may

happy may!

 please forgive my lack of posting in the last 4 months:

1. i got engaged! and am busy busy busy planning our wedding.
2. i am posting more on my photo blog: joeyarmstrong.ca/blog
3. started working full time at a local gourmet delicatessen.
4. i am posting food photos fairly often on my instagram (@joeyarmstrong). if you don't have instagram you can follow my feed on my facebook page: joey armstrong lifestyle photography. 

and i leave you with a few photos from my phone. a few great meals i've had, along with wonderful coffees.

chicken baked w/ butter, olives, prunes,
apple juice, thyme, leek, garlic. 
served with mashed potatoes & steamed green beans w/ coconut oil

summery salad: 

chickpeas, mint, olives, cucumbers, yellow peppers, lime juice, olive oil.

 

coffee with friends is important. 

even when life is busy. 

(@ nelson the seagull)

(@ matchstick coffee) 

 (@ jjbean)

(@ jjbean) 

 (@ bump n grind)

pasta with prawns & garlic sauted in butter, 

tossed w/ olives, parsley, cilantro

 salad: butter lettuce, mango, toasted pecans, 

hemp hearts, honey mustard dressing

orzo pasta tossed w/ pesto, olives, parsley, raisins

happy thursday morning

good morning.

have yourself a lovely breakfast.
if not today, definitely this weekend.

if you want to venture out from fried or scrambled eggs, might i suggest breakfast pizza? eggs benedict? quiche? or pancakes?

apologies for being slightly absent lately from this blog.
i'm starting to give more energy to my photo blog these days, come visit me there!
more photos, less words, so it'll be less demanding of you to read.

sangrias, workshops & photo blogs

summer is a great time for sangrias and for fish. now, its not technically 'summer' yet, nor has it felt like summer lately here in vancouver. but that doesn't mean its not a good time for eating fish & for drinking sangrias.

especially white wine sangrias, one of which i had last week (along with some tasty fish - sole almondine) at beatniks bistro in langley. i was there with a group of ladies from a workshop we were all attending. read about this workshop here, at my new photography blog:
joeyarmstrong.ca/blog!

i'll still be blogging here, of course! but maybe not as consistently as i'd ideally like to. life isn't ideal like that all the time. oh well! :)

but speaking of sangrias, anyone have a good sangria recipe? or another favorite summertime drink?

cheers to summer starting soon!

sun + markets + bikes + coffee = happy me

it's summer guys. this weekend, anyways. I LOVE THE SUN.

today i went to the summer farmer's market at trout lake for the first time this year. i didn't go to the winter market at all this past winter - it moved locations and was just too far for my lazy little self. today however, i met a friend for breakfast at bandidas, then we headed over to the market. took back some of my growing stacks of egg cartons, bought some eggs, bought some herbs, bought some shitaki mushrooms. and enjoyed the sun.

the beginnings of summer: it is glorious.

tomatoes are pretty...

after so much fun at the market (AND i didn't even spend all the limited cash i had on me. go me!), we were thirsty. so we went to jj bean for iced lattes. yum.

OH! what's that you say? yeah that's my new bike.

sometimes craigslist is so awesome. like this week when i bought this sweet ass bike from some random stranger. apparently its a czech communist bike.

took it out for a short ride this evening to see if it works. (yes, i know i should have checked it when purchasing it, but it was POURING rain + dark + i just wanted to hurry it all up and get out of there) it works! hurrah! my legs + lungs, however... don't work quite so well as the bike. on the 8 block, slightly uphill ride home i was suffering. thankfully no one saw me suffer, as everyone else in vancouver was downtown (still is probably) celebrating the vancouver canucks' win of game 2 in the playoffs. speaking of which, i actually watched most of the game, which is a rarity. i'm not a hockey fan, nor am i really a watching-sports-on-tv type of person. but the game was pretty intense, even from my non-partial perspective. oh, and they scored (+ won) 11 seconds into sudden death overtime. crazy. still, i'm glad i'm not downtown. not a fan of hoards of people. especially hoards of people with hockey fever...

(3 gears! 1 step up from being a hipster bike!)

it was a fantastic day today. so much sun. so much exercise.
who else had a beautiful saturday?

THIS IS EAST VAN at make it! vancouver

this past weekend i had the pleasure of attending the spring 'make it! vancouver' show down at the croatian cultural centre on commercial & 16th. it's a great way for consumers to buy directly from artists, crafters and designers.

i have to admit, i felt a tad bit guilty walking into the show, knowing i probably wasn't going to buy much. i really love to support local artists, and i do it when i can, but the truth is, i can't always. sometimes food in my mouth & paying rent take top priority. weird, right?

but i didn't just go to the make it! show to feel guilty or to feel jealousy of other artists' great work. i had a purpose. i was there to buy a book with one of my photographs in it, and to meet the great people behind that book.

the book? THIS IS EAST VAN. a community photography project about life in east vancouver. i live in east vancouver, so i felt it appropriate to submit a couple photos last summer to this project. to my great joy, one of them got in! i was super excited.

the people? erin & jason. they've put so much time, blood, sweat and tears into the making of this book. the book is gorgeous, i hope they are proud.

another cool thing about the book? part of the proceeds will be going to a local east van arts organization, voted on by the contributors. our pick? reel youth.

my obvious bias aside, TIEV's booth had the best looking set up. it was nice to finally meet the people behind this project, they were so friendly and down to earth.

a few gimpses into THIS IS EAST VAN:

my page! my page! (page 157.) coffee is such a big part of east van, and my life in east van, so that's why i chose to submit this photo. this particular cup is from the Roundel cafe in my neighbourhood. after every meal you get a fortune. that day's fortune: "you are prompted to set new goals and discover new desires"

if you are interested in purchasing a copy, you can find them online at cargoh. if you are local, they will be in a few local retailers soon. head to the TIEV website for updates.

(oh, and i did end up buying some beautiful prints from calgary-based photographer amy victoria wakefield)

thursday thrift: a temporary absence

i am taking a temporary absence from my thursday thrift weekly posts. i'm catching up with life right now, and find myself struggling to put something together wednesday night and that's not worth it for any of us. i also find that having to post something specific weekly makes me not post other things that i'd like to post about, because i feel i 'need' to do the thursday thrift post before i do anything else.

so today i'm going to give you some snapshots of a few random things i've been up to lately (lately being the last month or two). you'll notice a trend of food and/or friends.

this is a pie. a beautiful, lemon meringue pie that i helped my friend and fellow photographer sharon make one day. doesn't it look lovely? it tasted so.

sometimes i make sandwiches. and then i eat them. occasionally i take some time in between to photograph them. (usually i'm too hungry)

got together with some friends to celebrate jobs & school. homemade spinach spanakopitas and chocolate chip cookies.

met some old friends for brunch. it was wonderful, but too short. they're having a baby soon, which is super exciting.

speaking of babies... this is a cute baby some of my other friends made. i got to take some photos of him. his name is reid.

this is reid's big brother, jude. i took photos of him a month earlier.

along with his family.

and reid too! (he's just hiding in his momma's tummy)

trying to enjoy spring when i can. when the weather lets me, and when i'm not too lazy.

last weekend i got to shoot engagement photos for a lovely friend of mine. we had a lot of fun! i did, anyway. :)

(i think i use the word 'lovely' far too often. really need to work on expanding my vocabulary)

enjoy your thursday!

sunny & beautiful

sunny & beautiful outside today. hurray for spring!

my sister & i worked on our garden - fertilizing & planting. we planted mint & thyme plants, and seeded some carrots, lettuce, peas. i'm not the most diligent of gardeners, and don't have great luck (examples: my rosemary plants have grown less than a centimeter since i planted them 2 years ago. i frequently forget to water. my mint turns ugly & brown because i forget to water. i don't like it when dirt stays under my nails & in the creases of my hands after gardening, so i use that as an excuse sometimes.)
however, i hope to have a bit more luck in the garden section of my life this year. i love having fresh herbs available anytime i need. and produce straight from the garden not only tastes fresh & delicious, but its also cost-effective.

one thing i really want to plant this year is lemon verbena. haven't found any yet. last year i bought lots of lemon verbena from the farmer's market and dried them to make tea. incredibly delicious & fragrant. if i could grow my own, i could have lemon verbena tea any time. do any of you gardening this year have something specific you'd love to grow?

this is the part where i should be ending with some gardening tips for you. unfortunately, you will be disappointed. i'll try to let you know how things go, though, and tell you what works for us and what doesn't!

thursday thrift: paint

apologies for the late (& short) thursday thrift post.

today's thrift: paint. i've been working some odd jobs lately. in order to make money so that i can be more thrifty. making money is thrifty, right? ;) no really, i did some painting today, and it reminded me of the thriftiness of painting your own walls & furniture. for example, 2 of the dressers in our house. they were not only hand-painted (mostly by my sister), but they were also found in the alley (also by my sister). double-thrifty!

i've had a busy week, am just getting over a cold/sore throat/something rather, and am tired. i have a post half-written for next thursday thrift. i promise it will be a good one.

oh oh! i have a special post coming next week as well. i had so much fun writing about food.weekly. last month that i decided to write about a food blog every month or so. i'm excited to get to know my fellow food bloggers better, and i hope you are too. if you aren't excited, you'll just have to put up with my excitement... let it rub off on you a bit.

so come back next week when i'll stop whining about being tired or sick or busy, and i'll be better at blogging about things that will actually interest you.

have a lovely friday!

sunshiney and cold

woke up really early this morning (to bring someone to the airport, not at all to do with my normal morning routine). other than the stinging eyes from not enough sleep, it felt really great to be up before the sun, with the fresh, brisk (very, very brisk) cold air waking me up as soon as i stepped outside. even stopping by jj bean to get coffee at 6am felt great. (my americano just happened to taste great as well.) on my way back home, the sun was rising, and it was BEAUTIFUL. so i stopped at new brighton park and attempted to make the most of me being up early enough to see the sun rise.



regardless of the cold, it has been nice to see the sun. now if only i lived in a place with bigger windows so i could feel the sunshine from the warmth of my house. oh well. if i stand really close to my kitchen window, i can see some sun, where i can happily take photos of my banana-blueberry-yogurt smoothie.

i leave you with the task of checking out the following 3 things:
1. my sister's put up some portraits for sale on her etsy. they are super cute and would look awesome on your living-room wall.
2. a friend's new blog, bateau bateau
3. i posted some maternity photos from a shoot last month.

time for a second breakfast, i think. eggs & toast sound really lovely right now.