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Phair : BROGA at PeterPan Bistro

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Of course when my friends Jonathan and Queenie Phair said they were teaching a YOGA + BRUNCH at a restaurant I had been dying to go to, I said YES immediately. Mostly because… food – but also mostly because I had done an hour of the Phair’s yoga sesh before and it was intense and a new experience for me! Anyone who has taken this class will know what I’m talking about. This one was the same, from the first ten minutes, they had us warming up our wrists in the hardest ways possible! We fully just jumped right into it doing high planks on the flip side of our hands, a warm up I will be using from now on because even though in the moment it hurt, they feel so much stronger the day after already and feel like they can handle a lot more impact!

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We flowed to some amazing music, a more chill electronic style. It was amazing because there were a lot of familiar faces there including lovely Su and Mike, and also THE Brian bchanwarrior and lovely Arin who I had the chance to meet at the BYOGA community collective event! I brought my B-Mat which was perfect for this practice because it was a sweaty one. So many warrior flows, I sure felt the burn.

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We did a little partner work too, supporting the others ankles while they are in a plank, teaching them to lift up into a handstand. My wrist were beat by this point to be honest but we all pushed through it because there was too much to learn and absorb in such little time! Also I just need to mention that Queenie and Jonathan are beasts and can do crow pushups – they just effortlessly float into handstand – GOALS for real!

We took a little savasana at the end and Su explained a little about her KEY Education project which is incredible and I will have to write more about it in another post but for now you can learn about it here

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Then the smell of food started to waft in as the doors opened. I smelled potatoes. There were potatoes. And also the most amazing assortment of unique dishes like Shakshuka, Lebneh, Frittata, Latkes, French Toast – it just goes on – scones, quinoa salad – SO GOOD! I also had to have a Mimosa with Brunch because it was well deserved! We all sat down and ate, chatted, learned more about each other until it was time to go home!

Most people went home but I stayed behind with a few to take some photos in the beautiful PeterPan space. To say I wish this was my apartment couldn’t be more true. I would live there in a heart beat. My bf martin stopped by to say hi to everyone and snap a few pics of some extra stuffed yoga bellies before we all walked home together.

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What a lovely event, I love when I get to connect with so many amazing people and we can all flow and eat in the same room! Can’t wait for the next!!!

Magical Beaches Adventure with Nat Caine

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I absolutely love when Instagram opens up new worlds of opportunities for me! The other day I had the pleasure of shooting with the talented Nat Caine! Her feed is full of bright and contrasted lifestyle photos from Toronto, and I was lucky enough to be included in those photos.

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We really wanted to wake up early and catch the sunrise, something I still haven’t managed to do yet. And of course, it wouldn’t happen this time, but somehow she made a Toronto beach look like paradise early in the morning.

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If you were actually here you would understand. The sand felt like glass and there was pigeon scum floating in the lake. But we found the perfect spots to practice and shoot, the water looks like it goes on for miles and miles.

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I had to wake up and journey here so early in the morning, then head to work right after. Nat had come with very little sleep from a set she left at 3am that same morning. In the end, we both were troopers and produced one of my favourite shoots to date. I can’t stop looking at these photos for real! It’s like a dream that didn’t happen.

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Check out the rest of Nats work, and her Instagram feed!

The most buttery cream ever

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I’m talking about handcrafted Parkdale Butter from Toronto! This stuff was a serious lifesaver on my last trip to Prague and Germany. I wrote a recent blog post about my MUST HAVE travel products, and I was right about Parkdale Butter being absolutely mandatory.

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My skin was so dry when I landed, I plopped a tiny bit of my absolute favourite Espresso Face Balm and it immediately absorbed into my skin in the most silky way. The Vitamin E in the soy butter helps to regenerate skin cells, and heal any visible abrasions. I had a few tired wrinkles and they immediately disappeared after hydrating with this delicious face balm. For real, I say delicious because the Espresso flavour really wakes you up in the best way possible! It just looks like a buttery coffee treat… but it’s not – don’t eat it 😉

LOOK HOW CREAAAAMYYY

This is my top recommendation for Parkdale Butter, if you are placing an order – MAKE SURE THIS IS IN YOUR CART!!!! I actually don’t think I can live without this stuff. I use it daily. Before I put on my makeup and sunscreen. After a shower. Before I got to sleep. The best part is that it’s so buttery you only need a tiny bit to moisturize your entire face. My skin is honestly glowing every time i apply this balm.

The CocoaNut body butter had it all! Moisture and SPF. This was so incredible to apply before heading out for long walks. The tan on my legs was brought out more by the thin shiny coat of chocolate and coconut. The best way to apply this was to put a small amount in the palm of my hand and let it melt a bit. It turns more into an oil this way and is much easier to smooth out. the coconut is a solid cream so it needs a bit of heat to let it go back to its oily state. You can apply it directly on to super dry skin and let it warm up there for more moisture.

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Sometimes I felt like my skin had a bit too much of a frying session outside and I needed something even more soothing like Aloe to help with the redness. The Mocha Tightening Lotion was super thick and did wonders for my tired skin after a long day. This stuff is good to apply a couple of hours before heading to bed. It’s a bit too thick to put on right before bed, you will definitely feel ALL the moisture. But absorbs fully in an hour or so. I put it mainly on my elbows and knees, and they become brighter overnight.

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Last was my cute little tin of organic Peppermint lip butter. ERMAGERD this stuff saved my lips on the flight!! I felt them getting dry about 2 hours into the flight and was so happy I packed this as one of my ‘easy reach’ plane items. It sat beside me the whole trip.

So far these have been my every day go to items.  Seriously, go check out Parkdale Butter.

And if there is one thing you must get, its the Espresso face Balm. FAN FOR LIFE!

Toronto Yoga Conference 2016

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I had the pleasure of attending the Toronto Yoga Conference this past weekend and for my first time ever, it was amazing. I must admit, it was a bit overwhelming seeing all the brands and goods there but the amazing part is a lot of the exhibitors have samples and you can try before you make a purchase. Of course everything was so good, it was a bit hard to control myself when it came to buying everything!

There were so many things to sample and see, many yoga mat brands including Manduka, Jade and BYoga Mat! They have an amazing program at the show where you can bring in an old mat to get $10 off any new mat in the show! Below is some of my haul from the show.

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My boyfriend loves these coconut chips from Grace, we even went back on Sunday and bought more. They are really interesting and tasty, they have the exact consistency of a chip but once its crushed down and a bit wet in your mouth, you can really taste and feel the coconut-y texture! We also sampled so many juices from the show but settled on this delicious and zesty raw organic juice from Revitasize. I can’t remember what all the ingredients in this drink are, but I believe it has spirulina and grapefruit in it.  The rest are free goodies like tasty hemp hearts and fruit chewys.

We also went back on Sunday again to buy the tastiest blueberry juice from Van Dyke’s. This juice is made from wild blueberries in Nova Scotia and it was so rich and full in flavour. We drank a whole bottle the first day! It is also advised to use this instead of orange juice for your mimosa in the morning hehehe.

I had the pleasure of meeting Chris from Yoloha Yoga as well. This booth was one of my favourites for its eco friendly vibe. Everything is made from cork! They have water bottles, yoga blocks, yoga wheels, paddle board liners, yoga towels and more, all made form cork!! They also have such cute designs printed on to the products for a little artistic touch.

The Yoloha booth was fun, and I finally got to touch and feel the amazing cork products they have. I even got to try a wheel for the first time ever! It was so incredible, I definitely need to buy a wheel at some point soon – I can see so many benefits to having one. This booth was so cool that it was pretty busy the whole time I was there, I would have stayed and busted more moves on the cork yoga mat and probably attempted a handstand with that beautiful wheel if it was emptier.

I stumbled across a huge Karma sign set up at the Flow Active booth and ran over immediately . I finally got to see the whole collection in person and I must say I am SO proud to be a Karma Activist! The collection is gorgeous and the quality is amazing. This year they launched their new KarmaLuxe™ line! The latest signature innovation fabric, designed and engineered specially for Karma Athletics by a premium Italian Oeko-Tex® certified fabric mill. You can tell it looks different upon first inspection, it looks very neoprene and sturdy. Once I put those leggings on, I felt so ready to bust a move as it completely stretched around my body perfectly. I thought it looked thick but this fabric is so unique that it actually isn’t once it is on. I even had to get a size XS because the pants fit so beautifully and not thick at all! They are definitely compression pants, but I personally enjoy that in my workout leggings because it feels like ‘nothing will fall out’ haha! I typically buy workout wear for not only yoga, but also zumba and longboarding as well and these pants would work so well for everything. The Evelyn Bra was so snug and had such a cute design in the back! I need to write another blog post about Karma because there is too much to say about them!

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Printed Allyson tight in black glass shatter, size XS. And the Evelyn Bra in Charcoal, size S. Use the coupon code AsanaVanessana10 for and amazing 10% discount with Karma!

LOVE THIS PRINT!

LOVE THIS PRINT!

They also had so many other amazing new prints and designs for bras and tops. This is one collection to check out! You can see it all at karmaathletics.com and use the discount code AsanaVanessana10 for an amazing 10% everything!

After almost exploding from all the healthy quinoa, granola, juice samples, we decided our time at the show was well spent and we should probably head home to sleep the excitement off (or eat more goodies).

We decided to take the Toronto PATH, or try to at least, and found so many places to stop drop and yoga!

How trippy are those carpets? I need to go back and do some more yoga there, I was too pooped to do more than this!

Can’t wait for the show next year, I had so much fun – thank you Toronto yoga Conference for having me!!