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Prince Edward County is the latest getaway trend for us city folk. You have your choice of wineries, breweries, markets and hey, Countylicious is even starting soon! (April 6-29, countylicious.com). About a two and a half hour drive from Toronto (and a stop at the giant Apple) later, we pulled up to the beautiful Hayes Inn. It’s a beautiful grand colonial home that was built in 1838 and perfectly located. A short drive away will get you to Waupoo’s, Sandbank Provincial Park and downtown Picton. Oh, and did I mention the delicious locally sourced food that gets served up for breakfast? I’ve had everything from home made poptarts (I still dream about them) to Croque Madame’s. Also, full disclosure, the Inn may or may not be owned by one of my very best and talented friends. Who may or may not also own this blog. Anyway. 
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 An event combining Yayoi Kusama and Shiseido makes real sense if you think about it. The two have a lot in common, and I’m not just talking about both of them hailing from Japan. I immediately associate the two with art. Yayoi Kusama has been creating her own unique style of art since she was a teenager, experimenting with abstraction in Kyoto after learning a more traditional Japanese style of painting called Nihonga. “I wanted to start a revolution, using art to build the sort of society I myself envisioned.” -- Yayoi Kusama . Her career really took off upon moving to the US and befriending such art legends as Andy Warhol. Shiseido has been creating the most perfect beauty concoctions for over 140 years. It all started with a 23 year old Arinobu Fukuhara being displeased with the medicine available at the pharmacy he worked in, he wanted to develop products that ‘took everything and anything good in the world and use it to create new things’. The name Shiseido itself is derived from a passage in I Ching, meaning Do, “house of Shi Sei”, ‘Where everything is born”. “We find beauty in science and art. We find beauty in the relationships we have, in the products we make and in how we engage with the world’
I think Yayoi and Shiseido have a sort of magical, meaningful whimsy associated with them. They didn’t feel genuine to themselves ‘going with the flow’ of what everyone else was doing and found their own path to follow. Both have been so wildly successful in doing so and taking that chance. I attended Dixonlicious on March 1st at the Daniels Spectrum located in the newly revamped Regent Park area. It was a night of fun, food and live music all in support of the community’s vital food programs. Attendees could donate to the Fund-A-Meal program where proceeds go to delivering meals to seniors and providing healthy meals and snacks to the city’s homeless or youth in summer camps.  I was lucky enough to attend the Restaurant’s Canada show for the second year in a row this weekend. My fiancé works in the food industry and this show has always been a great way to network, market and see some really great innovative technology, equipment and services for the restaurant and food business. While my partner hears business, I hear delicious food and craft beer. We arrived at the Encare Centre and into the showroom where I was overwhelmed with booths from all over not only Canada but the world. We walked by pizza ovens, the most beautiful coffee machine’s I’ve ever seen and even a sushi making ‘robot’. You aren’t really able to walk more than a few feet before finding something interesting to learn more about, or my favourite, try for yourself.  I don’t know about you, but I still love getting outdoors, even in the cold weather. I think this was a great year for Toronto with the opening of the Bentway, more Christmas markets than ever and now ‘Winter’ at Ontario Place. Ontario Place really went all out, turning the property into a magical winter wonderland that lights up with twinkle lights, art from local artists and a bonfire at sunset. The festival started late 2017 and will go all the way until March 18, 2018.  At dusk until midnight the island is illuminated by 12 exhibits created by 20 artists. We saw bridges lit up with falling snow flakes (Bridge of Imagination by Phil Sutherland and Reana Niceforo)A giant lit up icicle hanging outside of the silo’s by the old log ride (Icicle Silo by Chris Foster) and a mirrored box, large enough to stand in that overlooks the seemingly endless Lake Ontario ( Expanded Horizon by Polymetis). The soft, fat snowflakes falling onto the ground while the lake quietly lapped at the shore made for the perfect setting.
It’s not every day that you get invited to preview the world’s latest fragrance experience. When I had the option to attend a Davie Lackie party at Yorkdale Mall’s Hudson’s Bay to test out the first scent installation of its kind I definitely could not say no.  Have a hard time deciding what you want for dinner? Same, same. I actually have this problem a lot. My partner and I have varying tastes and so the Assembly Chef’s Hall on Richmond is the perfect solution for us. We made a date to finally check it out on a Friday night. I love that its open late (till 10pm!) and I would have countless choices. Actually, it MAY have taken me a bit longer than usual to decide on what I wanted to try because there were so many options and everything looked great!  I’ve never not ‘liked’ my facial features per se, but I’ve always wondered what I would look like with fuller lips… with a wedding coming up in May, now seemed like the time to make any changes. Wedding photos last forever and it’s a time you want to look back on looking your best.
Wedding aside, I like to have fun with makeup and I usually enjoy wearing a bright lipstick (goes perfect with any outfit!) The thought of having a plumper pout has always been really tempting to me. I decided to take the leap when I found Therapeutic Aesthetics online. Ada, the aesthetics nurse practitioner, was quick to answer any question I had, explain the process more in depth and had multiple (and impressive!) before and after photos of clients that had me yearning for a nice full smile. Ada graduated from the University of Toronto with a Master in Nursing and has extensive medical background in Emergency and Intensive Care. After working at hospitals like Sick Kids and University Health Network she began to follow her passion in the medical aesthetics field. Ada is certified through Allergan Canada and APT Medical Aesthetics in non-surgical facial enhancement, so you’re in good hands, ladies. Not only that, but when it comes to making drastic (to me, at least) changes to my face, I would prefer a ‘woman’s touch’. Us girls seem to know what looks most natural and what specific areas to focus on, I mean, most of us have been lining our lips and perfecting our own ‘lip look’ with makeup for years. We’ve gotten a lot of practice! After a few back and forth messages we decided to meet at her King Street West office. Ada was lovely and professional. She eased my worries, which were mainly about the needles, I’m pretty nervous around them. She had the brilliant (and client friendly) method of transferring Restylane into an insulin needle, which is much smaller and in her words “much easier to control”. It sounded like a win-win. Even more so when I saw the originally packaging and needle the Restylane came with. Yikes. The Second Wedge is the coolest brewery in Uxbridge. Well…it’s the only brewery in Uxbridge, actually. Maybe that’s why the bar tables were filled with locals – families, couples, kids, - laughing over board games, deep in conversation, or enjoying a flight. If this is what it looks like early on a Saturday afternoon, I can’t imagine how their events must be. I pictured folks packing in to get a listen to some of their favourite live acts (Catch Darrin Davis on Feb 4 at 3pm or Ben Hudson on Feb 11 at 5pm) or sipping on some Monday Night Piper as their table tries to feverishly answer trivia questions on Tuesday nights at 7pm.  It seems like they’ve only just put the Christmas decorations away but the Distillery District is back at it again with another event. Toronto Light Festival is a visually stunning outdoor art light show taking place from January 19 to March 4, 2018.  |
SarahHey! I'm Sarah! A 30 something living in downtown Toronto with a great guy and an OK dog. I love seeing what my city has to offer and try to hit up as many fun events or attractions as I can! I haven't slept since 2004.
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