I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my dream home. It’s a concept that’s come up between Mister & I many times as of late – what would your dream home look like? What would it consist of? If you could build your own home – from design to architecture to colours to furniture to everything – what would it be?

I asked the question via twitter and here are some of the answers:

All amazing answers, and sometimes I think – yeah, I want all of that too! You get confused with what you like and what you really want and then I read this blog post at Pink of Perfection and it kind of clicked – figure out what mood you want your life to set and the rest will follow. It makes sense and I know I’ve done this before (with paint or outfits – what do you want to feel when you look at this?). Sarah’s mom said it perfectly by asking her “What mood do you want to create?” when faced with the umpteen number of fabric choices in Ikea.

This can apply to everything in life, including life itself. What sort of life do you want to live? That should be the first question when thinking about your dream home, because your home will dictate what kind of life you will end up living – if you live in the city you will have noise, you will be around everything that’s open all the time – if you live in the suburbs everything is a drive or bike ride away, you can do huge shopping sprees and not worry about how many trips it will take up the elevator to bring everything up. Do you see where I’m going with this? Or am I just continually on ramble mode…?

In terms of dream homes, I am drawn to modern and minimal – but not contemporary – and there’s a seriously fine line between modern and contemporary out there (or, as I call it, the line between chic and tacky). But when you consider the mood you want your home to present, your vision gets more concrete.

Raw materials, natural light, openness, the outdoors coming in…

I want a feeling of calmness, clarity and warmth.

My Dream Home

consists of….

An inner courtyard with retractable glass walls…

A Bulthaup kitchen to bake in, eat and entertain in…

our mah jong sectional to relax and watch movies on…

A free-standing concrete bathtub in the master bathroom…

via flickr

Floor-to-ceiling windows and polished concrete floors…

Exposed brick and a large dining table to share stories around…

a secret playroom for our Princess…

a rooftop deck with a hot tub, a bbq and a place to relax

And this view to look upon…

I would love to take a look into your dream home – if you end up doing a post about your dream home share it in the comments!

xoxo

Fab Brunette

Pineapple Salsa

Let me start this off with a pleasant rant: I fucking hate cilantro. I know, everyone in the world loves it, well, too bad, I fucking hate it. My boyfriend adores it. Without a doubt it has the most offensive smell and it lingers on your fingers ALL DAY LONG no matter how many times you wash them. I hate pizzas with cilantro on it. I went to a cool pizza place in Kitsilano and every fucking pizza had cilantro. Bleh. This recipe has cilantro. Be forewarned. It is necessary.

The first time I ever had pineapple salsa was on a date with my boyfriend, maybe 4 or 5 years ago, at a trendy new restaurant that served it with salmon and rice – and it was delicious.  I re-created it at home a few days later (it’s not like I really cooked a lot back then), and it was so yummy and easy to make. Well, since then I’ve made a few revisions to this recipe, and I adore it because you can add or omit anything you like and it always tastes delicious!

The Ingredients

Ingredients:

• Chopped pineapple
• Finely chopped purple onion
• Finely chopped green and/or red peppers
• Finely chopped green onion
• Finely chopped jalapeno pepper
• Finely chopped fresh cilantro
• A tablespoon of honey
• A dash of pepper
• A sprinkle of seasonings (cayenne, chili, red pepper, mexican, mrs dash)
• Fresh lime juice

If you don’t have something, don’t fret! The only item necessary is pineapple! There are no measurements, just start with a bowl that will give you enough salsa!

Pretty Colours

1. Chop everything up and put it in a bowl. Start with pineapple, then toss anything you want on top – feel free to experiment with whatever veggies you have in your fridge!

2. Add all seasonings (pepper, spices), the tablespoon of honey (also not necessary) and squeeze some lime on top. Mix it all together and put it your fridge for at least an hour for all the flavours to blend together and bring each other out.

3. Top on any meat, eat on the side, or dip your chips in it!

*******************************************

Other variations: add mango, orange juice, mint, basil, corn kernels, black beans, ground cumin…

Pineapple Salsa

This salsa keeps for days and is great for when you’re feeling lazy and can’t think of what to do with a chicken breast. Just grill/bake/poach your meat or fish anyway you like and serve on top. I also put this on burgers with some guacamole (so good!) and tacos and fajitas are glorious with this salsa.

Enjoy!

xoxo

Fab Brunette

Anyone who knows me understands completely when I say that I the definition of an undomesticated housewife. Not only do I technically suck at all things houselike, I also detest them down to my very soul. And yet, laundry must be washed and folded, dishes must be spotless, and floors must be swept – and who else to do it but a simple complex housewife such as myself?

I should also let you know that I detest the word ‘housewife’, for I am not married and there is no ring around my finger portraying an engagement, but as I am currently technically unemployed self-employed,  and I spend most my days at home blogging, twittering, playing studying, I am technically the ‘housewife’ in my current household situation. The word housewife also brings to mind the awful ‘eating bon-bons and watching soaps’ connotation, and I’m not sure where the cliché came from but it’s definitely a thorn in my side.

Things would be much easier if I had not been living with the dreaded twenty-something male and his daughter, the four-year-old Nintendo-DS-playing book-reading Princess. These creatures bring upon different messes there would normally not be – dirt on the floor? From the male’s work boots. Random Tinkerbell DVD in my closet? Princess. Wet towels on the floor? Male. Keys missing? Princess’ babies’ stroller. The biggest mess I make is my makeup case spread out on the bathroom counter and my tea pot in the kitchen – but I digress, I must deal with this mess just like many other ‘housewives’ all over the world do.

How do I do it? At times I’m not quite sure since I dread doing anything related to housework, but the first thing to do is always the same – always turn off the computer. The laptop. The cell phone. Stop twittering, stop blogging, stop g-chatting. But just wait until you finish this article! It doesn’t have to be for long – don’t fret! I find if I’m doing something I hate, doing it in small spurts actually is easier than doing it all at once – sounds a little crazy I know, you ask: isn’t it better just to be all done with it in one swoop? - hell no! Because you’ll spend two hours doing something you hate, something that actually doesn’t take that long, and you’ll start dragging every little thing along, wasting time, daydreaming, and you’d have wasted two hours slowly killing yourself. And then you won’t do it again for a looong time.

Then again, if you’re having a real ‘get go’ day – strap on those cleaning gloves and clean, clean, clean! If you’re in a cleaning mood that is, whereas I rarely am and therefore have this lazy guide to rely on.

Keeping house is a non-stop job. You cannot realistically clean once a week and be done with it. Counters need wiping, floors can get gross in certain areas, and bathrooms are a more than once a week job (unless you live by yourself and then God bless you!).

First I’ll throw in a load of laundry – that way something’s being done even when I’m not physically doing anything. And then I’ll make a tea. I’ll allow my piping hot tea to cool down and I’ll clean off and wipe down all the kitchen counters, do dishes or throw them in the dishwasher. Then I will sit and sip my tea, and perhaps read a book or a magazine.

Music also helps. Sometimes I love cleaning with music, sometimes I don’t, but it’s definitely easier to clean with a bit of bounce in your step – whatever you do, don’t turn on the tv especially if you’re a distractoid like me – I’ll get sucked in for 30 minutes and marvel at the time well badly wasted.

Next I’ll do the bathrooms – I have two and doing it in one swoop is easier – same products, two toilets, two sinks, finito. If you have a male living in your house, please pay proper attention to the toilet bowl and floor around the toilet bowl. If neglected it can become a bacterial frathouse under there – I do the vomit test. (No! No! Don’t actually vomit!)

Imagine you got sick and you had to vomit, would you feel comfortable sitting at the base of your toilet, grabbing it and resting your head on it? If you have a male in the house, probably not, unless he sits down to pee…which is a whole different story – CLEAN IT. When I was pregnant I dealt with a LOT of toilets, and if you’ve never been pregnant attempt to recall a night where you drank just a wee too much and spent the night in the bathroom. Yeah. Remember that.

After the bathrooms are done I might catch up on Twitter. Sip some more tea. Ready to do more?

Check if the laundry is done, if so throw it in the dryer (or hang if you’re eco-consciously inclined) and throw in another load if necessary. This is where you learn my dirty little secret. I don’t do my bed until it’s noon. Mornings I’m rushed, I sleep in a tad too late, run around trying to get myself and my daughter ready, and stumble out of the house leaving it a somewhat wreck. But as soon as I get home I’ll do my little routine and I’ll do the bed. Tidy the room. Then jump into the kidlet’s room and tidy a bit there too. It’s seriously not a big deal to get a kids room spotlessly clean, because by the end of the day it’ll be a circus again, but ensuring that the kid helps clean up is a must – you are not her maid, you just clean the house.

Are you tired? Usually by this point I get kinda bored with the whole cleaning thing. Think about it, we’re almost done. The kitchen sparkles, the bathroom smells good, the bedrooms have beds made – we’ve left the living area and hallway last (I seriously pity you if you have many more rooms to clean, if so hire someone to do it or make your kid clean with you.). So I might make another tea. See if anyone @fabbrunette’d me on twitter.

And then I’ll dust one last time in the living areas, grab my broom and sweep the whole house as quick as I can. I might pull out the Swiffer WetJet on some extremely yucky areas. And guess what? I’m done. My house is clean, laundry needs to be folded and I’m done. For maybe five whole minutes I can feel proud of my house, going from room to room, imagining a magazine feature being shot -

But do you know what happens next? The male gets home and brings his dirty shoes inside, throws wet towels on the floor, I need to salvage something for dinner if not ringing up for takeout which causes destruction in the kitchen, and the Princess at this point has strewn her toys all over the house and I send her on a search and rescue mission before we go back to sleep.

And please, don’t get down on yourself at all, you must put the perfectionista act away. You’re never going to get anywhere trying to be perfect – if you don’t get to the whole house – so what? Finish it tomorrow or whenever you get a spare five minutes. If the bathroom isn’t perfect or you didn’t get to sweep, it’s honestly not a big deal. Be a big girl, chin up, and say I am good enough, this is good enough. Sometimes being perfect is what stops us from doing anything at all, if you can’t get it perfectly clean or if everything is not put away, what’s the point of doing it at all? You DESERVE a tidy home, even if there’s Cheerios under the fridge or dust in the corner, just do what you can and declare it GOOD ENOUGH. Now smile Because you’ll have to do it again in one or two or maybe three days if you’re lucky.

It truly is a never ending cycle this housewife business, and I do not wish it on any of you. But it is a reality that many of us deal with – and this isn’t hardly scratching the surface – some of the real housewives (and I don’t mean the ones on TV) actually have schedules, meal plans, extra-curriculur activities – it really is a demanding job.

And I realise that most people have jobs to go to – shift work, day jobs, night jobs – but the easiest thing to do is break it up in five minute segments – we all have five minutes to spare. Clean a bathroom in five minutes. Go to work. Come home and clean the kitchen for five minutes. But don’t stress, don’t try to put on the perfect housewife act, just do your best and clean what you can. That’s the best we can all do. Happy cleaning!

xoxo

Fab Brunette

Many of you know I have moved across the beautiful country of Canada – from Toronto to Vancouver – I leaped! Well, I actually flew, like in a plane. Whatever.

So I’ve been here in this condo for almost 30 days – that’s thirty days people, and it’s still as exciting as the first day! The views are incredible – I’m going to stop bragging about it eventually, I promise! We have a huge closet, a huge bathroom and a kitchen with an oven with indecipherable dials. I have no clue what I’m doing but it seems to work so far.

We made our first big purchase – stools at our kitchen island, so we can, you know, actually SIT as we’re eating. Food tastes totally better sitting down, seriously. So I thought I’d share with you our unfurnished condo – which basically has 2 beds and 3 chairs. Yay! I feel like Goldilocks and the Three Bears (I have three bowls as well)…. Anyway, here we begin:

The Front Door:

The Kitchen:

The Master Bathroom:

The Bedroom:

*Some* of my Shoes:

So I realise there is a blue hair elastic with a flower on it in the above picture…. just ignore that.  And remember when I got my Christmas present from J, it was a new charm for my Tiffany’s bracelet, an Eiffel tower. Well I brought it to Tiffany’s on Boxing Day and I only picked it up on the 21st of January! Crazy! But here it is :

Also, I promise my house will look more interesting once decorated!

xoxo

Fab Brunette

After spending a few days away from the internet world, I’m definitely ready for a comeback. J has been off work for a couple of days so we’ve been hanging and out doing family things – which is really code for pizza, beer and movie nights. We took off to Vancouver Island for a day trip, checking out the gorgeous scenery on the way to the capital and then falling in love with Victoria and all the old brick buildings found everywhere you look…. look for pics in an upcoming post.

We are still in the process of moving. J’s brother has the house we were all renting for one more month, so we left our stuff there and every other day we’d bring over a couple more boxes. I highly recommend this format of moving – it was a lot more relaxed and organized going through a couple of boxes a day instead of thirty, although this situation is highly unusual. I was more than a little shocked when I hung up a bunch of J’s dress shirts and they all smelled of smoke – J’s brother has smoked in the house but it’s unbelievable how much clothes pick up scents. All the shirts have to go to the drycleaners, stat. I’ve been attempting to be more domesticated - haven’t done that in a while! Today’s dinner consisted of Buffalo Chicken Strip Sandwiches with Caesar Salads, not the healthiest of meals but very yummy and super easy to make… only today’s specialty was just a little bit spicy… Another reason for my being offline? Cleaning. Sweet Lord. Say it with me. Sweet Lord.

I hate cleaning. For some reason whenever I clean it takes all day long. Laundry, tidying up, wiping down, sweeping, mopping, toilets – I HATE CLEANING. But I tell myself that I deserve clean countertops and clean toilets – I deserve it! So I spend my whole cleaning a 1125 square foot condo. And I don’t even finish it. That’s how much I love cleaning.

And in other news, I’ve dyed my hair back to the fabulous brunette I was born to be… okay well slightly darker than what I was born with, but after this fiasco I’m so happy to have it back. But I will let you know this, the red/auburn brunette look does look smashing on me, I’ve had random people coming up to me with compliments and I just look at them in shock and tell them it was a mistake. Reddish and burgundy tones apparently look good with my skin tone, and it definitely is fun for a while, but I’m done with it now! Back to brunette!

Last but not least, many know about Brandy and the situation is in, and a bunch of bloggers came together to donate money for her cause – check out Love Harder to find out more and donate!

xoxo

Fab Brunette

As of late, I'm doing my best to be thrifty, especially when going grocery shopping. I'm trying to watch my spending and make every last cent count. You'll be pleased to know that I've made dinner every single night this week – c'est fabuleux, non? I'm trying to stay away from boutique grocers such as Meinhardt and Urban Fare – although I love them so! – but I just can't continue spending $7.00 on unsalted butter when Price Smart has it for $3.99 on sale. My apologies. 

I've cut back on my Starbucks consumption, which isn't overly maddening because of the Tassimo machine that makes my cappuccinos at home, but there's one thing I do miss, and it's something that I just recently discovered and is currently my favourite cookie of all time.

The Ginger Molasses Cookie.

First consumed at the Baker's Market from a fellow baker, then obsessed with at Starbucks, this cookie is delightful, filling and chewy, spicy and sweet all at the same time. Starbucks does makes an amazing Ginger Molasses cookie, and I was craving one like mad today so I decided to make them in order to be thrifty.

So I wandered through the grocery store, my kid in the shopping cart, iPhone in my hand dictating what ingredients I needed to make these amazing cookies. I needed cookie sheets, molasses, dark brown sugar, ground ginger… after adding it up in my head it would've cost me $15 to make them, so I just stepped up to the Starbucks counter and purchased a ginger molasses cookie for $1.75, brought it home and am currently eating it for lunch with my made-at-home cappuccino.

But I decided to post the recipe anyway! If you try the recipe, let me know how it goes, I'll be making it this weekend!!

What's your favourite cookie?

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 extra-large egg
• 1/4 cup regular unsulphured molasses
• Granulated sugar (for coating cookie dough before baking)

Method

1 Preheat oven to 375 degrees with rack in center. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper, set aside.

2 Sift flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger into a medium bowl. Set aside.

3 Cream the butter and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl with mixer on high speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Lower to medium speed, beat in the egg and molasses, the increase speed to high and beat about 1 minute longer, until mixture no longer looks curdled. 

4 Mix in the flour mixture on low speed. The batter will be rather stiff. Place some granulated sugar on a plate, and using an ice cream scoop or measuring cup form 1/4-cup portions of dough. Transfer dough to your hands and roll each portion into a rough ball, then roll each ball into the sugar. Place six sugared balls on each baking sheet, spacing them evenly, because they will spread during baking.

5 Dampen your fingers with water and press down lightly on each cookie to flatten it a little and dampen the top. Refrigerate one filled baking sheet while the other bakes.

6 Bake for 12 minutes, or until the cookies have spread and are firm to the touch. Allow to cool and then eat.

Last week I was speaking my mother on the phone and I was bragging about how gorgeous the weather is in Vancouver – it's sunny! no wind! blue skies! flowers blooming! – and how quickly those words have come to bite me in the ass.

Since yesterday, the temperature dipped to just below zero (celsius) and there's been a bit of a chilly wind in the air. It's no longer acceptable to walk outside without gloves or scarves, and even with that bright sun shining your toes may start to freeze off.

We went to the Santa Claus parade yesterday, a bit of a tradition for us. Every year since Princess was born we take her to the Santa Claus parade, in Toronto and now in Vancouver, and afterwards we eat at the Old Spaghetti Factory – a gluttonous and family-friendly meal. It was a ton of fun, but my feet definitely froze while standing outside for two hours waiting for Santa to arrive. J was the loving boyfriend that he always is and stood in line at Starbucks for 20 minutes out in the cold, bringing us hot chocolates and warm donuts, yum!

I spent my morning at Williams-Sonoma making up my registry – no, no, I'm not getting married – for our new apartment. That's right, we found one, with a gorgeous view, in a trendy, albeit not considered family-friendly neighborhood, and the place itself is modern, chic and has an amazing kitchen.

Most of my kitchen items have been in storage, have broken or been used and basically destroyed over the past few years, so we're moving into this place with nothing except the suitcases we brought with us and the mattresses from Ikea – that suck by the way.

And I recently also suckered J into wanting, needing, lusting over Le Creuset cookware in orange and since the prices are a little out of our range at the moment, I thought maybe someone loved me enough to buy it for me. And then I added wine glasses, flatware and dinnerware to the registry. And I realised how much these things actually cost and then I thought maybe this is a little ridiculous for a registry, but then the sales lady reassured me that it was fine. Okay, if you say so.

My morning was filled with daydreaming, fantasizing about kitchen appliances, Starbucks coffee and cold, cold weather. 

Wait! There's a funny story in here too! I was walking briskly down Granville Street when – bear with me, this is WAY TMI – I feel something between my legs, like in my crotch area. I'm like, what is that? It felt like I had an extra pair of underwear stuck in my pants, right at the crotch – I was like, this is so embarrassing. I wonder if people can see a bulge from behind?

So I continue walking, a little uncomfortably, and I finally look down and realize that my long, comfy scarf is stuck in between my legs, right at the crotch, and giving me a tail from behind. Awesome.

I found this picture from Solo Road Trip and was immediately so happy that this happened to someone else! 

When my registry is up online I'll post the link so you can all balk at the expensive items I put on there.

xoxo

Fab Brunette