Wantable Subscription Box review

So, I have recently become addicted to Subsription Boxes – now I don’t really have much money to spend willy-nilly and there’s my catch-22: The fun of subsription boxes is you get ‘surprise items’ every months, so I don’t know if what I pay for will be something I like or use, BUT also it’s a surprise! Which is the whole fun of it – you get to try out new & different things you’d never buy for yourself. I had never even heard of subscription boxes before I came to Canada, but they seem to become more and more popular…

Anyway, since I figured G. would not get me a present for our anniversay I order myself a present (I was wrong btw… but oh well): a Wantable Box.

Keep reading (and see what was in my box) on Toques & Rockies

Also you can follow my new blog Toques & Rockies on Bloglovin

M.

Items found!

I thought it was about time I made another ‘items found’-post! This time it’s more about a service than one particular item and this will probably be especially interesting to Canadian readers

Found Item: Sample Source!

read on @ Toques & Rockies

Exciting news!

Hey!

So I just moved this little blog over to my new domain: toquesandrockies.com

I’ve been hoping to make this move for awhile now – and a little smoother than it actually went, tbh. But alas. The site looks pretty much exactly the same and I’m still tweaking around and am learning my way around it all, but I wanted to give you guys the heads-up to follow me there, because I will no longer be posting here (which is somewhat sad – I wanted them to merge, but it didn’t work out the way I had hoped).

I hope I will see you all there 🙂

M.

Gettin’ Dressy: Halloween Edition

Happy Halloween!!

I hope you guys have fun plans! Whatever your definition of fun is! In our case: most likely waiting for Trick-or-Treaters and then checking out some Haunted Houses. On this special occasion I thought I’d make another Outfit-post!

I had to babysit again this morning, but my costume is actually fairly short so no playing around in it… so I needed to come up with something fun and a little costume-y, yet baby-save ^^

Sweater-Dress: American Eagle | Scarf: ORB Clothing | Leggings: bought of amazon.ca | Shoes: Amisu (bought at New Yorker) | Coat: Second Hand

Can you tell I love these boots? Because I do. They will also be part of my actual costume: Red Riding Hood! Halloween wasn’t big in Germany when I grew up – we have a similar tradition called ‘Fasching’ which is basically the same, but not as scary 😉 I was looking for a costume for a long time and went with this one and I’m very happy with it: it’s pretty German and thus works out well for me.

Also when I was done babysitting we put the little guy in his costume choices: Frankenstein & Elephant – I voted for Frankenstein, because how adorable are little kids in monster costumes? What do you think??

And last but not least I have to show off the pumpkin G. carved yesterday! He got really excited about the idea and bought glow sticks for a yellow-ish glow.

What are you dressing up as? What did you carve into your pumpkin? Are you a Halloween-fan or not so much?

M.

at least they’re polite…

Hey,

I’ve been having a bit of a rough day today. Especially around Christmas time I get very homesick and of course the cold weather always takes a toll on one’s mood, so… yeah. Today is rough. But that made me think about something that I’ve been noticing ever since I got to this country – and I’ve been trying to educate the people around me about it, but… old habits die hard and recently I have found myself guilty of doing the very thing I try to educate people on! What is it?

Canadians aren’t great at conversing!

Now, give me a minute here, because I can hear your gasp 😉 – and it’s true: Canadians are very nice and it’s easy to start a conversation with them and especially if you are not from the area people love to talk to you. BUT there is a big difference between talking and conversing. See, what I have noticed is, a conversation in this country will usually go something like this:

Person A: So, I’m thinking about buying a car. Maybe a smaller one – a coupe.
Person B: Oh yeah, I’ve been thinking about that, but I need an SUV. It’s just so much roomier and safer – especially in the Winter.
Person A: Hm-hm. I just don’t like how much gas my car needs.
Person B: Yes, but there are a lot of bigger cars that are easy on gas.
Person A: Maybe. I’ll think about it.

In Germany this conversation would go more like this:

Person A: So, I’m thinking about buying a car. Maybe a smaller one – a coupe.
Person B: Oh yeah? Like what? A Toyota or…?
Person A: Yeah, maybe. I kinda like the small Honda Civics.
Person B: Oh, I love those! What color? Are you thinking of buying or leasing?
Person A: Right!? Probably red, that looks speedy and cool. And I think buying is better…
Person B: Ha! Yeah, at least then you own the car after a few years.

Can you see a difference? Over here the point of talking to someone seems to be the exchange of personal stories as opposed to the way it is in Germany, where you are conversing to share news and get some input, but based on interest not on the others own situation. I noticed this yesterday when I was picking up a costume from someone selling it online: we talked for a bit, but at the end we walked away and I honestly don’t know much about this person nor do I expect she knows a lot about me. We talked for a good 15 minutes, but whatever was said didn’t matter to the other one. So you see, I am guilty of these shallow ‘conversations’ myself. Even with friends when you meet up and talk it is mostly a way of getting your two cents in there and not so much about helping the other person out or being there for them. It’s about telling them what your experience is!

So, this morning I woke up and was sad and I knew trying to talk to someone about it wouldn’t get me the results I wanted. I miss my friends from Germany for that exact reason. And don’t get me wrong, I have friends here, too, but it’s just not the same at times. It’s funny, too, that a lot of people here like me exactly for that: I listen! I try to help instead of just throwing my experience in there. But it’s tough when you never get anyone to really listen to you. I think that’s why I slipped into that habit of just reciprocating in the same way.

How do you feel about this? Do you agree or are you bewildered by my ‘insight’?

M.

Adventure: Adams River Sockeye Salmon Run

On Sunday I could convince G. to take me to the Adams River Salmon Run about an hour away. Most people around here have seen it at least once in their life, because schools generally do field trips to the Salmon Run. But I’m not from BC and this year was supposed to be one of the biggest runs in years, so I really wanted to go. I was still having some neck-problems, so G. had to drive and the weather wasn’t amazing, but it didn’t pour down, so all is well that ends well, I guess.

I was honestly surprised by the amount of Salmon we saw. We went very late into the Run, which supposedly peaks at Thanksgiving (Oct. 13), but there were still a lot of fish in the river trying to swim upstream.

In a way this was of course sad, because all these Salmon came there to die. Yes, new life is a part of this process, but for the time being all you see is dead fish, fish struggeling to swim further upstream or a few eggs… but also tons of Seagulls! It was a bit smelly, but not too bad – had it been a hot day it probably would have been a lot worse. Personally, I’m glad I went, despite the sadness of it it was very interesting and it’s fascinating to think about the ways nature came up with for death and birth. I eat Salmon every now and again, so I also feel a bit of a personal responsibility to know where my food comes from and of course to know who caught it (here the Salmon run was also an opportunity to get some fresh salmon – we didn’t buy any, but our neighbor did).

Have you guys ever seen a Salmon Run? Is that something that would interest you or would you stay FAR away? 😉

M.