Five Favorites

Just thought I’d pop in today and share some things I have been loving lately. And of course, feel free to share in the comments what YOU’VE been loving lately, because I will probably check them out and end up loving them too. Unless you’re loving seafood or Glee or country music then fat chance.

1. Kerastase Elixir Ultime

kerastase

This stuff is amazing. I put a few drops in my hair after I wash it and not only does it smell DIVINE (think of the glorious salon/expensive smell) but it makes me hair soft and light when I style it. Which is rare these days, but I will still throw some in before I go to bed because the smell honestly just makes me feel sexy. It’s a bit pricy ($54 CAD) but it last forever and well worth it. Several of the other products I rotate through are also a bit on the pricy side but they too have been in my hair regiment for a long time!

2. Smoothies

smoothies

In previous years, I loved making smoothies (mostly ones that included protein powder) but I had the crappiest blender ever. When we reno’d our kitchen, the blender kind of when kaput, so my smoothie consumption drastically went down. Unless I felt like shelling out $7 bucks at Jugo Juice. BUT- this year, I finally decided to splurge on a Vitamix..using some of the money I got from my work bonus! Holy moly is that machine the most amazing thing ever. It blends anything and everything like a charm. Tyler and I have both been loving smoothies lately because they are quick and tasty and cheap! We can use not-so-good looking fruit we have leftover and stock up on a ton of frozen fruit from Costco. I’m excited to try out more recipes this summer! Oh, and I’ve given up on Nutella for a bit, but if you’re still on that wagon, check out this YUMMY Nutella Milkshake recipe.

3. Whimzees dog treats.

dogtreats

Ok, obviously this one isn’t for me but the dogs go NUTSO over them. We generally only give these types of ‘big’ treats to them on Friday and Saturday nights and ones we’ve bought in the past have either not agreed with the pup’s tummies or Reggie gobbles them up faster than you can blink. Which is unfortunate, because you’d hope they’d last at least a few minutes when you’re spending upwards of $20/bag on them! Reggie gets the hedgehogs and Layla get the alligators and both dogs love them- I think it even helps with Layla’s mouth troubles! (both dogs have each had a tooth removed but Layla also has a lot of nerve damage on the left side of her mouth making it hard for her to chew).

4. Behr Marquee paint

paint

Do I sound grown up for listing PAINT as a favorite? But seriously, this paint is great. Here’s why: Our house was built in 1981 and I’m guessing there have been quite a few previous owners- most of whom had terrible taste in decor. Paint colors included. When I moved in 3 years ago, most of the house was a weird dark brown/mauve color and totally barfy. We tried to lighten up the dining room and living room a few years back, and it took us 3-4 coats of crappy paint to just cover the yucky brown. When we did the basement this winter, we decided to give Marquee a go because of the one-coat guarantee and it covered the basement’s dark green like a charm! We were so impressed that we bought another can to do the guest bedroom, another for the baby’s room, and are now currently working on covering up our previous poor paint job in the main living space/kitchen. The paint line comes with a slightly higher price tag, but it DOES work in one coat which could really make it more cost efficient in the end.

5. Home Workout Equipment

photo 1-36

Right now, my arsenal includes:

  • bosu ball
  • rope less jump rope
  • gliding discs
  • resistance bands
  • TRX
  • dumbbells
  • bender ball
  • stability ball
  • DVDs

Since I haven’t had a gym membership at all this calendar year (gasp) it has been really great being able to alternate between what I do have here at home. Sidebar: I can’t wait until after this baby is born to join the Y again!!! Obviously my workouts and far less intense while pregnant, but it is really nice to be able to grab a few weights or a band and do SOMETHING while I’m watching TV.

Regarding pregnancy DVD workouts: I bought the Tracy Anderson Pregnancy Project, the Complete Prenatal Vinyasa Yoga & Short Forms, and the Prenatal Fitness Fix.

DVDs

-I’ve only done the Prenatal Fitness Fix once because I thought it was a really cheesy video and could honestly come up with the series of moves myself.

-I’ve done the vinyasa yoga DVDs quite a few times because it is a nice change up from typical workouts, plus it offers 15/30/45/75 minute practices depending on how much time or desire you have!

-I’d like to say that I love the Tracy Anderson Pregnancy Project series, but that would be a lie. She has some great moves that actually target all those muscles that might be hard to otherwise reach during pregnancy, but I really just can’t stand her teaching method. Her explanations, banter, and demonstrations just bug the bejesus out of me. And you can tell when she gets tired because her rep counts are very inconsistent. Tyler laughs when I do these DVDs because I yell at her a lot.

So that’s it!

I’ve covered, beauty, food, dogs, home and fitness. Only topic left untouched is baby- which will come tomorrow! (the topic, not the baby).

Latests 11/21

Yay, it’s Thursday again! (not as great as Friday, from a work aspect, but quickly becoming my favorite blog-day of the week. WAIT. NO. I love Winesday Wednesday, too. AH MAN, this is a dilemma.)
I really do love sharing stuff I’ve come across lately- whether it’s crap I buy, do, see, yadda yadda (‘yadda yadda’ NOT being used as a verb here, English Majors). And I’ve got some more cool stuff to share with you this week!
1. So I cut my hair this weekend. 6 inches to be exact. Only 2 people have noticed. 6 inches is a LOT (that’s what she DIDN’T say! oooooooooo snap) But my hair was pretty dang long, so I guess it didn’t make that much of an impact. Of course, at the end of my appointment I was suckered in to buying a Christmas gift set of some pretty nice products. Womp goes the wallet. It’s totally getting wrapped and put under the tree for myself.
11.21 hair
This isn’t the exact set I got, but it looks pretty similar!
2. Gastropost! So this is a pretty neat website- they set weekly food ‘missions’ for people to snap photos of foods/meals that meet the particular mission and post then on social media using their hashtag. Some of the best are taken and put in the local paper! Apparently this has been going on in other big cities in Canada and it was just launched in Calgary this week. In fact, I was contacted by the lovely lady who is running this shindig to see if I wanted to be a part of it. UM OF COURSE. I take way too many pictures of my food- and now I can get in the paper for it! Sweet and yummy deal right there.
11.21 gastro
3. A couple of weeks ago, I kinda slammed Lady Gaga’s lastest album. I’m still not loving the majority of the tracks, but after watching her on SNL, I’m sort of obsessed with this song. And the outfit she wore performing the song. It’s been stuck in my head ALL week and I know I’m probably scaring Tyler with random fits of screaming ‘DO WHATCHA WANT, WHATCHA WANT WITH MY BODY.”
11.21 lady
4. I didn’t post about this because I was going to wait until I actually bought it, but now that I know it’s sold out I will proceed to RANT about how upset I am at myself for not purchasing it the DAY it came out: Benefit’s Advent Calendar. Ugh, I would NOT stop talking about it for weeks, and when Tyler actually tried to go get it for me and suprise me with it, he was told it’s sold out everywhere. Insert a night full of tears. Then insert an email I got about THE TWELVE DAYS OF ESSIE. Nail polish, my friends, is AMAZING. I am addicted (remember I went to SEVEN different drug stores to find For the Twill of It?!). In attempts to get me to shut up from my Benefit FOMO, he offered to buy me the Essie gift set. SO I ORDERED IT BEFORE HE COULD FINISH HIS SENTENCE. It gets shipped the first week of December. And I’m so excited. And it’s only available in Canada, so SUCK IT AMERICA. (no no, America, I’m totally kidding. I love you and your Trader Joes and In-n-Outs and lower taxes and amusement parks and Bravo network).
11.21 essie
5. I really love creating my own workouts (this is where I puff my chest and boast about being a group ex instructor and all that jazz. But not jazzercise.) but every once in a while- since I no longer take any group ex classes, I love to rely on other people’s workouts. The past two weeks, I happened to do just that. Below are links to some of the workouts I’ve tried- and really liked!
6. The Chimes Ginger Chews– I’ve seen these all over instgram and the internet, and never gave them any thought because, YUCK I don’t like ginger. But, I needed to make change for a $20 the other day, and opted to buy a small pack of their orange flavored- chews. They were actually kind interesting…in a good way. The chews has good flavor at first, then they had a big KICK of spice. And since I’ve been somewhat of a spice whore as of late, I accidentally ate the whole pack.
 ginger-orange-15pack
That’s it for this week, what are some of your latests?!!