if you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair

I went to California for about 5 days, I'd never been west of Winnipeg before then. The first cool thing that happened on my trip .... Wayne Coyne smiled at me! He so sexy, and always seems so amused. He was stopping over at Newark, and so was I. That's him:
I slept a lot in San Francisco, that's kinda boring, but the 3 hours jet lag knocked me off my feet. Good thing the hotel was cute! We had grand plans to see some bands and get out on the town early in the mornings, but .... zzzzzzzzzzz!

San Francisco really is as hilly as they say. Taking the city bus up and down those hills felt treacherous but the locals weren't fussed at all.
There were pretty houses all over town:

Thursday was our only full day in San Francisco. We went for a nice long walk in Golden Gate Park and then OMG we were sure to go to Amoeba Music, a fantastic music store in Haight-Ashbury!
More wanderings. The Castro during the day:
The Castro at night:
Not quite a cable car, not quite a street car, I love public transit!
We also went to a really great art show, but I'll make that a separate post, it was that cool.

The food! I didn't go food-crazy like other trips, but here are the highlights:
Lasagne from Herbivore:
Basil pesto from Herbivore:
Potato salad, also from Herbivore:
Soup and veg from Beautifull:
Soy ice cream sundae from Maggie Mudd:

Friday we had a late breakfast and picked up a rental car so we could drive the fantastic California Highway 1, and drove north to see the Golden Bridge before we headed south to LA. We couldn't see much of the bridge, though, because of the fog. Ah well, the rain didn't last long.

More trip pictures soon!

Swedish Cinnamon Bun Day! (Oct 4)

Sunday was the 10th annual Kanelbullens Dag in Sweden, so I baked up a batch. Mine were vegan of course. It took a lot longer than I expected, you have to let the dough rise, twice! So give yourself half a day if you want to make some. Totally worth the time! Apparently the whole thing got started as a way to encourage people to bake at home more.


I used this recipe, mostly. I didn't have any vegan yogurt, and I didn't get cardamom because it cost $10/bottle. And I couldn't find pearl sugar. Have you seen it in Canada? It's just sugar, but it's in bigger chunks than granulated so it looks nice sprinkled on top. I'll have to get some next time I'm in Stockholm. They look prettier with the pearl sugar, and maybe I'll try a recipe with a glaze next time. And I guess I should shell out the $10 for cardamom next time!

I got my guy to take a picture of the pearl sugar (pärlsocker) at his grocery store in Stockholm, I was curious. He baked cinnamon buns on Sunday, too, of course!


Over there at ICA, the ingredients to bake cinnamon buns were on sale: "bake your own buns and celebrate cinnamon buns day on Sunday":

long time no blog

Wow, I haven't blogged in nearly a year! Since NXNE last June.

I've been trying to see more than 100 bands a year for the past few years, success again in 2008 ... I saw 110. (I met a really great guy at one of those shows!) Here's the list of bands I saw.

I went to Sweden in the fall .... that was super-fun. It's so clean and stylish there. I was in Stockholm and in a small town outside Stockholm. I'm slowly learning to speak and read Swedish. Here's a collage I made of some of my favourite trip pictures:

Magnolia and Bobbie Dazzler came too, they loved it! I just got Bobbie in August.

Föda! Here's a collage of some of the really great food I ate in Sweden and on my flights. I was so excited that there was a vegetarian food fair when I was there! I had no trouble eating vegan there at all:

I got a really cute pink mini computer! It's on Linux and it's 11"... teeny tiny, and PINK!

I had lots of visitors last year and went to a few weddings, still doing school, sort of still doing crafts. Hurt my ankle, which interrupted my Wii Fit fun.

I'm off to Sweden again, for Easter. So excited! I was bummed to learn that the Easter Bunny doesn't go to Sweden. But there's still candy though, there is always candy in Sweden!

A couple weeks ago I went to Påskbasar, an Easter fair at the Swedish Lutheran Church in Toronto. I've been poking away at learning to speak Swedish since August, do you think that when I got there I could remember how to say anything other than 'hi' and 'excuse me'? Now I know, next time I go to something like that I'll have to prepare a few sentences from scenarios that might come up so I can practice on Swedes. Hopefully I'll get to practice my Swedish in Sweden next week! But they all speak English so well.

I don't know much about Swedish Easter yet, but they have a soft drink especially made for Easter, called påskmust. And kids dress up like påskkäringar och påskgubbar, which are witches who fly to the mountains on broomsticks. But the kids don't go to the mountains, they draw pictures on cards and give them to adults, who give them candy or money. Sort of like what we do here for Halloween. There were kids at the Easter fair singing songs and walking around with brooms and collecting candy:

Here are some cute little folk art Easter witches I got there:

Whoever lives in this house must be really fun! I saw this while walking near Corktown last weekend:

Glad Påsk! Happy Easter!

Easter in NJ + NYC

Spring's coming, believe it or not! I took a little trip to the US for family Easter and jam packed a lot into 5 days. I've been there a few times, but this was a first for Magnolia.

The first night was to see Sahara Hotnights at The Knitting Factory:

I always eat at different places when I'm there, even though I usually like everything enough to go back, but I ate first night at Whole Foods, even though we have it in Toronto, just because it was right there when I needed it. The next morning though, I had the most delicious non-bacon, non-cheeseburger at Curly's Vegetartian Lunch. Thanks for that recommendation, Krissy! It's a small little place on the East Side, and the non-cheeze was was divine!

Then lemon spelt vegan cupcake at Babycakes!

And later a small bowl of French onion soup at Kate's Joint, I was in the 'hood looking for something that was closed but not hungry. It was alright but I think they could've put vegan cheeze on it, like I do when I make it.

Employees must brush teeth:

Black cat taking a nap on the bin for 7" at Generation Records:

Magnolia thought these Barbies looked ridiculous in fur coats.

I love peanut butter too much, so I had to hit this place! Not all vegan but vegan-friendly:

That was right across from Sacred Chow, where I met up with friends from here and there for a fabulous night:

Magnolia played a bit at FAO Schwarz:

Magnolia was very patient in the long line to get up the Empire State Building. She liked to see the Chrysler Building from way up high, because it's in the SaTC theme:

And later we saw a Chrysler Building replica made of Lego at Toys R Us in Times Square:

In New Jersey we visited lovely relatives, walked the Jersey Shore:

.... caught a peek of the Easter Bunny at the pub:

..... had an Easter Egg Hunt with chocolate hiding up high:

... and dog-safe treats down low. Daisy didn't know what to make of the rush for the Easter Egg Hunt:

And of course there was more eating (I didn't eat this but it's pretty):

Hoppy belated Easter!