sooo sick.

i would love to post a much love monday, but i just dont have it in me. 
my man and i are SUPER sick. 
its been a rough day. 
so hopefully things will get better soon. 
and ill be back to posting to much love monday next week!
xo.a


ps - i hope all of you are avoiding this (i think its the flu), because its awful!
stay healthy.

100 things about me...part one

ok - i am going to split this into 2 posts because even 50 is a lot to read!
but i figured since it is a new blog, this could be a good way to get out some random facts about me.

   

50 things...

1. i am a middle child
2. i have two wonderful brothers (love them a lot!)
3. my parents divorced when i was in grade 9
4. i have the most amazing boyfriend
5. i work in public health; i do drug and alcohol education
6. i love my work
7. i LOVE mexican...guac and nachos are by far my fav
8. when i was little i was mistaken for a boy, many times (i had very short hair, and wore older brother hand.me.downs)
9. because of # 8 - i have had long hair for most of my adult life
10. my guilty pleasure is the soap y&r (its a great mindless 38 minutes every now and then, thanks to rogers on demand)
11. in high school my bff and i dreamed up a plan to ride around canada in a VW van, filled with supplies and stop everywhere to talk about healthy living
12. i REALLY miss travelling
13. my favourite place on earth is my cottage
14. i swam competitively for 14 years
15. one of my favourite movies is UP
16. i love punk rock music (although dont listen to it as much anymore...mainly when im working out)
17. i also love very girly music (ellie goulding, tegan and sarah, lily allen, lauryn hill and sometimes taylor swift!)
18. i am definitely a morning person
19. my favourite drink is tea (and water)
20. i used to drink a diet coke a day (in high school) - stopped in grade 11 and have rarely drank any pop since
21. my friend erin is basically my sister, i have known her since we were little wee bebes
22. i miss real thai food, especially the 10bhat pad thai from a street vendor...but the stuff here is decently good
23. i really want to go to costa rica and peru
24. spring is my favourite season
25. i was born in may and am a taurus
26. i am also dating a taurus 
27. generally, i take lunch to work everyday
28. i enjoy chopping vegetables or fruit while watching tv or listening to music
29. my priority list of beauty maintenance is 1. haircuts 2. massages 3. mani/pedi
30. i am a sens fan, mainly because i went to school with one of the players
31. i read eat, pray, love while i was in bali...it was my favourite book at the time
32. before i started dating matt (my current bf), i was single for 4 years
33. i love the idea of going to coffee shops to read, journal, listen to music - but never want to spend the money...so usually just do it all at home instead
34. i used to hate winter, i am starting to warm up to it
35. my friends and family are the most important thing in my life
36. i absolutely love fresh fruit - all kinds but pears
37. cleaning, singing and exercise are my top 3 stress relievers
38. i am so excited to be an auntie to a little girl :) 
39. sometimes i can be very emotional
40. the movie that makes me cry every single time is - when a man loves a woman
41. i love taking pictures, to the point where im sure people get really annoyed with me
42. real simple is my favourite magazine
43. i get scared easily, especially when matt hides around the house with the agenda to scare me...he does that a lot and gets me EVERY time.
44. i can honestly say i am happy with my weight / body where it is now. it isnt perfect, but it is mine and i like it
45.  i constantly make to do lists and love crossing things off
46. i reallllly want to get a dog....
47. i always eat breakfast
48. i am a huge klutz and often hurt myself or someone else and/or break things (i.e. dropped my phone in the bath the other day and now its dead!! it was only 3 months old!!)
49. going to the movies is one of my favourite things to do
50. i am way more girly now in my life than i ever have been


link to part deux

trying the trend...

i am an avid google reader follower. but this seems to be the new best thing....so im giving it a try!

Follow my blog with bloglovin

much love monday

currently i am loving...

~ the above necklace from {lifestyle bohemia}

~the delicious taco meat that is in the slow cooker, just waiting to be eaten

~the {anticipation for the} photo course i am taking on friday

~preparations for hosting saturday

~2 of matts friends coming over for dinner to enjoy said tacos very soooon

~thoughts of bali, mexico and thailand....drool.

go to much love to see more monday love

and share what you are loving today!

xo.a

its a ....

baby girl!!!

we had a great day visiting with the family. 

and i am very excited to be an auntie to a little girl. 

xo.a

friday night love

ive said a couple times in this very new blog how much i love fridays. 

tonight was no exception. 

i went to a friends for dinner and drinks and a birthday celebration. 

these are ladies i have known since i was very little. 

we have been friends through a variety of life experiences:

first loves, break ups, divorce, growing pains and lots of fun.

it was a fabulous night of delicious food 

(thai green curry and cupcakes AND chocolate cake). 

not to mention a decent amount of wine. 

it was fantastic.

on top of the fabulous evening. 

tomorrow i get to find out...

whether i will be auntie to a ... 

boy or girl!

the suspense is killing me, but i am excited to find out sooooon. 

i hope you are having a good night/day wherever you are. 

xo.a

pinterest

swooooooon. 

i love love love this website!!!!!

pinterest

 

oh my gosh.

i dont spend nearly as much time as i wish i could on it. 

but i love being able to host all these things that i love in one spot. 

and be able to find their original source with an easy click. 

 

i used to do this when i was younger with binders and papers and magazines. 
i would cut out all the things that inspired me. 
now i can do it online and connect back to the source!

♥ love.love.love  ♥

xo.a

much love mondays

i love this feature on much love mondays.

today has been named blue monday. 

the most depressing day of the year. 

this morning getting out of bed to go to work - i felt the depressing. 

luckily, some positivity and good thinking got me out of my funk. 

the much love part of my day...
when my man came home with a surprise chai tea latte. 
best ever!!!
 (latte above; me enjoying below)

happy happy monday!
xo.a

relax?! sometimes its hard...

the weekend has been lovely and relaxing...

but sometimes its just so hard to relax. 

(weheartit)

friday matt had a rough day (just busy work stuff)

so we decided to stay in, cook a delicious dinner and watch a bond movie

{with a fire and snuggles}

= heaven

(weheartit)

saturday we went out of town (with my brothers) 

to have a late christmas dinner with my dad and his wife. 

dinner was delicious and it was nice to visit. 

we hung out and watched football when we got back.

today has been filled with lots of relaxing.

at some point in the day i felt extremely restless. 

and wondered why.

we so rarely allow ourselves to just relax and do whatever we feel like it.

our lives are so filled with plans and to do lists. 

so today i gave myself permission to forget the to do lists and just relax. 

it has been lovely.

its back to work tomorrow. 

and the to do list will come back then. 

but for now....

it can wait. and i can enjoy my book, sudoku and football.

i hope you had a lovely, relaxing weekend too.

xo.a

friday love...

well its a GORGEOUS friday here in toronto. 

the sun is out, the snow is melting, the temperature is perfect. 

i love it!

ive been dreaming of sandy beaches and sunshine.
this sandy beach is in bali.
droool...when can i go back?!

ok...the picture distracted me. 

so its also my day off. 

i have a wonderful employer that allows us to work on a compressed schedule. 

so i take 30 minute lunches instead of 1 hr

and i get every 3rd friday off. 

its fantastic!

its been a productive friday so far. 

~ finished my book

~ dropped the car off for service

~ watched the movie babies

~ cleaned most of the apartment

~ doing laundry

this afternoon i am going to go to starbucks and get a chai tea latte

ive heard they are on for 1/2 price this week and i just havent gotten a chance to go.

ill probably start a new book.

overall, it just feels like a great day - i hope you have a great day too!

xo.a

i am so happy to say i have already finished one of my 2011 goals. 

2011 goals...

6. create a 2010 yearbook = DONE!!

a little history....

this past fall, matt lost his granny. it was (and still is) extremely hard on the family. they have such a strong family connection, they are helping each other through. but still, she is missed by many everyday. 

during the process of getting things in order, the family spent lots of time looking at old pictures and photo albums. they compiled a wonderful slideshow and all the grandkids put together prints as christmas gifts for the family.

it got me thinking...

with this new age of computers and digital photos,we are losing those memories. i used to be so diligent at printing pictures and putting albums together, but it just hasnt happened over the past couple of years. my pictures are stuck in the computer and the times when i do still print pictures (more often than a lot of people) - they are a random collection of pictures that dont make sense or have any association to a story/memory etc.

so...here is where the 2010 photobook comes in. i am going to do a yearly photobook (for as long as i can) to chronicle our years so when i (we) have grandchildren, they will have memory books to look through. 

i had so much fun last night going through the year of pictures and sorting out which were my favourite (soooo hard to do because there are soo many!). now i just want it to be here now!!!! but i will have to wait a while before it is delivered.

xo.a

random collection of things...

WEEKEND

well that went by extremely fast!

overall, a rather successful weekend. 

the boys cleared off the ice to make a rink. 

so there was lots of hockey, passing the puck and skating around. 

i made the BEST snow angel (but didnt get a pic :(.)

we played lots of cards and ate delicious food.

(i think the lunch chicken and steak fajitas was my fav!)

the weekends go by so fast. 

but it was nice to see some of matts friends. 

he doesnt get to see them as often anymore. 

we live downtown and most of them live in the burbs. 

so i was glad he got some good "guy" time while we were away.

3 YEARS!

in other news - it was our "made up" anniversary date this past weekend. 

we dont really have a solid date for when we got together. 

and we dont really celebrate all that much.

but its been around 3 years(ish) since we officially got together. 

we are going out for dinner sometime in the next 2 weeks to celebrate. 

we just have to sort out a date when we can go. 

things are sooo busy already!

i thought january was supposed to slow down....

TO DO

a couple things on the to do list this week...

~return library book

~put together new tv stand

~get new tv!!!

~get an oil change

~date with erin (postponed to next week); date with jenny

~christmas dinner with my dad & bros & sig. others

~go to the gym 3x

~get a haircut (but not sure i can do that this week...soooo needed though!)

xo.a

friday love...

TGIF - i love fridays!!!

today especially. 

matt and i are going to one of his friends cottages for the weekend.

i am so excited to get out of the big city 

and have a fun winter wonderland weekend away.

(weheartit)

it's been a long week back to work. 

i havent been sleeping that well, and its so hard getting up in the morning. 

hopefully next week will be a little easier.

i have been going to the gym and killed my arms/back yesterday. 

the pain is goooooood. or so i keep telling my body.

also, i have made a couple new recipes already that i will post next week. 

i forgot to take pictures, but think i will start taking pics and posting recipes i like. 

ive been on a 'trying new recipes' binge. 

so id like to document them in case i want to use them again!

also - i look forward to this...# 337 of awesome things

ok. i guess i should get back to work. 

happy {almost} weekend!

xo.a

reflecting on 2010

recently i did some reflecting and learned a couple things that i want to remember...

1. family is the most important thing to me. i love their company and i should put more effort into seeing them more often. also, family to me includes my closest of friends...some family you are born with and others you create. so for this, i am talking about both.

2. i looove heels. but i also looove flats. so....sometimes heels, sometimes flats.

3. if i get a manicure, i must go home and do nothing for 2 hours or i will ruin it and completely waste the money!

4. matt is the best man i have ever known...cherish every minute with him.

5. i learned a lot about unconditional love this year, and believe i can give unconditional love to my family (born and made).

6. must not buy what i cant afford...this is my biggest goal of 2011.

7. i LOVE getting my hair done, but it is a luxury and not a need. another goal is to spend less on it this year and one day i can indulge in amazing hair care.

8. generally i am not a good phone talker, i never have been. but i learned picking up the phone to call isnt all that bad.

9. i cant stand lipstick on me...i like how it looks on others, but not on me. i am a forever lipgloss wearer, but my favourite is still burts bees lip balm.

10. i can get sucked into boring, pointless tv. so just watch the shows you want to watch and then turn it off or go to our reading corner and do something else.

xo.a

happy new year!

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!!!

2011....wow

i had a brilliant time one new years eve. 

our friends put on an apres-ski hot tub party. 

we ate and drank and danced and talked.

it was tons of fun. 

also, we played with my camera and took some fun pictures. 

here is a sample....

we had such a great time. 

today was back to work. it was hard getting out of bed to get to the office. 

but im sure i will get back into the swing of things soon. 

i hope you had a wonderful new years.

xo.a