Vegan Red Velvet Cake

I wasn't aware that vegan baking could be or look so good until I found this blog! The Gluttonous Vegan has some amazing recipes and great step-by-steps on how to do it all.

You'll need:

1 cup soy milk

1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp red food colouring (look out for the one where the colour is made from Red #40 (coal derivative) not cochineal/carmine (bug derivative)

For the frosting:

1/2 cup vegan margarine

1/4 cup soy milk

2 1/2 - 3 cups icing sugar

1 tiny drop of the red food colouring

Here's the ingredients, but to know how to make it you're just going to have to go to her site!

DIY: Button & Bead Bouquet

Isn't this beautiful? I know it's for a wedding bouquet but I sort of just want to make one for a table center piece!

Here's what you need...

And here's a little sample of how to do it......But check out the full post on Off Beat Bride!

Have a great weekend everyone!

DYI: Bows

I love giving gifts, and I love wrapping them up real nice and making it more of a full experience then just what's inside. I love the anticipation that's built when you see a gift that's wrapped so beautifully, don't you?

Check out the post on Ruffled for the full DYI! And check out my gift wrapping post for more ideas!

June Want List

I love wine, and I love these bottles! I would totally buy these just because of the bottles, even if they weren't that good! Ha!
I love this painting! I would love it in my (new) dining room or in our spare bedroom. Those eyes say so much and you can use your imagination on what they say to you.
I want this card from Freakin Awesome Prints but in a large print so I could put it up on my wall!
I don't really drink milk but to get a crate full of different cheeses? Heaven!
I'm pretty sure it's just for looks and doesn't serve it's intended purpose but it's just such a cute necklace right?
Chocolate...after the crate of cheese? Perfect!
And lastly I want this great camera pin!!

Engagement Photo Redo: Water Balloons

We never did get engagement photos and I sort of regret that...but if I could do it again this would for sure be a fun time!!

Coffee Jell-o?!

I follow a blog called the Food Librarian and I found this great recipe the other day and just had to share it! I'll go on record that I hate coffee but my husband loves it and I'm for sure going to make this as a treat for him sometime!

Coffee Jello / Coffee Gelatin
1/2 c cold water
2 cups strong coffee, hot.
I used two packages of Starbucks Via. The coffee needs to be strong. This isn't the time for Sanka instant. :) 1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)
3 packages of Knox unflavored gelatin


1. Place 1/2 c cold water in a bowl.
2. Sprinkle 3 unflavored gelatin packets over the water. Let sit until the gelatin blooms, about 10 minutes.
3. Stir in the hot coffee and mix until the gelatin is completely dissolved.
4. Stir in the can of sweetened condensed milk.
5. Pour into glass pan. Thickness of finished jello depends on the size of the pan. I used a 7 x 11 pan but a 9 x 13 pan will give you thinner pieces and an 8 x 8 pan will give you thicker pieces.

Note: The combo of coffee and sweetened condensed milk is inspired by Vietnamese coffee. You can probably adapt this to use coffee or espresso, cream and sugar (be sure to dissolve the sugar in the hot coffee and gelatin). I find that 1 packet of unflavored gelatin will firm up 1 1/2 cups of liquid to finger jello "strength" (according to David Lebovitz's "How to Use Gelatin" post you can mold 2 cups with one envelope - but I feel finger jello needs to be stronger).

Must See: Miss Pole Dance

I came across this video on galdarling and I HAD TO share it. This woman is amazing! I know, its pole dancing, but who wouldn't want to be that flexible, talented and graceful?

Making Change: The Story of Stuff

I found this video on Green Love and it's really great! It's long and super informative (so be ready to be attentive) but so much of it is true, and a lot of it I don't think I truly thought about, or at least thought about enough!

What do you guys think?

Pineapple Tarts

Don't these look great? I would likely eat them all!! At East Meets West there are so many more super tasty looking recipes to chose from.

The Pineapple Jam :

700g Pineapple slices (I used canned Indonesian pineapples)
180g Sugar

1 small Cinnamon bark

4-5 whole Cloves

1/2 Tsp Vanilla extract

Juice of half a Lemon

2-3 Pandan leaves

The Pastry Base :

400g Flour (sifted)
250g Butter (cold, cubed)

Pinch of Salt

4 Tbsp Sugar

3 Egg yolks (one for glazing - optional - I didn't bother)

Less than 1/4 cup Cold Water

For the how to's you're going to have to check out the post yourself : )

Tea Box Design

I love teas, and I loves these boxes. I found this as a student feature on The Dieline website.

DYI: Candle Holders

We were thinking of doing these for our wedding. Didn't end up doing but I still think they would look great hanging from a tree, don't you think? Check out this great post from Brilliant Imagery for all the how tos.

Tutorial: How to Make a Cupcake Tier

I found this great tutorial first on Total Tutorials and then went to the site and sew the full thing. It’s great and I thought I would share the pictures with you here. I might suggest crazy gluing the sundae dishes and plates together, especially if you have kids around. You don’t want you pretty cupcakes to be ruined by it all coming crashing down!

Following My Sister: Blog Lovin'

My sister just told me about Blog Lovin and so I thought I would check it out. She tells me about a lot of different things online, most to do with fashion and blogging and sometimes it hard to keep up because she's all over the web (in a good way) but I'm putting in a bit more effect because I know it always pays off!

So I checked into Blog Lovin' and I'm going to give it a go! I'm not as good as my sister when it comes to all of this but hey here's trying right?

I love you Crystal! See you Friday when you come home!!


Follow my blog with bloglovin

Tutorial: How to Make Linen Flowers

Aren't these great? I found this DIY on The Bride's Cafe and just loved the idea! For the full "How tos" check out the post.

Jodie on: A Year in High Heels by Camilla Morton

A Year in High Heels by Camilla Morton

I looked over this book time and time again at the bookstore, delegating it in the 'fluff' chick lit genre in which I was not interested until a fairly well-read friend of mine suggested it. Despite the cutesy name and cover it is quite full of substance and sophistication. It's no War and Peace, by any means but is much more than it would appear. Camilla Morton is an expert on seemingly everything. A Year in High Heels is a monthly companion for any chic, modern Holly Golightly in the making. Each month presents new studies in etiquette, history, literature, and footwear(I told you it was no War and Peace). The book is somewhat old-fashioned in terms of a woman's role, but does offer up chapters in home maintenance and ownership alongside wedding planning guides. The most pleasing part of Morton's guide to style and elegance is that each month features extensive biographies into history's influential and gutsy women which are truly inspiring, wether it be Cleopatra or Coco Chanel. I would reccomend this book to any woman as we could all use some polishing around the edges and the bite-sized chapters and daily trivia are a nice supplement to something heavier.

Buy it here. Check out Jodie's Blog here.

New Cinema City Coupon, yay!

Monday- Thursday 2 tickets for $3.50, pretty good I'd say : )

Here's the link, enjoy!

Cinema City Coupons! Yay!

Again, my favourite Winnipeg savings site has posted about cinema city. For march any movie, any time $2! And buy a regular drink get a regular popcorn free! Click here for the coupon!

A Post & Treasury All For Me?

My sister did a post and an etsy treasury just about me!! It almost made me cry so I thought I would share it with you all...

She’s a wonderful woman that continues to challenge and inspire me all the time!

I love you Crystal!

My New Shop And My Inspiration For It

I have one sister and her name is Crystal. She lives in Montreal with her boyfriend Paul. She’s 2 ½ years older than me but at times we look like twins and we have those strange links that twins have. There will be days where we’ll ask each other (we email daily) what we did the night before and we did the exact same things! Or we’ll end up buying the same things, or wearing the same thing to work, or thinking of doing the same thing, at the same time. Yes, it could just be coincidence, but this happens way too often for that to be the answer and we live on so far from each other that influencing each other’s decisions isn’t likely either. My theory is we are twins born at different times or something fun like that.

Anyways, my sister is my inspiration in a lot of ways. I’ve always looked up to her for her beauty, popularity, and fun personality. She was always more graceful and rhythmic then me (which I really envied cause I always wanted to be on a dance team but I think I would hurt myself and others too much for that! I stuck to horseback riding and other nature activities)

Recently she started herself a website with her boyfriend Paul where she doesn’t the coolest posts of fashion and fun things that she finds! http://thehouseofhearts.com She also started a shop on Etsy http://thehouseofhearts.etsy.com selling vintage fashion and art work done by Paul (he’s a incredibly talented animator!)

I think she’s gone through this huge caterpillar to butterfly transformation becoming the (even more) creative person that she is today. She’s always had that creative artsy side to her but she expressed it in different ways (figure skating and dance mainly) but now she’s taken on this whole new side to her, opened it up to the world and I find that so inspiriting.

I’ve always made jewellery and painted as a sort of vent and hobby but with my sister venturing out and doing her sites I decided “Why not give it a try myself?” I created a Etsy shop too (with some help from Crystal) http://beadybody.etsy.com featuring different vintage and handmade jewellery. I just bought some new canvases so the paintings are on the way too. I find it so liberating and exciting that I can just create something just like that; go online and make myself a shop! I’m so thankful for the advances we have in technology and the availability of it all.

So this post is about my sister. Inspiring me to go out and do my own thing too! She’s the best sister I could have!