I Wanna Be Famous for Falling In Love

Cue song… I can’t believe I missed seeing Cass McCombs in Toronto when I was away…

It’s felt like summer since I’ve been back from St. Lucia with lots of social events, merriment, debauchery and basically a whole lotta love. Which is fitting since Hallmark just told us that it was Valentine’s Day!

Last Wednesday I was Reggy’s date for the Dr. Marten’s #firstandforever launch party.

It was super squishy, but it was awesome to see some great prints by some very cool bloggers, check out the spring line and dance the night away with my hot date.

In the spirit of love and V Day…

we headed to Love a Heart on Thursday where Reggy and Christine among others were being auctioned off in the name of charity!

I had a blast being a total instigator all night. While I did a lot of bidding, I didn’t actually end up winning a date, but I did manage to help get Reggy to sell for $275, Christine for $300 and this fine man for over $1000. The evening raised more than $11,000 for the Heart & Stroke Foundation, which is pretty amazing.

Congratulations to Miss Shannon for putting together a successful evening. If you missed the event, you missed some pretty great moments, like this one…

Oh dear.

It was great to have quality time with two of my favourite ladies and causing trouble as “Charlie’s Angels”. I’m so thankful for the social media sphere as without it, I likely would have never met these two incredible women along with many of the other awesome folks I hung out with all night. Huge win.

On Sunday I got to sing at a super special event at the Cadillac Lounge. My dear friend Megan (who wrote the musical Breadwinner that I was in a couple years ago) was turning 40, and to celebrate she put on an incredible show and invited some special guests to come perform along with her. Including me!

Wowzers that lady can sing. I had a blast singing a great Ryan Scott Oliver tune called To Do, with the ridiculously talented Ben Foran on guitar. It was such a pleasure to share the stage with some amazingly talented folks and to be a part of Megan’s special day. Happy birthday lovely!!

Finally, I hit up Tweetgasm at the Gladstone on Monday, which was an official Toronto Social Media Week event, where I was interviewed by the stunning Cynthia Loyst from InnerSPACE about flirting in social media and other fun stuff. We also played dirty bingo and laughed a lot. Amazeballs.

And finally Tuesday I hung out with two of my favourite ladies (Dani & Lisa – have you read about her amazing trip!?) for a little lovefest at Fresh. It was so great to connect with such wonderful women and share our love on V Day!

So much awesome. So much love.

10 Things I learned Whilst Nourishing My Soul In St. Lucia

1. Everything will be just fine

I was so anxious the day before I left for St. Lucia. I woke up around 4:30am, and wasn’t able to get back to sleep and actually found myself crying. I wasn’t worried about the trip, but I was freaking out about all the travel leading up to my arrival in St. Lucia (thanks to my friends at Expedia and Delta, my flight went Toronto – Minneapolis – Atlanta, spent the night in Atlanta before flying to St. Lucia) I led two WW meetings in the morning before having a driver pick me up to take me to the airport. Little did he know, but that man calmed me down. We talked about everything but my trip really, and I arrived at Pearson feeling happy, calmer and excited. I was on my way to St. Lucia, how bad could things really be?

2. It’s a good thing to shut down

There was a big part of me that wasn’t sure how well I was going to deal with being without being connected to my world, but it was truly amazing. No iPhone. No Twitter. No Facebook. No email. Nada. It was incredibly freeing to be without my phone, only using it to blast tunes while I was in the shower in the mornings and to do a little bit of texting towards the end of the week when I was really missing my friends. I loved living in the moment and enjoying every single second that I was in St. Lucia.

3. It doesn’t matter what anyone says, SPF 60 is my friend

I am a pale gal. I did not want to burn on day one in St. Lucia and spend the trip grimacing in pain as my skin turned a lobster shade. I accomplished this goal with the help of some SPF 60 and an amazing roomie who supported me in its application. Win. Don’t bother laughing at my non-tan, because I’m happy about it.

4. Meghan Telpner is one of my heroes

It’s no secret that I’m a huge Meghan fan. I found Meghan’s blog very soon after being diagnosed with Crohn’s, enrolled in her cooking classes and she soon became a huge inspiration in my life. She was the person that I needed to meet and St. Lucia in 2012 was absolutely meant to be. I’m so thankful for her friendship, inspiration, guidance, encouragement and love, not to mention all the giggles that we share. The trip and Meghan’s talks just reinforced for me how far I’ve come from the time that I was really sick. I am that I’ve taken this journey to health over the last 4 years and that I’ve been able to lean on Meghan along the way.

5. Just breathe

Even when there’s a cockroach on your toothbrush. Seriously.

6. In with love, out with fear

I heard this in a yoga class once and the sentiment has stuck with me and it’s something I often meditate on. It’s incredibly freeing to rid yourself of fear and let love in. I reminded myself of this each morning during meditation and it had a profound impact on my mental state.

7. The only constant is change

I knew that St. Lucia was going to change my perspective on things, but I didn’t anticipate exactly where those changes were going to come into play. After some thinking, dreaming, soul searching and pep talks, I walked out of St. Lucia feeling inspired and armed to make some changes in my life. Not crazy “I’m-quitting-my-job-ending-all-relationships-cutting-people-off-total-180” kinda changes, but ones that make a lot of sense for where I’m at in my life right now. I feel grounded, calm and happy to put these changes into effect as the weeks and months go on. Stay tuned.

8. I have a pretty sweet life

While I’m ready to be making some changes in certain areas of my life (and in some areas have already started to make some shifts), I feel like I’m just doing some fine tuning. I’m in love with the life that I’m living and the people that I’ve chosen to surround myself with. St. Lucia solidified for me how awesome life really is and I came back feeling energized to continue enjoying every single moment. I was also so thankful to be in a place where I could leave my normal day-to-day and enjoy an incredible 8 days of sunshine, beauty, delicious food, new adventures and wonderful people.

9. Make it happen

On our final day at Balanbouche, Meghan did a workshop on making it happen. She guided us through a meditation that asked us to find our ideal day in our ideal life, and through a series of exercises, we determined steps to push past our barriers and harness our greatest and absolute potential. It’s great to have ideas, hopes and dreams, but it really comes down to making them happen and this trip inspired me to keep reaching and working hard to get to exactly where I want to be.

10. Twinkle, sparkle and shine

February is generally a very hard month for me. As I’ve already said, I came home from St. Lucia happy, calm, grounded, excited and loving life. People said I was glowing. While I usually pride myself on having a happy, positive demeanour, it felt so good to be coming back from my trip and starting the month in such a great place. I feel like the best possible me when I’m sparkly.

This is One Sparkly Soul

I’m back from St. Lucia feeling happier, lighter, calmer, sparkly, inspired and nourished. I can’t wait to share all of my adventures, learnings and excitement with you. I’m still going through the hundreds of photos I took, and jotting down lots of ideas on how to share everything here on the blog. Between the yoga, meditation, beaches, sights, people, inspiration, education and incredible food, it’s a lot to cover.

One of my roommates told me today that I was glowing, and I think it’s because I’m full of sunshine, love, happiness, joy and a whole lot of mangoes, coconut and green stuff. It was life changing and I am so thankful for the experience…

Sorry I can't come to the phone right now, I'm busy nourishing my soul

I write this from the airport on Saturday afternoon as I'm preparing to board a flight and leave all the snow and cold behind! I'm so excited to be off to St Lucia with Meghan Telpner on her 4th annual Nourish Your Soul retreat! I can't wait to tell you all about it when I'm back. Until then, I'll think of you all when I'm basking in glorious sunshine in the beach

The Random Fact Game

My sweet friend Ali over at Not Hip Enough to Blog tagged me in this fun this little game and it’s been awhile since I’ve done anything like this so I thought I would play along!

Eleven Random Facts About Moi

1. An experience with a giant albino catfish that lived in our home aquarium when I was 6 years old made me really afraid of fish. Yes, fish. I nearly conquered my fear but then had another really horrible experience when I was in my early 20’s involving the death of an eel. Aquariums and fresh water lakes freak me out big time.

2. I live with 3 dudes. This surprises a lot of people, but with the exception of a few months last year when Nicole lived with us, I hadn’t lived with females since I was 13. We have a great dynamic in our house and I’m really lucky to live with such cool, intelligent, eclectic people.

3. I wish I had kept up with art. I always enjoyed drawing and crafts and being creative when I was a lot younger, but gave up art class for drama and music instead. One of my goals this year is to get back into that my doing more crafts and I’m planning to start an art journal.

4. I read the book Before I Go To Sleep in about 48 hours over Christmas. It was chilling and addictive. Go read it.

5. Before I moved out on my own, I didn’t know how to cook. It’s funny that cooking and baking has become such a big part of my routine. I started off simple and moved on to more complicated things, but I definitely learned. I’m still don’t have awesome knife skills, and I’m definitely more comfortable when I’m using a recipe, but I think I’ve come a long way.

6. I rarely ever wear pants. Usually only at the gym or lazing around the house, and I wear jeans maybe once every couple months. I’m always in a dress or a skirt.

7. Last year I discovered that I was 5’7. I thought I was 5’6 for much of my life, but at my physical last year my doctor told me I was 5’7. I’ll take it.

8. At the end of February I’m going for a colpopscopy after 2 abnormal pap smears in 6 months. I would be lying if I told you I wasn’t freaking out a little bit and have cried more than once over it. After talking with quite a few friends, I’ve realized that it’s rather common (why the f do they call them “abnormal” then?!) but it’s still not fun to have to wait to see a specialist and have an invasive medical procedure done. Think good thoughts for me. I’m planning a blog post about this ‘abnormal’ business.

9. For a long time, I thought twitter was really stupid. Then I got it. And fell in love. And haven’t looked back.

10. My favourite Spice Girl was Ginger Spice. In the eighth grade my nickname was even Ginger or Geri (it also helped that I had red hair and ‘developed’ early) I was disappointed when Geri left the band, but followed her career after her departure. I definitely own more than one of her cd’s, both of her books, her yoga DVD’s and have multiple autographed photos. One of my favourite concerts ever was the (reunited) Spice Girls at the Skydome a few years ago. I danced and sang along to every song, squealed a lot and maybe shed a tear or three. My not-so inner teeny bopper was thrilled.

11. I feel things really intensely. It’s a blessing and a curse.

Ali’s questions for me

1. What is your middle name?
Jacqueline. After my dad’s only sister.

2. What is the best movie you've ever seen?
I love Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I love love and the relationship between Joel and Clementine is so crazy, beautiful, tragic and real. I’m lucky if I don’t start crying at the beginning of the movie, but I’m getting better since I’ve seen it many times now. “I loved you on this day. I love this memory.” I’ve experienced love a few times in my life, and even when it ended badly, I don’t think I would want to go back and erase it all.

3. If you could see any band/artist in concert, who would you choose?
I recently scored tickets to Snow Patrol right after my birthday, which makes me really happy.

I would love to see Bernadette Peters in concert. I think that would be unbelievable.

4. Dog or cat?
We never had dogs growing up and while I do love them now, I’m definitely a cat lady.

5. If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
That’s such a big question… I think I would want everyone to be more tolerant of one another. Get rid of the bullying, racism, negative stigmas and general judgement. We’d all be a lot happier and the world would be a better place as a result.

6. What do you do to recharge?
It depends. Sometimes recharging means spending time with one or some of my best girlfriends for giggles and dancing and good stories. Other times I prefer to recharge on my own snuggled up with a good book and cup of tea. It depends on how I’m feeling and what it feels like I need.

7. What would an ideal weekend look like for you?
An ideal weekend for me would include time at my Weight Watchers meetings on Saturday morning, followed by a nap in the afternoon and probably some tea. I would then do some shopping at Damzels and Tabula Rasa and some of my other favourite stores in the east end. I would spend time getting ready whilst eating sushi and putting on a dress to head out with my girlfriends for a night of martinis and dancing with probably some live music. I’d have time to sleep in on Sunday morning, maybe snuggle with a cute boy before heading out for a late brunch and enjoy a day walking and talking in the sunshine. Good friends. Good food. Cute boy. Dresses. Sunshine. Win.

8. What is one thing you wish you could blog about but you feel like you can't/shouldn't?
I hesitate to swear on my blog. In everyday conversation I tend to swear a lot more. I keep it pretty PG-13 on the bloggy.

9. How many hours a week do you spend watching tv?
0. I don’t have a tv.

10. If you could do anything with your life to make money, what would you choose?
It sounds really contrived, but just something that made me happy and allowed me to help others in some way. I aspire to keep things simple and keep smiling.

11. What is your favourite smell?
I’m really digging this Vanilla Coconut fragrance by Lavanila I found at Sephora a couple weeks ago. I had been using a coconut body spray for a long time, but this stuff is even better. I also really love the smell of men’s cologne.

I’m totally going to break the rules and not tag anyone… but if you’d like to go ahead and answer Ali’s questions, you’re more than welcome to!

Did you learn something new? Any random facts I should know about you?

nothing happens and nothing happens and then everything happens

I kinda wish I could go back and tell the gal in the top photo (who at the time was really unhappy, stressed, not really healthy and pretty good at keeping all of that under wraps) that everything would work out just fine.

Keep Calm and Sparkle

Happy New Year!

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity and so far January is whipping right along. I hope everyone had a lovely holiday season. As I mentioned in my last post of 2011, I was ready for the year to be over and the was solidified for me in the last chunk of my “vacation”. I did do some really fun things in December though, like hit up the symphony for the Messiah, sing some carols with my dear friend Lindsay, had some gal pals over for dins and made my first ever gluten free vegan donuts.

The donuts were a pretty big success, and I’m excited to make them again. They were another awesome Babycakes recipe!

New Year’s Eve was a blast. I led 3 Weight Watchers meetings in the morning, decked out in a sparkly dress, sparkly nails and tiara

I had a lot of fun recapping 2011 with my members and looking ahead to the year to come. January brings some pretty kick ass energy to Weight Watchers meetings and I’m excited for everyone’s continued success! I enjoyed a great dinner, some Pure2Raw apple pie parfaits for dessert and a really fun party with bubbly and a kiss at midnight.

So far 2012 has been super busy! I’m going to post a food recap later in the week including some yummy restaurant eats and some recipes I’ve made at home, including the delicious dins I enjoyed with my sweet friend Reggy on Saturday night

Some good things coming up on the bloggy – food and fashion! I’m excited about both. Also excited that in less than two weeks, I’ll be nourishing my soul in St. Lucia. Another good thing? My appearance in Hello! Canada this week talking about Weight Watchers.

So far 2012 is pretty okay.

for good

I’m really excited to be heading into 2012.

It’s been quite a journey over the last two years, and for the first time since 2009, I feel like I’m starting off a new year standing on solid ground.

Now don’t get me wrong, there have been a lot of good things in 2010 and 2011, but I really feel like they’ve been two really big years of transition. I really started to realize this after a number of conversations in the last couple of weeks coupled with looking at a whole bunch of old pictures (thanks Facebook Timeline)

The pictures from the end of 2009 make me especially sad. I looked sick. And truth be told, I had stopped eating, so this fact isn’t surprising. I was so stressed and sad and lost and heading into a crazy, new life without the partner that I had spent the last 3.5 years growing alongside. Our break up was absolutely the right thing for both of us, but it hurt immensely and meant that 2010 was an even bigger year of change that I had originally anticipated when I quit my job and decided that I was going to go back to school. While I enjoyed many parts of 2010, I also spent a lot of time figuring out who I was, what I wanted and how I wanted to be spending my time.

2011 brought lots of good things, but was really up and down in a lot of ways. I went back to work full time in March, which made me feel like a big fat failure. Isn’t that what I was fighting against? Slowly I began to realize that I had made the right decision and that working full time as an executive assistant was a pretty okay thing, and that it gave me time to do all the things that I loved. I also realized that I didn’t want to be a nutritionist, and that this fact was perfectly fine. I loved nutrition school, but it wasn’t what I wanted to do as a career. Working 9-5 also meant that I was free to perform, and in the last 2 years I’ve had some amazing opportunities to be onstage with some incredibly talented people in musicals, concerts, and cabarets, including 3 Ashleyx2 shows.

Ash bought me Kristen Chenoweth’s book (gosh, I adore Kristen. I think we’d be such good friends. And how wonderful is Ash for getting me such a perfect gift?!) for Christmas, and I couldn’t stop thinking about this song while I finished reading the book on the train home from Belleville.

“Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better, but because I knew you, I have been changed for good”.

The people I’ve met, the experiences I’ve had, the friends I’ve counted on, the places I’ve been, the tears I’ve shed, the mistakes I’ve made, the victories I’ve had – all of these experiences over the last 2 years have absolutely changed me to be the person I am at this very moment.

Who knows what the future brings, but I’m ready for it.

2012, here I come.

This is my Winter Song to You

The last few weeks have been crazy and awesome and hectic and hilarious. I can hardly believe that it’s December!! This week marked the beginning of what I like to call the Holi-month and I had a blast with a lot of wonderful people at some great events.

On Tuesday I went to Hip and Urban Girl’s Champagne and Cookie Party with my sweet friends Reggy and Christine.

I promise, that if you put 200 women in a room with cookies and booze, there will be madness! There weren’t a ton of gluten free and vegan options aside from the BabyCakes snickerdoodles that I brought

and the delicious cookies that Reggy made (there was almond butter and cranberries involved, they were pretty fantastic) I think my favourite moment in the evening was a toss up between coming upon Christine with a platter of a dozen cookies in front of her, each of which had a single bite taken out of it

or the discussion Reggy and I had with the rep from Ohhh Canada about Tenga eggs making wicked stocking stuffers. Both moments were pretty amazing. Thanks to my Charlie’s Angels for a super fun evening and to Val for hooking me up with the tickets!

On Friday night I headed to the Cameron House with a some of my favourite friends for Graydon James & the Young Novelists’ cd release party.

The show was fantastic. They have some incredible harmonies, heartbreaking lyrics and the whole band is wickedly talented. The crowd at the lovely Cameron House had a stellar energy, which was enhanced for me by the fact that I had one of my besties on either side of me. And did I mention that there were cupcakes and tea goodie bags?? They are a fantastic band to see live and it was a pretty magical evening. Go. Buy. The. Album.

Finally Saturday I had my own chance to be on stage spreading some festive cheer in another Singing Strong cabaret in support of Buddies in Bad Times theatre.

I had a blast singing with some amazing singers (including my dear friend Lindsay), fabulous musicians (including Tara on keys) surrounded by a really fun audience and some great repertoire. There was an eclectic mix of tunes including some musical theatre, pop and jazz along with some holiday favourites that I got to sing lead on including Baby It’s Cold Outside (which is actually a creepy song…) and Baby Please Come Home.

Linz and I also sang Wintersong, which is just such a  beautiful song. It’s an amazing thing to be able to take our friendship to the next level by singing in harmony with one another! I also got to sing Christmas Lullaby from Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for World (which is one of my dream roles) And of course the evening was made even better by the fact that there were some really awesome people in the audience to see me AND I was wearing a Damzels dress, which is always a good recipe for a perfect show. It was a brilliant evening and a great way to kick off the holiday season!

My holi-month continues with a party tonight, at least 3 pot lucks in the coming weeks, some more singing engagements and an evening at the symphony for Handel’s Messiah next week!

Do you have any fun plans for the Holi-month? What’s your favourite holiday tune?

PS – did you know I was nominated for a 2011 BroadwayWorld Toronto award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical? If you have a minute, please vote!!

Saying Goodbye to My Tea Club Gals

When I made the decision to go back to the office world in February, I had no idea that I would:

a) be changing jobs less than a year later
b) have made such an incredible group of friends along the way

It seems that November is a favourite time for change for me and with everything that’s changing, I’m really excited for what’s down the road. The corporate world is a funny place and I’m incredibly thankful for the opportunity that fell into my lap, to return to a company where I spent close to 5 years. No, it’s not nutrition school, nor is it a full time performing gig, but it allows me to do everything that I love and gives me some pretty awesome perks.

When I started at this office 9 months ago, I was immediately welcomed by an amazing group of people who I sat with. We weren’t really in the same department, but our affinity for tea brought me closer to their little circle.

And boy, have we drank a lot of tea.

Oh yes, the tea. After NourishTea sent us their line, we made a really great connection with Dan at Herbal Infusions. Dan let me come in and pick out a wide variety of teas for us to try and we had a lot of fun sampling everything over the next few months. We’ve since gone back into his shop many times and there are certain favourites that have definitely immerged.

Amanda swears Lapacho Orange Vanilla and is convinced that due to its antibacterial properties, it has boosted her immunity. In cleaning out my emails at my job I found some pretty hilarious descriptions of other teas “This tea is like a minty fairy. But fairies can be evil when they sit still too long” – of the mysterious minty tea in a pouch, “It smells like…poached pears. And cinnamon. And HAPPINESS.” of the Snow Love and “Drinking this tea is like kissing a boy who uses anise-flavoured toothpaste. Trust me, I would know” of the coolmint licorice.

Kayla loved the Vanilla Bean Chai (and was excited to find that the tea fairy had left some on her desk last week) and Caileigh loved the fruitier teas and rooibos’ like the goji / pear / melon and green rooibos punch. Alessandra and I have stopped by the shop together more than once and Dan has been awesometown in accommodating us.

If you’re in the Spadina/Queen area, be sure to check out Herbal Infusions and go talk to Dan about tea. His blends are awesome and the shop has a wonderful vibe. If you’re lucky, there will be more events like the tea cocktail workshop which will help take your tea to a whole new level!

Tea time gave us time away from our desks to vent, giggle, yell, laugh, tell silly stories and generally bond. I’m so thankful for this time together and the friendships that I’ve made. These girls have helped me get through a lot this year and it made our work environment that much more fun. I’m going to miss our walks to David’s in the PATH, the weekly tea smell fests whenever any of us bought anything new and our daily tea times in the kitchen. I know that we’ll remain friends and have tea time outside of our cubicles, but it just won’t be the same.

And I have a feeling that my new coworkers are going to think I’m a freak when I show up with half a tea store of my own. But who knows, maybe I’ll turn them on to something new!

Cheers to new beginnings and wonderful friendships. I’m gonna miss you gals xo