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I’ve had this Purple Rain poster for a while but could not find anyone in Victoria who could build me a frame big enough … thank goodness for the internet.

I found Spotlight Displays and they had exactly the frame I needed!! Wahoo for the internet.

Now Prince watches me while I work … 🙂

HEY!! Don’t say I never get you anything … 🙂

We reduced the price on the Go Vegan! w/Sarah Kramer app to $2.99. The app will be on sale until Dec 17th.

Grab the app for yourself. Gift the app to your friends and get your Vegan on!  🙂

What a fun weekend I had in Toronto!

I went to Hot Beans and ate my face off…

I went to a weird little store in Kensington Market that gave me anxiety because it was so jam packed with stuff.

No seriously. It was SO jam packed you could barley walk around in there.

Maury found a bass/guitar. A bassitar? A guitass?

Whatever you call it … it was HUGE and hilarious and sounded horrible. 🙂

Most of my time I spent hanging out with my best-buddy Henry. We spent a lot of time hanging out at the dining room table eating food and talking about life…

We played music together …

There was a Jenga party …

There was A LOT of Lego to be made …

It’s so fun being an Auntie. I love watching my friends kids grow and evolve … and I LOVE to spoil them!! 🙂

I also bumped into some awesome people while I was wandering the streets. This guy wanted all my food…

Met this lovely lady at Fresh Restaurant.

Met this lovely lady at Sadie’s Diner…

And then went back AGAIN to Hot Beans. Hung out with this guy and ate my face off. God that place is good.  🙂

We ate so much when I was there. A nice little dinner party with my dear-lovely friend Jen and her kids. Brunch with Shoshana’s Dad. A nice bigger dinner party with Kathleen, Jess, Mark, Graham, Alexa … plus I had a snack and a visit with Teresa. Wow. So many visits.

Plus Shoshana took me to Secrets From My Sister bra store and I got fitted. Guess who is not a B cup but is actually a D cup?? Yeah. Wow. I am much chestier then I thought.

And somehow we also found time to clean out/reorganize Shoshana’s closet (so much fun for me). I also spent time with The Who! Yeah … that’s right THE WHO!!

It was a fantastic show. Our seats were so good that I could see Roger smiling. 🙂

They played the entire Quadrophenia from front to back. No talking. Just straight through the album. It’s not an easy album but it was really cool to see it played in its entirety.

Pete wore his readers though most of the show (hee hee) but they sure did ROCK out. I mean they ROCKED OUT!! Pete was still doing windmills. Roger was throwing around the microphone.

After they played Quadrophenia they took a little break and chatted with the audience and then played some of their hits. It was FANTASTIC!

You know how some bands mellow with age? Not The Who. The show rocked hard!! Probably cause Zac Starkey (Ringo’s son) was keeping them on their toes. What a FANTASTIC drummer.

The weirdest part about show was the bass solo by John Entwistle. It was weird because John is dead. ha ha… but there he was on the big screen slappin’ da bass. 🙂

The best part of the show for me was seeing how much fun the band was having. Especially Roger and Pete. They were laughing and joking with each other. It was really nice. Roger in particular seemed to be having the best time.

The ACC was packed with a lot of white people. Ha ha. This was not like the Prince concert which was much more… shall I say multi-cultural?

The last few songs were just Pete, Roger and an acoustic guitar and instead of an encore Roger talked to the audience a little about how happy he was to have spent his life singing in The Who and how much he wanted a cup of tea. 🙂

Then they launched into the beautiful song Tea & Theater which had me bawling. It was so lovely … and a perfect way to end the night.

I also need to mention that at one point Roger undid his shirt and showcased his amazing torso. At 68 – the dude still has it. The singing chops and the 6 pack. 🙂

The best part about seeing The Who was that I got to share the experience with my longtime friends Shoshana, Maury and Graham.

We were obsessed with The Who in high-school and Maury & Graham had a band and they would cover a lot of Who songs … so it was really cool to be standing beside them during the concert.

I’ve known these guys almost my entire life. Shoshana I met in pre-school. I think I was about 3 years old?? I met Graham and Maury when I was 13? 14? It’s a loooong time to friends …. and I cherish them.

It was hard to go home after this trip. Friendships like this are so rare and the older I get the more I realize how precious they are and how fast time moves. On the flight back I started daydreaming about moving to Toronto to be closer to them … but then THIS asshole got on the plane (see photo)

And I spent the entire flight obsessing about how I could wrangle the package out of his animal murdering hands so I could free that poor lobster into the ocean. What is wrong with people? Disgusting.

By the time the plane landed I was ready to get out of the fart-tube and meet Gerry and Fergus so I could tell them all about my adventures.

Thanks for all the fun Toronto. See you soon I hope. 🙂

Dear Yes to Carrots
I am a LONG time customer and I am extremely upset to read over at Logical Harmony Blog that you are now testing on animals so you can sell your product in China. Shame on you!!

I love your products. Not only are they great quality but I have proudly talked about your products to my non-vegan friends as an example of excellent animal-friendly products that are available in the common marketplace. The fact that they can purchase your products at a local drugstore has always been a source of pride for me.

I understand that the China market is huge. I understand that you want to grow your business … but at what cost?

This last year I have lost MAC cosmetics, Aveda, Urban Decay and now Yes to Carrots to the Chinese market. It’s horrible. Just fucking HORRIBLE that you would sell out your formerly animal friendly company for pure greed. And at the expense of the animals who suffer greatly because of animal testing.

Why don’t you, MAC, Aveda and Urban Decay and other formerly forward thinking animal-friendly companies stand together and tell China that you will not sell your products to them until they change their animal testing laws.

STAND FOR SOMETHING! Don’t be greedy. Be a vessel for positive change.
xoxo
SARAH

Wahooo! Sarah’s Place is now carrying Me & You deodorant. This lovely and gentle vegan deodorant made from natural, nourishing ingredients that will keep you feeling fresh all day.

Shea butter and almond oil will soothe your skin while baking soda, corn starch, and essential oils will help eliminate odour. Candelilla wax adds a smooth glide to the product so it applies easily and comfortably. 5 different non-gender specific scents available HERE.

Products are handmade in Vancouver, BC. 🙂

Every once in a while Gerry and I talk about Dexter and how much we miss him.

He really stole our hearts and sometimes we feel like we should have kept him in the family but I just got an update from Dexter’s Daddy today … and look at how happy he is.

I know in my heart we found him the perfect home …   🙂

Yippee-doodle!

It’s official – I will be speaking at the BlogHer PRO 2012 event in San Francisco on Dec 13th.

Read all about the event HERE.

Ooooh these elegant tassel earrings by One Little Mango make me sing with joy!!

I have tons of beautiful colours to choose from. Go grab a pair HERE.

I had such a busy summer this year with the Vegan festival, moving Sarah’s Place, doing renovations and we were practically out every night visiting with friends who were in town. It was a very chaotic and fun summer.

I was actually looking forward to fall/winter so things would slow down and I could do some hibernating but I seem to still be crazy busy.  🙂

Besides running the day to day stuff at the store and getting mail orders ready all the online shopping …

Sarah’s Place has also been hosting Crochet Workshops in the evenings …

and doing fundraiser bakesales outside the store …

And in between all that I went to see my friend Maury play bass with Colin James …

And the next night we went to Metric …

So when Gerry’s 40th birthday rolled around and I asked him what he wanted to do and he said “Nothing. Just lay around the house and watch a movie.” … I almost did just that.

But then I was like… WAIT. My man is turning 40. This is a milestone birthday. F-that. We are going to do something special and create a fun memory.

So I secretly packed a bag for Gerry (actually I packed right in front of him while he was playing World of Warcraft and he didn’t even notice) and on day of his birthday I kept giving him “secret birthday surprise hints” to throw him off what I had planned.

At one point I said “I have a surprise for you so don’t go back into the house today.” but there was no surprise in the house. hee hee.

Then I dropped off Mr.Fergus at my friend Larissa’s house and went downtown and picked up Gerry and told him we had to drive to Sidney to pick up his secret birthday surprise.

“Sidney? What’s in Sidney?” I told him not to ask me any questions because I might spoil the surprise. I am SO BAD at keeping secrets. Especially from Gerry. 🙂

We drove up the highway to Sidney all the while I bit my hand trying not to spoil the surprise … I was just like that Surprise Party Sue.

We got to Sidney and just we were about to turn off the highway when I SUDDENLY and dramatically took the turnoff to the ferry terminal.

“SURPRISE! We are going to Vancouver!!”

In my haste I forgot to pack food for the ferry so I had french-fries in the cafeteria and Gerry ate one of the veggie burgers.

We were under the impression that the veggie burgers were vegan. We checked the ingredients a few years ago and they were just Yves vegan veggie patties. Well I guess they’ve changed burgers because it now contains cheese. WTF? Why can’t you just make a vegan burger and then if someone wants cheese you can add it later?? Harumph.

Poor Gerry had to turn his vegan-o-meter back to zero. 🙁

We checked into the River Rock Casino. It’s not a great hotel … but the BEDS are the best bed I’ve ever slept on so we love to stay there whenever we can. Oh god. The beds.

The hotel has a casino so we went down and promptly lost $40 in about 30 seconds. It was hilarious. Slots are for suckers …

So we drowned our sorrows in the bar …

We had a great nights sleep and a very lazy morning laying around. Then we met up with our beloved friend Chris…

And went for lunch at Saravana Bhavan for lunch. I accidentally ordered us the wrong kind of dosa and this one was was SO SPICY! It was delicious but spicy.

We said our goodbyes to Chris and then headed out to The Harley Davidson store for Gerry. Attached to the Harley store was a motorcycle museum and I think Gerry just about exploded with joy.  🙂

After the Harley Store it was my turn for a little fun so we hit up Nice Shoes and I bought myself a pair of these sexy boots. Nice Shoes is such an awesome store with a great selection of vegan shoes. I highly recommend them (they do mailorder too).

If you go to Nice Shoes – you also gotta go next door to Fairy Cakes for vegan cupcakes.

We had a little bit of time to kill before we were to meet my parents for Gerry’s Birthday Dinner Extravaganza so we headed to Granville Island and wandered around.

The plan was to go to Acorn for a fancy birthday dinner … but in my hasty planning of Gerry’s birthday weekend surprise I forgot to check and see if they were open. Closed on Monday. Shit! What a bummer.  🙁

I called my Dad and told him our plans were thwarted and he suggested we go to Nuba. YES NUBA!! My folks wanted to go to the Waldorf location (which is my favourite spot because the hotel it’s located in is a Mid-Century wet-dream). So we drove there … and guess what?

CLOSED ON MONDAY!!

Luckily the Nuba downtown location was open so the birthday celebration was only briefly sidelined and we had a wonderful dinner with my parents.

When Gerry and I got back to the hotel we decided to go for a swim … The Riverrock has a terrible floor plan and the rooms are a mile away from the pool area. They provide you with robes but no slippers or flip-flops so I had to make due and wore my rubbers for the long walk to the pool.  🙂

We had so much fun on the water-slide. I brought my waterproof camera and we tried in vain to get some good photos of us going down the slide but the lighting was so low so every photo was just blurry water. I also shot video of me going down the water slide but that will never see the light of day.  🙂

I told Gerry we had ONE more secret birthday surprise planned for our last day in Van but I didn’t know when it was happening so we had to keep our day loosey-goosey.

We had a nice lazy morning and then we headed downtown to Gorilla Food for some sustenance. I was so happy to see my friend Aaron was at work.

Aaron will be at Sarah’s Place on Dec 1st to promote his new cookbook Gorilla Food! Mark your calenders. His pumpkin pie is to die for …

Then I got “THE CALL” … it was time for the last but bestest birthday surprise.

The call was from my friend Jason (who does the special effects on Fringe) and it was time to meet him and go visit Walter’s Lab!

Remember a few weeks ago when Anna Torv came into Sarah’s Place and I almost died from excitement? Imagine that excitement x 1000!!

We met Jason at his office where all the special effects are made and he gave us a tour of the warehouse. It was so cool seeing all the things they make there … this bust of Broyles (with a gunshot in the side of his head) was SO COOL. Every single eyelash, stubble, freckle … all done by hand. The detail is exquisite.

Jason also pulled out my Dad’s arm!!! 🙂

He was on Masters of Sci Fi and J found his alien arm!! 🙂

We got to see all kinds of things being made (that I can’t post here). I saw a bust of Joshua Jackson (squeeeal), a giant animatronic bear puppet (for a different show) plus we briefly got to watch everyone working on their projects. There was lots of hair, and fake blood and guts. It was awesome!

Then we headed over to the studio to check out Walter’s Lab. Walking onto the set was THE CRAZIEST FEELING! There I was standing in Walter’s Lab looking at all the things he looks at. I felt like I was out of my body.

I took a ton of photos but can’t post anything until the show ends. I’m pretty sure I saw something written on a chalkboard that is a serious spoiler …  🙂

But I will post this photo of me and Gerry in the lab. I cropped it severely (so not to give away any set secrets) but just to prove that we were in the lab. You can see the amber behind us.  😉

Luckily nobody from the show was there or I would have fainted. Seriously… It was crazy enough standing in Walter’s lab … if Josh Jackson had sauntered over I would have died.  🙂

The set was really cool. The attention to detail is nuts. We saw a stack of cheques on Walters desk that were written out perfectly. They could have easily just scribbled on the cheques .. it’s not like you’re going to notice when you watch it on TV but they were perfectly written out, dated, etc.

The funniest part was Jason was walking around like it was no big deal – cause to him it’s just work. But to me … I was dying. DYING!!   🙂

We said our good-byes to J and headed back home to the island. What a fun whirlwind trip!!

As for Fergus?? He didn’t even miss us …

Thanks for doggie sitting Larissa!