570. Quick Update

I went for dinner with a friend tonight and we were talking about how the key to happiness is to keep progressing and making at least one improvement per day. Or something like that. I completely agree with this. In my "professional life" I'm actually a pretty hard worker and work all hours of the day. But then I sacrifice time for personal interests and hobbies and things I don't "have" to get to yet.. For example I'm very behind on reading all my magazine subscriptions (I subscribe to like 10 different magazines and every time the new issues come I get stressed about having to read it lol), putting up my aurora lights, doing yoga, ordering my last pieces of furniture, planning my summer vacation, keeping up with my blog and other blogs, finishing with my Asia trip blog posts, setting up some appointments etc. I can't believe I've been so stressed about all this recently..all good problems to have I guess. I'm aware there are bigger problems I could be having but I still think I should keep a healthy balance of work and personal life. But recently I've had quite a busy social life and my actual work has been extremely busy so I haven't had much time for anything else. My renovations are still not done yet..hopefully by the END of next week, my kitchen will be complete. After that is all taken care of I can focus on putting together my place again and re-organizing my life..and better manage my time.

I didn't mean to ramble on so much in the paragraph above..the only point I wanted to make was: when my friend and I had that conversation earlier about doing at least one thing per day to progress, I thought it was finally time to make a new blog post, no matter how short. Because the more I put it off, the more stressed I get because I don't like to go so long without making a new post..even though I do this as a hobby and don't "have" to keep regular updates, I actually want to keep it fairly active. Blogging is also a nice form of stress relief for me. I don't have time at the moment to edit all the other photos for a full post so here is one of my favourite shots from my birthday week last week!! This was from the afternoon my friend and I went for an afternoon tea at the Royal York Hotel. We then had a tour around the hotel and we took the time to take photos instead. I really like this shot because it was semi-candid and only taken with my cell phone camera but I think it turned out pretty nice.

As some of you may know, my birthday was a few days ago (March 26). I never celebrate my birthday but this year I did quite a lot for it! I will post all about it in my next post..but it was a lot of fun and made me very grateful to have the people in my life that I do now. Even with all the current "stress" I have, I'm actually at a very good and happy place in my life right now. I don't know if it's because of my birthday just passing but I have been thinking a lot about this recently. I feel I've grown and learned a lot these past few months especially and I became more self aware.

My other goal this week is to put up my aurora lights by following the rule of doing at least one step per day. Again, the longer I procrastinate putting them up the more unnecessarily stressed I get. I did step 1 yesterday which was setting up the ladder at the correct spot hahah. It was pretty hard work believe it or not. After I finish this post I will do step 2 which is to open up a box of the lights and figure out how to mount them. Then tomorrow onwards I'll put at least one up a day (there are 18 panels total). I hope I will get them done by the end of the week..well I'd have to, since my contractor comes back next week and will be taking his ladder back. ----- if you don't know what my aurora lights are you're probably very confused by this paragraph.

Anyways, I will end this post here. It's 2:30am and I know late at night I tend to write too much. I do feel more productive now that I finally got around to doing an update here.


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569. Recent Life

Hi everyone..so I'm putting a hold on my "renovations" post series for now since there hasn't been much progress recently. I'm still waiting on my kitchen to be made. The cabinets have been taking a long time..I also took a break from furniture shopping because surprisingly, shopping does get exhausting lol. Good problem to have though I guess. I need to try to buy the rest of my stuff this week. But at least I'm pretty much moved back into my place now and life is semi-back to normal. I've been extremely busy these days with work and going out that I literally have no time to blog! (or even keep up with blogs)

My birthday is coming up next week. I don't make a big deal out of my birthday anymore..well I never really did ever. But especially in recent years I don't really celebrate because I don't want to get any older! I do have a few things planned this week though and I think I'll try to plan a few more events..good excuse to go out I guess.

Last night was fun. I went out for a dinner with some friends to Reservoir Lounge. Just as the live music started I had to leave as I had planned to go with my friend and his co-worker to watch Logan. It was amazing!! I really loved it. I'm really into extreme and gory action movies. I definitely recommend it.

Here are some more random photos from the week:



My coconut water obsession is still going strong. My friend recently got me into coconut water from Greenhouse Juice. It tastes amazing and so fresh but a lot more expensive than the other stuff. At the rate I drink it, I definitely can't afford to get it all the time lol. In other news, I really love my new full sized fridge. Lots of space for all my smoothie ingredients.


My favourite pasta (so far) from McEwan

Almost every time I walk away to go to the washroom or wherever, my dog quickly takes over my spot lol. I thought this was funny because it looked like he was working on my laptop. If only he was able to help me with my millions of emails..

I'm super excited about this. I first discovered the Nanoleaf Aurora at the Interior Design Show this year. I thought it was really cool..but didn't think about purchasing it. Then I suddenly thought of a really cool way to use it. The design I want to create requires 3 boxes (though now I figured out to do it using just 2) and is going to be a ridiculously difficult task but it will definitely be worth it. When I went to buy this first box, it was the only one left so I got the last one. Today I went back and they restocked! So I bought another one. Now I have to order one last piece before I can start putting it up. I will post the final results when I have it done.


Last night at Reservoir Lounge. Their thin crust pizza is amazing.

Last week they were filming a show called "Perfect Citizen" in my building. One night I went to walk around the set. It kind of creeped me out being there by myself so late at night lol. I just walked around quickly and snapped a few shots. The base building of where I live is very historic and apparently this floor is haunted at night. I used to wander around here a lot with my friends but I never usually come alone hahah..except for that night. When I first moved in here, this area was some sort of members club. The walls were full of portraits which made it even scarier at night. I remember exploring with my next door neighbour at the time. Good memories.




The directors' chairs - David Zucker, Paris Barclay, and...don't remember the last one.




Calamari and Prawn Spaghettini at Cactus Club!

My bathroom is my makeshift kitchen hahah. I had to make my smoothie in there since I don't have a kitchen yet! & I will post better photos of my bathroom once it's 100% complete and I have everything set up for it. I'm contemplating now to change the mirror because it really doesn't match the colours :(


My morning green smoothie: spinach (sometimes kale), pineapple, apple, banana, chia seeds, maca powder, and coconut water.

I spent a few hours at my lobby bar again today. Did a lot of work and ate a LOT of edamame. I decided to be adventurous and not get my usual chicken caesar salad from here so I ordered edamame instead..it was pretty good. I ended up getting 2 boxes!! Couldn't finish the second box though. They cook it with oil, sesame seeds and salt.


Then of course we ended up at the Library Bar again at night.

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568. Renovations | Part 7

I feel my renovations posts are starting to get repetitive now hahah..progress has been quite slow. So far I got maybe half my furniture/appliances here..still waiting on more and have a few more small things left to buy. My washroom is almost finished now. Apparently they will finish the countertop and sink tomorrow. Not sure when the kitchen cabinets will arrive..that will be the final thing they have to put together, along with the countertops for that as well. Also I'm soooo excited for my new faucet!! Kind of weird, one of the most important things for me in this entire renovations project is my kitchen faucet lol. I spent two Friday nights searching for hours for the perfect one. I finally did last week and placed an order, which should arrive sometime this week.

I'm really happy with the way everything is coming together so far. I still need to get lighting for my place. I have a cool idea for one that I sort of have to "make"..going out later to buy the stuff then work on it today. I'm so excited for it. Hope it turns out well.

My friend took this photo of me above. We go to the Library Bar at the Royal York Hotel a couple times a week now, which you probably know since I've posted pics from there for a few blog posts in a row now lol. As it's connected directly to our building, we don't have to walk outside in the freezing cold weather or wear our coats! This was Thursday night..it was super busy so we had to wait for our table.



I really love my new bed! My new mattress is amazing..it's soooo comfortable. I've had really good sleeps these past few nights.

Yesterday my couch thing arrived! I'm not sure exactly what to call this actually..as it's not really a normal couch hahah. The bottom part is leather and the two cushions are suede. It's pretty cool. It can also be used as a bed. I chose the colours myself so the blue cushions matches my bed. Hennessy really loves it as you can see. Now I'm a little worried about having to maintain the white leather..would've made more sense to get a darker colour but white matches my other furnishings better! I'm going to reposition this when everything else arrives. It's a bit bigger than I expected so I have to figure out how to place everything. Wish I had a bigger place now hahah.


My appliances arrived! I should've asked them to turn my range out the other way (for photo purposes)..but I guess I'll show you once the kitchen is finally complete.

My outfit the other day! I was planning to go to yoga again but ended up not having time that day. I haven't gone in weeks already :s I really need to get back into it. I bought a new yoga mat as well to use at home. Then I have my other one that I keep stored at the yoga studio. I realized that almost everything at my place now is navy blue, gray, and white. That's why I got this pink mat (I know it looks red in the pic).


My west side view..the first thing all the delivery men say when they come in is that they love the view hahah. I do as well (obviously)!


Snapchat: @leftbanked / follow me & on Insta-story too! I've been posting a lot these days.

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567. Renovations | Part 6

I am currently blogging from my new bed! If you follow me on my other social media, you may know I came down to my place for the first time since the renovations as my bed finally arrived! Well I only came down for the weekend. Heading back uptown for the next few days to finish up some final shopping (cabinet door handles, kitchen faucet, side tables, etc) then probably going to come again towards the end of the week. I am still waiting for the rest of my furniture and appliances to arrive as well as my washroom vanity and basically my entire kitchen. I really can't wait until everything is finished..I've already been waiting 3.5 weeks & counting so far!


Hennessy & I at my building's loading dock..opening the door for the delivery men.


Watching & waiting for them to set up my new bed.

Here it is! I got all blue bed sheets as well. At first I was afraid the colour scheme of my place would be a bit too masculine but I guess the style is pretty girly so it balances out lol.

My washroom! I loooove the tiles..they even put it on the ceiling as well. So beautiful. By the end of this week my vanity should be here. I'm so excited to see how it all comes together. I hope the colours all match. I went to buy new towels and a bath mat today and spent forever deciding on which colours to get. I ended up with a grey bath mat, light blue and cream towels. I will post everything again once it's all complete.


Drinking copious amounts of coconut water..as usual


I also had to get new hair products. I love these Schwarzkopf shampoo & conditioner..they smell amazing!


Another visit to the Library Bar of course.



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566. Renovations | Part 5

Here is another renos update (which I'm sure you must be sick of hearing about by now)..I'm getting burnt out from this whole process. A lot of time, energy, $$$$$ spent. & when you deal with sooo many different companies/people, there are always issues that come up like with my furniture and appliances. For the most part, the companies we went for have been good to deal with so far (since we compared a few different places for each thing we bought and went with the best). The one that has caused me the most stress so far is the appliances. I hope my fridge will come soon so that when I move in I can keep up with my daily smoothies lol. & I hope all goes well with my range, since they have to change the voltage on my power outlet to install it. Besides that, my contractors have been really good to deal with so far. They're already doing 2 of my friends' places after mine. If you want any recommendations, feel free to ask me! Next week I still have to get my kitchen faucet, cabinet door handles, side tables, shelf, wardrobe, microwave, desk chair...I think that should be all for now. Then some extra stuff I will buy over the next few months.

We should be in the final stretch now. My washroom should be done tomorrow then my kitchen next week. My bed is arriving tomorrow so I'm going to go and spend the night there (for the first time in weeks!!!)

Besides my renovation project, theres also been a lot of other (good) things going on in my life recently. So I've been extremely busy..in a good way.

Every time I go down to my place to check on the progress, I spend most of the day at the bar catching up with the bartender + having my daily chicken caesar salad + sweet potato fries. I also meet up a few friends every time. It's funny because when I lived there, I never went to the bar (well it has been a few years since I did that)..and I don't even meet up with people half as much hahah. I should continue that when I move back.

I'm so in love with my new floors. If you follow me on Snapchat and/or Instagram (Insta-story)..you'll know I nearly ruined them as soon as they got put in lol. I think when everything is done I will take advantage of my building's hotel maid service to clean everything for me so I don't run into another issue with cleaning hahah.

Just ordered my curtains!! The curtains were probably the thing I cared the least about at first..I didn't think it would really matter what they looked like. But now I can't wait for them to be installed since I found the perfect fabric!

Current state of my washroom. I like how they put the tiles on my ceiling as well. So excited to see it all come together...I really hope the tiles will match my cabinets/faucet/door handles. I also need to think of what colour towels and floor mat to get. I kept my old mirror but now I don't know if it matches. As this is my first renovations project (all from scratch) I'm so nervous that something will look un-matched or off when it's all done. It is a fun experience though. I think I want to get into the business of flipping properties someday since I love designing lol.


Dinner the other night..so busy I had to work while eating lol =\


A few weeks ago I said Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You" was my favourite and I had it on repeat..but with my current stress levels, I needed something way more extreme hahah. So my current favourite form of stress relief is blasting this song. Now I decided to get new speakers for my place (my neighbours are going to hate me)...currently looking for nicely designed ones. However I still like Shape of You so I found this..so far my favourite version of this song:



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