Month: February 2016

3 Things I learnt about life in the early 20th century from “The Sun Also Rises” by Ernest Hemingway

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hemingFinished reading Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises” & wanted to do a quick review! Here are 3 things that Hemingway taught me about life in the early 20th century.
1. People used to drink so damn much back in the day…
…no wonder so many had liver issues. HOLY!
2.Trust fund babies were everywhere!
No one in “The Sun Also Rises” had a stable job but they all seemed to have tons of money to spend. Trust funds rule!
3. If you were pretty, you could get by without spending a dime!
Everyone was in love with Lady Ashley including Lady Ashley. She worked her feminine wiles to her advantage but in the end couldn’t stand being a cougar and decided to go back to her former lover, whom she had cheated on with a 19 year old bullfighter. The man’s feelings were of little importance. She was going to smoothly flirt her way back into his life. 😀 yay! After all, you should definitely use your God given talents! wheee!

With all due respect, I am not really sure if Hemingway is for me. I like the way he describes places but the characters lack depth or maybe the whole point was to portray shallow people?
Has anyone else on here read it? Would love your thoughts.

20 things I have learnt after a year of marriage

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Today marks C’s and mine first wedding anniversary. A year ago today I couldn’t believe my sheer dumb luck that I was marrying someone I was head over heels in love with.
Here we are, a year later and I wanted to share 20 things I have learnt after being married for a year – with tons of input from C as well!

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  1. It is possible to love someone without losing yourself.
    I am madly in love with my husband and those closest to me know that. He is my raison d’être but each day that I fall more in love with him, I fall more in love with myself too.
    I feel like I am the most productive, successful and the happiest I have ever been in my life.
  2. To love someone else you have to love yourself first
    If you start with loving yourself first, you start by being in good place and it is only rainbows and sunshines and unicorns from there on! :p
  3. Love isn’t a competition
    When your relationship is a competition, that’s not love. Supporting each other is the shit.
  4. We are different people with different preferences but that doesn’t mean we have to fight.
    The goal is not to be one amorphous blob with similar likings and opinions! We have our differences and we love each other for them.
  5. You don’t have to fight to get closer to each other or to have a more interesting relationship.
    LOL. If I had a penny for every time I have read that fights bring people closer together, I’d be rolling in $$$!
  6. The passion doesn’t fizzle away after a while
    …neither is it something you have to work on like it is some kind of a household chore.
  7. Being married is the shit!
  8. There is nothing quite like having someone in your life who has always got your back!
  9. The happiness level of your relationship isn’t dependent on the size of the rock that you get for your engagement
    9 our of 10 times that I tell people that I am married, I am immediately asked to show my ring. LOL! I don’t get it. I don’t have an engagement ring. I wear a wedding band that C and I picked together. It is a dainty little gold band that cost us $99 and it is my favourite ring in the world!
  10. It is possible for your parents to love your significant other more than you :p
    Mum & Dad I am looking at you.
  11. When you find your person, you just know it
  12. There is such a thing as true love and soul mates
    Some might not agree but it happened to us. Oh the stories I could tell you…
  13. A year later and the same jokes are still funny
  14. You never get tired of telling your own love story
    People may get tired but not us!
  15. When you have someone who has got your back, everything in life is easy
  16. He gets sexier with each passing day. HOT DAMN!
  17. There is nothing I don’t love about him. He is smart, funny, caring and the best human being I have ever met in my life.
  18. I don’t like roses
    They die.
  19. In-laws are not scary beings you need to run away from
    Mine are the fuzziest!!!!
  20. Communication & Honesty are the keys to a happy relationship, a happy marriage and a HAPPY EVERYTHING!

This post has C’s stamp of approval!!! 😀

Update: #goals, tattoos, MARKET and more

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January whizzed by and February is threatening to do the same. It has been a busy albeit a productive year thus far!

Launched MARKET – Powered by RIGHTSLEEVE and got to chat with some brilliant marketing minds in Toronto. This will be a quarterly series and promises to be good. If you don’t know what I am talking about, click —> HERE <—
The feedback has been amazing so far and I am eternally grateful for that 🙂

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All of my other goals that I had set up in January have gone down the crapper just due to the fact that I have been busy. SILLY RIA! This is why you set goals, remember. I know, I know. I ought to be more realistic. So starting this week here are my rejigged goals;

1. Do yoga once a week – So everything on top of that will be gravy!
2. Eat one home cooked meal a week.
3. Read one book a month – I tend to read a lot faster in the summer but start of the year is brutal for a reader.
4. Blog Once a Month – I think I can do it 😉
5. Relax

What am I reading right now?

Still trying to finish “The Sun Also Rises” by Hemingway but also started reading an excellent book titled “Everybody Writes” by Ann Handley, which is about content marketing and for those of you who know me personally, know that I live and breathe marketing.

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I don’t like sharing photos of my kindle because book pics look like crap on it. So here is one I found on Craft of Marketing.

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Here is a picture of my beautiful copy of The Sun Also Rises. I had to travel to Montreal to get my hands on this copy. True Story.

Achievement Unlocked 

Spoke at a Women in Tech event a week ago and I know this may not be a big deal for some but hey it was pretty fun for me so yay! go me! LOL
The most interesting part of the evening was that it made me more aware of my own privilege, which is awesome! Go mum! Go dad! and thank you for everything you have given me and done for me!

Local Products I am loving at the moment

I am going to give Inkbox, an organic tattoo, a whirl! Going to try it out this week and let you know how it goes! Check out their website for more! If you are so inclined, you can use the code #RSxMARKET for 15% off. I don’t get a cut from it but I just have a discount code so use it if you want!

What are you up to!?