See, I am so bad at scary films. I’m very easily frightened by the loud bump noises and ear splitting shrieks. Not to mention anything that is visually frightening. I very rarely go to see scary or violent films at the cinema, because I am such a wimp. I will occasionally watch them at home, with all of the lights on and plenty of distractions in the form of Internet and bathroom breaks.

My brother loves scary movies. He owns a bunch of them on DVD and busts them out at random occasions. He will happily sit through a Paranormal Activity marathon. Once he snuck into my room and put a scene from The Ring on pause on my TV, so when I walked into my room it was the first thing I saw, effectively scaring me half to death. So, yes, he gets a definite kick out of scary films.

So, while I sat cowering in my seat, covering my eyes with my fingers and whimpering softly, he was actually laughing out loud because he thought several parts were so ridiculous. So, if you are a seasoned horror flick veteran, you probably won’t find the movie to be frightening. Matt told me it was to the point where he made a game of searching for what was supposed to be scary and trying to find it before the audience was supposed to see it.

From my point of view, it was definitely scary, but not to the point where I will be eternally emotionally scarred. I must admit, sometimes I find it fun to be scared. I went to Fright Nights with my friend in Vancouver in October and I had a blast going through all the haunted houses, although I screamed and cried through most of them. This was similar. It was tolerable fear. I mean, the movie has a PG13 rating. It’s no Saw III, which had me running to my bedroom within the first few minutes. It’s a bit more psychological, kind of similar to The Others (which is my favourite “scary” movie).

Scariness rating aside, Matt and I both agreed that the movie was fundamentally pretty good. We both had issues thinking of Daniel Radcliffe as a father. But the story was interesting, I loved the set of the old house, and Daniel is really good at being engaging even when he isn’t saying anything. The ending had a twist that I didn’t expect and was very well executed. There were a few funny moments as well, although I’m not sure if they were intentionally funny.

So, overall, I’d say see it. But, if you scare really easily, you may want to wait for the DVD. And if you are a hardcore horror enthusiast, you probably won’t enjoy it from a horror perspective, but you may like the story.

For those who may be new, or need a refresher, at the end of January 2009, my father had his first stroke. It was very unexpected as he was only 48 years old at the time! Within the year, he had two more minor strokes. As you can imagine, it was a very scary time for my family and for a long time we weren’t sure what would happen. Of course, today my dad is doing fairly well, but not everybody is so lucky. So, each February since 2009, I’ve tried to bring a little bit of awareness of the effects of heart and stroke to my friends and family.

I’m not going to stand up here and tell you I’m an extremely healthy person. I’m not. I love salty, fatty foods and I dislike many sports. I’m a short, pudgy girl whose main hobby is baking an extortionate amount of cookies. But recently, I have been trying. I’ve found physical activities that I enjoy and I’ve been taking a closer look at what I eat. I think that this Heart Month is the perfect time to kick it into gear.

The majority of the readers of this blog (based on comments, etc) are females in their late teens through to their mid-twenties. Many of us probably feel pretty far removed from the grip of heart disease and stroke, but the fact is this: heart disease and stroke are the #1 killer of Canadian women. And I’m sure the same can be said in countries with similar lifestyles. Not only that, but heart disease and stroke are becoming more and more prevalent in younger people, especially with the intense, high pace, high stress world we live in.

So, some years, I ask you guys to head on over to the Heart and Stroke Foundation website (or equivalent in your area) and drop your spare change in the proverbial can (now more commonly a “PayPal” button or something similar), but I’ve decided that seems a bit too passive. And I want you guys to be active, because I want you in my life for a long time!

I’m really digging the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada’s campaign “Make Death Wait.” It’s all about action. Mainly, taking the steps toward having a healthy heart. On the site you can find things like heart healthy recipes and physical activities. You can also take their Risk Assessment test, to find out in which areas you are at risk for heart disease and stroke, and how you can improve! It’s a great way to get started, and for each person who participates,  Desjardins Financial Security will donate $1 to the Heart and Stroke Foundation. So you can feel good about getting some money donated toward research too.

Well, that’s my spiel for this year! I know nobody wants to think about icky things like heart disease and stroke, but it needs to be said. And I’ll be back to my regularly scheduled programming later this week.

At the end of my second year in New Media, I got a bit more into drawing using Adobe Illustrator and started to incorporate my creations into a few projects, building up to my favourite project: my Soviet Cupcakes poster, featuring a drawing I did of everyone’s favourite Marxist Russian revolutionary, Vladimir Lenin.

Vlad and I made our love pretty well known for a while. But I essentially stopped drawing again once I graduated. Recently, however, I decided to make the commitment to try and improve in a few aspects of graphic design, which brought me back to my old friend, Illustrator. A few weeks ago, I dedicated 1-2 hours per night over a span of 3 nights to draw this:

It is slightly more detailed than what I usually do, and I’m hoping will be the catalyst to a trend of increasingly detailed illustrations that I would like to complete every two weeks or so.

I’m also hoping to get back into the swing of weekly blog entries on a topic separate from “this is what I did today,” while still including small life updates at the end of the entry.

So, life update for this week is that so far the scheduling has gone well (although I will wait another week or so to give a detailed analysis of how it’s worked). It is 24 days until I leave for my trip to the UK, which is actually kind of terrifying. Friends have been giving me lots of tips on what to see and do while I am there, and a bit on how stuff works, which is nice. But I also still have to book a hotel in Newcastle and kind of sort out my transportation to/from the airport, not to mention between cities. Still a lot of planning yet. The one area I’m not having troubles in is with what to wear as my rate of shopping, both online and off, is at a high. I really need to stop so I actually have money to spend in London (and room in my suitcase to bring stuff home).

See, I always figured I was a spontaneous person. Because I am. But recently something occurred to me: I crave structure and predictability. Not in all aspects of my life, of course, but certainly in some. This is a relatively new development that I became suspicious of when I was in post-secondary. I began thinking about it a bit more when I started obsessively organizing my desk at work whenever my brain became too cluttered with the different tasks I was jumping between throughout the day. I realized that I’m fine with things being messy when my mind is clear, but when there’s lots zooming around my mind, I want my environment to be clear. The two things cannot be the same!

I’m also the world’s greatest procrastinator. If left to my own devices on evenings and weekends I can, and will, spend the entire day doing nothing. Sure, a Nothing Day is nice every once in a while, but is pretty impractical on a weekly basis.

The other day I was chatting about this with Melissa and Hanna and I decided to take action. So I drafted a schedule in my word processor. It includes time for work (obviously), food (again, obvious), physical activity, entertainment, personal development (i.e. learning something new, working to improve on an old skill, or researching something I’ve been interested in), an hour of reading (I want to regain my bookworm status and update my Goodreads account)… pretty much everything I would like to accomplish in a day that usually gets pushed aside in favour of laziness and procrastination (and, let’s face it, Twitter). I’m also reinstating my strict 11pm bedtime that I had in school but quickly abandoned after graduation.

Now the tricky part is sticking to it. I’ve written out the schedule on coloured index cards (as seen below) which I’ve stuck to the wall near my closet, where it will be impossible to forget.

I think the trickiest part will be getting up on time in the morning, as I have a tendency to hit snooze until 10 minutes before it’s time to leave, which is a habit I developed only recently and would love to break. It also depends on my dad’s ability to drive me to and from work each day, which obviously won’t be possible during his monthly doctors visits. And of course, the whole thing isn’t set in stone and will obviously need to be altered on days when I have plans after work. I also decided to not schedule my weekends because they’re too unpredictable, but to make a commitment to spend a certain amount of time doing something productive. But in any case, it’s a start! I guess we’ll just need to see how it goes on Monday.

So here we have the 2011 year in review! It was another big year for me, that’s for sure. To recap, if you’re new or have simply forgotten, 2009 was unanimously dubbed The Worst Year of My Life. Well, at least the section of 2009 that spanned from January until I started school in September. The greatness of learning about a subject I loved with people I bonded with immediately as if we were kindred spirits gave 2010 an incredibly good edge, which continues to radiate into 2011.

Personal highlights of the year include:

An amazingly fun last semester of “freedom” with some great friends: After a particularly brutal 3rd semester (known for its brutality), it was great to come back for “the homestretch,” as it were. Stressful, as always, but with much more free time independent study time, and an amazing part-time job that only took up an hour of my week, I was able to really enjoy my last taste of student life, not-as-glamourous moments included.

Graduation: After two years of hard work, I graduated! With a 4.0 GPA, so my diploma says “with honours” on it. I was completely dreading the ceremony part of graduation, thinking it would be boring and useless. And it was. But I did have a lot of fun hanging out with my classmates for one last time.

A new job: I started working full time at my new job in June, and so far it seems to be going well. I enjoy what I do and I enjoy the people. So it’s all nice on that front.

Some cool concerts: Probably my highlight concerts of the year were Simple Plan at the Virgin Grad Party and Tegan and Sara. At Simple Plan, I met some really great friends and got to hang out with one of my favourite bands before a very intimate show in the bar of my college! It was kind of a perfect evening, and I was on that cloud 9 post-concert high for days. A feeling that was similar to the euphoria felt after a tiny Tegan and Sara concert and Q&A held in a 100 year old theatre.

The best weekend: one of my best memories of the year was the weekend I spent in Vancouver, meeting up with friends, making new ones and seeing old ones. No need to recap, since I have already written an entry all about it, but it was something I will never forget and one of the many reasons why 2011 rocked!

Pretty much everything from that point until now: Essentially, I’m just pretty content with my life. I’ve been keeping busy, going to different events and places and bi-weekly dinners with my close friends. I spoiled my friends and family at Christmas which felt nice, and I also have been able to treat myself to a few things I’ve been wanting for the last few years.

Of course, nothing is perfect, so I also had a strange year dealing with the mystery illness that causes me to faint and be sick fairly often, which is continuing into the new year. But I’m trying to stay optimistic and I have lots of cool things planned for 2012, like seeing Simple Plan again, my upcoming trip to England, a trip to see friends in Toronto this spring, and moving out of my parents’ house (finally!) in late spring.

Needless to say, life has been on a bit of a roll since the horrid year of 2009. I am pretty sure 2012 will rock just as much… well, until the world ends next December.

Clockwise from the top we have: butter tarts, shortbread, sugar cookies (some frosted, some sprinkled with coloured sugar, some plain), peanut squares (my favourite!), coconut macaroons, zombie gingerbread men (made with those half-eaten cookie cutters, which my brother got me last Christmas!), and in the centre are caramels. I also made some crunchy toffee, although I don’t really like it compared to the soft caramel.

Right now it’s just past 6pm on Christmas Eve. So far all my friends have got me really great presents! And yesterday my BFF Lissa, who I’ve known since I was 12, got engaged~ which was CRAZY EXCITING! So although the week was a bit busy and stressful, the amazing moments definitely outweighed the blahs.

I’m off for a nice warm shower to wash the flour from out of my hair and under my nails, before changing into the new pyjamas my parents buy me for every Christmas eve! Then we’ll be eating delicious food, playing games and watching movies before bedtime.

But first, I wanted to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, or whatever you choose to celebrate! I hope you get to spend time with the people you love and indulge a little!

This is a Big Deal because:

• I have been an anglophile since as long as I can remember. My first ballet teacher was British and I used to try and imitate her posh accent. When my great uncle and aunt visited Canada when I was quite young, I was entranced. Since then, I’ve had a crush on pretty much anything with a British accent.
• I will hopefully get to visit friends and family that I haven’t seen in years, or ever!
• It will be the farthest I’ve ever travelled on my own, and my first international voyage. I’ve been across Canada and back (which was very important to me, before venturing outside of my gorgeous country) and to bits of the States, but I’ve NEVER left North America. I’m simultaneously excited and scared… especially for the places I want to visit where I don’t know anybody.
• It’s something I’ve been saving for, for a long time. And it’s the last promise I made to myself before the BIG change of moving out on my own and being a responsible adult with rent and bills. So, it could be my first and last international trip in a while.

It’s going to be a pretty whirlwind trip. Nine days and probably more than nine places that I want to be. But, I am very excited. Possibly more excited than scared! I’m really just hoping the result of this trip isn’t the same as my Vancouver one, because I really can’t afford to move to the UK, and I hear they’re not fond of immigrants (although the Canadians that do live there throw a pretty epic Canada Day party!).

The time should fly, as well. It’s two weeks until Christmas. This Saturday is my work party, followed by some pub event Shannon invited me to. The following week will be prep for Christmas (i.e. BAKING!). And the office is closed for the whole week starting December 23rd at noon. Of course that week will fly right by, and January will drag. But February will be fun because I’m seeing Marianas Trench/All Time Low/SIMPLE PLAN(!) all in the same day. And then it’s only 10 days until I leave.

So, wish me luck and send me good trip advice, please!

In the meantime, the benefits of this hobby outweigh the downsides. Well, not literally, since everyone around me seems to gain 10lbs as Christmas approaches and I get more and more into the spirit of baking. I am one of the reasons many of my family and friends make resolutions to go to the gym in January.

Although I should be anticipating the next few weeks of sugar cookies, shortbread, tarts and squares, something glorious popped into my mind today. ‘Tis the season for Toblerone. Really. It’s everywhere. Every morning as I walk through the blustery streets of downtown Calgary, weaving my way between big buildings and trying not to be hit by the C-Train, I pass a huge display of the stuff. It literally welcomed me into a store today, with it’s golden glow. And I thought, wouldn’t Toblerone cupcakes be amazing?

Aaaaand, I was right.

So, here we go:

• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup white flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• pinch salt
• 1 cup room-temperature butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup light sour cream
• 2 bars Toblerone (the regular sized ones, let’s not get crazy), finely chopped.

Then:

1. Preheat your oven. On a regular oven, 350F. I have a convection oven so I did it at 325F, but note the baking times will change.
2. Mix the cocoa, flour, baking powder and salt in one bowl.
3. Cream the butter and sugar until it’s light and fluffy in another bowl. Add eggs, one at a time. Beat well after each one. Then add vanilla.
4. On a low speed (nobody likes a kitchen full of powder, and cocoa powder is very easy to choke on), add half of the cocoa mixture, then half of the sour cream. Then the other half of the cocoa, and the other half of the sour cream. Add the Toblerone chunks and mix them, gently.
5. Put the batter into each cup. I filled mine all the way and they bubbled up nicely. Here’s the tricky part: baking time. My oven is a bit strange, and my total baking time came to about 35 minutes. However, on a conventional (not convection) oven, they’re being cooked higher and not necessarily evenly. Check them from about the 20 minute mark by sticking a toothpick in the centre. When the toothpick is clean, they’re done! Watch for bits that may just be stabbing Toblerone though!
6. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then cool on wire rack until cool enough to frost.

To top it off:

I must admit, I’m pretty touch and go with how I make frosting.  Since I bought butter as a special treat (Toblerone deserves the best!), obviously I went with a buttercream frosting. To be honest, I never use a recipe. I just know that butter + powdered/icing sugar + milk = frosting. So I mixed the above, and added cocoa until it was smooth and tasted chocolatey enough to satisfy. I really regretted not buying some chopped almonds to sprinkle on top, to tie the chocolate in with the Toblerone theme, or even extra chopped Toblerone would have been pretty amazing.

The verdict:

These were really easy to make, albeit a lot of work with the mixer (a stand mixer would be nice to have). They took a bit longer than they should have due to me having to stop to watch Glee every few minutes, haha. Apart from an insane icing explosion (turns out, the mixer may look like it’s off, but not actually be off – which my brother’s girlfriend, Shannon, found out the hard way. Although I can’t complain about a clean up that involves 50% of the splattered icing being scooped up and licked off our fingers while giggling about the insanity of it all), the recipe was quite straight forward. The reaction from my testers (a.k.a. my family) was very positive, with some remarks about how they were similar to brownies, and lots of gushing. I was a bit worried about overpowering the cupcakes with chocolate icing, but no complaints so far. And the icing itself got quite a good response – my brother is currently eating the leftovers with a spoon.

So, I definitely recommend these chocolaty treats, although I’m thinking a more subtle buttercream with vanilla and honey would mellow out the intensity of the chocolate.

They came out really great.

It’s probably a bit late to recommend Moo for your Christmas cards (they took a few weeks to get to me, and I paid for faster shipping), but I most definitely would for any future printing endeavours.

I’ve already written out the cards that need to be sent internationally (or across my own giant country), and just need to affix some postage and drop them into the mailbox. I hope all of my friends and family enjoy them!

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 egg
• Margarine
• Mustard
• Mayonnaise
• 6 slices of Calabrese bread (it’s a golden, round Italian bread. Feel free to use your favourite bread.)
• Swiss cheese (I used a small block of Kraft cheese, which I grated. I love cheese, so I probably used nearly two cups in this recipe, but it might be best to either use pre-grated, or just grate what you need as you go)
• Thin, sliced black forest ham.
• Tomato (I used one for the 3 sandwiches)
• Non-stick spray.

Preheat your oven to 400F. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray.

First, I created an egg mixture, not unlike making French toast. This will make the toast beautifully golden brown and fluffy. In a flat dish (to make it easy to dip the bread into), wisk together flour, baking powder, salt and the egg. Put it to the side.

Next, prepare the bread as you would with a typical ham sandwich. Margarine on both sides, mayo on one, mustard on the other. I should note that I dislike mustard, but I liked it very much in this sandwich.

I took one half of each sandwich and dipped it (lightly, just to coat the bottom and a bit of the sides) into the egg mixture and then placed it on the cookie sheet with the mustard/mayo side up. Then I layered grated swiss cheese, two slices of ham, a few slices of tomato and more swiss cheese. Finally, I dipped the other side of the sandwich and placed it on top, mustard/mayo side down.

I put it into the oven. It started to melt and turn golden brown pretty quickly. I checked the bottom of the sandwich every 5 minutes or so, and flipped it when it was a lovely brown colour, about 10 minutes into cooking. I cooked the other side for nearly 10 minutes. Then, I grated a bit more of the swiss cheese on top and turned on the broiler.

I left mine a bit too long, unfortunately (had to leave the room during a scene of The Green Mile– I’m a bit of a naturally queasy person), and burned the edges of the top of the sandwich, but it still tasted fine. In fact… it tasted AMAZING.

It was a big hit with both of my parents. They insisted I make it again (although next weekend they want me to make this amazing sandwich from the movie Spanglish… so watch out for that!). My mom even made her Facebook status about it:

This is definitely a recipe I recommend when you want to make something simple, but impress your friends with a fancy French gourmet name! Bon appétit!