Summer Diary ~ 2018

Forever (after, now) remembered as the first summer at the Oriole nest.
A new home, a new space, a new frame of mind.

The Oriole nest feels like the safest place to be; to be entirely me, with my best friend who - surprise! Is still my best friend after nearly 5 months of living together.
The amount of times I was warned, and reassured others, that we still would be. She's a dream come true. We've made such a nice place to live and I am soaking up every minute of it (because I know nothing is permanent).

This summer was marked by the hum and clicks of fans oscillating, by the subway rumbling gently like a faraway thunder rolling across distant skies. Cicadas, zealous chirping squirrels with red tails. It was marked by new music, a deeper appreciation for female voices and song writing, artists that inspire me to be who I am fully. Buying sun flowers for myself. A new commute to work, one where I sometimes bump into one of my participants and we make the bus ride shorter with lively discussion.

I will also remember this as a summer that felt really weird.
Weird like a half-dream,
like a stuck-in-transition season.
Weird like the time between a short hair cut
and not sure whether you want to chop it again
or go back to long locks.
Weird like staying in lake water too-long;
All you want is to stay and float forever but your body isn't made to.

I didn't spend as much time outside as I'd like;
a result of the Oriole nest being a basement apartment?
Feeling grounded,
but wanting the air and the water,
fresh air out of the city,
water I can jump into.

This is the reality of where I am in life:
a young adult,
paying rent in a city with exorbitant costs,
wanting to be in the city
a cool cultured youth some people tell me I should be
(myself a people too).
But then unable to afford a getaway which I begin to crave.

I got some tastes though - a brief stint at a stormy cottage, one or two swims. A visit to my grandma, by her bed as she is fighting an aggressive cancer. Reading by the pool while she rests. Camping overnight after a friend's wedding, listening to crickets and the crackling dying bonfire at four in the morning from my tent, nursing a hangover in a corn field just five hours later. Visiting my parents' house and having coffee on the back porch in the morning.

Celebrating four years together. My big-bearded guy with a big heart and a big mind.
Daydreaming too much about our future together
(sometimes just enough, but sometimes too eagerly -
I am learning to want things in the future
but accept that they are only there, not in the now.)

The day I showed up at his place and he had set up an outdoor table for us to get our hands dirty at, experimenting with dollar store clay,
next to his family's vegetable garden.
Moving his room from a basement we fell in love in, to an upper floor,
smashing a crunchy mattress up small stairways of an old house,
learning to laugh at the neighbours' weird antics at odd hours of the night.

I love him.

As the weather cools, I look forward to holding hands without feeling sticky.
I look forward to cooking and eating soup,
without raised eyebrows at me for eating soup in the heat.

Here's to this summer, and here's to this next season too.
~ xo

Summer Withdrawal • 2017

Oh, friends. What a summer. This happens to me every year, at the turn of the season. I get nostalgic and - admittedly - melancholic, when fall rolls around. This year, my life doesn't change so dramatically as those returning to a new school year, but by proxy I am still neck deep in the back-to-school blues. Many people around me have returned to school and even just by that it feels like it is over. So I thought I'd share some of my favourite photos from the season - I took many on a point and shoot film camera that I'm thrilled by! It's got a date stamp that reads 1998... so let's pretend we've really time traveled because I'm a bit of a geek like that and think it's funny.

From when my fella and I woke up in time to see the sunrise and the full moon set on the lake.

Camping! We did our first hike-camp together this summer, with about 20 other people! It was someone's birthday weekend and we were invited to join in on the fun. By the end there were only a handful of us left, including a sweet 3 year old who was really the life of the party.

Two of my closest friends from highschool - still eating yummy food and getting up to shenanigans almost a decade later (what the heck how did we get that old?).

One of my bosses, Johnathan Ball, painting a mural. I got to assist but mostly just edited photos and watched the magic happen.

My fella and I have a bad tendency to reverse-match when we go away and pack clothes. Here was a real full-on reverse match while camping, and a pretty sky!

This guy just started his engineering degree this month and I am so excited for him!

This summer also marked the 1 year birthday of my mural! And still, no damages or tagging (knock on wood). Yay!

There are so many specifics and beautiful moments I could get into and talk about when I reflect on my summer, but for now I'll leave it at that - a collection of nice images to remember parts of it.
Of course there are plus sides to fall, too. Fall is my favourite fashion season, so that's been fun! I'm going to try and do some thrifty outfit posts soon, as I recently got some GEMS for fall!

What was the highlight of your summer?

Summer "Done" list! • 2017

See my original to-do list post here!

• Read a ton: I read two Harry Potter books, The Colour Purple, and Sweetness in the Belly. The last two were really touching, poignant books. I also read a ton for school - my brain is filling up fast!

• Visit my grandma more often: I did my best to visit when I could. We are selling her house this year and there are lots of things to be done in preparation!

• Go camping: CHECK! I've been wanting to do this again for years, and finally had the time a couple of weekends ago. It was a really great time and I felt very refreshed after some time in the wilderness! (This was already checked off when I posted the list initially!)

• Go to the beach: Womp womp, I didn't manage this one this year. But I spent lots of time by lakes on docks at cottages!

• Make horchata (again!): It was labour intensive but super delicious.

• Ride a bike: Towards the end of summer my good friend moved to England, and she gifted me her bike! I didn't have an excuse to not ride anymore, so my fella (who also just got a new bike for school) and I went on my first bike ride in a DECADE. I will write more about this some other time - it was great!

• Host a girl's craft night: I've had a couple of collaborative art-making nights and hang outs this summer and it's one of my favourite things!

• Make more smoothies for breakfast: I have a thing with breakfast. I am rarely into it, which is why I thought smoothies might be a good option. But I never really got into them either. Oh well....

---

I'm pretty pleased with how I did with my to-do list this summer - I did all this and so so much more! I want to post about a sort of, regeneration of self, that I felt this summer. I revisited many things that made me feel like a kid again, and I tried new things that helped me grow. It was an excellent summer and I am sad to see it go!

Did you make a summer to-do list? Did you manage to cross many things off it?

The Latest: Reflecting on Past Summers

Yesterday I had what my twelve year old self would have called a "real summer day". I played some video games, I watched Game of Thrones simultaneously with my friend in Scotland (we had first begun watching it together when we both lived in Paris!), watched some CSI, watered the plants, had a nice long shower, cooked a hearty dinner with a glass of wine in hand.... and honestly not much more than that. It was glorious.

I also felt a bit guilty, though. I have a lot of things on my plate and the idea of not doing work towards ANY of it made me feel as though I wasted an opportunity for focused work. But I think I've been focusing for a long time, so a day to myself to turn my brain off was probably exactly what I needed. Today, I woke up feeling invigorated and made a collage first thing in the morning before work. Then I painted at work. And now, I have plans to dive into some reading for my thesis work. And later, dinner with my fella!

It's strange to think back to my younger self who would play Sims and watch TV all day, almost all summer, and never get bored of it. How was that possible!?! I honestly can't imagine. Instead my summers are filled with seeing friends, being outdoors, drinking and eating delicious things, painting drawing and making, going on adventures around the city (and out!), and of course, as an adult - there is still work! It's been like that for years, of course, but for some reason this week I have been reflecting on what it was like as a young teenager. I probably also did some social outdoors things, but for the most part I was a real proponent of doing NOTHING AT ALL, ALWAYS. Except play Sims. I loved the Sims. I used to make cheesy little movies from video captured in the game.... I was a bit of a nerd, ok?

Anyway, I thought I'd also just share this photo of me and my friend's pug Susan. She was such a darling, and ow great of a name is Susan for a pug? Also, she actually wasn't as terrified of me as she seems here - I don't think! My friend Krista (Susan's human mama) is moving to New York soon, so I'm trying to soak up as much Krista and Susan time as I can before that.

What's up with you lately? Let me know in the comments!

Fun fact: I still like the Sims, just a little less obsessively I suppose.... ;)

Summer To-Do List • 2017

I love summer, and I love lists! As such, a to-do list for summer activities was just a natural choice. Plus, I made this one pretty! So here we go:

• Read a ton: I've got a summer of reading ahead of me as I develop my thesis proposal, and I'm excited! I also am hopeful that I will have time to read some things just for fun, too.

• Visit my grandma more often

• Go camping: CHECK! I've been wanting to do this again for years, and finally had the time a couple of weekends ago. It was a really great time and I felt very refreshed after some time in the wilderness!

• Go to the beach

• Make horchata (again!): I made some DIY horchata a couple of weeks ago and it was SO delicious, I've been dreaming of it ever since! I want to perfect my recipe and make more.

• Ride a bike: I recently started going to spinning classes, and I LOVE it. I haven't ridden bikes outside in a long time, and I'm' a bit nervous about handling it in the city traffic. But I really want to get back at it!

• Host a girl's craft night

• Make more smoothies for breakfast

Just a little list this year, but all things I'd really like to tick off my to-do list!

What's on your summer to-do list this year?

Weekly Photo Capsule 09.06.2015

Happy September everyone!

I took a step away from the internet this past little while and have been enjoying as much outside time as I possibly can. I am really trying to milk what's left of this summer weather and take advantage of the natural paradises around me.

My aunt's place up in the country side is always the sweetest escape with a cabin in the woods to sleep in, listening to wolves howl and night bugs buzz. And then walking to my grandmother's property next door for breakfast in the early morning. There's also my fella's place which is a good spot to paint in, and the Toronto beach which is a fun place to lounge about and eat snacks with friends.

I've been making art and thinking about art a lot. I always do, but this is really my time to explore it. No school, no full time work, just me and some time to explore my creative side even more deeply. It's actually thrilling, to be falling into something with art that makes me so happy and fulfilled. Yay!


How are you taking advantage of the last little bits of summer?

xo

Dreaming of Summer

THIS IMPOSSIBLE, DEEP, UNWAVERING WINTER.
"Winter is here!" I cringe, brace yourselves.
"It's still winter!" I could cry. Sometimes I do cry.

In the city, the snow turns to slush. Everything is grey and the blue sky doesn't show itself for what feels like weeks at a time. Anytime I wake up at a reasonable time, it is still dark outside. I leave my classes to find the sun has gone already, replaced by bitter night time winds. Dry cracking hands (and nostrils, and eyes) and toes that are sick of socks and boots.

I'm sure it is worse elsewhere, maybe Northern Canada. Perhaps it is a personal preference (my brother loves winter). Regardless, I can't stand it. By mid-February I feel myself succumbing to the winter blues and wishing wholeheartedly for summer!

(photo taken nearly 4 years ago, the summer of red hair!)

And so I daydream of summer. I envision myself running outside with no shoes on, grass squishing between my toes. Letting my hair dry outside while I read a good book on the back patio. That feeling of the sun on my skin and the breeze a welcome pause from heat beating down on you. I picture a day at the beach eating snack foods and wearing tie-dye. I imagine camping trips and hikes to high up hills, birds singing sound tracks to my adventures. I imagine a sky, a forest, a world, that welcomes me and makes me feel at home.

I belong in summertime.

xo