Last minute Mother’s Day Gifts

Sally-Hansen-and-Philosophy

If you’re anything like me this year and feeling a little ill prepared for Mother’s Day gifts and the guilt has finally caught up with you, fret not! I have two very simple, very easy solutions for you. Even though I should’ve been prepared since I did a Mother’s Day Gift Guide a while back.

Part one. Have a local Sephora around you? The mall is still open. Drive there right now and pick up a Philosophy gift set.Philosophy-living-grace

It’s one of my “go-to” gifts for every one of my friends/family members. Philosophy can do no wrong in my books. Personally I like all of the scents that either have to do with regular perfume scents (like the Living Grace). Or, one of my favorites is the Margarita scented item. I’m not fond of any scents that remind me of food, but they sure do a good job at making it look cute, regardless if I dislike it or not.grace-set

Philosophy’s Living Grace set is a Mother’s Day limited edition “try me” set that you can pick up for $45 (I do realize it says $35 on the box).  Philosophy-Grace

This set contains:
– 4 oz Shampoo, Bath & Shower Gel
– 4 oz Firming Body Emulsion
– 0.5 oz Eau de Toilette

It’s quite a clean scent, and perfectly me. Which I’m going to keep since it’s a little too late to give away to my Momma ;) The notes in the fragrances are fresh neroli, lily of the valley, and warm musk. I swear you can’t smell anything musky.

To go along with that maybe you can treat her to a mani/pedi session at your local salon or at home? I will not touch anyone elses feet. Just a thing I have. I won’t do it. So for me, I’d treat my Mom to a pedicure and supply her with these three gorgeous shades of summery pastel colors from Sally Hansen.Sally-Hansen-PolishesNail polishes shown: Barracuda, Arm Candy, Pink a Card.

My Mom doesn’t wear much mascara but perhaps yours does. This new mascara by Rimmel London Scandaleyes Show Off is something I’ve never used before. I’ve been taking a break from my holy grail mascara (Make Up For Ever Smokey Lash) and I’ve been using L’Oreal Volume Million Lashes which I’ve been enjoying. I decided to test the Rimmel one out this week. rimmel-scandaleyes-show-off

You can see that there’s a little ball at the end of the plastic mascara wand to get every tiny lash you have. The only issue I have with the mascara is that when taking the wand out of the capsule, there’s still mascara at the end, so you’ll have to clean it up. So far, I haven’t had any issues with clumping or not going on too sparse. rimmel-scandaleyes-showoff 

Before/After using Rimmel London:eyeballs-with-mascara

Or perhaps you live nowhere near your Mother? I’m a three hour plane ride away. I do get to see her at the end of June, but Mother’s Day doesn’t get postponed by the weather. It happens. The second Sunday of May, always. How do I know that off hand? It’s because I know for a fact I never had to share my Birthday with Mother’s Day since my birthday is the 7th of May. Just a random tidbit there for you all. I don’t send my Mom flowers all that often, so I thought it would be the perfect time to surprise her with a nice floral bouquet from a flower studio back home who luckily had a site where I could order online.

The online version.

Holland Nurseries

What she received.flower1

They were delivered to my parents house this morning bright and early, and yes she was surprised. Score.

What have you planned for your mom this Mother’s Day? Or perhaps this is your very first Mother’s Day as a mom yourself? What do you want? :)

Where to buy:

Philosophy Living Grace Set
Price: $45

Availability: Sephora and The Bay

Rimmel London Scandeleyes Show Off
Price: $7.99
Availability: Select drug and mass retailers across Canada

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure nail polish
Price: $8.95

Availability: Select drug and mass retailers across Canada

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The Results of Paleo

Alright. Here I am. Braving everything I have. Those who have an issue with me posting my mid section can just shag right off, I say.

It took a lot of guts to post these vulnerable photos of myself on my website for the entire web to see. The results of my 30 day paleo challenge from April 7 – May 7. Ohhhhh boy.

My backside before and after.before-after-back-s

The side view before and after. This one is more ‘impressive’ to me because you can see the shorts being ill fitting on my bum and legs. In the after photo they’re much looser._s

Now don’t be stealin’ any of my bod pictures for any fancy postcard printing ya hear? ha ha ha. I kid.

You may notice I haven’t posted a frontal photo. That’s because I didn’t think it was that impressive. Sure you could see results but in the after photo you could still see love handles. My stomach was more “cut” looking, but other than that I’ll keep that picture to myself for now.

The numbers don’t lie, that’s for sure. I was absolutely shocked when I heard the results as I was getting measured at 3:30pm yesterday.I think the coach that measured me was also very surprised. He swore a little when I told him my “before” numbers, and seemed impressed.

WEIGHT
Before: 128.4
After: 119.4
Difference: 9 pounds lost

WAIST
Before: 34″
After: 29.5″

BUTT
Before: 39″
After: 36.25″
Difference: 7.25″ lost off my waist & butt.

I worked out a minimum of 5 days a week for those 30 days. Saturday & Sunday were rest days. But the last Sunday I went climbing, making it 6x/week. Basically I went to CrossFit: Mon, Wed, Fri and climbing on Tues & Thurs’s.

May 18 we find out who “wins” the challenge at the local CrossFit box. I’m feeling pessimistic (as I always seem to do about those type of situations). But hey I think everyone is a winner in my books, who was successful with the 30 day challenge whether or not they cheated. Which I did not. I truly wanted to see what my body was fully capable of in those set amount of days.

My clothes all fit differently. I have to wear a belt most days with my pants and if I don’t I feel like I’m hiking them up off my arse all day long. That and when I wear work out clothes I feel like I stare in admiration at my mid section the whole time. I’m really liking it.

Yesterday and today on the other hand was full of non paleo eats. Will I continue the paleo diet for life? No.  But I will certainly cut back on the amount of sugar I intake. Meaning, I’ll try to eat mostly paleo throughout the weekdays and on weekends have whatever I like in moderation.

I mean, there’s an ice cream birthday cake to be eaten, after-all. Right? Can’t let that go to waste.

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New hairdo

I got my hair cut and colored on yesterday evening after work. I honestly haven’t let anyone dye my hair after my mad experience back in February 2011. In fact my hair stylist and I broke up. Since then I’ve been going to this great master stylist who has been trimming my hair since, so I could grow it out to my ideal length.

The bad thing is, he charges  $70+ to do my hair, and all I’ve been getting out of it was a “dusting” cut. Literally cutting off the minimum to clean up my ends every 14 weeks. Dude I can’t afford that, nor do I wish to pay it if I was rich.  Last time I got it cut by master-stylist-dude was back in July when I showed you some before/after photos in that blog post.

My coworker L, always has great hair color even though her hair is a completely different color than mine (her’s is blonde). Speaking of which, I went blonde for about a day a few years ago. Big mistake.

L recommended her hair stylist who is very inexpensive but does great hair. I’ve seen the results, so I was confident going into my appointment. A few nights building up to me getting my hair done, I had a nightmare about this new stylist! Isn’t that insane? I dreamed that she cut my hair all off, and left one of those 80’s rats-tail by the side of my hair… and it was bright red. What a weird dream. Guess I honestly was really worried, haha!

I know people have said that hair grows back, you shouldn’t get attached. Blah de blah blah. But seriously? It’s my hair, I am attached and I get disappointed very easily.

I decided, in order to avoid disappointment, I was going to get very specific with this new hair girl. I arrived, and took off my rain coat, and brought in the printed out looks I’ve loved, and looked I’ve hated too, just so she would get a little hint of that I’m interested in. I mean, no ones a mind reader, right? I wanted my hair to have a slight change, nothing crazy since I hadn’t dyed my hair in 1.5 years so I forgot what it’d be like with a bit of color on me. This is the outcome:

Before and After photos. Sometimes it’s hard to believe how bad your hair really did look, until the after pics. I didn’t wash it the morning of, and just straightened it. Looks so dishevelled.

From the photos, and I suppose in “real life” you can’t exactly tell a huge difference. But the ends are now the same color as everywhere else, and I’m happy.

I’d definitely go back to her. Even if she does have her hair salon in a sketch basement.

How often do you get hair cut?

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