Monday Mood 01

A lil Monday Mood board today. I've been enjoying collecting images and putting them together into mood boards. I like the way they look, so figured I'd share them here to start the week off!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend xx

Aruba Adventures: Horseback riding through Arikok

I finally got the film from my trip to Aruba developed, so I'm ready to share some beautiful memories from a beautiful island.

I had forgotten how beautiful and, as cheesy as it is to say, majestic, horses are. They're such incredible animals and have such force, intuition, and personality. It was a really special experience to witness the beautiful North coast of Aruba with such incredible creatures.

Aruba was a really cool island. It has your typical resort and tourist beaches on the one side, and then protected natural land on the North side. This is partly because the waves that come crashing into the island on the North side are quite gloriously forceful. Of course, it's hard to actually capture one of the big ones on camera since they never seem to happen when you're at the ready to click your shutter ;)

It's also a very dry island - lots of cacti (which I don't actually have a picture of in this post - oops!) and dry shrubbery. I loved the impressive cacti double my size, wonky and weird and perfect.

We stopped at the natural pools, seen behind me here, and normally visitors have a chance to go for a dip in them, but with the winds of that specific day it was too wavy and dangerous. I was ok with that though - going back on horseback in wet clothes is no fun..... yes, that's foreshadowing...

On our way back, we got to the peak of Arikok park, and a windy storm blew in. It became a precarious act of balancing on the horses, who decided they weren't gonna casually stroll while they got bombarded with sideways rain and strong winds and began galloping down the hills, holding onto the reins, holding onto our hats, and getting totally soaked.

It was hectic and a little uncomfortable after, but kind of a cool adrenaline rush and our guide was super great at making sure we were safe and not overly concerned. I highly recommend the Rancho Loco folks if you're ever in Aruba and want to go Horseback riding through Aruba's nature!

Have you been to Aruba before? What was your fav part?

Stay tuned for a few more Aruba posts with photos!

Moodboard: New Apartment

I guess the first step of this post is to share that I finally signed a lease for an apartment this week!

The story goes like many others' stories: I moved away from my childhood home a couple of times, mostly for school, and ended up moving back several times. In the first move, I learned to choose my room mates wisely. In the third, I moved to Paris and learned to live alone and far away. In another, I lived with my mum for a while. The last, I lived in Waterloo for school with the most lovely house mate.

Moving back home has been a challenge. My dad and step mum and my brother, all of whom live here too, are lovely and I consider our relationships very close and wonderful. We've grown together and I am cherishing the last little bit of time that we all live under the same roof, especially as my brother leaves for university in the fall (to ENGLAND!). Nonetheless, it is difficult to come back to your childhood and family space when you've had so many tastes of your own routines, your own ways of doing things, your own space, your own little semi-separate life.

Sooooo, the right opportunity finally arose and I am going to be moving in the next month or so with my best friend Kami. I know some of you probably just cringed at the words "moving in with my best friend". I've heard the horror stories but have tons of faith in us and our free and open communication. Plus Kami is maybe the kindest soul I've ever met, so I'm sure we can make it work one way or another with kindness, compassion, generosity, and openness. I'm SO excited!

I can't wait to decorate. Given that I'm moving from home, I have to buy almost all-new furniture. I'm going to do my best to THRIFT as much as I can, or bunz trade or purchase vintage. But either way, this means I can make some choices from scratch, so I'm brainstorming (daydreaming incessantly) already and will likely share some of my pinterest finds here! Hope you don't mind some home decor inspo ;)


xx