Every week on Friday, I share a list of the most interesting and inspiring content I’ve read lately here on my blog. You can expect thoughts on productivity, happiness, balance, spirituality, politics, and more. Subscribe here to get updates. See archives here.
It was so fun to see Barack Obama’s list of favourite books and music from 2017. Nobody is cooler than him. (Except Michelle.)
I read this Twitter exchange and immediately started crying – it’s that powerful. Such a great example of what happens when we choose love, compassion, understanding rather than hate, anger or judgment.
Every year I watch Google’s Year in Search and every year I sob. 2017 was a hard year and the video doesn’t shy away from that: it’s life, it’s raw, it’s everything. Watching these makes me feel so deeply human.
How delighted was I to discover a super-cool website called Girls Night In which celebrates staying home?! And which also has a book club? With a chapter here in Toronto?!? Let me count the ways…
While I probably won’t be tackling a year of no shopping, I did find this piece inspiring and refreshing. I also love Ann Patchett, so reading anything she writes is a joy.
A very sweet personal documentary about moving far away from your family and staying connected to them. It’s also a beautiful portrait of New York.
I love the idea of having a social media detox, or as I recently saw it called, a Dry-Fi month. So this article was a great reminder that we can delete any app we want from our phone and in doing so, help ourselves make better daily decisions.
Yay! Feels so good to be back here sharing the things I love. My holiday break was so relaxing and rejuvenating and the first week back at work has been surprisingly calm. That’s a good thing, because I’ve been fighting a gross cold all week (not to mention the bone-chilling weather). I’m hoping that one more good night’s sleep will help me kick it! I’ll be back on the blog soon to share my word of the year for 2018 and some goals & intentions for the new year. Until then, I hope you have a wonderful weekend! xo.
It’s a pretty special thing to reflect on a whole year in one sitting. It shows you just how fast 12 months can go by, but also reminds you of just how much can happen in a year. Doing these reviews always makes me emotional because the more I look at my calendar and remember the beautiful things I got to experience, the only things I can think to say are: “thank you”, and “how did I get so lucky?” Thank you. How did I get so lucky?
I said last year that doing year end reviews is a great reminder that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and I feel like that’s particularly true of 2017. I didn’t go many places in the world this year, so when I first sat down to do this review I wondered if I’d have anything to say about certain months. And I was right, not every month had major highlights or achievements to report, but as I looked back over my calendar and my 1SE video, I realized that I had so many beautiful, quiet, meaningful moments both my myself and with my loved ones. So, no. I didn’t travel very much in 2017 or hit any huge milestones (car/house/husband). Instead, I built a life, and that is a very large accomplishment indeed. Here are my own personal highlights from the year:
January
In January I went to my first Tuesdays Together meetup. I was by myself and really nervous, and the only reason I went is because it was near my sister’s apartment, so I could go see her if I needed to bail. It ended up being the very best thing I did all year: as a result I met some very dear friends and kindred spirits, have become a part of Toronto’s creative community, and feel more at home in this city. All because of one little meetup!
February
I attended my first Creative Mornings event, had fun coworking dates with my friends, went home to visit the puppy, and saw a bunch of live music. Actually, 2017 was kind of the year of live music, and February was where that all kicked off. I also had my last two filming days with the Red Tent Sisters, on an unseasonably warm week near the end of the month. It was so much fun to shoot some great content and have a picnic with them on the deck.
March
There was so much fun stuff in March, but my favourite part was helping my friend Sonja cater Sarah Slean‘s album launch party for Metaphysics. It was a dream to hear her play live with a grand piano and a string quartet from only a few feet away – and of course the food and atmosphere were incredible. Another fun highlight was seeing the Book of Mormon with my friends Laura and Mike!
April
I somehow got to be a part of Nurture in April, which basically cracked my whole life wide open. I met so many amazing women who I am lucky enough to now call my friends (!), helped make a lot of delicious food, got some sunshine and peace and clarity, and made an important decision that changed the rest of my year in a really positive way. There’s no other word for it besides magic. It was magic.
Oh – in April I also started taking care of Pablo the cat, who was also a very welcome addition to my life for the rest of the year! Oh – AND it was my birthday, which was a ton of fun and so special to have all my favourite people around me.
May
We had a birthday party for my grandma, I had my first ever tarot reading, I went to see Ira Glass perform live, I wore sandals for the first time all year, I had my friend Adrienne staying with me for a few fun days, I helped out at two live events for one of my clients, I played outside in the backyard with my mom’s dog, I wore spring jackets. I love May.
June
The best part of June was my Dad’s wedding to my stepmom, Took. It was such a special day and – even though I didn’t think I would – I cried throughout the entire ceremony. I made a video of the day and it’s one of my favourite things I’ve ever created because it captures so much of the love and joy of that day.
Other highlights: lots of days lounging in parks, lots of live music, lots of family time.
July
I went to New York City for two weeks! This was my third summer visiting my friend Katie and my favourite visit yet. We went to the Jersey Shore, hit up the jimjilbang (indistinguishable from the ones we went to in Korea), found new rooftop patio bars, ate the best-ever fish tacos, went to street festivals, read books and toured the city. My heart feels so happy in New York and with my friends who I don’t get to see very often. Such a wonderful time.
August
Long lazy summer days, blue skies, time outside, campfires, windows open, butterflies. I deep cleaned my apartment and finally set up my home office, walked all day at Caribana, read on my front steps, went to a solar eclipse viewing party, saw my favourite Creative Mornings talk of the year, saw Shakespeare in the Park, and did a lot of journaling. Sonja and I also went to see John Mayer (her birthday gift to me) outside at the Budweiser stage after a day at the CNE – the absolute perfect end to summer.
September
There were a lot of fun events this month! I went to see Lady Gaga, and then the girls from My Favourite Murder with my friend Emily. I went to see an amazing documentary about The Avett Brothers with Sonja. I attended my first-ever Roncesvalles Polish Festival (the event of the year in this neighbourhood). I went up to the cottage with Laura and Mike for the third year in a row. I also volunteered at the hilarious but interesting Archangel Summit, where I got to hear Simon Sinek, Danielle Laporte, Shefali Tsabary, and others speak.
October
Nurture launched Harvest Table Dinners and we held the first one on October 1st! It was such a fun event with so many friendly faces and delicious food, and such a surreal way to celebrate my one-year anniversary of living in Toronto. Little did I know on that first night in 2016 that one year later I’d be having an amazing meal with the beautiful souls that I’d gotten to know.
In October I also had the very last patio drinks of the season, and went to my first family pumpkin carving day (I’d missed the last few years of this tradition!).
November
Katie came to visit for the first time since I officially moved to Toronto! It was so much fun to have her in my home and my neighbourhood, show her some of my favourite spots, introduce her to my Toronto friends, and tour (a lot of) Toronto’s historical houses. We also had kickass eggplant sandwiches, which warrant a mention here. In November we also had a sushi extravaganza with the whole family for my mom’s birthday, which was so much fun.
December
A beautiful month full of book clubs, dinners, kitty cuddles, work projects, twinkle lights, parties, crafts, candles, and family time. I helped my friend Brittney on a fun (but strenuous) interior design job which added some variety to my days. I got to go to some fun holiday parties wearing fun holiday sparkles. And I got to spend Christmas with my family and our dogs. What could be better than that?
Firsts of 2017
My friend Laura introduced this idea to me last year and I think it’s such a fun way to sum up some of the smaller aspects of the year that might not have otherwise made the highlight reel. Here are a few of my favourites:
It’s nice to revisit my goals & intentions post from last year and realize that I still resonate with so much of what I wrote. I hadn’t even really remembered what I wrote, but (since writing things down is magic), it turned out that unplugging often, embracing the moment, and celebrating the everyday were very much my themes this year.
1. Read 75 books✓
“How much happier I would have been to know that reading was itself a passion. Nobody treated it that way, and it didn’t occur to me to think otherwise.” -Pamela Paul, My Life With Bob
This is still my favourite goal, habit and practice all rolled into one. 2017 was the year that I really deepened my relationship with reading, partly thanks to reading My Life With Bob, and since I realized that reading is a form of flow and meditation. You can see everything I read in 2017 here.
2. Film 1 Second Everyday ✓
Yay! I’m so happy to say that 2017 was the first year that I made a complete year of 1SE. There were definitely days I missed, but I just went back in and added a clip of something that was likely to have been happening that day. Such a simple project, but it really gives such a cool recap of the full year. This year flew, but it’s cool to see a tiny slice of every single day, even (especially) the ones that I might not remember otherwise.
My Word of the Year: Embrace
Like most years that I choose a word, I could have been more intentional about embrace in 2017. That said, unlike some years, this word actually stayed with me the whole year, mostly in the back of my mind and sometimes on Instagram. I revisited my intention-setting post for this word and I do think there are ways that I embodied the word embrace throughout the year. I really embraced the people around me this year: I spent more time with family, I made lots of new friends, and I became part of more than one community here in Toronto. I also think I embraced my everyday pretty well – documenting 1SE helped, as did trying out NaBloPoMo this year. I also embraced my apartment and worked to make it a home by decorating, rearranging, styling, cozy-fying and inviting friends over. All in all, it was a great word and it served me well! I’m excited to choose a new theme for 2018.
If you’re curious, you can see more of my year-end reviews here:
Every week on Friday, I share a list of the most interesting and inspiring content I’ve read lately here on my blog. You can expect thoughts on productivity, happiness, balance, spirituality, politics, and more. Subscribe here to get updates. See archives here.
Reading this list of innovations of 2017 that improved women’s lives gave me hope. Yes! Especially the mammogram one: we were seriously overdue for some innovation on that one.
I know that I am notorious for sharing book lists, but this one looks especially thoughtful and varied. I also loved reading this one, because of how many on her list I have read and enjoyed: helps me trust her suggestions!
Reminder: the demons hate fresh air. A truism I hope to remember over the holidays when things get too hectic!
I’ve really been enjoying Jocelyn K. Glei’s newsletter since I signed up for it – they’re so beautifully designed and there’s always at least one interesting link that sparks ideas. In her most recent one, she linked to this list of 36 ways to find more meaning and creativity in your daily life, and I’m hoping to work my way through each of the articles over the holiday break.
My friend Sonja has been posting a “Kitchen Blessings Advent Calendar” for every day of December – 31 days to nurture your relationship with food. There are some serious gems in here and reading these have been such a treat. My kitchen needed some love!
I made homemade ornaments for the kids that live in the apartment above mine and they were a huge hit! Super easy to make with ingredients you probably already have. I just painted mine bright colours once they were dry and wrote the kids’ names on them. Yay!
I’m coming up on one full year of doing 1 Second Everyday and I cannot explain how excited I am to watch the whole year in one go. If you’re a person who enjoys documentation as much as I do, I encourage you to try this project next year! It’s the most fun.
This week has been a lot of wrapping up at work, catching up with friends, festive gatherings and family time. I’m so excited to take the holidays off to have a really rich and restorative break. I’m taking a break from the blog too! There won’t be a new Inspiration post until January 5th, but I may pop on here to reflect on 2017 and set intentions for 2018 – we’ll see! Until then, have a wonderful holiday. xo.
Every week on Friday, I share a list of the most interesting and inspiring content I’ve read lately here on my blog. You can expect thoughts on productivity, happiness, balance, spirituality, politics, and more. Subscribe here to get updates. See archives here.
If you are a fan of Stranger Things the way I am, this will be 6 minutes of pure joy – I was smiling my head off. Start at minute 3:18 for the best part, which I have now watched three times. It led me to revisit this other clip from last year that I also find extremely funny.
As you may know, I am obsessed with The Wirecutter for all kinds of recommendations, so I was excited to discover a similar site called The Sweet Setup, which is for app recommendations.
On a related note, this past week I switched to listening to my podcasts on Overcast, which was no small undertaking! But it was 100% worth it, considering how buggy the native iPhone podcast application can be, and how annoying it was to navigate after the last update. Plus I love Overcast’s “Smart Speed” feature which trims long pauses automagically. More on this from Slate.
Almost every woman I know was talking about this short story either publically or in private chats this week, because there are so many pieces and themes within it that are relatable and resonate with us. I also particularly liked the interview with the author, where she unpacks the story a bit further. I did not particularly like the Twitter account devoted to men’s responses to the story, but it was, in a word, interesting.
Sharing here in case you, like me, hadn’t heard: Ridley Scott re-shot significant chunks of an almost-finished movie in two weeks (sticking to the original release date) in order to replace Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer! Because, in his words: “You can’t tolerate any kind of behavior like that. We cannot let one person’s action affect the good work of all these other people. It’s that simple.” Thank you, Ridley Scott, for understanding that it matters. It matters. I love how he’s also just like, it’s no big deal. Amazing.
My friend Laura sent me a 70-page document on emotional labour compiled from the comment threads on Meta Filter. I am working my way through it slowly, slowly, because a) it’s a lot to handle emotionally, and b) it’s long, yo! I think emotional labour is one of the next big feminist battles we have to fight and it feels good to be informing myself.
I finished The Wisdom of Sundays this week – also a gift from Laura! It was a beautiful book both in terms of content and presentation, and a real treat to read cozied up on my couch. It affirmed for me that I am on the right path. It reminded me of what matters to me.
Homegoing was one of the best books I’ve read this year, so it was fun to read this piece by Yaa Gyasi about her writing routine.
Finally a normal week back in my normal routine! I really cherish these days where I get back to my rhythms and to the freedom to structure my time the way that I want to. It’s been really cold this week but I’m doing my best not to complain or be negative about it (per my winter resolutions!) and bundle up instead. Just one week left until the holidays! Lots of work and lots of fun planned between now and then. I hope you have a wonderful weekend too. xo.
