my weekend in summary

this weekend was wonderful.... i think i had a smile on my face the whole time (except when the sparkling thing came... not nice). cheesy as a swiss housewarming party, but i'm ok with that. i have great people in my life.
 unwanted attention in the middle of the evening; wanted attention as a big ole "L"; we are 14. never gonna stop laughing at things that made us laugh then; dinner with a handsome gentleman; lattes and desert; after dinner beverages; my soul mate - in bar form; birthday gifts from a very lovely man (yes they DO include a homemade birthday card book, dinner to one of my faves - including drinks! - an exacto knife, and tickets to the first aid kit concert. YAY!); reasons i love toronto - FREE SYRINGES! (i'm going to assume it's clean); roti for dinner - with lots of hot sauce; guys - i'm wearing COLOURED PANTS!; my friends know me so so well - on friday i received a vintage typeset drawer, and these typeset letters are previous gifts from friends. love; the beginning of a massive bead organizational undertaking (with hoosiers!)
friday: I left work and jetted home (with intentions to go to the gym, but….. pff) to meet my friend jamie who had come from home for the evening. I had a quick shower, and while doing a quick catch up, and briefing for the evening, we got ready and then drove back to work to park so we could meet everyone at milestones downtown. arrived to a few people already there, and spent the rest of the evening drinking super classy wine spritzers (thank you Kelly for the inspiration), and having dinner before we headed out on the town. also was lucky enough to receive some gifts – including an owl themed fun gift from kelly, a beautiful vintage letterpress tray from erin, and a handknitted (crocheted?) headband for winter from my talented friend Helen. we finished up, and all of us went due west (to the better part of town) to the Beaconsfield – meeting up with almost twice as many people when we arrived. we managed to scam a large table for everyone, and spent almost the rest of the evening having drinks, and hanging out with glow sticks, st. patrick’s themed curly straws, and tons of friends stopping by to say hi. then, the troopers in the group trudged down (in a bit of rainy weather) to the rhino – my fave. we had a drink or two, and in finding that the kitchen was closed, they suggested grabbing a falafel or schwarma and bringing it inside. THAT’S why I love them there. we ate falafel, drank beer, and laughed hard for the rest of the night. another quick falafel stop on the way home, and we headed in, while another friend neal picked up his bike, and made the trek home in the rain. jamie, jeff and I stayed up late chatting, and bundling up (my apt gets UBER cold once summer is over), and then crashed - not too late, thank goodness.
saturday: woke up early to drive jamie back to her car (parked at my work – free downtown parking, what??), then grabbed some crummy macdonalds (which I can’t believe I’m even admitting to), to drop in a bowl, and serve ‘homemade breakfast in bed’ to jeff. I’m very nice. I arrived back home to a birthday bundle – after opened, revealing a new (VERY SHARP) exacto knife and cutting board for leather making, tickets to first aid kit, a homemade flip book card, and dinner and drinks at one of my faves – that night. kim stopped by to drop off some hairspray I had forgotten at their wedding a few weekends ago, and I go photos, as well as got a good visit in – the three of us sprawled across my chaise and footstool (very intimate). Once kim headed out, spent the day being totally lazy, napping, and since it was raining, I didn’t feel all that bad. got up and going in time for our reservations – changed, and got all fancied up, and walked over to enoteca sociale… one of my favourites (if you’ve never been – GO. Look at this menu – how could you POSSIBLY ignore?). had beer, pasta, bread, wine, desert, and lots of fun…. and after almost 2 hours, we departed – full – and took a walk up and down ossington (but only after a quick stop in to the liquor store to grab a bottle of wine). we finally decided to stop in at Churchill – where I mentioned I had wanted to try at some point, but have never really had the opportunity. then, headed home, where we opened wine, and watched dexter (really exciting stuff). I guess now that I’m old, this is the kind of thing I should look forward to. I guarantee you I was in bed by midnight. wild.
Sunday: woke up late-ish, and headed out for breakfast at sadie’s – my fave vegan brunch spot. then, spent the afternoon wandering downtown – a quick stop to look at the new fall stuff at joe, then a stop in at duke’scycle to test drive a bike, and scope out some options (yay new bike coming soon!!), then a coffee, and some get outside to look at new shoes (drool). then we grabbed the car, and headed home – grabbed a quick bite to eat, and after stopping quickly at home to grab jeff’s stuff, I dropped him off at the GO station. I then spent the evening being a loner – ate dinner outside while reading… and while I’d like to say I spent the beautiful day outside, I spent the night watching hoosiers on my laptop, while I pushed through purging and organizing piles of things that have been looming over me for months. I was UBER productive, and ended up with a pile of ‘to do’ projects, and a lot more beads than I thought! cleaned up a bit, and then was in bed by 10. Read some magazines that have been sitting, begging for me to read (including the new jcrew catalogue), and was asleep by 11. exhausted. 
a long, tiring, but amazing weekend. (still exhausted this morning!!)
hope everyone's weekend was fantastic - i have promised myself i'm going to model every weekend after this one - and simply enter it as though they're all going to be good! i challenge you to do the same. with more sleeping. and gifts - i encourage just as many gifts. 
happy monday!

weekend tweet roundup

and, a snapshot summation of my weekend - in tweet form. the ones in which i discuss being a grown up (as confirmed by my undergarments), an appreciation of being older (at least that's what i THINK i was getting at), and being titilated by bike shopping. (to answer your question - YES, i am always this inappropriate).

and, because i have kick ass friends, i can share their participation in this weekend too. because they are awesome, and spent the night with me.

you can follow me on twitter here. you will likely be disappointed.

oh you fancy, hunh?

oh! and here's an added bonus. i'm a guest person of interest in natalie's blog today. here. talking about my outfit choices, and how long it takes me to pick them, as well as my shopping mecca's of choice (namely, the sweet luxurious area of the dufferin mall - according to the website, it's 'the savvy shopper's fashion destination'). you can read more here. and look at me making my gangster face, without even realizing it (yes, i literally DO make that face unintentionally all the time).
oh. and read her blog. you'll love it. she's hilarious.
thanks for having me natalie!

another year.

birthdays are a time for reflection, and perhaps a milestone for another year.
i wrote this to a friend on the date we celebrated her birthday this year... and i've reflected on it for quite some time.
"to another year of laughter - stupid jokes, awkward hilarity, dirty comments, and exhausted giggles. to another year of crafting - imagining we can do it all, prepping for masterpieces, and fun when we actually get ourselves together. to another year of conversations - the serious kind, the funny kind, the kind we probably know we shouldn't be having, and the kind we can only have with eachother. to another year of growth - emotional growth, spiritual growth (however that may be), physical growth (in strength, not stature), and the growth of the relationships we maintain. and... to another year of you being you... because you're just so darn good at it. and hopefully, i can take part"
that is what i wish for myself, this year.
tonight i'm having drinks and laughs with some of my best and closest friends (who could/would make the trip to toronto to hang with me), and then spending the rest of the weekend doing only what i want to do. and i can't. wait.
i hope everyone has a great weekend! 
and. ps. if anyone wants to buy me a pressie, because goodness knows you all have moola just FLOWING from cracks in the ceiling, you should buy me this purse from falconwright. i want it so BADLY. oh. and i want an iPhone... and if all else fails, just a bottle of spicebox will do.
ok. fine. for serious though. have a good weekend y'all.
ps. i unexpectedly received lovely presents from my 'older brothers' at work. they know me VERY well. i gots me some homemade peach jam, and YOU don't!

my version of a clothing/outfit a day (week, month?) post

so. i've never really been one for outfit posts. mostly because of the following reasons
  • i don't have a good camera that makes it look more like i'm a famous photographer capturing fashion at its finest, and less like i'm a self absorbed person with a BB camera (fuck you blackberry camera)
  • my clothes lack.... awesome-ness
  • some mornings, especially before work, my thought process goes as follows: *snooze button; *snooze button; *snooze button; *snooze button; 'FUCK i only have 22 minutes to get to work so what's on my floor grey pants i wore 2 days ago well if i wear a long shirt no one will notice but is the long shirt work appropriate probably not but what if i put a vest over it and wear overthetop jewelry today think anyone will notice probably not'; *put on grey pants, long shirt that's totally not work appropriate, vest to make long shirt "work appropriate", and a shit ton of jewelry to cover fashion error*; get to work and try to hide all day as outfit was a huge failure.
  • i forget to actually do things daily like take vitamins, and laundry... outfits photos tend to get pushed to the back of my mind. 
but when natalie from makes me smile called out to readers to submit their own outfits, i figured... what the hell? everyone in toronto wants to see what i wear on a daily basis (CLEARLY), so here's their chance. not on my blog, but on natalie's. obvs. (check my post out here!) and, she's awesome. so her blog was DEFINITELY the kind of place i wanted people to see me. in a cheap ass outfit. clearly. why you ask?:
exhibit a: she pulls together a mean outfit (and includes kick ass vintage stuff too. perf). 
exhibit b: she's classy as fuck - she works a corporate(ish) job like moi, and wears a mean pencil skirt. you gotta appreciate the little things. 
exhibit c: she lives in my hood (parkdale), and was just on apartment therapy! ahh! cool! world famous! loud noises!
if you need more reasons... well. ... shame.
so when it got to be thursday (today), and i realized i hadn't taken any photos, i started frantically searching through old photos to see if i had anything salvageable. what i found was embarrassing. so i took photos of my incredibly matchy outfit today that i grabbed with my eyes closed instead. but what i DID find was a collection of hilarity. blackberry captured pieces of outfits. and i laughed really hard. and so NONE of you can say i never shared with you, i'm sharing.
so friends... here's what you're missing out on. these sorts of fashionable gems. (and once you see these, you'll never ever ask again. but they'll make you feel REALLY good about yourself):
the majority of my wardrobe is accessories. boring clothes made SUPER COOL with little bits'o'bling. i like big earrings - joe fresh has my favourite, and lucky ME, they make them into a different colour, or with a different material every season!! i like baseball hats (and the seattle mariners), tortoise shell, and big sunglasses. i also fight with horrible vision - hence these super 'cool' teacher glasses on top of the mop of hair that i have to deal with daily. all ingredients for a recipe of hip!
this may be the largest reason why i don't take outfit photos.... i wear blundstones. a lot. to inappropriate places. they are on my feet 92% of the fall through winter. mostly with wool socks and skinny jeans - aka. the most unfashionable outfit known to humanity. however, they make me feel more badass, and less like an orthopaedic requiring grandmother (i'm more the later).
i wear lots of grey. i also wear lots of blue (navy blue, to be precise). i wear comfortable clothes, and comfortable shoes. i wear belts to make things that are boring look more interesting, and i wear tights (or nylons? what are those called?) a lot. under shorts. under skirts. with toms (i know, SUPER stylish). generally all around tight-ness.
sometimes (all the time) i paint my nails. i'm not sure why i take photos of these adventures, other than to remind myself that i like the way they looked. purple toes? would have never ever thought, except that my friend said, "jamie! don't be so boring! get a colour!". 'fine friend... what do you know', i thought. well, she knows a lot. purple toes are good. so are pink ring fingers amongst a sea of grey.
see what happens when i try to take self photos? blurry, bad haired, bathroom photos.... starring my baby sister, and my nose ring. who WOULDN'T want to see those things!? you're right. i'll start taking more.
oh. and i like stripes. a lot. my friends mock me. but you know what? they're awesome.