Goodbye 2013....Hello 2014!

Like many I've decided to write a little reflection piece on my 2013 year.

Much like every year this one had its fair share of highs and lows. We started off the new year with our puppy Misha all gimpy and casted up after having broken his leg just before Christmas. His leg was broken just above the ankle and required surgery to have a steal plate put in. After having to pay that and vet fees for appointments every two weeks for a couple months we were emotionally drained and financially drained. But happy our little guy was on the mend and I was glad for the extra cuddle time as poor Misha wasn't allowed to do too much to strain the break.

In February I started a new job. One of the most stressful jobs I think I've ever had. While I am glad to have moved on I am very grateful for the opportunity and skills I learned. In the end after many teary anxiety attacks and sleepless nights I decided it was time for a change and quit. My home based baking business was picking up a bit and I wanted extra time to focus on that and to spend with my husband and healing pup while looking for a new position with steadier full time/day time hours.

That plan didn't exactly pan out as June came quick and with it a roller coaster of emotions, nausea and a lot of quick trips to the bathroom. I remember joking with Mike "I'm peeing so much I'm either pregnant or I've got diabetes". Sure enough one afternoon we decided we might as well take a test just to rule it out. Turns out the test was positive. I was pregnant. And terrified.

Mike and I had always planned on starting a family, our plan was to wait a few more years when we were more secure financially and owned our own home. Obviously God had another plan, a better plan. So after a few tears we told our families. All have been over joyed and extremely excited for us and the new addition we'll be adding. I have to admit I was quite scared to tell our parents, not because I didn't think they would be happy for us and beyond supportive, but because I knew our financial situation wasn't exactly ideal. But they have been nothing short of wonderful throughout this whole experience.

This summer I spent the majority of my time on the couch with a bucket by my side and soda crackers at the ready. I knew my body would have a hard time with the change in hormones but wasn't expecting my morning sickness to last all day every day. The thing that scared me the most about getting pregnant was the fact that I'd have to had blood drawn regularly, and for a person whose afraid of needles and prone to passing out after receiving needles I wasn't happy! My first trip to the lab they took 9 tubes and I was not a happy camper, especially since two days later I got a call from them saying they didn't have quite enough and I needed to get more drawn. Luckily everything looked great, myself and the baby were perfectly healthy. At the beginning of August in the middle of the night on my husbands birthday I woke up to once again be sick. Although this time blood came up. It was about 3am. I went back to bed, told Mike we'd need to go to Urgent Care first thing in the morning. But after a couple more trips to the bathroom and becoming more and more worried we decided to run to our ER just incase. After waiting for about an hour we saw a doctor who preformed an ultra sound. We got to see our little nugget for the first time! 12 weeks tiny we got to see it on my husbands birthday! How cool! It was bouncing around and doing somersaults! Everything looked perfectly fine and  I was diagnosed with a tear in my stomach lining and prescribed Diclectin to help with my morning sickness - it's been a life saver! As I'm 8 months along now and STILL suffering from morning sickness. We proudly displayed our first ultra sound pictures to friends and family and suddenly the whole thing became very real.

In September we decided to move out of the house we were renting. We weren't saving any money and with a very generous kind offer from my parents decided it would be the best thing for us now to move into my parents basement until we can afford our own place. It's been a major blessing or an curse probably depending on who you ask lol. Still working in saving money and slowly but surely making our way towards buying a house. Although I do have to admit a big pet peeve that's developed over the past few months is when people ask "so have you found a house yet?" Obviously we haven't because we can't afford it right now, when we have a house you will know.

In November my best friend from America decided to pay us a visit. It was amazing to see her again and catch up. It honestly feels like we see each other everyday, I wish we could. Still trying to convince her to move up here....

December came and went like wild fire full of holiday craziness. Shopping, family get togethers and appointments. We finished our birthing classes which have been a great help at calming my anxiety and fear over my impending labour and delivery. I've accepted the fact that it's coming no matter what, and the joy and love we'll experience when baby makes its appearance is going to be more than worth it.

This year we were blessed to celebrate 4 weddings. So happy for friends who all had beautiful weddings and excited for them and their futures. They better start having kids soon though so ours has some play mates!

We are glad to say goodbye to 2013 and look forward to all 2014 has to offer. Our baby's arrival in February or March, my sister in laws wedding in June, our best couple friends wedding in October, first Christmas with our new baby and everything that comes in between.

I hope you had a wonderful year and have an even better 2014!

And hopefully you'll be seeing more posts from me in the new year!

See you later,

Christine!

Autumn Maternity Fashion Lookbook

Hey Everyone!

It's Autumn now which means time for comfy clothes and layers! I must admit my heart deflated a bit when I saw all the Fall and Winter clothing lines coming into my favorite stores! I have a bit of a shopping addiction and was (and still am) a bit sad that I can't go and buy new pieces from all the new lines, because frankly I just won't fit into them properly. Not with me ever growing baby bump! But just because I'm pregnant doesn't mean I can't find some great maternity clothes and rock my own style this Autumn/Winter. Here's my fashion favorites and newest pieces I'll be wearing quite a bit this season.

I've been told my bump looks bigger in pictures than it does in real life - I didn't believe them until I saw this shot! My bump does look quite huge! I'm only 23 weeks along. This photo showcases my favorite outfit right now - top and legging from Thyme Maternity. These were the first pieces I bought for my Maternity wardrobe - pieces which I can wear throughout my pregnancy and even afterwards! You'll notice the leather detailing on the shoulders and down the sides of the legs! I love leather so anything with leather detailing I'll take! Also the leggings are a thick enough fabric I can get away with wearing them as regular pants, which is amazing because they are super comfortable! I paired this outfit with my favorite fall shoes - my combat boots I got last spring from Globo Shoes. Ridiculously comfortable and a little edgy.

My favorite puppies! CeCe (my parents dog) and Misha (mine and my husbands). Both fully grown and so adorable!

                                

I picked this sweater from Ardenes funnily enough. I don't shop at Ardenes, I honestly don't think I had ever been in one before, but I got a gift card for my birthday and ran into one to see what I could get, found this comfy sweater with a cute aztec print and figured it would come in handy in the colder months. Paired with these amazing white flats with gold metal toe - bought these online from Aldo and I'm disappointed to say they are horribly uncomfortable, but cute nonetheless. 

This cardigan I purchased at Thyme Maternity, light black knit with gold studs on the shoulders. Paired with black flats with the gold metal toe bought from Forever 21 (much more comfortable than the white ones from Aldo)

This burgundy H&M Maternity shirt is so fuzzy and so comfortable. Paired with my black maternity jeans and my Aldo riding boots. 

Collar necklace from H&M

Another sweater I found at Ardenes. Not maternity wear but I bought it in a medium so it should fit me throughout the whole pregnancy. Love the gold metal polka dots. Paired with a knit eternity scarf I got from Joe Fresh which has some gold detailing of its own. 

Picked up this sweater from Forever 21 - love the shoulder cut outs.

Paired with silver arrow jewelry from Forever 21

     

Maternity army green silky tunic from H&M, with the most comfortable Maternity legging from Target and adorable tan wedges from Target as well. 

\

                    

Fox ring from Forever 21 and spike earrings from Aldo

Love these black and white aztec sloughy pants. Picked these up at Winners. Paired with a plain black long sleeve maternity shit from H&M and a pair of black heels - I believe these are from the Jessica Simpson collection

This bodycon dress I also picked up at Winners, stretchy enough material that it will make room for my growing stomach. 

Paired with a statement necklace from H&M

Well there you have it! My autumn maternity fashion favorites!

See you later!

Christine

October Makeup Favorites

Hi Everyone!

Thought I'd write up a quick post of my favorite makeup I've been using this past month!

First I'll start off with the Sephora Favorites Draw the Line eyeliner box. Sephora often puts together these boxes full of their best selling products, so you'll get a couple tester sizes and even full sizes of different products for a really great affordable price. These are particularly good if you wanted to try out a couple products but aren't ready to commit to just one and wanted to try out a tester first! My sister grabbed their lipstick/gloss favorites and loved it. I kind of have an obsession with eyeliner.... My go to everyday eye look is never complete without a simple cat eye. I've mainly been using Revlon's Colour Stay liquid liner but I've been wanting to try out higher quality liners for some time now. This struck my eye while doing some Sephora birthday shopping in September so I picked it up, I think it was only like $36! So great price and these will last me a long long time.

Contents: 

Sephora Collection Long-Lasting 12HR Wear Eye Liner in 02 Glitter Black: nice applicator, glitter isn't too noticeable so I like that, just gives a bit of sparkle.

Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eye Liner in Black: absolutely love this liner, it's probably my new favorite liquid liner, definitely will be picking up more of these later!

Stila Smudge Stick Waterproof Eye Liner in Stingray: this has more of a pencil fell but also looks really soft and velvety. Also really easy to apply and lasts all day!

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Double Ended Eye Pencil in Perversion and Demolition: These eye pencils have got a lot of love. For someone who uses a pencil on a daily basis I would definitely recommend these. It goes on smooth and literally lasts all day. Really great for creating a beautiful smokey eye

Eyeko Skinny Liquid Eyeliner in Black: this is my second favorite liner of the group, I just love the applicator and the look of the liner on the actually lid. Although I have read quite a few reviews that these liners do dry out quite quickly, so if that's the case you might not want to invest in a full tube.

 Make Up Forever Aqua Eyes Eyeliner in Black: this is just like a simple black eye pencil, nothing too special about it, I think i've only used it once actually. Nothing great but definitely better than drugstore eye pencils. 

I've been lusting over this eyeshadow palette from quite some time now. I've just been too cheap to shell out the $60 for it. I also really want the original Urban Decay Naked Palette, but thought I'd grab this one first because the colours just scream autumn to me. I use this basically every day. It has a great selection of colours, both matte and shimmery. And the eye shadow formula is just great and very long lasting! Definitely worth the $60 and I will definitely pick up the original. Also the brush it comes with is really great as well!

Last but not least the new face products I've been using. Because I'm on a budget right now I've consented to using drugstore foundation and powder. I'd heard great things about the Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation and after falling in love with the Wake Me Up Concealer I grabbed a bottle of this. I've been using it for about a week now and love it. Great medium coverage, I don't need a heavy coverage right now because thankfully my pregnancy has given me great clear skin rather than the acne and blemishes I know some woman complain about. It has a bit of a dewy finish - which I don't mind, but I do pair it with a light layer of the Rimmel Stay Matte powder so I don't notice too much of a glow. These two will be my new go to face products from now on.

That's my quick makeup favorites, let me know what you'd been loving lately!

See you later, 

Christine

A Bit of Fall Baking

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I must confess I've been quite lazy, taking full advantage of my pregnancy fatigue.

I thought I'd  write up a little post of some baking I've been doing this month. If you're Canadian like myself you celebrated Thanksgiving a couple weeks ago. Normally I do a huge amount of baking whenever it comes to holidays and family celebrations. This year however, because of my morning sickness and fatigue I opted to just do a few quick things for Thanksgiving. I made Pumpkin Spice White Chocolate Chip cookies, Apple Crisp Cups and one Apple Pie for my in-laws Thanksgiving celebration.

Also, everyday Mike takes a muffin and a bag of cookies as part of his lunch. So needless to say buying a package of muffins and cookies every week tends to get a little expensive, and as we are trying to save money for a down payment on a house I've decided to make what I can at home. So just this past weekend I wiped up a batch of 4 dozen Chocolate Chips Drop Cookies and 2 dozen Chocolate Chip Muffins.

These Pumpkin Spice White Chocolate Chip Cookies were a hit with friends and family. These cookies taste very cozy to me. Perfect cookie for the colder fall weather. I believe I grabbed this recipe off of Pinterest and it will definitely become a fall baking staple for me.

A couple years ago during a storm of Thanksgiving baking, I stumbled upon this recipe for Apple Crisp Cups from all recipes.com. It's also a family favorite, these bite sized cups taste like a little mini Apple Pie in your mouth! They also make the kitchen smell amazing while baking!

These are the family favorite Grandma's Chocolate Chip Drop Cookie. As a kid my Grandma Halse always had a batch of these hot and ready for any visit. She used to bake them all the time and my dad's friends would just come over and sit in the kitchen with her and eat them. They've always been my favorite thing to make (and eat). It was actually baking these that sparked my love/interest in baking. I've tweaked them a bit to suit my own needs, instead of using Cake & Pastry flour I tend to just use All Purpose (mainly because I always have a lot of All Purpose Flour kicking around in my pantry), and I try to use Sea Salt instead of regular table salt when I can. I also love to load up the chocolate chips! Because who doesn't want extra chocolate in a cookie!

These Chocolate Chip Muffins I made for the first time yesterday. I have to say I was rather lazy and just picked the first search result from Google while looking for a recipe. I'm not totally happy with these. They taste kind of bland to my personally. Next time I make this recipe (because it was really quick and easy) I'll probably add a teaspoon or two of vanilla to just give it some extra flavor. But next time I might try out a different recipe. If you have a great chocolate chip muffin recipe please let me know!

So there you have it! A few baked goodies I've made this last month. I forgot to take a picture of my beautiful Apple Pie (homemade pastry and all) so that's a bit disappointing! But it was delicious and didn't last long!

If you'd like me to throw up the recipes to any of these please let me know!

Until next time!

See you later, 

Christine

Makeup Haul

A few weeks ago I received a brand new camera from my husband for my birthday. Ours had broken in the winter and I've been wanting a good quality DSLR camera for sometime, especially with a baby on the way. If you've had a look at my Instagram account you'll know I'm a tad bit obsessed with taking pictures of my Alaskan Klee Kai Misha, so I have a feeling once this little human I've created decides to make an appearance I'm going to be obsessed with taking their picture, so hence a new camera.

So with my new Canon Rebel t3 I thought I'd start shooting some photos and eventually some video to post on my blog. So I shot some of my new beauty products from my latest hauls over the summer months.

I've decided to rebuild my makeup collection with some better quality products so here's a start!

I started off my new collection of makeup by picking up some beautiful lipstick from Yves Saint Laurent. I'm not huge into wearing lipstick but I love YSL lip products. They are very moisturizing and long lasting which is great for someone like me who tends to have dry lips. I bought my first in this beautiful bright pink. I usually don't like bold lips on myself, but I'm experimenting and I liked the results.

Second YSL pick was this beautiful nude, a colour I'm definitely more comfortable wearing. Don't you just love YSL lipstock tubes? They are so beautiful! 

More lipstick! After many ravings from fashion and beauty vloggers alike I decided to try out the Rimmel Kate Moss lipsticks. I picked up two colours, again a beautiful nude number 113. 

And a gorgeous deep shade of red: 107

Two of my favorite drug store liners would definitely be Rimmel's gel liner, shown above in a navy blue. and Revoln's Color Stay Liquid Liner in black.

I only ever wear liquid or gel liner, mainly because I love enhancing my eyes, in my option they are my best feature so I tend to play them up. My signature look is a simple cat eye with a beautiful liquid or gel liner, as well as some smokey shadow. 

While I was at my local drugstore picking up some things I saw these beautiful eye shadow palettes from Rimmel. In the past I've stayed with cooler colours like blacks, grays and silvers for my eye, but again I'm expanding my horizons and thought the colours in this were beautiful and thus picked one up. 

Found I needed a good nude colour lip liner to go with all my nude lipstick, found this one from Rimmel at a good price. 

This has been a miracle product for me. For years I've been annoying with my eye brows! I keep them fairly thin and thicken them up with shadow but I've inherited my grandfather's curly brows! The little pieces of hair like to curl up and do crazy things, which is really annoying. I was watching a favorites video on MissGlamorazzi's youtube channel and she mentioned she uses this clear mascara gel on her eyebrows! I had a DUH moment and went out immediately and picked one up for myself. Needless to say I LOVE IT.

Both Tanya Burr and Zoella of youtube rave about Rimmel's Wake Me Uo concealer for brighten up under eyes. I grabbed a tube and won't ever turn back! 

The last time I was in Sephora picking up some skincare products I picked up these lip balms. Actually I got them for free because it was my birthday month! Fresh Sugar lip balm are simply amazing. So silky and smooth! I throw one on every morning after I "finish putting on my face"

I also got a free sample of Smashbox eye brightening mascara. I'm a sucker for trying out new mascara so those little tester tubes in the Sephora checkout line are hard for my to pass up!

I've been looking for a good primer, I've used Smashbox primer before and this time decided to grab their hydrating oil free formula. I've always had dry skin, it's the bane of my existence, and it's only gotten worse now that I'm pregnant and the baby is sucking all the moisture out of my body! Anyways! I digress! Love this primer, probably will be my top one from now on!

I've been making a valiant attempt to grow my nails, especially since getting pregnant. I've always been a nail bitter, I don't even realize when I'm doing it. Nervous habit I guess. Anyways, I've been making a conscious effort not to bite my nails because I don't want all that extra bacteria in my body! So I've been painting my nails a lot. I love Essie nail polish. It's basically the only brand I buy anymore. I was looking for a nice fall colour and picked up Mochacino. 

So there you have it! My first real beauty post! I know I'm proud of myself too. Since picking up these products I've been back to Sephora and purchased more things - much to my husband's dismay, it's okay though I had a gift card.....

There will be another post up soon once I take some shots of my more recent beauty purchases and do a review of sorts.

Thanks for checking out my blog! Feel free to subscribe and leave some comments below! I'd love to hear your feedback!

Cheers!

See you later!

Christine