Contests, Daily, Photos, Reviews

Holiday Gift Guide Giveaway # 2

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The holidays are just around the corner, and I couldn’t be happier. A few weeks ago, I went to mail a friends birthday present two days after Halloween was over, and the Christmas music was already playing. Love that. It’s never too early ;)

In fact, Christmas decorations and trees were decorated in the basement part of The Bay when I went shopping with my co-worker to buy some wrapping paper, and ended up buying a set of sheets instead. Oops.

At least they keep me warm — I love a classy look to the bedroom. Unfortunately, everything I buy is grey. Guess that’s my new favorite color shade.I’m just excited to go home for Christmas. There will be plenty of parties, family dinners, friends from all over the country flying back home and us all getting together. Plus, hanging out with my sweet little nephews.

For any guests or visitors, you need to have a clean home. Inevitably people will either be in the kitchen or the bathroom at some point in the evening.

Ain’t that the truth!

One day I’d love to be fortunate enough to hire a maid to clean our apartment. But right now, I’m the one who has to clean things.

I have a nice and easy way to clean up in a breeze, using these Rubbermaid products despite anyone’s busy work schedule.

Here I am getting rid of all the water marks in our shower. This scrubber-thing is a winner. It’s… WINNING! in my books (Sorry. Had to). Loved how abrasive the cleaning pads were. Little elbow grease was used here, and I made the Rubbermaid scrubber do all the work! ha!

You guys get to win one of these mop sets too, valued at $50.00. YAY!

 Contest is only open to Canadians.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

A few questions on what you can leave in the comments, for your blog post entry!

Do you have any holiday traditions?
We do! On Christmas morning, everyone opens their gifts at home. Then, with our PJs still on, we put on our winter coats ‘n boots and head over to the neighbours house to have Christmas breakfast, coffee and open a few more gifts. It’s always something I look forward to.

Do you have a set day that you clean? or do you clean as you go?
I would love to be a clean-each-day person. But I honestly wouldn’t stop running around if I did that. I usually keep the kitchen very clean on a daily basis, because otherwise I’d get overwhelmed.

How often do you clean your shower?
Gotta be honest. I only clean my shower walls when it looks like I haven’t done it in a while. As for the bathtub, sinks and toilet – those suckers get cleaned on a weekly basis. There’s nothing more gross than a dirty bathroom.

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Contests, Daily, Hair

Holiday Gift Guide #1

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Remember I said I’d give away a few items in my Holiday Gift Guide? Well, here is the start of it.

Every day this week I will be giving away something different on the blog! I am so excited to share this all with you. Keep checking back every day for different contests.

Up for grabs today is the mini KQC hair straightener from Flat Iron Experts. I’m sure you all are familiar with me blogging about Flat Iron Experts. They’ve been so generous to me over the past few years now, and it’s only best that I give back to my readers with a giveaway from them!

Flat Iron Experts now has a blog, and it’s not just about flat iron’s believe it or not. They’ve taken blogging seriously and have started talking about all sorts of things. One thing in particular that brought me back to reading them just once, when they shared the link with me (hey, I’m being honest!) — is that they’re so diverse. They talk about recipes, keep you up to date on new hair styles and products they have coming out.

They even suggested I do a giveaway on my site. So I’m trying to help them gain some quality readership by hosting a giveaway, and have everything focus on them rather than me and my site. It’s all about giving back. Happy Holidays, right? :)

I have to be honest. When I received the KQC mini hair straightener I wasn’t expecting it to be so miniature. It’s super cute, and easy to throw in a travel makeup bag, or even in your purse if you have some pretty unruly hair that you feel the need to bring a hair straightener around with you. haha!

This ceramic flat iron only has one heat setting (up to 410°F) and it actually has worldwide voltage. I don’t know how practical it would be on really thick unruly hair. Mine is pretty thin and fine, and doesn’t have much trouble getting straight with one pass-through. So I personally really like it. It’s the baby version of my other KQC hair straightener that I try not to use much since I’m taking a long break from heat-styling products on my hair, to grow it out. But sometimes I just really want to have sleek, straight hair that lasts all day. So I go at it.

Want one?  Enter away! Contest is only open to Canadians.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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50 day pushup challenge, CrossFit, Fitness, Health, Photos, Workout Schedule

My CrossFit Journal (1 Year, Week 37)

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I am on Day 26 of the 50 day pushup challenge. Finally hit the halfway mark yesterday. I still do the pushups in the morning when I first remember because I don’t want it leaning over my all day to do them, and get lazy after work/working out and push them aside. Ha ha. Get it…

Anyway, they’re pretty tough now, I won’t lie. Some days are better than others where I can pump out 13 in a row and then rest for a few seconds and do the rest. But yesterday for instance I was only doing three at a time and needed a break! Funny how that works.

What I did this week, the short version:

M – CrossFit (+ 19 pushups) T – Rest Day (+ 20 pushups) W – Soccer (+ 21 pushups) Th – CrossFit (+ 22 pushups) F – Rest Day (+ 23 pushups) S – Rest Day (+ 24 pushups) S – 6.6km run (+25 pushups)

lol Looks like a lot of rest days. I swear it felt as though I worked out more than that…maybe I won’t continue the short version of my workouts ;)

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year 1, week 37, day 1.

AMRAP 20

1 Clean & Jerk; 155/115lbs 5 Pull Ups 10 Push Ups 5 Back Squats; 155/115lbsics

I used 65lbs for this WOD. I completed 4 full rounds and I did 5 pushups for the 5th round. Either that or it was 5 rounds, and I was on my 6th. I should really write this down again…

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year 1, week 37, day 2  Soccer Game!

 Yay soccer! Can’t really say much about this. We won? 1-0.

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year 1, week 37, day 3

6 Rounds of Ring Dips

30 seconds of Ring Dips 30 seconds of rest

REST 3 minutes

AMRAP 7 Burpees (6″ jump)

I completed 52 ring dips (like I was sitting in a chair. The easiest way to do them. I really suck at tricep strength). Then it was time for the burpees. I did much better than I was expecting. I didn’t rest too much, and completed 56 burpees. I’m not entirely sure the coach believed me, because he said “Oh cool” when he asked my number. :(

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year 1, week 37, day 4

Running yesterday morning in -1°c. Snowy, windy and chilly! But it was great!

I dressed in layers, and borrowed a wind breaker, mittens and wind-breaker mittens. I really need to go shopping for some winter apparel for running. I do have this great pair of wind-breaker pants I bought from Lululemon a few years ago, and they kept me warm throughout the run.

I didn’t have anything to eat before I went, and I could definitely tell I wasn’t in as great of shape as I was last week. So, note to self — must eat something before each run.

One thing I do have to say about running is that I’m on a completely different level than my Ironman Triathlete of a boyfriend. I mentioned that we ran 6.6km and told him that at one point we were running 5:45 minute/kilometers but the rest were 7 minutes. Sure, it’s slower than what I’m used to — but I used to exert myself much more. This time, I’m in control of my breathing and I’m running a further distance because of it. The boyfriend mentioned that it was slow, which was like taking a dig at me, But of course he didn’t mean it that way. I dwelled on it a bit, then told him to never tell me that I’m slow again — it bothered me. Because I know I can run fast. It just takes time. I really haven’t been running since 2010. Sure, I did 2 or so runs a week this summer, but I wasn’t being trained on HOW to run. I just went for long (5-6km), flat runs.

Running with Jenn and Steve is different. I take two puffs of my asthma inhaler, and off I go. It’s difficult at times, but Steve tells me to slow down and the breathing returns to normal again. It’s an anxious thing I have with running, but I’m figuring out how to get it back to a normal rate … with practice.

Look at the state of my bright pink shoes!  They are starting to wear out I think :( I’ve been on the eBay hunt for them now for a few weeks, since they’re a year and a hald olf.

As Steve said, There are only two kinds of runs. Good runs, and great runs. Yesterdays was just … good ;)

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