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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!!!

Urban Yogini

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I had the chance of meeting the wonderful Ave @avemariabell, who I had been chatting with on Instagram, we share a lot of similar interests and both live in Toronto. She messaged me the other day to meet up as she was hosting an Insta meet and I thought it would be so much fun!

I was hesitant at first because the weather has been sooo horrible lately, and it didn’t look like it was going to be warmer that morning but we all met up anyways around the Kensington area. Ave also invited super talented photographer Diego @urbvnex!

We walked throughout Kensington, making it to a few places I have never been before on our photo walk. Check out this place in the photo below, I need to go back there to do some yoga for sure. Today was just waaay too cold.

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After stop number one, we went out to find some graffiti, always my favourite to take photos of and with! We passed so many cool spots on the way to the best graffiti in Graffiti Alley but I promise to go back and take some photos there because I saw some incredible art work!

After making it to Graffiti Alley we tried out a few classic Urbvnex puddle shots, which I was blown away by. He basically set his camera in a puddle to take this photo!

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Photo by @urbvnex

We made it to the classic graffiti spot by artist Uber 5000 and not only did I get to yoga pose, but I had Ave join me as well. She was hesitant since it was such a narrow spot, but we made it work! All for the shot! haha

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We were pretty frozen after strolling through the alley and made it to Tim Hortons to snack and warm up. After thawing for half an hour or so, we had the amazing Mike @thrumikeslens join us. I previously collaborated with him on a rooftopping yoga adventure you can read about, that was incredible and surreal.

After Mike dropped by we decided to head out again and take some bridge photos. This bridge has one of the best views of the CN Tower and at night it is amazing, but there is no way I would be caught dead outside that day!

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Hollowback Handstand wearing K.Deer Leggings and using my Yoga Paws! Yogo Anywhere Yoga mat.

 

Below is a funny behind the scenes photo from my boyfriend Martin of Diego & Mike. Committed to the craft I have to say!

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Unfortunately, Ave had to leave but we promise to have more Insta collabs soon! Our Urban yogi journey is just beginning!

I brought a yellow smoke grenade, just incase we manage to find somewhere fun to set it off. And luckily we did. There is this one building formerly the Loblaw warehouse that I just LOVE, but they are of course knocking it down to build a condo. I swore I had to get in there before they completely knocked it down, and I was with the right guys to do that!

We found the perfect spot to set off the smoke grenade, I really wish I brought more. Not bad for my first time, but I really didn’t expect that much smoke. WOW. Did I get a lot in the face the first few seconds.

These smoke grenades are amazing. I bought them at rocketfireworks.ca and they are about $8-10 each. They last about 1 minute 30 seconds so I really had to think fast about how to use it.  Mike managed to grab a couple incredible shots! I hope we get to do some more when it gets warmer later.

 

 

Dancer Pose / Natarajasana

Dancer Pose / Natarajasana

 

Wheel pose / Dhanurasana

Wheel pose / Dhanurasana

I was pretty low on energy after this and we were all freezing so we decided to end the date at noon! That’s how worn we were. But I swear we will bring to you more Insta meets and possibly some LONGBOARD YOGA?!?!?!?

Extra special thanks to @avemariabell @urbvnex @thrumikeslens

 

 

Bunnies and ZEN

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As a newbie to yoga, I seem to be missing a lot of accessories, props and gear that I need to help with asanas or problems like SWEATY PALMS! I entered a giveaway on Instagram for Bunnies and Zen Yoga Accessories to win a new yoga towel, and by surprise I won! It really is incredible that I did because I have been eyeing this yoga towel for a while, there are such cute designs!

This is a fun loving company full of bright ideas and designs, which is what attracted me to them in the first place. I received my yoga towel in the mail after learning I won, and it came with the cutest origami bunny (pictured in the photo above), which I thought was a nice touch.

After feeling the towel for the first time, it felt really silky, but not a slippery kind of silky because the texture is a bit rough in a way. This had me hopeful for an actual NON SLIP yoga towel because I have felt some that were just too silky and soft and no matter what, it would always be slippery. After laying it out on the floor and playing around for a few minutes, the familiar sweaty palms started to kick in. What amazes me with this towel is the sweatier my hands got, the more grip the towel had.

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Playing around with some split variations and forearm stands on my new Bunnies and Zen yoga towel!

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Overall this yoga towel is incredible, and with so many designs to choose from that aren’t your typical lotus flowers and rainbows style. I’m so happy I received this towel and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a truly absorbent, no-slip yoga towel.

Check out Bunnies and Zen online or @bunniesandzen_yoga_accessories on Instagram <3

-V

 

Yoga on the roofs of Toronto

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What happens when one of the coolest Toronto photographers, @thrumikeslens (Mike), wants to do a sky high shoot that is basically once in a lifetime? You say HECK YES and collaborate! Seriously, I never thought Instagram could bring so many opportunities to meet cool creatives from around my city, and this one was definitely one to check off the bucket list.

I follow Mike on Instagram and his feed is crazy good. He takes a lot of daring roof top photos, and after a few comments here and there, a roof top photoshoot date was set up. I can’t thank him enough for taking me where most people can’t go. Check out some of the photos from the shoot below, it was really so much fun trying to get to the top of this building, and almost had a run in with security but all good 😉

Behind the scenes photos taken by my wonderful boyfriend Martin, and the rest are by the talented @thrummikeslens www.thrumikeslens.ca Check him out!

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It was SO windy but it all looks so surreal once you are up there. I really thought I would be pooping myself, but it looks so fake so high up!

 

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Hope you enjoy the photos! Maybe there will be a @thrumikeslens X @asanavanessana collaboration again! 😀

Leggings by k.deer <3