Recently my husband and I made some big choices…and some big changes.

This summer we’re focusing on getting rid of “stuff” in our life that isn’t taking us in the direction we want to go…mostly financially, but also life and business wise.

That means we’re:
- giving up our rental apartment in the city
- moving to Niagara on the Lake full time for the summer (which I’ve dreamed of doing for 2 years now!)
- dramatically increasing our savings starting April 1st
- controlling our spending and watching where we’re actually spending our money
- cleaning up our businesses…so they run smoother, and hopefully with less intensive involvement from either of us
- starting to look for a rental house to buy in Toronto (where we’ll hopefully live rent free or very inexpensivley, as our tenants will pay most of the mortgage!)
- making enhancements to our house in Niagara on the Lake that will hopefully increase the property value ( a big part of living there this summer will allow us the time we actually need to do a lot of the landscaping)

This year in Niagara on the Lake we’re being treated to one of the earliest, warmest, and mildest Spring’s that I can remember in my 16 years of living in Ontario.

On the farm, flowers are coming out, the fruit trees are starting to blossom, the grass is growing quickly and the birds are incredibly active!

Recently my husband and I went on a week long “sun” holiday in the Mayan Riviera.

We stayed at the Fairmont Mayakoba, and visited the sites around the area. Our room was on one of the man made canals at the resort, so we always had a nice sunny and secluded place to have breakfast with the ducks swimmming by, and the occassional paddle boat floating by.

Overall the hotel was very nice…but pretty removed from everything and the trek to the beach was quite far. While we were looking for a nice quiet getaway, it was almost too quiet. After a few days of reading by the pool, eating lazy lunches and lounging around, we were both ready for some action!

So we took a day trip to Chechen Itza, which to be honest was a bit of a dissapointment. The ruins are beautiful, but it seems so little is known about the Mayans that it’s difficult to make their stories come alive through guided tours. It ended up being a really dry and boring tour, and I was surprised to see so many hawkers and people selling their trinkets and bad artwork in a UNESCO World Heritage site. I’m glad we went….but I’m not sure I would recommend this tour.

the famous Mayan "basketball courts" at Chechen Itza...where the losers head was cut off!

On another day we went to the ruins in Tulum, which were much nicer! So peaceful, a beautiful setting (these smart Mayans had their city right by the ocean!), no hawkers in the actual historic areas, and much less people.

Of course did the normal touristy things, like going to Playa del Carmen, a little sightseeing in Cancun, and a boat ride through the canals at our resort.

One fantastic thing occured to me on this trip though! Normally, when taking a vacation I have my head crammed with ideas of things I want to do….problems I need to solve, and at the end of the trip I normally have pages and pages of things I want to “fix” in my life. When driving to the airport I realized this time that I really don’t have anything in my life that I need to urgently “fix”! My company is growing at a nice pace and I’m making some positive changes that will allow it to grow more strategically, my relationship with my husband is in a good place, I have a handful of lovely friends that keep me centred and very happy…and I don’t have any family drama or “problems” so to speak of! What a wonderful realization!!

We stayed with my husband’s best friend and family, who were lovely hosts, and made us feel so comfortable. I even took a guilt free nap for about 1.5 hours every afternoon – it was amazing!

We drove down to NYC from Toronto…and like every long car drive with my husband we ended up fighting pretty much the entire way. It turns out road trips are not on the “route to happiness” for us!

But the next day we were up, and ready for some adventrues!

We stayed around our friends apartment, did some last minute Christmas shopping, and then prepared for the Christmas Eve party. For Argentinian’s (my husband), the Xmas Eve party is much more important than Christmas Day. So, we went grocery shopping, helped set up their apartment and waited for the guests to arrive.

For the Christmas Eve party guests started arriving around 830 – 9pm. And as part of their tradition, the host lays out the plates, glasses etc, but doesn’t really start to cook until the guests arrive…because part of making your guests feel welcome is letting them help you prepare your appetizers and meal together! This is a BIG departure from my German/WASPy culture, where you need to have everything laid out before the doorbell rings, and guests are not expected to lift a finger!

The party continued well in to the evening, with drinks, snacks, meals, some guitar playing, some minor tantrums from the kids that were staying up well into the morning (3am; also a big departure from my culture!), and everyone having a great time overall.

On Christmas Day we had anything but a traditional Christmas Day! We woke up around 10am, opened some presents, and then headed downtown.

First we tried to go to Katz’s Deli, figuring most other places would be closed for the holidays…and of course the Jewish deli would be open! But the line-up was way too long, and with 2 little kids in tow it didn’t seem like a smart idea to try and make them wait for 30 minutes for a table.

So, we headed just around the corner to a little restaurant called Pink Pony, which had tables available for us, a cool vibe, and fantastic brunch food! It was a huge success!

After brunch we went to Central Park for a walk. Our friends decided to head home early, but we stayed to walk around, get some excercise and enjoy the mild Christmas Day!

After an hour long walk we headed over the Four Seasons for a drink. It’s a beautiful hotel, and they have a fantastic bar that’s great for an early evening cocktail. I very much enjoyed this quote on the cocktail menu!

Then we walked down 5th Avenue to see the Rockerfeller Centre Christmas tree and skating rink. It was jam packed with people…and everyone was taking pictures of the tree and walking the streets. It was a great feeling to be in so much activity!

After our long day out we headed back to our friends house to have a nice relaxing meal at home, and prepare for our long drive home the next day.

This Christmas was one of the best! A nice getaway, spending time with good friends, relatively stress free, and some great memories to hold on to!

Why should Santa enjoy the comfort of his reindeer drawn sleigh while we circle parking lots, brave crowds and bah humbug over gas prices? This winter we want to erase those ghosts of holidays’ past and replace them with a memorable gift shopping experience.

Every Sunday until December 18, Shop Socials will be offering Santa’s Limo Helper, a chauffeured shopping excursion designed to tackle even the most challenging gift list with the help of luxury limousine transportation, an on-board gifting tutorial, festive cocktails, gourmet sweets and a two and half hour guided tour of Queen West, Leslieville or Yonge and Eglinton boutiques, hand-selected for their gifting charm.

Passengers enjoy free time to explore neighbouhoods on their own and can literally proclaim, “It’s a wrap!”, at the end of the day with complimentary gift wrapping. The Santa’s Limo Helper experience starts from just $65 per person and offers centrally located pick-ups east and west of the Greater Toronto Area every Sunday at 11 a.m. Private group bookings are also available until December 23.

Learn more and reserve your spot before they’re all gone at: www.shopsocials.com/ss/santa.html

Great design…great prices…sounds like my kind of offering! It’s the usual UBER-SEXY Versace style, which will come in sooo handy for all the holiday parties!

Here’s my top 5 picks:

1. The Red Dress – Oh my…so sexy & classy & red! All of my favourite things in one!

2. The Gold Dress – Soooo sexy & fun! This dress makes me want to party!

3. The Yellow Dress – Stunning colour, and looks amazing with this blue scarf & fun purse.

4. The Versace LBD – Classic!

5. Light & Dark Blue Asian Inspired Dress – This is just fun! It’s cute, girly and could be worn a million different ways!

Recently I stumbled upon this gorgeous pic of Jennifer Aniston’s dress that I was crushing huge for!

It turns out the dress was originally a long and flowy metallic dress by KaufmanFranco, but the designers re-released a shorter and sexier version exclusively for Saks Fifth Avenue.

LOVING IT!

P.S. Doesn’t this dress look so much better with tanned skin and lighter hair? The long version looks a tad severe, and the shorter version is SO much better!

This store has some gorgeous, unique and really fashion forward goodies. Check out some of our favourite finds below:

1. I’m really LOVING these Catherine Weitzman earrings. So fun and sexy and you can wear them day or night!

2. I NEED these Miguel Simek earrings. Enough Said!

3. At the store – they have such a cool and inviting setting, and so many incredible finds!

Want to take a peak at more of their fantastic goodies?

Go to their website: http://ellehardware.com/
Visit their store: 695 Queen St. West, Toronto, Ontario

HOW TO ENTER:
1. Go to the Cashmere Clutch facebook page
2. Tell us why you want to WIN the $100 Gift Card by leaving a comment on the wall

CONTEST DURATION:
Contest period is from Thursday, October 20, 2011 – Friday, October 28, 2011 at midnight, EST
Winner will be announced on the facebook wall on Saturday October 29th.

LEGAL STUFF THAT NO-ONE READS
Must be a minimum 18 years old to enter
Not open to residents of Quebec

Mostly we’ve been trying to learn how to cut our lawn properly. You laugh, but it’s about 3 acres and takes me 5 hours to mow on the riding lawnmower. Apparently grass is very sensitive and there’s a right and wrong way to do it – who knew! On the plus side, it’s been so dry and hot…and we don’t have a sprinkler in place, so I only have to mow once every 2 weeks!

We’ve also been trimming up a lot of trees. They had been left unkempt for about 8 years from the previous owners, and were starting to looking really messy. It’s amazing how a nice trim job tidies up a yard quickly! (Don’t mind the dead grass!)

Before:

After:

We’ve also been pulling out all the old non-functioning fencing that’s around the orchard. The farm used to be a sheep farm, but without any animals for years, and without anyone really taking care of the property, it’s really become a mess! So as part of reclaiming the land, we needed to pull out all the metal wires and fences that were tangled in weeds, and made lawnmowing this area impossible.

Pulling it out:

Success:

The work at the farm is quite hard, but I can’t tell you how amazing it feels to be physically tired from a days work outdoors. It feels so good to breathe in fresh air, work hard, and see the fruits of your labour almost immediately. Unlike my day job running a marketing company, where it can be months before we see results of our work, doing a few hours of yard work shows immediate results.

It’s got to be good for the soul!

We had a bit of a debaucle at first. We bought furniture from Pottery Barn last March, and they delivered the wrong furniture to us! Through a long and confusing (surprising for the Pottery Barn, I know!) process we had to re-order new furniture and they finally brought it to us. (Yes, that means they took many, many, months to correct the mistake.)

We were so happy to see the big truck pull up, the old furniture get carted away, and the new furniture put in it’s place.

Old sofa:

New sofa:

We think the new pieces work much better; the old sofa was huge, but only had 2 big pillows, so it looked like a loveseat, and even thought it was big, with only 2 cushions we noticed that only 2 people would sit on it at the same time.

With the new furniture it not only looks much better (tighter fabric, a slightly more refined style) but it makes our living room look so much better with the 3 pillow sofa.

So interesting how furniture changes a room!

(ohhhh, the things we’re learning from owning a house).