Day 60

Happy Royal Wedding.

Yupp I was one of those girls that woke up at 5am this morning to watch the procession, ceremony, and balcony kiss. At work we decided to have a little wedding party in the Royal couples honour.

I decided to bake a coffee cake to share. So as I watched the wedding I was baking my little heart out. I ended up being the only person to actually make what I brought. It turned out pretty well. It was made in a rose shaped cake mold. It looks a little dark in the picture.
But the inside was soft and fluffy and was still warm when I got to work.

Have a fantastic Friday.

AF

Day 59

I know we are all very excited that the nice weather is slowing making it way here.
But I totally forgot to share my little Christmas treats. I made these for all my coworkers for Christmas last year.

They are upside down gingerbread man. I thought they turned out quite well for my first try.

Heres the little guy.

AF

Day 58

I woke up this morning, not feeling too super but decided to still go to work.

But to brighten my day, when I arrived home from work this is what I found on my kitchen counter, with a little note next to it.
I have the best boyfriend.

Stop and smell the roses tomorrow, and appreciate the little things.

AF

Day 57

Yesterday was super exciting because I got my new couch delivered. It is my grown up apartment purchase.
There was a little assembly required, but then when I got home from work I couldnt even put it together. I went to the doctors and stayed at my boyfriend's and he took care of me.
So when I got home from work today I made to make it my nights task to get it finished. Became a bigger challenge than I thought, but I did it.

Take a peek.

AF

Day 56

Yesterday my boyfriend and I had our very own little Easter dinner.
My mom had dropped off a ham and a dried Hungarian sausage that we have every year, and I simply cooked the ham and made a little display plate with the eggs that I showed you a couple days ago and the sausage.
It was all quite delicious, but I have absolutely no idea how long I am going to be eating ham now.
I'm going to guess a solid two weeks.

Hope the Easter bunny was good to you.

AF

Day 55

Happy Easter everyone.

Although the weather is not as nice as it was yesterday and I am going to have to find some indoor things to take pictures of because the next week is suppose to be all rainy.

This is the first year ever that I haven't gone home for Easter. My mom did drop by though yesterday and dropped of like a 5 pound ham. I don't know how she thinks I am going to eat that, but well see how it goes.

So my boyfriend and I are just going to have a ham and egg dinner with some other traditional things that my family has every year. Here's to hoping I don't mess it up.

In respects to Easter today, I took some pictures of the Lilies my dad brought for me last week.

Enjoy a relaxing day.

AF

Day 54

Yesterday my boyfriend and I cooked eggs for today's Easter festivities.
We just had the little plastic sleeve that shrink wrap around the egg when you lower it into hot water. My boyfriend only did one, but of course turned out to be the best of. Because he fitted his on the egg horizontally which was better.

Take a peek.

AF

Day 53

Good Friday.
I keep thinking it is Saturday because I didn't have to work today and was able to sleep in. Until 9:30! Terrible I know.
But either way it was better than my usual 7. Not a whole lot happened today. Finished my 4th book of the year. I am trying to read 12 this year.. one each month. I just finished Lolita, Strange book to say the least and now I am onto the book of awesome. I'm only on page like 20 but would totally recommend it to anyone needs a little pick me up. I've already laughed like 10 times and read several passages to my boyfriend. Its a great book

I was going to say nothing really happened today, but I just realized that I should totally post pictures of the books that I just described. I shall take a 5 minute break from writing.

Also I don't know if you can tell from this picture or not, but I usually take books out from the library because I only tend to read books once, unless I love, in which case I go out and buy it after I read it. Which I have done a few times.

So here are the books

AF

Day 52

This has nothing to do with photography. But I went to see Billy Elliot last night. If you like theatre I would 100% recommend you go see it. I laughed, I cried, and I had constant goosebumps. It was absolutely amazing.

So afterwards I went to my boyfriends and decided to take some pictures of the cacti he has. These guys are troopers. They just won't die. They also aren't growing in girth so he as totally stopped watering them and they are so tall that they have tipped over and are just winding around. But definitely still growing.

I increased the saturation to 100%. And I think it look amazing this way, reminds me of something out of a Tim Burton movie. But maybe that's just me.

Enjoy!

AF

Day 51

At one of the birthday parties I attended recently.
All my best girlfriends were there and I wanted to get a big group picture.
But since boys never listen this is what I found creeping off to the side when I uploaded my pictures the next day.

I've cropped it to just him.

Enjoy

AF

Day 50

I've made it to day 50.
With only a couple set backs, that I have fixed along the way.

It seems that the past few times that I have made my morning coffee, when I add the milk it doesn't seem to mix right away. I am not always around my camera when it happens but this weekend we happened to stay at my place and it happened again, so I thought I would document it this time.

I can't help adjusting pictures now, they just capture what I want so much more when I focus on the parts I like.

Enjoy.

AF

Day 49

Got the boyfriend a guitar for Christmas two Christmas' ago. Which he now adores more than me.
But I spent most of the weekend there so I thought I would take a picture of it.

In other news we had the MOST bizarre weather yesterday. We went out to get a coffee and it was sunny when we left. We came out of Tim Hortons and it was raining. Then when we came out of Starbucks it was snowing. This was all within a 20 minute period.

I just want spring already.
My boss said its never spring until Easter. Why is Easter so late this year?!

AF

Day 48

Another two April Birthdays.
Along with a housewarming, all rolled into one big party.
It was suppose to be a patio barbecue but the weather decided to be awful and it rained all day. So the stovetop grill was whipped out and after about 15 burgers, 2 chicken dogs, and resetting the fire alarm so many time that we ended up taking it down, the party was well underway.

We had yet another cake ball even and they were just as good as they always are.
We didnt have an actual cake, so we just jabbed the candles into the cake balls and went from there.
I had to take a secret picture with the candles so no flash was used, but it ended up turning out better that way.

Here's to starting another work week tomorrow.

AF

Day 47

Yesterday I bought the most amazing shoes ever. In my opinion anyway.
I am totally obsessed with floral for spring this year and I really wanted to get a pair of really high platform heels, even with my 5'10 stature.

I figured I would get a less expensive pair to see if could pull them off both in style and in walking ability. So I went to Forever 21 yesterday and found the wedge platform that I had been looking at online. But then I came across these heels and fell in love. They are a 5.25" heel with a 1.25" platform. They are so comfy and they were only $30. I think itll be a good starting point to see if I can make them work.

So here they are.

AF

Day 46

Last night my pops and sister came over for dinner after work.
Before I left in the morning though, I threw some food into the slow cooker so I wouldn't have to worry about cooking when I got home. I didn't so much throw as much as followed a recipe, this one to be exact. Tex Mex Chicken Note that no where does it say add water, but if you make this, ADD WATER. When I got home everything had burnt to the bottom. Luckily I was able to just add some water then and save the meal. We put it on a bed of basmati rice and it was quite good.

After almost killing dinner I was counting on my home made eclairs for dessert to save the day. NOPE.
I had made the dough the night before and put it in the fridge like Martha Stewart said I could, but then when I put them in the oven for the minimum time recommended they burnt to a crisp and didn't expand at all. Disappointment number two. With my sister having to work a little later, I decided to make and entirely new batch, since all it consisted of milk, water, butter, salt, flour, and eggs. The second batch didn't rise very much either. But they tasted great with home made whipped cream and powered sugar sprinkled on top.

Here's a little peek at how they turned out.

 AF

Day 45

Last night I went to the Tim Burton exhibit at the TIFF LightBox.
Unfortunately we werent allowed to take any pictures other than a few of this sketches that were outside before you enter the exhibit.
So I tried to capture a few of this interpretation.

This one is his take on Hansel and Gretel, the children's fairy tale.
It was quite a strange story board when you looked at the pictures alone, but then you turn around and there a big screen television with the exact interpretation playing in video behind you.
It was so strange because it wasn't just adapted from the images he drew, props, costumes, machines, and the house was made exactly how he had drawn them. Even Hansel and Gretel were two little Asian children, which is how they were depicted in his drawings.

That is what I noticed the most in the exhibit. Things that he drew and created were rarely altered or changed mostly everything was executed precisely the way he had envisioned it with a pencil and paper.

This is a shot of the the Hansel and Gretel story board.

AF

Day 44

Happy Birthday to my lovely ladies.
Both birthdays have now past but the festivities for both were fantastic this past weekend.

I am finding that I am having more trouble remembering to upload the picture, than actually taking the pictures.

But we decided to let the whole block know that it was Brittani and Erins birthdays
Xo girls.

AF

Day 43

The other weekend I went the Distillery District with my boyfriend, pretty much to get a coffee and take pictures. He went picture crazy, and I only took a couple, one being of the brown stain chipping off a wood box that had previously been painted red.

Nothing crazy here, but I did some editing to it, to make the colours pop even more.

AF

Day 42

So my friends seem to be obsessed with cake balls at the moment, and any party we have there will surely be a batch.
At one of my girlfriends' birthdays, I believe it was one of her home friends that made some intense ones. They looked like cupcakes but in fact were not! haha
They even had little paper cups but again were just part of the cake ball. One of the girls even tried to peel off the paper. No luck.

So yes, be jealous that I got to eat these.

AF

Day 41

I missed yesterday, but in my defense I had done some intense partying the night before for my wonderful Brittani's Birthday bash. And then the weather turned gorgeous yet again, even though it was suppose to thunderstorm all day so there had to be some outdoor time had. So Bruce and I took a nice afternoon/evening walk. I really should have taken my camera, super disappointed with myself. But today I am sharing a photo that makes me happy every time I look at it.

NOT because the photo is of myself, but because it was the last day of summer vacation, of the last summer vacation that I would ever have in my life. And I got to spend it with my favourite person, and the day was amazing!!


AF

Day 40

Alright, Enough coffee shop talk.

It is officially Spring here in Toronto, took my bike out today to ride around the city and go to the mall. Man was it beautiful, I love the city in the summer.
One of my best friends is having her birthday party tonight, and its themed, yes I know, but its a good one! Simply Spring. So I'm bringing out my floral skirt and bright nail polish and earrings. Everything is better in the sun.

So enjoy my official Spring picture.

AF

Number 1 reason to have a roommate: you have someone to take a picture of you for your blog. Man, I hate living alone sometimes.

Day 39

FINALE! Coffee shop number 10. My boyfriend didn't even want to go to the last coffee shop. It was 9pm and we were both pooped but I really wanted to complete the days task so I convinced him to come. The Green Grind is at Bathurst and Bloor. Its a really big space with lots of seating and a shop within it to purchase coffee and tea products.

Bruce asked for their strongest dripped coffee and it tasted like it was diluted.
I on the other hand got a honey lemon tea, because I actually couldn't even handle anymore coffee. We sat and read for a bit, but were both happy to be heading home.

Ten coffee shops, in nine hours: Complete.

AF

Day 38

Manic Coffee, second last coffee shop. It was quarter to eight by this time, and we were pooped.
The caffeine was making us grumpy and our feet hurt.
Manic seemed nice, I really couldnt give a decent critique because we were in there a whole three minutes. But the barista did seem like they thought they were the greatest coffee maker EVER. Not my favourite person.
I got yet another latte, I barely drank any. My taste buds were fried by now. Nothing tasted good anymore. As we were walking to our final shop, we got into a discussion after I said that if I saw a homeless person right then I would offer them my coffee. and Bruce said that he probably wouldn't take it even if he was homeless. Me I think I would take it. It was a cold night, and at that point I hadn't even tried it yet.
But that is one of the reasons I fell for the kid, we can have such in depth conversation about nothing at all.
Well that's all for today.

Please note the lighting difference from the start of the adventure through til the end.
Long Day.

AF

Day 37

The Green Grind on College was number eight, and apparently the place that the previous barista didnt like.
But in fact this place was lovely. It is a LEED Certified building. Which means that the building was designed and built by having green strategies in mind, and reducing their impact on the planet.

Anyways, this place was large and quiet relaxing. We sat down for a bit, I just got a hot chocolate because I couldnt handle anymore coffee.
I would definitely recommend going here to do homework.

AF

Day 36

I Deal Coffee in Kensington. There were two I Deal's on the list, the other I have already shown.
This one we got to about 5 minutes before close. We were obviously all pumped up from all the coffee we'd been drinking and the barista really put a damper on things. My boyfriend couldnt handle anymore coffee so he asked for a peppermint tea. The reply was, 'actually you can really only get coffee with that card.' So we both ended up getting a coffee. I got an Americano. My boyfriend said it was because of all the lattes that I was drinking, but it did not taste good. But yeah well go with the lattes.
Then the barista started bashing another coffee shop. I know you guys compete a little but theres no need to be rude. So I was a little turned off at this one. And was ready to go to number 8.

Which turned out to be the one that was being bashed.
More on that tomorrow.

AF

Day 35

Numbero 6 people we are more than halfway there.
Moonbean in Kensington. This was my second favourite coffee, which Bruce quickly poured out when we were walking to number 7. Booo. The atmosphere was a little crowded but the people were all very friendly. We sat down to read for a little bit when we realized that it was 6:50 and number 7 closed at 7. So we grabbed our stuff and almost literally ran to the next place.
I would definitely head back to Moonbean if I was in the area and had a good book.

AF

Day 34

The Tampered Press.
Loved this place. People were friendly. There was a huge table that fit probably about 12 people and you just sit and do your thing, there were also small tables and a bar to look out the window. The atmosphere was just great.
We actually sat down and read a bit of our books that we brought, until we realized that it was 515 and that we were starving. So off we went in search of a burger.

AF

Day 33

Coffee shop number four. I Deal Coffee, also on Ossington.
This was literally up the street from number three so we barely drank our coffees.
I just got a normal latte here.
There wasnt a lot of seating, so we just grabbed a coffee and left. There was also only one barista which I can imagine can become overwhelming even if it gets slightly busy.
We werent even half way done and I was already starting to feeling a little dizzy.


AF

Day 32

Happy April Fools day!
Man did I get my coworker good. It wasnt even a very creative prank but it was so funny to watch him this morning. I did the change the background of his computer trick.
When he left work yesterday I stayed behind and took a picture of his desktop as he left it. (He doesnt close any programs and leaves all the windows open, this made it work so much better)
Then I changed his desktop picture to the picture I had just take with all his windows. We use macs at work so I moved this dock to the right side of his second screen and 'hid it' unless he was to scroll over the area, which I really hoped he wouldn't. Then I closed all his programs and put on his all his desktop icons into a folder and hid it. Then I went home and thought about it all night.
I made sure I came to work early so I was the first one here. And I sat and waited. I was starting to get nervous because if it didnt work I would look stupid. But boy did it work!
He came in from a Thursday night of partying, "I'm not feeling 100%" he said. I know it was going to be fantastic at that moment. I pulled out my point and shoot and started videotaping him clicking around his computer for about a minute until he turned around and said. "Agnes, I think there is something wrong with my computer." I wanted to play along longer but he saw me holding the camera, so I yelled April Fool's!

BEST DAY EVER.

Now back to the picture today, I just really needed to share that story.
The third coffee shop we went to was Crafted: By Te Aro. This place had a nice atmosphere inside. Didnt seem like a whole lot of seating area and surprisingly that one window absorbed so much heat, it was so hot in there. I got a Misto here, not my favourite but it was alright. I always forget that I need a bit of sweet in my coffee so when I get something like that, its hard to put sugar in it and it ruins my experience. Totally my own fault though.
I really like the outside and sign for this place. Ahhh yes, and it is on Ossington, just North of Queen

Yay! Weekend

AF