Cravings

This photo may tip you off to what I have been craving lately. A new tattoo. Something substantial in size, unlike my 5 existing tattoos. I have been obsessed with tattoos for as long as I can remember, and the craving never goes away. I have been DYING for a half sleeve, and I think I finally found a tattoo artist to do it....except she lives in the UK. Kelly Violet's dark black linework and dotwork is absolutely incredible, and no one else can execute it like she can (believe me, I have been looking, particularly for someone closer). While I save up some $ for a trip to the UK, I still have the itch, and it needs to be scratched, or in this case poked ;) so I am now thinking about getting something for my other arm. And that is when I spotted the work of Yann Black of Montreal. His style is very graphic and quite unique. I was thinking about a couple of black bands above my chevron tattoo, and then a flower stem crossing over them with the head of the flower on my upper arm. Something similar to the next few photos. 

Cool right? I am liking this idea more and more. The idea of it being simple, yet bold and graphic. YESSSSS.
Here are more examples of Yann's work quirky and beautiful work.

Dinner date at Oz (#2)

It has been, according to my previous blog post, since May that Jeff and I have visited Oz Kafe. We decided it was time to go back so we had a little dinner date there last night. To note, Oz Kafe is a very popular restaurant so if you want to sit in a decent location make your ressie several days in advance. I only called on Friday so we ended up at a table in a hallway that was positioned so I was sitting at an angle - kind of awkward but worth the back pain. :) Here is what we ordered...I would give details but their menu online is unfortunately not updated. 

My sister Jen and her husband went to Oz recently and said we HAD to try the cucumber hendricks. I ordered it and it was PHENOMENAL. Jeff ordered a cocktail with ginger beer, rum and some other goodies (also not on their online drinks menu). It was YUM. 

I had what I think was called a baked potato soup. I have loved potato soup since I was a kid and this was amazing. With cheese and sour cream on top - OH YEAH. And for some reason that large chunk of bread was pretty awesome (so light and fluffy).

Jeff ordered, as per last visit, the cheese dreams - their homemade bacon on bread with melted cheese. This is a MUST ORDER.

I ordered the gnocchi, and asked for it sans mushrooms because I loathe mushrooms. The sauce was fantastic - the gnocchi were a bit too big IMHO (comparing to my Nonna's which I should not do) but I devoured all of it so there you go.

Jeff ordered the steak and Caesar again, because STEAK. Fab like last time. 

This time we had a tiny it of room for dessert. Unfortunately this was a let-down. Bread pudding. It was unflavoured bread, with some sort of white unflavoured sauce, and a little ball of vanilla ice cream. It seems dessert is not a specialty at Oz and I think next time I will take my sister and bro-in-law's lead and go across the street to Sugar Mountain for dessert instead.

Jeff enjoyed his dessert because CHOCOLATE (chocolate ganache, whipped cream (or something creamy) and ginger cookies). 

Stuff and things

Not much new going on around my house - except the kitchen is painted! There's a sneak peek on my Instagram. The hubby and I drove an hour last weekend to a really crappy flea market in Morrisburg called McHaffies (gawd I hate that thrifting is such a pain in the ass here) to find some kitchen accessories and I had very little luck. 

I managed to find a few little things in blues that might work (a gorgeous West German vase in a pattern I don't already have, a Japanese mug and a little vase that weighs more than it looks), and also picked up a West German pot, a gorgeous glass vase and a sputnik thing that I think used to be a coat rack in another life. All of these but the pot were purchased at the only booth really worth visiting - Off the Wall Retro. I always buy something there. Amazing West German pottery (among other things) at great prices.

And totally unrelated to house-y items but I had to mention.....LVNEA. April lives in Montreal and creates the most amazing earthy scents you will ever smell. I have several items from her shop and they are HEAVENLY. This coffee & cardamom lip balm and Vetyver Gris solid perfume are my latest purchases. So lovely. 

Another good tune from Four Tet

Mello techno

Another good one from my brother-in-law Dave - Four tet. Awesome mello techno music to blog to. This is my favourite tune so far.