Weekend trip to Quebec City: Part 2

Ah bonjour! Part deux of our weekend trip to fantastic Quebec City! We stayed at a small hotel, which was just perfect. Below is photos I snapped on our first day at Hotel Champlain.

We explored the city each night. Couldn’t get over how much it reminded me of Dublin. My Sister-In-Law is from there, you know (Dublin). I’ve been a few times! Random.Old-Quebec-City

Pub St. Patrick, on the street below our hotel.Old-Quebec-City-003

It was blistering cold this night with the snow blowing sideways at our faces. You can sort of see the snow blowing in the sky underneath that building’s lamp. Old-Quebec-City-002

Told ya I was bundled up the entire trip!Quebec-City

Standing next to the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac. Old-Quebec-City-005

European street views.Old-Quebec-City-004

I did a lot of running on this trip. Running to stay warm. Here I am getting a brisk walk in, which was slowly turning into a jog. Quebec-City-002

Uh! There’s a smile! Must’ve been the first day when I didn’t realize I would freeze my toosh off the entire time ;) Quebec-City-004

 What? You don’t do jumping jacks to stay warm? What’s so odd? :) Quebec-City-005

Carefully walking up the street. Slipped a few times. Wearing appropriate footwear during the Winter in Quebec is a must.Quebec-City-003

Little shops.Quebec-City-007

Couldn’t sit on this to watch a bit of tele! What a sweet ice chair, hey?Quebec-City-006

Beautiful shopping area in the downtown core. Quebec-City-008

Some side street near our hotel.Quebec-City-0010

I found a tunnel!Quebec-City-009

Hotel Frontenac, you can be seen everywhere! What do you think people would’ve thought in the 1800’s when they saw this magnificent building? Quebec-City-0011

Postcard worthy…Quebec-City-0012

Au revoir! Until next time Bonhomme! Stay tuned for my final Quebec City re-cap.Quebec-City-0013

View part one of our Quebec City trip.

Continue Reading

OOTWW & TFF #18

I had a ton of fun this week, and appreciated that it was also a short week with the Family Day holiday and a vacation day I took on Tuesday since I had an extra day layin’ around from last year. Might as well put it to use, hey?

Next week I’m heading out to Toronto for the day on Wednesday, and I’m already excited about it. Can’t wait to blog and tell you my adventures there!

I hit my snooze for an hour this morning. I meant to get up at 6:40 am in order to publish this very blog post for you guys this morning, however sleep won me over. It always does as of late. Oops. Either way, at least it’s still Friday so I’m not that late getting the post up.

snacks-at-my-deskSupper is being put on hold until I write this post. Thus, the need for some snacks: cheese ‘n crackers + vitaminwater zero. Don’t judge the desk. It’ll get cleaned. This is what it looks like towards every weeks end.

Here we go with Fashion Friday!

ootww

Next up, the Fun, Fit and/or Fashionable people of the week!

Ashley posts a What’s Inside My Purse (love these posts!)

Marion has her weekly moments of the week up, plus a casual Friday OOTD. (Love her blog, she’s so hilarious).

Merrick is so talented with the sewing machine, and always reinventing her closet. Today she posted how to wear an article of clothing, 5 different ways.

Holy moly, Lena gives an incredible review of a new shampoo and conditioner she received. The volume she has is outstanding. Check out her site to see before/after photos.

Tattoo your bananas for breakfast! Such a cute idea.

Check out Laura’s first Fashion Friday post!

Submit yourself to my weekly Fun, Fit and/or Fashionable posts. You can certainly submit your own, next week. Just shoot me an e-mail to spiffykerms@gmail.com. Just include any of the following:

  • Your name
  • Your URL (if applicable)
  • Description of your blog post 
  • A photo (optional)
Continue Reading

How to put moisture back in your hair

tips-for-brittle-hair

Winters are dry, no doubt. They will reek havoc on your hair if you don’t take some necessary precautions to keep those locks growing. I had a hair cut 3 weeks ago and noticed I was already getting split ends due to the weather and not looking after my hair.

I know you cannot mend split ends, so I trimmed them myself at home using probably inappropriate scissors. Hey, gotta do what you gotta do right?

To give you a run down my hair is prone to breakage, it’s fine but I have a lot of it. Figures, as soon as I pay any attention to my hair it goes to utter crap.

long-hair-daysI used to not care about my hair for most of my life. I mean, check out that long hair I had when I was younger! I did nothing to it. It was healthy. Now, I style it with heat, wear it up at night and to CrossFit.

Last January I started training my hair. I wasn’t washing, and blow drying it every single day any more. Right now I’m to the point where I’m washing it twice a week. It’s annoying, I gotta say — since my hair separates and makes me look bald. So I have to get creative with the dry shampoo and minimal teasing of the hair, for it to look presentable to go out in public. But it’s doable!

how-to-put-moisture-back-in

My trick as of late? Argan oil.

I put it on my ends two nights in a row before washing my hair. I tried putting just one drop of the oil on second-day hair and it looked good. You just have to know how much you can apply on your hair. For me, one drop was plenty.

Josie-Maran-Argan-OilsWhen I apply it in my hair the night before I wash it, 5 drops. So it’s good and greasy. So sexy. Not to worry, it’s up in a pony tail and only applied to the ends and I wash it all off the next morning.

Most people love their hair on second day. I personally prefer clean hair. Whenever I shampoo my hair it feels more airy around each strand and the strands of hair doesn’t cling together. Plus, I have some pretty silky smooth hair and I love it.

I’ve purchased some cloth hair bands to minimize breakage. I know pony tail holders will break the hair thus making it harder to grow. I cannot stand my hair up in a pony anyway, but sometimes it’s needed when working out.

The less I wash my hair lately, the happier it is and the less oil it produces.  principess-dry-shampoo I use the Principessa beauty Matte Breeze dry shampoo on the days I don’t wash my hair. You can purchase it from The Bay. I couldn’t find it anywhere else. I like this since it’s for darker hair shades, which means the powder is tinted a caramel brown color that blends in with my hair. You can’t use too much of it otherwise it will feel like build-up in your hair. Just a sprinkle will do. I had a small one of these that I got in my very first TopBox in early 2012, which lasted me a good 6 months. I’m sure this one will last me 1.5 years at the rate I’m going through it. josie-maran-argan-oil

Argan-oilsI redeemed my Sephora points for the Josie Maran kit that came with the oil (shown on the left) and the mini one on the right hand side is the one I received in my January ipsy bag.

This is the very first oil I’ve ever tried in my hair and I only have gotten into it in the last 2 months. So I’m not an expert on putting coconut oil, or any other type of oil in my hair besides Argan.

What is your hair type, and how often do you wash it?

Do you use special treatments in your hair such as deep conditioners, or oils?

Continue Reading