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 | 76 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

Keep up the great work!

Hey yo — I can pat myself on the back, can’t I? Well. I’m totally doing it regardless. It makes me feel GRRRR-EAT. Tony the Tiger style. Not to be mistaken with Tigger from Winnie the Pooh: Grrrr. That’s G double guh, urrrr!

doUhm. Just a photo. Since it’s been a while. Like my ‘do?

I’ve kept it up all month!! Remember the post I wrote back a few weeks ago about “Getting into a routine?” I’m going to write about my FEBRUARY (workout) ACCOMPLISHMENTS below, and copy the 1st week of February’s gym sesh’s below from my previous post.

♥ February 1-6
Mon:
Sweat (5:30-6:15). What a not so fun class. I hate being un-coordinated and being completely lost and not even sweat a bullet at the gym. Perhaps this is because I haven’t gotten the hang of it yet.
Tues:
Boot Camp (5:15-6:15) — This class literally whoops anyone’s butt. I was so sore for days afterward. This is the second time I went to this class, but I don’t know when I went to it. Maybe December??
Thurs: Core Conditioning (5:30-6:00) & Wave (6:00-6:20). I swear this isn’t my favorite class. It’s just a habit that I attend because on Tuesday’s I have to choose between two awesome classes that are the Boot Camp and Biking. Which is why you’ll see alternating classes on those days.

♥ February 7-13
Mon:
Sweat (5:30-6:15). Alright. I’m never going to this class again. I’m not sweating or getting my heart rate up at all. SEEEYUH.
Tues:
Boot Camp (5:15-6:15). I wanted to skip this class on Tuesday. But I knew it worked, and I knew it would be killer, and I’d feel amazing after. So I went, and I felt all of the above.
Thurs:
Core Conditioning (5:30-6:00) & Wave (6:00-6:20) This week I was sick, or sleep deprived. I wasn’t feeling up to going to the gym at all. But I can’t break my routine!

♥ February 14-20
Sun:
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY
Mon: Work hiz-oliday. Ohhh yeeeeh. No sweat class today. In fact, I only go to that class so I can squeeze in 3x work outs during a week. This class sucks, since I have no coordination. It’s like a step/dance/moving class. So weird. Oh right, never mind. I quit that class! Har.
Tues: Boot Camp (5:15-6:15) I ended up loving this class today. I felt all pumped up and didn’t get so winded! lol
Thurs: Core Conditioning (5:30-6:00) & Wave (6:00-6:20)
Fri: Boot Camp (6:45am – 7:30am), Yes you read that correctly folks. I woke up early and headed to the gym this A.M. BRUTAL.

♥ February 21-28
Mon: Boot Camp (6:45am – 7:30am) Didn’t like the instructor in this one, and I remember she had us doing laps around the small studio? Hard on those knees.
Tues:
Boot Camp (5:15-6:15). This is my regular instructor who has impeccable energy and I LOVE all of her classes. Two days in a ro
w = rock hard body. lol
Thurs: Core Conditioning (5:30-6:00) & Wave (6:00-6:20). Always a good sweat on Thursdays after the Wave. Oh yeeeh. PUSH YOURSELF!
Saturday: Boot Camp (9:00 – 10:00). Boot Camp, three times a week. I think it’s safe to say I love getting my ass whooped in this class. 2 minute intervals of strength/cardio. Awesome workout that leaves me stank. Lovely way to end the month.

My goal for March? Go 4x a week all month long! My workouts will change as of March, since Alfie goes to Level I of Obedience School which will now be on Mondays! Yippee, I get my strength class back on Wednesday’s after work. Hopefully this will be easy!

Bring it on March!

Posted in Health, Photos, Workout Schedule | 3 Comments

Notsosushi

I don’t get the not-so-recent fascination with sushi is.

I don’t want to eat anything raw. Even though I know not all sushi contains raw fish.

No. Thank. YOU.

I would rather do diet pill reviews than eat that stuff. It’s funny, because the people who I grew up with, and were picky eaters like myself — are all about it now. Maybe if I had the avocado basmati rice wrap, I’d eat it. But I’m not touching raw salmon. I can’t get the “raw” out of my head, and I can’t imagine what the texture of that would be like. I shiver at the thought!

Posted in Health, In the Kitchen | Leave a comment

Auto care

When I bought my car, there was a sticker on the top left hand side of the windshield telling me when I needed to bring my car in for maintenance, or get an oil change. I have no idea what those stickers really mean in the first place. I always saw them on my parents ford escort, before they bought the luxurious sebring and just knew that the car had to be looked at. What they did, when they over-viewed the car, I haven’t the slightest. But I’m glad I brought it in.

I bought my car in October 2009, and had a good going over when it was inspected by something similar to Phoenix auto repair, but it was another company. So I listened to the 43,000km sticker on my windshield and brought it into Mazda. I wanted my car to have yet another going over before the 3 year warranty was up, in March 2010. Good thing I decided to go in to have my car checked out, whether or not the scheduled service package cost me $190 or not, I was pleased with everything they had to do.In fact, the ended up replacing the water pump as it was leaking on the ground, which was covered by the warranty. I had no idea anything was leaking, probably because I park it in an indoor garage and the snow and ice always drip off the car regardless. So there was always puddles lol.How much is that even worth?

The scheduled service package was a great investment for me as it gave me a ton of piece of mind now that I know my car is in tip top shape and my freaking engine doesn’t have to be replaced or anything major like that. I had it all written down, and I ended up finding it on the website what the service package included – but I’m lost right now and I can’t find it on the Mazda website. What the?? Anyway, I know they checked all the pumps (like I mentioned), and timing belts (whatever that is) the hoses… stuff like that. The ins and outs of the car, or guts as I’d like to all it.

Owning a car is tough work and takes a lot of money. But if you end up putting away so much per pay cheque, you’ll never have to dip into your chequing/savings accounts – as you’ll have like a car fund pile of money. I made my BF pick up my car when I had it looked at (I dropped it off). I didn’t want anyone taking advantage of me saying I needed this, this this and this replaced. It’s easy to be ignorant towards something you know absolutely nothing about.

Posted in Daily | Leave a comment

This could be trouble.

I recently found out how to work ebay. Don’t laugh!

I don’t think it’s a good thing, that I know how it works now. It’s pretty identical to etsy — the homemade place where I have been buying clothes, and Christmas presents for the past two years. Ebay is exactly the same, but etsy is a lot more user-friendly to navigate.

On my first purchase, I did the “buy it now” as the auction wasn’t available. I’m glad I did it, because I didn’t like the stress of knowing people are willing to pay more than me on a certain item.

lululemon-won-ebay

This gorg, lululemon “Run:Race Tech” tank. It’s coming from Florida. Neat huh? I’m currently bidding on two things.

Ruehl white purse (is Ruehl going out of business?):

ruehl

… and these Lululemon Run Empower Crop II’s (yes, the same one’s just a different color!). I think I’m losing this one though. The people need to understand they can just order them online, right now. For LESS than what it’s going on ebay. Tsk tsk tsk.

ebayI’m not willing to go over a certain amount of $$$ dollas, which I like. I don’t have to keep checking back and bidding. I’ll know if I won, if I won.

Have you ever used ebay for buying or even selling? I think you could make a few bucks here and there. Especially if you’re a Lululemon addict like I am. I could buy all the things in the loot section and then go and sell them on ebay — new with tags for double the money. I’m not that interested in doing it though. It’s silly what some of the stuff sells for or even what sort of stuff even goes up on ebay, like a free life insurance quote.

Posted in Fashion, dealz | 2 Comments

Feelin’ lucky

Boy, am I ever lucky. First I won Pamela’s Victoria Secret PINK giveaway, next I won K’s JCrew bracelet giveaway! Check out this gorgeous piece that will soon be mine. I wanted to publicly thank both ladies for holding such great giveaways. So Thank you Pam, and Thank you K. :)

Fantastic. Maybe I should go buy a lotto ticket.

Also, don’t worry — readers of mine. I have something up my sleeve, for you all too. Very soon! Perhaps some mac memory?

Posted in Contests | 2 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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