Workouts of the Week + An Indulgent Weekend

Well I didn't exactly get into a Disney marathon this weekend, but I did get into plenty of other things! I mentioned on Friday morning that Dave was going to be away in Massachusetts till Monday night, so I've been entertaining myself like a champ.

On Friday night after work I walked downtown to get my brows done and do some shopping! Once again, I went to 4 Angels Beauty Care, where Navkiran (one of the co-owners of the spa) gave me a perfectly manicured set of brows.  I've also been so sore/achy lately, in addition to the weird spasmodic twitching that's been occurring in my forehead since Wednesday... I've just felt off.  So in an act of pure #TreatYoSelf I also had Navkiran give me a shoulder and neck massage while I was there. Didn't regret it, either. If you like deep-tissue shoulder massages, Navkiran is your homegirl. She also gave me lots of compliments on my eyelashes, which earned her extra bonus points.

So this was really spontaneous on my part, but as I left 4 Angels that night, it occurred to me that I absolutely hated the jeans I was wearing and needed to cease wearing them ASAP. Solution: Stop into Old Navy to take advantage of the massive store-wide sale they were having and finally pick up a pair of Rock Star jeans to change into immediately. Yup - bought a pair of jeans and then changed into them in the dressing room to wear them right out of the store. Have you ever done that? I don't think I had before, so you can imagine how serious my "I need to get out of these jeans" feeling must have been. Whatever - the Rock Stars were on sale for $25 and they fit like a dream.

Next I bopped across the street from Old Navy to enjoy a solo dinner at the Lennox Pub on Granville St. in Vancouver. This was my third time at Lennox Pub, and I'm a little obsessed with their Stuffed Avocado Halves. I ordered one as an appetizer and followed it up with their chicken pesto quesadilla. I ended my night with two THRILLING episodes of Breaking Bad and about 30 minutes of The Rescuers Down Under (Disney finally makes an appearance in my weekend) before falling asleep.

Saturday morning started with a lovely hour-long phone chat with my friend Jenna, a trip to the gym, and a quick lunch at Corduroy before I took a rainy bus ride downtown to do - yup - more shopping. This time I had a real purpose though - heading to Sephora to pick up an Origins charcoal mask and a 100-point VIB perk of an Urban Decay Naked lip gloss (which is AMAZING, by the way).

The real triumph of my Saturday had to be the spaghetti squash pizza crust that I made that night. If you follow me on Instagram then you practically got to follow along with me from start to finish. The recipe was featured on A Beautiful Mess last week and it sounded like such a great idea - who knew you could make pizza crust out of spaghetti squash??? So after following the directions to the letter (and making three separate trips to the market to finally get all of my necessary ingredients and materials), I successfully recreated the recipe and was enjoying my first spaghetti squash pizza crust by 9pm. Whoohoo!



My Sunday is shaping up to be a fairly useless one, thanks to the freaking Daylight Savings time jump that NO ONE EVEN WARNED ME ABOUT. What the heck guys?? No one could have given me a heads up?? Do you have ANY IDEA how confused I was this morning?? Ugh. Anyway, hopefully a trip to the gym is in my future, to make sure that today isn't a complete and total waste.

Speaking of the gym, here are the workouts I did this past week... only three... womp womp.

3/3 (upper body)

5 mins elliptical

3x:

   - 12 overhead tricep extensions each arm, holding 5 lbs

   - 1:00 plank

   - 30 alternating medicine ball flys with a 6 lb medicine ball

   - 1:00 plank

   - 12 deltoid flys, 5 lbs each hand

   - 1:00 plank

   - 12 deltoid raises, 5 lbs each hand

   - 1:00 plank

15 squats, holding 25 lbs

3/5 (lower body and core)

15 mins rowing machine

2x:

   - 15 squats, 25 lbs

   - 30 Russian get ups holding 5 lbs

   - 40 calf raises, 15 lbs each hand

   - 20 alternating weighted side bends, 15 lbs each hand

   - 40 side lunges + plyometric pushoff (each side)

   - 30 lying overhead raise + double crunch, holding 5 lbs

40 bridges

12 lat pulldowns, 30 lbs

12 lat pulldowns, 40 lbs

12 lat pulldowns, 50 lbs

3/8 (upper body)

10 mins elliptical

3x:

   - 15 overhead tricep extensions each arm, holding 5 lbs

   - 1:00 plank

   - 30 alternating medicine ball flys with a 6 lb medicine ball

   - 1:00 plank

   - 15 deltoid flys, 5 lbs each hand

   - 1:00 plank

   - 15 deltoid raises, 5 lbs each hand

   - 1:00 plank

15 squats, holding 25 lbs

This blog has certainly gotten long enough, so I'll end it here. Also, the sun looks like it's sorrrrt of shining outside, so I need to go soak some of that up before it disappears again! Have a great rest of your weekend errrr'body!

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Eyebrow Threading in Vancouver: 4 Angels Beauty Care Inc.

Last Saturday I had the absolute pleasure of getting my eyebrows done at 4 Angels Beauty Care Inc. in Vancouver.  I met Navkiran and her daughter Sifti at a blogger event in early December, where 4 Angels was a sponsor. They were so friendly - not to mention the fact that they both had amazing eyebrows - and when they offered me a complimentary brow threading for editorial consideration (did you see that fancy phrase I just threw in there?), I was like, "Is this real life?"

It was.

A couple weeks after meeting them and getting their card at the blogger event, I tested my luck by calling them up on a Saturday morning to see if they could fit me into their schedule. Spoiler alert: They could. I'd purposely let my brows get a little out of control before making an appointment, in order to get a true feel for the work that Navkiran could do. Also - there's no point in heading into a brow shaping appointment with already-fine brows, right? Right.

So with my brows all a'bushy, I made the walk over the Burrard Bridge from my Kitsilano apartment to 4 Angels Beauty Care at 1342 Burrard St in Vancouver.

.  i love the turquoise theme they have going on in the shop  .

Walking into 4 Angels I was literally welcomed by Navkiran and Sifti with a big smile and a hug - told you they were super friendly - and was invited to have a seat in one of their reclining salon chairs.

.  sifti and navkiran

.  i'm totally photobombing my own picture here  .

We started with a short consultation about my brows - their current condition, any concerns I had, and what shape would best suit my face.  I'd never had my brows threaded before, so this entire experience was new to me. On top of the threading aspect, it was also in the back of my mind that it might be nice to get my brows tinted as well. Navkiran explained the process for tinting, letting me know that she could make them darker gradually so that I could see how they looked after each application.

After the consultation, Navkiran got to work!

Here's what we were starting with:

Sidebar before we go too much further - I was extremely uncomfortable with having so many super close-up shots of my face in this post. How awkward. But I can't very well write a full blog about my eyebrow threading experience without including any photos of my eyebrows, which happen to reside quite close to the rest of my face. So... HELLO CLOSE-UPS.

Anyway... told you I let my brows get a bit nuts. I hadn't trimmed or tweezed them in a couple of weeks at least! And you can see in the above photo that my brows are quite blonde - blonder than the hair on my head. I used to have platinum blonde hair as a child, and my eyebrows never quite caught up with my gradually brunette-ing hair as I got older. Add to that the fact that I'm not the type to apply makeup to my eyebrows, and my blonde eyebrows were extra ready to be tinted.

Navkiran applied the wet tinting dye to my brows, leaving it on for one minute. After the first minute, she wiped if off and we both evaluated the situation. My brows could stand to go a bit darker, so she applied more dye and we went for an additional minute. I liked the way they looked at that point - they were darker but still natural looking. Definitely closer to the color on my head. It's a little tricky to tell in this picture... but you'll see what I mean in a later picture. KEEP READING.

.  oh hey girl  .

Next was the brow shaping! Navkiran is an expert on what proper brows should look like, so she drew the "right" shape onto my brow area with a white pencil and then proceeded to thread all of the hairs that fell outside that outline:

If you've never had your brows threaded before, perhaps you might like to know what it's like. Navkiran had me help out by pulling the skin around my brows/temples taut and then she used her twisted cotton thread to quickly pull each hair out by the root. You can watch a video of a threading process (not mine) here. My eye were closed while she was doing it to me, so I couldn't actually see what she was doing. I only figured it out by watching that YouTube video haha! My eyes watered a tiny bit, but that's inevitable. It didn't hurt really - just a slight pinching feeling.

After the threading, she trimmed my brows...

.  peek-a-boo  .

And then finished up with a looovely aloe lotion massage of my brows and face. It was so relaxing, and I probably could have fallen asleep there. By the way, this might be a relevant time to mention that they also have an array of massage services at 4 Angels, in case that interests you! I'm a big fan of massages so it probably won't be too long before I head back there to get a neck/shoulder massage.

After the little face massage, Navkiran turned to her makeup tools and talked me through how she was filling in my brows. I was really impressed by the sturdiness of the little angled brush she was using to fill in my brows, so it was lucky for me that they happened to sell them right at the salon. I definitely bought one (and a new eyebrow makeup pallet... in case I do want to become the type of girl who puts makeup on her eyebrows).

I didn't take a close up picture of my brows after the makeup application, but you'll still be able to tell in the further-away picture below...

.  sifti and me  .

The fact that you can even see my brows in the above picture is a massive improvement over where we started!

So officially, I had the Divine Brows and Superb Brow-Tint services done:

Here are some more views from inside the salon... The turquoise theme is so pretty:

.  some of their christmas decorations  .

Now that I've had my brows threaded at 4 Angels, I see no reason why I'd ever go get my brows waxed anywhere again. It does cost a bit more than a hasty waxing job at some other places, but the care and precision that Navkiran took while she worked her magic was worth the extra money. And as for the tinting - which should last about a month - I'm obsessed with the fact that I can SEE my brows now. David has been tolerating my constant gushing about how much I love my "new brows" ever since my afternoon at the salon!

Thank you again to Navkiran and Sifti for their hospitality and expertise. I very much look forward to heading back, and I hope that you will check out their salon as well! Here's where you can find them:

4 Angels Beauty Care Inc.
1342 Burrard St., Vancouver, BC
604-428-4111
4angelsbeautycare.com
@4angelsbeauty

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Disclaimer: I was provided this eyebrow shaping/tinting for free in exchange for this review, but all thoughts and opinions are mine, allllll miiiiiine!!! MUAHAHAHAHA!!! I did purchase some lovely products while I was at the salon though - a new eyebrow makeup brush and a new makeup pallet for light brows.

{Linking up with Monday Must Haves}