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Filed Under: Daily, FAVORITE THINGS, REAL LIFE

Favorite Things / 9

favorite everyday essentials LIP BALM – Second to my caramex (which is a Canadian, winter lip requirement) eos is an essential and in my pocket all the time. It’s organic and comes in a handy sphere do you don’t have to dip your finger in to apply. Really it’s just great lip balm, the kids even have their own—or they did, before they probably lost it.

DRY SHAMPOO – I have tried many different brands, I’m sure you have too. Generally I found that most dry shampoos are good because they come in a handy, easy to apply aerosol spray can—that’s also really junky for the environment. But otherwise they aren’t always technically, great. This No Drought dry shampoo from Lush is the best I have tried and even though I have to manually apply (what is the world coming too!?) it’s still my favorite. And it smells like grapefruit, which is my favvvvorite.

ALL NATURAL DEODORANT – I’m bit of a hippie when it comes to deodorant, all natural always (for tons of reasons). The problem with almost all “natural” deodorants is (you probably smelled it) they don’t always work. So when you find a good brand you hold on to it for dear life, this one from Leaves of Trees is so good! I usually keep 2 different brands on rotation (Leaves of Trees is my newest 1 of 2 brands, addition), I find the key to making sure a natural deodorant keeps working is rotating between brands every few days. This new one I’m hooked on, smells amazing (I have the eucalyptus mint) and feels fresh when you apply—also I wear it to hot yoga everyday and come smell me, cause I don’t stink! *My other favorite deodorant but not pictured (my 2 of 2 deodorant brand) is from Lafes.

sneakers with support HUG MY FEET SNEAKERS – Running shoes but for everyday. My Chucks are probably feeling a little left out these days, I am hooked on my New Balance sneakers. The full support and incredible cushion is like a hug for my feet. They feel like my running shoes but look like my casual sneakers, I basically have a hard time taking them off when I come home.

jade yoga mat STILL MY FAVORITE MAT – I’ve said it before, actually I’ve said it a lot before. But my Jade mat is my favorite of all the mats I have had the pleasure of testing out. It’s grippy, thick but not heavy and oddly enough I love the natural rubber smell—it gets 5 stars from me. And clearly I love black, I like to practice life and yoga like a ninja, what can I say.

It’s been a while since I shared a few of our favorite things, I was about to text my sister and friend about this stuff and instead jumped for the post—this series is for real, my favorite things.

April 14, 2015     |     written by Brandy     |     3 Comments



Filed Under: ADVICE AND INFO, Daily, REAL LIFE

Setting Goals vs. Living In The Moment

GOALS vs ENJOYING EVERY MOMENT Personally I really like goals, I like them so much I set them for most everything. Sometimes laid out all nice like on a piece of paper making them pretty official and something I feel like I really need to cross off at some point. Or sometimes my goals are just in my head (but much less crazy sounding), but those are usually the kind that quietly poke at my brain till I reach achievement level status.

Goals are great, they keep me on track and it’s a good way to turn dreams into something much more tangible. Want to own your own business? Hey let’s set some goals to get you there. Goals are stepping-stones and they make the big picture (whatever it may be) much more attainable.

Okay, now this is probably not gonna make much sense at all, but keep in mind I’m a walking contradiction so to me it’s clear as day.
As good as goals are, they can sometimes be a bit stifling. The thing is as soon as you reach one goal, another one pops right up and pop, pop, pop for pretty much ever. Enjoying that moment of finally reaching a goal is short-lived because you jump right on to the next goal. Just sitting down and enjoying the moment and the journey can often get a little lost when all you see is goals, goals, goals (similar to Destiny’s Child bills, bills, bills circa 1999).

So this is where I might get a bit confusing. The other day (well, a couple of months ago now) as I was laying in savasana, all sweaty and yoga blissed after practice, I tried to think back on goals I had set for my yoga practice. To you know, see if I had reached them. Was there a pose I really wanted to learn, or a class level I wanted to be able to attend? And shockingly I had none, like none at all! My only goal was to just practice and practice safely. Somehow this (me) over planner, over thinker and chronic goal setter failed to set goals for this huge part of my life. And I have to say, to not have a plan (accidentally even) for something so gigantically important in my life was/is totally liberating and eye-opening. The thought made me smile and then I thought about how much I just enjoying being there and how I probably had reached so many “goals” but instead just enjoyed every tiny moment along the way and the rest didn’t matter one bit.

To jump ahead to my point, basically I realized goals aren’t everything (even though they are awesome and helpful). They have a place, but they don’t belong in everything. Since then, I have a pretty severe love hate relationship with goals. I love them and they are still so helpful for me but they can be a little life sucking when overused, and now I really try to keep that in mind for future everythings—maybe I’ll set a goal for that?

So I have a crazy idea for you: If you are a huge goal setter, try to choose one thing where you don’t set any goals and you ‘just do it’ (IT or it, however you want to read into that) and enjoy the moment, the journey.
If you aren’t really a goal setter, try choosing one thing in your life and set some goals, enjoy the small steps and the tiny gold stars along the way.

One is not better than the other, clearly. But it’s always fun to try something different then you’re used too. What do you think? Are you a huge goal setter or do you tend to love to watch things unfold on their own?

April 8, 2015     |     written by Brandy     |     2 Comments

Filed Under: Daily, REAL LIFE

Over The Weekend

Easter morning, the kids woke up at 3am and we coaxed (tricked) them to go back to bed for another 2 hours. They woke up and put on their “favorite Easter clothes” and bounced into our room to wake us up, vibrating with excitement. They hunted for sugar and we all had a family nap, best part of the entire weekend in my opinion.

Easter is a funny holiday for me, I am not religious so most of the special parts of the holiday are totally lost on me. What we are left with is a slightly creepy bunny (maybe even human sized?) that sneaks into our home and hides chocolate for the kids. It’s fun but definitely not as magical and heart warming as Christmas, for us non-religious folk that is. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining! I’ll take any day that comes with magical exciting moments for the kids and tack on long weekend, well that’s perfection—but still as far as holidays go, it’s totally a weird one for me. Easter weekend/long weekend in APRIL and snow. But hey, it’s Canada I’m not surprised—I know you weren’t either. It was pretty beautiful, big GIANT fluffy flakes floating down in super slow mo. Harley and I carried our SoYoung cooler bag to keep our Easter chocolate (junk) from melting (the perfect temp controlled “Easter basket”), because when looking at the calendar (April and all) it should have been a warm day. Somehow we became the family that goes to every parade. I actually don’t even really like parades, I probably sound like a liar but I’m not joking. It happened totally by accident, Christmas parade is an easy one since the kids always ask to go. Easter parade is a new-ish tradition, we go to hang with our friends—also it’s a good parade, basically the kids leave with another full basket of candies. All the other parades we sat and watched were stumbles, like we walked around a corner and “hey, look it’s a parade” sorta stumble. I guess we just have the parade luck.

Any day with these goofs is a good day. Waiting for our chariot of luxury, so luxurious that when Harlow got on she said “oh boy, it stinks in here!”. Fresh, spring city air…..sigh!

Funny thing, I sat down to write a blog post, realizing that I haven’t posted since Thursday–I take full advantage of long weekends these days. I thought I had nothing to write, one of those Tuesdays that feels like a Monday and I can’t jump-start my brain no matter how hard I try. But it would seem (after scrolling back over all the words I just typed), that clearly I was wrong. Hope you all had a fantastic long (Easter/passover) weekend!!

April 7, 2015     |     written by Brandy     |     2 Comments

Filed Under: Daily, REAL LIFE

March Break

business-bag1 business-bag2

The kids and I (by default) are on March break. We have medium-sized plans for each day—plans proportionate to their medium-sized selves, basically.
It’s a funny thing, every spring when we lighten up on the layers a little, it’s becomes so blatantly (screaming in my face) obvious just how much they have changed and grown since the previous spring. How much longer their limbs and just how (almost embarrassingly) short most of their pants actually are, is impossible to ignore. And I all of a sudden I become an annoying broken Mom record “OMG you are so big” or “STOP GROWING!!”.
Spring has always been one of my most favorite seasons, seeing things go from cold, barren and dirty. To, green lush and clean is one of the most beautiful things about living with 4 seasons. But I’m starting to re-think my love for spring, since it’s starting to feel more like a kick in the face—reminding me how quickly my littles are growing and how fleeting time really is.

This was us over the weekend, well parts of us. On Sunday stumbled upon the St.Patty’s Day parade after having brunch with friends—our ‘stumbling upon events and exciting things in the city’ luck, is out of control awesome (let me just say). Harlow has been carrying her SoYoung lunch bag, as a weekend snack and “business bag”, she packs some toys, writing materials, her cape and whatever else she things she’ll “need”. It’s adorable and a great multi purpose (lunch, snack or “business”) bag, as it keeps everything cool and it’s crazy easy for me to clean.

Okay, maybe the most random post I’ve written in a looong time. March break though it’s mushing my brain up, let’s blame it on march break—I promise this random post will be a random occurrence.

March 17, 2015     |     written by Brandy     |     1 Comment

Filed Under: Daily, REAL LIFE

Some Random Things

cold cold winter day Today is a holiday in Ontario (and I think Alberta too?), it’s Family Day! This also happens to be the coldest weekend of the year,  the kind you don’t even want to get dressed for! On Saturday we stopped in Niagara Falls for a split second, and this was the freezing cold view. In case you were wondering what the falls looked like during a snow storm – beautiful aren’t they?

red lips My new short hair, it’s finally starting to grow on me – as hair tends to do! It’s just long enough to fit in a low stubby pony tail, which helps to make it livable and likable since I’m jumping into a yoga class every single day.

asleep on the ride Rough day at work? This sometimes (pretty rare these days) still happens, and it’s even more super and adorable then when they were teeny tiny.

winter beard I feel like his beard needs an update. Chris is so good at so many things, and growing an awesome beard is just one of them.

mini mioche spring summer 2015 Last week the kids hammed it up, at the mini mioche spring/summer 2015 photo shoot. I cannot wait to show you all more, more specifically our latest spring capsule collection with them!!  (excited face!)

behind the scenes This is what the kids were doing last week while Chris took awkward photos of me. I love real life, “behind the scenes” junk like this. Also those kids, just make me smile.

And last but certainly not least. Let’s talk about the elephant in the room, but actually it’s more like a unicorn not an elephant. After months (and months and months) I finally finished the new blog design (the one you see now) I’m so excited and proud of this update. I also feel like there is a hug weight lifted off my shoulders, one HUGE thing I can cross off my to-do! There are still a few bugs and things I need to tinker with, but she’s live and ready to go!!
I added a few new simple features, a page showcasing my design collaborations and a page explaining a bit about all the ways you can work with me and/or the blog, and she’s totally responsive, but I’ll let you click around to see for yourself. Since there are still some bugs (and probably lot’s of grammar mistakes), if you notice anything funny please shout at me!

What do you think? How was your weekend?

February 16, 2015     |     written by Brandy     |     2 Comments

Filed Under: Daily, REAL LIFE

OVER THE WEEKEND

sledding1 The only way to really enjoy winter, is to get right into it and ignore the cold – well for as long as you physically can. Yesterday we went sledding, it was awesome – and the kind of activity that makes you actually LIKE winter. Chris and I would go sledding sans kids, because we are nerdy like that. But adding the kids to the nerdy mix? SO awesome. The little smiles and the laughter, oh man nothing beats it. sledding2 sledding9 sledding6 sledding4 sledding7 sledding8 sledding5 sledding3 sledding10 I was sick last week, stomach flu knocked me right out – hence the silence here. And as a consequence, it threw me way behind in everything, except for trashy TV. So the weekend for me, was mostly filled with life catch up stuff – plus some fun stuff like freezing our butts off outside. I’m currently ignoring 4 large mountains of laundry that need folding, a floor that needs a good mopping and many (MANY) other boring home tasks.

On another note, I’ve been working like crazy to hammer out a re-design for his space (even from my sick-bed) and after about 6 months (actually more like 9 or 10) I’m almost done. I’m hoping (and excited) to launch that, very very soon. And then I can have some of my mind space back, it’s funny how even a semi full to-do list can take up so much thinking room. How the simple act of crossing (even simple) tasks off the list, lightens the load on my brain so much.

An extremely random post for your Monday, frazzled procrastination will do that. Hope you all had a great weekend, did it involving any freezing cold outdoor activities?

February 9, 2015     |     written by Brandy     |     3 Comments

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CULTIVATING YOUR
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