Archive | June, 2013

Cookbook Swap At Trout Lake Farmers Market

14 Jun

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First off, let me say, I love this idea! Due to my love of good food and cooking, I have quite the collection of cookbooks. There are, of course, a few that don’t get much use.   We all have our favourites we gravitate to. Thus, there are cookbooks collecting a bit of dust that are great. Case in point, the two Nigella Lawson cookbooks that were a gift, but sit virtually unused.  Due to space limitations, I’m not really in a position to add to my collection, but a Cookbook Swap, this idea in one word is ‘brilliant’!  So that’s what the Vancouver Farmers Market has organized.  For 4 weekends starting this Saturday, June 15th, you can bring your cookbooks, hard or soft cover as well as cooking magazines, to swap with others.  Here’s how it works:   Bring your books and/or magazines to the Appraiser’s Tent, there they will assign them one of 4 levels.

Red: $31 + hardcovers and big softcovers ( 2 yellows or 3 blues = 1 red) or $10 cash

Yellow:  $16 – $30 large softcovers/sm-med hardcovers ( 2 blue tickets = 1 yellow) or $5 cash

Blue: softcover and small hardcover – $0-$15 value or $3 cash

Green: magazines (5 magazines = 1 yellow) $1 cash

You can swap your books throughout the day on June 15th or you can retain your coupons for future cookbook swaps which are scheduled for June 22, July 13 and July 20 at Trout Lake.  You don’t need a cookbook to participate though, just bring cash.   They, of course, welcome any donations of unwanted cookbooks for sale should you have any you are willing to part with. The Cookbook Swap is a fundraiser for the Vancouver Farmers Market. Market runs from 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Back Camera

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Car Free Day – Commercial Drive & Main Street – June 16th

13 Jun

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Come out and meet your neighbours and take back the streets this Sunday, June 16th and celebrate Car Free Day. The event resembles one big street party which is not by coincidence since this annual event evolved from an impromptu game of street hockey on Commercial Drive 9 years ago.   There will be two Car Free Days in East Vancouver. One along Main Street from Broadway to 30th Avenue and the other along Commercial Drive from Venables Street to North Grandview Hwy/Central Valley Greenway Bike Lane. Both events run from Noon to 7:00 p.m.

Each area has its own unique charm. On Commercial Drive, you will find fish frying over the fire, drummers performing,  DJs spinning beats and live music. Last but not least, roller disco! If your roller blades are collecting dust in the back of the closet, it’s time to dust them off.   The music on the main stage gets going at Noon with Banjo Mando and finishes up at 5:15 with Eastside Jam featuring Verncular, Simply Twisted and The All Nighters which go till 7:00 p.m.

On Main Street, you will find a kids’ yoga tent and art activities, bike lessons and also live music. There will also be artisan markets, roller derby, dance zones and a fashion show at 4:00 p.m. on the stage at 30th co-ordinated by Kandis Ivy Designs featuring fashion and jewellery by vendors at Giving Gifts & Company, Upscale Swag and iFound.  Then there’s my favourite thing, food!  Ice cream sandwiches from Brown Paper Packages, caramels from In the Oven and baked desserts from Blackforest Desserts will all be available on the last block of the festival. So if you needed a reason to make it from one end of the festival to the other, now you have some incentive.

To see a full listing of events, visit Car Free Day Vancouver.   Car Free Day is 100% produced by volunteers. Come out and support your community!

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Draw Down Is Coming Saturday, June 15th

12 Jun

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Draw Down is coming to Vancouver on Saturday, June 15th. This is a city-wide one day celebration of drawing.  Bring your creativity and come out and draw!  There will be over 35 FREE drawing workshops all around Vancouver. Many of them taking place in East Vancouver. Here’s a sampling of what you will find:

Uncontrolled Abstract Mail Art Postcards,
Mystery Faces Plus Let Us Draw You!
At Britannia Community Centre 1661 Napier Street, Classes start at 1:00 p.m.

Conducting three different workshops.

Exploring Water and Creating a School of Fish
Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House, 800 East Broadway,  12:00 p.m.– 4:00 p.m.

Did you know that under the paved roads there are streams flowing today.  Mount Pleasant community invites first-time ad experienced drawers to connect water through drawing on wooden-shaped fish swimming up Mt Pleasant trees. Attendees will work with social artist in residence, Melanie Schambach, and members of the St. George Rainway project.

Creature Comforts
Kensington Community Centre, 5175 Dumfries Street, 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Artist, Yoko Tomita, will lead an engaging drawing workshop and let you draw out your inner creature. No experience necessary, but bring your sense of humour.

Make Your Mark!
Champlain Heights Community Centre, 3350 Maquinna Drive, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Come explore mark making and drawing techniques using surprising and unconventional tools with artist Stephanie Mayson.  Stamp, scratch, and draw your way into creating your very own bright beautiful mono print!

Collaborative Strathcona Dragon Drawing
Strathcona Community Centre, 601 Keefer, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

This Draw Down integrates with a basketball fundraiser. Drop by the gym at Strathcona Community Centre to help create collaborative dragon drawings. Each imaginary dragon begins with a a gestural mark that mimics the swishes and bounces of the basketball shoot out. Suitable for all ages and skill levels.

Bird Calls
Hastings Community Centre, 3096 East Hastings Street, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Cindy Mochizuki leads a workshop in a collective sumi-ink drawing workshop called ‘Bird Calls.’ Participants will work on a large canvas collectively and will create marks and doodles in response to the recordings of ‘bird calls’ collected from the neighbouring Hastings Park Bird Sanctuary.

Drawing the Bass Line
Trout Lake Community Centre, 3360 Victoria Drive, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

 The lobby of Trout Lake Community Centre will resonate with the sounds of composer/double bassist, Mark Haney, while paper trails and endless lines entice you to explore and create. Bring your inner improvisor and let inspiration pull your hand across the paper. Connecting sound and drawing with the most complex instrument on Earth: the human mind.

Creatures! Collaborative Drawing
Thunderbird Community Centre, 2311 Cassiar Street, 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

You’re invited to drop by the lobby at Thunderbird to help create collaborative creature drawings. Each imaginary creature begins with a random brush mark, and depends on contributions from at least three different people.

Comic Jam
Sunset Community Centre, 6810 Main Street, 12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

What happens when everyone draws only one panel in a larger comic story? Colin Upton, Shane Green, Nic Frey and Mindy Fraser of Cloudscape Comics introduce you to the wonderful world of Comic Jams.

Comic Jam
Mount Pleasant Community Centre, 1 Kingsway,10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Add your drawing to a continuous cartoon tale started by others for you. Follow the plot or veer in a whole new direction. Take your time or enter into the “speed zone” to get ideas on paper fast! Fun is the name of the game when you work with artist and illustrator Andy Mori.

Paper City
Collage Collage, 621 Kingsway, 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Guest artist, Liz Toohey-Wiese, will be there to guide artists into creating a mini-Vancouver diorama made entirely out of paper. Mountains, trees, buildings, cars, buses, people, you name it! Collage Collage provides all the art materials and creative support you need to be a part of this installation, you provide the imagination and ideas. Suitable for everyone who is 5 years old and up.

For a full listing of events, visit Draw Down and get out and play!

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24 Hour Pottery Marathon Fundraiser Kicks Off June 14th

11 Jun

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You are invited to an Open House by the organizers of Pottery 24. This is a 24 hour marathon fundraiser of pottery making that kicks off this weekend. The event is being organized by JustPotters which is part of JustWorks, a Vancouver based non-profit organization that operates three social enterprises – Just Potters, JustCatering and JustRenos. JustPotters’ employees create and sell handmade pottery and crafts which help support their mandate. JustPotters is a pottery studio that was started in East Vancouver in 2006 and is part of a growing movement towards responsible consumption.   JustPotters is  proud to be a part of that movement.  They employ people who face barriers to work including addiction, physical limitations, or mental health challenges.

The public is invited to come to their Open House on Saturday, June 15th between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. and tour the pottery studio which is located at 1803 East 1st Avenue.  If you wish to purchase their pottery to help support their mandate, you can do so at the Open House or at their booth on Commercial Drive during Car Free Day on Sunday, June 16th. They will be located by the corner of Commercial and 1st Avenue.   You can also purchase items from their online Catalog.

JustPottersGardenMarkers JustPottersCoffeeMugs JustPottersCreamPitcher

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Vancouver SPCA – Peace, Love, Adopt A Pet

10 Jun

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I will come clean, I’m an animal lover and have had pets all my life. I cannot imagine life without them as they have enriched my life in ways I never could have imagined.   So today I am featuring an organization I have supported for many years.   The Vancouver Shelter of the SPCA, Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, located at 1205 East 7th Avenue  (just off Clark Drive & East 6th Avenue). They have been a part of the East Vancouver community for over 60 years.  The SPCA plays a fundamental part in the community whether it is assisting animals in need of urgent medical care, education, adopting out animals in need of a new home or investigating cruelty.  The BC SPCA relies solely on donations from the public as they do not receive any government funding.  Thus, they welcome all assistance from the community. There are many ways to support the SPCA whether it’s a financial contribution, gifts in kind from their Wish List or participating in their Walk for a Cause held every September. For more information on how to support them, visit their Donate Page.

The SPCA is taking advantage of the internet with a featured called “Pet On The Net” . They have been using this for a few years now to assist some animals that need a little extra help finding their forever homes. Some of the animals featured have unique needs like darling Snowflake, a lovely white 6 year old cat who has been at the shelter for a year now.  Her only issue is that she is deaf and is best suited for an indoor and adult-oriented environment. Then there are the two Dachshunds, Wendy and Joey, who came to the SPCA after a cruelty investigation and are currently in a foster home.  The SPCA would very much like to foster these two dogs together, but need someone who is patient and willing to continue to work with some of their anxiety issues.    What I am pleased to report is that the Pet On The Net is working. Many of the animals they have featured have been adopted which is exactly what they’d like to see. Outside of Pet On The Net, pets available for adoption are featured on the SPCA’s Vancouver Shelter website.   The SPCA also uses Facebook and Twitter to promote adoption and feature their upcoming events.

Today we would like to introduce you to our feature “Rescue Me”  on ILiveInEastVan.com. Every two weeks we will be featuring an animal from the Vancouver SPCA Shelter that is looking for its forever home.   We hope you will help us spread the word and help these animals find a loving home whether it’s forwarding an email to a friend, a retweet or a Facebook share.  Each animal featured on our website will be posted to our Facebook Page so it can be easily shared.  To that end, we would like to acknowledge in advance the help of our friends at Dharma Dog Daycare who have kindly offered to assist us in spreading the word. We hope you will join us helping those that can’t speak for themselves. UPDATE: Snowflake and Wendy & Joey have found their forever homes.

SPCAJoeyandWendy

SPCASnowflake

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The First Broadway East Art Walk – June 8, 2013

6 Jun

ArtWalkBroadwayEastThe first Broadway East Art Walk is happening this Saturday, June 8th from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.  The walk will showcase local Vancouver artists within local businesses along the Broadway East corridor including  Anna’s Cake House, 606 East Broadway, Harkness & Co. Butchers, 666 East Broadway, and the Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House, 800 East Broadway.

A temporary art installation will also be on display at the alley neighbouring Harkness & Co. Butchers. You are invited to unleash your inner artist with activities being held at the Neighbourhood House. The event will culminate with a screening of short films capturing stories from a variety of residents of the area by filmmaker Ana Mateescu starting at 6:15 p.m. at the Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House. All activities are drop-ins, but they ask that you RSVP for the film screenings at:  http://bit.ly/beawjune8.

UPDATE (June 7th): If you want to take a peak at the list of participating artists and where they will be, check out the following link: http://bit.ly/jun8art

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Farmers Market Begins Today at Thornton Park

5 Jun

ILiveInEastVanMAY2013 419If you weren’t able to catch the Farmers Market over the weekend, then you are in luck.  The Vancouver Farmers Market begins today at Thornton Park in front of the Via Rail Station, 1150 Station Street.   This market will run every Wednesday until October 2nd from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.   This location is a perfect stop if you take the Skytrain, as it’s a one block walk from the Main Street Skytrain Station.

While we are talking Vancouver Farmers Market, did you know they have an e-store?  In it you will find t-shirts, coffee mugs, cloth shopping bags, baseball caps, buttons, a cookbook on local foods and my favourite item, a $20 gift certificate redeemable at any of their markets. All items are between $5.00 and $25.00 and available on their Online Shop.  Definitely worth a peak.

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Eastside Flea Returns to Wise Hall Saturday, June 8th

4 Jun

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The ever popular Eastside Flea returns to the Wise Hall, 1882 Adanac Street (Venables & Victoria) on Saturday, June 8th.  A great selection of collectibles will be on hand again as well as some new artisans including RISH jewelry, Big Starr Vintage, Retro Specks sunglasses and Window Arcades. The Eastside Flea gets under way at 10:00 a.m. and goes till 4:00 p.m. If you can’t make this Saturday, their next two dates have been scheduled which will be July 13th and August 17th.  Check their Facebook Page for any updates.

After all that shopping, you might get a little hungry?  Why not pop into Woodland Smokehouse & Commissary, 485 Commercial Drive (at East Hastings Street) for a snack or something to go.  They are located just a mere six blocks from the Wise Hall ie. easy walking distance.   Woodland Smokehouse has a a great selection of  in-house and locally made delectable goodies. As well they carry products from Cartems Donuterie,  Earnest Ice Cream, RainCity Soups, Golden Ears Cheesecrafters to name just a few and last but not least their own amazing selection of smoked meats and sausages.  Although yes I stocked up on Earnest Ice Cream while I was there, I also tried their Moroccan Chicken Pie which I highly recommend.  The flavours were amazing. Woodland Smokehouse is a perfect spot to pick up some items for that last minute picnic or quick dinner on the way home when you are too tired to cook.  It’s a great little spot worth checking out. They are open Monday – Friday 8:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., Saturday 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. and Sunday 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

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Italian Day Coming To The Drive Sunday, June 9th

3 Jun


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How would you like to be Italian for just one day? Well on Sunday, June 9th, you will get the chance to experience everything Italian from the food, to the music to the culture.  The 4th Annual Italian Day returns to the Drive with this year’s theme being Carnevale di Venezia.  The Drive which is very much alive most days of the week will be transformed into a ‘Venetian style’ which will include masks, costumes, street entertainers, music, food, fashion, contests and much more.

The day will be filled with activities including outdoor cooking demonstrations which be hosted by award-winning Chef/Instructor Romy Prasad. Cooking demonstrations will take place throughout the afternoon and are conducted by 3 different Vancouver Chefs showcasing some yummy Italian favourites! The audience even has an opportunity to sample some of these delightful treats. This is where you will find me! I heard a Twitter rumor that there will be Scroppinos available.  What is that you might ask? A Scroppino is a Venetian drink made with lemon sorbet, vodka and white wine. Bellissimo!

Some favourite contests will be returning which you can participate in including pizza tossing, grape stomping, pasta eating and watermelon eating. And, of course, there will be music. The musical lineup includes showman Federico Fuoco, international singer/songwriter Carmelina Cupo and Langley’s youth Ukulele Ensemble. Britannia Community Centre will be offering a drop-in mask-making workshop. The Italian Cultural Centre will be selling pastries and setting up a “Little Italy” Kids Zone in Grandview Park.

While on the Drive, don’t forget to purchase raffle tickets for the big draw. Prizes include:  Two tickets to Italy compliments of Columbus World Travel,  ECM Espresso Coffee Machine,  spa package for two compliments of Flaming June Day and a deluxe specialty food basket, courtesy of Renzullo Food Market.  Raffle tickets will be available at the BIA Information Booth as well as other locations along the Drive. The raffle draw date is August 15, 2013. Italian Day kicks off at Noon and goes till 8:00 p.m.  Come out and be Italian for a day! Ciao.

 

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It’s Spot Prawn Season Now … Time to Feast!

1 Jun

SpotPrawnsIslandVittles

Twitter is a flutter with the arrival of spot prawns this season which, as many of you know, are  only available for a short period of time.  Spot prawns usually arrive in May and are only available into the early part of June. So get them while they are here.  If you are a cook, make your way over to Wheelhouse Seafoods, 2605 East Hastings Street, which has a fresh daily supply. They also have lots of other great fresh fish on hand perfect for throwing on the BBQ now that the warmer weather is finally here.  As an added bonus, Wheelhouse Seafood has recently started carrying Earnest Ice Cream.  I have it on good authority that they are now stocked up with 6 flavours including Brown Butter Almond Praline, yum!  I have also heard that Wheelhouse Seafoods has a great seafood chowder that is made fresh daily.

Now there is another way to experience a spot prawn feast brought to you by Campagnolo Restaurant, 1020 Main Street. They are offering a Spot Prawn Boil on Wednesday, June 5th at 7:00 p.m. for $59. The price includes beer, tax and gratuity.  The event will be held in their upstairs dining room where all the guests will be seated at communal tables. You will all  share in a massive boil of BC spot prawns, Sawmill Bay claims and house-made chorizo sausage and seasonal vegetables.   R&B Brewing Co. is providing the beer.  If you prefer wine with your dinner, Campagnolo’s invites you to bring your own wine with no corkage fee attached.  Campagnolo’s does have a great selection of Rieslings available at an additional cost. To ensure your place at the table, tickets can be purchased at:

http://campagnolospotprawnboiljune5.eventbrite.com/

I would say it’s time to feast!

Photo Courtesy: Island Vittles

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