Author Archives: Nancy

Safe bet

It’s safe to say I now have a full blow sinus flu. After complaining yesterday about an eyeball headache (lol), I ended up going to be at 8PM and sleeping for almost 23 straight hours. I woke up during lunch time today to let my dog out do eat and do his stuff, then conked out again until the boyf came home to save and feed me.

I don’t remember the last time I was ill like this — it has to definitely be more than a few years ago. I don’t remember having a sinus flu or cold/flu after being with Scott and that’s like 5 years! Moses. Hopefully it doesn’t worsen so that I need antibiotics or anything. I plan on going to work tomorrow!

My right side of my face feels clogged and the left side? 100% normal. This is how colds/flus affect me. Sinus’. It’s brutal.

Posted in Health | 1 Comment

Ebay!!!!

My first ebay item is up for sale! Wanna buy it? It’s a Lululemon Run: Race Tech tank top!! :)

ebay

Posted in dealz | 4 Comments

I have a theory

I’m pretty sure I got enough sleep last night. I went to bed at 10:00 and didn’t even watch all of the Oscars. Disappointing. The boyf filled me in on the exciting details of Hurt Locker however.

I woke up with a sore throat, still totally tired and my right nostril is stuffed. I went to Boot Camp and even though the sun wash shining super hard (they definitely need some window blinds) and didn’t even break a sweat because I still felt tired/weak/ihavenoidea.

Went home to shower, thought that woke me up a bit, until I had to sit around and play with Alfie til I went to work. Drove to work, here I am. So tired.

I sort of want to be sick, as wrong as that sounds — just so I can go home and get some rest. Nothing too exciting today, huh! Hopefully your day is better than mine. It’s a busy one for me, as Alfie has obedience school tonight. Uuuuuhgh, dread.

My eyeballs have headaches in them…?!

Posted in Health | 1 Comment

Photo re-cap weekend.

Picture post re-cap of the weekend! First of all, it’s my AWESOME bosses birthday today. Doubt she reads my blog, or even knows about it. But I wanted to just let that out.

Friday I worked at the other office (and totally took advantage of our full length mirrors. Hey, I don’t have one at home, or at my other office!) which is in the twin-city and about 10km’s away from my house.

outfit-fridayWhen it’s someone’s birthday, the birthday girl/guy brings in treats for all of the staff. The office that I normally work out of is quite small and we neverrrr have birthdays on week days it seems, and even if they do – they don’t bring in treats for us :(

Well, my boss definitely filled our tummy’s with some make-your-own sundae’s! What an awesome thing to do, especially on a gorgeous sunny Friday afternoon. Tons of goodies and toppings.

IMG09309Here’s mine. This may or may not have been my second helping. Chocolate whip cream, skor bits, and caramel sauce! My mouth is watering, and my stomach is hurting just looking at it. P.S. Cherries, fruit and caramel don’t mix well together and doesn’t make the best appetite suppressant review ;)

IMG09311Aerie gave out gift cards which had a $10, $25, or some insane amount of money guaranteed on it, so I ended up spending some on fresh new undies.aerie I LOVE buying underwear and I hardly ever need to do laundry because of it. I should probably purge it however, since I have way too many. But! Here’s my newest editions. Cute huh!?

aerie1The other day I mentioned on Locupleto that I had a gift card that I needed to spend. Well, the boyf and I headed out to a late night supper to Montana’s restaurant and ate ourselves silly. We didn’t even get an appetizer or dessert. It was all you can eat rib night (he had ribs) and I had my famous super large helping of chicken nachos! I think I devoured the whole plate.

In all our glory.

montanas-nmontanas-sNow today was especially different as I rarely drive my car (myself) out of the city. My cousin who sort of lives in Guelph (sometimes Ottawa lol) was around, so puppster and I headed on over to spend the afternoon with her, her new adopted 5 year old Pom/Yorkie called Hagrid! Yes! From Harry Potter :) I didn’t get to take any photos of them together since Hagrid doesn’t like people, but doesn’t mind dogs. It was a bit overwhelming for Alfie I think because he’s totally conked out tired now.

Gotta run to the store and get some essential milk and bread now! Later gators.

Posted in In the Kitchen, Photos | 6 Comments

Random thoughts

  • Ebay is bad. It makes me SO anxious as to what I’m bidding on that I refresh the auto-matic countdown every few minutes to make sure that I’m still signed in, and I’m still the highest bidder. I don’t want to lose! I hate it when people bid with 14 seconds left, and I can’t re-bid because I’m slow. I hate ebay. Also? Why do my hands sweat?
  • I read a lot of websites that I subscribe to via RSS through gmail subscriptions. I read a lot of websites, but I cannot comment on most of them as they’re usually blocked at my workplace. I often forget what sites I have to visit in the evening, so I can comment – if I’m feeling like a keener, I e-mail myself the URL + comment I want to add lol. So it’s not that I don’t read your website people! I just can’t comment, because my brain is all over the place in the evening and really don’t want to log in!
  • I’m still on my winning streak with another win from Jeanine’s contest! Ow ow, keep’em coming ladiiiies.
  • Occasionally, I break out – rather than going to a dermatologist, I found the best acne treatment at Shoppers Drug Mart. Anything that has Benzoyl Peroxide = works wonders over night!
  • I like it when it rains outside, or when the snow is fresh on the ground, and I look in my rear view mirror, to see my tire marks on the road.
  • I also like stepping on fresh snow, and then turning around, to see the tracks I made.

Don’t forget that you still have 6 more days to enter my smashbox giveaway.

Posted in Daily, Wasting Time | 2 Comments

All the way from Israel

With my fascination with the website of Etsy, I found this wonderful seller from the incredible place of Israel. Adva’s items caught my eye, not only because of the fabrics she uses — but the style that she sews them up. The articles of clothing can be worn as a classic piece with timeless accessories, or you can easily dress them up to be quite funky! I’m impressed with the high quality of materials she uses, and the prices are totally reasonable for anyone!

blackshirt-sideAlfie seems to like it too. :)

Adva and I have something in common and in fact some of you may not know this about me… but I too went and did Textile Studies in College, before I knew what I wanted to do with my life. I ended up going there right after I graduated High School. While it was fun to learn how to weave, knit, sculpt, print and dye I knew I didn’t want to turn a hobby into a job. Ironically enough, I became a Graphic Designer, and I couldn’t say I would want to do anything else!

Enough about me.  Check out some of my favorite pieces created by Adva at Duende74:

2The “Winter” jacket. Which just so happens to be $10 off at the moment. This is definitely my favorite, by far.

1Sleeveless Tunic (wool)

3and of course the Long Sleeved Tunic. Show stoppah!

She even has some dresses to choose from. If I was comfortable wearing a dress, I would have picked something out like that too!

I was lucky enough for Adva to send me a sleeveless tunic made from Italian cotton and wool. Perfect for the spring or summer, and even layering under a cute and perhaps bright cardigan during these cold winter months in Canada. I’m for sure going to wear the top, this weekend!

This is me, sporting my new shirt from her Duende74 Etsy store:

blackshirt-frontLooks great with a pair of jeans. You can easily dress it up, or down. It feels so nice on my skin, I can’t stop touching it.

blackshirt-cardiganPair it with a cardigan for the cold months at work, and with a long necklace your outfit is set!

blackshirt-backThe back is pretty sleek too. Oww!

I couldn’t stop touching the top. It’s almost like a silky-cotton material. Amazing quality fabric and flattering. There is a various amount of colors to choose from when you’re picking out your tops, too.

Help an Etsy seller out, and perhaps this will inspire you to go and buy some really great pieces from her. Adva is such a sweetheart, really and I love her super cool name: Adva. She has super fast shipping, in fact I had my postal code wrong and wrote her a week later. Adva’s response was almost immediate. Then, that afternoon I received my package in the mail at work! Can you believe it only took 9 business days from far-away Israel, with the wrong postal code? Unreal. Please, definitely check out her shop if you’re looking for some fresh new pieces in your wardrobe!

Have a fantastic day guys!

Posted in Fashion, Photos, Reviews | 5 Comments

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

You’ve heard that motto many times before, right? Well — sometimes you get bored of that thing you’re using and want to try out new ones. For instance, I have disgustingly dry skin in the late winter and I know for a fact that Neutrogena’s Norwegian formula hand cream works wonders. But it’s such a thick consistency that it’s hard to rub in.

creamAt work I’ve been using a Victoria Secret hand lotion that is literally like water, and I probably won’t purchase ever again. It smells so great though. So if you don’t need hand cream, but like to use it — I can definitely suggest this one. You don’t have to go searching for the perfect scented hand cream in a directory submission. But it doesn’t work on my hands.

I wracked my brain and now I have the best of both worlds. I’ve decided to use a minuscule amount of both creams and rub them in together! Voila. Soft, smelly nice girly and soft  hands.

Posted in Daily | 4 Comments

Go nuts with some peep toe color

smashbox

Gals (and perhaps some guys — not discriminating!) like to dress up and make themselves up for certain occasions. However, now that Valentines ♥ Day is over — what is the next holiday to look forward to where you’ll go out to dinner with a significant other and look up to par? I guess you could count the Irish drinking day of St. Patricks Day coming up but I don’t think I’d consider that really a special holiday. I want you ladies and gents to feel wonderful every single day! To help with that, I’m hosting another giveaway from Beauty Ticket of an amazing eyeshadow palette by Smashbox.

What’s this? A full sized Seychelles Smashox ‘Pretty in Peeptoes’ palette, for me to give away to you? Okay! Wouldn’t this be the best natural sleep aid if you won a great giveaway like this? ha! I keed I keed. But in all serious now…

seychellessmashox

A little background information on the palette. Seychelles (yes, the shoe company!) teamed up with Smashbox and came up with this brilliant neutral palette inspired by Seychelle’s shoes. The palette is valued at $42 — which is pretty pricey, but good thing you won’t have to pay for it with this giveaway! The palette is enclosed in a patent beige/baby pink mirrored wallet style, which can be re-used into a checkbook once you’ve used up all your product. This palette would be great to carry around with you if you’re on the go and would like to touch up your eyeliner or blush, it’s the size of a regular wallet so you can safely stow it away in your purse until you need it next. It’s so versatile, as you can wear these colors as an everyday neutral, or go for a completely opposite funky teal color that just packs a punch. How gorg.

Here’s some information about the palette:

Includes:

Cream Liner
5 Eye Shadows
Soft Lights
Blush

Description:

A fabulous patent mirrored checkbook wallet in a chic neutral shade with a magnetic clasp and brushed gold buckle inspired by Seychelles Spring Shoe line (because after all, what’s better than makeup and shoes?). Includes a removable gold makeup palette packed with five shadows, a liner, a blush, and a soft lights illuminating powder. Also available at Nordstrom.

Ingredients:

Shadow: Talc, Mica, Magnesium Stearate, Dimethicone, Caprylic/Capric Trigylceride, Phenoxyethanol, Caprylyl Glycol. May Contain: Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Iron Oxides, Ferric Ferrocyandie, Manganese Violet, Carmine. Blush: Talc, Mica, Magnesium Stearate, Dimethicone, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Phenoxyethanol, Caprylyl Glycol. May Contain: Titanium Dioxide, Iron Oxides, Ultramarines, Red 30. Liner: Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Talc, Isopropyl Palmitate, Dimethicone, Silica, Beeswax, Diisostearyl Malate, Copernicia Cerifera Wax, Kaolin, Nylon-12, Tocopheryl Acetate, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract. May Contain: Titanium Dioxide, Iron Oxides, Manganese Violet

Since my previous contests were such a hit, I decided to do another! I was supplied just one of these Smashbox palettes from the company Beautyticket.com (an overstock / discount online beauty supply store), and decided to be nice and not keep it so I could hold another giveaway for my awesome readers.

This contest is so easy to enter. Just tell me why you would like to win!

You’ll get an additional comment if you tweet it “@spiffykerms is giving away a smashbox palette! Visit http://tinyurl.com/spiffykerms-giveaway”, and another comment if you blog about it! How great is that? So you basically have three chances to win. If you do all three, please leave three separate comments or they will not be counted!

Open to residents of Canada and the USA.

Contest will end on Friday, March 12, 2010 at 5PM EST.

Posted in Contests | 73 Comments

My finances

I’m on a pretty strict budget as it is, since I know where all of my money goes when I get paid every 2 weeks. However, I think I want to pay off my car loan, before the end of this year. Sounds crazy right? Close to twenty grand (as of last October), paid off in 12 months? I’m not sure it’s possible for me to do in ~ < 1 year, but I think I’m darn well going to try. When I first got my car loan I was paying $190.00 biweekly, but as soon as Christmas ended, I upped that payment to a huge sum of $300.00 bi weekly. It’s completely manageable at that rate, but when I confided in a co-worker asking how much I’d have to put down each bi-weekly schedule to have it paid off by October 31, 2010 I was floored. I’m clearly not very good at math or I could have easily done it myself.

I’ll have to more than double my payments. We’re talking $625.00 biweekly if I want to pay it off in 9 months from now. I’m not sure that I’m willing to do that in this stage of the game, as I still have to save some extra money each month for an emergency fund, car fund, save money for mailing out my giveaways and even plane tickets for vacations. I really have to sit down and think if this is worth it.

I just really hate debt and I want to be in it, as little as possible and I’m seriously thinking of doing another No Buy Month like I did last March.

Posted in No Buy Month | 6 Comments

Plan that supper out, lady!

mpm-1

I have decided to partake in Menu Plan Monday and be organized this week! She even has a ton of recipes to choose from.

Monday: Asparagus wrapped in Chicken [ x ]

Tuesday: Pork chops, mashed potatoes, and either broccoli or carrots. Maybe both!

Wednesday: Kitchen sink stuffed chicken [ x ]

Thursday: Chicken Pad Thai [ x ]

Friday: Quiche [ x ], garlic bread and a summer salad

Saturday: Chicken, roasted potatoes, and carrots

Sunday: BBQ Asian Stir fry [ x ]

I don’t always stick to the meal plan. Some days I get completely lazy and end up just making pasta with sauce and shredded cheese, or just a big ol’ frozen pizza.

Posted in Health, In the Kitchen | 3 Comments
  • Hiya, I'm Nancy or known as "Legs" due to my quick ability to run past you in soccer. Avid daily watcher of TLC's What Not To Wear, subliminally wanting to be nominated. Living 3,000kms away from family for 3 years and totally fine with it, for now. Brother + wife and 4 boys live in Ireland. Met my nephews once. Summers are filled with outdoor soccer games, and touring around with Boyfriend, being his cheerleader while he competes in Triathlons. Winters are usually spent more time blogging, shopping, and playing indoor soccer. ♥ Summer. I usually blog about everything random that goes on in my busy brain. Image on the left there, changes infrequent but can be enlarged. Want a full bio? Or just simply contact me via email!

    Follow me on Twitter!

    Road Races:
    9.21.08 5K: 30:00 — Placed 3rd in age group.

    Personal Distances:
    (Will set these once I can run again!)

    Goals:
    5K in 25:00
    10K road race under 59:00

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