Photos, Travel

Our 2 day honeymoon

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2-day-honeymoonI mentioned last week I wouldn’t reveal what I got The Guy for his birthday because we wanted to experience it together first before telling everyone! Now that our unplugged weekend is over, we can explain. I took my husband on a 2 day honeymoon this past weekend, to the romantic town of Carmel-by-the-sea.

It was every bit of relaxing, breathtaking and enjoyable all with beautiful scenic views of this wonderful little town.

We needed to disconnect from the world a little bit, so that’s exactly what we did. Many people get caught up in this comparison trap, and I for one fall for it too. I try and realize when I’m doing it, so I can snap out of it. It’s an evil thing.

Instead we must create our own memories, our own happy getaways, vacations, being alone with one another and not scrolling through twitter and instagram or reading the news during supper.us-in-Carmel

The Guy and I never had a honeymoon and I don’t consider this a true honeymoon since it lasted 2 days, but it’s as close as we’re getting to one right now. Eventually I’d love to go away with him on a longer trip. For now, this was a fantastic getaway to unwind, explore the West Coast lifestyle and simply be present. I don’t want to lose that special bond I have with my husband because I’m not present with him in the moment. We’re always connected online, and can easily fall into being disconnected with the most important people in our lives.

This weekend we made memories.Alfie-and-I-Carmel-Beach

Later this week I’ll go more into depth about our adventures, where we stayed and where we ate; but for now enjoy a couple of pictures :)Point-Lobos

Newlyweds-Carmel

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Pt-Lobos

La-Balena-Carmel

Taking-pics-at-PtLobos

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Sitting-at-Pt-Lobos

La-Balena-cauliflower

Supper-at-The-Grill

Have you been to Carmel?

Where did you go on your honeymoon? If you’re not married — where would you like to go?

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Beauty, Daily, Photos, Reviews

Dior Vernis — Limited Edition

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Dior-Vernis-Spring-and-LillI decided to share the love with this collection of limited edition Dior Vernis. While I was home in Newfoundland I received an abundance of Dior goodies from the company. My younger cousin lucked out, as I gave her two of the four, for her nail polish collection. She even did some nail polish swatches for me, for this blog — thanks Claire!

We’re a bit different in what we like in regards to nail polish formula and brushes. I’ve always said, Sally Hansen & Dior are my top two brands of nail polish I prefer to stick to. Primarily because of the nice shape and size of the brush. Where as my cousin Claire stated to me that while she likes the nail polish she found the brush too wide. She mentioned it was hard to keep it within the nail. Brands like OPI and Essie have smaller brushes which she prefers — and I definitely do not.

Here are the swatches. Spring-and-Lili

Dior Spring is my cult classic this Fall. I have been wearing it for weeks, and only wore Lili simply for the sake of taking nail polish swatches. Lili is a colour I’d naturally gravitate towards, but Spring — boy, that’s something special. A muted purple-grey. I’ve received so many compliments on it in person, and Instagram. It’s a beaut.

My cousin sent over some polish swatches of hers. An odd thing to notice but doesn’t she have the best nail beds? They’re so much longer than mine. Diorette-and-Star

 I’m not sure if it was a help from the Dior Gel Coat top coat or not, but when I wore Dior Spring — I hadn’t had a chip in 5 DAYS. I went climbing one of the days, and my nails were a bit scratched on the surface but still no chipping. I’m telling ya, you get what you pay for. The Gel Coat was bought by me, a number of months ago. But I love using it on top of any Dior polish as my top coat to get a shellac like finish that lasts. The 4 Dior Vernis colours are available at The Bay for $26 CDN and are limited edition, so get your hands on them now if you want to snatch one up.

Dior-Lili-Spring

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Climbing, Daily, FitFluential, Fitness

Throwback Thursday: Climbing edition

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If it wasn’t for my brother and Leo, his high school buddy, I would have never become a climber. 19 years ago, Leo and his family opened the climbing gym back home in Newfoundland Canada. From the beginning, when they recruited their friends to help build Wallnuts, I watched. I don’t recall much of it, but I do remember the warehouse transforming into the unknown. I didn’t have any interest in it back then, but I went to scope it out a few times.

My brother didn’t bother to climb much, but I went in for their daily kids camp and climbed til my hearts content. While I was visiting Newfoundland for five weeks this summer, I looked back on a few old photo albums I had as a kid and came across this oldie.

Wallnuts1995Shoes, chalk bag, and a harness — all rentals. This was me at the kids camp in 1995, the first year the climbing gym was opened. Umbro shorts and all, I am about to top out on my favourite wall in the gym: the roof. Wallnuts has since renovated their walls, including eliminating my favourite roof and looking at expanding to another location, all signs of growth.

My first pair of climbing shoes were the 5.10 MoccAsym’s. But the one’s to write home about were my second pair of climbing shoes, the La Sportiva (now men’s) Miura lace-up’s. An aggressive shoe with the perfect heel cup, amazing for heel hooking, and having fun at comp’s ;)RockFall05

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frontpageThroughout the years I had a few one-on-one coaching sessions with the guys, where I began to climb harder routes, how to climb quietly, when to chalk up on a route, and make the routes more efficient on my body to not tire myself out too much. Years later, I got the guts to get my lead climbing course done. I was terrified I wouldn’t be able to lock out the figure 8 belay devices, and ATC’s. I got used to it, I did the course and from there I started climbing lead confidently.

After 19 years of climbing, can you believe I am still afraid of heights? I suppose, that’s a good thing. I don’t want to be too daring or bold—it’s not in my personality. I like to play it safe. When I boulder at my new climbing gym here in California, I often down climb the boulder problems because falling is simply too spooky for me. The bonus side of that is that I’m perfecting my technique each down climb, gaining more endurance with the static moves I do.

I have a many awesome memories of climbing at Wallnuts, and I’m so happy for the experiences I had while I lived in Newfoundland.

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