Shoes, Bags and Dinosaur Pasta

Saturday I headed to the mall and even though I wasn't in the market for a new carry on bag I couldn't resist taking this one home with me when I saw it at Winners. It's a step up from my very beaten up backpack and a much nicer than my default duffle bag but it's still super functional. Apparently it also jumped out at Peyton since she promptly jumped in to inspect it while I was trying to snap a photo. 

I also scored an amazing deal on a pair of TOMS they were leftovers from last season and were on clearance a few times over. When all was said and done I paid under $20. Sometimes (on the very rare occasion) having small feet works out in my advantage!

I also snagged a box of dinosaur shaped pasta that was on sale for $2 because you can't pass up a deal like that. I'm now taking suggestions for how best to prepare dinosaur shaped pasta. So far, I'm leaning towards the mac & cheese treatment.

My Saturday night was super uneventful. I came home from the mall washed, dried & folded a load of clothes. If only I put them away instead of leaving everything folded in the basket I would haven gotten top marks for laundry! I also pulled my suitcase out and started packing a few things since I'm working all this week and I like to be prepared. 

Originally Sunday was date day, but J. came down with the flu Saturday night so that was quickly cancelled. Since I had done everything I needed to do Saturday night in anticipating of spending all day Sunday with J. Sunday turned into an incredibly lazy day. I did a lot of lounging. And then had a visit with my aunt after supper to hear all about her trip down south. I was home by 8:30 and happily settled in bed by 10.

I've got a busy week with a few last minute errands to run and packing to finish. I've got some blog posts scheduled (thanks to a super lazy Sunday) for the week so this isn't the last you'll hear from me.


Sharing my weekend here & here.

Friday Thoughts

{one}

I came across these prints on Etsy a few weeks ago and just had to ordered them.  They're from Water in My Paint and I am totally in love with them. I can't even pick a favourite. What I love about them is for now they fit in just fine on the gallery wall I have happening in my bedroom. And in the future I think they be totally acceptable to hang in a kitchen or pantry area. Because what's cuter than squirrels eating donuts & sipping coffee while wearing their hair bows and think rimmed glasses? I might be borderline obsessed with them. The artist has tons of quirky water colours for sale, the squirrels were my first choice but there are so many others that I love. Plus, the price was super reasonable ($10 for each 5x7) and she is a Canadian artist so shipping was also fairly cheap. 

*This woman has no idea I exist and I was in no way, shape or form compensated for my fangirl-ing. I love the product I received and love supporting Canadian and small buisness.

{two}
Maybe it's the fact I'm done with winter and longing for summer with every cell of my being. Or maybe it's just me being weird. Either way I am compelled to eat anything BBQ flavoured. Mostly chips but I won't discriminate. I would also love to eat some BBQ steak and baked potato. Or simple burgers & hot dogs with a side of potato chips. BBQ chicken and some potatoes in tin foil...that being said I'm not willing to bundle in 50 billion layers to stand outside long enough to cook meat or ruin my mittens by getting BBQ sauce all over them.

{three}
Some of you may have already read this Buzzfeed article; 25 Truly Terrifying Pictures Of The Snow in Eastern Canada Right Now. That's my neck of the woods friends, our massive quantities of snow have made Buzzfeed. And we're forecasted to get about 20-30 cm on Sunday. C'mon spring...hurry up!

{four}
I working 8 hours of overtime tomorrow. I have mixed feelings on the one hand I'm thankful that I have a good job and I'm thankful for the opportunity to earn a little extra money. Especially when I know that working at this job will allow me financially to work at camp again this summer. On the other hand I'm definitely someone who needs down time so working 6 days a week isn't exactly conductive to down time. I will figure it out though. And if we get those 30 cm of snow on Sunday I will certainly be spending the day at home in my comfy clothes watching Netflix.

{five}
I'm still so sad about Target closing. And honestly even sadder that the clearance isn't all that phenomenal. Everything did get marked down another 10% on Thursday so maybe I'll try to check it out again early next week. There are a few things I have my eye on but aren't discounted enough yet for me to justify buying. I did score a sweater for $8 when I was there this week along with packages of tea for 98 cents and a couple of treats that were discounted. I'm hoping to get some new bedding for camp and there's a bedside table that I happen to think is super cute and will totally be snatching up if/when it ever goes 50% off.

Linking up with Oh Hey, Friday & Bright on a Budget

Shopping, Skype & Simplicity

Saturday afternoon I headed to the mall armed with gift cards I received for Christmas and hadn't spent yet. I ended up spending my gift cards (plus a little extra) on an apron, purse, scarf and shirt. When I got home and had my purchases spread out on my bed I realized I am nothing if not well rounded. Flowery apron, camouflage scarf, leather/lace purse...I meant to snap a photo of it all together. The dingey wintery days are making it hard to take photos, the lightning is constantly terrible and I don't give myself enough time to spend an hour manipulating the object/playing with camera settings.

After the mall we ran into Target in search of a birthday gift for my aunt.  I ended up buying the greatest piece of home decor ever. Mine is plain wood instead of red and I think it's the cutest thing ever. I have no idea what I'm going to do with a miniature canoe, suggestions so far have included using it to plant a herb garden, candles (which is how it's displayed on the Target website), chips & dip, the possibilities are really endless. It also reaffirmed my sadness that in 16-20 weeks Target will no longer be in my life.

Via

After my shopping trip I headed to my aunt's for birthday cake & tea and then home for a good ol' fashion marathon Skype session with H. & R. It had been awhile since our scheduled allowed the three of us to spend the entire evening talking, snacking and catching up on life.

Sunday I had big plans. I wanted to bake cinnamon rolls wearing my new apron, clear off everything from my old laptop so I can pass it on to my cousin, tidy my room, plan out blog posts for the week and write some drafts. Instead I got sucked into a marathon of The Curse of Oak Island and my biggest accomplishment of the day was pinning a bunch of things on Pinterest as I contemplated the astronomical sum of money these guys are spending looking for treasure.

Since I'm working today yesterday we had a mini-birthday celebration with pizza and birthday cake.  I'm not into crazy big birthday celebrations, I'm quite happy with pizza & birthday cake. I like the simple things in life.

Linking up here.

Welcome, Weekend!

I am very excited the weekend is (almost) here. It's been a long week. Here's what's on my mind.

Via

{1}If you live in Canada/have access to Canadian TV you need to be watching Book of Negroes. It's a six part mini series made for TV based on the book, the first two episodes have already aired and I've been totally blown away by them both. I've read a lot of books that fit into the 'slave narrative' genre and find that period in history incredibly interesting. The show does an amazing job of making the story come alive, in a way that kind of makes you feel uncomfortable but also inspired. I think that it is airing in the states at some point (possibly even now?) but you should definitely check your local listings and watch. 

Via

{2}Yesterday, Target announced they are closing all their Canada stores. I might have cried. I am so sad, sad for all of the people about to lose their job and on a purely selfish level sad for me. I don't want to go back to shopping at Wal-Mart. The two near by Wal-Marts are both so disorganized and messy, none of the employees ever have any idea how to help you when you're looking for something or asking a question. Plus, Target just has nicer stuff. Nobody really seems sure when it's going to close but most estimates are saying 16-20 weeks. I am planning on spending as much time there as possible, soaking up the cleanliness and friendless and stocking up on all the things that are only carried at Target. Sigh. 

Via

{3}I started listening to 'Orange is the New Black' as an audiobook. I've never watched the show and was pretty unsure about the actual plot line. I'm about half way through and while I find it interesting on a lot of levels I am totally guilty of cringing every time there is a lot of unnecessary swearing. I understand that it's set in a prison, but sometimes it's still a little much for my tastes. I am curious how it all ends and what the overall take away is from the book. So far the point I'm getting is always make good choices. Which I already knew. I am interested to watch an episode or two of the show once I finish the book, just to see how they portray the characters. 

{4} I totally failed at mailing out Christmas cards this year, so I'm changing my goal and aiming to send some valentines in the mail. I figure it's a little extra fun because lots of people send Christmas cards but getting a valentine in the mail is much less expected. Crafting some of these valentines is a top priority this weekend, it's a little early but if I don't start now it won't happen. And I really want to make it happen. Plus, I got a new cartridge for my Cricut a few weeks ago and haven't had a chance to use it yet. Valentine crafting will be the perfect occasion to put it to use. 

{5} I am on the hunt for a cute and practical laptop sleeve. That doesn't cost $500. I looked at Future Shop & Target but they didn't have what I wanted. I've seen a few on Etsy but I'm a little cautious ordering one from there simply because I want to make sure it's sturdy and something that will provide some protection if I have it in a tote bag or backpack. I'd love some suggestions on where to look (or specific Etsy/Ebay sellers) where I can find one!

The Week That Was

I'm not sure if it was the time change or the weather transitioning from "crisp fall days" to "winter blah days" but this week was LONG. There were some bright spots among the daily routine (most of which  are related to yesterday's trip to Target).

{One}

Via Target

I bought this sweater yesterday at Target and I can't wait to wear it to work with leggings & boots. Our office is generally about a million degrees though, so I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to wear the sweater without sub coming to heat stroke but I will make it happen. 

{Two}

Via

I am late to party on this one but I was pretty loyal to Soft Lips lip balm so I never did get around to trying EOS. It happened to be on sale yesterday at Target and I've only used it a handful of times but I am hooked. I bought the Honeydew and it so wonderful. My lips have been brutally dry lately, I am constantly applying lip balm and using pure vaseline on them at night hopefully this will be the solution I've been looking for.

{Three}

I cannot stop singing this song! In the car, getting ready for work, at work. I think it's the shout out to Train/Drops of Jupiter that really seals the deal for me. I have a deep love for songs that mention other songs. Plus it's catchy and happy.

{Four}

I've been reading The Kitchen House and at first I couldn't turn the pages fast enough and was totally enthralled with the characters and their story. I'm almost at the end now though and I've gotten a little less interested in the whole thing. I'm a few chapters away from the end and I'm sad that I don't love the characters the same way I loved them in the beginning. I'm leaning towards the thought it would have been a better story if the author had of turned the story into a series and not rushed through seasons and jumped ahead five years all over the place. 

{Five} 

My last though is entirely devoted to how excited I am for bedtime to crawl around. 

#forthewin

Yesterday I was privileged to experience once of those days where the universe was on my side.

I woke up and discovered I had gotten two packages in the mail! (More on those later) I achieved the perfect balance of coffee/sugar/cream and enjoyed every sip as I read through blogs. I knew I had to leave for work earlier than usual because I had to fill my car with gas so I got ready and headed into town. I never let my car get below a quarter of a tank but with the long weekend and some extra driving it was on E when I pulled up to the pumps. My main motivation for never letting it get so low is it eliminates the pain of forking over obscene amounts of money at the gas station. I was beyond thrilled when it cost me less than $50 to fill the tank. #accentforthewin

With a full tank of gas and an hour to spare before I had to be at work I did the logical thing and headed to Target. When Target first arrived in these parts a little less than a year ago I was not impressed. I had high expectations of awesome things you couldn't get at Wal-Mart, tons of clearance things and an overall haven of awesome. Instead it was really just 'expensive Wal-Mart' mostly the same stuff with higher prices. I'm being converted though. The last few times I've been there I've found some awesome things (that aren't at WM) and they were on clearance. Yesterday I picked up a desk organizer that I hope will be big enough to store my 12x12 scrapbook paper and bunch of socks that were ridiculously cheap. #targetforthewin

Before work I treated myself to a salted caramel mocha at Starbucks because 'tis the season. I didn't snap a photo but I promise it existed and it was delicious.

The parking situation at work can be competitive so I always arrive at least 45-30 minutes early to make sure I get a spot. Not ideal but I'm slowly learning to enjoy that time period when I'm just waiting. Last week I read a book during that time, often it's a good chance for a quick chat with a friend. Yesterday I was a little earlier than usual since I was already in town and I had to take a minute to appreciate how incredibly scenic the street looked. I tried to get a good photo with my phone but it almost doesn't do it justice. I'm not head over heels for fall but there are moments when I do appreciate how pretty the changing leaves are lining the roads. #autumnforthewin

Sunday Social #117

What is one thing you hate doing?

The first thing that came to mind is vacuuming, I avoid that like the plague. 

What is one thing you hate shopping for?

Jeans! I'm barely 5 feet tall and my legs are so short that jeans shopping is crazy impossible. I end up very frustrated and the best case scenario is I walk away with jeans that I still need to have hemmed before I can wear them. It's a never-ending and exceptionally frustration experience. 

What is one thing you love doing?

I really love taking pictures. It's a fairly new interest but playing with my camera makes me happy.

What is one place you love going?

Camp! 

What is your favourite thing to do that you do daily?

I really enjoy my routine of coffee & blog reading in the morning. It' doesn't happen every single day but I try to make it happen most days. In the summer when morning coffee happens over a two hour period in between organizing schedules and whatever else comes up I miss starting my day on a calm note. 

Liking with with Ashley & Neely for Sunday Social! 

Tuesday Weekend Update

I’m  a day late to the party (of course) but I didn’t get a weekend recap post written Sunday and by the time I got home from work yesterday the only thing I wanted to do was eat supper and go to bed. Which is exactly what I did.

I can’t not blog about my weekend though because it was pretty great and needs to be shared with the world. Even though I didn't take a single photo of my weekend. 

Friday I was not a happy camper (as you may have guessed from this post). So I watched three hours of Top Chef Canada and by the time I went to bed at 11:00 I was in a much more agreeable mood. Cooking shows have a seriously calming effect on me. In fact I fall asleep to reruns of Good Eats pretty much every night.

Saturday morning I woke up around 9 and went through my usual Saturday morning routine of coffee, bagel and catching up with episodes of Ellen. I’ve really grown to appreciate quiet, unrushed, lingering mornings. I’m not exactly sure why, I’m never rushing to get out the door to work in the morning. I always have my clothes picked out and lunch made the night before. Knowing that I have to be somewhere by a specific time just sort of adds pressure to the morning. Eventually I showered and headed to the mall in search of a spring jacket.

I got lost trying to get to the mall because I hate driving in the city. I hate the city.

Once I rerouted myself (and got lost in the parking garage) I headed to Sports Check only to discover the jacket I was on a mission to buy wasn’t there in the colour I wanted. Womp womp. I opted for my second choice and so far no regrets.

I wasn’t in a big hurry to go anywhere so I browsed stores and tried on a few things. I bought another zip up hoddie at American Eagle because it was 70% off and I couldn’t leave it there. Eventually I decided it was time to find my way home but first I made the executive decision to treat myself to Starbucks. Because I’ve been living in the city for 3 months now and I haven’t had SB once. I opted for my go to Mocha Frappe and then had almost instant regret and remembered I should have ordered the iced Passion Fruit Tea. Next time.

I had left over pizza for supper and ended up ooVoo-ing with R. until midnight. It was delightful.

Sunday I had another lazy morning (and lazy afternoon too). My roommate’s Mom was in town for the weekend and she made us Sunday Supper. It was the perfect way to end the weekend/start the week. We had lasagna, salad, bread and for dessert she made homemade ice cream cake. I really wish I had of gotten a picture of the epic-ness that was the cake. But I was too busy eating to get my phone and take pictures. (Side Note: I’m going home for Easter and will finally be reunited with my camera!)

Yesterday was brutal. I was in such a good mood when I started the day and by the time 11 a.m. rolled around everyone else's crankiness had totally rubbed off on me. I really need to work harder on not letting other people's attitudes influence my mood. I think that'll be a summer goal! 

Luckily today was an improvement and I'm hopefully catching up with a friend later this week and then first thing Friday morning I am getting the heck out of the city and returning to the land of green grass and trees and back/front/side yards and miles away from any apartment or office buildings. I could not be happier. Seriously, I gave this whole living in the city thing a really good try but it is not for me. That's a whole different post though!

Weekend Happiness

I had all the best intentions of posting a Five on Friday, instead I came home from work made supper watched Grey's Anatomy and was in bed and asleep by 11:30. 

Part of the reason I was so ready for some serious sleep on Friday was that I spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week at a training workshop about healthy childhood development and program evaluation. It was a long three days. And involved a much longer commute than I've grown accustom to. I was super excited when I checked the mail on Friday and found the prettiest card from Rebekah over at Living Lavender. Snail Mail makes me so happy!

Snail Mail is the Best Mail!

Saturday afternoon I headed to the mall with H. for something to do. I wasn't really planning on buying anything but we had planned to hang out and the weather was not cooperating with our plans to stroll in and out of stores downtown and get frozen yogurt. I ended up buying a dress at Eclipse that I am kind of in love with. It's dressy enough that I will be able to wear it to the office and casual enough that I can wear it during the summer and not feel over dressed. And in my books that is perfection!

Via

I also invested in a new pair of sneakers. They were at Payless for $25 and I am in need of real sneakers that aren't Chucks or Toms or anything else that either have terrible support or that I've had since high school. Not that I have any plans to take up running but I spend a lot of time on my feet during the summer and towards the end of last summer it was clear my feet were not happy. It's probably worth noting that my feet are tiny. As in these shoes were so cheap because I fit into girls' size 2 sneakers. It's both a blessing and a curse. 

Via

Sunday morning I woke up to what I'll call "almost sunshine", which after almost two weeks of April Snow Storms and Ice Storms followed by a lot of rain is almost tropical. Rumour has it Wednesday might but a whole 10 degrees! Rumour also has it that Dollar Drink Days start back at McDonald's this week. If there's one thing I love more than iced coffee it's cheap iced coffee!

I'll end by bragging just a little bit about my productive Sunday afternoon! I planned out blog posts for the week, made a meal plan and did a yoga video. Near perfect start to the week!

Linking up with Dateless in Dallas and Showered With Design!

 

 

Confessions

After weeks & weeks of reading Kathy's Hump Day Confessions and giggling to myself as I read everyone's posts I am finally joining in the fun!

Despite the weather (more on that tomorrow) summer is approaching. And with summer comes bathing suits. On two separate occasions this week I popped in a Yoga DVD and then sat at my desk and watched the DVD without actually getting up and moving. E for Effort?

I'm trying to grow parsley in a little flower pot that we made at Day Camp…it's been 2 weeks and there is no sign of anything growing. I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to continue to water dirt before I give up and accept it's not going to happen.

I finally watched the first two seasons of New Girl. I enjoyed the second season more than the first but honestly Jess kind of annoys me. I don't like one demential characters and Jess is pretty one demential. 

I have been on a really strict budget since the start of 2014. No unnecessary purchases. I haven't spent money on anything other than gas, groceries, student loan payments, rent and a handful of suppers out since January. This week I got tickets with friends to see the Backstreet Boys in May and almost have myself convinced to splurge on a cute camera strap before summer.

I am also itching for a new blog design. But I don't have $100 of dollars to spend and right now I'm not willing to spend the time to do it myself. If anyone has suggestions of bloggers who do design/layouts in the $30-$40 dollar range? Ideally closer to $30. Or cheaper. 

My camera is still at my parents house because I forgot to pack it when I moved. The only plus side to this is not having it has made me REALLY want to have it. So once we're reunited I will make up for lost time with lots & lots of photos.

I was crazy enough to think that I could pick up blogging right where I left it and am so disappointed to discover that is not the case. It's never been about the followers or comments but it is pretty disheartening to put time into blogging only to check stats and realize nobody read what you wrote.

I've been thinking about what to make for lunch since I finished eating breakfast at 9:30 this morning.

As soon as I decide what to make/eat for lunch I will move on to thinking about what to make for supper.

 

I am probably going to drink more than one cup of coffee today. And I'm okay with that. Snow days were made for blogging & multiple cups of coffee. 

Weekend Update: Extended Edition

Thursday night as I was packing I got the above messages from H. She has a hot tub at her house which we planned on putting to good use during the weekend hence the bathing suit. And with a major snow storm in the forecast we thought we might have some outdoor winter fun, so I packed my snowsuit too. I was ready for anything. 

Friday I headed to the City as planned and for the most part the roads were in pretty good shape! I got to the city by early afternoon which was perfect timing since H. & I had a chance to put some finishing touches on R.'s birthday present! I thought I got a picture of it but apparently I didn't. It was a Pinterest project made from a bulletin board with a photo of the 3 of us in the middle and then we cut out 24 circles from pretty paper and on each of them wrote a reason why we love R. (she turned 24 this weekend). 

We went out to supper with a few more friends to celebrate R.'s birthday at a cozy little restaurant downtown. I'd never been before but I ordered the Santa Fe Chicken Burger and it was super yummy! After dinner H., R. & I headed back to H.'s for wine & birthday cake! H. made the amazing tie-dye cake! The cake itself was a layer of chocolate cake, a layer of graham cracker cake and a layer or marshmallow fluff icing, I'm not sure where she found the recipe but it was extremely impressive! After cake & wine we spent the rest of the evening catching up and planning the rest of our weekend.

Saturday we headed to the mall, along with everyone else in the province based on the traffic that we encountered on our way there. We kept trying to take a picture but we couldn't get a good angle to truly capture the ridiculousness. Once we got to the mall we continued with the ridiculousness when we headed to the grand opening of Forever 21. So much crazy. We bought a few things there but after the experience we'd had enough of the mall so we headed back to H.'s for our fun evening plans!

Two other girls that worked at camp this summer came over Saturday night and the five of us spent too much time in the hot tub and drank too much wine in the process. We were still in the hot tub when the snow storm started which was a pretty neat experience!

Sunday the snow storm was in full force so we spend the whole day bundled up indoors and recovering from Saturday night's wine & hot tubbing. 

Monday the roads were still pretty sketchy to make the 5 hour drive home so the three of us spent an extra day together and tackled the mall once again! This time we powered up before hand with pizza & garlic fingers and then headed out. Our second trip was much more successful and enjoyable and we all managed to get a bunch of Christmas shopping done. Yesterday evening we played with H.'s new puppy. She is the sweetest and even though I'm not much of a small dog lover, it's hard not to love that little ball of fluff!

I was up early this morning and set out for the drive home. The roads were still pretty sketchy in some places but I made it home safe & sound! I am now going to spend the rest of the night reading the 166 unread posts on my Bloglovin' feed and replying to a bunch of e-mails that have been neglected over the past 4.5 days! 

Playing Catch Up

Oh my, I didn't plan on taking so many days off from blogging but Saturday night I came down with a stomach bug. Sunday I was absolutely miserable, I couldn't eat or drink anything, I just slept all day. Yesterday I still felt crummy but I had an appointment in town at 9 a.m. to complete some more paper work for the never ending grant project. I managed to to pull myself together to go in but it took longer than I was expecting and the whole time I just wanted to sleep. When it was finally over I high tailed it home, took some Gravol and slept until supper time. I managed to crawl out of bed long enough to sip some tea and eat some crackers. Today I'm feeling better, but I'm still exhausted. It's barely 11 a.m. and I'm already anticipating bedtime. Not a great way to start off December!

While I was busy being sick I got way behind in the blog world. When I checked Bloglovin' last night there were over 60 unread posts! I'm looking forward to a lazy day snuggled on the couch with a cup of tea catching up on everyone's Thanksgiving celebrations! Before I get to that though I want to link up for the last instalment of "These Are A Few of My Favourie Things" Link Up with Elise & Jen to share some of my favourite gifts that are under >$100! As a matter of fact, all of these gifts are under $50!

Who doesn't love a new mug to sip tea or coffee out of on a cold winer day? I really like filling the mug with K-Cups, individual hot chocolate packages or a gift card to Tim Horton's! I think it's the perfect Secret Santa gift and depending on the mug & what you put inside you can easily keep it under budget!

I adore board games! Apples to Apples is one of my favourites. I think board games make great gifts because it's something you can play during holiday gatherings, but you can get lots of use out of it all year round too! I always have at least one board game on my Santa list!

The past few years TV Shows on DVD have been a bit gift in our house! We've all got favourite shows that we like to re-watch and Dad loves DVDs of the shows he watched growing up (think, M*A*S*H).

I have yet to meet a female who doesn't love new pyjamas! And if you want something a little more expensive, you can always pair it with a mug/gift card or DVD and give the recipient all the ingredients for a cozy night in!

One of my favourite parts of Christmas is admiring all of the ornaments on the tree and reminiscing about where each ornament came from and who gave it to us. Christmas Ornaments  can make great really personal presents, either you're lucky enough to stumble upon the perfect one in store or you find a great DIY to make one or you are able to purchase something generic and add a monogram or engraving.

I mentioned before that one of my favourite gifts to give to friends is to fill a stocking with a whole bunch of their favourite things! I'm working on gathering things to make a few of them right now and it's so much fun to just pick up little things that I know they're going to love. 

Check back tomorrow when I link up with Erica to recap my November Goals and publicly declare goals for December!

Happy Thanksgiving....Thursday!

One of the many oddities about the blogging world is that 90% of bloggers are American. (I have no idea what the actual stats are but I know I get really excited when I happen to stumble upon another Canadian.) Which means most bloggers are celebrating Thanksgiving today! Being a Canadian I celebrated Thanksgiving back in October...so today is just another Thursday. 

In honour of American Thanksgiving I will take some time out of my day to watch what I believe is some of the best TV ever made. Of course, I'm talking about Friends Thanksgiving episodes. Specifically, Season 6's "The One Where Ross Got High". It is my all-time favourite episode of Friends. Rachel's English Trifle is hilarious all by itself. And the scene where everyone just starts yelling each others secrets makes me laugh every time. I've reached the point where I can pretty much quote the entire episode, but it isn't any less funny than it was the first time. 

Via

The last couple years retailers here have been trying to make "Black Friday" happen...but everybody works on Friday...so it hasn't really caught on. 

My inbox has been flooded this week with e-mails from stores advertising "Black Friday Sales". None of them are super exciting, they're just sales, nothing worth standing in line or waking up at the crack of dawn to get. There are a few deals that I might check out, but honestly it depends on the weather. We're forecasted to get rain and strong winds the next couple of days. So if Friday comes along and its gross out side I'm going to stay right where I am!

Hope all you Americans are enjoying lots of quality time with family & friends and piles of delicious food!

Different

This is the first post as I work my way through 25 of the 50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind as part of my 25x25 list!

What would you do differently if you knew nobody would judge you?

Dress however I wanted and not worry about where I'm going and who is going to see me. 

You might assume what I'm getting at is a desire to just wear jogging pants all the time, and while I would definitely make some trips to Wal-Mart wearing my favourite jogging pants I would also grocery shop in my prom dress. I hate worrying about being over dressed or under dressed and if we all just wore whatever we wanted to when we wanted to with the understanding that sometimes you need to dress up and other times putting on real pants is just too much to ask. 

I get a taste of this during the summer. After a week of wearing neon Nike running shorts, baggy t-shirts, jogging pants and hoodies you just want to wear some real clothes. I have made more trips to the Camp Town Wal-Mart wearing cute sundresses, perfect make up and hair than I can count. And I've never made the trip alone, Wal-Mart and Subway have seen some of the best summer outfits from the female camp staff. 

On the flip side as AD sometimes I will have to go into town to run an errand during the middle of the session. I once wore leggings, knee socks, pink rubber boots, tie-dye, a winter hat, no make up and my hair in two braids into Sobey's. I got some great looks. Although they could have been because I was buying 20L of olive oil, birthday candles and a bag of Twizzlers for the drive back to camp. 

Back in the real world though people are excepted to dress a certain way to go certain places. And if nobody was going to judge me then I'd wear whatever I want where ever I wanted to wear it! 

What would you do in a judge-less society? 

Stocking Stuffers!

I absolutely love stockings. Some people dream about going to the pumpkin patch to take family pictures with their husband and babies. I dream about monogrammed stockings. I can't wait until I can hang stockings over the fireplace with mine and my husband's on either side and 3-4 stockings in between for the kiddos. 

Etsy

As kids (and even know) my brother and I always opened our stockings first before any of the other presents. Santa also took the time to wrap all of the individual things in our stockings, which I love and plan on doing with my own kids. I had all kinds of pretty pictures for last week's wish list post but I quickly realized my favourite stocking stuffers don't make very interesting photos. So, this week's post will be in list form!

Favourite Stocking Stuffers

Lip Chap & Lip Gloss 

Mascara

Nail Polish

Hand Cream

Face Wipes

Hair Accessories

Candy

Fun Socks

Stickers

Pens

Tape

Notebooks

Ornament 

I think stockings are so much fun! There's lots room to be creative (one year my stocking was entirely scrapbooking supplies and another it was all camp things). I've even put together stockings as gifts for friends before and they've been very well received!

Don't forget to link up your favourite stocking stuffers here or here!

Grown-Up Christmas List

Call me old fashion but I try to stick to the rule of holding off Chirstmas celebrations until December 1st (or at least the first Sunday of Advent). HOWEVER, I had to break my rule so I could join in with this link up being co-hosted by one of my favourite bloggers! Elise blogs over at  Cheers Y'All and is married to her summer camp sweetheart (which of course makes me super happy!), she is so sweet and has the most adorable dog. Everyone needs to go check out her blog and link up! 

The theme for today's link up is our own Christmas Wish List. I may have went a little over board with mine, and am definitely not getting everything (or anything?) on this list, but a girl can dream. 

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I would love to have a KitchenAid Mixer. I go back and forth  between wanting it in yellow or in orange. And sometimes red is my first choice. Luckily, I don't have to decide quite yet because before I get a KitchenAid I should really get my own kitchen...

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I joke about it all the time, but I'm also pretty serious when I say that I want to be Ree Drummond when I grow up. I mean, she's married to a cowboy, has four beautiful kids (2 boys & 2 girls), lives on a ranch and her job is to blog, take photos and film a cooking show about her delicious food. I know you can get her recipes online but there's just something nice about having the actual cookbook. And I love a display of cookbooks in the kitchen! (Again, maybe I'll work on getting a kitchen first.)

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I have been eyeing these boots for almost a  year now. I love them and I really want a pair. I just can't bring myself to spend that much money on a pair of rubber boots. I wear my rubber boots at camp and in the woods and in barns. While wearing my rubber boots I jump in puddles and walk through mud, so spending over $100 on a pair of boots just seems ridiculous. 

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I had a chance to play with a good DSLR at camp this summer and ever since then it's been on my ultimate wishlist. I have a point & shoot camera now that is also really great because it's shock proof and waterproof, which is awesome for the wear and tear it gets at camp but it would be nice to have something a little better quality. 

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And to go with my fancy camera, a fancy camera strap! There are so many of these on Etsy (I really love this one though) I would want to buy a different one for every day of the week. 

Of course, gift cards are always a welcome gift too! To be honest I hate giving giftcards alone unless they're paired with something, but I do like getting them. It's nice to be able to pick out your own thing, or combine gift cards and get something a little more expensive. I usually find gift cards from Chapter's, Michael's, Subway and Tim Horton's under the tree Christmas morning!

What's on your Christmas list? 

City Weekend

I had the best weekend! It was so great pictures couldn't even begin to do it justice so I didn't take any. (What I'm really saying is I'm a terrible blogger who carried a camera everywhere this weekend and failed to take any pictures.) 

I've been in the City since Tuesday so there were lots of options when it came to weekend shenanigans! It started off on Friday afternoon when I hung out with my friend Q. we spent the afternoon catching up, went for a walk around his university campus and got coffee. Friday night H. came over and we spent the whole time engaging in some good old fashion girl talk while snacking on Halloween candy. I'm so thankful for phones and computers that make it possible for us to communicate on a daily basis but it's just not the same as being in the same room. I took advantage of every opportunity I had this weekend to see friends and spent time together even if we didn't have elaborate plans.

Saturday H. and I had plans again but first she spent the morning and afternoon working on her thesis while I hung out with the cats. The main reason for my stay in the city was to cat sit these three adorable creatures while friends of mine were in New York.

Saturday evening H. & I went out to supper and then did some shopping. She scored three super cute dresses to wear with leggings at Target and I got an awesome pair of boots and a plaid button up shirt at Old Navy. We had some time to kill before our next activity so we went to Chapters and spent an hour browsing the Humour and Self-Help sections. It's amazing what people can write a book about and get published! Next up was the highlight of our plans: Cosmic Bingo.

That's right. You've probably heard of Cosmic Bowling, but here in Atlantic Canada, there's also Cosmic Bingo. We were pretty surprised to see that the crowd was mostly made up of people around our own age with only a handful of seniors. Neither of us won anything but we fully intend on going again, and the next time we go we're going to bring along more camp friends. We play a lot of Bingo with our adult campers so playing glow-in-the-dark Bingo in the off season really helped cure some of the campsickness. 

Sunday I tidied up the apartment, watched entirely too many true life crime shows on CNN and recovering from all of Friday & Saturday's fun. 

My cat & apartment sitting duties end tonight and I'll be heading home tomorrow morning. But I'm heading home fully recharged and happy after a weekend full of friends & adventures. This afternoon I want to hit up the Gap & Roots outlet stores and treat myself to a delicious over-priced caffeinated beverage. 

Five!

{one}

I am so thankful for my friends H. & R.. We met at camp in 2012 and even though the three of us are spread far apart, one at each end of the province and the other in the next province over, we have made keeping in touch a priority. Even though it doesn't feel like I'm making any special effort to stay in touch, it just comes naturally. They're the ones I want to talk to when I'm having a bad day or a good day. Distance dictates all our communication is done through texting, Skype dates and group Facebook chats but it does the trick. A few weeks back I went to visit R. and this weekend while I'm in the city I get to spend some time with H.. 

{two}

Yesterday I made my very first trip to Target! We didn't have Target in Canada until a few weeks ago when the stores opened for the first time following Target buying out the Canadian Zellers stores. I  bought a candle that smells like campfire, a Halloween costume tutu for Peyton that was on clearance and another pair of wool socks that were also a lot cheaper than I've bought them for at other stores. I was disappointed in the clothing selection, I was hoping for more selection but the store only opened a few weeks ago so hopefully it will improve with time!

{three}

I started reading the Divergent Series by Veronica Roth and may or may not have read the entire first book in one day. I just couldn't put it down! (It probably also helped that I was having trouble connecting to the wifi in the house I'm housesitting and with no internet I turned to reliable books.) I started the second one this morning and am eagerly anticipating finishing the series. It's a little like The Hunger Games, but also has some similarities to WWII, even though its set in a dystopian/futuristic kind of society. 

{four}

I feel like I've been saying this forever but next week I should have the final word on the funding that will make my position at camp year-round/full-time. There have been so many hoops to jump through at each stage of the application process but the final stage has been submitted and the 10 business days we were told it would take for the application to be processed are nearing the end. Oddly enough I feel a lot of peace towards the situation. It is definitely a fork in the road situation and I feel as though whether this grant is a yes or a no it will dictate the start of a new stage in my life. Friends keep askign me if I'm nervous/anxious/stressed ect. about the decision, but I'm not. Whatever happens is meant to be and there's nothing I can do to change that. 

{five}

I am really excited to sleep tonight! I feel like I need a solid 8-9 hour sleep without any crazy dreams or randomly waking up in the middle of the night. Just 8-9 hours of uninterrupted deep sleep. And to wake up without an alarm feeling totally refreshed and energized. 

eBay!

I'll be honest, I don't have a credit card so I don't do a whole lot of online shopping. I'm limited to using PayPal for my purchases or getting one of those Visa Gift Cards to use. I'm also really petite so it's hard for me to buy clothes without trying them on, especially if it's from a store I've never shopped at before! That being said there is one place for online shopping that I love!

 

I love ebay! 

I don't have any specific sellers I buy from, I usually just type some keywords into the search and spend a few minutes (sometimes hours) browsing through what I find. Every few days I search "summer camp" just to see what fun things come up, and I've found a few awesome camp themed things that I never would have found in a store around here! I've also gotten some great deals on scrapbooking supplies and books. 

I've tried to get into Etsy and I've ordered one or two things from there but I find most things really expensive and a lot of shops don't ship to Canada.