What did you do to celebrate?

Apparently we ate our faces off.

Starting with last night. John was feeling like exercising his culinary chops, so he made his very first risotto. Perfection (and looking forward to the leftovers tonight).

An unusual midweek day off for us meant heading over to the Annex to visit a favourite brunch spot that has been off our roster lately. At Insomnia, we always sit at the bar, and I secretly am peeved when someone is sitting in our precise spot, as there was today (bar was otherwise empty). Our favourite waitress was there which made up for that! By the way, Insomnia has great coffee. You just want to sit there and drink and drink and drink. I got the eggs florentine. They put dill in the sauce, and their potatoes are crazy ketchupy and strangely yummy.

John got the waffle with fruit. I took it to the extreme and had one quarter of it for dessert. What is my problem?

Because we slept in this morning (luxurious!), we literally headed home after brunch and packed up our stuff for a picnic in the park. We met Aprile and Jory, and Chloé and Adam at the busy High Park entrance. I proceeded to lead them into uncharted territory in the search for the perfect picnic spot. We ended up near the restaurant (charted territory). John brought his trusty splint basket!

A nice little spot.

Aprile and Jory are using the Furoshiki paper gift we brought back for them from Japan!

And the eating begins again! Aprile roasted pork this morning and we had sandwiches. Delish.

Jory’s potato salad.

A musical interlude.

Chloé’s blueberry scones, Aprile’s apple and raspberry pie, and oh no! I forgot to have Aprile’s granola bar for the road. Dang. Recipes please. Chloé had the bright idea of putting whip cream and strawberries on the scones to make them into impromptu strawberry shortcakes and my stomach approved.

Food coma.

Aprile’s homemade raspberry lemonade. Pretty!

That was my first ever High Park picnic, and it was so relaxing and fun. So glad that we live nearby! Thanks to everyone for all the delicious food that you brought. Sorry we kind of free loaded. Heh…..

Did everyone get a chance to see Nikole Herriot’s home on Design Sponge this week?

Nikole and Celine (Bonjour Celine) got together to photograph the space and the result is just fantastic! Nikole definitely scored a perfect apartment in one of Toronto’s older buildings, my guess it’s a low-rise. It just goes to show it’s not about how much space you have, it’s how you choose to use (and accessorize) the space.

We love the simplicity of Nikole’s bedroom. The wonderful black painted wall, crisp white sheets, and Eames rocker with a reindeer hide draped over it.

We’re still waiting on a few things to come together before we reveal our own finished bedroom, but it’s really coming along.

A beautiful white kitchen with ceramic tiles and open shelves.

Does that glass brush looks familiar?

Make sure you check out the full post here (love the bathroom!).

Today we got up early to have some breakfast before opening the store. We were headed to Grapefruit Moon but because of the crazy Gardiner closure (for the whole summer, no less!) the traffic going cross town was horrendous. Regardless, it was a beautiful day and we wanted to be outside so we went to one of our favorite localish haunts “Mitzi’s” on Sorauren (the College St. location is equally great).

Juli was wearing her new outfit from Robber.

I had my summer hat on.

This brunch is by far the best bang for your buck in Toronto! We always get the “Mitzi’s breakfast”: the best ever sour dough toast, two eggs, bacon, greens (we substitute the potatoes for greens), and a good amount of fruit, X 2 and two cups of coffee costs around 20 bucks.

YUMMERS!