ice n' cake

Two days after visiting Shops at Don Mills, we found ourselves back again with a craving for gelato. On our previous trip there we had spotted this place but were three hours early for the grand opening. Unfortunately, we didn't stick around that long for it so we promised ourselves we'd return again. The place is brand spankin' new, with a lovely layout and design. Besides gelato they have some pastries and cakes. One tiny cup of nocciola (hazelnut) was more than enough to fill me up. If you're in the area and looking for something sweet to cool you down, I definitely reccomend this spot.

Later we wandered into Roots, where I found some nifty knick knacks as well as lovely leather bags I could not afford. Besides Moleskine and Patone, Field Notes is up there with my top few notebooks. They all have a great, simple design to them that I love. I didn't know where to find them prior to this but Roots seems to have them! In the above photo you'll also see a glass bottle. I actually want to pick a few up next time I'm there. They seem great as a substitute water pitcher for perhaps parties and they look nice too.

Everything found at Shops at Don Mills.

changes

Cue David Bowie, I've changed my blog. It's been almost a year with this blog and I've got around to not only customizing the layout a bit but the name as well. I've had ideas bouncing around in my head for a while but only now have I had the time to act on some of these things. Like for instance, this morning I whipped up an 'About' page, which you can access on the right sidebar under 'Home'. There you will find a little bit about me and also an explanation of the blog itself. I suppose you are wondering about the change in my blog name so I'll go ahead and borrow a little something I wrote on the 'About' page:

and

–conjunction

1.
(used to connect grammatically coordinate words,
phrases, or clauses) along or together with; as well as; in addition to;
besides; also; moreover: pens and pencils.
2.
added to; plus: 2 and 2 are 4.
3.
then: He read for an hour and went to bed.

The word "and" is a conjunction, a connecting word. It implies an
addition or a continuation. The reason I chose my blog to be named "and" or
simply "&" is to indicate that there will be more. There will always be more
adventures, more stories — more to write about. I see this blog as an on-going
thing and I don't intend to stop blogging any time soon. Maybe an occasional
break or lull, but there will always be an 'and'.

I'm sure you can already see the changes but for good measure, here's the new layout.

Also, I'm sure no one understands my silly references but if you care to know what I was talking about, this is "Changes" by David Bowie.

visiting the shops

There's really no other way of summing up my jam-packed, eventful day than with photos. I spent the afternoon at Shops at Don Mills, the pedestrian mall, visiting all my favourite spots. I filled up on South St. Burger as per usual and afterwards decided to check out the Aroma Expresso Bar where we had a delicious Ice Aroma. The tiny chocolate that comes with extra order was a nice touch. After filling my belly, I was ready to browse the stores. The last stop was Anthropologie as you can tell by all those photos. The weather wasn't as lovely as I had hoped it would be but I plan to visit a couple more times this summer in hopes of trying all the lovely looking eats. Not pictured was my visit to Chapters elsewhere where I finally got my hands on 'The Book of Awesome' by Neil Pasricha. This will become my new subway ride book.

tattly

Today I discovered Tattly, the makers of "designy temporary tattoos". They sell a handful of quirky designs for tattoo-lovers not quite ready to take that plunge. I have to say it's a pain-free way to jump on the Marc Johns tattoo band wagon. Tattly has lovely designer contributers, which is what makes the tattoos so wonderful and designy. With their clever website address and lovely typographic logo, Tattly has me falling in love. I'm tempted to buy a bunch of these right now!

For the photography-savvy folks...

Not sure how to apply temporary tattoos? No worries! Just watch this instructional video by Tattly.

Click here to shop the full collection.

behind the scenes

It's about time I catch up on some of these posts. About a month ago a friend of mine asked me and a few other friends to help her out with a project she was cooking up. The concept of it was to have the three of us models in extreme, stylistic versions of ourselves. To be honest, I don't consider myself much a model but anything to help out a friend! The morning of the shoot we set up our own little goofy accessories table (in the photo above), and we blasted the music. I had so much fun on set, getting dolled up, dancing around, posing for the camera, and just spending the day with lovely folks.
Sonya, one of our three models and house gypsy.
Kristian Solis, our photographer, hard at work.
Myself being a goof. I'm an unfit model.
Last but not least, Hazel. More than half of the photos captured of her were little happy blurs. She was just a ball of joy to have on set.

In the above photo and most others, you can find Princess Cabrera. She's the blue button-up back you see throughout this bunch, working ever so hard. She made our faces beautiful, got us into position, and all-in-all took charge. Although there's not a clear picture of her here, I'll be sure to include her in the part two of this post!