New Years Eve

Oh New Years Eve. It's such a night full of hope…that never seems to turn out exactly how you planned. I think that's the universe telling us to never get our hopes up too much. Then you end up starting the new year off with a nice old hangover. Not really the fresh start that you'd imagined, huh?

But we sure do love the day anyways! I'm gonna put on my part dress tomorrow and throw some glitter in the air and enjoy myself! I feel like it's such a fun holiday because you can be a little outlandish. You can dress in glitter or wear a tiara and it's all fun. Maybe we should bring that kind of excitement and beauty into every day!

Here are a few of my favourite songs to listen to on New Years Eve:

They may not be party songs but they're the ones that seem to run through my head on New Years.

Enjoy your fresh starts people!

xoTaylor

2013: A Year in Review

Wow. Another year is almost over and it feels like it went by so fast and so slow at the same time. Thinking of the year it feels like so much happened…and then it also feels like I was celebrating New Years in Jamaica just yesterday.

This was the year that I became an aunt. The year that I moved out of my parents home. The year that I finally made my way to the big city. The year I learned all about independence and paying bills. The year that I finally finished college. The year that Jordan and I decided that we were ready to move in together (but who knows exactly when that will happen!). The year that I got to move in with my best friend. The year I pushed myself outside of my comfort zone and refused to let myself wonder "what if…"

I've learned so much this year about who I am and what I want and what being in the real world is really like. I hope next year leaves me feeling as accomplished as this one.

I'm also happy to leave this year behind. I've found a lot of things that I don't like and I hope to reconcile those in the new year.

Here's to opportunities to make a change and another year on the horizon.

xoTaylor

Secret of the Week

xoTaylor

Christmas In Photographs

I had one of the best Christmas' yet. It was filled with everything that it should be: family, friends, relaxing and food food food.

Hope yours was equally as wonderful!

xoTaylor

Seasonal Sleepiness

*Coffee is my favourite way to keep warm these days*

This holiday season is really starting to kick my butt…maybe you've noticed by my lack of posting lately! I'm about to be looking at a long stretch of crazy shifts at work but there's also Christmas in between there and I'm super excited about it! I can't wait to go home and spend a couple of days with my family. 

This past weekend I took Friday and Saturday off to go home and celebrate my four year anniversary with Jordan. It was wonderful. We went out to dinner and a movie, went record store shopping, climbed out of the cold for lattes and spent many hours cuddling on the couch. It was great. 

I had to head back Sunday to go to work. There had been tons of snow all weekend so I left Cambridge at 8am to get to Toronto at 10am. Luckily I did because my 40 minute drive actually took those two hours and I got there just in time. 

Sunday night I wrapped gifts, made peppermint bark and tried to keep warm by the fire. 

I had today and yesterday off which has been amazing because I'm about to be working every single day besides the 24th and 25th. I spent the night with Shauna last night and we went out to dinner and then hung out and watched a movie. Tonight I did some gift wrapping and then fell asleep on the couch for two hours. I missed naps.

Here's some of my wonderful wrapping:

I went out today and got bows and tins for my peppermint bark and did all my presents up really pretty. It was fun. 

Well, I wish I could share more but even with my two hour nap, all I want to do is be horizontal on the couch watching old episodes of True Blood so that's exactly what I'm going to do!

Keep warm!

xoTaylor

Secret of the Week

Ditto.

xoTaylor

Secret of the Week

I seriously think this sometimes. Thanks to my wild stresses lately my emotions have been off the heezy (as the kids these days are saying.) Here's to crying at 9am and getting free hugs from your best friend to make you feel better. There's always a silver lining.

xoTaylor

Days Off

Greetings from the best day ever! This is the first official day off that I've had in a while! I've already cleaned the apartment, done my laundry, danced to Christmas music, journaled, watched lots of tv and drank a ridiculous amount of tea and hot lemon water. It's pretty perfect around here.

Even better than a day off? I am officially FINISHED my undergrad. I handed in my final paper Friday. It felt wonderful. I've been wanting to graduate basically since I began so it's nice to finally put that behind me and move on.

What's been going on lately? Well, besides work, I've been pomegranate crazy!

I saw the idea for the bark on Pinterest. It's probably the most delicious thing I've ever eaten. I'm trying desperately not to eat the entire pan today (no promises!)

Tomorrow I start another 4 days straight of working both of my jobs (which end up being 10-11 hour days) but I do have Friday and Saturday off because Saturday is mine and Jordan's 4 year anniversary. I can't believe it's been that long! I'm excited to spend a couple days with him :)

Unfortunately I'm sick but I'm not letting that get me down. I'm using that as a good excuse to drink lots of hot beverages and snuggle on the couch.

Hope your Sunday is as wonderful as mine is!

xoTaylor

Go go go

I am finally at the end of a 11 day working bender. I work 4pm until midnight tonight- you better believe they saved the worst for last.

Tomorrow I'm home for the night so I can go to my final class of university but before that I have six more pages of my paper to write. I'm half done and have all night tomorrow night to finish it. Wish me luck.

Light at the end of the tunnel: I have Sunday off and I booked next Friday and Saturday off for mine and Jordan's 4 year anniversary :)

I'll be back Sunday with a real post! Just wanted to pop in and say hi but now I'm off running again.

xoTaylor

Secret of the Week

It does make a person seem a little bit cooler…not gonna lie. (I'm in the two milk, two sweetener camp though and proud of it!)

xoTaylor

Baby It's Cold Outside

It got freezing out of nowhere around here! All of a sudden the trees and streets are covered in snow and I have to wear big boots everywhere I go. It is kind of beautiful, I must admit. It's also the perfect weather for big knitted sweaters and multiple cups of coffee. I guess I can't complain because it may be cold but it sure does make for a cozy home.

I was home all weekend and I brought back a little mini Christmas tree for our apartment. I'm excited to set it up and bring some holiday cheer into our apartment. I don't know what's happening to me but I've had Christmas songs stuck in my head lately and I actually am enjoying the snow, even though it means I've now got to take my workouts indoors and be a little more creative.

Here are some Christmas songs to get you in the mood (featuring my favourite little songstress, Zooey Deschannel):

*That's right: two versions of my favourite Christmas song (both by Zooey!)*

Merry Almost-December!

xoTaylor

Secret of the Week

I wonder how many other people see the potential in the people around them who don't see it in themselves.

xoTaylor

Home is Wherever I'm with You

This weekend has been pretty wonderful. I booked the weekend off from work so that I could help my grandparents move on Saturday and so I could get pictures done with Jordan's family today.

Friday night I didn't even get into town until 9pm but I made Jordan immediately go to our favourite thai restaurant. We went to be pretty early because we had to wake up at 6:30 the next morning.

After peeling ourselves out of bed at that ungodly hour we grabbed coffee and headed over to my grandparents apartment with my mom and stepdad. My grandparents are moving into the apartment in my parents basement (the apartment I used to live in) and it was quite the task to move them. It was a freezing cold day and we even got the first snow of the season. It was a long day but when it was finally over Jordan and I went out for frozen yogurt (I basically live to go to Menchies) and then went to see Catching Fire. I can't stress enough how obsessed I am with this movie. I can't stop thinking about it and I'm already looking to see it again. It was pure perfection.

Speaking of perfection: the wardrobe blew my mind.

I have every intention of growing my hair out and wearing only black and blue until people start confusing me with Katniss. Jennifer Lawrence looked amazing. I.love.her.

Today I got family photos done with Jordan's family, as we do every year. It was nothing to write home about but the brunch after was. Don't let me near a buffet ever again. I was so full that I actually took TWO naps today. My body was like "Wow girl, you ate too much. I'm going to have to shut you down because your consciousness is taking too much energy and I'll never be able to digest this MOUND of food in your stomach." And then I woke up…and had dinner a few hours later and my body was like "Are you freaking serious?!" And I lost consciousness again. Not my proudest day but I REGRET NOTHING.

Anywho…I'm dog sitting my sister's dog tonight and the two of us are spending some wonderful quality time together. We went for a snowy and cold walk this afternoon and have been cuddled up on the couch all evening. I need a dog at my apartment so I can do this every day of the week. Who doesn't want a big fury pal to cuddle up and watch tv with every night?

Hope your weekend was as wonderful as mine (and I hope you learned a lesson from my buffet blunders haha)

xoTaylor

Where have I been?

Man. I have been absent over here on the blog. I've even missed some of my regular weekly postings! I'm going to go ahead and blame work. I've been a nonstop work-a-holic and it just doesn't leave much time for blog posting.

Other than that I dealt with a bout of homesickness last weekend that actually left me crying for an entire morning. It. was. weird.

I also finally saw About Time and I'm so glad I did. It was beautiful.

My homesickness will be cured soon though because I'm spending the weekend at home! I'm very excited. There's just one shift (and an hour drive) between me and freedom.

I'll try to post again soon!

xoTaylor

Weekend to Weekday

It's Monday and it's back to the reality. Usually I'd say that I'm constantly living this reality no matter what day of the week it is but the weekend Gods smiled down upon me and gave me yesterday off. I think this was my good karma for taking the early shift Saturday because one of the girls couldn't come in.

I definitely took full advantage of my day off yesterday. I went for a jog, got grocery shopping done, did laundry and spent a lot of time on the couch. Seriously, it's like I was going for a record or something.

I have a crazy week ahead of me. I have on-call shifts every single day this week. That doesn't necessarily mean that I'll be working every night but there is the chance. Hopefully I don't work tonight. I have a lot of stuff to do today!

Hope you guys aren't feeling too beat down by the new week. Keep your chin up my friends!

xoTaylor

Secret of the Week

Lest we forget.

xoTaylor

Christmas Wishes

So…my mom is kind of an eager beaver and on November 1st she was already bugging me for a Christmas list. I happily obliged and sent her a list of some very beautiful items.

Here's what I've been hoping for:

This was my number one Christmas wish so I could make one of these photo strings:

And it would look even better with these:

*I want this round pillow from Urban Outfitters in mustard for my bed!*

*One word: rad*

And…all of these records:

I've been weirdly into soundtracks lately. I even just ordered this:

So excited to get it soon!

It should be a wonderful Christmas this year!

xoTaylor

A Week Off (Kind of)

So this week I've been lucky enough to randomly get the week off from my retail job. I still have to work my Associate Editor job but lucky for me that job is done from home. This has allowed me the wonderful chance to go home for the week and spend as much time as possible with Jordan. I came home Sunday night after a ridiculously long shift at La Senza (I worked 3pm-12:30am because we had to do a dreadful visual shift). And I've been soaking up my home time ever since.

From 9am until 2pm I have to do my Associate Editor job but I've been making my way to Jordan's every morning and then enjoying time with him all day. We eat breakfast together and then I curl up on the couch and begin typing and working away while he watches tv or goes on his computer or (if I'm lucky) makes me snacks haha. After I'm done we finally get to hang out, watch movies, and just be together (something we haven't got to do in what seems like forever).

I have to go back tomorrow because I work all weekend but I'm very grateful for this lazy week where I got to spend lots of time on the couch, drinking tea and getting the relaxation I so desperately needed.

xoTaylor

Homespirations

One of my favourite things to lust over is pictures of people's homes. My tastes fall less towards the expensive and new and are more drawn towards the interesting and eclectic. I actually hate new homes. I think they're so boring and generic. I love a good wartime bungalow and victorian house. I hope one day to find an ugly old home to completely beautify. A girl can dream. Until then….

 *I can't get over the idea of a fireplace filled with books. It's beyond beautiful*

 *So Beautiful and interesting*

 *I want to make these so bad. They're gorgeous*

 *This makes me immediately want to run around thrifting crates*

 *I'm a sucker for a good desk setup…and an exposed brick wall*

*This is the ultimate addition to my future home. I'm dying for a German Sheppard. I love big dogs and these ones are so smart…not to mention CUTE*

Happy Tuesday!

xoTaylor

Secret of the Week

I love this secret a lot. It's such an amazing example of how cruel people can be and how incredibly kind and tolerant they can be too.

xoTaylor

ALL HALLOWS EVE IS UPON US

IT'S OFFICIALLY HALLOWEEN!

What…of course I'm going to post the second it turns to Halloween. I'm devoted!

I won't even be doing anything Halloween, I just love this holiday. It's got such an eery and amazing essence to it.

I went out last weekend for Halloween and I was a bunny:

Erika was Belle from Beauty and the Beast. No one knew what I was…someone thought I was a dog, someone thought I was a coyote. It was very upsetting. I guess I'll just have to be more creative next year.

For now I will be spamming you with amazing Halloween stuff! Check it:

They say that Halloween is a day when the dead are free to walk to Earth tomorrow. Maybe you'll be lucky and get to meet a ghost :)

xoTaylor