Weekend Rewind: Long Weekend At The Cottage, Boating, Beers, + Farmers Markets

Sweater (Aritzia) / Levi Jeans

Hey hey friends! I hope everyone had a fabulous long weekend. I am currently in the car on the way home to Chicago from our family’s cottage in northern Ontario— the drive is about 10 hours so I figured this was the perfect time to work on a little weekend recap! (*Note: I meant to get this post up on Tuesday but unfortunately left my laptop in my Dad’s car and couldn’t get it back for a few days!).

My parents were based out of Toronto for the majority of the summer (my sister did her internship there, we have a condo downtown, and my mum prefers being in Canada lol, so made perfect sense for them). Keeping in true Canadian “Cottage Culture,” which I should mention is a HARDCORE thing, they went up every weekend to our place in Muskoka. Cottages in Muskoka are essentially what you might refer to as a lakehouse, but… yeah, you just don’t call them that here. They’re cottages. If you live in Toronto and have one, or at the very least have a friend who does, odds are you go up every single weekend.

Fun fact, Canadians get a long weekend every month of the summer (cause they value FUN and work life balance okurrr?), Labor Day being one of them, and it ended up being the final cottage hurrah of our summer season. I originally thought my one week up here back in July would be the only time I got all year, which depressed me to no end as this is my absolute fave place in the world, but in a twist of fate I ended up getting some bonus time in the city and a full SIX nights up at the cottage. Words can’t even describe how badly I needed this. Nothing better than good food, good drinks, fresh air, beautiful scenery, and family time. My heart feels so full.

I wrote a Travel Diaries post back when I was here in July, but considering this trip had a totally different vibe and we ended up doing a ton of fun things, I figured I would just give Muskoka a little well deserved extra love… I saw so many comments and messages on Instagram, people wanting to come visit or plan a girls weekend here, and I could not recommend it any more!! There are tons of air b&b’s in the area and a ton to do. The entire area becomes insanely gorg in the fall, the various towns do fall festivals and pumpkin patches, etc, so if you’re looking for a fun fall retreat it would be an awesome, kinda different option. A ton of Canadians will know Muskoka well, but I love getting to share it with people who are unfamiliar 🙂

Muskoka is the perfect place to sit on a dock, read a book, drink a ton of wine and beer, and eat really really well. There are markets and farm stands all over, and just about everything is local. You go to the little around the corner grocery store and can pick up a carton of eggs from a farm down the street, along with the sweetest and juiciest fruit you will ever have in your life. We had sliced peaches for dessert one night and they seriously were better than candy. Dont get me started on the tomatoes and of course the fresh fish! We always have super simple dinners when we’re here: nice bottle of wine, fish grilled on the barbecue, roasted potatoes, sliced tomatoes and mozzarella and fresh basil… My favorite dessert ended up being a strawberry and rhubarb pie from the Field of Greens bakery, actual perfection, as well as their butter tarts, some of the BEST I’ve ever had. Butter tarts are a quintessential Canadian sweet treat that you need to have if you ever visit. There are several styles of making them that all come down to a matter of preference, but basically they are a puff pastry tart filled with a buttery, sugary filling… Personally, my favorite style is when the puff pastry is super flaky and light, the center is runny and gooey, no nuts or raisins. They are actual heaven.

 

Have I mentioned that I literally am just made of booze and sugar at this point LOL.

I ended up doing a TON of work on the blog this weekend; you may have noticed things are looking a little different over here!! I decided to do the whole redesign myself because I am a bad ass woman in tech and goddamit, if I can meander my way through a job in data conversion, then I sure as hell can handle a little site redesign. Let’s not talk about the part where I deleted a line of code in Editor mode and crashed my website for a few hours and had a full on meltdown. Thank you to the Bluehost and WordPress angels for saving the day!

Anyway, having a few days off work, my parents having their own projects going on, and sister being back at school and not around to lounge in the sun and drink with me meant I was able to be super productive and get a ton done. Still got a ton of tinkering to do but I love it so far!

Blonde Sweatshirt (Brunette the Label)

In addition to working on the blog, and drinking a shit ton of beer, I also journaled, worked on this super cool anti-stress adult coloring book and this exercise journal called “52 Lists for Happiness.” Lots of self-care this weekend!

Round Sunglasses (Madewell) / Mini Backpack (Chloe)

Another big hit of the weekend was finally checking out the local Muskoka Brewery! I am a huge beer girl and love love love Muskoka Brewery cream ales. Seriously drink these like water when I’m up north. The Brewery is so so cute; they had live music outside and a little food stand selling wieners and pierogis. You can get a flight of beer for just $5 and it comes in this cute little wooden canoe paddle-shaped holder. So Canadian! Two of my faves were the Summerweiss Tropical wheat and the Cool As Cuke (cucumber and lemongrass pale ale, super subtle and summery and refreshing). We also got an order of potato pierogis and they were bombbb.

Tee Shirt (Roots, similar)

My sister was SO mad we went without her since she found it, but there is this awesome abandoned barn decorated with all these vintage posters just around the corner from us; we didn’t get a chance to check it out earlier in the summer, so it was high on my to-do list! My parents played photographer while I did my thang. My mum took all of my recent pics on Instagram— she’s gotten pretty awesome at it eh?

Slit pants (Lulus, similar) / Yellow mules (Madewell)

Leaving is always a little (okay a lot) sad, but this time around felt okay. Life has been somewhat rocky, but I finally feel like things are on the mend and the future is looking bright. I’m going home to a short week and lots of fun things planned to look forward to! Helps that I will be back up north again soon!! For the first time ever, the family is going to be spending Canadian Thanksgiving at the cottage (end of October). It’ll be my first time up in Muskoka over fall, and apparently it’s just incredible. We’re planning on going to a fall festival, pumpkin patch, as well as go zip lining, maybe horse back riding? Your girl lives for fall activities so it’s going to be a dream!!!

Thanks for reading friends! 🙂