Runs on Coffee and Cream

It's either because I've been watching a lot of Downton Abbey recently or it's because of all my U.K. friends I have online, but I'm itching to have a proper English tea party. I want to make cucumber sandwiches and little cakes and drink tea all afternoon with friends. One day, when I have a house, I will definitely have to host a tea party.







xo Jen

How was everyone's weekend? It went by very quickly for me. I only had yesturday off and it was a busy day for us... garage sales, lunch, and then we went to my parents' for visits and a barbecue.

It must be the summer-like weather, but I'm so in love with teal, turquoise, and aqua colours. I want to surround myself with those colours, along with hints of yellow, coral, and tan.


Because of my recent obsession with these colours, I'm going to give myself a pedicure this week with some teal nail polish.

Have a great week!
xo Jen

The last couple of weeks have been busy for us personally.... there's been birthday parties for cousins and for my Mom. We've been invited to dinners and barbecues. And there's a couple new animal family members that now belong to our cousins. It's been fun visiting family and enjoying the nice weather.

We've been heading out for more walks in the evenings and last Friday we encountered the huge crowd gathered for IlluminAqua. The Jim Cuddy Band was playing. Once we got back to our place, I could hear him perfectly from my living room. I'm pretty excited because the next show in June has Meaghan Smith opening and I'm a huge fan of hers. The best part is that the floating stage is less than a 5 minute walk from my apartment.

We spent the rest of our long weekend out at garage sales, having a picnic and doing some fishing along the canal. Holiday Monday was spent indoors so I could photograph my zipper pouches. The kitties slept most of the day while I worked.




The blossoms are gone now... the trees are filled with leaves.





Duck! I love that these guys wander all around our area.



IlluminAqua stage set up and yes, they have fires burning throughout the performance.








Look at the freckles on his nose!! I love my ginger kitty.

It's so nice that it's Friday again. I'm off tomorrow, though, we have a full day planned. I'm back to work Sunday so it doesn't feel like a weekend exactly.

Do you have any fun plans for the weekend?
xo Jen

The weather has continued to be gorgeous this week, which has made it very hard to work inside everyday. Though, I have Saturday off and I'm looking forward to going to my parents' for a swim.

It seems crazy that Fan Expo is only 3 months away, and with the possibility of moving this summer, I need to continuously sew so I have enough product for this 4-day show.

I recently cut out some Powerpuff Girls and Sailor Moon pillowcases and I finished sewing up a few Harry Potter pillowcases as well. It's hard cutting up that fabric because it makes me want to keep it all for myself. Apparently, Logan also wants to keep all the fabric so he can snuggle with it.




I've also been going through my giant scrap pile and cutting out zipper pouches and kitty kickers. I will have so many nerdy pouches for Fan Expo because I'm using up all my scraps. My table is going to be packed!



I also finally finished updating Etsy with my leftover pillowcases from Wizard World Toronto. I've already had a few sales this past week so I'd recommend checking out my shop before they disappear!


I took pictures and measurements of my leftover zipper pouches this past weekend. I'll be starting to update those on Etsy over the weekend.

I hope everyone has a great week!
xo Jen

It's the last day of our long weekend here in Canada. I'm a little sad that I have to go back to work tomorrow. It was a gorgeous weekend and we spent a lot of time outdoors. Today, I've been relaxing, catching up on sewing, and taking pictures of pouches for Etsy.

So far, I've had a busy month in the kitchen. I've been baking cookies and cupcakes every week.

I whipped up a batch of chocolate apricot cookies a couple of weeks ago for Adam. They turned out so yummy. The cut up dried apricots were a nice balance with the chocolate chips.



I also made a batch of Orange Pop Cupcakes. I've been wanting to try making cupcakes using pop in place of water. The cupcakes turned out really moist and not overly sweet. Personally, I couldn't taste the orange flavour but other people claimed they could. The recipe I followed for the cupcakes recommended sprinkling icing sugar over the cupcakes instead of frosting. I guess if I tried making frosting with some of the orange pop, the flavour might have been stronger. I want to try my hand at root beer cupcakes next since it's one of my favourite flavours.



This past week I finished up a nerdy recipe post for DN! Extraordinaire. DragonBall Z Cupcakes... which are Lemon Green Tea Cupcakes with Lemon Green Tea Buttercream. You can find the post and recipe here.




The cupcakes turned out incredibly yummy! I tried sharing them with everyone to get feedback and also because I ended up with 24 cupcakes. We actually have 6 in the freezer right now. I've never put my own cakes or cupcakes in the freezer before so we'll see how they taste after we pull them out in a week.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

xo Jen

Well, it's the long weekend and I have 3 days off. I'm very excited, especially since we're supposed to have amazing weather. It feels like Spring has snuck up on us since it took a while to get here and then stick around. But my mind, heart, and body have adapted to it pretty quickly... I'm living in sandals and flats and I have pulled out shorts and tank tops already.

Like usual, I've been drooling over some amazing dresses and shoes that would be absolutely perfect for this weather. This is the one thing I miss about working in an office... I had an excuse to wear skirts and dresses everyday. Now, I live in jeans and running shoes working in a retail environment.











Oh, I hope to wear dresses everyday at some point in the future. I am so in love with the new ones that Mod Cloth has been posting.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! So far, we don't have any definite plans, but I know I will be taking advantage of the weather.

xo Jen

I have no idea what has hit me, but I've been feeling under the weather today. It was my day off today and we decided to go full-force on Spring cleaning.... cleaning out our dressers and closets, scrubbing the bathroom, dusting, bagged up clothes and items for donation, etc. By early afternoon I started to feel light-headed and a little dizzy.

Since then I cannot shake this feeling. We slowed down at dinner time and watched Kick-Ass. I figure once I'm done this post I'm going to lay on the couch with the kitties and watch an episode of Bones before bed. Hopefully a good night sleep will make me feel better tomorrow.

The weather has been gorgeous here and we're taking every opportunity to head outside. Because it's been warm, we've been indulging in cool treats lately too. 



We got completely soaked on this walk... it started pouring half way around the canal!



Another tea that I ordered. I actually like this tea over the Birthday Cake tea. There's pineapple and coconut and jellybeans!




Mocha Coconut... yum!


Toasted coconut!


The Super Moon!






I'm back to work tomorrow so I'm hoping I feel better in the morning. At least I only work 2 shifts and then I'm off for the long weekend!

I hope you are all having a great week... only 2 more days until the weekend!

xo Jen

It's been a busy weekend for me. Today was shift number 4 of 5. Tomorrow will be my 'Friday' and then I'll get 2 days off which is very much needed. I have a lot of projects to finish up... I have more pillowcases to post on Etsy, I need to take photos of my pouches so I can post them, and I have another custom order to start on.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and in the meantime, check out my new treasury:

xo Jen

As you may or may not know, I contribute to the DN! Extraordinaire blog. It's a great blog for all things nerdy. I've been posting weekly on there, sharing geeky recipes and products.

I did a couple of posts on DN! Extraordinaire on Avengers products that I'm loving right now. If you get a chance, check them out:


Part 1


Part 2

Have you seen Marvel's The Avengers yet? We went to see it a couple of days ago and I loved it! It was such a good movie. The writing was great and witty. The personalities of all the different characters made for some funny lines. I completely fell in love with the Hulk and Black Widow. I mean, everyone was great, but those characters just stood out to me. I'm now itching for Black Widow's hair...



I hope everyone has a great weekend! I will be spending both Saturday and Sunday working. I plan on drinking a lot of coffee and tea to get me through both days.

xo Jen