A Day in the Museum

Hi all, 

Recently, my husband and I took our little one to the Canadian Museum of Civilization to the Children's Exhibit. It was a lovely day filled with a lot of laughs, and exploration. This is a simple outfit that a simple wardrobe can pull together for a very fun yet sophisticated look. 

Necklace: Drapes and More 

Ring: Carnival cruise line

Earrings: Peacock dangle earrings from Pier One Imports

Hairtie: Goodie

Shirt: Jacob

Sweater: Jacob

Skirt: Jacob

Hose: Pennington's

Shoes: George (Walmart)

Nail Polish: Purple: Ulta, Turquoise: China Glaze

Why I think this works:

I have brought a sweet and casual look a little more sophistication. The green is very calming and elegant, but in T-Shirt form, makes the look a little more casual. The shirt hugs my curves and the hos bring it down to Earth more than sheer hose would. The shoes are comfortable to walk in and are conservative and not high at all. The jewelry is very artistic and have a personal touch, tying everything together. I was able to move and chase my little one while still feeling pretty and polished. My husband simply wore jeans and a black, long sleeve shirt and we looked just fine together. This can be dressed up or even down more, but I thought for a day learning about other cultures and having fun with my little girl, that this would have been appropriate. 

I hope you enjoyed this look. 

If you want to see anymore, just let me know. 

Warm wishes. 

Chipotle Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie

Hey everyone, 

Yesterday's recipe was being moody, so it wasn't posted yesterday. But here is our dinner from yesterday. 

Chipotle Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie

475 g sweet potatoes
200 g onion
2 cloves garlic
10 g unsalted butter
2 tsp olive oil
100 g frozen corn
100 g frozen peas
127 mL green chilies
400 g lean ground beef
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 TBSP flour
400 mL chipotle salsa

Serves 8

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Boil your water for steaming your sweet potatoes. 

Preheat your pan on medium heat.

Note: I have stainless steel pans, so you might do a different process than I do, but make sure your veggies are cut up and your cans are open before you start all of this. This makes it easy to just add all of your ingredients to your pan and cook them. 

To heat up your stainless steel pan effectively, wait about 7 minutes. Splash a 1/8 of a tsp on water in it, if the water just evaporates, wait another three minutes. If it dances around the pan for a second or two before evaporating, then your stainless steel pan is ready and non-stick. 

Put your butter and olive oil in the pan, swirling it around to evenly distribute it. Toss in your diced onion and let it saute for about 5 to 7 minutes. 

Meanwhile, take your peeled and diced sweet potatoes and put them in your steamer. Let them steam for the entire time that you are cooking your filling. This ensures that they will be lovely and soft and easily mashable. That isn't a word, I don't think. 

Anyway, after your onions are very sweet and soft, add in your cloves of minced garlic. Let that go only for a minute, you don't want to burn your garlic. Once that has bloomed and become fragrant, add in your chilies. Let them go for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Next, make a hole in the center of your veggies. Put your ground beef in the center of the pan, breaking it up with your utensil (whatever you have been using for the veggies). Once the beef is nice and browned, salt and pepper it. Mix all of the veggies in with the beef. Once well combined, pour 200 mL into the beef mixture. Stir and let the mixture come to a bubble. Once that happens, sprinkle in your flour. Mix well. Toss in your peas and corn. Quickly mix and transfer to your beef mixture into a sprayed casserole dish. You don't want to let these cook too much, otherwise your peas and corn will discolor and become dull. 

Put the mixture in the dish aside and take out your sweet potatoes. Transfer to the pan that has the beef mixture in it, off the heat (this is simply so you don't dirty a new dish), and mash your chipotle salsa into the sweet potatoes. Once fully mashed and smooth, top your beef mixture with the sweet potatoes. 

Place in the oven and let it bake for 20 minutes in the oven. 

I served mine with more veggies and a little bit of cheddar cheese. This is up to you. You can serve this with tortilla chips, sour cream, jalapenos, or any type of your favorite hot sauce. You can add carrots, I didn't have any, otherwise I would have, or any other veggie that you want. The more veggies you add, the less beef there will per serving, amping up the nutritional bang for your buck. This makes for a balanced and filling meal. My family really enjoyed it. 

You can buy chipotle salsa, or make your own. Next week I will be putting up my recipe for my HomeMade Chipotle Salsa. 

I hope you enjoy! Comment down below and let me know how yours turned out. 

Warm wishes. 

DIY Lip Plumper

Hello all, 

I just made this product the other night. It was so easy and made with easy and accessible ingredients that I found in my kitchen. 

Again, if you buy organic, then this product will be organic. I use this product when I want plumper lips before I put my makeup on. If you're really good, then you could possibly even leave it on your lips while you are doing your make-up and then just wipe it off and apply your balm and your lipstick or gloss. 

I have only used this product twice so far, but I think if you are looking for a lip plump that you don't have to on the upwards of $25.00 for, then I would recommend using this. It is completely customizable for your lips. I would recommend using a lip scrub before you use this because it also helps plumb your lips and make them more red. 

I hope this works for you, I thought it worked for me, it left my lips tingling and full and red. 

What you need:
Brown sugar
Ground Cinnamon
Ground Cardamon
Cayenne pepper
Ground cloves 
White sugar, fine
Olive oil
Honey
Pure peppermint extract
A small travel container

Mix 2 parts cinnamon, one part brown sugar, one part white sugar, one part onlive oil, one part honey, one part peppermint extract, one part cayenne, one part cardamon and one part clove. Mix on a peice of wax paper. It should resemble wet sand, but very dark. It has a beautiful spicy aroma, and you can't even taste the cayenne. 

Hopefully this will tingle and help make your lips nice and full. 

Top with your favorite lipstick or gloss. For a big lips tutorial, come see me again soon. 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Very easy and very simple. 

Warm wishes. 

DIY LIp Scrub

Hello everyone!

Have you wanted a lip scrub to exfoliate your dry chapped lips in the winter? What about all year round? Want to be able to go into your kitchen and find your lip scrub all the time? Then this is the post for you!

This is the easiest lip scrub I have found. I have been using it for a few months now and it is just as good as a store bought exfoliator, and you can eat it! It can even be organic if you buy organic ingredients. And the best part: these are items that are in more people's kitchen all year round. 

I hope you enjoy this tutorial. 

This is what you will need:

brown sugar

honey

white sugar, the coarser the better, but regular sugar will be just fine

olive oil, or your favorite oil (sunflower, walnut, flaxseed, grapeseed, etc

a small travel container, you can find these at Walmart and drugstores like Walgreens and Shoppers

One part brown sugar

Two parts white sugar

One part honey

One part oil

Mix together on a piece of wax paper and then pack into the tin

That is it! It's that easy!!! Your mixture should resemble building sand, crumbly but sticks together a little. 

I hope you enjoyed this very easy tutorial. 

Warm wishes. 

Veggie-Full Macaroni and Cheese

When I was young, I remember my brother being a picky eater. Everyone goes through that stage, it's natural, but now, when my baby is still little, I am trying to avoid that. I, even in my adult years, find myself not liking certain fruits and vegetables. So, in order to sneak a little more fruits and vegetables, I have started putting vegetables into my dishes that wouldn't normally have them.

Now, please don't get me wrong, I do not think that these dishes automatically become less fattening just because I fill them with vegetables. And understand that I am not a nutritionist. I am simply trying to add a little more nutrition into meals that my family enjoys. 

This is Veggie-Full Macaroni and Cheese

8 oz pasta (I used Scoobi doo, but you can use macaroni elbows or penne)

5 oz sharp or old cheddar cheese

4.5 oz peas

4.5 oz carrots, peeled and chopped

1 TBSP unsalted butter for the roux

1 TBSP unsalted butter for the casserole dish

2 oz shallots, minced

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 TBSP flour

1.5 cups of 2% milk

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp mustard powder or Dijon mustard

1/4 tsp smoked paprika

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

1 TBSP oil

1 TBSP grated parm

Serves 6

Boil your water. 

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Prepare the macaroni as directed on the package. Half way through the cooking, add in the peas and carrots. Finish cooking, drain and set aside. 

In a pot, melt butter for the roux. While the butter is melting, butter your casserole dish. When butter is fully melted and just ever so slightly bubbling, add in your minced shallots. Cook for 3 minutes then add garlic. Cook for one minute and add in flour, mixing into a lumpy paste. 

Trick: In order to use as little amount as possible, I use one pot to boil the macaroni mixture, then transfer that to the casserole dish. Use a whisk for all stirring. That way, when it comes time to whisk the roux, you only have to dirty one utensil, one pot, and one casserole dish. Alos, one knife and one cutting board, but things that that are very easy to wash. 

Back to the recipe. 

After the flour is mixed fully, add in the milk, whisking constantly. Once it is smooth and well blended, let it come to a small bubble.

Once bubbling, pour the cheese over the macaroni mixture in the casserole dish. Sprinkled over the breadcrumbs, the Parmesan cheese and the tablespoon of oil.  

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes on 350F.

Enjoy!

Hopefully, your picky eaters will enjoy this dish as much as my family does.

Warm wishes. 

LUSH Cosmetics Review

Hello everyone! 

Today I will be posting several different posts. This is the first of three. I hope you enjoy it! 

This post is about my LUSH cosmetics scrubs. 

The first product I used is the Ocean Salt Face and Body Scrub.

This is a blue and white swirl of fine sea salt, coarse sea salt, and vodka. 

If you are a fan of coarse scrubs, this product might just be for you. It is a thick, chunky formula with a beautiful bahama blue water colour in it. 

I really liked this product. Again, this is just a first impression. I will be using this product every day for the rest of the month and I will give you another review the first week of February. I will use it every morning and night and after I exercise. We will see what it does to my skin. 

The scrub is thick and creamy with thick salt crystals that really scrubbed my skin and removed all the dirt and oil from my pores without stripping my skin of all it's moisture. 

The LUSH products are against animal cruelty and testing and all their containers are 100% recycled, making all of us feel a little better about using these products. Now don't get me wrong, these products are a little pricey. Well, actually, really pricey. I might not purchase more of them, depending on how long these products last. If they last more than two or three months, then maybe they will be worth it, but I somehow doubt it. 

Anyway, these products are handmade and they have little stickers on them to indicate who it is made by and when you should use them by. This ensures that LUSH doesn't need to fill their products with preservatives. A lot of their products are organic, some are vegan, and all are cruelty free, paraben free, and made with ingredients that occur naturally. Some are had to pronounce, but that is because they occur a natural chemicals within some of their ingredients. With all of the allergies that are cropping up everyday, LUSH is a great company to go with if you need to know exactly what is in your products. And it's not just the cleansers that they list their ingredients for. Every thing that this company makes has every little thing listed on the package. So, thank you Sara for this body and face scrub. And I will use it before February 28th. 

The only thing bad that I have to say about this product is that IT TASTES HORRIBLE!!!!! Yes, it is just salt and vodka mixed together. Do not eat this product. If you have no taste buds, then by all means, it is safe to eat, but I would not recommend it in the slightest. 

This is everything that is on the label. 

Net wight 4.2 ounces. Fine sea salt, Fresh grapefruit infusion, coarse sea salt, stearic acid, fresh organic lime extracted in vodka, sodium cocoamphoacetate, glycol cetearate, triethanolmine, avacado butter, extra virgin coconut oil, lime oil, seaweed absolute, violet leaf absolute, glycerine, lanolin, cetaeryl, alcohol, *limonene, *linalool, fragrance, FD&C Blue no.1, methylparaben. 

*Occurs naturally in essential

Not virgin! A Vodka voyage. 

The next product you can eat though, and you might actually want to. In fact, it is recommended right on the label!

This is me washing my face with the scrub for the first time. 

The LUSH Bubblegum Lip Scrub. 

 

I love this lip scrub. It tastes good, though it is a little too sweet and artificial for my taste. It is a fine scrub, but I felt like my lips were as soft as ever, bright and lovely and plump. I wet my lips and scrubbed the smallest amount onto them vigorously. It took the dead skin off of my lips and left them tingling and new feeling. 

This is a wonderful product that I would recommend to anyone looking for a great lip product. I use it every morning and every night and I feel as though it helps exfoliate and rejuvenate my lips. I have a horrible time with my lips in the winter. I have already been through a whole tube of chap stick, so I really needed a lip scrub. Again, this product is all natural. It's actually vegan. 

 oz

This is what is on the container: Castor sugar, cold pressed organic jojoba oil, methyl ionone, flavour, polyester-3, D&C red no 28, D&C red no.21

Preservative free, Vegan! 

And thank you, Susan for my lip scrub. I will use this up by March.

Again, these products are expensive. It cost me $9.95. 

I would definitely recommend this scrub to anyone willing to spend the money. In my DIY section, though, I will be making a DIY face scrub, a DIY lip Scrub and a DIY lip plumper. They will be coming soon. 

This is me using this product:

I hope you found this review helpful.

Warm wishes. 

Yes to Tomatoes Review

Hello everyone, 

I just wanted to give a first impression of a new product called Say Yes to Tomatoes: Clear Skin. 

I picked this product up at Shopper's Dug mart for 9.49 Canadian for 5.25oz. My best friend about a year or two ago recommended this, but at the time, it was too expensive for me, and I was attempting to use my subscription of Proactive to clear my acne. 

Now that I am willing to try anything, I picked it up to see what all the fuss was about. Now I know. 

This is a great cleanser. It is an oil control cleanser and says that it is 95% natural. 

This is the ingredients list: Water, lauryl glucoside, cocamidoproyl betaine, glycerine, propanediol, sodium chloride, aloe barbedensis leaf juice*, salicylic acid, parfum/fragrance, phenthyl alcohol, glyceryl caprylate, citric acid, alcohol solanum lycopersicum (tomato) extract. 

* This is a certified organic product

This product is also a cruelty free product. 

Yes to Tomatoes is a gel cleanser, which feel soft and slick against the skin. I followed the directions and wet my face with warm water them massaged a quarter size amount of cleanser onto my face and rinsed with cool water and towel dried. 

The smell of this product is similar to baby powder with a light, fresh scent that stays on your skin for hours. It felt like it cleaned my skin without stripping it of all the oils. My skin is soft and matte for hours. The ony thing I didn't like about this product is that it isn't red like tomatoes, doesn't smell like tomatoes, and it looks, smells and feels more synthetic than natural. Also, it says that it is 95% natural, but the first product is water, and the second is lauryl glucoside, which all "all natural", "diy", organic", and "organic cosmetics" bloggers, reviewers, authors and doctors say to stay away from. I understand that there are organic and natural elements in it, but I think that in order to label something "yes to tomatoes", it should resemble, through taste, touch, smell and feel, like a tomato. I was very disappointed in that. Still, in order to deliver a proper review and knowing that the water is probably the most natural thing in this bottle, I will be trying the whole line of these products. 

I will definitely be purchasing the toner and the moisturizer to see if they do just as well. 

I will be doing another review after I have used all three products for a month straight. 

Just to re-iterate, I have combination oily skin with large pores, blemishes and black heads. 

In February, I will be using this product every morning and night and taking pictures of my skin at the start of the month and the end of the month and every Monday, I will give you a morning and an evening without make-up look. 

I hope this first impression was informative and helpful. 

Again, this product is not organic and I am not an expert by any means, this is just my experience with this product, sharing it with you, in the hopes it will help. 

I am a huge friend of organic products, all natural products as well, but I also know that chemicals rule our world, and that some of the best products are full of artificiality. 

Again, I hoped this helped. 

Warm wishes. 

Real Life for Real

Hello everyone! 

So, in learning how to care for two dogs, a baby, a husband, a car and a house, I have found several "life hacks" to baby proof the house, reduce the amount of space we use in the house, keep the car and the house clean, and save a little more time and energy in my everyday life, and keep my house running with everyone in the loop and everyone able to participate. These are things you can do in your everyday life. Some I have picked up from friends, some from the internet, and some have just fallen into place for our family. Maybe some of these will help you and maybe you can help me. 

Leave a comment, and if I try your suggestion, I will post a picture of it and let you know how it worked for me! 

I hope these help you. 

Warm wishes. 

Organize Yourself

Hey there!

This page is new, so if there isn't anything here for a bit, just give it time. 

I have a new found passion for organizing my home. It takes time, but if you take that 30 minutes while the baby is asleep, or while you were on Facebook, you can organize your make-up, your jewelry box, your face cleansers, a cabinet, or a closet. I don't use fancy organizers for everything, and the ones I do use, I have accumulated over time, or they were a gift. I re-purpose old totes and shoe boxes, re-organize drawers and closets to make things fit neater, and use new organizers to help with those odd projects. 

I'm not saying you have to go out and buy a bunch or shoes, or go to Canadian Tire and buy a bunch or organizers. If this is what you want to do, by all means, I love shopping. But if you are a shoe box keeper, or your linen closet looks like a mess, then you can follow my simple tricks to help organize your house, your room, your child's room, and your life. 

Happy organizing. 

Warm wishes.  

Every Husband's Nightmare

Hello ladies and gents who have husbands, 

This is a page specifically for your man! This will be full of pictures of my husband and what he wears on a day-to-day basis, special evens and for exercise. I warn you now, his wardrobe is not for the faint of heart. It has daring colours, prints, and denim. Colours like yellow. And black. Oooooo. 

Just kidding. I think that men should reflect their partners. It makes you look like you belong together without being matchy matchy. He has a good wardrobe that any man can copy and I think it's high time that he was a able to shine a little in the fashion department. 

He is just a normal, everyday guy, but I think he deserves his 15 minutes. 

Here's to our men. And here's to our nudging them in the right direction. 

Warm wishes. 

Who Let the Dogs Out?!

Hey there, 

Glad you stumbled in here.

This page will be packed with tons of great information about the poofy pooches I live with.

    

Everything from dog food, to grooming, to playtime and toys, this page will have all the information you need to do the things I do. My husband and I make it a point to save as much money as we possibly can, even if that means shelling out a little more at the beginning. If this isn't your policy, then by all means, ignore this page, but hopefully my tips for our best furry friends will help you, and maybe even inspire you to get a little up close and personal with your own pets. 



Warm wishes. 

The Make-Up Every Mom Should Know- Better Lighting

Hello again, 

So as stated in my "The Make-Up Every Mom Should Know" tutorial, I had horrible, all over the place lighting with a thousand interruptions and not a very good backdrop. I have now moved my work space so that I have a nice area to take pictures, not only of me but of the products as well. 

I just want to remind you that I have oily combination skin that I do need to mattify every couple of hours. This is not a simple mattified look without touching up or anything like that. This is just a fresh faced simple look that mothers, high school students and teaches alike will appreciate and be able to accomplish in minimal time. 

So, with the attention of HelperBaby and the soft scents of my lovely new candles I will re-do the make-up tutorial and hopefully this will show you how I make my skin more flawless and give you a more peaceful viewing experience. That sounded really weird. 

Anyway, onto the tutorial. 

I start out with a clean face. 

Next, I buff on a mineral foundation (I used Smashbox's Halo to Go in Fair, simply because that's the only one I have) using a kabuki brush. Make sure to blend it down onto your neck and up to the hairline. 

 Sorry I look so tired, experimenting with my lighting and my angles and such. I will smile more next time. 

Next I took a bronzer (pictured here: Physician's formula Healthy Glow bronzer) just to give a tiny bit of warmth to my cheeks. I would normally use a light blush, but I don't have any non-shimmery powder blushes right now, so this will have to do.

 


 Do whatever you think is going to look natural. If it's summer, stick with a bronzer all over your hairline, temples and down onto your cheeks. Keep it light. This is the best way to look polished without having a lot on your skin. It helps your face to feel fresh, without feeling heavy. I know for me, the sun, and summertime in general do wonders for my skin, so this is the look I do for if I want a pretty, finished look. 

Also, I apologize for my pajamas and hair. It was a long day. 

So next, I do my brows. I take this Maybelline Made for Mocha eye shadow and fill them in with an angled brush. (A brow tutorial will come when I get my brow kit.) 

 

Yay, brows done. Next, I conceal with my highlighting concealer. (mine is from Maybelline Dream Concealer in the lightest shade you can possibly find.) I simply dab the tiniest amount of concealer onto my finger and gently blend it on all of my blemishes to give a little more flawless look. If you have dark under eye circles then you can conceal those too, but mine aren't horrible, so I'm going to leave them alone. 

After that, I run a lid primer/concealer over my lids. I have a lot of bluish colouring on my lids because my skin is so fair and thin there. If your lids are goo, then skip this step, but I feel that I need it. 

 

Now that my lids are primed, I lightly press the same shade that I used for my eyebrows into my upper lash-line. I used a firm shadow brush from SOHO. This gives your upper lash line a little more fullness without weighing your eye make-up down or making the look too artificial. 

 

Now that my upper lash-line looks full, I put on a fine layer of brown mascara (mine is Covergirl's LastBlast in brown) just to give my eyes a more awake look. To add to this, you can swipe a nude (flesh toned) pencil across your lower waterline. My pencil was devoured by a little, white, fluffy beast who lives in my house. I won't mention any names. 

 

Lastly, swipe on a chap stick, tinted balm, or subtle gloss to give your lips nourishment and colour. 

I hope you enjoyed this much neater tutorial. Again, excuse the pjs, this will be my last make-up tutorial with dirty hair and pjs, I promise. I hope you all have a great night, and stay tuned for my Seafood Curry recipe (it's so simple!) and my LUSH cosmetics review. 

Have a great night. 

Warm wishes.