it's a block party ya'll...

wednesday night was the loulou block party put on by LOULOU Magazine. About 8 stores or so (jacob, banana republic, joe fresh and more) in a toronto neighborhood had awesome discounts and Winners had the best deal, in my opinion. When you spent $50, you got a free gift bag. last year it was $20, but whatever. i went to check it out and if i didn't find anything, then so be it. i wouldn't spend $50 on anything just to get a gift bag. but i ended up getting 2 sweaters, so it was all good. i was pretty excited to get home and tear into the gift big (it's like an early stocking, and those are the best!). there was a lot more stuff in the bag last year (see post here), but i'll take free stuff any day!

 the big ticket item in the bag..

all the swag: "the house at riverton" book, thinsations yogurt covered pretzels (seriously mmm), carbonated water, magazine, a mirror, biore face scrub, palmer's cocoa butter, razer, woolite and a scarf!

 faux fur scarf!

 i rather like it...

and i'm pretty sure it's almost identical to the one ...love Maegan just did as a DIY...which means it's definitely in style haha

and a really crappy picture of the sweaters i got..which really doesn't do them justice.

so who likes free stuff? that would be me. and i'm sure all of you too! bottom line-i'm pretty darn excited to wear that scarf soon!

last night...

surprise visits & surprise flowers

♥

things i'm looking forward to...

-apple cider (had a mug last night mmm)

-making cakepops again (for halloween and you can bet i'll show you all)
-halloween (2 years ago i was a SYTYCD competitor as you can see)

-finding a costume
-apple picking (in 2 weeks!)

-nuit blanche (an all night art show)

-more pumpkin spice lattes and chai lattes
-the nice cool, crisp weather continuing

until then, it's raining all day, and rained all day yesterday too...

weekends go by way to fast...

this weekend (at my parents) was spent reading (for fun and for school, obvi), relaxing, running errands, antique marketing, attempting to make pumpkin spice lattes (no bueno), and being a good mom to my birthday girl. 
oh, and the weather was perfect!! it was about 15 degrees; crisp and cool.

obviously had to make matching hats

'get your picture and lets be done with here, ok mom?'

annnddd she's absolutely hating me here! but i had to get the annual hat-on-side-eye-picture. 

in other news-sunday TV is back!! 1) desperate housewives-how different does carlos look without his beard/mustache combo!? he's a cutie. and i won't spoil it in case someone hasn't seen it yet, but i totally knew it was *so-and-so's* kid that was mixed up, i called it on last years season finale ;)

2) amazing race-ah how i love this show. poor watermelon girl. man that must have hurt; i seriously couldn't even imagine.

3) DEXTER!!! still can't believe i saw him! but, major sad face :(:( i don't get showtime (the channel it's on) what the heck?! not happy. so that means i have to wait until probably tuesday, every week, to watch the episode that was on sunday. boohoo so no one say anything about it!!!

so that's that. fall tv is awesome. period.

the rest of my week now? reading. because you know, school kind of loves to assign a butt load of reading. joy.

oh, by the way, there is a huge tree across the street from me and there is always cars parked across the street, under the tree (usually very nice, expensive cars). there must be a happy little squirrel in that tree because he's pelting acorns and acorn shells from the tree and they are viciously hitting the cars below. the street around the cars is covered in acorns and shells. it's quite funny. i better make sure not to walk under that tree! haha silly buggers.

chloe day!

my little girl is growing up. *tear*
chloe turns 3 today.
i can't believe i've had her nearly 3 years.
it feels like yesterday i brought her home on new years day (at night) and my dad wouldn't even come up from downstairs to see her. that's how mad he was that i got a dog of my own.
it only took one day for her to work her charm.
now? he's the one that loves her the most. and trust me, the rest of us love to her pieces!!
so, this is for the most lovable, the most cuddly, face licking machine--Chloe; aka chlo, mo, mo green, meisters, scruffy,brat, miss ...
Happy birthday chlo!!!


Ps. chloe, now that you're 3, can you please start to walk better? and maybe stop piddling when you get really excited to see people? because that would just make you perfect.

 from her 2nd birthday

and again, isn't she thrilled with that hat on? (i made it! haha)

Love, mom

move with your lover...

i left the living room where we were watching criminal minds to go to the kitchen to cut a piece of cake (keep in mind my apartment is approximately *this* big and the living room and kitchen are about 3 steps apart). i come back about 2 minutes later and dylan proudly shows me the camera and the 30 pictures he took...

♥

had to get an up the nose shot of chloe too. and if you can't tell what part of her is what in the last picture, well she's just a mess. the white part is her ear flipped the wrong way, and the slightly red piece by dylans hand is her beard haha

i certainly lucked out with this goofy one ;)
♥

how a sunday should be...

it's not very often dylan gets a sunday off, but this past sunday worked out for us. we got up bright and early and were out the door just after 8 to head to the St Lawrence Market, well the antique market part. of course because we're early birds, the subway didn't start until after 9 (doh! we always forget this!) so we ended up walking the majority of the way. eventually, the subways were open, we grabbed our day pass for $10 that gives us both unlimited use of transit for the day. plus, it was just a beautiful day; sun was out, hovering around 18 degrees.

all the outdoor vendors, then to the right, there's a huge indoor space

that would be dylan's finger, trying to block the bright sun

his $10 find at the market, quite pleased with it (notice the matching grins from dylan and the dog?)

after the market, it was time to take chloe to the paw-pawrazzi photo opp

 

after that, it was off to the Distillery District. it's such an awesome area in toronto, all old buildings and breweries, shops and restaurants, art spaces and more.

i love this part; the tree lights up when you walk under it

hi!

art around the district 

and then we ate here on queen st, on the way home. so so good! 4 cheese pizza and layered nachos with guacamole mmm

and a steam whistle for dyl

we were go-go-go from 8am until 6:30 when we got home. such a good day. we hadn't done stuff like this in a long time.

anywho, it's supposed to be 26 degrees today..what!? it's been 18-21ish for the last few weeks and the rest of week is supposed to be 19-20 again. but i guess today decided to be a hot one. please go away and don't come back until next summer!

paw-pawrazzi

on sunday, dylan and i took chloe to this:

put on by Holt Renfrew. she certainly did not like sitting on the red pillow with all eyes on her! there were a bunch of dogs around and all so cute. we also left with quite the 'doggie bag!'

here's her picture..she's not even looking! see, the problem was, they used a camera with a delay. seems pretty silly to me. when you're working with dogs, you certainly do not want a delay. she was looking at the camera, and then 1.5 seconds later, she looked away and it took. darn. although i'm pretty sure every other dog was looking at the camera at some point haha

they all got red bandannas, so they could be snazzy little dogs ;)

excited to dig in.

all the swag she got, $50 value! (including a $5 starbucks card for the parents!)

included a stuffed monkey, treats, modern dog magazine, a martini cookie, a pen, a crystal pendant..

chloe with her new 'organic fido' money; gosh, she certainly doesn't look like she was brushed 1 hour before this picture...

here's the thing-i would love your help (and chloe too)!! the winner gets a diamond pendant valued at $1500 and a $250 shopping spree at Holt Renfrew (which would probably buy one tshirt haha). voting is online starting today until the 26th. if you guys could give her a vote *here* that would be greatly appreciated :):) (although you do have to put in your email, it doesn't say that it's given out or used for anything, strictly to manage voting so people don't go out of control, but if you don't want to, i understand!)

you can search by name (breanne) or entry # (308).

now, don't go looking at the other dogs and vote for them just because they're looking at the camera and they're cute! ;)
thanks a bunch to anyone who does!!
♥

remember that time i saw dexter? ya, that happened...

wednesday night, Michael C. Hall (aka DEXTER!!) had a movie premiering (Peep World) at Tiff. me and my friend diana are HUGE Dexter fans, so we obviously had to go to the red carpet to see if we could see him. the movie started at 6:30 (we should have tried to get tickets darnit) so we got the carpet around 4:30, figuring people would start coming around 6. they actually starting coming around 5:30, which, hey, the earlier the better. the crowds were actually crazy; people had little step stools they were standing on (even the ones in the front right against the gate, stupid people!) so even though we were about second row, it was still a little hard to see. but it was awesome. lets get started...(all the photos can be enlarged*)

does anyone know who this is? haha people were snapping pictures and all, so i figured i should too in case it's someone that i didn't recognize

Sarah Silverman (why does she always wear those pigtails?)

all smiles

Tariji P. Henson; from Benjamin Button movie

the one on the left, i was trying to get the picture, but the girl in front getting the picture on her camera haha thought that was cool. and on the right, man that life must just be surreal.

Michael C. Hall..absolutely adorable!!

i have no idea how my camera turned black and white?? it was much harder to pictures of Michael C. Hall because everyone was crazy for him.

and a good quality one; via

 Judy Greer; neither of us could tell who it was, but i took the picture anyway. when i looked her up, i realized she has been in tonnes! (What Women Want (love this movie), 27 Dresses, The Village, Wedding Planner, 13 Going on 30 to name a few)

we heart tiff

 free coke bottles being handed out all over! we got like 3 each on sunday and 1 each today haha

Roy Thomson Hall; where a lot of action takes place

honestly, we're both such big Dexter fans and think he is hot and one sexy man, so this was quite exciting! Ryan Gosling was at another premier at the same time (oh how i would have loved to see him; Breaker High anyone? maybe just the Canadians?); Ryan Phillippe was there later and Ryan Reynolds was there the night before i believe. why wasn't i there!??! Ryan Reynolds people!! anyway, it's on until the 22nd, so we'll see if i see anyone else!
*there as a lot of exclamation points in this post. can you tell i'm excited about seeing people?*

have a great weekend (because i know i had a great week :))
♥

blah...

my computer told me it would like a little update today. so i said "ok" and it went to town.

then when it started back up, my computer taskbar looked like it went back to 1999. not ok. 

what did it do; un-update? 

i couldn't figure it out.

then my blackberry was showing a constant bbm smiley face, when i don't have a new message.

oh, and my trackball on my blackberry doesn't like to scroll down.

and facebook doesn't like to load on it.

or the weather network. 

i'm still waiting for an iphone, but apple is terrible is sends out 5 at a time to rogers. bullsh*t.

people still line up hours before stores open to get one.

1.5 months after it came out.

i will not be that person.

apple has approximately 14 days before i give up and buy something other than the iphone.

as if they care.

then i restarted my computer after 20 minutes of trying to figure things out; it went back to normal.

i restarted my phone, and it went back to normal.

it's raining today.

i have to go to class later.

just one of those days...

can i go back to bed and restart my whole day?

also, i've got another post about tiff i was supposed to do today, but i'm waiting for my friend to email a few pictures from her camera because she got some better shots. and she hasn't done that yet! get on it diana!! so hopefully that will be tomorrow.

back to the grind..aka school

school started back on tuesday! it's nice to get back into a routine and it's also my last year. yay! after 2 years of college and what will be 4 years of university, i think i am ready to be done for a bit. i've got 4 credits left and they all happen to be half credits; so i'm taking 8 classes. it happened to be 3 classes this term, and 5 the next. i wish it was 4 and 4, but that's just the way it worked out. no biggie, really.

i'm pretty excited about all my classes (even thought i don't remember what i have next term haha) but the ones this term are going to be pretty interesting, at least they seem that way to far. i'm taking one about law and psychiatry, one about crime and the mind and another about the sociology of mental health. criminal minds anyone?? haha i'm sure they will be challenging, and i will be complaining more than once, but i hope not too much!

my bone to pick? i've got all coursepacks this term. which are bundles put together by a copying store of all photocopied articles. there is no real textbook with color, graphs, photos etc. i like textbooks. i despise coursepacks. half the time, the pages come out or the binding comes undone because they are so thick.
i mean, i get the point of them. profs do it to 'save us money' because they could assign us a textbook and we may use 10/15 chapters for example and then paying for those 5 unused chapters is a waste. whereas a coursepack is put together just for our course and we are reading every single thing in it. but i still hate it. OR sometimes profs will put all the readings strictly online; and there is far too much to print it out. not only does it strain my eyes to read a tonne on a computer screen, but i can't highlight anything!! i like to have things physically in front of me...ok, i'll end that little rant here. bottom line-i like textbooks, they look much nicer on a shelf than a stupid coursepack of photocopied articles.

now what do i want to do when i finish? i still haven't a clue..i'll cross that bridge when i get there. i'm hoping these classes will give me a little more insight into what i like and what i don't like so much. it's scary to know that i will have so much money to pay back next year and to not know what kind of job i will be able to get. i think about it all the time, and honestly, it makes me sick.

yes, yes i do; via

anyway, i'll enjoy my last year and that's that. now it's time to run to class! i haven't had a morning class since, oh, first year?? damn you 8am alarm!

it's almost a shame to smoke it. It's like killing a unicorn... with, like, a bomb...

it's TIFF time here in toronto!! from september 11-22, a tonne of stars are in the city for the Toronto International Film Festival! i'll definitely be walking around in hopes of catching some star citings ;)

sunday was a big street festival to celebrate the start of tiff. K'naan and Fefe Dobson performed and they were both pretty good live. there was food, free cupcakes (which must have run out by the time we got there..*sad face*) and free glass bottles of coke being given out (glass bottles are so much cuter!)
**lots of pictures ahead**

first up, Fefe Dobson was playing when we got there (you might know her song 'ghost')

the hosts; the only reason i post this picture is because this lady is from a commercial they show at Christmastime that i find hilarious; here

gosh i need a spray tan or something, and my hand looks really bony...but yay for free coke! (even though i don't drink pop haha)

probably only Canadians will know this guy; George Stroumboulopoulos (longest last name ever!) introducing K'naan

getting everyone into it.

 that night at 6:00 was the premier of the movie 127 Hours with James Franco and directed by Danny Boyle (who also did Slumdog Millionaire). me and my 2 friends had wanted to get tickets, but we didn't up doing it. but then last minute, my one friend said she was still going to come up and we thought we would check out the red carpet and see what it's all about.

we had no idea what time people would start walking down the carpet, but we got there around 4:30 and they ended up coming around 5:30, so it really wasn't that bad. 

 all the media people waiting for the important people to arrive

Danny Boyle

David Cross

Clémence Poésy; i heard she's going to be on gossip girl and she has been in harry potter? (i'm not sure, i've never watched either)-i loved what she was wearing.

Kate Mara and Amber Tamblyn (in the white dress) who wouldn't turn around!

Aron Ralston; who the movie was about (a fallen boulder crashes on his arm and traps him in a canyon)

 there he is! James Franco; the man of the hour

so cute and smiley

seriously *this* close, of course my camera wouldn't click when he was looking my way, and then when he turned it took! grrr!!

such a cool experience overall. last night was the premier of Black Swan which i have been dying to see and had no idea it was playing at tiff until sunday night. it stars Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman. i can't wait for this one to come out in theatres. i really wish i could have made it to see them on the red carpet. and of course, i still want to see 127 Hours as well.

when i looked at the list of stars that are scheduled to appear at the festival, i couldn't believe all the names. Ryan Reynolds is here, at some point. but i don't know when!! oh man would i love to see him in person!!