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! :)

poop.

But at least I can use this time at home to blog! Lol. My dad went out to dimsum and I turned down going with him because I didn’t think I would have fun swallowing my food. :( Wah. They’re bringing back some congee for me though… hurrah I guess!

Anyhoo, a bunch of us from the Vancouver Indie Crafters group met up on the weekend for coffee and cake, a post-Christmas gift exchange and lots of chatter. It was a great turn out and I’m so glad to have met up with all the new faces and the already familiar ones.

Here’s a quick lil peek at the craftiness of everyone who attended (sorry if I missed anyone!)

Amanda from ebb and flo. I was the lucky recipient of Amanda’s gift in the exchange (second year in a row now! ;) ) and I received a beaatifully made silver crochet bracelet with pearls and sky blue accents! Lovely! :)

.

Kris from A Cagey Bee.

Sandy of Firefly Notes

Angie of Jewelled Peach Designs

Leanne of t0fugurl

Jennifer of Jennifer Conway

Alexis of Phiber Smith Designs

Heather of Left Winged Mama (Jen, I borrowed the pic from your blog -  I hope you don’t mind!)

Lynn of By Lynn Krestel

Jayme of Trashbaggs (this is Lynns’ daughter – I love to see that creativity runs in the family!)

Marlene of Quotes and Notes

Melanie of A Farmers Daughter

And I *think* that’s it… I’m so sorry if I missed someone!
It was a nice time to just chat and share our crafty resources and just to get out with a lovely bunch of ladies and relax. If you’re in the Vancouver area and want to join us next time just give me a shout and I’ll let you know when it’s happening.

Cheerio!
Rita

It’s a giveaway!

I love the holidays and I’d like to share some holiday-cheer with you.  I will draw TWO names on Thursday, December 3rd  at 9pm PST for Mr. Jerry brooches. International participants welcome!

Leave a comment with the following for a chance to win (each is worth one entry and you can do all of them if you want)
1: Tell me why or what you love about the holidays
2: Blog about the upcoming Got Craft Fair or Lilli’Q fair (see below) and include the link to your blog in your comment
3: Link your favourite handmade holiday item  (e.g. stockings, ornaments, cards etc)

If you’re in the Vancouver area, don’t forget to come out to the Got Craft show on December 6th! I’ll be there with bells on. Well, maybe not bells, but I’ll be all cheery and stuff.

Also, I’ll be participating in Lilli’Q Cafe’s first Christmas event! Lilli’Q is a family friendly space that features a children’s play area, lots of comfy couches, a stroller parking area inside, as well as a space on the 2nd floor for activities such as mom and tot classes. Come on down! :)

Cheers and good luck!

A quick peek at my swag offerings for this years Holiday Got Craft? event!

I don’t usually make items like this for the swag bags. I’ve done postcards, buttons, very simple brooches and ornaments…  but this time, I decided to go a bit bigger and better. I recently came back from a 6 week stint in Japan and holy moly, do the Japanese know how to craft! They have the *cutest* fabrics and I was able to score a tonne of it at really great prices. Are you jealous yet? ;)

Anyhoo, I decided to be nice and share some of it in the form of these cute little zipper pouches. The first 30 people through the door at Got Craft will receive the highly coveted bag o shwag and one of these puppies might just be in it!

See you later, it’s time for a midnight snack and then to bed. How horrible! I know!

Update: Guess what? Since only 5 eligible people entered the draw, you all won! lol ;) I guess our moms were right… we’re all winners! I’ll be emailing everyone now for instructions on how to claim your free passes. Thanks for playing along!

WHAT: make it! craft fair
WHEN: Nov 20-22 (Fri 4-9 / Sat 11-6 / Sun 11-5)
WHERE: Croatian Cultural Centre 3250 Commercial Drive, Vancouver BC
HOW MUCH: $5 (go to the website to get a $2 off coupon)

If you’re looking for something to do next weekend in Vancouver, you’ve gotta check out the Make It! fair taking place at the Croatian Cultural Centre. The event will have over 90 vendors selling pretty much any hand-made item you can think of (and probably some that you didn’t!). And no offense to your grandmother, but this aint no granny’s craft fair!

To help you get there, Noticle is hosting a give-away for 5 pairs of free tickets! That’s right, you and friend could be enjoying a day full of fantastasmic shopping while dancing around the aisles to some sweet beats spun by Vancouver’s own up and coming DJ’s!

HOW TO ENTER: Easy- just leave a comment with a link to your favourite blog and why you like it (craft related or not, it’s all good!) Don’t forget to include a valid email in the comment form so that I can reach you if you win.

DEADLINE: The draw will be done for 5 names (2 tickets per winner) on Wednesday November 18th at 6pm so just get your comment in by then.

Thanks to Jenna of Make It! for providing the free passes!

Go to the Make It! website by clicking here.

***

And… while I have your attention I’d just like to give a shout out to my friend Dr. Choy who will be at November and December’s Portobello West show! Check out this post here for some pics of his recent work. Dr.Choy will be selling his wares and wears along with Maggie of MaggiePieCreations who makes the *cutest* knit hats.

Thanks and stay tuned for more crafty news and also a giveaway!