Going antiquing

A few weeks ago I managed to drag my better half to attend the Christie Antique Show again. This was my second time going; last year we went to the May show as well (you can check out my buys here) and I think it's safe to say it is officially my hobby. The show started at 8:00 a.m. and with an $8 cover charge I was free to roam the million square feet of antique goodness.

This year I was on a mission to find a vanity table for my wardrobe room. One of the many pros of moving out of your parent's house into your own crib is that you can decorate the whole place however your heart desires. One of my must-haves was a bedroom that I can turn into a walk in closet (stay tuned for fotos).

So with a $500 budget, we set out to find the perfect vanity table, with a mirror, of course. I came across a few that were 'OK', but nothing that I have been picturing in my head. I wanted one with a few drawers and a place for a chair. There were a lot of dressers with a built in mirror, but nothing I can put a stool or a chair at.

Then I found THE most stunning vanity EVER. It was HUGE. Drawers and a mirror, a place for a fabulous chair. All for the reasonable price of $3,496. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to raise our $500 budget. Now that I think of it, it was probably too large for my closet room anyways.

Then, as we were shimmying up one of the isles, I looked over at one of the booths we have yet to see (as it was a few isles over) and I saw the back of it. There she was. I bolted over to take a closer look and she was perfect! The booth owner must have sensed my interest as we came right over and offered me a "good price" for this. I said great, how good? Keeping in mind that everything else I remotely liked was between $300 and $699 (err, $3,496).

He said $150!

So I pretended to contemplate this purchase a little bit, already picturing where exactly I would put it at home.

"But if you really want it, you can have it for a hundred and a quarter."

SOLD!

But a vanity isn't complete without a fabulous piece of furniture to sit on. So after a bit more walking I found a perfect upholstered stool for $25 - but I got it for $20. Note to future antiquers: as the day nears the end, you can score some sweet deals because everyone wants to get rid of their stuff so they don't have to load it all back on the trucks.

The stool actually matches the Merlot on the walls and white in the baseboards perfectly. Check out the pictures below.

The Christie Antique Show comes to Dundas, Ontario twice a year. The next one is on September 11. And I'll be in there like swimwear!

Helllooooo summerrrr!

It's here! It's here! It's here!

After a ridiculously below par summer of 2009, I'm sure I'm not alone when I say bring on the heat! There is no better feeling than laying on the sand with sun on your skin. Unfortunately, tanning conditions aren't what they used to be when we were kids.

I remember going on vacation with my mom and my aunt and we would always hang out on the beach. My aunt had this black bikini with pink polka dots and all she did - all day and every day - was lather on baby oil and fry in the sun. She was darker than chocolate by the end of the vacation. I was always so envious of her tan - maybe that's why I now have a complex about my pastiness.

Nowadays, UV rays are stronger, cancer is more common and really - who wants leathery skin at the tender age of 40.

Before stepping out into the sun with your sunscreen in hand, make sure you check the UV report that's conveniently available on the Weather Network's website. We spend at least eight hours per day online, it's right at your finger tips. You have no excuse. Check it. Now.

This week I'm taking off for a much needed week at Le Cottage. I've stocked up on beach towels, tried on all my bikinis (thank God it's during the week and NO ONE will be there to see this), reading materials and sunscreen.

Hawaiian Tropic always reminds me of the good ol' days of worry-tanning, but until recently, their products were available in highest SPF of 4 (that I know of)... Now Hawaiian Tropic offers sun protection up to SPF 70, in cream and lotion form as well as the ever-popular oil (still only SPF 4), with UVB protection and moisturizing vitamin E and aloe. There is also a complete line of after-sun care. Because let's be reasonable here - true sun lovers can overdo it now and then.

LOVE.

Maria Sharapova is living young... and so should you

As I have recently embarked on my neverending quest to diminish my wrinkles, I've made it a point to stay hydrated all day and every day. It's so easy to forget about drinking enough water when life takes over your days - you're stuck at work with a million e-mails to answer, run errands, pick up groceries, look for new shoes. You know, the usual. Carrying a Klean Kanteen everywhere I go isn't always an easy solution. It's hard to find space in my bag for the essentials: BlackBerry, organizer (I'm very old school and still like to write things down... with a pen), a book for the daily commute, lip balm, etc. I would need a separate fanny pack just to house my 3 lb water container...

During one of my regular trips to Metro, I came across evian Les Petites - a 330 ml bottle designed to fit into a kid's lunch box. Lunch box - hand bag. Potato - potahto. Convenient, easy to refill if need be and keeps my hydrated.

And I'm not the only supporter of evian - three-time Grand Slam tennis champion Maria Sharapova just signed on to be the new face of youth for evian. “The idea of youth as a state of mind caught my attention. I took a great pleasure in revealing my ‘baby inside’ while modeling for these photographs with Nathaniel Goldberg,” said Sharapova. “I am a true evian® drinker and I really like this campaign as well as the idea behind it so it felt quite natural to join in.”

What a perfect match (no pun intended).

If you haven't seen the evian baby coaches video, what are you waiting for. In the meantime, read up on evian Live Young training here. If that doesn't give you a kick in the behind to get healthy, well... call Jillian Michaels.

Quarter (and a bit) Life Crisis

A few weeks ago it hit me - I'm turning 27 this year. Twenty seven. I'm closer to thirty than I'll ever be to the young twenty five. I've never been one to give much thought to my age, especially when my other friends have been complaining about feeling older. I always thought of getting older as a sign of experience, knowledge and career success that's right on track. This year, however, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Three more years and I'm over the hill.

My metabolism is getting slower and slower and my face is starting to show lengthy welts some may call laugh lines. My clothes are getting tighter, I have more and more bills to pay. The only bonus is I no longer have regular loads of homework to do when I get home from school.

I've decided to "get my shit together." I signed up to a gym and I'm starting to work on my fitness. This cottage cheese will not go away on its own - especially now that I'm OLD. I've started doing research (and by research I mean asking my fabulous friends with fabulous skin) about budget friendly products to help me iron out my skin. Stay tuned for updates, I'll be sure to share.

Although I'm turning TWENTY SEVEN, I still feel like seventeen. Even my pops asked my one day if I will ever grow up. No thank you. I have a lifetime ahead of me to be serious. Life is more fun when you can laugh your way through it.

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.