This week I finally finished my second attempt at sewing a dress based on a pattern! The last time I used this pattern it was a bit of a disaster and the dress ended up unwearable. I was so disappointed because I really love the way this dress looks. This time though things turned out much better! The dress is actually a bit too big (especially under the arms) but other than that I think it turned out really well. I think i'm going to make a another though since they keep getting better, smaller next time, and I'm proud to say I finally figured out how to sew the zip in properly!

Also I'm excited to start my sewing class two weeks tomorrow at The Sewing Studio! We found a great deal on Groupon, soon there'll be no stopping me!

Last night we took our friends on the ferry to the Toronto Islands to watch the sunset. It's no secret that this is one of our favourite places in the city. We didn't have time to make it over to Algonquin Island before the sun went down so this time we just hung around on Olympic Island, fighting off the midges, by the waters edge.

I just wanted to share a few photos from dinner on Saturday night with friends from York who've flown over to Toronto for a conference this week. It's been great seeing them again and taking them to our favourite restaurants.

And the cupcake from Mike's birthday last week!

At the beginning on June I got a great new hat from Urban Outfitters. I didn't take it off my head I loved it so much! It went to Montreal and Rio de Janeiro with me, before I sadly managed to leave it on the plane on the way home from Rio.
I tried to replace it but they seem to have stopped carrying this exact hat so I've had to get a slightly different one.

Goodbye hat, we had some great times...

One of my favourite places in montreal, along with the amazing shopping, were the Botanical Gardens. My favourite part was the Chinese themed garden!

These photos are a snapshot of what we got up to in Montreal last month. We took the Mega Bus from toronto and stayed with our friend Manjusha.

We managed to get to the Biodome this time, last time it was pouring with rain and it was closing just as we arrived!

We caught a bus up Mount Royal to the highest point in Montreal for some views of the city.



We got up close to a raccoon! People were actually feeding it out of their hands!


We spent lunchtimes eating outside, soaking up the sun on the grass at McGill University.



Delicious Chinese food for dinner from Wok n Roll!


And we had to have a taste at the Ben and Jerry's shop!

On our final day in Rio we took a tour bus to see the statue Christ the Redeemer, and caught the tram up the mountain just before sunset. It sits at the top of the highest mountain in Rio and so can be seen from almost anywhere in the city.

View of the city from the top.

Porcao is a Brazilian all you can eat restaurant. The salads, pasta, rice, couscous, cheeses, salmon, shrimp and veggies etc are all set out buffet style, but the meat is brought to you at the table and it never stops coming! Every cut of every type of meat! It was so good. There's so much meat being brought though that you have to say no to more than you can say yes to, and we each only had one trip to the buffet.

Pictures from the beach!

The next 3 pictures were taken in this order one after the other, and make me laugh every time I see them!