the end of summer

well, summer is coming to an end. for most people this is a sad thing, but for me it's kind of exciting. fall and winter are my personal favourites.  it may have something to do with me being a red head but summer is just not my season. it does nothing for me. i physically can't tan, i sweat super easily and hate being hot (and my current home doesn't have a/c - lord have mercy) and i'm no longer living the easy life of a kid and have my summers off to play and have fun, i've gotta work the days away. this summer has been rather uneventful for me as well so theres nothing that has made me want it to go on any longer than it already has. so, as you can tell, i'm totally pumped for fall to come around!

as much as the summer has been for the most part uneventful, i did manage to have a little bit off fun. you can't go without it for too long or you'll start to go nuts! so i thought i'd give you all a little glimpse of what i did to stay sane on my limited but, relaxing and fun, days off!

 i got manicure ...or two...or 4.. (OPI roadhouse blues)

i got acquainted to the new house

i explored the new town (this is the town's annual buskerfest) 

 made some new friends

 saw some beautiful sunsets

 spent some time in the great outdoors

 caught up on a couple shows

 celebrated a birthday

 started taking music lessons again! (this is my mom making up some songs)

 took advantage of the new pool

 help a little birdie find his momma again

 hiked with some friends

 caught up with friends

went to a local farm to play with animals

 spent lovely summer evenings with family

and stopped by the CNE!

hope everyone had a safe and happy summer. :)

stay cheeky!

new digs

hiya! a while back i talked about the fact that my new blended family and i were moving into a new home! were super excited and have just got possession of it in the past couple days so we've wasted absolutely no time in getting to the renovations. our family is at the grand total of 8 but my oldest sister doesn't live at home anymore so it'll just be the 7 of us living in this new one. Not that that makes out group any smaller haha! anyways the house doesn't have quite enough bedrooms for all of us so we need to add two in the third floor of our home. it's a beautiful place built in the 1920's, have a look!

on a side note: the coloured portion of the drapery/curtains in the dining room ("the pink room") and the living room ("the room with the fireplace") are for sale so contact me if you are interested!

stay cheeky

past travels part 3!

i'm back everyone!

although i have called this post "past travel part 3," the trips that i would be talking about in this post, i have already talked about with you guys (exuma and las vegas) as well as Spain but i thought i'd spare you from the boredom. so i thought that i would use this post to tell you guys why i'm boring you all with these stories of the trips i've taken in the past.

my intention with these posts was not to brag or tell you about all the things you are missing out on, but instead i was hoping to encourage you to travel. you will never find anything more exillerating and satisfying than trying new things in new places, seeing new faces and living a different way of life - even for just a little bit!

the world you live in is so much more amazing than you can even imagine, why not explore it? i just got home from arizona last night, after staying in las vegas for a week prior to that and during the drive home from the airport i looked around at the city i have been living in for my whole life and i realized just how, well, boring it is! of course there is no place like home, but i've come to realize that there are so many interesting places surrounding me that need to be explored!

my family and i stayed in sedona, arizona for the past week and i can honestly say that i have never visited such a beautiful place before in my life. everywhere you look there are these amazing burnt red mountains encircling you. whilst in arizona, we visited a place near our rental home called the devil's bridge. i thought this was just an interesting name for a trail, but i later found out why it was named so. this "hike" was  much longer than we had anticipated and you could say we were a tad ill-prepared. with no water, no sunscreen and blistering heat, i'm pretty sure we all thought we were going to pass out and fry up under the sun. but after about 2 hours of walking (yes 2 hours!) we reached the end of the hike and made it to the devil's bridge, which a number of fellow hikers who passed us by had told us we "had to see!" i then realized why this trail was named devil's bridge.

when we got there i was totally blown away, all that walking and thinking that i was about to die was completely off my mind and worth it after seeing the view. i turned around to my mom and said 'isn't it amazing that we could've gone on living our lives at home, never have come on this trip and had no idea that this place was even here?" it was breath-taking.

all in all, you'll never know what's out there if you don't go out and look for it! travelling is truly eye opening.

hope everyone had a wonderful last two weeks and is ready for the month of september!

stay cheeky :)

country walks

i live on the cusp of the country, just a short bike ride and it's fields forever. i love being so close to the country, the fast paced city is just too much for me. my family often enjoys going on walks to fill up our lungs with some fresh air. coincidentally my mom's boyfriend lives on a very nice street and it's just a couple houses down from a lovely horse rescue farm that we love to visit. he also has a couple apple trees and pear trees on his property so we always collect the ones that have fallen and bring them to give to the horses.

there is a possibility i might be moving to a 150 year old farm in the next year or so but we aren't too sure yet! it's super cool and i'm really hoping that we do move there, i've always wanted to live on a farm. we also might be able to adopt some of the beautiful rescue horses from this farm if we do which would be great too! 

one of the things i love most about the summer time is being able to take walks with my family. they really help to calm you down and clear your head. it's especially nice to go out after dinner, right when the sun is starting to set and it's not too hot. talk about serene!

hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

stay cheeky.

*all photos in this post belong to cheeky chat

the more the merrier

if someone were to tell me what my life would be like right now 6 years ago i would never have believed them. after my parents got divorced i felt sort of broken and that i had lost that sense of family. but now, i have a bigger family than i could have ever imagined. the pessimist in me didn't like change and had a hard time accepting new people into my life. this mindset made me quite negative but as i've gotten older the optimist in me has come out and allowed me to welcome new opportunities as well as new people into my life, the more the merrier, right?

i don't really talk to my dad much anymore but i wish him well with what ever he is doing in his life right now. as for my mom, she met her boyfriend a year and a half or so ago and has fallen head over heels with him. i wasn't very accepting of him coming in to my life at first because i was still dealing with my parents divorce and was in a negative mindset, which i feel bad about now. but i can't take back my broody teenage attitude and can only move forward from there. along with my mom's boyfriend came his three daughters. i have to admit i felt a little weird having three younger girls coming into my life as well. it just felt like it was so much change in such a short amount of time. but just as any new friendships or relationships start out, it's always a little rocky and awkward. we are all pretty far in age, my sisters and I are ten or more years older than his youngest and almost just as far in age with his older two. i remember thinking "how are we ever going to bond?, we are at such different stages in our lives," but it's actually a great mix! i think if we were all around the same age there would have been more competition between us or that awful teenage/preteen resistance where no one would want to talk to each other because they're "too cool." my sisters and I are all adults and his kids (except his oldest who is 14) are still in that stage where they are starting to get older but still those innocent little kids inside. it didn't take very long at all before we were all being our weird selves around each other, probably because we went on a two week vacation together after just a couple weeks of us all meeting! they are the sweetest girls and i feel lucky that i now have three new sisters, who would have guessed i'd be a part of a family of 8! not me that's for sure!

it's a little crazy how much life can change in such a short amount of time. i mean, i went from feeling like i lost my family and later went on to gain a family almost twice it's original size. i'm sad that i don't talk to my dad much anymore but i know how quickly things can change so who knows what will happen in the future! i'm pretty happy with my life right now and i feel blessed. i'm still trying to have that optimist attitude and seeing all that that will bring me.

the gang

sorry for that incredibly long post but tell me about your family! i'd love to hear :)

stay cheeky!

sunday brunch

my family is very close and we like to have little family outings anytime that we can. last weekend my younger sister, my mom, my granddad and i all went out for some sunday brunch at a cute little restaurant called the dutch mill. this is just down the street from my mom's house and i love going there. its so rustic and unique. its a mixture of shopping and food--that's the perfect mixture if you ask me. they have the best food, it's so simple and just like home-cooking. 

knick knacks

we always love coming here because of the awesome food and because of it's comfy atmosphere. it's just a lovely place to chit chat and catch up with the family.

sister

mom

and my younger sister couldn't resist leaving without getting an old fashioned bottle of coca-cola. they are so quaint i just love them.  

stay cheeky!

*all photos in this post belong to me