Light of My Life

February 14, 20157 Comments

Happy Valentine’s Day dear friends! Valentine’s Day is not one of my favourite holidays, but I am a blogger, and bloggers (for the most part) love to do holiday-inspired posts, however they choose to interpret them. So I felt I may as well pay homage to the holiday in my own way – no real fuss, just one of my favourite dresses that feels very appropriate for this love-filled day, what with it’s romantic length, red and frillyness.

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Love, in all it’s forms, is incredibly important to me. Love is what drives me, always. In the past, present and future I have always imagined my life full of intense love, something I now realize is one of my greatest weaknesses and strengths. This desire for love, in all aspects of my life, in it’s purest of purest form, is unattainable. When something is that important to you, it will undoubtedly let you down – the expectations are just too high. That kind of love, the one I am talking about, is fleeting. It exists momentarily in our lives, magnificent and bright, but it fades to dull, eventually. All this may sound sad, depressing even, but I don’t mean for it to be. Quite the opposite. To allow love, of any kind, to come to you is to be brave and open. To acknowledge the extent to which it can carry you, but also drop you, and to just say, “I don’t give a fuck. I’m giving it my all”, is one of my favourite qualities in a person. It means fear does not limit you. My expectations may be too high, it may be the reason for much sadness, but I’m glad that love is what drives me…good things have always come from love, not love masked as fear, but real, pure love.

All I’m really trying to say on this Hallmark holiday is to let love into your lives everyday…whether that be love for yourself (super important), your family, friends, partner, art, animals, objects, religion…whatever it may be, be in love with it every single day. You’ll quickly see how beautiful this complex world is in all it’s simplicity.Dress: vintage via Public Butter

*want to try this hairstyle?! you can find a tutorial here.

Beauty / Be My Valentine, Hair

February 10, 201516 Comments

❤ ❤ ❤

Since Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, I thought I’d share a fast and easy (I think this is a theme with my hair) Valentine’s-inspired hair tutorial. To be honest, this hair style could be worn on any occasion, but I think the sweet little red bow adds a nice Valentine’s Day touch. I’d first like to mention I used this technique to get my waves, and I do think it adds to this hairstyle quite nicely, so keep that in mind. And here we go!

❤ FIRST STEP: Backcomb around the crown of your head so we can create the illusion of voluminous hair. I have no real technique to this – I just backcomb until it starts to look puffy and extremely tangled, which makes me feel incredibly anxious…but the more insane it looks, the better, in my opinion. See. Insane.❤ SECOND STEP: To prevent our hairs from looking like we stuck our finger in an electrical socket, start brushing down the top layer of your hair, starting at the crown so it forms a sort-of sheet that blankets the backcombed hair – now no one can tell what nightmare you have created underneath. Next, just hairspray. Always an optional step, but it helps to hold things in place…as it should, because that’s it’s only job.❤ THIRD STEP: We are going to create a half up-half down look (sort-of). Take your desired amount of hair on each side and starting from the front, pull it to the back of your head and secure it with bobby pins, (I have quite thick hair so I needed about 4 bobby pins in total, however, you can add as many or as little as you would like, my sweets) we are doing this to add a messy, voluminous effect, so try not to pull your hair back too tightly, we don’t want it to look like it’s glued to your head. ❤ FOURTH STEP: Take your hair and pull it to your preferred side and tie your hair elastic around 1/4 – 1/2 way down your hair, so we have a nice loose side ponytail thing happening. Hair elastics aren’t always the most aesthetically pleasing, so we are going finish it off by tying a bow around the elastic. Like I had mentioned before, this hairstyle could be worn at any time and doesn’t necessarily need a bow, but since this is Valentine’s Day I think a red or pink bow would add the perfect lovely touch to our do.And we are done! Super simple and yet, adorable. Now whether you are going out with your partner, hanging with your friends, or being your own valentine, you will be the belle of the ball

❤ ❤ ❤

Snow Day

February 9, 2015February 9, 201518 Comments

Lately It’s been cold…real cold, and snowy, which is fairly normal when you live in Toronto, but that doesn’t mean I’ve ever fully gotten used to it or have any desire to spend time embracing it. On the weekend I was supposed to be styling a shoot with Gerald in Brantford, but the morning of the roads were just too dangerous to drive on. I had to admit defeat and accept that styling a shoot was just not worth the possibility of a car accident (I’ve been in several car accidents, which is probably why I have never learned to drive myself…ya, I’m 26 and I can’t drive). I spent the majority of the weekend in doors watching Netflix, eating tasty things and cuddling the dogs. However, Ryan and I did venture out Sunday afternoon to shoot these photos. While the winter may be cold, and I don’t much care for snow, it does make for really pretty pictures, and I thought my new dress would look perfect against an almost all white background. I don’t own many shapeless, drop-waist dresses like this. My person is quite small, so I find really boxy silhouettes to be a bit too much for me – I just sort of drown in them. But I love this dress. It’s so comfortable and it’s the perfect item to wear if you just want to lounge around. I liken it to a nightgown of sorts, which obviously pleases me. And this coat, oh this coat! I love this coat! It’s hard to tell, but the tartan on it is in mustard, white and blush pink, and the inner lining is a beautiful blush satin. It’s a bit oversized for me and thus looks strange buttoned up, but I had to have it just based on the colour scheme. So here we are, stepping out of my comfort zone and embracing the shapeless life.

How do you guys feel about shapeless, oversized clothing? Yay or nay?

*photos by Ryan
Dress c/o Larmoni
Coat: vintage via Common Sort
Hat & mitts: H&M
Boots: Samantha Pleet x Wolverine
Bow tie: handmade

Beauty / Heatless Waves

February 6, 20157 Comments

Continuing on with showing you guys my go-to hairstyles, these heatless waves are my most go-to hairstyle as it’s probably one of the easiest things you can do to make your straight hairs a little more interesting. This hairstyle may seem like a sort of “duh” hairstyle, but I honestly would have never thought of it if it wasn’t for my best friend (hi Kristen!) who used to braid her hair and leave it in over-night or for extended periods of time only to take the braid out and have these amazing waves (her hair is seriously the best). At the time I had quite short hair and was unable to braid it, so I made note for my future long hairs that this would be how I would get excellent waves with the littlest amount of effort (at the time I had been using a hair straightener to create waves), and now if I’m not ragging my hair at night, it’s in a braid. So here we go! Quick, easy, simple, but effective.FIRST STEP: Braid your hair…yes, that’s it. I like to do a side braid, but only because I have a real, real hard time doing a braid down the back of my head…but if you’re a magical human who can braid your hair from any angle, well go to town my dear friend. You are far more talented than I.Make use of said braid by doing stupid things with it.SECOND STEP: As with my previous tutorial, I sleep with my braid in at night so that when I wake up my hair is very nearly ready to go – probably the simplest of all steps, unless you have a hard time sleeping at night, but even so, that makes no difference to your beautiful hairs.THIRD STEP: In the morning I will sometimes hairspray the braid to ensure my waves stay wavy throughout the day, and like I do with my rags, I will use my blow dryer on my hair briefly, which also helps maintain your wavy babies – make sure to let your hair cool after you use the blow dryer.FOURTH STEP: Once I’ve taken my braid out and given my hair a wee brush, I often backcomb my hair so I have a bit more volume – my hair is quite thick and thus heavy, and so it can sort of just floop on my head like a giant shapeless mop.Ta-da! Easy peasy! I will note my waves could have been a bit better – if you don’t wash your hair for a few days and braid your hair every night, your waves, obviously, will be even more prominent.

Let me know if you guys are enjoying these tutorials. I’m thinking of including my daily makeup routine and other makeup/hair fun. Do you prefer written/picture tutorials like this, or are you more likely to watch a youtube video?

Give me your eyes, I need sunshine

February 2, 20159 Comments

For a little while I felt like I had lost myself with taking my outfit photos, specifically when it came to taking outdoor shots. It started to become an okay let’s just get this done situation (probably because it’s been so cold), and I really started to feel like the quality of my images had suffered, and ultimately, didn’t feel like me. For one reason or another – and I think I have said this before – the actual feeling and artistry of the images I share is just as important to me as showcasing the outfit, maybe even more so. I mean, I’m not saying I’m making waves in the blogging world or even producing the best possible photographs (I’m still a newbie) or doing something that different or new, but it’s incredibly important to me to stay true to who I am. I’ll probably never be one of those bloggers that enjoys taking my outfit photos in front of a solid backdrop, which is strange, because some of my favorite bloggers do just that and I love it. I think it all comes down to my personality type, I have a hard time letting anything just be simple. Everything I do, in all aspects of my life, needs to feel important, and full of passion and creativity, and I am almost never satisfied (and clearly I am incredibly dramatic. get over yourself Alex!). I guess it goes without saying (but I will say it) that my brain (and my life, to be honest) has been in a tumultuous state of sorts lately. But taking these photographs and being able to share them with you feels incredibly therapeutic because these images feel the most like me out of any photographs I have taken in a long while. They remind me that even if my world feels like it’s falling apart, I can create something beautiful all by myself that makes me feel good, and it’s as simple as that.