Nothing better than a vacation

who doesn't like a vacation?

A vacation is a great time to travel, catch up on things or just be....

We started our vacation with a wee road trip to a part of Quebec I had never visited! Shawinigan!

I had heard of a flea market in that town and I found a Pyrex Blue Horizons bowl set for a great deal on Facebook and the seller was in Shawinigan!

I found that this was one of the strangest flea market I had visited because a lot of the booths were so stuffed that you could not go in...and in some cases the owners could not get in either...I saw an old lady just sitting against a huge 4 by 12 block of stuff....

does she know her inventory? The flea market was mostly overwhelming because of the stuffiness and the cigarette smell.....

I also had one of the best restaurant experience EVER! Dan kept talking about The Greek....and they might have uniforms....

well we made it to the Greek! A total travel destination!

the restaurant is huge...and what I noticed from outside is how clean it was! White and blue the Greek colors! They offer multiple recharging stations for your electrical vehicle. Like 10!

We ordered pikilia for an app and an all dressed pizza to share. everything was really fresh and good. the pizza crust was one of the best thing I had tasted in a long while...

And they serve you in traditional Greek uniforms...Is that a hoot of what?

and there is sheep living in a paddock that you can pet!

the fur is like a Brillo pad! It seems they have more than one sheep but we just saw one.

I really like this quirky place and it so happens that we need to go back to this neck of the wood...because we need to go and find parts to rebuild the original door handles from our apartment....oh no...I might have to eat that delicious pizza again???? NOOOOOO! lol

 sorry for the delay it took 2 weeks to download the sheep pics.....

Summertime

And the living in easy...Fish are jumping and the cotton is high

Summertime is one of my favorite song of all time!

Summer on the other hand is not my favorite season....I don't like the heat and humidity and of course I sweat a lot!

Did I mention that I didn't sweat in Gaspesie?

 Just looking at the Rocher Perce cools me off!

 I saw this rock on the beach, actually that is part of the beach

I love the striation of the rock. This is something you see a lot of in 

Gaspesie.

 All along the road there are cute rest areas with picnic tables and

really clean bathroom.

I was so surprised by the bathrooms because we visited a lot of awful ones in Maine....

Sorry Maine, I still love you but that one is Sunday River was disgusting!

 Here in Perce , there is a boardwalk along the river

so you can take leisurely walks.

 This is the room in Hotel St-Germain in Rimouski.

The exterior of the hotel look like much but the rooms

are all renovated and all have a full kitchen.

Super clean too! a lot of storage for your luggage.

 This is the bedroom in Gaspe.

no kitchen but a mini fridge and a coffee corner

 This is the living room in Gaspe. The sofa converts in a Murphy bed!

And this is a happy camper!

The purple necklace is actually my personal

fan! It really helps cooling me off and is 

the best $9.99 I've ever spent!

Until next time.....

stay safe and keep on thrifting

Lemons....

When we vacationned in Maine with my Dad he complained about the price of lemons.

They were $1.29 a piece. He flipped out.

OMG the lemons are soooo expensive here, next time we come we will bring lemons from Montreal!

Right Dad! Like we would be able to smuggle a bunch of lemons at customs.....He just spent thousands of dollars for a week by the shore, car rental and meals...Yet those lemons were bugging him.

In the past months Dad stopped buying lemons because he felt they were too expensive...He was buying limes instead!

Today I was grocery shopping in my secret thrifty no frills grocery shop....and I saw this:

Lemons .39 cents each

Just for you Dad, just for you!

This will always crack me up!

ROADTRIP!

Oh man oh man, did we deserve this break or what?

We have been in our new place for a month now and the routines are setting in. I know where most of my kitchen things are so I can cook efficiently.

Some things are still MIA, so that makes for funny moments....I looked for my scarves for 2 days and they were right there, in front of me....lol

 Yes we drove all the way to the sea side....This is the view from the balcony

 The sea is pretty wild because of the hurricane that just finished

 The sunrise was spectacular

 The sky is clear and bright

 The wind is very strong and cold. Even if I brought my bathing suit...I don't think I will be taking
a swim  anytime soon.....

Later today we will go shopping,thrifting and sigh seeing .....

and eating and napping of course!

That's what a vacation is all about!

More taste of vacation

So yesterday we had a big day downtown and wanted to enjoy some foodtruck grub.

Now Dan has never tried food from a food truc and was really eager for the experience

We were there by 11:13 am. At around 11:25 they told people that they would be opening by 12:00 pm. Not Nice, if they say they will be there by 11:00 am I expect food soon after!

By 11:45 am we got news that they were waiting for a delivery and when they got it the pork would'nt be available for quite a while.....We had some appointment so off we went...

To Mr. Steer on Ste-Catherine st.

                                            This is definitely a Montreal classic.

                                            no 2 medium suzy ( a Steerburger cooked medium with suzie q fries)

                                             Of course you can get it with other stuff on it, like bacon, cheese,beans)
                                             My fave is just as is. An added bonus they renovated the place!
                                             After 30 years....for my taste it lacked personality....

                                             Oh well ! It  is what it is! Be well :)

The taste of vacation

Well I am on vacation for the next 2 weeks. Actually this week and the next.

Life is sweet. I always take the opportunity to eat food I love but seldom eat like Dairy Queen!

                           Would you believe me if I told you I LOVE THIS SIGN???
                           Of course you would! You know me by now!

                                       

Small vanilla cone dipped in chocolate.

HEAVEN!

 

A sweet chilled treat

 

Be well

Baking with Pyrex & Finds

I'm on vacation this week and it's a staycation or should I say paintcation?

When we painted the living room last year we never finished the second floor mezzanine. Since it's all connected it needs to flow no?

So we 're donating a lot of VHS tapes and CDs from the 90's. Does anyone remember Columbia House? How about Soundgarden? Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians

I also decided to get rid of all my Stephen King paperbacks (I'm sorry Stephen, you're still my fave author, I kept all the hardcovers, hugs Miss V :) )

And Dan got rid of all the Agatha Christie books...

 

My cocooning fall genes also kicked in big time!

I'm saving seeds, preserving foods and yearning of baked goods....

 

Speaking of baked goods; I really wanted a pumpkin bread and since there's big time calorie counting at Vonlipi' House of Pyrex....that is for another post, I turned to the internet for a recipe.

 

I got my recipe from Splenda's web site.

 

Now there are rumours on the blogosphere that I have every Pyrex known to men....That is simply not true! LOL

These are the only loaf pans I own; for now! I would very much love a Spring Flower Green one...sigh.

making the batter...

 

Just out of the oven....Pipin' hot

 

It was okay tasting....but I can't really judge the recipe because I just realized I made a major mistake!

 

I switched baking soda for baking powder!

 

So I can taste the soda!

 

I'll have to retry the recipe to give it a real chance....

 

Here's the link just in case...

 

Pumpkin Loaf

 

Now for some thrifting....

 

 

Now, now don't gasp!

I didn't find Pyrex casseroles.

I found cradles!

 

A small and a medium one (50 cents and 99 cents respectively).

They fit those utility dishes just fine but I'm wondering if they're really meant for each other....

 

Any ideas?

  

 

Let me know! Have a great night!

I hope I don't dream of paint, gutters and mactack!

In a perfect world

In a perfect world I would be here

enjoying homemade fudge and various snack foods....

But instead I'm here

Yep that is my living room with Boubou and Yoda.

We had to cancel our vacation in New Hampshire....

Because we are responsible people.

Our delicious little (big) kitty cat Yoda is sick....

She has a urinary track infection and diarrahea and a skin infection as well.

We were all prepared to go to NH, we had booked a sitter and a hotel for Yoda (they were even going to give her her pills) but Monday morning she started to throw up and I did see the pills in the puke.

So after a very short early morning discussion....We decided that we wouldn't feel good to have our little one throwing up in a pet hotel and what if something was to go wrong? Well turns out taht the powers that be didn't want us to go! Our sitter had to go babysit her grandaughter and the weather is supposed to be crappy on the eastern seaboard....so....today we went shopping. We are still missing a ceiling lamp for the dining room and other stuff. We took a well deserved nap! That was so good!

Before working I was thinking of becoming a professionnal napper!

Tomorrow we want to get up early because if it doesn't rain we go garage sale hopping! We need a smaller curtain rod for the dining room and we never know what we might find!

Party! When life gives you lemons, you go garage saleing!

until next time fried clams, lobster roll,clam chowder and other delicious delicacies!   

Man oh Man I miss blogging!

Hi everyone! I'm still on vacation and the weather has been BEAUTIFUL! No kidding! The kind of nice Fall days people dream about!

The house is something else too! Really big and clean and 4 bathrooms! The internet access is in my Dad's room...It was supposed to be WIFI but I tried and I tried and could not get it to work! So I plugged it in old school, which cuts down big time on my internet use. I sneak maybe 15 minutes everyday; just enough to scan my emails and check to see if the house sitter had somekind of disaster.

Thank God everything is well. Minimal use of the internet really puts things back in perspective...I read a lot and took MEGA long walks on the beach with Dan looking for some sea glass...I also gorged myself with the Travel channel....Anthony Bourdain, Man Vs. food, extreme you name it, Bizarre Foods....Also some Martha on the Hallmark channel (by the way we don't get any Martha in Canada anymore) and Beverly Hills 90210 on Soap channel. Dad is always asking what's playing on TCM (Turner Classic Movies).

Today we had some kind of big storm and some streets were floaded. What do people do when the weather is MEGA crappy? Shop of course!

We had another run of the Christmas Tree Shop and I actually bought a Xmas decoration for outside my house!

I saw those beautiful pumpkins outside a supermarket in Scarborough....Everything is pumkin spice flavored here...fudge,coffee,desserts,salt water kisses....

Also I want to welcome my latest follwers! Yippeee! 92 followers! I should reach 100 by Xmas!

Thank you for joining  hope you'll enjoy your visits. I should drop by as soon as I can!

Have a great weekend!

Oh no ! We have a stowaway!

We.ve made it to Maine safely and here's what I found last night in my bag....

HENRY!

Well I guess it's going to be a week of elf fun!

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!

Shared things...

Bloggyland (the blogosphere) can be a delightful and wondrous place. You can meet people from all over, nice people that have similar interests,passions,sicknesses (Pyrexia,Buttonosis,Lampalia, Kitchenwaris etc...). People who lived similar things and people who went to the same places and took the same pictures...

Yesterday as I was doing my VTT (Vintage Thingie Thursday) social, I stopped by Maureen's blog The Green Suitcase (that you can read HERE) and lo and behold I found out we shared more than a love of vintage....

We shared a sick computer experience. Mine didn't have to do with marinara sauce or wine...but my first computer was pre-owned...and had a long and productive life prior to my owning it...One day I fried nearly everything! It was too full and poorly ventilated and after a couple of days at the doctor it came back but a shadow of itself! I had no sound and all my usb ports were fried, so I could not download pics or charge my ipod :(. I could not print...the only ting I could do was go on the internet and very slowly!

We also share this....

   

Mine is the old version before he became Le Geant Antiques. He was know as: Le gars avec un gros hotdog (the guy with a big hotdog). This was taken in 2006 and I must apologize about the quality. I had to copy the image from Flickr because I lost a lot of pictures as well in the great computer burnout of 2009.

So this guy stands by the side of the road with is big coca-cola and hot dog and what that means is that the border is getting nearer and that great fun will be had in the States! Beach,fried clams and Pyrex!

Have a great Friday everybody and for my fellow Canadians if you can tear yourself from the Olympics...Be sure to watch Guy Fiery on Triple D- Diners,Drive-ins and Dives!  

Getting Ready!

The big timer in the sky is slowly ticking and I'm getting ready for my week by the seaside...

I'm making lists! What to bring (for the condo), what clothes to bring, what to visit, what to buy....

I have a small notebook full of lists....I even have a list of Pyrex I wish to find....Pink fridgie set, anyone??? LOL

I have a list of flea markets to explore, some old standbys as well as new ones.

I have a list of where to eat (we always go to the same places...hehehe)

And one of the big questions is always where to have breakfast on the way down....We would try to find a Friendly's but our lasts experiences were too greasy....We had found one local place but their breakfasts were disgusting...Last year ,well we weren't going to the seaside so we stopped at a totally different place in Saratoga Springs called The Country Corner...Man oh man that was a good breakfast place!

So after a bit of web search I found a place in NH.... I'll have to get back to you on that one!

So to be sure to please the thrifting gods, I changed my Pyrex display in the kitchen. I brought out some of my pink....I hope it works!!!

Aaaaahhhh! A nice week at the beach....a whole week!

Last year we had 3 days in Brimfield, MA (the humongous antique show) and 4 days at the beach. As much as I loved the antiques, 4 days was way too short to enjoy fully the sea breeze and I had a sprained ankle! Ouch!

I must get back to the Flea Market list so I don't miss one! Have a nice day! :)