Driving Love

I’m on a blogging frenzy today!

I thought I’d do a separate post today with all the food and health and soul-loving happenings of the past few days. First I have to talk and rave about the wonderful road-trip to Squamish yesterday! It was very last-minute, but Faith, our housemate Ambrose and I jumped in his car and headed into the mountains. It was literally breath-taking and made me speechless.

If you haven’t already watched my vlog – go check it out!

Lunch yesterday – photo via Faith :)

This morning consisted of coffee at our favourite cafe (shout out to Rachel!), doing some work for a few hours and then it was adventure time! Faith and I have yet to check out “The Drive” in Vancouver which everyone raves about. It’s known for its small unique boutiques, multitudes of restaurants and lots and lots of cafes! :)

The real goal was to make it to a local hand-made artisan’s show called Make It!: The Handmade Revolution. It was exactly what Faith and I hoped for + MORE. The work these artists do is incredible and mind-blowingly beautiful. Check out their website and look at the artist’s websites. I wish I could have bought way more than I did… but with the lack of funds *cough**cough* at the moment – I had to be good.

We found it!

Two of my favourite things in one place! Lattes and Positive Reinforcement!

The one artist who blew us away was Amy Victoria Wakefield –> check out her facebook page and etsy site! I bought two shots that I am in absolute love with! I took photos of my prints to show you :)

With our beautiful finds we headed down the Drive and found a lovely place called Cafe Deux Soleils who supposedly have the best veggie burgers around – so we had to give them a try! They did not disappoint!

After we left full and happy we made our way down The Drive and stumbled upon this lovely work of art on the side of a building.

Just spreading the love people.

After that lovely day I came home and completed week three of Insanity! I’ve been seeing a lot about Insanity: The Asylum lately… and am pretty sure that after this round of Insanity, the asylum is going to be the next goal.

Am I crazy? Probably. But I LOVE it. :)

Night all!

Sunshine, Alleyways and Vlogs – Oh My!

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

I was ->thissssssss<- close to not posting tonight, but I couldn’t let my faithful readers (you) down! Today was non-stop from when I woke up at 8am until now at 11:30pm as I’m sitting here writing this post. I’ve got to admit though, this was probably the very best day I’ve had in Vancouver to date.

It all began on the right foot with a winning  combination of oats + sunshine + coffee. What does this equal you might ask?

Productivity!

I sent a whack of emails, made some important calls and finished everything in time (yes, all in a coffee shop!) to rush home and get ready for a photo shoot with Faith.

I don’t have any pictures to show you tonight because Faith has to sort and edit – BUT I do however have my first vlog for you all! (vlog =video-log)

 

(It’s a little blurry because I stepped out of focus – but you get the idea)

I’m so excited to show you the pictures – watch for a post tomorrow with them!

After we were done shooting we went for a latte and walked down around the Vancouver waterfront. Words cannot describe how beautiful looking across the harbour to North Vancouver is – You have got to see it for yourself! On another note – it was Vancouver’s 125th Birthday today! Happy Birthday Vancouver! In celebration there were lots of events and concerts going on down by the olympic cauldron and because it was so nice out – there were people ev-ery-where! I love hustle and bustle. As we were walking home I turned to Faith and said that it finally feels like we live here – I no longer feel like a visitor to the city.. I live here.

After we rushed home I had a quick snack of broccoli and hummus and we were off again downtown. I had a dinner meeting with a new social media contact, Jonathan, to discuss a few upcoming possibilities (thumbs up!) and his friend (my new contact!) Brad. We found this cute little Mexican restaurant that just opened and thought we’d try it out.

Each of our meals:

Jonathan’s, mine and Brad’s respectively. I had a Pallo Sope and a Mushroom Quesadilla! It was so tasty but I got a little knife happy and half of my quesadilla fell on the floor :(

Amanda -1/ floor +1 = Amanda fail.

We then headed to the Caprice Lounge on Granville St. for the Byzhub’s meet-up tonight which was all about utilizing Linkedin for business. The meetup entitled “Let’s learn about Linkedin!” featured a panel of professionals who use linked in on a regular basis and came to share their positive experience and knowledge with the group. Excellent place to meet some new contacts and learn about Linkedin all at the same time!

After it was over I met Faith at Blendz where she was editing and grabbed a quick refueling of coffee and a honey + nut + seed bar so I’d be able to power through Insanity 2.10 – Plyo Cardio Circuit when I got home.

When I looked at the clock and saw 9:15pm – I ALMOST said to myself – “you are too tired, you’ve had a long and exhausting day, you shouldn’t do your workout today” … but then I thought about how I would let myself and everyone down if I didn’t do it and read a quote from my wall of sticky-note-inspirational-quotes that said:

“When you are not feeling like working out – Remember how good it will feel after & during and WORK OUT!”

I held myself accountable and DUG DEEP!

I went and made myself a dinner with leftover tofu stir fry + one egg + 2 eggs whites with a side of salsa + goat cheese + 3 crackers to refuel.

Side note of the day:

I have to inform everyone that today was the first full day I made it through wearing a pair of pantyhose without ripping or causing them to run! Wahoo!
(This is a very difficult task as to me, as until now pantyhose seemed to be a one-time-use kind of accessory!)

Faith and I had a $1 bet that I couldn’t do it – and I did so I walked into my room tonight seeing this lovely note on my desk:

I taped this to my wall of quotes to keep as a reminder (yes the loonie too)!

This girl is once again, exhausted. Check back tomorrow for some shots from the photo shoot!

What did you think of the vlog?

Night!