Misfit Isle

Today I would like to tell you about Misfit Isle, which is Alli's blog. She and her husband live way up in the very North of Canada, and are planning to expand their little family (which currently includes an adorable hedgehog, no kidding) by starting to adopt children in the very near future. You can read all about the adoption process and Alli's and Max' hopes and worries here.
These two lovely people also run an online shop going by the same name as the blog, Misfit Isle. They sell fun, inspirational prints, cards and other artsy things designed by the two of them. All the proceeds of any sales will go towards helping them become parents and cover the cost of adoption. Their prints are really cute and would look good on any wall. I have my eyes on the Bruce Springsteen record myself.
Have a look:

Misfit Isle is offering free worldwide shipping at the moment, so if you fancy some new art and want to help somebody realize their dreams, go and check them out!

© Text - Annika - All The Live Long Day © Prints - Misfit Isle

More Australia: The Blue Mountains

The Blue Mountains are a less than two-hour drive away from Sydney, and Marco and I made use of a rental car to spend a day in the area. We went for a hike, stopped at several beautiful look-outs and enjoyed seeing some exciting new rock formations, plants and scenery. We also had great Kaffee und Kuchen in Leura and I saw the only slightly scary-looking spider of my whole stay in Australia in a ladies' loo by a parking lot.

© Text & Photos - Annika - All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated).

Fine Tune: Bear's Den - Isaac

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Pawnee is the Opposite of Hip

I've been waiting to watch Parks & Recreation for such a long time that it might have easily been a huge disappointment, with the weight of all the expectations I had of it hanging over its head. But turns out I love it! Now it's showing both on Netflix and on the BBC, and I have been power-watching. I'm currently well into series 3. The show doesn't offer a loud, ha-ha kind of humor, but I am often chuckling away while I'm watching it. All the characters are quirky and quite loveable in all their strange, wacky ways.
One of my favourite scenes (out of many) is this one, in which Amy Poehler is just brilliant as Leslie Knope, bringing up all kinds of stereotypically female answers while trying to explain why she allegedly shot her boss Ron Swanson in the head:

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What about you? Do you like Parks And Recreation? Who's your favourite character? What's your favourite show to watch? Do you get as obsessive over box sets or Netflix as I do? Tell me about it!

Barley & Feta Salad with Avocado

Every year when winter turns into spring, my comfort food cravings turn from hearty, warming soups to fresh salads. And recently I've been very into using grains and legumes combined with vegetables. My favourites are pearl barley, quinoa, or puy lentils. They give my salads body and bite and make them into light but filling meals.
I made this salad a few days ago, using just a few ingredients that I had a home. It was easy to assemble and I really loved how it turned out, taste-wise and in the looks department, what with the specks of green and yellow running through it and the zing of the lemon against the saltiness of the cheese. It's also quite good for you, I think.

BARLEY & FETA SALAD WITH AVOCADO (serves 2 as a light meal)
Need:
1 cup pearl barley, soaked over night 1 avocado, cubed 80 g feta, roughly crumbled 2 spring onions, finely sliced 1/2 cup frozen peas, defrosted 1 tbsp chia seeds (optional)  1 tbsp coriander (fresh or frozen), finely chopped a splash of macadamia oil (or any other oil at hand) 1 small lemon, juice and zest salt  black pepper
Do:
In a small saucepan, cover the barley with water and bring to the boil. Cook for about 10 to 15 minutes, until grains are nice and soft but still retain some bite. Drain into a sieve and cool down under running cold water.
In a salad bowl, combine the cooled barley with all the other ingredients and mix well. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Enjoy. © Text & Photos - Annika - All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated).

Calling all Day Trippers!

Hi Guys.

You might have noticed that I have been playing around with my blog design over the weekend. I moved some stuff, rearranged things a bit, and hopefully made everything a trifle prettier and less messy. Please do let me know if you have problems with anything in the new layout.
One thing that felt weird was removing the Google Friend Connect widget. That little thing made me feel like I was looking at a group of friends every time I opened my website, and I celebrated every time the counter went up. But seeing as Google is slowly phasing out all its old products (bye, bye, Google reader, my old friend) I thought I might as well bite the bullet and embrace the change. Only AFTER I removed it did I start to wonder if I had also automatically removed my followers as a result. Are you still there? I hope so! And you will still be able to follow me through all these places once all of old Google has passed over.
I had already thought about removing the widget on a few occasions, but that mainly had to do with me getting stressed out if nobody new wanted to actually become my friend, or if people unfollowed me. The reason why I always kept it in the end was that I felt that you, my followers, deserved a bit of exposure, and people could go and check you out by flipping through your tiny thumbnail faces and visiting your pages.
And because I think it's cool that you want to hang out with me, I think I want to keep that exposure happening. So here's what we're gonna do:
If you are a follower of mine and also run your own blog, leave me a comment below. In that comment tell me what your actual method of stalking is (etc. Feedburner, Bloglovin', Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Friend Connect (???)...), the name and address of your blog, 5 nouns that describe what you're doing over there, and the country that you blog from. "Why so nosey?", you may ask. Well... I will take all that info and link to your site from my brand new Day Tripper page! It's going to be my own little follower directory. I'm so pleased with my idea and I think it's going to be awesome. Sound good? Good. Let's do it. 
If you are at loss for nouns, this is how I would sum up All The Live Long Day, for example: FOOD, PHOTOS, TRAVEL, STUFF, PROCRASTINATION. Does that make sense? I hope so. Also, I checked and there were 111 of you before I killed off the widget, so I am expecting 111 comments, children! 
I so am looking forward to getting re-acquainted and to compiling the Day Tripper list.

Love,

© Text & Photos - Annika - All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated).

What I've Been Busy With.

Hello, hello. Sometimes (though rarely) I do have a good excuse not to blog. It's those times I'm busy living! My parents stayed over for the first week of May, and it was my birthday, and we went to the seaside and had a lovely meal, and then a party with my friends. And there was cake. A lot of cake. And a tragic hedgehog and shells (more of these later). And to be honest, I have also been alternately watching Being Erica and Parks & Recreation, both of which are very, very captivating TV shows. Alas, here are a few phonos (phone-photos, I'm so funny!):

I discovered my new favourite bubble tea flavour: rose milk. I think the boba was strawberry-flavoured. To die for!

My birthday started off with just one cake. The normal amount. I also got presents. My parents gifted me a night alone in a book shop. How ace is that? Had I known such opportunities existed  I would have put that on my bucket list for sure. Marco gave me speakers for my phone (I am recently Spotify-addicted) and the River Cottage Handbooks, which I had been longing for for a while.

I couldn't have eaten a slice of my one cake after a big breakfast of pancakes and delicious lunch sandwiches from The Cupcake Cafe in Margate. 

Margate panorama. There is nothing better than spending your birthday by the seaside. In my book at least. 

Margate wildlife.

Margate art.

After trawling the charity shops in Margate and hanging out at the beach, we had some time to kill before dinner (not pictured), so we took a little drive and watched the sun set over Ramsgate marina.

Dude knows how to accessorize!

The beach in Ramsgate and I being a happy birthday girl after the amount of cakes that I got given had grown into a buffet by Saturday.

Would you look at this. See that little white cake on the left? Quite inconspicuous, n'est-ce pas?

Look what it was!!! Only a rainbow cake, made by my super-duper amazing friend Christina! It made me so happy! We're still eating it now, although it's diminishing quickly.

I had a truly happy birthday week. My friends and family made me feel really special.

What about you guys? Has anything exciting happened in your lives? How do you like to spend your birthday? I'd love to know, so leave me a comment.

© Text & Photos - Annika - All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated).