Uncategorized – Page 2 – A Sassy Lifestyle Blog

A Covid Halloween – kid friendly ideas.

2020, or the year that all our plans died, has been a challenge to say the least, but we’ve made it to October! With Halloween a few weeks away, I think we should plan on having a really weird Halloween, but let’s make weird work for us!

Here are a few ideas to make Halloween 2020 the best, weirdest, global pandemic Halloween ever!

If you’re a regular reader you know that I can be a bit sassy, but these ideas are legit aimed at making great Halloween memories for you and your kids…of all ages…ok there maybe a few sassy variations, so if you don’t have kids, keep reading and just add booze to every idea.

A New Way to Trick n’ Treat

Omg I love this ideas!!! Ok, let’s say that something really scary happens right before Halloween and old school, regular, trick or treating gets canceled. How can we salvage some sort of fun?

Here’s a great way to trick or treat, while socially distancing, Covid style.

How excited would your kids be if someone rang your doorbell and when they answered, there was a special treat waiting for them?

So I have a few ideas for this one. This is a great way for grandparents, aunts and uncles to surprise their little munchkins. Go to the dollar store and buy a plastic pumpkin or use some sort of small bucket. Fill it with treats, attach a helium balloon, get a white one and draw on eyes and a mouth and add a little note; then drop and go!

Another option is to make plans with the moms and dads from your hood to exchange treats with. You can get the kids involved, let them pick the treats for their friend’s buckets and then bring them along for the sneaky drop off. Coordinate times so each child is home at the time of their drop off.

Or…make them for your own kids and leave them at your own door. Ok, one last variation, drop them off to your adult friends and family too, add a few mickies and chips, whatever. I’d love to get a special treat like this myself!

Host a Spooky Night

Plan a spooky meal, invite a few friends if it’s safe to do so, if not, make it a family thing or whoever is in your bubble. Get the kids involved in the meal prep, remember your ultimate goal is to make memories.

Step 1 – make your table fancy, so it’s not just a normal dinner. Add some bats or pumpkins, use cloth napkins; let the kids drink out of fancy wine glasses, you can get them their own plastic ones from the dollar store, if you’re afraid of using your crystal, lol. Then during the meal, take turns making toasts to each other, ching, ching or cling, cling.

Step 2 – A spooky menu

Plan a spooky menu, like these mini pizzas, just make it fun, let them make their own, finally one night that they are encouraged to play with their food!

These mummies below are super fun, they just need a bit or bloody ketchup!

And if your kids are a bit older, gross them out with this creepy meatloaf. Have them help you make it, or even better have each person make their own, mini meatloaf.

Don’t forget about dessert, if they can’t go out to trick or treat, bring the treats to them; and make it fun!

Finish up your night with a spooky movie.

Play Dress Up

It’s been my experience that getting ready to go out can be more fun than actually going out. Even if things get canceled you still need to dress up!!

So why don’t you plan some sort of group or family costume? Get everyone ready then snap some family pics, let them be silly and make faces, I promise they will look back on these pictures with fond memories.

Or pack everyone in the car and go stand on the front lawn of their grandparents/family/friends and have them take a pic of your zombie crew. You get to show off your costumes and it gets the kids out of the house.

If you have teenagers, force them to participate!! Have everyone dress up in black and have a contest who can draw the coolest or strangest looking skull face. And for your family pic, if they don’t smile, you can tell yourself they were just in character.

*pics from Pintrest, the greatest Halloween helper!

Bark at the moon! (Ozzy Osborn reference for my bro, plus it sounds better than Howl at the moon.)

Hey! Did you know that Halloween falls on a full moon this year? Get your people outside and have them howl at the moon! No, seriously, go outside and start howling, it’s dumb, silly and I promise you’ll feel like a dork, but you’ll end up laughing and making your kids laugh. Then, when they’re older they’ll remember that Halloween when there was a full moon and their parents took them outside to howl at the moon.

If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that you just have to roll with things and make the best of shitty situations; this is even more important if you’re a parent. It’s basically your job to make certain your kids don’t feel like they’re being cheated out of the “normal” fun things in life, like Halloween. Make abnormal fun and exciting! Good luck, be safe and stay healthy!

Boo!

Liette

Let’s Hang Out – An Easy Batty Halloween Party

Let’s Hang Out – An Easy Batty Halloween Party

In this post, I’ll show you how easy it is to throw a super fly Halloween bat themed party. It will work for kids and adults; I did a fun girls cocktail night. I’ll be sharing my invitations, decor, food & drinks and then a few party pics.

Invitation 🦇

I think that party invitations are really important, as they will set the tone for your night. I try to chose a quirky image or theme.

I love puns, so I try to find a theme that will accommodate my punniness. Since it’s a Halloween party, I wanted a theme that was a bit scary and what’s scarier than bats this year? Nothing!! I found these cute little guys and thought they looked like a bunch of mischievous trouble makers; which is perfect for my crew.

My party is a cocktail party and not a full on Halloween party. I didn’t ask my guests to come dressed up. Some find dressing up stressful, so be mindful of that. I asked my guests to wear all black with red lips, I wanted all of us to be cute for pics and I wanted us to match; I’m a little batty for things that match, lol.

Decor 🦇

I want to show that you don’t need to hire a party planner or decorate your whole bat cave in order to have a fabulous looking party. Yes, I am technicality a party planner, but I’m willing to share my secrets with you, so you won’t need a party planner.

For my bat party, I am going to focus my decor over my dining table and on my dinning side cabinet thingy.

I made a Bat Chandelier Mobile to hang over my dining table, it was pretty easy and cheap! Here are the steps.

Step 1 – buy embroidery rings, you’ll need at least two. I bought mine at Michael’s, they were both under $5. You’ll also need black construction paper, black string or yarn, black paint, a brush, scissors and a hot glue gun or a hole punch; depending on how you want to hang your bats? I used a hole punch.

Step 2 – paint your rings black. I used black latex paint and a sponge brush.

Step 3 – To make my bats, I used these bats below, as my template. For my mobile I used the medium and large bates; put some tunes on and cut out some bats.

Step 4 – String em up!

I hung my big ring first, I attached it to the hook of my hanging light. Then I attached the smaller ring to the larger ring and then I started adding my bats. I went from big bats to smaller bats. My larger bats were hung on the larger ring and smaller bats on the smaller ring. The number of bats will depend on how big your rings are and how full you want your mobile to be; my rule is more is more!

2645EB21-92A7-4937-BB41-9F38721D0DE8 — It looks extra cool with the lights dimmed.

I hung my bat chandelier over my light fixture, but you can hang yours pretty much anywhere.

This is the white cabinet that I pimp out for parties; it sits in the center of my living area and is a great focal point. Please notice my brass giraffe, his name is Jerome, I try to dress him up for all my parties.

This area and my bat chandelier are the only two areas that I themed, but you’ll see that it’s enough. Oh and I do have one other special bat thing that is very cool, keep reading!…please and thank you.

I set up my desserts on my cabinet; create different sections so people aren’t all congested in one area. I had a bar area, my food on my dining table and my sweets here.

It looks a little simple in the pic, but with the lights down low it was really stunning. I started collecting old brass candle holders, I had 9 black candles burning and reflecting in my mirror. And I didn’t forget about Jerome! He kind of looked like a dragon with his bat wings.

Food 🦇

I thought about doing a sit down dinner, but then decided to have a heavy appetizer cocktail party instead; do whatever you have time for, it doesn’t need to be super complicated. I also chose to host my party on a Monday night, which may seem like an odd night? But the weekends leading up to Halloween can get busy with different parties and kid activities; Monday worked for everyone and my friends have no issues with drinking on a Monday night, they are troopers!

Spooky Charcuterie Board

Themes can get cheesy, but this charcuterie board is sophisticated and… ok, well technically it is cheesy, but that’s just because it has awesome cheese on it. I think it turned out looking rich and gothic.

I got my cheeses from a local fromagerie, Les Gourmants, on Main St in Moncton, shop local!!!
I wanted my charcuterie board to have that gothic feast feel, so after placing my board and bowls, I threw cherries and grapes all over the place, so my whole table served as the board. I added a purple cabbage in the center as decor and I added some beet juice to my hummus and used a big cabbage leaf as a bowls for my hummus.

It looked really cool, we ended up having way too much food, I usually send guests home with food, so none of it goes to waste.

Bat Balls

Mmm, not sure that name will catch on? Lol, my friends love my mother’s meat ball recipe; I need to come up with a catchier, less gross, name for them. They are pineapple meatballs and are one of my go to appetizers. You can make them ahead of time, which is great. In order to enjoy your own party, have everything done before your guests arrive.

I also made a Caprese Salad, available in small cups, and my famous clam dip.

Vampire Sangria

When hosting, you don’t need to offer a full bar, but it’s nice to have one drink to offer guests as they arrive. I made a pitcher of Sangria with blackberries, cherries and grapes; it had the same gothic feel as my charcuterie board.

What’s great about this vampire sangria is that you can fill your pitcher and your guests can serve themselves. I created a bar area, which also included ice, glassware and a few assorted soft drinks.

I made blackberry skewers and froze them. They look pretty and they help keep drinks cold.

When hosting, I offer drinks as soon as they walk in, refills are serve yourself. Try to have everything your guests will need in one area, so they can serve themselves.

A few hours before my party, I soaked my berries in a 1/4 of a cup of Brandy and then just before my guests started to arrive I added my red wine to the mix. It was sooo pretty and very gothic!

A few of my bat friends enjoying my Sangria.

A little bite of sugar

This vampire has a sweet tooth, but I’m not the greatest baker, which is no problem at all, since I am really great at ordering things. And lucky for me , one of my bff’s is available for hire; she makes the best cheesecakes! She made a bloody chocolate cherry cheesecake for my party; sooo…I may have just made up that name, but it totally fits!! It was the best cheesecake I’ve ever had and I’ve had lots!

Party Fun 🦇

I thought it would be fun to have a selfie/photo backdrop; I was inspired by those angel wings that people pose in front of, like these below.

But instead of angel wings, I made bat wings!! My sister-in-law drew the first one for me on cardboard and I cut and traced the second one. Once cut, I used the same black paint that I used to paint my rings for my chandelier.

They turned out really well and they were basically free; the cardboard was from a large box that was going to be thrown out. The hardest part was keeping my brother’s cat off the cardboard; I was the cat bouncer lol.

These turned out even cooler than I had hoped. Here are a few of my favorite bad ass bat chicks.

I bought a few cute bat masks for photos too, don’t my friends look pretty!!

I hope this post inspires you to host a batty soirée or afternoon party of your own? This theme would work for teens and kids parties as well; maybe swap the red wine and brandy with grape juice? Just a thought, lol.

Thank you for reading and for all my bat fiends who share all my posts, you guys are awesome!!

Boo!

Liette

Here’s another fun party idea from last Halloween.

https://oui-liette.org/2018/10/07/wickedly-haunted-dinner-party/

Why you should take advantage of our Atlantic travel bubble.

These are weird and hard times for the tourism and service industries. It’s more important than ever to get out there and support our local businesses.
Go for a drive, shop and eat at little mom and pop shops; who would have thought that eating and shopping in 2020 would be considered an act of love and support? But that is currently the case.

Here are a few activities that will be a win/win, for you and local businesses…you’re welcome!

Cool places are less peoply

Here’s what’s in it for you, besides feeling good about helping to support local businesses, our region has amazing things to do and see!! And since our region is less populated than other regions of Canada and their are no outside tourists, this is a great opportunity, and hopefully the only time, that we’ll have our beautiful region all to ourselves.

This became crystal clear to me last weekend when I visited Peggy’s Cove, just outside of Halifax. We basically had it all to ourselves. Ok, there were other people there, but there were no buses with loads of tourists; full disclosure it’s after Labor Day, so not prime time, but it was still oddly eerily void of crowds.

We got to explore the tiny village peacefully and look, no people in our shots. Hopefully this will be the last season without outside tourists, so go! This may be a once in a lifetime chance?

Ok all you instagramers out there, look at how amazing these pics are!! And while you’re out there getting the perfect shot, have lunch at the restaurant beside the lighthouse and spend some money; we had the fish n chips and they were delish!

We also visited Lunenburg and Mahone Bay, what a beautiful region!!!! Get in your car and drive!! Drive to Saint Andrews, Saint John, Moncton, the Acadian Cost, Charlottetown, Cavendish, Souris, Cape Breton, Halifax…. and if you had a European trip planned that got canceled, go to Newfoundland and pretend you’re in Ireland or Scotland, they accent will be a little different, but just go with it.

Love, love, love all the colourful houses of Mahone Bay and Lunenburg!

Hotels need heads in beds

The fall is typically conference season, hotels are usually fully booked with business travelers attending trade shows and meetings. Sadly corporate travel has been halted, this means that a lot of hotels are empty.
The lack of business travelers means that some local hotels are offering great deals!

We stayed at a brand new hotel in Halifax, Sutton Place, and in addition to getting a great rate, we were upgraded to a room with a view. When checking in tell them where you are from and be nice and you may get upgraded?

I’ve come to terms that being in fancy hotels is my natural habitat. This hotel had the BEST pillows!

The Sutton Place is attached to the convention center in downtown Halifax, this is the typical kind of hotel that I would book for my company during trade show season (I plan events for a large company); the rate we got was certainly not the a regular fall rate. Once life gets back to normal, the rate for this hotel in September/October will be double. So look up that fancy hotel that you’ve always wanted to try, call the front desk directly and tell that you are booking a mini staycation.

Do fun weird stuff!

Go on Pinterest and search fun things to do in your region, then do them! People always ask me how I find things to do, my big secret is I look up fun things to do, lol, it’s just that simple. Lately though, people have started to send me suggestions, which I love!

Here’s a fun thing, go visit some llamas!! This past summer I walked llamas and alpacas at Llamazing Adventures in Shediac; it was cool, but my cousins and I have made friends with Janet from Petitmore Alpacas and her gang of alpacas. Look them up on Facebook, you’ll need to make an appointment to visit. They’ll be open for a bit until the weather gets too wintery.

We were greeted by these crazy teenagers!!

What we love about visiting Janet is that after we are done feeding apples to the alpacas, which is awesome, we get to shop!! She makes beautiful hats, mittens, scarves….

Two of my cousins, Brigitte & Tania, we’d like to visit with our other cousins; Jen, Sasha, Sonya, Maneau and Katelyn, but they would freak out the llamas and Janet may never let us come back!! (They’re kinda loud and by kinda, I mean they are freaking loud!)

I bought a few things, some will be Christmas gifts! Speaking of Christmas, because of Covid a lot of Christmas markets and craft shows will be canceled. So please get out there and find then buy products from local artisans.

Want to find llamas in your area? Google, llamas in my area!! Lol

Here’s another fun thing to do, find a local potter, get a few friends together and visit their studio, I’m certain that they would love to have you visit!

Tania on the right, Brigitte on the left, I think the llamas could sense that B wanted to kidnap them so they were a bit afraid of her, lol.

Thank you for reading, take advantage of this lull in tourists to explore our bubble, book a hotel night, eat out, shop, just be a tourist in your own area; whether you’re lucky enough to be in the Atlantic bubble or not.

muah!
Liette

If you liked this post, you’ll probably like this one as well: https://oui-liette.org/2020/03/08/is-new-brunswick-weird-4-super-oddball-cool-things-to-do-in-nb/

Ghosts of Halloween Past. Growing up in the 70’s & 80’s.

Growing up in the 70’s, Halloween was a pretty big deal, for one thing treats weren’t a daily thing, so filling up your plastic pumpkin with free candy was awesome!! I have so many great memories, here are a few of them, let’s see if yours are similar.

Who remembers going to Woolco or Kmart to pick out their costume? They weren’t the fancy costumes they have today, nope, they consisted of plastic one size fits all onesies and a cheap, creepy mask.
My mom wouldn’t even let us wear the mask outside, because you really couldn’t see much with it on and bla, bla, bla, she didn’t want us getting hit by a car.
So all you had left was that plastic onesie, which fit over your snowsuit and ended up ripping in the crotch by the end of the night.
Choices were limited to a few options, their was a clown, a cat, an ugly witch and a devil…and maybe a bear or rabbit? Oh and the elastic on the mask would break before Halloween anyway, usually in a tug of war with your annoying little brother.

I am one year old in the pic above and you can see I have my lovely plastic costume over what looks to be my fuzzy pajamas. I asked my mom to explain my makeup, it looks like a pretty messed up cat. She thinks that I probably did it myself? Apparently I was very independent at a young age, shocking I know!
The following Halloween, I dressed up as; surprise, surprise, a cat! My makeup is slightly better…ish.

One of the best things about Halloween night was dumping your candy on the floor as soon as you got home in order to go through your stash! I wonder if kids still do that these days?
My cousin Ginette and I were pretty inseparable growing up, even our names matched. Side note, have I ever mentioned in any of my past blog posts that my mom’s name is Jeannette? Put them all together and you get Jeannette, Ginette and Liette, lol.
My mom would stay home and give out candy and my dad would take us out trick or treating, he’d carry our pumpkins for us when they got too heavy, he was the best!!

Ginette was a devil this year. Loving her unibrow!

Ginette’s on the left and I’m on the right for both pics, above and below. In addition to matching names, we must have had the same hairdresser; we always had matching hairdos! The one below is the classic 70’s bowl cut! Every kid had this cut, EVERY!!!! Boys and girls, it was unisex, this cut also led to me getting mistaken for a little boy many times.

The pic above is Ginette and I post trick or treating. I have no idea what we dressed up as this year? But I am thinking I may have done my own makeup again? The blue eyeshadow and crazy lipstick is very, “cheap floozy after a hard night of partying”. If my costume was a hooker, then I nailed it!!! Lol

1974 was an eventful year, my nanny made me a pink furry rabbit costume for a majorette concert and I wore it for Halloween!! Oh and I got a little brother that year too, but I am pretty sure that I was more excited for the pink rabbit costume. This may have been the beginning of my love of the colour pink?
I’m digging my dad’s plaid pants, in the pic below, with his yellow hat and hockey jersey; it’s def a killer 70’s vibe!

As we got older, our trick or treating posse grew to include more cousins and neighborhood kids. My dad and Joyce, our backyard neighbor, would take all the kids on our street out trick or treating; it became their regular annual thing. It’s funny how back in the day, if one adult was willing to take their kids out, all the other parents were more than happy to pawn their trick or treating duties off.

These were pre- helicopter parent days; we traveled in large packs, high on sugar, running from house to house, racing to be the one to ring the doorbell. Yes, there was some…ok a lot of pushing and shoving and yes, someone always ended up getting hurt. You fell or got pushed, you cried and then you were back in the race.
Your night would end with a runny nose, rosy cheeks and enough candy to last you a few weeks.
Those are some of my best childhood memories.

I found this pic of a cat mask and I am pretty sure it was the same that came with my cat costumes.

I spent the last few Halloweens in Las Vegas and man those kids have it easy! Can you imagine how awesome it would have been to trick or treat without needing your winter jacket or skidoo suit? They have no idea of the struggle of Canadian children.
One year, I was probably 6 or 7, I got a Barbie costume, which was a white plastic gown with the word Barbie on the chest and a mask that looked nothing like Barbie. Turns out the white plastic gown didn’t fit over my skidoo suit and it was a super cold night, so my mom made me wear it underneath!! This was such a traumatic event!! I still don’t think I’m completely over it. Thankfully, I have no pics of that Halloween.

Halloween Contest

I love seeing retro childhood pictures, they’re so cool. I’ve showed you mine, now I want to see yours! (Childhood Halloween pics, only!)
Go to my Facebook page: Oui-Liette and post a retro Halloween pic from your childhood for a chance to win one of my blog sweatshirts. Each person who posts a pic on my page will be entered to win. The winner will be able to pick your shirt colour with one of the three sayings: Oui, muah! or ah phoque.

Thanks for reading! I have lots of fun content for October!! Follow me on Instagram at: Oui-Liette for additional fun photos!

muah!

Liette

Apparently I still like dressing up as a cat, thankfully my makeup skills have improved!!

Taco Any Day! Entertaining Tips.

Taco Any Day! Entertaining Tips.

Why should Tuesday’s have all the taco fun? With most of us working from home and kids going back to school…ish, I feel that we need to take advantage of any excuse to spend time with friends…and tacos!

Let me start by saying that our region of Atlantic Canada is one of the safest places on earth at the moment, we’re allowed to meet friends in restaurants, sans mask, and gather at home with friends; no rules were broken in the making of this post.

I blog a lot about entertaining and how it’s more important to get out and spend time with loved ones than it is to be the perfect host, with the perfect menu for your perfect friends. My friends are awesome, but they are far from perfect, thank goodness, how boring would that be?

Taco Night Out

For my Taco night out, I was joined by Kenda and Stacey; two of us have been working from home alone and two of us have been grounded and unable to do our normal jobs of flying all over the place. I felt we needed some girl time…and tacos. I thought about hosting a taco dinner at my place, but to be honest, I am getting so sick of being in my condo!!

So why not host a small intimate dinner party at our local Mexican restaurant? Where we just needed to show up and have someone serve us tacos and daiquiris, it really was a no brainer.

To make it a bit more fun, I brought a bunch of flower clips and headbands, why? Why the hell not? It annoys one of my friends that I theme, pretty much everything, but I honestly don’t care. She’s a fairly good sport, most of the time.

Our Taco Any Day night was on Monday, it was an awesome way to kick off our week! We bought a few items and shared and stayed out until 9pm!! Just a bunch of wild woman out on a Monday!! Lol

Taco Any Day, at home

You don’t have to go out for Mexican, you can make it at home apparently, lol. My cousin Nicole, yes another cousin, I wasn’t exaggerating when I said I have a lot of them, treated us to a Saturday night Mexican feast.

We’ve unintentionally started a monthly Saturday night group dinner, where we take turns hosting. We help each other prepare the meal, so we’re learning how to make new recipes and then we get to share a meal together, it’s awesome!

This week we helped make Mexican street corn and shrimp tacos with homemade pico de galo; it was delish!!!

Fresh jalapeños!!!

We got fresh supplies from The Green Pig Country Market in Salisbury; everything tastes better with fresh locally grown products.

Ok these may not be the prettiest Mexican Street corns, but man, they were tasty!

This was my very first Mexican Street Corn, it was so easy to make and so yummy! It’s sour cream, mayo, cheese, cilantro and a few different spices.

The trick to making delish shrimp tacos, or any kind of tacos, is to buy corn tortillas and fry them in a pan with a good two cups of peanut oil, until they are crunchy. Take them out of the oil and place on a plate with paper towels in order to soak up the excess oils. Omg they were sooooooo good!!

If you want to step up your game and make your table a little fancy, add a cactus or two and some colourful flowers! This would be such a pretty baby shower or birthday theme.

I am pretty confident that my cousin Nicole is the best Acadian taco maker…in Moncton…who is related to me!

Halloween Taco Party!

With Halloween right around the corner, why not have a Day of the Dead celebration with a full out taco bar?

The Day of the Dead is officially on Nov 2; it sounds like it would be a sad event, but it’s a way to celebrate the lives of those who have passed. It’s a day where families welcome the souls of their deceased relatives for a brief celebration of food and drinks.

Being in Mexico for the Day of the Dead is one of the items on my bucket list. It sounds and looks like such a beautiful celebration. With that in mind, it’s a perfect way to spend the evening with friends and family to toast and celebrate those we love who have passed and while you are at it, you should make it a dress up night, obvs. Suggest your guests come with a painted sugar skull face.

How cute is this charcuterie board? Dress it up with nachos chips and dipping sauces.

The decor would be easy, a black tablecloth with lots of sculls and big fat red roses!

Here is my homage to a sugar skull makeup, below, not sure I did it justice, but did my best. Imagine everyone showing up with their version of a sugar skull for a feast and celebration!!

I usually hate when I get red eyes in pics, but I think it looks cool here.

In closing, if you need an excuse or a theme in order to meet your friends on a Monday night, or to invite people over to your place for a home cooked meal, or even a reason to celebrate in and around Halloween; TACOS!!!

Thank you for reading!!

And since travel is limited now, here’s another little taste of Mexico, that I posted a few years back.

https://oui-liette.org/2019/05/05/cinco-de-mayo/

muah!
Liette

Scary Shit! Old Abandoned Houses! A Fall Must.

Scary Shit! Old Abandoned Houses! A Fall Must.

I loovvvve fall! I love that the air changes and becomes cooler, but the sun stays hot. I love wearing sweaters and the crunchy sound that the leaves make when you walk on them.

Late September and early October are made for drives in the country and New Brunswick is one of the best places to admire all of the fall foliage. It’s also the perfect time to admire old abandoned, and who are we kidding, probably haunted houses! Ok they probably aren’t haunted, but for the purpose of this post, let’s say that they could be? And some of these old houses are scary as shit so…yeah they’re absolutely, probably, haunted lol.

I’m fascinated by these old houses, they’re beautiful and sad at the same time. This fall, don’t just drive by them, stop and admire them a bit. Don’t go in, they aren’t safe, but peek inside if you dare?

My friend Stacey and I stopped to take a look at this old house near Waterborough, NB. It still had curtains hanging in the windows and the front door was open, as if it was inviting us inside, that’s creepy right?

We aren’t those crazy white people in horror movies, you know the dumb kind, that go inside to “check things out”….mmm, but we did stop and walk a bit closer to “check things out”, oh crap! Maybe we are those people??

As we walked closer, I saw movement in the house through one of the windows. My heart skipped a beat, I looked closer, squinting, because I wasn’t wearing my glasses. OMG!! I saw a figure moving in the house!!!

Was it a freaky mutant or a scary ghost? Well, I don’t think that scary mutants have brightly coloured and freshly cut blonde bobs? At least they don’t in the movies. This old abandoned house still had a mirror hanging on the wall; I was seeing my own reflection from outside, even though I was pretty far away. I’m convinced it was the house trying time lure us inside.

Did we go even closer to peek into the window? Hell no! We weren’t falling for that trap. We got back in our car and drove until we found an ice cream place; ice cream helps calm your nerves after a good scare…it’s pretty much a proven fact.

This next story took place a few years ago and it’s super spooky, it’s not an abandoned house, but it’s 100% legit haunted. It takes place in The Keillor House in Dorchester, NB.

Keillor House is now a museum and I should add that it’s located next to a maximum security penitentiary, which is an old stone building built in 1880. So right out of the gate it’s a spooky area!

Every Halloween they turn the museum into a haunted house for visitors, it’s one of their major fundraisers.

For some reason, on a cold and windy night in October, I ended up at the Keillor House helping to decorate the carriage house for their haunted tours. For the record, that place is automatically scary at night without any decorations!

I took a bunch of pics throughout the night. There were three of us on the decorating committee, I made sure I was pretty much glued to one of them at all times. Did I mention it was a cold and windy night??

When I got home that night, I was looking at my pics. The pic below is a perfect example of how creepy this place is at night; those hatchets and stuff on the wall aren’t props, they’re real. And yes that’s a bloody baby on the bottom right of the pic, that’s a prop, obvs.

I took the pic above, then moved a bit closer to the bloody baby and took another shot. For the shot above, my flash didn’t go off, even though it was on automatic and it was clearly dark so it should have gone off.

For this shot above, my flash did go off, both pics were taken seconds apart.

Did you notice the ghostly blur? I added an arrow to point it out. Sooo WTF is that?? It’s obviously some sort of ghost, it’s just floating there!!!

That’s creepy right? I haven’t volunteered to help decorate since that night and meh… I’ll probably be too busy again this year? Lol. If covid doesn’t completely derail Halloween, you need to visit their haunted tour, if you’re brave enough?

Also in Dorchester, they’ve converted the old jailhouse into a hotel, yup, you can sleep in an actual jail. Adding it to my list of things to do, but I’ll have to check and see how many stars this hotel has? I am a bit of a hotel snob, lol, kidding…ish. The town of Dorchester should really market themselves as a Halloween town, maybe I should talk to their mayor?

This next creepy house is an old farmhouse that sits on land owned by a friend; he’ll eventually tear it down as he is building a new house on the property.
It caught fire and was abandoned decades ago, sadly it’s beyond repair. I don’t have any scary stories, it’s just an abandoned farmhouse with lots of character…and probably a ghost or two?? Who knows really? Lol

Thanks for reading, I hope you look at old abandoned houses a bit differently, they can be beautiful. I wish they could all be saved and restored!

muah!

Liette

Here’s one of my past scary adventures, if you have every watched Ghost Adventures on TV, you’ll enjoy or if you just enjoy me when freaked out? Lol

https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/oui-liette.org/178

Behind the Scene

If you’re wondering about my feature image, I haven’t gotten extensions, it’s from my Covid birthday in April. This was going to be my party outfit for my girls trip to Palm Spring for my big birthday and since no one got to see it, I am recycling it for this blog post!! Unrelated side note, I miss my long hair, currently growing it out.

I did go back to Keillor House, but just to take this pic, I didn’t revised the carriage house.

Happy Fall Eve!

Happy Fall Eve! Top 5 activities to do before October.

Well we survived spring and summer 2020! I am not sure about you, but I struggled a bit and had a few challenging moments; talk about having all your plans go to shit all at once. But we made it and now it’s almost fall; Happy Fall Eve!

Fall Eve is the perfect time to get back into a more “normal” routine. And it’s the perfect time to focus on our health and happiness, which I feel is even more important these days.

So let’s make a fall list, you know how much I love lists!! And I’ve heard feedback that people like reading my lists because it gives them ideas of things to do; shall we begin? You know that’s rhetorical, I’m going to begin regardless, lol.

Sunflower Selfie!

This was on my list last year, but there were no sunflower fields to be found in Las Vegas; so I took full advantage this year. You may think that taking selfies with sunflowers is silly or superficial, but it’s more about getting outside and enjoying yourself.

If you haven’t walked in fields of sunflowers yet, you’d better hurry, the season is almost over. Get out there with your family or friends and take lots of pics!! It’s really magical.

Fall Colour Drive

I am so exciting to be back in the Maritimes for fall, after four years away. I’ve already warned people that I‘ll be spamming social media with beautiful, multi coloured, fall foliage images.

And guess what? The leaves are starting to turn!!!!

This fall, I want you to jump in your car, alone or with someone, whatevs, crank up the tunes and go for a drive and enjoy the scenery. There’s something about a sunny fall drive that is just good for your soul. It always helps to clear my mind of clutter, I’ve come up with some really awesome ideas during autumn drives.

Support Farmers Market

If Covid has taught us anything, it’s that farming isn’t for the faint of heart. Lots of you tried your hand at gardening this year with varying levels of success.

I love and support all the new gardeners out there and I hope that you’ll keep at it next year with lessons learned. Sadly none of my friends and family will survive the winter on what they’ve successfully grown in their gardens, lol.

My brother grew exactly 6 ears of corn, my bff harvested enough mini potatoes for a few potato salads, by a few, I mean two, lol. Another friend lost everything she planted, except for cherry tomatoes, she had lots of those.

I picked potatoes for the first time ever, which is a bit embarrassing since my great, great grandparents were big farmers. It was like digging for Easter eggs.

Lucky for all of us, there are tons of farmers markets nearby. What a great opportunity to support local farmers and to buy fresh, local products.

While you’re out there driving with your tunes blaring, make a stop at your local farmers market and buy lots and lots of fresh goodies. There is absolutely no down side to shopping local!!!

Fall Food With Friends

During the summer it’s all about BBQING, but when the days get a bit cooler, it just makes me want to cook and bake.

We visited two markets this weekend, we bought fresh corn and potatoes at one and apples at the other. I just hosted an impromptu fall harvest dinner party and it was delish!

On the menu; corn chowder, fresh biscuits and apple pop tarts. I made the chowder before hand and it was the best corn chowder I’ve ever tasted! BTW, my guests helped me make the biscuits and pop tarts and we had a beautiful evening, chatting, laughing and cooking together. Full disclosure, there may have been too much chatting? My first batch of biscuits didn’t rise, turns out I forgot to add two of the ingredients, lol. Did it ruin our meal? Nope, it only made us laugh more, but we’re not quitters, we whipped up a second batch in a jiffy and we nailed it!

My corn chowder was amazing! Made with real corn, not from a can!

Look up a fancy pumpkin recipe and call a few friends over and bake up a storm!! Make awesome memories while making yummy, healthy food!

Fresh Fall Air!

You can already feel the days getting shorter, it’s more important than ever to get out there and enjoy the sunshine before the weather turns colder.

Lucky for us that there are so many fun, fall things to do this time of year.
I am looking forward to picking apples this year, then making an apple crisp, then eating it with vanilla ice cream. Verger Belliveau Orchard, in Memramcook, will be open for picking as of September 9th.

The Green Pig Country Market’s giant corn maze is now open, as is their Pumpkin Blaster, which is super fun!!

I’m not going to lie, the though of getting lost in a 2020 corn maze is kind of terrifying! But I am going to do it anyway.

There are also lots of open farm days, where you can tour local farms and visit with the animals, this time of year. Look up what activities are happening in your area and get out and participate!!!

I love this pic of my dad and my nephew Jack walking hand in hand at The Green Pig corn maze. We just dropped Jack off at University and my dad passed away a year ago. This is a perfect example of why you need to take lots of pics and make memories!!

Thanks for reading, I have so many fun and funny posts coming in October, well I think they’re funny. 😬

muah!

Liette

Here’s 2019 Falling for Fall list, yes, there are a few similarities, but you should give it a read anyway! https://oui-liette.org/2019/09/02/falling-for-fall-2/

Oh hello! Just hanging out in a field of sunflowers!

Home office help!

Home office help!

I consider myself pretty good at home decor, but even I need help sometimes.

Like lots of you out there I’ve been working from home since March and it looks like I will be home bound until next year.

I live in a one bedroom condo so creating a home office area was a bit challenging. I started off working at my dining room table, but I felt like my work life was taking over my living space.

So I bought a desk, which turns out was harder than I had imagined. The first four desks I liked and tried to order where back ordered. The Canadian Tire furniture guy told me that they sold more desks in two months than they usually sell in a year.

I finally found one at Structurb, it’s pretty, but it turned out to be a bit bigger than I had anticipated. I set it up in the corner of my living room, because I really didn’t know where else to put it. I didn’t want to spend my whole day in my bedroom, so this corner seemed like my best option. I used it for approximately one week, then I started to notice that I was sitting on my couch with my laptop on my knees.

Instead of being at my new desk, this was my preferred set up as of late, don’t laugh…ok, you can laugh, check out my slippers.

My bff, who is also a crazy talented decorator, asked me why I wasn’t working at my desk. I told her it felt like I was being punished and sent to the corner. She agreed that my set up wasn’t great and offered to help me; I said, yes please!!

The first thing she did was to get my desk out from the corner and centered it in front of my window, I wanted to be able to see my TV while working, so my desk is facing in, instead of looking outside. She also switched up my two couches, since my gray couch is less deep than my green one, it allows for more room back there for my desk.

My ceilings are crazy high! She said I needed a big plant for my corner. Side note: BTW you can hire her to help you with your home office or study room for home schooling or, whatever you need! She’ll also source/shop for what you need, she found me a huge plant!

My new plant is so big that I panicked and had commitment issues, like what happens if I kill this thing? I am still a bit freaked out, lol. I needed a nice pot for it; she found one and bought it for me. Yup, that’s what a professional decorator does, I did have to pay for it, but it saved me from running around looking for the perfect big pot.

Here’s how it looks all done up! She added a small desk lamp and I’ll steal a sunflower from my sister in law’s garden for my bud vase. What I love about this is that when my laptop is closed my pop up office disappears. It doesn’t feel like my work is taking over my living space. Even thought I bought my desk myself and it was a great purchase, I felt a bit lost and needed some guidance to make this space work for work and….well, work for when I am not working.

Meet my designer, Guylaine Malenfant, can help you revamp your existing home office, or create a space in your home for a new office. She can also set up home schooling areas in your home.

She offers consultations, full remodels, sourcing and shopping, new construction, staging… If you’re interested in hiring her for your space, contact her via email: gdmalenfant@gmail.com or contact her via Instagram: gdmalenfant

Thank you for reading!!!

follow me on Instagram: oui-liette, thank you!!

muah!

Liette

And if you liked this and want to see what Guylaine’s home looks like, check out this story: https://oui-liette.org/2020/05/16/at-home-with-guylaine-and-claudia-the-bathroom-reno-edition/

If you’re wondering if I am wearing my new glasses to look more professional and smarter, you would be 100% correct!!! Lol

Moncton, what’s there to love?

Moncton what’s there to love?

I’ve always been proud to be from Moncton and after living in the US, Las Vegas to be specific, for the past three years; I worked my magic to get transferred back to my hometown.

The most common questions asked about my big move news were: really??? And: are you happy about that?? My reply to both were yes and YESSS!!

So, why was I so keen to move back to this, who are we kidding, small city? What is there to love about Moncton?

The little city that could.

If I had to describe the people of Moncton, known as Monctonians, in one word, it would be: resilient…and industrious. OK, that’s two words, but whatever.

Our little city has been sucker punched a few times in its history. Each hit should have knocked us out and made us throw in the towel and fade away quietly.

But what can I say? Monctonians are scrappy by nature. What do you do when you are a one industry town and that industry picks up and walks away? You pick yourself up and shake it off…oh, and you take a look at what you have to offer, then hustle to get new industries to move to your city and completely reinvent yourself.

The city with a certain, je ne sais quoi?

Oui, c’est vrai, Moncton’s French speaking population, helps make the city pretty unique. Think about it; without them Moncton may as well be Saint John; not that there’s anything wrong with being Saint John.

Moncton’s vast bilingual population is one of the resources that helped to reinvent the city. When other New Brunswick cities struggled to modernize their economies, Moncton thrived; surpassing Saint John to become the largest city in New Brunswick; oh wow, I am really picking on SJ aren’t I? Sorry!

Moncton’s mix of French and English, who BTW live together in peace and harmony, also give the city a live & let live/laisser faire, vibe, which I love.

Big thinkers?

I’ve visited many small towns and cities in both Canada and the US, that have very small town ideas/thinking, which is perfectly fine, but Moncton is a small city with a big city vibe and outlook. Maybe we don’t realize that we are small? Or maybe thinking big just comes naturally to us?

Whatever the reason, this big, little city, has a very cosmopolitan vibe and is open to new ideas and new people. Maybe it’s because Monctonians are so well traveled? People here travel…a lot. I thought that this was normal until I went to smaller and bigger places and met people who had never been anywhere.

My grandparents, who were two old school Acadians, became globetrotters once they retired. They had a lust for life and wanted to see and experience as much as they could, this is a very Moncton way of thinking. They even visited China! Fun fact, I didn’t realize how insecure my grandmother was about talking in English until my dad and I took her to Florida and she kept asking me to ask the waitresses stuff, yet she visited Europe and beyond; my dad was also a globetrotter; I discovered that he had traveled to Africa twice when he was in his twenties. I guess that’s where I get my globetrotting genes?

I think that because so many Monctonians travel the world it makes us, well more worldly, lol.

It tastes good.

It’s easy to take local things for granted until you have something to compare them to. Growing up in the Maritimes, going to the wharf with your dad and waiting for the fishing boats to come in to buy lobster wasn’t a big deal.

With a little perspective, you realize that there aren’t many places that offer the world’s best seafood, literally, fresh off the boat…like literally!

World class lobster, crab, mussels and oysters can be found here, all available in this little city.

Growing up here, in the 70’s & 80’s, there weren’t a lot of different « exotic » foods available; by exotic, I mean stuff like avocados, lol. We did have a few Chinese food places, but that was pretty much it.

Moncton now has a great diverse foodie scene, with authentic Indian, Vietnamese, Lebanese, Syrian…options. I was just told about a super cute Korean BBQ place in Dieppe, which technically isn’t Moncton, but tomato, tomato. Lol, it’s on my list to try.

So let’s be proud of our city and if you live in Saint John, be proud of Saint John!!! No matter what city you live in, big or small, get out there and find new things to try, do, see and taste!!

Thanks for reading!

muah!

Liette

If you liked this post, you just may like this one as well? https://oui-liette.org/2020/06/10/colours-of-the-maritimes/

Floating Sound Meditation with Singing Bowls…say what??

For this post I am back in the Bouctouche area; let me start by saying that I had no idea there were so many things to do in and around Bouctouche. I did a Day Tripping in Bouctouche post, then I was told to check out the lavender farm, Lavender by Ocean Breeze Farm; visited it, loved it!! Then I was told by Line, one my readers, that I needed to go back for a third time and visit Thaly Holistic- Boutik.

I love getting recommendations from you guys, so keep them coming. I just booked a hammock or a swing, not sure what the proper name is?
I am going with long time family friend and avid blog supporter and sharer, Michelle. She messaged me to say she had been meaning to try this and would be game to join me. So we are going!

My blog and life philosophy is to try new things and I hope that my adventures inspire you to say oui, to new experiences too.

I usually research things before I do them, but going into this a bit uninformed on purpose. This is way out of my normal thing. I don’t meditate, but I am looking forward to seeing what this is all about.

My first challenge is figuring out what one wears to float with singing bowls?? Lol. I am thinking yoga gear will be appropriate, who would have guessed that yoga gear would be our 2020 outfit of choice??

So I just got back from my visit and it was amazing! I don’t really know how to explain the feelings and experience, but I’ll try.

As soon as we arrived we could smell the scent of lavender, their boutik and studio are beautiful with natural wood throughout.

We were greeted by the owner, Nathalie, and since both Michelle and I had never been before, she walked us to the studio and got us settled and comfy in our hammocks, they are hammocks, not swings.

Since we were a bit early we were able to pick our hammocks, I gravitated to the green one right away and Michelle crawled into the red. Afterwards Michelle thought our choices were very fitting, since green symbolizes healing and red energy. She’s aware that I am still healing from my dad death and she had been running around a lot and needed to replenish her energy.

My first impression was that my hammock was amazingly comfortable! You bend your knees and touch your feet together, like a frog pose, which was super comfortable.

It truly felt like I was floating, my hammock keep swinging and I could feel myself relax and sink into my little green cocoon.

Nathalie’s son Marc led our session, before we started he asked if I wanted a spritz of essential oil; I said, yes please and held out my hands.

After a few minutes of deep belly breathing he started the sound therapy. I closed my eyes and let the sound of rain, I thought it sounded like rain, wash over me. I started to visualize being in the rain forest.

As I mentioned I don’t meditate; I do know that you’re supposed to silence your mind. I did my best to silence all outside thoughts and worries. Out of nowhere I started repeating a self loving phrase that I think I needed a reminder of?

As the rain sounds faded and the metal bowls started, it felt like I could visualize and feel waves of sound. I could feel the waves and each wave was a different colour. I have never felt colour before and it sounds weird, but that’s the best way I can think to describe it.

At one point I could really hear and feel my heart pounding, which was a bit startling for a minute, but then I re-focused on the sounds of the waves. My hammock was still gently moving. I started to feel a little cold so I covered myself with my blanket, you bring your own blanket and a small neck pillow, if you have one.

To be completely honesty, when we started I wondered if I was going to get bored at some point, since the session is a full hour. But that didn’t happen, I don’t think I feel asleep, but I for sure zoned out. Because all of a sudden the metal bowl noises started to slow down with moments of silence in between. That sort of brought me back to reality and as the rainfall sounds began again, I opened my eyes and my hammock was completely still. The hour flew by and was over.

Marc told us to stretch out and to start moving our bodies a bit, a few moments later we were ready to leave our colourful cocoons.

During the session we were told to turn off our phones, I had asked Nathalie for permission to take a few photos afterwards for this blog post.

This is my zen selfie, I just felt relaxed and at peace, I look a little funny.

We got to chat with Nathalie a bit afterwards, I asked her how long she had been in business; she told us it’s been four years. She shared that this had always been her dream of hers and that when she turned fifty, she left her job at Canada Post, where she had worked for twenty years plus years.

She had a five year planned mapped out and achieved those goals after just five months! They built the boutik and studio and had plans to for a sleeping area, as a sort of holistic hostel, before Covid hit. Those plans are now on hold, but they are back open for business. They’ve adjusted the number of hammocks per class in order to have everyone properly distanced.

I love that this was her dream and that at fifty she decided to go for it! It’s inspiring and I think it speaks to the power of women and the people and families that help support them…us.

I highly recommend you try this! Even if you think it’s not really your thing, I thought the same thing and now I want to return with a few of my friends, who just between you and I need to chill out! Lol

Follow Thaly Holistic-Boutik on Facebook, they have a list of upcoming classes. You need to confirm your attendance in order to reserve your hammock. I just confirmed interested, so I was lucky that there was one hammock left for me. They are located on 5220 Route 115, in the Bouctouche area, not certain if they are withing the limits or just outside?

Tell them you heard about them from my little blog! And let me know about your experience.

If you aren’t in and around this region, look up something similar or even try something that is out of comfort zone, you just may like it??

Thanks for reading! Check me out on Insta at: oui-liette.

muah!

Liette

Behind the Scenes

I wasn’t kidding when I said that Michelle was an old family friend. Our parents have been friends forever, here she is at my first birthday. Man, I am happy I grew into my cheeks!!!