If you live in Ontario and are 18 + I hope you plan on voting today!  Go to Elections Ontario to find locations and any other info.  You can even vote if you don’t have a voters registration card by bringing these acceptable forms of ID and voting locations are open 9am-9pm, so there’s really no excuse.

After voting I’m gonna head down to Workpace One to check out Social Media Marketing 101.  Casie & Sheldon are speaking and I’m interested to learn about Daryl D’Souza’s business.  Workplace One is a shared office space for entrepreneurs, small businesses and professionals.  I think it’s a great idea and I’m looking forward to seeing what their space looks like.

Because I’m all about change and growth right now as soon as I saw this personality quiz from the NYT on Casie‘s blog via Lauren  I had to see what it said about me and share it with you:

You are culturally adventurous in all walks of life and love to explore different avenues of tastes and trends. Because your body is also important to you, you look for flavors that are unusual but still healthy and delicious, and you are constantly on the lookout for the next food trend. You are an emotional spirit and you make really strong connections. Good friends and lots of laughs are the recipe for really happy days. And nights!

 

          

I found these photos last night when I was cleaning my desk and started to think about all the things that have changed in my life since then.  It has been an absolutely crazy past year or so for me and I’ve had some major life changes.  I wasn’t sure if I should post this, but after a great talk with Christina I realized that it’s all part of life and why the hell not.

Then I woke up this morning and read my daily horoscope:

 

	Your horoscope for October 4, 2011
	This is a great time for you to take a difficult situation, work through it, and come out victorious, Carly-Anne. Do not feel bad about things in your life that are sitting in a crumbled heap before you. Destruction gives opportunity for brand new growth and advancement. Recall the phoenix who rises up from the ashes, and embody the spirit that makes the phoenix so powerful against all odds.

 

And that was what I needed to hear.  So here it goes…
A year ago the rug was pulled out from under me and everything in my life changed.  I went from being everywhere and right in the middle of a personal blog challenge, 30 Days of Blogging, to pretty much dropping off the face of the earth.  I surfaced again on an island and spent the next few months just enjoying myself and trying to sort out my life and figure out what I wanted to do next.  In the midst of all of this, my poor blog didn’t get much attention and I have really not been writing as much as I want to.  I have so many unposted things from the past year and have not really been keeping up with my site.  Some of them are pretty interesting IMO and instead of just going to waste, I figured why not share them now?

So starting with today for the next 30 days I’m going to catch up on all things that I missed putting out along with some new stuff including a contest and giveaways.

Thanks to everyone who’s been along for the ride the past year.  And thank you to my Florida man for being so good to me.  I love you ♥

 

 ”Happiness hit her, like a train on a track…

…Leave all your love and your longing behind, you can’t carry it with you if you want to survive.”

 

 

Hi All,

Wanted to let you know that I’m doing a Ustream today and I want YOU to be involved.  This is to start talks on what we can do to stop the Online Bullying that has been increasing at a rapid rate lately.

You can join me on Ustream at 4:00pm today

OR

if you can’t make it, please click the link below to fill in a secure, confidential form to leave a question, comment and get on the mailing list for the next chat.

It is up to us to be the change we want to see in the world.

I look forward to talking to all of you and helping in anyway I can

Click this link to fill in the secure, confidential form

 

Canada mourns the loss of a truly great man, NDP Leader Jack Layton.  You may not agree with his party or his political view, but you can’t argue that he didn’t do all that he could for Canada.

He wrote an open letter to all of Canada on August 20, 2011, 2 days before he died.  It was one of the most honest and inspiring letters that I have read from a politician and I hope that we, as a whole country, can take his words and try to make our country the best it can be.

He will be honoured at a rare state funeral, generally reserved for Prime Ministers & Governor Generals.  It will be this Saturday, August 27 at Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto.  I will be there to pay my respects.

May you rest in peace.

 

 

Sarah Von of Yes and Yes (you may recall her blog from my Show & Tell posts) has a very honest and inspiring post today and I thought it would be a great idea to share here as well.

Her post is called “All The Ways That We Are Adorable” and was brought on by a discussion on the Every Buddy boards about going out in public without makeup.  One commenter posted that she was lucky enough to have long dark lashes that didn’t require mascara, but then wrote “Why is it so hard to say nice things about yourself? Especially physically? *sigh*”

Sarah decided that it’s time to say nice things about ourselves and posted five great things.  I added to her comments and I think we all could use a little boost .

So I want to know – what do you love about yourself?  What makes you different and makes you stand out?

My answer was:

• I am small and thin
• I have blue eyes that change colour depending on my mood (blue, green, gray)
• I have a crazy, high-pitched laugh but my voice sounds really good when I sing.

and I want to add

• I love my ski jump nose
• I love how I look in a bikini now
• and I love that my hair is getting longer!

Can’t wait to read your responses!

Going to A Panel Discussion on Panel Discussions tonight with Kathryn and maybe Jason if I can drag him downtown.  Looking forward to hearing Casie, Erin Bury & Late July speak.  The boys on the panel should be interesting as well, but I’m showing love to the ladies today.   It’s FREE and for more info and tickets go HERE

Had an amazing weekend of doing, well not really too much.  Saturday was a pretty lazy day of cleaning, unpacking and eating.  Then some beer drinking and Jason and I wandered down to check out the Woodbine Park Jazz Fest.  Then we strolled down to Lick’s so I could introduce Jason to my favourite burger place.  I LOVE their Nature Burgers soo much.  After an evening of walking we went home to finish watching Trailer Park Boys.  Jason has been “studying Canadian culture” as he puts it and has watched all seasons of TPB.

#SundayFunday was spent at Mom & Dad’s house by the pool.  Such a beautiful day and I love how nice it is at their house.  I’ve been thinking of asking if I can have a pool party up there.  I think it’d be a blast to get everyone out of the city for a day and Mom & Dad would love it.  I’m definitely gonna ask. After spending the day poolside we came home to a clean house and I got to work on a kind of assignment for something new that I’m working towards.  Jason made us a late night dinner of Grilled Cheese with Pickles (SO GOOD), mixed greens salad and tomato soup.

The perfect end to a nice weekend.  What did you do?

Oh hai there.  You came back to read   Thank you!

My blog has been pretty sparse lately.  Actually for quite a while I’ve been seriously neglecting it.  I’ve honestly been crazy busy with life.  Getting Jason sorted out with vistor permits and work visas (which is a LONG and involved process!), working a temp job as well as running my agency, looking for new opportunities to make money, spending time with my family and overall just being a busy bee.  I’ve barely had time to relax or sleep since coming back to TO and I’m not complaining.  I missed the fast pace of the city and am really glad to be back in the thick of it.  But it’s been a lot of all work and no play for this girl, which I decided to change as of yesterday.

I got home and had an hour to myself, which is a rare thing lately, and I immediately sat down at my computer to waste time online.  That’s when I realized that there are two things that I really used to love to do that I haven’t given any time to in a while. Sewing and writing.  I haven’t felt the urge to be creative at all and it’s pretty boring.  So I logged into my BurdaStyle profile and started going through the free patterns for summer clothes.  There were some really cute, easy things to make and I felt inspired and excited to make myself something.  I don’t have the funds to  shop for myself very often and honestly haven’t bought anything new since my birthday outfit.  I love the feeling of putting on something I’ve made myself and although I’m still pretty novice, I want to improve my sewing to hopefully make a nice wardrobe for myself.

I decided right then and there that I needed to make more time in my days for the things I enjoy doing in my life and less time being stressed out about work and money.

The other great thing that happened out of this is that I woke up this morning feeling like writing.  I started this post on my blackberry on the way to my temp job and am taking a break now to finish it.  I’ve got a backlog of posts and things to share with you.  I also really want to do a redesign of my site.  I’ve been working on a few different websites for clients and have really improved my web design skills.

I appreciate all you guys sticking around and checking out my site, going through the archives when there wasn’t anything new.  Things are great.  Life is great and I’m ready for the next chapter to begin.

Carly-Anne

Photo taken by Casie at the Hate and Heartbreak Launch Party(Me, Jason, My Mom & Aunty Judy)

Guess what?  I have been waiting to share the awesome news with you that I’ve been selected as one of the the Stella Artois Légère Social Media Neighbour’s for the Beach/Leslieville/Danforth area. There will be six sampling teams (wearing 1960s-inspired outfits and riding Stella Artois Légére-branded bicycles and Mini Coopers) who will be handing out complimentary samples throughout the cities neighborhoods from now until July 9.

But complimentary samples of Stella Artois Légére is not all… they’re giving YOU a chance to vote for your favourite neighborhood in Toronto (EAST SIDE) via the Stella Artois’ Facebook page The neighbourhood receiving the most votes gets to host an Ultimate Block Party for 200 people! Voting closes on July 10th, 2011.

If you live in the Beach/Leslieville/Danforth areas you already know that we live in the BEST neighborhood in the city so stay tuned to my blog and twitter for updates on the Stella Artois Légére summer sampling program.  And keep your eyes peeled for the Stella Artois Légère street teams.  Tweet or FB me if you see them!

Also, for all you parents or concerned folks out there — you MUST be 19+ to participate in the sampling — no complimentary beer for minors.  Sorry guys!

So happy to be back in TO for the summer

 

 

 

 

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SUMMER OF FUN

Hello!  How are you?  I’ve missed you blog and blog friends.  It feels like I’ve been gone for a lifetime.  But guess what?  Some good news.  I’ll be back in TO and hopefully in an awesome new apartment by June 1st!  Pretty exciting and I am really looking forward to coming home.  It’s been quite a while since I’ve been away on this little island.  I’ve learned a lot about myself,  met some really awesome people and was able to get back to being me after some of the crazy events that took place in the last year.  I’m sorry I’ve been quiet and maybe even a little boring around here but sometimes you just need to disappear for a bit to get your bearings again.

I cannot wait to get into a new place and to be back in my city.  I want to submerse myself in the awesomeness that is Toronto and spend time with the people I miss.  It’s been good to be away and I’m so ready to be back to me!   It’s gonna be a busy summer and I’ve got some pretty fun things coming up that I can’t wait to share with you.

I’ve started a Wish List of Things to do this Summer and some of them are:  go on a road trip; host a big party for my friends, family and hopefully some of you; go up north to a cottage; hit up some of the music festivals in Ontario; re-discover the city and visit every neighborhood; see some of my old friends that live in the sticks; and hopefully introduce my American friend to the best that our city and province can offer!

Do you have any suggestions that I should add to my list?  What’s the coolest, most fun or best part about your neighborhood?  Share in the comments and maybe we’ll get the chance to do it together!

I hope you all have a safe and happy May 2-4 long weekend.

Life is good

 

I just wanted to say Happy Mother’s Day to you and I wish I could’ve been there for brunch today.  You’re the best Mom in the world and I love you a lot.  Thanks for being there for me through all the craziness and good times over the years.  I’m glad we got to spend the time together last week and I can’t wait to have brunch in the Beach with you when I’m back.

 

I know I posted this photo before but it’s the best   Love you Mom.