The HoHoTO recap is over on Raymi Toronto yo: HoHoTO 2015 @ Mod Club! Oh what, it’s March you say? Irrelevant lol.
It was a great night and successful charity takings too.
aaand like I said you gotta hit up Raymi Toronto to check it all out so TTYL TGIF.
I could watch that for hours.
Hey player haters. Holy my life is a stupid blur. I have to go on my FB to see if this photo was even used here yet I’ve seen it so much before already. Insert more endless blog complaints about blogging.
SO into this look in fact I gotta collage it bruh. My client was too cos the night of the Oscars he was all (texted) it is spellbinding (my word) how much Kate Winslet and I look exactly the same and I was like, huh now??
You know I googled that the very next morning and was like she even got the hair swoop down good work Kate’s team of stylists who obviously follow my instagram/entire life. Hopefully you will never have to see this picture of me again. I plan to “cover” my dinner at Drake OneFifty I dig it that much and intend to go back until they get sick of looking at me. I like to take pictures of great spaces and I also love a cocktail of theirs called the Rum Diary.
I had steak tartare and oysters. You’re just gonna have to wait til I upload the rest.
Hung out at my friend’s record store near the bar a couple Fridays ago. Very fun vortex night. One for the books? Went all over town and by that I mean like, two more places lol I am old. Do yourselves a favour and look up the time John Lydon was on Judge Judy. Classic. Maybe prep yourself a drink beforehand.
Tony took this of me at Swan Dive the same two weeks ago.
Cray nails. Whenever I hodge-podge them it’s just another thing for me to pick off. You think if I have a gf of mine manicure me I’ll leave them alone? Does that help?
My little wino buddy Heather and I learn a lesson in not putting glasses on the floor. Don’t cry over spilled wine just pour some more.
I’ll post more of this lady friend in time. The reactions kind of get too much tbh. All the people we already have in common LOSE IT knowing she and I “hang out”. People are babies. It’s super foreseeable. I’m an adult baby for life so I should know.
Went for food at this amaze place around the corner I’m not telling cos I don’t want it to be slammed when I go back. It’s a fine line of patronage vs promo on the little gems in the city.
Also the night I wore my cat dress. My outfits are layered and versatile. I also don’t take that many selfies believe it or not, whatever that many means. I just do it all in one night and then feed off those for days while in actuality I look like a disgusting slob behind scenes. FAMILY SECRETS.
Charlie Brown (gigantic) Avocado tree and its one ornament that I got for whining about being an adult on twitter b’y. When losing is winning.
Mike Sent a print of the time I got naked in a box at Lane Studios. It’s nice and big thank you. I bet one of my boys will want it for their wall. I’ll buy you a shawarma when that happens.
Played with an icicle the other day and had the time of my life. Just kidding I immediately threw it in the sink after this picture as it was cold and wet. Please tell me what to draw on that awesomely prepped canvas I am all out of ideas. Something hipster I presume. Haunting. Timely. No irony though we’ve all had enough of that.
Finally made time to go through Tony’s newer prints. Lovely, lovely. Might use that top right one as a profile photo it’s very Alicia Silverstoner, long hair-like. Guy’s got an eye.
Well looky-loo. Another Drake OneFity. I just convinced a client to meet there next week alternatively to a spot he had in mind. Pumped.
That’s what I wore to dinner. When in doubt don’t wear pants. Throw a blazer over it to tie it all in there. Maaaahvelous.
All I did this weekend was relax and eat. Made meals around the clock and watched films. The Salvation is disturbing word to the wise but it is also gripping and you’ll want a tattoo on the side of your temple once you see this one character named Princess who had her tongue cut out yeah I don’t mess around with my cinematography yo.
Went to an apres ski party on Thursday at The Everleigh. If you’re not in the mood to party I swear, things just happen in the universe that annoy you even more, no? That being said I had a good time catching up with “the crew” in “that scene” and as always look forward to the next.
I felt fat and crabby from trying to make an outfit to hide it and turns out I have no ski clothing, who knew lol.
Went to a day event last-last week as well was kind of a whirlwind couple of weeks there that’s why I feel none too guilty when I balance it out by being lazy af. I ate three of those cake pops. Been mad lit in the food dept lately bra. Now I know why it was vocalized once in my family that “no one can understand what Lauren is saying on her blog”. I try to give to all audiences. Just Urban Dictionary any word you don’t undertand or leave a comment about clarification. Don’t be shy.
Was nice to catch up with some old buds on Friday after work. I like Motel too. I like to visit places I used to go to I am constantly romanticizing shit.
My oh yeah I am a singer/musician hat. Shut up! Okay mates we’re getting the band back together. Lets have rehearsal STAT Boylord or bust. Alrighty then gotta scoot sorry if this post was boring af to you. xoxo
Heather came by a couple weeks ago. We fooled around with makeup and her camera. Here’s how the shots turned out.
I try and be a good subject when I can.
Orig.
And touched up by Heather. No clue what she did or how but which do you prefer and does it really matter?
My eyebrows are covered in glitter goop. I had a pimple on my chin that’s why I placed a jewel on it, off to the side all weird like lol.
Heather has been a reader of this blog for years. I forget how many but enough to be moved to paint pictures of me and my RTM name in water colour then become my friend. Cool story bro, birds of a feather. We both bartend.
I bought this jacket in Germany. The pink shirt was Lizzy’s from her bluegrass band days.
My personal favourite. I like that I can look this cute without any touch-ups. Just a lot of make-up and camera angle tricks. I will be 33 at the end of this month (March 31) that fact is not lost on me bruh.
Alrighty then have a nice frigging day. I’m at Swan Dive tomorrow night (Monday) fyi.
++++
New RAYMI TORONTO post: The Addisons Residence Respect the Agave event
Read it.
READ and SEE all about my adventures in the park last week with my new dog friends Rene and Catherine: Toronto Dog Walkers.
Read More: Raymi Toronto Dogwalkers I 100% would do this again and even consider it as a side-gig for coin. I did the math, ran the numbers and it works out bruh. Contact Catherine and Rene if you want more info @ adventuresinthepark.com
In case you missed it over on Raymi Toronto a couple of weeks ago I hit the barre with Chan Hon Go for a ballet lesson and it was glorious you can check it all out on Raymi Toronto of course and you should 100% do just that right now.
Ballet Bootcamp, Masterclass with Chan Hon Go
Chan is a former principle dancer with the National Ballet. Legit. I got a t-shirt too thanks Chan!
My body looks very weird here lol.
TTYL have a doggy post to sort out meow.
Hello my friend. Here’s a Valentine’s Day selfie from Detroit and a blog photo post starring such travels, the food I ate while there and maybe a bunch of read between the lines typical blog fare idk lets go this lead-in is so done.
That’s one famous diamond, Jim.
Striking a pose. Blowing off steam in a spotlight.
Oh who’s that? I am wearing insanely high goth heels here. Higher than my wedges from Holland. Ankle-rolling high.
Grabbin’ mix.
Saw this on the train. The other cloth OG bag was also real asf had elephant Vishnu on it. I made a video of them both haha I deleted it though. I try and diversify my content. I accumulate and then I’m like, okay stop Warhol.
We started off in Windsor. One of us has a crush on Vito. Vito had eyes for the other though. Story of life no lol. It’s a great restaurant and was PACKED. I always get the pesto ravioli. I am not a huge ravioli fan no offense but will eat anything if pesto is on it.
Creamy pesto. They add more pesto less cream for me specially but I think literally this time they just put extra pesto sauce, no biggie. We dumped a salad into the leftover sauce and tossed it about. Faaaaaabulous.
Presentation en pointe.
Today is National Wine drinking day. Enough said glug glug!
It’s like I wiped the colour of my hat on my eyelids. What a wiener.
Earlier on in the voyage. That egg sandwich was actually amazing. We drove through a white out blizzard it was kind of freaky. I’ve been on a speedboat in a fog once and it was terrifying, the pier rapidly becoming closer to us. When you blindly do a bullet like a freight train it’s exhilarating, and scary af. When you’re in the bathroom and the whole train is shaking, rocking back and forth at some points as it’s taking a turn you think this is it. It’s happening. I have seen many reality tv/National Geographic train derailment, world’s greatest disasters episodes, action movies, plus my own odd anxieties combined. But then it doesn’t happen and you do survive. Okaaaaaay weirdo.
I brought three plates with me for a thing. I left one behind as a gift and managed to get the others safely back along with READ : not smashed. This particular photo resulted in an IG war with an idiot on the photo itself. Sigh. other little raymis got involved too tho and were like just stop. LOL. thx guys.
Best burger EVER it as so fall apart tender and you guess it. American cheese. I died. I was lying down eating it very Beavis and Butthead styles. Good times. I had the rest the next day for first breakfast.
The day I left. Monday. Vernors is made in Detroit it is the shit of legend it’s like bubble gum gingerale to me that is how I describe it. I have one can left.
Top of the Pontch. V Day. Very nice view and interesting setting. Hotel vibe meets I don’t know, outerspace?
Packing the night before interlude.
One of my machiavellian brainchilds.
Book Tower Building.
Ding dongs.
Hopped around on Sunday to make up for mostly doing sweet fuck all this weekend. Started at Pho Lucky. This is coffee. It’s sweet and syrupy and my teeth feel brown just looking at it. So good.
Lychee sake. Brilliant. Live large.
My pho. Rare beef. Extra veg. I piled more crap into it of course. We shared an amazing banana leaf rice thing to start.
I made a bit of Valentine’s effort.
and so on.
Love that substance.
When _____ vans are rad. Held off on posting that cos I don’t think people would have laughed with me like I wanted them to. It mostly just had a ring to it and come onnn look at this thing! Plus he is smiling. *harmless af*.
Ughh me in ten years.
Motor City Wine Bar is uhmaaaze.
Been there. jay kay.
View la la. Detroit River. Windsor on the other side. The more you know.
Ali.
Shrimp with lobster sauce is so delicious. we did not eat off that wolfdottir plate. That would be crazy stupid. Plus I needed it for the next day.
Food diary much. This was last meal before train. olive tapinade goat cheese truffle oil.
Could you tell this is at Vito’s again. I needed that pesto. It was family day and everything else was closed. President’s day in the states too and also a holiday.
Gnocci.
Seafood soup. This post is making me hungry. Well, that’s that for now. See you at Swan Dive tomorrow (Friday) come TGIF with me I’m opening (4-9PM) buh-bye.
Hi “everyone”. Here is a “blog post” wrapping up the last couple weeks of my life because why not. I promised the second sexier half of The Darling Mansion feature buuuut my brain needs a break. A me break. A totally, totally ME blog post in-between first mmmkay. I do a lot. I don’t break it down enough. It piles up then consumes me whole goddamn you social media.
Here’s a wee sampler. It still kills me I lost so many photos from my old phone… you’d be surprised how quickly you fill up the card of a new one.
Okay so last week I went to the Drake two nights in a row which is a major social suicide faux pas but my client really likes this place and we had a totally ridiculous fun time so why not. I am getting an age complex so I am starting to feel like a ghost haunting all these haunts I’ve always haunted but now I guess I’m the same age as those I used to hang with when I was younger soooo shut up Lauren it’s okay. I’m not the only Toronto personality out there still givin’er a go so here is to the lot of us.
What the hell (oh I just remembered lol) did I do the night before that resulted in my sleeping all day then waking up and hitting The Drake it was like I was dreaming still thank god my mental alarm clock got me up. I wore two similar black dresses with heels and black tights both nights in a row I was chuffed by the stupidity of myself in doing that Those whom also work in the industry are afflicted by this vampire lifestyle. BTW I’m at Swan Dive this Monday (tomorrow 9-close) come see me and my ballet skills I’ll be picking up beforehand at a fancy pants lesson I’m saying YES to.
The soosh at Drake is always drool-worthy. Kind of why went back again. Plus that damn cocktail menu too. The Rum Diary is my drink of choice fyi.
Dinner drinks one of the eve. Foodie barfly blob I love it here @thedrakehotel. pic.twitter.com/ZMjsDBBoEg
— Raymi Lauren (@raymitheminx) January 27, 2016
Drake dress one. Turning into a bit of a shift on me. Yeah yeah, sure sure.
Dress two. That was Friday I believe. My boots need to be shined and I need an insert cos they’re not level and I have no clue what happened other than probably Theater Bizarre walking around in them.
Pre-selfie to make sure I looked legit enough for my client supper. Dress up when you feel like hell and people can barely (never) tell they’re like wow you look so good all dressed up. Party girl tip. Except I have made more effort to dress up on a regular basis to maintain “a look” and overall peer acceptance. There’s a lot of fabulous looking and well dressed people in Toronto the stakes are mega-high you must always be fly.
I just remembered at least 4 other way more important blog posts I should be doing for Raymi Toronto right now instead of this ughhh hahha. Well at least I am blogging instead of Super Bowling. I have my phone lit up for different things I could be at today right now and I am doing a decent enough job at keeping the FOMO at bay.
Then squad goals showed up and I took them to every awful place I could (I’m so sorry!) okay we went to a lot of wins and we also went to a lot of don’ts too. I think I will use one bier markt situation in future stand-up for sure. I am building a set. Forever building a set I get crippling creative paralysis at times when the balance is tilted in the favour of doing practically everything else or other. I watched a fuck ton of movies yesterday that’s for sure.
We went for food at Rock Lobster for hot mess Sunday. I want to invent a hotel that’s check out hours are like 9PM come on bro baby needs to sleep this off.
Note the third (and new!) jar of cherries. That photoshoot takes place at the end of the week somewhere neat ;).
What’s the deal with American Cheese… well I wrote a whole bit around it but everyone said I talked about myself too much. It’s just really bad and really good bad. Good in the bad way. Possibly some irony too. Sometimes I’m just very, very basic. Because I am actually a total fruit loop. Not really Macaulay Culkin bizarre but pretty close.
Total win was at Gusto 101 pure delish. We had a blast catching up and shared a bottle of red which helped with absolute cold asf saunter back to hotel Germain. Snotty little bitches bruv tgif can’t believe was just a week ago boy the time goes.
IG caption: Did you bring enough makeup Lizzy? She’s like OH I just noticed that [how much makeup there was] LOL. I think Hotel Germain retweeted this photo they def called us gorgeous ladies – one and the same haha. They gave me good soshe media surrounding our stay there that’s a niiice.
Just your average cave girl @HotelGermain pic.twitter.com/uUHEIywwv4
— Raymi Lauren (@raymitheminx) February 3, 2016
Woah embedding tweets is funtacular.
Donair meat egg cheese breakfast thing on a bun. mmmm. Lizzy had lobster turns out that place IS a legit seafood restaurant and it’s not just an ironic name lol. Whagwan Darryl.
Another “on fleek” look at Swan Dive maybe. I am in the business of complimenting and being complimented.
Tony took this. Rebecca and her pot and my rake and then we made up a dance and I banged the pot like a drum and we are very immature at Swan Dive it is the best time it’s my job to have fun and bang the gong.
Bought three dresses at wieners around the holidays FOR the holidays and I wear them all the time on rotate it’s fun to make looks for Swan Dive you’re like a moving piece of art I almost wore my red gothic riding hood jacket with the red lace dress on Friday but felt it was crazy overload. Rob encouraged it. Which made me hella suspicious.
The 9th floor is where you get ice and they neglected to tell us that which we found to be funny as fcuk.
Love exploring hotels right? Eloise and The Shining complex for life. We went up to the roof for a lookeroonie this is the hotel where the ding dongs stayed when we first met and hung out #memories.
This is my friend Heather and I. More on that later!
Me on Friday. Also taken by Tony I love our in-house Swan Dive photographer. We are blessed. He helped build the bar too. Swan Dive has quickly become a go-to. I work there 9PM on Mondays til close and I open on Fridays as well til 9PM (except for this Friday and NEXT Monday I’ll be in on the Tuesday though instead etc I will keep you in the loop).
Stayed in (a coma) all week then by Thursday was restless plus we knew of this party that we had to go to (should go to) and were happy too then danced ass off at Two Cats with Shanny afterward you’ll see further down this post. It was a big two weeks for sure. And this is only the shit I am showing you not those “lost parts” that go in the vault and didn’t happen what who is talking?
Bunny love. You can see my Fryes and John Lennon bag in the background. The thing started to hump my leg and I was like NOPE BYE.
Some of this food we took to go and I forgot about the part of the night when we were at Weslodge as we made our way back to the hotel. Quite an indulgent weekend and life here for a good time bro.
I had to wear this hat cos my hair was super ratchet when times get tough the tough get creative. By tough I mean too lazy to shower and didn’t plan to go out til like an hour before we went it was go time! I am going to bring so much clothes to Swan Dive for the clothing swap/sale Abra puts together I will also let you know so if you have been eyeing some of my stuff I’ll post what I am parting with. I might have to wear this tomorrow at balleeeeeeeet.
Love this photo of Tanya and I <3. The D Mansion is the tits.
Legendary night I met Courtney I can’t even remember how I got into that rooftop night club on Queen. It’s all in my archives.
Oh Shanny. When we were dancing at Two Cats a guy commented that we were like the two MAD Spy vs. Spy characters in our black and white outfits. VERY astute observation there King west guy. That place is fun. Gong show vortex. We SAW THINGS too politically incorrect to mention heehh.
Thank God for this.
Cirque du soleil is my new outfit inspiration. Suitesoleil was my first hotmail address. Fact. That was during my I am french phase. I was 14?
Woah relax selfie.
Well here we go.
Two cats is on our way home so, why not.
My night vision blows thank goodness for this flashlight I am considering a headlamp. I bet you some joker will bring me one now.
I quite enjoy all my new friends, custies, and regulars. I am social plus booze makes for good talking and times and people with beards and toques that sort of thing. Lots of laugh out loud moments.
We walked to Motel from Swan Dive. I had no hat or pants so to keep warm we loudly talked the whole way there hahaa. Claire and I are the ame age-ish.
When I lived on Dowling I used to go to Motel a lot. I love theme bars. I got stories guy. Maybe now that I am reliving a prior Bukowski phase I can write about that time period again. Interesting.
Reminds me of my Stephen King book consumption phase, derelict scary ghost towns where weird shit goes down wow what a creative mind.
More booze more selfies. Love my ratchet nails kinda works.
That bunny art though.
Had to put him in the friend zone. With all the rest. Heheh.
Great style all around.
Heather and I went to kind of an awful apartment and had the most hilarious experience EVER ever ahahahha. This was on the wall. Our cab driver goes, this building? Oh yes! Bed bugs! What? Bahah.
I dig the stairway to nowhere though and the water fountain and music jamming away ???
Then we walked to Parkdale for a bite.
Never ever a dull moment anywhere in Parkdale. Could not run away fast enough lol.
Then she drank a bottle of red by herself (none for me sober day dude way too necessary) and hoofed it home to do her stuff and things and that’s that for today my friends check you on the flip side! I am the only person not watching the superbowl I think.
Thurs @cocolezzone Steve's bday bash thanks @ShannyintheCity good times. More pics on my blog on way. pic.twitter.com/A3M0TDvB2e
— Raymi Lauren (@raymitheminx) February 7, 2016
