I'm An Aunt!

My sister had a little baby girl a month ago and I got to spend the weekend with them! Baby Kayla is the most adorable, beautiful girl I have ever seen. She is perfect. I'm so proud to call her my niece.

Congratulations Helva & Joe!

The best season

from here.

Brain Twins

{Dress: Gap, Boots: Steve Madden, Belt: American Eagle, Scarf: vendor}

One of my close friends and I call each other Brain Twins because our thoughts and actions are often freakishly similar. Even though we live in different provinces, we often find ourselves doing or thinking or saying the exact same thing at the same time. It's a phenomenon we've lived with over the last 3.5 years, and there isn't an end in sight. We need to be studied.

On a related note, this same friend and I were having a text conversation yesterday that took a random turn - as our conversations often do - and I sent her a text that read "Son, I make a smoothie everyday for lunch and I've taken to adding oats to it after something I read in a magazine. I thought I'd hate it but I actually really love it! Is that weird?" As we naturally tend to send each other quotes from beloved tv shows that have seemingly nothing to do with the conversation at hand, she replied "Is this modern family." "Haha, no." I replied, "Although I do think we'd make a pretty good mocumentary." After a short discussion about how we would make a fantastic mocumentary, I realized that I had mistakenly started my first text with "Son" instead of "So." It made for a good laugh. And also resulted in us searching for a network to pick up our series.

Other fun facts about the Brain Twins:
1. We enjoy watching Martha Stewart together.
2. We like to make up nicknames for people that are at least six degrees of separation from their real name, but always with a very logical thought patterns. At least they're logical to us.
3. We like to eat our feelings. Junk food is the best remedy for this.
4. We have been told on many occasions that we have our own language. Mostly it's just a combination of tv show or pop culture references, nicknames (see #2) and code words from previous conversations. It makes total sense to us.
5. We often stumble across dead birds. We have come to accept them as our official Bad Omen because something horrible has always followed these sightings.

Okay, that last one is creepy. I still think we'd make for some good TV though.

From The Oven: Pasta with Goat Cheese and Basil Oil

{Adapted from Real Simple, July 2011.}

Last night, I tried out one of the "3-Ingredient Recipes" from the July 2011 issue of Real Simple. I changed the recipe a little, and used bow-tie pasta because I couldn't find gemelli.

Real Simple and Real Delicious.

Okay. I realize that was corny.

Long Hot Summer

{Top: PacSun, Shorts: Tommy Hilfiger, Shoes: Nine West, Belt: American Eagle, Bangle: R&W co., Watch: Aldo}

I'm watching the Rookie Blue finale right now. My brain cannot even handle this stress. Nor can my heart. It's beating so fast you'd think that not only was the story line real, but that I was actually living it. Seriously. If you don't watch this show you need to. It is high quality television. High quality Canadian television, even. 

It almost makes me want to be a police officer. Except that I literally have zero upper-body strength. So. I don't know how well I'd even do in try outs. Too bad. I'd love to wear that uniform.

In other news, the strange arrival of summer weather in late August/early September seems like it might just be coming to an end. Tear. So. Let's enjoy a little Keith Urban while his song is still relevant. 

Welcome to the Weekend

Disco Vase by Sania Pell

Check out The Glitter Guide's 5 Things To Try This Weekend.

35 is the new 50

{Tshirt, jeans, scarf: Gap.* Belt and shoes: vintage} 

After living in this city for just over a month, I've made a few observations about the retirement community to which I've moved. 

Firstly, no matter where you're driving in the city, I'm pretty sure the speed limit never exceeds 50km/hr. This wouldn't be such a big deal if everyone actually drove at that pace. Unfortunately, nine times out of ten, the person you're driving behind is actually only going 35. So there's that. 

Secondly, if you have a day off in the middle of the week and think it would be a good time to run some errands because stores shouldn't be so busy during the work day, you'd be wrong. The stores are always bustling. The elderly have every day off. 

Finally, retirement communities are retirement communities for a reason. It's beautiful here and the ocean is a mere eight minute walk from my house. Everyone is so nice and says hello to you when you're walking down the street. So I guess I can deal with the toobusyforcomfort stores and the fact that everyone drives at snail pace. 

* It was only upon writing this that I realized my entire outfit was from the Gap. I feel the word '"obsession" would be an understatement in this case.

Dinner Time

I didn't have any energy to cook a proper dinner tonight. So obviously I made the healthy choice of baking up some jalepeno poppers, throwing some cherries and strawberries in a bowl, and topping it off with some yogurt for dessert. I also ate in front of the TV while watching vintage episodes of The Office. All in all, a well balanced meal.

{My mother would be so disappointed in me. If you're reading this, mom, I'm sorry. I know you raised me better.}