Hey friends! I hope that you're all doing well and surviving the tremendous amount of snow that has been dumped on the Northeast (or maybe just the North in general). To stay warm, I've been doing my best to conjure up memories of sunny days and warmer climates.

Maybe it's just me, but I associate a lot of happy memories with food. In my family, most milestones are celebrated with gatherings full of beautiful and bountiful tables. With my background, t's certainly no surprise why I love to eat!

Today I'm going to share one of my favourite things that I ate in Brazil. Acai! I usually eat it blended into a bowl, but you can have it in a juice or smoothie too.

What you need:

1 Sambazon Pure Unsweetened Frozen Acai Berry Superfruit Pack

1/4 cup of Bear Naked Fit Granola, V'nilla Almond

5 (ish) raspberries

1 banana (1/2 for blending, 1/2 for topping)

1/4 cup of frozen blueberries

1/3 cup coconut water

Throw the acai, 1/2 a banana, blueberries, and coconut water in the blender. I like to use the puree setting, for a few seconds, and then turn it down to the mix setting, to get to the right consistency. Serve in your favourite bowl, and add your toppings!

Acai is traditionally served with honey, but I like to throw some coconut chips and a drizzle of all natural maple syrup on top. I am Canadian after all!

My way is not exactly traditional, but it's the blend that I like. You can follow the directions that Sambazon recommends, or come up with your own recipe! Follow breakfast artist, Ksenia @breakfastcriminals, for some crazy delicious acai bowls, and other awesome eats! Want to start your day with a little more love? Grab the heart bowl, and fill it with your favourite morning snack.

Serve with an Americano, and you're all set! Just watch out for any hungry Rude Boys! I like my Americanos with milk, so I use Alchemy Espresso beans from local roaster, George Howell Coffee. So delicious! There's nothing like a good breakfast and the smell of freshly ground espresso beans (and maybe a little vinyasa flowin') to wake you up in the morning.

ON ANOTHER NOTE, LET'S GET TO MY NEWS!!!!!

I have joined the team of local lifestyle blog, Mass Musings, as a Contributor! I am so excited to be joining the Mass Musings tribe. MM provides inspiration for the creative individual, and I just love Kayte's (Founder/Editor of MM), vision for the site. So, at least once a month you will find me over on Mass Musings, sharing my words and photographs. I'm hoping to start a travel series and explore New England, what do you guys think? That is, if it ever gets warm enough for me to want to venture out of the apartment...

What does this news mean for YYZ->BOS, exactly? Well, there will be a few changes. First off, more posts! Not everyday, but I am guaranteeing 1-2 per week. Second, you may have noticed I have taken down the PORTFOLIO section of my site. It has needed a MAJOR overhaul for a long time, and well, at this point I think it's doing me more harm than good. Which brings me to my third point, I'm working on a little re-design/re-brand. The header and design of the site was always meant to be temporary. I threw it together in an afternoon when I decided to create this space. But now, it's time to put in the work.

So excited for so many new adventures.

Peace and love until next time,

Alex

Hey guys, happy Friday! I hope that you're all ready for the weekend, I know that we sure are. I'm excited for brunch, baking some delicious treats, taking Rudie on a puppy playdate, and doing some work/diy's around the apartment. Do you have any big plans for this weekend?

Thought I would do a little CURRENTLY post. This one mostly revolves around the apartment, but hopefully that's ok with you.

WITH:

Hanging out with this little dude most days. He's pretty happy lounging on our new couch. And hey, I actually pulled out my SLR today and shot some photos - so yay for progress!

MAKING:

I've been planning to do some IKEA hacks around our new place. I have a love/hate relationship with IKEA. I LOVE the modern design aesthetic at an affordable cost. But, I HATE that whenever you walk into another young person's home/apartment, you find half your furniture. When it came to choosing furniture for our new place, I bought some pricier statement pieces that I knew we could keep for years, or sell later on if our tastes changed (ex. the Eames Surfboard table). And when it came to picking pieces from IKEA, I chose things that I knew would be easily customizable. That's where these little tapered legs come in!

I had planned on purchasing some of these Pretty Pegs, but decided they were a little pricy (they were more expensive than the KALLAX units I planned to attach them to). After doing a little research, I found these tapered Waddell legs for a seriously low price.

Since I'm no DIY master, and this is my first real stab at an IKEA hack, keeping this project low-cost was important to me. I used this fantastic Brush N' Leaf to make the feet gold! Still need to stain the wood, and attach to the IKEA units, but they are coming along nicely I think.

FEELING:

A little nostalgic for our old place. Boston/Brighton is great, but I really miss Toronto, and our old neighbourhood. I decided to pull out these little guys, and set up one of our side tables like the one we had back home. It's funny how little touches can make your space feel more your own. Rooster souvenirs are a long-running joke between Pedro and I, and they have started to pop up all over our apartment. This collection was brought back from our various trips to Brazil.

WATCHING:

Nerds! I love 30 Rock so much. I think that this is about my fifth time marathoning the show (not including originally watching the show, or watching random episodes). Liz Lemon, you are my hero. Thanks for proving that you can have it all ;)

Looking for YYZ->BOS around the internet? Follow me on bloglovin' + Pinterest + Instagram + twitter!

Hope you guys have an awesome weekend!

Until next time,

Alex