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    • clementina

      Posted at 4:52 pm by jasminedesirees, on March 7, 2013

      I discovered this drink in a cute little restaurant in Zihuatanejo with probably the most amazing drink menu ever (who knew there was a drink called a snowball?). Each cocktail sounded more delicious than the last, but I went with a Clementina, made with vodka and lemonade with a red wine floater.

      They are seriously delicious and refreshing, and you know they must be good if I picked this over a margarita, again and again.

      Svedka, because I’m classy like that

      Also, I walk by this street every day on my way to work. Coincidence? I think not.

      Posted in recipes | 0 Comments
    • story people

      Posted at 4:49 pm by jasminedesirees, on March 6, 2013

      One of my college room mates introduced me to Story People a few years ago, and I’ve loved reading them ever since. They are short, usually one or two sentence, stories written by Brian Andreas. Here are a few of my favourites:

      “i don’t know how long i can do this, he said. i think the universe has different plans for me & we sat there in silence & i thought to myself that this is the thing we all come to & this is the thing we all fight & if we are lucky enough to lose, our lives become beautiful with mystery again & i sat there silent because that is not something that can be said”

      “you’re the strangest person i ever met, she said & i said you too & we decided we’d know each other a long time.”

      “I read once that the ancient Egyptians had fifty words for sand & the Eskimos had a hundred words for snow. I wish I had a thousand words for love, but all that comes to mind is the way you move against me while you sleep & there are no words for that.”

      “deciding everything is falling into place perfectly as long as you don’t get too picky about what you mean by place. Or perfectly.”

      “My favorite thing is the wind, she said, & my second favorite is chocolate but I just do that so I don’t get too skinny & blow away.”

      Learn more about Story People here.

      Posted in inspiration, loveliness, poetry | 0 Comments | Tagged art, loveliness, stories, story people, writing
    • birthday boy

      Posted at 2:19 am by jasminedesirees, on March 6, 2013

      Happy 16th birthday to my little (although bigger than me now) brother, and one of my favourite people in the world. I can’t wait to see you in a few weeks!

      my little brother and sister at the beach. Sweet mullet, Ry.
      Posted in life | 0 Comments
    • mixing it up

      Posted at 4:43 pm by jasminedesirees, on March 5, 2013

      I’ve wanted a stand mixer for as long as I can remember. A bright red one, to be exact. I don’t know why exactly, or when precisely I started to covet this particular item, but it was very early on.

      I don’t really know what a 5 year old would do with a standing kitchen mixer, especially because A) I wasn’t tall enough to reach the counter yet, and B) I didn’t have my own kitchen to put one in, but I did. To me, it was the gleaming symbol of adulthood and happiness. Apparently marketing does work.

      I never got one for myself though because I do love baking, but not enough to sell my first born child to actually purchase one of these, as they are pretty expensive. But a few years ago Derek brought this one home for me from work, since they didn’t need it anymore.

      It was a little beat up, but still worked fine. Recently, I decided to give it a makeover and turn it into the gleaming, candy apple red appliance of my dreams.

      Before
      Supplies: Tape, Rust Reformer, Red and Silver Spray Paint

      Tape off the areas you don’t want to be painted

      Spray Rust Reformer over the whole thing

      Add two coats of lovely red

      Spray the handle silver

      Remove the tape
      Bask in eternal joy

      There are still a few dinged up spots on the silver, but it looks 400% better, and it makes me happy every time I go into the kitchen, and you can’t put a price on that.

      Or if you could put a price on it, it might be a $6.00 can of paint thinner and 3 hours of elbow grease so I can scrub the red spray paint off of our back patio before Derek murders me. But either way.

      Posted in DIY | 0 Comments
    • birthday blessings

      Posted at 5:04 pm by jasminedesirees, on March 4, 2013
      Twenty-five has been a pretty great year for me overall. It has been exciting, terrifying, but mostly just fun, and has more than made up for the dismal-ness and despair that was 24.

      I feel very lucky to have an amazing family, a great job, a comfortable home, and a wonderful husband, who I embarrassed quite thoroughly with my last post about him, so I will just say that he is OK, I guess.

      And I have some fantastic friends, many of whom I don’t get to see regularly, but all of whom are daily in my thoughts. Many of these friends are ladies, in fact most of my favourite people on this planet are women.

      So I decided that this year, instead of collecting gifts and dinners and cakes (OK, I’m still going to have cake, don’t be weird) I’m going to ask my wonderful (good-looking, witty, clever, generous?) friends and family to sponsor me in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer that will take place in San Francisco on September 28-29, 2013.
       
      That’s right, please do not get me any gifts of any kind, instead, sponsor me for this walk. Every cent that is donated will go towards breast cancer research, care and detection programs, plus you get the pleasure of knowing that I will be walking for 2 days, 39 miles, in one weekend. Sooo basically, that is like doing a marathon one day, and then a half marathon the next day. Yes, there will be pictures.

      Honestly, I am very excited about it, I think it will be a really amazing experience, and I thank all of you in advance that are willing to help me achieve this goal. Even a small donation would be great, every little bit helps.
       
      You can learn more about the programs that benefit from the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, here.
       
      If you’d like to sponsor me, you can find my fundraising page, here.

      Posted in life | 0 Comments
    • favourites

      Posted at 5:18 pm by jasminedesirees, on March 1, 2013

      Here are a few of the things that are making me happy right now:

      I finally bought myself these wedge sneakers I’ve been stalking for the last 3 months. I got a really good deal on them, and I absolutely love them. I get tons of compliments every time I wear them. A lady actually chased me down the street yesterday to find out where I got them, which is kind of ironic since I chased down a lady in the airport to find out where she got hers.

      This recipe for Nanaimo Bar Cupcakes. If you’ve never had a Nanaimo bar, stop what you’re doing and go visit my grandmother and get one, immediately. They are probably my favourite food, and the greatest things to come out of Canada since… well all the other great things that come out of Canada.

      When I saw this recipe online I was so excited I almost burst into patriotic tears of joy. I immediately decided to make a big batch of these for my birthday this month. Just for me though. I don’t know what everyone else is having.

      Also, this pile of gold sequins for a project I am working on.

      And:

      I bought myself flowers, just because.
      Posted in favourites, recipes | 0 Comments | Tagged favourites, flowers, nanaimo bar cupcake recipe, sketchers sneakers
    • banana chocolate chip

      Posted at 4:34 pm by jasminedesirees, on February 28, 2013

      There isn’t much in this world I hate more than I hate bananas. Apparently (according to my mother) from the time I was old enough to eat solid food, I’ve had a unique hatred that borders on phobia, and refused to have anything to do with them.

      I personally think it’s a texture thing, since they don’t really have an overpoweringly strong smell or taste to them, and I was intrigued when I recently came across this recipe, and decided to test that theory.

      The basic premise is that you make pancakes with just one banana and one egg, rather than unhealthy pancake batter. I also added a little pinch of salt to add a little depth to the flavour.

      I wasn’t expecting much from this recipe (I also hate pancakes, and refuse to eat them except as a vehicle to consume large amounts of chocolate for breakfast) but it was actually really delicious. It didn’t taste like bananas, and the texture was very pancake-ish.

      It’s a very simple recipe

      Mash up the banana…

      Add one egg and a pinch of salt and beat

      Cook like you would a regular pancake, with a tiny bit of oil or cooking spray

      Add chocolate chips (or blueberries, nuts, etc) and flip

      Put on a plate

      Demolish in 5 seconds flat (with Derek’s help)

      I will definitely be making these again as a “healthy” snack or for breakfast. I also think they would be good with a dash of cinnamon and vanilla, and then served with sugar free syrup and a sprinkle of icing sugar, like french toast without the bread or the frenchness.

      Posted in chocolate, food, recipes | 0 Comments
    • what would you be?

      Posted at 4:43 pm by jasminedesirees, on February 27, 2013

      I came across this video on Facebook yesterday. It really hit home for me. I think the older you get, the more you can be concerned with what you “should” be doing, rather than with what you are really passionate about doing.

      It can be easy to scare yourself into thinking that the things you want aren’t possible, and that trying to achieve them will only lead to failure and heart ache.

      But maybe if we learn to let go a little bit, veer off the path, and accept that we might not get exactly what we want, but that things might be OK anyways, we might get something even better.

      Posted in inspiration, life, loveliness | 0 Comments
    • get dirty

      Posted at 3:19 pm by jasminedesirees, on February 26, 2013

      Last weekend it was so gorgeous outside that I didn’t want to spend a single second indoors, so I loaded up on plants and spent most of my time playing in the dirt.

      I spend so much of my time inside lately, and I love to have a place to hang out outside (read: tan and drink margaritas) so I always like to spruce up our backyard in the spring.

      Aside from the constant terror of spiders (I’m not really afraid of spiders, but the ones here in California are SPIDERS. I saw a black widow once) it was very pleasant and relaxing. I even bought myself some gardening gloves.

      I am pretty much a floppy hat and some Crocs away from being every grandmother in a movie, ever.

      When life hands you lemons, just say fuck the lemons and bail

      Using all the strawberries from these two plants I can make the world’s smallest strawberry shortcake

      I love my orange tree, but I’m afraid to eat the oranges, I don’t know why

      Posted in DIY, life | 0 Comments
    • spotted

      Posted at 9:30 pm by jasminedesirees, on February 25, 2013

      Just a few lovely things I’ve seen while I was out and about recently:

      On Venice Beach: Love Making in Progress, Do Not Disturb Creation. Legitimate.
      Beautiful graffiti portrait
      On an LA apartment building
      I walk by this heart every day on my way to work. I always wonder who put it there, and why.

      Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments
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