Banana Coconut Pancakes

I started off my Sunday with some banana coconut pancakes. I never make pancakes but just felt like it today. I used a basic recipe and added some diced banana and dried, sugarless coconut. Really yummy and the perfect way to start off the day.

Happy Sunday!

Weekender

Happy weekend! I started mine with flowers and yoga. We are having a couple of friends over for brunch tomorrow so I'm looking forward to waffles! Hope u have a good weekend.

~B

Weekender

I'm so glad it's Friday!! I have worked super hard all week and I have today off. Check out the lovely peonies I enjoyed while working at my desk this past week. So delicate and fluffy. Flowers make me so happy :) 

My wedding dress has come in so one of my bridesmaids and I are going in to inspect it tomorrow afternoon. I'll also be trying on some veils and jewellery. Super excited and can't wait to fill you in on our bridesmaid dress shopping experience and our tasting last weekend. 

Happy Friday!

Carpet of Flowers

This past Sunday was a lovely day to get outside to enjoy the sun. Check out this carpet of blue/purple flowers my mom and I spotted when out for a drive. I've never seen anything like this before and felt like I was in a fairytale! 

Weekender....

Another weekend has come and gone! Here are some pics of what I was up to ... 

Making use of my Friday off work to run some errands.

Rainy but it didn't bother me...

We got our new Kitchen Aid blender and both love it!

We make smoothies almost daily and it's such an upgrade from

the Magic Bullet.

I found my perfect cake stand!

Eating a patacon for the first time...thanks to my brother

who took out the fam for some Venezuelan food :) 

Popped by Avenue and Davenport for some spring flowers. 

I hope you all had an easy Monday back at work. I had a busy but good day and enjoyed my morning walk to work. I'm hoping for no rain tomorrow.

~B

Lately ...

The yummy zucchini and mushroom pizza we made on Good Friday

We started that day off by making some banana cinnamon pancakes. Delicious!

Onion dyed easter eggs

Finally bought the foundation and make up sponge I've had on

my list for say 4 months now

Spotted some deer when out for a drive with the fam

Finally finished making our wine cork place card holders!

Happy Weekend :) 

(too bad it's not another long one)

~B

Weekend Relaxin' in Florida!

I'm guessing that you've likely heard about the huge amount of snow Toronto got this past weekend. I was super lucky because I flew out on Thursday night as planned for a weekend in Fort Lauderdale. The weather there was awesome. I'm really eager for summer to start. I can't wait for evening walks and not having to wear so many layers. The fiance and I have never gone down south to get away from the cold Toronto winter so this trip was really awesome for both of us. Here's are some of the highlights of my weekend. Short and sweet!

bar hopping along the canals 

enjoying some Cuban cuisine

enjoying the sun at South Beach during a day trip to Miami 

cuddling on the couch with our friend's two frenchies  

Mexican!

gators at the Everglades! 

I think that my favourite thing during this trip was the 24 km bike ride we did along the Everglades. We thought it was a hoax at first but quickly discovered that all the gators were real. We got really close to them and I'm still surprised how close I was. Apparently gators find the water cold at this time of year and are only interested in lying in the sun to get warm. I guess preying on humans is not their top priority right now, which worked out well for me. I've done a boat tour of the Everglades before but this was waaay better. You get way closer and you get to see lots of other wildlife during this type of tour. Needless to say, I wish we could go to Florida every winter!!

Happy Tuesday!

This Week ...

new faux David Yurman bracelets

noticing lots of new food trucks in T.O.

It was a pizza kinda week

Also partied with my friend Shannon

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I spent mine at SupperWorks yesterday prepping meals for upcoming weeks. Will post about that soon :) 

~B

All Hallows' Eve

 
Not sure what you're thoughts are about Halloween but I think it can be anything from stressful to super fun. There are years I have the perfect costume planned and am really excited and other years (like last year) where I don't want to spend the time and money looking for a costume. This year I am super excited. My friends and I are going out clubbing for a dear friend's 30th b-day on Saturday night and I can't wait.

Last weekend the fiance and I went to Kensington Market to get inspired. Kensington seems to be the go-to place for Halloween costumes in Toronto. There are lots of vintage stores which basically turn into Halloween stores this time of year. Check out the display outside one of the shops.

I don't really like buying ready-made costumes and prefer to put together my own. This year I am going to be Cleopatra! I was inspired by a snake necklace and bracelet I have that are perfect for this costume. I was going to be Cleopatra last year but was too lazy to look for a dress. I found a one shoulder gold dress in Kensington which will work well for the costume. Bought the wig at Value Village several weeks ago and I'm all set.

Can't wait to show you all the final look. I did my own little quick makeup trial yesterday before washing my face. Playing dress up can be so much fun!!

Saturday Brunch Obsession: Beast

Today, the fiance and I ran some errands which included doing some shoe shopping for him, shopping in Kensington for our Halloween costumes and prepping for our upcoming engagement shoot. We (I) woke up late and since we had access to his parent's car we decided to drive over to Queen West to have brunch at Beast.  

I think I've written about Beast before on the blog (most likely about their awesome fried pickles). They also do a happy hour but are really known for doing a good brunch, so naturally we've been curious about their brunch and decided that today would be the day we go. 

The first thing I noticed is that they have really and I mean REALLY good coffee that comes straight to your table in French press and all. You even get a timer to make sure the coffee has finished brewing. I chose one of the Ethiopian medium-dark roasts and every sip was YUM!

I've heard a lot about their maple-bacon donuts so of course we had to try one. I once baked peanut butter bacon cookies and really wasn't a huge fan of the combination. I also don't think that the maple-bacon combo is for me. If you're really into bacon they're worth trying...  

The fiance had the beastwich which is basically a buttermilk biscuit sandwich with friend chicken, pimiento cheese, 2 friend eggs and pork sausage gravy in the middle. He said it was "okay."

I opted for the israeli breakfast which included chicken shawarma, hummus, eggplant, pickled zucchini and two fried eggs. It was good and I'd eat it again. 

Overall, we both enjoy Beast for their fried pickles and casual atmosphere. The brunch was good but honestly it wasn't amazing and I've definitely had better. Not sure I'll be going back for brunch :(  I prefer their tapas style dinner which I've gone back for a few times now. 

Click here for their menus. 

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend :)

B~

Weekender

Ahh I can't believe it's already Sunday. The past week has been wonderful for me (I'll get to that in a later post). On Friday night I was feeling lazy so I made sweet potato fries for dinner. I hate beer but love fruity strawberry flavoured beers and happened to find one in our fridge. To make myself feel better about this not so healthy meal I added a side of spinach. 

Saturday was a relaxing day. I organized a girls day with some friends and we went to Body Blitz Spa for massages and the therapeutic waters. It was a lot fun. There's simply nothing better than going to the spa with the ladies and getting massages followed by shopping along Queen West. 

Overall, I've had a wonderful weekend and am feeling calm and collected. Not sure what exactly this weeks brings but I'll be going into it with the intention of finding more relaxation time and hitting the gym for more spinning classes.

Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend. It's not over yet!

~B

Thanksgiving Weekender

I hope you all had a wonderful long weekend (fellow Canadians). I thoroughly enjoyed myself and used every opportunity to spend time with family, eat yummy food and take in the wonderful fall sights. The bf, mama and I went for a drive up north to check out the changing colours. We went to Caledon East which was in peak change and it was absolutely beautiful! I love getting out of the city for a drive. It didn't bother me at all that it started to rain on our way back. Just as well because we had a lot of cooking to do for the big dinner ...

We had dinner at my place. There were four of us. My wonderful friend Hana chowed down with us. What was going to be a simple dinner ended up being a little more than I had originally planned. We had brussel sprouts, mushroom and walnut stuffing, roasted potatoes, homemade gravy and cranberry sauce, and lemon, rosemary turkey. We finished it off with pumpkin pie and ice cream. It was a lot of food but well worth all the effort. I hope you all ate to hearts desire and enjoyed spending time with your family and friends this past weekend even if you didn't celebrate the holida.

~B

Weekenders

The bf and I have been on a mission to enjoy every weekend there is left of this summer. We both love nature and have been spending a lot of time outdoors. Two weekends ago we headed up to the wonderful Millcroft Inn and Spa, located in Alton, Ontario. We spent the weekend eating delicious food, hiking, binging on what was left of the Olympics (we don't have a tv or cable) and of course relaxing and strolling around the wonderful estate.  Here I am stopping to do a really crappy Usain Bolt impression during a hike lol! What can I say? I love the track and field events and the relays are always the best!!

I also discovered some awesome salt and vinegar chips that are just right - not too much salt or vinegar that they don't make your lips hurt. If you know me you know that I love salt and vinegar chips. I may or may not have eaten three (SMALL) bags within the last ten days. I KNOW! I need to stop and am working on that  ....  I also had high tea at the Inn. It was so relaxing and yummy. 

This past weekend I spotted this crazy, awesome, hilarious running shoe in a window on Queen Street. I would love to see someone wear them with the teddy bear face bobbing up and down as they walk lol! I also went camping with the bf and two of our friends. This was a short camping trip but is was really relaxing and fun. I just love being outdoor with trees all around me. Looking up and seeing a sky full of stars makes it sooo worth the drive. 

I wish today was still the weekend so I threw in this pic taken on an evening stroll at Sugar Beach. 

Happy Monday!! 

B~

Awenda Camping Adventure!

Last weekend my friends and I headed up to Awenda Provincial Park for the weekend. My friend Seanna was visiting from Vancouver so we took the opportunity to enjoy the great outdoors together! I think this was hands down the best camping trip I've even had. Us girls were all roommates back in university and it was so wonderful to spend some quality time together and reminisce. We shared a lot of laughs and it was so nice to get out of the city. We had no rain and I didn't get eaten alive by mosquitoes :)

Our tent which is surprisingly big on the inside. We had some difficulty pitching it and it was a race against the dark but it all worked out!

For camping we had some gourmet meals! We had yummy salads and an eggplant parmesan casserole that I made. YUM! How could I forget about the s'mores? I think the bf must have had like 4 of them lol! They are soo good. I have some graham crackers left and am tempted to make them at home. I know it won't be the same though :(

Of course we also ate hot dogs and other traditional camping food. We had a great day at the beach and my friend's pug tagged along on this trip. 

Me and my girls!

Overall, the trip was a success. I love camping and am hoping to do some camping with the bf this September. We just have to expand our stash of camping gear.

Do you like camping?