May 20, 2013

Happy Victoria Day to my fellow Canadians! And everyone else hope you all enjoyed your weekend. I thought I compile a post with outfits I've worn out and about the past few weeks. Most of these have already been posted on instagram. I recently dropped a size down (now wear a size 6) which is exciting but also means I need new clothes....though that's not necessarily a bad thing ;)

This is a bright coral shirt from the Gap I scored at their end of season sale in March. I'm slowly warming up to the idea of neons near my face. The skirt is from Bedo and the leopard print pumps are by Nine West:


This outfit was worn on the first actual warm day of the year here in Ottawa. I had just picked up the paisley print shorts from Joe Fresh. I never had got anything for myself from there but I often browse their baby section. It actually fist pretty well. White button down is by Calvin Klein and the flat leather sandals are Gap (worn to death, I should have picked more colours when these were released a few years ago):


I love wearing short shorts as soon as the temperature rises. This pair of cream and brown stripy ones are by J.Crew and I wore them with a simple black tank (I think by Le Chateau) and the same Gap sandals. Of course I also wore Sofia in her Grey Galaxy Ergo :D


Grey animal print tank from Simons and black interlock skirt by American Apparel. I have this skirt in 4 different colours; it's super comfy:


Outfit worn for a day of shopping in the mall; something chic but comfortable. Navy maxi skirt by BCBG and white tank by J.Crew, a delicate layered necklace by Aldo and Oh.My.God the same leather Gap sandals!!!


Lunch with coworkers outfit which consisted of a mint maxi dress from Forever21 (love love love it...this is the only shade they had left in my size), Aldo bib necklace and moto leather jacket by Danier Leather:


A more professional outfit worn to a meeting with my boss (I'm going back to work in 2 months). Red shift dress by Jacobs cinched at waist with a skinny leather black belt. Beige leather spring jacket by Danier Leather and the beige patent leather pumps are by Steve Madden. This is the type of outfit I wear on a daily basis when I'm at work:


This is me wearing one of my only two t-shirts! I'm not really a t girl and all that I do own were gifted to me. This one I like as it has tattoo design on it. T-shirt by Guess, mint shorts by J.Crew, bejewelled sandals also by Guess:


Last but not least, today's outfit worn to the annual Ottawa Tulip Festival. Navy shirt by Forever21, neon yellow relaxed pants by the Gap and wedge sandals by Steve Madden:

Before I wrap up this post, what do you guys think of a getting fit after baby post? I worked hard at getting my body back and was thinking of sharing what has worked for me with you guys :)

May 13, 2013

This year I celebrated my first year as a mother. I don't know what  great deed I have done to deserve such beautiful girl as my daughter. She has changed my life for better forever and makes me smile every single minute.

We had a quiet mother's day at home and my hubby made it special by cooking a yummy brunch for me, my folks and youngest sister. I woke up in the morning to this:



The white roses were especially ordered by my mother in law who lives in the Caribbean. The card was "from" Sofia and had her hand print as her signature. My hubby's gift was a sterling silver pendant with mine, Sofia and his own birthstones (amethyst, topaz and green peridot). So thoughtful and beautiful at the same time.


me and my beautiful mom

For brunch we had leak and bacon quiche, salt fish and bake (caribbean touch) plus fruit salad and fresh scones from our favourite bakery. I much preferred this to going somewhere for brunch:



Sofia had some of our scone, pureed mangos, cheerios and bits of the quiche:



After we ate and enjoyed my mom's home made cake for dessert, we took some photos by our blossoming crab apple tree. The tree really only stays this beautiful for about a week, but it's worth it existing on our front lawn!!

Hope you all had a great Mother's Day. How did you celebrate this special day?

May 8, 2013

I really appreciate the Back2MAC program. Since I don't buy as much makeup these days, I actually finish some products and get to pick up a few items at my local MAC store. None of the two items I opted for are new, but they've both been on my wishlist for quite sometimes:

Patina Eyeshadow (frost)

Boy, this one is a difficult colour for me to describe! It's a neutral light brown but has some gold cast to it. It works great as part of a neutral everyday look but can also be mixed with brights. I find the texture to be a bit stiff (it's a frost finish after all) but it is workable.





I don't seem to have a dupe for it either:


Left to right: UD Smog, MAC Tan Pigment, MAC Patina

The swatch looks weak on my arm but it's actually much better on the eye. I tried it over gold (MAC Cashflow paint pot) and silver/taupe (MUFE #2 aqua cream pot) bases. I'm loving the dimensions the taupe base adds to Patina:



Pro's:
- goes with everything
- multi dimensional base
- I don't have a dupe for it

Cons:
- texture is a bit stiff


Pink Plaid Lipstick (matte)

I've been on a quest to add to my neutral lipstick collection and Pink Plaid seems to fit the bill just right. I'm a fan of my lips but better shades with pink undertones (over peachy ones) as my lips are quite pink naturally. Pink Plaid is opaque in one coat and can be a bit drying due to its matte texture. It's not as bad as some of MAC's worst offenders.



It reminds me much of my other two beloved neutral lipsticks, Nars Sex Machine and Catfight. But it's not a full on dupe.



Here are the comparison swatches. I don't know why I added MUFE #29, that one is certainly too brown:


Left to right: MUFE #29, Nars Catfight, Nars Sex Machine, MAC Pink Plaid

Pro's:
- great my lips but better shade
- pigmented
- I always love MAC's vanilla scent

Cons:
- slightly dry

Overall, I'm pretty happy with both my picks. I incorporated them into a look yesterday. I added Nars Cordura duo to the mix for the eyes and layered Pink Plaid with Chanel Argonite glossimer to give it some shine. I'm also wearing MAC Ladyblush cremeblend blush to warm up the cheeks but continue on the minimalistic face:

Hope you found this post helpful. Do you own any of these two products? What are some of your favourite neutral eye/lip products?

May 1, 2013

As a busty woman, I find some trends hard to pull off: plunging necklines, backless dressed, anything babydoll, side cleavage,....even simple things like well fitting a button down shirt is hard to find for someone who wears a 32F! One of the trends I really wanted to try is the peplum trend and I was determined to find one that would look good on me.

Last weekend while browsing the Bay, I came across this number by I.N.C International Concepts and my search finally came to an end :)



I love that the peplum bit isn't too structured so it doesn't add anymore to my hips. The top itself is very flattering on anyone despite their bust size. I also love the skinny bow belt; it's so feminine and cute! I picked it up and wore it the next day to a family lunch party. You can't really see in in pic but I'm wearing a black interlock skirt by American Apparel as well as one of their fishnet style tights:



This is another outfit post from yesterday. I always forget to take outfit pictures!! The lace white top is by Banana Republic, skirt is American Apparel (damn I do own too many of their skirts) and the over the knee camel boots are by Aldo. I threw a light leather jacket by Danier over it as it's still a bit chilly here. Also, not that you can really see them, but I'm also wearing drop blue earring by Expression brand from the Bay. They have awesome trendy jewellery and the price is right too:

So what do you think? Can I work the peplum? Is there a style of clothing you want to try but afraid won't look best on your body type?

April 29, 2013

My bebe is 8 months old now and it's so amazing to see how much she has changed. Though she's still technically a baby, her personality is really starting to show. She's always shy at first but then start giggling and babbling to strangers.

Here's what my baby is up to these days:

Stat: Hovering around the 20lbs mark, no idea how tall she is though. She's still in some 9-12 months clothing but most of her outfits are now 12month plus.



Health: no more colds thank God. She had a diaper rash two weeks ago but it went away in two days time. Seems that she's finally getting a tooth!!!! Her bottom gums are very hard and I "think" I can see a white spot under them.



Eat - Sofia is still breastfed during the day every 3 hours or so. She is also still enjoying her purees but we have started giving her some finger food and hoping to switch fully to baby led weaning. She's starting to really fight being fed anyway so the time is right. She has had pancakes, pasta, avocado bits, crackers,...even some herbed Persian stew which she adored much to my mom's delight :D



Sleep - sleep through most nights from 7 pm to 7 am. Some nights she shuffles around 4-5 am but usually I don't have to get out of bed and she settles herself. She takes two naps a day from 1-1.5 hour each.



Milestones: quite a few this month

- crawls very fast now. Seems to enjoy getting to things she shouldn't get to (cables, statues, shoes....)
- can stand unassisted for a few seconds
- goes from crawling to sitting position and vice versa quickly
- claps her hands on demand. She uses this motion to express her happiness
- started finger food. Wants to feed herself and screams if we try to feed her
- stil LOVES music, moves her arms up and down when she hears a song or when I sing to her



How I'm doing:

- unfortunately still struggling with post partum insomnia. I'm going to see my doctor this week to switch to a lower dose medication.
- Besides that health is great! Still working out 4-5 times a week one of which is my Zumba class. I'm loving Zumba, not sure why I never took classes before. It's so me!!
- still breastfeeding full time but planing on slowly weaning her starting 9 months as I'm due back at work in August. Any tips on this moms?
- feeling nostalgic about having to go back to work in 3 months time. It has to be done but I will miss hanging out with my baby everyday.

April 28, 2013

Happy Sunday guys! It's rare for hubby and I to have a date night now as munchkin is asleep by 7 pm. So my of dates are daytime activities. Last week we had my sister babysit though and we went out for dinner, just the two of us.

I took the opportunity to glam it up of course. This look was created on the fly though. At first I wanted to do a brown smokey eyes hence the brown base. Then I decided to do some teal to go with my nails, Chanel Azure (see post here). Finally I settled on a lined cat eyes with teal as the main colour. I quite liked how it turned out :)



Here's what I used:

For lips: I lined and blended my lips with MUFE 2C Aqua Lip Liner (nude rose), applied MAC Honeylove lipstick on top and finished with a bit of Nars Stolen Kisses lip gloss.

I did a sock bun to go with the glam look. I usually wear my hair down or half up when it's still chilly out so this was new for me. I also wore my beloved leather top dress by DKNY. I adore this dress as it fits like a glove and it's so comfortable. It's so me, fitted, black and curve hugging:

Hope you guys enjoyed this look. 

April 26, 2013

Blogging is going great this week; 4th post in a row :D This look is from last weekend though. I had just got my hair dyed a lighter shade of warm brown and have also cut it to shoulder length. If you've followed me for a while you probably noticed that my hair is usually dyed a dark shade of brown or mahogany. I'm much more comfortable with darker hair but I was also bored so I welcomed this change. How do you guys like the new hair?

I did a super colourful 'POW' in your face look to go with my new hair. Nowadays my makeup is usually quite simple but I like to switch it off once a week or so. I wanted to wear MAC Ablaze lipstick which for some reason looks more coraly pink on me than true coral, damn it! All corals do this to me!!!






Here's what I used:

For lips: I lined and blended my lips with MAC Temperature Rising lipliner (LE- coral) and then applied MAC Ablaze lipstick (LE- coral) to the lips.

And here's some pictures with flash.

Hope you enjoyed this bright look. How bright would you go with your makeup?