wedding shower fun

one of my dear friends from high school, karoline, is getting married this summer.
on sunday, we celebrated her upcoming nuptials at her beautiful wedding shower hosted by her amazing sister and bridesmaids.

food was eaten, games were played, gifts were open - i won a bottle of wine, holler.
i was having so much fun that i forgot to take actual photos which is lame.
but i did manage to get this shot of the bride-to-be but being that anything internet related gives her anxiety, she kindly requested that i put a disguise over her face.

this was the best i could do:

the "cake topper" she's holding is actually made of cake and was made by her sister.

ridiculously beautiful

karoline's big day is quickly approaching and i can't wait to celebrate it with her.

should be fun times or as karoline puts it, "turnt".

hopefully, she'll let me post a photo without her in disguise.

i won't hold my breath, though.

:)

vanessa

ps.

"bat boy" was at church on sunday.

love this kid.

save a horse, ride a mechanical bull

my friend lisa's bachelorette is this weekend but since i'm a lame who has exams, i can't attend.

to make it up to her, i along with our friend, aliyah, took lisa out to dinner at a restaurant of her choosing.
she chose this western restaurant/bar called rock 'n' horse saloon in downtown toronto.

reservations were made under my name, so this little present was waiting for me at the table:

the menu consisted of a selection of "homestyle country cooking" - i ordered the chicken quesadilla and it was delicious.

after dinner, we were entertained by the waiting staff who performed these crazy line dance routines.

they tried to entice us to come on the dance floor but i was not even trying to embarrass myself. 

once our food was fully digested, lisa and i decided to try our hand at the mechanical bull.

every single photo we took came out blurry but lisa managed to capture one of my sad, sad attempts:

getting on this thing was the biggest struggle

the bride wanted to do this, so we begrudgingly obliged

pretty tame for a bachelorette, i know, but we had a great time celebrating the final days of lisa's single life.

less than a month left 'til the big day, ahh.

gotta find a dress...

:)

vanessa

ps. i downloaded this app called "drake shake" and am having way too much fun...

envelope system challenge accepted!

accurate.

as much as i try and set and adhere to a budget, i find myself continually overspending.
in an effort to "build my credit", i tend to make virtually all my purchases on my credit card.
though i always pay it off, too many a time my jaw has dropped upon seeing my balance.
anyone else do that thing where you hold your breath and wince while opening the envelope?
just me, huh?...

this year, i vowed to take better control of my finances and actually stick to a budget and all that jazz.
but finding an efficient way to do this has proven difficult...until now.
enter dave ramsey and his "envelope system".

dave ramsey is a financial guru and i came across this article of his while on my study break and am sold.
basically, he encourages people to adopt a cash only system in an effort to set spending limits for themselves.
one simply creates budget categories and assigns each one an envelope.
in each envelope you then put in the amount of money you allotted for a specified period of time.
once that money is used up, you're done until the next time you top-off that envelope.

he swears by this method of budgeting because as he puts it "there's something psychological about spending cash that hurts more than swiping a piece of plastic."
(i laughed upon reading that sentence because i can tell you that there have been times when i've had cash on me yet still opted to "swipe".)

i get paid this week and will start the process of shifting over to the whole cash in envelope system of budgeting.
i haven't started to set categories/budgets just yet (exams, gahh) but am thinking of starting with tithes, food, transportation, toiletries, clothes and entertainment (aka. fun moneyyyyy!)
i'm excited to get started but i know it'll be tempting to just go to the ATM once i'm out of money.

i'll let y'all know how it goes...

:)
vanessa

ps. me after watching the scandal season finale...

i can't with shonda.
i just can't.

wise word wednesday - don't quit

i read somewhere once that the hardest part of having a dream is knowing when to hold on and when to let go.
well, here are couple of quotes for the days when you're leaning towards doing the latter.

speaking of not quitting, who else saw this clip of pharrell on oprah?

i guess it's true what they say, it's the struggle that makes it great. 

:)

vanessa

ps. i just started watching friday night lights on netflix and can i just take a moment and...

texas forever, tim.

texas.

forever.

cousins are your first friends.

on sunday, my cousin lydia and i took the rugrats to skyzone toronto.
i went to skyzone myself a couple of weeks ago for a friend's birthday celebration.
the whole time i was there, i kept thinking to myself that i had to bring the children here.
annnnnnd, so i did.

we opted for the two hour option but in retrospect, an hour would have sufficed.
poor nico was exhausted by the end of the first hour (see photo below).

all in all, everyone seemed to have a great time.
while putting nico's jacket on, he told me that he had "so much fun!"
taina and amir agreed.
money and time well spent.

can't wait for the next cousin outing.
ripley's aquarium, perhaps?

:)
vanessa

random gifs/videos/photos:

amir and tai pon di trampoline.

amirrrrrrrrrrrr for the three.

if at first you don't succeed...

try, try again.

brothers who jump together, stay together. 

the struggle to get out.

birthday, it's yo' birthday!

just taking a moment to wish my ride or die, avery, a very happy 25th birthday.
she's so old.
merde.

here's to another 25+ years of life and friendship!

:)

vanessa

music monday...even though it's tuesday :(

things i love #15415123: seeing people realize their dreams.
when these people come from toronto, it warms my heart even more.
enter cassandra steele.

cassie steele is both an actress (whaddup degrassi?) and a singer.
i'm obsessed with her new single, mad, and thought i'd share :)

happy tuesday!

:)

vanessa

fab five - favourite scents

it's been a while since i last did one of these but i present to you all top five favourite scents.
NB: there's actually six scents listed as i couldn't narrow it down to five. 
sue me. 

depending on my mood and what season it is, you will catch me (sniff me?) wearing one of these scents:

from left to right: flowerbykenzo by kenzo, miss dior by dior, manifesto by ysl, happy by clinique,
vanille coco by comptoir sud pacifique, black nirvana by elizabeth and james

what are some of your favourite scents?

i'll be sure to check them out next time i'm at sephora!

:)

vanessa

ps. on saturday my littlest sister, taina (you might remember her as my princess assistant, gabriella) turned ten!

my brother-in-law and sister made this amazing ice cream cake and we ate delicious food.

the birthday girl requested that we bust out the projector and throw a movie theatre birthday party.

so, while munching on popcorn and snacks, we watched the movie she chose - frozen.

soooooo good.

♫do you want to build a snowman? *tears.

i definitely see this movie being a hit musical on broadway in the very near future. 

pps. prince hans ain't sh*t.