Monday, November 12, 2012

Meeting Some Famous Bloggers

Hi Blog friends! I have a super nerdy/awesome blogosphere experience to share! I got to go to the Young House Love book signing.

For those that don't know Young House Love is a DIY/Home Improvement Blog by Sherry and John Petersik. There blog is so popular (like 5.5 Million page views in a month popular) that they both do it full time. This means all of their days are consumed with doing projects, writing, editing, and then posting, and answering comments (check out their day in a life page..certainly not easy work!). 

In addition to all that craziness, they also wrote a book called Young House Love with 243 DIY ideas. They had a photoshoot at their house while doing a kitchen renovation..they are crazy! Now that book has been released, they are in the middle of a book tour, while still maintaining the normal blog schedule and answering questions..wowza. 

When I found out they were coming to Toronto I was super excited!!! And the location was right down the street from me at a local West Elm. Huzzah! So I dragged Mike along and after a long line up process this happened....
Mini Blogger with Real Life Impressive Bloggers
The signing started at 6, so we got there at 4:30 and there was no line, so we went to grab Starbucks, and then went back in and there was a huge line up! We waited patiently and made some friends in line, then around 6 John and Sherry came out to sign. After waiting our turn we got our chance to say hi, and get their awesome book signed. 

Everyone had to make a little note of what we wanted them to say to speed up the process. I made them do a mad lib-esqe note. They laughed and took a photo of it...maybe I will be included in the highlights from Toronto tour!!!!

Hammering the Wall :)

They were super sweet and nice, and the best part was we got to the desk and Sherry says "Hi I'm Sherry" and then kind of caught herself and said "oh but I guess you know that". It was hilarious and just showed how humble they are. They also asked what the deal with Mike and I was because it must of been serious if he waited in line for that long. Mike is a good sport with these kind of things, and is a little bit of a DIY/home improvement nerd too!

The book looks like it is going to be full of awesome ideas and projects, and now I am going to be completely distracted reading through it for the next little while! 

The weird thing is I am not a fangirl by any stretch. I would probably not ask actors or actresses for autographs, and wouldn't go see an author do a book signing, but when you read about these people's lives every day it is different. Another blogger described it as meeting a pen-pal. Of course they have no idea who I am, so that makes it weird, but still it was a neat experience to get to meet them!

If you could meet another blogger who would it be??? Who would you wait in line for 2+ hrs to see??

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Happy Halloween and Fall Things!

Whats new blog friends? Happy Time Change and Belated Halloween!
I love Halloween so much! I love the costumes, the candy, the spookiness. I also love that it has become a month long event.

Starting the first weekend of October with going to Halloween Haunt put me in the Spooky mood early on. Then last weekend I was babysitting my cousins and got to take them to a fall fair with a haunted maze. Awesome.

On actual Halloween day I had a big presentation at work so I couldn’t wear a costume but I did do the whole presentation with Halloween themed earrings in. Mike (because he still goes to school where they do fun things) got to compete in a pumpkin carving contest and made a Portal inspired pumpkin. He got 3rd place and a free sweater!
Good Job Mike!!

Halloween night I took my cousin out trick or treating. Some of the houses we went to were amazingly decorated..with fog machines, and ghosts in trees. Very spooky. It also helped that it was dark and rainy. The funniest thing that happened was that we went to one house and I noticed all the adults were going up to the door too. I was like aww that’s nice they are giving candy to the grown ups. Then when I got up to the door, the lady asked me “Brandy or Scotch.” She was giving out DRINKS!! Hilarious! After a successful round of trick-or-treating, we went back to my Aunt and Uncle’s house, and ate Thai food and Candy...and so much Candy!

Yesterday a group of use went to a Halloween party, and we were dressed as the characters from Mad Men. A quick trip to value village (and copious amounts of hair gel/spray) resulted in this:

Cigarettes are fake..drinks are not :)
Not too shabby!!

My other friends dressed as salt and pepper, they were super cute! It was a good party!!

In other news..I am loving the time change right now. I got all my Sunday night chores done early and the extra hour meant I time to blog. I won't love it when it is dark every day when I come home from work, but for now I will take it!

Since it is well past harvest season for Ontario, our fresh city farm box has turned more "wintery". Lots of beets and kale. Last weekend I used up some of the other veggies and made a delicious Arugula and Grilled Pear salad with goat cheese and a balsamic vinaigrette..because I was bored (?). 
Ooo Fancy
The balsamic vinaigrette was 5 parts oil, 3 parts vinegar, and it was a great mixture for a lighter dressing. 

Tonight I made a soup (sans recipe) from veggies in the fridge that needed to be used. 
Soup!
I sauted some onion, garlic, celery, carrots, and diced tomatos. Next I added chicken broth and let it simmer for 20 minutes. After I added some leftover rice, a can of black beans, and a whole bunch of swiss chard. I wanted it to have a more tomato paste taste but didn't have any so I added half of a can of pizza sauce! Did the trick! Now I have a nice warm soup to get me through the week!!

What were you for halloween? What did you do with your extra hour today?