Woooeeee!!!

It has been a seriously busy past few weeks (months) for me! Flitting around from place to place not only have my weekends been booked solid (and still are!) but even my weeknights have been filled with an assortment of obligations.

I want to give a shout out to some of my blogger laydeez whom I have met up with (in some cases multiple times!) this month:

• FB
• Asian Pear
• Arianne
• Melanie

They gave me an awesome time and introduced me to some seriously good eats! I’ve had delish Mexican, Japanese, French pastries, pho, Neapolitan pizza and Portuguese treats with these gals. Truly a worldly experience. And a waist-altering one :S

Last week I hosted a successful plus-size clothing swap with the fatshionista! Community (which I managed to actually post about!); went to the Dove Men+Care launch (buy some for your man), a ChickAdvisor party (Hi ladies!); and this week I’ve been busy with work, my good friend’s birthday (we ate French food!) and planning for my friend Squeaky’s arrival.

Squeaky has had a rough time of things lately, so we decided she should come and visit me for a totally deluxe girl’s weekend. She’s even decided to fly in in style rather than suffer the long train ride.

Tomorrow I am taking her to the Shizen Spa (apparently one of Toronto’s only 5-star spas—we’ll see!) to start the weekend off with a bang.

Introducing the Spa Review Series

Full disclosure here: I’m doing a  spa review series for the blog now (since I am a seasoned spa-veteran!) and Shizen has graciously provided me with a gift certificate for this weekend.

I will be doing an in-depth review of their facilities, customer service, ambiance, and overall experience from a regular client’s perspective.

I love to spa. I do it regularly at different locations in the GTA, so you can rest assured that I know what I’m talking about! After my experience I’ll report back with full details, as well as whether it met my expectations.

Next in the spa series I will also be reviewing the Stillwater Spa at the Hyatt, and Enza Day Spa. (Contact me if you would like to arrange a review of your spa)

I definitely think I deserve a break like this! While I DID get a massage this week (I hurt my shoulder) I haven’t really had a moment to relax, truly relax since Christmas. Squeaky and I are really looking forward to our weekend together—we haven’t seen each other since last year when we went to Las Vegas (and had that bizarre Mr. Darcy moment some of my long-time readers will remember. Champagne + strawberries, anyone?) so this weekend will be a real treat.

The best part is that we don’t really have to stick too closely to a budget… out of all my friends she is probably the best at managing her money and told me she’s willing to spend this weekend! Yippee!! Only problem is, it’s ME that has the budget, this time! D’oh!

So I’m trying to think of things we can do in Toronto that are fun, luxurious and not TOO expensive. The spa will be a great start, and I think we’re going to go out dancing in the evening. I’m making a fancy lasagna for dinner one night and we’ve got tickets for Yuk Yuk’s this weekend as well. I was also thinking of taking her to MoRoCo for some sipping chocolate…but it’s so expensive!

Anyone have any ideas of what we could do this weekend? I’m willing to spend if it’s a fun activity, but the cheaper, the better!

I thought I’d post a follow-up on the boot situation I was complaining about earlier.

I don’ t know why, but I went back to that shoe store again the day after. Luckily it was open this time!

Poor little Max (the owner) of Shoe Avenue sitting alone on his chair twiddling his thumbs… it looked like it had been a slow day! He was totally stoked to see me.

I mentioned that “a friend” (The Asian Pear) told me about this store and that she had gotten some shoes there and Max lit up like a candle. He sure is enthusiastic about shoes and customer service! Holy smokes!

He sits me down in a chair, hands me some water to drink (how nice!) and starts asking me what kind of shoe or boot I’m looking for.

We go through a whole slew of different styles and he explains to me how sizing works, how to properly tuck my pants inside the boots and even puts the boots on me himself!

Talk about great customer service! I think I ended up spending about an hour there with him talking about all the boots & shoes he has, and then talking about my neighbourhood. He used to have a shop in my neighbourhood so we chatted about the changes that have taken place since.

Long story short, I think I have settled on a pair of boots, Trot by Ros Hommerson (first pic). They’re not the other Ros Hommerson’s that I was in love with (second pic), but they look decent on me, fit my muscular calves and even have room for me to tuck my pants in, which is a nice feature.

Our view while waiting in line

Alright, I’ve been putting things off for long enough and it’s time for me to pound out another post.

It was a long and exciting week for me. Between lots of things going on at work, the crazy, crazy thunderstorm and sleepwalking and my weekend, I just didn’t get around to writing much of anything.

I’ll give a full update on my friends’ love triangle dealy-o at a later date, but as it stands the wife is moving out sometime in September. The breakup officially happened on Wednesday, and she’s been feeling kind of down about it. I can imagine that it is a tough thing to have to live with your ex and his new fuck toy while you’re looking for a new place to go.

Anyway, a new girl I’ve been hanging out with a bit (I don’t know if we’re friends exactly just yet, but we’ve been doing things together because we live nearby and have no one else to go to fun events with. We’re sort of in a similar situation) invited me to go to the CNE on Friday, which was opening night.

I was a little hesitant since I was trés exhausted from my sleepwalking adventure but I decided to go anyway. It was opening night so admission was only $1.75. I haven’t been to the Ex since I was a kid, and there’s no way I would pay the normal fee of $15 so I figured I ought to go or I’d never get around to it.

I’m really glad I went! I called up my friend B (the wife) and invited her to join us. She has like, no money right now, but this was cheap enough to get into, and she really needed to get out of that cesspool of an apartment and have some good old fashioned fun.

We all met up and actually had a really great time. I spent more than I thought I would, but I think that this time it was ok– I had a lot of fun and so did my friends. We had corndogs, Tiny Tom donuts, played games and even went on some rides!

There was a special on ride tickets for the evening so we pooled our money and each got 3 tickets for about $6 each. Still expensive, but the last time I was on a ride… I really can’t remember. Again, I was a little hesitant because generally the seats on those carny rides run on the small side and I was worried that I would be too fat to get in. My friends are a little on the round side, too. But we fit! We went on 2 scary rides and one gentle ride and had a total blast.

I didn’t realize how much I was craving a night out like that–the lights, music, sounds, smells, everything! I really felt like a kid again and was genuinely happy that evening, which doesn’t happen often. I was really glad we did this.

Ever the PF’er, here’s my cost breakdown for the night:

Admission x2 (I paid for the wife): 3.50
Corndog: 5.00
Candy Apple: 5.50
Tiny Tom donuts: 5
Water shooter game: 6.00
Guess my age game: 5.00
Lemonade: 3.50
Rides: 6.00
Total: $39.50

Hmm, that’s not actually as bad as I thought it would be! I can’t imagine how expensive it would be if I paid full price admission and ate more food though… I really wanted to have all the classic carnival foods, but the cost was ridiculous. It was $5 for everything, or more! So I just narrowed it down to the things I really wanted and left it at that. I can always roast some of my own almonds and make an ice cream waffle.

We spent about 6 hours at the CNE and headed home around midnight. I won a prize at the guess your age game (he thought I was 19! LOL) and my friend B won me another prize because she felt bad that I didn’t win at the water shooter game. How nice!

We all left full of fair food with lots of photos and a stuffed animal or two each! It was a great night and I am so glad that I got the chance to go. Hopefully there are more fun times a’comin’!

This was my city last night

We had an incredible, massive storm hit the GTA last night. I knew it was a big one but I didn’t realize just how epic it was until I started hearing the news reports this morning.

It all began around 7pm last night. The sky was dark-a heavy darkness. I have the weather sense so I knew a big storm was coming, but I’m pretty sure even less sensitive people could tell. It was quite ominous.

Luckily I made it home and was able to eat supper before it hit.

I was chatting with a friend online, when suddenly the sound of heavy rain and wind began. I ran to the window to watch the show, and I wasn’t disappointed. Toronto does not get hurricanes or tornadoes or any type of extreme weather, really. But from footage I have seen in the past it looked like some crazy hurricane was outside!

The wind was blowing with intense strength, pushing the torrential rain in all directions and causing it to look white, just like wave crests in the ocean. Lightning was flashing–LOTS of lightning! It was literally non-stop! It was really unusual, but so cool to observe.

There were some people caught out in the rain (this happened all at the drop of a hat) and I could hear them squealing with fright as the storm passed over us; I think they were able to find shelter; I HOPE they did. I love storms and wouldn’t even go out in that one.

This storm… I just watched in awe. This one was different from any regular storm we have had in this area. So fierce, so intense, and over so quickly, but with lasting effects. Below is a video of an actual tornado that touched down in Vaughan, which is just northeast of the city. I couldn’t believe it!

A few minutes into the storm, I assume the numerous lightning bolts hit a tree which fell on a line in our neighbourhood, our power was cut and we were cast into darkness. I didn’t worry too much, Hydro is usually able to get the power on within an hour or so.

But not this time.

This is probably where the storm affected me the most–my power was cut until the morning. I’ve mentioned before how hot my apartment gets (its basically the attic of a big house so it retains heat like no other) and without my paltry AC nor a single fan to move the air, the heat became almost unbearable.

My only source of light was a few scented candles I had kicking around, which quickly produced even more heat. I was not a happy camper.

I tried sitting outside to cool down, but it was way too buggy, so I resigned myself to suffering in the heat. I took a quick cold shower then laid in my bed and just listened to music, then finally tried getting some sleep.

The weird part is that when I woke up this morning, I had a vague memory of the power coming on…but for some reason there was all kinds of crazy happening in my room. I think the heat (combined with my normal sleeping pills) affected me so badly that I was sleepwalking!

Get this: I woke up with a bunch of towels randomly strewn across my bed and room. They were old red towels I had stored away. My regular towels are brown. Where the hell did the red ones come from, and why are they all over the place!?!?!

I also went to sleep at one end of the bed and woke up on another???

And woke up to see my clock (which died when the power went out, it has no batteries) set with the correct time, and my desk fan pointed at me??

What the hell???????

What did I DO last night? I am afraid to go home tonight and find something like my pillow in the oven or my houseplant hanging from the ceiling. I have no recollection of any of the weird shit that happened last night.

I don’t know whether to be scared or amused by this. Right now I’m mostly amused.

But man, I’ve got one hell of a headache. I can’t take many more sleepless nights or I’m going to go stark raving mad. Maybe I’ll run around nekkid, next time?

*Photo & video credits to BlogTO

For those of you that don’t know, Toronto is in the midst of a city workers union strike in which garbage pickup, city maintenance, summer camps, etc. have all been stopped by the striking union. More information.

This garbage strike is really getting me down lately. We’re into day 25 of it here with no end in sight. My neighbourhood is still relatively clean, but the area that I work in is disgusting. (The photos on BlogTO were taken in my work area. You see what I have to deal with every day!)

Everywhere I look, there are trashcans filled to overflowing. Litter lines the streets, floats in the air, is tangled in trees and gardens and otherwise makes itself a nuisance.

The smells are pretty bad, too. People are no longer sorting their organic materials out, and are just dumping it all wherever they please which makes everything doubly stinky. The streets and sidewalks are sticky, slippery and smelly and unpleasant to walk on.

People have now begun giving up on trying to find a proper trash receptacle. Now they’re just throwing things anywhere with no regard to the environment or other people. It breaks my heart to see my beloved city drowning in mounds of trash.

Granted, every city will have its various sanitation problems and Toronto is no exception. But with this city strike going on it is simply appalling.

I never really realized before this just how much trash we all produce. Sure, I see what I directly put out on the curb every 2 weeks, but to see that multiplied by 2.5 million people—astounding.

I suppose if I were to look on the bright side, I would hope that Torontonians would make the same observations that I did—quite simply, we are still producing too much trash. I have been making a conscious attempt to reduce my output, especially with this strike going on. It’s tough to do, but I’m making the effort.

I think that Toronto is slowly moving in the right direction, but we’ve got a long way to go.

I can’t wait for this strike to be over. Even with my limited trash output, I’ve run out of bins to store it all in.

I went to the Jameson 360 party at the Great Hall on Saturday. It was essentially a pre-Paddy’s Day party that was being held in several locations around the world. It was cool since they were showing you live broadcasts of all the other parties going on while you were at yours. It was a free event but you had to get tickets, which I got through work connections.

The bands were really good this year, too. It was The Dunes followed by Never Ending White Lights and they did really well I thought. Better than last year’s anyway. There was supposed to be free Jameson & Ginger handed out at this event however I never saw any. I had to buy drink tickets instead. The only redeeming factor is that a Jameson drink only cost $5 and I didn’t have to tip! My night cost me under $20!

The only sad part about the night was that I couldn’t hear a single thing when the bands were playing. My ears were ringing so much that all day yesterday and even today I can still hear/feel it. This is especially sad because two guys actually came up and started talking to me and my friend! I think they might have been interested! I talked for a few seconds with them in the lull between songs; long enough for guy #1 to introduce me to guy #2 who was kinda cute. Unfortunately guy #2 kept trying to talk to me about something (which was good!) but I couldn’t hear ANYTHING!

I tried to tell him that I couldn’t hear him, tapping my ear and looking apologetic and all that, and then he just sort of left! And never came back!

I don’t get it. I mean, I couldn’t hear him, but if we wanted to talk couldn’t he wait until the song was over?

Did I do something wrong in this situation? Should I have pretended I could hear him? I mean, what do you do when you’re at a loud concert and can’t hear the other person? It’s kind of embarrassing. I really would have liked to have chatted with this guy, I mean how often do I ever get guys talking to me? The one time they do I can’t hear them and I guess it turns them off!

I just don’t get it.

Ladies, should I have done something different? Guys, would you walk away from a girl if she couldn’t hear you during a loud concert?

I’m a member of the Toronto edition of ChickAdvisor.com; which is a really great review site for my area (and now across North America, too!). I love going there to scope out reviews on restaraunts, spas, salons, products, you name it! I also contribute by writing some reviews of my own. (Check it out! My username is gingercorsair)

Anyhoodle, Chick Advisor held a Shopoholic event last night at the Varsity theatre in TO that me and my friend MR went to. It was my birthday present to her

For 20 bucks we got a ticket to the show, a cocktail of our choice and a really nice swag bag. Y’all know how much I love my swag! I thought it was a pretty good deal.

It was a pretty good bag, even in comparison to some of the ad-event bags that I get. I totally dig that there were no ad-sales pitches included

I was going to take a photo of my bag but it’s exactly the same as Lowe’s of cocoandlowe.com, who I had the pleasure of meeting last night. So I’m using her photo. Hope she doesn’t mind!

For your viewing pleasure:

What you’re looking at there is:

• Clorox disinfecting wipes in a super-cute dispenser!
• Maybelline eye makeup including a liner, 2 mini-palettes and a single shadow in a lovely purple
• Maybelline’s Lash Stiletto mascara (read my concise review here)
• Maybelline bronzer
• Maybelline lipstick & lipgloss
• Dermalogica sample pack (with my fave microfoliant!)

Not a bad haul, eh? I traded the lipstick, liner and mascara with MR since I already have those items and she wanted them for her sister. Now I just have to find someone to give the Maybelline stuff to… I’ve already got all the colours in higher-end products so I don’t really need them. I guess the only things I’m keeping are the microfoliants from the Dermalogica kits and the Clorox wipes! Oh well, you can’t win them all!

Another nice feature at this event was the Dermalogica skin bar. I went to get a little skin consultation. The girl was great and very knowledgeable, but since I’m a beauty junkie already I didn’t really learn anything new.

As for the Shopaholic movie itself?

I thought it was cute

It was totally different from the books, but I think the same spirit was there. Of course its just as frustrating as the books; I wanted to reach through the screen and shake some sense into Becky Bloomwood; but overall it was a nice, enjoyable chickflick–perfect for my girl’s night out!

Well, I had a good time of it, so if they do another one you’ll probably catch me there! Who knows, maybe one day you might even bump into me!

In an earlier post I showcased some of my work in my intro to silversmithing class. Well, it’s time for an update!

I took a second class at the studio called lost wax casting.

The way it works is, you get hunks of hard wax and use little files and gouging tools to shape the object that you want. You can make really awesome 3D pieces with this, and any type of jewellery (rings, earrings, necklaces, etc.).

You carve the wax exactly how you want it, because every single detail including mistakes! is going to be cast in silver later.

Once you’re happy with your piece, you attach it to a “button” of extra wax on the bottom of a flask. It sticks up in the air and looks like a lollipop! This is then sealed in a cylinder called a flask, and filled with a plaster substance. The wax melts out in a kiln leaving a perfect impression, a mold behind.

Next you melt your silver down in a crucible with your torch, then pour it into the mold you created over a special vacuum. After it cools a little you get to do the really cool *pshhhhh!* quench in the water!

Then you have to finish your piece. It’s usually ugly and covered in black tarnish, casting skin, and sometimes firescale if something went funny in the casting process. I had all of the above on my pieces.

I cut the pieces off the button, then filed and polished all the crappy bits away. For the two skull pendants I made for me and my brother; I used a oxidizing acid in the recessed areas to darken the silver permanently for effect.

Check it out!:

I carved each of those skulls individually, and boy! was it hard! It’s very difficult to work in 3D like that for me. There is no adding, only subtracting. If you slip up or go too deep, that’s it, your piece is garbage. I think with practice it would become easier to do, but I found it very challenging this first time around!

I also made this ring:

I did a super-high polish and if you look close enough you can see my hands and the camera reflected in the silver!

So those three pieces conclude my foray into the world of silversmithing for the moment. I’ve signed myself up for a clay silkscreening class that starts in April that I’m totally stoked about. I will probably go back and take the next level of silversmithing at a later date because right now I’m just tired of inhaling silverdust all the time! hehehe

…So, did any of you take my advice and find something fun and creative to do during the dull doldrums of winter??

Wow, thanks for all the nice (and enthusiastic!) comments about my jewellery, guys! I knew they were kinda nice, but not that nice, you really made my day!

Unfortunately I won’t be selling them on Etsy any time soon, those were my projects in a 6-week class at a studio here in Toronto. Three of the rings I made for my friends and family, and the other three I made for myself and wear them quite regularly

I would have to spend years in metalsmithing classes and set myself up with an expensive studio (or rent one) and materials suppliers in order to continue making jewellery. There is quite a lot of time and effort involved in making something like those and I really just took the course to keep myself occupied during the winter.

(of course the more you do it the easier and faster it gets, but I would need a lot more teaching to be able to work on my own!)

I definitely have a much greater appreciation for those artisans who do sell their things on Etsy after seeing how much work it takes to make a simple silver band.

I am flattered that many of you would like to purchase some of my creations, but since I can’t really continue making them in quantity, I thought I’d offer you some links to Etsy sellers who use the same techniques and materials I learned to use.

Lavender Cottage
Rachael Sudlow Jewelry
Sheena Jewellery

You can easily find more great jewellery and artists on Etsy for yourself! Just pick the type of item you want and narrow it down to metal or metalwork to find more stuff like mine.

What I’d really like to point out though, is that any one of you are capable of making something as unique and beautiful as the pieces I made. I just signed up for a course; I had never done this sort of thing before! I am artistically inclined, but I can honestly say that everyone in my class made some stunning quality pieces, and you can too!

I found this class through Craigslist of all places. I encourage you to check your own city listings, community centres and local studios to find a creative activity that makes your heart hum. If you’re in the GTA, the Toronto Craft Alert blog is an excellent resource.

Now then, I’m going to go and admire the new ring I just finished casting today

*Don’t forget to enter the draw for my give-away of 3 FUZE prize packs!