Day 351: It’s Pandemi Lovato!

It’s almost been one full year since this thing changed our lives and today we’re back in the month of March. Did it March ever end? ‘Pandemi Lovato’ is my new fav nickname for the Pandemic, others include panny, panini, pandemi, Patricia, borona, & pantalangio. Over the next few days, I’m going to read over posts from the start of the pandemic and roundup some things to remember. Journaling is such a beautiful thing and I’m glad to have this space to share and document. Thank you for reading and following me on this adventure. I know we’ve all gone through so much the past year and I hope that reading my blog has made you feel less alone at least once. We are in this together. The collective experience of Covid-19 has changed us, mentally, physically, and emotionally. Feeling pretty happy today, I was excited for Monday meetings, getting dressed up (Monday tradition), and doing work after a relaxing weekend. I have definitely learned to slow right down over the past 12 months and have no problems creating time for rest. My skin and hair have never had so many masks and I make time for running, workouts, walks, and sleep as part of my routine. The countdown to one year of the pandemic is on the home stretch and I’m sure we’ll see heaps of one-year roundups. Please don’t be hard on yourself if you don’t have a list of new skills or milestones to recap. Surviving is the greatest gift as so many precious people lost their lives and loved ones. Hopefully, we’ll have some more good news about vaccinations soon. I will 100% be getting the vaccine when my turn is called. Hang in there. ? I love this March/James Franco gif so much. If you…

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Day 350: Sunday, Pure Sun

On Sunday I like to keep the day free for myself to charge my batteries for the week ahead. Sean and I spent the morning in the kitchen, he is an expert level sous chef so he prepped all the food ingredients. We made roast vegetables, crunchy roast chickpeas, rice, a lentil curry w/ sweet potato, falafels, and my fav spicy Mediterranean-inspired rainbow salad. ? I love a weekend delivery and I was happy to get this beautiful art-inspired package from Pure Sunfarms in BC. They sent a few items from their new collection of apparel, accessories, objects & art inspired by their love of plants & modern life. I love the package design and art by Brooklyn-based artist Laura Garcia Serventi. I’m gonna frame the print! “I draw inspiration from the natural world, both flora and fauna, as well as vintage botanical illustration and vintage books of science. I also look back at art history a lot. But botanical gardens are my favourite.” LAURA SEVENTI I’d love one of their ‘SUNSHINE’ shirts (obvs) and also their decorative ashtrays that look like a sun, see below! My gift included natural Palo Santo from Woodlot and their yellow Grower’s hand soap that smells AMAZING, it has lemongrass, turmeric, Balsam Fir, and bergamot. Sean is a big fan of Pure Sunfarms cannabis products and everything in their Marketplace is so artfully designed. I stan a weed brand that makes great, artful products. ? “Nature has always been our greatest source of inspiration when it comes to both ingredients and scent. Our priority is to make products that are clean burning and made with simple, organic ingredients, but we’re also a scent company at heart, and we want our scent catalog to serve as a connection to the earth.” SONIA CHHINJI, WOODLOT I…

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Day 349: Talk To The Moon

Met up with Michelle to go for a nice walk in the sun. I was thinking of taking the King Streetcar from Bathurst back to Dundas West but changed my mind. Decided to follow the sun and head west on foot, picked up some flowers, and walked home. Went through Trinity Bellwoods then along Dundas, when I passed Lansdowne, the sunset lined up perfectly with the bridge at Sterling Road. Got home as the sky turned to night. Was feeling big moon energy and said my 6 wishes under its bright light. Learned this manifestation from mum and always go out and talk to the moon, tell the universe exactly what I want. It’s amazing how fast the universe responds if you go confidently in the direction of your dreams, leaving doubt behind. For the full moon, I attended on an online sound bath hosted by Sound Meditation Presents. A sound bath is an opportunity to travel inward, explore your thoughts and feelings through sound and breathing. In January 2017, after 3 crazy days of CES in Las Vegas, I drove to LA. I offered to drive a friend back and he brought 2 friends for the ride. I was on a solo mission so didn’t mind the company. One of the friends was Suzy, who invited me to join her for Sound Bath LA. Had no idea what it was but I went. We grabbed blankets and pillows and drove with her friend to a dance studio. It was such an incredible experience, I wrote about it here. I left that night feeling like a different person, I’d changed. Spent the next week in LA, alone, staying at different Airbnbs and going on adventures. There is nothing like traveling by yourself to rediscover who you are. I was forever…

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Day 348: Clubhouse Prom 2021

I attended the first-ever Clubhouse Prom and it was so much fun. Your girl even won Offical Clubhouse Prom Queen 2021! The prom was hosted by Club F_ck It, the official home of Clubhouse’s longest-running party show. I’d joined the party a few times and was so happy to be included in the prom gang! You might be thinking, isn’t Clubhouse an audio-only app? Yes, you are correct. I don’t really know how to explain it, but Clubhouse Prom was a real event, part performance art, drama, improv, and comedy. It was such a memorable experience. Virtual events have become our reality these days. As we’ve seen with Clubhouse, audio is emerging as a seriously cool way to connect. On Wednesday before, there was a ‘Promposals’ room where people asked each other to prom. Before the night started, all the girls joined a room while getting ready. Before leaving to go to the actual event, we changed our profile images to hot pink Hummer limos. That way, we’d all show up in limos and reveal our outfits one by one. It took some time to coordinate the couples and order of guests on stage but the Mods did an amazing job. I loved getting fully dressed up in an outfit with hair and makeup, it’s been so long! It was recommended that everyone dress up and change their profile photo to their look of the night. I picked up some drinks earlier in the day and was ready to party! Prom dates had the same photo for most of the night, then changed them again to share stories about snacks, drinks, accessories, or just about anything else. At one point the room was at 1,200 people but it was a revolving door of Clubhouse users popping in and out from…

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Day 347: Toronto Creator Power Hour

Went for a nice walk went near High Park today. It was so lovely outside, felt like spring. Last night I was a co-host of Toronto Creator Power Hour, a Clubhouse room hosted by Joëlle Anello, Casey Palmer, Solmaz Khosrowshahian, Trisha Enriquez. I pitched the idea to have a chat about blogging and we had Hawley Dunbar from Sidewalk Hustle join us. We had a GREAT chat about blogging and how as a creator, it’s important to have an online home for your content that you own. When it comes to social media, it’s more like renting space as you do not own the platform and you can’t control what happens on IG, Facebook, etc. After work, I listened to my latest book on Audible, ‘Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol‘. This is the viral book Chrissy Tiegen read before getting sober. I also made a delicious sandwich, I love sandwiches. ?

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Day 346: The Rebel Mama Hotline – What’s Up with IG Filters?

This week I was a guest on the Rebel Mama Hotline podcast where I talked about Instagram filters. I love these ladies, their group is the one for ‘mom group’ dropouts, the badass, rebellious women out there like us. They’ve also got two books The Rebel Mama’s Handbook for (Cool) Moms and Get Your $hit Together: The Rebel Mama’s Handbook for Financially Empowered Moms. I started creating IG filters about 2 years ago using a free program from Facebook called Spark AR. I made a beauty filter called LoLo Lash, inspired by my bff, Lauren O’Neil. I drew the lashes in Procreate with Apple pencil using a face mesh rentering then created the filter in Spark AR and added skin smoothing. This filter has 2.2M impressions, 99% of them are women aged 25-35. I understand this is (prob?) the biggest demo on IG but it also goes to show who is using beauty filters the most. In this ep of The Rebel Mama Hotline, we talk about how filters can create unrealistic beauty standards especially when the filter drastically changes your face shape. People are now going to beauty clinics with a filtered image of themselves saying ‘can you make me look more like this?’. I have a filter on this post from Day 341 and deff thought about how botox or filler could enhance my face to make it more like this ‘pretty’ filter. One of my filters that is just the smoothing effect bumped way up (Smooth AF) has almost 400K impressions. I often use filters and other beauty filters, I like the way they look, the creativeness of them, and a lot of them hide when you look tired…or feel old. Tap the play button below to listen to a snippet of the podcast or hit play…

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Day 345: Stop and Stare At It

I turned right from our walkway to the path and heard the loudspeaker with messages about wearing a mask in both English and French. The rail path is extra busy today at magic hour with the air at a warm 5 degrees. Everyone keeps their distance, some people smile. I’m in my own world listening to classical music, taking in every detail, dressed in all black with a fur coat. It was my second walk of the day, I love getting fresh air. In an effort to avoid other humans I zig-zag the streets, taking breaks to walk on the road just avoid people on the sidewalk. This practice would have been so rude two years ago but it’s common now. I didn’t bring my phone because despite being home all day, I seem to have let it die. I’ve got music and route tracking on my watch so I’m blissfully disconnected from wifi & LTE. Out of reach, on DND. The sun is so beautiful setting over Dupont, I always stop and stare at it. This week I’m feeling more content than I have in a while. Have been getting 8hrs sleep pretty consistently for about 3 weeks and although I’m still tired, my body and mind are rested. Drinking less and working out more also help. I track everything these days on my watch or phone; sleep, meditation, breathing, steps, stairs, workouts, period, heart rate, oxygen, fasting, and when to water my plants. In other news, I’ve noticed I’m consistent with updating the blog for a few days, but if I skip a day, I skip a few days and batch update before my fear of forgetting kicks in. I take photos every day in an attempt to keep more memories and often upload them to a draft…

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Day 344: My Things and Thoughts

Since Friday (Day 341), Sean has been up at the cottage solo and I’ve been home alone. It’s actually been really nice for both of us to have the time and space to be alone and do our own things. He loves being up at the cottage, chopping trees with the chainsaw, doing woodsy things. I love being home with my things and thoughts. I had such a relaxing weekend and felt refreshed and ready to start the day today. After work, I had A&W with April and it was so nice to laugh together. I decided to get ready for bed nice and early after a bath and a full face care routine. I’m still working my way through  Younger on Prime and have been REALLY enjoying going to bed early. In other news, I re-pierced my own nose today. I had this piercing for AGES but took it out a couple of years ago. I also have a septum piercing in the middle cartilage of my nose but rarely show it. This little stud is barely noticeable and I like it. I’m dying to get a new tattoo and might buy a stick poke kit. I did a tiny one at the start of the pandemic but want to try something more artistic and professional.

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Day 341: Fresh & Happy

Woke up feeling fresh & happy it was Friday! Sean left for the cottage after dropping Em to school, she’s with her mum for the next week and I’m home alone. ? I had such a great workday today. In my afternoon meeting, we were chatting about branded products and it was a great opportunity to show some I’ve made over the years. I pulled out the stickers, note cards, and of course, the pillows I had made years ago. We all had a good laugh! Sending you good vibes today for a nice restful weekend. Get outside, feel the sun on your face, call a friend, support a local restaurant. Do something, do nothing, do whatever makes you happy!

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Day 340: Finding Hope

Went for a walk this morning and wowwweeee it was brisk. Decided to take take a different route and pick up a coffee somewhere in the neighbourhood. As I turned onto Dupont, I noticed a cafe with this big heart out front. Finding hope. ? The coffee was good. I shared a laugh with the barista. Such a simple interaction but it set a good vibe for my day. It made me think about mum and when my sister and I were very little. As an immigrant to Canada with no family here, she didn’t know many people at first. Mum used to go into shops just to talk to shopkeepers just to have conversations. I can just see her kind face and warm smile lighting up conversations and charming people with her accent. Remember, a smile and short conversation can really turn someone’s day around, even your own. We need connection more than ever these days, call a friend, smile at a stranger. We’ll get through this. xo

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