The Tampered Press

Shall we have a weekly feature on shops run by lovely young people??
Probably we should, so if you know of any shops I should visit/befriend, let me know!



After lunch yesterday with The Bitter End men (bit star-struck, also they are all babes, also so funny), Dollface and I wandered towards the park and I was like "I want a soda" and then we both got distracted by this new coffee shop, The Tampered Press, we hadn't been in before. So we went in. No soda (luckily, what the hell, I never drink soda except at work sometimes because it's free and plentiful) but I got a sweet loose-leaf green tea.

Dollface started talking to a girl she knew who was in there having coffee and so I started talking to the owner. Man, people are friendly, hey? I'm trying to learn about being friendlier and warmer and not rude all the time or sarcastic (good luck, me).

Such a lovely space and the owner was telling me she's only been open for two weeks (?)

SIGH.
yep, view of the park and great furniture. and I said "hey, I like this rocking chair" and she said "I found that on the road". That's the best possible way to decorate a place, for certain.



Gluten-free options!
I didn't have any as I was too full, but I will have some next time, definitely. I lovelove baked goods and I barely get to have any more because of my stupid gluten intolerance. So great to have options!

Dollface had one of the "awesomes" which is sort of like a giant chewy oreo only the insides are sort of cream-cheesy and I tried it ("don't tell me what I can't do, gluten" -john locke) and it was awesome. No denying.
 Totally reasonable prices. Dollface says her latte was great, too.




also there's a big mirror by the door that is great for taking full-body photos of yourself! Perfect.

Board games! And wifi, of course. Word is that the space is open to having meetings in there as well, like book clubs and things. Kind of makes me want to start a book club..
Also the space is big enough I think that could be going on in there and not be too intrusive. 

"cafe and community space" how great, right?
it's right on Dundas at Crawford, open pretty much all daylight hours, and the owner is very friendly and the lighting is good.
Oh yeah, there's a more proper here!


I'm not saying that I don't love Ella's Uncle still (this is where we usually go and sit outside of by the park). But this is also pretty neat and it has inside space and I bet it's super cozy when it's raining out...plus I want to go play board games, anyone?



Also, guys, I have so, so, so many photos to sort through right now and then a couple people just send me other photos that I want to post. Until then, you can look at Sub Rosa Vintage's blog for a few sweet photos of me.

the light I never knowed

I took so, so many photos yesterday that it was kind of dumb. Now I have to sort through them all.

Instead of posting all the photos of my friends I took yesterday here are a couple of me looking like an elf.



If anyone wants to go ahead and write a script for me to star as an elf in, go ahead. I would be very, very down.
So down. Down like dinner (after you've eaten it.)



Such good friends these days. Not to point out the obvious, but I'm pretty into all these guys.

Oh yeah, that reminds me, I went to visit Mrs.'s new place that she has now with her bf and it's so nice! And a bit nearer to me and Mrs. is very good at decorating and arranging and unpacking I guess that makes sense because that's kind of her job she works as a buyer/set dec/etc for sets so obviously.
I really want to exploit these skills of hers in my future endeavors.

Also relationships are dumb. Everyone is living with their partners these days. What are we, adults? Dumb.
Haha my 19 year old brother is moving in with his (first real) gf this week. Relationship over-achiever, way to try to show me up! Just kidding, I have no desire to live his life, but he seems pretty happy, so that's great.  Also my mum seems to like the gf, and I (occasionally) trust her opinion.



I'm feeling annoyed with my tiny attic these days and am aching for space and for closets with doors that close and making a home and having room to dance around and a place to shut the cat away when she's annoying me. I want hallways to wander down disaffectedly and a yard to step out into.

All signs point to me being ready to be rich!



I reread yesterday's entry and it didn't ring right to me today. Bits of try-hardery, not unusual, but still a bit annoying.
I'm constantly struggling with I'm allowed to write/should write/trying to manipulate your interpretation of me through this.
Impossible to turn all that off.

Working at least six days a row again (maybe ten) starting today. Wasted my day off yesterday except in the best possible way.
Mmhmm.

it's the specifics i love

budz budz budz budz on ice
why does dakota have bud on tap? that seems weird, eh? bud really is kind of gross, no denying. except think about it's way better than canadian or blue. and it's pretty much as bad as pbr or 50.. so...

POINT PROVEN.

here are some photos of me this morning before I finally washed my hair. I am not into brushing my hair anymore these days. beachy beachy.





And by beachy I obviously mean messy and tangly and grubby-looking. prettyprettypretty no wonder babes are lining up for me, or at least pansying around pretending a bit like they care. hey you know what's confusing for your friends? having crushes with the same name. if they had the same first and last name that'd be even worse.
 
everything I do I do for having a story to tell about it. Or at least a story to write about it later with assumed names and hope that who it's about never reads it. the parts I'm embarrassed of are still kind of awesome because they are true and things that happened and it's the specifics I lovelove.

I don't quite have enough of a sense of shame. oh, obviously.
I'm a bit over the drama of every day life these days but never ever over the story-telling. I don't understand people with multiple secrets and awesome dramatic secret adventures. you're sitting on so many fascinating stories please just tell me all of them.
tell me about hands on bellies and pushing things and failed romantic gestures and tense situations that went exactly the wrong way.

Okay it's time for the park and coffee and lovelies and I told cpt. heh I'd be there by now and I obviously am not. day off!!!

On a side note: I am totally trustworthy and not nuts at all.

looks warm out but it definitely isn't

I totally had insomnia for the first time in forever last night. Usually I am the best at sleeping. Oh, except when I'm at someone else's house and I wake up at 7 or 8 and can't get back to sleep. That's annoying.

Anyway, none of my regular tricks were working and so I ended up being awake until 4 a.m. reading, which was a bit annoying since I meant to go to sleep by 2 so that I could get up at a reasonable time today and get something accomplished. WHATEVER.

I did go to visit Sub Rosa to visit my friend and have my picture taken in some awesome outfits (pictures to follow, I hope!) and I did get groceries (even catfood, you're welcome, Ruth Buzzi) and I did make mushroom soup (a little too salty, lesson learned).

So leave me alone. I'm productive!

Last night was the welcome back/refresher training thing for the dome. Man those are always a party, eh? We mostly made a billion jokes in the back row sort of and that made it okay.
Also they gave us food which I couldn't eat except for the chips. I had some fat yogurt raisins with me so I ate those loudly during the session.

Also the police guys from the 52 division were so nice. I just wanted them to be my best friends and hang out forever. They were so confident and calm and nice. I find it reassuring when police are so lovely.

My best joke of the night when our presenter was talking about upselling and she was like "what do people usually order together?"
me: "pizza dough with toppings and cheese on the top"

I have this unfortunate habit of laughing at my own jokes forever but, even worse, I tend to quietly make a joke and try not to laugh and then take a sip or a bite of something and then snort it right out my nose when I realize that I can't hold back about how funny I am.

Honestly, no one even thinks I'm funny the way I do.

Also, my know-it-all-ism was in full effect last night. I'm still waiting on growing out of that one!

Three more days of working (counting today) and then one day off!
My life would be hard if my shifts weren't only four hours long.

NO PICTURES TODAY.

coriander girl!

Today I went to Parkdale to visit my dear old friend Alison's shop, Coriander Girl.
It really is quite embarrassing to me that it's taken me this long to get down there to see it and to visit with her. The shop has been open for six months now for chissakes!
Part of it has been that I wanted to make sure it would be when we could have a real chitchat and visit and she wouldn't be tooooo busy and I wouldn't feel like I was interrupting. 
Today ended up being pretty much perfect, if a bit short (I had to run to work. Boooo work.)

I know, right?

I die.....
Look at this! It kills me. Does it not kill you? It must.
You must think this is nice or we aren't friends, probably.

I stole all these photos from the Coriander Girl blog, it's nice that Ali has a sweet camera and is a sweet photographer (she's even done my headshots for me!) because these photos pretty much sell everything in the shop to me. If I had money I would buy it all. Not exaggerating.

Lovelove that these aren't your normal florist flowers or arrangements. They are wilder and more whimsical and just appealing in a really deep-breath-sigh kind of way.

"Imagine masculine branches and berries with purple kale and feathery limonium wrapped in woody cedar boughs. Delicious!"  -from the Coriander Girl blog

This article on BlogTO does a super good job of explaining the shop. Plus more photos!
It is a flower shop. But also with vases and jars and soaps and a bit of furnitures and cards and lotions and things! Interior things. Things I love, mostly.
I think I should be in charge of reviewing shops because I am very objective.

Dream life, am I right?

I love the storefront very hard and also the signage. Parkdale is kind of funny because there's all these lovely little shops popping up and also it's still Parkdale. I really kind of like the mix.
These shops might be hoity toity if they were in Rosedale or something but down in Parkdale it feels really... authentic? right?
Who knows! I should definitely never try to review things.

Ali and I went to college together. She was one of my very first Toronto friends. We've been through a lot together and apart over the last six years. We worked both sports arenas together and did the fringe together and been close and been in fights. We are best known for our complimentary dance moves. Not kidding at all. There's still security guys at the dome who will come up to me and be like "do the dance" and "where the blonde friend who also does the dance?"
So funny. We should make a video of our various moves for you. You will be impressed.

I'm planning on spending more time down at the shop, Ali loves visitors.. And Raymi's in that hood now, so I'll make her come along.
Hopefully next time I'll remember my camera and you'll get even more of this goodness!

Shop's open
Tuesday - Saturday 11-7
Sunday 12-5

Coriander Girl Blog

1537 Queen St. W

Toronto, ON

M6R 1A7

 

416.532.3333

odd couple animal bffs love forever

um this just made me cry a lot in a nice way. Amazing.

Love animals forever.

you CAN achieve your dreams!

 
BUD ON ICE! 
Yeah, I do love Dakota.
 Dollface and I got a little sloppy on Sunday night. At first we were like "look at all the babes here" and then we realized they were all frat boys (what was with that?) slash terribly creepy.
This one really big and tall guy was getting in DF's grill so badly and I was laughing and laughing and he wouldn't let up. Apparently he's the creator of those (awful) monkey sock hat things? something like that. He kept telling her that she could achieve her dream!!
Anyway, it got to the point where I thought some of the tiny frat boys were going to intervene. I think they didn't because I was laughing so hard. Classic.









it got a bit messy. We ended up leaving half finished beers. Who even does that??
And we didn't go to Lakeview like we'd been planning (probably for the best).





I have less and less patience for sexism. Work was annoying in several ways last night especially since I was not feeling well. But it was also fine. I'm working six days this week. Not cool.
Also maybe six days next week. Also I think I signed up for shifts 10 days in a row. That'd serve me right, eh?


The Beauties are all still single-cuffing their pants. In case you were wondering.



My stomach is going gurgle gurgle gurgle gurgle like maybe it was a bad idea to eat almost that entire package of cheesy broccoli rice last night and then chase it with several beers.
Or maybe it was a good idea? Who can tell!

Anyway, the sun is out again and I'm going to brunch and then maybe to catch up with an old friend!
it's been about two weeks since I've had brunch I think. I can't even believe it.