My favourite section of the market was definitely the flowers. There is just something about buying or receiving flowers that gives me so much joy. We walked until we each found a bouquet of flowers that we loved and treated ourselves a bouquet each. My choice of bouquets? Anything with blue or purple hydrangeas. They’ve been my favourite flowers as a kid and to this day I still adore them. Other than the flower market, Post Alley was another mandatory spot to visit to try the infamous Pike Place chowder. I can confirm that it was well worth the hype! The only advice that I have is to get the full-size soup with bread on the side rather than buying a bread bowl if you’re sharing. The bread bowl is definitely more of a novelty and isn’t worth it in my opinion. It only held a small amount of soup and why would you ever want less soup? How GORGEOUS is the Flow Away dress by Tobi by the way? Something I would want to wear while exploring Mykonos, Greece. But since that plan is still a while away, I have settled for wandering the streets of Seattle. I paired it with my De Bray backpack from Aritzia, which by the way is currently ON SALE. I matched the brown detailing on my bag with brown leather slides from Steve Madden.  We ended our Pike Place visit with a walk down the pier where the Seattle Great Wheel was located. I wish we gave ourselves a little more time to spend by the water.

Seattle is surrounded by water and on a cloudless day, it’s hard to tell where the sky ends and the water begins. Next time I have the chance to visit Seattle I will definitely plan at least one meal by the water (Crabpot anyone?).  

Until then, 

The difference? As a kid, you just went camping. There was no preparation. At most, all you had to do is pick what snacks you wanted and what clothes you wanted to bring. But as an adult, the planning and preparation is a whole adventure of its own. What food do I buy? What do I wear? What do I need to bring? I found myself stressing about these things a solid week before the day I was supposed to leave. 

With every adventure comes a set of lessons that you learn from the experience. So here are my lessons from my first adult camping trip!

Buy a tent off Craigslist

We left tent-hunting way too last-minute so it was quite difficult to find something brand new for a decent price. So we decided to look else where and discovered that Craigslist had some barely used tents for really decent prices. Not to mention buying off Craigslist means no tax, and sometimes you can even haggle a little to get a price even lower (which we shamelessly did of course). 

Buy a gas-fueled fire pit

This one is actually completely unnecessary for most people. But for people who are from Vancouver, which I assume you might be, having a gas-fueled fire pit is actually extremely useful.  Anyone that’s lived in BC for a while knows how easy it is for our province to initiate campfire bans due to the large risk of wildfires during the summer. This year has been extremely terrible in terms of widespread wildfires so the campfire ban has been taken even more seriously than usual. Living in a province that has campfire bans every year, having a fire pit makes it so you can still sit around a “campfire” at night and roast marshmallows and sausages. The fire is completely controlled and is easy to start and distinguish. 

Having the fire was also extremely nice at night for extra warmth and light.r Not to mention it gave us something to do! There are even some that come with a cooking grate that converts your fire pit into a partial grill. 

I bought mine from Canadian tire and it was by the brand For Living. The price has since gone back to $140 but a great alternative would be the Outland one from Amazon which is the same price that I paid for the For Living one when it was on-sale. 

Brush up on your safety knowledge

If I wasn’t with my awesome camping partner, I definitely would have made some potentially fatal mistakes on this trip. The biggest one being my (lack of) awareness for the danger of bears. I definitely would not have known to bring bear mace or to put all food items and scraps in the car before heading to bed. I also learned to always set up your fire downwind from the campsite. We had the fire pit for this trip so this wasn’t a huge worry of ours, but it’s still definitely something important to know. 

Buy stew

We pretty much lived off of beef stew and croissants this trip for our main meals. My grocery list for this trip consisted of:

• sausages
• marshmallows
• stew
• croissants
• hot dog buns
• eggs

We ended up having food left over for the week and our groceries only cost us about $40. Given we just ate croissants, eggs, and stew in the morning, hot dogs for lunch, and then more stew and hot dogs for dinner. But everything was actually delicious so I was a happy camper (literally). 

OH and definitely bring a portable stove or grill to cook your food on.

Bring snacks

Since our fire pit made it so easy for us to make roasted marshmallows, we pretty much just ate roasted marshmallows every time we wanted a snack. However I definitely still should’ve brought some chips or cookies or some other sort of snack to munch on throughout the day. 

Don’t forget to buy/bring water

WE FORGOT TO BUY WATER. Thankfully he had several jugs of tap water from his last camping trip that was still in the bed of his truck. And I bought a 6 pack of Gatorade and some iced teas while grocery shopping so we didn’t die of thirst on this trip. But I definitely won’t be making that same mistake again! Boiled river water for instant coffee wasn’t an ideal situation. 

Bring a knife!

I definitely did not think I would need a knife or a hatchet but I was very wrong. Again, thankfully I had a camping partner that knew what he was doing and he had both those things. Whether it’s for cutting food, opening packages, or whatever other reason it may be—it was, without a doubt, extremely useful to have a knife. 

Warmth and comfort is KEY

Although the night-time wasn’t as nearly as chilly as I thought it would be, the wee hours of the morning were still FREEZING to me. So a huge tip I have is definitely to have a WARM sleeping bag. Also, I’ve been told that sleeping naked in your sleeping bag is the best way to create warmth. But I found that when wearing clothes inside my sleeping bag actually kept me warmer. 

As for clothes, I ended up living in my sweatpants and hoodie for the entire weekend with the exception of some sweat shorts for when it got hot in the middle of the day. So here’s my advice as a fashion blogger: don’t worry about having cute outfits. Just bring comfy clothes and you will be happy. 

Set up your camp while it’s still bright out!

We had quite a bit of trouble looking for a camp spot that we were happy with since we decided not to go to a campsite. We didn’t find our spot by the water until it was dark outside so we ended up setting up camp with the help of lanterns and headlights. AND BOY WAS IT DIFFICULT. I 10/10 do not recommend it. Get there early. Set up while it’s bright out. End of story. 

Bring LOTS of TOILET PAPER AND INSECT REPELLENT

And last but not least…

I think this one is pretty self explanatory. 

I hope that I was able to shed some light on camping for those of you who lack the experience, like me. Even though I did get laughed at a few times for my cluelessness, I truly enjoyed my time and would definitely do it again. 

What was your first camping experience like?

Until next time, 

I’ve been completely obsessed with having plants in my room lately. To the point where I’ve dedicated a shelf top and a wall shelf to my adorable little plant family. So far I’ve already got 9 different little babies living with me in my room.

While on the hunt for more to add to my collection of succulents, aloes, and cactis I discovered Southland Nurseries. Literally a 5 minute drive from my place, Southlands Nursery is tucked away on W49th Ave south of Marine Drive. I’ve lived in Kerrisdale for a little over 4 years now, and have been going to school in the area for 10 years and I’ve never even heard of this gem! However, I was clearly the only one out of the loop because the place was bustling when I visited on Saturday afternoon. Definitely a place to keep in mind if you’re looking to start a garden or add some indoor plants to your home. They’ve also got really knowledgeable staff who can tell you everything you need to know about home gardening or taking care of plants.

They’ve got an AMAZING selection cacti and succulents!! I found everything I needed there.

For this little Saturday afternoon plant therapy session I wore my Talula denim jacket with a cute thin sweatshirt underneath. Paired with a light crossbody bag and my cream and white Stan Smith sneakers, I thought it was the perfect “beginning of spring” outfit.

What are your current favorite spring outfits? Let me know!