My Week In Instagrams: April19, 2013

Happy Friday! This week has been a fun one. I haven't worked since Saturday, so I got a boat load of knitting done. More about the knitting on Monday!
This is what I've been otherwise up to this week.
When people bring back their bottle returns at work, some of them come in really strange boxes. Cat litter is a surprisingly common one. Any time this happens, I laugh, and refer to the customers as my special kitties. This week was the first time I thought to take a picture. Maybe this is only hilarious to me. Oh well, it makes time at work go by faster.
Since I had nearly a whole week off work, I decided to paint my nails. This happened Sunday, and it lasted a whole 10 hours before I mucked something up. I hit my one nail off something and there is a tiny, round dot in the middle of it that is lacking polish. Oh well, I'm not too worried. I think I'm going to continue doing my nails more often. I like the way they look.
Rick has been cooking again this week. This plate is steamed asparagus with lemon, roasted tomatoes, pan seared lamb chop, and a fried egg over potato and onion hash. So completely delicious. I'm so lucky having someone that enjoys cooking as much as he does. There are so many things I wouldn't have ever tried if it wasn't for him. Lamb being a major one. We have to go stock up on groceries before we have any crazy fun meals again. Our fridge is looking pretty barren.
We went to Trinkets and Treasures this week to drop off a couple things to Mel. On the way back, we came through Windsor so we could stop at Taco Bell. It's probably my favourite fast food restaurant. I used to eat it several times a week. I know it's not the healthiest of foods, no fast food really is, but it's something I treat myself to now and then.
There's a lot of food and drink going on this week! When we lived at the apartment in Windsor, and we both were working at home, we would have "grown up" drinks together. I'd be knitting and listening to podcasts, drinking vanilla vodka and 7up, and Rick would be coding websites and drinking gin and 7up. This is one of those strange things we do "together". We're doing the same thing, in the same place, but more or less completely ignoring each other in every other respect. I've been doing a lot of behind the scenes work on my various blogs and Etsy shop and what not, so a drink has been my reward for not pulling my hair out. Rick is building a website for his dad, and his gin has been a reward for not yelling at anyone.
On Wednesday, Rick and I went up to London to get his phone fixed at the Apple Store. He's been having problems with his power button for about a month and finally said enough's enough. We took the scenic drive up there, going through many, many little towns without so much as a Tim Hortons. I did a typical dirty mirror self portrait before going because I was excited, and thought I looked half decent. Sometimes, not often, I feel good about the way I look. This was one of those days. I'm working on that whole self confidence thing, and it's slowly working. There are more days that I feel good about myself than there used to be. This is one of my new years goals I set for this year.
Once we were done at the Apple Store, we walked around Masonville Mall for a little while, just to see what else there was. Lots of the same stuff that we have at home, so nothing too exciting. Then I happened to see inside DAVIDsTEA after almost walking right past it. I turned abruptly and I think my eyes got as big as dinner plates when I saw their tea wall. So many teas! I worked at Teaopia (which is now Teavana) for a couple holiday seasons, as you longtime blog followers know, so I have some knowledge about tea types. We smelled a few teas, and found a few that we liked. I got an iced Vanilla Orchid Oolong tea, which was absolutely phenomenal. Rick got a hot Rooibos de Provence. He loves lavender, and this one had some in it. Not as much as he'd hoped though. Teaopia had a blend that was just lavender buds and white tea. We're still on the hunt for something like that. Once I get more paid off on my credit card (another new years goal) I'll be ordering some tea from them online. I know Holly absolutely loves DAVIDsTEA, her blog is the first place I ever read anything about it, so I'm sure there are a lot of good blends to be had.
What have you folks been up to this week? Keep an eye out on Monday for some knitting content. I've been a busy little bee this week in the knitting department.

Happy Birthday To Me, and My Week In Instagrams: January 4, 2013

Today is my birthday! It's been a pretty good day so far, but more on this later on in the post! Here is what I've been up to this week, in Instagrams. If you want to see the photos larger, check them out Here. These are in chronological order for once, instead of being backwards.

1) Rick bought us each an iPad for Christmas/our birthdays. I got a mini, and he got a retina, which he has since returned due to some dead pixels. He'll be getting a new one as soon as they get them back in stock. Mine is wonderful, I didn't expect to like it as much as I do! I need to download some more apps, mainly one to write my blog posts from.
2) Last week we had a couple pretty busy nights for empties. One guy brought back something like 30 cases of empty cans. It filled the whole upper section of the bin. We looked over the edge and couldn't see a single can of another brand. Crazy!
3) We picked up some movies from the new-ish local movie rental place. We've watched most of them, just a couple left to get to for me. Some of them were scratched or otherwise unplayable, which is a bummer, but they cleaned them and gave them back so hopefully we'll be able to watch them. Some of the movies we got were Crashing, A Lonely Place To Die, A Dominatrix Story, Albatross, And They're Off, Brotherhood, and I think there was one more, plus a TV show that Rick got. None of them were exceptional, but I enjoyed all but "And They're Off" that was terrible.
4) New Year's Day I watched some movies and had some snacks. It was a nice laid back kind of day. We don't usually do much for New Year's Eve/Day, so this was just my speed.
5) I knit another mustard lacy neck warmer, which was a made to order sale that I got on New Year's Eve. It took me a couple days to whip it up, but I love knitting with Lion Brand Homespun, so it's always a treat to knit with it. I used my KnitPicks Harmony Wood for this. I've used the Sunstruck a few times, for darker yarns, and I really, really like them. I have to figure out something to knit with the smaller sized needles so I can use them all! I have quite a bit of lace weight, so maybe another shawl or two is in order. This style of neck warmer is still my favourite thing to knit. In fact, I have two more on the needles right now! Not even kidding!
6) Rick and I stopped at Taco Bell when we went to Windsor to return his iPad. They have something called an XXL Burrito, which I decided to get. It was really tasty, but comically huge. I picked it up, and it must have weighed over a pound and a half. GIGANTIC. Next time I get it, I'll skip the fries and just eat it.
7) I started on the THIRD of four balls of yarn for Christine's daughter's gift. I was watching some YouTube videos while doing this (The one in the photo is This One, you MUST watch it) I haven't done much more than a few rows, and the baby shower has already passed (I missed out because of work), but I am okay with this. I will have it done before the baby gets here!
8) Yesterday before shipping the mustard neck warmer, I stamped my first fibre content and care tag. I bought the manilla tags at Staples, and got the stamp itself from TickledPinkPaperInk on Etsy. I am absolutely in LOVE with this stamp. High quality, crisp print, and the fact that it is see through is great. If you need a custom stamp made, I highly recommend TPPI. I might get another stamp from her with the same font and a similar layout and use it to stamp my business cards. And then possibly a third to make the earring cards. I want my branding to be consistent, and I don't want someone else to have the same type of cards as me (which is the problem with using Vista Print)
9) I told you I loved this neck warmer pattern! I finished this bright red one this week as well. For next fall/winter, I want to have sets made with neck warmers and one or two other wintery accessories, which I am still trying to figure out. I think matching sets are super cute.
10) And now we're up to today! I went and got a shellac manicure from the salon I get my brows waxed at. I bought a Groupon a while back, I think during the summer, actually, and finally got around to using it. I had a hard time deciding between colours, so I went with two: a really pretty reddish pink, and silver on the ring fingers to add some fanciness. Rick thinks multiple colour manicures are weird. What are your thoughts?
11) Rick brought me for Vietnamese today. We have a pretty sweet local place that makes some excellent food, and today was no exception. This first photo is of two of the three types of rolls we get: minced shrimp on sugar cane in the background, and fried spring roll type in the foreground. We also get the cold rolls in rice paper that are filled with vermicelli, shrimp and veggies. So much deliciousness!
12) This is my usual dish at this Vietnamese place. Vermicelli with spring roll and shrimp. I love it, I think I've gotten it there all but two of the many, many times we've been. It's almost like a deconstructed roll, as it has all the components, with the addition of a fried roll, and some bean sprouts. I add some hoisin, and it's prefect.

Thank ou so much for reading this far! I'm off to watch the last movie of the bunch we rented, as it's due back tomorrow, and then Rick's mom is making sausage soup for dinner! Have a good weekend!