love me sa

Ok, it's official - Christmas is coming!!! The bucket of Halloween candy was emptied by all the little kiddies tonight and the countdown for my favourite holiday is now on! I'm always invited to at least one cookie swap every season and do my best to find an interesting recipe that might stand out amongst the gingerbread, shortbread and sugar cookies (not that I have anything against those traditional favorites). I just came across this recipe for white chocolate dipped peanut butter stuffed chocolate cookies ... #amiright? The recipe seems a little labor intensive, but I think the final product is worth the extra time. My mouth started watering the minute I came across the recipe! What are your go-to recipes for the annual cookie swaps?  (PS. I promise to take a break on the Christmas posts until later in November, I just had to share a little bit of my excitement!)

We just got home from our second annual Halloween weekend with Acadia friends in Wellington. We rode bikes around to local Prince Edward County vineyards, feasted on some wonderful meals and danced the night away at the Hayloft Dancehall. We won the costume prize last year with our shark week costume, and attempted to reclaim our title this year with our taxidermy costume (unfortunately I didn't get a great photo of the final look). We lost to a group of girls who dressed up as Cats from the broadway musical, who were very deserved of the title.  It was nice to get away and spend time with great friends. The brainstorming has already begun for next years costume! { Wellington has the most beautiful homes and B&B's } { tasted lots of wine at my favorite, Norman Hardie } { we brought home a few bottles to enjoy over the winter too! } { we had brunch at the local Courage Cafe } { turns out rubber masks are very hot and don't have great visibility,  but we had some good lau...

I was lucky enough to celebrate my bachelorette with a close group of girlfriends last weekend. We went up to a family friends cottage and I couldn't have dreamed of of a more perfect getaway!! My bridesmaids and a close friend had planned the weekend, and among all the other surprises, surprised me with a beautiful monogrammed leather tote bag. I had mentioned in passing a few times, about how when I got married, I wanted to get a good quality everyday tote bag with my new initials (I plan on changing my last name to Gray). Well, I'm lucky to have friends who picked up what I was putting down because they chose a beautiful eggplant colored Baggu leather tote, and had K G discreetly monogrammed on the side. D joked that I couldn't use it until we got married, but I haven't been able to resist and have carried it with me everywhere this week. The leather is buttery soft and I can already tell it's going to be a favorite wardrobe staple for a very long time!

{ beautiful view of the six } Thanksgiving always feels like the official beginning of Fall and I'm loving the sunny, crisp weather we're having here in the city. We're going apple picking tomorrow and have two family feasts to look forward to! We've had fun celebrating the Blue Jays victories this week and although it's been a busy couple of weeks, they've been very fulfilling.  I hope your weekend is filled with time spent with family and pumpkin pie! Happy Thanksgiving! xx { ps. a beautifully touching article that had me in tears } { there's something about new workout gear that provides major motivation } { a beautiful marble notebook we will use to recite our wedding vows! } { delicious desserts to finish off an amazing meal at Richmond Station } { prep for a recent girls night at home } { my first hot chocolate of the season, one of my favorite treats }

Since getting engaged I've been putting a huge emphasis on my skin. It's been one of my biggest beauty insecurities so I've been diligent about paying extra attention to my daily routine and the  products I'm using.  In addition to monthly facials that I've been getting, here are some of my favorite at home products...  Unfortunately, I'm prone to small blemishes and the occasional pimple (which makes me feel like I'm 13). This Origins Super Spot Remover acne treatment is great for drying out pimples but doesn't over dry and redden surrounding skin. The La Roche-Posay Cicaplast was described to me as a beauty SOS cream and it really helps heal blemishes and lessen scarring.  In between my facials, I'll do 2-3 at-home masks. I'm a fan of how my skin reacts to Origin products, and I love the Clear Improvements charcoal mask. The charcoal feels good at application and leaves my skin feeling super clean. I use a Fresh soy cleanser when I travel and l...

So this weekend's wedding planning resulted in us booking our honeymoon!  Both D and I agreed that our top honeymoon destination would have been Europe, but February/March weather was less then appealing, so we decided to postpone a return to Europe and focus on booking a week in the sun. We knew we wanted to check out an island we hadn't visited before and had heard good things about Barbados. We had dreamed of finding a place with it's own private pool but as my search began I realized it might be a luxury outside of our budget. I decided to take a look on VRBO yesterday and found this amazing penthouse unit at the condominiums at The Crane , which is the oldest resort on the island. I had looked at the hotel rates earlier in my research and the rooms with private pools were three times as much, which was way more then we could afford - so when I stumbled across this suite it almost seemed too good to be true!  It will give us the privacy we are looking for, access to the...

As of today, we've been engaged for exactly 5 months and there is 5 months (+3 days) left until our wedding day!  I'm happy to report that we've come a long way since the initial days of planning and have sorted out a good portion of the important details. Invitations:  We're working with Paper & Poste to create our wedding invitations. They've made so many beautiful invitations (just flip through a recent edition of Wedluxe to see some) and when we met with Lexi (co-owner and designer) it felt like we were just chatting and laughing with an old friend. We've come up with a simple and modern design and I can barely wait to hold the finished product in my hands. Food: We recently sat down and chose our menu from a long list of options offered by the Food Dudes . Each and every option sounded incredible, so it was no easy feat. We've booked our tasting for later in October, which I'm expecting to be even more enjoyable than cake tasting! Cake: Speak...