I know I'm lame, but I'm exhausted.

I feel bad for neglecting to post anything interesting, but I swear I've just been really busy and shit! I have many amazing people who I want to to spend time with and it's hard to balance sometimes. There are also many awesome things happening that I want to go to! There's Uno fest on, an open mike night at Cabin 12 tomorrow and Rooftop is open which I am definitely planning on hitting up one Sunday, but I have to wait till I'm off because the lines usually suck. I also really want to go see Thor and a couple of other movies...

So much to do!!!

One weekend I'm planning on following the chick at mosiac's weekend update to a T, just because her posts always make me laugh so hard. I wish I was that cool... :S

Another reason I've been busy is because two of my best friends from school and a good friend from work, are leaving soon. Three friends in one month is not cool! :(

My bestfriend Raya is going to Thailand for a month and I'm super sad I don't have her to bug and ask for advice. I know I'll keep myself busy and whatnot with all the other awesome people in my life, but she is that one person (right now) that understands me the best, plus she likes the same books as me AND laughs at my crappy jokes :D.

On saying that I just want to mention that I'm really happy how close I am with my to high school BFF's Sam and Kay, things were a little rocky for a bit there, but things have evened out and I feel happier with those relationships than ever! <3 :D

My friend Ariana is moving. I am VERY sad about this. I love this girl soooo much! Like times a billion (sorry I sound like an obnoxious teenaged girl but my affection no's no bounds!). We've had a good run. I met her at Winner's and we became friends instantly because of a common love of books. I seriously don't know what I would do without her. She has got me through some rough times at school and in life. She also gives great advice. I've already threatened several times to kidnap her... :P Anyway I'm just sad this is happening sooner than we both expected because her dad got a new job in Vancouver, so she's moving now instead of January. Sucks so bad.

The last person who is leaving my life is my friend Kaylee from work. This girl is awesome too. She has a great sense of humour and we have the coolest movie nights! :D Last time she made me Korean food. I'm gonna miss her so bad! I also love her dog, Obie (Obe?). I got to house sit for  her family last summer and it was so amazing staying with such an awesome animal, I'm not a dog person, but I seriously fell in love with Obe. I'll never for get Obe or Kaylee! <3

Okay those are some shout outs to my friends. I don't really have much else to say right now. I'm basically just stressed and tired, as usual. I'm gonna just relax with my mom and sister tomorrow so hopefully that helps me de-stress a little. I will probably write a 'fun' post of some sort for you guys tomorrow... probs another list of something... I'm thinking cool summer locations in and around Victoria... dunno though some of my readers might feel that's unfair as they don't live in Victoria. Anyway let me know what you think! <3

List time!

Sand

Pina Colada's

 

class postings

the end of the night

headphones

winning

sun burns

towels

thai food

sticky rice

Udon noodle soup 

guacamole 

Excuses

I must stop making excuses about everything, mostly about my life. I'm getting tired of waiting for things to happen. Somethings I want I know I have to wait on, like getting a motorcycle or publishing a novel. I'll get there, it'll just take a little more time, money and work. I'm down with that, I just get impatient. Yet, there are other things which I must stop putting off, like performing at tomorrow nights poetry slam. My little sister keeps harassing me about and I keeping saying I don't have anything ready, I'm scared and I'm not good enough. I want to silence this voice! I am so sick of myself. Of course I can do it, I already know that, I can do anything I want or need to do. My life, so far, has taught me that I am capable of far more than I give myself credit for, that's why I push myself. I'm also incredibly lazy. I put everything off to the last minute and only do things I don't like half-heartedly.

Another thing I've been sort of putting off is moving out. I want to. I don't like living at home any more it's boring. Three of my bestfriends have already moved out and I'm really jealous. Today, a really close friend asked me if I wanted to move out with her, so I said maybe. I'm gonna have to save more money, spend less, work more, dance less, I'll have to learn to cook, good thing I can already clean. Luckily I already know everything there is to know about this friend... you could say we're like sisters. Actually it has been said. Anyway there has always been some reason for not moving out, money, and school mostly. I've had it though, I'm just gonna tell her yes, beg my dad for money and do it. I don't want to be here any more. If we can get a cheap place I'll get my dad  to cover rent and I'll be able to afford it. I hate this idea more than I'm willing to admit to anyone again. I mean the not paying for rent thing, but it's the only way I can see to do this. I'm also gonna have to up my credit limit :S. I guess that credit card is never getting paid off. Kids, if your reading this, please avoid credit cards! Bad news I tell you! Mr. Visa is not your friend.

Anyway I know I promised better updates for this week, but I've been working a lot and I'm tired. I meant to go to bed ages ago :S. I promise I'll have something cooler for you tomorrow or Friday! Promise! Night lovelies. 

The Bent Mast, a brief restaruant review

The Bent Mast review

The Bent Mast is a cute little pub inside an awesome, large Victorian house in James Bay. My best friend and I recently went there for dinner.

The pub was a charming house, but the interior was bland. It appeared they used the layered sponge painting technique on the walls, something that was only briefly popular in the mid 90s. The rest of the decor consisted of LED christmas lights hung in various parts of the room in an attempt to cheer up the dimly lighted, dull room. They didn't work, personally, I think LED lights are on of the ugliest things ever invented. The table placement was also strange, in order to save space they had pushed some of the tables into the corner so you had to sit staring at the wall. For someone who spends 90% of her time people watching this is not ideal. Although the tables and chairs were cute wooden ones, very comfy. There were other tables but they were larger. The bathroom was another issue, it was all the way up stairs and down a hall. It was very neat and clean otherwise, but just in a strange location.

The food was decent. I got the buffalo chicken kaiser and my friend got a beef burger of some kind. My was more sour tasting, than spicy and I wasn't expecting the chicken to be breaded or in strips, which just made it harder to eat. It would have made more sense to just have a burger and less messy to eat too. One thing that I can't complain about was the yam fries. They were perfectly crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, and they had just the right amount of seasoning. The chipotle dip didn't come with the meal and fries, but came with the appetiser which I didn't think made sense, because who wants yam fries without dip? We order the dip anyway and it was good too, also a little less spicy than I expected, but maybe that was just wishful thinking.

The staff was helpful, but not excellent our waiter brought us two menus, which were identical, but failed to tell us why. He also looked forgot one of the specials, otherwise he was attentive and friendly. Although I have to say I'd rather we'd had the cute bartender/server attending us ;). 


I didn't take any pictures of the food because I didn't think of it at the time, but next time I do this the post will definitely be accompanied by pictures! Anyway hopefully you enjoyed this, even if your not from my city. I'd say this place is worth checking out, if just for the cute house and a couple of beers, not so much for the cuisine though. I'll rate it 6/10. 


Hopefully I'll something a little more fun/interesting/entertaining for you in the next couple of days. Possibly another list! 

Water for Elephants, a brief review

My subtitle thingy on here says that I review stuff, but I haven't really reviewed anything so far, so I felt that it was time I started.

Warning, there may be spoilers below so please don't continue reading if you want to see the movie with out having it ruined!

As the title suggests I'll be reviewing Water for Elephant's which is based on a novel by Sara Gruen. I was actually surprised how good this movie was, despite having Robert Pattinson in it and looking a little cheesy/fairy-tale-esque, but I like my happy endings. Anyway this movie was surprisingly gritty, it showed guys getting pushed off trains, horses being shot and other animal and human abuse. I was expecting it to be a little more fairy tale, even though the trail does prepare you for some of those things, I was still fascinated. 


There were a few really bad, cliche lines which I hated, mostly spoken by Robert Pattinson's character. I kinda have a crush on him, wanna have his babies, etc, but the guy STILL can't act, which was disappointed. Every scene including him simply showed a close of his expressionless, or near expressionless face. Awesome. The character I did love was the evil husband (of Jacob's love interest) and circus owner(?) August played by Christoph Waltz. His character really capture what you'd expect an abusive person to be like. He managed to capture being scary, entertaining and human in one scene. Reese Witherspoon wasn't bad, but I've seen her do better, I still really liked her character, but again I felt like the movie had to many close ups of her face. It was definitely using the attractiveness of the two stars to draw people in.

I also found the movie a little slow in some places, but overall I felt that it worked because of the historical setting (the great depression). It also had an element of predicability, which I find boooorrrrowing. This a problem for me since I find most movies predicable. Usually you can guess how a movie will go down once you've seen one movie in the genre, this was no exception. I really did like the circus portrayal though, it captured the magic of going to the circus, and the dark reality of having a cold-hearted boss. Overall I'd give this movie a 7/10. I wouldn't see it again in theatres, but I might rent it. I also definitely need to get my hands on the book since I just found out the author wrote it during National Novel Writing Month, something I have participated in twice now and is super fun! 

Tumblr addiction and photography.

I'm totally in love with tumblr! It has so many awesome, fun, colourful, thoughtful pictures, I can't get enough of it. I go on there for hours sometimes, just look at pictures and getting inspired. I love photography in general, but seeing the different sorts of amazing pictures and art people post makes me want to get a fancy camera and take as many pictures as I can! So I will.

New hobby in the makes everyone: photography. I am hopefully gonna be able to buy a canon rebel or something like that from a girl at work for a good deal, hopefully. If she hasn't sold it! :S
Then I can take some actually awesome looking shots and post them! I'm so excited! I also need models to practice shooting people. Hopefully some friends will volunteer, I'm looking for both girls and guys.

Back to tumblr. Since I brought it up I feel like I should post some of my favourite tumblr-er's(?). Many way here are some that consistently post or repost awesome stuff!

http://silverscents.tumblr.com/ Mostly fashion photography, but some landscapes etc thrown in.

http://fairylullaby.tumblr.com/ very awesome pictures and fashion pictures, love it!

http://sprawls.tumblr.com/ cool photography and photographer!

http://honestly-wtf.tumblr.com/ awesome fashion blog, love this one very inspiring!

http://artsandcrafts.tumblr.com/ collection of quirky photos, lots of landscapes and found objects.

http://whatiwore.tumblr.com/ A girl who takes a photo of her outfit every day! So cute. She has a website too, but I just like to see the outfit so I just follow the tumblr instead.

http://sovietpostcards.tumblr.com/ Postcards from the former Soviet Union (Russia). I have a strange obsession with Soviet Russia and Stalin so I love these, plus they are quirky and pretty (sometimes) or they have interesting/ridiculous propaganda, always fun.

http://fromme-toyou.tumblr.com/ Fashion blog that goes to the designer and post pictures of them or their collections, very cool and awesome photography!

http://bookshelfporn.com/ Bookshelves for those bibliophiles, like me, out there :).

http://enchanting.tumblr.com/ More landscape pics and some fashion pics. Usually aged looking or faded, but soooo gorgeous!

http://inspires.tumblr.com/ Pics of cute, girly stuff, mostly fashion, lots of make-up and jewelry though, very cute!

http://ballerinaproject.tumblr.com/ Pictures of Ballerina's at different New York landmarks. I LOVE ballet, as I took dance for 9 years when I was a child so these are really special to me. I've never been to New York, but it seems like an awesome city. I'd love to visit it.

Okay well that is all! I was attempting to find one more blog for you guys to check out, but alas I can't remember the name and I couldn't find it in my dashboard so you'll have to do without it. Also I have a tumblr which I sometimes use, and you can check that out here! 

Spring beauty

Ya'll is gonna hate me, but I'm doing a beauty post... so so sorry to those of you that hate this stuff... and for those that love it, well, here you go! :)

Beauty trends aren't something I really follow, I know what works for me, so I pretty much stick with that. Not that I don't get inspired by magazines or blogs, of course I do, but I don't see why I should be required to wear a colour or look that doesn't suit me simply because it's 'trendy'. Anyway I have an idea of some things which are cute for spring that people are doing. This is gonna be similar to my fashion post, expect I'll stick in some pics and videos this time round. Here we go

1. Red Lips. Never go out of style, but I'm seeing more of them this spring. Maybe that's just me, but yeah. Michelle Phan recently did a really great red lip tutorial on how to find your colour, so cute and useful!

2. Braids. This is def a trend I love love love! I look good in braids and they're fun today! In fact I'm going to go braid my hair after writing this. There are also a few interesting ways to do your braids, such as the scarf braid, which I personally, hate, but if done right it can be really cute. Another is the fish tail, which is super cute, unfortunately I can't remember how to do it! So sad!

The Scarf braid

Fishtail braid tutorial

3. Natural beauty. This is a really hot trend right now, less is more, etc. If you look at what the make-up lines are coming out with there is a lot of 'natural' make-up or 'lightweight'. I'm a huge fan of natural and lightweight so I'm down with this trend. 

4. Buns. This trend has been around for awhile, but I've just jumped on board, and I love them! They look great on me too, my hair pretty much does two things when I leave it natural: pony tail or bun. Otherwise it's super frizzy and impossible to deal with. 

5. Animal print nails. I've been seeing these everywhere too. In every colour imaginable. I can't say I like animal print that much, but in small colourful doses it can be super cute. I'm loving this girl's nails!

6. Pony tails. These are pretty hot right now. They've been showing up all over the run ways, which is nice to see because they are so damn easy. 

7. Bright eyes. So hot right now and so cute! I'm loving this trend. Def gonna wear it when I go out next! Also every colour imaginable is already showing up, which is awesome. 

8. The sixties. Not only are the sixties fashionable in clothing, but make-up and hair too! There have been tons of big hair styles and doe eyed make-up looks. I'm loving the make-up. 

9. Feather's in the hair. Michelle and her hair guru Krista introduced me to this trend, and it is sooooo cute! I love it. They made a really handy tutorial video which is also awesome and love. I need to get some feathers to clip in ma hair. ASAP! 

10. Fake lashes. Long eye lashes will always be hot, because seriously, how sexy are big, wide looking doe eyes? Exactly. So long lashes just make sense. I've been seeing fake lashes everywhere, I mean I know models and adds usually have them, but these is to a larger extend. They are obvious fake lashes. I have only worn then a couple of times, as I have long lashes natural (that's right, be jealous) but they are fun to wear out or just for exaggeration with certain looks. I feel like this trend is largely influenced by Asia, because it is a huge trend there, tons of girls wear fake lashes, I've posted a pic of a blogger I love, Xiaxue from Singapore and she's hilarious! Love her! <3

Xiaxue with her fake lashes. 

So this is my spring beauty trend list! You'll notice that there are more hair trends than make-up trends, but that's because there are just less make-up trends this spring, think it's that whole natural beauty trend. Plus I have a pretty standard idea of what kind of make-up looks I like so the hair trends got precedence. Anyway hope you like this! It's just a fun fluffy post. I'll post some more of my writing later in the week. I have one poem almost done-ish (are they ever finished?) and one story going through at tedious editing process blaaaaaaaah. Anyway that is all, enjoy!

Hiking and mother's day

For mother's day we all went on a nice, long, leisurely hike. It was beautiful. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling well at the beginning because I forgot to take my inhaler! So silly of me. I also was exhausted from work the previous day, so that didn't help. Other than that it was great, we went hiking in the Sooke hills and up three bear something-a-rather, I forgot what it was called, hill maybe? Then we hiked up Pedan Ridge and after that down to Pedan Lake. I was gonna take more pictures, but I got lazy and didn't wanna take my camera out every few minutes. I also filled it up and it started to die...

Hiking got me thinking about why I love it so much, mostly because I was not enjoying myself at all yesterday. Not until the end of the hike anyway. I just felt so tired and unawake. I also was having so much trouble breathing when I went up the hills I had to go really slowly, which is unlike me, I usually keep a good pace when I hike. I took comfort in the thought of being away from my life here at home, at work and during the winter, at school. I also realized that I am horribly out of shape! I was gonna take a yoga/pilate's class, but they are sooo expensive and I'm just too poor. Hopefully I'll do well my on census test and the interview and get that job! I'm worried about the interview part cause I get really nervous at job interviews, my last went horribly because of that, it was also a group interview which did not help. Sorry tangent-ing.

The rest of mothers day was amazing. My sister and I made buttermilk fried chicken with cayenne pepper in it and smashed salt and vinegar potatoes with stir fried cabbage. SOOOO yummy! Then we ate fruit, ice cream and carmel for dessert. My mom even got to watch TV for awhile, which is unusual for our house. It was all in all, a  great day. I often bitch about my mom to my friends etc, but when it comes down to it I do really love her, we just having clashing personalities.

Anyway I'm gonna try to get some writing/editing down today, I've been working on a bunch of different projects, but nothing is nowhere near finished! Hope everyone has a great, lazy, or busy, Monday!

Some pictures from my hike!

Hill we went up, it doesn't look like it, but it was actually pretty steep. 

The same hill.

View from the top of another hill. 

Another view from the same hill. 

Edited.

The view. Breathtaking. 

Some awesome grass in a swamp. I was playing with my digital zoom :P.

This is how far away it actually was. 

Fairy Slipper. 

Dead frog. 

Something old

I can't explain why, but I have a stigma towards new stuff, especially new furniture. I hate the way it looks. I'm a huge fan of vintage pieces, vintage furniture and clothing. I also love cheap used stuff. Anything cheap and used that is cool, interesting or in good condition. I don't know why this is, but it's just better for some reason. I could go with the cliche and say I like stuff to look like it has a story... but that's not quite true. The truth is, I don't like things to be 'tacky' looking, or cheap looking and I find a lot of new stuff looks both cheap and tacky. I'll wear a tacky pair of sunglasses as a joke, but if I want to be serious about something it's gonna be old and not tacky, simply, attractive and nice. No tackiness allowed.

This obsession is mostly related to the way things look. Something can be great quality, but if it looks tacky to me I'll probably not like it. I like things to look like they've been used because I guess that shows they're quality. Not to say I want my clothing to be covered in stains or ripped up, but just a nice comfortable softness to it, especially with vintage. I was just writing an article for Vashti Magazine. I was thinking of sending it too the Sooke paper I'm supposed to be writing for, but haven't actually submitted anything too. Oops. I'll get on it, I swear! Anyway I was writing about thrifiting, or thrift store shopping and it got me thinking about why I like it so much. I guess I enjoy the treasure hunt. I hate going into a store and seeing a bunch of identical tops hanging up, there's no fun in that, it's to easy! It's way more exciting to go to a store, dig around for something amazing and unique which you will either fall in love with or never wear. From years of experience I have learned how to avoid things that I wont wear. When I go through my wardrobe now everything is either from the thrift store or from Winners. It's a little sad.

I think it's interesting how other people tend to shop as well. Most of my friend from high school, for example, buy only new clothing and they seem to think this is some sort of status thing. Most 'mall trends' as I call them are boring. Everyone was those clothes. I don't like to look like everyone else. I like to be different. I want to stand out, same old song, but thrift stores allow me to do this. I know some people think they're gross or only have ugly clothing, not true at all, I found two cute sweaters (one of them cashmere) and a pair of shoes for only $17 today! Normally you can't buy one sweater for that much. I guess some people just like to know they look like everyone else because that makes them 'normal' which to me is weird because I don't think 'normal' exists. Sure there are things we all have, like parents, or shoes, but that doesn't mean we're normal, it just means we're conforming to society or aren't a test tube baby (and even those have parents!).

Anyway that's my piece on old stuff. I like it, a lot. I once said to one of my sisters that I was so used to having used and vintage furniture (stuff) I didn't think I would ever be able to have anything new. She whole-heartedly agreed with me, this pretty much sums up our family.

Happy things list!

I think it maybe over a week since I last posted one of these, but I'm not sure. I think I'll just post one anyway, simply because I feel like it.

wabi-sabi

Orange crush (not the soda guys! Ew!)

Thrift store books

Skinny belts

Fashion blogs

instructions

Weekly sales

coupons

Tweed

bus passes

Cute coffee boys

Elizabeth May!

craiglist; missed connections

Awkward moments