Summertime visit to Canada
July 28, 2011 § 1 Comment
Last Thursday, I flew to Toronto to visit some friends and family. The last time I was there was March, which was extremely cold, but this time, it was incredibly hot – Thursday the 21st was declared the hottest day in Toronto’s history! After spending the last 4 summers in New York, I thought to myself “how much hotter could it really be?” and decided to do the 20 minute walk from the island airport to Julia’s office to drop off my suitcase instead of getting in an air conditioned cab. Boy was that the wrong decision – by the time I got to her office, my head was pounding from the heat. It was about 50 degrees Celsius at that point (I think about 120 F) and I decided to drink some water and have a tour of her office before I went outside again.
My next stop was Sarah & Stephen’s house. After stepping out of the air conditioned subway, I picked us up some popsicles and we all sat in their living room – their only room with air conditioning. It was actually really nice to just sit and talk with them for hours, while eating watermelon, popsicles, and gatorade.
That evening, my Toronto ladies got together and tried out Frank‘s Summerlicious Menu at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Luckily, it wasn’t very busy so we ate and ate and then hung around for a while after, catching up. It’s always so nice to see them!
Friday morning, I met Eli for breakfast, USS for a pre-lunch drink (non-alcoholic, don’t worry!), and then Nick flew in so we could celebrate our first wedding anniversary together.
We both agreed it was very suitable that we spend our anniversary in Toronto since we initially divided our time between the two cities so well. We spent our day eating lunch at Fresh, walking around, and then went to Enoteca Sociale for a real Italian dinner full of food and prosecco. Nick also ate his entire 24 oz steak just to show our waiter he could do it!
Saturday morning, we met up with my brother Ryan & his wife Suzanne at their new condo and we all headed to my parents’ cottage in Fenelon Falls.
My sister, her two kids, and my grandparents were already there, so it was a full house of 11 people in total. It was so good to see everyone though.
We sat outside, talking and snacking
Went for boat rides
Swam in the river
And each night we had a campfire. I realized hadn’t had a roasted marshmallow in years!
We headed home on Monday morning, or at least tried to – our flight suffered some horrible delays from weather in Newark among other things – but let’s not talk about that because I want to remember the visit for the great time it was.
See you again soon, Canada!
One year
July 22, 2011 § 2 Comments
Bandeau Swimsuits
July 19, 2011 § 2 Comments
I wasn’t exactly what you’d call a swimming enthusiast growing up – I don’t think I learned to swim in any capacity until I was about 14 – but now that I live in New York, I appreciate the rare opportunities to swim much more.
I have only ever owned one swimsuit at a time and usually only buy them once every few years. Now that I have regular access to a pool and have actually made it to the beach twice this year already, I think I’m ready for an upgrade!
The trend this year seems to be the Bandeau style suit, which is perfect because I’m quite tired of the weird double triangle tan I get with my halter top bikini. What is a Bandeau, you ask? Well here are a few of my favourites:
Tori Praver Swim Betty Bandeau
Tyler Rose Lookin Like A Lady Bandeau
What kind of swimsuit are you wearing this year? I am curious!
TATTLY
July 14, 2011 § Leave a comment
Good news, indecisive graphic lovers! The brains behind Swiss Miss created a line of temporary tattoos called Tattly that allow you to switch up your skin decor on a regular basis with many fun, design-inspired tattoos.
Now you can get a tattoo designed by Marc Johns, Jessica Hische, Julia Rothman, and others without committing for life.
This is the most fun thing I’ve seen in a while! Oh, and they’re having a launch sale where you can get all 15 tattoos for $35. Who’s going to make themselves a temporary sleeve?
[Visit: Tattly]
A Year in Review
July 12, 2011 § Leave a comment
I absolutely love this idea for a Christmas card/year end summary about a married couple’s year-long achievements and highlights.
This makes me want to do something similar for my family and friends, since most of them are in Canada. I’m sure having a letterpress in your home makes you want to create all kinds of things!
[created by Amanda Jane Jones]
Canada Day/America Day
July 8, 2011 § Leave a comment
I like that Canada Day and Independence Day are the same weekend, but it often makes for a very busy time. We had promised Nick’s Dad that we’d visit him in Pennsylvania for the 4th, but we also had some visitors, and not just any visitors, but one of my best friends Julia and her sweet fiance Jay! They’re both there if you look closely:
Even though we only had Friday and Saturday with J squared, we managed to show them a pretty great time in Brooklyn. I love it when you don’t see a friend for a while, you don’t even communicate as often as you should, but you still manage to have all the same interests and habits. In this case, Julia and Jay were very excited about our plans to take them to our favourite neighbourhood restaurants and shops, then more than happy to relax with a bottle of champagne on the roof and going to bed just after midnight.
On Saturday, Nick and I took them to our new favourite summer event: Smorgasburg. We ate all sorts of things from anchovies to pupusas to giant ice cream sandwiches to grilled pineapple.
The food was well-documented, mostly through the reflections in Jay’s sunglasses.
My favourite new find had to be the homemade ice cream sandwiches with oatmeal cookies and sea salt!
YUMMMM!
The trip to Pennsylvania was also great – Nick made record time with his driving and I managed to swim three days in a row! Nick Sr. also made us some tasty crabcakes and mac n’ cheese.
How was your long weekend, wherever you were?
I want to go to there 