Birthday Flowers

I love having fresh flowers in the house. My mom and Stephen both got me beautiful arrangements :)

Birthday

I'm really not much of a birthday person at all. In regards to my birthday at least. Other people's I get excited for; mine not so much. I guess it also has to do with the whole inevitable life evaluating thoughts that plague my mind around this time. After much distress about what to do, and a general wanting to do absolutely nothing, I showed up at Stephen's house. I walked into a Mexican themed fiesta surprise party which lifted my mood and was impressively themed down to the tequila napkins. My friends and Stephen planned an amazing party and we all had a blast. It turned out be a great birthday after all :)

Golden Seashells & Studded Crosses

One of the reasons (of many) that I decided to start a blog of sorts was because I stumbled upon a few fashion blogs and found it really interesting how people took pictures of their daily outfits. Now, I am far too lazy for that and don't put that much effort into dressing myself at this point at least. And I also just mainly wanted a place to be able to upload some pictures and chronicle events. I haven't been that diligent in updating and posting, but hopefully will get into the hang of it more now.

Anyhow, now that my finances are much closer to being in order, I decided to buy myself some shoes. The gold ones were totally an impulse buy. I had some time to kill and went into a store, and upon seeing them totally felt like I must have them. I don't really wear heels at all since I am quite tall and feel kinda awkward in them. But at the same time, I looove heels. If I was a lot shorter, I think I would wear them on a daily basis. That being said, I have bought at least a couple of pairs of heels over the last couple of years. Usually never wearing them ... except on a single occasion maybe. I can only recount two times I have worn heels in the last two years. Maybe three. So I feel like it's time to put my collection of shoes to use, and get more lovely shoes that I like and wear them. I used to be really self-conscious of being tall when I was younger, but now I have come to terms with it and actually enjoy it. I'm already really tall ... so I might as well be even taller :P

Colcci is a Brazilian brand that I have never heard of until now. Upon looking at their online collection, I like their shoes quite a bit. They also produce apparel and accessories. The shoes were $195 originally but I got them on sale for $59.99. How could I not? They are really comfortable and I love the gold foil look. Makes them look a lot older and worn in. I really love the seashell accent and the gold tie adornments. Basically, love the whole shoe.

Time off

At the end of July I took a week off work to enjoy some down time. The time just flew by though. One of the days was spent with my mom on her birthday, which was quite nice. The rest was mostly a blur. At the end of the week Stephen and I ventured to his aunt's cottage and spent some time there. Unlike most of this summer, those two days were a lot colder than usual so we didn't get to enjoy the beach all that much. We did go to a nearby where the water was very similar the Caribbean; it was quite odd.

Plevna

Wow, time flies. So sometime in the middle of July, Stephen and I ventured to his friend J.J.'s girlfriend's cottage. It was located in Plevna, ON which was about a four hours drive from Toronto. After figuring out how to get there, we left Stephen's early on a Saturday morning. We stopped at the famous Big Apple on the way there, to get an apple pie to bring to the cottage. Using Stephen's handy Iphone, we navigated our way to in the middle of nowhere land, only to discover that we no longer had service and had to idea where we were actually going. In addition, Stephen realized he forgot to pack swimming trunks ... which during cottage weekend away, is one of the most important articles of clothing one needs. He was not happy. Hilarity ensued as we tried to figure out what to do. We ended up driving back for about a half hour to where we did have service, amazingly finding a place that sold some swimming attire in a convenience store, writing down where we had to go and how to get there, and proceeding on our way. We ended up getting there right as everyone was just waking up, so it turned out perfectly.

So many pies. Sadly, the apple one was apparently not as tasty as we thought.

The Island

The last two and a half weeks or so have been awful. And not awful. And awful. And not awful. Needless to say, I need things to be good or not be at all. Hopefully the former. But at this point I'm ok with either one. I feel overwhelmed with life in general, which is a good thing I think because I feel ready to make changes for the better. I need to start doing things in many aspects of my life, and while I feel like I am moving forward, it's definetely at a snail's pace. I don't feel creative at all, and that's obviously also partly because I don't do anything creative. Even though I feel like my emotions and moods are currently riding a rollercoaster with no clear path or direction, I'm quite excited for things to come. I just have get things going, whatever they may be.

Moving on, I haven't taken any pictures in weeks either. I think these were taken at the end of May, when Kelly and I ventured to the island for the first time this year. It's quite odd how I don't have any pictures up here of my best friend yet, which is unfortunate. I think it's also due to the fact that when we hang out it's mostly during the week or during times I don't have my car and thus do not bring my camera along. That is also something that needs to change. I need to stick to my resolution to take more pictures ... and that means during the week as well. Anywho, we had a great time perusing the island, going on some rides, and just enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery. The island is one of my favourite places, I find the ferry rider and the whole thing quite peaceful.

May Two-Four

Gotta catch up on posting stuff. And be more motivated to do if more often. It seems like that's the case with most things unfortunately.

Anywho, May 24 weekend began with Stephen coming over to my house and me making dinner. I made a mushroom asparagus risotto with a balsamic reduced chicken with spinach, which turned out quite well. It was a nice evening. The next morning I made a super yummy marscapone stuffed french toast with a blueberry jam that started off our morning right.

On Saturday we went to see a rendition of The Little Prince. It's one of my favourite books. For not any particular reason really. The play turned out to be a children's play ... literally, the first four rows were comprised only of three to six year olds. It was quite amusing. After Stephen and I seperated for the evening, I met up with Kim to go shopping for her Euro trip. We went to Wall-mart and got most of her basics. On Sunday, Kim and I came over to Stephen's house in the morning and I made the yummy french toast again. Then we headed to the beaches since it was such a nice day. We attempted to rollerblade, which was a lot of fun. Definetely got the hang of it again. Then we had a nice little picnic on the rocks by the lake complete with numerous cheeses, grapes, and rose. Perfect way to spend a sunny day outside :)

After coming back to Stephen's, we chilled before figuring out where to head out for the night. Originally we were supposed to go out on College, and then on Queen. Once we got to the area though, we wandered around for a bit and ended up at this club called Atelier. Even though we had to pay cover after being told we didn't, which was annoying, I had a blast. The place played a really good mix of music, and even though it was just the three of us, I had one of the best nights out in a while. :)

We had Monday off since it was a long weekend. Ended up going to the Distillery to walk around. They had a craft fair, which I think happens every weekend in the summer if I'm not mistaken. It was interesting to see all of the different things for sale. I bought a silver ring that I quite like. Nastasha texted me on our way there and I invited her to join us. We ended up going for dinner and having quite a few drinks on a patio. It was great to catch up and talk. Unknowingly, I became quite drunk. It was a great end to an even greater weekend.