Long Live the Weekend – Love You Canada!

Been having a pretty relaxing weekend. Can’t believe it’s already Monday. Back to the city tonight or tomorrow. I love being up here but I’m looking forward to going home. Feels like I’ve had more time at the cottage than home lately! My friend Steph is here from New York City. Sean and I met her last year at Anamaya Resort in Costa Rica. [Read about it here!] The weather has been a bit meh but it’s finally nice and sunny today. We created a super tasty wine spritzer with Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc mixed with La Croix, strawberries, and a bit of juice.

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The Hardest Part is Through

This past week was a hard one for me. Actually, this entire month has been a challenge, I’ve been on the verge of a meltdown since May 2017 started with birthday anxiety. I had a trip to Jamaica that started with an allergic reaction in my eyes, where I couldn’t see that well, it rained heaps, I missed my bf, and I got my period. When I got home I was overwhelmed with anxiety about work I needed to get done, and it was a short week. I went to the 1188 office every day to get the music video I directed wrapped up, and didn’t really have time to work (at home like usual) on blog things. The week finished week with a full day on set. I was so tired. Finally, on Saturday, it happened. I legit had a meltdown. Our car had a problem with the tire so I rented a car for the afternoon with my car sharing app and left around 11:15 to make it to Scarborough by 12:15. Well, no, that wasn’t happening. It took me 45 min to get to the DVP (highway downtown for non-TO peeps) and by then I was feeling super stressed after leaving the house in a huff w/ Sean. Then mum called and it opened the floodgates to me balling my eyes out, stuck in traffic. It seemed like everything around me was collapsing. Then, it started raining and the event I was about to drive an hour to was canceled. BUT, I was already on the DVP and still in traffic. I took a few deep breaths and decided to get off the highway. Didn’t really know where I was heading but the end goal was home. I decided to put on the Lumineers album and for…

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You Can Achieve Anything You Want If You Work At It

I found this photo in a box of tax receipts and it gave me such a warm feeling. I’m pretty sure mum has this costume still hanging up in a closet at home. When I was about 9 my jazz class did a competition number to the Inspector Gadget song and to this day I still remember some of it. I spent heaps of time at the dance studio as a kid. I started ballet around 3 and a half, had my first recital at 5, and spent a few years competing. I went all over Ontario, NY, and the National American Dance Championships in South Carolina a couple times. I distinctly remember times ballet was hard. Sometimes I hated it. I’d be crying after class, begging mum to let me quit. But she never did. And thank god for that. Although it was tough, dance taught me so much. It taught me hold my head high when I walk, how to enter a room, how to be on stage. I learned to not give up. I’m so thankful for the decade I spent dancing as kid. For my teacher Miss Lisa at Meyerhofer Academy in Cambridge. I’m grateful for mum who taught me to persevere through all the tough times. Also thankful for all the late nights, mum sat at the kitchen table making ballet skirts for the studio to pay for it. As I get older ,I appreciate more and more the hard work I put in when I was younger. This week Emily and I signed up for Tae Kwon Do. It’s her first go and my first time back in 20 years. [Side note: WHERE DID THE TIME GO, HOW AM I THAT OLD?]  TDK is another thing I spent a few years doing that taught me so much.  I have my green belt, won an Ontario trophy for…

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Light Up Your Life with Best Buy Smart Home

Last week I went to the National Home Show as a guest of Best Buy Canada to check out smart home accessories. After CES and the Interior Design Show this year I’ve become obsessed with making our home more efficient with smart things. Upgrading appliances in your space can help save energy (thermostats/appliances), make things more comfortable (lighting), and keep you safe (security camera). For the National Home Show, Best Buy partnered with designer Christine Dovey to design a fully stocked smart home pop-up where you could see all kinds ways to pimp your place with technology. I left dreaming about new appliances for the whole house complete with a super skinny & smart Samsung QLED tv. I was obsessed with the Samsung ‘Family Hub’ fridge, this thing is totally from THE FUTURE. It’s got a wifi touchscreen and three inside cameras that take a photo every time the fridge closes. Then, you can check your phone to see what’s inside, it also knows what’s inside, it make recipes, it can track expiration dates. Kinda hard to wrap the old brain around! I LOVE THE FUTURE. My friend was telling me about how they recently got a new smart AV system from Crestron System and I think she is as much in love with the future as I am! When I was at CES in Vegas this year, one of the award winning new products was the Nanoleaf Aurora light panel.All the lights connect to my iPhone and can change a zillion colours and different shades of white (warm vs cool). I was so excited to order this for our house! I would love to say I went for the cool lights knowing Emily (9) would love them but they were totally for me too. We had guests over this…

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Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s party!’

This weekend we had friends in town from Boston. Instead of facing St. Patty’s Day crowds on Friday we hosted them for dinner (Uber Eats!). Saturday was pretty relaxing except for the call I got at 10:30am saying Mum was in the hospital. She ended up having appendicitis and getting her appendix out. Just like that! She was back home just after dinner time. Canada is such an amazing country. At yoga on Sunday, Sandy read a few horoscopes and mine mentioned gifting myself a young cactus. The cool thing about that was I had a ticket for a terrarium workshop that afternoon. It was my my 3rd terrarium workshop of the year and want to make a really big one now that I understand how. It was at Untitled&Co and a couple friends joined me in the fun. This week I’ve got an event at Twitter HQ & am seeing another show at Mirvish. Since I’ve made yoga a priority and started focusing on doing things for ME that I really want to do, I’m so much happier. Today I’m doing 9am yoga with the team at 2Social in the Junction. Hope to get my bike tuned up later today. Here’s to a great week! Sending sunshine through the internet to you! Longer days are on the way! ☀️??  

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