A Few Good Things

Here are some random highlights and snapshots from my life from the past few weeks!

This picture was taken during a sunny seawall walk with Rose, just before it started raining for 3 weeks straight. We took lots of ridiculous pictures that afternoon - here's one of the fun ones of me getting my "jump freeze" on:

Continuing my streak of winning things, I won this Avon Mega Effects mascara through a giveaway from Nicole at MomTrends. Review of this product coming soon!

We had 3 days straight of snow, which is slightly unusual for Vancouver. It's supposed to rain here in the winter, not snow! Even when it snows for 3 days straight, we still only had sparse accumulation, and there was still plenty of green everywhere:

I mentioned in this blog that I've been experimenting with a new breakfasty quinoa dish. This picture was snapped during my 2nd attempt at creating it... As soon as I perfect the recipe I will share it, but in the meantime, just know that this is quinoa being cooked in straight-up milk:

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER DONUT. This delicious Cookies 'n Cream donut came from Lucky's Doughnuts on 4th Ave in Vancouver. A perfect teatime treat to share with my love. Mmmmmmm.....

I've also started getting pretty into Instagram - are you following me there? DO IT. Leave a comment with your Instagram handle and I'll follow along!

What have you been getting into lately? Any new recipes being thought up in your kitchen? Have you gone out for a nice seaside jump session recently? WELL WHY DON'T YOU?? HMM??

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My Favorite Sexxxxyyyyy Songs!

For no good reason whatsoever (it's not even my birthday), I was really inspired to put together a list of my favorite sexy songs. It might have been because I've been listening to JT's You Got It On almost everyday while tidying up the kitchen, and day-um is that a sexy song! You know, exactly the kind of thing that screams, "Yeah girl, scrub that sauce pan!"

So even though Valentine's Day is now a few weeks behind us, I hope you'll let this playlist continue to *ahem* inspire you. In no particular order, here are some of my favorite sexy songs!

Drunk In Love - Beyoncé

You Got It On - Justin Timberlake

Motivation - Kelly Rowland

I Get Lonely - Janet Jackson

Bed - J. Holiday

Lost Without U - Robin Thicke

Nobody - Keith Sweat

Promise - Ciara

Take Our Time - TLC

You Already Know - 112

Adorn - Miguel

Anytime, Anyplace - Janet Jackson

What are some of your favorite sexy songs? 

Did any of your favorites make the list?

Did this SUPER SEXY blog post offend your delicate sensibilities?  #HappyHumpDay ;)

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Recent Thrifting Scores

Ooooh hey, Monday. You came back. YOU ALWAYS DO.

Did you guys watch the Oscars last night? I had it on in the background as I was writing this very blog, so I saw a bit of the broadcast. Ellen is so funny - she really had me cracking up. That was a nice way to cap off the weekend.

I mentioned in a blog last week that a recent post-gym stop into the 4th Ave Salvation Army yielded some decent results for me. I wanted to share with you the three pieces that came home with me that day!

Grey American Eagle corduroys - $5.99

I've been looking for a pair of corduroy pants for a looooong time now, but it's been really hard for me to find a pair that isn't too baggy or too tight. These American Eagle cords looked too "THOSE COULD BE THE ONES" for me to pass up.

I don't reeeeally like trying on clothes (such a hassle, #AMIRIGHT?), so I kind of just eye-balled these cords in the store and decided that they would fit me well enough. Salvation Army has a return policy anyway, so no real gamble on my part. The pants did end up fitting pretty well, although they are quite low-rise. Can't go belt-free in these bad boys.

These material of these pants leans on the thinner side, so I'm also looking forward to wearing them in the spring and summer, when I can roll them up a bit and wear them with sandals and flip flops.

Taupe Razzle Dazzle sweater - $7.99

I LOVE this sweater. I kind of have a thing for big buttons (there may even be an upcoming post totally dedicated to them actually), and this light brown cap-sleeve sweater has two of them front and center.

I love the cozy high collar...

... and the two cute mini pockets in the front. 

I've worn this sweater a ton already - there are endless options for what kind of shirt you can wear beneath it, so you can dress it up or keep it casual.

Belvedere Vodka tree t-shirt - $3.99

I barely even drink alcohol, so I'm not tryna be a walking advertisement for vodka or anything, but I am a sucker for a nice tree graphic. The Belvedere logo was actually quite hidden on the shirt, so I didn't notice it on the sleeve till I was taking these pictures days later:

This tee is pretty big, so my plan is to rip the sleeves off Jersey-Shore style and turn it into a sleeveless workout shirt, since I like my workout shirts long enough to cover my bum.

All in all, this was another successful trip to the local thrift shop!

I've said it before and I'll say it again... the Salvation Army on 4th Ave in Vancouver is the bee's knees. The dog's tuxedo. The cat's meow. The bear's aviator glasses. (I made that last one up, but maybe it'll catch on?) Clothes, purses, books (including some great coffee table books), 90s music, furniture, shoes, tons of glassware and dish sets, clocks, knick-knacks, DVDs... and all well-organized and reasonably clean. Some Salvays or thrift shops can have sort of a dirty/unclean/stinky feel to them, but this particular one is quite a decently pleasant one to be in. I mean... I still wash my hands upon my return home from there. But I don't have to take a whole shower.

Do you have a great thrift shop near your home?

I'm not the only one who hates trying on clothes right?

I hope your Monday doesn't suck! Cheers :)

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Workouts of the Week... and Waffles

Hellllllo and Happy March to you!

This weekend has been a combination of indulgent and productive so far. I finally got my taxes in order, so that's one responsible thing to cross off my list. This will be my first tax season where I've got to deal with the "contractor" income that I made in the past year, so it remains to be seen exactly how much I will owe the US government. Hopefully it's nothing too shocking that I am unprepared for.

I assume you came here to read about my taxes, right? Oh... you didn't? Mmk, well then how about you check out this Instagram picture of a delicious Belgian waffle that I enjoyed on Friday night:

.  mmmmm  .

My friend Rose and I met up for a cappuccino and some waffles at Nero Belgian Waffle Bar on Robson St. in Vancouver. It was a really nice way to unwind after the work week! I ordered their "Heaven" waffle, which was a crispy Belgian waffle served with whipped cream and fresh strawberries. Rose had a fruity waffle covered in kiwi, banana, mixed berries, orange slices, and whipped cream. Nero has a really delicious selection of toppings - even some savory ones! I can't wait to bring Dave there sometime - I think he'll enjoy it.

But don't worry guys, I did go to the gym before the waffle bar (all of my workouts are listed below!), plus had a decently healthy few days worth of eating leading up to that as well. So Friday pre-dinner dessert waffles were most certainly in order. #SawryImNotSawry. #EatinAllTheWaffles.

My Saturday started a bit later than usual - I didn't wake up till about 9:40! Usually I'm awake by 8:30 on the weekends. So I got up, snapped some photos for a few different blogs, mailed out my tax stuff, bought two new Maybelline Color Show nail polishes from Shoppers Drug Mart (this one and this one), scoped out Urban Outfitters (nearly buying these boots), bought a delicious Cookies 'n Cream donut from Lucky's Doughnuts on 4th Ave (which I later shared with David over teatime), and went to the gym. Told you it's been a mix of indulgent and productive!

No idea what today has in store. We were thinking of going somewhere for a hike, but it's not supposed to be that nice outside, so that may deter us. It's been awhile since I've gone hiking, but sometimes it's not as fun when the weather is too crappy for any nice views. So it may be a more low-key day! We'll see. 

Here are all of my workouts from the past week: 

2/24 (cardio)

20 mins rowing machine

5 mins stair stepper

2/26 (lower body and core)

5 mins elliptical

15 squats holding 25 lbs

30 Russian get ups, holding 5 lbs    

40 calf raises, 12.5 lbs each hand

60 Brazilian crunches

15 deadlifts, 12.5 lbs each hand

20 lying overhead raise + double crunch, holding 5 lbs

40 alternating lunges

30 cobras

60 bridges

40 bridges squeezing knees together

2/28 (upper body and core)

2 mins jumping jacks

12 chest press on exercise ball, 12.5 lbs each hand

20 weighted crunches on exercise ball, holding 12.5 lbs

12 close grip chest press on exercise ball, 12.5 lbs each hand

20 Russian get ups, holding 5 lbs    

12 Arnold press, 10 lbs each hand

20 reverse crunch + leg raise

12 bent over rows each arm, holding 12.5 lbs

20 lying overhead raise + double crunch, holding 5 lbs

12 deltoid flys, 7.5 lbs each hand

40 alternating weighted side bends, 12.5 lbs each hand

12 deltoid raises, 7.5 lbs each hand

30 cobras

15 squats, holding 25 lbs

12 lat pulldowns, 30 lbs

12 lat pulldowns, 40 lbs

12 lat pulldowns, 50 lbs

3/1 (lower body and core)

3 mins jumping jacks

15 squats, 25 lbs

20 Russian get ups, holding 5 lbs

40 calf raises, 15 lbs each hand

60 Brazilian crunches

40 side lunges + plyometric push off (each side)

20 weighted v-sit twists, holding 15 lbs

40 alternating lunges

20 lying overhead raise + double crunch, holding 5 lbs

60 bridges

20 reverse crunch + leg raise

60 bridges squeezing knees together

1:00 plank

15 deadlifts, 15 lbs each hand

30 cobras

12 lat pulldowns, 30 lbs

12 lat pulldowns, 40 lbs

12 lat pulldowns, 50 lbs

5 mins rowing machine

I've enjoyed adding the rowing machine into my gym routine lately. Sometimes the very idea of getting onto the elliptical gives me the Debs. I tried out the stair stepper this week too - and good god is that thing difficult. I sweat more in the 5 minutes spent on the stepper than I did in the 20 minutes spent on the row machine! So that will be something I'll have to ease into. I don't know how some people spend a half hour on the stair stepper. They must be punishing themselves for something.

Random sidebar - if you're going to do a few minutes of jumping jacks, do it while listening to Kanye West's Black Skinhead. It's literally the perfect tempo for jumping jacks... it actually had me smiling while I was jumping.

What have you been up to this weekend? 

Are you watching the Oscars tonight? 

Have you ever been to a waffle bar before??

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Trust Fund Beauty: Hold the Drama

The weekend before last, I joined a small group of other bloggers at Joey Bentall One in downtown Vancouver for lunch, drinks, and some eco-beauty chat. The get-together was organized by a local blogger who also reps some non-toxic and eco-friendly products and she wanted to share with a few fellow bloggers some of the products from the brands that she loves.

One of the brands that the brand rep brought for us to check out was Trust Fund Beauty, and we each got to pick out two nail polish colors from this brand. Trust Fund Beauty hasn't even officially been launched yet, so I was excited to be able to check out a spankin' new polish brand! The two polishes I selected were Stole Your Man (a pale golden, shimmery polish) and Hold the Drama (a minty-pistachio color with multi-colored hex glitter).

Hold the Drama is the one I'm showing you today!

This is with three coats of Hold the Drama, and two coats of Orly's Preamp on my ring finger.

These Trust Fund Beauty polishes are supposedly 5-free, meaning they're supposed to be free of Dibutyl Phthalate, Toluene, Formaldehyde, Formaldehyde Resin, and Camphor. I had to Google "5-free" because this sort of thing is not my bag, baby. I mean, obviously nail polish is a "thing" for me, but reading the ingredient list is..... nawt. I know that's not good, but there's enough general anxiety running through me as it is (I'm a bit of a hypochondriac and a worry wart!), that adding "chemicals" to the list of worries always feels a bit heavy.

Funny enough though... I've never thought about chemicals while painting my nails so much as I did while using this nail polish, because it is reeeeeeally stinky. Definitely requires more ventilation than your average nail polish. It actually was making me feel kind of sick, so I had to remove the polish right after I painted my nails and snapped these pictures!  I don't know much at all about eco-friendly beauty products. I'm not sure if the strong polish smell was because of the ingredients that the product doesn't include? Do 5-free polishes tend to smell stronger?

As I mentioned, this was a pre-launch special treat for us. These 17mL/0.57 fl oz bottles will be priced at $16 per bottle.

p.s. You can learn more about 3-free and 5-free nail polish at this useful blog.

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This is not a sponsored post, but I did receive this polish for free!

{Linking up with The Nail Files, What I'm Loving Fridays, Friday's Fab Favorites, Beauty Buzz}

Cartems Donuterie in Vancouver

So about a month ago I was in downtown Vancouver waiting at a bus stop when I looked across the street and realized there was a donut shop there that I'd never seen before.

I was all, "Whaaaaaa!?!" and nearly ran across the street right that instant, dodging cars Frogger-style and abandoning my plans to get onto any bus that would take me further away from this donut shop.

I've got a bit of a thing for donuts.

Well I didn't launch myself into traffic that particular day, but you can bet your sweet ass that Cartems Donuterie went into my mental pocket and stayed there. I knew I'd be back.

A couple of weeks later I was downtown running errands and decided to bop into the donuterie to check it out, which was - as you can imagine - an amazing decision on my part. The place was hoppin'!

The bright white high ceilings and exposed brick make the place seem pretty big, and the open bakery in the back of the room extends back even further:

Look at this clever table and chair situation they have in one of the front window corners:

So Cartems is the kind of donut place that serves really special flavors - not just the "chocolate glazed" or "raspberry filled" type of stuff. While Cartems doesn't seem to feature outlandish toppings like that of, say, Voodoo Doughnut, they do have some interesting combos and tantalizing flavors. During that first afternoon trip to the donuterie (yes, the first - I've obviously gone back again since), I picked up a Citrus Dust donut and a Salted Caramel donut... Guys. They were both really, really, really good. I ate the citrus one on my way home that day.

From the Cartems website:

Citrus Dust: Four citrus fruits, that we juice ourselves, and essential oils make up the glaze. Peeled and dried citrus zest is then blended into a dust and sprinkled on top for an extra kick.

Salted Caramel: A chocolate donut topped with sweet buttery goodness and course sea salt. Sweet and salty deliciousness.

And when I say that these donuts were "really good" I do not only mean that they tasted fantastic. I also want you to understand how soft and fluffy these donuts were. We're talking very well-made donuts. These guys know what they're doing! The second one was even still super soft and fluffy the next day!

Other flavors included Earl Grey, Maple Walnut, Chocolate Sweet Snow, Triple Chocolate Threat, Canadian Whiskey Bacon, Mexican Mole, Classic Vanilla (with vanilla bean frosting!). There are vegan and gluten free flavors available as well. They also have different feature flavors daily. You can read descriptions of all of these amazing donuts on their website here.

You definitely pay for the quality of the donuts at Cartems...

.  nawt cheap  .

But..... delicious fried dough and sugar.

Fast forward a couple more weeks and I found myself on a bus heading all the way downtown with one thing on my brain: DOZE DONUTS DOE.

Yep, I was going back. And, I mean... if you're going to go all that way just to get a donut... you might as well get half a dozen of them, right? So I did.

WHOOO!

.  LIKE A BOSS  .

Clockwise from top left: Raspberry Lemonade, Apple Crumble, Chocolate Sweet Snow, Triple Chocolate Threat, Salted Caramel, and Chocolate Glazed. So good, so good, so good. 

It says on the Cartems Donuterie website that the business is about three key things: smiles, conversation, and donuts.  I can vouch for the first and the last - I didn't converse with anyone either time that I was there.

Also... they freaking DELIVER via bike to the downtown area. Perhaps you noticed their delivery bike propped up against the window in some of the above pictures. So get your donut delivery on, ladiiiiies!

Are you as crazy about donuts as I am?

What's your favorite donut flavor?

If you don't like donuts, what's wrong with you?

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This isn't a sponsored post, I just really effing love donuts.

LUSH Catastrophe Cosmetic Fresh Face Mask

Another day, another mask to smear all over my face!

I tried another one of LUSH's Fresh Face Masks and thought I'd share with you my opinions on it. This time I picked up Catastrophe Cosmetic, a "blueberry-packed maintenance mask," as the LUSH site describes it.

This was on my list of "next masks to try" because - as I've said before - my skin is a real bitch and it needs all the extra love it can get. From the LUSH site:

Prevent disasters by taking regular care of your skin with our deep-cleansing, nutrient-rich blueberry mask. The little blue bulbs are packed with vitamins, and blended into calamine, rose absolute and chamomile blue oil to soothe redness, irritation and cleanse the skin without stripping it of its natural oils. This one is wonderfully soothing on sensitive skin. Treat your face to Catastrophe Cosmetic as often as you can to keep your skin looking its best.

I was already broken out, so I guess "preventing disasters" was not in the cards, but a nutrient-rich mask with calamine sounded like it couldn't hurt.

Like the other face masks I've tried (Oatifix and Cupcake) Catastrophe Cosmetic should be applied over a clean face and left on for 5-10 minutes before being rinsed off with warm water.

CC is more clay-like than Oatifix or Cupcake. (As a reminder, Oatifix was like an oatmealy banana bread batter and Cupcake had more of a brownie batter consistency.)  The smell of these masks seems to be a big deal for me, personally. What they smell like - and how strongly they smell that way - can be either a selling point or a huge deterrent. In this particular case... it's a bit of a deterrent I'm sad to say!

Catastrophe Cosmetic smells like chalky blueberry floral clay. Yep. Read that a few times. Weird. Anyway, I did as instructed and smeared a nice thick layer of it all over my clean face. You may have seen me show off the look on Instagram. (Oh yeah, by the way, I'm sort of on Instagram now ~> find me at @akaBaileyBlog. Don't mind the lack of a profile picture - I haven't felt beautiful enough to take a selfie in like a month thanks to all of my aforementioned skin problems.)

.  but i will take this blueberry-smeared selfie!  .

This mask felt like it dried on my skin a lot faster than the other two, I found. I left it on for about 10 minutes before rinsing it off.

Several minutes after washing off the mask, I noticed that my skin didn't feel clean - it felt like there was still residue on my skin. So I went and re-rinsed. My face still felt un-clean after the second rinse! Did I do something wrong?? My hands even felt dried out, having touched the face mask!

Over the next week or so, my skin did not improve at all. I'd even say my breakouts got worse, though I wouldn't blame the face mask for that. I blame a combination of bad luck, hormones, and possibly... a less-than-stellar diet. #HelloDoughnuts. #HelloIceCream. #HelloSaltyPopcornTwists. #GOODBYESELFRESPECT.

I'd heard that you can actually use these fresh face masks beyond their expiration date if you keep them in your refrigerator. I still had plenty of product left, but my skin was so out of control that I was hesitant to use the CC mask again while I was broken out, so I decided to keep the mask for about a week beyond the expiration date.  When I was finally feeling brave enough to use it again on my face, I opened it up to discover a few spots of mold inside the product, so I had to throw the rest of it away. (By the way, I also rinsed out my little black pot and stashed it with my others, because if you bring back 5 of the empty pots, they'll give you a face mask for free!)

So all in all, I won't be repurchasing this mask. I didn't care for the smell and didn't like the way my face felt after using it. So far the winner of LUSH's face masks is Oatifix, which smells incredible and left my face feeling really soft and moisturized.

Here are all the ingredients inside of Catastrophe Cosmetic:

Calamine Powder , Talc , Irish Moss (Chondrus crispus) , Fresh Blueberries (Vaccinium myrtillus) , Glycerine , Almond Oil (Prunus dulcis) , Rose Absolute (Rosa damascena) , Chamomile Blue Oil (Matricaria Chamomilla) , Sweet Wild Orange Oil (Citrus Dulcis) , *Limonene , Methyl Ionone , Perfume

LUSH's fresh face masks come in 45g pots that cost $6.95. Let me know in the comments if you have tried one of their masks and think I should check it out!

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{Linking up with Beauty Buzz}

I purchased this face mask myself!