Hope you guys had a fantastic Mother’s Day weekend. We had the first warm weekend of the year and guess where everyone went? The beach! Happy Belated Mother’s day to all the beautiful mom’s out there. xo, Nerissa
Food has always been such a huge part of my life. In my family, life centres around food. Stories are told around a dinner table after a long day of work, weekend breakfasts are shared while we plan the adventure of the day, birthdays are celebrated with food dripping down our plates and cakes waiting to be eaten. Achievements of life are always celebrated with the gathering of family and friends as we all share a meal.
I’ve always enjoyed documenting the food that I eat and share with family and friends. It’s really interesting how seeing what people eat almost tell a story of their life. Here’s what you’re seeing:
- Breakfast board at home
- Cappuccino & americano at The Wilder Snail
- Jamie Oliver pork tenderloin with apple chutney & asparagus for dinner
- Croque Monsieur & pulled pork eggs bennys at The Flying Pig
- Home grown wasabi given to us by friends
- Luna’s charcuterie board breakfast on a Saturday morning
- Polenta, beans & eggs at Little Nest
- Preparing chick pea salad lunch at home
- Happy hour at Olympic Provisions in Portland. Chefs charcuterie & apertif
- Afternoon coffee and snacks at Matchstick Coffee Roasters
Happy eating!
We crossed the border to La Conner, Washington last weekend for the last leg of the tulip festival. When we got there, we spent most of the time snapping a billion photos and running around fields and fields of tulips. Quite an amazing site. The tulips were all in full bloom and came in purple, pink, yellow, orange and red. I didn’t have a favourite, I loved them all. Wouldn’t it be so nice to have this as your backyard?!
So here’s to the first ever banana bread I’ve made that actually turned out. I don’t know what it is about me and banana bread but i’ve tried making it a couple times before using two different recipes and they both turned out so dry that Luna wouldn’t even eat them. But the other day, I just had a craving for homemade banana bread and I thought of giving it another try using a different recipe.
Well, thanks to Martha Stewart for saving the day! Let me tell ya, this banana bread is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! It is so moist and so good! I couldn’t stop eating it that I had it for dinner too. Yikes, bad on the calorie count but good for my happy stomach. I used this recipe from Martha Stewart but made some little changes:
- used greek yoghurt instead of the sour cream
- used 2 bananas instead of 1
- added shredded zucchini on top
I plan to make another loaf this week. Even though it’s amazing as is, I might cut down the sugar to just 1/2 a cup instead of 1 cup. And maybe I’ll try adding shredded carrots on top to change it up.
Give this recipe a try, trust me, you’ll love it!
Not very far from where I live, there’s a little Island called Westham Island. To get to this Island, you have to cross a 100 year old wood deck swing bridge. It’s my most favourite bridge. I’ve been there a few times where I’ve had to turn off the engine of my car while I wait for the old man who manually turns part of the bridge for the boats to get through. It’s such a nice thing to watch and makes me feel like I’ve been transported to another time.
Once you cross the bridge, the scenery is beautiful. Lots of country houses, barns and farmlands surrounding you. As you keep on driving, you will notice all the beautiful mailboxes on the side of the road and they come in all shapes, colours and sizes. Some look like they are handmade and some look like they are custom painted by the owners. Aren’t they so cute?
For all you local Vancouver people, you can now find our Bon Journey bags & Utility Aprons stocked at Walrus. We are super excited to be working with those guys and be part of their lovely boutique. If you’re ever in the Cambie Village area, drop in and say hi to Caroline & Daniel. They are the loveliest and friendliest shop owners! xo
Making use of my photography and styling skills today as I kept myself busy shooting our new kitchen linens. I sometimes wonder what our neighbours would think if they ever peeked inside our house and see me standing on a table or balancing on a stool while photographing stuff. Thank goodness I’ve never fallen yet.
I tried different ways of photographic these lines. I thought it would be easier to use the floor as my table so I covered a small portion of the floor with kraft paper and took a few that way. But it wasn’t as easy as I thought as the kraft paper kept on moving every time I stood on it eventhough I taped each end. Then I tried taking some on the base of our white brick fireplace to give a more rustic look but was struggling to make it look real, you know, not too styled. But I found most to be successful right on our dining table. I was getting the perfect afternoon light and it looked the most real. We’ll see, I still have a lot of photos to scan through.
Now, my house is a mess.
I’ve been waiting for these to arrive the past months and they are finally here! These are handmade kitchen linens from Romania for The New Domestic. Aren’t they lovely? The sizes and patterns vary and every single one is unique. I’ll be busy the next few days taking photos of these so we can have them in the shop right away. Stay tuned! xo
Introducing our 14 pocket Utility Apron that is new to the shop! Yup, you read it right, 14 pockets! These heavy duty canvas aprons not only look great, they’ll make work and play easier for you. You will never run out of pockets to store all your essentials while cooking, gardening, crafting or your never ending home renos. And…there’s always a place to hang your giant chopsticks!
Introducing a new colour in the Bon Journey line – Rivera Blue! These are now available in the shop so grab them now and take them with you on your weekend getaway or pack it up with all your picnic essentials. It’s a fabulous colour and a great addition to the Bon Journey line. Happy Spring everyone! xo, Nerissa
We got our big shipment of the Bon Journey bags the other week so I’ve been busy painting. It takes about 4 days to paint these bags as drying time takes a full day. It’s always so exciting to see them dry & finished as I can’t stand seeing the painters tape on them but that’s just part of the process. I am hoping (fingers crossed) to have the Riviera Blue available in the shop by next week. We’ve taken all the photos for it and I have now passed them on to Peter to add them to the site. I’m so excited to have the Riviera Blue available soon. It’s such a beautiful colour and I hope you guys will like it too!
We hit the Beaty Biodiversity Museum on Saturday with a couple of friends. It turned out to be a great museum kind of day as it was cold and rainy. We’ve never been to this museum but have heard so much about it so we thought of giving it a try. As soon as we walked in, I was completely surprised to see a hanging display of a giant blue whale skeleton. It was massive in scale and hugely impressive. Then as we continued our way down to a much darker space in the museum and hit our first row of bones & taxidermy displays, my jaw dropped. I wasn’t expecting to see giant displays of taxidermy so beautifully arranged and dimly lit behind a glass display almost looking like it was a set for a movie. I’ve never seen anything like it.
The narrow dark rows continued with displays of animal specimens in jars, plants, shells, insects, fish, reptiles…it just went on and on. Luna was interested in seeing them all with absolutely no fear. She was taking it all in and also enjoyed running down the dark rows and rows of displays. At the very back wall of the room is a family zone where Luna and I made an eagle crown. She’s so proud of this eagle crown she made that it hasn’t left her head since then.
Highly recommended. Don’t be surprised if you end up staying there for 3 hours admiring taxidermy. We sure did!
