In the spirit of Canada Day, it’s all about the red!

In the few minutes I get to spare before I head to bed, I just want to say goodbye to my single self, forever written in cyberspace. I can’t believe ALL THIS boils down to one day!!!

My girls and I are booked to head down south for a week!!!! I have the greatest friends in the world.

Where we are going to be, leathering up our bodies.

Happy new year lovely folks!! This is the year to be everything you want it to be.

Last weekend J and I dropped in on Chicago, US of A, and spent an afternoon at Navy Pier. Enjoy some of the moments I captured!

It was a long day!

Apologies for having been MIA for the past few weeks. Life has been extremely hectic, and this weekend, it culminates with the marriage of my two dear friends, Ken and Tiff!!! Theirs is a story that spans over 11 years (you can read about their engagement here), and this wedding has seriously been 11 years coming.

Friday I’m putting on my bridesmaid’s cap for them, but also, for my readers – I’ll be doing a bit of scouting and bringing you some of their best wedding details. How exciting! Tiff is a big DIY queen, so you dont want to miss all the handywork she did for the big day!!

If you recall from my post Venue Visits: Day 1, I had high hopes for the Andrew Richard Designs space as a wedding venue. Sadly, hope was shattered once I heard the price of just renting the space – $3500 for the upstairs Atrium, and $7000 for the downstairs Loft. Throw in kitchen, table, chair, linen and china rentals, and we’re going down Baller’s Lane.

Things may not have worked out for us romantically (more like financially), but ARD Events still had a soft spot for me and I got an invitation to their event last week called L I V I N G. Who better to bring than my BFF and Maid of Honour? We arrived promptly at half six, and our doubts about being earlybird losers went away the moment we stepped inside. If you’ve never been to a schmoozefest, I high suggest you try and get yourself on the guest list of one. This party was sponsored by Belvedere, Moët et Chandon, Vitamin Water, and a bunch of caterers, just to name a few.

The clear winner of the night: strawberry with goat cheese, drizzled in balsamic from Amazing Food Service

Field of Dreams: among the sinfully delicious are tiramisu, cheesecake and strawberry shortcake

Getting my breathe on at the Element Oxygen bar

Getting my relax on by Asha Massage

Sorry to everyone for my extremely delayed follow-up to my adventure at the Oliver & Bonacini special event – last week was a complete write-off (no pun intended) for me as I was busy with some projects. But I’m back!

So on Thursday, April 23, J and I were invited to an event called Eight Chefs, hosted by Oliver & Bonacini restaurants, at the Board of Trade. I was expecting a delicious night of free food and booze, and they delivered! There were 8 different food stations, each with food created by a chef from an O&B restaurant.

These few photos are taken from oliverandbonacini.com. Prepare yourself for foodie delights.

For your convenience, I also put them in my order of preference. I don’t remember all the fancy dishnames, but from left to right we have: truffled mushroom capuccino (YUMMMMM), oysters, crab cake with fiddlehead, seared yellowfin tuna, one that I really don’t remember (and can’t tell from looking at the photo either), and braised short rib ravioli.

Missing from these photos are the SOMA chocolate room, where we had this crazy, warm, spicy chocolate shot (it had cayenne pepper in it), and the incredible martini bar – where I had a martini called the Dill Pickled (pickle purée, white cranberry and a mini gherkin for garnish).  There were also all sorts of canapés being passed around, some very delicious (there was a truffled croquette sort of thing).

Oysters, hanging out in the cool ice sculptured bowl

Another ice sculpture at the martini bar

Super tasty croquembouche in the dessert room

The finishing touch? On our way out, Lisa (the event co-ordinater we’ve been corresponding with) set us on our way with a little take out box of popcorn. You’d be silly to think it was plain or even buttered popcorn. The popcorn was truffled. YOWZAA!!

Love it or hate it, Miss to Missus is wishing you a happy Valentine’s day! J and I decided to remain low-key… not because I think V-day is “commercialized” or “the only day we should show each other love”, but because we’re both brokeass. Whatever it is that you did, whether you are single or not, I hope it was another great day in the life of!

“Where so ever you go, go with all your heart.” – unknown

Boy oh boy, am I ever sick! It’s my second day off work, AND I missed a Superbowl potluck, which goes to show how sick I really am. Thanks to some extra strength Nurofen, I can actually sit up and type, so why not introduce myself a little?

I’m in my late twenties (gasp!).
I was born in the UK, lived in HK, and grew up in the Netherlands and Canada. Briefly went back to the UK but now I’m in Canada again!
I’m a graphic designer. I love all things creative.
I met my fiancé, J, over 10 years ago… through the 10 years, there’s been tears, laughter, separations and togetherness. The one thing that never changed was love.
In 2008, we officially got back together and just before 2009 we got engaged.  Funny what fate does to ya.