hiatus.

In my recent absence - this is where my mind has gone.





I'm sure I'll be back. 
Just not sure when. 
xo.a

dreaming of...

...New Zealand and all the fun adventures that country has to offer... 

We were crazy ladies and decided to bike around NZ...that's right - bicycle! We went from Auckland on the North Island to Nelson on the South Island (!). Then realized our level of crazy (actually we were running out of time), so we got ourselves some wheels, a beauty German traveling buddy and did a tour of the South. 

 We did lots of hikes, drives, touristy things and I even jumped out of a plane (in spite of being terrified of heights). 

Oh - and I got to swim with the dolphins. Crossed that off my bucket list. 


 A few pictures of this gorgeous country.  

52 FAB - week 2

This week's fabulous included 24 hours with my niece and (soon-to-be) sister in law! 

Not to mention meeting my friend's baby Norah (who was born in February). 

It was a wonderful 24 hours of catching up, playing and giggling and even doing some shopping. Jess, Madeline and I crossed the border and hit up the outlets and target...girls shopping trip! 

 xo.a

update of nothing.

(~)

I can't believe May is actually over (as of tomorrow.) 

It was a fabulous month, filled with lots of fun adventures (Jays game, birthday dinners, cottage weekend, sporting life 10km, celebrating wonderful mothers and eating lots of good food). 

June becomes the month of birthdays in my family - my mom, brother, niece, (soon-to-be) sister in law and my dad. June is also going to bring some weekends at home and another cottage weekend (we just decided!)...oh and the longest day of the year. 

Currently I am loving: 

~ the many hours of daylight we are getting (!)

~ seeing my niece tonight and spending the day with her (and my sister in law) tomorrow (!)

~ my morning tea

~ pampering this weekend (finally getting my hair cut and indulging in a massage)

~ anything BBQ'd

~ upcoming plans

~ the flowers in the garden

~ open toed shoes

I hope you have a nice weekend. 

xo.a

52 FAB - week 1

For my first week of FABULOUS - my fab for the week is actually work-related! 

Recently I was trained as a car seat technician at work, and this week I was able to do my first car seat clinic with the Peel Paramedic Association in Mississauga. It was a little nerve racking, as I had never fully installed a car seat before (since I have no kids, I have not had the pleasure...or frustration). 

But...the day was seriously fabulous. 

The weather was gorgeous (and I ended up with a burn to prove it). 

We were outside for 4 hours helping parents or soon to be parents install their car seat safely was so fulfilling knowing I was helping ease their minds and improve the safety of their children. 

Throughout training I was shocked at how complicated car seat installation can be, and how frustrating it must be for parents who have so much to think about and plan for their new addition and most likely haven't received any information about car seat installation, other than the manual. Every car and every car seat work differently together, so it is always a challenge and there is no one perfect way to install, however there is always a safest way. According to the OPP clinics, around 80% of the car seats they see are not installed correctly...this number was shocking to me! With all of the things parents do for their children, keeping them safe in a car should be pretty high on the list, but I can appreciate it is hard to know what is the safest.

So as a plug for prevention and safety (which is my job) - if you are having a baby, please take advantage of car seat clinics (most of them are free - check out St. John Ambulance, OPP or paramedics in your area for clinic dates and times). They will provide you with the proper information and help you install your car seat so that it is safe.  

5*things - random edition

1. May is still my favourite month, and with all the exciting adventures (see here and here) it lived up to every expectation and the weather blew EVERYTHING out of the water. It was unbelievable gorgeous here this month, and I am so happy to have thoroughly enjoyed all the outside time, and hope it continues through the summer!

2. I got cirque du soleil tickets (this show) for my birthday (I LOVE these shows); as well as tickets to see my favourite punk band face to face. Isn't it fabulous when birthday's keep giving in events like these, will be nice to have both of those nights out with awesome people. 

3.  BBQ is the best. 

4. We had dinner last night with my brother at The Harbord Room - it was delicious, the atmosphere was very chill ~ we had a great time. I would definitely recommend checking this place out. 

5. I am going to do a (new) year long fabulous project. When I was 29 - I decided to do a 365 day fabulous project, where I found something fabulous in/about every day. It was wonderful and I wish I had this blog at the time, but I logged it on livejournal and deleted my account (silly me!). So this year I am going to do a 52 FAB - and post 1 thing each week that (to me) is fabulous. I am starting this week - so look for that coming soon!

recently.

This past week has been busy and fabulous. 

Matt and I celebrated our 2 wonderful mothers (and thought of countless others who make this world go round). 

We ran the Sporting Life 10km race for kids with cancer (my first, his second race ever). It was the largest race in Toronto with 25,000 participants signed up! 

We celebrated his birthday and went to a Jays game.

(so handsome!)

And my birthday was celebrated with delicious fajitas and a pending trip to the cottage (we are leaving in T minus 4 hours - eeek!). 

This weekend will be filled with work, visiting and hopefully lots of outdoor time, a great Canadian long weekend...is it time yet?!

Happy long weekend for matty, rufus and myself! 
xo.a

hair play...

So Carly from miss teacups did a post a while back about her different hairstyles over the years, so I had some fun looking back at my different hair do's. For a while I did a lot with my hair! The following is a collection from 2007 till now. I would love to go back to my printed pics and scan some of those in - I had some interesting haircuts over time!

 

Ever since my mom let me grow my hair out in grade 7 (I had short hair until then...very BOY like!) - I have grown my hair long and then chopped it all off. The process continues, I chopped it in November and am back on the mission to grow it back. 

Well that was fun! I think hair is a person's best accessory...Maybe it's time to do something fun with mine again! 

may adventures.

(~)

may is my favourite month of the year. it brings birthdays, cottage time, COLOUR, plants and flowers, warmer weather, sunshine and the idea that anything is possible! 

this month is going to consist of (and had already)...

~ swiss chalet dinner treat

~ visiting sky, nicole & cohen

~ doing stuff around the house: gardening, putting up patio lights (!), needed car clean 

~ seeing jenny and gwen and taking 5 month pictures :)

~ my first 10km running race

~ celebrating mothers day 

~ dinner for matt's dad's birthday

~ matt & my birthday (!) 

~ cottage weekend (!)

~ back deck relaxing

~ lots of runs and park time with rufus

~ blue jays game
~ watched hunger games (so good!)

life is good. 

First cottage weekend...

Last weekend I went to the cottage with my BFF for a weekend of work and relaxation. We had a lovely time at "Hotel Healey" - her parents took great care of us. We ate delicious meals (including pancakes and bacon, chicken salad, turkey dinner and baguette french toast), sat by the fire listening to non-stop acoustic (my favourite), lots of good conversation and I even got some work done around our cottage.

5*things

(source)

1. I have been out of town for the last three weekends. I am craving some fut-zing around the house and sleeping in (even though I can never really sleep in) this weekend. 

2. Today is MAY. I love MAY, it is my favourite month for many reasons. Julie is doing a month of May love - check it out over here. 

3. Matty came home with a surprise for me - a new JAYS hat! Not only it is fabulous, it is the first new hat I have gotten in 7 years...I was still wearing my ratty Puma hat that has survived many adventures (and countries!) when I was travelling. It might be time for it to retire, now that I have a new snazzy one.

4. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom in High Park a couple weeks ago. It is my FAVOURITE time of year in the park. I did not get a chance to go and sit amongst them, but enjoyed running through the park enjoying the beautiful colours, smells and scenery. To read more about the history of the Cherry Blossoms click here. 

5. I really desperately need to get my huur did. But for some reason keep putting off making an appointment. I am in that ~ trying to grow it out and don't want to cut it, but know that I should cut it so it will grow faster phase. Oh and I have so many grey hairs poking through...Matty calls them "blonde" highlights, it's cute...but definitely not true. Gotta get on that hair dye too. 

thoughts.

do more. be more. love more. make more.

Is it normal for us humans, to always strive for more?
I struggle between wanting more and being satisfied with what I have.
It's a never-ending struggle. Sometimes I feel like everything I have is enough. 
And other times I feel nothing is enough. 


Having enough.
I have a great apartment, in a fun city, with a great man and energetic dog. I have a superb family that I love dearly (and loves me) {and yes...i said superb!}, we are all healthy, strong, contributing members of society. I live a comfortable life where there is food on my table, blankets on my bed and clothes in my closet. I can be proud of what I have accomplished. 


Never enough.
But often I think there should be more to this life. We should do more outside, listen to more music, read more, enjoy the city more, see people we love more, make more take time for ourselves, workout more,  


What does it take to believe what you have is enough? 
What if enough, really isn't enough and you should strive for more?


Most of the time I think I want to live the simple life. 
But my mind seems to make things more complicated. 
Which leads to wanting MORE.

life lately.

(link)

Life has been mostly non-blog worthy these days. 
Matt and I have been busy doing regular adult things (which means helping out family and doing lots of work). I haven't taken a picture on my camera since Easter (which for me is odd).  


A few of the going ons:
~My older brother went to Japan to compete in the Strongman race, read about his trip over here
~I have seen my younger brother 3 weekends in a row (and that is fantastic and abnormal). It has been lovely spending time with him
~We have been watching a lot of hockey (GO SENS!)
~Saw my mom on the weekend, it's always nice to go home...even if a lot of housework was involved. In the cheesiest way possible, I love my mom, she is a fantastic lady! 
~Friends of Matt's got engaged this weekend - it is VERY exciting :)
~The weatherman is calling for snow today...which I am not surprised about, but am hoping the spring-weather will become a little more consistent. The temperature has been fluctuating way too  much for my liking. Anything above +10 (consistently) would be great, please and thank you.
~I have been running and have FINALLY made it passed my mental block of only being able to run for 20-30 minutes. I am not running fast, but I am running consistently and for longer than ever, so that is success in my books. Oh - and I am (almost) always enjoying it and not just forcing myself to do it.


Maybe I will have more fun pictures to share after I head to the cottage for a relaxing/working weekend with my BFF. 


xo.a

my puppy...

I wasn't blogging at the time of the new addition to our family. 

So I thought I would share the story of Rufus McFly!

(the day we picked him up)

A little history: 

I have always wanted a dog. Growing up I wouldn't leave my parents 

alone about wanting a dog. 

Every year at Christmas, they would get me a stuffed animal dog. 

Which was wonderful, but not exactly what I wanted.

{I always dreamt of waking up on Christmas morning to a golden retriever in my stocking}

Matty's family got a dog when he was just in his twenties. 

He is a dog person through and through. 

How it happened: 

We had been talking about dogs for over a year. 

Our discussions revolved around what breed would we get, puppy vs older dog etc.

Obviously I fought for a golden, Matty wanted a husky. 

We started looking at other breeds, seriously considering Bernese Mountain dogs. 

We started looking at breeder websites, and adoption websites. 

We watched Ceasar Milan on Saturday mornings just to get our dog fill. 

{yes, we are nerds}

I forget who sent the email first - but we started looking at some pictures of puppies on an adoption website (petfinder.ca)

They were adorable, I wish I had a picture. 

We started seriously considering it, and thought what is the harm in applying?!

So we did. 

Three days later we brought Mr. Rufus McFly home with us!

About Rufus McFly

He was (around) 8 weeks when we brought him home. 

He was clumsy and couldn't make it up the stairs because he was too small!

He weighed about 10lbs and was so soft. 

He is a sheppard, lab, collie cross. 

And he is just the sweetest dog. 

We think he is just over a year now.

He weighs about 70lbs. 

He is a mixture between being super hyper (especially when we go somewhere new or we have company - he LOVES meeting people and dogs) and a suck (usually after he has had lots of exercise and is rather tired)

He has been a brilliant addition to our family. 

xo.a

photo*log - gwen

I've been fortunate to see my friend Jenny's baby {almost} 

once a week since she was born in December. 

During many of the visits, my camera rarely leaves my hands. 

She is 4 months now...and gaining quite the little personality!

This little girl is one lucky lady to have her amazing parents and 

so many lovely people around her to shower her with lots of love!  

Here is a selection of my favourite pictures so far. 

(narrowing it down to 10 was hard!)

It has been wonderful being able to see her grow and change. 

And I am so happy Jenny and her family have let me take 

{so} many photos of little baby g.  

{some more photos from our first session can be found here}

***I am by no means a photographer - I just love taking pictures***

Most of these are unedited, other than a few tweaks in iphoto.