Nuit Blanche

Happy Friday!

Last week, I had a meeting over at Village Brewery where I met Caitlind Brown. She told me all about Nuit Blanche. The late night arts festival is already popular in Montreal and Toronto, but this is its first time in Calgary. It'll be at olympic Plaza on Saturday night from 7pm-3am.

Caitlind is responsible for the Cloud installation- a large scale interactive sculpture made from 5,000 reused light bulbs. The cloud has strings that hang from it to mimic rain and when you pull the strings, they light up bulbs to mimic lightning.

That's not the only cool thing. Check out this Carousel made from parking gates:

And the pop-up Candahar pub:

All Photos from Nuit Blanche

For more info on these and all the incredible installations, check out the Nuit Blanche website.

Things might be a bit quiet around here for the next week or so while we get settled into our house. Have a great week. See you soon!

Birthday!

Da na na na na na you say it's your birthday, da na na na na na it's my birthday too, yeah!

Normally, I like to start celebrating my birthday about a week before the actual day, but with all the house stuff, it kind of snuck up on me. I've already been spoiled with a beautiful necklace from Eric's Mom and some amazing new house stuff from mine- including the bathtub caddy that I've wanted forever. This particular model even includes a spot for your wine glass! She knows me so well. Here are a couple other things I'm currently coveting.

1. Kate Spade Licorice heels
2. Nixon Kensington Leather
3. Bloom Theory Stardust camera strap
4. Urban Outfitters Edie Chaise
5. Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

Ahh the Weekend

What a beautiful weekend! Michelle, Jen, and I took a little road trip out to Banff for some drinks and dancing. We were up early Sunday morning to head to Canmore for the Rocky Mountain race. Perfect weather and amazing scenery made the 5k fly by. Congrats Jen on your very first race!!

Sunday evening entailed a well deserved massage and the last Sunday night dinner in our condo. It's a very weird and exciting feeling. We get the keys to our new place on Thursday and are scheduled to move Saturday. Eek!

Green Smoothie

After a wine-centric vacation filled with a few too many truffle parmesan fries, it's nice to be home and back to our healthy routine. This green smoothie is a great way to reset. The color may seem a bit daunting, but it really is delicious.

Green Smoothie
1 c. kale, stems removed
1 c. spinach
1 pear, core removed
1 banana
1 c. fresh orange juice
Optional: vanilla protein powder, greek yogurt, ground flax, avocado

Put all ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth. Drink up!

Ahh the Weekend

We were in Kelowna for a one-last-hoorah-before-we're-house-poor-forever vacation. We'd both been before, but hadn't had a chance to explore the surrounding wineries. Well, 3 days and 13 wineries later, I think we covered some pretty good ground.

Here are some highlights:

• Dirty Laundry- A super fun and flirty winery. The story goes that during the  BC gold mine a chinese buisness man wanted to make a little extra money so he opened up a Chinese laundry. When he noticed that it wasn't bringing in the coin he had hoped, he opened a brothel upstairs. The winery now sits where the brothel once was. Their wine is delicious and the patio was stunning!
• Gray Monk- In a word: Kerner. This white tastes like a glass full of peach puree. 
• Mission Hill- We took a Discovery Tour here and got to learn all about the history and visit the cellar. We picked up some of their Oculus Cherries (soaked in their famed 'Oculus' red) and enjoyed a birthday dinner on the terrace.
• Quail's Gate- Stunning patio and restaurant. The tasting room was insanely busy, so we just grabbed a quick snack.
• Summerhill- Their award winning champagne has beaten out some of the best from France. That alone is worth the visit.

We also visited St. Hubertus, Sonoran, Sumac Ridge (they also have a great sparkling), Greata Ranch, Thornhaven, Heaven's Gate, and Sleeping Giant fruit winery. 

I have to give a shout out to Uncorked Wine Tours. We had an amazing tour with them on our first day. Our guide, Herb, took photos for us all day, gave us a full history lesson of the area and some great restaurant recommendations. I would highly recommend their tours if you're heading to the Okanagan.