With this resealable plastic box of bacon, I thee wed...

I'm sure by now, you've all seen the Maple Leaf Foods commercial of their new resealable bacon, where a crazy-in-love girlfriend proposes to her boyfriend with it and he immediately wells up and accepts the proposal.

While it's all fun and games when it comes to advertising, but this taboo notion of the female popping the question to her male companion seems to be a more and more common occurrence.

While listening to the Mad Dog and Billie morning show a while back, I heard the duo discuss Mangagement rings, which seem to be all the new rage in Miami. Seriously??

According to Details Magazine, the mangagement ring is becoming more and more popular. "'We get maybe 20 to 25 inquiries a week from women who want to propose,' says John Cordova, an expert at California-based Robbins Brothers, which calls itself the "world's biggest engagement ring store."

There seem to be two schools of thought on this.

One - once the man proposes to his girlfriend and she accepts, she then purchases a ring for him to wear as well. I guess as a warm up to when the actual wedding ring comes, or that both parties get to sport the pre-wedding bling. Sure, this seems legit enough. If us ladies spend months, if not years, hinting of what the perfect diamond ring should look like, the least we can do is spend a few (thousand) dollars and return the favour.

Two - the lady in the relationship purchases the engagement ring and proposes marriage to her boyfriend.

No, no and no. I'm all for getting the vote, ridding the business world of the glass ceiling, I'll even give away my cleaning and cooking responsibilities to any man that will take them! But I believe the proposal should stay the way it is... you won't see me on my knee anytime soon!

Ladies? Gentlemen? Thoughts?

What happens if it's a same-sex marriage? Coin toss or Rock, Paper, Scissors?

And now for Winter Wonderland

So now that the summer is officially over and has lasted all of three days, the fall season will most likely be just as short and I am miserably awaiting the winter. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of snow. Well, rewind... I like snow a lot, but I strongly dislike the cold. When the windchill factor hits -35 degrees and your nose hairs freeze the second you step outside of the front door, even lathering Vaseline all over your face won't stop your skin from freezing (didn't you do that when you were a kid? Any Europeans reading this blog post?). I'm still convinced I was supposed to be born in Hawaii, but oh well... I guess I'll take what I can get. Negative 35 it is.

In preparation for this horrendous season - the only good part is Christmas - I made a trek to Vaughan Mills last weekend to visit my favourite store, Bass Pro Shops. Bass Pro is an American outdoor retailer which carries anything your heart may desire for hunting, camping, nature gifts, outdoor cooking, and much more. I don't hunt, camp, fish or cook outdoors, but I am a sucker for warm clothing and hunting camo can actually be quite stylish. After years of sporting hats, long sleeve shirts and t-shirts in the ever-popular Mossy Oak, I decided to opt for something different this year and since my heart can easily be won over by a sale, I invested in my very first pair of NaturalGear™ Insulated Snow Camo Pants for Men. That's right. Snow camo pants for men, that were on sale for $29.99 from $75.99. So what if the smallest size they had left was a 2XL, which can almost double as a bodysuit. It feels like I'm wearing a pillow on my bottom half, but my legs have never been warmer.

Snow camo is not for everyone, but who's judging. It's comfortable, it's warm and it was cheap.

They will be the perfect driveway shoveling pants.

Boldface Names

We all love to kick back, relax, leave work at work (where it's supposed to be) and do just what we enjoy. That's what weekends are for. This past weekend I spent relaxing at the cottage, trying to catch up on my non-existant tan. On my way home from work on Friday, I swung by Chapters to pick up some weekend reading material. Aside from my regular dose of In Touch and US Weekly, I hit the fiction section to pick up a novel I've been eyeing since Fashion Magazine (or was it Flare?) gave it a shout out in one of their summer issues - Shinan Govani's Boldface Names.

National Post's "resident snoop, town-crier and people-watcher" has been keeping In The Scene readers on the pulse of all the whos, whats and wheres and now has penned this debut novel that Harper Collins calls "part celebrity piñata, part scorching social satire, [...] a romp through the land of the rich, the famous and the wicked." I swallowed the novel up in less than two days. This flawlessly written page turner was full of gossip (duh), fashion, travel and all the champagne-filled parties you can handle. The story is told by Ravi, a gossip columnist, or a social archivist rather, for the National Mirror. In this novel, Ravi chronicles his experiences in the heart of the social scene. All goes well until he has a secret 'assignment' dropped on him by a clog-wearing-sweater vest-sporting individual paying Ravi a pretty penny for its execution.

So with beer and a cigarette in one hand, Boldface Names in the other, my weekend was spent basking in the sun.

I would write more on the novel but a) go read it yourself and b) I'm too busy.

Some of us should stick to just being famous for being famous...

I have no words...

Bringing some of the Homeland to Dundas Street West

One of my favourite things to do on a weekend morning is go grocery shopping... I know, most people dread it, but I absolutely love it. I basically count down the days starting Monday night, for when I can embark on my journey of deliciousness once again. And why, you ask? I have discovered the best grocery store ever, which is about a three minute drive from my house.

The newest location of Starsky Finest European Foods is located at 3115 Dundas Street West, just west of Winston Churchill. Now I am definitely bias as I am of eastern European descent, so every trip to Starsky is like a quick getaway to my home country (sans family reunion). I just don't want to leave the store! Starsky provides an overwhelming assortment of dairy, frozen and grocery products, it also features an in store galleria including a coffee shop, book store, flower shop and optical store. You can also purchase European cosmetics, shampoos, face creams, etc.

Not only can I pick up my weekly dose of European deli, cheeses and water (yes, I even enjoy European water), I can also grab the latest issues of European lifestyle and home decor magazines. The fact that Starsky has about six isles devoted to desserts, overflowing with chocolate, cookies, cakes and other deliciousness definitely does not help my diet that I seem to start every Monday (no, next week, I swear...).

My weekly Starsky must-haves include:

• smoked cheese
  
• turkey slices
  
• salami
  
• fresh bread
  
• Zywiec water (non carbonated)
  
• fruit
  
• vegetables (sometimes)
  
• grapefruit, berry and orange juices

I have personally never tackled the deli counter, it scares me. The counter takes up the entire back of the store and you need to take a number before you are served. Then you are helped by a nice, bilingual lady who will fetch all the deli your heart desires. There are usually about 45 people at the deli counter each time I go, so I just opt for the pre-packaged lunch meat. Actually, I'm not sure I'd even know how to order meat using proper terminology... 'ummm, can I just have enough turkey for like, five sandwiches?"

There is another Starsky location just east of Dixie Rd. on Dundas St., but it's not as large. But don't believe me, you need to check out this European heaven for yourself!

Bringing back the oldies...

I mean antiques...

In my post here I wrote about my uncontainable excitement about going to my very first antique show! As I was shopping on a budget (aren't we all these days), I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to find anything that I loved and that fit my price range. I was right... almost.

When we got to the Christie Antique Show, I was a little but overwhelmed. There were probably about 6,000 people there, at the least. Aisles and aisles of amazing pieces as far as my eye could see. I was like a kid in a candy store. My better half was ready to shoot me after it took about 45 minutes to walk through the first aisle.

I really wanted to buy some sort of a cupboard/china cabinet that we can put in our dining room. Something to hold a plate or a mug and maybe some flowers. There wasn't one piece I didn't like and I wanted to buy everything. I kept on getting reminded that "we don't have to spend ALL the money we brought." Yeah huh... do you know who you are talking to. If spending money was an Olympic sport, I would be a gold medal holder since the tender age of probably nine. Tip for antique show goers: bring cash.

Unfortunately every piece I liked ranged from $1,500 to $4,500. A wee bit over budget. After about three hours of walking around, we stumbled into another 'booth' - I guess that's what I would call it... A stand? I dunno... Anyways, he found it. He picked it. I swear, he has a hidden interior design talent that I never knew about. It was cheap(er), big enough for the dining room, but small enough to fit in the back of his truck. It had character - and it still smells like wood!

Love, love love it!

What do you think?



That's the SOLD sign on the left door!

Rookie renos

and why eager beavers should just sit down and relax...

Since this year's Canada Day fell in such an awkward time of the week, I thought I will tack on a vacation day in there as well and attempt to renovate my kitchen. Everyone says that the cheapest way to change a room is to throw a coat (or seven) of paint on everything.

Small kitchen, 48 hours, a few cans of paint. Easy peasy! Great idea in theory, but who the EFF decides to paint all of the kitchen cupboards a) in a day and a half, and b) with one can of paint!? Not only did I underestimate the time it would take, I figured one (small) can would do it - I don't have THAT many cabinets! Now I'm left with a 1970s refrigerator in the middle of my kitchen, no paint, no feeling in my arms and no motivation to continue.

I thought I would take a break and go shopping for cute window treatments - nothing. The best part of my 48-hour reno rampage was ordering pizza.

After painting most of the outside of all the cabinets and half of the pantry, I'm out of paint and the project is on hold. Why does everything look so easy on TV? Check out my before and aft... well, midders. I'll finish it, I swear. Just not now...

This is what the kitchen looked like before... A bit blah, no?

Aaaand the fridge in the middle as I still have some work to do behind it. Ugh...

As you can see, there is still a loooooot of work for me to do...