ode to summer

It might be odd to personify a season and write a letter to it, but y'know what, Summer? You're freaking awesome, so keep it up. Thank you for the beautiful weather and friends, and for filling up this month with 600+ pictures. These past few weekends have been amazing and made me truly appreciate the awesome people I have had the pleasure to know and spend time with them. Combine that with sunny days, plenty of BBQs, and unexpected gifts and I'm (ba da ba ba ba) loving it. Even though next month will have work Monday-Friday, I know I'm going to be eagerly awaiting each weekend and see what else you have in store. 

But for now, I want to look back at the moments from the last few days :)

I felt like I was part of the cast of Dawson's Creek at one of my best friend's birthdays this past weekend. We headed off to a lake and spent time BBQ-ing, fished for hours, and invented new games like having one pair toss a frisbee back and forth and another pair standing opposite trying to throw a volleyball and hit the frisbee. Dangerous? Maybe. But so much fun :)

If it wasn't for the nineteen mosquito bites that are now covering my legs (and some have turned into gross purple bruises since I scratched them -insert sad panda face here-), I'd say it was the perfect summer-before-it's-officially-summer day. Besides those nasty insects, the day was full of exploring, playing a game of soccer, and having The Boy scoop me up into his arms when I asked for a 'couple' photo at the end of the dock.

There's nothing quite like stretching out your legs on a dock, looking out at the water and the sunset, and taking pictures with your best friends. Oh, and then having each of your boyfriends present you with a gift: The Boy gave me the flower you see on the right, then my friend received another cute flower that she placed behind her ear, and then the birthday girl's boy gave her a HUGE log that he hoisted over his shoulder. Funniest thing ever :D

It was such a fun yet ... relaxing day, which was good, because the day afterwards was so adrenaline-filled that I don't think I could have handled two days in a row of that (I am a wuss haha). We spent the day hitting up one of Ontario's amusement parks called Canada's Wonderland and had an awesome double date - and even managed to convince The Boy to tackle the scariest roller coaster there called Behemoth, which has an 75° drop. Yowza.

Looking at Krissy's post from her day at an amusement park, we pretty much went on similar rides :D And we also went on one that goes up, around a bend, and then falls as a giant wave of water collapses on top of you, leaving you soaked. We finished off the day with bumper cars and our friends sharing a funnel cake with us:

Yum.

The next few days were more lowkey with Vampire Diaries marathons and having bubble tea :) Annnd getting a (ridiculously early) birthday gift (since my birthday's in August). I've been eyeing a new camera for a while, especially if I end up going to Europe in August (I've been keeping mum about it since I don't want to jinx it, but more on that later!). I was considering getting one that was almost like my mama's except with 2 extra megapixels ... and instead, my parents bestowed her camera upon me to keep since she only used it once for my sister's wedding. Et voila, awesome second camera! :) Here's a peak of it in my bathroom mirror (and also semi-showing off my shatter nails).

Say hello to my new baby! I'm trying to decide what to call it and I'm leaning towards

Fred (middle name Fuji, last name Film) or Colin (because of the character from Harry Potter)!

Any suggestions? :)

If this summer could get any more awesome so far, it'd give me the ability to both time travel and teleport so I could go back to this past Monday, teleport to Vancouver and attend Kym's wedding! So stoked for you and your new husband and I hope you have an amazing time in the Philippines :) Alas I can't teleport (though sometimes I time travel in my dreams so I'm counting that lol) so instead I'll try to live up the rest of June here in Ontario.

What are you looking forward to this season?

(I wrote 'season' in case it's not summer where you are!)

And what's your summer jam for '11?

(I'm loving Moves Like Jagger, not gonna lie.)

Hope you all have a great rest of the week! :)

feet in the sand

There's nothing quite like burying your toes in the sand on a nice day at the beach (and every time I do, I'm reminded of Amanda Bynes in What A Girl Wants when she says, "Don't you just love squiggling your toes in the sand? Did you know it's a natural exfoliant? Mom says if you can walk on a beach and you have a steady hand with nail polish there's no reason to ever pay for a pedicure." Wise words.)

 Catching some air at the beach!

Of course, once I'm all hyped up on chips and sugar, all I do at the beach is attempt to take jumping photos (since the water was way too cold for swimming). This weekend was a pretty crazy one, but one of those weekends where you take a lot of photos and then realize that none of them are suitable for the 'net (i.e., belated birthday barbeque extravaganza at The Boy's house complete with too many drinks and good friends). The only one I'd dare to show is:

I ♥ BBQs.

While recovering from the weekend, I've caught up on The Voice (who here is rooting for Team Adam? Though I also love Dia), and done a wee bit of shopping, though it's mostly walking away empty-handed when I see something on sale online, go to the store, and then it's gone (I snooze I lose, I guess!). I did come home with this pretty item, though:

I used to wear bracelets all the time, and decided to add one from Guess?  :)

I'm starting to turn into one of those people who doesn't know what day it is haha. I could have sworn today was the start of the weekend, which means celebrating one of my best friend's birthdays and hitting up Canada's Wonderland, but realized it's hump day. Either it's old age or I need to get myself a steady schedule. And too many days have gone by without doing this, but I received an amazing award from Tasha from a work in progress - thank youuuu!

Not sure if I fit into the 'stylish' category (but I tried to by showing off my bracelet haha). Now, these awards come with rules: you have to list 7 random things about yourself and then tag 7 other lovely people. So here goes! :)

1. I've played the guitar for about five years on-and-off; I'm rusty, but I love it.
2. I have a slight addiction to nail polish, and I have to wear it otherwise I nibble my nails down to the knuckle. Lately I'm hooked on the 'shatter' ones from OPI.
3. I got a navel piercing done last August in Vancouver as a bit of a 'dare', and my Dad doesn't even know about it yet (shhhh).
4. I could be on Don't Forget the Lyrics and win since I memorize lyrics way too easily.
5. When I was younger, I pretended I was in an all-girl group called (wait for it) The Sunflower Girls. Aww yeah. Our hits included "Love You Once More" and "If You Were My Boy" (which I wrote).
6. If I had the time and energy I'd love to become a daily vlogger like CTFxC and the Shaytards. Until I realize I'm not as cool/don't do too much hehe.
7. Every week I realize more and more that I have a horrible phobia of insects (except for butterflies and dragonflies, we cool).

Thanks again for the award! And I'd love to give this to: Krissy from i am krissy, Tiara from little tiara, Margarita from Fab Brunette, Reni from inHERshoes, Jaime from La Vie J'aime, Abby from Robots in Trouble, and Kathy from Life in Progress - and I'm adding Mel from ChinkyGirlMel because I love her outfits!

Hope you're all having a great mid-week!

What are you looking forward to this weekend? :)

P.S. A -major major- thank you to all the recent bloggers following me! 

I'm on the look out for the perfect giveaway gift, stay tuned :)

days to remember

I'm one of those people who likes to take pictures of everything they're about to eat, or pictures of random things that I see, or grab business cards from small shops for the future. It's like memory hoarding - I hoard pictures and little souvenirs to remember. The past five days (though especially the last two) provided so many moments like that ... and they were days to remember :)

Last Wednesday was The Boy's birthday - and it was lowkey but awesome :) His gift? A portable BBQ that he's already used a handful of times. The destination? Exploring lakes within a one-hour drive of our city and attempting to fish even though the winds were gusting like crazy. The food? Yummy burgers and sausages followed by my 'birthday cake' (banana chocolate chip loaf) to him and then ice cream (nom nom nom~). 

 Gorgeous lake on the left (that had 'keep out' signs all around it, meep) and our BBQ spot.

Rainbow sherbet and peach ice cream and a surprise bouquet(!!) from The Boy the next day :D

And then came the Unionville Festival!! I haven't seen my friend Isabelle in forevvaaaaaa and adding a festival on top of that makes for a weekend of epically awesome proportions. The bus rides there involved a crazy thunderstorm but it cleared up for a nice afternoon, an amazing night of fireworks, being introduced to Katamari which is so much fun and I'm disappointed there's no demo available on PS3 to play it, and trying out delicious new foods (including going to a Chinese dim sum restaurant where I was the only non-Asian hahah).

YUMMY YUMMY corn from an inflatable corn tent (that I want, with corn included plz).

Posed next to random things like a Wizard of Oz display (and close by you could hear little kids butchering Journey in karaoke hehe) and a HUGE Jack Daniel's bottle ... unfortunately it was only inflatable.

A scruuumptious steak salad with goat cheese, and then we also had amazing ravioli.

FIREWORKS! So pretty. And we sang along to QUEEN's Bohemian Rhapsody at the beginning :D

We also saw cool kilt-wearing men in a band called Seasick Sailors, they were so good!

Add me finding the sea salt spray I unfortunately had confiscated at the Vancouver airport, talking until our throats were itchy and our voices were hoarse, and finding amazing hand-made things like soy pineapple candles, yummy-smelling soaps, and other knick-knacks like gnome keychains ... it was such a great weekend and I'm so thankful she invited me over! I'm hoping the rest of June brings along more great memories :)

What were you up to this weekend?

And what's one meal you could really go for right now?

(I want to cook more and I'd love some ideas!)

COMING UP THIS WEEK: an indepth look at my sister's wedding day :)