Reptile Party

Here is my recent invitation for a client that was having a Reptile Party for her daughter's Birthday.

Happy Easter - few Polish traditions

I just wanted wish everyone a Happy and Blessed Easter! Or as we say it in polish "Wesołych Świąt Wielkanocnych" let the rebirth of Our Lord Jesus Christ gives you strength and faith in all that you do.

What are your Easter traditions - here is some of our polish traditions - for us it's all about "pisanki" (the colourful eggs), the blessing of the food that we take to the church, and the big breakfast that we have on Sunday made up of the food we took to the church to be blessed on Saturday.
I have to say that the egg decorations that takes place in my house with my daughter now is nothing when comparing to egg decorating when I was a child.
Now I buy the decorated shrink wrap sleeves I put over the egg and we dunk them in really hot water - and done.
When I was a kid and I was a kid in a old country we had to improvise to get our eggs certain colour - food colouring or other dyes were not available so to have the egg pinkish colour we boiled the egg with slices of beets, to have them orange/brown colour we boiled them with the outer layer of onion and for greenish colour we boiled the eggs with wheat grass.
After that was done we took a very sharp tool and here I'm talking about a razor, thick needle, wall nail, etc. and scraped designs into it. Best thing ever - I have to try this again when my daughter is older.
Each region in Poland has a different way of decorating their "pisanki" if you want to read more about that here is few links
http://easteuropeanfood.about.com/od/polisheaster/ss/How-To-Make-Polish-Pisanki-Easter-Eggs-For-Beginners.htm
http://oururbantimes.com/events/traditional-pisanki-egg-decorating-lecture-and-workshop-part-pre-easter-activities-polish-mus

Then on Saturday before the Easter Sunday we take basic foods like bread, eggs, ham, sausage, salt to the church in beautifully decorated baskets to be blessed so we can have a big feast on Sunday morning to mark the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Now for my daughter I also add the Saturday morning, Easter Egg hunt in the backyard so the mixing of traditions is quite a normal occurrence for Polish people living around the world.

The cooking the baking is insane in a typical polish household, even though all the foods are easily available in all polish stores such as EouroMax here in Milton, Ontario, I still cook "żur" or as some call it white borsch or sour soup or bake my own "babka"


this picture is not mine because my Easter cooking did not come out right this year due to a certain accident, Which is a different post altogether.

But here is a picture of my Easter baskets we too to the church





Happy Easter everyone

What's for Dinner - Dukan's Diet

Ever since I started my Dukan's Diet about 4 weeks ago - on which I lost 14 lbs already - I'm learning to cook without much salt, and no fat (oil, butter etc.)
I'm on a PHASE 2 – CRUISE PHASE - which will "... take you to your True Weight. During this phase you will gradually but steadily lose weight by alternating Pure Protein and Protein & Vegetables days.
Today was my PW - Protein & Vegetables day so I had baked salmon in a plain yogurt and mustard sauce on a bed of Japanese style stirfry in a maple syrup glaze
I know the maple syrup should not be there but, the amount I added was a trace so technically you can go without and the Japanese veggie mix had few snow peas so for a true Dukan's recipe you should take them out too but I didn't ...
Here is my dinner and it was sooooooooooo good

In-laws are coming

My In-laws are coming!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, they'll be visiting for entire 2 weeks, I'm worried how that's going to go, it's not that we don't get along, I just don't know them that well. Yes, I know I've been married for a almost 8 years and I don't know my in-laws, crazy!
Well, my hubby left the old country by himself in his early twenties and didn't really look back, they never wanted/couldn't come here - yes, even for our wedding - and he never went back, except once for a week alone. Then when Natalia was 8 months old we all went there, and because we were there for only 2 weeks and because there was lots going on at the time (long story, not worth getting into now) and because my hubby and his parents don't get along well face to face we saw them literary 3-4 times.
Nice, and now they are coming for a visit, wish me luck because I'm going to need it since hubby can't really take anytime off and is gone for days when working I'm going to be the one entertaining them ............

Blast from the past toy

Natalia was invited to a birthday party for this Saturday so today we headed out shopping for the birthday gift, after a crazy day of Kids Kinnection - a 2 hour class I drop her of at every Friday plus 3 hours spent at a Amazing Adventures Playland this was madness and ended up with a full blown tantrum - but I guess I was asking for it...
Anyway we set out to Chapters Indigo and as Natalia was playing around in their kids zone I headed for the aisles in search of a great birthday gift for a 3 year old, found nothing that I would consider great and reasonably priced so I ended up with a gift card however ...
while browsing I was hit by BLAST from the PAST toy.



That's right Monchhichi, I thought I would never see that monkey again.
I didn't actually own one myself but my cousin did and we played with it all the time, he was her favorite to the pint that the "fur" was almost threadbare and one of the arms was covered in a different material becasue it was falling away.
And seeing this toy on the shelf today brought so many childhood memories...
I almost bought it and I'm still considering buying one :)

That made me realized that I just threw out my own 80's toy in my last move just few months ago, couldn't find a picture of it on the net anywhere, but it was this little shabby boy dressed in blue with a ice cream cone on a string at his neck - now that I think about it - I shouldn't have done that, throw it out that is.
I really liked him and even Natalia was playing with him for a while but he was falling apart too, oh well...
this is my walk down memory lane

Scent (sy)

So few weeks ago I've attended my friends Scentsy Launch Party, great stuff and there is so many scents to choose from. Well yesterday as I arrived at home from my accountant - got to do those taxes and the deadline is upon us - but I digress, so as I drive up to the house I see this package at my door and my first thought is "what is this, I'm not expecting anything" and then it hit me - my Scentsy Warmer, YEAY!
When I trying to choose warmer I was debating between this month Warmer of the month Baby's Breath which is stunning
as you can see


and the Heirloom which is equally beautiful and classic



I went with the Heirloom, as much as I loved the Baby's Breath the Heirloom fits my decore better and even if I change the colour scheme of my house it's classic so it will complement mostly anything.

Here it is, proudly displayed




and here working away




the scents I picked were "Thunderstorm", "Lucky in Love" and "Honey, Do"
love it. I think I just found my new addiction
Thank you Coleen