Movember Is Over!

Congrats Ladies you have made it thought Movember, a month where the men in your life grow ridiculous mustaches to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer.

Congrats Gentlemen for growing those loverly, attractive staches, I hope you did your prostates proud!

Till Next year Movember!!!

Love and Other Drugs

When going to the movies with El and D, we were hoping for a decent chick flick.  One with kissing, a break-up and make-up and Jake with his shirt off.  With this movie we got that, but it also had substance to the story.  The heroine Maggie has Parkinson's and doesn't think she deserves to be loved, Jamie the doesn't think he is a good enough person to be loved either.  Like with all chick flicks these two incredibly good looking "misfits" find love in each other, but push the idea and the other person away. LOD has moments so funny you almost pee your pants, and some well placed nudity.  I would put my enjoyment of this movie in the "Love Actually" department.  Great for a date night, most men will find the movies tolerable with its funny points, plus Anne Hathaway's naked body is fantastic.  But a what this movie really calls for is a feel good date night with good friends. 

Love that movies that come out at Christmas time, while the weather is frightful!!

Love Kaydee

Mondayitis!!!

Disease: Mondayitis

Cause: Having to be out of bed on a Monday morning because of duties or requirements life has.  Such as work, school or children.  This maybe things you normal enjoy, but the Mondayness sucks all the "joy" out of the activities. 

Symptoms:  Inflammation due to tiredness, irritability due to Mondayness, days seam longer, loss of ability to sleep deeply night before, activities seam painful and are harder to accomplish.

Cure:  We must all find our own cure for the dreaded Mondayitis in the form of a little bit of happiness to get us though the day.  This can be a specialty coffee, a call from an old friend or a well deserved nap at the end of a long work day!!

My cure this week arrived in the mail, which is great cause I didn't have to make effort to cure my Mondayitis.  A very good friend of mine gave me a subscription to Style at Home's magazine for my birthday in October.  I have eagerly been checking my mail every day awaiting the arrival of my first magazine.  I don't think the timing of my new treasure could have been more perfect, to arrive on a cold dark Monday could not have been better.  So now I am going to go sip some chai tea and flip the pages of my new glossy!!

Good Luck with your Cure!!!

Love Kaydee

I Need A Wife!!!

To be more clear, I need a 1950's house wife in am apron with curlers in her hair.  I have always said that I want to start a company called "rent a wife", where a person will come in and do all your household duties.  I've put a lot of thought into this idea, knowing I would never be the "wife" rented but the renter.  I was really thinking about this while I was cleaning my carpeted stair with my Bissell Little Green cleaner.  My back and hand were hurting, I was not having any fun at all.

Cute for making me work so hard!!

I'm not the type of person that gets satisfaction out of a clean house.  I really only clean so that I am not ashamed to have others over, or out of guilt that I make Mister N live like that.  I need a wife to do the following things.

1. Figure out whats for dinner.
2. steam clean the damn stairs.
3. Put away my mountain of laundry.
4. Pack my lunch for work.
5. Detail my car.
6. Scrub my shower.
7. Rub my aching back (stupid stairs).
8. Get the goop out of dishwasher trap-Yuck.
9. Tailor and repair clothing (a dieing skill)
10. Keep all plants alive.

I think maybe I can take care of everything else, unless I'm tired, its nice outside or someone calls me with an offer to do anything more fun!!

What would your "Wife" do?

Love Kaydee

Five Reasons Why Being a Girl Cost More!!

I wish that Mister N would just accept that it is more expensive being me, I should get more spending money and that's that.  Is that fair no, but being a girl just cost more money!!  Now there are absolutely men out there that are just as expensive, but I like my low maintenance man, he's cuddly.  These are my top reasons why it cost more to be a girl, none of which are our fault.

1. Hygiene Product- This is where quality and quantity both matter, you need lots and you need "your" brand.  Other than that I think this should just be obvious.

2.  Make Up-  At lease in every girls life she has spent some money of beautification.  We are expected to look polished for most of our jobs, and mascara and lipstick are part of that.  You can go cheap, but it reeks havoc on your skin, which cause you to buy expensive cleansers and has a snow ball effect.  You only get one natural face and it should be treated like gold.

3. Shoes- We cannot own one pair of casual and one pair of dress shoes like a guy.  Do we really need thirty pair probably not, but minimum at least five to six are needed.  We need a good pair of black dress shoes for funerals, work shoes (mine are runners), runners. sandals and boots.  I need way more than that, I stand by that fact hard and firm!!!

4. Clothing-  Not only does our wardrobe item become outdated in appearance faster, it is also more even driven.  One doesn't wear the same outfit to a funeral and a wedding as a man can, winter and summer dresses are also significantly different.  We need classic "staple" pieces just to navigate our yearly lives, then add fun personal items from there.  I find I lack in the "grownup" clothing department, and am heavy in the jeans and T's department.

5.  Under Garments-  Undies are not just undies, I have work ones (granny), nice fancy ones, full bum, not so full bum.  Beige, black, white are important to have in both bra and undies.  Strapless, racer back and normal are must in the bra category.  Sometimes a once comfy bra becomes torture, good money needs to be spent on these items.  Plus nothing give confidence to a girl knowing that her nickers are hot!!!

There are many more reasons why it just simply cost more to be us, not only do these items make us happy most are a necessity.  Men want us to look good, but don't understand the money that needs to be spent to do so.  Very few of us are truly "natural" beauties, we all need a little boost from a well purchased product or ten.

Love Kaydee

The Plight of an Average Sized Girl

I'm going to start off with saying that I know every sized woman has issues with their body, buying clothing and how they feel about them selves.  But being an averaged sized girl (confession I'm about an 8 to a 10 depending on store), I feel like I have a good idea of the difficulties shopping.

The retail world seams to offer two different types of store, normal size and plus size.  So called "normal" stores base their clothing design on sample size, sample size run from a 0 to 2, these categories I most certainly am not.  Plus size store begin their sizing somewhere between 14 to 16, and yes I do think all clothing store should carry all sizes but this is not reality.  So here we are the size 8-12's in the middle, without any clothing being made for us.  Jeans designed for a size two do not make allowance for my muffin tops and inner thighs.  There is no room for my C-cup breast in your shirts, or my average sized arms.

I would like to point out that I am healthy and active, not always a couch potato (although I do enjoy my couch and potato's).  I have walked three half marathons during the summer, and play in a sports league once a week.  I also spent my youth as a competitive figure skater and dancer.  I am not fat, I do have my fat days where I cry out in agony that nothing fits and I hate all my clothing.  But most days I am happy with what I see in the mirror.

I would love for a designer to make an "averaged" size line, I would scoop that up for sure.  Until then I will have to try on 20 pairs of jeans to find the one.  Hope that my boobs are tucked in and not stretching the shirt see-through.  Makes shopping more interesting, more challenging and a great outfit found more of a reward!!

Love Kaydee

Nail Art: Fall Leaves

Ever since I was little I have been doing crafts, mostly with my Mom but also on my own.  I do have one huge bad habit when it comes to my crafting, follow though and finish.  I am always gun-ho at the beginning, but then seam to peter out to a stop at the end. 

Being as I worked at McD's throughout my teens, I never really got into wearing nail polish.  Six months ago while on our honeymoon in Vegas I discovered Konad nail art.  Thus started a new hobby/obsession, I change my nails almost every week and never have repeated a pattern.

Since the last week of November feels like final week of fall, I decided to paint on final fall themed nail pattern.  I started with my China Glaze polish called Ingrid, of course after using a base coat.  The key to a nice finish on your nail is allowing each layer to completely dry.  This can be time consuming, but is well wort the final product.  So once dry I used my orange Migi Nail Art pen to draw oak and plant leaves.  I'm pretty happy with the final result, I even used my least favourite colour orange to make sure it had an authentic fall feeling.

Can't wait to start my Xmas themes next week!!

Love Kaydee

Five Gift Ideas For The Acquaintance

Everyone has occasion where you have to bring a gift for an acquaintance, hostest gifts, secret Santa's or when someone announces I got you the perfect Christmas gift can't wait to exchange!! (you thought a nice have a good holiday salutation would do).  This is when one should buy with a guide, to avoid being known as the candle or gift basket giver.  One also must think the value of re-gift status, if the person can re-gift it while feeling proud its a good buy.  You want to seam thoughtful without seaming to personal, sometimes you want to keep this person at the acquaintance level.

P.S. I feel like gift baskets are only given in a desperate attempt to seam thoughtful, but the personal had no idea what to buy. I hate them!!! Would rather 50 candles!!!!

1.  Travel Coffee Mug with Coffee Gift Card Inside-  I was actually given this one a couple of weeks back for hosting a baby shower for my bestie B.  I have an abnormal love for Starbucks, so this was a very thought full and personal gift for me.  The majority of people love hot beverages and baked goods, so it works across the board.  This also score high on the re-gift able scale.  Mine was gone in three days, Oh how i love my Chai Lattes in pretty black and white mugs!!!

2.  Nice Soap In Liquid or Foam Style-  Everyone should keep good quality liquid soap in their bathroom, I am a huge fan of Bath and Bodywork's.  Stick to light scents that lean on the unisex side, very few men want to smell like a sweet pea.  This is not a gift basket, but am individual item that is a house-hold must. Oh so regiftable, a few times over!!

3.  Spices and Oils- Has anyone else noticed how expensive spices are?  If the person look like they have ever turned on their oven this is a great option.  Specialty food stores always have interesting spice and oil combinations that go above the norm.  If you are a keener and want to put in the extra effort you could include easy options for use of spice in the card.  I'm not a keener, I would let them figure it out for them selves. I would give this a medium of the re-giftable scale, its slightly more personal, they would have to have the ability to open an oven.

4.  Potted Plant- Flowers may seam obvious, but it seam to be a dieing practice to give these.  I like to give orchids because they give the appearance of being expensive without actually being expensive.  Make sure you include care instructions with the plant, and don't be upset if its not alive the next time you go to visit.  If regifted it must be done quickly, before they kill the plant!!

5.  Scented Reed Oil Diffusers- This is very different than candles, because it requires little maintenance.  All a person has to do is place reeds in bottle, find home for bottle, toss bottle when oil is gone.  I find that they have a lighter scent than a plug in, and normally are very cute.  Very regiftable!!

As you can see my choices are not candle and/or gist baskets but are still wallet friendly.  Organized people may even keep a few of these (not the plant) on hand in case of an invite.  None scream-OMG you know me so well- but none also say -she has no clue at all-.

Happy gift giving over the Holiday season!!

Love Kaydee

A Very UnGrownup Thing To Do

Two weekends ago my friends EL and I had a very ungrownup evening out.  We fell in love with Urban Decays Naked Pallet and decided we must have it.  Now with twelve full size eye shadows, an eye primer and a wonderful eye liner at 53 dollars it really is worth the price.  What was the very ungrownup part of the evening is that we could only buy this product two hours away in Toronto.  Normally we could have stayed with friends in the big city and made a weekend of it, but I had to work the next morning at 7am.

 So off we drove to T.O. during rush hour trying to get to Sephora on Bloor St before it closed at 8.  Once there and seeing my new friend Naked I was not disappointed, felt it was way worth the drive, but there is always a catch.  It was crazy foggy on the way home, we couldn't read street signs ten feet in front of us.  Unfortunately not going to work was not an option, so home we must go.  It took us three hours to do the two hour drive home, me almost falling asleep, EL clutching the wheel with white knuckles.  The kicker of this story is that the next day our local Sephora opened a box and oh look, there is the Naked Pallet.  Since we made it home ok, and I made it to work it was well worth it to us, we like eyeshadow a lot.  A true grownup would have waited until her local shop carried the product, not spent one hour in Toronto for six hours of driving.

Live and Learn, with really cute eye lids!!

Love Kaydee

Five ways to shop smart...

As I said before tis the season to shop, not only for others as it seams but also for ones self. One thing us grown girls need to start embracing is smart shopping. No more coming home with unsure items of questionable quality.  Every grown girl should go out with some basic rules, I know if I had theses I would have skipped some large shopping errors (news print sweatshirt dress uggg!!)

ShopStyle

 1. Avoid Credit Cards-  This one is hard to do, but if you don't have it don't spend it!!  If you are an avid point collector put the money on your card before you buy the item to avoid the, oops I just forgot I bought that feeling next month.

2.  Research- If you are looking to buy a very specific item read reviews, as many reviews as possible.  You may find out that the eye liners you covet is really smudgy and you are looking for a sharp clean line.  This goes for house hold item as well, such as vacuum's and cleaning supplies.  People who like to clean seam to really love to give reviews so there are tones out there to read.

3.  Take Inventory- Look at what you already have, do you have the same style shirt in the same colour but in another store.  What you should be looking for is gaps in your collection, I don't own a cardigan at all So I am on the hunt for a black one.  Even house hold items, save your money don't double up on supplies.  Keep a list of these "gaps" in your head or on your phone (me), so when you are out and about with your cards you have a reference guide.

4.  Collect Smart Points- To me these are points that don't require a credit card to build up, and are at store your frequent anyways.  I personally collect Air Miles (got a free carpet steamer last week in the mail yay), HBC-Love The Back, Shoppers Optimum and Scene points.  Theses are all given at stores I go to at least on a monthly basis, have no credit requirement and I have used the rewards from all.

5.  Think About It- If your not sure than it is probably not a good buy, if you are asking in the jeans store is my but big in these move on.  DO NOT purchase on a whim, just because it is pretty and sparkly.  I am as big a sucker for shiny objects and that has dinged my wallet more than once.  You can always use the call a friend/Sig other/parent route, but if you are there you probably don't need it.

There will be no more clothing with tags on it long after purchase for me.  I vow to be a smart shopper from now on, even while at Winners and Chapters.  I will have a budget and a plan set in place before stepping out my door.  I'm sure Mister N will be over the moon to hear my promise to the shopping gods!!!

Love Kaydee

Book Club: Sarah's Key

Not all books have happy stories, but that does not make them any less beautiful.  Some stories stay with you long after they are over, some teach you what you thought you would never learn.  This is what Tatiana De Rosnay's book did for me.  Sarah's Key is one of the most beautiful well written books I have ever had the pleasure of reading.

Intertwining two stories with two time periods effortlessly, De Rosnay give us the story of both Sarah and Julia.  Sarah is a ten year old living in France during the Holocaust.  Telling a part of history so few know, the French involvement with arresting Jewish families.  Sarah narrates her family's plight though out this time.  Julia is an American journalist who is researching Sarah's history, but soon realizes it is connected with her own life.

This is a book that I have been sharing with others since I turned the last page.  Not only will I read it again, but I am sure I will be effected by it as much the second time.

Enjoy

Love Kaydee

Tis The Season.. To Shop and Decorate!!!

I decided today that it is not to early to put up the tree,  being as the malls have been spewing Xmas the second Halloween was done.  So while out with my good friend E I was mentioning that I really wanted garland for the bureau my T.V. sits on.  She gave me the idea to pick up materials at my local dollar store to make my own.  Feeling very Martha I am pretty happy with the outcome.  I even made some old fashion hot chocolate on the stove.  Here is the tree and decorations I have collected over the past three years!!!

Garland I made!!!

 

Can't wait to start shopping and fill the bottom of that tree with pretty wrapped gifts.  Of course now that I am trying to be a grown girl I am going to buy smart well researched gifts.   Can't wait to decide my wrapping theme, InStyle magazine gave me the idea for monogrammed gifts, so far that's my top idea!!!

Laundry Challenge

I am going to challenge myself to put away laundry for five minutes every night before bed.  One wouldn't think this was such a big deal, but my bed room is more reminiscent to a 16yr olds than a grown girls.  Maybe if I set a timer and vow only to do five minute each night I may eventually catch up with my ever growing mountain of clean crumpled floor clothes.  This is the chore I loath, such a simple one but I can never wrap my brain around doing it.  Maybe it was all those year of my Mom begging me to please clean my room, perhaps its my last rebellion.  But really the only person it is hurting is me, and well Mister N who has to either step on or around our clothing.
Wish me luck!!

Love Kaydee

Style Stuff: DiorShow mascara

My neighbourhood drug store is kind enough to give points when you spend lots of money there.  I like to save my points for specific item, what can I say I like a goal.  So when I reached the 30 dollars off my next purchase point I knew exactly what I wanted.  I had read so many great reviews on this product I knew I was ready to take the plunge and buy it for myself.

DiorShow

So far I am really please with the results I get from DiorShow mascara, I have never had a mascara separate my lases so well.  It also has this amazing rosewaterish sent to it that I' banana's for.  Even Bella my dog was intrigued by the sent, and tried to lick my lashes off.  The brush is huge, thick and luscious, its what really convinced me to give Show a try  Being a reddish haired girl my lashes aren't super, and I do wish Show gave a little more length.  But I also find mascara works better after being used for about a month, so maybe I will get more length then, .  At 31 dollars a tube the price is a little steep, but I would for sure save up my points for it again.

Hope you have a luscious lash day.

Love Kaydee

A little black something....

Every girl knows the power of a good Little Black Dress, some consider it to be the first staple a girl should buy.  It should be classic enough to move effortlessly from function to function all with changing only shoes, accessories and lip stick.  But there are a few other "staples" every grown girl should acquire in classic looks and great quality.

Cardigans at National Jean Co.
Platforms by Steve Madden

1.  The LBD- should be able to move from the office to a night on the town with little fuss
2.  Little black Pump- a classic almond toe in leather with a 3.5 inch heal is my dream shoe!!
3.  Little Black Bag-  I own one in both shoulder and clutch, and they have been worthy investments
4.  Little Black Cardigan- This can make a pair of jeans look like something Audrey would put together!!
5.  Little Black Eye Pencil-  Nothing says sophisticated night a nude eye with a sweep of black lash line.

I'm sure there are many more Little Black Somethings that every grown girl should own.  I currently have my eye out for a cardigan slightly tailored with a crew neck, and the perfect pair of leather pumps.  Until I have those Audrey I am not!!!

Love Kaydee

Book Club: Room

Always on the hunt for a good book, so when the cover of this book drew me in in Chapters I knew I had to have it.
Luckly I have a wonderful Mother who bought it for me as a birthday present I considered myself a very lucky girl and was over the moon.

Not only is the author of this book Canadian, she also has a strong voice and smooth writing skills.  Plus its short listed for the 2010 Man Booker Prize.

Although the story has a sad premise I was mesmerized by the story and finished it in tewo day.  It is narated by Jack and five year old boy who is held captive with his mom in one room his entire life.  To him the room is the whole world, nothing exists outside of it.  Even the news is pretend, things that just happen in T.V. world.

Emma Donoghue, show the strenth of his mother, and the nieve will of a child in a horrible situation, this is  book that I truely loved!!!!

Hope you enjoy..

Love Kaydee

A Good Place To Start

When beginning something new, I'm always hoping to that ah-ha moment when you know exactly what to do.  All week long I have thought of millions of ideas for post, but then when it came down to it I drew a huge blank.  I was never the person who had the quick comeback while the offending person was still in the room.  But bet your bottom dollar I had it five minutes after they walked out the door. 


So I am going to start with my top five reasons why I think being a grown up sucks

1. Putting away my laundry (I would rather clean my bathroom, your bathroom and the men's bathroom at          Detroit baseball stadium)
2.  Deciding what's for dinner
3.  Paying bills (cause I would rather buy shoes, they always fit!!)
4.  Mondays.. is more needed?
5.  Not buying what I want when I want it because of responsibilities

I am going to try to tackle all of the reasons that I hate being a grown up, one small steps at a time.  There also might be a few reasons why its not so bad all the time, such as a nice drive or a great bottle of wine.

I am hoping that at the end of my life I can look back and think I did a bang-up job and at least tried.

Love Kaydee