an ode to august

Oh August - how I love you. I might be a little biased since my birthday's on the 31st of August which is  tomorrow(!!!), but I've always found myself enjoying the days more, taking the most pictures during this month, and reveling in free days, planned nights, and spontaneous Skype dates. The air is not as humid and muggy as July in southern Ontario, and there's a slight crispness in the air in the evenings as the sun sets earlier; but it's a nice reminder that layered knits and pumpkin spice lattes are right around the corner.

My simple smile for this week - besides finding sweet birthday cards and surprise packages in the mail from dear friends - is finding my own little bit of paradise this month in the form of a road trip to Bruce Peninsula National Park. We drove through towns that had a higher population of cows than actual people and made it to crystal clear (and freezing!) waters and exploring a grotto (and coming up with a song called "Otto the Grotto").

The waters looked all Caribbean-like but were so cold.

The Grotto and my freshly dyed strawberry-blonde hair! (:

When I haven't been searching for or enjoying paradise, I've been baking a lot thanks to my parents' friends who have a ton of fruit trees in their backyard. Two weeks ago I made plum cake, and just last night made a peach cake, all using the same basic recipe (which I'll probably share soon)!

The times that I'm not baking, I've spent catching up with schoolmates from university and teacher's college, either at a restaurant, cafe, or a 10km hike which kills my legs but feels so good at the same time. There's this trail that my friend introduced me to that has running streams, crazy hills, and close encounters with deer and I wish it was closer to my home so I could walk it every day.  

Two of these lovely ladies are leaving me for London; 

I unfortunately could not fit inside their luggage.

The times that I'm not catching up with schoolmates, I've spent doing an overdue reunion with two of my workmates - and crashed a TV set in the downtown for a show called Bomb Girls. Lots of 1940s garb, fake snow, and posters for 5 cent burgers and trendy fashions.

WOMANPOWER -- we can do it! We can ... cook things over a stove?

And when I haven't been doing all that, I've been trying to plan out as much of my fall as I can while also working in The Boy's soon-to-be-open shop! While we'd love to get our ideal jobs right away, this is kind of our back-up/let's-make-ends-meet route for now, and it's pretty nerve-wrecking and exciting at the same time. 

I find that I can look back at every August of my recent years with fond memories; it'd definitely be my month of choice to relive over and over if I could.

if you could choose a month to relive whenever you wanted, 

which one would it be & why?

and if you haven't yet,

please mosey on down and join the postcard project!

Tomorrow involves a surprise day from The Boy (all I know is that I have to bring my bathing suit), and then hopefully a beach day with my girlfriends on Saturday. Hope you all have a great rest of the week! (:

wednesday wishes: wish come true!

Whoa, where'd the rest of June and the first half of July go? Since resuming my five-summer streak of working in the office of a summer school the days have become a bluuuur - a mostly fun, but kind of exhausting blur. Tomorrow I'll be waiting in line with two of my best friends to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 at midnight and waving farewell and adieu to what's left of my childhood once the credits start to roll by (and probably saying "accio tissues!" A LOT). 

I've been both anticipating and dreading the arrival of July since this means the end of an 'era' (for Harry Potter anyways) - but I've been able to fill up these past few weeks with a lot of happy times (too many to recap in one post!). Here's what I've been 'obsessed' with or up to recently:

I decided to put the vain, beauty-related one first haha. Since getting my hands on the OPI Shatter nail polishes and looking up different things to do to your nails I've been hooked on 'nail art' - like cutting bits of newspaper and applying it to your nails with alcohol! Since I'll always bite my nails if I don't have them painted, I'm always looking for new things/polishes/designs to try out.

This one has kind of taken a back seat now that I'm working five days a week but I got bit by the cooking bug a couple of weeks ago which meant lots of cookies, cupcakes, and loaves. Nom nom nom.

I both blame and thank my sister Margarita for introducing me to Pinterest ... it's kind of like having a page of bookmarks except it's images and you can organize them easily and see what other people have 'pinned.' At first I thought, "Oh, like Tumblr" except it's on crack. If anyone else is addicted to it like I am, I'd love to see your boards, as weird as that sounds (here's my account).

Spontaneity might seem a little broad, but it's basically just random days and nights out that have pretty much little to no planning involved but turn into amazing moments, like walking along the lake with The Boy, seeing X-Men: First Class (AWESOME FILM, EPIC BROMANCE) and checking out a fair, and then making s'mores at a friend's BBQ (and looking crazy while doing so).

Hmm, counting down to what, you may ask? Well, since the dawn of this blog I've almost always had this in my description: "Dealing with university life, an amazing Boy and the friends, with a strong yearning to travel around Europe anytime." Well that 'anytime' has turned into a definitive amount of time:

IN 16 DAYS
I'M GOING TO EUROPE!

It was one of those "yes I want to go, please make it happen even if we don't book the flights until three weeks before the trip" kind of deal. But it's FINALLY HAPPENING. For the whole month of August (and the last couple of days in July) I'll be hitting up Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Transylvania, and hopefully Austria and Croatia, too. In other words: A HARDCORE (EASTERN) EUROTRIP. I can't wait to pose by more statues, admire the architecture, eat the FOOD, and meet all of The Boy's family while seeing my relatives again for the second time in my life :) I've kept this a bit on the downlow since I didn't want to jinx it, but you'll bet your bottom I'll be writing about it a lot now!

So finally a 'Wednesday wish' has come true and now I'm just hoping for a bit more time to relax, catch up on some amazing blogs, and get everything ready before we're off! :)

What have you been up to lately?

Anything you're obsessed with?

And who is going to be sobbing at the end of Harry Potter like me?

Hope you're having a great mid-week!

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! :)

those summerific days

Warning: Lots of pics here, especially with tongues sticking out! :P

Have you ever had those days where you finally get home, completely exhausted, but with the biggest smile on your face because you think, "Wow, now that was a great day"? I was just blessed with two in a row, and now that I'm relaxing, thought I'd share those precious moments!



It started off Wednesday morning; it was one of those rare times when my parents were out of the house early, meaning I had the entire house to myself. So, what did I do? I took advantage of an empty kitchen with this recipe and made French toast with two strips of bacon and coffee! What a filling breakfast, followed by exercise. A beautiful, albeit seldom, way for me to start off the day!



A few hours later, I was headed off to the lake with two of my best buds for some great times in the sand. We ended up staying in the water for two hours, chatting and playing random games like, "Okay, you can't say any words with the letter 'O' in them!" which led me to respond with, "Oh" and getting splashed immediately. We are mature twenty-somethings, for sure!


Bathing suit from Victoria's Secret.
I love leaping pictures, haha. After I got home, a few shades darker and with my eyes all red from too-much-sun-exposure, I got to see The Boy! We headed to the mall for an incredibly rare shopping spree moment, since we're both not really the type. It was really fun, though!


♥
It just so happens that I'm not in fashion at all, since I was looking for black short shorts and all I could find were SKIRTS. EVERYWHERE! Fall fashion had just come into the stores just as our real summer arrived ... so instead I walked away with two mini-skirts (one which The Boy paid for as an early birthday present, yippee)!

Then we headed off to this quaint ice-cream-shop on the first floor of an apartment building. We asked for a kiddie size that was $2.50, and they were GINORMOUS!



I got Maple Walnut while he chose Burgundy Cherry and we sat on the grass for half an hour, acting like little kids as we enjoyed our ice cream. All in all, an amazing Wednesday.

Then Thursday came, with even more water-fun! Me and the same gals from Wednesday headed off to our local waterpark (correction: our ONLY waterpark!). We decided to go to a free-parking zone which saved us $7 and instead walked 2km to the place. It was SO hot out, but such a nice walk!


Bathing suit from La Vie En Rose.

I put in my best Lauren Conrad-inspired braid and had a blast going on the waterslides and then leaping like a frog in the wavepool. I love acting like a kid, not gonna lie!

Then we walked another 2km back to the car and headed to the restaurant on the beach, eating a yummy meal. But not before my friend snapped a picture of me snapping a picture of my friend in front of me, haha.



I came home exhausted, with my eyes resembling that of a thirsty vampire's, but still had an amazing time. After some well-deserved sleep, I woke up and found this in the mail!



Liz and Lisa from Chick Lit Is Not Dead had a giveaway recently and I was one of the winners who received Emily Giffin's book! I'm already on page 112, it's a great read so far! Love me some page-turners. Thanks Liz and Lisa! And big thanks to the sweet, thoughtful, and adorable Nicole who gave me this award!



She gave this away to some of the same girls that I would, but there's so many of you that I'm thankful for, that I remember from my earlier blog days and that I still love to read day after day! I want to give this out to: Kym, Jessica, Josie, Archana, Andhari, and Girl With The Golden Touch. I'm grateful for your insight, your briliance, your kindness, and your awesomeness!

And make sure to send some birthday love over to Olivia Rae who just turned 20! Happy Birthday! :)

Whew, that's a lot of pictures! And the weekend promises even more: tomorrow, I'm headed to Toronto for a Filipinos Making Waves Festival (of which I might be the only white girl!) and then Sunday I'm off to the beach with The Boy.

Hope you all have an amazing weekend!~ :)

life's a b ...each!

Even when you get away and escape, it's hard to not look over your shoulder and see all of life's problems in your shadow. But today at the beach with The Boy, we made shadows of love. Wow, that's a cheesy sentence!

After managing to write up 2 1/2 pages about King Lear and methods of disguise, me and The Boy got together ... after he first graciously drove me to the mall to pick up a copy of Lauren Conrad's L.A. Candy for a present for my friend's birthday this weekend (which, surprisingly, makes for a really good chick-lit novel).



Then, off to the beach we went! It was a perfect summer day, and even though the water was pretty freezing (especially for the 'babymakers', as he calls them), we managed to swim for ten minutes before just tanning on the sand.

My recipe for a perfect summer day:
+ some place with sand, water, and warmth
+ people around you who make it complete and happy
+ a couple of free Harvey's burgers
+ eating Skor ice cream (in my backyard as the sun sets, optional!)

All in all, though life can be a major biatch and throw curveballs our way, I'm so grateful for places like the beach, where you can just relax ... and cool off, since this heat is really getting to me.

We tried to make a heart with our hands, but kinda failed!


There was some kind of sailboat convention going on!
I was jealous and kept singing, "I'm on a [sail]boat!"
(5 points to whoever gets the reference!)


We like to pretend we're siamese twins on the beach with our shadows.


This is my 'tropical paradise' :)

What's your recipe for a perfect summer day?

summertime & the weather is breezy

It's finally the first day of summer; in my part of the world (and hopefully yours too), the birds are chirping and the sun is shining. While I've felt bombarded with the need to fit into my bikini perfectly with diets and exercise, I thought this recipe of the week is a perfect blend of yummy goodness and health in the form of strawberries. It's called Strawberry Whipped Sensation; the site has both the recipe and a step-by-step video that's really helpful, though the woman herself is a bit creepy! Either way, I think it's a perfect Father's Day/1st day of summer treat!

And wow, thank you so much for all the comments on the last entry ... I never pictured having 18 comments on one entry! As cheesy as it sounds, I'm so happy to have found so many 20-somethings (or younger or older!) who I can identify with and make awesome blog-friendships with. Yeah, summer puts me in a sentimental mood.

I'm also PSYCHED because I got the Sims 2 Seasons expansion pack, something I've wanted for a while and, since I'm not getting Sims 3 for a few years, thought I'd get! So, I'm going to be spending the first day of summer ... indoors, having my Sims enjoy making gardens and fishing in ponds. Err, waitaminute ... shouldn't I be doing that? (Haha.) Oh, and I also found a DVD concert of the lead singer from Pink Floyd for my Dad ... yeah, I know what my Dad likes :)

My first weekend of summer was spent fishing on Friday with The Boy, which was an awesome time -- we caught two fish and we even swam among bright yellow water lillies, which were breathtaking. Then yesterday, I went to a park with a galfriend right by the edge of our escarpment in our city and watched the city below, complete with Iced Cappuccinos. Then we watched Prime (with Uma Thurman) back at her place, which wasn't at all what I expected but I actually really liked it! Oh, and I also watched Match Point, which had two pluses -- Matthew Goode and Johnathan Rhys Myers -- and one big minus -- Scarlett Johannson. Gah, she ruins every movie for me haha.

Hope you all enjoy an amazing first week of summer! It's finally here! Sunshine, tanning, biking, hiking, enjoying cool lemonade and delicious ice cream ... I'm excited. Are you? :)