Outfits of the Week...

Thought I would start trying something a little different. I really love dressing up and wearing fashionable clothes. So, I thought each week I would feature two of my favorite outfits...one everyday outfit and one dressier, or date night outfit.

So, without further ado here is my first:

This is one of my fave outfits for running errands. The shirt has just enough bling that it is happy, yet not too dressy. The little open back gives it a little fun, and makes it different from the everyday t-shirt. The jeans are a primo find. They are from Guess...they are the "curvy" jeans...they are designed for girls like me tiny waist, but big muscular thighs! 

Where to buy:

Bebe Top, Embellished Hi-Lo Drape Back

Jeans: Guess Power Curvy Mid-Rise

Platform Heels

Next up...date night!

Hubby & I have been married almost 15 years...we try and have a date night at least once per week. These are crucial to our relationship. This week we did dinner and drinks with friends so had to do it up a bit....

This dress is from last years late summer/early fall collection at bebe. It has an excellent cutout at the chest to show just a enough cleavage for the hubby. The shoes are an amazing sandal that, despite the height are surprisingly comfy to walk in. Both items were purchased in store at Bebe. There are similar online, but not exact. Here are some recommendations:

Peek-a-boo ottoman dress

Crossover Cutout dress

Zipper Sandal

Strappy Pump

I hope you like the new addition to the blog...do you have a favorite errand running outfit?

New Restaurant Friday: Pizzaria Ludica

Hello! This weekend we did our regularly scheduled New Restaurant Friday. We tried a restaurant I had found thanks to a FB "suggested pages" ad! Normally I ignore those things but it was marketed as a "board game restaurant". There is nothing more the teenager & I love more than board games...the husband, well, he's in games for a living so he's always up for a fun new experience that involves games.

We ate at Pizzeria Ludica. I'm a terrible blogger & didn't take a picture of a logo, or the outside because. well, I'm terrible.

I made a reservation on their website. Super easy and fast, and we were guaranteed a table this way.

This place was very welcoming when we walked in. Lots of long tables, great for groups. The entire back wall was games.

Teenager selecting a game. They had everything there from super easy family games like mousetrap & yahtzee to more complicated, intricate games like Settlers of Catan.

She chose Munchkin. It was one she had been wanting to try so it was the perfect time!

Hubby had to actually look something up as the game in the restaurant had no tokens so we wanted to make sure we could play without the tokens! We could, it was no problem.

At one point I was a half-breed halfling elf! There are treasure cards & battle cards. You never know what you will get and if it will be a blessing or a curse-quite literally!

So this picture looks super sweet right?! He's "helping" her through a battle, great father/daughter time...right after this he got to choose two cards from her & won the whole game! We have to get more savvy when playing games with this guy...you would think after 15 years I would have figured it out...

So, the game was super fun but the food was amazing as well. My expectations were pretty low because many times at restaurants like this you go for the atmosphere, not the food. Here though, you can rest assured you will go for atmosphere & food!

Four cheese calzone! For a dollar you can turn any of their pizza's into a calzone...my fave!

This was the meat pizza. The crust was delicious, very fresh. The meat on it was ham, pepperoni, and bacon. A perfect combo for my meat lover husband! He is still talking about it two days later.

Since it was New Restaurant Friday we could not pass up dessert. This is a nutella pizza. It had nutella, walnuts, and a caramel drizzle, and was sprinkled with cocoa powder. It was amazing. 

Then we each got an Americano. Very good espresso and they served with fresh cream.

This was a fantastic experience and I cannot rave about them enough! Great place for groups, families, or just to shake up the regular ole date night. They are just steps off the Chinatown Skytrain station in Vancouver, BC. Very convenient location for any one using transit!

Canada Day Weekend Recap

This weekend in Vancouver was a beautiful one! It was in the 20’s all weekend (for you Fahrenheit-ers out there that’s in the 70’s), but due to our local it felt way warmer than that! So, I've come to the conclusion when we get into Florida on Friday my dad should just bring three buckets with him when he comes to get us at the airport as I am pretty sure we are all going to just melt upon stepping off the plane!

Anyway, for our New Restaurant Friday we just sort of winged it and walked around in the more West End area, about a 10 minutes’ walk from our house. We weren't too impressed by anything (prices seemed sort of high as some of the places) until we came across Rio Brazilian Steakhouse. We love these places. They typically have an amazing salad bar, amazing meat, great customer service and some even have great entertainment. Sadly, this place was severely lacking in all of those area. Which, is unfortunate because it’s the only one of its kind in the area (that I know of at least) so it has the potential to be quite successful. But, we walked in and were seated right away but didn't get a waitress until 20 minutes later. We placed our drink order and I went to the salad bar. It was okay. They had great paella; otherwise I honestly would have liked to have seen a bigger selection of cheeses and greens. I’m more of a spring greens type of gal and the greens they had were a bit tougher. There were quite a few hot dishes that I had never seen at a salad bar at other Brazilian Steakhouses, so that was unique which is why I would love to see this place succeed! So, after the salad bar it was still another half hour (so we are now 50 minutes into our dinner) before we saw any meat come to our table (we were honestly ready to leave by this point). The meats came around and they were okay. We've definitely had better. I think we got to try one of everything and I think hubby even got the top sirloin twice. But, that was it really. For the cost, it definitely was not worth it like it usually is at the other one’s we've been to in the states. I've emailed the restaurant so I hope they take what I have to say seriously as we are huge fans of these types of restaurants and to have one just a 10 minute walk from our house, they would see a lot of business from us! Plus, they had great entertainers and they have a fantastic patio area! 

On Saturday we just did some shopping. I had never really got a summer wardrobe going on and with Canada day around the corner the kiddo talked me into doing some shopping…was I ever glad I did! I picked up a bathing suit, a couple of great, bright shirts, a nice pair of white shorts and a super cute bohemian top, the kiddo also managed a few cute things for herself, and the Mr. even bought a new pair of shorts which is shocking because he hates buying clothes!

Sunday we started the day with a great vinyasa class as Lulu Lemon. The kiddo always comes with me when I go. She has never been to a hot yoga class though and this class they did have the heat on (keep in mind it was already 19 degrees by 8am) so she moved a bit slower as she wasn't prepared and the heat bothered her a bit, but she was glad for it after once I explained what it was to her, I just think being mentally prepared for that sort of thing is key. I then treated hubby and the kiddo to doughnuts and we just did a few household things before heading off to the food cart fest. I checked online and it says it is open until 6pm, however, this is not the case. It is only open until 5pm and most of the stuff was sold out by that time anyway. So, when we get back from vacation we will choose an overcast day and go at noon, when they open. We closed the day with strawberry lemonade martini’s at sunset on the balcony…..

Look at those colours! It was such a beautiful night!

Keep in mind sunset here is at 10pm ;) …can’t beat long summer nights!

Monday

Some of you may be wondering why Monday is included in my “weekend recap” well, that would be because Monday was Canada Day! Canada Day from what we've read online is a fairly recent holiday starting at some point around the 60's and celebrates the four maritime islands becoming part of Canada; there is some speculation as well that it celebrates Canada becoming independent of Great Britain, but I'll have to do some more research as that's a bit iffy from what I have been taught in University and what not. Anywho, enough about what I don't know I will say I’m really fortunate we got the chance to move here because prior to moving here I obviously knew pretty much nothing about Canada except for it was part of North America and a part of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Sad, but true. I know a bit more now, though. ;) Anyway, we live in the most perfect area- I think-so we were able to get in some breakfast on the patio....

 a great workout this morning, a swim, some beach time.....

That water looks refreshing right?! Oh, it was refreshing alright...a little too refreshing ...ha

 walked down two blocks for some waffle cones and ice cream, then we then sat down to eat and waited for the fireworks....

Our weekend-that we had anticipated being overcast and rainy-turned out quite nice...what did you all do?