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{ celebrating my uncles retirement last week }

I haven't been this ready for a weekend in a long time. It was a busy and stressful week at work and to top it off I've managed to get sick. I'm not sick very often so I always forget how draining it is.

In between packing and attempting to exercise, I plan on relaxing and making a permanent indent in the couch :)

Have a lovely weekend. xx 

{ pretty white flowers for our kitchen }

{ the sweetest summery salt & pepper shakers }

{ completely addicted to the fun of snapchat filters }

travel squad

{ California }

NY Mag's article, Escape Your Scene, Not Your Squad has me inspired to get planning a vacation with friends. When we were younger I remember going on annual ski trips with neighborhood friends and I've continued traveling with friends in my 20's for cottage weekends or music festivals and I can happily say it's always worked out pretty well. I'm usually somewhat sleep deprived returning home, but otherwise I've never really had a horrible experience.

While I love one-on-one vacations with D (and would certainly not forfeit them for only group vacations), I can definitely appreciate the appeal of vacationing with friends. The logic is hard to compete with - it's simply an economy of scale, the more people splitting in on the vacation home, the cheaper it gets. If you plan ahead, you can scour the internet for flight deals and even research cheaper costs of flying out of alternate airports. 

Picking a group you travel well with might take a bit of trial and error, but if the destination and surroundings is great enough, I'm sure nothing would be worthy of ending a friendship over. I would consider activity levels, budget and alcohol consumption as important when choosing who to travel with and the article makes some other terrific suggestions that should not be overlooked. 

Check out NY Mag's 18 jaw-dropping group vacation pads here. Compared to some swanky hotel rates, most of the price per person rates are shocking!

{ Netherlands }

{ Brazil }

{ Costa Rica }

{ Sicily }

{ Sweden }

{ Italy }

I'd love to know, do you or have you traveled with friends? Would you be interested in planning a trip with a group of friends?

house crush

I love the classic, laid-back vibe of this L.A. home. Between the serene bedroom and amazing backyard, it would be an easy place to de-stress. 

happy weekend

{ the best body scrub }

What do you have planned this weekend? We're going to a friends house tonight to chill out and play cards. I have a fitness class booked with my favorite (and most intense) instructor and with our race date approaching D and I are going to attempt a 10km run.. wish us luck! I've started laying out clothes for Vegas and might get a jump on packing, the countdown is on! Have a great weekend. xx

+ + + + + 

I've bookmarked these museum restaurants for our New York weekend.

The 15 best finds from the 2015 OOAKS + my personal favourite buy from the show

The Black Swan NYC apartment is for sale

A very cool house in Cabbagetown

A beautiful turtleneck on sale

A personal fitness goal

10 Jewelry Designers to follow on Instragram

My fun new bathing suit

{ thursday night treats }

{ a family skype date }

( it's so cute how excited and confused the dog gets during video chats )

{ tropical palms in our bathroom }

end of the summer in nyc

{ drinks under twinkly lights at the hudson hotel }

We have some amazing travels coming up and I'm so excited that we'll be wrapping the summer up in New York City. My cousin is hosting her wedding reception on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, and D and I booked flights to go down and celebrate with them this week. Our friend Corey is kind enough to host us and my mind is already running wild with ideas of what to see and do. Regardless of how many times I've been to NYC, there's always 100 new things I want to do on each trip back. Here are a few of the things I'd love to do during our September visit....

Try the meatballs at Frankies

Take a ride on Jane's Carousel

Bike ride across the Brooklyn Bridge

Have a drink at The Standard

Go for a run in Central Park

Wander around the Whitney Museum

I'd love to hear any recommendations for things to do, drink, eat, etc when in New York City!

13 questions

{ Julia Rothman for NY Times }

This article popped up on my social media feeds a few times over the past week - 13 Questions to Ask Before Getting Married. At first I was nervous to read it, wondering if I would pass the made up test created by some stranger online. Turns out there was nothing to be nervous about, I loved going through each question, answering to myself and smiling realizing that there's not a whole lot unanswered between D and I after almost 11 years!

a closet staple

{ the Bateau top by Hatch, $158 }

How sweet is this striped top. I love how effortlessly stylish it is. Its truly a classic piece that would never go out of style. It instantly refreshes slouchy khakis and would add a certain 'cool' factor when paired with jeans. 

berry pavlova

We hosted friends for dinner Saturday and I knew I wanted to try a new dessert.  We have some pretty great go-to's when we need to buy desserts but there's nothing quite like having something home made to impress your guests.The extra time from Friday's holiday was just the motivation I needed. I've had this recipe peeking out of my recipe book for a while, and I thought it would be perfectly fresh and light for the start of spring.  I made the meringue the night before and kept it in the fridge overnight, which simplified my to-do's for the day of. The cream was rich and fluffy, and the marscapone and berry reduction heightened the flavors profiles. There was four of us, and we had to use every inch of will power to restrain ourselves from eating the entire pavlova. I worked off this recipe, referencing a second version for comparison. (Also, if you have gluten free friends to accommodate, they can eat this) I have zero doubts that this summer is going to be filled with a lot of pavlovas!

monday morning

{ maple fritter + strawberry rhubarb crumble }

Good Morning. Hope you enjoyed a lovely spring weekend! We didn't get up to a whole lot but I loved just catching up with D after him being away on business last week. It's funny, we were only apart for two nights, but it felt like we had so much to catch up on. 

Mother Nature certainly showed off on Easter Sunday, it was such a beautiful day, hoping everyone managed to spend some time outside! Happy Monday, have a great week. xx 

{ the easter bunny brought hydrangea this year ;) }

{ the sweetest flower shop in park dale }

a rhubarb cocktail

You know those restaurants that always have out-of-this-world cocktails? Hopgoods Foodliner is one of those restaurants and there was zero disappointment after recently trying their rhubarb gimlet. It was seasonal and I was completely obsessed with the tart, floral flavor of the rhubarb. When I came across these rhubarb bitters later this week, I only hoped I might be able to re-create the delicious flavor. When we had friends for pre-brunch drinks last weekend, I combined sparkling wine, muddled strawberries and rhubarb bitters for a subtle yet delicious spin on the typical mimosa. I will continue to try and recreate the gimlet, and wouldn't mind trying this R&R Cocktail too! Dillon's also makes an array of other bitters, if you're looking to up your bar-cart game.