I'm back....

Hello again to everyone...

So I kind of took a two and a half month hiatus from blogging. I was finding that I just didn't have enough time in the day to keep up with things. Since March, numerous things have gone down in my life.

I've moved back in with my fiance and we're trying to get back into the swing of things. My dog Louie is getting along peachy with his new home. We've been taking him to puppy classes at Petsmart and he's really doing well in terms of his fears and shady shyness.


I had a falling out with my step-mother because I have chosen to continue me relationship with my fiance. This has been very hard on me and I'm not sure how to go about rectifying the damage that has been done. My cat escaped the safe confines of our home and was impregnated..two days ago she delivered 3 kittens. Now we need to find happy homes for three little fuzz balls. They are super cute! A god friend of mine had a lovely little bundle of joy named Aryana! We've taken to calling her "Squeaks" because she always seems to be making sqeauky noises.


The best thing that happened to be is in terms of work! I was the successful applicant for a full-time contract position out in the county,but now I am finding that I have too much time on my hands. On a good day in this rural little village, our truck is lucky enough to get called out to one standby for a nearby busier town. Most days I find myself twidling my fingers, reading books (I've recently become a crazed fanatic of the Sookie Stackhouse Series [LOVE LOVE LOVE!! And I've already read all 10 novels currently in circulation]), scrapbooking my life away, playing Bejewelled Blitz on Facebook or downloading and then using applications on my new iPhone (LOVE IT!!!). I absolutely LOVE knowing my scedule and being able to plan things in advance without worrying about whether I am going to be called into work. The contract is only supposed to be about 7 months, but 7 months is better than nothing at all, and I can't really complain because I haven't been working for a year yet and I already have this position so...GO ME!


Tonight I am starting an 8-week fitness challenge. I joined a bootcamp!!! It's called Booty Camp Fitness and is offered only to women. With 93 locations all over Canada, I'm seriously hoping that this is going to be (1) uber fun, and (2) give me results!!! A girl I went to highschool joined the classes and has been talking about it a lot on Facebook and I had to look into it. The 8-week course costs $300, has two 1-hour classes and week (I picked the Tuesday/Thursday option) and has many additional bonuses (check the website if you're interested). I'm going to post pictures soon of me now (the dreaded BEFORE shot..dun dun dahhhhhh!!!) and we'll see how I change over the next 8 weeks. Here's hoping the course lives up to its motto: "Fun, friendly, fitness!"

More to follow! I hope all in well with everyone else in the blogging world!

- Co Co

I love my friends!

Right now I am living roughly 1.5/2.5 hours away from my closest bunch of friends, roughly 21 hours from my BEST girl friend and roughly 17 hours from my BEST guy friend. I relish every chance I get to spend time with these people, although it seems more and more often that I am being forced to choose taking shifts at work over spending time with my friends - a fact that is really starting to get to me sometimes.

Unfortunately in my profession new hires are considered the bottom of the food chain. We are the last ones to get called for available shifts, given the crappy shifts with other medics who are grumpy bumps and forced to fight amongst each other for seniority ranking in order to have a chance to one day successfully and skillfully acquire a contract. Most often it is only a couple of hours that separate one person from another on the seniority list, but those few hours really make a difference. Currently I am 5 from the bottom. There are many full-time contracts coming up within the next couple of months due to maternity leaves. Ideally, I should be eligible for one of these contracts...but I can't take time off or turn down shifts. I always have to have my cellphone handy in case I receive a phone call from one of the supervisors asking me to come into work. Now, this can be really annoying because these calls come at all hours of the day and night. I have been called in at 2am, 4am, half an hour after a shift has started....it never ceases to amaze me. This joyous factoid has made getting together with my friends and making plans extremely difficult. How am I supposed to be able to drive 1.5 hours to visit my friends, think about consuming alcoholic beverages, or make plans if at a moment's notice I have to come running back to work. I have had to back out of some really amazing plans at the last minute due to these wonderful call-ins. Whenever this happens I have to think to myself, "at least the money is amazing!"

Well, back to the "friends" topic. I have always considered my friends to be the family that I choose for myself and I don't let just anyone into my family. Being in a newish place without this circle of comfort and joy is very hard. I find myself without the time or opportunities to venture out on the town to try and make friends. Sure, there are work friends here, but no one who I have actually clicked on a deep spiritual level or even slightly considered including in my so-called "family." This past weekend I decided to book some time off work to spend an evening of bliss with my friends. I missed them all terribly and I was willing to take any repercussions by marking myself unavailable (it ended up being an okay thing though. Shifts have been few and far between lately).

My good friend Amy recently bought a home and joined the 1/4 century group on Saturday. We all went to her house for a house-warming and birthday get-together. It was great to see my friends. We did shots, laughed hysterically, ate delicious snacks and spent quality time together. It's times like these that keep me going. I was lucky enough to not get called into work on Sunday, so I took a road trip to Waterloo and spent some more quality time with two of my other great friends. I love my friends!

Here's some shots from the weekend.

Day on the town

Yesterday I took a trip up to my favourite Ontario city: Toronto! I love the little communities that make up that whole huge metropolitan zone. The ethnic food, the AMAZING little shops and the gorgeous buildings are just some reasons for my love. My mom lives there just north of an amazing Greek foodie district near the Danforth. We decided we wanted to hit up China town and then Kensington Market. No Sunday morning is complete without a stop off at a Chinese restaurant for some Dim Sum. I love dim sum! Those little delicious morsels of fried or steamed bits of food...just thinking about it makes me hungry!

Before brunch we did a little bit of shopping in some Asian stores near Dundas St. I found an amazing set of blue feathery fans to use for a remake of the "Sisters" routine from White Christmas. I was clearly ripped off because I found better fans in another store a couple down for less money, but oh well. Brunch was great, not as many dumplings as I would usually like but they had shrimp har gao and pork shu mai. Brunch was finished off with some delicious little egg tarts that were simply devine! From there we hit up some more Asian stores; my mom bought a cute little clay teapot (only to realize when she got home it was ruined...too bad).

After about an hour of Asian stores we sauntered over to Kensington market. There are so many cute vintage stores as far as the eye can see. I saw tutu's galore, amazing purses, 60's style dresses (which I am a huge fan of right now). Some examples:

1.
(This dress can be found here)

2.
(This dress can be found here)

3.
(This can be found here)

I took a couple of pictures of random things that I liked along the way or thought were humourous. This teeny tiny top hat made me burst out laughing...then I tried it on a fell in love! It was so cute. I almost bought it but came back to my senses realizing that I had no idea where I would ever wear such a thing.


There was some interesting grafitti on the buildings and interesting logos for stores. Some of my favs:




I ended up making a couple of purchases. I found a knock-off coach purse for $20 and some really cute berets for $9.



That's all for today I guess. I'll try to be a little more artistic the next time I go to Kensington market so I have better photographs to share.

Pipecleaners?

When I was still enagaged, I went to this one bridal show at the Carlu in Toronto. It was hosted by the Wedding Co. and was simply AMAZING!!! We won a prize pack where we got to go through the show before it opened and look at all the booths. The hosts gave us pipecleaner rings and then showed us how to make them. I absolutely LOVE these rings and have continued to make them for my friends, who adore them as well. Just thought I would give a crash course via photos/instructions on how to make a stylish pipecleaner ring!


Step one:

You will need 4 pipecleaners (at least).
Three in one main colour preferrably and one in a different colour.


Step two:

Wrap three pipecleaners around the finger you plan on wearing the ring on.


Step three:

Twist the pipecleaners around the finger until it is tight enough but comfortable as well.


Step four:

Fan out the pipecleaners until they are equally spaced.


Step five:

Begin to curl the pipecleaners down. Bend the end down as small as possible - the tighter the bend the more circular the petals will end up being.



Step six:

Continue to curl each pipecleaner down. After each pipecleaner is curled, twist the petal to face in the opposite direction (i.e. if you curled the petal to the right, turn the whole petal to the left).


Step seven:

Take the fourth pipecleaner. Wrap this pipecleaner underneath the petals - make sure that the pointy end of the pipecleaner is adequately covered so you don't get poked by the ring when you're wearing it. Usually a couple twists around the base is good enough.


Step eight:

Take the long end of the new pipecleaner and put it through the petals. Start to curl this pipe cleaner down but instead of curling it like a petal, curl it into more of a spring or slinky-like shape.


Step nine:

Once you have curled this pipecleaner completely, squish it down into the petals. It should have a little elevation to it. If there is too much elevation, twist the pipecleaner tighter and continue to squish it together.


Finished product:

Doesn't this ring look so cute? It's a perfect thing to do at birthday parties for little girls or together with your lady friends at bridal showers. Coordinate the pipecleaners and you and your girls can wear them out together when you hit the town. I recently did this with my ladies this past Friday - the complements kept coming all night! LOVE LOVE LOVE!