music monday.... who cares that it's actually tuesday

It has been way too long since I have posted on here or even spent much time sitting at the comp catching up on the world. I feel out of place. Like i have been taking advantage of my computer for movies and shows and mindless activities when I should be doing MUCH more intelligent things like browsing fashion blogs, catching up on new music and getting new styling ideas for WHATEVERR.... (okay - maybe not so intelligent)

Anyway, finally doing something for once and I found a site that I think everyone should start using. I've always loved Hype Machine, but recently they've added a new part to the site called Fast Forward. If you don't know what Hype Machine is then to sum it up its basically a site to search, share and keep track of awesome tracks! Check it out here. You can create an account and go to town.

Fast Forward is a site that directly connects you with all kinds of new music by letting you listen immediately and giving you a preview of new songs. If you like what you're hearing click on the song title to hear the whole thing on their regular site. AMAZED.

Here are a few of my favourite new discoveries.

This song is awesome, check out the remix here

nice summer tune... like the feel

cool kids.... how cool you are.

lots of intro few vocals...

Seriously so much good stuff.....

keep cruising.
xo

national home show...

A couple of days ago my dad and i accomplished some serious father - daughter bonding when we took the day off to go to toronto to see the national home show and the leafs game. The day was amazing. Camera in hand, we took almost 4 hours to walk through all of the exhibitors at the direct energy centre and every time i turned around there was something cool to look at.

The show mainly consisted of kitchen and bathroom appliances, cabinets and design ideas but there were tons of other unexpected things! Check out these totally amazing bathroom fixtures! There seemed to be a lot of green going around and this green and white vanity with the cone-shaped sink was definitely standing out!

this egg-shaped tub was HUGE. A lot bigger than the picture is making it seem for sure. it also looks surprisingly comfortable and i secretly wanted to climb inside and try it out.

This was a shiny, bright orange piano. I want one just like it in my place but that is an investment i am not prepared for. Later on in the show i found a lime green and white one just like this! uh-maze-ing!

oh, and just for those tough work days, a steam shower complete with multi-directional rain shower heads is always a key element in any bathroom! HELLO!

again with the green/white theme! LOVE this table/chair set 

this tub leaves nothing to the imagination. You'd never want to place this directly in front of any windows in the house. Again, this tub is much larger than it seems in the picture, and the funny thing is, my dad actually is interested in getting this for my parents house when they renovate the main bathroom! 

this chandelier and tub caught my eye (along with everyone else's at the show i'm sure) i think they're both beautiful, but mainly just the light fixture. 

these sings are one thing I KNOW i'm going to have in my house one day. I love the free-standing bowls and the amount of character that each one has. Some of them even have faucets that seem like water running out of a stream into them. 

 Alright, so there's a story behind these coooool little bead things. I saw this stand from a mile away and bee-lined it, tuning into one of the sales people who was already in the middle of explaining the product to another potential customer. Basically what they are, are these little hard beads (various colour) that you buy and immerse in water. The water is absorbed into them and they expand and get transparent. It is a soil replacement for small potted plants or cut flowers and they last about a year to a year and a half. for $20 I bought 6 packages, each package being a different colour. I'm am WAY too excited about these little things!

 This bed was pretty amazing. Without moving anything off of the desk (including a cup of water) the whole thing folds out and the bed magically appears! then it folds up again into virtually nothing! pretty great alternative to a murphy bed!

These were only some of the things I saw, there was literally so much to take in, it was almost overwhelming. I DID however, get a new shower head for the apt thanks to my father!! It's heavenly - adjustable rain shower head (HUGE - i might add... so now my mornings are a little more pleasant!) :)

this week's playlist...

The XX...

This band is brand new for me. Found them through a friend's link on facebook. Have their xx album now and am thoroughly enjoying it.

check 'em out!

RSS...

this is my final entry for school purposes. I was asked to start using RSS and see how it works, try it out and get used to it. I used google reader and basically what it does is you can bookmark pages and blogs, etc. that you want to follow and as they are updated, it keeps track of all of the updates from every page you are following until you view them again through reader.

Basically it is a quick view of everything that you have missed and summarizes it. Then if there is something that you want to look into further, the actual website is only a click away. I see how it could be convenient but I didn't really enjoy it.

There are several different ways of adding another side to your reader. These are also called 'subscriptions'. In order to add a new subscription you can go to the actual website and click a little symbol beside the URL that adds it to your reader,  you can go to the reader and add a subscription through the drop down menu or you can 'follow' a blog on blogger and with a google reader account, it will automatically be added for you.

I had gotten so used to visiting each individual site that this is what I was used to. So when I started using the reader, I didn't really like how the information was displayed. Also, because sometimes I would find myself automatically going to my bookmarked pages from my browser instead of going to the reader and then by the time I remembered to look at them in reader I had already seen all of the updates and the information that the reader was giving me was obsolete.

This technology would be much more useful on a daily basis if I were to commit to it more. I think with a little more practice, and once I add more blogs that I follow to the reader it will be much more convenient than going through each individual site.

I think the web-based aggregator is better than desktop software because it updates automatically when you go online and you don't need your computer to have a constant connection to the internet to have your reader updated. Also, it is easy to go to and easy to navigate instead of having extra software that needs to be installed on your computer.

studious monday...

today is a day dedicated to sitting inside and getting things done. surprisingly i've been doing this with very little procrastination involved... until now. the day began with a two hour lecture which i spent doing my best to contain a cough that has worsened since yesterday and NOT sniffing my nose every 30 seconds. glad to be home for a while so i can cough and not bother anyone but diesel but now i'm getting distracted and thought i'd take a break to share some peaks of the apartment with you. I won't be showing the rest of it off until i have done all of the finishing touches, but these will definitely give you a good idea!

This is my bathroom door. The little man and lady with one arm and the heart were there from the previous tenants, and a couple of my favourite people so i thought i'd leave them up there in memory. the wall decal was from my best friend as housewarming gift and it couldn't be better!

this is my little monster. he's maturing with age but sometimes i think i should have named him lucifer instead of diesel. he does a pretty good job of keeping me company, though. 

this is sort of a funny angle at the beautiful kitchen island my dad made especially for this apartment and the kitchen counter that is there. I don't have a regular sized fridge but i have two small bar fridges. One of them you can see here - the other is cleverly tucked away into the island! so perfect!

here is the back-side of my island. It has this large drawer, a shelf under that and the the spot for the fridge. The drawers are actually made from the boxes that wine is boxed in when it is shipped overseas. serious character.

here is a view of the front of one of the boxes, the wine, the year and 12B being (i'm guessing - the number of bottles in the box?)

I had a friend up to see the place a couple of days ago who recognized this box immediately. not a huge wine drinker myself but it was cool to have someone else know what it was!

just a little pic of a bit of my window looking south-east down george st.

this is looking out the very bottom of one of the windows, across the street. the buildings are beautiful but also filled with other apartments. at night I can see right into these windows and vise versa for them I'm sure. The blinds will be closing that's for sure!

This is a picture basically from where my tv will sit, across the front of the apartment. that's my little bed nook and the rocker that was in my room when i was a baby.... i guess it's appropriate that i still have it! lol

NEW NEW NEW!

so amped right now. flavour is carrying QSW (quiksilver womens)!!!! why is this reason to celebrate?
well, its amazing. seriously. beautiful collection. new brand. lets not get this confused with the roxy of quicksilver that we all once loved... this is a more edgy, mature and stylish side to quik and i must say i'm impressed. here's a little slice for you to chew on while you're dreaming about spring and summer around the corner...

.

oh carlo....

so some of you know about the UH-MAZE-ING mural that was done behind flavour a month or so ago by this amazing guy by the name of Carlo Raponi. I met him when he was initially coming in to talk with my boss about his ideas for the wall and he showed us his sketches and stuff. I guess I kinda new what that mural was going to look like before he actually did it but honestly, being there first hand and watching him do it and seeing the finished product still blows my mind to pieces. The mural was done (pretty much) in one night at an art show hosted by Flavour and Obey so the mural is basically representative of that. In case you didn't get to see what that one turned out like, here is a vid of carlo doing this THANG..... this is the shorter version (but still awesome)

Well... he's at it again

This time at my school! And in my college! ( double yes) So here's another cool little vid of him killing it at trent. Enjoy.

ps: carlo we love you.

tweet tweet...

another post of the academic variety...

Twitter, oh twitter. We have sort of a love/hate relationship I think. I never really used it very much before now but knew (basically) what it was about. After using it more frequently and getting more comfortable with it in the last couple of weeks, I have learned how easy it is to use. - I am not a (not so proud?) owner of the twitter app for blackberry. Hey - if you're gonna tweet, why not make it easy.

Here's why there are mixed feelings though; who on earth actually NEEDS to know what you are doing ever second of the day? Yes, I'll admit, it is great to be able to leave little short blurbs about what you're doing, or where you are, or post a picture here and there of something note-able that happened during your day. And yes, it's pretty cool to be able to find out what celebrities and famous people are up to and what things they think are interesting. I almost feel like i'm invading their privacy on some level though, because those people have NO IDEA who I am or what I'm about. Since I have been 'tweeting' more often now, I even have people following me that I have no clue who they are. How weird is that?! I do like that you can kind of 'tag' people in the posts that you make and that I receive notifications or emails when someone has mentioned me in one of their posts.

It is totally different from blogging so many ways. yes it has similar qualities in that you can basically share whatever content you want with a world of people that may or may not know you but twitter is a short, convenient way of getting short updates on people's lives and leaving ones about yours. There is no room for long entries or polls. Just simple posts that can only be a sentence or two.

I think from now on I'll likely use it only when I really feel the need but it is  nice to be able to go on the site and quickly get updates from all of your friends on one page to basically see what people are doing with their evenings or what their plans are. Another way of keeping in touch. As if we weren't caught up enough.

a cheering competition...

So this evening i attended a meeting at my old stomping grounds about the possibility of the high school being closed (or sorry - there is an "accommodation review"!!). There are four high schools in the area that are basically competing against one another to be kept open. Every school has their own strengths and weaknesses obviously, and these will definitely be being taken into consideration. Things like the number of attendees, how many feeder schools and students from those schools are planning on coming to the high school in grade 7 or grade 9, what special programs the schools offer, how large the boundaries are that are providing students to the schools, the impact of the school on the economic well-being of the community that surrounds it, etc. There are so many factors to take into consideration this kind of decision is not going to be an easy one. But more than any other factor, guess what is going to have the most weight on the school board's decision?

THE SHOOL SPIRIT!

That's right ladies and gentlemen, after attending this meeting that was offered simply by concerned parents of the students that attend Adam Scott C.V.I., it was made very clear that the more support that the school gets at all 4 of the meetings to be held in April (one meeting at every school - same meeting different locations and times) the more chance that school has of staying open. This has become such a political issue that above all else, school representation at the meetings is the most important thing. Anyone and everyone that cares about the outcome of the school is encouraged to come to if not all, at least one of the meetings dressed in school colours just to be a presence.

Information about this issue provided to parents of the current students and the parents of the students currently attending Adam Scott's feeder schools is very restricted. None of the school board members are allowed to have any involvement in educating the people that it concerns the most. Therefore, meetings need to be set up by parents/guardians, and the only people in the school that can help the students is their own student council. Even a task as simple as sending a letter home to inform parents is nearly impossible as teachers cannot be involved. These letters basically need to be handed to students as they exit school property at the end of the day by volunteers stationed on sidewalks. The school has been making an effort to post information sessions and meeting times in local newspapers and on the radio, but some of the meetings are so last minute that even the school's receptionist gets the information wrong. How are students and parents supposed to fight for a cause they may not even know about?!

The 4 meetings that will be held for the board members to hear presentations from anyone willing to make them, will be held in April. The very democratic predictions from the board about the fate of the local high schools is that there could be a closure, there may be some partnering (ex. classes and community use of the existing building), or things may remain unchanged.

If anyone would like more information about Adam Scott's situation in particular, go to to our doors are open. I strongly encourage anyone that is reading this and has any interest in keeping this high school afloat to attend at least one of the meetings in April. I'll keep ya posted!

getting acquainted with the blogging world...

as this blog sprouted from a university course, there are some components that must be addressed. firstly, my evaluation of blogger is pretty simple. it is relatively easy to use and actually a lot more fun than i had expected. if i could change anything, however, it would be to make it easier to modify and adjust text boxes, gadgets, picture sizes and everything like that easily with just a mouse click here and there. Some of the elements displayed on my blog aren't exactly where i would have liked them to be or appear how i want them to but i'm still learning!

lucky for me, i have a bunch of blogs (some which are listed on this one) that i look at religiously. its almost an addiction. I mainly blame my good friend carly from tea cups and bubble baths for tapping me into this wonderful world of web logging. the blogs i look at most frequently are mainly fashion and lifestyle blogs from relatively regular girls from all over the world. my go-to's are dirty hair halo, fashion distraction, and le blog de betty. i absolutely love these ladies and their style. most of the time if i'm trying to figure out what to wear or i'm just bored of the clothes and the outfits i have, i'll look online at their outfit posts along with many others and get some fresh ideas. this mean always going out and buying something new (but if i were rich it totally would), rather i get ideas of how i can make pieces i already own work into something new and different. i also check up on the store blogs. for those that are reading this for sheer enjoyment, and don't know me, i work at a store called flavour. my boss owns three small shops in total, each one has its own blog respectively. these are great for getting updates on new arrivals and emerging trends, plus all the cool events and promo we do in the city for people to get involved with and take advantage of! check 'em out! flavour, plush and S.O.S.

blogging loads of different purposes and millions of people use them every day. i think they're great. from being able to promote a product or service on the internet for little to no cost, to networking with people all over the world with similar interests and passions as you, to simply being able to share personal experiences with people from literally almost anywhere, i think is really cool. I know that my friend that blogs like it's her day job has made friends through her blog that she now talks to on a regular basis. As the world becomes more and more conveniently connected, blogging is just one more tool to keep in touch with what is going ons and to learn more about the things that mean something to us.

i feel a habit shaping...

this week's playlist...

CRAZY FOR:

ellie goulding.
check out starry eyed, but her whole debut album "lights" is amazing..... nothing but good things to say, i can't get enough of her music.. aannndd she's beautiful... damn her

nice to meet you...

hello everyone! welcome to my blog! This is totally new for me so you'll have to have some patience... I am 21 years old, going to Trent University and work at an independent/locally owned clothing store in Peterborough, ON. The picture is from a catalogue that my work put together to show off the product we carry. This was by far my favourite outfit. I love fashion, music, creating things and being active. This blog is about my life, my friends, my inspirations and adventures. Enjoy!