Here's to the weekend

Last weekend was the perfect summer weekend. I went home for the weekend (I'm still away at school working for the summer). It was great to go home to my family, friends and the pool! I spent a lot of time outside soaking up the summer sun and giggling with my friends. I was out with them till almost 2am each night just catching up! Here's to this weekend being just as great (it probably won't be since I will be studying for my midterm for my summer course.)

I got off the train and met my friends downtown for the Jays game. While I'm not a huge baseball fan, the crowd was great and the sun was out so I wasn't complaining.  And of course I couldn't pass up the opportunity for a hot dog. 

The CN Tower. The little dots in red are people up at the top doing the "Edge Walk". It always fascinates me that people would be willing to walk around the edge of the CN Tower. I don't hate heights but I don't think I could handle that. lol. 

Saturday was spent by the pool with my friends. I am currently reading Never Have I Ever. Katie is so funny. I feel like she is describing my life half the time. Too good. If you haven't you should check it out, its the perfect weekend read. 

Improvising to make s'mores. We couldn't build a fire outside so we had to resort to using the stove. Tasted great all the same. 

Delicious shrimp tacos I made for dinner. Loved the sweetness from the mango.  

What are your weekend plans? 

Reading Week Reading

Its officially Reading Week. I am lucky not to have any midterms to study for or that much work to do over the break. While I probably won't be reading textbooks for once - yay! I am looking forward to doing some reading. I cannot wait to spend my mornings in bed with a good book and a cup of tea. Or stay up late reading just one more chapter only to finish an entire novel. Here is what I will be reading this reading week: 

Any other suggestions? 

Jaclyn

Currently Reading: Lean In

Okay, so I know I am WAY behind the curve on this one, but I finally got around to reading Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg.  I found the book to be easy to read and there was a lot that I could relate to. While there were parts in the book that I found contradicting or I wasn't sure of, overall it gave me a lot to think about and it opened my eyes to some ways I am holding myself back. I think that this book is an important book for all young women to read. It really opens your eyes and gives you something to think about. As someone who will be entering the work force in a couple of years I found it helpful, especially the parts about holding yourself back because you might have a family one day. It gave a great perspective on the work/life balance and the importance of finding a mentor that fits for you not just because you think they would be a great mentor. While working at my internship this past summer, I got to attend a Women in Entrepreneurship Discussion. I really enjoyed getting to hear from female entrepreneurs about what it meant to be a woman in business and what they felt needed to change. There were a lot of really great take home messages from that talk which mirrored a lot of what Sandberg writes about in her book. I think that by talking about these issues we can shed some light on them and begin to make change. I would love to see these ideas be taught/discussed in all business schools. While I believe it is important for women to read books like Lean In, I think it is equally as important for men to read them as well.

Have you read Lean In? What are your thoughts on it? 

Summer Reading

One of my favourite things about summer (or all breaks from school) is that I can read for pleasure. I love reading and as soon as I have a break in school I seem to devour books. For a while I felt guilty reading for pleasure when I could be reading textbooks. This year I did my best not to feel guilty and read more for pleasure. I did find however, that I was often too tired at night to read and often opted to watch tv instead. Now that its summer I am ready to dive into this book list: 

 It is no secret that I love Lauren Graham. I am hoping her awesomeness shines through in her novel. 

 I have seen this on a number of must read lists and my mom said it was good. So I will be giving it a read.

 Part of my goal to read all of Jane Austin

 I have been meaning to read this FOREVER. Loved the Kite Runner.

Another book that I have seen on a number of lists. Just took it out from the library. Can't wait to start it. 

I am sure my list will grow as summer goes on. I will be sure to share more with you soon. 

What's on your summer must read list? 

Jaclyn

Craving: Winter Edition

It has been snowing like crazy here these past few days and I am headed to the slopes! I am super excited to spend some time outside this winter. There are some of the cozy things I have been craving this winter. 

Blanket, Book and Candle - There is nothing like curling up under a blanket reading a great book under the soft glow of a great smelling candle. One of my favourite ways to spend a cold winter day. 

Socks - My feet are ALWAYS cold. I love a good pair of warm socks. A cute pattern doesn't hurt either. 

Sweater - This hand knit sweater from Canadian Designer Granted would be perfect for winter. It looks so warm and cuddly. 

Scarf - I rarely leave the house without a scarf. All year round. This hand knit one is super cool. Not only does the zipper accent look great it is also function. Unzip the to wear it like a normal scarf or zip it up to wear as a circle scarf. Genius! 

What are you craving this winter? 

Jaclyn

Summer Reading

 Just Finished: Swapping Lives by Jane Greene

This would be a great beach read. It was a great book to read during summer school. It gave me that escape that I needed. 

Currently Reading:  Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda 

So far I am LOVING this book. It is about a girl who is adopted from India. It follows her life, the life of her biological mother and the life of her adopted mother. I recommend this for sure!

Up next: Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon 

I am super excited to read this book and take part in  The Everygirl's Book Club.

What are you reading this summer? 

Jaclyn

The Perks of Being a Wall Flower

I have been meaning to read this book for four years, ever since my grade nine english teacher recommend it. It was never available at the library and last month I finally remember to look for it at the bookstore. I am so happy that I found it and a little sad that I didn't read it earlier. If you have not read this book please stop reading my silly blog and go read it. Go. Now. I'm not kidding. You can thank me later.

Charlie does not participate in life. He is an observer. He quietly watches everyone around him and thinks to much about life. The books is a composition of letters that Charlie writes to an unnamed unknown friend. I don't want to give too much away and I don't want to say too much. I believe it is one of those books you need to discover for yourself. In a way I am happy that I read it after finishing high school because I was able to look back. I don't think I would have taken as much from this book if I read it in grade nine. I was just too innocent then and not fully aware of the evils of the world (not that I really think am now... but I am more aware then I was). It is a book I believe I will read again and again, recommend to all my friends and continue to take something from it.

This blog post sums up a lot of what I am feeling. I randomly found it through google images after finding this photo.

My Sister's Keeper

Hi Everyone,
I have been at the movies quite a bit in the past week. I went to see Transformers. It was amazing, and Shia was looking beautiful! There was a lot more action this time around then in the first. The movie I really want to talk about however is My Sister's Keeper. I read the book a while back ( around two years ago now) and I loved it. The novel by Jodi Picoult, was powerful and extremely emotional. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the story, its about a girl, Anna, who was born for the purpose of saving her sister, Kate, who has cancer. However when Kate needs a kidney Anna decides to put her foot down, and no longer wants to be a donor for her sister. She takes action and sues her parents to the rights to her own body. I'll let you read the book to figure out the rest. I have never cried so much as I did when I read this novel. It felt as though it was real and you connected with Anna's character. The family had gone through so much to try and keep Kate alive and her illness was taken a toll on the family. When I heard that they were making this book into a movie I was very excited, I knew this would be a movie I would cry at, seeing as I bawled throughout the book.

The movie for the most part was amazing. Of course they didn't go into as much detail as the book but the overall feelings of the book were portrayed. I cried like really cried, which was a first for me, I hardly ever cry at movies. Sofia Vassilieva, who played Kate, did an amazing job. As did Abigail Breslin who played Anna. Cameron Diaz did an amazing job as the girls mother. She portrayed the character of Sara perfectly. She captured Sara's feelings about her willingness to do anything to save her daughter's life, no matter the cost. Her love for Kate shone through and she didn't understand Anna's side of the story. The movie stayed true to the book for the most part until the end of the movie. This is where my issues with the movie come in. They dramatically altered the ending of the movie making it completely different from the novel. I do not want to give anything away, but I basically sat in the theater going WHAT WHAT WHAT! THAT IS NOT HOW IT HAPPENED IN THE NOVEL. That being said, if you did not read the book I am sure that you would enjoy this movie just fine. It is a sad movie, so I would bring a box of tissues with you. I would recommend the book over the movie for sure as it goes into way more depth and has many more twists and turns.

Anyways I hope everyone has an amazing week.

Love,

Belle.

Twilight Movie

WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOLIERS! But really if you have read the book, I wouldn't really worry. But you have been warned.

Heyy Everyone,

I went to see the twilight movie on Saturday! It was AMAZING! I loved it! It did not ruin the book for me at all! Of course it was not as good as the book, but I never expected it to be, since they never are. All of the actors did an amazing job, and Robert Pattinson is extreemly hot in the moive. Once the movie ended I wanted to go buy another ticket and go see it again. lol. There wasn't enough of the other vampires, like Alice, as I would have liked. We really didn't get to see their characters as much as you do in the books. Edward however was perfect and beautiful. Everytime he was on the screen I couldn't help but squel a little, I came home and changed the back ground of my computer to a picture of him. If you liked the books and even if you didn't I suggest you go and see Twilight!
Here are some pictures:

Kristen Stewart:

I really like this dress, its simple and cute.

I love the top half of this outfit. Not so much the bottom.

The cast at Much:

This was so amusing to watch. People would ask questions and they never really directly answered the questions. If you get the chance check it out at muchmusic.com

Elizabeth Reaser

I love the colour of this dress.

Rachelle Lefevre

She's Canadian! She was seemed really nice at the Much interview, and she was very down to earth.

Nikki Reed:

I really like the print of this dress.

The Cullens. I loved what they wore in the movie. They always looked so put together.

Robert Pattinson is so hot! I couldn't stop from squeling. I loved him in Harry Potter and he was even better in Twilight. Cedric Diggory just didn't get enough screen time, but Edward does. :D. Does anyone else think that he kind of looks like Ed Westwick?

See, sorta? It's even more from the side profile, but I couldn't find any good pictures.

Anyway I hope you all have a good week. I will try to post more often.

Belle

Why am I covered in feathers?

Heyy Everyone,
So I went to the Rogers Cup, and it was a lot of fun. I now understand tennis, plus Nadal is very good looking so that did hurt either :P. I am really glad that I went.

Nadal changing his shirt... best part of the match. tee hee

The ball boys were HOT!

My cousin is here visiting from Alberta, which is why I haven't been able to post sooner. We went to the zoo the other day. It was a lot of fun. When I saw the giraffes I screamed, and everyone looked at me. It was pretty funny.

The butterflies were so beautiful and they would fly so close to you. It was amazing.

The Giraffe!!!

This picture kind of sucks because of the glass, but it was a boa, and when I saw it I was like "Am I the only one having a Harry Potter moment right now?" A lot of people turned to look at me and then laughed.

I am watching the Teen Choice awards as I write this, and I'm sorry but can I just say that Miley is very annoying. It's kind of bugging me. Personally I never really had a problem with her, but she is really starting to get on my nerves, and she is wearing WAY too much eye liner in my opinion. Also what is Lil Mama wearing, it's some pink and white shirt, that looks like she stole it from Little Bow Peep, (haha lame joke Lil bow peep... haha no okay). Um so the Jonas Brothers won the choice hotties award and they beat Chase Crawford!!! That is just so WRONG!!! If you are asking me that is.

Blake Lively at the awards. I love the colour of her dress.

Zac and Vanessa... the "it" couple

Leighton Meester

I went to the Breaking Dawn Release Party on Friday. My friends and I got there around 8:30 so we were the third in line, which was pretty cool. We drank Starbucks (read my Starbucks rant here)... yes even I found a drink I like. It was a Vanilla Bean Frappuccino. Anyway, I didn't get to make a shirt for the event, but I saw some pretty cool ones, that I envied. Most people were Team Edward YAY! I think I only saw two Team Jacob shirts. The bookstore had trivia and Jacob and Edward drinks, I tried the Edward, it was pretty good. It was a fun night over all. I dressed up as Bella, wearing skinny jeans, a white eyelet shirt (which is what she wore to Forks the first day, its on the first page of Twilight) and a black coat. Some girls went in Prom Dresses others wore black and red.

My book:

The button and stickers I won playing Trivia:

The button says I was bitten by Breaking Dawn and the stickers say things like My heart belongs to Edward Cullen.

My Mask:

Its hard to tell but there are red sparkles on my mask as well as a white feather.

My thouhts on Breaking Dawn:

!Warning Contains Spoilers! (lots of them!)

I finished Breaking Dawn ( I avoided the Internet until I did). Personally it is my favourite book from the saga, however Twilight is a very VERY close second, it might be a tie. I thought that it was pretty predictable. I knew from the minute Bella threw up that she was pregnant. Although that is never something I would have guessed before hand. It was interesting to read book 2 from Jacob's perspective, even though I hated Jacob. I booed when he came back. (I do like him now though but I still love Edward.) Book 3 was by far the most interesting and I wish I could see Alice's perspective in some places. The fight between the Cullens and the Voturi was inevitable, but I wanted more action. It was tense but disappointing because there wasn't really a fight. I hate how Bella was so controlled as a newborn, it made me mad. All we heard was how hard it was to be a newborn and how you could think of nothing but your thirst and on her first try she avoids human blood, with out being restrained at all. I didn't really like Bella's superpower. I know that it is in the end what saved them from the Volturi, and I guess it is kind of cool how she can control it now, turning it on and off. Over all I really enjoyed the book, I thought it summed everything up and didn't leave me with too many answers although I would like to know more about Renesme's life. I was glad when Jacob imprinted on Renesme. He could finally leave Bella and Edward alone, plus he was no longer sad, which is good. However I don't really understand how that happened. I mean he is a ware wolf/shape shifter, and he is supposed to hate vampires so how is it that he imprinted on a half vampire. Will they be able to have kids? The whole point of imprinting is to keep the ware wolf gene alive, if Renesme can't have kids (which she might be able to because she is part human) then why did he imprint on her. Also if they have kids, what will they be, Vampire, ware wolf, human or all three. How will that work. I get that Edward and Bella fell in love and Edward is a vampire and she is a human and all. So Jacob falling in love with Renesme works, BUT he imprinted which is a biological thing from being a ware wolf. So it is a bit confusing. I have to say though the one thing that has always bothered me through out the saga (and this may be because I am such a Gilmore Girl fan) is that Bella and her mother are supposed to have such a close relationship and yet she hardly sees/hears from her. Bella and Charlie seem to be a lot closer. Even though I have talked a lot about what I didn't like in the book, I thought it was really really good, and I would recommend it of course. I love Edward even more, he supported Bella through everything, and he really loves her. I also love the fact that Bella is a mother, and that you get to see how much she loves Renesme and that she got that human experience as well as a family. Her and Edward have their own little family within the Cullen's which is perfect, although it kind of sucks that Nessie (before Bella called her Nessie and was set on Renesme I refused to call her Nessie as well. In order to support Bella. I like Nessie's middle name of Carlie a lot better then Renesme.) is growing up so fast. Anyway let me know what you thought of the book.

I hope that everyone has a good week. Check back soon for my review (okay well thoughts) on The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2.
Love,
Bell

Chulo Pony

Heyy Everyone,

So I have been pretty busy this past week. There was a Sweet Sixteen to go to, plus hanging out with my friends and shopping (although I didn't really buy much, I looked around a lot and figured out what I want to get, which I will do a post about in August) anyway the weather has been not so great lately. It has been raining the past week, and it only got sunny yesterday, and now they are calling for more rain tomorrow. Which really sucks.

David Beckham has been in town as well as all the hot Tennis players. The Rogers cup is here, and I am going tonight for the semi finals, not that I really know anything about tennis, but my friend is a tennis player and she invited me so I said yes because it sounds like fun. So I'll let you know how that goes.

I am going to the Breaking Dawn event on Friday, it sounds like it is going to be a lot of fun. There is going to be a band playing as well as lots of other games and activities. I am going to either make a t-shirt that is Twilight related or I am going to wear a costume. I am thinking of going as Rosalie, but I am not sure what to wear for her. I was thinking a wedding dress, for those of you who have read the books you will know what I am talking about. However I am not sure where to get one, unless I just wear all white and a veil. That might work. I am really excited I can't wait to figure out how the series ends. It should be a really fun night, and I will post whatever I end up wearing. Team Edward all the way!

This week I decided to feature another Canadian Designer: Chulo Pony. They have a really pretty website, with great graphics. Chulo Pony is the fashion line of Canada's leading privately owned record label Nettwerk Music Group. The label was founded in 2002. Here are some of my favourite looks:

Chulo Pony has some really beautiful unique jackets. I love this three quarter length sleeved jacket. It has an amazing silk screen print on the back. It would look great dressed down with jeans or dressed up with a pencil skirt.

This top is simple and elegant. It has great flowing sleeves, but the bow in the front gives your waist definition.
This dress looks like something Blair would wear. I love the head band as well.

This vest is different then other vests that I have seen. I love the double ties in the front, it adds an interesting detail.

I really like the collar on this coat as well as the tie in the front.

This tank top is really pretty. I love the simplicity of the lace in the front, with the pop of colour from the print in the back. It would look great with a pair of jeans or wide leg trousers. It would also look really good underneath a jacket.

I really like the print of this dress, as well as the colour.

This black lace dress would look great with red accessories. It is so simple yet cute. I love this dress. The ruffles and the fabric make it very feminine, and the perfect summer dress.

I think that this piece is one of my favourites. I love the silk screen print of the bird on the front as well as the shape of the jacket.


This jacket is the same as above, expect in navy. I love how the gold bird pops against the navy jacket. It is beautiful.

This is Anne Heche from Men in Trees wearing Chulo Pony.
If you would like to see more check it out here.

Hayden Panettiere got her hair cut. I think I like it long a lot better. What do you think?

Anyway that is all for me for now. I hope everyone has an amazing weekend.
Love,
Belle