Author: Tanie

Today this little blog of mine reached 100 subscribers. I know that’s not a lot but it’s a milestone for me, so I’m going to celebrate the only way I know how. A big glass of gin, and a…

THAT’S RIGHT IT’S GLITTER BANNER GIVEAWAY TIME AGAIN!
You can win your very own totally free custom glitter banner with up to 12 letters and/or shapes in the colour or colours of your choice! These banners are basically awesome, but don’t take my word for it, listen to these testimonials from satisfied banner owners:

“I GOT MY BUNTING YESTERDAY AND I LOVE IT THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH :’3” -Sara

“O M G I LOVE IT!!!! Thank you so so so so much!! she is going to be so excited to see it” -Jessica

“OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL” -Georgeanne (previous giveaway winner)

To enter:
• leave a comment and tell me what you’d want your banner to say for one entry
• tweet “I entered @taniewanie’s glitter banner giveaway on http://unicornpara.de/2011/07/25/one-hundred-percent/” and leave a separate comment with a link to you tweet for two entries
• make a post on your blog or tumblr mentioning the giveaway and linking to http://unicornpara.de/2011/07/25/one-hundred-percent/ and leave a separate comment with a link to your post for three entries

The giveaway will run until midnight PST on Monday, August 1st, so you all have a week to get your entries in! And as a special bonus I’m also offering a 15% discount on all the buntings and banners in my shop, including custom work, when you enter the code UNICORN15 at checkout.

Recently Sunday evenings have become a “special” time that Sym and I spend together. During the school year we only have a little while to hang out after her dad drops her off and before she has to go to bed, but now that it’s summer vacation I can let her stay up late and we have the most fun together.

We’ll watch a movie, or a bunch of iCarly, or more recently Parks and Recreation. Usually we paint our nails, although I’m giving mine a break from polish this week (hence the no Manicure Monday post) so last night we worked on crafts together. We ate cookies and veggies for snacks and drank more of Taylor’s giant jug of Arnold Palmers.

Symphony has been so great so far this summer, I’m so happy I decided (ie was too broke) to send her to day camp. She’s been a big help around the house and with the kids, comes up with great ideas for activities for us/is on board with my ideas and hardly ever complains about being bored- although she does still spend a significant portion of every day asking for food! On Friday she helped me gather hundreds of bluebell seeds from the front yard and on Saturday we planted them in the garden. She’s excited about the Sailor Moon-themed craft swap I’m doing with Rhiannon. She’s still super into reading the Harry Potter books with me (we’re currently on Goblet of Fire). Basically she’s just the best kid in the world!

Last Saturday I was in a huge snit (because I tripped over everything in my foyer: shoes, dogs, dog crates) and smashed my FACE into the door frame) so I sulked in bed all day and missed the farmer’s market, including my FAVORITE vendor, Bean Boy, who isn’t gong to be back until August 20th 🙁 This week I was determined not to waste the opportunity to grocery shop right outside my house (I hate going to the grocery store, remember?) so I took out cash on Friday night and hit the stalls bright and early Saturday morning.

clockwise from top left: cauliflower, broccoli, arugula, peaches, honey sticks (for Sym), raspberries, peaches (the first of the season), long English peas (I used these in the salad I made for lunch and they were SO GOOD I went back out and bought a huge bag of them!), cheese, rainier cherries, mint, heirloom tomatoes and whole wheat berry muffins.

One thing I’ve noticed this year is that the market by my house is becoming more of a “get here super early” event, definitely more so than in previous years. It’s on from 9am to 2pm, but a lot of stalls are running out of produce at on or even noon! I like to walk my dogs past the market at 8:30 BEFORE I go to shop so I can “pre-plan” what I’m going to buy, and yesterday there were people lining up at some of the stalls already! The early bird gets the tomatoes, I guess.

For those of you who don’t know, an Arnold Palmer is half lemonade, half iced tea (and if you add vodka it’s a John Daly and it’s delicious). Taylor recently became obsessed with them and has been making twelve liters (or four gallons for my American friends) at a time. See:

I wish I could say I made these popsicles but brewing some organic loose leaf black tea and squeezing another twelve lemons, but I’ve been sick and suffering from crippling back pain, so it was all I could do to fill my popsicle mold. Maybe next time!

I’ve made some new custom glitter banners recently that I’m SO happy with. Making these is so fun and they’ve all turned out so pretty!

For Ting of Acidzip Jewelry, the center cat is based on one drawn for her by Jessica of The Disaster Life.

For Sara of Cunt Sparrer, the “best all-girl lo-fi Cock Sparrer tribute band in Southern California (and maybe even the world).”

For Jessica of Vegan Mini-Me (now that I’m not eating/cooking meat I wish she’d start posting again HINT HINT) & Pretty in Punk Boutique.

You can order your own awesome sparkle sign on my etsy– I have some new colours of glitter, so check it out!

Dinners
Friday 15th

spaghetti with tomato & red pepper sauce and tofu, salad with butter lettuce, celery & carrots (not pictured)

Tuesday 19th

veggie wraps with Mexican ground round & red peppers, cheddar cheese, pea shoots, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, pineapple salsa and sour cream

Lunches
Saturday 16th

havarti & tomato sandwiches

Snacks
Saturday 16th

milk & white chocolate swirl chips
Saturday 16th

salt & vinegar roasted chick peas made with alaea Hawaiian salt
Wednesday 20th

organic kale chips

Georgie’s sniffer is back up to snuff! I think she must have been bitten by a small spider or a mosquito or other non-painful bug, because a couple of hours after my last post the swelling started to go down and now she’s just about back to normal. THANKS GOODNESS!

I swear it never ends with these pets! In the past couple weeks I’ve gotten calls from the vet about Georgie and Kichou needing bordatella shots, Dougal needing bordatella, rabies and parvo shots, and Claire being due for another glucosamine test. I was petting Georgie just now and I discovered her muzzle was all swollen!

Okay it’s a little hard to see if you don’t spend all your time gazing adoringly into her face. This should help.

Or maybe the profile.

WHAT THE HELL, DOG. I took her out for her walk at 6:30 this morning and her face was completely normal, so this happened sometime in the last six hours. She doesn’t seem to be in any pain or discomfort and her behavior is totally normal, so I’m going to wait and see if the swelling goes down on its own and I get my regular-faced dog back.

This past weekend I signed up for SPUD (Sustainable Produce Urban Delivery) and on Tuesday I received my first order. I was anxious because I’m really picky about fruit and vegetables and I was worried that they wouldn’t be up to snuff, but everything is great! The produce is super fresh and crisp and not in any way mangled or gross, which was my main concern.

I’m excited about this because I haaaaaaaate grocery shopping; not having a car means I either have the schlep fifty bags of food home on my back OR I have to go to the store every single day. NOT COOL. With SPUD I get my food delivered right to my door, which is gonna be especially awesome in winter! Some other things that are great about SPUD:
1. This varies by area, but for me (in downtown Vancouver) there is free delivery on orders over $35. I DEFINITELY spend more than that every week on food so I can’t imagine I’ll ever be paying for delivery.
2. Everything that is local (grown/produced within 800km of their warehouse) is clearly labelled, so it’s really easy to choose local stuff. They also give you a running average of the travel distance for the food you choose, so if you’re a nut like me you can make a fun game* of trying to achieve the lowest travel average. For my first order, the average was 153km. NOT BAD!

Now, I don’t think I’ll be able to cut out going to the grocery store completely; I can’t really afford to buy the fancy organic version of everything we eat, and they don’t carry all the products I want (read: junk food and white bread), but I can see this service really saving me a lot of time, energy and stress!

If you live in one of the areas where SPUD operates and are like me (hate grocery shopping and carrying heavy bags, love local/organic food and feeling smug) then definitely check them out! Please feel free to use my promo code:

… and you’ll get $5 of your first three orders and $10 off your fourth (disclaimer: I will also get $25 off).

*I’m not cool.