💖✌️🌮 Love List #4: Worms in Paris

The only extravagant European vacay I need on my Instagram feed

Welcome to another edition of Love, Peace, and Tacos, a weekly-ish newsletter where I share what I’m feeling, loving, and eating.

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Hi friends,

Three of my favorite things about the internet include the following in no particular order:

1. Unlikely animal friendships

2. Unlikely Muppet and human friendships

3. Unexpected moments of pure wholesomeness

A golden retriever raising a band of tigers! Stevie Nicks hanging out with Miss Piggy! Lil’ Jon debuting a home renovation show! Grimace eating birthday cake with his human friends!

I’m here for it all — and I suspect I’m not the only one. Lucky for us, the Paris Olympics have delivered items 2 and 3 in droves (at the time of writing this I still haven’t seen the closing ceremony, so here’s to hoping I see a wild boar befriending a Parisian sewer rat before the end of the week!) It’s helped social media feel less terrible over the past few weeks.

Some highlights include:

• Simone Biles stoking Elmo’s beef with Rocco.

• Flava Flav playing the piano at the Ambassador’s residence after providing much needed financial support to a slew of athletes.

• Snoop Dogg’s wholesome side-quests, like horseback riding with Martha Stewart and sampling French pastries with Cookie Monster.

Even Slimey the Worm — Oscar’s diminutive BFF from Sesame Street — has graced us with his presence in Paris, where he’s living his best life.

This is the only extravagant European vacation I need on my Instagram feed:

🍄 Fun fact: the one good thing to come out of my last mushroom trip (and I mean LAST, it was terrible!) was that I met my inner child and they looked exactly like Slimey the Worm. Psychoanalyze that my friends!

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💖✌️🌮 Other things I’m loving:

💖 I think I’ve found my song of the summer. I can’t stop listening to this track by Ezra Collective. Nothing says summer like these lyrics: Give me bassline/ give me dollar wine/ god gave me feet for dancing. The afrobeat baseline paired with British jazz/soul singer Yazmin Lacey’s self-assured, dreamy vocals are just *chef’s kiss*

The video is equally joyful. It transports me back to hot summer nights in Toronto and the euphoria of meeting a beautiful stranger at a club and staying up until sunrise getting to know each other.

💖 Kali Uchis finally released one of her OG demo songs as a single and it’s magical. Uchis vocal skills have grown so much since her first album. This song sounds like a lazy summer day — in the best way possible.

💖 I have a Pinterest board devoted to my fashion/style manifestations. I truly believe it helps me attract these items into my life, while also keeping my spending intentional. For example, saving and buying an item off my vision board feels 100x more special than dropping $200 at Winners on a bunch of random stuff. Here’s a few items that I keep clicking on lately.

🌴 Dime Vaquera (Tell ‘em Cowgirl) T-shirt from Mexico is the Shit. I bought a MITS t-shirt when I was in Mexico City and can’t stop wearing it. It’s the perfect oversize t-shirt to pair with bike shorts. Beautiful quality, drapes perfectly and comes with an inspirational political message.

🌴 Pink adidas sneakers. Will I fork out $800 for these Adidas x Gucci sneakers? Not likely. However, I love the pink and green colorway and live in Adidas Gazelles so I will be on the lookout for something similar.

🌴 The perfect pair of wide-leg leopard print pants. I haven’t found them yet and I won’t rest until I do.

🌴 This zebra print dress. Melanie Lyne is a Canadian brand that I’ve never given a second thought but they seemed to have upped their game. This zebra print dress stopped me dead in my tracks. I tried it on and I love how the fabric flutters while you walk. I’ll likely purchase this as a birthday present to myself.

🌴 This silk pant and shirt set from Alemais is what my resort wear dreams are made of. Does it cost close to $1000? Yes. Does this make me want to cry? Yes. Am I committed to finding a preloved version? YES, YES, YES.

🌴 This pink bikini set. Last fall I bought my first bikini from Canadian company La Vie en Rose and now I get the hype. Their bikini tops fit larger busts nicely and the bottoms don’t stretch out. I’ve been dreaming of owning a hot pink bikini again for a while and this might just be the one.

Well, that’s all folks.

What’s one thing you are currently loving? Let me know in the comments!