Pretty in White

My 3 favourite looks from the red carpet at last night's Academy Awards. Coincidentally, they're all shades of white. 

1. Octavia Spencer in Tadashi Shoji
This was my favourite dress of the night. It's simple but elegant with just the right amount of shimmer and it fits her so beautifully. The girl really knows how to style her shape.

When she won Best Supporting Actress and said, "Thank you, Academy, for putting me with the hottest guy in the room", my sister and I both thought she was referring to her date. That guy was hot! Then we realized Octavia was referring to the Oscar. And I just realized the hot guy was Tate Taylor, the director of The Help.
Also, I think it's awesome that Professor Evilini from Wizards of Waverly Place won an Oscar!

2. Milla Jovovich in Elie Saab
This is just gorgeous, which isn't surprising since it's an Elie Saab dress. There were a few others wearing the same designer but none of them photographed as beautifully as this. She looks so glamourous.

3. Gwyneth Paltrow in Tom Ford
Call me crazy but I like the cape. In fact, without the cape this dress would no longer be in my Top 3. I really like the sleekness of the design. I wasn't crazy over her hairstyle but I'm willing to overlook that. 

Music Monday: Kris Allen

Kris Allen - We Found Love / Firework / Just Dance
I can't believe it's already been 3 years since Kris Allen won the 8th season of American Idol. When I first found this video of Kris Allen performing cover songs at his Los Angeles concert, you can't imagine how happy I was. I liked his self-titled album but I really think Kris Allen shines when he's performing covers. His versions of Kanye West's "Heartless" and Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine" were once on a constant repeat on my iPod. If he ever released a recording of "We Found Love", that would climb straight on to my Most Played list.

I'm sure there's only a handful of Kris Allen fans in Toronto but if he ever had a concert here, I would be there in a heartbeat. And I'm dragging Alexandra along (don't think I've forgotten about our promise!).

Surprises in Mystery Pucks, Surprises in Elevators

Since my internship started, I haven't seen any of my classmates from GBC so when Sabrina asked if I could help her sell autographed Mystery Pucks during the Leafs game at the Air Canada Centre, I was happy to help.

Before we got to work, we met up for lunch at Fran's. I'm not a big breakfast fan but I couldn't resist ordering their "favourite prize winning pancakes since 1940". If it's good enough for the Jays, then it's good enough for me. I got the banana chocolate pancakes and they were honestly the best pancakes I've ever eaten. It's a shame I could only finish 2 of the 4.

Photo Credit: Sabrina T.

For the next 3 hours, I wrapped and sealed roughly 200 autographed hockey pucks in the MLSE office. If there's anything I learned today, it's that I don't mind doing menial work. What can I say? Efficient is my middle name. Sitting on the floor for 3 hours can get quite painful though. Also, some of the Maple Leafs have terrible autographs. I'm looking at you, Dion Phaneuf. Oh, and Darryl Sittler walked by and said hello, no biggie.

The Mystery Pucks were on sale for $20 and one of the pucks had a winning sticker for a game-used Luke Schenn hockey stick (I touched his stick! ;) haha). I love seeing fathers buy pucks for their kids and it's adorable how excited the kids are to find out whose puck they got. By the end of the night, we made over $2800, all of which goes to Team Up Foundation. I'd say it was a pretty successful night.

And then the night got better. After saying goodbye to Sabrina, I headed to the elevators to leave the office. The elevator doors opened, it was super packed, and standing right at the front was MIKE KOMISAREK and JOEY CRABB! I have to say, I did a pretty damn good job at keeping my cool but boy, did they look gooood in suits. Acting nonchalant, I asked if there was room for me to squish in or I could wait for the next one. Komisarek scooted in so I hopped on and  for the next minute, I was a very happy girl. Who would've thought I'd ever share an elevator with two Toronto Maple Leafs?! Maybe it's a good thing I'm not working at MLSE; I'd be overly happy every day.

Also, I would like to thank my phone for working all day. Seriously, thank you for not being your usual shitty self.

Toronto Blue Jays: New Jerseys, New Season

10 years ago, I hated baseball. I couldn't hit the ball; I couldn't catch the ball; and I couldn't understand how anyone could be interested in such a boring game that lasted over 3 hours. I still can't hit or catch the ball but my love for baseball, specifically the Toronto Blue Jays, has evolved. It all started with one boring summer and my mom teaching me the rules of the game. Then I got to know the players, made nicknames for them, and the start of an addiction began. As they say on Moneyball, it's hard not to be romantic about baseball. There isn't much that feels as amazing as a walkoff win. I can't even imagine a year without my Boys of Summer now.

Spring Training started this week. I love this time of year. It's full of optimism and hope that this will be the year. This will be the year the Toronto Blue Jays make the playoffs - I truly believe it's possible. The Blue Jays are a young group of guys with so much drive and talent. And I am so thankful for Twitter because it's shown that not only are the Jays great athletes, they're also great people with so much personality. It's made me love them even more. Let's hope that 8 months from now, that optimism is still around and the Jays are playing some October ball. I can already picture myself crying hysterically.

Blue Jays on Twitter:
J.P. Arencibia - @jparencibia9 | Ricky Romero - @RickyRo24 | Jose Bautista - @joeybats19 | Travis Snider - @lunchboxhero45 | Brandon Morrow - @2Morrow23 | Brett Lawrie - @blawrie13 |  Casey Janssen - @CaseyJanssen | Eric Thames - @EThames14

Music Monday: The Civil Wars, Young Empires, Bon Iver

This is the first of hopefully a recurring theme of Music Mondays. I won't be posting weekly but on the Mondays that I do remember, I'll post songs that I'm currently liking.

The Civil Wars - Poison & Wine
Even if you haven't heard of the band, you might've heard the song before without even realizing it. It's been played on Grey's Anatomy and The Vampire Diaries recently. After seeing them at the Grammys, I downloaded their album "Barton Hollow" and it's all I've been listening to lately.
Other songs to check out: I've Got This Friend, 20 Years

Young Empires - Rain of Gold
After seeing a short commercial advertising Young Empires' album, "Wake All My Youth", I decided to check out their music. It's fun music that gets your head bobbing and makes you want to dance. I like listening to them when I'm getting ready to go out. The fact that they're from Toronto just makes me like them even more. Right now, their single "White Doves" is playing on the radio. If you're a fan of Foster The People, definitely check them out.
Other songs to check out: Enter Through The Sun, Against The Wall

Bon Iver - Holocene
I've been meaning to check out Bon Iver for a while now but for some reason I never got around to it. In a way, I think it was meant to be because if I had listened to Bon Iver three or four years ago, I wouldn't have liked them. They're definitely not for everyone but it's my go-to music when I want to listen to something mellow on my commute. And maybe it's just me, but I think it's kind of cute that their name is derived from the French phrase, "Bon Hiver".
Other songs to check out: Calgary, Beth/Rest

Girls' Night In

Last Friday, I wanted a manicure and had a craving for pizza. There was only one logical place to go for both: Michelle's house! I'm not sure if I was just really hungry but we created the best pizza I've ever had from Pizza Pizza. We nixed the classic tomato sauce and went for BBQ sauce with chipotle steak, chipotle pork, and pineapples on top. So good! We devoured half of it before remembering to take a picture.

After browsing Michelle's extensive nail polish collection, I decided on OPI's Tickle My France-y. It's a gorgeous nude colour with a hint of lavender. Michelle did a great job filing, buffing, and painting my nails but for whatever reason, it took forever to dry, which is especially torturous when a girl really wants to eat a chicken nugget! I ended up smudging my thumb twice but Michelle fixed it and I was good to go. Or so I thought. When I got home, I was exhausted and fell asleep on the couch. Apparently, my thumb wasn't completely dry yet and the leather couch left a textured imprint on my nail. After a brief, "Nooooooo!!", I figured it was only noticeable if you looked at it really closely and there was nothing I could do about it now so the imprint stayed. Now I've got a little reminder on my thumb that not everything goes perfectly but you can't sweat the small stuff.

Hello!

For a while now, I wanted to start up a personal blog and I finally got around to it. My LiveJournal account still exists but I haven't written a post there since 2009 and it's now become desolate. Tumblr didn't seem like the right place to post about my personal life. So here I am. I miss having a collection of memories that I can look back at because let's face it, my memory is pretty shoddy.

As for the name of this blog, I really wanted to go with something simple, like my name, but they were all taken! There's only so many dash and number variations you can do until it starts looking terrible. The worst part is that nothing was even written on those blogs! Oh well, what can you do?