five things | twenty-one

birch & sky
This perfect summer sky beckons you into this links post…

The images from Exobiotanica are hauntingly beautiful.

Almie Rose takes a journey through the nightmare that is Return to Oz.

Why microbeads in beauty products are even worse than you think.

I love these customizable bird temporary tattoos.

Netflix CLAIMS this isn’t an official teaser for their new A Series of Unfortunate Events original series but like… come on.

I loved this series when it first came out (when I was in my 20s…) and can’t wait to see it done proper justice.

After some fast & furious text messaging on Wednesday and a lot of last minute logistics configuring, I am island bound this weekend! I didn’t think I’d be able to afford to go this month but I managed to find a way to do it on the cheap. I’d love to come to to a bunch of new orders so don’t forget you can get 25% off all items in my shop with the code SUMMER25 and free shipping in my Society6 thru Sunday!

cinnamon apple whisky tea with honey

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I really need to workshop a better name for this drink, but what it lacks in nomenclature it makes up in deliciousness.

As soon as I saw this Apple Crown Royal I knew it would go perfectly with my favourite iced cinnamon rooibos tea. I actually had the idea weeks ago, but I thought for a drink with these flavours I should wait until closer to fall. Then I was like… FUCK IT. It has ice, therefore it is a summer drink. When Taylor was sick the other week he tried this as a hot drink but said it wasn’t as good? I do find that when iced, this tea has a natural sweetness that it doesn’t have when hot, so it might need more honey. I’m going to try it myself once the weather cools down.

cinnamonapplewhiskyteaingredeints
cinnamon apple whisky tea with honey
1 oz apple whisky
1/2 oz honey simple syrup (recipe below)
3 oz iced cinnamon rooibos tea (recipe below)
ice
apple slice for garnish

In an Old-Fashioned glass pour whisky, honey syrup and tea over ice. Stir, garnish with an apple slice, and enjoy!

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honey simple syrup
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup water

Pour the honey and water into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring to completely melt the honey. Remove from heat and allow to cool, then strain into a small jar and keep sealed. Unlike my other flavoured syrups I don’t keep my honey syrup in the fridge because I don’t want it to crystallize. Can honey even go bad? I’m pretty sure it will last for thousands of years but you may prefer to err on the side of caution.

cinnamon rooibos iced tea
8 tbsp cinnamon rooibos loose tea*
1 1/2 liters boiling water
2 1/2 cups of ice

If you are using an iced tea pitcher with a built in infuser:
Add the loose tea to the infuser. Pour in the water and allow to steep for 8 minutes. Remove the infuser, top up the pitcher with ice and stir. Refrigerate until completely chilled.

If you are using a hot teapot with an infuser:
Add the loose tea to the infuser. Pour in the water and allow to steep for 8 minutes. Remove the infuser and transfer the tea to a 2-liter pitcher. Top up with ice and stir, then refrigerate until completely chilled.

* I have only tried this particular brand of tea, other teas may be less sweet so adjust your honey levels accordingly.

long weekended

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This past weekend was a long one, and it is a big deal in my neighborhood. Not so much because of the holiday (BC Day) but it’s Vancouver Pride weekend AND the final night of the Celebration of Light Fireworks competition. So did I go to the street party, or the fireworks, or the pancake breakfast, or the parade? NO. NO I DID NOT. Because on Thursday I took Gwen around the Seawall and on Friday Georgie got sprayed in the face by a skunk and the walking and dog washing were Too Much for my feeble body, and they left me super exhausted and drained and sicker than ever.

Instead of going out and doing things I spent almost the whole weekend inside, recuperating. We watched all of the new Wet Hot American Summer series on Netflix. I finished a project I’d been working on since the previous weekend, and almost finished another project I’d been working on for literally months. I started a new project that I prob won’t finish for a super long time. I spent some quality time with my couch. I opened my Society6 store (free shipping worldwide until August 9th!) (sorry).

While I was busy being one of the indoor kids on Saturday, Taylor took Gwen out for a scoot. idk how she is so adorable, but man. She really is.

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all photos in this post by Taylor

do the hustle

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Last week I received the sad news that Gwen’s lil friend, who has been coming to my house for daycare since he was about 10 months old, is moving to a group daycare. He’ll still come for the first three weeks of August, and after that I’m hoping that we’ll get to see him for playdates because he really is Gwen’s best friend. I’d hate for her to lose him, since she’s so shy and doesn’t make friends easily.

Now, before I had Gwen a daycare kid leaving would be nbd, or only a msd (medium-sized deal?) because when I was licensed I had 3-6 other kids, but since his family were my only clients… yikes. Ever since I found out I’ve been working hard to find more work. I had already taken the first step towards getting my childcare license again in early July, but it’ll be weeks IF NOT MONTHS before I see any results from that. In the meantime I signed up on care.com to try to find some new clients. I’ve had a couple messages already but so far nothing has panned out. I’m still hopeful though!

With my day job turning into day unemployment I’ve been working extra hard on my side hustles. Right now everything is the Unicorn Parade Shop is still 25% off with the code SUMMER25 (sorry but I will be posting about this A LOT), and on the weekend I set up a Society6 shop as well. Right now I have a couple new prints available, as well as Symphony’s Fawn and Mecha Fawn which you might remember from back in the olden times. I think these were some of the first things I sold in my etsy, before I ever even made my first banner! Anyway from now through August 9th you can get free shipping worldwide*, as well as $5 off laptop sleeves. WHAT A DEAL** TBH. Get yourself a SORRY MOM print today!
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*Free Shipping offer excludes framed art prints and stretched canvases.
**Please note that when I’ve ordered from Society6 with free shipping myself I’ve had to pay duty when receiving my item.

august

August Calendar (small)

Do you think I will ever remember to get my calendar page done before the 1st of the month? NOT LIKELY. I actually remembered that I needed to do it about fifty billion times during the last week, but never when I was at my computer. I’m feeling really sick and raggedy today tho, so it seemed the perfect opportunity to sit very still and just click things, haha.

Download the full size here.