another goodbye...

you know what comes along with moving an hour away? giving your notice to your current job. truth be told, i was dreading it. i felt weird, i didn't know exactly how to bring it up, and my manager is an awesome person. but, on monday i did it. and it was a huge relief! i've never mentioned where i worked (except for a few people on twitter), but i guess now that i'm leaving next friday, there's no harm. s.t.a.r.b.u.c.k.s. (sorry, just don't want to type the full name and have my blog come up in searches).

it was an interesting job for 8 months. at times it was so crazy busy, and then the next minute there would be no one. for the most part, i was able to look at a massive lineup and think, "oh well, i'm going as fast as i can and i'm not really bothered by the line." but lately with the stress of the thought of moving and finding new work when i move (oh ya, that little thing!! no, i have nothing lined up. dylan will be the breadwinner until i find something ;)), work was just getting overwhelming. and you wouldn't believe the amount of money people spend on coffee every.single.day. and even multiple times a day!

but the one thing i will miss, besides my co-workers and a few customers, is this...

this is what i'm left with. i've given plenty away.

yes, i'll miss taking my markout every week-1lb of coffee, or a box of tea, or a pack of instant coffee. i've built up quite a little supply.

my last day is next friday. i wanted to give myself a few weeks to enjoy the city work-free before i'm dragged away. that, and i need to pack an apartment.  

scenes from the weekend...

this weekend involved: coffee, wine, bbq's, backyard relaxing, early mornings, antiquing, furniture shopping, and a little shopping for myself ;)

 how i spend my mornings before work.

 i bought myself a little 'i'm leaving and i'm depressed about it' gift. this bracelet in gold.

 a hot afternoon + zinfandel in my parents backyard.

 ahhhhhh.

beady little eyes mcgee 

 gulp.gulp.gulp.

early morning (7am) antique market trips. i like mornings more than him.

country roads along the way.

there were some weird things at the antique show. (that bull (?) head already had a SOLD sign on it half hour after the show started!)

 a few finds for our new place. 2 suitcases for $34 and the ladder for $30.

 getting the ladder home in a sunfire was fun!

a little break when we got home.

and an ikea find for $20. we want our deck to have a lot of different lanterns.

we've got so many ideas in our heads (and on pinterest) for our new place and i'm really hoping that they turn out as good in reality as what we're imagining! also, since saturday, we've been in a massive heatwave and have been hitting almost 40 degrees celsius. it's continuing today; luckily i'm inside an air conditioned building all day.

glossybox [april]...

after what felt like forever, i received my first glossybox. it took a little longer than i wanted to get my hands on it, since i had it delivered to my parents and i had to wait until my mom was coming to bring it to me. but, i got it, i opened it, and i was generally pleased, i would say.

 pretty box holding the goods, which can definitely be reused at christmas ;)

 it's like an early birthday gift.

elizabeth grant skin care shower gel, aveeno daily moisturizer, wella brilliance conditioner, wella brilliance treatment, and marcelle xtension plus mascara.

elizabeth grant shower gel-  smells like coconut (ie amazing) and is priced at $20 for the 240ml bottle. i've yet to use it, so i can't say much about it. except for the smell again, so good!

aveeno positively radiant daily moisturizer- this product was perfect because just as i got the box, i was finishing my regular moisturizer, so i started using it right away. it's got an spf 15, which is nice, and i must say, i'm a fan of this. it smells so nice and soft and leaves my face feeling amazing. at $22.99 for the 120ml bottle, though, i certainly won't be buying it on my own once this runs out!

wella brilliance conditioner and treatment- i haven't used these yet, but i'm almost out of my conditioner and i'll give it a try soon! the conditioner is priced at $13.99 for 250ml and the treatment at $13.99 for 150ml.

marcelle xtension plus mascara- i've been using this about a week now and i like it. i'm a tough critic with mascara, and this passes my test. it does make them longer and makes them a bit thicker, too. at $12.50, it's a bit more than what i normally buy (maybelline the colossal volum' express, for about $8), but if i were to find this on sale somewhere, i would definitely pick it up.

overall, i was happy with what i got, and it was well over the $15 i paid. that being said, after i get my second one, i'm pretty sure i'm going to cancel. i really just don't need new products every month, and we really need to be saving all we can to furnish a new place ;)

our new home...

sometimes it felt like we looked for a place for months upon months. and nothing worked out. but in reality, it was really only a little over a month. we fell in love with 2 places before this one, but for one reason or another, they didn't work out. we kind of felt like we were on an HGTV show, like property virgins or something; location or size??? for me, it was all about location. i would not compromise. it may have pissed dylan off a bit because he thought i was being unrealistic haha but what do you know?

we ended up finding something. so last saturday, in the midst of the long weekend, i went back home at 9am to see the place (and we were back in toronto by 1pm to enjoy our time). my mom (as my eyes) and dylan had gone to see the place on the previous wednesday (i worked and couldn't make it), and they gave it the ok, which is why we went back on saturday. while i may have preferred one of the other places a little bit more, just because it was bigger, i think we'll be pretty happy here. i mean, we have a deck!! and a backyard! so much drinking and lounging on the deck this summer ;) 

anyways, it's a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom place with a full kitchen! something i haven't had in my 5 years in toronto. it lets in a lot of natural light (which was huge for me) and even has a bay window in the living room (again, something i really wanted, as i have one now in my living room and bedroom). enough with the talk. want to see some pictures my mom took when she went?

 1) the cabinets were custom made by the landlord-lots of cupboard space! 2) that door leads to the deck and will provide a nice breeze when open through the screen door. 3) we'll be covering that electric box somehow because i don't think i could stand to look at it everyday. 

 half of the deck! the bbq is theirs. 

 the living room. small, but we'll make it work. also, hardwood floors everywhere!

 this is the master bedroom, and the next is the 2nd bedroom. but they're about the same size, so we may switch them up.

they most definitely need to be painted.

the countdown until move in is on. july 1st weekend it is; luckily the last few days of june fall on a friday-sunday so it works out to move out of my place. we have so many ideas for this space and i hope it all comes together nicely (and quickly once we're in. i hate living in an unfinished space). but don't even get me started on the cost of furnishing a new place. cue anxiety!!

tomorrow we're heading to a huge antique show in hopes of finding a few things like an old latter, some lanterns for the deck, and old wooden doors. have a good weekend! 

boomboompow...

the long weekend ended on monday night with a bang. literally. we went down to ashbridges bay (ie the beaches) to watch the fireworks.

don't some of them look like outer space?

boom. boom. pow.

and just like that, the show was over. we walked home with the thousands upon thousands of other people until we could get on a subway that wasn't packed to the brim. we then proceeded to crash after the best long weekend i could have asked for. given that it was my last one here, i'm pretty happy with the results. bittersweet.

"i can't wait for instagram pics!"...

the long weekend continued on sunday with a tonne of walking. and i mean a tonne. we literally walked all over the city, looking for any garage sales, or anything that caught our eyes. we made it to little italy for some of the best thin crust pizza around (the standard), kensington market for a quick walk around, and yorkville for some ice cream. we also met up with a friend once we were back home and had some drinks (tequila for them, vodka for me)-it's the long weekend. tequila in the afternoon is totally allowed. after a bit, they went off on their own so i could clean up for my girl friends coming over for the night.

as blackberry users, they kind of love instagram and had me take a bunch ;)

 this is me looking down at the shot they poured me; it's me vs you vodka. go easy.

 smile through it.

 cheers.

 down the hatch. with a plugged nose. like a high schooler.

1 girl only having her credit card meant that had to buy 6 drinks at once to meet the minimum of $30 allowed. double fisting it was.

toronto streets at 2:30am.

we may have pigged out on chips and brownies when we got in. and maybe regretted it 10 minutes later. but whatever, right? 

oh, side note: want to hear a crazy dream i had that night? i gave my 2 friends my bed, and i slept on my couch. i woke up at about 4am, but not like i awaken suddenly, i just kind of woke up, and looked around. i looked in my kitchen and i saw this MASSIVE bug, like put your 2 hands together, and that was the size it was. it wasn't a spider and it wasn't a centipede, it was a hybrid or something. i was thinking "holy shit" and so i went to go wake up my friend to help me. so i go into my bedroom and i said i needed help killing a bug. she gets out of bed right away, and we're looking in my kitchen for it, and it's no where to be seen. i'm getting a little nervous and most definitely don't want to go back to sleep with that thing around. then it hits me; was it a dream? did i dream that and then wake up immediately and confuse the 2? so i said to her, "i think it was a dream..." and then we went back to bed. except it took me forever because i was still scared and couldn't figure out what was real. i just kept telling myself that i don't live in the costa rican jungle and it's impossible for something like that to exist here. ok, end of my weird crazy dream.

holiday monday included breakfast, a little shopping (for them), and then they headed back home to miss the traffic of everyone coming back from the cottages. and then me and dylan relaxed a bit and headed to the fireworks later.

birthday boy and hamburger cupcakes...

a little over a week later, i was finally able to celebrate dylan's birthday with him! he was pretty excited to open his gifts, and i was pretty excited to give it to him, too. the weather was incredible on saturday and we spent the day sitting on the porch sipping sangria and walking around the city.

a leather journal.

quite happy.

i can't tell you how much he loves star trek.

sangria smiles.

cheers to the long weekend.

i made him hamburger cupcakes. though in my head they looked better.

he still liked them; that's all that matters.

so cute and tiny you almost don't want to eat them.

but then you do.

and then we played his new monopoly where i whooped his ass.

and that was our saturday of the long weekend.

mother's day...

on sunday night, my mom came up to my place to spend a few days with me. it was her week of vacation, and it's likely the last time she will be able to do it before i leave. and, i was reunited with my chloe! (my parents had her since we went to nyc). over the few days she was here, we ate, we shopped, we got pedicures (only the 2nd time in  my life, man it tickles), we ate some more, i worked a little, and we relaxed watching some tv. anyone else watch the desperate housewives finale? what did you think? my mom thought it was great, but personally, i felt 'meh' about it. sure they wrapped everything up nicely, but i just felt that they had better regular episodes over the series finale.

the 3 girls.

 neons for summer. (whole ensamble from forever 21)

breakfast at our favorite spot.

so many blueberry pancakes.

breakfast on a patio? can i make that happen everyday?

and that my friends, is how we spent mother's day and the few days that followed. now, i have 4 days off for the long weekend and i'm pretty darn happy about it. 30 degrees and sunny for the weekend? yep! time to get my tan on. happy may 2-4!