Loulou Downtown

Food Friday : Spice Sprinkle for Coffee

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Loulou

It’s no secret that I love coffee, and even more so after I heard the results of a new study conducted by the National Institute of Health, that indicates that people who drink coffee extend their lifespans! (+15% for women and +10% for men). Read about it in this Time Magazine article entitled “Coffee: Drink More, Live Longer?”, with the byline “Older coffee drinkers who really like their cup of joe appear to have a leg up in the longevity department.” I am doing a little jig over this news.

Yes, I do love my java, but there’s a downside to this affair in that I like it with sugar. And at the same time that positive studies are coming out about coffee, there are negative ones coming out about ingesting too much sugar. phooey. But Nick has come up with an excellent solution to my sugar-in-coffee desire.

I bought him this stainless steel flour shaker (from Lee Valley) for Christmas, with the thought that he’d use it as intended, for flour, when he’s baking. However, he immediately put it to use for something else. Over the past 4 months he has tweaked a seasoning mixture to sprinkle over a cup of coffee, that has so much flavour that it reduced the amount of sugar I use!

Here’s his winning combination:

One part each of ground ginger, all-spice and nutmeg
One and a half parts each of cinnamon and unsweetened cocoa powder

Mix this together and put it in a shaker. A regular salt shaker would probably work, but if you want one like ours, the link above will lead you to it in Lee Valley’s on-line catalogue.

In these photos we are serving it atop homemade cappuccino which I previously demonstrated here. In fact, coffee being such a favourite around here, I’ve also previously done posts on:

Making Cafe au Lait
Making Mocha Coffee
Making Coloured Sugar

There is no need to spend the big bucks on take out coffee when you can make the fancy ones at home! Plus then you get to enjoy them in your pjs. (Aside: the only downfall of summer coming along in my books is that the flannel pajamas have to be put away. waaaa)

Here’s wishing you a great Friday! It’s the beginning of a three-day week-end here and the weather is expected to be fantastic. Let the fun times begin … well, I’ll have to wait until after my doctor’s appointment at 3:30!

xo loulou

Posted in Drinks, Recipes | 3 Comments

Embroidery on Paper : Making a Bookmark

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Loulou

I first tried embroidering on paper in January when I made a thank you card seen here. I had done that one without much planning and just winged it by going freehand. I really enjoyed the technique and have since been interested in experimenting some more with it. So after I received the necklace I had won from a blog giveaway, I wanted to send Mary a little something to thank her.

I’ve always loved the look of cross-stitch, particularly the beautiful pieces stitched by my Aunt Joan. But I’ve never done it myself, and really wanted to have a go at it, so decided to cross-stitch some paper and make it into a bookmark.

I found this neat site, Cross Stitch Writing Tool, that translates anything you type into a cross-stitch pattern, so I selected the Dublin Font and typed out Mary’s name and some decorations on either side. My idea was to stitch the paper that had the pattern on it, right onto the card-stock I was using to make the book-marker. This would give the finished piece a little more sturdiness and weight, with the extra layer of paper in there. This meant I had to reverse the pattern so I could stitch right through it and the letters would be right on the front. I used Photoshop to flip the image and then printed it up.

Note that stitching on paper is very unforgiving because any holes you make by mistake will show, unlike fabric where a mistake will just disappear after the stitch is removed. So, in order to know where to stitch, I first marked the pattern by poking my needle through the paper.

To do the cross-stitches you use 2 (of the 6) threads that make up a length of embroidery floss, threaded into a sharp needle. The stitching is pretty straight-forward but if you’d like some instructions there’s a video here.

Basically, the finished piece is made up of three layers, the pattern paper sandwiched between two pieces of thicker paper. I seem to have forgotten to taken a picture of the back of the finished piece, but I first stitched the pattern onto the front piece of stock. Then I attached the back piece by stitching a border around it, sewing through all three thicknesses. This back piece then hid all the stitching mess on the underside of the work.

After all this was done, I lightly penciled in the lines to follow, cutting the book-mark out. I did this at the end so I had a larger surface to work with, allowing me to clamp it into a make-shift cardboard frame.

Then, to finish it off, I made a ‘tail’ for the book-marker, by braiding embroidery floss. Using a larger needle I threaded 3 x 10 inch lengths of floss (the full thickness of 6 threads) onto the end of the book-mark, lined them up so the six ends were even, and tied them with a knot. Then I divided them into 3 groups of 2 and made a braid, tying it off at the end with another knot and trimming the ends.

I hope these instructions are clear but if you have any questions about how to complete this project, please ask away!

What’ll it Be … A House or a Car?

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Loulou

We were out for a walk the other day. Full disclosure, we were going to the grocery-store-that-is-further-away-from-home because they were having a great deal on coffee beans. Yes, we go the extra mile to save some bucks. It’s a double win … some exercise gained and some extra cash-a-roo in the wallet!

When we neared the store, with Nick quite a way ahead of me, as I was lolly-gagging (his word) and taking pictures, I passed this car. The girl sitting nearby on the bench laughed as I stopped short, Laurel and Hardy-like, and stepped back. Was that what I thought it was? Yes, yes it was. A car worth the cost of a house, sitting in the parking lot … a Lamborghini.

Currently the average selling price for a whole house with a yard and multiple bedrooms in Toronto was $568k, with the country’s average being $376k (these are Canadian dollars which are approximately the same as US$). This car costs in the hundreds of thousands, like $200k to $450k range. Apparently each one is completely handmade. To put it in perspective with another expensive can, a Porsche will set you back $75k to $200k. It’s hard to wrap your head around, when most domestic cars cost about $30k.

The girl on the bench and I struck up a fun conversation. Her: “Would you like me to move so you can get a better picture?” Me: “Oh no, it’s okay … Is this your car?” Her: “Yeah, I wish!” Then she offered to take a picture for me so that I could be in it. I declined but thanked her and went on my merry way.

While we were nabbing the well priced coffee beans I asked Nick if he’d seen it. He hadn’t noticed, so on the way back we stopped and had another look. It was the week of the fancy cars because two days later I spotted this Porsche. At about half the price of the Lamborghini, it’s a real deal!

Question: If money was no object, what kind of car would you buy? Would you even buy a car at all?

Nick and I are semi car people. After going a long time without one at all, (13+ years!), we only just bought our first car together a year ago in March, because Nick needed it for work. We have enjoyed having it, though haven’t driven it all that much since Nick began doing the job from home. It’s a 2012 Mustang and our intention is to take very good care of “her” and keep it a very long time. It didn’t even leave the garage during the bad winter months of winter (they use a lot of salt on the roads here) … Yes, we rented a car to go visit my parents once while ours was safe and cozy in the garage. We love our little luxury but now feel totally and positively frugal!

Posted in Life, Vehicles | 15 Comments

Art Gallery Visit and What I Wore

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Loulou

On Friday evening I was treated to a visit to the art gallery to see a special exhibit of Picasso’s works, which is currently touring around the world, because it’s original home, The Musee National Picasso in Paris, is being renovated. So rather than store all the incredible art they decided to show the pieces around the world. I’m a huge fan of his work and was so excited to get to see it. I had seen this collection before in Paris once, but that was a long time ago.

My friend Meghan is a member of the gallery so she brought me to a special showing that was open to only members and their guests, which meant that there was plenty of space around each work of art so we could really have a good look. Even though I’ve just seen it only 2 days ago, I feel like I could see it all over again, there is so much complexity and depth to the art, not to mention the sheer volume. Picasso worked tirelessly from his teen-age years right into his 90s.

While I love the man’s art I do have to say that there is one thing about him that bugs me. This was his penchant to go for woman who were so very much younger than he. I’m okay with an age different between men and women, but with him we’re talking extremes. In the case of Francoise Gilot, the mother of two of his children, the age difference was 40 years! That just seems really creepy to me.

As for what I decided to wear, I had to consider that I would be walking to and from the gallery and throughout the exhibit, so I knew I needed to wear flat comfortable shoes, and the best walking shoes I have just really don’t go with a skirt or a dress. So, I decided to wear some jeans and make the outfit more special by adding some lace and my lovely new heart-shaped necklace that I recently won from artist and blogger, Mary Hone. Thanks again Mary!

Another reason I was excited about this outing was that I would have the opportunity to see the Art Gallery of Ontario after it’s recent renovation. The most stunning change for me was this whole front part that they’ve added. With the sun coming through as it was it looked really pretty in there. It also makes the building look cool from the outside, except that they’ve installed a garish very large sign that looks like a cheap billboard. I hope that part is temporary, but it has the name of an important donor on it, so I imagine the sign was part and parcel of the donation. At least they put it to the west of the building when most people would be approaching from the east, but still, not pretty, right?!

Posted in Clothing and Accessories, Interesting Buildings, Out at Night | 15 Comments

Flowers in the Garden

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Loulou

In honour of Mother’s Day today I thought I’d post some pictures of my mom’s favourite flowers, Bleeding Hearts and Lily of the Valley. These are not flowers that would normally be presented as cut flowers in a bouquet. Rather they grow very well in the ground in our climate and so happen to be blossoming at this time of year, on this day when we celebrate motherhood.

I planted these flowers in my garden because I knew them to be my mom’s favourites as they remind her of her mother, my grandmother, who grew them in her garden. My mother has very fond memories, as do I, of my grandmother’s beautiful garden. She really had a green thumb that one.

With this post I send out a warm virtual hug not only to my friends out there who are mothers, but also to all those who are trying to conceive and to those who wish they had.