Tiana Feng

Building a Ferris Wheel

August 5, 2015Art, Crafts/DIY, Health, LifeLeave a Comment

I love The Bloggess because she openly talks about her issues with anxiety and depression in a rather funny manner. Not too long ago she shared how she builds random mini ferris wheels as a way to relax. So I hit up Amazon and found my own.

The set arrived in a flat envelope in the mail. It was much smaller than I thought!

Inside were two metal sheets of pieces and instructions. Everything was self-explanatory, just a bit tedious and time consuming.

It took me a while to delicately remove the pieces. There were extra parts of carts but not the main frame of the cart itself, so I broke like 6 while trying to fold them in the exact position for them to hang on the ferris wheel. Halfway through I realized tweezers made things way easier. I had bought pliers prior to receiving this, but didn’t realize everything was so tiny.

This was probably 2 hours into the project. It took a while to properly understand how to delicately fold things so that they stayed in place. Once I got the hang of building carts, I was in a groove. It was hard to concentrate on anything else while holding such delicate pieces so it was such a relaxing activity to do. To literally be forced to forget about everything else!

There may have been missing carts (because the broken ones were impossible to superglue) I thought my final product was a masterpiece! I’m super proud to have dedicated time to building something super random and actually completing it. It was the offline break my mind needed.

I totally want to do this again and am already researching other sets (there are some super geeky ones). They’re inexpensive enough to be okay with screwing one up or leaving them on the sidewalk for a child to find.

Passing 200

August 4, 2015Inspiration, LifeLeave a Comment

DSCF2228 — Here’s a random photo of Teddy to celebrate

Today is the 216th day in a row that I’ve been blogging. I zoomed passed 200 and didn’t even notice. I also happened to have passed the 200 vlog mark!. Both are amazing feats.

Last year, I never would have dreamed to even go one month blogging everyday. Now I don’t really see an end in site. When I started vlogging (though I’ve slowed down a little now) I was very camera shy and didn’t really like speaking to camera, now it comes a bit easier.

I recently read an article about how someone wrote a haiku every day for 100 days and she learned some very similar lessons as I have. I learned to put myself out there even if some posts are dumb and there are frequently mistakes. No longer do I have a notebook or lists full of ideas that went no where. I made them go somewhere, I hit publish, even if part of me thought some things were unfinished.

I’m really excited to continue doing this every day. I feel like there’s enough in me to find something everyday. You really do have time to do the thing you wish you did “more” of, whether it’s writing, drawing, reading etc. Start by setting a goal. To do it every day.

Terre Bleu Lavender Farm

August 3, 2015PhotographyLeave a Comment

Yesterday, my parents and I visited Terre Bleu Lavender farm near Milton. Unfortunately, a cold winter and late frost in May has stunted their growth so they weren’t as long and purple as they could have been.

What did grow was still a beautiful purple and spelt wonderful and relaxing. I took a tour of the facility and learnt a great deal about the healing properties of lavender.

The place has only been open to public for the past 2 years. A beautiful wooden shop acts as the main entrance.

There were a few different types of lavender for different uses, cooking, oil production etc. It takes many rows of lavender in order to create a few millilitres of oil, which explains why pure oil is so expensive!

They also had their own bee hives, which were seeing a decrease in bees due to spraying of pesticides. Terre bleu produces it’s own pure lavender honey.

After the tour ended, we had some lavender ice cream from the shop. It was delicious!

Teddy loved the smell of the fields.

Here are some more random photos and selfies.

Eating my WayHome

August 2, 2015August 3, 2015Food, StreetLeave a Comment

Who needs a food truck festival when music festivals have just as many? WayHome festival last weekend was no exception. I ate my fill of street food. In addition, Drake Hotel also had an area set up with different vendors in the VIP section with all sorts of different items. I ate my fill of things just from this section alone.

First were these fried fish and shrimp with tartar sauce. They were generously seasoned.

I refreshed myself with a raspberry icecream sandwich. It was like a smoothie in between two cookies.

This shrimp salad was a refreshing snack. I also had a watermelon feta salad that was lovely (but I wolfed it down before I took a photo of it).

Lastly they had fresh raw oyster with various dipping sauces. On the final day they had 3 for the price of the previous days so I sort of went crazy and had 12. I had never tried raw oysters before but they went down so well with their sauces (named after headlining bands of the day). Sam Smith was a sweet pomegranate sauce.

The Vitamin Water sponsored section had “clouds” that you could taste in many different flavours.

Afterwards, you were rewarded with some Vitamin Water icecream which was a bit odd.

I love Buster’s Sea Cove’s truck and I always get something every time I see it. I opted for their lobster roll which had generous chunks of lobster.

I also couldn’t resist their keylime pie in an adorable jar!

Hank Daddy’s BBQ served up this beautiful pulled pork parfait. Don’t worry there wasn’t any ice cream in it, just mashed potatoes, BBQ sauce, pulled pork and beans!

Umami Bites filled my belly with these Pork Belly Wonton Tacos.

Lastly, I had these delicious ribs from a place I can’t seem to remember the name to, which is sad because I’d love to eat these ribs again in their brick and mortar restaurant which they mentioned was on the Danforth! If you happen to know, you’d make me the happiest person.

Update: I found out through the app that it was Uncle Smoke BBQ who bring St. Louis style BBQ to their delicious meat.

I realized that I forgot to post the food of Field Trip and Bestival this year so those will be coming soon in a round-up post. Eat with you again soon!

Dollarama Review: Chalkboard Mug

August 1, 2015Dollarama Reviews, ShoppingLeave a Comment

I found this adorable mug at Dollarama that has a mini chalkboard on it. For $2, it came with 2 white pieces of chalk that allowed me to write a message on my cup of joe.

I liked the bright red of the mug, though the material seems a bit like it can easily be chipped. That’s okay, at least such a creative thing was inexpensive! Now I can wake myself up with a nice message or surprise visitors with a cup of tea.

Found my WayHome

July 31, 2015Entertainment, MusicLeave a Comment

Last weekend, I attended WayHome music festival in Oro-Medonte, Ontario. I finally have all the photos and reviews up on Ride the Tempo. Read them here.

I’ll have a food and non-musical adventure wrap-up of the fest soon!

Warm Apple Pie Throat Drops

July 30, 2015Candy, FoodLeave a Comment

I’m a little bit sick after last weekend but I found these and now I don’t mind because I’d like every excuse to eat them.

Green Onion In A Burger

July 29, 2015Food1 Comment

I had never put raw green onion in my burgers until Nash’s family made us burgers for dinner one day and included them in the toppings. They had stocks on a tray and I was like “What do I do with this?”. Then I put them in my burger.

It’s no strange than putting regular onions on your burger except it adds a fresh herb taste. Now I like to occasionally do it on burgers I make.

Do you put green onion in your burgers?

I Need Water

July 28, 2015July 30, 2015Health, Life1 Comment

I thought I’d be recovered from Wayhome but it must be the heat here in Toronto. It’s like 35 degrees and I feel like I need to constantly be drinking 10 gallons of water or I’m going to die. I think I may have caught a cold which is also part of it. Blog you later when I’m slightly more alive.. now back to drinking more water.