SOFT GIRL 

You may be a soft girl if…

1. Lana Del Ray was in your Spotify Wrapped playlist.
2. You watch The Notebook, Love Actually, and/or Clueless at least once a year.
3. Your wardrobe is stocked with cozy neutrals, pastels, and sweet little sundresses. 

You may be a soft girl, but that doesn’t mean you’re soft. Start off your perfect Sunday with an invigorating Hips and Hamstrings drop-in at the Yoga Lounge for $25. After class, pop over to Versus Coffee and sip on an Iced Matcha Latte while filling out your Five-Minute-Journal or reading the latest Nicholas Sparks novel. The cafe’s airy, tranquil decor is the perfect backdrop to spend the afternoon dreaming up scenarios where you and the cutie who just ordered a cappuccino fall madly in love. If you do happen to hit it off with Cappuccino Cutie invite them out for a cocktail at The Reservoir Lounge– a cozy hideout with live jazz and blues five nights a week.  

GOBLINCORE

Your aesthetic may be goblincore if…

1. You often find your pockets filled with nifty little rocks, bits of sea glass, or orphaned buttons.
2. You’re obsessed with David Bowie.
3. Your closet is filled with earth-toned hand-me-downs and thrifted pieces. 

Goblincore is all about keeping cozy, appreciating nature, and honouring the feral goblin of chaos that lives in your heart. Let’s start your day by dropping just $5.50 for a world-famous apple cake and a regular coffee (black-two-sugar) from Mystic Muffin; a no-frills coffee counter at the corner of Jarvis and Richmond. Make your way to Wildlife Thrift Store as you unceremoniously shove the pastry in your mouth, peeking into the shop window of Kochi Gifts on the way to admire the display of comfy robes and shiny hostess gifts. Once you’ve downed your coffee and polished off the cake crumbs head into Wildlife for a nice long browse of their collection of overalls, button-downs, and miscellaneous tchotchkes. After you’ve secured your purchase of a haunted-looking porcelain figurine you don’t have space for, treat yourself to a loaded Falafel Wrap for $7.99 from Shawarma House. Exercise restraint and wait to eat your sandwich until you’ve reached St. James Park, where you can people-watch and make up names for the local squirrels. 

DARK ACADEMIA

Your aesthetic may be Dark Academia if…

1. Your robust selection of loose-leaf tea is rivaled only by your antiquary (rare book) collection.
2. You wish it were autumn all year round. 
3. Your fondness for tweed and thick woollen sweaters borders on obsession.

After you’ve donned your all-seasons tweed jacket and slipped into your comfiest Oxfords, you start your day by dropping by the St. Lawrence Library– the entrance to which is easy to miss for non-bibliophiles- to pick up your latest holds and check out the “What’s New” section. Once your vintage-leather messenger bag is full of fresh stories, it’s time to find a nice quiet spot to read. Black Canary Coffee is a cozy, intimate cafe on Sherbourne with a tempting selection of decadent specialty coffees. After finishing your Honey Oat Latte and putting a good dent into your book, you ring up a friend to meet you for a pint at C’est What. The cozy pub/brewery is the perfect place to jaw their ear off about your recent read while enjoying a classic English Special Bitter. 

Which “perfect day” would you choose: Soft Girl, Goblin Core, or Dark Academia? The good news is you can try all three! Do you have an aesthetic you’d like us to plan a day for? Hit us up on Instagram and let us know: @oldtowntoronto. And don’t forget to check out our directory of local businesses in Old Town Toronto here.  

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Now, don’t get us wrong, tarot cards aren’t meant to be used as an alternative to news and scientific statistics. But the deck has always been a good way to look inside ourselves and have a moment of reflection on where we’ve been, where we are, and what we might have to look forward to. So we’ve become curious and thought that it was time to dim the lights, burn some incense, and see what the cards have in store for Old Town Toronto.

For this post we’ll just be doing a standard three-card reading showing our past, present, and future. And while any deck is good to use, we’ve decided to use the Modern Witch Tarot Deck by Lisa Sterle, which has some amazing illustrations of diverse modern-day women in the classic poses of the classic Rider Waite deck. We’ll pull the card, tell you what it means, and what it might mean for us!

PAST: Three of Wands

Depicting a figure in robes looking out over a cliff, the Three of Wands is a card that represents keeping your feet on the ground, looking ahead, and expanding. It’s the ultimate card that brings forth thoughts of progress, expansion, looking towards the future and opportunity on the horizon. 

If ever there was a card to best represent Old Town Toronto’s past, this is it. Our little neighbourhood is steeped in history as the center for what would become the city of Toronto we know today! From Toronto’s First Post Office, St. Lawrence Market being the first-ever city hall, to the thriving railway import hub of the Esplanade, we’re an area that has always been looking ahead! And with more expansion throughout our fair city, including the construction of the Royal York Hotel, Union Station, and our beloved Flatiron building, we’ve shown that Old Town Toronto has always been an area on the up and up.

PRESENT: Temperance

A winged angel, both masculine and feminine with a triangle (human) and square (earth and natural law) on their front, pouring water between two cups, symbolic of the flow of life. One foot is in the water and one is on the land, and behind her is a winding road towards a mountain-filled land where the sun is shining. The Temperance card represents finding balance while also remaining patient. 

Well THAT sounds like the past year and a bit, doesn’t it?

Not going to lie, with the constant shutdowns and the craziness that’s been going for the past year and a bit, things have been pretty tough all year round. But we’ve been keeping our outlook positive by keeping our minds occupied with reading material from Ben McNally Books, our bodies toned thanks to online gym programs by Area Fitness and 6S Fitness, our bellies full with the countless stores and food spots of OTT like Urban Fresh Produce, Pearl Diver, and Renegade Chicken, and our glasses ever full by CoMMO Food, Uncle Ray’s Food & Liquor, CC Lounge and Whisky Bar, and so many more.

And hey, sometimes keeping things fun also helps. We’ve adapted to date nights, safely viewed some beautiful art, and even looked at some fashionable dogs that got us smiling. While things have been “ruff” (sorry, that was a really good dog post), we’ve been keeping things steady, finding balance, and remaining patient for better times ahead.

FUTURE: The Star

The Star has a lot of similarities with Temperance. A naked woman with one foot on the ground, representing practical abilities and common sense, and one foot in water, representing natural instinct and intuition. She holds two cups of water and pours one of them out onto dry land to promote growth and fertility, which judging by the lush greenery around her shows that it’s working. Above her is a bright shining star.

While the Star makes no promises about outcomes, it does represent hope, positivity, and the feeling that there is healing and rejuvenation on the horizon. And looking at the numbers of COVID cases going down and the current roll-out plan, we might just be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!

And I don’t know about you, but once we’re sipping some coffee and doing a bit of work at Neo Coffee Bar before moving on to a luxurious mid-day pint of draught beer (or two) in the back patio of Betty’s, and spending a night of wining and dining with friends inside Carisma, we’ll know that the healing has truly begun. The cards don’t lie, it’s in our sights!

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