Kinda Nerdy Housewife

Thanks to shenanigans between my spouse and Air Canada (involving credit card rewards and a cancelled flight) we had a few "use it or lose it" travel credits lying around. Ergo, I am in Montreal for the entire long weekend!

Today was a big day! We bought a combo ticket that let us into a bunch of different attractions and ended up doing three of them!

First up we went to the "Biodome", which I would describe as an "open concept small animal zoo". It had lots of free flying birds and cute little critters!

The next thing we did was the Insectarium. It was a super tiny space but I loved it so much! It has three exhibits: A "life through the eyes of a bug" interactive space, a large room of artistically themed bug pinnings, and a butterfly greenhouse. I got so many awesome pictures of the butterflies that I'll probably make a post of just those when I get back!

The last thing we did was the Botanical Gardens. I was getting pretty tired by the time we got there, so I didn't walk the whole thing, but my favorite part was the huge lilac garden! Lilacs are my favorite flower and they are in full bloom this time of year. The garden smelled amazing and looked so pretty too!

Also, everyone said I had to have a Smoked Meat sandwich while I was here, and I did! It was pretty tasty!

Chocolatier: Chocolove
Flavor: Salted Almond Butter in Dark Chocolate
What I Paid: $3.79

Time for another Chocolove review! I've never had a bad bar from this Boulder-based chocolatier, so I have high expectations every time I review one of their products! Today were going to try one of their sweet and salty flavors: Salted Almond Butter in Dark Chocolate.

This bar is a 55% cocoa chocolate filled with a salted almond butter. The chocolate used in this bar is rich, lightly tannic, and a tad buttery. It starts strongly sweet and slightly fruity, and ends with a nice strong cocoa flavor that has just touch of coffee to it. The almond butter filling in this bar is equal parts crumbly and creamy. As the name of the product would suggest, it is strongly salted, but it also has a fresh, roasty, toasty, and mildy floral almond flavor that is quite delightful.

My only complaint about this bar is the same complaint I've had with Chocolove's other filled bars: I wish there was a tad more filling. The bold flavor of the chocolate used drowns out the flavor of the almond filling slightly. Yeah, you can still taste the almond, but the chocolate definitely dominates. Seriously, like even 10% more filling would make a world of difference here!

That said, I still liked this bar! It's a great combination of sweet, salty, and nutty that works pretty dang well. It 100% gets a thumbs up from me!

After being torn apart for 6 months for repainting and recarpeting, my workshop is finally open for business again! How do you like the purple wall?

My first order of business is rationing out the last of my periwinkle beads. Perler discontinued their Periwinkle Blue color, so I'm using the last bag I have on the projects that benefit most from the color - like these Dark World Kris perlers and these Blue Chicken magnets.

Each one is hand-made by me using an original pattern that I created! Please check them out! :D