Intuitive Trendsetter

Tags

Pinterest, shopping, the intuitive shopper

Now, I always thought I was a trendsetter. And I always thought I was a leader who was hip to the style the cool kids were wearing. NOT! (see all other posts, particularly the one that discusses the green bunny suit)

But I would just like to draw everyone’s attention to my post from September 4th, 2011 How Pinteresting. And yes, indeed, how very Pinteresting. On that day, that soon to be legendary September 4th, 2011, I was one of the special few who were invited to join Pinterest. Yes, I was invited. It was a momentous day. How many of you can say that you even knew what Pinterest was back then?

Now, fast forward to March 14th, 2012. Today I pinned 3 photos. Haven’t pinned anything in months and low and behold, within seconds I had an email telling me almost 50 people had either repinned or liked one of my pins. Shocking. Until Christmas I only had a couple of followers, certainly no one repinning my pins.

On that day, back in September 2011, I was a trendsetter. I will hold on to that title forever as it may not be bestowed upon me again.

Channeling SJP

Tags

Bare Escentuals, Christmas, iPad, Joe Fresh, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sephora, SJP, the intuitive shopper, Urban Decay

I am known for my lack of fashion sense, particularly in my green bunny Lady Foot Locker leisure suit junior high days. But now I can officially say I’ve turned the corner – I have an article of clothing that Sarah Jessica Parker actually owns. (See picture, fo

r some reason it keeps inserting upside down, I can’t seem to do anything about it)Even better, I got it for $19.99. It’s a black Joe Fresh pea coat that was on sale for $39.99 down from $99.99. As luck would have it, it was also missing a button for which there was a replacement attached to the coat in a little ziplock but the missing button meant there was an additional 50% off! Talk about a post-holiday steal of a deal.

I’m not much of a Boxing Day/post-holiday shopper because in a weird way, I feel as though shopping after Christmas insults all of the great presents that were given to me. I think it hurts their feelings. But because I did not receive a coat under the tree this holiday season, I was okay with this purchase. I would not, for instance, go out and get a black and grey dress like the one my mom gave me, or warm boots because I got Uggs. I would, however, buy a skin for my new iPad and a change purse for my new wicked red bag. You see, it’s okay to augment the gift but it’s not okay to purchase something that could be considered a replacement.

While I’m on the subject of gifts, I’ve got to tell you about two wicked gifts I received from my sister-in-law to be, Cheryl. (That’s her on the left and Mr. Intuitive Shopper on the right.) Cheryl gave me a Sephora mascara sampler which is awesome! I’ve now tried every one and my favourite is the Urban Decay Supercurl Curling Mascara in black and a close second is the Bare Escentuals bareMinerals Flawless Definition Volumizing Mascara in black. It will likely take me at least a year to work through all of the mascara in this glorious pack but when they’re gone, I’ll be purchasing my two faves. The other great gift Cheryl gave me was a homemade peppermint sugar scrub. The first time I used it, I actually had to text her to say my skin was envigorated because it literally was. It felt awesome. She’ll hook you up if you want some. Oh, and another fantastic gift my sister sent me was teeth wipes for those glorious red wine nights. They come in a little round compact that fits in any purse, clutch or handbag and will save me from much embarrassment in the months to come.

I have to say it was another smashing Christmas with more than gifts – lots of love sent our way from here, there and everywhere. I know it’s the end of January but I’m still desperately hanging on to the holidays. We got the real tree out the door but there’s still half of a smaller fake one hanging on downstairs, just can’t bring ourselves to put it away. Can’t say I really see anything wrong with that.

The skinny jean – I took a walk on the wild side

I finally jumped on the bandwagon of the decade, I purchased skinny jeans. I started out with tights and sweater dress things and realized – omg I am so comfortable I feel like I’m wearing pyjamas. And then there’s the easy match of boots and tights, again very comfortable and actually flattering which I did not expect.

So then, this spring, I decided I should try the skinny jean. FAIL. I bought Calvin Klein skinny jeans that were not actually very skinny, or stretchy or flattering. And then when I tried to wear them with boots they were way too bunchy at the knees. At the time I just assumed that skinny jeans weren’t going to be for me. Fine.

But then, in Toronto last week, my attitude changed. I was Christmas shopping at the Bay on Bloor and floated into the Jessica Simpson section. There was a table of skinny jeans in various colours and washes, extremely well priced with an additional 40% off. Say what?! So I picked up two pairs – one black denim and the other a dark wash with a bit of fade – and made my way to the dressing room.

Never in my life have I entered a dressing room, tried on three pairs of jeans (I also tried a pair of flared Guess jeans), loved all three and subsequently purchased all three. How could I not? The denim gods had spoken. I was meant to be seen in these jeans. They were comfortable (seriously I could do Sally O’Malley moves), body shape flattering (truly an odd experience) and they are actually trendy (I may have gotten into them in enough time to not actually miss the skinny jeans boat).

So my holiday advice is this – while you’re picking up your last minute gifts, fighting traffic, sweating in your winter coat with your arms literally growing 2 inches from the weight of your shopping bags – take some time to explore the skinny jean. I’m likely preaching to the choir here because I’m probably the last person in the world to have this aha! moment but in case you care about what I think, I am officially endorsing the skinny jean.

To steal a line from Mariah, which my friends will say I’ve done far too often lately:
I don’t want a lot for Christmas
There is just one thing I need
I don’t care about the presents
UNLESS THEY AR-RE SKINNY JEANS

Merry Christmas!

 

Junk food frenzy

Tags

Burger King, candy, Caramilk, Cherry Blaster, Chicken McNugget, Dairy Queen, Doritos, Halloween, junk food, McDonald's, Ruffles, shopping, Swedish Berry, the intuitive shopper

In true Halloween spirit, it’s high time I share my thoughts with all of you on junk food. I wouldn’t say I’m a junk food lover but of course, I do have my favourites. And this is probably the one at only area that I don’t seem to gravitate toward expensive options. Interesting.

Category: Chocolate
Consumption Schedule: 5 times per week
Top 3 Category Options:
1. Caramilk bar – I have the Caramilk secret. It makes 2:30 to 5pm tolerable.
2. Reese Pieces Candy – I keep a bowl on hand at all times. They are a perfect fix.
3. Twix – Long time tradition of my mom and I – Friday night shopping, splitting a Twix on the way home

Category: Chips
Consumption Schedule: once per week (I’ve really worked hard to control this one, chips are my achilles heel)
Top 3 Category Options:
1. Zesty Cheese Doritos (also known as stinky cheese Doritos)
2. Sour Cream and Bacon Ruffles – I get extreme cravings for these
3. Good old fashioned cheezies – I like to suck on them until all the air pockets collapse

Category: Fast Food
Consumption Schedule: twice per month (most of the time)
Top 3 Category Options:
1. McDonald’s Chicken McNugget Meal – always with sweet and sour sauce and occasionally with McChicken Sauce for the fries. Coke to drink. Always.
2. Burger King’s Original Chicken Sandwich – Again, another item that I get extreme cravings for.
3. Dairy Queen’s Double Cheeseburger – The sauce is delicious

Category: Candy
Consumption Schedule: A couple of times per month. Heavy doses at Halloween and Christmas. This is my least favourite junk food category.
Top 3 category options:
1. Toffifee – omg
2. Swedish Berries
3. Cherry Blasters (Swedish Berries and Cherry Blasters make my teeth hurt though)

Enjoy Halloween and be sure to capitalize on the excuse to eat copious amounts of junk.

I do Aldo

Tags

Aldo, boots, sale, shoe shopping, shopping, the intuitive shopper

Watch out, I’m about to make your day. Do you like Aldo shoes? Let’s get real, you own at least one pair. I’ve been off and on the Aldo band wagon. There’s my favourite black heels – square toe which I took the shoemaker to be “touched up” last week (I’ve been wearing them since 2004). He laughed and told me it was time to turf them, saw the disappointment in my face and said he’d do what he could to bring them back to life. They still have slits where my big toes poke through but you can barely notice.

But then there’s the black upper calf high boots that always felt a little wiggly in the heel and then yes, sure enough, the heel broke. I took them back several times but they could do nothing.

Indeed, Aldo and I have a love/hate relationship. That is, until I found the Aldo store in Dartmouth Crossing. I guess you could call it an outlet. It has a significant sale section at the back where magic happens. There’s quite a selection back there but with limited sizes. Now, here’s the beautiful part – they will order them through the online store for you, have them delivered either to your house or the store. And you can return them in person to the store for a full refund if you don’t like them. Can you believe it? I got these puppies last week. And yes, I paid $29.99.

Now I know I could have just straight up purchased them online but I have an issue with buying two things online – shoes and pants. I don’t seem to have a consistent size in either apparel piece and hate having to return online purchases. This way, I get to try on some version of the shoe in the store, and more accurately estimate the size required. Great! And then, if I’m still not satisfied, I can take them back to the store. Win-win.

This winter I’m in search of the elusive black boot that will stretch enough at the seams to get around my giant calfs. I have a pair of flats and some loose fitting wedges. Now I require a not so casual heeled version. I will not rest until my quest is complete.

I want Moore Cake

Tags

cake, Facebook, Fall River, Mac, Moore Cake, shopping, the intuitive shopper

There’s nothing like having a hook-up to a friendly neighbourhood cake baker/designer/decorator. Amie Moore of Moore Cake in Fall River makes amazing cakes that I will be spending the fall/winter working off. I have personally witnessed and eaten 7 of them since April. No joke, our family might as well have her on retainer.

This one is my personal favourite, may have something to do with the theme It was a ginger spice cake with a layer of raspberry. Oh so cute and oh so very delicious.

You can find Moore Cake on Facebook where you can also find Moore Cake pics. They will make your mouth water and have you making up excuses to order Moore Cake!

Cakes I’ve enjoyed in chronological order…
My Birthday Tree
Mr. Intuitive Shopper’s Toronto Maple Leafs Birthday Cake
A Birthday Princess Carriage
The Engagement Cake
A Birthday Guitar
A Birthday Bust
A Company Celebration

p.s. If anyone in the blogosphere can explain to me how in the heck you save photos from Facebook, particularly on a Mac, I will be forever grateful. When I originally thought of this post I envisioned at least 7 images of the cakes that I’ve been fortunate enough to be in the presence of but sadly, I could not figure out how to make that happen. A crappy list of links is all I could manage.

 

 

How Pinteresting

Tags

Facebook, Pin It, Pinterest, wedding

While doing various things to get ready for the big wedding day in May, I stumbled upon Pinterest, a website that allows you to create pin boards of all the things you like. I’ve been using it to share images and descriptions of the styles I like with our wedding decorator, cake lady and my family and friends. You can create multiple boards with different themes and continuously update them. The site also has a very cool “Pin It” feature that lets you post anything from any website. You can add descriptions to the photos so viewers know why you like whatever it is you’ve posted.

Here’s the link to my wedding board. I’ve started one for food as well but haven’t gotten very far with it.

I like Pinterest because I feel it reveals more of my personality and interests than Facebook ever will. Let’s all hope that the pics people tag us in on Facebook do not necessarily reflect the best of who we are? That’s what I’m going with anyway.

Wrap up breakfast

Tags

breakfast options, breakfast wrap, fast food, feta, food, shopping, spinach, Starbucks, the intuitive shopper

This one is short and sweet. Or perhaps savoury. I am highly recommending you try the Spinach, feta and cage-free egg white breakfast wrap at Starbucks. Yes, it is high in sodium, but it is a great alternative to other fast food breakfast options and it is delicious. The smell alone will make you crave more.

You know you wanna try it.

Oh my GOSH!

Tags

beauty, GOSH, hair, makeup, shopping, the intuitive shopper

I have found my one true love. Natural Touch Foundation by GOSH. It is the lightest, most luminescent foundation I have every used. I’ve always had trouble getting something to match my pale skin that would even out skin tone without making me look different colours or have that cakey look. I’ve tried mineral foundations with some success but nothing compared to this. The tone I’m using is Pearl and it seems to be perfect. Now my friends may think otherwise and just haven’t told me but from my side of the mirror, I think it’s working very well for me. It’s very light in texture but has terrific coverage and doesn’t give you that crackly “I have makeup on feel”. I use a fairly small, dense makeup brush to apply the foundation, seems to do a nice job and even lets my freckles show through which I find kind of charming.

I’ve also tried the GOSH stick waterproof eye shadow which is great for summer swimming. I’m told the mascara doesn’t dry very well which means crazy cat eyes and smears just below my eyebrows immediately following application so i think I’ll stay clear. I’ve had that experience with Mac mascara which prompted a sheepish coffee shop server guy to say, “I hate to be the one to tell you this, but I think you should know – you have black stuff all over your face.” Very appreciate of the coffee guy, not so appreciative of Mac.

GOSH also has a hair product that i’ve recently tried and am quite satisfied with. As a night time shower-er who is too lazy to blow dry and sleeps on wet hair, I’m constantly looking for that product that does all the work for me and makes me look like I care about my appearance in the morning. It’s a small spray bottle called Salt of Mine Wet’n Dry Saltwater. I’m not sure how many people out there are actually fans of this look and feel but it gives you saltwater hair. In fact, I am publicly admitting today that frequently, if going out at night after a day at the beach, I do not wash my hair. Honest truth which I know, is making you cringe. Now, with this little bottle, I have peace of mind knowing that my hair is in fact clean, I’ve just added product to get the look. And yes, it works even though I sleep on it, Hallelujah!

I was beginning to think I made these products up given I cannot find them on the GOSH website but I just went to retrieve them from the bathroom and sure enough they do exist. They are sitting on the deck with me and I did purchase them at Shoppers. Yes, yes, I know I did.

Canada Day Lunenburg Style

Tags

Cinema Clock, food, Gatsby's, Grand Banker, Lunenburg, shopping, the intuitive shopper

This is a bit overdue but I thought I would tell you about our short and sweet Canada Day trip to Lunenburg. We didn’t leave the house until about 4:30 for a leisurely drive toward Mahone Bay/Lunenburg. If you remember Canada Day in Nova Scotia, you’ll know that it was beautiful – sunny, warm and not a lick of wind. The water in the harbour (not sure what that body of water is called, looks like a harbour to me) was like a mirror, reflecting everything around it. Amazing.

On a leisurely drive, scenery is very important. But what trumps scenery each and every time? You guessed it – food. And man, did we eat. Mr. Intuitive Shopper is not a big seafood fan so being in a place where you can literally eat various crutsaceans and gill-bearing acquatic vertebrate (thanks wikipedia) pretty much right off the dock, it was a bit difficult to find a spot which had more than two non-fish menu items. But we had terrific luck at the Grand Banker. We sat at a table overlooking the water and ate our weight in food. I had a “cup” of fish chowder that had, I’m sure what had to be, an entire haddock in the middle. And when I say cup, what I really mean is small overflowing vat. Mr. Intuitive Shopper had honey roasted apple and butternut squash soup which was delish. Both soups camp with yummy garlic toast. Not knowing that fact when we ordered, we also ordered this “small baguette”. Well you guessed it, there was nothing small about it. This course could have, and probably really should have been our full meal.

Our second course featured a steak sandwich and curry chicken with sweet potato fries. Everything was exceptional including the prices. We will be visiting the grand Grand Banker again, and I suggest going on a holiday as we did. Lunenburg was quiet, just a few tourists crawling around. Very serene and quite enjoyable.

On another food related note, Gatsby’s on Spring Garden Road (I don’t agree with the star-rating on this site but I can’t find the restaurant’s website), a place that has held a special little place in my heart in the 11 years that I’ve lived in Halifax (can’t believe I just said 11!) has a wicked July special – medium pizza and bottle of Italian wine for $30! EVERYDAY! Really, how can you go wrong? Another relaxing Friday evening, this time with Gatsby’s dinner and a movie (Horrible Bosses – 4 out of 5 stars for knee-slapping hilarity and not the vulgar kind which I thought was refreshing).

btw, that movie link is to Cinema Clock, the best place to go to get movie times because it doesn’t slow down like the Empire Theatres site and works well on smart phones. It’s especially good when you are standing in the middle of the Halifax area trying to determine which theatre to go to based on the most convenient show time. You can see all of the showtimes at once in an easy to read drop down list.

Here’s to lazy summer Fridays! (Note, it’s Monday and all I can think about is Friday)