Vacation!

It has been a really longtime since I posted anything....

What can I say? Life continues.....

Right now I am on vacation and it feels wonderful!

Instead of going to Maine or New Hampshire this year because the currency exchange is so crappy we decided to visit a part of Quebec I'd never been to....

Gaspesie!

 on our way we stopped in Rimouski. this is technically

the St-Lawrence river, but the water is now salty and

subject to tides.

 I was so excited to see so much driftwood!

and sea glass!

Of course I brought some home.....

 This is the view from the hotel. Gaspe is so quiet....

Rush hour is non-existent!

It is a great place to take walks.....

 Of course a visit to the Perce rock (rocher Perce)

is a must when you're in the area.

Unfortunately we arrived when the tide was coming in, so we were 

not able to take pictures of the hole!

I also took this pictures because this is where Samuel de Champlain

laid claim to Canada, thus it is the birthplace of Canada.

It made me feel really proud to stand in the same spot as the founder 

of our great country.

I hope to post soon with more pictures of the trip and some thrifting I did.

Be well!

Seen Around

Today's edition of Seen Around will definitely shock some readers and raise some highbrows!

The first pictures were taken at Ogilvy's one of Montreal's fancy pants departement store...They were selling the $145 panettone for Xmas last year....

First ordinary hair clips, sparkly but it is a hair clip, right?

Yes you saw that right, $207 !!! $207 for a hair clip....For $207, I would buy a LOT of groceries,
make a car payment, buy 20 $10 long sleeve t-shirts, Xmas shop....But I will not buy a hair clip!

 One could also get small hair clips....

A steal at $27!!!

Now for the second batch of pictures... Lay's Canada have a yearly contest, where folks can dream up
chip flavors, we can try them , vote for them and the winner gets a piece of the profits of that flavor.

Brace yourselves, here are this year's offerings

                                          Jalapeno Mac'n'cheese

                                          Cinnamon Bun (????)

                                          Tzatziki

                                          Bacon poutine

Now I have no idea why someone would dream up cinnamon bun flavored chips....But if I find a small bag I'd be willing to try all 4. I bet Tzatziki is my fave!

Last year I tried Bacon Perogies and it was soooo salty, my hands looked like bouquets of sausages!

I can already see my Dad's face as he rolls his eyes...He always finds my love of strange flavors , well strange!

So good night and I don't want to hear that someone bought one of those hair clips! LOL

That's a BIG promise!

Yes that's nice but from a dépanneur (convinience store)/ currency converter?

 

I'm not sure!

This was taken today on Crescent street below Ste-Catherine street.

 

If, by any chance you're not familiar with poutine....

 

It is a Québec invention that consists of french fries, gravy and curd cheese.

 

It is considered one of Canada's national dishes (really?)

It can be sinfully delicious or reaaly crappy not worth the calories...

 

Now the french fries have to be fresh, not frozen 

It can be jazzed up with cut up hot dogs, chicken, peas, smoked meat and countless meat delicacies.

 

Chichi chefs have even put foie gras on it...and maple syrup! I don't think so!

 

Be nice!  

Clamato Canada Day SWEET GIVEAWAY!

Great news faithful Canadian readers! My friends @ Clamato have contacted me to see if I would like to host a giveaway for Canada Day!

You could win this....

Isn't it to die for! You'll be the life of the party!

You just need to add spitits!

Do you want a chance to win this?

Well it is easy!

1) you must be a follower or become one

2) Leave a comment on this post

3) contest is opened to Canadian residents only (sorry about that, you know I don't make the rules)

4) contest will close on Monday July 4th midnight

Just a reminder I'm 5 followers shy of 200.....lol

Get your Ceasar on! I'm off to make myself one!  Yeah baby!

Going on Vacation?

Welcome to Retro Tuesday! Here the temperature is sweltering, I could litterally cook a steak on the asphalt in my driveway! My hair feels like I have a wet wool carpet on my head...It is not pretty!

I was thinking of posting about cool gelatin salads...Pineapples stuffed with chicken salad....molded cole slaw...But rest assured dear readers, I decided against that...

Instead I will be posting some travel ads I found in the February 1948 issue of Holiday. Holiday was a high end mag for americans of certain means.Here we go!

Looking for heat? Sand? Humidity?

Funny how they show us the city more than the sea...

This is perfect if you want cool and crisp! Except that we are out of snow at the moment...

Nothing better than a canadian winter-tan! Probably some snow somewhere in the prairies....we never know!

Wait for me! I wanna go! Notice how the woman is dragging her husband? There must be great shopping in Massachusets!

Staycation? Not to worry!

You can always show home movies....

OR

Play board games! I would love to try Dragon's Teeth! I could pick up a copy while in Massachusets!

Well that's it for me! Now be good readers and fly,hop,jump to my pal Tracy's way funny blog RIGHT HERE! Say hi to Ginger for me!

P.S: I won the Crazy Suburban Mom giveaway! YAY! Lucky me!

VTT: First Toaster

This is the first toaster I remember seeing in my mother's kitchen. I always found it a pain to have to turn the toast by hand. But the plus side was that you could fit any size bread you wanted, as my dad demonstrated every morning. We were not a Wonder bread kind of family; we were a rye, pumpernickel, chalah,bagel and other exotic bread kind of people. In the 70's you didn't have specialty toasters for thick cut bread on the market.....You had this one.

This toaster was first made by Toastess Canada around 1948.The doors have a diamond quilted design and are flanked by black plastic handles. I remember the special smell this toaster made. I found it last week in my basement when I was looking for my miniatures for VTT. I plugged it in and there was the smell.

  

When I moved out of my mother's house (not a minute too soon) in 1986 she gave me a brand new one in a box. And it is this one that I'm showing today I used it in my appartment until it drove me mad....I would always wonder if I had unplugged it...Sometimes I would leave home, make it to the bus stop, then run back home to check to see if the toaster was unplugged. Yes, I was pretty OCD back then and terrified of fire ! Oh well! Craziness will happen! I'm keeping this one for sure, it's so cute!
 If you love vintage toasters, THIS is a great site for you.And be a dear and drop by Colorado Lady for some more vintage fun!

Destiny

I just got the news that my ex-employer is cutting 24 jobs out of 36 in my old work group.

2/3 of coach/trainers will loose their jobs in the days to come.

Was I meant to be cut or what? In today's scenario I would loose my job in 2 or 3 weeks. OMG!

I'm so glad I lost my job when I did! I didn't pay extra income tax and got to see spring TWICE!

I feel bad for my ex-coworkers ( a lot of booze will be consumed tonight...) I'm sure some will have sleepless nights and the atmosphere at work will be crap! And now for a happier subject!!!

Let's talk about Delphite! It's my favorite shade of blue....I'm so glad that these cups and saucers were made in Canada (I have easier access to it!). They're sitting on the table that all the people from my garage sale were inquiring about...I will not sell this table anytime soon (They'll have to pry it out of my stiff dead hands!!! LOL hahahahaha!)

I had a really good day, was really productive outside. Removed tons of creeping jenny,moved a daisy, a fern, planted a lavender and an anonymous plant from the front, destroyed 2 honeysuckles that were in really bad shape, spray painted a metal caddy white and mailed the first book I sold through Amazon.ca! I made more money from this book than if I had sold all the books in the garage sale! OMG!

Did I mention that the scooter is sold as well? YES! Money to buy wood to fix the fence and the patio!

Right this minute, I have beef marinating for some chinese beef and pepper stir fry and Dan is staining the patio....Goodtimes!