on a day that started long before it should have and at 6:00 i finally gave in and cracked a sugar free red bull, after a day that involved 14 straight hours at the office, i can see the value of having your world revolve around your passion. 

INACTION IS AN ACTION. CHOOSING NOT TO CHANGE IS STILL A CHOICE. 

the lost resolutions

From etsy.com

so a while ago i started writing out my 11 resolutions for 2011. and then i stopped at 6? no excuse really.

so..here are the rest of them!

7. WORK LESS. leave earlier, don't read my blackberry at night, limit time answering emails on the weekends. see ... the company that i work for sells new homes. so the agents are working on weekends, and at night, and every hour of the day. and because i am also the sales manager - they are constantly emailing me. its fine...most days. but sometimes it really gets to me that i cant just enjoy an unplugged weekend away. but i am going to make more of an effort. i have decided to have a meeting with my boss and just explain that i can't work 7 days a week, i will burn out. it will not be productive. i'd like to come to some sort of compromise, if i have to work on saturdays then i'll take another day of the week off. plus i need another raise, not sure if that counts as a resolution but its got to happen.

8. contribute to an RRSP. you know for the tax benefits and all those grown up reasons. PLUS. this is a tidbit i learned. - you can pull out up to $25,000 when you go to buy your first home. so essentially, for sometime who is looking to buy their first home (condo) soon, I can put money in this account, TAX FREE, bring down my income level for this year (different tax bracket means I have to pass less taxes, ie GET MORE MONEY BACK) and in a couple months, I can use all that money for the down payment. never paying tax on it.

just so you know- in ontario

- you have to have the money in the account for minimum 90 days before you can pull it out for the down payment.

-you have to repay the money you take out but you have 15 years to do so, and you don't have to start paying it back until one year after the withdraw. same as osap i think.

AND THAT IS YOUR MONEY LESSON OF THE DAY!

9. do more couple things. we are bad at this. but I want us to be better. we had a good heart to heart about this and i'm excited to see how things play out. possible things to try:

-going on more walks

-rock climbing

-day trips in the car

-flea market shopping 

-cooking together

-going to the market

-going to toronto island in the summer

-dinner dates

-blue jays games

-being better about doing something during our days off together instead of just lazing around 

10. put more effort into hair and makeup.i have to say that i am actually really trying at this. girly stuff like this doesn't come naturally to me. i recently went to sephora and made the girl take me around the store until we finally found the perfect lipstick. IM IN LOVE! so so so worth it. 

11. sell vintage on ebay or etsy....more on this to come. :)

white porcelain

its been a while since i shared a collection of white porcelain goodness. honestly, this is the stuff my dreams are made of. 

enjoy!

From goldenink.com.au

From virginiasin.com

From studiochoo.bigcartel.com

From etsy.com

From artessen.com

From design-shimmer.blogspot.com

hahahah

so remember that list i made last friday?

did NONE of those things. not even one. do you think thats where the word none came from NOT+ONE?

instead i bought a new bed, assembled this bed (four hours!), rearranged the living room, went to kitchener for the day, went to a motorcycle show (?)(random i know), had an epic laundry fail, went and saw my friends band play, wasn't the drunkest one, and semi slept in.

i would like to say that at this moment there is a woman vacuuming my living room. AMAZING. i like the mixed reactions i get when i tell people i have a cleaning lady. i would have to divide the reactions by age..people my around my age (24) and younger think its the best thing. how did you find her? what does she do? can she clean my place? and people who are older (parents, relatives, some co-workers) are completely flabbergasted. i'm young, no kids, working a steady (albeit long hours) job I SHOULD HAVE TIME TO CLEAN. i can tell that is what they think. yes well in theory i agree with them. and i could have time to clean. i just choose to do other things instead.
the number one reason why we chose to get a cleaning lady is because the boy and i rarely see each other, we work opposite schedules and when we did see each other it seemed all we did was bicker about cleaning (let me re-phrase that, all I did was bicker about cleaning) it was always something that i was responsible for and it just really got to me. my standard was just higher then his.
SO cue the cleaning lady and i have to say....life changing. i am no longer bitter that my weekends are spent scrubbing the shower and we both get the luxury of actually relaxing on our days off. and i'm not sure what the going rate is everywhere but we pay her $15 an hour. nothing! i guarantee i spent more on 'i just housewifed away another weekend, i deserve this' purchases.

save the drama, be a queen! i heard that on the radio this morning. seems kind of fitting.

peace.

happy friday!

From livethemma.ikea.se

so so so so happy its finnnnnally friday. my work weeks are pretty crazy right now. launching another project at the start of April so deadlines are tight, my suppliers are working overtime and every delay just snowballs the whole thing. but anyway, enough about that ITS FRIDAY no more work.

image source - bawkbawkbawk

i have a bit of a personal side project that i have been working on (in my 'spare' time HA) and i'm really excited about it. i haven't been able to really let my creative juices flow in a while and its really refreshing. my friend is opening up her very own eatery in BC and i am helping with all marketing/design/sounding board/extra set of hands things! its very exciting and restaurant marketing is certainly something i am pretty interested in. this weekend i am brainstorming logo ideas and researching.
oh and also working for my regular job as well :(

From redvelvetgirls.typepad.com

here are some goals I would like to accomplish this weekend!

-bake scones
-go through my clothes and donate what i don't wear
-try and invent some new outfits/see what i might need to shop for
-write some letters
-figure out a way to re-arrange the living room (we lost our balcony this week because they are refacing them. so all our random junk out there had to be sorted out and either thrown out or stored inside now. i have a stack of 6 tires in my living room now. joy)
-get some blog posts ready. BINGE BLOG
-take some film pictures (its supposed to be so warm this weekend yay:)
-buy film for my new polaroid
-possibly go to some open houses for apartments ...in addition to having an auto shop in my living room, my brother has been sleeping in my dining room since christmas. needless to say things are a LITTLE cramped around here so I have been looking to move us to a 2 bedroom. (i secretly love looking for apartments, it may explain why we have moved 8 times in the last 5 years. but we have also been in our current apartment for exactly 1 year and 3 months, which for me is soooo long and i'm very ready to move to a bigger space)
-buy an air plant or ten. and something to hang it in
-go shopping at a few antique stores my uncle was telling me about. apparently they have a small stash of russel wright pottery. fingers crossed.

have a wonderful weekend!

xxox

thrifted

cost: 1$

thrifted from: dream center

the perfect yellow colour. the softest leather.

well worn, with plenty of wear left

pockets for all. 

thrifted

price- 5$ 

thrifted from - double take

perfect for spring, low enough to be practical, velvet enough to be awesome. 

the soles are really soft and the heel has a rubber on it so they don't make the regular clipity clopity noise of high heels. well worked in and feels like i've had them for years. comfort is key.

russel wright

russel wright american modern pottery has always been on my mind while thrifting. i didn't think i could be so lucky. 

i found these two cups for 2$ each. amazing

this is the extent of my russel wright collection, (minus a white tea pot which was an amazing christmas gift) the chartreuse green colour is so eye catching and what are the chances that I find the tea cups that match the plates that I already have? 

I started 'collecting' russel wright (i say that with captions because I hardly have a huge collection but I do have a book or two on the subject and I truly believe he changed the way we entertain in our homes) when i moved out for college. I was given free range of anything that was at our family cottage to stock my shelves with. I chose these plates because they were an amazing colour and had a surprisingly modern design to them. 

I don't anticipate this infatuation to end any time soon. 

for more info on this designer check out this post on apartment therapy. AMAZING

how to split a cheque

how to split a cheque at a restaurant

an insightful read that applies to pretty much everyone. especially as i get closer to the big 25.  

as many of you know my bf works as a server in a restaurant, i used to serve full time and we have plenty of friends in this industry, front and back of house. you may think that your tip goes unnoticed but that is 100 incorrect. tips are the only reason that people can make a living serving. my bf for instance has worked for probably 10 years in this industry and 3 years at the same place he is now. has he received a raise or made any more then minimum wage? no. even the managers where he works make pennies. 

tipping is the livelihood of the people who are serving you. there are million variables that can go wrong and your server will come to your table with a smile on their face and make sure that your night is as good as it can be. think about the last time you hosted a dinner party? stress city. imagine hosting 12 different tables of a dinner party, all sitting down at different times and your responsible for making sure their glass is never empty, the food comes quickly and the attention never stops. 15% is minimum people. don't be cheap.

davids tea

so i bought this pretty cool thing from davids tea. its a cup but it also comes with a loose leaf tea holder and a lid! perfect!

i've been eyeing this set up for a while now, but couldn't find any pictures of it on the internet to show my parents for a christmas list.
i bought two different kinds of tea, mint green tea and saigon chai. both are really good and i've made the chai into a latte with frothed milk from the espresso machine. the little lid is also the perfect place to put the 'steeper' bucket thing once it is finished so no drips on the table.
i am actually so addicted to this little thing i bring it home from the office on the weekends because i can't live two days without it.
also, well done davids tea on the branding and packaging, modern, simple, fresh. even the bag is quite nice and this little tin that the tea comes can be refilled next time.

right now

there is a woman cleaning my apartment and i'm pretty stoked about it!