Lifestyle – Tiny In Toronto

March Favourites 2022

I’m back! And it’s April, so HAPPY APRIL! Another month has gone by which means I have another set of favourites to share with you. My sister had her second baby, the Oscars happened so I was watching a lot of movies all month, I read some of the best books I’ve read in a really long time, and I think I’m starting to love getting dressed again? It sounds funny because a lot of people that know me would probably find it hard to believe that I ever stopped loving getting dressed. But recently, I’ve been planning outfits and getting excited about what I’m going to wear. I’ve also been taking a lot of mirror selfies of my outfits at work, which I haven’t done in a really long time. Maybe it’s the weather getting warmer? I think it might also have to do with the fact that we’re sort of seeing an end to the pandemic now? *knocks on wood* Before it felt like I was getting dressed for the sake of getting dressed, and that’s not me. I know we’re sick and tired of talking about the pandemic but it’s affected so many. I’ve lost the energy to express myself and I’ve lost sight of what makes me happy/makes me feel good. Fashion makes me happy. Writing these posts makes me happy. I think a lot of us, like myself, just continued to do things out of habit. And I think I’ve finally realized why I love certain things and why I continue to do them. It feels good!

Anyways, despite a busy month, I do remember a few things that I loved most throughout the month of March. I think that if I’m missing anything, I’m sure I’ll mention them in a future monthly favourites post. And if I can’t remember them now, did I really love them that much anyway?

Here are my March favourites!

1. Brown EVERYTHING – This was not planned, but I don’t really think I plan my favourites. Becoming obsessed with the colour brown was just very unexpected. I gravitated towards a lot of brown this past month and I don’t know why. I got two brown leather jackets, brown trousers, and even when shopping, I noticed that everything I picked up/preferred was chocolate brown. Like right now I’m thinking, chocolate brown nail polish? What I think I love about the colour brown is that it’s a great alternative for black and white. It’s a new option if you wanna stay neutral. I don’t know how long this brown phase is going to last (I’m thinking probably throughout this transition to spring/summer), but I’m here for it. What do you think of wearing brown this season? Part of me thinks it also reminds people of poo lol.

2. Bridgerton: Season 2 – I would have binged all of this the day it came out (Friday, March 25th), but my sister and I decided to wait and watch it together when I came to visit. I LOVE this show. I will say that I preferred Daphne’s story over Anthony’s (there’s just no one like Simon, am I right?), but the whole production is what I love most. The costumes, the music and the set design is absolutely mesmerizing! Like, those big houses and the way their interiors are decorated are absolutely stunning. I kind of wish I lived to experience that period. The way that society worked is kind of bonkers. Women 100% should have had more rights. But if we were to eliminate all of the problematic societal norms, I think everything seemed so much more romantic, whimsical, and beautiful. Everything was so romanticized. But maybe it’s all a facade? I have some second thoughts now lol. Let’s just say, on a surface level perspective, the show is gorgeous. I can’t wait for season 3! I’m going to need to read the third book of the series ASAP. I think it might be Eloise’s love story that’s next – exciting!

3. Crochet pieces that I made this month: Leg Warmers + Cat Beanie – I’m honestly really enjoying having crochet projects completed monthly. It’s so rewarding! This past month I made my very first pair of leg warmers! They’re pink, chunky, and so warm. I’m obsessed with how cute they look. I’m pretty happy that they’re trending again. I don’t know how long I have until it’s too warm to wear them, but I’m very much tempted to make some in every colour. I also completed this striped beanie with cat ears. It was so fun to make and I got some cute selfies while wearing it so if I never wear it again, at least there’s that. I also think temperatures are getting warm enough to no longer need a beanie. I’ll probably just save it for next winter. Also: I’m way too excited not to mention my current project so I’m just going to quickly say that I’m making a BLANKET!!! There’s this crochet blanket that was seen on an episode or two of Euphoria that I saw someone recreate on TikTok, and I was instantly inspired. It’s going to be so much work but I think it’s going to keep me busy throughout April. Hopefully I’ll finish it and share it with you next month!

4. The Inheritance Games: Book 1 & 2 by Jennifer Lynn Barnes – I don’t know if this is going to be posted before or after my book review, but man oh man, you need to read these. I read them so fast because I literally couldn’t put them down! I would pick up these books any chance I could get. It’s been so long since I’ve found a series that makes me want to come home from work, make a tea, and sit on the couch and read until 2AM. It’s one of my favourite things to do and there’s really nothing like it. It’s hard to explain the feeling of being so wrapped up in a story unless you’ve experienced it yourself. Has this ever happened to you? It happened to me with both of these books and I don’t want to wait until August for the 3rd one! Thinking about it actually makes me sad lol. I won’t tell you too much plot-wise, but if you like Cinderella stories with puzzles, mystery, romance, and 4 handsome boys with brains and a sense of humour, grab these books now.

5. The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood – Normally, I have one book in a monthly favourites post, but here I am with three! I had such amazing luck with reading material this past month that I’m worried it’s downhill from here. What if nothing can top these ones? I must read more and find out! Send me your recommendations, please! To explain briefly, this book was about a romance between a student and a professor. They’re both in the medical field. It’s a fake relationship turned into something much, much more. I know it sounds cheesy, but I haven’t read anything like it. I enjoyed it so much. It also got a little steamy at parts so don’t say I didn’t warn ya lol.

6. Eloise Jordan Johnson (MY ONE MONTH-OLD NIECE) – I met my niece last week and she’s PRECIOUS. I don’t even think precious is enough to describe her. She’s an angel! I’m so excited for us to have another little girl in the family, and to watch her grow. When I went back to my hometown to visit my family and help my sister with her two kids, I felt like it was something that I needed. I was there for 6 days and being surrounded by them, and having my niece and nephew keeping me (very) busy was really good for me. Family is important and being with them simply reminds me that I have so much to be grateful for. My little niece and nephew are the cutest kids. I do get baby fever whenever I’m around them. They’re so sweet and pure. They fill my heart with joy. I most definitely have biggest soft spot for them because I literally can’t say no ha-ha – they’re just too cute! But my sister is so lucky to have such blessings, and I hope that when I’m ready to have children that I get just as lucky.

7. The 94th Academy Awards/Oscars – As much as I was disappointed in the Oscars this year (very few of the nominations truly wow’d me tbh), it still remains one of my favourite annual events. I love movies, as most of you all know, and it’s so fun to see all my favourite actors and actresses get dressed up and recognized for their hard work. This year was so controversial with all the Will Smith and Chris Rock business. I’m not going to get into it because I feel like the rest of the internet has said enough. I really hope that we just learn and be better going forward, and hopefully next year is better. Regardless of what happens, the Oscars will always be something special to me. Did any of you watch? I am so happy that CODA won Best Picture! That movie made me sob.

8. Freshii – This is a last-minute addition to the favourites list because as I’m writing this, I’m craving a Pangoa bowl from Freshii. I’ve bought a few on my break at work last month, and I also had one while I stayed with my sister (my tiny hometown just got a Freshii, it’s actually crazy lol). I don’t know why I love them so much. I think they’re just fresh (at Freshii? Who knew lol)? They beat the cans of soup that I normally eat at work for lunch, that’s for sure. I always add chicken to my Pangoa bowl because it’s more filling for me. If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend it! I also just love photographing it, is that weird? I appreciate all the pretty colours!

Another month for the books! Official farewell to March 2022! I can’t believe how fast the year is going by. Only a few more months and my birthday month will be here! Is it too early to be excited? I don’t have anything planned yet, but I know I can always expect the best things in June. Comment down below and tell me your favourite month of the year!

I hope you’re all having a great week so far!

Until next time,

– Tiny ❤

February Favourites 2022

Happy March! We’ve started a new month and that means it’s time for a new set of favourites! If you’re new to my blog, welcome! And something I love to blog about are the things that I’ve been loving monthly. At the start of a new month, I like to share the things that I discovered or rediscovered and enjoyed most during the past month. Today I’ll be sharing everything I loved throughout the month of February. I’ve got quite a few exciting things to share. It’s always interesting to remember how short February is. To be honest, it was a little difficult coming up with a decent amount of favourites. February kind of flew by for me. Did it fly by for you? We’re already in our third month of the year!

Anyways, here are my February faves!

1. Smoothies – My roommate left me her Magic Bullet even though I’ve never made my own smoothies before lol. So I thought that since it’s here, why not try it? This will come as no surprise but for the past month I’ve been making all different kinds of smoothies, and I’ve been LOVING it. It’s funny because when I love something, I kind of love the crap out of it. Basically, until I get absolutely sick of smoothies, I can guarantee you that I will have one almost every day. Got any smoothie recipes that I should try? I’ve just been buying a mix of frozen fruit, and adding a combination of the following: bananas, Greek yogurt, and oat milk. I thought about protein powders but I have no idea where to start. I’m not really looking to gain anything either than something healthy and delicious!

2. People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry – I reviewed this book in my last post. If you read that, you know how much I enjoyed reading this book, and how much I highly recommend it! It’s probably my favourite book that I’ve read so far this year. It was just everything I needed. I think one of my absolute favourite genres when it comes to books is romance. It might have been how I started loving books to begin with! Actually, I don’t think there was much romance in Junie B. Jones novels lol. All I’m trying to say is that this book came to me at the right time, and maybe that’s why I loved it so much. If you’re looking for a good book to make you love love again, try this one!

3. Crochet Flowers – Henri Purnell is someone I recently discovered on YouTube. I think his video where he crochets a bouquet of flowers just popped up on my home page! If you want to watch it, I’ll link it here: Crochet Flower Bouquet by Henri Purnell I now follow him on Instagram and love everything that he crochets. I’ve never been that crazy for flowers because I don’t like that they die so quickly. I just take photos of them whenever I go on walks ha-ha. It seems like a waste of money to me! Why buy an expensive bouquet of flowers only to watch them sit in a vase and die throughout the week? I mean, if you have the money to spend, I guess it’s a different story. Anyways, what I’m trying to say is that crocheting these flowers in February really solved all my problems. I have a little flower arrangement that’s never going to die! How great is that?! They’re really easy to make. All you need is wire, yarn, a glue gun, and basic crochet skills.

4. Poshmark – When I post this, it will be the day before I share some exciting news. You’re hearing it here first: I’ve partnered with Poshmark Canada!!! They reached out to me wanting to partner and I was more than happy to. I was able to pick a few pieces that I wanted off their app and style them in a Reel that like I said, will be up and ready to watch tomorrow. I can’t wait for you to see it! I managed to pick up 4 great pieces that I’m excited to style in a number of different ways. When I was browsing the Poshmark app for these pieces to style, I didn’t realize how much fun it could be to basically thrift online. You all know how much I love thrifting. This has made it a whole other ball game. I’m OBSESSED. I have so many other pieces saved on Poshmark to buy later. I found a ton of amazing vintage pieces. I also posted a lot of clothes from my own wardrobe to sell. I really think that I’m going to be using Poshmark to sell old pieces, and then use that money to buy the pieces on my Poshmark wish list. This way I feel like I’m not even losing money! If you would like $15 off your first Poshmark purchase, use my code “tinyintoronto”! Click here for $15 off!

5. Granny Square Balaclava – February was fashion month. It’s probably one of the most exciting months for me. I can’t attend any of the shows but I’m satisfied with just browsing the street style online. The outfits are always so fun and creative. They inspire me to mix up my wardrobe and try new things. I can’t begin to explain to you how much I enjoy it – I love it so much! There were a couple of photos of this one woman that I didn’t recognize at NYFW. She was wearing a balaclava made with crocheted black and white granny squares. It looked absolutely amazing so obviously, I recreated it. Here are the photos of this mystery woman (if you know her, let me know! I’d love to see her Instagram ha-ha):

It’s starting to get warmer and rainy here in Toronto, so I don’t know how long I have to wear the one I made. I guess there’s always next year. Here is the balaclava I made myself:

A blog post of me wearing it is coming soon!

6. Oscar Nom: King Richard – I feel like I’ve already told you that I watch as many Oscar nominations as possible before the actual award show. This year the Oscars will be live on March 27, 2022. I’ve been pretty good at tackling my list so far. There are a few that I might have to watch in theatres. God, when was the last time I watched a movie in a theatre? I honestly can’t even remember! Anyways, King Richard was one that stood out to me last month. It’s about Venus and Serena Williams’ father, and how the girls got to where they are today. It was so well done. I loved it. I hope Will Smith gets an Oscar for his role.

7. Knits – I asked my boyfriend if he noticed me wearing anything more than usual when I was trying to put together my list of February favourites. He said, “You’ve been wearing a lot of knits lately.” He is not wrong. February, or I guess winter this year in general, has been much colder than I remember. I’ve been layering as much as I can, but I think something I’ve kept gravitating towards is my collection of knit sweaters. They really are just really great pieces for winter. They absolutely do keep you warm (they’re not just for aesthetics lol). I purchased this beautiful blue knit sweater from work last month, and wore it on Valentine’s Day. I am so in love with it. It’s such a pretty cable knit sweater. It’s called the “Dream Cable Crewneck Sweater” and I got it in the colour “Blue Parrot”. It comes in 6 different colours! If you’d like to take a look, I’ll link it here: Dream Cable Crewneck Sweater

8. Free People “Brooks Chelsea Boots” – With the way winter has been, I needed to find some better boots. Yes, it’s freezing cold. But it’s also been snowing a crazy amount. I had a literal snow day this year (I had to stay home from work)! I have not seen this much snow since I was a little-er girl! There were snowbanks taller than me! I mean, it’s probably not saying much since I’m tiny, but they were HUGE snowbanks. I knew I needed some different boots. If not proper winter boots, something with tread. That’s when I remembered that Free People gifted me the “Brooks Chelsea Boots” in December. I sprayed them with some of that leather protectant stuff and I’ve been wearing them almost every day since. They’re not the warmest, but they get me from point A to point B without falling on my face.

There you have it! Another monthly favourites post of 2022! I hope you enjoyed this batch of faves and if you did, let me know if you try to crochet some flowers or watch King Richard, etc. I would love to discuss them :))

I hope you’re all having a great week!

Until next time,

– Tiny ❤

Thankful for Long Weekends

Canadian Thanksgiving was exactly two weeks ago and I had planned to share this post last weekend, but things got a little hectic with work and what not. Life really gets in the way sometimes, you know? Better late than never is what I always say! (I really think that if you skimmed through some of my past posts you’d notice that I actually do say this quite a lot lol) Anyways, I’m here to share my long weekend with you. Even though it’s two weeks in the past, I still think it’s worth sharing. Did any of you celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving? Did you have a nice long weekend? Share with me what you loved most in the comments!

Okay, where do I begin? I don’t know about you but when I go home for the weekend, it feels like 5 days. We try to pack so much into a day and a half that I feel like I need a week to recover. It’s exhausting but always worth it. So it began on Saturday when I took my boyfriend home with me that evening after work. We caught the train and met up with my little brother, who then drove us to my sister’s. My sister’s house is kind of our family hub/where we host all of our gatherings. Speaking of gatherings, instead of having multiple gatherings, my family had decided to combine two celebrations into one. Thanksgiving is October 11th and my littlest sister’s birthday is the 10th. So not only was this a weekend to give thanks, but it was also a weekend to celebrate my baby sister turning 14 years-old! In case you’re new here, I am the oldest of four children. I don’t know about you but saying that alone makes me feel pretty old. I can’t believe how big she is now! I am 14 years older than her and although it’s a huge age gap, I’d say we’re pretty close. I also feel like sometimes I’m her second mom but like, the cool one? (Sorry ma!) I’m so proud of her and she kind of reminds me of a mini me. That weekend, for her birthday, we helped her pick out her rugby “gear”? I don’t know what to call it. We got a mouth guard, cleats, shorts, and whatnot. I never played rugby. I was more of a soccer or volleyball kind of gal, but she’s apparently pretty good at it. I asked her what she wanted from me for her birthday and she asked for grey Nike sweatpants. I gotta say that she’s always been pretty easy to shop for, which I (and my wallet) appreciate a lot.

Just a family photo with the DQ cake lol

So after Thanksgiving dinner, we had pie and ice cream cake. We LOVE Dairy Queen’s ice cream cakes and for the past couple of birthdays we’ve had a coupon – woohoo! Honestly, it’s really nice to come home and see my whole family. Not only do I get to see them but they get time to get to know my boyfriend. Most importantly, I get to see my nephew. What a handsome little man. He’s so close to walking that I think it’s going to happen any day now. Please cross your fingers and hope I get to see his first steps for me! This past weekend we celebrated his FIRST birthday and the entire time I was on edge. I was like, “Is he going to do it?!” I can’t believe the little man is already a year old. He’s got all of these face expressions now. He’s making lots of new noises/maybe words? He loves playing with coloured blocks. He loves cars. Where has the time gone?! For his birthday, we planned this whole party with a theme. It was called, “Wild One” lol. Basically, it was a safari/zoo animal theme. I’ll insert some pictures! My sister asked me to vlog it as well, so stay tuned for that. I can share it here when it’s up if you’d like, or you can find it on my YouTube channel.

I crocheted a lion for part of my nephew’s birthday gift!

The one year-old opening said lion *happy tear*

Couldn’t get over these cute little cupcakes!

Little man enjoying his first birthday cake!

With these past few weekends spent with my family, I just feel more and more grateful to have them in my life. Unconditional love, you know? Nothing better. And yes, all of us under one roof can be a little chaotic (especially with three dogs). My brother’s dog actually took a poo on my boyfriend’s shoes when we first arrived LOL. But I think what we have is a beautiful mess that I wouldn’t change for anything. I’m actually headed up to see my sister (yes, again) tomorrow! Even though I was there only two days ago, I will be making a special train ride to go up there for part of the day. My sister may kill me for mentioning it on here BUT she’s having baby #2! My sister has the appointment where she finds out the gender tomorrow and asked me to be there, so of course I’m going to be there. Not going to lie though, it’s been such a busy past few days that I’m already ready for my next day off (which is sadly a week from today). Life’s so busy right now. I’m picking up some extra shifts. Actually, now that I’ve said that, STAY TUNED FOR ANOTHER ANNOUNCEMENT. I’m saving money but I’m not yet ready to tell you why. Gosh, so many updates! It’s so exciting and I can’t wait to tell you!! All you need to know right now is that I will have a ton of content next year. Wanna guess in the comment section?

I will make sure to dedicate another blog post to just getting you (and mostly myself lol) up to speed. I just got very overwhelmed and I think it’s time to sign off.

Leaving you with a photo of my nephew trying on his first Halloween costume: Heihei from Moana! HE *LOVES* MOANA!

Can’t wait to share more exciting things with you!

Until next time,

– Tiny ❤