Life Around the Apartment

I've decided that it would be fun to document little snippits of life around the apartment. There are so many tiny details I love about my home and being able to notice them is something that I don't want to lose.

Our apartment is always changing. People are coming in and out, we're moving things around, adding things, messing things up, cleaning them up. It's nice to have a busy home. We're always coming and going and it's fun to always have a friend near. I love sitting in the kitchen and hearing someone climb the stairs to the apartment and never knowing which one of my roommates it is. Then we get to catch up.

I think this is a good way to capture all of these changes and I hope to make this a series of posts. So without further adeau:

<< I moved my room around. I'm a sucker for making changes. It always just feels so fresh >>

<< I have three books currently on the go, which I hate doing! But I am enjoying all of my new Halloween movies...and 10 Thing I Hate About You (So good) >>

<< We're a house of rain boot lovers >>

<< Even though our sunflowers are dying I can't throw them away. They're still pretty to me! >>

 << Caramel and Candy Apples. It's Happening. This Weekend. Boom. >>

 << Handmade and it always makes me happy >>

<< Iced tea in the afternoon >>

Hope you enjoyed your first look at life around the apartment. I'm excited to share more in the future!

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown

Home Body, Fall Lover, Future Candy/Carmel Apple Eater

Making Your Own Traditions

Every year you and your family probably have traditions that you do. Whether you like to carve pumpkins on Halloween or decorate your Christmas tree together on the day after Thanksgiving, every family has some sort of tradition that they come back to every year.

Eventually, you'll need to make your own traditions. You have to start moving away from that little family unit that you've always known and start making your own life.

This year I participated in a few traditions of my own. Fall is by far my favourite holiday and so if I get the chance to partake in any autumn activities then I'm definitely a happy camper. One tradition that I started with my friends has been to go apple picking. I don't always go with the same people and I haven't exactly gone every year but it's been something that I do with my friends and something that really brings in Fall to me.

Some other Fall traditions that you could start with your friends:
- Pumpkin picking and carving
- Making Candied and Carmel Apples
- Scary movie marathons
- A night where you make your Halloween costumes
- Baking nights (pumpkin seeds anyone?)
- An annual Halloween party

There are tons of things that you can do each season to start your own traditions. The best thing is that now you get to choose the traditions instead of having someone choose them for you! So go forth and start enjoying the season!

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown
Autumn Enthusiast

I'm About to Get All Pep-Talky On You

We make tons of decisions every day. Most of them small, but sometimes they can be pretty big and sometimes we make the wrong ones. When we make them at work or at school they usually have an effect on our lives so it's important that we pay attention. By the time that we get home at the end of the day we're usually so exhausted by our own decision making that wish someone would just step in and drive us on auto-pilot until bedtime.

Our auto-response becomes "I don't care." Sometimes you really don't care...so you try to pass the buck onto someone else. You won't decide what movie to go see, which restaurant to eat at, which show to watch....you won't decide anything. 

Here's an idea...try caring. Try speaking up. Try making a decision. 

You ask people to choose for you but why can't we choose for ourselves? From now on I don't care is coming out of my vocabulary. I do care...or at least I should and the more that I do the more I'll get the things I want from this world.

And that my friends is your mid-week dose of inspiration. 

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown

Person who Cares and Person Who Shares About How they Care

Stopping to Smell the Roses

via

If Ferris Bueller taught us anything, it's that sometimes we need to throw our responsibilities out the window and just enjoy the moment.

I feel like since I've started working in Toronto I haven't really gotten a chance to stop and smell the roses. My first week living here I had a week before I started my new job and it was one of the best ways for me to get acquainted with my new city. I was able to explore, hang out with friends and really introduce myself to my new life. Since then I've been go go go and haven't been able to enjoy living somewhere that I've always dreamed of.

Here are some "dates" I want to take myself on with my city:
- Early Saturday morning trip to the St. Lawrence Market
- Aimless wandering through the streets so I can start really knowing where I'm going downtown
- Thrift store hunting
- Finding all of the record stores in the city
- Exploring and enjoying the small parks that are scattered throughout the city

I'm sure there's more I can do but I can't think of any just yet. I want to be able to get to know the city without having to spent too much money. Maybe I'll do a little more research too!

So here's to exploring, enjoying and also...Ferris Bueller (he was a pretty cool guy).

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown
Work Horse, City Slicka, John Hughes Fan

Hard Work

*My corner office...as in the corner of my bedroom*

Hard work is...well, hard but it's also necessary. This past week I feel like I've been going non-stop and things don't show any signs of slowing down until Sunday. I have two jobs and am taking one class right now so this kind of hectic schedule is to be expected. As much as I may feel bad for myself in my head, I actually really enjoy it.

Okay, so having a part-time retail job on top of your day job and taking one class because you somehow didn't take the only required course of your fourth year and therefore couldn't graduate on time and were stuck taking it in the fall definitely isn't ideal but there are other things that I love about my life right now. I am able to say that I am taking care of myself. I make all of my own money, I pay all of my own bills and I do it all by myself. That was definitely something that I couldn't say before and I never realized it until now but it was something that I was severely missing in my life.

I feel like I've become more of the person I knew I was by being able to be on my own. (yeah..I know that sounds corny, but it's true). I was letting my mom and stepdad take care of me more than most of the people my age could say. I paid zero bills when I lived at home...like not even my cell phone and near the end of moving out, when my parents knew I was saving up, I didn't even pay for gas. Yeah it was a sweet deal but I couldn't say I was proud of how I was living my life, but now I can.

Last night I worked at my retail job from 5pm until 1am. I was doing a visual shift which means that we basically have to rearrange everything in the store. It's generally not a very fun process and working late into the night doesn't make it much better. I wasn't even supposed to work until 1am but they asked me to stay later. Even though I worked my other job at 9am the next morning, and knew I'd be dead today, I said yes. When I finally got home, showered and crawled into bed my back was aching, my feet were throbbing and I was beyond tired but I was happy because I knew that I had worked hard and earned my keep.

The other best thing about my hard work? Getting paid! Before I moved out I was so worried about covering the bills and now I am able to do so and have a little extra for myself. In my opinion, I've got everything I need. Who needs anything else?

From the desk of Taylor Brown
Over-worked, Over-Tired, Over-Impressed by her own Independence

Healthy Eating without Breaking the Bank

In my last post I talked about working out but the importance of working out pales in comparison to the importance of eating well. Unfortunately, I find eating well so much harder than getting my butt off the couch but when I'm really dedicating myself to both, it becomes like second nature and I just feel so.much.better.

The problem most people have is that they think that healthy food is unaffordable. I see that as an excuse. I also think it's a lie. What I can get at the grocery store for $10 feeds me so much longer than what I get in the food court.

The other night I watched the documentary Hungry for Change. It's an amazing documentary about the diet and health industry. It really opened my eyes about what eating processed foods can do to your body. Now, I'm definitely not on my way to banishing chocolate forever but it does make me want to make healthier choices...and to NEVER drink diet soda again.

I wasn't even done the documentary when I started making a grocery list. Immediately after it was done I ran to the grocery store. I stayed mostly in the produce isle and I got:
- 2 apples
- 1 box of strawberries
- 3 bananas
- 1 bundle of celery
- A huge container of flax seed
- 2 lettuce hearts
- Becel made with olive oil
- Greek feta olive oil dressing
- A carton of fruit and vegetable juice

And I got it all for $24.00. That's about one meal out at a restaurant or two meals at a fast food place. This is going to provide me with snacks, breakfast and smoothies for days.

The point of all of this is that I believe that eating healthy is possible, even on a budget. Sure, you could get 20 boxes of Kraft dinner for 24 dollars but is that something you really want? I think the biggest reason that eating healthy is more expensive is because you get to live longer. And think of how much money you could spend on food by tacking those extra years on your life. Soooo inconvenient.

Eating healthy is hard. I know from experience. Every day when I stare at my fridge I have an internal struggle between grabbing the closest substance made out of chocolate or grabbing some fruit, but eating healthier makes you feel better, and more productive. When you fuel your body you give it something to run on and can actually have the energy to workout and get your work done during the day.

Trust me, you'll never regret a healthy meal, only an unhealthy one.

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown
Choco-holic, Aspartame-aphobic

Thinking Money-Wise and Health-Wise

Sometimes you have to make sacrifices in order to be responsible. A big sacrifice for me has been giving up my gym membership. I wouldn't call myself a gym rat or anything like that but I did take comfort in the fact that I had an entire gym at my disposal whenever I wanted it. Now I don't have that to fall back on. If I want to workout I have to get creative.

The reason I chose to forgo the gym membership was purely for financial reasons. I didn't want to pay for a membership when I still wasn't sure if I could even cover all my bills. Also, a gym membership is a luxury.

Now I've had to rely on myself to get my workouts in and it has been interesting. Here are some ways to save money by forgoing the membership but am still be able to get those good workouts in:

1. Use nature as your gym
    I love to jog outside- so much so that I didn't always get my money's worth at my gym because I would go for a nice long jog instead. There are so many great trails and different routes that you can take that will help you avoid the bored feeling you get while running on a treadmill. You can also use parks to do yoga, find stairs to run in your neighbourhood and do interval and hill workouts anywhere.

2. Find a friend for motivation
    A workout buddy is one of my go-to solutions for getting off my butt. When you have someone to help push you out the door, it becomes a whole lot easier to get those workouts in. They also push you to work harder.

3. Invest in a couple of workout videos
    The biggest downfall of not having a gym is being limited by the weather. If it's raining, snowing, or icy you're probably not going to be able to go for an enjoyable jog. Instead of letting your motivation go to waste pop in a workout dvd. Jillian Michaels has a bunch of amazing ones. Check out her 30 Day Shred DVD. So good!

4. Have fun with it
    Have you ever seen those workout challenges online that correspond to certain movies? I know there are some for movies like Twilight and there are some for different tv shows as well. Each time someone does something you do 10 crunches, 50 pushups, and things like that. This way you can watch a movie while working out!

5. Create workout challenges with your friends
    There are tons of different challenges out there. There are squat challenges, crunch challenges, pushup challenges...you name it! Make it a competition with a friend. Try having each of you put 5 dollars in a jar and say that the first person to skip a day owes the other person 5 dollars. You'll get your workout in and possibly win 5 bucks!

The best way to make sure that you keep working out is to change it up. Keep it fun and interesting and there's no reason you'll ever need to pay for a gym again.

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown
Jogging Enthusiast, User of Nature's Gym