OMG! Chai Tea Lattes!

This needs to be said... I am IN LOVE with Starbucks! Yes, even more than I was before.

So I'm kind of a dork when it comes to my Starbucks. As soon as I found out they had a reward program... I was on it! Within a month, I received my pretty gold Starbucks card with my name on it. But that's not what I'm so excited about!

I love chai tea lattes. Adore them! But they are so packed with sugar that I usually opt out of getting the latte and just get a chai tea. Well, I made a special and seriously life altering discovery today! I found out you can get a chai tea latte with no sugar! You get it with tea bags instead.

I walked by Starbucks today and figured I would give my new chai latte discovery a shot. My exact thoughts were "I'm sure it will be an acquired taste..." Especially after drinking the sugary ones for so long.

So I get my chai, get in my car, drive back to work and finally taste this latte.... O....M....G! Amazing! Better than the sugar version. I am absolutely in heaven!

I am serious when I tell you, this is the best thing to happen to me since my wedding!

Thanks for reading,

Danielle

Playgrounds are for Playing

Think bullying is just for the school yard? You thought wrong.

I am sure everyone can remember a time in their life that they were bullied as a child. A fellow classmate called you names, took your property, physically hurt you? That child may have gotten a time out or discipline at home, but how can you really blame him?!

I look around every day and all I see is bullying. I see it among children, among adults, in the workplace, in the tabloids... I see it everywhere! It makes me wonder how we can expect our children to act respectfully, when all they see around them is bullying?

I know my little blog with (if I'm lucky) 100 readers wont make a huge difference, but if I can make one person think twice, I will be satisfied.

We are all guilty. We have all been the bully at one time of another! People sometimes don't realize that what they are doing is bullying! I'm guilty of this as well. And it is not until somewhat recently that I realized how easy ti can be to bully someone! It seems as in our society, it has become so intergrated, we don't even notice bullying anymore.

Although I had a fairly easy childhood as far as bullying went (teenage years and adulthood were not so easy at times), a friend of mine on the other hand, did not. He would come home from school black and blue. He would get called names, picked on and beat. I'm sure more than half of you reading this had that same experience in one way or another. Can he put the blame on those other kids? Or is everyone in society to blame? And, although he was the one who was being bullied as a child, I have seen him be the bully as an adult. So how is it that after being called names and feeling first hand how it feels, would someone do the same to another person?

It makes me crazy when people say that bullying is "just part of being a kid". I want to scream! People think bullying is just a little fight in the play ground... It's so much bigger than that. Bullying of all kinds, whether it be hurtful actions, mistreating or controlling another person, verbal or non-verbal, leads to decreasing a person's self worth. What does someone have if they don't have their self worth?

So many sad things are happening to children and adults alike as a result of bullying! It breaks my heart and I wish there was something I could do about it! The only thing I can do is watch what I say, watch how I treat people, be aware and treat all others with respect. Sure, there will always be people I just don't get along with, or people who don't like me, but is that a good excuse to be disrespectful? You have no idea what someone is going through and why they are the way that they are.

When I was young, there was a guy who bullied the other kids in the playground and I remember his mother laughing it off. She thought it was funny. How would the tables have turned had that been her child getting kicked in the playground? Would that have been funny too?? How can this child know that his behavior is destructive when his mother is laughing about it? Where do you think he learned to bully?

My mom always used to tell us: "If you can't say something good, don't say anything at all." I used to just brush it off and make jokes! But she was so right. What good will come of it? If we all respected each other, respected who each person was and embraced what it is that makes each person unique, this wouldn't be a problem anymore... But we as adults need to set that example for our children. We as a society needs to set that example.

Be kind to one another.

Thanks for reading,

Danielle

Sunday Funday

Sunday night my husband and I went to a comedy show. We went to watch the Wayan brothers.

Anyways, we left the house in the afternoon, did some running around and had a visit with a good friend. My jeans were tight, but I could still function just fine in them. So we walked around the mall, did a bit of shopping, grabbed a Starbucks and had a chat. Perfect Sunday afternoon.

We headed to the restaurant for some food before the show. As I ate, my jeans got tighter and tighter, until I just unbuttoned by top button. Its more comfortable to sit anyways. No one could see as my shirt was hiding it, but I was uncomfortable since they were so tight! We ate our meal, had a drink, talked and relaxed.

Soon enough, time came to head over to the comedy club. I stand up and turn my back to the restaurant so I can do up my button.... It wont do up! it was like I magically gained 5 pounds in a 60 minute time span. I could not get that button done up. So I just left it for that moment and was going to hit up a bathroom before the show started.

We get inside the show and I walk up to the bathroom. After 5 minutes of struggling with this button and as sweat drips down my forehead, I realized that there is no way it is going to button up! So i just left it. Whatever, one button open, no one will notice, my zipper was closed, thank goodness.

I head back to my seat and the show starts. Through out the show, my zipper gradually started to open. Eventually, I was actually sitting there with my pants completely undone. Button open, zipper down. What was I supposed to do? I tried somewhat inconspicuously to at least get my zipper up but by then I was so nervous and sweaty, nothing worked.

I had to walk out of the comedy club zipper undone, pretty much holding my jeans up, as to not embarrass myself any further.

I threw those jeans out!

Thanks for reading,

Danielle

Bathroom Break

Saturday nights my husband and I are usually out with friends, visiting or entertaining. This past Saturday was no different. We headed out to a friend's house for a drink. After two glasses of wine, I was feelin' good!

We left their house around 1 a.m. and we both had to use the bathroom. So we raced into the house. I made it first, did my thing and he came right in! So I didn't flush, and as I am washing my hands, he flushes and pees.

"What? You need fresh water for your pee?" I said joking.

He replied with:

"Hunny! If I pee in your pee, then we will have toilet babies and nobody wants that!"

Thanks for reading,

Danielle

The Magic of Starbucks

It's no secret that I have a severe addiction to Starbucks. Although it doesn't call for an intervention quite yet, it can be a problem! It's not even that I am addicted to the drinks either... I don't drink coffee. I order a half-sweet extra hot non fat chai tea latte.... Seriously, so good! But I will not attribute my addiction to the chai lattes. I am addicted to the magic that Starbucks bring (I know, hokey)!

I met my husband at a Starbucks. On August 31st 2008, we had our first date at a Starbucks on the West side of the city. We literally shut the place down. We talked so much and so long, we hadn't realized we had been there for 6 hours until the Barista came over a told us to leave! ... Magic!

Two and a half years later, on March 25th 2011, he took me back to that same Starbucks and proposed! I wasn't going to get into the details of the proposal but now I feel as though I should. I had a bad day at work. He picked me up and to cheer me up, suggested we go to Starbucks. He knows me so well! So we walked in and I grabbed a table while he got the drinks. There was a paper on the table so I started reading, oblivious to what was going on. He came back to the table with our drinks. I ignored him (must have been really into what I was reading...). Then I went to gab a sip of tea and the cup felt empty. I looked at him with a "WTF" face! He didn't say a word. So confused I was going to open the lid to show him that my cup was empty but there was a box inside. I was thinking to myself, "No, he's not proposing to me, he must have gotten me a present!" I opened the box and there he goes starting on his little spiel and asking me to marry him. My reply? "Are you serious?!" Anyways.... Magic!

Well, I was a little stressed with work and such this week so I decided to grab my book and go sit at a Starbucks to relax. I'm crazy into this book I am reading (The Dovekeepers - Alice Hoffman) so I didn't really notice the couple next to me until I realized the girl was crying a little bit. So, naturally, I eaves dropped a bit. They were breaking up! He was using all the classic lives "It's not you it's me", "I'm just not ready to be in a relationship right now", "We can still be friends", blah blah blah! In a nut shell, he was telling her he wanted to be able to sleep with other people.

After they left, I started looking around and I saw a business deal go underway, a couple enjoying a coffee and relaxing, a mother and her little girl having a Starbucks and chatting, four girlfriends chatting, a few students with their books and laptops, a couple that seemed to be on a first date asking all those first date questions and my favourite one of all, I saw an older couple, approximately in their 80s, sipping their coffee, talking and holding hands... Magic!

I <3 Starbucks!

Thanks for reading,

Danielle

The Brooch Bouquet

I have had quite a few people ask me about my wedding bouquet. How did I make it? What is it made of? What made me think of making it? So I figured I would share that with everyone.

As most of you know, I got married recently in Turks and Caicos. If any of you know anything about Turks and Caicos, you know it is EXPENSIVE! To order a wedding bouquet with simple white lilies was going to cost me $600. Well that just wasn't worth it for me. I opted to give my guests a private bar at the reception with that money and I decided to make my bouquet.

I thought it would be a walk in the park.... I was wrong.

First thing I did was I went on a search for broaches. I guess a "traditional" brooch bouquet is made up of only broaches, but I decided that I would incorporate any type of jewellery as long as it was gold, silver or blue. I got some jewellery from my mom, my husband's mom, my grandmother (who passed away last April), some of my close friends.... I incorporated a piece of all the people who are close to me into this project. I went to antique stores, jewellery stores and flee markets across the city. It took me about 3 months until I gathered what I thought would be enough pieces to make my bouquet. I had 60 pieces in total.

After about 30 attempts to make this bouquet in a bunch of different ways, I found what was going to work for me. I purchased a foam ball from Michaels and some pretty turquoise ribbon. I pulled out 3 pencil crayons and jabbed them into the ball to make a stem. I then duct taped the three pencils together to make a solid stem. I hot glued the ribbon so that it wrapped all the way around the foam ball and down the stem covering everything so it was all hidden by the blue ribbon. I then began attaching the pieces to the ribbon. I ripped off all the pins on the broaches and hot glued each piece onto the ball. I bought myself a pretty pearl necklace and glued some pearls where I thought there were holes between the broaches to make the bouquet look fuller. That's really about it...

Once I figured out an easy way to actually assemble it, it really wasn't that bad. I received so many compliments and it is a great original idea for a wedding bouquet.

The only thing I wish is that I had some bridesmaids so I could have made them each one as well. Here are a few idea for anyone who is looking to make a broach bouquet.

Thanks for reading,

Danielle

Oh Marilyn!

Every woman can relate to Marilyn Monroe. Behind this breath-taking beauty who I believe to be one of the most stunning women who ever lived, stood a person whom we could almost see a part of ourselves in. Maybe we just wanted to see a part of ourselves in her.

Let's face it, as women we can sometimes be erratic. I sure know I can. And I know that Marilyn was probably the most erratic of them all. But one thing Marilyn said that I can relate to most of all is:

"I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best."

How many times have you not been at your best and someone just isn't having it? They ignore you. They bring you down. They make you feel worst. But when you are happy and everything is great, they are you're best friend? I think we have all been through that. I sure know I have. Who gives them the right to pick and choose when they want to be your friend? Of course it's much easier when everything is great. Even I will admit that. But it's the ones who stand by you no matter what that really matter. That person who's love and affection never wavers, never changes, no matter what you may be facing.

Don't surround yourself with the people who only want you when you are at your best. It's those friends, lovers, family members, who stand by you through the highs and low that really matter. The people who lift you up in your time of need, those are the people who really love and care for you.

Do yourselves a favour, don't settle for less than that. No one is perfect. Everyone has their moments. Everyone has their ups and their downs.

Don't give anyone who can't handle you at the worst of times the very best of you.

Thanks for reading,

Danielle