Friday Favourites on a Monday!

 

 I missed Friday Favourites last week -- so I'm doing Monday favourites. Same deal, different day. So even though the link up is closed -- it's still good fun!

We had a busy Saturday this weekend. I went for a 10k run in the morning while we had people view our condo, followed by a mani/pedi with my momma and then crisis responder volunteer work from 4-11. It was definitely an exhausting day.
Thankfully Sunday was completely empty which allowed for lots of relaxation in between laundry and cooking. It was much needed and very enjoyable!

I love the part of daylight savings where we get an extra hour of sleep, but the darkness so early is not the best - especially for running. I was able to run Thursday as soon as I got home from work around 5, and it was just starting to get dark, but now it's already darkening by 5:00 and looks like night by 5:30. Since the area I run through has lots of parks and ravines leading off of it, it isn't really safe in the dark. Guess I'll have to figure that one out.

Anyways, time for my Monday (Friday) Favourites!

1. Vanilla Bean Noel time




I know I'm not that only one who loves this scent -- proven by the mass amounts they produce at bath and body works and have to keep restocking. I used to be OBSESSED with B&BW but over the years I've stopped going as much. I still love their 3 wick candles and many of their warm winter scents, I'm just not a fan of the mall so I rarely go. However, I will always go to restock my VBN because it smells exactly like Christmas. Everything from this line smells the same and it's all perfect.


2. Neogen Naturals Serum in Oil Drop White Truffle

 

 

What a mouthful. This is an ipsy gem that I'm really enjoying. I definitely need more than the recommended two drops (not sure who that would work for), but the serum has done a great job at keeping my skin from getting all sketchy and dry as the weather turns colder. I think I see a full size product in my future. It's not oily at all, not sticky like some serums and doesn't leave any sort of residue. It literally absorbs in seconds and then you can apply your eye cream and moisturizer right away. It's lovely!


3. This Mellow Eye shadow

 

 

 

Blogger fail. I totally didn't take a photo of the name. Oh well. According to ipsy it's either coco or plum so I'll go with coco. I actually got this colour ages ago, and decided to try it out because I had run out of my fave neutral (and can't really justify buying eye shadow when I have so many. So I gave this one a shot and it's just lovely! I'm actually kind of bummed that I didn't try it earlier. It does have a shimmer, but it's very muted and it has an amazing look when you add a bit of water to use it as a liner. Really gorgeous. I'd definitely recommend not only this colour, but this brand!

4.  Thoughtful co-workers

 

Should have taken a pic of the inside!

Our favourite receptionist/legal administrator is the only person in the office who makes sure we celebrate holidays. Whether it be valentines day or Halloween, she makes sure we celebrate in some small way. Halloween was a truly dull affair, with just one new person asking if we were going to do anything. I told him that sadly, no. There would be no celebrating that I knew of. Our only festive person was on maternity leave. Well guess who showed up with Halloween treats?!
She came with Halloween cupcakes for everyone and because I can't eat cupcakes she made me my own pumpkin tin of treats with things she knew I liked. It was just the sweetest! I can't wait until she's back, even thought it's a good 10 months from now :(


Anyways, I think that's about it. We are headed out for Miami this Thursday, so I will definitely miss Friday Favourites again this week. Boo.

Happy Monday & stay warm! It's supposed to snow a tiny bit on Thursday, but sadly we will probably already be in the land of palm trees and humidity by then!

Friday Favourites

Lord help me. How is it Friday?! This week has completely flown past me. I swear life is on fast forward right now. We had a huge work event in the community last night which has been sapping my time for awhile. It went SO well, but man am I glad to be done with it! Last night I didn't even leave work until 10:30. 14 hour days FTW! Sigh. I ended up eating perogies around midnight because let's be real. I was starving by that point.

But we are here for Friday Favourites so here we go!

1. This scarf

I look weird in this photo and I am totally "bag-ladying" it up, but whatever. You can't really see my coat, so I need to work on a better picture of that (it's my new Karl Lagerfeld coat), but this scarf is my new favourite. My mom got it in a monthly subscription box and didn't like it, so she gave it to me (haha). I love it though! I've been wearing it at least twice a week! Also, grey manicure still going strong. It's been almost two weeks with nary a chip. Guess that's what happens when they stick you under the UV light 15 times because of screw-ups. Sigh.

 

 

2. Royal Botanical Gardens of Ontario

 

I went to a conference earlier this week at the botanical gardens and it was so beautifully decorated for fall. There were pumpkins EVERYWHERE. So I went to the bathroom and ended up lingering for a good 15 minutes taking pumpkin photos #oops
Y'all know me and pumpkins. I couldn't help myself. I was lucky enough to get free passes, so I will be forcing husband back with me to see the gorgeousness. I want to go a little closer to Christmas in hopes that it will be decorated with little cranberries and pine trees and I can't handle it. This festive time is year is my very favourite!

#3 These booties

Link found here

 

I have a shoe problem. For reals. A colleague was wearing these booties at a meeting a few weeks ago and I seriously haven't stopped thinking about them. She had them in grey and they were too gorgeous. So far I've resisted, but I feel like that ability is fading fast. because seriously. Have you seen these?! Too much. They're sold out in most places. I'm torn between wanting to get them before they're gone, and knowing full well that I just bought a new pair of shoes like a month ago. Decisions decisions!

#4 Winning my step bet





It was frustrating at times, tiring some nights and downright annoying but I won, I didn't lose my money and I made a cool $9.19 USD (haha - honestly). So yeah, stepbet isn't going to make you rich anytime soon, but it's a solid way to force movement, especially for people with office jobs. Last week on Friday, I was a little worried. I had to hit my stretch goal and we were at a dinner party (and I was wearing my new Kate Spades, which aren't exactly walking shoes -- though some butt butter (for cycling) helped prevent blisters! We got back to our hotel around 11:15 and walked around our hotel floor in circles until I hit my goal. It was definitely close. I think I almost missed it by 10 minutes. Saturday I had to hit my stretch goal again, which was much easier and that was that! I've already recycled my $40 entry fee into another stepbet starting this weekend. Husband isn't too pleased, but he's just a poop who doesn't like walks, haha.

Anyways, that's it for me today! Have a great weekend!

Life needs to slow down!

Seriously, I'm the worst at blogging when I'm busy. Things have been nuts, as usual. We finally listed our place. We saw a dream house and were outbid on it (sigh), so back to the house-hunting drawing board. People think the market has cooled, but when you're actually in it, it doesn't seem that way. We sent 10 listings to our realtor to go and see, and only 4 were left by the time we got to the weekend.

 

We spent the entire weekend cleaning and clearing the place up. My dad came over to bring us a closet shelf that he made when we failed to find one that fit our closet (so he made a custom one within a few days), to do a few last minute fix-its, and helped me move some furniture since husband was fasting.

It's a relief to finally have our home listed - felt like it would never happen!

 

This house buying/selling is very time consuming, and is frying my nerves, but I'm trying to operate on the "everything happens for a reason" mantra, and remind myself that there was a reason that we didn't get that house we wanted so badly.

 

In other news, I am being sent to Winnipeg for a conference for work, so in a few weeks I'm off to the prairies!

 

 

Doesn't look too prairie-ish! Photo found here

 

 

 I've never been to any other provinces, despite travelling in many other parts of the world, so I'm excited to go. Even though it might be very cold. I should probably unpack my winter coat. Goodness knows how deep that box is buried in my parents basement. We were a little starry eyed and didn't think about closing dates while we were packing everything away. So at least it's just at my parents and not in a storage locker or something.

Even though it's only October 3rd, I feel like time is just flying past and October will be over before I know it. I'm looking forward to November and December (short trip to Miami, office closed for two weeks over Christmas, celebrating the holidays in general, etc). October just feels so busy.

 

Last nights dinner was quick, easy and super delicious. I used a recipe I found online at myrecipes.com that and can be found here

and let me tell you - it was the best fish I've ever made (that wasn't deep fried and served with fries that is). We had a wild rice and quinoa blend with it and some broccoli on the side and I could have eaten 10 more pieces. I am not a seafood lover by any means, but we do try to incorporate white fish and shrimp into our meals because chicken and beef become boring very quickly.

 

Anyways, the recipe had very few ingredients and was ready in 20 minutes. it was super easy to coordinate everything to be ready around the same time too. I'd highly recommend giving it a shot. I gave up looking for gluten free recipes a long time ago for meals and now just search up what I want and modify it. For this meal I omitted the lime juice (because I hate the taste of lime) and used gluten free breadcrumbs. Easy peasy! While I am happy to see so many gluten free recipe websites around, they often require way too many ingredients or finicky cooking. For baked goods I think gluten free recipes are needed but for dinners, the substitutions are generally pretty easy. I have only had issues when I come across something that has to be made to be gluten free, like hoisin sauce. That can add a lot more time to cooking.

Today I have to bring our curtains in and exchange them for longer ones. Our ceilings and windows are such a ridiculously random height that nothing works. I think it's better to have too long than too short though, so back to bed bath and beyond yet again. The house we buy had better have good curtains because I don't want to deal with curtains for a long long time after this.

Well, I'm off. Wanted to check in for a random Tuesday post. I will hopefully be able to post more this week. I was especially bummed out to miss my Friday Favourites, because I love that post (and it gets a lot of traffic :)!)

Till next time!