Sean and I drove back to the city in the AM so we could pick up Emily after school. I took a long walk in the late afternoon and stopped by the Bathing Belle Studio for a visit. My bff Michelle just started working there and I’m so happy because Bathing Belle makes the NICEST SWIMSUITS I’VE EVER WORN. In other news, I got this great coat at a second-hand shop in New Zealand and it’s been hanging in my room ever since. Decided it was time to bust it out! Tomorrow I’m meeting April at the Hippie Market and she’s going to spend the week at the cottage with me. I can’t wait!

As much as 2020 has sucked in a lot of ways, I think I’ve made the most out of it! For years I dreamed of living in the woods, growing my hair, and being fit. It was about a year ago when I started working out and as part of that process, I decided not to cut my hair until I felt better about my personal fitness. I love how wild my hair is growing. It’s been over 10 years since I had hair even close to this long! In February 2019, I wrote a post about growing out short hair I followed each of these tips from my team at Sassoon. I found this stuff has all helped my hair grow long and healthy. I also went through about 2 months this past spring when I used rice water as an overnight treatment to boost growth. Tips for Growing Your Short Hair Get regular trims, scissors are your friend! Avoid heat as much as you can. If you can, air dry! Don’t shampoo every time you shower. Cold rinse at the end of your shower. I have learned to love this! Conditioning treatments – Pamper your hair with serums each week. Avoid hair ties, they can break your hair! In other news, I’m feeling good after being back on my fitness game. Over the winter I’m planning to boost my muscles with strength training.

I looked at myself in the mirror before I left and thought, ‘wow I’ve clearly been watching Gossip Girl!‘. Halfway through S2 and I love this show. I put on my new fav Stuart Wiseman boots, a sweater with some fur, and hopped in my ride. Mini Toronto sent a driver to pick me up and I’m borrowing a car for a few days. I absolutely love the freedom that comes with a car! After spending so long up north, I’m stoked to boot around the city for the next week. I’m driving the new MINI Countryman ALL4 and look forward to testing out some of the features including all-wheel drive, Apple Carplay, parallel parking assist, fuel-efficiency. Next time, I’m hoping to test drive the All-Electric MINI Cooper SE 3 Door. How cute is it?! Time to hit the road, vroom, vroom!

If you only knew then what you know now, right? If I only knew that one of these nicely stacked woodpiles would topple over in <24 hours, we might have stacked it differently. C’est la vie! I love stacking wood. It’s a great workout and you can do a lot in a short time if you hustle. I listened to Mariah Carey’s new book The Meaning of Mariah Carey on Audible, read by her! I love it. I’m 3.5 hours in with 7 to go. I like to listen to books for long drives, running, walks, or doing stuff around the house. Some of my fav audiobooks so far: In other news, last week I started watching Gossip Girl from the very beginning, for the first time. I love it, was searching for something with a dramatic/stylish vibe to zone out to after watching Emily in Paris. I’m almost done S1 and have 5 more seasons to go, should take me right through to December.

Tell your family, tell your friends, make sure they know you love them. Call, text, email, tweet, DM, FaceTime. If you’re thinking about someone, let them know. We need connection more now than ever. You never know what someone is going through behind the smiling selfies and social posts. One little message could turn someone’s day around. I love sending voice notes to people. More intimate than a text and there’s something special about hearing someone talk directly to you. If you ever want to chat with me, send me a message on any app or an email. My DMs are always open! Love you xo

Sometimes I look back when writing my post for the day and think ‘wow that was only yesterday’. Lately, each day seems like a week and weeks like months. If only weekends could be longer! Watched the debate tonight and it was…entertaining, frustrating? Seemed pretty tame compared to the shit show last week but yikes. What a time we are living in. If you are reading this from the USA, please VOTE. If you have questions about voting, please visit iwillvote.com for info or to register. My fav thing about televised world events is following along on Twitter. It’s the place news breaks, memes hit first, and trending topics tell the story of what people are saying. I was pretty tired last night but once the debate started, I was tuned into Twitter and couldn’t look away. The highlight of the night was the fly that sat on Mike Pence’s head for two whole minutes. WTF?! Who doesn’t realize there is a fly on their head! The Biden team was quick to respond with merch encouraging people to vote. That’s all for today, leaving you with another great re-face, me as Marilyn Monroe! It’s incredible how realistic these look.

Today I was feeling a bit sluggish but I still went out and did 5km in Amy’s Run For The Cure challenge. It was so nice to run in the woods. Hoping to keep on track with my running this week. Planning to do 70km this month, did 10km this weekend! Short post today. Need to recharge my batteries!