the problem is that i can’t get past browsing all the gorgeous fabric choices! :P i am simply stuck on step one. heheh.

I’d heard of Little Nest before and finally got to try it last weekend. If you don’t like kids, don’t go there! Luckily, I love the little buggers and the restaurant was teeming with the good natured little ones! The restaurant is on Charles St. just off of Commercial and is only open for breakfast and lunch and then sweet things til 4pm. They serve wholesome delicious meals made with local and organic ingredients and it’s lovely and bright!

I like this quotation on their site:
“Food is family, family is life, life is everything.” George Calombaris

LittleNest.Ca

Tea and bread and polenta (YUM!) with goats cheese and mushrooms and spinach and poached eggs oh my! You can see the little bowls of homemade jam in the back – they were so good! I spread the goat cheese on my bread with some fig jam and it was heavenly :)

TP… for totally posh. hehehe

That same evening, I ended up in Richmond in some empty warehouse behind Ikea… to eat Japanese food! Let’s just say you don’t go there for the ambience! lol.

It’s basically three of these trailers parked next to each other. They sell ramen, cones, giant takoyaki and each trailer has a specialty kitchen. (Sean approves!)

At the ramen place you choose your soup base, and then three other items (it also comes with seaweed, green onions, cabbage, and bean sprouts).

It’s not especially cheap (about $8 per bowl) but there’s something novel about ordering your dinner from a truck… lol.

Speaking of Japanese food, I’m off to have some for dinner now!

Sayōnara! :D

The Vancouver Rainy Day edition features a felt cloud and rain drop on Bitty Boog’s back. As those who live in Vancouver know, it rains a lot and this is Boog’s favoured outfit for our city.

Available here: smeeta’s Etsy shop

Only a couple days away, yet there’s still so much to do before Got Craft…

I got busy today and prepped my little signs for my table. I got the frames from Ikea… I think they were only $3 or so for a 3 pack. C’est mignon, oui?

Baked a large batch of lemon sour cream cupcakes (to be frosted). This is a fantabulous recipe which I found here at All Recipes. I don’t generally make the frosting like they say, instead I just do a simple glaze of icing sugar and lemon juice. Also I add about just under 1/4 cup lemon juice to the batter for a more lemony flava. The brown crispy parts are the best while the insides stay nice and moist. They might not be much to look at, but they are SO good. I bring them to work and they get totally devoured every time!

Finished up a couple of bags today too…

The lining is such a cute little pattern with bumblebees, clovers, and strawberries! I got this fabric during my trip to Japan last year… personally imported! lol ;)

I think I’m going to pass out now… have been up since 6:30am and now it’s 2:30am. AI YAH! There’s just not enough time in the day. :P

For some reason my sister double booked reservations tonight for West and Chambar for the Dine Out Vancouver special menu. So lucky me, I got to take her resos at West and treated myself and Sean to an early 10 year anniversary dinner. woohoo! :)

And so, here we have the food pr0ns:

We started off with made-in-house bread and butta. mm.

then we chose the sweet onion soup – it was delish… and very light. I assume it had been whisked or something like that. I dunno, I can’t cook. :)

And for our second starter we got smoked salmon tempura on a bed of something. hahaa. so descriptive. anyhow, it was very tasty. can’t go wrong with smoked salmon or deep fried!

this wasn’t part of the Dine-Out menu, but since they were on special, we had to get some. And dizzam, are we ever glad we did! Each oyster is different… the one that stood out the most was the small looking one on the right called “kuushi”. They were $3.75 each.

Tagliatelle with truffle sauce and local mushrooms. Oh. so. good! The noodles were perfectly cooked and kind of light in texture… like an egg noodle crossed with ‘yee mein’ if you know what that is. :)

Lamb shank – the meat fell off the bone. enough said.

I’m not a huge dessert person… and I found these ones not *fantastic*

this 1st one here is coconut genois (fancy word for sponge cake?) and pineapple.

And this one is grapefruit with basmati rice custard and raaspberry marshmallow ice cream.

and the verdict? Well, it looks like Sean seems to approve! :D Glad we tried it out at such a great deal and it was over-all very tasty. The atmosphere was nice too – classy yet unpretentious. If you get the chance you should definitely take advantage of the great menus being offered during Dine Out.

here’s the link to the West menu in case you’re interested: http://www.tourismvancouver.com/visitors/dining/dineout.details.php?id=988

HAPPY EATING!

illustration by The Beautiful Project

Vancouver’s largest indie craft fair is kicking off the 4th annual Spring show with 55 local, handmade vendors and a DIY table hosted by Spool of Thread Sewing Lounge to make your own crafts.

Got Craft?
Sunday, May 2nd, 2010
10:00am to 5:00pm
Royal Canadian Legion – 2205 Commercial Drive (at E. 6th Ave)
Admission $2.00 (kids 10 and under are free)

Did I mention there will be swag bags? The first 30 people through the door will receive a handmade tote bag filled with goodies from all of our vendors! Here are some sneak peeks from hudsonny, Owl + Pussycat, telly designs, kove handmade and Bliss in a teacup.

** Also, there’s a FANTABULOUS prize of a YUDU screen-printer package to be won! All you have to do is take photos of the Got Craft posters around the city and post them to the Got Craft Flickr group for a chance to win. Check out this link for more info:  http://blog.gotcraft.com/2010/04/contest-win-yudu.php

Here’s one of mine featuring Boog the Bad Ninja!

Hope to see you soon! :)