I Love...

Markets!

I love the community feel of a market, any kind of market. I especially love artistry markets where people are dealing things that they personally make by hand. I of course love a good farmers market but there seems to be less things that captivate me at a farmers market - although that should not discredit the sheer magic of a farmers market. The atmosphere is perfect and the food is delicious. I also love christmas markets or fairs and all the like but they often seem to have so much more manufactured stuff and more expensive stuff. However I still love to wander around them even if I leave with nothing in hand.

My favorite market around here is Market Collective. I think I love it because it is young at heart, it just started a few years ago, and everyone who comes to see their goods are so genuine. They make creative, new, lovely things and they stand behind them 100%. I always tell myself to go and buy nothing but I always leave with something. I think I found one of my favorite photographers there too, I love everything she does and I've even bought a few of her prints. They have live music, awesome artists, art installations (many of which are often interactive), and free coffee!

Here are some pictures from my morning:

These are pins made out of bottle caps. This booth had such great bracelets!! (Bottles Decapitated) It looks like they don't have an etsy page.

These are magnets that I bought from Amy Victoria Wakefield, the photographer I mentioned before. Her photos make me smile. Etsy page here!

They have live music from local artists all day and they are usually really great. It adds to the atmosphere in the building.

Last but definitely not least is one of my favorite things about MC, they bring in local photographers to set up a photo booth and each time it is weird and creative. It is tons of fun to go in and get a crazy picture done. Here is my friend Meghan and I getting ready. This weekend's theme was "Chess in a hay field" It was awesome!

I Love...

The C of Red!!

The good old hockey game,

its the best game you can name;

And the best game you can name,

is the good old hockey game!

Hockey is so fun to watch, about as good as curling but I'm sure I'll get into that when the spiels start up, ha. I don't often get to go down to the Dome to watch a game but when I do it is always so much fun. Tickets are expensive and such a luxury. Luckily for me my brother occasionally gets tickets and sometimes takes me along with him. I love sporting the flaming C on my jersey and enjoying some unreasonably priced beer.

Nothing quite like being at the dome chillin' with Jarome. GO FLAMES GO!!

I Love...

Glee!

I was definitely not a regular viewer when this show came out, which wasn't because I didn't like it, it was just because I hadn't had a chance to see it. As a student I worked during my nights and often that meant forfeiting tv shows. I had heard the buzz and I love musicals but I just never really found the time to get into it. I even had a coworker who would weekly tell me how awesome the show was and how I had to watch it because I would love it. I was sure I would love it.

And then one day while waltzing through my local HMV to see what was new I spotted the first season for some ridiculous cheap price, I'm talking $30 here which for tv on dvd is pretty stellar. I snapped that up and fell in love immediately! It is endearing, witty, funny, happy, and touches on some pretty decent subject matter and it always leaves me with a smile. No matter what if I throw in an ep I'll be gleaming by the end.

I think I watched that first season (of half season if we want to get technical) 3 times all the way through before the next season (ok the second half of the first season) came out.

Not trying to be a dorky superfan I didn't want to buy the cds and geek out too hard but then I figured why not? ha. I listen to it all the time and even it brings a smile to my face.

Glee = Ray of Sunshine from my TV = Happy Tuesday nights!

Goodnight Gleeks!

I Love...

Vegetables!

I don't understand or comprehend why people don't like veggies, or refuse to eat them. I've never really been a sweet tooth - I rarely every crave sweets or chocolate - but when I go too long without some great veggies I know exactly what to do. Yum! I love (almost) all of them. Give me a little ranch dip and some fresh chopped veggies - perfection. I love eating a variety of veggies as well - not sticking just to one.

I could also go on a rampage telling you about how I HATE "baby carrots" they don't even taste like anything other than watery chemicals. I love going to the Farmer's Market to pick up real carrots that actually taste like real carrots. Takes me back to growing up with a huge vegetable garden in the back yard of my house. We had all sorts of veggies, carrots, peas, potatoes, different varieties of lettuce, etc! It was great. When we played in the back yard and we wanted a snack we would grab a carrot out of the ground, wash it off under the hose and keep right on playing. Fabulous!

I just recently starting eating peppers - they are pretty tasty - and definitely something I didn't really have a taste for a few years ago. One things I'll never have a taste for is celery! the worst of all vegetables and not just because it is stringy and has a taste that overpowers all other tastes - no matter how small the bits - it is practically all water. Nonsense.

So go grab a bottle of ranch and a mushroom - it is delicious!

I'm Obsessed With...

I love nail polish (specifically OPI for Sephora)

What a girl thing to say, but hey, I do love it.

A year or two ago I was in the mall and something wasn't going my way, at times like this I usually try and buy something little to brighten my day. On that day I bought the my first bottle of OPI for Sephora nail polish (in Ocean Love Potion); the nail polish that started it all.

It isn't like I didn't have nail polish before, and it isn't like I wasn't a fan, but it wasn't until I bought this nail polish that I really fell in love with it. Unlike most brands of nail polish this one actually stays on your nails for upwards of a week without chips. Considering how long nail polish takes to put on (if you want to do a stand up job) it is crucial to have it last.

The second reason I love it is the amazing colours! Sephora stocks a huge variety of colour and now I do to! I have reds, purples, greens, yellow, pinks, black, and variations of all of the above. Recently, trends in nail colour shifted from the usual reds and pinks, to a huge variety of pastels, and bright, bold colours. It is way more fun to play around with!

Lastly the reason I love this nail polish is the wonderful names, you are never painting your nails with "red" nail polish. They always have the best names. Some of my favorite colours are Ocean Love Potion, Havana Dreams, Don't Go There, And a Cherry on Top, and Dark Room. How fun is that!

Oh and they are almost always coming out with four or five new colours in sets which means that there is always something new to buy - which is pretty much the perfect marketing campaign for an addict.

Hope I haven't bored you with my undying love for this nail polish.

Things I Love

Clearly, my long-winded, somewhat insightful (at least into my head) posts just can't keep coming. I'd love to but when I draft one I either feel pretentious or rude or whatever. And I just don't have the energy to do it right now, or perhaps it isn't the energy, it is the motivation. I have grown complaisant.

So for now (until motivation arises) I am going to do something a little different. I think I should be able to keep up with this (although I do feel like I am cheapening the point of this blog).

Things I Love.

I Love the smell of my yoga mat.

Mostly my yoga mat just smells like rubber, but it is a little different kind of rubber that takes my mind directly back to the hot yoga studio on 14th The Bodhi Tree. I can literally see and sense the yoga studio around me. It is such a calming thing. Hot yoga makes you feel amazing and there is something so clarifying about it that makes you want to be a healthier person. If my back wasn't in such dire straights lately I'd be down there every weekend. It was an excellent way to start a weekend or end a long day of work. They say that scent is the strongest sense tied to memory and the smell of my yoga mat is no exception. Namaste.

Gobble Freaking Gobble!

Happy Thanksgiving Canadians!

What better way to celebrate than a festive meal, a bottle or two of wine, and watching the Canucks lose the hockey game?!

Hope your respective weekends are off to a great start. I am finally able to enjoy a Thanksgiving without feeling guilty for not studying for some midterm/writing some paper that would be due next week, and for the I am thankful!

So pour yourself a glass of red, kick your feet up, and enjoy the lulling effects of the Tryptophan.

And heck a long weekend after my second 12 day work week in a row isn't bad either. :)

In these bodies we live, In these bodies we die, Where you invest your love, You invest your life

Today I was going to write you a well overdo criticism of the GAPs jeans/pants department but upon writing it almost entirely out I said to myself, who in their right mind cares that I think GAP jeans (although nice looking) always disappoint.

On an entirely different note - today I went to Chapters and purchased Lonely Planet - Europe on a Shoestring.

Up until now, well still even now, it has (does) felt like this trip is eons away and it does feel like it is something that isn't for real. Probably because it is too amazing to be true, and also probably because I applied on a whim, chose the city somewhat by random, and it seemed oh so easy to be accepted. It might also feel like it is so far off because I feel like I hardly have time to do my laundry and get to bed at a reasonable hour let alone plan and prepare myself to go to school in another country. Well it will happen and it will be amazing.

On another note I decided to take my hail insurance off my car and take the $2400 for the damage that the scariest hail storm I ever drove through did to Jemaine - hope he forgives me. That money is going straight to Europe with me. Hope I made the right call.

Finally, yesterday night (Tuesday) while out at dinner with my fam (Globefish SUSHI yumm yumm) I fully appreciated being a working adult and didn't really want to go back to school next fall. I think this is a great thing because most of the time when I think about graduating I am beyond excited but also beyond scared. Now I am mostly beyond excited. Evenings and weekends free and a real pay check - and I am really enjoying reading books of my choice for my own pleasure - not textbooks in the library on a Saturday night for 5 hours at a time. Oh life outside of school has never looked so good. Just give me 15 months, one trip to Europe, and a final haul and I'll be out of the crazy - wonderful - sleep lacking - world of post secondary education. Can't wait.