Beauty, Daily

Valentine’s Day at Santana Row

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I’m choosing to keep it short, sweet + simple for this Valentine’s Day. A mini gift guide on what to get your Valentine! Everything shown, you can grab at the stores in Santana Row, and the links for the ten items are below!

Santana Row Valentines Day

BUY:
Anthropologie Boho pillows  ..  Urban Outfitters Herschel Duffel  ..  Kate Spade Battery Bank
Anthropologie Body + Hair Oil  ..  Urban Outfitters Herbivore Mask
Best Buy Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones  ..  Free People Vegan Tote
Sephora Blue Sea Kelp Scrub  ..  Ted Baker sweater  ..  Ted Baker dress

Gosh, it’s been ages since I’ve stepped foot on Santana Row’s property. Last time I went was in early December, right when they put the Christmas lights up! I think I’m going to head there this week, especially over to Anthropologie and pick up the Posies & Co. body + hair oil. I want to smell it, and drop the thirty bucks on it.

What are your plans for Valentine’s Day? We aren’t huge on giving gifts for Valentine’s Day, but if you’ve been a reader for a long time you know that Mr. Spiffykerms + I enjoy going to McDonald’s on Valentine’s Day, because it’s our tradition! If you hunt back on the archives of this blog, you’ll know why. I think we might’ve missed one or two years of not going on the famous February 14, but I’m sure this year we will go. Especially because we have gift cards (tee hee!). Maybe after our meal there, we can hop on our bikes around the city to burn off all the high calories we ate.

P.s. Are you diggin’ the new gift guide layout? I thought I would put my Graphic Design skills to work again, and come up with something different that I normally would do. I kinda like how it all turned out though, what are your thoughts? 

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Daily, FitFluential, Fitness, Health, Newfoundland, Travel, Vacation

Snowshoeing in Pippy Park

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GrinI’m going on week 7 of being here in St. John’s Newfoundland, and I’m making the most of spending time up here in my old hometown during this super cold Canadian winter. Last weekend my climbing buddy Lori (who visited me last year for our Yosemite Climbing trip!) and I went snowshoeing around Pippy Park.

NancysnowshoeLori already owned snowshoes, and me being illprepared for how long I was going to be home, didn’t have much snow-gear besides a winter coat and hat. So just like old times, she brought over everything for me to wear to snowshoe.

PippyParkI wore her Arc’teryx snow pants, and her two shell jackets that were super warm, along with a buff to put around my neck, and I even wore her mittens. Man, what a pal… let me tell ya. I had a time! I didn’t even have proper footwear to wear (I leave my UGGs at home, and I only brought my riding boots which aren’t insulated). So I popped on my Mother’s winter boots and went off for a bit of snowshoeing.

LoriNancyoutAt Pippy Park you can rent your gear whether it be cross country skiis, or snowshoes + poles by the hour. They keep your ID and once you get back you pay your fee. It’s so inexpensive too: $5.00/hour. We ended up doing all the loops of the trails (about 4 or 5 loops) and we were going at obviously a walking pace, stopping to take photos, and to chat – and it still was only about an hour to do it all. So for $5.00 and a bit of fun, it was well worth it!

NancyArmsUpI filmed some footage of our adventure, but I don’t have the software here on my Mom’s computer to upload it to YouTube, so that’ll have to wait until I get back to California.

InCar(By the way, had a family friend ask me if anyone in St. John’s was paying me to shout out to local companies. They are not. No one knows I am writing about them … and I don’t get paid for ANY blogging I do – so I suppose you can honestly say you can trust my judgement when I mention places? Lol)

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Daily

Explore: Jumping Bean coffee in St. John’s, Newfoundland

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JumpingBean ElizAveWhile I’m home and if you’re looking for me, you’ll most likely find me at the newest location of Jumping Bean coffee shop, in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Mainly people watching, and not-so-secretly taking photos of the coffee shop.

Coffee chalkboardWhen I was home in October/November of last year, they opened a new location on Elizabeth Avenue (which is the one I most frequent). I was running out of time to visit, so I saved it for my Christmas vacation visit, and I’ve been in there so often, I think I used up all their sugar-free vanilla syrup in my 20oz lattes I’ve been ordering.

No regrets.

Coffee to goIt’s the best latte I’ve had in my entire life. I could honestly just chug the stuff.

Bowring ParkI guess that’s why I go back almost every day. I asked one of the girls working there the other day, what exactly they use for their espresso. I’ve been scouring California for amazing lattes, but good ol’ Newfoundland has got it. Better move home out of it ;)

jumping-bean-espressoJumping Bean has their own blend of coffees and espressos. And apparently it’s a lighter roast/taste than a regular espresso would have. And there you have it, nothing more simipler than that.

I find that whenever I whip out my cell phone (note, that it’s a BlackBerry, so it’s not even a huge camera by any sorts) people in St. John’s are 100% aware of their surroundings 100% off the time. And they stared, and wouldn’t look away. It made for awkward photo taking around when I was exploring my own home-town, but it didn’t stop me from snappnig away photos inside Jumping Bean, or out downtown when I wa shopping with my sister-in-law.

Jumping-Bean-coffee-flat

JumpingBeanElizAveIsn’t the spot gorgeous? I love everything about it.

Elizabeth Avenue isn’t their only location, they’re spread out everywhere in St. John’s, and after creepin’ them on Twitter, I found out that they sell K-Cups at Sobeys, even in Nova Scotia! Haha.

Pop on by for a visit at any of their Jumping Bean locations + follow them on twitter and facebook.

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