weekend Archives - WHOA lansi

Tag: weekend Page 1 of 2

Giving Thanks

On October 17, 2014

Our one Turkey holiday of the year (at least for my parents) is over & done with. We roasted an impressively large bird for five people last weekend & now we’re into leftover season. I’ll definitely be trying to take advantage of all that turkey & stuffing (my mom’s turkey stuffing is off the charts).

We spent Thanksgiving out at the lake this year. My parents headed out Friday & then N, my brother, & I drove out on Saturday. The whole weekend was filled with delicious food & family time. N & I brought out a bottle of wine & Lemon honey from Cinque Terre & picked up a wedge of pecorino to pair with it. Mom set out our usual cheese & appies (including some pickled carrots I’d made a couple weeks ago) & we dug in. This is definitely a family tradition of ours & I love it. How can you not enjoy such a spread?

Dad had made homemade pappardelle & lamb ragu for dinner that night. It was fantastic. He makes great pasta homemade pasta that we are always happy to devour.

Saturday morning, the boys went golfing while Mom & I stayed home & prepared our friend Tom the Turkey. Yes, we name our turkey & yes, his name is always Tom. We’re weird like that. This meal is such an all day affair so I don’t blame my parents for keeping it for Thanksgiving. I always enjoy the meal & it’s great to get everyone together in the kitchen as it all comes together in the end, but it is truly an all day affair. Not to mention, I love trying new things so our plan to have duck for Christmas is right up my alley.

The next day, I prepared an Egg & Meatball Tagine for everyone for brunch. It was delicious, if I do say myself. While not the most conventional of breakfast dishes, the flavours will make you forget what that even means. & sometimes it’s fun to break the rules, right?

Monday was the perfect fall day so N & I took a walk down to the lake before packing the car for home. We even ran into a few deer on our way down.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I thought I’d share a few things I’m personally thankful for this year. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday & have many things on your list as well.

I am thankful for:

My family, my husband, & my friends. There isn’t much more to it really. We had a great weekend at the lake & returned to more family time with N’s parents. We also just received our wedding photos & they are a beautiful reminder of how lucky we are to be surrounded with the best people.
You. Those of you who read this blog & keep me from feeling like I’m talking to myself. I’m grateful that I have this space to write & share & be creative. Thank you for reading!
First World Problems. Yeah, I’m grateful that they are really the only problems we face on a regular basis. We both have good jobs, a roof over our heads, minimal debt, & our own cars. We’re lucky to be able to afford to do most of the things we want to do.
Our health. N & I are both quite healthy people. That seems rare these days.

I’m sure I could go on about the many other things I’m grateful for, but these are my big four.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Craft Beer Party

By whoalansi

On May 23, 2014

In Uncategorized

A couple weeks ago, our friends had a housewarming with an interesting theme. This wasn’t the first time they’d hosted this type of party, but it was the first time N & I fully participated.The idea is that everyone brings a six pack (or however much they plan on drinking) of craft beer. All contributions are added to the cooler, with the hope that everyone brings different craft beers so you can try a variety.

I love this idea! It’s not often that you get to sample such a variety of craft beers in a single evening. I mean, some of my favourite bars operate on this premise (National, Craft, & Beer Revolution, to name a few), but sometimes it’s hard to justify dropping $6-$8 on an unknown beer. This way, you can try at least six different beers for under $20.

I took photos of all the different beers I tasted, but unfortunately I didn’t take any tasting notes, so you’ll have to take my word for it when I say they were all quite good.

My first beer was my own contribution to the party. Perhaps a little silly to go straight for the beer I had brought, but I love Anchor Brewing & was really excited to try this Liberty Ale. I really enjoyed it. It’s definitely not a bargain at the liquor store, but it’s also not unreasonably priced. I’ll buy it again soon.

Our friends apartment has this great mirror wall. It’s pretty distracting, but a fun addition to the space.

N’s contribution was Anchor Steam. This is one of my favourite beers. I order it almost every time I see it on a menu. It’s got an interesting flavour, but is easy to drink – delicious & slightly dangerous.

I’m really never sure about IPAs. I find them really hit or miss. Sometimes, they’re great & other times, they’re just too bitter for me. I liked this one though & I think the label is pretty awesome.

I really like Village beers, so of course this had to end up in my hands at some point in the evening. If you’re even remotely into darker beers, the Blacksmith is great. It’s definitely a go-to beer for me & their growlers are fun to split with a friend.

My beer choices quickly turned pretty safe as the night continued & I moved to beers I was more familiar with. I think this is kind of inevitable, but it was fun to at least start the night out with some new finds.

All in all, it was a pretty successful evening. We started early in the evening so we all went through quite a lot of beer. Next time I’d probably try to keep it to a six pack per person, so things don’t get too rowdy.

Not that there’s anything wrong with rowdy – everyone needs a noisy party at least once in a while, right? & you have to break in a new condo at some point. Mission Accomplished.

I’m definitely looking forward to trying this idea again with another group of friends. It’s been a hit both times we’ve done it. If you like craft beer, I highly recommend this idea for your next party.

Weekend Wears

By whoalansi

On May 15, 2014

In Fashion

It’s been ages since I did one of these Weekend Wear posts. I just can’t seem to motivate myself (or my fiancé) to take pictures of my outfits when it’s snowing. Luckily, spring is slowly arriving so I convinced him to snap a few for me. It was raining the weekend that we took these, giving me the opportunity to test out my new rain boots.

It’s been years since I owned a pair of rainboots and although Calgary doesn’t get much rain, I’ve walked to & from work often enough to feel like they’re a necessary addition to my life. I can’t justify dropping over $100 on a pair of rainboots, so I spent a while searching online for these. They’re a brand called Kamik, made in Canada. I bought them on shoeme.ca, which I’ve fallen in love with a little bit – their customer service is great & I love not paying for shipping or worrying about customs (#canadianproblems).

This outfit really isn’t terribly exciting, especially if you see me on a semi-regular basis. I’m pretty obsessed with this sweater (probably not all that surprising since I wore it for our engagement shoot) as well as with my Marc by Marc Jacobs cross-body bag. If I had a uniform, this would probably be it. I throw some variation of this outfit on weekly. For work, I switch out the leggings (tights for pants!) for skinny dress pants & the rain boots for heels or my Frye boots. I’m not a big fan of pants for work, but when I do wear them, it’s generally some form of this outfit.

Creature of habit I guess? N wasn’t too into taking these photos for me. We were on our way to the Bay to try & find him a suit for the wedding & it was raining. Shopping puts that guy in the best of moods. (He was pretty patient on this trip though & we managed to find him a great suit!)

Afterwards, we stopped by Analog Cafe for a fresh bag of Fratello beans & a couple drinks – coffee for me & hot chocolate for this guy. Wait…IS this our engagement session? (We did essentially the same thing in that session.) Coffee (& hot chocolate) is actually a pretty regular occurrence for us (almost always at my insistence.)

Can you really blame me though? This cafe is gorgeous & the coffee is my favourite in this city. I’ve talked about Fratello many times, so if you live in Calgary & haven’t checked them out yet, get on that already. They’re really busy on the weekend so if you’re not into crowds, check them out midweek. You can also find them at the Calgary Farmer’s Market.

We’re off to Kelowna for the long weekend to do some wedding planning stuff. Have a great long weekend!

Family Weekend

By whoalansi

On February 27, 2014

In Uncategorized

My dad’s birthday fell on Family Day this year so we’d planned to head out to the lake for the weekend for some skiing & hanging out with the fam. Unfortunately, N injured his ankle in soccer the weekend before, so skiing was no longer an option for him. We decided to head out anyway & enjoy a relaxing weekend with my parents.

My parents still ended up skiing, while we stayed back at the house. I love being out at the lake. It’s relaxing & beautiful. My parents designed the house themselves & it’s one of the best layouts I know. Columbia Lake itself is also gorgeous. The Rockies run down one side of the lake & the Purcells the other. It’s one of my favourite spots.

We spent most of our time eating, hanging out in the hot tub, enjoying craft brews, reading, & playing board games. Not a bad weekend if you ask me.

Sunday night we celebrated Dad’s birthday. Mom had picked up a sparkling rose from the Winery hosting out wedding this summer while she was out there, so we started things off sampling that. It was delicious.

Mom is also the master of cold appetizers. She put out a beautiful assortment of cheeses (including blue cheese with Branston pickle), crackers, olives, pickles, & dips. It’s one of my favourite ways to start a meal.

We sat around chatting until we’d polished almost everything off, when we sat down for the main event. Mom had made coq au vin, a delicious slow cooked, chicken recipe from France. I followed it up with a new desert recipe from Practical Paleo: a frozen berry tart.

It was a simple, delicious weekend to celebrate another year.

Happy Birthday Dad.

Weekend Wears

By whoalansi

On October 22, 2013

In Fashion

Canadian Thanksgiving was last weekend so N and I drove out to the lake to spend it with my parents and nana, who was out visiting for the holiday. This time of year is so gorgeous out there. (Who am I kidding. All times of year are! I love the valley.) We spent most of our time eating, drinking, hot tubbing, and enjoying time with my family.

I always think life is going to slow down so much once fall hits, but it honestly hasn’t. Even taking an extra half day over the Thanksgiving weekend, I came back to work exhausted. It was the longest three and a half day workweek! We need to try and be hermits a bit more – maybe renew our gym and running commitments.

We left the lake Monday morning for Calgary. We’d scheduled some engagement photos with an awesome husband and wife team for that afternoon so we had to be back for that and then dinner with N’s family.

We had an amazing time hanging out with Carly and Boe. They made both of us completely comfortable and we took lots of great photos in some great locations. We’ve seen a couple teasers and I totally love them! I can’t wait to see the rest.

The Jeffery Cambell shoes I’m wearing in these photos are some of my favourites. I bought them last year and always get comments on them. Mostly because I’m 6’2″ when I wear them and people don’t seem to know what to do with that. My mom calls them my Mr Munster shoes. Almost everyone has some kind of reaction to them. They are honestly the most comfortable pair of heels I own, though. Seriously. They’re super high, but just amazing.

I splurged in Seattle and bought these waxed green jeans. They’re Madewell and I’m considering only buying their pants from here on out. They are so comfortable and fit so perfectly. You don’t argue with jeans that make your butt look good. It should probably be a rule.

What you should probably take away from this outfit post is that I am wearing the classy version of pyjamas. Everything is comfortable, stretchy, and perfect for this time of year. Pyjama comfort without looking like a bum? You’re welcome.

Weekend Wears

By whoalansi

On September 29, 2013

In Fashion

Fall is officially here! As much as I love this season for fashion, I find myself hanging on to the last bits of summer: continuing to bike to work and refusing to give up on bare legs. Don’t get me wrong, I get the obsession with fall. I love pumpkin flavoured things (although my three-year stint at Starbucks has killed any desire to consume a Pumpkin Spice Latte) and I’ve spent most of today on my couch with a great cup of coffee, a book, and records playing in the background. It’s a wonderful time of year.

Unfortunately, Fall lasts only a short time in Alberta. Every year, it’s a reminder that #winteriscoming. (Yeah, I used a hashtag in my blog. I went there.) Winter will inevitably arrive well before I’m ready for it. Probably just as I’m really getting into the swing of all things fall, as it usually does. And then I’ll be all winter boots, tights with dresses, and pants. (Everyone who knows me probably also knows my disdain for pants. Maybe I’ll blog about it some day.) We’ll start fantasizing about when there’ll be enough snow to hit the mountains and praying for Chinooks.

So, Fall, as much as I do love you, I know you’re really just that super short season before winter. And, dammit, I’m just not ready for winter yet. I’m not ready to wake up in the morning and have to decide between Sorels or hiking boots for my walk to work. I’m not ready to have to remember to get up a bit earlier so I have time to put on tights and bundle up for my walk. I’m not ready for how short the days are going to get!

Did I really just essentially write three whole paragraphs about the weather? I’m sorry, bored blog readers!

I’m sure I’ve already done an outfit post where I wore some elements of this outfit. I suppose that speaks to how fashionable I am. Sorry guys, I do re-wear my clothes as I’m sure most people in the real world do. Is it just me or does it seem like bloggers never wear their clothes more than once? Maybe they’re just better at restyling things. Or maybe they pay more attention to what they’ve done in the past. Either way, that’s not really my reality.

My reality involves asking N as sweetly as I can muster if he minds taking a few photos of me for my blog as we’re heading out the door. He is most definitely not into photography but he’s a pretty good sport about it. So thanks once again for putting up with a mini photo shoot before going to the market, N.

Funny story about these photos. When I uploaded them to my computer, iPhoto tried to tag the faces in them (namely my face) and decided that I was a guy friend of ours, KG. I don’t know how I should feel about the fact that my iPhoto thinks my face is a male friend’s face. Probably not great. Also probably not something most people would post on their blog. You’re welcome, guys.

This may be the most random blog post I’ve written since I was about 16. Just to further the randomosity, here’s a ring photo. I’m kind of in love with it.

August in Instagram

By whoalansi

On August 31, 2013

In Uncategorized

It’s vacation time! Woohoo! I feel like I’ve been waiting for this all summer and it’s finally here. I don’t usually do scheduled posts, but I didn’t want to miss out on an August Recap! When this posts we will hopefully be having a glorious time at a Wedding in Vancouver. Here’s what we got up to this month:

1. I’m always cooking (or at least it feels that way!) This recipe was fantastic! Paleo pork burgers topped with yam noodles. You can NEVER go wrong with yam noodles. I also made yam chips by deep frying yams in bacon fat. Yum!
2. I already posted about Color Me Rad, but it was seriously fun!
3. I went out to Columbia Lake and hung out with my folks. I love that spot.
4. N was away for a few weeks. I hated it, so we went for brunch at one of my favourite restaurants, Ox and Angela, to celebrate his return.
5. We went backpacking along Lake Minnewanka with some friends. We ran into bears and it was terrifying, but we made it out alive. It was a fun trip overall!
6. We experimented with a new paleo crust from one of my new cookbooks, Gather. It was delicious.
7. Fitness Friday is still happening every Friday. It makes me incredibly happy to see how much stronger all these people are getting. Our little group is growing and it’s amazing!
8. We hiked Grizzly Peak with T. It was a wonderful way to spend a sunny Saturday.
9. Mom treated me to a manicure and my first pedicure. I could definitely get addicted to having pretty nails!

Enjoy the long weekend! Excuse me while I dance the night away! We’ll be on the road tomorrow exploring the Pacific Coast Highway on our way to Portland. I can’t wait!

This Land is my Land

By whoalansi

On August 27, 2013

In Uncategorized

We went hiking this weekend in Kananaskis Country. There are so many hikes I want to do that chosing one can be really tough sometimes, but we eventually settled on Grizzly Peak. I’d seen some photos from a friend of a friend and it looked like a great hike. You can’t beat the view you get from the mountains in Kananaskis and you get the added bonus of not needing a park pass.

The very beginning of the trail

N and I hoped in the car and picked up a friend early Saturday morning. After unsuccessfully trying to get coffee at three independent coffee places, we gave in to Starbucks and headed West for the Rockies.

Grizzly Peak is an unmarked trail between Grizzly Creek and Hood Creek. It was relatively easy to find using the landmarks described in online guides. We parked in the ditch on the side of the highway, changed into our hiking boots, and started up the trail. You could distinctly see it running beside the creek from the beginning, despite it being an unmarked trail.

It started climbing pretty quickly right from the start. We weren’t going to get much of a break on this hike, it seemed.It was so steep that it took us over an hour to cover the first kilometre. I’m sure the boys could have climbed faster, but they had to wait for me and I’m just a little bit slower.

T being….T

Right from the beginning, there were some great views and fun obstacles. There was a little point where we had to scramble and carefully hug the side of the mountain. It looks a lot more difficult than what it is.

Obstacles!

The trail as pretty distinct until we got about three quarters of the way up, when we hit a bunch of scree. You could tell people had made different decisions as to which route to take and there wasn’t a clear trail. We continued to scramble up and then decided to take the steep grassy route up to the saddle instead of scrambling up some interesting rock and creek. It was steep and tough, but definitely better than the alternative.

Let’s take the grassy route…

The saddle itself was pretty amazing. I wasn’t expecting to find a beautiful clearing up there, surrounded my mountains. It was so peaceful and seemed like a great spot to take a lunch break. We found a nice little spot and hunkered down for some food. It was gorgeous.

Finding a lunch spot

From the saddle, it was an easy 15 minutes to the summit. We really lucked out with the weather and it was gorgeous when we reached the top. Most summits are pretty windy so we took advantage of the stillness and hung out for a while, enjoying the view and chatting. It was breathtaking.

Thanks for an amazing day as always, Kananaskis Country! I highly recommend Grizzly Peak if you’re looking for a new day hike to try. The views are incredible right from the start, the saddle is beautiful and peaceful, and it makes for a great day!

Color Me Rad

By whoalansi

On August 19, 2013

In Uncategorized

Fun runs seem to be popping up all over the place lately. I can’t seem to login to Instagram on the weekend without coming across at least one photo from some kind of charity or fun run. It’s great! I love to see people getting out, moving around, and getting healthy.

A few friends and I signed up for Color Me Rad this year. You dress in as much white as you can and run 5 km while people throw packages of corn starch dye at you. It was originally scheduled for July Long Weekend, but due to the flooding it got rescheduled to August Long and a lot of my friends couldn’t participate.

Luckily, Color Me Rad is an easily transferable race, so a few other friends took their places. We met at Crowfoot LRT Station on Saturday morning and took the shuttle bus out to Canada Olympic Park for the run. There were so many people up there. It was great to see everyone dressed up and running around having a great time.

At the start line we were given our first colour bombs, which we proceeded to throw at each other. We couldn’t start things off with pristine white shirts. The race itself was up and down the hills and trails at the Park. It was a mix of pavement and trail running, but all in all a fairly easy course. We weren’t with many actual runners so we walked a lot of the hills and just took our time, laughing at each other as we got more and more covered in colours.

As we rounded the last corner, they gave everyone one last colour bomb to use however they wanted. Of course, we saved ours and dumped colour all over each other at the finish area.

I really enjoyed the race. It was lighthearted and easy so there was no pressure running-wise. It was advertised as a 5 km, but I’d give it 3 km at most. Definitely manageable for all fitness levels. We got a lot of great photos and laughed a lot. If you have the opportunity to do Color Me Rad or some other colour run, I would definitely go for it. If you’re worried about the colour dying your hair (like I was), coconut oil seemed to keep the colour out and had the added bonus of leaving my hair super soft after I washed it.

Happy Running!

Hell or High Water

By whoalansi

On July 19, 2013

In Uncategorized

That crazy non-stop week of partying has come and come. This year wasn’t actually that crazy non-stop for me, but I did get my fair share of partying in. I skipped the first weekend of Stampede and went camping with friends, but I got right into things with our Spaghetti Western Stampede Party at work.

We usually host is on Princes’ Island, but due to the flooding it had to be relocated to Shaw Millenium Park at the last minute (well a week before). Everyone pulled together though and it turned out great. Our marketing team had pretty much everyone helping out in some way. It was a gorgeous, hot day and I think everyone had a pretty great time.

K & I ready for Spaghetti

Twins!

Busy Spaghetti Tent

We had this great Silly Booth Photo Booth and I just love the photos from it. They’re so high quality. I think geoLOGIC staff had the most fun out of everyone. There were a lot of red shirted photos.

Spaghetti Western is primarily a client lunch event, so we headed to a pub afterwards for some drinks. Later, a few of us decided it was patio weather and we headed to a new bar on Stephen Avenue. I love this time of year, not only for the Stampede fun, but also for the incredibly long days. We sat on the patio until close and I think it only got dark around 10:30 pm.

I took a little break from the party scene until Friday night, when we met up with a friend of mine who was down from Jasper. The night was really random. We went from a pub in Eau Claire to the Fairmont Palliser bar to a hotel room there, and finally met up with a few friend’s at Hudson’s. We packed it in pretty early though. We had big Stampede plans for the next day.

reunited and looking fine.

Fancy

Can’t leave without a Shotski

We managed to get a good start on the day Saturday and headed down for a pancake breakfast before hitting the grounds. We did all the usual things: pet the horses, ate artery clogging food, watching cool shows, and hit the beer gardens.

We hit the line for Nashville North around 5 pm and it was insane. It’s always crazy and we had come prepared, but I’ve never seen it as busy as it was. We waited and waited, but people kept budging so the line just wasn’t moving. Finally, we gave up, grabbed some mini donuts for the road and headed to Vagabond Brewery near the grounds. We made a plan to line back up at 11 pm. We’d give it one hour and if we still didn’t get in that would be it.

Vagabond turned out to be a pretty good place to hang out. The beers were pretty good and not ridiculously priced given their craft label and proximity to the grounds and the food was awesome! We had a great time there. When 11 pm hit, D, N, and I headed back to Nashville. There was still a bit of a line, but we managed to get through in under 40 minutes and headed straight for the dancefloor.

That’s a lie…we meant to head straight for the dancefloor, but we actually got beers (equally important?).

My favourite thing about Nashville North is dancing with N and we did a ton of it. Danel got a few cute shots of us, but for the most part, the three of us hung out on the dancefloor.

The next day, N and I slept in a bit and then headed back down to the grounds. We had passes for the day we didn’t want to waste, so even though we felt like having a lazy day, we decided to go. We ate a lot of food truck food, wandered to pretty much every corner of the grounds, and then finally went to the Chuckwagon Races. The final evening is pretty exciting since the last heat is racing for all the money. It’s a pretty close race. Those horses are incredible, as are the riders and chuckwagon drivers.

Beer gardens waiting on the race

Chucks

All in all, it was a really fun Stampede. And of course, we grabbed some mini donuts on our way out. Until next year, Stampede! Thanks for another great year!

WHOA lansi

francophile, oenophile, logophile, turophile

Tag: weekend Page 1 of 2

Giving Thanks

Craft Beer Party

Weekend Wears

Family Weekend

Weekend Wears

Weekend Wears

August in Instagram

This Land is my Land

Color Me Rad

Hell or High Water

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