simple smiles #44

And just like that, my countdown to Europe has reached the single digit of 5 days. I'm a little burnt out from the daily 7-3 work grind to the point that I fear I'll spend half my vacation snoozing away like an old lady to catch up on sleep (though getting a free daily coffee from a teacher for the past three weeks has definitely helped!). At the same time, I'm excited to soak it all in - the culture, the food, meeting The Boy's family, food, exploring castles, food, going shopping, taking a gazillion photographs, FOOD. I know I'll be missing these following things though, the things that bring me those simple smiles:

BOOKS. (click here for a larger image) I'll admit, lately my 'reading' has been trying to do the 'medium' section of my Sudoku puzzle book, but books will always have a soft spot in my heart. Plus, my sister who just recently returned to the blogging scene has a section called "bookshelf love" and she wanted me to join in! All my novels/textbooks/comics are pretty much scattered ALL OVER THE PLACE but here's a peek at just one of my shelves - you'll find Harry Potter, some Shakespeare, required reading from university that I ended up loving, and a couple of books I haven't even read yet - whoops! I'm going to try to take a couple of books with me on my travels but I know I probably won't have time!

SUMMERLICIOUS. Every winter and summer, Toronto hosts a 'Winterlicious' or 'Summerlicious' where restaurants have set menus for lunch/dinner that are $15 and up. Two online friends that I've known since I was about 13 (so 10 years!) meet up every year and decided to try out Cafe California - it was AMAZING. Above is the warm pasta salad, which was an assortment of everything and was bursting with flavour. And after we checked out a Salsa festival, which made me wish I knew how to dance (though I'm great at the waltz) :P

ESCAPING TO THE BEACH. I finally had a day off this past Friday and got to catch up with The Boy; I owned him at skipping rocks and then had another couple of our friends join us for random times at the beach. One of the main reasons why I'm so excited for Europe is because I'll be able to actually spend time with him, since it's been such a rarity this past month. 

SURPISE BIRTHDAYS & FRIENDS. Yesterday we hit up a local conservation area for a surprise birthday party for one of my closest friends and it was a blast! :) I know what I'll miss most in my month away is planned & spontaneous get-togethers with friends. We BBQed, caught up, explored behind a waterfall and just enjoyed the sun, making it the perfect three-day weekend.

My final day of the three-day weekend has been spent getting those last-minute items for Europe, trying my hand at EXTREME COUPONING ($10.99 Venus razors on sale for $6.99 + a $2 off coupon = $4.99 razors, baby!) and err ... fighting the urge to take a nap and sleep away the rest of the afternoon. Gotta start packing!!

How has your weekend been?

And what would your ultimate Europe souvenir be?

(I'm planning a giveaway at the end of August with a European souvenir!)

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! :)

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 :)