friday fixations

{cute iwallpapers} I love Samantha Hahn's blog and her art. Recently, she made some iPhone wallpapers available and I couldn't be happier. I am madly in love with her dreamy, splotchy water colours and they look so great on my iPod. Get them here.

{saipua} She has a real talent for floral arrangements. They're just so amazing and... realistic. Does that make sense? Like, she arranges flowers in a vase so it looks like the flowers are doing what they would naturally do in a garden. That's real flower talent. Anyway, I bookmarked this one post of hers a while ago, before the parents came with their weed bouquets, and I found it last night and thought it was kind of funny that I had already been drooling over weeds a couple weeks earlier and I'd forgotten all about it. Check out the post for some more weedy inspiration.

{line birds} Last week it was Turtle Fly, this week Line Birds. I keep finding some pretty addictive and free games for my iPod lately. And then Idle Husband swoops in and plays once and gets the high score which is really irritating, but I forgive him. It gives me something to work towards!

Source: missmoss.co.za via Idle on Pinterest

{janie cai} I love her style. Very modern-day Diane Keaton.

{nail polish base and top coats} I've been looking at this weird tumblr, Burgers and Nails, where they literally post pictures of people eating hamburgers with great manicures. I don't know why I'm looking at it. I'm not especially excited about either topic but for some reason, I really enjoy it. So almost every day, I read about this hamburger with this nail polish and almost everyone mentions their top coat. So I thought that maybe I, too, should purchase a top coat and try it out. And surprise of all surprises, my nail polish lasts longer plus Superstore's Joe brand is also a base coat which helps protect my nails and helps remove the polish a lot easier later. I know it's not a major discovery. I'm sure every woman on earth knows about it already, but I just never really thought to bother with it before. I know, I'm a dummy. Or lazy. One of the two. Or both. (I'm in an indecisive mood today.)

{feedly} Thank you to whoever visited my blog via Feedly! I saw it listed as a source and I wondered, "What the heck is Feedly?" so I went on over and discovered the best free Google reader app ever! Do you know how long I've been looking for a good free Google reader app?! Forever! That's how long! Now I can read all my blogs in bed, on the couch, on the porch, in the kitchen (while stirring another pot of jam for an hour) AND they're beautifully organized and still categorized the way I like (I totally have my blogs ordered based on content. I'm a nerd), and I can even save certain posts for later so I can look links up on the computer (hello music posts) or write up a comment (I'm sure I can do that through Feedly, too, but I prefer to do it the old fashioned way).

alberta aviation museum

the only time we ever thought to visit the aviation museum was a couple winters ago when the annual Make It! craft show was being held there. we honestly never once considered the museum or that it may actually be interesting, but it was. and if you happen to be or to know someone who's a huge plane or war enthusiast, well then. there's double-triple fun to be had. I even noticed Idle Husband without his phone on more than a few occasions and that's really saying something.

we went on Monday so maybe it's not typical, but we had the entire museum to ourselves. we enjoyed the quarter games and sat inside a small passenger plane without having to stand in line first, and we could take our time enjoying them without being rushed out. those are the museum experiences I particularly enjoy (which is why I never like to visit my absolute favourite alberta museum in the summer -- well, that and the scorching heat).

weed bouquets

My mother-in-law used to be a florist, so we've really been bonding over flowers and talking about the garden. In fact, most of our outings since the Greeks have arrived have been to greenhouses and garden centers. Which is almost like the most perfect time spent (in my opinion).

Every night, they go for a walk and almost every night, she returns with some sort of bouquet of weeds and grasses she picked as she walked.

It reminded me of this one bouquet I put together when I was a kid (mini tangent! when you're a kid you don't have this idea of what's right to do and what's not. You do what you think is pretty -- which is why I believe everyone can draw and everyone's an artist. It's society telling us that that's not a drawing of a horse). The bouquet was composed of all the different seed pods I could find in the yard in the fall and it was literally the best arrangement I think I've ever put together. It started in the vase green and it was kept well past the stems turning yellow.

I think that in the process of growing up, I might have forgotten that you can make a pretty bouquet out of anything you find. You don't have to have a lilac bush (or one to steal from) and you don't have to have a yard of cutting flowers, you just have to see the beauty in everything around you and you'll most definitely stumble on a cluster of flowers that will cheer up your kitchen just as easily as a bunch of expensive florist flowers.

roses aren't technically a weed, but in Alberta these grow wild in the ditches and are still found flowers

I wish I knew what this is. I love its lacy quality

don't forget about berries! we found this on a walk in Queen Elizabeth Park

june recap

I've been using instagram a lot lately so most of my pictures this month were through the iPod (oh, novelties). Here are a few of my favourites from June, but there's more to see over at my flickr page!

it rained and rained and rained some more

we finally got our grass! and our little bushes! now I'm scheming ways to take them out...

I spotted this taped to a mailbox on my usual walking route. Poor Aqua!

our last meal before the Greek parents came: beef and vegetable stir fry

the parents arrived! We had Idle Husband's dad put in some dimmer switches.

walking through Queen Elizabeth park

I forgot how much fun it is to make friendship bracelets! I've been making them like crazy while watching Greek tv

Photoshop's fun when you're bored!

peanut butter s'mores bars

I kept thinking, "I need to make marshmallows for a recipe." but I really couldn't remember what recipe. I think I had some weird craving that required them, but instead of thinking about the recipe as a whole, I only focused on one of the components and completely forgot the first why.

Convoluted as usual.

So I had to pick up raisins and chocolate chips on my last shopping trip and I stood there in the baking aisle trying to decide whether I should buy large marshmallows or mini marshmallows. What did I even need them for? Why am I so fixated on marshmallows all of a sudden? I just couldn't figure it out so I did what any self-respecting cheap-o would do. I looked at the price of each bag and the amount in each bag and chose to buy mini marshmallows based on those facts alone. Whatever. So they sit in my pantry. Big deal. At least once I remember what it was I was going to do with them, they'd be right there.

Unfortunately, when I did figure out that all along, what I really wanted was butterscotch confetti squares, it was too late as I then realized I didn't have any butterscotch chips.

That's when I thought about using chocolate chips instead. They've got the same properties, right? And peanut butter and chocolate are best friends, so they should taste perfectly delicious. And then I couldn't get away from the obvious s'mores connection between the chocolate and marshmallows so I incorporated graham cracker the easiest way I knew how. And that's how the peanut butter s'mores bar was born.

At first, I didn't think it was a real winner of a recipe. Maybe it would be better with milk chocolate? But I finally realized I was over-analyzing the whole thing when I noticed we had polished them off in a day and a half. Further proof came when Idle Husband tried to lick the computer screen while I was editing the photos. I guess they turned out not half bad after all.

adapted from various sources I do not recall

{graham cracker crust}

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

3 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup butter, melted

Line a 2 quart rectangular baking dish (or any dish you think will work. Smaller = thicker; larger = thinner) with parchment paper and set aside. In a bowl, mix the graham cracker crumbs, sugar and salt together. Add the melted butter and stir until the graham cracker crumbs are thoroughly moistened. Press evenly into the prepared baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Allow to cool completely.

{chocolate confetti squares}

1/4 cup margarine

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter (lite is all right)

1 cup chocolate chips

250 g mini marshmallows

In a medium sized pot, melt the margarine and peanut butter together. Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate chips. Stir until they've completely melted into the peanut butter mixture. Allow the mixture to cool to the point where you can comfortably place your hand on the bottom of the pot (be careful not to touch it too soon). Add marshmallows and stir to coat. Spread evenly over the graham cracker crust and put the whole thing in the fridge until fully set. Lift out of the dish using the parchment paper, cut into squares, and enjoy! It's best to keep these refrigerated.

{note} You can skip the graham cracker crust entirely and pour the chocolate confetti square mixture directly into a 9X9 pan lined with plastic wrap. You can also substitute the chocolate chips with butterscotch chips as originally intended (also more original would be to use multicoloured mini marshmallows) which I just might do in the upcoming weeks.