Runs on Coffee and Cream

So the biggest show of the year that I sell at is this upcoming weekend... ahhhh! I've been so busy preparing for Fan Expo Canada, that I forgot to enjoy August. Oh well, I'm so pumped for this convention. It's my favourite show of the year! Not only do I get to see old friends, but I get to meet new ones too! And I get to buy comics and toys and look for new artists to love in Artist Alley. And see all the wonderful cosplay and just be overwhelmed by fantastic things! It's an amazing 4 days!

The guest line up this year is crazy good! I'll be doing my best to catch glimpses of Bruce Campbell, Patrick Stewart, and Elijah Wood! And of course, stalking all the other celebrity guests I come across. Plus, I'll be coming home with new prints from some of my favourite artists too.

This past week I did a bake-a-long with Arielle for Summer Camp over at IGGPPC. We decided to make s'mores cupcakes and followed this recipe here. It was super fun doing a live bake-a-long. Arielle baked the cupcakes live via google hangouts and I tweeted along while baking mine. And let me tell you, the cupcakes turned out amazing! They're SO good!




I highly recommend giving the recipe we used a try, even if it's just for the chocolate frosting!
xo Jen

I know it's not September yet, but I've been thinking about September a lot lately. Probably because I'm super stressed and overwhelmed this month, so my brain is longing for the month after Fan Expo when I can slow down a bit. Also, it's the month where I can focus on Fall activities and not get made fun of for it.

I've been inspired in the past by a fellow blogger, Mia who blogs at xo Mia, with her monthly activity posts that she wants to try that month. So I thought I'd come up with a similar list to inspire and motivate me for the upcoming month.

To-do:

- have my first pumpkin spice latte of the season
- work on our garden (this will be my first garden EVER)
- work on easy projects around the house (painting, hanging curtains)
- try my hand at French Macaroons again
- go for a hike at Laurentian Conservation Area
- find a Fall festival to attend

I'm just so excited to start working on our house and making it our own. And of course, I'm excited for the Fall season and everything that comes with it.

Last night was The Geekie Awards, where IGGPPC was nominated in the Websites/Blogs category. It was super fun to watch the award show streaming live from Hollywood with the other staff members through Google Hangouts. The show went longer than I had expected and you could see all of us winding down as the show went on. Unfortunately our site didn't win but it was still pretty amazing and exciting to see our website name and pictures on the screen when they announced the nominees. This was a lot of exposure for IGGPPC and our two staff members that went down there handed out business cards left and right!

Besides working on Summer Camp things, I've been a sewing maniac! Fan Expo Canada is just over a week away and as usual I'm stressing out and sewing constantly. I currently have a sore right hand and wrist from using scissors. Moving at the beginning of the month really threw off my sewing schedule for this convention which means I'm squeezing in as much as possible now.

So if I disappear slightly from social media over the next week or so, you know why!
xo Jen

This week has been so incredibly cold! Now, I'm a fan of wearing layers and bundling up in a sweater but I just wasn't prepared for this weather. I would leave the house in a tank top to go to work, or go grocery shopping in my flip flops because it's August! We hit highs of 14 degrees Celsius a few days and one morning there was a windchill warning.

So I'm currently loving....

Autumn

Even though I've been cold and not dressed properly, the cool temperatures have my head in Fall-mode! I already have plans to pull out the Fall decorations after Fan Expo. I remember the trees changed colour in September last year. So I'm going to be ready for Autumn and make sure I go for lots of walks! Plus, I'm super excited to decorate our house, inside and out, for Halloween!

By this point I got in trouble for taking pictures instead of picking blueberries.. whoops! It was just so pretty. I felt like I was in a magical forest at some points.





I don't know if we'll get a chance to go picking again. But we did much better this Summer than last year since we knew what to look for and where to go!
xo Jen

Yesterday was National S'Mores Day and I definitely celebrated it... I made a deliciously yummy s'more for dessert. I used two homemade peanut butter cookies, a piece of a plain Cadbury chocolate bar, and a marshmallow toasted in the oven under the broiler. It was amazing! Only recently did I find out you could put marshmallows in the oven on broil and it'd toast them. They're not exactly the same as toasted marshmallows on the fire, but it's good enough.

So over at IGGPPC, I'll be writing about s'mores and ideas on how to make them at home and different ingredients you could use. I'll also be doing a S'Mores Cupcake bake-a-long with Toasty live. How perfect is that?! I get to cover s'mores for Summer Camp!

Anyone who knows me, knows my love of marshmallows so I'm excited for my Camp activities!

Here are some yummy s'mores-inspired recipes to try:

While planning Summer Camp over at IGGPPC, we've been discussing Summer and Camp themed movies which has got me thinking of my own favourites. There's a handful of movies that remind me of Summertime growing up. They're movies that when I watch them I feel nostalgic and instantly feel comforted by them.



Dirty Dancing - According to my Mom, I lived off this movie when I was a kid. I so badly wanted to be a dancer and there's some embarrassing home videos to prove it. I've grown out of that, but I still adore this movie and the soundtrack.

The Baby-Sitters Club - Growing up me and my cousin watched this movie constantly. I mean, most young girls did I believe. And of course we talked about starting up our own club. But that went nowhere because we'd just go back to rewatching the movie again.

Now and Then - This cast (the younger versions of the characters) were the actresses I grew up with in movies. I was a huge Christina Ricci and Thora Birch fan.This movie brings back lots of childhood memories.

My Girl - Along with Dirty Dancing, this movie falls into my top favourite movies of all time. The cast is perfection and this movie started my love for Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis which I've had for as long as I can remember. If you haven't seen this movie, shame on you!

The Great Outdoors - I was a bit older when I watched this movie but I instantly fell in love with it. Dan Aykroyd and John Candy make the perfect comedy pair and the setting of this movie is gorgeous.

What are your favourite Summer movies?
xo Jen

What a crazy, busy weekend! Last Thursday we got the keys to our house at 3 in the afternoon and since then we haven't slowed down.

There was cleaning, painting the basement, changing the locks, cleaning the carpets, and then moving everything in and unpacking. We're about 70% unpacked already which I think is pretty darn good. Though, we still have a lot of shelves to put up and a wardrobe to build which will hold up the rest of the unpacking.

The move went well. Everything went fairly smooth and we had help from some amazing family members.