Administrative Appreciation Week 2013

Hopefully everyone knows how much administrative personnel are needed in any work environment. They truly are the oil that keeps all motors running smoothly. Without them, things would break down pretty darn quickly. They aren't always recognized for the work they do or the importance they play and it's unfortunate that sometimes I hear them say things that refer to themselves as "the bottom of the totem pole". I personally think their role is just as important as any other role. Without them, many offices, hospitals, work sites, just wouldn't be able to function. I wanted to let me clerical staff know that I value each and every one of them. With the help of +Jinnee Barazzuol and her Silhouette and Armor Etch,  I was able to customize a mug for each of my staff. I tucked a little handmade card in each mug and hopefully they all like it! 

Khuno Turns 5

I can't believe my little pup turned 5 last week. I would take you on a trip down memory lane with some photos of Khuno as a puppy but our network drive is down so I can't access them. Needless to say, he was cute as can be with him being all of a whopping 10 pounds. I still remember picking him up from the airport cargo area. We heard his poor puppy barks from the waiting area and our hearts instantly melted. He's caused us a lot of grief over these past 5 years, but we can't imagine our lives without him. He brings us such joy. I mean, look at that face. How can you not love him? The little hat was compliments of +Cynthia Chau. I'm glad Khuno has a little cousin, Audi, to keep him young at heart. Happy 5th birthday my sweet puppy. 

Canon CP900 Selphy

My friend, +Jinnee Barazzuol told me about a printer that she bought not long ago as she embarked on her 2013 Handbook Album and it peaked my interest in the idea. With my Project Life album well on its way... into May 2012... I figured it might not hurt to have the convenience of a small home printer. What I've typically done in the past was pick a weekend where I'd sit down and go hard at PL, figuring out layouts, creating collages, uploading photos. I'd print months at a time and just load them up to Costco because it was convenient for Jamie to pick up. But the idea of being able to print the photos and slot them in within minutes was appealing! I trusted that +Jinnee Barazzuol did her research and she had no complaints about the printer she got so I hoped onto Amazon.ca and ordered myself a Canon CP900 Selphy and 2 extra ink cartridges and paper. I could have swung by Staples to pick it up but why, when I could get it delivered straight into my hands? Many reviews talk about a line that runs down the left hand edge of the phone and I unfortunately have to admit that the line exists. The good news: it doesn't always show up! I had lines on all 5 photos that I printed with the test cartridge that came with the printer. After loading in a new ink cartridge and a full package of 18 sheets of paper, the line disappeared! I'm not sure if the line will reappear once I run low on paper/ink again, but the convenience definitely outweighs the line. 

A few things that I like: 
- Good quality photos
- No drying time required
- Convenient and easy to use software
- Can print from smartphone app
- Photos are coated and supposedly last 100+ years
- Small compact size means I could take it on a trip with me
- Did I mention it was uber convenient?

Things I don't fancy: 
- Slightly smaller than 4x6 size (the perforated edges take off some extra paper
- The cost per photo is as much as I would pay through a professional printer
- The dreaded line (sometimes)
- Glossy paper (I'm a matte fan)

In the end, I'm happy I bought the cute little printer. It is a lot smaller than I anticipated. If you look at the picture I uploaded, the 4x6 photo can be used to compare the size of the actual printer. Not much bigger at all then a standard 4x6 photo. Do you print your photos at home? What printer do you use? Do you even print photos anymore? How do you archive your photos? I'd love to hear ideas! 

New Craze: Overnight Oats

Apparently everyone is on this bandwagon of overnight oats. I heard about it from my friend, +Penny Nabozniak. She's been whipping up containers of these and can't say enough good things about it. She showed me a popular link, The Yummy Life, and also to just search on Pinterest. I finally decided to give it a go since I had all the ingredients conveniently in my house already! As you have likely learned by now, I'm not a huge follower of recipes and this might be the contributing factor to why I skim recipes. This time was no different! I dug out some old mason jars and attempted to follow the recipe from The Yummy Life: 

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup uncooked old fashioned rolled oats
• 1/3 cup skim milk
• 1/4 cup low-fat Greek yogurt
• 1-1/2 teaspoons dried chia seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon honey, optional (or substitute any preferred sweetener)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce, or enough to fill jar

What my recipe ended up looking like:

Ingredients

• 1/4 - 1/3 cup uncooked old fashioned rolled oats (one oatmeal serving is typically 1/3 cup)
• skim milk (enough to make the whole mixture a soggy cereal consistency)
• 2 heaping spoonfuls of greek yogurt (if you use plain, you may need some sweetner)
• 1 tbsp dried chia seeds (I like the crunch)
• small handful of almonds for extra protein
• whatever other flavorings you'd like to try

Some flavors I've made so far: 

- a spoonful of apple jelly, dash of cinnamon, toasted sesame seeds

- frozen blueberries and bananas with honey Greek yogurt

- fresh strawberries and banana with honey Greek yogurt

I've learned that more milk is better than less milk for me. I'd much prefer a runnier porridge consistency then the solid gelatinous chunk I found the first morning I made it. I think the recipe said she left her non-fresh fruit ones for up to 3 nights and yup, my apple cinnamon one had no issues when I ate it on the 3rd morning. The fresh strawberry banana one was starting to get iffy by the 2nd morning. This is way better than eating plain yogurt and I love how you can prep a few days worth at once. We pack this for our late morning snack since Jamie and I are always missing our lunch and we've even packed it this past weekend as an after swimming snack.  

Have you tried this before? If not, let me know if you do up trying it. 

#yegdt

Last weekend Jamie and I had our annual dental check-up and afterwards, decided to frolic downtown. It took a little bit to find parking but finally managed to make it to the City Market inside City Hall. It was bustling with vendors, customers and live music. The vendors that we hit up: Green Valley Farms, Theo's Greek Kouzina, Shooting Star Ranch and Fruits of Sherbrooke. We always get our elk antlers and elk jerky from Shoot Start Ranch. Khuno loves gnawing on those suckers. Fruits of Sherbrooke was a vendor we've never seen before. Their story is they take urban fruits that would otherwise go to waste, and make yummy things out of them! I'm sure you've all seen the large number of rotten apples on the ground in people's yards. These folks will swoop in and rescue them. This jam we bought has a lovely pureed texture (I'm not a fan of big chunks of fruit on my toast) and isn't too sweet. They also make things like Chipotle Ketchup, which I've heard is quite delicious. 

After the market, we walked past City Hall to De Dutch on Jasper Ave. We had very similar Dutch pancakes in Amsterdam so it definitely brought us back to our honeymoon days. Really quaint bright atmosphere and there was no lineup at all, which surprised us. It's a nice change of taste from the typical Cora's breakfast. We both chose savory items but they had a massive list of sweet treats to choose from. It was such a gorgeous day to be out walking and we almost forgot about all the wonderful things to do in the city. There were people skating on the free public ice right outside City Hall. There was a free gigantic chess set for anyone who wanted to play and there was a shinny hockey tournament going on all afternoon! If you're bored and have nothing to do next Saturday, downtown is full of fun things including the mall! You'll be reminded of our lovely downtown by all the buttons people are wearing that support #yegdt. 

Asian Glazed Drumsticks

Skinny Taste is a blog I found a long time ago through my good friend, Penny. This tasty recipe for Asian Glazed Drumsticks was easy to make and if you pop over to the website, her photo makes it look much more appetizing. As you all know, Jamie and I aren't ones to follow recipes exactly so we never did get a nice ooey gooey sauce like the recipe said we should. It was actually a big wok of boiling watery sauce but that's okay! Definitely worth a try if you're looking for something tasty to have with a nice big bowl of fluffy white rice.  

False Hope

Did this photo get your hopes up despite my disclaimer title? I sat down today to work on processing some old photos and let me tell you, there are a lot of them. My most recent dumping of the memory cards landed me back in March 2012. I always take photos with the intention of blogging about it, but I'm a year behind with this one. I don't even want to think about the other dumping folders buried deep without our hard drive. I remember taking this photo because I am so amazed every spring when these tulips start peeking out. We have a southeast facing backyard that gets loads of sun from sunrise till late afternoon. These babies pop out often before the grass is even green or all the snow has melted. This is a photo we can all focus on because a year ago, this lovely occurrence happened March 26th. Just don't mind that dead stuff in the right hand corner. Pretty sure it was a weed anyways.