Oreo!

Well after years of persuasion Cameron finally gave in and today we went to pick up our new kitten….

Oreo

We called her Oreo due to her black and white markings – we thought it was a rather fitting name, seen as the cookies have a black outside and a creamy white filling.

She’s 5 months old which means she is very playful…

Here she is trying to go up Cameron’s trouser leg.

She has already perfected ‘the look’ for when she gets told off/doesn’t get what she wants…

I’m sure there will be plenty more photos coming soon!

Tartan Totes – Our first craft fair

Last weekend, Jackie and I loaded all our bags into the car and headed off to our first ever Tartan Totes craft fair. The fair was held at an old school in Beach Meadows (near Liverpool), which has now been turned into a community centre.

The weekend proved an excellent opportunity to hear what the public thought of our bags – they loved them! People were impressed with the different variety of tartans that we stocked and many wanted to know more about their Scottish ancestors and their clans. Lots of people were impressed that we had Scottish accents too!

We’re looking forward to attending more craft fairs soon! Keep an eye out on our facebook page to see where we are and what we are up to!

Meanwhile Jackie and I are going to be busy cutting and stitching in order to make sure we have plenty of stock to fill any Christmas orders – get yours in soon!

To inspire you, here are a few of our recent designs…

Remember: www.tartantotes.com

First Ever Canadian Camping

For want of something better to do this weekend just past, we decided to pack up the canoe and head off for an over night trip.

We settled initially on Shingle Lake, 30km west of Bridgewater, however on arrival I had a change of heart and much to Cameron’s annoyance refused to even consider canoeing here. The reason: access to the lake was via a stream, involving an upstream paddle, landing (I’m not sure where), pulling the canoe over some rapids, re-entering the canoe, and continuing to paddle upstream until lake access was achieved. Sounds tricky huh (remember I’m just a beginner)? Anyway my flat out refusal ended in a domestic, tears and my refusal to go anywhere other than home.

After heading in the wrong direction (i.e. not towards home – Cameron was driving), my curiosity got the better of me, and we decided to call a truce and continue on with the camping adventure. Next port of call was The Christopher Lakes (near Caledonia) – a succession of lakes joined by various portages.

We loaded everything into the canoe and entered the water easily via a boat ramp. We paddled the full couple of km’s to where the camp site was marked on the map and stopped for lunch.

Lunch

We snacked on homemade cider, tuna sandwiches and cookies before jumping back in the canoe to explore some more. On the way up the lake we had bumped into a couple of other canoeist who had told us about a cabin where we could stay. The journey would involve carrying the canoe up one of the portages.

View

We eventually found the portage but decided it was too long a carry and also too dangerous to come back down the connecting stream as it was pretty rocky. We decided to look around the lake and see if we couldn’t find a good camping spot where we were

Anniversary Weekend

The weekend just past (5th September) was our very first wedding anniversary. Our parents and granny, were very kind and gave us some money towards a weekend away (thank you!).

We left Lunenburg bright and early and headed first to the mall at Halifax. New outfit was purchased and we snacked on pretzels (hot, buttery and salty – delicious)! We passed the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and couldn’t resist purchasing a few chocolates…

We checked in to the hotel…

Hotel Exterior

and then checked out our room….

Room

The view was pretty awesome…

View

Cameron had bought me some champagne as an anniversary present so we decided to pop it on ice and let it chill whilst we went for a swim…

Champagne

Cider – The Inital Steps

There are so many apples trees in Nova Scotia, and there are only so many apple pies/crumble that you can eat – so what do you do? CIDER!

First off you need to get yourself some apples….

Apples

Then we thought we’d core them…

Although after the first bag we gave up and just chucked them in any old way, after all it’s all going to be strained eventually!

Next you need to pulp them or bash them up…

Not having ever made cider before we’ve been ‘making-do’ with whatever equipment we can find. We think a gin bottle filled with water works quite well…

Fill up your vessel/tub/bin (clean) with the pulp, add yeast and sugar and leave to ferment

Please feel free to comment, make suggestions etc as we don’t really know what we are doing/if we are doing it right