I created two packages one going to the UK and one off the Australia both CD’s with the theme of ALL Canadian Music.

Both of these envelopes I made from the paper that comes in Album Record Frames.  I decorated this beauties with some clippings from a booklet I had laying around.  I am all about recycled mailings, makes you be creative!

I really went out of my norm with creating the deco fro the CD but I love it!  All of what you see what created from papers I had laying around the house. I don’t know about you but I would be happy to receive either of these packages

• Bedouin Sound Clash ~ Living in Jungles
• Subb ~ I ♥ MTL  (Paul directed this music video!)
• Tokyo Police Club ~ Favorite Food
• Arcade Fire ~ Month of May
• Pierre Lapointe ~ Deux par deux  ressembiés
• The Weatherthans ~ Reconstruction Site
• Great Lake Swimmers ~ Your Rockie Spine
• Timber Timbre ~ Demon Host
• Patrick Watson ~ Big Bird in a small cage
• Stars ~ Wasted daylight
• Metric ~ Help I’m Alive
• K-OS ~ Burning Brides
• Sweatshop Union ~ Oh My
• Numéro# ~ La glarie d’arte
• Crystal Castles ~ Celestica
• Les Trois Accord ~ Nuit de la Poésie
• Mute ~ Fading Out (Paul’s company produced this video!)
• The Sainte Catherines ~ The Shape of Drunks to come
• Down with Webster ~ Your Man
• Meaghan Smith ~ Heartbroken (I’ve written about her here!)
• Coeur de Pirate ~ Ensemble (I’ve written about here here!)
• Kodiak ~ Bombay (PAUL directed/animated this music video!)

I know using a credit card is bad and destructive for a lot of people because they don’t yet have the discipline to not over spend so I wouldn’t suggest the ideas in this post for everyone.

For those of you that have masters and conquered the credit card here are some ideas for you.
Using your credit card for all your daily purchases can be a very helpful and beneficial choice for your finances:

1) The points you collect from using it can get you free travel, gift cards, or groceries which the monitory equivalent can then be put to something else.

2) Having your bills automatically charged to your credit card can help a lot with timing throughout the month what money goes where when and keeps you away from the stress of trying to get out and pay a bill.

3) Putting all your expenses on the credit card can help you from running out of money in your account for something you need now but will only have the money to pay for in the next pay period.

4) It’s always nice to have a credit card in an emergency and if you don’t have the full amount to pay off the crises it gives you a month to go through your budget to sort it out.

I only suggest you use your credit card all the time if you watch it closely and make sure you can pay your total bill. Otherwise the interest owing may over power the actual benefits you are trying to get.
Me and my husband we get over $20 a month in points, which may not seem like a lot but it for sure adds up if you are smart with it!

Happy Budgeting!
Amanda Douglas
Captive Creativity

Grab a cup of tea and come walk around Montreal with us!

Day 109 to 124 of A Photo A Day

St. Joseph’s Oratory with my Action Sampler looks amazing!  This is second largest dome in the world.

April and I with the view of Montreal from the top of  St. Joseph’s Oratory on Mont Royal.

The Clock Tower in Old Port Montreal.  April climbed to the top of this beauty where a cute couple had just gotten engaged at the top. It was the sweetest thing!

The workings of the clock from inside.

Old Port Montreal.

Notre-Dame Basilica in Old Montreal.

Old Port By Night.

Playing with Light. Thanks Paul for being my model!

Downtown Montreal from the top of Mont Royal.

Playing with exposure on with the Cross the very top of Mont Royal.

Need to start your day right with a breakfast from our favorite neighbor resto John’s.

Happy as clams after our yummy breakie and a walk around my neighborhood.

Wondering the streets of China Town.

Take Out Buffet in China Town is great!

The best poutine in town is found at La Banquise.

Bring Your Own Wine is all over Montreal!  I am just so use to being able to bring your own wine into restaurants that I forget that the rest of country doesn’t have this luxury.

I hope you enjoyed a little bit of Montreal through my pictures!

Must I say more? [source]

Why?  [source]

What is civilization coming to? I get this sort of ‘freedom’ for Breast Cancer awareness but for beer? [source]

This picture is great! Cheney really shows who the puppet is and who the master is. Both crazy? I think so. [source]

I don’t know about you but I ♥ surprises & I ♥ giving surprises as well.   I picked Paul up from work on Friday and we started to drive to the grocery store but I could not keep the surprise to myself any longer so I pulled over and made him open the trunk.  It was full of camping gear that I bought just for his birthday!  Needless to say he had a huge smile on his face.  Saturday morning we were up at 5am and driving out of the city with coffee in hand to La Mauricie National Park of Canada.  Now the beautiful thing about our little camping trip was that we had to rent a canoe to get to our camp site and there were no motor boats allowed on the lake.  It was so peaceful being so far in nature and cooking our meals over a camp fire. But we had a bit of a surprise hardcore rain storm most of the night, our new little tent did not let us down though.    Ahh… I want to go back right now!

Here are Days 102 to 109 of A Photo A Day from Paul’s weekend away in bliss.  Enjoy!

Our mode of transportation for the weekend.

Birthday boy with our new portable home!

Playing with light at night!

This is where we ate Paul’s yummy birthday dinner and a little forest mouse came to visit us!

This is ‘our’ little beach in day light that we had Paul’s birthday dinner at. Our camp site was right behind this!

Coffee just tastes so much better in nature.

I could wake up and have coffee in this spot every day but we only got to see this one morning.

]]> http://www.thehouseofhearts.com/2010/08/a-photo-a-day-pauls-birthday/feed/ 0 http://www.thehouseofhearts.com/2010/08/1599/ http://www.thehouseofhearts.com/2010/08/1599/#comments Wed, 25 Aug 2010 23:03:33 +0000 Amanda http://www.thehouseofhearts.com/?p=1599

Of course this is something we all need and we can’t really get around that. It seems that every year, or even every couple of months the cost for groceries and cleaning supplies goes up. Times change, the economy changes but often our incomes don’t change as fast to go along.

Steps To Success:

1) Just like your gift fund or emergency fund pick an amount you want your grocery budget to be each month. Don’t just spend and then find the money.

2) When you set your amount stick to it. It might be hard for the first couple months to make the change from spending more then you really need to.

3) Have consequences. Like the other areas on your budget; if you go over on your groceries you have that much less to spend the next month

4) Shop wholesale. This isn’t always cheaper, so do your research, and crunch your numbers. But when it is go for it!

5) Shop for sales. Check fliers, sigh up for coupons online. If you added it up you’d be amazed at how much you save each year.

6) Cook more. The more we buy ready made foods the more money we spend, and the less healthy we are for it!

7) Be creative. Use your chicken bones to make soup. Your your left over noodles or rice for a casserole. There’s nothing wrong with “reusing”!

8 ) Don’t throw away left overs. That’s like throwing away half of your food, which is like throwing away half of your money!

9) There are many people out there blogging about saves they have found in their city. Find someone like that to follow and let them find the deals for you! I found a great lady (savemoneyinwinnipeg.blog.ca) in Winnipeg and so far I’ve gotten a free turkey and a $25 gift card from the promotions she’s posted!

10) Buy no name items. Make sure you read the ingredients before getting something no name. You don’t want the lack of quality to be the reason it’s an inexpensive item. But beyond that you will find there is an equivalent to almost any name brand item that is very similar other then the price.

11) Try and stay to the outside walls of the store. Almost all grocery stores are designed that the four food groups are along the outside walls and all the packaged food are down the aisles. If sight is what catches your eye and your money then stay out of the aisles!

Happy budgeting!!

Amanda Douglas
Captive Creativity

You are really seeing these ‘I ♥ Cheese’ tags everywhere in Montreal these days and I must say I like them.

Here’s a little more St-Henri street art for you, right across from our old loft.

I am not to sure who this artist is although it looks like she/he is doing a rip of Zema’s work.  Anyone know who this is?

Poster Art is a big thing in Montreal as well. I really love these ‘American Dollar Bills’ featuring the MQ-1 Predator.  I don’t know about you but this drone is scary!  We have people controlling $4.5 million drone planes with ‘game controllers’?  Anyone else see the link between the overly violent video games and their ploy to get kids to join the army?  I’m just saying, but I would love to hear what you think.

I had my first gig as an artistic director for a music video! Now this was way to much fun but a lot of work as well.  For the video I built a cardboard house that housed 8 little rooms, 20 rooms with wallpapered walls and hardwood floors and styled both actors.  Plus on the shoot did all the stop motion along side Paul.  I can’t show you pictures yet but the video is in post production so it should be on the air in a few weeks. Yes that is right on the air as in tv!!!  At that point I will be scattering pictures from the shoot all over my blog.   I never would of thought I would be in this place I am right now.  I mean I did not go to school for anything artistic (Majored in Marketing, Minored in Management) although I feel it has always been in my bones.

Paul’s birthday was at the end of July just when my site went down and I took him canoe camping.  It was the most peaceful place, no cell phone reception, no motor boats and the best morning coffee spot to date! Stay tuned for pictures of Paul’s natural birthday weekend.

My wonderful cousin April came into town for 8 days, so I got to be a tourist in my own city which is always nice because Montreal is truly beautiful!  I have lots of fun pictures from all over Montreal to show you as well.

Last but not least!  Paul and I went up to his parents place in ‘Northern Quebec’ last weekend to just relax since Paul finished putting together a Quebec collective comic book and did a comic in the book as well. I am so proud of you babe!  Needless to say he was on the computer almost 24/7 close to the end of it.  So we needed to get out of the city for great food, clear nights with shooting stars & northern lights and of course wonderful company (I always love coming to visit you, Jacques & Charlotte).   Oh and how could I forget to mention we got to take the ferry across the Saint Lawrence River to go visit Paul’s Aunt and Uncle in their sweet house by the river.  I wanted to jump up & down while screaming the whole boat ride because I felt like a little kid who was overly excited.

Well that is what I have been up to this past month.  It is going to be picture mania over here so make sure to check back.  I also took about 5 rolls of film this past month with my Diana Dreamer, Action Sample and the FishEye so you will get to see what I have been up to in many different formats.

What have you been up to while I have been gone? Any great trips or stories?  I love hearing from you guys!

Steps To Success:
1) Set up your own accounts to transfer your spending money into for the month (this step also helps if you are trying to surprise your spouse with a gift…that way they can’t see that you speant the money!)

2) Decide how much you can afford to give yourselves each month. Like your date money, you want to be able to go out and have fun and buy yourself something nice every once and a while.

3) Be realistic. You might have to tighten things up for a while to reach your goals, but you can always change your amount when things are better

4) Have consequences. Like your date money if you over spend then you have less to spend the next month. This is your own money, your own responsibility. If you over spend it’s not your spouses responsibility to bail you out.

Happy Budgeting!

Amanda

Captive Creativity

I am slowly trying to become a better cook and keep family recipes alive and when I was a child chicken paprikash was one of my favorite meals from my Hungarian side of the family.  So I decided to put my hand to it and was really happy how it turned out since this was the first attempt at it.  One day I hope to get my butt to Hungary and pick up a few more cooking skills from them.

This recipe truely is easy to make and pretty quick considering you make your own noodles!

Ingredients For Chicken Paprikash:

1.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts
1.5 cups sour cream or cream
6 cups chicken broth
1 onion
3-4 tablespoons Hungarian paprika
2 tablespoon garlic
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ginger
2 bay leaves
corn starch (or preferably potato starch, if you have access to a health food store)
olive oil
fudgesicle

Chop up the chicken breasts into small pieces. (You can also use legs or drumsticks for this and leave them as whole)

Put the chicken and garlic in a pot; sautee in olive oil.

Chop up the onion into small pieces.

Put the onions and some chicken broth into the pot. For now, use just enough broth to keep everything submerged, but don’t flood it. You should have some broth left over (maybe around 2 cups); the remaining broth will be used below.

Stir in the other spices (paprika, salt, black pepper, ginger, bay leaves).

Simmer to let the chicken and onions cook thoroughly. While it’s all cooking, eat the Fudgesicle. (This is my favorite part of cooking!)

When the chicken and onions are fully cooked, add the cornstarch as a thickening agent, by mixing it into the remaining broth and pouring it into the pot. Remove from heat and let it thicken.

Finally, mix in the sour cream, and it’s ready to serve over spaetzel.

Ingredients For Spaetzel (Noodles):

0.5 cups milk
1.5 cups flour (Sapphire brand is preferred)
3 eggs

Bring a large pot of water to boil.

Mix the milk, flour, and eggs in a bowl. The resulting batter should be a little thicker than cake mix: a tiny bit stiff, but definitely not “dough”.

With a spoon (I used a knife), drop small blobs of batter into the boiling water, and let boil for about 20 minutes. Then you may fish out the spaetzel.

Be advised that you need to keep the water at a high boil for this to work: the surfaces of the blobs really need to cook as soon as they hit the water. Then they magically don’t stick together.

Also be advised that the blobs will expand as they cook (mine are to big!), so try not to make them very large. One way or another, you’ll probably have to chop them up with a spatula when you’re done anyway.

Try it out and let me know what you think! Happy Cooking!!!