The Bias Cut: Valentine's Day

Monday, February 14, 2011

Queen of Hearts

Today's accessories:

Hairband: Aldo

Ring: gifted

Tights: H & M

Shoes: Some reeeeeallllly inexpensive store in Cancun

Don't you just love my ghetto Blackberry pics? Pixels, how I miss you in my life.

Today's soundtrack:

Maroon 5-She Will Be Loved. Takes me to a different place in my life.

Justin Timberlake - My Love. He's hot. Whatever.

Katy Perry - Teenage Dream. How everyone wants to feel in their relationship.

Gwen Stefani - 4 in the Morning. I would kill a person for her hair. Also, she says everything I have ever thought.

This weekend was so great! I went to Toronto to visit my best friend who lives in the Beaches/Leslieville area of town, which is really beautiful. It was her boyfriend's birthday party on Saturday, and after 11 years of them dating, he is one of my oldest friends as well. I was also able to see some of my other great friends who also live in TO.

Saturday afternoon, my business partner Marie and I met with a gentleman who will be able to manufacture our swimwear line! It was the most important step in my adventure so far, and to be able to walk away feeling confident and more informed felt so great. I have a few more things I need to knock off before we move ahead to the manufacturing stage, but I am confident it will all come together. I think Marie and I both felt the meeting was a potential deal breaker and could have been a major snafu had we not felt it had gone well.

Back to Love Day stuff, is this not a scene from every girl's fantasy?

This is a guy who acknowledges the girl is not, in fact, without faults...but that he still finds her wholly perfect WITH those faults, and not DESPITE them. Man, I love that movie.

There are a lot of romantic comedy films that incorporate the "grand gesture" scene...the speech in front of a thousand spectators, the national TV confession, the workplace disruption, the smashing of many glass objects at the restaurant, etc, etc.

I am here to say on behalf of many women (I would never dare to say all), we don't want it. The idea of a guy proposing on a jumbotron screen at a Sens game makes me want to be ill. Mostly because I couldn't give a flying F--- about the Sens, but also because I think the moment needs a certain level of intimacy.

I think on Valentine's Day, all a girl wants is to feel like her guy knows who she is and does justice to the unique relationship that they have. I don't think that it requires an expensive night out either...just a bit of thought. So don't freak out, just remember the things you love about that person and the right plan will come easily.

xo Amber

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Love Lockdown

Happy February everyone! It's snowy, but hey-at least it's short! I'll likely be hitting up some Winterlude activities this weekend, joining the packs of skaters on the canal and standing in a 30 minute lineup for ho-cho and a beaver tail. Mmmm, get in my bel-ly!

Oh yeah, and mid-month is EVERYONE's fave non-holiday! St. Valentine's Day....statistically one of the most dreaded (and lucrative) days of the year. And yet...I HEART IT! I do, I really do! As far back as I can remember, I loved the red and pink and white and all the Valentine cards and all the heart shaped candies. As I got older, I loved going to the Valentine's Day dances at my high school and hoping for that boy to ask me to go, and still not even caring so much when he didn't (and believe me, he NEVER did) because then I could just spend the night with my girlfriends. My best friends and I would send each other at least 10 Cupid-grams each, filled with inside jokes and just burst out laughing in the middle of our respective first periods when they were delivered, and then tell each other all about our reactions when we saw each other next (because we didn't have cell phones yet and so we actually had to SEE EACH OTHER to tell the latest news rather than instantly sending a text...oh how did we ever survive?). It was always so fun! I had this great shirt that I wore all the time, but that I especially liked to wear on Valentine's Day because it had all these little multicoloured hearts printed all over it. I can't even remember what happened to that shirt...what a shame, since I would still wear it now.

I think what I always liked about Valentine's Day was that while I was growing up, it wasn't about being in a couple-not at all. Obviously in elementary school it wasn't, but honestly even through high school I still didn't feel like I was left out because I was single. Eventually, when I finally did lock down a boyfriend, I failed to really subscribe to the idea that he was going to make the day all that more magical...it already was! I still brought Valentines for all of my friends (not the whole class like in grade 3, since that would have been insanely difficult), and dressed up in the colours and just totally loved the entire day!

Now, as an adult, after a few more relationships, I still really look forward to celebrating the day of Love. I send my girls messages and give out cards, and wear red or pink (yes, right down to my underwear), and enjoy planning a nice evening. This year my bf and I are going to see The Importance of Being Earnest, a play by Oscar Wilde, performed at The Gladstone Theatre. I've been meaning to go and see a show there for a long time now, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to fulfill my wish!

I miiiiight have made a big deal about Valentine's Day the first year my present bf and I were together (I won't go into detail on the scene), but in subsequent years I have realised that I had it right all along when I was growing up...it's not about the dinner and the flowers and the presents...it's honestly about making an effort to spend time with and to tell the people you care about how much you love them. Oh, and having an excuse to buy more lingerie. Wink wink.

Speaking of which...enjoy these cute numbers: