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Spring Buds

My latest post for She Does the City is UP! (Check it out by CLICKING HERE) 

Spring is an awkward time for cocktails - I find myself wanting to make really fresh citrusy cocktails but a lot of the bright juicy fruits aren't in season yet. On Monday I went to the Drake and ordered the Vodka Lavender Lemonade cocktail and decided right then and there that this lavender based cocktail will forever be my official drink for the first week of spring.  

Thanks again to Michael Morris for shooting these beautiful photos :) I am practicing my digital photography and taking the A Beautiful Mess photography course and I am still so damn bad. I tried taking pictures of the same scene and they are awful. I really owe so much to Mike for his amazing eye, skill and institution. 

March Highlights

Holy heck, where did March go? It has been an amazing month that started with a bang when I got the news that I've been hired to work at an amazing lodge in Banff this summer. Such a dream come true and something I've had my fingers crossed over for months. I'll be serving in the fine dining restaurant looking out on these big beautiful mountains, and turquoise waters.

March has been good to me. I found myself with more free time to work on learning photography, write articles, exercise, hang out with friends, go for walks and do all those things that enrich life. Free time means shucking oyters for the first time in a year and taking a trip to the wonderful Dillon's Distillery, something I've been wanting to do since the summer!

The thrift gods blessed me with this amazing mid-century unit that I found on the street on my walk home from work.

Mike and I also got to go to the MadeWithLove cocktail competition in Toronto to do a review for She Does the City (check out the article LINK HERE.) Turns out we really like working these events! He got so many great pictures. We've been having conversations lately about going into business together with a focus on his photography and my writing and styling. I think we make a pretty great brother sister team :) 

Happy spring guys! 

The Late Bloomer

Hello again! Heres the latest cocktail for She Does the City (LINK HERE). This is my favourite one yet! My parents dropped off like 50 grapefruits to my house a few weeks ago, so I guess that was the "jumping off" ingredient for this delicious cocktail. 

Things with me are very good right now! The shoot is shot on my new Canon D60 that I bought off of craiglist. Man, I love craiglist. I probably saved about $600 getting the body and lens used. Yay, deals! This week I start an online photgraphy course by the ladies at A Beautiful Mess. I'm really excited to learn this camera inside and out. Until then, I am lucky to have my insanely talented brother Michael Morris do the photography (LINK to his blog HERE). 

SECRET of this post

I wanted to start telling you guys a little secret about each post on my blog here. Because so much of what you see here is fabricated and "styled" and I'm learning a lot of tricks along the way. What is this weeks secret? Check out the bottle of St Germain, above. Think its the delicious elderflower liquor? No, think again. It's the bottle (which I finished), filled with vegetable oil! You would NEVER know, amiright? A vodka company Luksusowa sent me a bottle of liquor to use in my next shoot! I am so grateful. My bar is seriously running low! If you're interested in sponsoring a post, I'm alllllll ears. 

When It's Dark and Stormy Make a Dark and Stormy

My brother is the photographer of this cocktail series (Mike Morris - mike-morris.tumblr.com) and he was getting really sick of shooting with a white background. Personally, I love it but I'm glad he challenged me to switch it up. I painted a piece of wood black and held it up the whole time, in our makeshift studio (living room). It was tricky because it's pretty important for me to be able to move things around and switch up whatever isn't working. I will be experimenting with new backgrounds in the coming weeks! 

The day after the shoot we lost heat in our apartment and just got it back last night (6 whole days folks!) It was a dreary and wildly inconvenient time. At least there is light at the end of the tunnel - literally, am daylights saving this sunday! Along with the longer brighter days, I'm going to be brightening up the cocktails. Think tiki drinks with lots of citrus and fruity goodness! And sorry Mike, but we're going back to the white background for next week! 

Crack open a cold one

Here we have a very handsome and very expensive bottle opener. $60, but so pretty. I just can't justify it, considering that all of my bottle openers were free...either from novelty packs of beer or my parents house. This would look so cute in photo shoots and hanging on a nail on the wall, and it's brass plated. 

Your Favorite Ginger: Making a Cocktail for my Coworkers

I've been blabbing on about cocktails to my coworkers at Idea Couture for months now, so when we had a potluck at the office, I knew that I'd bring my cocktail A game. I can't begin to tell you how nice it was to hear them say, "This is really good!". I recently wrote an article about cocktails for Idea Couture's magazine MISC so I'll let you know when that comes out. For the potluck, I chose a cocktail that I could make in large batches and doesn't require a delicate balance of ingredients like a Manhattan.

Large Batch "Your Favorite Ginger" Cocktail
4 oz whiskey
4 oz of ginger simple syrup
top the shaker with cider
add a generous amount of fee brothers black walnut bitters (5 shakes)
garnish with candied ginger

Add all the ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until its totally cold. Pour into small tasting cups and garnish with candied ginger.

5 things that are going on...

1) My nose is still swollen from a few months ago when I was vacuuming and the spout got caught under something and went flying into my face. My mom said it's because I was "cleaning angry". haha!

2) I'm seriously so excited for spring, but who isn't, right?? 

3) I'm going to start playing volleyball! I used to play in high school and now I just want to spike and serve and be stronger. 

4) I'm going to purchase a nice DSLR camera off of craigslist so I can really learn the camera inside and out and take great photos. Especially now that I want to get into doing restaurant and bar reviews. My iphone just isn't gonna cut it! 

5) This is definitely a time for change. I'm waiting to hear back for a serving job in Banff...I really want it, but I also know that so many people are being interviewed. Hopefully I'm what they are looking for! Either way, I'm moving out of my apartment in April or May...the question is, will I get another place here or pick up and go somewhere else? My heart is telling me it's time to explore.