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Random Wednesday – Mud & NYC

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

“I know what your random Wednesday blog post is going to be about” – were the words out of his mouth… Yes, he was right! Before the rain starts, which it should from the middle of this week, I try to soak in as much sun as possible. Being outdoors involves a lot of walking. Parks can be so deceiving! It’s all beautiful and sunny, birds are singing, squirrels are chewing on the last years acorns… and then you walk into the MUD! So much mud that you can’t even walk around it, because many had the same idea and it’s aaaaaall soft. Who knew that when the snow melts it turns everything into muck! I was just happy that I didn’t wear any summery type of shoes. With jeans rolled up we walked through, and it was fun! Nothing like playing in the dirt on a warm spring day.

Oh Oh oh.. I’m very excited about this one! Next week I’m leaving on a road trip to nowhere else but NYC and few other cities including Boston. Why am I this excited? For once, I have never been to the States! I live an hour away from the boarder and have never crossed it. That just makes me weird, no? Bags of camera gear and a tiny suitcase that’s all I’m taking. Trips always make me giddy! Need to make a master plan for all the places that I’d like to visit. Any hints, suggestions, etc. especially for food : )

It’s the time of the year again that sun will wake me up every morning way too early! It has an incredible ability to peak through my window right from the time it rises to about 9 am. This is what I saw a few days ago when this bright ball of fire woke me up at 6:30am.

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Random Wednesday – The Lead

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

I have never been horribly bad at ‘structured’ dancing but haven’t been great at it either. So the word “Average” describes me accurately when it comes to the arm, leg coordination on a dance floor. Meaning that you’ll never see me at the auditions of “So you think you can dance”, unless it’s day one. Even for day one, I’m won’t make for entertaining material, because who wants to see ‘average’ on stage, instead of incredibly awkward and bad dancers, or amazing “I can fly through the air while doing splits’ dancers? This week I took my averageness out to try Salsa dancing. Some people were good, some bad, and some just like me. I once again confirmed that I don’t enjoy myself when trying to remember the steps, and that I tend to lead. Watch out Mr. Macho Guy, I’ll lead you around the dance floor in high heels… Mental note: be less bossy or find a guy who can actually lead! Salsa was fun, I might even go again. Yay, for doing things out of my usual repertoire!

Does anyone else absolutely dislike when they go for a haircut and get a chatty stylist who talks non stop for an hour? I enjoy my haircuts in silence or at least having a productive conversation. My new stylist talks about everything and is way too detailed. I don’t really want to hear (second time around, cause she didn’t remember me from November) about her daughter-in-law and how mean she is, and the grandkids and how cute they are, and everything else in between. She also asks inappropriate questions, and makes even more unfitting comments. Such as “Oh you’re still young, but you should really think about having kids!” Umm.. yes.. thanks for the heads up… It’s time for another hair salon! Suggestions?

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I like my tea served in buckets! Thanks to Ian Sobolev for the photo.

Random Wednesday – Plants

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
  • They are everywhere: floors, tables, window sills, kitchen counters, shelves. They breath quietly day in and day out producing some good quality oxygen. If only someone would remember to water them regularly and not try so desperately to kill them off. I rely on one of the ferns to let me know when the rest of the plants are thirsty as well. It slightly wilts and hangs it’s fronds in the “I’m so sad, please water me” fashion. This scenario usually works really well, unless other inhabitants of this house decide that watering random plants at random times is a good idea. Some end up overwatered, others don’t get a drop in weeks. Not the optimal living conditions, yet they thrive.
  • Making new prints is always exciting. Lately, I have a weird desire to make them larger and replace the old ones that have been around for way too long. The little voice in my head says: “it’s time to redecorate” and that’s exactly what I’ll be doing. I even have the new frames and pretty photos all ready to go.

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Random Wednesday – Tights & Games

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
  • Olympics are in the country, but Toronto feels completely indifferent to it. Way to keep up your cold, snobby composure TO! We do live up to our stereotypes! What’s up with only showing Canadian teams and athletes on all the channels. It might be just me, but watching three hours of curling is not that exciting!  However, girl snowboarding was awesome yesterday! Figure skating wasn’t that bad either. I have my favourites… Dear, TV channels, please show the SNOW LEOPARD guy and other athletes from warm countries! I’ll be cheering for them, cause it’s kind of hard to make it into winter Olympics when you have never seen snow!  All in all, I’d rather be in Vancouver living the fever of the games and soaking up the international buzz.
  • While frantically cleaning up my room last week I stumbled upon a box of my favourite tights. Yes, tights. I bet no one have ever seen me wearing any, but I have a true obsession with them. Tights, socks, leg warmers – I love them all. They are, however, very unpractical for Canadian weather, it’s either too cold or it’s summer. Plus, me being closer to cold-blooded creatures and maintaining my body temperature of that of a room, doesn’t work well either. After, scanning through the box and admiring all the pretty colours and textures, the conscious decision of not needing any more was made. An hour later I came out of FCUK with yet another pair of knee-high grey, ribbed socks. Hey, they were on sale!

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Happy Valentine’s Day!

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

Someone check my temperature! Did I eat something funny? Where did my usual resentment of Valentine’s Day go? This is weird! After so many years of complaining about the whole commercialism of this holiday, today I just don’t care. Still think that Valentine’s Day puts too much unnecessary pressure on already stressed people and companies making profit on the whole concept of love is just wrong. But today just feels good, calm, peaceful, happy and all the other cheesy synonyms that go well together. Valentine’s Day, you have surprised me this year, and I kind of like that… Hope everyone is having an awesome day. Here is some love for you.

Valentines

  1. Dance with Me giclee print – LoveSugar Design
  2. Knot Love gocco print – PaperDayStudio
  3. Jar of Love watercolour painting – GollyBard
  4. Je T’aime giclee print – LoveSugar Design

Random Wednesday – Clutter Free

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
  • Ever had one of those time-space continuum glitches when everything stops and just floats in the ‘air’ in a beautiful suspended dance. The days go on but time ceases to exist. Yeap, just had one of those weeks! To say that it was unusual is an understatement. It was simply awesome!
  • When left to my own devices I go on these organizational, cleaning kicks.  Am I weird or what? Whoever says: “Hey, you know what would be fun? Taking apart the closet and then putting it back together all nice and neat.” Must admit, I used to be a bit of a pack rat, collecting little things that I might need, or not letting go of others. Not anymore. Captain ‘obsessive compulsive cleaner’ is on board! Bye-bye clutter! That includes cleaning out the fridge and the pantry! Excuse me, Miss “July 13, 09 frozen bread” and Miss “Canned green beans circa 2005”, you two are so having a date with Mr. “Garbage can”. How did they ever end up in the fridge? It’s fascinating what you can find in places you rarely look!
  • This week was also full of techie updates, hilarious politics (Sarah Palin never seems to disappoint!), progress being made, new directions taken, and spring being missed. All in all, entertaining!

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Countdown to green clover has begun!

Random Wednesday – Snow + Fun

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
  • This week turned out busier than I expected and time escaped me once again. Running around for work, trips to Kingston, more work, and random unplanned events threw me off schedule. And let me tell you, I LOVE my schedule! Love when everything is organized and up-to-date, things run smoothly this way. Oh well, ‘last week of January’ you won, I admit! Will play catch up this week.
  • Here are the two words that I would have never put together in the same sentence before: SNOW and FUN. From today on, I believe that snow, cold, and fun can sometimes work together. Drum roll, please! I WENT SNOWBOARDING for the second time ever (last time was just incredibly bad and painful). From super bunny hills to a bit bigger bunny hills, and even intermediate level ones, it was awesome! Snowboarding was #4 on my “don’t make me do it” list, and I was really dreading it. However, last minute invitations, and power of good persuasion worked it’s magic, and I went. Not to say that that I didn’t stay up for a few hours the night before thinking of how horrible it’ll be. But, I was wrong. The day was amazing, even with all the falls, bumps, and bruises! I was sooooo missing out!

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And that would be me, all geared up! Thanks to Ian for the iPhone photo!

Mental note *get an iPhone*

Random Wednesday – Dreams & Workouts

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
  • After a few failed attempts to acquire a gym membership and getting fed up with ridiculous prices, limitations, and contracts, I settled for p90x! I have only three words to describe this intense workout: pain, Pain, and PAIN. However, it’s a good kind of pain, the kind where you know you had a good workout. But I did get the “I can’t really walk down the stairs” too!  Still working through the list of all the videos. So far my favourite is Ab ripper X, but that’s probably because it’s the only one I can really keep up with and doesn’t make me swear profusely (in my head of course) by the end of it. The last two exercises of the series are kind of tough but I’ll get there. Plyometrics was just ridiculous, got me panting and sweating right after the warm up and I quit 20 minutes before the end. It also made my legs into stiff non-moving devices that were barely able to go up and down the stairs for the following three days. “Chest and Back”, “Shoulders and Arms” are doable, the intensity can be controlled so it works. I thought I’d never say this, but Yoga is next to impossible! Looks easy, yes, but after doing Warriors for the first 50 minutes, my still sore legs could not take it. Fast forwarded the video a bit and the stuff that followed… yeah, it’s not happening any time soon. Not to say that I’m quitting, it’ll just take time, lots and lots of time. Found a whole new level of respect for all the Yoga lovers! It’s hard! I’d rather do three hours of Ab ripper!
  • I have the weirdest dreams. Obviously I can’t remember most of them, but some just stick. This one in particular made absolutely no sense, well it did, but the situation was completely out of ordinary. There was some kind of prelude, but all I can sense now is that the day wasn’t going well. The part that I do remember, started with me dropping off the car for maintenance and to change the brake pads. When it was time to pick it up, I noticed two mechanics smoking in my parked car, so I was all about “How did you get into the car, and why would you smoke inside?”  They do have my keys and it’s nicer to sit when you’re having a cigarette… apparently. They left my car and I went indoors to pay. The brake pads cost a laughable $12.50 and they made me wait for a while to fill out some papers. It was getting late and I was in a hurry to get home. I came out, just to find my car on a flat-bed tow truck leaving the parking lot. So all panicked, I went to my spot and read the sign about ‘emergency road’ no parking from 12am-7am. The time was 12:05am. The mechanics parked my car there… and the car next to mine was still standing because it was in the Park Anytime spot. So after already a bad day, I ended up being stranded on some deserted parking lot, a good walk from home. At which point I woke up in a very crummy mood and tried really hard to fall back asleep so I could fix the dream. Not cool brain, not cool!
  • On the art side of things, I made a few of these prints with different saying, and this is the only one I remembered to take photos of! Now that it finally belongs to my friend, I can show it off.

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Baking and I

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

I thought that I was pretty good at baking, or at least decent, until two things happened. First, during Christmas ‘bake off’ party I had these amazing cheesecake cookies, and chocolate marshmallow ones. Next blow to my ‘bakerella’ self-esteem came from Tina who invited me over to sample a few goodies and was it ever delicious! I’m such a baking rookie that I think a trip to a bookstore and a lot of sugar and butter are a must! Tina specialized in French baking and made these fantastic green tea and mocha macaroons, orange infused cake, and baby double baked potatoes stuffed with bacon. Not going to lie, I could have eaten all of them and would’ve asked for more! That girl is amazing at what she does! Here’s some photographic proof that made me so very hungry while editing it.

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Random Wednesday – TV and Books

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
  • Who knew that past Monday was the most depressing day of the year?! Weird, my Monday was pretty awesome! It didn’t feel any different, until I watched the news and they announced that it’s a horrible day. I don’t have time for that, or to be depressed just cause the news says that I should be. Maybe it’s time to unhook the cable, there is nothing good on TV as it is.
  • I have a little leaning tower of Pisa piled up in my room, made out of books that need to be read. It’s time to cut down on the hours spent behind this silver machine of mine and do something more valuable. It always happens, books collect, no time or desire to read them, once the threshold is reached, I go on the “don’t distract me, I’m reading, and MIA to the world” swing. But don’t worry, the super valuable fast reading skills will be applied and you won’t even notice that I was gone.
  • As mentioned yesterday, here is a photo of me being frozen in my Yeti wanna be outfit. In comparison to the Pretty Lady, I think I win in the “over layering” department!

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