Dearest February,
I can’t believe we’re already only two days shy of the end of the month. Every year I seem to forget how short of a month February is. This February, I managed to sneak quite a lot of activities in. If you’re wondering what’s up with the lack of posts lately, a quick flip through the albums on my phone would probably give you a good idea. (I should probably start transferring those…)

This month I had a special visitor in town who accompanied me on the (uphill) walks to the grocery store, helped prepare yummy eats, and watched ridiculous amounts of Storage Wars and 24 Hour Catwalk while noming on food. We strolled through Ikea for 3.5 hours until I found my perfect bookshelf, indulged in Swedish meatballs (the combo with the mashed potatoes, of course!), and then came home to the quickest (45 min!) assembly of said bookshelf. Together, we danced in the crowd of other Sleigh Bells fans, gorged on the richest donuts, and went thrifting in our favourite neighbourhood. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend time with one of my best friends.

February, thanks for being an amazing month. I hope that March will be just as incredible!

xo,
yours truly

outfit details:
jacket: Korean boutique / jeans: 7FAM / flats: Blowfish / scarf: Urban Outfitters
glasses: Derek Cardigan 7004 in black

Dreaming of those days that I don’t have to wear a scarf anymore!

I have been so in love with the weather for the past week. It’s incredible to see how much the weather affects my mood and mindset for the start of the day. It’s been rare to wake up to see sun shining through my blinds in the winter, but last week was filled with sun, sun, and more sun!

outfit details:
dress: H&M / tights: American Eagle / wedges: Go Jane / glasses: Derek Cardigan 7005

Hope you are all having a great day filled with lots of laughs and smiles. And heart-shaped Lindt chocolates. Those are the best!

P.S. Are there enough wrinkles on this dress or what? :P

I don’t think I have ever been able to walk outside in my spring jacket before April, and here I am, prancing around in flats without socks at the beginning of February. Bless the temperamental, super confusing “winter” of Seattle. No complaints here! I’m slowly learning to adjust and hopefully be better prepared for the seasons on the west coast. (Buying a pair of rain boots is definitely on the top of my list!)

outfit details
cardigan: Urban Outfitters / blouse: H&M / vest: sister’s closet / jeans: Gap
boat shoes: Dockers

On the topic of adjusting and getting comfortable, I’ve been spending a lot of my time mentally settling into this city. You’d think after living here for almost a third of a year, I would have settled in sooner. Nope! Going home for the holidays in December made me a little more… hesitant to the idea of being a west coaster. It’s hard when your roots are on the other coast!

Confession time: I had been saving boxes from random purchases since I moved into my apartment, anticipating another move in the near future. Would it be to another neighbourhood in Seattle? Would I want to head home in a year? I didn’t have the answer to those questions; I did have enough boxes though!

I kept the boxes stacked on top of each other (some of the bigger boxes had upwards of 5 little boxes in them) and the pile basically went from floor to ceiling. It was a pretty gruesome sight, to be honest (see the photo on the left). Imagine coming home to see a TOWER of boxes day in and day out… it was hard for me to feel like Seattle was my home if the idea of moving was always on my mind. Long story short, I gave in to the reality of the fact that I am now a Seattlelite. It took me four months to collect all these boxes, and almost 4 hours to break them down and take them to the recycling bin.

The photo on the right is what my corner of boxes looks like today! I’ve got about 5 boxes left for emergency purposes (like sending birthday presents!) and no plans for hoarding any more boxes in the near future. I have accepted the fact that I will be staying here for at least another year and will try my best not to second-guess myself about moving again until I’ve given Seattle a fair shot.

Let’s rewind to the epicness of last week, shall we? It was the first time I had experienced a Seattle winter and let me tell you, I was surprised! Coming from Toronto, I’m used to a snow-filled winter. One of the reasons I didn’t like living in the east coast was because of the extreme winters (Sorry to all my snowboarding and skiing lovers). When I found out that Seattle rarely gets more than a foot of snow at once, I was thrilled!! No more having to hike through snow mounds taller than me to get to the grocery store!

Last week was the strangest thing I have ever experienced. There was maybe 2″ of snow accumulated on the ground overnight and the entire city basically shut down. I know a lot of people make fun of Seattle drivers for not knowing how to deal with snow, but after experiencing this first hand, I now know what it’s like to be a real Seattlite! Apparently we (I’m slowly turning into a west coaster!) are really into being environmentally friendly and environmentally friendly salt just doesn’t fight snow/ice as well as the harsh salt on the east coast. Seattle is also a lot hillier than Toronto, so it’s not common to watch buses or cars slide down steeper parts of downtown. Definitely a scary sight!

outfit details:
sweater: Old Navy / blouse: H&M / jeans: 7FAM / booties: Urban Planet
necklace: self made / glasses: c/o Glasses USA / belt: thrifted

So what did I do in the three days of the Seattle Snowpocalypse of 2012? Nothing super exciting, to be honest. Stayed home, bundled up in my favourite sweater, and caught up on the last two issues of US Weekly that have been waiting for me to read through. haha! Productive, I think! ;)

It’s already halfway through the first month of 2012 and I’m still trying to figure out what my resolutions are this year. It’s been a while since I’ve had any real resolutions and I figured 2012 is the year to get back on the horse! No more dilly-dallying with resolutions like “Exercise more” or “Spend less money on clothes”; I want to make this year’s resolutions to be more concrete so I know when I can cross things off the list.

I’ve always loved the “X-1 before X” lists. A couple of my favourites were written by Elsie and Elizabeth:

(Elise’s list)

(Elizabeth’s list)

Although I’m not going to make as big of a list for myself, here are some of my resolutions for 2012:

1. Eat McDonald’s no more than once a week
I know, I know. It’s a bad habit of mine. I’d like to eat healthier in general and I’m going to take baby steps to hopefully get to a point in my life where McDonald’s isn’t a huge part of my weekly diet.

2. Exercise at least once a week
Trust me when I say I’m not one to be self motivated when it comes to physical activities. I go through stages where I want nothing more than to spend all my free time at the gym and then other cycles where I’ll go a few months without exercising at all. This year I want to get into a more regular routine. Once a week isn’t much but it’s a start!

3. Learn to silk screen
I’ve been meaning to do this for years. I have a silk screening kit that my family bought for me a couple years ago and I just haven’t got around to trying it out. For starters, I’m not much of an illustrator. I’ve been trying to get inspired to come up with the perfect design before busting out the ink. *fingers crossed* that 2012 is the year of inspiration!

Are any of you writing “X-1 before X” kind of lists or resolutions for this year?

When I look back on the year of 2011, I think to myself, Oh man, did all of this stuff really happen in one year? No wayyyy!! Do you ever get the feeling that life is moving so quickly and there just isn’t enough time to take it all in? That’s exactly how 2011 made me feel. Compared to 2011, 2010 felt like a cakewalk.

2011 started off just like any other year: cleaning out the closet, trying to rework old wardrobe favourites, and trying not to freeze my butt off in the chilly Toronto weather. Little did I know what was in store for me (and this dear blog) for the remainder of the year.

At the beginning of the year, I started the Getting to Know You series. This stemmed from the realization that I loved learning about the voice behind my favourite blogs and wanted to share tidbits of my life with you guys too. Although the posts were sparse, I’m really hoping to make this a more regular thing in the future. I loved the fact that these posts were very raw and borderline diary entries of personally reminiscing about my life… anything from my love of squash to losing the Little Bear in my life. Rereading some of these posts makes me emotional all over again but it makes me glad to be able to revisit past events based on the feelings when I wrote about them.

One of the biggest and most memorable parts of 2011 for me was going backpacking in Asia for 4 weeks. From having a blast in the theme parks of Korea, to bargaining in the street markets of Hong Kong, to riding an elephant bareback in Thailand, I will never forget this experience. I also can’t forget my experience with trying out all the different McDonald’s menu items in these countries. This was probably my favourite part of the whole trip!

Soon after returning home from the trip, I had a big decision to make. I packed up all my belongings, took my last outfit photo in a city that I called home, and started a new adventure.

Calling Seattle home for the last 4 months of 2011 has had its fair share of ups and downs. There are times when I miss friends and family back home, and others when I push myself to go out of my comfort zone and experience life in a new city as much as I can.

After so many drastic changes in 2011, I cannot wait to see what 2012 has in store!

What a week of face-food stuffing it’s been! I don’t know if it’s possible to eat more turkey in a year, but I definitely do not want any more turkey for a very long time! Hopefully Santa was super nice to all of you this year. I got a bunch of great things for my kitchen (like a set of Pyrex baking trays!!!) and Canadian snacks that I’ve been craving ever since moving.

Speaking of favourite things from Canada, I decided to borrow a look from Sorren, one of my favourite Canadian bloggers. I bought this sweater duringthe 75% off sweater sale from Old Navy and had no idea how to wear it. I know, it’s just a sweater and shouldn’t take a ton of brain power to figure out how to style.

outfit details:
sweater: Old Navy / jeans & blouse: Gap / boat shoes: Dockers (via Ross)

I also did not have a heartbroken sock to cut up to try out the “sock bun” technique like Sorren did, but I have something better…

Photographic evidence of swaying/half dancing in the rain while taking photos. Happy belated Christmas, lovelies! ♥

I am eagerly awaiting midnight so I can inspect the presents under the tree and pick out the gift that will be unwrapped first! I’ve always been a little impatient when it comes to Christmas morning. I used to be awake at 7am and wanted to skip breakfast and go straight to the presents. (Eyes on the prize, yeah?)

This year, I’m really looking forward to watching everyone else open their gifts! After spending so much time at the shops downtown every weekend, I’m hoping that the little presents bring smiles to everyone’s faces.

This is the dress I ended up buying for one of my holiday parties. It’s pretty different from that LBD that I posted a few weeks ago from H&M, no? This is also the same dress I mentioned a couple weeks back where someone accused a friend and I of celebrating our wedding reception at a dive bar. No, I’m not married. No, this is also not a white dress (it’s IVORY!) but I can see how there would be confusion standing next to someone in a suit at a dive bar. :P

outfit details:
dress and cardigan: H&M / tights: street market in Korea / shoes: Ross
glasses: Derek Cardigan 7004

I hope all of you have a safe and wonderful holiday season!!

The office is starting to clear out as the holidays draw closer, but I thought I would share a fun little thing that a lot of people at work do today! I’ve worked at other companies where we had to wear dress pants and a blouse/dressier top every day, with the occasional casual Friday. My current office environment is not a huge fan of business attire and I think there are other people like me who miss getting dressed up every now and then. People used to have “Formal Fridays” where everyone would come dressed up in their suits and highwaisted skirts, but Tuesday recently became the new Friday and now “Tie Tuesdays” are in effect.

outfit details:
blouse: Urban Outfitters / shorts: H&M / tights: AE / oxfords: Walmart / tie: thrifted
cardigan: Urban Planet / glasses: Derek Cardigan 7004 in black

I like looking forward to special days of the week where I get to plan my outfits according to a particular accessory!

Also, I noticed not a lot of the guys at work know how to tie a tie. The perks of going to a high school with a uniform: self-taught double-windsor knots!

Oh weekend, how I’ve been waiting for you since Monday! Despite the fact that the holidays are just around the corner and a ton of people from work are already on vacation enjoying the sunshine in Hawaii (or so I’m told this is a popular vacation destination for the winter), my schedule seems to be busier than usual.

I get really excited for weekends because I can sleep in until 9am and wake up to make cute and yummy breakfasts! Back in October, the ever-so-awesome Jill sent me her Hello Kitty waffle maker that she felt she could no longer love. Since I left my (broken) Hello Kitty toaster back in Canada, I was superexcitedhappyonthevergeoftears willing to adopt her waffle maker!

Please don’t tell me these aren’t the cutest waffles you have ever seen!! I mean, I know waffles are just waffles and they all taste the same, but there’s just something about eating Hello Kitty shaped food that makes breakfast so much more enjoyable.

I can’t wait for another serving of HK waffles and bananas with drizzled honey. Mmmmm…

Hope you all had an awesome weekend! xo