"Up In The Gym Just Workin' On My Fitness"

Would you look at that sweaty glow? One very good thing about being on the road is that although the days can be very loooong, a gym is almost always just an elevator ride away- which makes getting my sweat on rather convenient. My daily escapes to the fitness centre in the hotels that I stay in while I'm away have really become what keeps me sane out here. True, it's not always easy to fit a workout into a busy and stressful day. Often, it means waking up extra early, but there's no doubt about it being worth it- and let me tell you, it sure helps with the stress factor.

One of my biggest inspirations to shape up recently has been stylish NonSociety babe, Mary Rambin. I discovered her blog a while back and I was instantly drawn to her fab fashion posts and of course, I could relate to her serious shoe addiction. I adored her head to toe videos. Before I knew it, I was hooked to her lifecast and began following it avidly. Not only is she a handbag designer (check out her designs here), spinning instructor (sign up for her class here), and totally awesome blogger, she's also a seemingly down to earth and totally cool chick. Her regular posts about her workouts, and weekly tips have encouraged me to punch it up, and tone my booty too. It’s totally easy to become burned out with your workout. What I love about Mary is that she's always suggesting new elements that you can add to your routine to have more fun and stay motivated to be active.


The fun fitness videos and sweaty self photos that she shares on her blog always make me want to lace up my Nikes and give whatever she's trying a go. Mary says that, "Fitness is part of living a stylish lifestyle." I couldn't agree more. Now, I better get some shut eye so that I can wake up for my 6am workout.

Some photos courtesy of Mary Rambin

Update:
Mary reblogged my entry on her site. I'm so honoured! Look!

Ready, Set, Go!

Last night I enjoyed an absolutely delicious dinner with the 'rents in the awesome atmosphere that is Rodney's in Yaletown. This places offers fun service, a fresh assortment of oysters and other seafood, and a casual buzz. We were thoroughly entertained by the banter between Rodney’s gregarious staff. Plus, who knew that I'd love raw oysters? They were amazing. We ate, drank and watched a barn burner of a Final Four game (yay Villanova!)

It feels like I've only had a second to breathe and now, here we go again. You'd think that after so many trips, packing would be a breeze. Not the case. Somehow I always end up with an enormous and completely full suitcase- apparently, I'm just not capable of packing light. And of course, I still always worry that I'm forgetting something. Last night I had the worst sleep of my life, tossing and turning, worrying about everything under the sun.

There are things happening in Vancouver this week that I wish I could be here for. That's probably the toughest thing about my job...sometimes I just have to go, even when I really, really don't want to. Like today.


Eating well on the road is definitely going to be a challenge, especially considering that I'll be with "The Candyman" himself...but I'm planning to be very diligent. Thank God for hotel gyms. Stay tuned for tales from the road.

Only One

I keep seeing this meme all over the place so I decided to play along.

One Photo


One Poem

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near
your slightest look will easily unclose me

though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

e.e. cummings

One Film

Stealing Beauty.

One Item Of Clothing

Dress by Alexander Wang

One Song



I love myself today
Not like yesterday
I'm cool, I'm calm
I'm gonna be okay!
I love myself today
Not like yesterday
Take another look at me now

Bif Naked- 'I Love Myself Today'

One Place

Photo: Imapix on Flickr

I heart Paris.

One Disney Princess


Cinderella.

One Quote

"Cherish your vision. Cherish your ideals. Cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts. If you remain true to them, your world will at last be built."

-James Allen

In My Head

I don't know what my deal is this week. I've been seriously lacking the motivation to blog. The city is breathing on my shoulders. My mind is currently cluttered with a bajillion things that must be done over the next few weeks. All of which, by now I'm very familiar with but still produce a certain amount of anxiety up until the moment that I'm right in the thick of it again. I'm rushing with the hours of each day, trying to accomplish things that are mostly out of my control.

I'm almost three weeks into my complete ban of candy and chocolate. I'm not gonna lie, it's still hell on earth (especially this week since my hormones are making my willpower work overtime)...but I also still haven't cheated. It's quite miraculous really, especially considering it's mini egg season. And I'm stressed.


I've been fantasizing about braids, and daisies, little dresses, neon, sunnies and pedi exposing shoes. I love this time of year. Dusk, fireflies, tickling blades of grass, the smell of deep, true earth. Except that in a few days I'll be in Winnipeg, where it's currently -4 degrees and lightly snowing. I'm going back to Winter. I suppose I'll have to settle for coming home to Spring.

Très Très Chic

It’s telling when a magazine editor becomes a more precise barometer of fashion than the catwalk collections. Then again, she's not just any magazine editor. As Editor of French Vogue, Carine Roitfeld creates a magazine that is edgy and seductive. The same could be said for her personal style. Carine has immaculate taste, and she is beyond unconventional in her thinking. She's a skinny fiftysomething with smoky eyes and sharp heels. Her straight hair is parted in the middle and hangs in her face. She is influential almost without knowing it. By choosing influence over power, Carine has an effortless credibility. Her definition of fashion is clearly hedonistic, embracing fashion's immediacy but with a broad cultural vision that puts everything in perspective. She has always been fully committed to fashion and also gracious to all (which seems to be rare in her business).


CNN recently released a documentary capturing her influence and importance to the global fashion scene called "Carine Roitfeld Revealed." You can check it out here.

(Merci Mark)
Photos taken from various sources

Peas And Carrots

Happy St. Patrick's Day! No Guinness or green beer for me this year, but God knows that I've celebrated enough on St. Patty's days past to warrant taking a year off.

It's been all Hollywood and fashion and cryptic poems around here lately. I've been pretty busy stalking vampires, but maybe it's time to catch up a little.

I decided a little over a week ago that my diet needed a major overhaul. Sitting next to Alfred aka "The Candyman" at work for the last couple months had made it all too easy for me to completely abandon healthy eating in favour of serious afternoon sugar binges. His drawers are full of everything from sour keys and gummies to chocolate bars, mini eggs, Nibs, chips (and basically anything else junky that you can imagine.) He re-stocks weekly, so there's never any shortage of calories to go around. I didn't even realize how bad I was getting. It was hard to resist scarfing down treats on a stressful afternoon when I was close to crashing. However, my dependency on Reese products was starting to really get out of hand and something had to be done. I had to launch an intervention with myself. There's only one way to do it: cold turkey. I had to completely quit grazing in Alfred's drawers. Let me tell you, it hasn't been easy. He still tries to torment me by opening up packs of gummy coke bottles and wafting the scent of them towards my desk. He also hosts afternoon gatherings with my coworkers who all stand next to my desk shoveling candy into their mouths in front of my face. Whatever, I can take it. I haven't even cheated once.

The new rules are stuck on my fridge. It's simple. It's healthy. I'm wearing my hunger like a badge of honour. I'm serious. Vegetables are a good thing.


The best part? Wanting to eat healthy has pushed me to prepare my own meals. That's right! I've been COOKING! I know, I know...those that know me know how truly amazing that is. You see, up until very recently, I thought that the only thing I was capable of making in the kitchen was a mess. Turns out, I can make some pretty yummy dishes. Now, I'm having so much fun planning my little meals and coming home to cook them every night. Look at me, I'm becoming an adult. Tonight I whipped up a tasty pasta dish. No big deal.

People Move And People Grow…

...And sometimes people come back to each other better than when they left.
I've been there and I've done that
and I'm better and stronger and smarter and also more loving for it.
I worked so hard to try and hang on.
I said I love you 'til it sickened me.
If I had hung on any longer, I would have collapsed.
I would have shut doors that were wide open
and I would have stayed the same while the world grew past me…
I loved him.
He loved me.
I swore I could have loved him forever.
I told him that.
For always, I said. For always, I repeated.
It's still a memory-
and I remember every second
and it's not lost love-
it was perfect for what it was.

Put It In Your Heart Where Tomorrow Shines

If the freakin' snow would ever stop for good this year, maybe we could really start to get excited about spring fashion.

Diane von Furstenberg describes her Spring 2009 collection as "an homage to Diana Vreeland, who taught us we could be goddesses and rock stars." The vibrant colours, the fabric's light, airy flow and texture; each piece exudes a stunning youthful femininity. With a big dose of flower child, the dresses and separates in India-inspired hues and adornments are just gorgeous. The white cotton lace pieces are sweet, and floor-grazing floral gowns, demure. Prints are plentiful and gold sequins sparkle. DvF's take on silk pants, (which I'm seeing everywhere) is wearable and pretty. And perhaps my favourite part...those headpieces. I want to put one on and run around in a grassy field playing ring around the rosy.

Photos: Various Sources

Nip/Tuck

Photo: Source

In a moment of self loathing the other day, I found myself typing "cosmetic surgeons in Vancouver" into the search field of my Google homepage. A nose job would be nice, I thought. Maybe a little Juvederm? It seems like every time I turn around lately, somebody is divulging that they've had work done or that they're planning to have work done.

Beautifying one's image has always been a human tendency. Women over the centuries have used everything from powdered vermilion and ground up mother-of-pearl to black kohl and body paint to accentuate their various parts, always showing reverence to the idealized standard of beauty 'du jour.'

The worship of beauty, though, has reached its apex in our society today. Its temples are fashion runways, retail store posters, and glossy full colour magazine ads. They all feature airbrushed models with 'perfect' bodies, perky breasts and sex-inspired outfits, pushing a cruelly unreachable standard of beauty onto women everywhere.

Given our obsession with beauty and image, it is easy to understand the popularity of makeover stories. Long standard feature fodder in most women's and teen magazines, makeovers consistently feature a drab looking ordinary person in the "before"... followed by a glammed-up "after" shot of the same woman- or man- somehow so much more confident and "beautifully" appropriate to society's expectations.

Whereas in the past, makeover stories featured transformations facilitated by mere cosmetic enhancements; haircuts, changes in hair colour, makeup application, new clothing, or an exercise regime, today, the scope of makeover story possibilities has snowballed.

People are eager and willing to undergo every form of beauty enhancer that modern technology affords us: cosmetic surgery, breast implants, liposuction, dental re-work, eye-surgery, tummy tucks etc. etc. The list continues, and begs the question: what are the limits of human vanity and what lengths will people go to in order to be considered more beautiful in society's eyes? In truth, the lengths that I have considered going to, especially as I get older, kind of scare me. The fact that women will pay thousands of dollars to get the "perfect" pair of breasts, or that others are willing to inject something with a suffix meaning poison ("botox") into their natural bodies, puts our crazy world into a new harsh perspective. And yet, I find myself really struggling not to buy into it. I mean, who doesn't want to be pretty, right?

The impact of this continual objectification of beauty in our popular culture continues to grow, in subtle yet significant ways, and most of us don't even realize it. We have become so desensitized to the constant barrage of tempting images we receive each day that we learn to live with them- as if they were the constant stream of background city sounds. They mask our hunger for the intangible... for the peace that comes not out of looking thinner or more beautiful with higher cheekbones (or a perfect nose), but with the eternal peace that is synonymous with love and appreciation for who we truly are. For after all, isn't our power to feel good about ourselves the ultimate beauty? I sure hope so.

One Week In

Photo: NBC

Jimmy Fallon officially has his first week of taking over for Conan O'Brien as the host of NBC's Late Night under his belt. Jimmy is puppy-dog enthusiastic, totally cute, funny, and cool in an unassuming way. It’s an engaging blend that kept viewers laughing for six seasons on SNL, where he scored big with his impressions of Jerry Seinfeld, John Travolta and Justin Timberlake.

Despite the media's mixed reviews of his new gig, I have to say that I totally enjoyed watching him last week. Sure, he's still nervous and gets flustered at times, because it's all new to him, but I think that as he gets more comfortable in the role, he's going to just keep getting funnier. Jimmy's one of those great underrated performers. I find it kind of endearing the way that he laughs at his own jokes (perhaps because I've been known to do the same?) I get the sense that the guests can really be themselves with Jimmy, and he seems to be genuinely interested in hearing what they have to say. I predict that Jimmy will find his groove and be a huge success.

One of my favourite moments of the week was his dance-off against Cameron Diaz. It was like something I would do with my friends (well, to be honest, it's something I've done with my friends. For the record, I'm the champion). Check out the clip below.

Head Over Feet

Dolce & Gabbana presented their Fall/Winter 2009-2010 collection on Monday as part of Milan Fashion Week. If any show has made me wish that I had an extravagant event to attend so that I might wear one of its collection's dresses, it's this one.

Inspired by the Surrealists, Salvador Dali, Jean Cocteau and Man Ray, the collection is full of details from buttons to decorated headbands, ruffled stocking seams and scarves that look like gloves. I'm obsessed with all the black and white prints, and (obviously) I especially adore the pieces which feature Marilyn Monroe's beautiful and iconic face.


The winter silhouette is slim at the bottom and elaborate from the waist up. The shoulder is super-large, created by complicated twisting and turning of fabric. Flashes of shocking pink (a la Schiaparelli) liven up the main black and white color scheme. Showy jewelry, wedged velvet pumps and a sturdy granny bag complete the eccentric yet contemporary look.

Dolce and Gabbana defied all fashion nervousness with their opulent show this week, whose production values gave no quarter to the idea that cutbacks should be the order of the day. Times may be tough, but these are two men who are not about to give an inch on what they believe in.

Photos: Coutorture

You Can Never Hold Back Spring

Quiksilver opened a new concept store on Friday, February 20, in SoHo, NYC. The Quiksilver women’s line (which is taking up a lot of real estate in my closet these days) has taken over 800-square-feet of the existing Quiksilver SoHo store to create a “boutique-within-a-store” named QSW Mercer. It will stock the Quiksilver women’s Spring collection, including a full range of gorgeous, dreamy silk dresses and tops, knits, wovens, denim, essentials, organic-cotton tees and fab handbags co-designed by Lesa Wallace. The line's hot. I wish the weather here in Vancouver would warm up to match, so that I can start wearing more of my QSW Spring pieces.


The Soho space has a cozy boutique feel with a lounge area where champagne and water is served to customers as they shop, and a personal shopping assistant is on hand to advise on fits, styles and outfit ideas. CC Sheffield, a Quiksilver Woman, supplied eight images that she personally shot, which were blown up and are now on display in the store. The images are a collection of CC’s and represent the various “journeys” that a Quiksilver Woman might be going through.


Here's a little preview of the Spring collection. You can peep more images here and here.

Photos courtesy of Quiksilver

Black Holes

Photo: Source

Staying in my candle-lit apartment with a glass of wine both last night and the night before was just exquisite. I spent both Saturday and today being perfectly unproductive- sleeping in, drinking endless pots of tea, reading Vogue, sitting at the beach, walking around downtown, buying these, watching movie after movie under the warm covers of my bed, browsing blogs, listening to Kings Of Leon and making plans for my upcoming detox. Sometimes an escape into my own little world feels exactly right.

In the movie Meet Joe Black, a lot of really wonderful things are said.
"Lightning could strike."
I always go back to it. I always think, "levitate, rapture, passion."
All those things.

"To make the journey and not fall deeply in love - well, you haven't lived a life at all. You have to try. Because if you haven't tried, you haven't lived."

There may not be any deep love for me at the moment-
but things like this-
words like this and ideas like this-
they keep the belief there.