polka dots.

today i left the apartment to face the world in my polka dot blue rain boots and my nice new (to me) red umbrella.  turns out the most i needed them was for the drizzly walk to the metro.  the rest of the day was balmy and warm, although incredibly blustery.  

the wind blew all the clouds away, so i took the long way home and walked in the sun.  i sat on some steps by the bus stop and paged through catcher in the rye, which i'm re-reading.  holden makes me smile. john mayer accompanied most of my day.  

tomorrow i've booked an afternoon of pampering, which i could not be more excited about.  a valentine's gift certificate is finally being put to use.  and then it's the weekend!  more apartment hunting :/ and hopefully some nice springy weekend weather.  and since we ordered pizza tonight i have high aspirations for dinner tomorrow night: roast chicken, zuchinni and mushroom risotto, and a lovely glass of red. 

ps. i saw this lovely, entrancing video on dooce.com 

about symmetry.

and here are the fruits of my thursday pinterest window shopping:    

caffeine queenie.

erigutt.

xo

alli

on springtime wednesdays.

it's going to be 70 degrees here today!

(with lots of thunderstorms, rain, and ridiculousness)

but more importantly....

i don't have to wear my wool coat today!

ok, so i'm exaggerating, but only slightly i assure you.

the last week or so has been filled with more or less the same couple of things.

work. rain. apartment hunting. in the rain. and a couple of broken umbrellas in there as well. also, there is a pile of books i'd like to read for my thesis research, which is exciting, but it's growing at an alarming rate. some exciting links happening in that area too.

mostly i'm looking forward to the birthday month which is coming up, and a trip to california in june.  thinking of the beach is getting me through some of this crappy weather!  and the way i see it, even though i gave up my rights to complain about snow and cold when i willingly moved to montreal.... i figure i'm somewhat entitled anyways, because of the wonderful weather they were blessed with last year.  at this time last year everyone was wearing shorts and sunglasses, sitting under the hot sun with a cocktail on a patio somewhere.  

i want a sunshiny cocktail!

what is happening where you are?

ps:

would love this somewhere in my apartment.

via

going to need some of these barn doors and chalkboard walls.

via.

and this is pretty much a must. homemade goldfish crackers!

enjoy your wednesday.

xo

alli

springtime woes.

pinterest via flickr

today is a gloomy mix of rain, hail, and SNOW.  20th of April, and it's 30 degrees out.  how did it come to this?  yesterday was a scrumptious sunny day, and i made sure to go on a nice long run, because i knew i wouldn't be doing that today!  i won't officially start training for the half marathon until about june, but now that classes are over i have a bit more time to run, which i'm loving.  it just evens out my life a bit.

i painted my nails and toenails bright red yesterday, which i've been wanting to do since about.... a month ago.  i made this for dinner:

wholefoods

spinach lasagna rolls, minus the ricotta because i didn't have any.  next time i think i'll add some spicy sausage or something.  and i roasted some eggplant slices to go with, sprinkled with lemon juice.  delish!

i think this morning i'll get ahead on some reading, and then i'm heading in to work this afternoon.  my umbrella is broken, so i'm going to have to get creative... à voir.

xo

alli

de retour.

i'm done with my final papers!

yay to having a life again!

the next two-three months will be full of 

reading and research, but interesting stuff. 

i'll be narrowing down my thesis focus a bit, which will be challenging but good i think.

in other news,

we've been quite the social butterflies recently, 

now that we're both home in the evenings and finished eating before 9:30 which was the average for the past four months.  hockey finals are coming up, so some cheering in pubs with some pints is on the schedule for the next couple of days. 

i've had small glimpses of the summery buzz that is guaranteed to descend upon montreal,

hopefully sooner rather than later.

everyone talks about how bad the winters are,

but nobody mentions how excruciating it is to wait for spring here.

snow/hail/rain mix on saturday did not make me a happy lady.  especially when you're apartment hunting by foot, with an incredibly dysfunctional (ripped to shreds) umbrella.  

the apartment hunt is on, which i find is inspiring even more time to be spent on pinterest, drooling over interior design and diy projects.  

which is where i found these: 

via

via

oh and these:

which have nothing to do with decor, but could totally see them with cuttoff denim shorts and a tank top.

anyone else restless for an apartment change, spring, or just a smidgen of sun??

xo 

alli

oh i'm still here friends.

though battling with a pretty big lack of motivation.

what do you do when you have gray skies where you are?

what cheers you up?

let me get through this last week of classes,

then mistinguett will be a bit more upbeat 

;)

xo

alli