Time's a tickin'

Hello blogosphere!

Have you had those days, weeks, months, years where it feels like all you're doing is rushing, and not taking the time to just enjoy the moments you're in?

Over the past few months, I've been trying to spend a few moments every day just pausing to reflect on anything and everything that comes to mind. In the midst of rushing to make dinner, or teaching lessons I'll have moments where I go "this is wonderful and I am so thankful to be able to do what I love"

I'm officially a married woman, and with that came some changes. The biggest one of all was moving from a suburb of Toronto to a small town 7 hours north from home. It was a big change because it was just a completely different pace of life. There isn't an insane rush to go anywhere, and there are no feelings of anxiety to run late anywhere. This new town has given me time to stop and smell the roses, and to just destress. The moving process was also quite easy. We had a ton of family and friends help us move everything from my parent's place to our new apartment and it was a breeze.

Part of having time to relax has been playing around with quite a few recipes. From raw vegan desserts, to gluten free breads to quite a few slow cooker recipes- I've been cooking a lot! It's been a lot of fun making new recipes and adapting them to my own tastes.

Though I'm still waiting to hear about a job, and I live farther than I ever have from home- I'm surprisingly not stressed or anxious. Everything will happen in its own time and in the meenwhile I' just be cookin' up a storm!

Hello universe!

I swear...I don't mean to leave the blog alone for such a long period of time.

The oldest excuse in the book- life got busy.

Since my last post, I've been working 3 jobs and planning my wedding!

"Is she crazy?" you may be asking.

YES

Absolutely, completely one hundred percent insane. And I love it!

Two of my jobs involve what I've been wanting to do as a career since I was a wee little one- I've been teaching private music lessons to around 30 students, plus co-teaching 3 group musical theatre classes. I like being able to connect with students and push them to be their best while still having a lot of fun.

My third job is something that was just for "fun"- I started working at a raw vegan restaurant. It has such delicious food, and it's always a great atmosphere.

But doing wedding planning on top of that? Yeaaah....not my smartest move.

If I had to go back in time, I would make myself schedule more me-time, just so I don't feel run-down.

All this hard working is going to be paying off though, because I'm marrying this handsome man in exactly THREE WEEKS!

#ThriftStyleThursday-Bollywood Babe (Influenced by India)

Alright guys, whoever voted for this week's #ThriftStyleThursday...I love ya!

For someone who is Indian, this week was actually a bit of a struggle for me. Do I just put on an Indian outfit and go completely Bollywood or do I tame it down?

It's really hard to make outfit decisions...

I decided to focus on two aspects of most Indian outfits- bright bold patterns, and bright bold jewelry (bling bling baby!) 

Except...what's a girl to do when she has a rotating wardrobe of black and denim, but barely have any colour?!

Well...I made it work. I remember buying this top when peplum was just starting to take off. It was one of those "it's cheap and trendy, so I'll buy it" moments. I mean for $3, you can't go wrong! It features a very popular Indian motif-the ever-so-popular paisley. Combine that with a giant shiny statement necklace straight from India itself?

[Shirt-$3 from Stitches] [Necklace-gift]

Also Bollywood- appropriate? A thick, shiny head of hair, and tons of eyeliner!

[Hair- au naturel baby!] [Eyeliner- Essence waterproof eyeliner, $2.99 at Shoppers Drug Mart]

My hair has been one of my biggest struggles since I was a baby. Would you believe that as a baby, I had a head full of curls?! 

Unfortunately, keeping those pretty curls tangle-free was my poor mother's biggest struggle. By the time I started school, chop chop-no more curls! 

Over the past several years, I've killed my hair. Between dying it different colours, straightening it almost every day in university, and blowdrying it to straw....my hair wasn't happy. It was brittle and still crazy prone to frizz. 

I made a huge change in February of this year when I started the no-poo movement on my hair. I wash my hair with apple cider vinegar, and condition with coconut oil. Yes, oil. Coconut oil is the only oil that is able to completely penetrate into the hair, conditioning from the inside out. I think it's paid off wonderfully because my hair is the softest it's ever been! 

What is your favourite Indian trend?

Take an exotic vacation to my thrifty gals to see how they styled this weel's Indian theme!

❇ Aligator Toe ❇ Being Zhenya ❇ Bethie the Boo ❇ Buttons and Birdcages  ❇ Confessions of a Refashionista ❇ Eclecticity ❇ Erika’s Style Diary ❇ Lipstick and Yarn ❇ Muddy Flowers ❇ Rachel’s Lookbook ❇ Sandpaper Kisses ❇ Sincerely Miss J ❇ Sistas From Cali ❇Slight Impression ❇Snippets with Alex ❇ Spoolish ❇That Cheap Bitch ❇ The Two Cent Chick ❇

-Sarina

Foodie Feature-My Take on Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls

Hello! 

As mentioned in a previous post, I am beginning a series called Foodie Feature, where I try out different recipes from my cookbook arsenal. 

This week's Foodie Feature is a recipe inspired by this cookbook: 

The Good, the Bad and the Yummy, by Adina Steiman

I picked up this book at a discount bookstore in the States a few years back, and I love it! True to its title, it gives recipes that are "good" (healthy pick-me-ups) and "bad" (delicious treats), with the focus on every recipe being delicious.

This week, I wanted to make something for a girl's day sitting poolside. I was looking for something light, healthy-ish and easy to make. I decided to use this book because I remembered that there was a fresh rice paper roll recipe in it.

However, true to my Sarina style- I can't just follow a recipe. I absolutely have to tweak it in some way.
The original recipe called for shrimp, rice noodles, cilantro and cucumber.

What did I do?
...
...
I decided to make dessert rolls. 

Following true rice paper roll form, I had a carb- homemade sweet rice with condensed milk, something crunchy- a Pink Lady apple, and something herby- mint leaves. I also added in slice of mango and strawberries, just for some beautiful colours. These flavours together just screamed summertime to me!

The tricky thing about this recipe is prepping the rice paper. Each piece needs to soak in water for a bit beforehand, so that it becomes pliable. Too short of a soak time and the rice paper is brittle, too long and it becomes a mushy mess. I slowly got the hang of it though, and somewhat mastered the rolling technique. 

Look at these beautiful colours! So summery

Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls-makes 8

 (adapted from The Good, The Bad and the Yummy)

8 sheets of rice paper

a bowl filled with water- must be large enough to fit the rice paper into 

1/3 cup rice

2/3 cup milk

1/4 cup condensed milk

1 mango, seeded, peeled and sliced

1 apple, cored and sliced (I didn't peel mine, but if you want to you can)

1/2 pint of strawberries, washed and sliced into quarters

2 sprigs mint leaves, taken off the stem

• First prepare the rice- in a small saucepan, combine rice and milk. Over high heat, let rice boil. Turn heat to low and let simmer for 15 min, stirring occasionally. After, stir the condensed milk into the rice. Set aside. 
• To make rolls
• Soak a sheet of rice paper in water for 30-40 seconds, or until pliable. 
• Lay rice paper onto a flat surface. Put a teaspoon of rice mixture down the middle. Top with 2 slices each of apple and mango, 4 strawberry quarters and 2 mint leaves. 
• To roll. Fold top and bottom towards each other. Pull one side of rice paper towards the middle, making sure all ingredients are tight together. Roll. 
• Repeat process for all 8 rolls

Have you have fresh rice paper rolls before?

Sarina

Thrift Store Finds-A Ruby Red Convertible (dress)

I wish I thrifted an actual convertible, how cool would that be?! The closet I'll get to it is a Hot Wheels car...

Where I work at the moment is a hop skip and a jump from my favourite thrift store. I have gone there at least once a week since the summer started, and I have never left empty-handed. They have two sales every week. Items labelled with one type of coloured tag are 50 percent off, while a different coloured tag are marked down to be $1.

I have this thing...I love convertible dresses. A dress you can wear a million ways, just by tying it differently each time. The only problem is they're definitely not a thrifter's dream. Good quality ones start at $100 and up if you buy them through online companies, such as Dessy or Henkaa.

They have never been in my budget until this year. I bought teal ones for my bridesmaids dresses, and I thought that I was being smart and thrifty-ish by getting them off of Etsy! However, I wasn't smart enough, I should've bought one for myself too!

Well....yesterday was my lucky day.

I went to the thrift store just for a browse, and I saw this beautiful, silky red material peeking out from behind the coats. I decided to investigate. It was a convertible dress for $18! Of course, I had to grab it up. 

I got to the register after picking up a couple of books, started checking out-and got really confused when the cashier told me my total was $14. 

"Wasn't the dress supposed to be $18?" I asked

"Originally, yes. But yellow tags were on the half price sale this week" she told me. 

Hello wardrobe wonder! 

Halleujah!! I was pretty excited. I only have three red things in my wardrobe-a crazy fancy floor length cocktail dress, a cozy rust-coloured cardigan and a red sweater.

This is definitely a purchase that I can see myself re-using over and over again. I'm already dreaming up outfits...

Sarina

Foodie Feature!

Hello there!

As a kid, my first introduction to reading was...different to say the least. My mother had a collection of cookbooks that was about the size of me (at the time) that she never used! So my little tiny self went through all those books, looking for the yummiest things. As I got older, I actually started to read the recipes instead of just drooling over the pictures (and wondering why I couldn't have only chocolate cake for every meal...I mean, it sounds perfect to me...right?) 

I started really getting into cooking and baking around the end of grade eleven. I enjoyed the process of gathering ingredients, mixing, and achieving my well deserved result-delicious things! Around this time I also started watching a certain Canadian chef on TV-Bob Blumer

I got to meet my favourite chef earlier this year at a Food and Wine show-he gives the best hugs! 

I guess this cooking thing became a hobby of mine over time, because I'm still crazy about it! I've always wanted to go to culinary school but took music as my 'safe' option.  Instead, I watch the Food Network like it's my job, create disasters (and miracles) in the kitchen and treat my friends as guinea pigs to my latest concoctions. I knew my fiancé was the One when he bought me a cookbook for our first Valentine's day together. So much more useful than flowers! 

Over the past couple of years, I've amassed my own small collection of cookbooks that I've read a million times, and tried recipes out of. The newest addition to the collection is this beauty-generations eats by Amy Rosen.

New books make me happy

It effortlessly combines catchy titles, yummy recipes, and movie recommendations as an accompaniment! I perused this book at a thrift store today and quickly realized that it was a never-used copy . When I took it to the cash register, I had sticker shock-instead of being the dollar it was marked as, it was fifty cents!! There was a flash sale, with all cookbooks being half off. So much excitement! 

I want to introduce a new feature to my blog-Foodie Features! Once a week (well, I'll try) I will feature a recipe from one of my many cookbooks, complete with photos and a recipe. This blog started off as a food blog, and I haven't posted much of that lately.

Sarina 

#ThriftStyleThursday-Delightfully Dainty

Hello there!

This week's theme is delightfully dainty. When i think of dainty, I think of teeny weeny things, like rings and small patterns. 

This week I'll be featuring one of my favourite patterned items

Indian suit- free, birthday present, earrings- $5, Ardene

The pattern on the top and pants of this suit scream dainty to me. Even though the colours seem to take up most of the suit, if you look carefully you can see quite dainty little patterns.

What do you think? Does this seem dainty to you?

As always, visit the delightful dainty divas to see how they styled this weeks Dainty theme!

❇ Aligator Toe ❇ Being Zhenya ❇ Bethie the Boo ❇ Buttons and Birdcages  ❇ Confessions of a Refashionista ❇ Eclecticity ❇ Erika’s Style Diary ❇ Lipstick and Yarn ❇ Muddy Flowers ❇ Rachel’s Lookbook ❇ Sandpaper Kisses ❇ Sincerely Miss J ❇ Sistas From Cali ❇Slight Impression ❇Snippets with Alex ❇ Spoolish ❇That Cheap Bitch ❇ The Two Cent Chick ❇