happy easter & life as of late (pt. 10)

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Easter is one of my favourite times of the year; aside from the weather being much more favourable, & chocolate lining store shelves, it's an occasion to reflect on the amazing power of grace.
Whenever I take a moment to think of what I would be like had I never been exposed to the forgiveness & love of my Savior, I tend to shudder & be even more thankful for how God would choose to forgive me in the most radical way.
Being humbled by the truth that God's love & sacrifice is always greater than any sin or mistake I've made is something that is worth celebrating more than in one weekend a year. It just makes any bunny or foil-wrapped piece of chocolate dim in comparison!

Well, I hope you and your family have a wonderful Easter! Here are some randoms from my life as of late:

My birthday came and went with a lot of sugar, buttery seafood, pretty gifts (including this book that I've been waiting to get my paws on for awhile), and spending quality time with the other half & babe.

I tried Burmese food for the first time, and it was one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten! I've been thinking about that dish ever since!

and I mentioned in a past post that I won a pair of shoes from a ShoeMint giveaway, and I decided on the pair of Heather equestrian style boots. When I received them, they were way too large around my calves (which is a problem I tend to have with boots). I thought about sending them back, but instead got them taken it! 

Did you know you can hem boots to fit tighter?! 

Chicken-legged ladies (like me!), rejoice!! ;)

before it was altered:

and after:

I don't know why my ankle looks broken there, but the boots fit a lot more snug (even though the terrible angle in the photo doesn't show it!) :)

While my hubby & I were perusing a gift store in a quaint area just outside our city, and I found these cute little things:

They're actually soft maps made out of material that can be crumpled up, thrown into your bag, and can flatten out when needed. Neat, eh? (sigh, the Canadian in me...). They're fittingly called Crumpled City, and would make the perfect gift for that person who refuses to give into the Siri/GPS-ways of getting about. :)

My MIL and I went to the One of a Kind show in Toronto recently, which is an exhibition for local aritsans to showcase & sell their work (they even had a neat Etsy section!)

Here are a few things that caught my eye (and taste buds!):

seriously, that apple deserves a little blurb; it was a cinnamon sugar coated caramel apple that knocked my proverbial socks off. Their retail store unfortunately is about a 2.5 hour away from me, and it only opens during the summer months (but believe me, I plan on visiting and stocking up on those $13 apples!!) 

To get your sweaty palms on one, luckily they offer online orders (and with shipping costs, the apple will only cost you a whopping $20!) 

How do you like them apples?? ;)

Well, thanks for reading (if you made it all the way through! ;) 

Have a lovely Easter.

xo,

basement reno progress: the living room

When we bought a new home & moved into it (while I was 8 months preggos, mind you!), the biggest factor for our crazy decision to buy were three-fold:

1. It's a detached home (meaning we'll no longer hear our neighbours coughing, or opening & shutting their drawers through the wall!)
2. It was at a great price point for the area (translation: major fixer-upper)
3. It had a huge basement (which meant we could jazz it up & rent it out... which would help financially during my maternity leave & it would fit into our long-range plans of becoming landlords over several income properties).

Now, since the baby's arrived, the renovations have been pretty much nil, but I did want to show you a bit of a sneak peek into what going on down under:

Here is the before of the back living room wall with the previous owners' furniture:

hellllloooo faux wood paneling, soggy wet carpet (towards the back wall), and office-building-lighting.

After the papers were signed, we removed the swampy carpet to discover mold (!), and we removed the panelling, only to realize the foundation of the back wall was cracked, letting water come inside:

A big culprit: right behind our house was a really steep hill where all the water draining from the houses on the top of the hill, would continually hit the back wall of our house, causing the foundation to wear. Yes, the hill would be great for future tobogganing, but our mould-filled lungs would lose this 'uphill battle' (ha!)

So, we got two guys in with heavy machinery, who dug a big trench behind our house & waterproofed the basement (they did this before winter hit, and before the soil had a chance to settle in).
Once the rain & snow fell, a big sinkhole formed by the basement windows... this thing just keeps getting better, doesn't it?

don't you love our caved-in, grass-less, debris-filled backyard? 

Perfect for entertaining season. ;)

So, now with spring around the corner, we'll be getting the hole filled in, grass laid, and we'll be focusing more on the interior of the basement.

Here is what it looked like after the back wall was waterproofed, insulated, & dry walled, and after pot lights were installed:

After painting the faux wood on the large wall (we decided to keep it & just prime & paint it), and new windows were installed, we also decided to cut out a window from the side wall so it could open the space up a bit more.

It's just amazing what paint can do to lift up a space!

On the opposite side of the room, which still boasted of wood panels & carpet-gone-crusty, here is what it looked like before (our friend does not look impressed):

after a few coats of good ol' primer & paint, & replacing that fluorescent lighting with softer pot lights: a serious weight lifted.

 There is still a lot more to be done, but it's pretty amazing how far it's come along since we moved in.

I'll be giving you sneak peeks in the near future of all the areas in our near-completed basement, and then hopefully I'll have complete 'after' pictures to show you! :)

xo,

the big 3-0.

today I turned 30.

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I started the day off by waking up from an amazingly long uninterrupted sleep (a rarity these days!), got a long-distance call from my brother who's living in Korea (and who, in typical sibling fashion, made a series of cracks at my old age - gotta love siblings!), ate chocolate for breakfast, opened a sweet gift from my hubby, and spent some quality time coo-ing with the babe. What more could I ask for?

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We'll be going out for yummy eats later on, and will plan on a trip to celebrate both of our birthdays that were not celebrated in their entirety after the baby arrived (I guess we're big on birthdays). We're looking forward to some family time, and some good eats, as traveling often brings!

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And as another year past often brings times of reflection, I feel truly & utterly blessed. It makes me giddy for what the future brings.
C.S. Lewis pretty much sums it all up.

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In this crazy love-fest, I also gotta say that I am thankful for you, reader! Who else is willing to put up with my shenanigans? ;)

{to see more pretty things, follow here: }

xo,

easy Vietnamese avocado shake (Sinh to bo).

Every time I eat at a Vietnamese restaurant I always order this drink. It just pairs perfectly with the salty beef broth and noodles, and it uses one of my favourite fruits to boot! (it is a fruit, yes? lol)

It's no wonder this refreshing drink is also called the 'butter fruit drink' because although it doesn't require a lick of butter (yay for guilt free!), but the thick, smooth texture sure does feel like a cold blended stick o' butter on the lips (uh.. don't try that one at home!)

And after finding the uber easy recipe here, I decided to try this for myself, and found that it tasted exactly the same as it does at a restaurant, and was made for much cheaper (which tasted sweet on the lips as well!)

 All you need to make 2-3 servings (or just one large one, if you're a pig like me):
1 ripe medium avocado (6-8 ounces)
1 cup ice (8 ice cubes)
1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/4 to 1/2 cup milk (I used Almond milk, which turned out just as yummy)

All you need to do is:
Scoop the avocado flesh into a blender.
Add the remaining ingredients.
Puree until completely smooth.
Taste and add any additional milk if needed (depending on the consistency of the avocado used).

That's it!
Then sit back and enjoy!

Speaking of cold, refreshing drinks gives me a hankering for patio season. 

Anyone out there feeling the same? :)

xo,

how to read urbane jane.

I'll jump on the blog bandwagon and post about Google Reader's impending disappearance.
Before we shed tears, let me give you another option to stay up-to-date on my shenanigans.

I present to you: bloglovin'

Aside from it being seriously user-friendly, and it also having an app so I can read my favourite blogs on the go, here are some other reasons why this thing tickles my fancy:

You can follow me on bloglovin' here, and see me in high def (well not really, but with all of the large text & large images in your face, it'll feel that way).

Or, if you'd rather subscribe via email, look no further:

And another perk to this new bloglovin' marriage? I get a fancy icon. A little scary looking, but fancy, nonetheless.
(oh, and I almost forgot about linky followers as another way to follow... is there anyone still using that?)

well, there you have it, dear reader.

Change is good, yes? :)

xo,