Curvy Canadian (and Peter) go on a wine tour in Niagara with iYellow Wine Club

Hey Everyone,

I have been totally lucky with winning stuff (up until lately I was the person who would say, "aww, I never win anything..."), and the main reason has been twitter! I won free tickets to go to the Toronto premiere of Bill Cunningham, New York, a wristband to meet Jay Manuel and preview his Fall collection, and recently, I also won 2 tickets for a Niagara wine tour with iYellow Wine Club and In Liberty Village on Twitter. I have you guys to thank, too, because it was a "whoever-gets-the-most-retweets-wins contest," and all you tweeters out there came together to help me win. You are the best twitter friends ever! Thank you so much. Peter and I had such a great time, and I wore something pretty because I thought there would be some really nice photo ops, and I was right. It was a beautiful day.

Getting on the bus...

Stop one was Chateau Des Charmes winery. It was all set up for a wedding and it looked really beautiful.

The wines were lovely. I especially liked their Cab Franc. Delicious. Angela, who was leading the tour, gave us a wonderful tutorial on how to taste wine properly, and it was really interesting. It allowed me to appreciate a lot more of the flavours in each wine. It's a five step process - first, look at the wine and appreciate its colour. Next, swirl the wine to help it aerate. Then, appreciate the aroma of the wine. Sip (some people take a little breath of air with the wine in their mouth to get more of the flavours to come through - it works, suprisingly. But this gets much more difficult to do without dribbling on yourself after you've had a few glasses. Trust me.). Finally, savour it...

Our next stop was a rather popular Ontario winery called Inniskillin. They are well-known for their ice wines, but their whites are really lovely too. My favourite wine here was the P3 (so-named because it is a blend of 3 different pinot varietals). The P3 is sadly not available at the LCBO - only at the winery.

That's the wine grower in the back explaining different elements of the wine's production. Very knowledgeable guy! We were actually given the opportunity to go out to the vine and taste the grapes used in the wine-making. So cool!

Down in the wine cellar...

Then it was off to Southbrook Winery - the only Eco-Diverse winery in Canada, and one of very few in the world. They use lambs to help prune leaves from their vines (so cute) and they make blankets out of their wool every year that you can buy in the winery's shop. I didn't get to see any lambs, though, which made me a little bit sad. I wanted to pet one! All of their wines are eco-friendly, and all the ones we tried were vegan, as well.

The part of this that was the most fun, is that Peter, my partner, is not a drinker. He honestly never drinks, but for this occasion, he agreed to come with me and enjoy himself... He ended up totally inebriated. I am Irish, so all these tastings didn't affect me too much... but Peter?:

Poor guy! LOL.

Outside there was a beautiful reflecting pond, and I decided to take some shots of my outfit in front of it. I absolutely love how these ones turned out! What do you think?

Sweater - Zellers/Cape - ASOS Curve/Scarf and Boots- CBX/Jeans - Forever 21+/Purse and Earrings - Thrifted

I also took some shots of my accessories so you guys could get a better look at them...

After that we visited the aptly-named Creekside Winery and got to enjoy a tasting on their lovely (Creekside) patio. My favourite wine of theirs was the 2007 Merlot. Apparently 2007 was a good year for Ontario Reds.

Our last stop, at Vineland Winery, was easily my favourite. There was such a beautiful atmosphere there and Brian, the winegrower, was so approachable and demonstrated such a passion for his craft. These were also my favourite wines of the day. We liked it so much, we picked up a bottle of their Elevation Cabernet as a hostess gift for my mom for Thanksgiving... I know she'll love it!

 

This is Angela Aiello (does the name iYellow make sense now?), the founder of iYellow Wine Club and our tour guide, rolling up her sleeves and pouring us some great sparkling wine to taste. Love that t-shirt!

This shot was actually taken by Brian, the winegrower! He was so awesome and down-to-earth!

Their fantastic cellar:

And the man himself, the winegrower, Brian Schmidt, @benchwineguy, explaining some aspects of the wine to us.

And the beautiful grounds:

And just one last picture of me with Angela, and we were headed back to Toronto!

It was a lovely day, and I have to thank Angela at iYellow Wine Club, as well as the great people at In Liberty Village, and all the lovely people that we met at the different wineries, who made our experience wonderful.

After we got back to Toronto, we wanted to make sure we got to take part in Nuit Blanche, Toronto's annual all-night art festival. Unfortunately, it has gone SO downhill over the past three years. There is too much corporate sponsor presence (Chevy had displays all down Yonge Street, and this space used to be used for ART - which is the reason why I am there in the first place). Also, many people use the event as an excuse to just stay up roaming the streets of Toronto all night while completely drunk, and are not interested in the art at all. That makes it so much harder for those of us who are there for the art to enjoy it and get around to the different exhibits. It's turned into more of a carnival/mardi gras festival than an art festival, and after having attended every event annually up until now, I am finally saying that I have given up on it as an art event and I won't be returning next year. I think all the good artists have also realized that the event has become something of a joke. It's sad, because it used to be a wonderful opportunity for artists to exhibit and make their art accessible to a wider community. Oh well... Hopefully there will be some less popular art events coming up in Toronto in the near future that I can attend (so that I can actually see some art)! At least the weather is such that I was finally able to break out my cape again. I love my ASOS Curve cape!!!

So what do you think of my post, darlings? Are there any wine drinkers out there? Have you tried any of these wines? Did any of you try to see art at Nuit Blanche (urgh)?

Canadian Plus Size OOTD: What I Wore to Easter Brunch (I know, I am so late with this!)

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted! I am currently away at a cottage and spending most of my time in sweats, so I won't have any new outfits worth posting for awhile, but I anticipated this might happen, so I've been saving up a few and holding out on all of you!

I wore this to Easter brunch last Sunday. My brother-in-law just finished restoring this vintage MG, and as a surprise, he drove it down to my sister's house so we could all see. Isn't it fabulous? I'm not sure if you can tell in the pictures, but this dress has one short layer, and then a second layer on top which is split down the middle so you can see the short layer underneath. The long layer sort of picks up in the wind and blows behind you, which looks fabulous! My 3 year old niece thought that this was the best thing ever, and kept hiding underneath the top layer. So cute! What do you all think?

Dress - ASOS Curve/Tights - Secret Brand from Zellers/Shoes - Torrid/Necklace - Ardene

Canadian Plus Size Clothing and Fashion OOTD - What I Wore

Hey Everyone!

I had a communion to go to on Sunday, so I had to find something semi-formal that was good for a daytime occasion. I wanted to try colour-blocking, so I did. Not sure if I accomplished my goal, but I'll let you all be the judge of that! I also wanted something that incorporated Springtime colours as well, so I went with a coral dress paired with a butter yellow pashmina. I wanted to wear my sky high shoes from CBX (Costa Blanca Accessories), and they are a nude colour, so I decided to go with bare legs. When I went outside, it was actually quite rainy and windy, (despite the weather network saying it would be beautiful, grrrr...) so I had to go back in and put some tights (and different shoes and purse as a result) on, but before I did, I made sure to take some pictures with the bare legs look first so you all could see!

What do you think?



Jacket and Earrings- Forever 21+/Dress - ASOS Curve/Beige Wristlet - Coach/Necklace - Garage Sale/Nude Shoes - CBX (Costa Blanca Accessories)/Pashmina - A Gift from my Sister/Tights - Zellers (by Secret)/Black Shoes - Torrid/Black Wristlet - Dots

Veste et boucles d'oreilles-Forever 21 + / robe - ASOS Curve / Beige bourse - Coach / Collier - Vente de Garage / Nu Chaussures - CBX (Costa Blanca Accessoires) / Pashmina - Un cadeau de ma sœur / Collants - Zellers (par Secret) / Black Chaussures - Torrid / Bourse noir - Dots


 Salut tout le monde!


J'ai eu une Communion d'aller le dimanche, donc j'ai dû trouver quelque chose de semi-formelle qui était bon pour une occasion pendant la journée. Je voulais essayer de bloc de couleur, que j'ai fait. Je ne sais pas si je atteint mon objectif, mais je vais vous laisser tous être le juge de cela! Je voulais aussi quelque chose qui a incorporé les couleurs du printemps, ainsi, je suis allé avec une robe corail jumelé à un pashmina beurre jaune. Je voulais porter mes chaussures très haut de CBX (Costa Blanca accessoires), et ils sont d'une couleur nude, alors j'ai décidé d'aller avec les jambes nues. Quand je suis sorti, il était assez pluvieux et venteux, (malgré le réseau météorologique disant que ce serait beau, grrrr ...) donc j'ai dû revenir en arrière et de mettre des collants (et des chaussures différentes et la bourse à la suite) sur, mais avant je le faisais, je me suis assuré de prendre quelques photos avec les jambes nues premier coup d'oeil si vous avez tous pu voir!

Que pensez-vous?