Tuesday night Alicia and Adam invited us over to celebrate Mexicans. There is a long standing joke between Adam and the rest of us that Claudia is Mexican. This is why every year at Christmas Claudia gets a little Mexican gift in which to decorate her office with. We’ve tried to correct Adam and inform him that she is Chilean and not Mexican but he keeps forgetting. Sometimes he even thinks she is Peruvian, or Ecuadorian, or anything Latin other than Chilean. It is beyond amusing for everyone except Claudia!

I not a Mexican! Clueless, I love you.

Alicia and Adam made us amazing fajitas with so many options to chose from. They even did Mexican rice which tasted SO good in the fajitas, I don’t know why Chad and I have never thought of doing that. MENTAL NOTE.

We sat around the TV and chatted the night away. The boys stayed in their work clothes just so they could feel extra special and a little Mad Men-esque.

We watched the episode of Modern Family with the pigeon. Claudia wanted to watch it so that we could all have a visual example of what she went through when the pigeons attacked her apartment. I’ve never watched an episode of Modern Family (yes I do live under a rock) but I  have heard so much about it. OMG hilarious! Chad and I need to get our TV watching act together.

After our little TV episode the men settled in with rather large glasses of scotch and talked business, while us girls chatted about girly things.

It was a wonderful evening that we need to do more often!

I was lucky enough to be invited as Miss Alicia Quans personal guest to the launch of Canadas first ever Pinkberry. I love Pinkberry. Actually, I’m kind of obsessed with Pinkberry. Both times Claudia and I have been to LA for work I’ve made her stop and get a Pinkberry almost everyday. So naturally, when Alicia asked me if I wanted to go with her to a Pinkberry event I said YES!

The evening started off a bit rocky. Alicia had mapped out how to get to Park Royal and we took the Iron Workers Memorial bridge into North Van and followed the instructions. Well, somewhere along the way we had to make a choice as to whether we wanted to go to Whistler or Vancouver, according to the overhead sign. Well, Vancouver, obviously. WRONG. We ended up going over the Lions Gate Bridge back into Vancouver. 45 minutes later we had enjoyed a nice scenic tour of Stanley Park, downtown Vancouver, and North Van, before finally arriving at Park Royal! Oh well, better late than never, right?

The band Bonnie Dunn was playing and there were many a screaming girls because it just so happens that Cory Monteith of Glee fame is their drummer.

Miss Melissa and Miss Jennifer were there also. It was good to finally see Melissa after what feels forever and it was super nice to meet Jennifer who is also a fellow blogger!

I had the Coconut frozen yogourt with kiwi and chocolate shavings.

It was a great event despite our little detour to downtown Vancouver. It was nice to meet other fashion bloggers such as the lovely Solo Lisa and to mingle with all the whos who of the Pinkberry world.

We left the event just after 8 and there was still a HUGE line of people waiting to get into the store. I was super glad we got the Royal treatment and were able to have some delicious frozen yogourt without the wait!

Now I really need to plan more date in North Van.

So, last night didn’t got as planned.

We’ve been meaning to try and hit up a food cart downtown FOREVER but it seems that every time we plan it, it never actually works. Last night we were sure it was finally our time to eat delicious street food, but fate had other plans for us.

Since we don’t work in the downtown core I haven’t seen any of these food carts or food trucks around, so I wasn’t quite sure how it worked. I did, however, find a great website that gave a lot of info on the different food carts in Vancouver. I quickly realized that the majority of the carts downtown are lunch carts and therefore are gone by 3 or 4 in the afternoon. This left us a little weary as to what we were going to find for dinner.

We stumbled upon Poke’m, which closed at 5:30 and decided that we’d leave work a little early to catch some meat ball delight.

Well, we left work, got cash, found parking, walked to the corner, and…NOTHING! It was 10 after 6 and there was no cart to be seen. WHY!? Why can’t we catch a street meat break!? We have no idea what happened or why the cart wasn’t there. It was all very strange because Alicia had seen the cart there the day before, but yesterday…NOTHING.

Le sigh.

So, we made the best of a disappointing situation and walked up a few blocks to the Crepe Cafe. You can’t really be too sad when you have amazing crepes in front of you, right?

I use to frequent the Crepe Cafe but haven’t been in a while. Their Prociutto & Brie crepe was amazing, as expected. Add to that a nice glass of Merlo and I was happy with the fate of the situation. We were going to share a sweet Crepe but instead opted to walk down the street to catch Bad Teacher at the Scotia Theater and indulge in some butter pop corn and tasty nibs. Not a bad ending to the evening.

As for the street carts, they are still an elusive goal I have not yet concurred. I think Chad and I are going to try and find one one a Saturday, during the day. I hope we have better luck then with our past attempts.

When I was thinking about what I wanted to do for my birthday this year, I figured I would keep it small and just invite the people who matter the most to me. Long gone are the days where you would create a facebook invite and invite every single person you know to join you down at Caprice for a night of dancing and despite those who said they would show up, the only people who actually did were those you cared about the most. Not that I ever went to a club for my birthday, but I figured I was old enough to just invite the people I wanted to see and cut out all those who may or may not make time to celebrate my birthday with me.

I’ve wanted to do a small birthday dinner party for a long time, so I finally took the oportinity to do it this year. Chad and I always look up restuarnats on Open Table when we want to see if anyone is having a special deal or when we want to make sure we have a reservation. I decided to do a search for a restaurant in Gastown for my birthday, but even though I was looking to book something a month in advance there were no places available for our group size at a reasonable time. Then Claudia, the brilliant foodie that she is, suggested this new place on main street called Campagnolo. She had heard many good things about it and was waiting to try it out herself. I checked out the menu and was sold. Birthday dinner location found!



There was 8 of us who went out for dinner. Claudia had to cancel due to a last minute all expenses paid trip to Hong Kong. Yea, she leads a difficult life ;)

I loved the atmosphere of the restaurant. Kind of felt like I was in someones cantina having dinner.

Treviso Salad
shaved mushrooms, arugula, shallot vinaigrette, pecorino

I had to represent half of my home town. I can’t believe I am actually coming around to the flavours of radicchio! Salad was so good!

Linguini
manila clams, white wine, chillies, parsley

This pasta was amazing. The chillies added a nice bite to it and the clams were oh so yummi. Vogole FTW!

“Affordable, casual Italian dining in a warm and welcoming space. Campagnolo serves rustic dishes inspired by the Piedmont and Emiglia-Romagna regions of Italy in an open, spacious room highlighted by original old growth fir wood beams.”

While we waited for our desserts to be served the table requested a speech for yours truly. At this point I was on my 3rd glass of wine. Well played my friends, well played!

They tried to get me to cry by mentioning ‘The Farm’ but I was stronger then that. I decided I would go around the table and tell everyone why I invited them to my party.

Chad: I told him I loved him and he was fabulous, which made everyone question if he was gay or not, because apparently you can only use the work fabulous when describing the gays.
Shaz: She is my sister in rage and with out her, who would I chat to online all day long. We also email each other funny tumblr photos which is the greatest thing ever.
Alicia: If there is every an earthquake and we are at work we will be the only one to survive because of all the vitamin Water she hoards under her desk.
Elise: She sent me an email asking me if I knew of a website that had maps of all the Castles and Palaces in England and it made me feel special that she thought I knew that much about the royal family.
Adam: He was wearing a Death from Above 1979 shirt, which I was in love with, and he had skipped his ‘Sunday Leage’ soccer game which made me feel pretty important.
Dario: We’ll hes Italian, so need I say more? We’ve  also known each other for a million years so I get emotional talking about him. I also forgave him for voting Communist in the last election.
Ryan: He’s replacing the deck in our building and with out him, we will never sell our apartment. It’s all on your shoulder Ryan!

Everyone was basically laughing their heads off, which was exactly what I was trying to do. I then may or may not have thrown down an ethnic slur about blueberry farms, which I’m pretty sure made Ryan cry. Hot damn, sometimes I amuse myself.

The cool thing about Campagnolo is that they have a Grappa bar. All the boys ordered a Resentin (espresso & ½ oz Grappa di Prosecco).

“Resentin – after finishing an espresso with sugar, grappa is poured into the nearly empty cup, swirled & drunk quickly.“

I had the Vanilla Panna Cotta and was partially mortified when I noticed the candle on the side of my plate. Thank God for those 3 glasses of wine.

DEATH FROM ABOVE

Over all it was probably one of the best Birthdays I have ever had. It totally makes a difference when you surround yourself with the people you care about.

I loved Campagnolo and am very glad I chose to have dinner there. I also loved that when I told my Mom where it was she kind of freaked out. Yes, it may be in a sketchy part of town, but doesn’t she know that’s where all the good restaurants are?! The food was really good and the atmosphere was even better. There are 100 places to go in Vancouver for good Italian food, but why not try one that is relaxed and casual. I love all things rustic!

I wonder if they’d let me live in the restaurant?

As much as I wanted to, I knew I wasn’t about to stay up all Thursday Night / Friday Morning to watch the Royal Wedding. Thankfully Alicia was kind enough to PVR it and throw a little ‘Royal Wedding Viewing’ Friday after work. I did wake up early on Friday to catch a bit of the highlights on the morning news, but I wanted to leave the majority of the ceremony a surprise for myself, aside from all the pictures and research Alicia and I did Friday at work.

Our Mothers got Princess Diana. It was only fair that we got The Duchess of Cambridge.

You can’t throw a Royal Wedding Party with out dressing up for the occasion. Alicia lent me her feathered hairpiece, or fascinator, as the Brits call them. Matched my outfit perfectly, mostly because I planned it that way ;)

Cardigan, Tank Top, Belt, & Skirt from Plum. Tights & Necklace from Forever 21. Shoes from H & M.

When I saw the tin of English Breakfast Tea commemorating the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton, I knew I had to get it for Alicia.

She ordered cupcakes and cake pops from Cakelicious, a company that Adams co-worker started on the side. The treats were absolutely fabulous! I had never had a cake pop before and they were to die for. Picture a brownie on a stick covers in chocolate and sprinkles. Amazing! The Pineapple Cupcakes were also the perfect treat. I’m not the biggest fan of pineapple, but these cupcakes actually blew my mind. Light and moist with little sweet chunks of pineapples, topped off with a rich and creamy cream cheese frosting. I ate two of them. I just couldn’t help myself.

I also donated some cucumber sandwiches to the cause, since we were watching an English wedding, it only seemed fitting.

I watched the whole wedding extravaganza 3 times over the course of the weekend. I also read all the Wikipedia pages for all the members of the Royal Family and studied the line of succession. Ask me anything, I’m now an expert.

There was 6 of us girls all gathered around the TV in our little outfits and  fascinator.

After the wedding we watched the made for TV movie about Wills and Kate. Bad acting, but adorable! Yes, we are women obsessed. It was the perfect way to spend a Friday night that one day we will be able to tell our daughters about. The day a commoner became a real life princess.

- Outfit photos courtesy of the lovely Alicia Fashionista! -