left a piece of my heart

I'll admit, I left a little piece of my heart back in British Columbia. While the rest of my life might be in Ontario (or Onterrible as some B.Cers call it), my heart remains back where my sister and my niece and my new brother-in-law are, where the sea meets the sky over a highway, where I can meet amazing people like Sarah and Kym (again!!) and do lots more jumping/levitating photos. There's so much to say about that one week in B.C. and I know I couldn't sum it up in one post ... so instead, here's some 'teasers' of what I've been up to :)

My sister & J said "I do"

The invite promised it'd be "anything but boring" and it delivered: a teary-eyed ceremony with a beautiful bride and groom, followed by a relaxed dinner with amazing food (and my dad losing a tooth, but more on that later! haha), then taken up a notch when all the 'adults' left leaving us late teens, 20s and 30-somethings to party it up and have the time of our lives (and dancing to BEP's "Time Of My Life"). I promise, lots more details to come (unless my sister wants to share them, in which case I won't spoil it!). Either way it was a beautiful night and I am SO happy for her and J!

Being vampires at the after-party :D

P.S. I've got The Boy hooked on The Vampire Diaries, bwahaaha.

All dressed up with my mamusia.

When I wasn't spending time with my family, I managed to meet up with two awesome gals; though I only got to see Kym for a bit, I loved every moment and wished we lived in the same city (or at least province!). We graduated to levitating photos, ate some yummy gelato, and got suckered in by U.K. accents (more on that here!). P.S. shameless plug, vote for Kym and her amazing t-shirt line here!

Bees + Kym! And trying out an Italian eatery with a southern name with Asian employees haha :) Love you lots Patty!

A British man held my camera to take this photo haha. 

Gah, Vancouver scenery is b-e-a-utiful.

This trip felt entirely too short - there's so much of Vancouver I wanted to rediscover and explore, but I'm psyched I got to see where my sister now lives (Squamish) and do the touristy things every tourist has to do while visiting Whistler! Plus, see how darling my niece is and how genius she is ... especially when pretending to be a raptor or a zombie :D

In Whistler, baby!

Since then, life has been about catching up with friends, reclaiming my summer school job, learning how to drive(!!!) and planning The Boy's upcoming birthday :) OH! And finding out that I now have 200 followers ... you are ALL AMAZING. I love following your blogs, love the friendships that have been made, and am definitely planning a proper way to say THANK YOU!!!! to come soon :)

Thank you for the well wishes for the trip - it's one I won't forget and I just hope I get to go to B.C. again soon. And now I just have to get back into the swing of blogging properly again, we'll see how that goes!

Is there a place that you've left a little piece of your heart to?

And any plans for the weekend? Hope it's great! :)

leaving on a (west)jet plane

All my bags are (half) packed, not yet ready to go ... but I'm really excited that in less than 24 hours I'll be seeing my amazing sister and niece for the first time in nine months! British Columbia, here I (+ parentals) come! While being on a plane - and in this case two since we have a layover - makes me feel a bit antsy, I have my mp3 player, the Water for Elephants novel, and my camera to keep me company and help me admire the clouds below instead of fearing what might happen. Plus, having The Boy drive me and my parents to the airport in the wee hours of the morning will warm my heart enough to last the whole airplane trip!

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While I'll try to catch up on your awesome blogs, I know I'll be preoccupied by the mountains of Whistler, the hustle and bustle of the main city, spending time with my family, and hopefully both meeting someone new and meeting someone again (hello Patty!). Weird that my kitchen board countdown now reads "1 day!" to Vancouver; here's what I've been up to in the days leading up to it:

Enjoying delicious vegetarian fare with a friend I haven't seen in a year!

Relaxing near the lake on a cool day and cuddling as often as we can :)

Having Starbucks with a close friend (something I'll have a lot in Vancouver!) and my haircut!

Now I'm going to keep packing while I recover from last night's finale of The Vampire Diaries (who saw it and OMG'ed a hundred times like I did?). I hope you all have a great next week and I'll try to update when I can! I bid you all adieu for now!

Annnnd I'm a wee bit curious (and bitten by the travel bug):

If circumstances allowed you to hop on a plane and go wherever, where would you go?

for mamas and may days

Whether you present her with a massage, a gift, a homemade meal, or just sending love to her in your heart and mind, I hope you all enjoy today on this mother's day, and I'm sending a bucket of love to those bloggers who are mamas, whether to amazing children or adorable critters :) Last year I had a bit of an homage to my mama, but this year I'll just share one of my favourite pictures of us. It's a shame, really, that we take the most pictures together when we're on vacation and holidays rather than random moments, but that means I definitely can't wait until our trip to Vancouver this Saturday!!

My love for my mom is like a scarf ... it wraps her up haha.
Here's us in Gdansk, Poland in 2008!

These May days have been pretty kind to me thus far (and to knock on wood, hopefully they'll continue)! It's finally beginning to feel like spring, which is a relief. Lately I've been busting a move to Wii's Just Dance with my closest friends that I haven't seen in forever, and indulging in way too much green tea ice cream and drumsticks. Here's what's been filling up my May so far; I hope you've had good days for this first week and that the rest of May brightens up even more for you!

Mmm, green tea makes my day; especially while having a Boys Over Flowers marathon with my friend (only three episodes left for us, and we don't want it to end)! Next up: Coffee Prince.

Being able to spend time with The Boy without him having to read 500-page books each week is so amazing :) We've been filling it up with hikes, watching movies, and cuddling. And oh yeah - do you like my makeover? Hahahaa ... I've been trying to figure out how I should have my hair for my sister's wedding and found a website where you can 'try on' celebrity hairstyles and decided to see what I'd look like blonde. I'll probably go for one of Zooey Deschanel's half updos instead, though.

Pizzas (especially homemade) are the best(est). Definitely #4 on the list of what's better than coffee!

The other day The Boy noticed a fair had rolled into town, and we decided to try a ride out (and a gourmet hot dog that was teeny-tiny). He chose - the ferris wheel, something neither of us have really been on before because we're both wusses when it comes to heights. As soon as we lifted off he went, "Ohh, this was a bad idea! Why'd you come up with this?!" Although the rocking made us feel a bit uneasy (and totally reminded me of the scene from Never Been Kissed at 1:30 right here) I can now successfully cross off 'kissing at the top of a ferris wheel' on my bucket list.

Now I have to ask:

What's been filling up your days lately?

And what 'mellow' songs do you love to listen to?

P.S. Since some of you aren't big cupcake/dessert fans, I send you an abundance of bearhugs and (insert favourite dessert-type meal here)! :)