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Sarah Swan brought us back these alpaca sweaters all the way from Bolivia! They are made of alpaca and are very soft. And they have alpacas on them. I like that they are matching, hehe. I think I will wear mine next time I go to Whistler.

Also check out Scott’s pants. He was totally pro-shorts until I got him those for Christmas and I think now 95% of the time that he is home he is wearing them. Ha.


Here is (hipster) Scott at the (hipster) skating rink on Sunday.


Maybe you already saw this on Facebook, but check it out…. I managed to get the bucky balls back into their original 6x6x6 cube!! I am so impressed with my (hipster) self.

I think tomorrow’s post will be the end of the Awesome Gift series, but it’s definitely an amazing one, so stay tuned.

I’m about to eat some homemade olive bread with spicy zucchini soup! Nice work Scott!

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My sister-in-law got me this pretty framed elephant print for my Kris Kringle gift. It’s so nice! She oh so cleverly noticed that I had pinned it on Pinterest and surprised me with it for Christmas. It’s really pretty. Thanks Jess!


Cassia got me these awesome pillow covers from Finland, as a belated wedding present. I really need to get larger pillows to put inside them, as the floppy ones I have now are not doing them justice! Anyway they match our couch very nicely and I really like them. Thank you Cassia.

Last night we went over to Brian and Morgan’s for drinks and games. They are going to Hawaii in a few days so we talked a lot about that. Now Scott and I really want to go back to Hawaii again! It was so nice there!!! I want to eat more ahi tuna.

I haven’t done too much today, but it’s ok because I still don’t have that much homework and finished it all yesterday. Scott and I did go skating though, which was fun. Scott was going a bit faster than I remember from last year by the end, so he is improving. I think we will start going skating more regularly.

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I tried another Budget Bytes recipe yesterday. Slow cooker non-fried refried beans!

I don’t have any pictures (not very photogenic) but they turned out awesome!!! SO much nicer than canned refried beans, and way cheaper. Also they must be pretty healthy because the only ingredients are dried pinto beans, water, onion, garlic, jalapeno and some spices! No oil whatsoever, they just cooked in the slow-cooker for 8 hours and then I mashed them.

The recipe made about 5 servings of beans for less than $2. I bet I could even get cheaper dried beans if I bought a bigger package or got them in bulk. We ate yummy shrimp burritos last night, and we froze the remaining four servings for another time.


Scott did end up making the choc ripple cake. He whipped the cream by hand!!


It was tasty. I ate it with breakfast….. I’m still off chocolate after the morning. Actually speaking of sleep I’ve been pretty good at it lately! I fall asleep much quicker than before, although I still do have the occasional insomnia night when I’m really anxious/nervous but it’s really way less frequent than last spring/summer.


Dinner last week. Quinoa with shrimp, avocado, butternut pumpkin, corn, red pepper, green onion, lime. I made the quinoa in the rice cooker, stir-fried all the vegetables, removed them and seared the shrimp, then mixed everything together, added avocado, and doused it all with the juice of one whole lime. YUM YUM.

I’ll be back with another awesome gift post later today.

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Natasha made me an awesome record bowl. Katrina and the Waves, of course!


Such excellent proof that cool presents don’t have to cost lots of money. A thoughtful DIY gift means so much. I love it.

Scott had to work a weird shift today so I’m on my own at home tonight. Enjoying it thoroughly actually. Watching bad TV, and probably a movie later that he’s already seen.

Monica and Brad were stayed with us last night. We met up with them at Broadway Station Sushi, and then came back here for Settlers and catching up. It was fun. I love having so many visitors here…. one of the perks of living in Vancouver, everyone seems to stop through here!

Oh yeah I changed my blog layout again. Yet again. I’m quite happy with it at the moment. I just have to make a nice header photo and then I will be a lot more content. I never really fully liked the last layout.

Um um um I thought I had more to say, but I forget it all now. Until tomorrow!

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I’m a bit embarrassed at how long this took me to do, but over the holidays I received a whole bunch of really awesome, thoughtful gifts, and I really need to show them to you. My friends and family are awesome.

I think I’ll just do them one a time, maybe one per day.


This is a name draft, made by my family friend Jac. I think they look pretty cool even without an explanation, but they’re even cooler when you know what’s going on!

Basically he takes our full names and puts them into a computer program he wrote. It spits out a design and then he weaves them on his weaving loom in our favourite colour. The pattern is based on our name going from the outside to the inside, on all sides (mirror image).

Scott’s is the green one on the left. His is bigger because he has two middle names that make his name very long. Mine is on the right in purple.

My favourite part of the weaves is that since Scott and I have the same last name, the very inner part of each of our designs is the same! I haven’t checked, but the inside of Rosemarie’s, and the one Jac made for our mom should also be the same. So cool.

Jac and Laurie made name drafts for us, Rosemarie, and the Monnon kids and their partners, and put them in these nice frames for us to display. This was such a nice gift, something that I will keep forever. Thank you Jac and Laurie!!!!!