Courtesy of KitchenAid Canada, I’ll be testing out the new 13-Cup Food Processor this holiday season, and I can’t wait!

I have been lusting after it ever since I got the email. I LOVE KitchenAid products because they’re so well-made and stylish. I invested in a professional grade stand mixer several years ago and also have their bake ware, cookware and other little gadgety things. Everything has stood up well against my kitchen experiments, and overall they make cooking much easier for me!

I have been considering the purchase of a food processor for some time now. As I grow more adventurous and throw more events in my home, having one would be very helpful. I think the Gods were listening to my prayers because not only do I get a free processor, but the Cadillac of food processors. I can’t wait to learn how to use this puppy and make some delicious noms!

Now to figure out how to set up the bazillion pieces of this…

My stand mixer won't be so lonely anymore

I can’t believe I haven’t written about it before this.

You see, I have a favourite book, The Hunter’s Moon by OR Melling. I have loved this thing since I was a wee girleen and couldn’t get through the first chapter.

It’s an amazing Young Adult book to read that combines the best of Canada, Ireland and Faerie in one fantastic package. And it gets better! After I read this the first dozen times I discovered that there were 3 other books in the series and I was thrilled.

I was even more thrilled when I discovered that my favourite Irish author somehow wrote about my actual family in the final novel. There’s nothing like finding something familiar/real in a fantasy novel to blow your mind!

So I wrote to her

Here’s my letter:

Dear O.R.,

My name is Lisa and I hail from Toronto, Ontario. I’ve been meaning to write to you for years, so I hope you’ll take a moment and read my story…

The Hunter’s Moon is one of my longtime favourite books. I remember when I first got it; I was a young girl and my mother had gotten it for me from the in-school Scholastic book orders. I think I was about 8 or 9 years old.

The first time I tried to read it, I gave up after about 1 chapter, finding the odd Irish names too hard for my young mind to decipher!

Several years later I picked it up and gave it another go. With my reading and comprehension skills improved, I was able to make my way through the novel and into a world I had always secretly dreamed of.

Best friends, romance, Canada and Ireland coming together, adventure and faeries, everything a girl could dream of.

I have treasured this book ever since.

A few more years passed before I discovered the additional books in the series. What a delight! I eagerly devoured them one by one from the library until I purchased the Golden Book of Faerie edition to read the last one, The Book of Dreams.

Imagine my surprise to find you not only writing about an area I spent time growing up in, but also about my family.

You read that right: my family.

I am a descendant of Bridget & Matthew Dowling, of Kilkenny, Ireland. They were some of the first Irish settlers in the area. My grandmother is Evelyn Dowling of Stayner, Ontario; part of the “Dueling Dowlings Clan” as we like to call them.

It was so surreal to read your book and see the story about the Mad River. Often while visiting my grandparents growing up (They now live in Midland, Ontario) we would travel out to the area and my grandmother would point out the Mad River and tell us the story of her great-great-great etc. grandmother naming it. We even have the family history traced all the way back to Ireland!

I feel like this is some kind of great coincidence, or maybe something else? I would love to know more about you and your experiences in that part of the province; how you came to learn about my ancestors and their stories. If it’s true that you can know part of a person through their writing, then I feel like we would have a great deal to talk about!

I’ve been thinking about writing to you about this for several years now, ever since I made the Dowling Discovery. Something always held me back, but this time I just went for it!

I want you to know just how much I love your books, even now at the age of 27 they hold a special place in my library. I give them as gifts to my closest friends and re-read them periodically. I loved them before I even knew I had a personal connection to the characters in your story!

Just imagine what it was like for me to find mention of my very own family in one of my favourite books. Incredible.

I thought I would share this story with you as one lover of Eire and Faerie to another, and I hope you’ll write back!

Go raibh maith agat,

Lisa

Melling wrote about my ancestor Bridget Dowling, and how she came to name the Mad River in the Creemore/Stayner area of Ontario. Here’s the excerpt from the book:

“After their meal, they walked to the outskirts of Creemore and stopped on a bridge spanning the Mad River. The water was shallow, trickling slowly over a stony bottom. Trees lined the shore.

“The river got its name from one of the earliest settlers,” Dana told him, remembering a story of her grandmother’s. “Bridget Dowling was one of those tough Irish pioneers. She settled just north of here with her husband Matthew and loads of kids. One day she was coming back from the mill with a sack of flour on her back and a baby in her arms and she had to ford the river. It was wild and rushing. She said later she almost drowned in ‘that mad river’ and that’s what everyone has called it ever since.”"

The rest of the novel takes place in areas that I was familiar with growing up; in the Georgian Bay area of Ontario. I really feel as though I could be  in the story since I know the landmarks and locations it takes place in! Woah!

And also told me I would be in this paper as well! Does anyone happen to have a printed copy of this hanging around that you could send me? I’ll pay postage!

Click for a larger image.

Reuters picked up the story and it ran in the international version of the Herald Tribune

From their website:

The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,949 groups with 8,506,854 members around the world. It’s a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It’s all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by local volunteers (them’s good people). Membership is free.

It’s a really awesome idea and it works! I’ve been freecycling for years, both getting rid of stuff and finding stuff. A lot of it is in decent condition, and I like to think that it’s a bit less sketchy than the craigslist free ad section.

Today I totally scored and got the following:

That’s 41 mason jars for me to use for canning this year! What an awesome deal! All I had to do was pick them up. I posted an ad yesterday and someone answered it right away. Today I picked the jars up and saved about $42 by doing so.

Saving money, saving the environment… works for me!

Check out the link above to find your local Freecycle group and sign up. It’s definitely worth a gander.

I’m so excited about these jars, I can’t wait to put them to use with all the preserving I’m going to do with my friends this year! I think I should consider keeping a tally of how many jars I fill this time around, it’s starting to get legendary!

Just so you don’t think I’m all about the negative stuff (see my last post), this weekend I also had two instances of excellent service.

1. The Outer Layer

This is one of my favourite shops and is one of my inspirations for my own business I’m launching (more details soon!). The place is jam-packed with just plain old awesome stuff. I can get bacon band-aids there, spiffy water bottles, hard-to-find boutique skin care lines, funny greeting cards and all kinds of awesome. I used to work in the area and would go there almost every day at lunch to shop & look around (Hi, Jett!).

I stopped in this weekend while out with a gal pal and met some of their new sales staff. Maggie was really great and helped me pick out a new business card case. She didn’t pressure me to buy anything and actually spoke to me like a person rather than just a “customer”. I felt like I had a great shopping experience and I’m glad it lived up to my past experiences with the store. It’s all about consistency!

You can follow The Outer Layer on Twitter @theouterlayer or visit their site here.

2. Starbucks @ Yonge & Shuter St.

On my way home from seeing Bridesmaids with some friends I popped in for a latte. The gal there was totally pleasant and explained the differences between a couple of drinks to me. I ended up ordering one and she gave it to me for free! She said that “it was an experiment” for me, so no charge. Totally awesome. I thought I was just getting a free flavour shot, not the whole drink!

A very nice end to the weekend. There is still hope that good service exists out there!

Have you had any great or horrible service lately?

Me and my bff have our interview with them next Thursday. They’re going to see how well we cook and get along and too see whether we are too crazy (or not crazy enough!).

Wish us luck!!

Is this YOUR dad?

After spending 9 months living with a hipster, I have come to dislike the whole movement quite a bit! Annoying, self-absorbed and “trying too hard” they are only cool in their own minds.

Enter the site Dads: The Original Hipsters.

If you have ever encountered a hipster, you will love this site as it calls out all the particular traits that hipsters pride themselves on, makes fun of them and shows how awesome our dads were for doing all that stuff originally. Hispters are just poseurs, stealing from another generation!

Yeah, my dad was totally an original hipster. Sick.

*I am referring to the annoying hipsters, not the ones that are actual nice, decent people. Though rare, they DO exist.

So I had a pretty interesting night last night.

I went back home to see my shrink who told me I should consider getting rid of the roommate and also said he supports my decision for something (details coming soon!) which is nice to hear.

On the way home I was on the subway, we were stopped at Christie station. Anyone hear about the delay there, around 10:30pm or so last night?

I was part of it.

While we were stopped there, a fist fight broke out between two guys. I didn’t see it start inside, but it moved to the platform. I  heard the yelling (and like all the other lemmings on the train) stepped out to see what was going on.

One guy had his fists up, and I think he may have been punched once already (couldn’t tell). The other guy was being held back by a nicely suited man who was trying to reason with them both.

I admire the suited man’s efforts, but things didn’t seem to be calming down all that much.

After I observed the situation, checked my surroundings and my clothing, I decided that I was probably one of the better qualified people to deal with this situation.

Here’s why:

1. I am a sweet, soft-looking woman. Most guys do not want to hit a woman and (if the fight isn’t about a woman) will calm down if one intervenes
2. It looked like they just needed to talk out their differences and to be acknowledged. I counsel a lot of people so I’m good at this sort of thing
3. I’m nearing blackbelt status in kung fu. Not only is it my duty to help others, I also felt confident that I could use physical force if necessary. I have an iron core and feral eyes that make people think twice before taking me on (true story!)
4. And no one else was really stepping up to help, either. Gawkers.

So I found my opening, and stepped in.

I handled the very upset, but more gentlemanly-looking of the two. He had dropped a book on the floor so I picked it up and walked right up to him.

“Is this your book?” I asked. I knew it was, but it was a non-threatening way to diffuse the situation.

He answered in the affirmative so I spoke with him some more, letting him rant to me about what the other dude was doing. He really just wanted to be heard and acknowledged, and not to lose face in the fight. With me intervening and taking his attention we accomplished all of that.

I touched his arm and asked him if he was ok, making sure to make eye contact. At that point he started to calm down and back away from the situation (suited man was handling the other guy). We agreed that a fight wasn’t worth it and he gave it up and walked away as calm as he could.

I then turned and engaged with the other guy. I didn’t really say much other than “it’s not worth it, man” to him and he also nodded. After a few more male posturing movements he simmered down as well.

The fight was over.

A TTC conductor finally came out and turned off the emergency alarm on the train (MAN! Those things are ANNOYING!!!) but I was just wondering where the authorities were before this??

And why did I, a seemingly-defenseless, tired, chubby woman have to break up the fight and calm people down while so many others stood around and watched. I know sometimes it’s best not to get involved, but this situation was manageable.

Soon after I was back on the train and headed home, feeling like a small-time hero. I felt so good that when a homeless(?) dude said he was hungry and asked for money, I bought him a dinner instead.

What a night, indeed.

NOTE: I don’t recommend that women or most people in general get involved in hostile situations such as the one described. There is always the chance for things to get worse and for yourself or others to become harmed. I used my judgment and my special skills to help with this particular case, but had it been different and more dangerous, I would have waited for the authorities.

It is good to help others, but you must go in knowing and accepting the risks.

As a blogger with a strong bent towards personal finance I am always looking for ways to either save money or make more of it! Luckily my roomie is on the same page. One day she told me about her friend who was renting out her apartment for a month through an interesting online service and she suggested we check it out and see if it was something we could use for our extra room. So I did.

AirBnB – Air Bed & Breakfast… Get it?

So what is AirBnB?

From their site:

Called the “Ebay for space” by Time Magazine, Airbnb is an online marketplace allowing anyone from private residents to commercial properties to rent out their extra space. The reputation-based site allows for user reviews, verification, and secure online transactions. Listings include vacation rentals, private rooms, entire apartments, bed and breakfasts, boutique hotels, castles, treehouses, and many other traditional and non-traditional accommodations.

In short, it’s a great way to rent out an extra room or space of yours in the short-term and make some cash!

So, how does it work?

If you’re a host like me, you take some nice photos of your place and write up a listing. It doesn’t cost anything to create a listing for yourself, though for each booking AirBnB takes a 3% service fee.

When someone wants to book with you they complete the booking process and you’re emailed and asked whether you would like to accept or not. If you accept, your contact details and exact location of your space are released to your guest, and you also receive their contact info. At that point you start talking to them about check-in times and whatever else you like.

If you are a guest, you do a search in the area you want and see the listings. You can send a quick email inquiry if you have a question, or you can book right away. You pay upfront to AirBnB who holds onto your payment. The money is sent to the host after the first day of your stay. This is in case you cancel or something happens. This is a great way to travel– you save a lot of money and learn about the local culture much more. Or you could, you know, rent a castle or something.

Ginger, what was your experience like?

Well, so far it’s been great! We are lucky that our apartment is in a desirable location, close to public transit, a clean & safe neighbourhood, etc. so we’ve had more booking requests than we can actually handle. I had to turn two people away last night, actually!

Since I’m an advertising person *wink wink* I wrote a really stellar ad. I think that that is one of the main reasons we’re getting so much interest. I included a lot of details and listed exactly what was included. I also posted nice, but realistic photos not only of the room, but the common spaces as well so that guests could get a feel for the apartment and us as hosts before they booked.

I know that this helped because I asked some of our guests this weekend why they chose our place over all the others out there. One reason was we have a slightly lower price, but the other was because we looked “friendly”, “normal” and “welcoming”. All good things to hear!

Good customer service is also important. We responded quickly and politely to all inquires and did a great hosting job when they got to the apartment as well.

My roommate and I compiled a list of local activities and sights for our first guests from Spain this weekend. They wanted to know more about the Toronto culture and do less of the touristy stuff. They were real travellers and wanted to go where the locals went!

This was very well-received so we’re actually going to step things up a notch and do up a beautiful digital booklet to send to our guests. It will include photos our friends have taken, the traditional tourist listings (CN Tower, ROM, etc.) as well as our “local” suggestions such as our favourite bars, restos and concert venues. My roommate is also very into the local hipster art scene so she can provide all kinds of party and gallery recos.

As we get more accustomed to being hosts, we have plans to kick things up a notch as well by offering breakfast, doing tours, etc. We really want to make a cool experience for our guests. Not only will this be kinda fun for peeps like us, but it will allow us to charge more per night and increase our profits!

A key point of the AirBnB system is the recommendations and reviews. After every booking both the host and guests review the stay. The more positive reviews you have, the better (and the more money you can charge!). You can also get friends to write recommendations about you personally; this also helps guests learn more about you and helps them make their decisions.

We are still waiting for our reviews from our 3 guests this weekend but I expect that they will be quite positive. I have also left them positive reviews. Our Spanish guests were even so sweet as to bring us a bottle of local Spanish wine to thank us! Awwww!

Additional Thoughts

I obviously think this is a really cool concept for both hosts and travellers. I like that I can make money off of my extra room and I will use this service the next time I travel.

It can be a little bit weird though. While my roommate and I enjoyed having our guests, it can be stressful having strangers in your home. We had to be there at specific times and it was mentally tiring; even with good guests.

You will always want to use your best judgment and be cautious when doing something like this. We locked away our expensive items and tried to find the balance between being at home enough, but also giving the guests their space and privacy. It is important to really think things through, establish rules and communicate those to your guests to avoid any problems.

Overall I would say that my first 2 bookings were a good experience. We will definitely be continuing as hosts and also refining our listing as well as house rules so that we’re not so frazzled the next time. I really think it is a learning experience!

If you have an adventurous personality and an extra room, I would recommend trying out AirBnB!

Have you ever traveled or hosted via a service such as AirBnB? I would love to hear your thoughts and stories in the comments!

It seems the average total of all items for most gals is around $300, but since my purse alone is $300 it got me wondering: just how much IS my bag carrying?

I’m about to find out. And also clean this sucker out, I have way too much stuff in here!

• Purse – $300
• iPod Touch – $250
• Blackberry – $50 (it’s a hand-me-down)
• Sunglasses – $500
• Keys – $30
• “Emergency” makeup kit – $40
• Chinese fan (perfect for hot TTC rides!) – $3
• Various lipgloss products – $40
• Wallet – $50
• Random USB sticks – free!
• Metropass – $100
• Customized purse hanger – $13
• Miscellaneous (hanky, gum, mints, etc.) – $10

TOTAL: $1,386

Holy shit.

I just have sort of average stuff… or at least I thought I did :S I guess because I like to save up and buy quality items over time they add up! All my costs are what I assume it would cost to replace those items.

It’s amazing to see how having just 3 good-quality lipgloss products can suddenly mean you’re carrying around $40 of merch in your bag. I don’t think I even included my hand cream.

The thing is, I don’t really want to get rid of anything in my bag. It’s all useful and I use it regularly. It just shocks me to see how much it would cost to replace everything.

But I’m kind of glad I did this exercise! I will be much more aware of what I do with my bag and will be more motivated to keep it! Sheesh!

So… what’s in your bag?