Monday, September 28, 2009

Little things...

One little thing that has been good for me lately is Swagbucks. Have you heard of it? You just register, use their search engine just like any other search engine when you are looking for stuff online, and get randomly rewarded with Swagbucks, which you can then redeem for gift certificates (from loads of places) and other swag. If there's a catch I haven't found it. They actually add up pretty quickly. I recommend it, it's a super easy way to get a little bonus from something you use every day. I have already 'earned' $20 in Amazon.ca gift certificates!

Search & Win

I used my gift certificates towards a new cookbook from the fantastic restaurant rebar in Victoria, B.C., which we visited when we were out on the west coast a few weeks ago. I found it kind of similar to another amazing restaurant in Toronto called Fresh. They are both vegetarian restaurants that serve simply amazing dishes that are inventive, full of flavour, super good for you, and so filling. Both are ranked MUST GO (according to me) if you are anywhere nearby. So on visiting rebar I knew I had to buy their cookbook... I can't wait until it comes. Yum!

Thanks for the encouraging words on Friday... I was having a rough day. I think sometimes I just need to let it out, have a good cry, and then I can get on with things. It is getting easier despite my feeling that it never would... but there are still rough spots.

I spent the weekend cooking which is totally my way of comforting myself when I'm feeling down... I made more pickled beets, two carrot-apple loaves and some carrot wheat muffins, four batches of pesto, froze a pile of prepared tomatoes, made a beet-greens and bocconcini pizza that was AMAZING (based on this recipe from Vegetarian Times), made an Indian Lentil Pilaf (one of our go-to meals for easy, yummy dinners)... all this mostly with stuff from our garden (carrots, beets & greens, basil, tomatoes).

And of course finished moving the furniture from the house painting which is finally done! Well... except he touched up our ceilings in a whole bunch of places with the wrong colour and sheen of white, which looks crappy... And then the regular vaccuuming and tidying that goes into every weekend. Busy.

We visited last night with our good friends and their 2.5 week old little girl... she has more hair and a stronger cry than she did a week ago when we saw her last! She is simply adorable. I sure hope it's our turn soon.

Okay. Now it's been a few days and of course there are some giveaways to catch up on! Here's a start:

For baby:
For the ladies:
  • Win a $25 gift certificate to GoJane (women's shoes, clothing and accessories) at All Ruby Cakes. Ends October 8th.
  • Win a Bumblewee nursing top and bra at Organic Girl! Ends October 4th.
For anyone:
  • Win a $70 gift certificate to AllModern.com (furnishings & accessories for the home) at Traditionally Modern Designs. Ends October 5th.
  • Win a Coffee Beanery Gift Set at Things Moms Like! Ends October 10th.
  • Win a 1 pound box of Enstrom's Milk Chocolate Almond Toffee at Sweeps4Bloggers. Mmm. Ends October 4th.
  • Win a Maple prize pack from Coombs Family Farm at Wishing Penny! Another mmm. Ends October 8th.
  • Win a $55 gift certificate to CSN Mirrors at It's Trickey! Ends tomorrow, September 29th, so hurry!

2 comments:

  1. Thanks, Emily. I've heard of Swag Bucks before but never really knew what it was about :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. So glad you had a chance to go to rebar. I have the cookbook but it is a bit beyond me. I like recipes that have 5 or 6 ingredients and only take 30 minutes. I find their cookbook is for fancier food than I make. :-)
    A good cry is always good. Glad you are feeling better!

    ReplyDelete

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