and this is the foods of our lives…

Posted by kait / May 21, 2011

what i ate this week in delicious pictures:

gluten-free fish & chips (sweet potato & russet) & broccoli slaw @ my parents house

gluten-free chicken pot pie, crust made from scratch.

vegetable ragout with eggs poached on top.

homemade wedge fries with garlic aioli

vanilla frozen yogurt bar with stewed rhubarb drizzle

a full fridge is a happy fridge

west coast oysters at home tasting room

scallops and bacon, need i say more?

golden beet salad

breakfast @ work = gluten free oat meal w/ leftover stewed rhubarb & skim milk

best gluten-free meal in the city: Milk Tiger Lounge, Grilled Cheese & Pear sandwich and a GF beer.

Steak Sandwich w/ gluten free flax bun, mozza, spinach, carmelized onions, tomato and wasabi mayo.

dessert: scoop of greek yogurt and a bowl of cherries.

a fine line between pouting and poutine

Posted by kait / May 13, 2011

I love Fridays. A perfect work day ended in poutine dinner with two lovely lovely girlfriends, Elyse and . We tried out this brand new poutinerie on 17th Avenue called . It was so delicious but I am definitely going to have to do the 30 day Shred and go for a bike ride tonight to make up for it. I was super excited because they had gluten-free gravy on all of their vegetarian poutines so I had the LOADED Poutine which had sauteed mushrooms, onions, green peppers, and peas along with the traditional cheese curds and french fries. It was delicious — it kind tasted like the British version of poutine especially with the peas. Delish. Marbella had the Nacho Poutine which was pretty tasty and Elyse had a bacon-loaded Traditional Poutine which looked heavenly.

My latest article in Swerve Magazine came out today all about how to pack a carry-on suitcase for your honeymoon or vacation. I picked out my favourite must-haves for this Spring and Summer like big sunglasses, wrinkle-free trenchcoats, and adorable peeptoe flats. Check it out!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! xo

balcony makeover

Posted by kait / May 12, 2011

Summer is here. 23 degrees today and gorgeous out. Thunderstorms and warm winds. It’s time to start making our outdoor living space, livable.

I love our balcony. In our last apartment, our balcony faced fenced off wasteland of a field, where squirrels and magpies fought it out to the death and eccentric old men grew secret rhubarb (the old men also knew when the city was coming to mow down all of the foliage and would arrive in the nighttime to harvest said rhubarb). In our new place, we face pretty heritage homes and apartment buildings. We have some lovely big trees in front of our building too, making it somewhat private up here on the balcony. The size is great too – in our old place both the door and the window poked out into the sitting space making it altogether uncomfortable.

Anyways, the new patio is fabulous and it is my mission to make it even more wonderful for the tiny short summer we always seem to have. Here is some initial inspiration for the style I am going for on the balcony:

I am in love with the quintessential 1950s backyard. Give me astro-turf, window flower boxes, a big shiny red charcoal BBQ, twinkle lights, ice cold drink buckets, folding enamel white chairs, turquoise plush cushions, pansies & daisies, lanterns, pretty candles, Astroturf placemats, retro thermometers….I want it all.

So thus begins my balcony makeover. You can see from these photos that while it looks okay right now, it needs a lot more to get it to where we want it to be!

I found this Life on The Balcony yesterday and it is so inspiring for anyone living in an apartment who needs a little bit of green in their lives. They also have this fantastic project to create a leaning wall planter built out of a pallet and landscaping fabric. Genius!

We are having a BBQ at the end of the month for the annual street festival right by our place so hopefully we can have most of it done for that. Watch for photo updates in the next couple of weeks – I can’t wait to make it beautiful and have you all over for iced lemonade and pie-in-a-jar. xo

♥ first bike ride of the year ♥

Posted by kait / May 11, 2011

nearly forgot about easter brunch

Posted by kait / May 10, 2011

my mom makes the best eggs benedict in the world.

sweet potato spice cake with cream cheese icing. i am proud of this recipe and I submitted it to !

Will You Be My Pal?

Posted by kait / May 9, 2011

This past Saturday I hosted the first ever Will You Be My Pal? A gathering of like-minded creative women working in various positions in graphic design, PR & communications, marketing, interior design, and journalism.

We all have blogs, twitter accounts and are constantly amping up our social media presence via the latest greatest websites like Pinterest, tumblr, Instagram, Flickr, and even facebook. Oh, and did I mention that only a handful of us had ever met in real life? Yep, when you are so immersed in the world of the intertubes sometimes you forget that you don’t actually know people in real life.

That is what inspired me to plan this get together. Calgary is a pretty small city but you still meet new people other day, the fact just is that those new people you meet are likely friends of friend, making the six degrees of separation web of connectivity very very small with a very very high chance of compatibility as friends.

The party was a huge success! About a dozen girls (including me) came out to the design-inspired potluck and made some new friends! Everyone brought amazing food — our spread of goodies has yet to be rivaled elsewhere. I feel so lucky to have such a great inspiring creative women in this very city and I can’t wait to get to know all of them better!

Thanks to Lori, Liz, and Alyssa for some of the images at the end!

Mothers Day Love

Posted by kait / May 9, 2011

Mother’s Day was yesterday and it was a gorgeous celebration of my Mom! I hosted the dinner at our place. We had steak, roasted potatoes, and steamed asparagus. I had lots of leftover cherry pie that I had made for Saturday so we had that warmed up with a dollop of greek yogurt. Heavenly. Afterwards, Byron and I treated everyone to a concert at the Ironwood: Ladies of the Canyon and Old Man Luedecke.

Setting dinnertables is one of my favourite things to do. I love layering dishes, cake stands, doilies and napkins. So much fun!

Symmetry.

Here is my homemade card for Mom. Byron and I are getting her one of these beautiful porcelain vintage jars from HeyDay Designs from Vancouver. I can’t wait for it to arrive — I want to get one too but will have to save up for a bit!

Mini cherry pie & greek yogurt.

My Dad and brother Tom reading magazines and the internet in our living room.
Byron hanging out.

I absolutely LOVE the Ironwood. Hands down one of my favourite music venues ever!

springing into spring

Posted by kait / May 3, 2011

We are having some lovely spring weather lately. I feel like I have just been revived after a long winters sleep. The summer makes me come alive and I am so excited to plan all of our adventures for the summer. We just booked our summer vacation dates and I can’t wait to plan our ultimate BC romantic roadtrip for our one year anniversary!

I spent the evening shopping for a photospread in an upcoming article I am working on. I don’t know how stylists do it all of the time. It is SO exhausting walking the malls, gathering all of the items. I mean, I love shopping but it is definitely a “job” and I totally respect personal shoppers and stylists with high regard. I cant wait to share my spread and article when it comes out — definitely something fun and based on my real life experience!

I received a postcard in the mail! From my friend Sarah over at Sadie Designs. There really is nothing like getting fun mail. I love letters and cheques and pretty catalogues from Anthropologie. Thank you Sarah for making my day! xoxo