Lesson Learnt

Nowadays our lives revolve around technology and electronics.  From cable to wifi to cellphones and tablets and as soon as we don't have one of these we become a little lost in life.  

Yesterday my cellphone was stolen right from my work.  I still can't believe it happened.  A "nice" little Asian man came in "looking for a purse for his girlfriends grandmother".  I turned my back for a second and he was gone along with my phone!  Of course he turned my phone off as soon as he took it as well so first thing first was cancelling my contract.  I'm also one of those people that never thought my phone would ever be stolen so I didn't have "Find My Phone" turned on...stupid, stupid, stupid.  Though even if I did have it turned on what would I have done...run down the street in that direction and ask nicely for my phone back?? 

It didn't hit me until about an hour after it was stolen....MY PICTURES!!!!! I thought I had uploaded them onto my computer, but I only did that for my old phone.  All my pictures are gone except for the handfuls I uploaded onto Facebook which wasn't even a quarter of my pictures.  We've been so busy this summer camping, going to festivals, going to the mountains (hence the lack of posting...sorry guys) and now all those pictures are gone!!

So lesson learnt...always hide your phone very well at work or keep it on your body at all times, have "Find Your Phone" turned on, and always have iCloud or upload pictures regularly!

PS I Love You

One of my favourite crying, romantic, sob story movies is PS I Love You.  I cry embarrassingly hard everything I watch it.  Dean even timed it out, I cry every 10 minutes and sometimes continuous.  I'm a cry baby when it comes to movies, but this one is just so touching.  I recently read the book because of my love for the movie.  As always the book is much different and more in depth than the movie, but the basics stay the same.

The story revolves around a 30 year old woman who lost the love of her life to a brain tumour.  Sad and tragic no matter what, but even more so at a young age before you've truly lived your life.  They had no children yet as they weren't ready and sadly missed out on in the end.  Their love for each other was so deep and pure, missing each other during work hours, but not in the stalkerish sense (some of yous will understand this true love).  The woman (Holly) locks herself in her house, doesn't eat, shower, clean or talk to anyone as she is completely heartbroken and lost without her second half.  Her husband (Gerry), feeling guilty and heartbroken as well for he knew he was dying, wrote letters to Holly, one per month for a year after his death to help with the coping and keep him in her life for just a while longer.

The story takes you through Holly's year without her husband.  The ups and downs of being alone, relying on your friends and family and sadly moving on, but not forgetting the wonderful years they did have together.

The movie in turn makes you examine your life and how you're living it.  It makes you not want to waste any time with your partner and live life to it's fullest potential because unfortunately life can be cruel and you slip away too young.

The book is an amazing read.  The writer Cecelia Ahern makes you feel every emotion of Holly and her friends.  I enjoyed this book so much I bought another book by her called Thanks For The Memories.  The movie is also a must see for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, girls and guys.

Camping and Summer Fun

It is July.  Everyone is officially done school which means summer fun is everywhere! Here in Edmonton, we are the city of festivals.  There is something going on every weekend and during the week.  So far there's been Bacon Fest (which I sadly missed due to work :(), Blu's on Whyte which is a huge jazz festival plus others.  We have tons coming up too so it is literally impossible to be bored in this city.  There's always amazing food, music and carnivals going on.

The other summer fun thing to do which I was introduced to last year is...drum roll please....camping! Up until last year, I had never been camping before.  I also had no interest in it, the thought of it didn't excite me at all! My thoughts were, 'I don't want to pee in the woods', 'I don't want to get attacked by bears', 'I hate bugs', 'I don't want to sleep on the ground' and the thoughts went on and on.  Our first camping trip last year was just an overnight.  There were bathrooms and showers and no bears around.  I made it home in one piece plus a fat lip due to drunkenly being kicked in the face, but other than that unharmed.  It's also my favourite camping trip to date because on that trip, in the tent is where Dean first told me he loved me :)

We went camping for the first time this year on the weekend.  We went to Freeman River which has bear and cougar warning (fantastic) but we made it home in one piece.  Burgers, beer pong, s'mores, fishing, tanning and vodka.  It was a great camping trip.  I'm slowly being turned into a camping girl, but it's going to take awhile I think. 

Girly Time Pampering

Who doesn't like to be pampered?  We as women and men like to do things for ourselves.  And why shouldn't we?  We work hard during the week (and weekends for some) and we should be able to use some of our hard earned money on ourselves.  Massages, hair, new makeup, fantastic restaurants and going out are just some of the ways we pamper ourselves.

My new favourite pamper is shellac nails.  I love having my nails painted and with regular polish (even top coat) my nails chip within 1-3 days.  I don't have that much time on my hands that I want to spend doing my nails every few days.  I discovered a fantastic nail shop within walking distance from my apartment.  It's called Q-Nails (on Whyte Ave).  It is run by 2 ladies (one from Vietnam and the other from Cambodia) and both do such amazing jobs.  They have great attention to detail so you don't walk out with anything less than perfection.  There's a great colour selection and they order in custom colours for their shop so they don't have the same old boring colours as every other nail place.  The arm massages that you get with your manicure are great as well.  You leave there feeling quite relaxed.

I highly recommend shellac nails over plain old polish and fake gel nails.  Regular polish as I mentioned cracks and chips too fast and fake gel nails are pretty, but also expensive to have done (starting around $65-$80).  Gel nails are too bulky for me, doing small things like picking up bobby pins or change quickly became impossible to do.  The gel nails are also scrapped off your natural nails which causes ridges in your nail.  Shellac nails about $40 and last just as long as gel nails, but its your own nails making it much more appealing to me as I do have nice natural nails to begin with.

So my lovely ladies out there who enjoy nail pampering, I say shellac nails all the way :)

Canada Day

Happy 147th #Birthday to my beautiful #Canada!  I'm so happy I have the day off today so I can enjoy all the festivities that are going on.  There is something to do on all sides of #Edmonton including parades, face painting, pancakes breakfasts and the huge #firework display and the first time lighting of the High Level Bridge!

My plan is to go to Fort Edmonton Park to celebrate which is a pioneer town in the city.  I've never been before, but I've heard great things.  Later on, I will of course be taking in the firework display from the legislative grounds.  To my fellow Canadians, enjoy your Canada Day!!! and to every other beautiful person enjoy your day :)

Happy Relationship = Weight Gain???!!!

Growing up I've always been skinny and still am, but in the past year I've put on a few pounds. I am no where near being over weight or close to it, but this time last year I was a size 0-2 and I'm now a size 2-4. Yes, yes I know it's nothing to complain about, but when you buy as many clothes as I do it's kind of a pain in the ass when you go to put on your favourite dress from last year and you can't get it zipped up and damn was it was because my boobs grew a size, nope!

Apparently I can actually blame this weight gain on Dean! He makes me so happy that I've put on weight. I've researched it a bit and it seems that when you are in a happy and healthy relationship you gain "happy" weight where as if you're in a relationship where you're not happy you actually lose weight...now why can't it be the other way around like come on.

So now that I know the issue of my problem is being happy it's going to be a matter of keeping active. I'm really going to have to keep up on running and by keep up I mean start again. I am the worst for keeping up with a exercise routine and I know I can't be the only one. My determination level doesn't last too long.

I think a couples sport would be fun. We tried joining a beach volleyball team this year, but the season got cut because there weren't enough people that signed up...I'm trying to exercise I swear, but it's the world that's stopping me! My biggest issues are time and laziness. I work a lot and my schedule is all over the place (I'm currently on day #8 of my work week) and I tend to work a lot of night shifts so by the time I get home I don't want to go for a run, I want to sit on my butt and watch tv.

I would love to know what keeps you motivated if you are someone that works out or keeps up with playing a sport or maybe what issues you have that prevents you from keeping up with it. I know I'm not the only one in the world that has these issues :)

I'm Baaaaaaaack....with potatoes and porkchops

I am officially back from vacation.  Tired, tanned (well I was completely red a few days ago and yes I have a great tan line.  The extra one is from my purse strap) and back to life.

We were gone for a week to Winnipeg for Dean to meet my family for the first time and the trip was a success!  He has been accepted by my mother and siblings...phew.

We left just as the #worldcup started so we recorded an entire weeks worth of games and have been binge watching them the entire weekend. I am currently watching the England vs Uruguay game...Go #Rooney !!!! He made his first world cup goal!  To add to the goings on in the world cup world let me just say...WTF #spain! You won 4 years ago and just completely fell apart! You can't keep using the same tactics! And #ronaldo WTF too! As Dean says "he shits the bed when he plays for his country" get you shit together!!

Tonight was the first night I've cooked in over a week.  The week before we left was crazy and the week we were gone we either ate out or my Mommy cooked for us.  We decided to try a different meat this time since we've been eating a lot of chicken lately so we bought pork chops.  I found a recipe on Allrecipe.com for pork chops and scallop potatoes cooked in one dish.  Seemed simple and easy and it was. My complaint is it was a total of 2 hours to make and the pork chops needed more flavouring.  Now don't let the 'cooking in one dish' fool you.  Yes it all goes into the oven in one dish, but you also need a pan to brown the pork chops in, plus a pan to make the scallop potato sauce so not a true one dish meal. 

I ended up having to make the damn sauce twice and I wish I could blame it on the recipe, but it was because I apparently can't read.  I measured out the chicken broth wrong then just kept adding more because it didn't look like enough until finally I had no idea how much I added so I started again.

For the making of the dish you take butter, chicken broth, salt, pepper and flour, mix it all together and bring to a boil.  Next you brown the pork chops in a pan with butter.  In a casserole dish you layer the bottom with thinly sliced potatoes, drizzle the sauce over the potatoes and place the pork chops right on top.  Bake for 1 hour covered then another 30 minutes uncovered.  Simple and easy, practically no maintenance so lots of time to watch soccer.

I will be making this dish again next time I will be starting earlier than 8pm and when I brown the pork chops in the pan I'll be adding some garlic and probably onions.  I'll also be baking cheese on top of the scallop potatoes (I added some in after I served the potatoes).  with some tweaking this will be an awesome dish.  The original is good, just a bit bland.

Road Trip!!!

#Summer's here and that mean's it's...#road #trip season!!!!

Road trips seem like such a good idea until you're 15 hours in, tired and sore.

Dean and I are currently in a car on our way to Winnipeg! Yes, yes, I know Winnipeg doesn't seem like the biggest tourist destination and it isn't, but it's my home town. Plus the reason for this trip is for my poor Dean to met my family. We've been together for almost a year and he's only heard stories and complaining. We'll either come back closer together or broken up haha. 

There's so much planning that goes into little trips like this. One day dedicated to driving there and one day for back leaving us with 4 actual days to do stuff around the city. There's lots I want to show Dean plus spending time with my crazy family so we're jam packed the entire time. I swear I'm going to need a #vacation to recover from this vacation. 

#Winnipeg is a 15 hour quite boring drive. I have nothing against #Saskatchewan except that's the most boring part of the drive. The fields get quite boring to look at after some time. 

As a girl I think that makes me the worst overpacked in comparison to Dean. I packed a few outfits and extra ones just in case I don't feel like wearing what I have or am having a "fat" day which every girl understands. You also don't realize how much crap you have and use on a daily basis until you have to pack it up! Straightener, hair dryer, make up, makeup brushes, makeup remover, lotion, hairspray and the list just keeps going on and on and on. And then 4 pairs of shoes to go with the outfits like oh my goodness! 

My best road trip advice would be...check over your car in plenty of time before the trip! We were having sudden BMW problems that required Dean to check the throttle body and we just got it fixed this morning! It wasn't 100% sure that we would even be leaving for this trip until earlier this afternoon. So because of that we didn't book a hotel until a few hours ago! Talk about stressful! Now everything's good and fixed and we're on our way!

I'll be doing a lot of #instagram posts along the trip so check it out kyliedawn2011 :) 

2014 World Cup

Today is the day that many of us have been counting down to!! The 2014 #worldcup in #Brazil !!!!

I'm watching the opening ceremonies before I head off the work.  The dancing is bright and vibrate and reflects Brazil in the music and the dance. 

I was a bit surprised when both #jenniferlopez and #pitbull popped up as I had heard nothing of them being a part of the opening ceremonies, but they did such an awesome job getting the crowd pumped up for the opening match between Brazil and #Croatia which I am going to miss because I'll be at work, but thank god for PVR so I can watch it later.

I will be cheering for England as my number 1 this year.  I've never watched the world cup before.  I choose England because my favourite #ManchesterUnited player is on the team, #rooney .  I am also partially very tiny bit English so it works.  There's a couple other teams I am rooting for including #Spain and #Belgium.  Dean's number one is none other than Brazil, but will also be cheering for #Portugal because his man crush player #cristianoronaldo.

May the best team win!!!!!

Expedia vs. Hotwire

I love the #Internet.  Everything you need or could ever need to know is on the Internet.  You can shop, date,  pay bills, do homework and book #hotels. 

This weekend I am taking Dean to my home town of #Winnipeg to meet my family.  This trip will either make or break our relationship...It'll go fine I'm sure haha. 

I've never had to book a hotel before, but with all the new websites available, booking is pretty easy.  I checked out both #Hotwire and #Expedia which are both highly advertised websites.  Both were super easy to use, type in the destination, check-in date and check-out date...the end.  The website does the rest for you, finding the cheapest rooms available.

The one thing I liked about Hotwire was it breaks the city down into sections so you can narrow down the search to a certain area.  It's really beneficial because I lived in Winnipeg for 21 years so I know where I do and don't want to stay.  The downfall I found about it though is yes it breaks the city down into sections, but it doesn't actually tell you which hotel it is or where exactly it is just a general area.  The website explains that they do this to help keep the good image of the hotel, but I don't think having a cheap room on a website is going to give the hotel a bad name.  It's not the end of the world for a hotel to have a couple of unsold rooms.  There are certain areas and places in Winnipeg that I don't want to stay because I know how the city is and where the worst areas are so therefore I won't be using Hotwire to book my hotel.

With Expedia it doesn't break down the city into sections, but it does tell you what hotel it is and where exactly it is which I definitely prefer.  The other thing I like is you can use a Paypal account to pay for the hotel stay which is great for people like me who don't actually have a credit card yet.  It's the little details like that, that I prefer more so I'll be using Expedia to book my hotel.

Crunchy, cheesy chicken...mmmmm

Tonight I tried out another #Pinterest recipe.  My past ones didn't turn out very well so I didn't have too high of hopes for this one, but in the end mmmm.  It was crispy, crunchy, cheesy goodness.  I'm also all about simple and quick #recipes.  I don't want to spend hours slaving over the stove unless I have to because I am a bit lazy.

The prep time called for 15 minutes which was pretty accurate as there wasn't too much to do.  The cook time was 35 minutes at 400F and that was questionable to me.  I love #chicken, but I hate cooking it.  It definitely needs to be cooked properly or else...death.  In the end the chicken cooked for 45 minutes so the oven time was only a few minutes off.

For the actual prepping of the chicken you put milk, cracker crumbs (I used plain old Safeway salted soup crackers) and cheese each into separate bowls.  You dunk the chicken first into the milk, then the cheese and lastly the crumbs.  Seems simple, the only problem was the milk didn't make the chicken sticky enough for the cheese to stick to so I did the milk and added the bread crumbs right afterwards and placed the chicken into the casserole dish and then I topped the chicken with the cheese.  35 minute later the chicken wasn't cooked yet, but I started on the cream sauce that was to top the chicken.  You mix a can of cream of chicken soup with 2 tablespoons each of sour cream and butter.  Super yummy and super creamy.  For the chicken side dish I cheated a bit.  I made a Side Kick instead of making a from scratch dish, garlic Alfredo spaghetti. 

All in all the Pinterest recipe turned out super yummy and I'll definitely be making it again.

 

 

Crispy Cheddar Chicken
Time: 15 minute prep + 35 minutes baking
Yield: 7 servings
Chicken:
4 large chicken breasts
2 sleeves Ritz crackers
1/4 t salt
1/8 t pepper
1/2 C milk
3 C cheddar cheese, grated
1 t dried parsley
Sauce:
1 10 ounce can cream of chicken soup
2 T sour cream
2 T butter
  　
1. Cut each chicken breast into 3 large chunks.
2. In a small food processor grind up the crackers.
3. Pour the milk, cheese and cracker crumbs into 3 separate bowls. Toss the 1/4 t salt and 1/8 t pepper into the cracker crumbs and stir the mixture around to combine.
4. Dip each piece of chicken into the milk…then the crackers.
5. Spray a 9×13 pan with cooking spray and lay the chicken inside the pan placing the cheese on top
6. Sprinkle the dried parsley over the chicken.
7. Cover the pan with tin foil and bake at 400 degrees for 35 minutes.
8. Into a medium sized sauce pan combine the cream of chicken soup, sour cream and butter with a whisk. Stir it over medium high heat until the sauce is nice and hot. Serve over the chicken.
Enjoy!
　

Wedding Season

Summer is officially here and that means it's wedding season! Everyone is looking for an outfit. I have dressed my fair share of mother of the brides and mother of the groom at my work.

Dressing for a wedding is stressful, more so when you're a girl. Being a guy means you pick up a suit, pick out a shirt and dress shoes and you're good to go. Being a girl is much more complicated! Depending on how dressy the wedding is depends on what kind of dress you buy. Sparkles or no sparkles. Is the wedding outside because that'll have an affect on whether you wear heels or wedges. Hair up or hair down. What's the weather like. So many variables to consider!

Dean and I are going to a wedding today. He easily figured out he was going to buy a neutral coloured suit, navy shirt and a matching tie. For me it was much more difficult! I went to my work place and got the girls to help me. I try on every suitable dress, but not too dressy dress and nothing fit me properly. I'm almost a perfect hourglass shape plus I have hips and a butt so I can be hard to fit even though everyone tries to achieve the perfect hourglass illusion. The one dress I really liked was too right across my butt. I felt defeated and was ready to go to the wedding naked when one of the girls brought me a tulip cut navy pencil skirt and a flowy white top. It worked, it fit, it was good. Added some fantastic Vince Camuto brown and gold wedges and a great necklace and I was ready to go. 

The ceremony was beautiful and thankfully the weather cleared up as it rained an hour before the wedding. Time to relax a bit before the big feast and drinks. 

My Obsession: Kate Spade

When it comes to fashion I like girly.  I like poofy dresses/skirts, glitter, pink, bows, polka dots and apparently extremely expensive things.  There's one brand that I've found that meets my criteria, but does not meet my budget...that is the wonderful world of Kate Spade.  Her dresses are classic with flare and twist without being a 12 year old dress, but the price tag that accompanies it makes me want to cry. 

Kate Spade is the kind of love that you fall hard, fast and deeply into and before you know it you can't get out.  I wouldn't say I'm a brand whore because I wear a lot of different things, it just all depends on if I like it or not.  Kate Spade just happens to meet all of my fashion needs in one great and cute line. 

Edmonton has just opened up a Kate Spade store in none other than West Edmonton Mall so of course I had to go see it (surprisingly enough it was Dean's idea to go). It's a bright and colourful store and you just can't help but drool over everything.  The best thing I liked about it was the staff.  The store didn't have the snobbish atmosphere that surrounds Michael Kors and Aritzia.  Both girls working in the store struck up conversations with both Dean and I, invited us back and made us feel welcome.

My goal is to one day own at least one dress or skirt from Miss Kate Spade and definitely a watch.  I'll just be saving up my pennies....I mean nickels for quite some time.

Kate Spade has also expanded into home designs from dishes (including ones with polka dots or dragonflies), table cloths, tea cups and table cloths.  Dean and I have found our dream set of dishes from her line.  They aren't too girlie for Dean, but you can also mix and match them with the pale blue and cream colour that she also did in the same design.

Some of my favourite Kate Spade pieces:

Bow heels. Also comes in black: $350

 

 

Pink watch: $175

 

 

 

Red dress. Also comes in black: $598

 

 

 

The adventures of dying your hair at home...doom doom doooooom

I love getting my hair done whether I'm doing or someone else is, but its stressful. You never know if the colour's going to turn out as good as you envision it.  I have been dying my hair for years on end.  I've done both a box dye and have had it coloured by a stylist so I know both sides. 

Dying your hair from a box is SO much cheaper than going to a salon.  Depending on the length of your hair and if there's highlights involved you're paying from $120-$200+ for the colour and the cut. One thing I can't do on my own is cut my hair.  I've tried doing my bangs before and it's a crooked disaster!! Though people are attracted to box dying because of the cost, if you're like me and slightly change the colour/shade each time you're dying it you should go get it professionally done every couple of colours because eventually it'll become quite obvious that you're box dying and the different shades will show through.

Yesterday I decided my hair needed to be done because it was out of control.  My bangs were so grown out and the colour was faded, but I was strapped for cash so I decided I'd fork out the money for the cut, but do the colour on my own.  I go to Chatters salon for my hair.  I don't have a particular stylist I go to there, but every person I've had has been great. I got my hair cut pretty short, it hasn't been this short since I was about 15 (I'm 24 now). 

After the cut I went to Shoppers Drugmart to pick out a colour.  I've been dying my hair a shade of red for years.  It's varied from time to time from darker to lighter to purple undertones etc.  My natural hair colour is a reddish brownish concoction so I just enhance the red tones.  Since I knew the colour I was doing my hair that narrowed down the selection a bit.  I decided on Garnier Nutrisse in Intense medium red copper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For those that have never boxed dyed their hair before it's quite simple and the instructions are straight forward. Put the supplied gloves on, mix the product together and apply it to your hair.  I don't know if there's an art to applying box dye to your hair, but I focus on the roots first and apply through the length of my hair.  I also use a comb to help apply the dye more evenly.  The wait times also vary between 10 mins to about 30 mins depending on what colour your original hair is and if you have grey hair or not (I left my dye in for the recommended 25 mins).  Afer that, you rinse out your hair until the water runs clear and massage in the conditioner that comes with the dye.  Easy and simple except when you panic a bit like I did.  When I mixed my colour it was very orange in the bottle (I've never had that happen before) and same with when I applied it to my hair.  I was a bit concerned that I was going to look like Carrot Top

 

 

Thankfully after the rinse and conditioner my hair colour turned out great!!  I'm really happy with it!  So all in all I spent just under $50 on the cut itself and $13 on the hair dye saving myself anywhere from $60-$140+!

Who Knew Almond Milk went with Kraft Dinner!!

I left work today and you could tell there was a storm coming.  The sky was becoming dark and cloudy and the wind was picking up.  It was the kind of night that you curl up on the couch and eat some comfort food.  I was craving some Kraft Dinner and I was only cooking for one tonight as Dean had a soccer game that I couldn't make it to because of work.  I got the pasta cooked and just as I was about the mix in the cheese powder I realised that we didn't have any milk in the fridge.  I tried just adding tons and tons of butter, but the cheese powder clumped up into powdery balls.  I weighed my options, eat the powdery cheese ball pasta or dump in some vanilla almond milk that I had bought for a smoothie recipe.  I went with the almond milk because if that tasted gross it couldn't be any worse than dry cheese balls.  The vanilla almond milk added a nutty sweetness to the Kraft Dinner which to some people may sound absolutely disgusting, but I really liked it, though I'm sure I have a few screws loose in my head.  I ended up eating the entire box of KD which I don't do very often.

I have found that I actually prefer almond milk over regular milk.  I'm not lactose intolerant, but I've heard that almond milk is actually healthier for you so I did some research online and here's what I came up with:

- It's a good substitute for people looking to lose or maintain their weight.  Almond milk has about 60 calories in a glass where as cow's milk ranges from 86-146 depending on what kind of milk you buy (ex. 2%, skim etc)

- There's no cholesterol or saturated fats in almond milk.  It is also low in sodium, but high in omega fatty acids which are the same fatty acids you get when you eat fish (Fish grosses me out so almond milk is really the way to go for me)

- It offers 30% of the daily recommended dose of calcium (less than cow's milk) and 25% of recommended vitamin D.  Make sure you are taking a multivitamin that offers calcium if you are switching or have switched to almond milk to make up for the loss.

- Is low in carbs and is low on the glycemic index so your body won't store the fat, but will actually use the carbs as energy (bonus!)

My goal is to switch over to almond milk for all these benefits.  I won't be able to get Dean to switch over though.  He is lactose intolerant, but suffers and eats cheese and drinks milk.  He doesn't like the taste of almond milk either.  He says it tastes like powered milk. 

There's also recipes online for how to make your own almond milk.  I don't think I'm that committed so I will just stick with buying it from the store, but if anyone has actually made their own I'm curious to know if it tastes better home made or store bought.

To Die For Portobello Mushroom Pizzas

Tonight I made absolutely amazing portobello mushroom pizzas!!  The original idea came from a Pinterest recipe I saw and wow did it ever turn out better than I expected!  It's healthier than a normal pizza and is even better as mushrooms are the number one food to eat to keep you healthy and fight off sicknesses.

Another huge plus is, the recipe is so simple and takes no time to throw together.  You take portobello mushroom caps, cut off the stems, scrape out the gills and throw them onto a baking sheet. You can top your "pizzas" however you like. I did marinara sauce which I added extra garlic to (garlic is another sickness fighting super food so Dean and I won't be getting sick anytime soon), prosciutto, spinach, marble cheese and Parmesan cheese (I'm a huge cheese fan).  You put the "pizzas" into your oven preheated to 400F for 15 minutes.  Simple, done, easy, quick.

 

 

In the 15 minutes that the pizzas took to bake, I made a spinach salad with raspberries and mandarin oranges topped with a raspberry vingariette.  For the vinagariette you take half a cup of fresh or frozen raspberries (I used fresh), 1 cup of extra virgin olive oil and 2 tablespoons of wine vingar (I used one that included raspberry juice) and blend it all together for about 1 minute or until smooth.  I found that it was a bit sour so I added about a tablespoon of honey to help add a bit of sweetness without dumping in sugar. 

 

 

The dinner turned out better than I would have thought and I'll definitely be making the pizzas again many times over.  Dean and I used to eat out a lot and by a lot I mean 5-6 days a week.  Now that we have our aparment though, we cook way more and eat a lot healthier.  We are still known to devour a bag a chips or cookies though.

Fashion: Cold & Rainy day

Edmonton has the most bi-polar weather I have ever seen.  Apparently it's because of the proximity of the mountains.  One minute it's hot, the next it's cold and rainy.  The past couple of days have been on the chillier side with lots of rain.  It is absolutely essential to own either an umbrella or a rain jacket and some rubber boots. 

I've always wanted a pair of red rubber boots and I found a pair, but they were $300!! I'm not that committed to rubber boots to spend $300 on them! I love footwear! I manage the shoe department at the boutique I work at so I know what $300 shoes look like so seriously a pair of rubber boots are $300?!  I even looked at Wal-mart and found nothing. 

So yesterday, it was about 10C which a few weeks ago was super nice, but since it's been above 20C for awhile now 10C feels chilly.  I wore jeans, a cute sweatshirt and $200 suede boots which were not the smartest footwear to be wearing.  By the time my shift was over it was pouring rain outside!  I smartly brought my rain jacket, but my boots would be ruined in the rain so I gave in and bought a pair of Palladium waterproof boots.  They are super cute high top, lace up purple boots.  They aren't rubber, but are made out of a textile that is laminated with waterproof membranes so its not only waterproof, but also breathable!  The bottoms are also a super light weight rubber so the whole boot is so light.  I actually prefer them over rubber boots now.  The reason is because rubber boots are so clunky, but these high top are cute and fashionable and easy to wear with outfits so I can wear them to work and look cute and put together.  It doesn't get any better than that!

Cooking - Bruschetta and Caesar Dressing

Last night, I decided to cook because now that I have my own place it's something I do more than twice a year. It also gave me an excuse to wear my cute new apron. 

First up is a bruchetta recipe from Delish.com that claims to be a similar recipe to the one made in the movie Julie & Julia (great movie by the way for those who haven't seen it) .

1 loaf(s) (8 ounces) Italian bread
1 clove(s) (large) garlic, cut in half
1 1/4 pound(s) (8 medium) ripe plum tomatoes, seeded and cut into 1/4-inch pieces
2 tablespoon(s) fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced
2 tablespoon(s) extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon(s) salt
1/8 teaspoon(s) ground black pepper

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Meanwhile, slice bread diagonally into scant 1/2-inch-thick slices; reserve ends for making bread crumbs another day. Place bread slices on 2 cookie sheets. -Toast bread on 2 oven racks 15 minutes or until crusty and dry, turning slices over once and rotating cookie sheets between upper and lower racks halfway through baking. Transfer bread to wire racks to cool slightly. When bread is cool enough to handle, rub 1 side of each toast slice with cut side of garlic. Discard garlic.
-Meanwhile, in small bowl, gently toss tomatoes, basil, oil, salt, and pepper until combined.
-To serve, spoon 1 heaping tablespoon tomato mixture on garlic-rubbed side of each toast slice


 Very simple and straight to the point recipe which is nice after working all day.  I started with cutting up the bread and placing them on cookie sheets, but instead of following the recipe's directions and turning the oven to 350F, I decided that I would be a smarty pants and I would turn the oven to broil to toast the bread faster.  For those who have never used the broil function on their oven before it heats the oven to the highest temperature so you REALLY need to keep your eye on what you have in there.  First batch of bread came out prefect, no problem.  Second batch went in and I began working on the tomatoes I got a little preoccupied and well the second batch wasn't as perfect. Oops.

 

 

 

Next step after toasting and burning the bread was to seed the tomatoes.  I had never seeded a tomato in my life before yesterday.  I probably could have Youtube the correct way to do this, but I kind of just made up my own technique and in the end it worked out.  All that was left was measuring out the spices and mixing it all together.

 

 

 

 



 

 



To go with the bruschetta I decided Caesar salad would be yummy and that I'd make my own dressing.  This recipe came from thefoodnetwork.com and is rated as an easy recipe.  Since we've just moved in together we don't have all the fancy cooking supplies.  I used a full scale blender when I should have used a smaller food processor. 

Ingredients:
6 cloves garlic, mashed and minced
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon Vinegar
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/2 cup olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Lemon juice
minced anchovy fillet (optional)
Directions

Combine garlic, mustard, vinegar and two pinches of salt in a blender and mix thoroughly. Add mayonnaise and blend together to form a thick base. In a slow stream add olive oil through hole in lid. Scrape dressing with spatula into a bowl and season to taste with salt, pepper and lemon juice. If desired, add anchovy to dressing to create a deeper, saltier taste.

After the broiler situation you'd think I'd 100% follow the directions for the dressing, but nope I've got to live on the edge and make up my own directions obviously.  I threw the first ingredients into the blender and decided to ignore that I was supposed to mince the garlic cloves before adding them into the blender.  My thought process was that it's going into the blender so it'll blend them up...nope.  I ended up having to dig out the garlic cloves that were covered in the mustard and vinegar paste type substance and mincing them up like it was suggested in the first place.  Everything after that went smoothly.  I left out the anchovy's because i'm not a fish fan and I wasn't going to cut up fishes and the thought of them kind of grosses me out.  The dressing came out yummy and wow super garlicky.  Luckily both Dean and I love garlic, but this is definitely not a first date kind of dressing and it'll keep all the Cullens away for sure.

It took about 30-45 mins to prep and make everything which for me is a good length of time.  The food turned out great.  I had never actually had bruschetta before today and I can now say that I'm a huge fan.  And by the way...3 hours later I still have garlic breath!  Next time I'll try and make my own croutons instead of using store bought and I promise to completely follow the directions for that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All things Pinterest

In this day and age there are tons of social media websites and appps that keep us entertained for hours and hours on end.  Some of us are a little more addicted than others.  My addiction is Pinterest. As of today I have 47 boards and 2003 pins and have spent hours pinning my heart out.

Pinterest is the wonderful world of ideas and things that you want to do and try, but in actuality you probably won't do half the things you pin.  I've found many hairstyles, fashion ideas, wedding ideas, engagement rings to drool over and home decor ideas. 

Now that I also have my own place I've been looking more closely at the recipes I've pinned.  I attempted one recipe last week.  It looked simple, it should have been easy and worked, but oh my no.  It was a pizza dough recipe.  1 cup of self rising flour and 1 cup of Greek yogurt.  How much more simple can it get?? I bought the ingredients and went to work mixing my "dough".  It was such a sticky mess.  I pretty much made dough glue.  I added more flour to help make it less sticky and it failed to work.  I ended up googling pizza dough recipes and using one from All Recipes.com instead.  In the end my pizza turned out super yummy and I've learnt that just because it's on Pinterest doesn't mean it's going to work out.

Dean and I did find a really cool home decor idea on Pinterest that we're looking into doing.  You pick a focus wall and fill it with clocks of all shapes and sizes and looks.  Our idea is to find ones with city names written on them (ex. London, Paris, Edinburgh) and set the times to coordinate with the city on the clock.

:)

Shopping, shopping,West Edmonton Mall

When I first moved to Edmonton I was told that Edmontonians don't shop at West Edmonton Mall, it's too big and full of tourists.  Well I love West Ed.  Yes it's busy, but it's convenient, everything you could possibly need and more is there.

I had a very successful West Ed shopping trip on Friday.  I got a arm band for my phone while I go for a run.  Now that it's hot out I don't wear a sweater and running pants rarely come with pockets deep enough to fit a huge Iphone 5S so a arm band was essential(as a good I can pretty much find a "essential" excuse to buy anything). Along with the Olaf we purchased from my last post I also got an awesome Maleficent tank top  from the Disney store and was intrigued by a Alice in Wonderland coffee cup (I kind of have a cute coffee cup obsession). 
Speaking of coffee cup obsessions, I did find an adorable coffee cup with Scotties on it from Winners!  Once I have a house of my own and white picket fence I would love to have a Scottie. My Scottish boyfriend has no problem walking a cutie Scottie down the street but, if it was any other small dog he wouldn't want it because he needs a "manly dog not a rat"
Anyways back to my successful shopping trip, I got the cutest apron from Anthropologie.  It's cute and housewifey looking and there's noting wrong with wanting to look cute while you're cooking...plus I'm a huge slob while I cook so it'll save my clothing so it was totally an "essential" purchase as well.


:)

Frozen...BEST MOVIE EVER!!

The new latest movie craze whether you're young or old is...FROZEN!!!! For those of you who haven't seen it, what on earth are you doing??? You need to watch this movie.  It's funny and cute and quotable and singable!  It is my new all time favourite movie and I've seen it close to 20 times and can pretty much quote the movie word for word.  I'll sit in front of the t.v and just sing along to it like a 4 year old...I'm still trying to get Dean to duet "Love is an Open Door" with me.

I bring up Frozen because since the movie came out and became just a sensation with everyone, merchandise has been IMPOSSIBLE to find.  Trust me I've been looking forever, it was a nation wide shortage.  Today we walked into the Disney store and what did we come across...a singing and talking OLAF "My name's Olaf and I like warm hugs".  Dean and I squealed like little girls and became way too excited for how old we actually are.

So for those of you who live in Edmonton our Disney stores have whats called Frozen Saturdays.  On saturday they get shipments of Frozen mercahnize and have auctions on certain hard to find items like Elsa's dress.  Be there right at opening to have a better chance of buying something.

:)

Welcome to my world

Hello to all,

My name is Kyla (hence the blog title).  I'm 24 living in Edmonton, but from Winnipeg. This summer will be my 3 year anniversary of moving to here.  I like Edmonton, but hate it in the same sense.  The weather here is just too much for me.  If it's going to be summer then be hot, stop PMSing Mother Nature and pick a damn temperature!!

About me and my life,

I work in the fashion industry at a boutique on Whyte ave.  I manage our ever growing shoe department, which also includes ordering shoes for the store...how much better can that get?  I've also recently been given the job of managing our online store which is fun because you connect with people from all over Canada.
As for my style, it's everywhere.  I love pink, ruffles, bows and everything girly, but not little girly.  I already look young, I don't need my clothes to make me look younger.  In the summer I mostly wear dresses because how much easier can life get than throwing on one piece of clothing and being dressed and looking good.  I love colour and will wear 6 different colours on one day that somehow all come together.

I have recently moved in with my boyfriend and by recent I mean 22 days ago.  You never really, truly know someone until you move in with them.  For example, I knew he was a nerd, but wow I didn't realize how serious it was.  He is a true Lord of the Rings (LOTR) and Hobbit fan.  How true you may ask, well there's an entire bookshelf dedicated to his dvd's, blurays, bookends, figurines and collectables from the movies.  Plus another bookshelf for all the books!  Not to mention the very sharp and real Sting hanging on our wall.  He may be a nerd, but he's my nerd.  He's made me do and try new things in the 10+ months we've been together that I would have never done.  He took me camping with friends which resulted in me coming home with a split lip because my bestie Melissa kicked me in the face...by accident she claims.  He's also made me go on crazy, ridiculously scary rides at K-days which I would have never done on my own.  He introuduced me to the world of the Barclay's Premier Leauge.  For those who don't know what that is, it's English Football aka soccer.  I have a new love for Manchester United and the world of soccer, who knew that would of ever happened.  We are also counting down to the World Cup in Brazil this year....Go England Go.

So thank you for stopping by and reading all the craziness that comes out of my mouth, I hope you've enjoyed it and gave you a bit of a giggle.

:)