Christmas came and went

A tiny snowman cottage in the woods

Now is the time for a post christmas mini Christmas celebration. 

Normal Christmas has too much pressure attached to it so now it's time for tiny Christmas! With all it's tiny, cute, cheerful glory.

Tiny, unexpected packages on each plate.

A Valentine's Day Tea

So, it may be fairly apparent that life has pretty much had me struggling to stay afloat for the past two months, considering that I haven't even posted an I'm-sorry-I-haven't-posted-recently post. I will say, though, that I am looking forward to unflummoxing my life in February now, rather than in January, like I had originally planned. And, I think this past Sunday's incredibly lovely (and ridiculously filling) tea party was the start of that new plan.



Our lovely Valentine's Day tea party forced me to sit down for four hours straight (something that rarely happens) and just enjoy munching on treats and chatting with friends. It was really delightful. Perhaps, I won't log quite as many hours jogging or as many laboriously healthful meals in February as I did in January, but I will have eaten more cake and celebrated the best holiday of the year(who can possibly hate a holiday that celebrates eating candy, is decorated with my favorite color and promotes the best possible feeling, that of love).



For the tea party, I made a Strawberry Mousse recipe from one of Donna Hay's magazines. It was absolutely fluffy and delightful; such a treat. Also, I tried to make petits fours and felt it to be quite a failure but, to be honest, I hadn't worked out the recipe before hand, which I knew was a mistake. Some of the components that I had been planning to use for the petits fours were either not usable or not ideal, but that's what happens when one doesn't take the time to plan ahead! =)



Over all, I just adored everything we ate; the table setting was just stunning, and the day couldn't have been more perfect for a tea party.

(I should mention that all photos were "borrowed" from Cat's Facebook page =) I totally forgot to take any photos!! Pretty crazy, considering all the work that went into this tea party. But, thank goodness for friends who take photos of absolutely everything they ever eat ;))

adventurous living for a holiday weekend

For the first time in several years I had Memorial Monday off with Matthew and although I did spend most of the day cleaning, we did take the time to try out a few new treats.

This is caramelized rock sugar from the Japanese market, Nijiya, where we do a lot of our shopping. I've wanted to buy it for a while now(maybe a year?) and on Sunday we decided to make the splurge. It really is delicious and makes for a much richer cup of tea, although the packaging says it's for coffee. To be completely honest, I think it's perfect fine crunched up as a snack, since it has such a wonderful, caramel flavor all on it's own. There are few things I wouldn't use this large crystal sugar on, with it's fancy pantsness and pretty crystalline look.

Buying fancy sugar isn't the only adventurous step we took this weekend; this afternoon, in a fit of courage we went to a new and unusual(for us) grocery store, Fresh and Easy. I know, I know, this may not seem like a big step for most people, but Matthew and I tend to stick to the tried and true, the places that are familiar and where we know for certain that the cashiers won't just take a bite out of us.

We were, of course, rewarded for our daring and bravery with a delicious jar of vanilla curd. This stuff is pretty much divine. It tastes like really, really yummy vanilla ice cream but just not cold and painful to the tiny toofs. I think I'm going to like it, if I can figure out some other ways to eat it, other than simply dipping a spoon into the jar and then licking off said spoon. Yum!

Lovely Lemon Macaron

This brightly colored Macaron was one of my many delicious Valentine's Day treats. I picked it up from Bread and Cie along with the Tiramisu torte and the Passion Fruit mousse cake that I took home to share with my sweet little valentine.



My dear, sweet Mother included a Bread and Cie gift card in with the sweet little valentine's package of goodies that she sent to me and suggested that I use it to buy something special for Matthew and I to eat in celebration of Valentine's Day. It was a wonderful excuse to try something that we normally would never buy. Of course, being a greedy little thing, I also bought a macaron cookie to eat all by my self; it was delicious! =)

sweet little valentine

Because my dear, sweet mother knows that I regard Valentine's Day as the very best holiday of the year, she made sure to send me a slightly earlier than normal valentine goody package so that I could make use of the darling decorations in the weeks leading up to Valentine's Day.

I will admit, Valentine's decorations are my very favorite to put up; I suppose this is only natural, considering the fact that pink is my favorite color (one year, I took down the halloween decorations in January only to replace them immediately with valentine's decor). Also, I've always held a special place in my heart for the fashion faux pas of combining red and pink together. If I didn't get such horrified looks, I would happily wear pink and red together all year round, not just on the one day of the year that it is acceptable.

I always adore the sweet little packages of thoughtfully purchased or handcrafted presents that my mother sends to me through the mail and this year was no different.

This sweet Love Notes tea towel is just too cute to use. So far, I've carefully kept it away from the kitchen for fear of it getting stained. I suppose I'll use it eventually but, even then, perhaps just for drying very, very clean dishes, which easily excludes anything I wash.

The fuzzy, little, pink heart (pictured above) was hand-felted by my mother and is just darling. I'm not sure what to use it for, but when I called to thank her for the gifts, my mother suggested sewing it onto a dress for a tiny pocket, or applying it to the outside of a canvas handbag which would brighten up any drab book bag. I'm not entirely sure what to do with it, mostly out of fear for it's safety. It is fairly delicate and i don't want it getting ruined. Any suggestions for a safe way to use the little, pink, felted heart without it getting destroyed?

Images of a happy Christmas

Below are a few Images from my cheerful Christmas. Yes, I actually did enjoy Christmas this year! So weird, I know!


Mistletoe reflecting in a silver dish. Sadly, this bunch of mistletoe wasn't hanging in a doorway, therefore, no cheerful Christmas kiss. Maybe next year!


A basket of Christmas crackers. So much fun from such a small and silly toy.


A delicious, juicy pear crostata - My Grandmother and I baked it together. It reminded me of all the amazing things she taught me when we would make cookies, pies and cakes together when I was a child.


The Little disapproving owl - I found him on the window sill and he made my entire day better. I couldn't find him anywhere a few days later; I guess he just came for a Christmas day visit. A much more preferable visitor than Santa (in my opinion).

A Tiny Christmas Girl

This tiny, Momiji Christmas girl was given to me by a very sweet and thoughtful friend who knows how absolutely much I adore teeny little cute things. Every year, Christy manages to find the most perfect and adorable gifts for both my birthday and Christmas. Someday I should post a round-up of all the amazing and sweet gifts she has given me! It would be a really long post! That's how sweet she is =)



So, this year, this tiny Christmas girl will be my reminder that not everything about Christmas is annoying and that, in fact, I have such wonderful and kind friends who love to give me cute things. What could possibly be better!

2nd Europe 2011 post

While in Brighton, Matthew and I discovered that all of the youngsters of Southern England were descending upon Brighton for a Zombie parade/festival/event. We mostly stayed out of the way but just going out and about we discovered the entire town was full of the gruesome creatures. We were quite impressed with some of the creative costuming that they came up with and did enjoy the humor of seeing random zombie attacks in a beautiful, usually quiet coastal town. It seemed straight out of a horror movie. Matthew was actually attacked once but managed to escape the entangling arms of two very silly, giggling zombies.


I found this blood pouch at Selfridges in London and suspect that the only kind of blood the zombies in Brighton were feeding off of would be very similar to this: candy blood. It sounds like it might be delicious on Pancakes. hmmm...I can see why they would want to be Zombies, if that's the sort of thing they are eating!


Also at Selfridges, I found so many darling Christmas goodies. I knew I wouldn't be able to get them home safe and sound so I took a few photos. Also, the price for one tiny cookie was 5 pounds or more and I'm really not that big a fan of cookies!


Tiny veggies made of marzipan. It's fortunate that I hate Marzipan, otherwise these may have had to come home with me, despite the crazily expensive price tag.


After spending most of a day at the British Museum, Matthew and I were fuzzy headed and cold so we popped into a darling little shop selling mini open faced sandwiches. They were all very unusual flavor combinations and all extremely tasty! Also, their coffee and hot chocolate was perfect and, most importantly, warming.



One of the things that Matthew and I really wanted to see was Borough Market in London. We partially planned our trip to make sure that we would be in London on the days that the Market would be in session and so on our last full day of the trip we spent our time wandering the Market and the Streets of London. It was the only truly sunny, perfect day we had in London and it really reminded us of why we'd wanted to go back for a visit that was longer than 24 hours.


My Full Brunch Butty (Please excuse Matthew's hand in the background! I was too lazy to try to crop or photoshop it out.)

Breakfast at Joe's Kitchen and Coffee House around the corner from Borough Market. We were lucky to see good reviews for a place that was so close to were we wanted to be that morning and also that such a place serves up amazing English Breakfasts among other things. I actually had the Full Brunch Butty which is essentially most of an English Breakfast in sandwich form. It was delicious and lots of fun to eat.


Matthew's Full English Breakfast


Just across the street from the Market, is an outpost of Neal's Yard Dairy which is attached to their Monmouth coffee shop. Both shops serve up the very best versions of whatever it is they sell. Neal's Yard Dairy sells amazing cheeses and Monmouth Coffee shop sells really well brewed coffee and espresso drinks. The Cheese shop is calm and cool inside while the coffee shop is packed with customers and dizzyingly busy with a long line trailing out the front door. Both places are fantastic and totally worth a visit, if only to experience their idea of perfectly selected and prepared cheese and coffee.


As with most places in Europe, and London in particular, history is around every corner!! We were just leaving the Market to find our way to The Tower when we passed by a beautiful and very old church.


We didn't think much of it until we walked by this sign and realized just how old it is; once we noticed that, then we just had to take a few photos.


This wall was directly behind us as we were peering down at the church's gardens. Everything is built so close together; no space is wasted!

I am sure that people who grown up with that sort of history just outside the back door or around the corner don't think much of something like that, but for Matthew and I it is still such a surprise to see the truly ancient mixed in with the modern and new in such a nonchalant way.

This trip to Europe was a wonderful experience! I would say that because it was our second time to visit both England and a large, french speaking city(Paris this time, Brussels last time), we didn't approach every single thing we saw and did with the eyes of children. We didn't spend every moment of our time in London simply in awe that the things we'd read and heard about actually existed, but instead we enjoyed feeling that sense of delight at being back in London. This time around, I think we were confident enough in our traveling abilities to know that we could indeed venture forth to see what we wanted to see without being dazzled by the simple concept of traveling.

1st Europe 2011 post

I'm finally getting around to posting some of the very few photos I took while on vacation in England (with a two day side trip to Paris). For whatever reason, I took far fewer photos than I should have on this trip, 206 in total, and of the photos I took few of them show anything other than to prove that I am silly - silly as a goose! Most of the photos are not of landmarks or even of the amazing dinners we had. Honestly, I'm not really sure why I took my camera with me. I'm such a lazy tourist! I'm glad I took Matthew and his big camera along with me, otherwise, I'd have no way to prove I ever even went on a trip abroad.

So, I have selected only from the photos that I took to post on this blog. Maybe if I ever clear up enough space on my hard drive to transfer the photos that Matthew took, I'll be able to post some of those lovely photos! All this to say, the photos are a really weird and strange mish mash of photos and none of them really seem to go together. They are bound only by the fact that they seem to represent, fairly strongly, the most compelling images and events from our trip(judging by the fact that I actually bothered to pull out my camera for them), at least they are the things I felt were significant to me.


Okay...you can laugh a little, but no out-right mocking me! Matthew and I ate Ramen in Paris. Yes, I know, what were we thinking??? Well, I wasn't thinking, my head was stuffed so full of head-cold fuzziness and the freezing cold and rain had driven anything from my head other than the need for comfort food. I can't think of anything more comforting than a really hot bowl of Ramen. This was particularly gingery and Matthew says it is a version of Ramen that is served in Japan although we didn't have the super gingery style when we were in Tokyo. I will say, absolutely Nothing would have made for a better meal at that moment for me, with my recently acquired cold. Anyway, despite being slightly blurry in the brain, I managed to notice that Parisian Japanese Restaurants are rather different than American Japanese Restaurants, naturally, but it was still very interesting to see the striking difference and just how much the French way of doing things really shaped the Japanese Ramen restaurant that we visited.


Beautiful Canterbury, I really felt that this scene looks quintessentially English and just had to snap a photo of it.


Along our walk through Canterbury, we saw this funny little house with a window frame on top of the roof. I am still wondering exactly what purpose it serves, other than to amuse the tourists! =) (By the way, I'd love to have a window frame siting atop my roof, if ever I have a house.)


So, other than the delicious food, the main reason I visit Europe, is for the tiny doors. I love, love, love tiny doorways. I think they must make me feel very tall and imposing in a way that nothing else can, since I am actually rather short compared to anything except these tiny, cute doors!


Speaking of good food, England also has very good drink. And this cider, The Blushing Old Wife, is the strangest and most mind blowing beverage I've ever consumed. I loved it at the same time that it made me wonder why I was drinking something that made my entire body sort of pucker up. Amazing but delicious!


These lovely beers were very good, British Ales with an American slant. Matthew and I loved The Foundry and all of their beers brewed on premise.


The Canterbury Canal tour. This was probably one of my favorite activities on the trip. It was a beautiful, short ride through the town with just enough interesting information to make it seem educational.


Our boatman/tour guide who was not only well-spoken and informative, but handsome besides(a big plus in my opinion).


Canterbury clearly is a very old town in a country of very old towns, but it has a real charm and quaintness that made it a place I would love to return to again!

Easter critters

Just a few little easter critters that I encountered during the past week. I meant to post these before easter but I kept forgetting about them unless I was very much not in a situation to write a blog post, at work, lying in bed trying to fall asleep, drinking...the list goes on.

I know that I've posted photos of moonstruck truffles before, but I don't think I've posted the Easter variety before. They are squealingly cute:


A wee brown bunny with a heart shaped nose and sweet whiskers.


Little pink piggy. His look tells me he knows he's destined to be eaten.


It's like a truffle version of Shaun the Sheep(none of my customers knew what I was talking about)


The petite chocolate easter egg. So delicately decorated.

Bonus Picture!


A baby squirrel who likes to crawl around in the pocket of the gentleman who rescued him from the chomping crow. This baby squirrel was very soft with tiny feet. I got to hold and pet him and he was one of the sweetest little creatures I've ever met. So fun!