Back In The Saddle Again: Moving Home to the Annapolis Valley

It has been a crazy week and a half! I've listened to more country music than I have in years in the past 12 days and heard the word "koozie" more than anyone ever needs to. 

In the past 20 days I have moved across the country from BC back to my hometown; Middleton, Nova Scotia. My life is still in boxes; my parent’s house has not been a great place to set up shop. Good news though, we move into our PMQ on Friday! 

I started working again until I can lock down another radio job but that may take a little while. I have been way too busy, but hopefully things will calm down soon.

Living at home has been a little overwhelming. I went from being the queen of the house with my gigantic bedroom to being less than a guest. My sister and brother are both at home right now so all of their crap as been piled in the bedroom that is now mine and there is legitimately only a path to and from the bed for space in the room. Some of the stuff is mine so I have been taking on the Bruce's hoarding problem slowly but surely. The clutter is a one-day at a time battle. 

There are a ton of topics I would like to take on in the blog, things that I find so funny or interesting that I can write about. Stay tuned and soon you maybe hearing about all the Annapolis Valley problems you can handle!

The big one on everyone's mind is something that actually drove me crazy after moving to BC, something I could never get used to, adding the area code to phone numbers when making phone calls. That is about to be necessary here in Nova Scotia and it is a very controversial topic. It bothers people almost as much as going to the Dartmouth Costco instead of the timeless Bayers Lake Costco. That is hot topic for another day... 

The Annapolis Valley Exhibition has come and gone. I was a distinguished guest and Judge for Exhibition Idol. I took in the rodeo and many a meal at the Ex. My jeans are a little tighter this week as a result. 

I took in two flicks at the Valley Drive In over the weekend, "Into The Storm" and "Expendables 3". 

I've dined at 2/3 of my favourite places in Halifax (Habaneros and Boneheads); Press Gang will be on the docket for our next fancy trip to Halifax. Yesterday we visited to go car/motorcycle shopping so it was a quick half-day trip. We managed to get a quick walk on the Waterfront in and introduced Butters to Theodore the Tugboat. 

I have been a busy girl getting my fill of my favourite things here at home. Now I am off to celebrate Armed Forces Day at CFB Greenwood. Kevin is working security, he was a little sad that he would not get to witness the kids suiting up for the different events. 

Next blog will be giving you the low-down on Armed Forces Day and then hopefully I will touch on one of my favourite new places in the Valley!

Kicking Off My Calgary Trip to the Calgary Farmers' Market

I have had an amazing couple of days in Calgary so far! I have done a little bit of all of my favourite things. The trip started with amazing Crave cupcakes (as every trip to Calgary should). They were waiting for me on arrival with the new feature flavour of the month (it may have changed now that it is August), lemon meringue. It was perfectly light and flavourful, the perfect cupcake for summer! We have Crave cupcakes every week when are living in Calgary and every trip when we visit. My sister is such a big fan that I always have to bring some home to Nova Scotia with me when I am flying from Calgary. When I leave Wednesday morning I will be carrying Crave cupcakes on the flight with me by request for Kevin in Quebec and Beckie in Nova Scotia. We sure do crazy things for the people we love! Want more on Crave, do your sweet tooth a favour and visit their homepage by clicking here. 

After indulging in amazing Crave cupcakes for dessert I nestled into bed and met an early morning alarm for a trip to the Calgary Farmers' Market. I am of the opinion that visiting Farmers' Markets earlier rather than later is always the best call. This was my first trip to the Calgary Farmers' Market and it did not disappoint! I really enjoyed the Calgary Farmers' Market, it is right up there with my favourite market in Vancouver (Granville Island) and the Open Aire Market in La Jolla. 

I tried a little bit of everything and much like Kootenay Festival I started my day with a little breakfast gelato from Frank & Mabel’s Frozen Treats! I had a “cookie” flavoured gelato pop and it was amazing. It left me wanting an entire serving, but it was a little too early for the full serving for me.

I should note before I made it to the food court in the Calgary Farmers' Market I had already indulged in some almonds. As you can see Going Nuts has a wide range of almonds for your tasting perusal, I tried a little bit of everything. There were amazing flavours that everyone can love and then innovative new almond flavours that only Going Nuts makes. For example, they have two new summer flavours “Watermelon” and “Sour Patch Kids”. Yes, two very unique flavours of almonds. Honestly, I enjoyed them both. They are different and fruity, perfect conversation starters for your next gift or gathering! What did I end up choosing? Well, after three months away from almonds and our low-carb diet I picked Kevin up the most popular almonds Going Nuts sells “coconut almonds”. I am so excited for him to try them. You can visit their website here for a full look at the amazing nuts, trail mixes and everything they offer.

Another item I picked up for Kevin’s “welcome back to the real world” goodie bag is one of my favourite things to eat but not make, peanut brittle. I tired a wide range of Sweet’s peanut brittle and I was so impressed with each flavour. I had to pick up a bar and I immediately knew which flavour I needed as soon as I saw it, I had to give it a taste too and I was so impressed with the salty/sweet balance, of course I had to buy Sweet’s “Bacon Brittle”! I am equally as excited to open the brittle and give it a go! Sweet can be found on the web here... 

We finished our trip to the Calgary Farmers' Market with a coffee from the Fratello Analog Café. We are big fans of Fratello coffees but I had to try their special feature “Iced London Fog” which was Earl Grey tea with vanilla and milk. I’m not a fan of any type of tea (so to be honest with you I am not sure why I chose this) but I absolutely loved this creation. For more on Fratello Coffee click here.

On top of the many fun, tasty products I sampled and bought on my first trip to the Calgary Farmers' Market we also bought a great deal of healthy stuff too! 

-Flat iron steaks from Silver Sage Beef. Check them out here. 

-Basil, greens and rhu-berry pie from Innisfail Growers. Mare about Innisfail Growers here. 

-Lobster mac & cheese from Simple Simon Pies. Your path to indulgence starts with a click here. 

-Lots of fruit from Cherry Pit. Much, much more than cherries! For all the details on Cherry Pit click here.

On top of the amazing assortment of goods we walked out of the market with there were many other unique goods at The Calgary’s Farmers' Market everything from a wide range of bee’s wax products, dog treats, vinegars, oils, flowers, gluten-free foods (I am seriously excited to try the gluten-free bakery’s bread) and farm fresh eggs. I could list the amazing goods and services at the Calgary Farmers' Market for pages (if blogs had pages). 

More than just a market for your basic necessities, Calgary Farmers' Market is pretty much a mall that you can go to and feel good about blowing your budget at. How often can you say that? I love spending my money and meeting the people who it will be benefit, that is something that will never truly happen at a big-box store. I think sometimes in cities we take for granted how important buying local is, we think that someone else who has more money will do it or that the market is a place for stroller-pushing mums to meet up and hangout at. The Calgary Farmers' Market is definitely not like that at all. I saw business men meeting up for a quick bite of lunch, picking up a couple of groceries and then sitting down for a quick meeting. The Calgary Farmers' Market is designed to appeal to a wide range of people and I can guarantee you will enjoy it!

It was the perfect way to start my Friday! After the Market the day continued to be awesome with a quaint BBQ on the deck and then a Stamp’s game. They won 99% of the game, if only they would have won the 1% of the game that mattered…

Need all the details on the Calgary Farmers' Market you can visit their website here. The Calgary Farmers' Market is open all year long on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 9am until 5pm! 

Happy Moments: Capturing Them with Fujifilm's Instax Mini 8

I am a spoiled young lady!

This bad boy was waiting for me when I arrived in Calgary Thursday evening. Ill have a blog coming up about my amazing trip to YYC coming up a little later this week, it has been too busy to blog so far! Between packing up eight massive boxes to ship across the country back to Nova Scotia, Friday night’s Stampeders game, wining and dining there has not been much time to put my thoughts in blog form.

Today, just a quick not about the Fujifilm Instax Mini 8, I was so surprised to receive this when I arrived in Calgary. Sometimes I wonder how often people still get their photos printed these days. We take so many photos these days of everything from our meals to hairstyles and outfits just going to work on an average day (yes, I know people who “selfie” their outfits on Instagram everyday before work), printing them all would be unreal! Not only would it be costly, it would be super lame. Think about labeling all those photos the way photos in photo albums are captioned on the reverse side of the photo, so many of them would be #ridiculous.

I am so excited to give the Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 a test run today when my cousin brings her baby over an have some instantly printed photos to take home to Nova Scotia to my grandmother who has only met her great-grandson once.  The last time we visited family in Ontario I had to make a trek through Oakville to find a place with a working photo printer to print photos for my boyfriend’s grandparents, all of the places I normally print photos (Walmart and Shoppers) were unable to print photos in seconds. That is no longer a worry with my new toy!

I am hoping we can capture some special moments from Kev’s military graduation on Thursday with this camera for his family. I feel like using it is kind of like a retro throwback to an old school Polaroid camera! 

Side note, nothing about this is mini! I am surprised at the size of the Fujifilm Instax Mini 8, it makes sense that it is larger than the digital cameras that I am used to because it prints credit card sized photos. Still, I am so used to having one of the smallest cameras on the market (Nikon’s Coolpix S01 10.1 MP Digital Camera) that people often refer to as a “spy camera”, so this is a big adjustment!

I think this is going to be such a fun addition to big events like weddings and family reunions, but I may have to buy a bigger purse soon with all of these new gadgets!

I’ll let you know how our test run goes this afternoon! :)

July 30, 2014- Castlegar Sculpture Walk Sculpture of the Day “Echino II"

It is very fitting that my final Castlegar Sculpture Walk feature is about the sculpture I have seen the

most. Everyday as I broadcast from the GOAT studios I had the prime viewing space to see Sculpture Walk viewer’s reactions to “Echino II”. Surprisingly, they all had the same one, to reach out and touch it!

"Echino II" is actually the sculpture that The GOAT and Juice FM sponsored for the Castlegar Sculpture Walk (that is one of the reasons I saved it for the end of my blog series).

“Echino II” stands out on Castlegar’s Sculpture Walk and was created by Calgary’s Greg Jones. I think Jones did a fabulous job creating this sea urchin with a very mechanical twist. For more on “Echino II” and Greg Jones click here.

To view my previous sculpture, the second to last blog in my series on Castlegar’s Sculpture Walk “Friends & Neighbours” click here.