we asked our cab driver the one question I always like to ask locals: "If you were only in your city for an afternoon, what would you do?".  He responded by telling us that we should definitely do a harbour cruise to get a view of the Boston skyline.  We then did a little research (aka Googling) when we got to the hotel to see if there was anything else that we should do and stumbled upon an abundance of information about the Freedom Trail.  The Freedom Trail is a red path that runs through the city and guides people to major historic sites.  The path is laid into the sidewalk and makes navigating the sights absolutely foolproof!  I am so glad that with our limited time in Boston we were able to see so much thanks to the Freedom Trail and the Harbour Cruise!  All in all, a fantastic day in Boston!  

Love this!  A donkey with a 'Stand in Opposition' sign across from it.  Right nearby there was an explanation of how the Democrats got the donkey as their symbol and how the Republicans got their elephant.  

For @Adam_Nagy63 - Christopher Columbus dressed as Bill Belichick

So, if someone were to ask you what one thing you would do in your city what would you say?