Ski Getaway

Last year for Reading Week, I went on a mini ski get away with some friends. I am not big into skiing but it was beautiful up on the mountain. There was also a lot of other fun activities to enjoy like outdoor skating and the spa. It was fun playing games and cozying up with hot chocolate in the cabin. It was a fun trip and a great getaway. Its too bad we couldn't work out a vacation somewhere warm this year!

Niagara Falls Getaway

This past weekend we escaped to Niagara Falls for a mini getaway to enjoy the Grape and Wine Festival.

We purchased a Discovery Pass that allowed us to go to eight different wineries and sample their wine paired with a food item of their choice. Since we didn't know a ton about wine we decided to choose the wineries based on what food they were serving. We had everything from sausage's on buns to butternut squash soup.  The Discovery Pass was well worth the money and we even found a couple of new wines that we really loved.

Unfortunately we didn't get the best weather on Saturday when we were actually doing our wine tastings. We choose most of the wineries in Niagara On The Lake and many people were biking from winery to winery. I would love to go back for another weekend and do a bike tour. It looked like it would have been a lot of fun if it wasn't raining. We were lucky enough to have a friend DD for us, so we weren't caught in the rain too much. 

Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day. Our Bed and Breakfast, where we stayed, was a short walk away from the Falls. 

Outfit: Coat: Forever 21 (old). Purse: Marc by Marc Jacobs. Jeans: AE. Boots: Century 21.

Since we were only going for the weekend I packed light, only bringing one pair of shoes ( shocking I know!). A good trench coat was a must since it was raining and cool most of the weekend. 

Jaclyn

NYC: The High Line

One of my favourite spots in NYC was the Meat Packing District and The High Line. My friend suggested in on a whim since Kate Spade Saturday was located there and we decided to walk the High Line rather then go to Central Park. I am so glad that we did. I have been to Central Park on previous visits to the city but I had never been to this area before. I loved that the park was above the streets and that you could see all of the interesting buildings. The Meat Packing District also had some really cool shops and boutiques and I loved Chelsea Market.  There were so many unique food options and it had a really great vibe. Overall, it was my favourite place I visited during my trip. 

Packing

Throwing together some outfits for a trip to NYC

Weekend Packing

I always tend to overpack for weekend trips. This time I tried to keep it simple and only bring enough clothes for the 3 days. Things I knew that I could mix and match and items that would work for both day and night. 

I will be wearing jeans and a military jacket while traveling along with my boots, hat and a cute scarf. I always try to wear my bulkiest items so that I can fit more into my bag. 

I will be packing a maxi dress which I know I will be able to wear into the evening. A striped shirt to go with my jeans or my printed shorts. Plus I will be bringing my chambray shirt which can be worn with just about everything. 

In addition to clothes I will be packing my ipad mini, a book, my beauty essentials, watch, belt, and headphones.  Plus one other pair of shoes probably my flip flops which aren't pictured. 

What do you bring when you pack for a weekend? 

Jaclyn

Habitat for Humanity

This past February I had the wonderful opportunity of traveling to Mississippi with my school's Habitat for Humanity Club.  I was extremely excited to experience the South and have the opportunity to give back.  Ever since my first service trip to Ecuador, I knew that I wanted to continue to travel with intent and continue to volunteer abroad.
Habitat for Humanity is a charity that focus on providing affordable housing to families in need. The families work together with volunteers and professional to build their home.
I traveled with a group of 30 students from my university and I made many great new friends through this experience.  A service trip is something I would recommend to anyone looking to travel and have an unforgettable experience.

 Following an long day of travel, we headed to The Shed for some BBQ. It was some seriously good food, and I got the chance to eat at place featured on Diners, Dine-Ins and Dives. 

 We went to a gator farm and went out on air boats to find some gators. It was a really cool and fun experience. I have never been so close to an alligator before in its natural habitat. 

 It was really exciting and coincidental that we were down south during Mardi Gras. We were able to attend one of the family friendly parades. It was a lot of fun catching all those beads and watching the parade. 

 We were there to assist in the building of a house. Our large group was split into three smaller ones. My group was on a renovation site, where they were adding an addition on to the house of a veteran. 

On the way home we stopped in New Orleans. It seemed like a very interesting place and it is one that I would like to go back and spend more time in. We did not get enough time there. It had some beautiful aritecture in the French Quarter. There seemed to be a lot of amazing restaurants. I hope to go back there one day and spend more time exploring.

I hope to have the chance to do another trip such as this one and travel somewhere else in the world to volunteer. Both times now it has been a truly amazing experience. I went on the trip not knowing anyone and came home with 30 new friends. I would highly recommend the experience. 

-Jaclyn

Ecuador 2010

Hey Everyone,
This past March I was lucky enough to get to travel with Me to We to Ecuador to help build a Kitchen and Dining Hall in their first 10 by 10 community.

I have always wanted to travel the world and experience for myself the culture of other countries as well as the experience of going and seeing where the money goes to from the charities that I support.

While in Ecuador I learned some very important life changing lessons, that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. We worked with a community to aid them in the building of their Kitchen and Dining Hall for the school. The Kitchen and Dining Hall are very important to the entire community as many of the women come out to cook meals for the school children and are currently cooking in unventilated kitchens with wood stoves, which as you can imagine is not ideal for these women as the kitchen's become filled with smoke. Many of these women carry young children and babies on their back as they are cooking. This is causing many respiratory problems within the community. As well the dining hall contains a hand washing station that will greatly improve hygiene in the community. Many of the children currently eat with their hands, after playing outside all day. By building the kitchen and dining hall Free the Children hopes to teach these communities about the importance of hygiene and nutrition.

We worked closely with the community in what is called a Minga helping to build the dining hall. A Minga is when the community comes together to work together for the good of the community. Everyday there would be a small Minga of around 15 community members to help with the building of the Kitchen, along with us. We worked hard and were able to accomplish a lot in our week with the community.

While in Ecuador we met an amazing and inspiration woman named Maria. Maria was the first indigenous woman to attend university. Many of the girls only attend school to grade seven so her completion of university was a major accomplishment. She was also the youngest president of her community. She works closely with communities and women in order to develop alternative income projects for many of these women.

We were able to visit a womens group where these women sell their knitted goods in order to bring income into their households and help to create a better future for their children. Meeting the womens group showed me how important women are to their families and the running of their households in this culture. They work in the fields, take care of the family chores and children as well as try to earn money for their families. Many of the women in the women's group were well educated for women in Ecuador and it showed me first hand the importance of education and how education for girls can help to break the cycle of poverty.

One of the most important things that I took away from this experience was the importance of community. Everyone was always willing to help each other out and lend a helping hand. They did not expect anything in return. Their values are centered around family and community which is something I believe we are lacking.

This trip for me was only the beginning. On the trip we talked a lot about finding our passion and goal setting. I have set goals for myself for the next three years. We also talked about traveling with intent and what that meant to us. To me it means traveling with open eyes and an open heart. It means experiencing the culture and taking the experiences back with me. I would love in the future to travel and volunteer in other countries. It is one of my dreams to go to Kenya and volunteer with the Mully Children's Family. Free the Children is an amazing organization that was started by Craig Kilburger when he was only 12 years old after he read an article in the newspaper about a 12 year old boy who was killed by the carpet mafia for speaking out against Child Labour.

One thing that I encourage everyone to do, is to Give their 10. Free the Children has a 10 by 10 challenge and the idea behind it is quite simple. We can all do small things everyday to help change the world. Together we can make a difference. Go to giveyourten.com and pledge 10 things that you can do on a daily basis to make the world a better place. Then share your 10 with 10 people and $10 will be donated in your name. The community that I went and visited was a result of the 10 by 10 Challenge.

Here are my ten:

1. Drink water from a re-useable water bottle / mug

2. Turn off the lights

3. Hug, hug, hug

4. Volunteer somewhere new

5. Re-connect with an old friend

6. Read about a new social issue

7. Unplug unused appliances and chargers

8. Shop for vintage clothes

9. Carry a reusable bag

10. Travel somewhere new

Love,
Belle

The Windy City

Hi Everyone,

Over the summer I went to Chicago with my family for a few days. Chicago is a beautiful city with so much history. From the Great Chicago fire in 1871 to Al Capone in the 1920s. The shopping in Chicago was AMAZING. The stores were HUGE. There is this one street called the Magnificent Mile, and it definitely was just that. The Forever 21 was the biggest I have ever seen. It took me hours to go through everything, and I got some really great pieces there. Bloomingdale's had some great sales on jeans, and I got some Urban Outfitter boots that I am in love with. I will show you what I have brought in a later post, I thought I would share some other photos from the trip for now. Chicago has some very interesting buildings, and beautiful architecture.

This building was really cool. It had apartment building up top and a parking garage below.

I was on a bus when I took this photo which is why it is not centered. I think I've mentioned before that I was a doll person as a kid (and in some way I still am) I even own an American Girl. The American Girl place was incredible. I couldn't believe how big it was and how much stuff was going on there. As soon as I walked in I wanted to be 7 years old again, holding my American Girl. My best friend and I used to dream of going there together with our dolls and going for tea. I guess we are a bit old for that now. But it was a lot of fun getting to see all the little girls with their American Girls.

It feels like just yesterday I was in Chicago but it was really over a month ago, how time flies. It's hard to believe that school has started and that its already OCTOBER! Seriously when did that happen? I feel like I am really starting to get out of that blogging funk I was in earlier, and hopefully that means I will be posting more often. I think I went through a bit of writers block for a while and didn't know what direction I wanted to take the blog so I just sort of stopped posting. Hopefully I am through all that now, and you will be getting more regular posts.

Love,

DC

Hi everyone,
I am finding it harder and harder to find time to post. But in as I am avoiding physics even though I have a quiz tomorrow now seemed like the perfect time. ha ha. Last week I was in DC on a school trip, which meant shopping among other things. The trip was amazing, I learned so much and saw so many inspiring things. D.C. is beautiful and I loved all the monuments. I would love to go back one day. Here are some pictures from my trip:

I fed the birds, I felt like I was in Mary Poppins. :P

The White House. We didn't go inside because we didn't have time but we did a lot of other amazing things. We went to the Holocaust museum, which words can not describe.

Here is what I brought:

I was really sad that the mall that we went to didn't have an AA so I couldn't get the oversized cardigan that I wanted. I did however go into an Anthropologie. Let me just say that their website doesn't do the store justice, I didn't get anything from there though. I also went into a VS and I didn't see anything that I was dying to get so I held off. F21 was okay, I thought it would be a lot better, the prices were much better then they are here, but the selection surprisingly wasn't as great. I did find some stuff I liked though.

I got this shirt from Abercrombie Kids because it was cute and on sale. I really liked the cut, and it looks really good with jeans.

My Steve Madden boots. I love them, I have been looking everywhere for boots and I finally found some that I liked!

From Forever 21:

I couldn't find the sweater dress that I got online, but its sort of the love child between these two dresses. Its grey. When I'm not so lazy maybe I'll take a picture.

These tights are really cute, I love how they are ribbed. I was very disappointed that these were the only colour they had and the only style they had where they were footed tights. I was planning on loading up on tights while I was there but it didn't happen...oh well.

They also didn't have that many head bands. This one was cute and I really liked the colours and the pattern.

Anyway I hope you all have a good week. Hopefully I'll be able to post more soon. I better get back to studying.

Lots of Love,

Belle