Snaps of the Week

This past Sunday was Brandon's birthday, so we headed out to Brown's Social House in Richmond for some dinner & drinks! Being the girl that I am, I had to go for the mimosa on special rather than the Caesar - SO yummy, so filling!

A project of mine on Tuesday at work involved a lot of ribbons. Lots, and LOTS of ribbons (and continued on until Wednesday).

New running shirt from Skinny Runner. I love it already & have used it on the majority of my runs!

Soft, delicious oatmeal banana cookies. I used this recipe, but used 1/2 cup raisins & 1/2 cup sunflower seeds. These babies are so yummy, especially fresh out of the oven. Bonus: make the whole house smell fantastic!

A couple treats before my last exam this past Monday evening. Sometimes it's nice to just sit by the window in a coffee shop and see what's happening - most of the time you see some pretty darn funny things, too! I enjoyed a shortbread cookie (with white chocolate icing, um hello, heaven!) with an almond milk caramel macchiato. Oh, and in the bag are some shoe ornaments for the little tree in the apartment!

Hope you've all had a good week!

Fall in Love With Fall

Nothing screams fall like crisp weather, pretty leaves & outwear hitting the stores before the leaves even change colours. My ideal way to spending a fall day would have to include a nice hot cup of coffee and an equally hot breakfast (my breakfast of choice is always, always oatmeal with a dash of peanut butter), cuddles & cozying up in fall clothes. However, things like school and life gets in the way of that sometimes. Don't get me wrong - it's nice heading to class and seeing how others have styled their fall pieces. Likewise, hitting the streets of Vancouver on a chilly day is amazing for people watching. The style here is outstanding!

What will YOU be wearing this fall?

photos from polyvore & tumblr

It's a Party in the USA!

Guess sneakers

TNA Oversized T-shirt

Smart Set jeggings

Unbrushed, messy hair: Me!

Skinny gingerbread latte - yummy!

And since I am such a kind girlfriend, here is a video of Brandon doing a little dance in the car... :)

I hope your weekend went well, everyone! I spent mine working, running errands with Brandon (where I was sneaky and took videos of him while we were driving), clubbing on Saturday night with some girls and hanging out & watching movies. 

What did you do this weekend?

Not-so Manic Monday

My mom spotted this while we were perusing the aisles of Winners and thought it was quite fitting considering what I eat. Funny - I had oatmeal just this morning! Gotta love it :)

I offered to buy my mama some Starbucks today. We had been sniffing out the fun flavours of coffee in Winners, and I suggested that we cruise on over to Starbucks - my treat! Grande chai tea latte and a venti non-fat sugar free vanilla iced coffee, easy on the ice (how smooth does that sound?)

We had been grocery shopping earlier & didn't exactly do so on a full belly, ergo the banana bread. We split a slice from Starbucks & also snacked on some fresh fruit that we bought earlier. Works for me!

As a thank you for my aunt, I bought her a Starbucks gift card. She paid for my registration for the run yesterday, ran alongside me & was great company. She deserves a caramel machiatto (or five!)

At an intersection: "Hey, take a picture of me and my cup!" Okay mom.

Stockin' up on some gum.

I know I said that I would post the watch that I bought yesterday, but every time I try to upload the picture it says, "server rejected." I'll get it up eventually - I know you're all holding your breaths until the moment it's revealed (ha, ha) - promise! All in all, my Monday was pretty good. I woke up a little too early for my liking (after thinking I had slept in - nope, 6:43 AM), curled up in bed & read Elle magazine, then watched Serendipity, browsed around on my laptop for a couple hours, ate some fruit before we went & ran some errands, then came home and went for a quick 5K run, voted, and I just devoured a big ol' salad! Phewf! Back to the grind tomorrow!

Hope you all had a great Monday!

Shopping haul: pictures!

1. Snacks for the road. Yes, I'm the girl that brings veggies along with me while I go shopping by myself.

2. I made a stop at Starbucks and replaced the water in my cup (which I downed in no time at al) with a tall soy latte with a shot of sugar free vanilla syrup. I also picked up the low fat (not so low in my opinion... 8 grams still? Come on, Starbucks) banana bread slice with mini chocolate chips on top (okay, now it's not so healthy) and walnuts (redemption?).

3. I spent a good hour sitting on the floor in front of the fashion section at Chapters. I tried to take a picture of myself sitting there... all alone... and of course someone walked by at that moment. Make yourself seem like a vain & insane idiot? Check!

4. An artsy snap shot. I'm so clever.

5. I ended up coming home with Whitney Port's new book! I have skimmed through it briefly now, but it looks great! Lots of fashion tips, but also pointers for throwing a perfect party, healthy eating & fitness, and tons of other topics.

6. Scott Schuman takes a mean photo, and I was so inspired when I was flipping through his book! It's amazing to see what people wear and pull off so well!

7. Remember these babies from my Currently Craving list? Yeah, someone returned them after ordering them online, and they were the last pair and also happened to be in my size! OH, and they were an additional 50% off the clearance price. Scoooore!

8. I also purchased these super cute boots (also 50% off clearance price). They have a wedge heel and look like a men's work boot, but obviously they are way cuter. They toughen up any outfit, and they are so comfortable too!

9. Outfit of the day! Apparently I deleted the pictures of the shirts I bought (whoopsies), but here is one of them (the other is the same, just pink & gray).

10. Making a goofy face for all of you! Pure by Alfred Sung long sleeve shirt, gifted scarf, Pashu skinny jeans, Spring Shoes wedge boots.

And more good news: I got a raise at work! This calls for a cosmopolitan. Or maybe not, because I have been eating so healthy today! What do you guys think?

Cafe Caravaggio

My outfit today: I opted for something comfortable & cozy seeing as I didn't have any huge plans today. I woke up, went for a shorter run since I had done two longer ones the past two days, and made myself a thick smoothie full of berries! It was delicious :) As I got myself more mobile, I threw on a pair of Pashu skinny jeans (which replaced my current pink sweat pants), a red V-neck from Smart Set and the infamous thrifted grandpa sweater. Once I was all dressed, I decided to go for a walk downtown! This is where I went.

Cafe Caravaggio is a locally owned chocolate & coffee shop downtown. My mom happens to work there, so it gave me all the more reason to pay a visit! Besides, who doesn't love the smell of chocolate tempering, coffee brewing and the sight of homemade truffles? The store also sells fresh fudge, chocolate dipped cookies (my favourite has pistachios in it with white chocolate around the edges), specialty coffees and rents out a chocolate fountain for events & get togethers, as well. In fact, I had a Sex & the City themed girls night a couple months ago and it was a hit!

The pictures above are a few of my favourite things. Torani syrups in the lattes are divine (I recently tried a rooibos tea latte with butterscotch syrup. It was seriously as if my taste buds had died and gone to heaven!), and the truffles are mouth watering and so flavourful! Cafe Caravaggio uses quality chocolate to create these wonderful pieces. A few of my fave chocolates include the fruit and nut medallions (with coconut, slivered almonds, pumpkin seeds & cranberries), and the champagne truffles... That one speaks for itself! However, all the truffles rank high on my list! In addition, their fudge contains whole ingredients, like real cream and butter. My fudge of choice is black forest cake - complete with cherries! It is ooey gooey with the cherry flavour, but rich and scrumptious with the creamy chocolate. Seriously - everything here is to die for!

If you ever make your way to Vancouver Island, check this gem out! I highly recommend it!

Monday, Monday.

A silly shot of the boyfriend and I! We went to a park after running some errands and went for a walk in the chilly weather! The sun outside is deceiving - there is frost on the ground & they're calling for snow tonight into tomorrow. Boo :(


I look a little ridiculous here considering it seems as if my top lip is doing something funny. Clearly I did not apply enough chapstick (none at all, to be honest) and didn't sip enough of my warm drink to get them picture ready!

Our morning consisted of waking up, getting ready, and driving into Ladysmith for a cinnamon bun breakfast! There is a bakery that makes everything fresh and homemade. The array of cinnamon buns they offer is absolutely amazing - there is certainly one for everyone! Their flavours include white chocolate raspberry, chocolate pecan, peanut butter cream cheese, almond slice, cream cheese, orange poppy seed, and the list goes on! I opted for the peanut butter cream cheese. It had a nice peanut taste, some little bits of peanuts inside, and it was so warm, doughy, and comforting. The PERFECT cinnamon bun! Brandon was less adventurous than I and went for the regular cream cheese frosted bun, but it was equally as delicious!

After our yummy buns, we went to the bottle depot to take back some bottles my mom had collected for the past... Well, a long time, anyway. For some reason our cousins think our house is the place to drop off all their bags of bottles (my sister often does bottle drives for school), but there haven't been any bottle drives lately, and my mom wanted them gone. Ergo why we had to take them back. Nevertheless! It gave us something to do, and after we went to Tim Horton's for a couple coffees for the ride home.

Before we went home, however, we stopped at a park and went for a walk. Neither of us had ever been there before, and although it was cold, it was super fun! The frost on the ground crunched beneath our feet as we walked along the path, and we stopped for photo-ops every so often! All in all, it was a good morning, and I came home and warmed up with some homemade turkey soup for lunch!

I hope you all are having a good day so far! I made my first little collage of Jeffrey Campbell shoes that I want. It was just made on paint, so don't expect anything too fancy. Perhaps I'll have to show you guys later on!

Have a happy Monday everyone!

Jacket: Joe Fresh, Hat: Gifted from my friend Lauren, Plaid printed flannel: Thrifted
Not pictured: Black leggings and brown boots

Holly xoxo