30 for 30.

                                                        

here we go!

starting tomorrow, i will be wearing variations of these (and only these)

30 articles of clothing for the next 30 days.

i'm excited, but kinda nervous i'll run out of motivation.

luckily, i'm allowed unlimited accessories.

tights, scarves, leg warmers, jewelry...

i really wanted to throw in a pair of heels, 

but it's so completely unrealistic to dream of wearing heels right now.

so i stuck to boots. 

i'll be posting pictures of my outfits every day,

fulfilling in a way, one of my life list items....

so check in if you want to see how i do!

thank goodness gloves, earwarmers, hats, neckwarmers, and my winter coat

don't count as items.

or my ice skates :)

xo

alli

on stealing.

via mongeorge.

enjoying your saturday?

i watched 'tahiti 3d' at the science center downtown. 

and now we're off to fondu with friends

and ice skating!

xo

alli

friday top ten.

top ten shows that shaped my childhood.

(or that i spent hours watching).

1. rugrats

2. doug

3. rocky and bullwinkle

4. alex mack

5. rocko's modern life

6. pete and pete

7. hey dude

8. clarissa explains it all

9. legends of the hidden temple

10. guts

do they still make tv like that? 

write your favorites in the comments!

ps. a couple bonuses for the weekend.

ruemag edition 3 is out. nice saturday morning reading.

i just stumbled upon designsponge, and this project looks cool.

matchbook magazine. for more online browsing.

and in case you are looking for 9348 ideas on how to wear a striped shirt.

a new source of inspiration.... for just about everything.

and finally, 

going with the tv show theme,

a little word from schnappy.

and once i'm thinking about cro-cro diles, 

i couldn't resist this of course. 

happy weekend!

(i'll be ice skating and fondu eating!)

xo

alli

le weekend.

hello!

i've been catching up on reading all morning

for my classes this week.

it worked out perfectly, 

since it's -17 degrees outside.

i have little motivation to do 

anything besides stay under the covers with a book!

i had a lovely little weekend-

on friday night, we finished the week with some pizza and wine,

and watched 

the reader.

i read the book in high school,

and remember it was really sad, but not many more details.

turns out, it's still sad. but it was a good movie just the same.

what is with kate winslet and doing these heart breaking films?

saturday i bought a pair of ice skates!

and we went back to beaver lake and went for a skate.

i only fell once, but it was a pretty spectacular fall. 

there were definitely a few seconds between

when my skates left the ice, and when i hit the ice-

my tail bone's still pretty sore.

it was chilly, but we dressed warm, 

and sipped on hot chocolate and ate frozen granola bars.

sunday was spent grocery shopping, skype-ing, and meeting with my volunteer group. 

we're starting a women's circle at a local laundry coop.

i think it has the promise of something great :)

how was your weekend?

are you as bundled up as i am this afternoon?

xo

alli

mantras.

via bestrawberry.

a very simple,

yet important life mantra :)

xo

alli

friday top ten.

photo credit. 

top ten awkward metro moments

which may or may not have happened to me. 

1. staring at the metro map posted above someone's seat. 

having that person think you're staring at them.

2. grabbing on to the hand rail and touching a stranger's hand by mistake.

apologize sheepishly or do the awkward throat clear and ignore it?

3. let me just put it this way

-10 F outside,

95 F inside.

4. trying to take off/adjust/put on

scarf, hat, earmuffs, gloves/mittens,

while wearing a 10 lb winter coat,

and carrying another bag.

5. going through the entrance door and

battling the 20 mph blast of warm air.

wind tunnel much?

6. sitting next to someone hacking up a lung.

or chewing obnoxiously.

7. having a conversation with someone

who gets off a stop ahead of you.

i always feel like everyone is staring at me after that person leaves.

8. metro musicians.

the man who holds his music stand together with duct tape,

the man in a plastic boat complete with blow-up palm tree,

or the man on stilts playing the flute in a jester hat.

9. reading a neighbor's newspaper over their shoulder 

without getting caught.

10. running to catch a metro,

making it with a triumphant jump,

and then standing still for another 45 seconds before it starts moving.

anyone else have awkward metro moments?

or any public transport for that matter!

xo

alli

life list revisted.

waaay back several

life list wednesdays ago,

i wrote about wanting to try my hand 

at fashion blogging.

well it just so happens, this girl over at kendi everday,

is organizing another of her 

30 for 30

challenges, starting February 1st.

and i'm kinnnnnnnda thinking about participating.

the jist is, 

you pick 30 items of clothes

(pants, skirts, dresses, sweaters, and shoes...

tights, accessories, winter coats/boots not included)

and you remix the same 30 items for 30 days, and document it.

no outfit repeats.

and you can't shop during the challenge!

so many of the blogs i read have participated in it,

and said that it's both challenging and liberating, 

to only have 30 items to choose from.

not to mention, ramps up the creativity a bit!

so i'm contemplating.

would you do it?

who's up for a challenge with me!

xo

alli

la cuisinière.

recipe time!

this weekend i made roasted beets with balsamic vinegar and feta cheese

and janet's granola.

last night i put a lime and garlic chicken marinade in the fridge

and ate it tonight. no picture of that one though :(

please bear with me for the photo quality. 

next time i'll take them when i'm not as starving and impatient to eat.

or i'll have Mr. S take them, he's good with a camera :)

roasted beets.

i used this recipe from Girl's Gone Child.

every so often she asks her mom to do

cooking posts, which always look delicious.

i have half of them bookmarked.

i roasted the beets in the oven (for not long enough)

and cooked the greens in some olive oil and garlic until they were wilty.

i used three beets and had some left over,

so on monday we cut them up and made some sort of

beet fries. creative, and perfect since the beets needed to cook a little longer.

granola!

the list of ingredients for this recipe

is pretty huge,

but i figure you can kind of pick and add as you choose.

i didn't have any coconut, but next time i'll definitely go for that.

and maybe more oats too 

(i added more like 2 cups instead of the 6 recommended).

also, i didn't add the maple syrup.

you make the glaze, pour it over your mixture,

and then bake it for 30 minutes. 

delish with a bowl of yogurt!

the garlic lime chicken recipe i found on epicurious

and it was really simple

(chop, bag, sit, cook).

the lime was pretty subtle, but it was good, and very easy.

voila!

i just made an online recipe box at epicurious, 

so i'm scouting out for more ideas.

i have all the ingredients for the quinoa, 

so that will likely be made soon.

and maybe bread coming this weekend, 

we shall see!

what more recipes do you have to share with me?

xo

alli

le weekend.

coucou!

i'm back from a wonderful weekend,

the perfect amount of productive and relaxing.

yesterday and today

are two of the first times since arriving

that i've 100% felt like i was in montreal. 

reason #1

i took a lesson from the locals, 

rented a pair of patins,

and headed to the very much frozen 

lac des castors (beaver lake)

in mont royal park

for some ice skating.

i took notes,

and next time there will be a lot more fleece

and a hat with ear flaps.

but the bright sunny day and blue sky were perfect. 

reason #2

when i stepped out of my apartment this morning,

it was -21 degrees.

celsius.

(even though celsius makes less sense to my american brain,

i find it adds a little more drama than fahrenheit does).

even in fahrenheit, -6 is chilly enough for my morning commute.

and may i add, that's not counting the windchill.

the locals say this is more like montreal weather.

and looks like more snow later this week!

how was your weekend?

i tried out some new recipes this weekend and tonight too.

stop by tomorrow, 

to see what i cooked up!

xo

alli

friday top ten.

so i was just sitting down to ponder some friday top tens,

when i opened my google reader

and see that one of my favorite bloggers 

re-posted a 

ghandi's top ten.

i hope the little man knows he's my guest blogger this evening.

via

i guess i've had an inspirational sort of week, eh?

what are your plans for the weekend?

i'm going to grocery shop and hopefully 

try my hand at 

Chicken Soup with Lemon and Bulgur

Roasted Beets with Feta

or

Black Bean and Tomato Quinoa

and then i think i'll go ice skating! 

:)

happy weekend!

xo

alli

the critical.

photo

can i just say,

i am (so far) beyond inspired 

by my classes this semester.

i've just started my readings, 

and i can feel one in particular,

changing the way i think about things.

about education,

development

oppression,

learning and identity.

all this is embedded in a theory called 

critical pedagogy.

all i'm reading is a course primer,

but paulo freire is the real genius.

dude taught the dangerous and threatening (sarcasm)

poor, oppressed children in brazil.

and when he got kicked out of the country for his

apparent extreme.... love?... he just moved to chile

and picked up from there. 

reading tonight, i came across a passage

where freire calls students and teachers,

"(to) be curiously impatient together, 

produce something together,

and resist together the obstacles that prevent the flowering of our joy...

Hope is a natural, possible, and necessary

impetus in the context of our unfinishedness.

Hope is an indispensable seasoning in our human,

historical experience" 

can we just stop and absorb that for a minute.

first of all, i love that he thinks of learners as 

curiously impatient.

that is such a perfect phrase.

and the fact that he thinks of us as unfinished,

lets hope in, in a whole new way. 

even though this masters program is 

interesting and inspiring in so many ways,

sometimes i secretly worry about pursuing education,

because at moments i can't imagine myself as a teacher all my life.

but passages and theories like this,

reassure me in some calm, quiet way. 

maybe i'm not sure where that calm and quiet way may lead to, 

but i think i'm excited to find out.

xo

alli

life list: make bread.

via

among my list of things to do in 2011,

is to make bread. 

i just got a lovely cookbook from my visitor this weekend,

and i'm determined to make some 

(hopefully) 

scrumptious bread.

also,

these are adorable!

cloud cookie cutters! 

via harriet grace

happy wednesday!

xo

alli

words of wisdom.

this has little to do with my tuesday...

besides the fact that working 9-5 at the bookstore,

this week and last,

has given me a new view of customer service.

(although i'm highly doubtful that's what ms. angelou was thinking of when she wrote this)

i find customers questions, comments, and faces,

to be (most of the time) less irritating, and more hilarious.

well, certainly funnier in the afternoon and not in the morning.

nothing's that funny in the morning.

xo

alli

via here.

le weekend.

hallo!

i hope your weekend was both 

as fabulous and low key as mine!

personally... i find 

winter break pretty hard to recover from.

you come back

to an empty apartment,

no more skiing,

no more family, 

no more lakota,

and no more scrumptious christmasy dishes.

so having my best friend visit me this weekend

was a delightful way to ease into the new year.

all we were missing were our other two halves! 

we spent the weekend

observing winter-resistant tarantulas,

oggling the immense spaceship qualities of

l'oratoire st joseph,

la distillerie, poutine, and hockey watching in bars,

fighting the nasty blustery wind in le vieux montreal,

trying to cut chocolate and breaking a plate instead,

movie and seinfeld watching,

and quality <3 to <3's with some vin rouge.

it was fabulous.

i had a lot of stories to tell.

of peppermint marth-mellows,

powdery ski runs,

a mellow (and green!) christmas,

of new years eve weddings,

and a countdown to 2011 surrounded by 

a good part of my extended family. 

how lucky am i?

what was the highlight of your winter holiday? 

ready to drudge through january?

maybe it'll be less dreary if we stick together :)

xo

alli

love.

hi friends! 

back tomorrow from my rather prolonged winter/blogging break

:)

via: http://sayingimages.com/