Halloween

Today is Halloween. All the little, and not so little children in my life are preparing for a great night of candy collection. There's a Waldo&Wanda, Thomas the Tank, Batman, Fireman and Spider heading out tonight that I know of with plans to stuff their pillowcases full!

My Family never really was a big celebrator of Halloween. Costumes were thrown together last minute, my parents rarely handed out candy, and some years we skipped it all together. I remember being a cow, little bow beep, little red riding hood, and a gypsy as a child. I think once my parents even made me a monk. They're weird, I know. Those costumes were probably repeated various times in the next couple of years by myself and my siblings.

This year I'm living away from home and I have no plans for the big night. In fact, I think tonight will be the perfect opportunity to get some shopping in.

However, earlier this week I did do some Halloween related activities. My good friend from college MG wanted to decorate her Condo for the occasion and we hit up the local Dollarama where she bought a cart full of decorations. We also spent an afternoon baking cupcakes tastefully decorated for the holiday and shared them with our friends and family.

And that's as much Halloween celebrating that I do.

Thrifty Thursday

I posted a while back about a quick Talize stop prior to a Thanksgiving dinner at the Mandarin. We had Dutch relatives visiting for the week and were trying to cram in as much Canadian goodness that we could. Before we met for dinner We had wanted them to experience the mall, where all the stores are under one roof. We ended up spending the afternoon there finding and buying gifts and did a lot of walking for my poor ballet flat wearing feet.

Needless to say, when I split up from the group to make a pit stop at Talize I had some pretty sore feet. Disappointed at the lack of worthwhile finds in Housewares I checked out the shoes. Usually I try to stay away from the shoe department.  Shoes are my weakness, I own an abundance of shoes and personally I find the price of second- hand shoes to sometimes be a little pricy. Talize had already been bustin' out the boots and I was excited to find these brown wedge sandals.

My sore, ballet- flat dressed, and tortured feet weren't feeling that great in these shoes but I'm glad I bought them. I can't stop trying them on at home.

They are originally from Old Navy and priced at $29

This most perfect find cost me only $9.99 and they are brand new, never worn and still had the tag.

I had been wanting to buy wedges all summer, since they were a pretty popular and EVERYONE seemed to own a pair. Thankfully I withheld and now I am even more eager for Summer to return! 

Thrifty Thursday

I have 2 homes. Having 2 homes makes me constantly on the move. I live in Toronto area during the week and head back an hour southwest to small town goodness for the weekend. Having 2 homes make's it difficult to really decorate in any way. Toronto home is for school, and I have roommates to be considerate of. I wake up, go to school, do homework, go to sleep and repeat.  Practicality wise there is no need to spruce up the place, make my mark etc.. Financially there isn't any means either...

My other home however, where I have my own room I'm just itching to redecorate. When my family and I moved into our present home 41/2 years ago I completely redecorated. I was finally not having to share with my sisters, could pick out my own colors, duvet, etc... and only I had to like it.

Now I wanna redecorate again. Over 4 years. That room decor has had it's worth. And I need storage, or shelving...something! I have a collection of clothing, shoes, scarves, jewellery, antiques, collectables, and pyrex dishes that my closet is running out of room for.

So when I saw this greyish blue dresser on the side of the road i knew it would look perfect under the window in my room. Plus, its extra storage. I persuaded my brother to help me carry it down the road into my room, which he did ever so cheeringly. It was even his birthday - he must of been in a good mood! The dresser doesn't have and knobs or pulls, but I'm thinking of finding some antique glass knobs and adding those to the front. 

This dresser has provided something new to look at in the room and the redecorating itch has calmed...for now. 

Best part? It's was free. Someone else's garbage is another woman's treasure! How's that for Thrifty? 

Thrifty Thursday

Thanksgiving was this past weekend. A weekend when our house get's really full of people, there's a lot of wine and candies and children all mixed together and we set up 3 separate dining tables through out the house just so we all can eat at the same time.  This year we hosted almost 25 people for dinner and even had some overseas guest from The Netherlands here for their very first thanksgiving. The guests we astonished at the large size of out Turkey - it was only a 10 pounder! They documented my dad trimming the turkey, which seemed a lot less glamourous then what they had seen on t.v. and i'm surprised they survived the noise of us all eating and casually screaming at each other across the house.

I happened to stop at Talize late Saturday night just before we took these dutch visitors out to dinner.  (yup, we went to the Mandarin, on thanksgiving weekend. As if one feast wasn't enough) I picked up some cute brown wedges for 9 bucks. And now I wish it was summer again. Let's just skip this winter bit here in Canada and go straight back to summer!  I also snagged this plate with the adorable red and white design. I immediately hung it on the wall in my room and it clashes something terribly with the green/purple/grey i have going on right not. But it's just too pretty not to hang up. I'll save it for my future home.

Thrifty Thursday

I almost missed this one! I set an alarm in my phone for 8am reminding me that it is Thrifty Thursday and if this blog thing is going to be the real deal, I'm going to have to get serious. And here I am only 12 hours later. Finally compiling a blog post, with some thrifty bags I found this summer.

I had originally bought a gorgeous weekender bag from Indigo that I convinced myself I deserved even though I knew if I looked long and hard enough I could find something MUCH cheaper. However I bought the bag and it sat ridden with guilt on my bedroom floor for an undisclosed amount of time until...

BAM! I saw this beauty at Talize one fine summer day!

 

And only $6.99! Much better then compare to the $30+ I had spent at Indigo!
There are no tags on this bag, and I have no knowledge about it, but I love it and have received many compliments on it. And I love telling people where I got it! This beats a TNA or PINK bag any day!

The second bag I almost didn't get. My sister tried to convince me that I already had way to many bags...

'' It's just another bag.... urghhh...."

But it's awesome and cost me $3. That's it

It's huge it hold everything for school and I use it on

 the weekend's I go back home as well.

The dark green matches perfect with most of my outfits, the straps are strong, and it's just plain awesome!

OLD MEN & FENCES

This past weekend I spent some time in Niagara Falls with so lovely dear friends! We had wanted to go out a night together and Niagara Falls was a perfect idea! I love the falls, the atmosphere, all the interesting people you see on the streets and my friends so I couldn't have been a better night! (sappy eh? ;))

We kept it classy and dined on steak, twice baked potatoes and yummy cocktails at the keg after just narrowly escaping 4 old men who were more then willing to help us climb over fences. A classy dinner with a not so classy walk and fence climb. Thankfully no outfits were ruined in the process and we continued to dazzle on the streets of Niagara Falls. We rode the skywheel (my first time!) and spent way to much time taking photos of ourselves that we forgot to look at the view...

We had way to much fun, it's never a dull moment with these girls and I can't wait till the next time we go out!