My new idol and people who are bugging me today

Do you guys know who Jenna Marbles is?

She is my new favorite internet-person-thing. Minus the swearing, she brings up some good points. Like Goo Hoarding. For those of you who may not be familiar with her- she posts YouTube vidoes each Wednesday. Usually ranting/educating people about things. My favorite so far is her video about how girls are goo hoarders. Goo hoarders are females who collect lotions, shampoos, cleansers, lip glosses etc, but once you get down to the bottom of the bottle, instead of throwing it out, you just keep the bottle. But you keep buying more. You all know what it is. How many of you have multiple lip glosses hanging around? I totally do. Actually no, lip glosses I'm actually okay on. I end up losing them the day after I get a new one. Or it ends up going through the laundry. But I do have about 6 bottles of shampoo/conditioners that I haven't used all the way but for some reason am hanging on to for in the future. [Why do I do this?!]

Anyways, I just love her. She is hilarious. And makes me very appreciative of my eye lashes. I could never endure putting fake lashes on each day. So kudos to her for that.

And my blog just couldn't be complete without a rant of some sorts. So here it is: people who are really bugging me today.

People who can't shut their pie holes about British Columbia.

If I hear ONE more person exclaim their love for BC I'm going to rub their eyebrows out! Who cares?! If BC is so awesome and you love it so much, then FREAKING GO BACK! Stop complaining about things in Alberta and comparing the two places, because some people love Alberta and this is where their home is, and it feels pretty terrible when some BC person complains about it. Honestly, just go back then! Drive your stupid, ugly BMW back to "Zion". Just go.

It's just like people from other states ragging on Utah or Idaho. Okay, well thank you for putting my HOME down, a place that I love and will forever hold a special place in my heart for. Because that makes people feel good!

I don't even get what's so fantastic about BC. So the mountains are pretty. Yay mountains. Whoopi-de-doo! Apparently you've never driven through the Tetons. Or Aspen, Colorado. No, why would you even think of crossing the border... you are too good for that! And you've got an ocean... um, sorry, but that water is FRIGID cold (think Oregon coast, but 200 miles north) that's not really anything to be too excited about. Just go jump off a cliff. Into said ocean.

And lastly. The people from there- biggest snobs in the whole world. I guess when you live in a place that you can't actually afford to live in, and start massive, violent RIOTS everytime your team doesn't win- you can't expect anything less.

I just can't stand listening to people talk about how awesome and better than everything else BC is. I hate that place. End scene.

Oh I amost forgot to announce something! COSTA VIDA IS COMING TO CALGARY! AND ONLY .02 MILES FROM MY HOUSE! AND IHOP! AND TARGET! ALL SET TO OPEN NEXT MONTH, AS IN DECEMBER! I can't really contain my happiness! I'm so happy, I'm so happy, I'm so happy!

Also, shout out to my favorite niece, McKenzie. Who turns 13 today! GAH! I can't believe she's 13. I'm having a hard time with her growing up. She is my best friend, and she has been since the day my sister squeezed her out. I remember meeting her and her little cone head and red hair at the hospital. Maybe this is what mom's feel like everytime their child has a birthday? She's growing up too fast!
 

Playing with my new toy

So, after much research and battling my inner pro/con list... I finally just did it. I bought myself a DSLR camera. 

It was almost love at first sight... after I got through reading the instruction manual, I was in love. I've been playing with it a lot trying to figure out how to manually configure the aperture, ISO and shutter speed and how they can change an imagine so dramatically. Blah blah blah... here are some of my test shots with my toy. Warning, it's mostly pictures of my cats.

 Kitten, whom we named Dexter, has one white whisker...

 One thing I am pretty stoked out of my mind about, taking pictures of my food!

 I'm really proud of this picture of cheese

 Oh yeah, I made this... thank you Pinterest

 Don't his paw look like beans?

 I know this one is dark, but his eyes and whisker are just too cute... okay, borderline going overboard with my cat

 Hmm... I'm working on the zoom

 Look at his little squishy cheeks!

Does this not make you want to barf kittens? I need to get a life. Thanks for reading!

Kitchen Renova-ttttiiiiiooooonnnn (said in Oprah's giveaway voice)

It's crazy how busy you get. I wish I had just an extra hour each day to catch up with everything. My food blog has been totally neglected for months, though I've taken billions of pictures and have twice as many recipes to add. There are dust bunnies under every surface in my home, and I think I've even forgotten to brush my teeth a few times among all the chaos.

Having my laptop decide that it was time for the hard drive to crash has put a real damper on things, too. I'm finally getting it put back together and getting all my programs re-installed. What a fun way to spend a Friday night. I feel like Sheldon Cooper. So why I am waiting for my Zune to finish doing it's thing, I thought I'd catch up on at least one thing. Blogging. So, here we go!

Warren's mom and step dad recently visited Canada and were lucky enough to be our first house guests. Oh, and uh... we renovated our kitchen! We weren't really planning on doing any major renovations this first year because we wanted to get settled first, but when two experienced DIY-ers offer to come up and do it for you, it's hard to say no!

Here are the before pictures:

 Lovely oak cabinets that are the originals. They are in superb condition though! Please also don't mind the mess... if you've ever met me, you know my disdain for house work.

The light fixtures- these were actually quite nice, so we are thinking of selling them.

The back window. Sorry for the dead/dying plants and soda boxes. Also my home made but unfinished halloween decoration on the water cooler. Note, the water cooler doesn't have a water bottle attached. #pointless.

And last, the coat closet that was turned into a pantry. It had this weird cut out in the center of the shelves that made it super hard to really store anything. Believe it or not, this is as organized as I could get it. It definitely needed some help.

And here are some of the during photos I snapped along the way:

This is our staircase, which is now orange. You can just use your imagination, I don't have a good enough picture of it.

The living room, which housed all the supplies

Everything all stripped down, exposed and naked!

My backyard... haha, poor thing. Poor neighbors!

All painted

Painting the counters...

 Close up. You can hardly tell they are just painted. The quote we got just for new laminate was just over a thousand... this cost us... um, maybe like $50.

putting on the hardware

The pantry. Ahhh! We replaced the shelves, and then hung the coolest ever wallpaper behind them. I picked it out myself! 

Framing the window and door, and replacing all the baseboards and chair railings. That was probably the most tedious part of the whole process. You can also see the new lights that I totally did all by myself! I could so be an electrician now. Side note/funny story, we replaced all the outlets and switches in the kitchen (not just the face plates) and when we were finished, we flipped the breaker back on, something tripped it and the power went out in the whole house. It set us back about 5 hours, but thankfully we knew an electrician who walked us through it over the phone. The best part was how it was -15C outside and the power was out so the furnace didn't kick on. Ice, ice baby. I still could electrician-ify your house for you. Cuz I'm smart in that field now. Hazzah!

And after 10 days, 320 hours of labor... here we have the finished product:

Bamboo shades on the windows make the green pop and the browns in the counters pop, too. You can also see the wainscoting that we added to the bottom half of the walls. Classy and fabulous.

Close up of the cabinets. These are still the same doors, we just re-faced them and added new hardware. Ta-da! Now we have shaker cabinets!

Matching shade for the back door window

Remember Warren's uncle's cabin in Edmonton we stayed at a few weeks ago? The super duper fancy rich one? Well they had this knife block that I honestly considered taking with me and not telling anyone. I figured they had gotten it someplace ritzy and it would be expensive. Or it was from Costco since they are Costco nuts, and I don't visit Costco much. Well, I found it! I wasn't even looking for it, and BAM there it was. On sale. Only $50! It was kind of an impulse buy, but who cares?! Now my beloved Pampered Chef knives have a home...

New faucet! Our other one had only two settings. Barely on or full-blast-splatter-water-on-everything. Warren's mom ordered this online for only $89! The same one at Lowe's here in Calgary was $150.

And last but not least, above my new pantry...

 I pretty much love my new kitchen! I'm so happy that we were able to do it and stay well within our budget. It felt so awesome to be able to do all this on our own; I learned so much about renovations and electrical things. Thanks so much to Cheryl and Mike for all your hard work, and to Graham and Hayley for helping so many nights after long hard days at work and school! We love it, and feel so grateful for everyone's hard work! I can't wait to start cooking again!
*if anyone wants tutorials on how we did stuff... let me know!*

Existentialism

I have been pretty fascinated with existentialism for quite some time. Every now and then I have this epiphany that I've suddenly figured it out, but then other times I feel like I've forgotten what exactly it is. It's so hard to define. One aspect of existentialism that I think I finally figured out, not just by understanding what it was saying, but I actually had one of those moments where I lived it, so now I understand it better- I had just a couple weeks ago. It's the aspect of being oneself, full of your own personality and spirit. Not to be stereotyped or categorized as anything else. Just authenticity of your own nature. It's a broad concept but here's my take on it:

A couple weeks ago, I was walking home from work through the skiff of snow that had just fallen. It was just enough to see the imprint from people's footprints perfectly. I found it so inspiring for a really odd reason.

I had to stop and take a picture. What is so fascinating about footprints in the snow? As I kept walking, I started to take notice of the shoe prints. I saw some Converse prints, stilettos, snow boots and everything in between. The thought popped into my head, that the foot prints left in the snow were obviously from people who also walked down the same side walk. Just like in life, we are all walking down the same path. Some of us are going one direction and some are going another. Some are big and some are small, some are in a hurry and some are just enjoying the stroll.

I just thought it was kind of neat. The footprints were physical indicators that others walked that same path already, and others would walk it after me. Only what's cool is that the snow is capturing the mark left behind by each foot. Each shoe was so individualistic, just like all of us are. I was taking notice of something most people don't. It was as though each imprint was telling a story. I relate it to life on so many levels. We're all going somewhere. We all are experiencing different things and you never know who else has endured them already, and who might follow you later on. I guess I just found it humbling almost. Knowing I wasn't alone. Knowing I wasn't the only one using that particular sidewalk, nor am I alone in walking down the path of life. I felt connected to my surroundings. Like I wasn't a nobody.

I'm not really sure if this is existentialism, or if I'm just nuts. Literary giants out there, am I right or am I left? Have you ever had these moments where you had to stop and think how there's more that meets the eye? Just some food for thought for the night! Cheers!