Enchanted Chameleon

{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama

~ roth :: winter 2012 ~

 I always experience a small thrill when I see that the new season of Rhythm of the Home is out.  It's like when the next issue of your favourite magazine comes out and better than that cause it is free!  Rhythm of the Home Winter 2012 is here and I just wanted to share with you the many articles that caught my eye and will be keeping me comforted, along with a wool blanket and almond milk hot chocolate this winter!  As a bonus to the free magazine, if you head on over to the ROTH Blog you can enter to win many wonderful handmade and earth inspired prizes in celebration of the winter edition's release.  Check it out!  And Enjoy!  XO.  S

Starting in the top left corner and working around clockwise ending in the centre:  1. Designing a Winter Day's Rhythm  2. Simple Waldorf Doll Shoes  3. Mason Jar Snow Globes  4. Hula Hooping  5. Carve Your Own Rubber Stamps  6. Bark Worth Biting  7. Being Saint Nicholas  8. Celebrating Winter Festivals   9. Creating a Blessingway 10. A Cooperative Farm Experience   11. A Photographic Journey 12. Homeschooling in Winter  13. Winter Family Reading List  14. Marking Special Moments with Henna  15. Creating a Cookie Club  16. Felted Wool Farm Playmat  17. Powerful Princesses for Boys

~ two daughters bakeshop :: enchanting friends ~

Saying that I love Lisa and the Two Daughters Bake Shop is an understatement.  I LOVE Lisa.  I met her at the beginning of the Juice Caboose season this year at my first North Vancouver market.  I was thrilled to be in the presence of a gluten free bakery booth and we were quickly swapping goods in no time.  She is a BIG fan of the Bacon Slicer at the Juice Caboose and I am a big fan of her cookies, and donuts and baguettes and and and.  It wasn't before long that I got to know Lisa better.  She has a fantastic sense of humour, is a super duper mom and an all around awesome human being to be around. It's been wonderful getting to know her and having her in my corner. 

Her gluten free goods are just so delicious and now her goods are popping up more and more around the city. She recently opened up her own bakeshop, expanding from the market and it's a sweet little shop here in North Van that I know that C and I will be frequenting often.  I asked Lisa to share a little about herself and her baking for us all.  

Welcome Lisa, my lovely, talented and enchanting friend.

EC - What are your biggest challenges as a mother?

Lisa - Not having breakfast with my girls everyday.  Sawyer, my youngest, has taken to getting up at 5am so she can eat with me and then go back to bed when I leave, I cherish those mornings.

EC - How did your work as a baker begin?

Lisa - I have always loved to bake and have been doing it for as long as I can remember.  Everytime I pick up a food magazine I go straight to the baking.  It became a career when I was unable to find a job after being home with my children for 11 years.  I had always worked part-time and was planning to return full time once the youngest started school.  This was right around the time that the economy was hit hard and there was a lot of competition for the few jobs on the market. Rather than be discouraged by this I looked at it as an opportunity to reinvent myself, when I look back now I realize that I was not intereseted in going back into the grind of working in an office and sitting at a computer all day, I was a different person with different ideas. So I signed up to sell my organic baking at local farmers markets, at this point I was using regular wheat flour in my baking.  About 8 months into my new business venture our youngest daughter was diagnosed with Celiac Disease and an extreme egg allergy.  I know some sort of cosmic joke, right. I was floored, now what?  Well, I reinvented myself again, took about 6 months to learn how to bake gluten free and egg free. I launched again at the local farmers market and found greater success than the first time.  After that the opportunities just started coming, we found this great little spot here in lower Lonsdale and took the next step in growing our business.

EC - What motivates you?

Lisa - My family. Teaching my girls that no matter what life throws at you, you carry on and make the best of the situation.

EC - What lessons have you learned from selling your baked goods and starting a business?

Lisa - My husband has been self employed for many years so running a business is not a new concept.  With that said, I have been able to apply alot of the lessons learned from mistakes made in his business to our new venture. I have also learned how much I love people and their stories, everyone has a different story to tell and to be involved in such a personal way is truly a gift.

 

EC - What is your ultimate goal? 

Lisa - To provide something unique and decadent to the gluten free market.  To build a sucessful business for my family and of course world domination.

 

EC - What's your favourite thing on the menu?

Lisa - Hands down the Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookie. What could be better than two peanut butter cookies filled with a bittersweet chocolate ganache.

Thank you so much Lisa, for sharing a little bit of yourself today.  I hope you all enjoyed this little interview as much as I did!  To learn more about Lisa and the Two Daughters Bake Shop, please visit her at Two Daughters Bakeshop Online or in the store 121 East 1st Street at the rear of the building via the alley off Lonsdale.

• Two Daughters Bakeshop on Facebook
• Two Daughters Bakeshop on Twitter

You can also find Two Daughters Bakeshop goods in the following North Shore Locations:

• Queensdale Market, top of Lonsdale (at 29th)
• Sprout Market, 700 East 7th, North Van
• Nourish Market, Lynn Valley Square
• S'wich Cafe, 7th & Queensbury

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~ christmas fair at the waldorf school ~

Ok, so while I am hot on the trail of favourite Christmas traditions, I obviously must include the one that pretty much kicks off our Christmas season every year for the past five years... The Vancouver Waldorf School Christmas Fair.

LOVE!

This year was a little bittersweet I must add.  The great weather drew a huge crowd which is great for the school but terrible for waiting in line ups.  A friend of mine suggested that the fair might be big enough now to run on two days and I think I will be definitely passing that along to the board.  We hit the must do cookie house and puppet show, a few other smaller activities and then made a feeble attempt at candle dipping.  If we hadn't needed to leave to get me to work, I don't think we would have lasted in there, as C was just to excited and curious to allow the rhythmic circles work its magic.  Maybe next year!  The ultimate sacrilege was me missing out on the Marketplace.  Yes, the rumours are true!  I didn't even step foot in the market!!  Rip my heart out!  Again, next year, planning planning, I will set aside a sitter for me on the Friday night when school parents and alumni are allowed to shop in advance and then maybe I won't be so heartbroken having to leave the fair having missed out.  Lessons lessons.

For all those that attended in support of the school, thank you!  I'm so grateful to have access to this wonderful little piece of the universe, that takes such great care of my child, his spirit and his education.  I look forward to many more fairs to come!  XO.  S

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~ the soul of discipline with kim john payne :: local event ~

~ 12 days of xmas traditions ~

~ vws children's christmas fair :: local event ~

~ 12 days of xmas traditions ~

I am super proud and honoured to be colaborating with other Mama's from the Top 30 Vancouver Mom Blogs 2012 via Vancouvermom.Ca this holiday season.  For the next 12 days, beginning today, 12 Mama's will be taking their turn to share some Christmas Traditions from their own homes, straight to yours!  I am happy to be sharing one of my favourite traditions, Christmas dinner, and making it gluten free for everyone including those crazy Celiacs to enjoy! Check out the list below and follow along, get the insider scoop on homemade ornaments, stained glass cookies, being together and so much more!

Monday November 26th - Julie Nowell

Tuesday November 27th - MamaPapaBubba

Wednesday November 28th - The Write Mama

Thursday November 29th - The Connection We Share

Friday November 30th - Erin at Large

Saturday December 1st - North Shore Mama

Sunday December 2nd - Enchanted Chameleon

Monday December 3rd - Hillary with Two L's

Tuesday December 4th - The Sprog

Wednesday December 5th - Mumfection

Thursday December 6th - One Crazy Kid

Friday December 7th - Little Miss Mama

Some other of my favourite Christmas Traditions include:

solstice jammies...

gluten free ginger bread shack...

post birthday party Xmas tree shopping...

advent calendar...

and my absolute favourite, trek up Grouse Mountain to visit with Santa and frolick.

So let's hear it, what are your favourite holiday traditions?  I just love Christmas!  XO.  S

~ 4 Cats North Van :: Family Fun Night ~

Create a wonderful family keepsake during this fun-filled event!  Together sculpt and paint a family portrait in the beautiful Queensbury studio using polymer clay and acrylics on a canvas panel.  Friday December 7th from 6-7:30 pm $45 per family.  Register Online (please register one family member only).

     

A great way to gift an experience and memory that will last a lifetime!  XO.  S

{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama

Photo by C

~ #ERASEbullying Website ~

More than 130 students, anti-bullying experts, and key stakeholders came together at Premier Christy Clark’s ERASE Bullying Summit to identify key priorities and actions that will help school, communities and individuals work together to combat bullying.  

The #ERASEbullying Summit took place last week and I managed to participate in a little bit of the Twitter talk.  Most importantly was the launch of the new ERASEbullying.ca web portal and the new ReportBullyingBC.ca online repoorting tool were introduced to the public.  Check out the demonstration in the video below on how to use the website as a parent and to share the use of the online bullying reporting tool with your youngsters.  

Thanks to all the participants in the Summit, thanks to the Government for taking action and thanks to all the people, parents and celebrities, like Raffi and Bif Naked that took part in the Twitter action against bullying.  Let's make this work!  XO.  S

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~ green smoothie 365 challenge ~

My Green Smoothie 365 Challenge is well under way.  I am posting daily at the Juice Caboose blog.  Currently, this is my most favourite thing in the world.  Every day I am creating a new recipe, snapping a photo with a little make shift smoothie studio set up in my kitchen and every night I am playing on Pic Monkey, trying all sorts of photo filters and fonts I may not normally use.  This is exercising more than the my creative smoothie bone which was my original intent. I'm pleased to be getting so much more out of this besides the 2.5 lbs that I released!   Hopefully the inspiration that I draw from a little daily creation will keep this smoothie challenge going strong.

Check out the above smoothies and their ingredients here:  11, 12, 7, 9, 3 

Feel free to join in on the fun at any time!  XO.  S

~ dress-ing up ~

SWOON!  My little munchkin was in for his tuxedo fitting last week and I could NOT not bring my camera.  February is coming up quickly, we just booked our tickets to Ontario for my brother's wedding and I couldn't be more excited.  Of course, I've also been looking for my dress for the wedding.  I've been frequenting Modcloth and a few other sites regularly looking for the perfect black dress and I have yet to find anything that is it.  I have found a bunch of other little goodies that make perfect non-black-dresses-for-the-wedding-dresses that I just HAD to get out of my system.  Maybe if I express my love for these ladies I can make room for the perfect black-dress-for-the-wedding-dress to find its way onto my computer screen and into my closet! 

1.  Jenna's Field Good Dress c/o Modcloth  2.  Skull It Like I See It Dress c/o Modcloth  3.  Heart of the Chatter Dress c/o Modcloth  4.  Cynthia Ruffled Lace Cocktail Dress c/o BCBG  5.  Work With Me Dress in Red Stripes c/o Modcloth

I've been putting in a little more effort in these parts when it comes to fashion.  It was part of my 36 by 37 list and it's feeling good.  I'd love to add a few sweet pieces like the above to my wardrobe.  Especially the sweet little skull dress.  With a nice cardi and tights it could last me every other day this winter for work and hanging out and then some next summer juicing and blending.  I'm adding it to my Xmas wish list as we speak!

As for the black dress for the wedding, well, I have a little plan up my sleeve.  It does involve a little day called Boxing Day and a couple of stores nearby.  It does require I get off my butt and hit the actual mall.  I'll keep you posted.  XO.  S