What did you do for Valentine's Day?

This post is a month late but I wanted to say that I had one of the best Valentine's day celebrations this year. We took our kids out for dinner with our friends and their kids. Admittedly, it wasn't a romantic dinner but we had good food and were with great friends and had an amazing time. Romance is over-rated.

My best Valentine's day remains to be during the Vancouver Olympics where we stayed on the couch all day watching the Games and ordered a pizza for lunch and dinner. Nothing can top that!

11 tips for Grove city outlet shopping from Toronto

Three girl friends and I recently went on a cross border shopping trip to Pennsylvania where there is no tax on clothing and shoes. We had a great time. Here are some tips:

1. We crossed the border at Peace Bridge which was much faster than going through the Queenston-Lewiston bridge.
2. We stopped at a McD's which was conveniently located just off the highway for a bathroom break about 30min after we crossed the border. There was also a gas station there where we could have gotten some US (cheaper than Canada) gas.
3. After about 3.5 hours, we arrived in Erie, Pennsylvania for our first shopping stop. We had lunch at the food court at the Millcreek Mall. I had a huge salad at Fuddruckers which was delicious but so big that I couldn't finish.
4. There was nothing much at the mall other than a good sale at The Limited so I would suggest skipping the Mall next time.
5. We also went to a nearby TJ Maxx, Marshall's, Designer Shoe Warehouse, and Target. I would prioritize Marshall's and DSW next time although I did find stuff at TJ Maxx and we walked off our TGIFridays dinner at Target since it was the only store that opened late.
6. We drove another 1.5 hours and stayed overnight at the Hampton Inn Grove City which was clean, comfy, and spacious for the four of us. They also had a pretty good spread for the free breakfast buffet.
7. We spent the day shopping at the Grove City Premium Outlets. Be sure to join their mailing list and print out a voucher for their coupon book and additional coupons. It's worth it especially since the four of us pooled our purchases so we got additional discounts at many stores.
8. Some stores will give you an additional discount if you sign up for their credit card. You just need to give them your SIN and drivers license. You can pay it off right at the cashier so you don't have to remember to make the credit card payment layer.
9. We had dinner at Primanti Brothers, a Pittsburgh local chain right beside the outlet featuring famous meat, coleslaw, and french fries sandwiches. 10. On our way home, we stopped at the same McD's rest stop and filled up on American gas (cheaper than Canada) one last time.
11. We got charged 13% tax on our way back into Canada because we all went over our $200/person limit for less than a 48hour stay. Kids clothes are only taxed at 5%. You are taxed on the full amount once you go over the exemption. It still worked out to be slightly less than an extra night of hotel stay. So depending on how much you are planning to spend, it may or may not be worth it to spend an extra night in the US.

Even though we had to pay for the hotel ($40/person), 3 meals ($50/person), gas ($30/person) and taxes (13%), the trip was well worth it. I forgot how much fun it was to go shopping and just to hang out with girl friends.

Tips for cross border shopping from Toronto

We are planning a trip to Pennsylvania. We are stopping at Erie first to hit @marshalls @macys @tjmaxx @target. Then we will stay over night in Grove City for the premium outlets. Any tips for us?

Friends with "benefits" - not that kind of benefit

We are truly thankful for many friends in our lives.  Aside from the pure friendship and support our friends offer, we often rely on our friends for many practical favours.  Just for this HK trip alone, many friends have helped us in various ways.  For example, we got an amazing place to stay, we borrowed an appropriate stroller, we got discount tickets for both Disneyland and Ocean Park, and we have gone to fancy, members-only, places to eat and play.   We can only hope that, someday, we can return the favour.

Frutti di Bosco Tart Recipe

We usually buy this dessert, called Frutti di Bosco, from Longos. We really like it because the filling is very light because it's mainly berries, and it's not too sweet.  But over the years, Longos has increased the price of this dessert to ~$30 for a large tart so I decided to make it myself. I served it to our cell group at our New Year's Eve party - it was a hit!   Here's the recipe that I adapted from another site:

Crust:
9 tablespoons (4.5 oz) of butter
1/2 cup icing sugar
pinch of salt
2 cups flour
2 large egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tablespoon of cold milk or water

Cream together butter, sugar and salt. Then work in the flour, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice until it looks like course bread crumbs. Add the cold milk or water and gently work the mixture together until you have a ball of dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Grease a 9" tart pan with a removable bottom. Remove dough from the fridge and roll it out to line your tart pan. Poke holes in the bottom with a fork. Cover with plastic wrap again and put it back in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350F and bake the pastry for 12 minutes or until lightly golden. Cool crust.

Filling:
250 grams marscapone cheese
1 tbsp white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
splash of marsala or brandy
1/4 cup of cream (or half and half)

Cream together marscapone, sugar, vanilla, and marsala or brandy. Add cream and wisk until light and fluffy. Pour filling into cooled crust and place in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Berry topping:
4 cups of fresh blackberrys, blueberries, and/or raspberries
1 tbsp icing sugar

Wash and dry berries completely. If the berries are not completely dry, the icing sugar will melt. Just before serving, gently pile fruit on top of the cream filling. Sift icing sugar all over the top of the tart. Enjoy!

Cookie Exchange

I hosted my first cookie exchange. The cookies were AMAZING! I made Melt-In-Your-Mouth Shortbread Cookies, Pauline made the Classic Chocolate Chip Cookie, Anna made Double Chocolate Chip Cookies, Nancy made Stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chunk Cookies, Janice made Holiday Rice Crispy Squares, and Anita made Oatmeal Coconut Cookies. Don't worry, I didn't eat all the cookies - I shared them with my friends.

Sew Good

 
 


I learned how to use a sewing machine from my Gr 8 Home Ec class and I didn't touch a sewing machine again until 3 years ago. To say that my sewing skills are limited is an understatement.

Three years ago, I decided to hem the drapes in my son's room. I went to my local drycleaner/alterations place and was shocked to find out that it would cost $50 to hem the drapes. So I decided to invest in a little $20 sewing machine from Canadian Tire and do it myself. Since then, with my limited sewing skills, not only have I hemmed the drapes, I have made an ottoman cover, cushion covers, duvet cover for my friend's son, 2 halloween costumes for my son, flaxseed heat pads, carry bag for my son's stroller's sun shade and rain cover, a cover for my breadmaker so it doesn't get dusty, and hemmed one pair of my husband's pants.

Today, I made a nursing pillow cover and a body pillow case for a friend of mine. The top picture is the nursing pillow "before" and the bottom picture is the nursing pillow and the body pillow "after". I'm sew impressed at myself!

Olivia's 3rd Bday

Another successful children's bday party to add to my portfolio!

High Tea was a success!

The food was great, the friends are awesome. What more could a girl ask for?

High tea

A bunch of my mom friends wanted to throw a baby shower for another mom friend who`s due in July with her 2nd baby. One mom suggested a catered high tea which would have cost $20-25 per person. Unfortunately, the caterer was already booked for all the dates that we were available so I volunteered to be the caterer since I have a set of fine china that we hardly ever use. This will be my first time hosting a high tea.

Here`s my menu:
Smoked salmon and capers finger sandwiches
Cucumber and cream cheese finger sandwiches
Egg salad finger sandwiches
Classic scones with devon cream and raspberry jam
Platter of cheese, crackers, and berries
Mini blackberry shortbread tarts
Lemon bars
Mini brownies
Mini cupcakes
Variety of teas
Cream and sugar

I`m making everything except for the mini brownies and mini cupcakes which another friend is bringing. Can`t wait to eat it all up. Yum!

Something borrowed...

With our son, we had friends who lent us all their baby gear. It worked out great because by the time we were done with the gear, they needed it back for their 2nd child. Here's a list of what we borrowed:
- bucket carseat
- bouncy chair
- exersaucer
- playmat
- bumbo chair
- infant bath tub
- baby bjorn
- hip hammock

other items that were donated to us:
- crib and mattress
- baby swing
- bassinet
- toys
- variety of clothes

thanks to all my friends with baby gear! Looking forward to borrowing all this stuff again!

Babysitting

I'm babysitting my friend's 2 yr old today because she is going to have a baby.  I got a call from the husband at 4:40am and before I knew it, I had taken a shower, gotten dressed, and was at my friend's house by 5am.  A new life is going to come into this world today and in a small but important way, I am enabling that to happen.  Life is good.  God is even better.