It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas... Well it is Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Since I finished exams on the 14th it feels like everything has just been go-go-go!! I actually started working during the week again during the holidays so it just feels like I've had no breaks since school ended. (Which I guess I really haven't) This is actually the first year that we have never gone anywhere during the holidays. It feels so weird not to be packing to go some place. 

To sum up the festivities here are some pictures from what's been going on this past month. 

Decorating the house

Can't have Christmas without Christmas cookies!! :O 

(And of course, Michael Buble's Christmas Special) 

Baking my all time favourite cookies! Pillsbury Christmas cookies!!

Hot Cocoa is a must! Had it almost every day this month. 

Baking up a storm! (over 200 cookies, that is)

My Christmas loot =P So Much TEA! I love it! 

Playing with nerf guns for the first time with the cousins =]

Overall it was a fun filled holiday, I hope that everyone got to spend time with family. Now it's back to the grind on the 27th :l 

War Horse

*Please excuse my crappy pictures, I used my phone's camera which has no flash.

Tonight my friends and I went to go see War Horse. We went because we got discounted tickects =P Plus we decided we should all be more cultured. It was out first time going to see a live performance (so grown up of us!) So it all was very exciting.

It was at the Princess of Wales Theatre and I believe it is playing there until the 6th of January. I loved the performance, the puppetry of the horse was amazing and it was such a gripping tale. I definitely recommend watching the live performance. When I got home I decided to watch the movie and I just couldn't make it through the whole thing, it was just too lengthy and not as dramatic as the play was.

We went to "Hey Lucy" Cafe
We ordered the Antipasto Platter and Steak Frites 

Food, Food and More Food

Here are some pictures of food over the past month. Yes, it has been a food filled month =P 

Sushi Boat

"Cookie Monster" Cake 

I tired Hero Burger for the first time this month. It was a decent burger, nothing special. It was nice to get to choose your own toppings, but at the same time I found it was a bit pricey. 

Flaming cheese!!! (not yet set on fire though)

Cookie in a cup! it was actually decent. Heres the recipe: Cookie in a Cup

Yummy hot cocoa 

Experimental cookie decorating 

The finished product... :l

Ikea Day & Fall

The other day my friend and I made a spontaneous trip to Ikea! As per usual we enjoyed the food and all the pretty furniture. 

Typical meal at Ikea 

Taking a quick Survey and my moose that I got from the children's section =P 

Fall has officially arrived! Despite all the random weather that's been going on. Seriously just needs to make up its mind! 

Bacon Day

Today was a very unhealthy day... Today was Bacon Day! 

So this all began when one day I was just craving bacon, so my friend and I decided to have a day of it! (It seemed like a good idea at the time) 

At first I don't think my friend was completely onboard with the whole idea once the day came along, she insisted we have veggies... mostly veggies. What kind of bacon day has veggies?! and then we almost forgot to buy the bacon!   

We ended up making veggies, but we cooked it in bacon grease or we wrapped it in bacon... and cheese. Yum! 

 It was a lovely, and filling day of bacon which was ended with s'mores, but we ate the s'mores too quickly so I didn't get a picture.

Cottages, Trampolines & Sunglasses

It has been fairly relaxing. On Saturday my uncle invited us up to his cottage, it was pretty hot but after a bit of swimming in the lake it didn't feel that bad. It was fun to spend time with the family some more and just relax and soak up the sun. We also managed to get a pretty good volleyball game going. When night fell we roasted marshmellows and made smores, it was the first time I ever tried one and I didn't really enjoy it too much. I think it would have been better if I could fully heat the whole thing. 

  The next day was my cousins birthday party, he has a trampoline so there was a lot of random bouncing. After a while of bouncing we went in to play games on the kinect, I've never tried it before so it was quite interesting. We started with a game called "hole in the wall" where they give you random positions and you have to be able to do the same in order to fit through the hole. Its not to accurate, when my cousins were playing it they got the positions right and yet they still got knocked out. The next game we played was a dance party type, I learned that I can't dance to save my life :l we also did bowling, which me and my grandpa teamed up and beat everyone =P overall it was a lot of fun to spend time with the family =]

So lately work has just been taking a toll on me, I swear there are too many crazy clients coming into my branch :l

So I was thrilled that this past weekend has been a long weekend. Yay!!!

I finally got a legit pair of sunglasses, my brother had be complaining that my cheap ones are bad and that I need to get a good pair. So I guess I have fallen into the trend of Rayban aviators. Though they are quite nice, and apparently made in Italy :l

I thought this this a perfect song to describe my weekend with the family =]

Birthday's & Pretty Little Things

Not much has been happening lately, just started working again for the summer… should be interesting. I am finally (after 5 years) being trained as a teller at the bank =]

What I am most looking forward to though is our summer vacation. While in Chicago I found new hiking shoes, that actually fit! Haha.. Ya, back then my mom bought me hiking shoes that I would “grow into”  -_-



Here are my lovely new Columbia’s =] they were only $34!



Lately I have been watching cosmetic videos on youtube and since I started working again I have decided to invest in a Naked pallet. After much contemplation and reading of reviews, I felt even more conflicted :l I finally got the Naked 2 one. I think the main reasons were that the case is more sturdier than the original one. Also after actually trying the pallet out, I find that the shadows aren’t as sparkly as people were saying. They are quite neutral and blend nicely with my skin. Even the shades that people said to be too light are quite nice. Anyways, I love this pallet and it was a good investment =]

As to the birthdays…


My little cousin wanted to make a cake to celebrate his puppy’s Birthday… (which is in August :l) But we made puppy a nice paper cake and two party hats.

Excitingly enough it’s my birthday!


My friend told me she was going to get me an epic birthday present… this was indeed epic! <3 Macarons and mousse cake!

Happy Birthday to me! =P

Where did April Go?

Exams, party planning, scrapbooking, work and a bunch of things in between. This past month has been pretty hectic.

My dad turned 50 this year so me and my mom decided to throw together a surprise party. It was almost a successful surprise until my mom started acting suspicious the day of. Oh wells… So I spent most of my free time planning, prepping and putting together a scrapbook in under 3 days. During all the photo sorting I realized that since 2002, when we first got a digital camera, we have taken way to many pictures (mostly of my mom and my brother though :l) For the scrapbook alone I had about 170 pictures.

Here’s some pictures from this months endeavours:

At UofT Convocation Hall for an Easter service.

Cute Easter Chicken

Working on my Dad’s 50th Birthday Scrapbook

Listening to an Opera Singer, named Renee Fleming,  at Roy Thompson Hall

I also grabbed some all you can eat sushi with friends and went to a job fair which was pretty pointless :l Note to self: never go to any more job fairs. At least me and my friend managed to score some free goodies to make up for the $5 entrance fee =P

Oink!

So about 2 weeks ago my friend was raving about a maple bacon latte, and after 3 failed attempts at meeting up to go to said coffee shop, I finally tried one!

It was alright, the coffee shop was pretty cozy, it’s called Noir: http://www.noircoffeeandtea.com/

I pretty much was in a food coma after going there, mainly because my friend and I decided to search for the perfect baguette! Meaning it tastes as good as the ones in France =P By the time we got to the coffee shop we had both bought a baguette. We had lunch there, and I couldn't decide what to get so I pretty much just had everything! Of course I tried the Maple Bacon Latte, but I also had a scone, soup and sandwich combo and a Coco Peppermint Latte from their Holiday menu. Apparently they just started it so I was one of the first few to try it, for me it was okay I guess :l I would have preferred it to be more chocolaty. I guess I’m a bit biased because I just love Starbucks Peppermint Hot Chocolate so much =]

Anyways, I think we’ll be going back, I do want to try some of their teas that they offer... and hopefully not succumb to food coma next time =P

Better Late Than Never

So here’s the thing, for Halloween I really wanted to get a pumpkin and carve it since the last time that I carved a pumpkin was like when I was six :l So it’s been a while and I wanted to try something cool and epic, you know what I’m saying?

Back when we were kids it would just be the traditional triangle eyes and jagged mouth, and you wouldn't even get to really carve it because you were a kid and kids + knives = bad! So now that I am able to use knives and do cool designs, I really wanted to buy a pumpkin for Halloween.

I ended up not getting one because the day before there was all this negativeness about everything in the house, and I didn't want to haul a pumpkin home on the bus the next day... so long story short, no pumpkin for Halloween =[

But, this past weekend my Grandmother gave me a pumpkin that was left over from the 3 pumpkins my cousin had, so she gave it to me thinking I was going to make a pie with it :l Pshhtt, I don’t even like pumpkin pies, so instead I gutted it and baked the seeds and FINALLY got to carve it =D it was very exciting! =P

Next year I plan on getting a pumpkin for Halloween!

Pottermore

On August 3rd I registered for Pottermore! An interactive website taking you in depth about the Harry Potter Series. I was so excited that I found the magic quill on the 2nd day of early registration! What i did not know was that you would also have to wait to be let into the beta site :l The site will be open to the public sometime in October.

So the other day when all I wanted to do was lie down and sleep, I quickly checked my email on my phone to see if there was anything important. And what do I see... MY POTTERMORE ACCEPTANCE! So I literally jumped up and danced over to my computer. haha yes I know, I am quite a loser =P but I don't care! I spent from 12am - 2 am going through the first book. So much for my sleep...

My wand! It's a pretty awesome site, and you finally get to hear about the back story to the characters which is really interesting. I just wish I could buy a snowy owl... and wasn't sorted into Hufflepuff, though when I read the description it makes sense :l Because I am friendly and trustworthy... but I don't like yellow and black! I was hoping for either ravenclaw or Gryffidor =[

Everytime I think Hufflepuff I hear this in my head:

Ya so that's pretty much if for this post, it just made my day that I finally got into Pottermore so I just had to share =P

Add me on Pottermore: RainOwl86 

It's so Fluffy!!!

DESPICABLE ME!

Awesome movie! =D Actually it was just pretty average. Don't get me wrong it was cute and funny but at the end of it it just didn't have that wow factor. You know the one where your mind is replaying the entire movie in your mind while you're remembering "wasn't that part amazing!!!". Watch it though! just because Agnes is so adorable!

"It's so fluffy I'm gonna dieee!!!"

The other day I went to Canada's Wonderland with my friend, it was pretty awesome. We rode pretty much all the good rides in the park plus I got to watch Snoopy on ice! :O Speaking of Snoopy... it's his birthday today so HAPPY BIRTHDAY SNOOPY! (and the rest of the Peanuts gang, but you know Snoopy is just too awesome)

Finally got to hug Snoopy today! Every morning I would walk past and see him and then later go to my co-workers and be like: "OMG did you see Snoopy! He looks so FLUFFY!! I just want to hug him!". So today I finally got my chance =]

I was actually disappointed after this... he wasn't as fluffy as he looked.

The ice show was actually better than I expected, and on such a small rink too! Definitely a must see if you're going to Canada's Wonderland.

Haha, it was pretty funny, the day before I turned to my friend and wondered if Snoopy would get a party hat for his birthday. This morning I walk into work and BAM! Snoopy's wearing a PARTY HAT! Pretty awesome huh?! =D Can't be his birthday without a Party HAT! =D

Some more exciting news, well this should have been told last week... when I was suppose to have written a post... I got a new phone! It's pretty awesome, one day I'm going to try posting off of it, just because I can. It's an Android Motorola Backflip so it's pretty awesome and I have 500 MB of data to use each month that I'm nowhere near! So I figure why not update my blogs and my twitter on my phone! Plus it was meant to do all that too.

Even though it is summer, I find myself straying more and more away from my summer reading list. I guess its not too bad since I am still reading, just not the things on my list. :l I just recently picked up a book called "The Book of Awesome" now not to be redundant or anything... it's a pretty awesome book! =P  There's also a website! how it all pretty much started was in a blog...

http://1000awesomethings.com/

Check it out! =D

Anyways that's pretty much it for this post... next post hopefully will be more exciting! =D