the sun will come out tomorrow

I would apologize for not posting in over a week but that's, like, sooo mainstream. Rather, I'll enlighten you all on the minute details of my life. I.e. I AM EMPLOYED. I have now enter the realms of adulthood. DUN DUN DUNNNN. I have acquired a job at Forever 21. I received the job on the spot, so I'd like to extend a ginormous 'thank you' to my obnoxious, ahem, unique style and inability to stop smiling/ talking in nerve-racking situations. You "quirks" have done me well. Awww cute.

My job is treating me well, aside from the fact that the hours are goofy and the mall hurts my head. Aside from that, all is well. Toronto is treating me well, as well. (How many times have I utilized the word well?! Jeez.) I find these folks far more responsive to my style, which is snazzy. (Although I have garnered the occasional, "Is that seeeeriously what you wear on a regular basis?" - new coworker.) The weather has been beautiful. It's fantastic how that works, hey? Beautiful days? Spent inside in the mall? Yeah. Oh well, shmo well.

Toronto is turning out to be a fun place. It's nice venturing out on my own. There are, of course, some things I hate about it (how rushed/ disconnected people seem, the number of smokers, et cetera). There are also, of course, some utterly wonderful things about it (I've had multiple conversations with wonderful strangers). The point is: Big city > Small town any day, mwahahah TAKE THAT HOMETOWN. (more city observations are for another post. granted.)




Starting out a job is weird. It feels like I'm the new kid in school. A lot of this whole experience is, in fact, reminiscent of being in school (minus the boring classes/ and I'm making money, chaachhhinnng!). I'm not sure what to think of this, but I'm enjoying the people, so it's good...

Anyways. I'm working in a few hours. (Until 10:30. Pm. At least. #messedupmallhours). In the meantime, I'm going to try to find a park and read for a little and maybe find a bubble tea store and perhaps I'll chat with a stranger. SO MANY POSSIBILITIES IN A CITY!!!! Ah, tehe.




I hope you all have a smashing day!

What was your first job? What is your current job? Tell me your job history!
(If, of course, you are part of the WORK FORCE. Sorry. That word gives me a kick. It feels very military-esque.)

calling all TORONTONIANS!

Hello fanciful creatures of the internet!

I hope you're all being marvelous and chipper and what not. I'm super chipper. Why? Because it's thundering outside and I just LOVE IT. It ruined a bit of today's plans, but now I'm just curled up on the computer and knitting indoors (seriously. I am an old lady. All I need is 24 cats and I'm set.), so I'm feeling dapper. Just so you know.

Anyways, I was inspired to post these pictures because they were taken on a rainy day and today is a rainy day! EEK CHECK OUT THAT CRAZY COINCIDENCE! SO COOL! Not really. But I really love these pictures and have been kind of hoarding on them. I don't even know if that sentence makes sense, but yeah. I hope you enjoy their presence, as well!

Now, I'm not usually directly inspired or influenced by people or pictures when I'm getting ready. It's generally based on whim of my mood/ the weather/ life. But bam! Fay Leshner proved me wrong. One of her quotes that really resonated with me went along the lines of, "People say I don't wear black and white. No. I make black and white look like colour." When I heard that, I was like DANNNG GURL. Such an interesting concept! But then I was like I WANT TO TRY IT. So I did. Ever thought you'd see Lexy in (almost) head-to-toe-black-and-white? Me neither.




Now, these photos were taken awhile ago. (CUHLEARLY. Inside joke between myself and those inhabited in Southern Ontario. What would happen if I wore this outfit out these days? I WOULD MELT ITS SEW HAWT I WANT FALL!!!! lolzkatz. but really.) But I do remember the day I wore it. I went to Ikea with the mum and the sibling. As I got out of the car, I noticed my sister was walking away from me. I walked towards her. She walked faster. I walked faster. She walked faster. "Are you embarrassed by my outfit?" I inquired. "Not gonna lie," she replied, turning around ever so slightly, "Yes." I thought it was hilarious and made it my goal to smother her with a loving hug. It was a really beautiful moment of pure sisterly love.

(In my sister's defense, I really don't blame her. I'm kind of vibing the likes of optical illusion. or monochromatic throw-up...)




By the way... Do you read my blog? Do you live in Toronto? If so, give me a SHOUT! Sorry. I was channeling "The Infomercial" in my writing style. But I decided to stop. Because it's lame. And kind of creepy. The point is, Hi friends! I've kind of spontaneously decided to stop by Toronto for the week! Yeah! I'm living with my grandparents and job hunting for the week. I'm a little nervous, but also excited. I would love to meet any one of you! (PLEASE I AM BEGGING I NEED FRIENDS YOUNGER THAN SEVENTY YEARS OLD) If you inhabit in Tdot or nearby, please send me an email - lexyht[at]hotmail[dot]com. I'd love meet up! I am friendly and easy going and... wow. I sound like I'm on a dating website. I think I should stop now.*

*I am not this creepy in real life. I assure you. Despite the fact that I am wearing creepers. (HAHAH. Sorry. I thought that was witty and maybe even laughed out loud at my seeming wittiness. Just maybe.) Also, ignore my creepy pose below. It's not there. Your eyes are playing tricks.

(Full body suit - Value Village/ Thrifted $7, Shirt - Value Village/ Thrifted $3, Tights - H&M $5, Socks - H&M $2, Shoes - Value Village/ Thrifted $7, Balloon Bib - Homemade, Gloves - Europe/ Gifted)

Have a smashing week!
What inspires your outfits?

it's fun to bike in the rain.

Coming home from vacations? Yeah, it's no fun. You re-enter your mundane life. Your mundane life that is filled with rooms left messier than you remembered leaving them (so disappointing), and days left boring-er than you recalled (ughhh), and cell phones left… somewhere that you can't seem to locate (shh, don't tell my mom!) (seriously. my face will be damaged if she discovers this information…). By the way, the "you" in this case is, in fact, referring to ME. As in, I am home from vacation and oh PHOOEY, I don't like it!

However, one thing that DID make my coming-home blues all the less blue was knowing that a marvelous package would be awaiting my arrival… and it WAS. Both awaiting my arrival AND marvelous! Misikko contacted me a few weeks ago wondering if I'd like to maybe test out and review their flat iron. I hummed and I hawed. I weighed the pros and the cons. Kidding. I didn't really do any of that. As soon as I received the email, my fist pumped to the air: "YESSS" I shrieked, "I'VE MADE IT AS A BLOGGER." (Hi, I'm Lexy and I'm a total over-dramatic/ excitable dork.)

I opened the box. I heard the bells! Ding-dong! As in, LAKDJLASKJD AMAZING. It was like Christmas! But in August! HOW COOL IS THAT?! The box was filled with an array of amazing goodies. As in, hello I knew you were going to send me a straightener, but make-up and flowers and nail files? Oh my! Hint: Happy dancing was involved.


I must admit that my sibling and I are what you could call hair-straightener virgins. However, despite our lack of credentials, I will confidently say that BAM! this straightener is FABULOUS. Don't take my word for it? How about our before and after photos? From messy-bedhead-coupled-with-a-sweaty-day-spent-with-the-hair-pulled-up to va-vaaa-voom-sliiiick? Yeah. THAT'S RIGHT.




It's really quite glorious. The straightener glided down my sister's waffled hair. In went kinks then BAM! out went the kinks. Needless to say, the first word that was sputtered after this DIY magic show was "wow." I could do a play-by-play of the straightening event, but essentially consisted of variations of "wow" and "woah" and "zomgitworkzsowell!!!!!" In the midst of our childlike "we're so cool" excitement, we managed to sputter many 'pros' regarding this magical machine. And struggled with our 'cons.' In conclusion...

Pros:
- It works. Really, really well. I don't have much (read: any) experience with flat irons, but it flattened my hair. Fast. Really, really fast. This is kind of the whole point of a flat iron, so YAY.
- Heats up extremely quickly
- Different temperature settings is a snazzy touch
- Attractive

Cons:
- We couldn't figure out how to get it to curl. But we're not the most hair-saavy, so we're werkin' on it.
- Pricey

So there! You have it! This straightener is fabulous! So fabulous, in fact, that I had to indulge in some IWhipMyHairBackInForth meets Pantene Commercial-esque photos. C'mon. It's swooshy hair. I can't be held accountable for my dorkiness.





(Disney top - Thrifted $1, Skirt - Value Village/ Thrifted $7, Swooshy Hair - c/o Misikko)

Thank you Misikko for sending me their fabulous product! It is super snazzy. As my sister stated, "OMG I AM SO USING THIS! PLEASE! PLEASE! I think I'll straighten my hair the FIRST DAY of school. Yeah. Yeah I will!" Yep. That's right. This product is worthy of my sister's first day of grade 11. Obviously this speaks volumes to the gravity of our love of this straightener. (Really.) Make sure you check out Misikko and all they're products - irons! and dryers! and oils! oh my!

Have a swooshy day!
How long does it take you to get ready in the morning?

robots need love too

Here's a shocking fact for you (sarcasm): I've never been a sports person. In fact, I can go as much as saying: I used to hate sports. Yes. Hate. When I was a kid, this hatred stemmed from the idea of "losing." Not me losing, per se. (I wasn't much of a sports kid.) But the other people, the other team. I would watch basketball on television with my dad and cry for the losing team. I felt so bad for them. All the hard work! All the hours! All the dreams! All the hope! For nothing?! I came up with the best solution: coaches and team members on both teams should always have a secret agreement to always just tie. Agree to ensure the scores were even. Agree to ensure that they played at the same pace. Then, nobody would lose! Everybody's a winner!!!! Duhhh! went the lightbulb in my seven-year-old brain.

Today, I wouldn't say that I hate sports. Like art, they are filled with passion and talent and dedication and dreams and all those things are very beautiful. But, still. I'm a total child. Why can't everyone be a winner? Why are we so caught up in winning and losing, anyways?

The video and song below propelled this memory. It's magnificent (and by a Canadian musician! boo yeah, Canadian pride!). I couldn't believe it but, at the end of the song, I had tears in my eyes. Really. I'm a total dweeb.

I don't know why we always fight with hate. Love is so much more beautiful, so much more powerful. Live and love.

I hope you all have a beautiful day.

the thunder was insanity last night

KABOOM!

What? Why am I starting this post with a KABOOM!? Why, my friends, I am now THUNDER. KABOOM! HEAR ME ROAR. Bahah. I kid you. I am not thunder. But I have experienced a fair share of thunder over hare (yeah, so it rhymes), so, surely, there's some similarity or... anyways... A few nights ago, the weather was absolutely horrendous - and I mean that in the best of ways. I've never heard thunder so loud. It was explosive. It was scary. GAH I LOVED IT. (I totally dork out at thunderstorms. They're my favouritezzz!!!! Yeah.) I also felt very lucky to be under a roof and in a bed and I was crossing my fingers that no one was trapped outside...

Aside from or including the storms (whichever way you roll), the weather has been really glorious. Right now, I'm outside getting my tan on. Just kidding. 1) I never say "getting my tan on." (I just don't think I can pull that phrase off.) 2) I'm so over tanning. SPF is where it's at. Unprotected sun-worshipping is cancerous and uncool, folks.

My sister informed me that I looked like a picnic blanket. Aw, don't you love sibling honesty?! Lalala. Yay.

(Before you proceed with the usual ramblings, I feel like it is necessary to note that 1) these photos were not taken in Alberta, but 2) I am currently in Alberta. Kapeesh? Kapeesh. Clarity is our friend.)

Typical pre-August dialogue that has, indeed, occurred typically:

Person: What are you doing next month?

Me: Um, well, I'm off to Alberta to see family.

Person: Hah, what's there to do in Alberta?

Me: Lots of fun stuff, like, um… JKZZZZ. There's nothing to do!

Note: I'm not saying this to be offensive to Alberta. I'm really not. In fact, I'll let you in on a lil' (not so) secret. When I was a wee little one, I had dreams of living here! (Well, particularly because my cousins were living here, but HAR, that's besides the point!). But really. In the town that I'm staying in, it's even smaller than my wee little town in Southern Ontario. Can I just say BAM! that's saying a lot? BAM! That's saying a lot.

But really, I do love it here and consider it a "home away from home." 78% of the family on my mum's side lives here, so it's this big, ginormous, loud azn (asian) family. WOOT WOOT. What I've been acutely aware of is how crazy these generational gaps are. We have my grandma who's seventy-something. And then my little cousin who's 2 years old. There's offspring of offspring. Families of families. I don't know. It's freaky to realize how all my parents and aunts and uncles were once me and my sister's and my cousins' age. It's freaky to realize that will, at one point (hopefully), probably quickly, become my parents' aunts' and uncles' current age. There's a weird sense of nostalgia, of realization. Time goes by really freaking fast...

(Shirt - Value Village $3, Skirt - Value Village $3, Belt - Thrifted $1, Shoes - Salvation Army $7, Broach - homemade by the Sibling, Bag - Gifted)

I hope you all have a glorious weekend with glorious weather with glorious colours and glorious people! xxx

What time are you looking forward to?

spending way too much time with the sibling brainstorming ideas for our future bubble tea franchise (if we're failing at life before we hit thirty)

Dearest children,

Hello there! I hope you are all glorious. I, myself, am quite glorious - thank you oodles for inquiring. I've had a solid past coupla' days filled with marvellous goodies (save for early morning screaming fits from small infants we call "family") (consequently, we still manage to love them, despite the fact that their vocal cords could blow up the roof). For instance, today I purchased the most pyschedlic shoes EVER. I'm so excited to flaunt them. Hint: If the 70s and Bratz had a shoe baby, my new shoe would be THAT shoe baby. AW YEAH. It sounds hideous, but trust me, well, yeah... it is. In the best way possible. (My brain likes to think.)

By the way, here are some collages that I snipped and pasted out a week or two ago. Backstory: the door to my room is embarassing. It consists of red-carpet images circa '04. Real high class, too. There's some Paris, some Lindsay, some *siiigh* I cringe. So, about 4.4 years later, I've decided that it's time to axe those bad boys and replace it with something a little more... enticing? Yeah. Solution? New collages with my favourite quotes! Can I get a "boo yeah"? Oh, no one says "boo yeah" anymore? Well, BOO YEAH.

1. "Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert the integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the common place, the slaves of the ordinary." - Cecil Beaton. P.S. I feel like it's important to say that BAM! I love this quote. I've quoted this quote multiple times on this good ole' "blog" thing. In fact, I even used this as the quote in my yearbook bio. Yup. YEARBOOK BIO. That's how much I am intensely in love with this quote.

2. "Most of us go through life as failures, because we are waiting for the “time to be right” to start doing something worthwhile. Do not wait. The time will never be “just right.” Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along." - Napoleon Hill. This one just really resonated with me because DANG! it's so true. I find that people are always so full of excuses as to why they didn't do something. It's sad, really.

3. "You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself." - Alan Alda. I'm always up for authenticity and intuition and following the heart and all that cheesy stuff with heartshape sirens and bubbles and what nattt. This makes me feel at least decent for being up in the clouds.

Anyways, I hope this post granted you with enjoyment. Sorry. That was really awkwardly worded. Nonetheless, what I really DO hope is that you're having an incredible day. I really do. I hope you're all waking up smiling. I hope you're all happy and fearless and filled with dreams. Kisses!

What are YOUR favourite quotes or motto?

(Who knows? It may end up snipped and pasted into a collage that is then snipped and pasted onto my door. WHO KNOWS.)

not a fan of the overpriced drinks, but free wifi is enough to make me stay!

So... do you guys remember when I posted approximately a billion posts in one week? (This is a guesstimation, of course. But you get the principle.) (You say, "YES. Of course I remember!") Therefore, my previous diligence in blogging means that I can go almost a week without posting and YOU CAN'T SAY ANYTHING! Nah-nah-nah-boo-boo!

Ahem. Sorry. That was weird. Here is an outfit post from last week. I wore this to meet a designer. Dressing up was a bit of a challenge. I wanted to go with a more muted version of myself to echo the designer's designs... but it also had to be all, "SHBAM I'M STILL LEXY." Here is what I came up with.

LOOK AT MY CUTE HEADBAND...


... Yeah. You hoodlums know the drill... Do you like this headband? Do you want one for yourself? If so, check out my etsy! Woohoo. *Insert peppy cheers and pom poms and rah rahs and pyramids and the likes.*


Oh by the way, it really pains me to say this... but... well... I guess I'll just spit it out... There was an unfortunate incident involving Daisy (my dog) and, well, small children with sharp objects... Let's just say that we were lucky enough to salvage the non-bloody parts of her beautiful white mane and create a bag that will celebrate her doggy life forever... Her soul may not be with us, but her flesh and fur always will be. <3 (Note: AH I AM ONLY KIDDING OF COURSE. Knock on wood and cross fingers and all that jazz to ensure that this silly story never equates to reality. PLEASE.)


(Blazer - Thrifted $1, Shirt - Vintage $7, Skirt - Homemade, Shoes - Vintage $15, Tights - F21, Bag - Gifted, Ring - Thailand, Headband - Homemade)

I hope you're all having a glorious summer filled with summery things and the likes. I'm soaking up the last few weeks with, um, screaming babies and crazy cousins before reality sets in. DUN DUN DUN! (i.e. wahhh, I need a job!)

What would be your *dream* (but realistic) job?