Saturday 24 May 2014

Barbecue Season

Even though I'm rather committed to a winter sport I think that summer may be my favourite season.  We've had some nice summery weather lately (even though it's dark and there's rumblings of a thunder storm outside as I write this) and nice weather means we can break out the barbecue!  Barbecue is one of my favourite things because it's relatively fast and it also creates little to no dishes (washing dishes is the worst I hate dishes).



I wrapped some sweet potatoes and onions up in foil with some garlic, olive oil, cinnamon, oregano, and shredded coconut and put all that and some pork chops (because pork is cheap and I'm a poor student) on the grill.


I multitasked and iced my knee that was sore (just from training not an injury or anything) while I cooked dinner.  I was home alone so while I was waiting for dinner I got to enjoy a couple of our new patio chairs and my book in the sunshine.



Our patio is still a work in progress, we don't even have a table right now (we're working on that) but we got some nice chairs on sale at target and some little tea light holders so fingers crossed there's some nice enough weather this summer that we can spend a lot of it outside.


My finished dinner complete with some leftover chickpea salad that was just chickpeas, veggies, onions, cilantro, red pepper flakes, garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil.


Monday 19 May 2014

New Challenges

In a perfect world I would be able to skate and train full-time and give 100% of my attention to it.  Unfortunately I don't live in that world and I have to plan for my life after skating so during the fall/winter I have to do school part-time even though it might not seem like a priority right now.  I'm very lucky that my parents support me enough that (along with my provincial funding) I don't have to work during the school year but speed skating is a very expensive sport when you factor in the equipment, the oval program fees, and the travel expenses that I am responsible for not to mention regular expenses like food, rent, and school.

My first summer in Calgary I didn't work (in Calgary I worked at home before I moved) because I moved so late in the summer, the second summer I was back and forth between home and Calgary too much to work but once I started to get even more serious about summer training I was spending all but about two weeks in Calgary so this summer I'm balancing full-time training and a part-time job.  I am well aware that this may make me seem spoiled but it is impossible to work without missing any training since training tends to take up the whole day and that stresses me out.  I need the money, I like my job (so far at least it's been a week) but I worry about missing training and ending up behind where I could be and behind my teammates.  I'm realizing more and more lately that skating is not going to be something I'm going to do forever, that I need to think about and prepare for a life after skating one day but I'm not ready to give it up yet and I want to make sure I can quit (some day, not soon) knowing that I've done everything I could have and without any regrets and right now I feel like missing important summer training could end up being a regret.

I'm hoping I can sort everything out so I can do all my training but right now I'm just feeling anxious about the whole thing because I don't want to let my coaches down, I don't want to depend on my parents for everything, I don't want to make my work angry and I don't want to skate badly next season.


Sunday 11 May 2014

A Taste of Summer

I went to visit my parents in the Vancouver area for just over a week or my home away from home away from home?  I've got too many homes to count now.  While I was there I was lucky enough to experience some really nice weather, summer weather in fact.  I went for a little walk with my mom and my sister and took some pictures that I've spent the day reminiscing over since it snowed in Calgary yesterday ... seriously snow in May, what's up with that?


Being in BC was such a gorgeous change because everything was green and flowers were in bloom and most importantly it was warm, sunny, and there was no snow.


Duckies!




Always love getting my camera out and taking pictures, being creative, if I could I think I'd like to just walk around and take pictures of anything and everything and maybe do a bit of writing in between and nothing else.  Unfortunately I don't get to do that and I've got to start my new part time job tomorrow, wish me luck!


Saturday 3 May 2014

April Favourites



Once again I think I'm a beauty blogger or something.  I really like to read other people's monthly favourites posts because I'm nosy and other people's opinions really influence what I buy so I thought I would make my own contribution to the consumer world by telling you guys some of the things I've been loving in April (it's lame I know just go with it).


First up stuff that I put on my face.
Camomile Sumptuous Cleansing Balm - The Body Shop: The Body Shop describes this as "an indulgent make-up remover for the whole face.  It gently and efficiently melts away make-up and impurities, leaving skin feeling clean, refreshed and pampered."  I've had this for a while but I only use it when I wear makeup which has been a lot more often this month since I've been training less and going out more.  I take a little bit and rub it onto my face (while it's still dry) then onto my eyes and then rinse.  It really does melt away makeup and it leaves my face looking clean but I usually wash again with a cleanser afterwards just to get any left-over makeup or impurities that might still be hanging out on my face.  I think I paid somewhere around $16 for this, and you get a lot of product, but it is currently listed on thebodyshop.ca for $9.60

Jamieson ProVitamina E Moisture-Rich Nourishing Cream: I've made a more detailed post about this product over here but basically I still love it.  It's really moisturizing and thick so it keeps my face hydrated and healthy looking and I've been using it for over a month now and it still hasn't caused me to break out or anything which was a concern that I had since it was so thick.  I found this online for $13.99 but I bought it at Shoppers Drug Mart when it was on sale and I definitely did not pay more than $10 for it.

EOS lip balm in honeydew: I know there's a lot of hype around these lip balms and if I'm being honest the product itself isn't revolutionary.  It's a good lip balm and the packaging makes it easy to apply and easier to find in a bag but what I like most about this is the smell.  It smells exactly like a lip balm that I got as a stocking stuffer from my aunt forever ago so it reminds me of good memories and my aunt so it puts me in a good mood.


These next six products on their own aren't exactly anything to rave about (although I am a big fan of the Scandal Eyes Retro Glam mascara) but when they're all put together they create a natural looking makeup look that I wore most days in April.  During the skating season I often went all or nothing when it came to makeup but when the season ended and I was spending more time in class than I was working out (for once) I started to wear makeup on a daily basis but I did need to tone down my regular night-out makeup just a tad.

The products I used were Maybelline Dream Fresh BB Cream in light/medium, L'Oreal Paris True Match corrector in W 1-2-3 warm fair/light,  Rimmel Natural Bronzer Waterproof Bronzing Powder in 022 Sun Bronze, Revlon cream blush in 300 Coral Reef, Maybelline Color Whisper in 35 Coral Ambition and Rimmel Scandal Eyes Retro Glam mascara in 003 Extreme Black.  Together they produced a look that looks something like this (excuse my skin it wasn't necessarily nice enough to pull off just BB cream on this day):



Now onto hair.  This might seem a little weird but for my hair I've been loving using a wide toothed comb.  I've noticed since I've switched from using a brush to detangle my wet hair to a comb I've had less breakage and damage.  I also like to use this comb in the shower after I've applied conditioner (but before I've rinsed it out) because it helps to detangle my hair and also spread the conditioner to all my hair since I have a lot of it.  This comb is just a cheap plastic one I got at Shoppers Drug Mart.

Coconut Oil Hair Shine - The Body Shop: I like to use this after I've styled my hair, it helps to smooth it down a little bit and it also has a bit of shimmer in it so it makes my hair look shinier and healthier.  Coconut oil is also really good for your hair so I feel like by putting this on the ends after I use heat tools it helps to heal my hair a little bit.  Again I paid around $10 for this product but it's currently listed online for only $6.  Even though it does come in a pretty small tin you have to use so little of this product that you aren't going to have to repurchase it super often.


Olive Shower Gel - The Body Shop: This is a soap-free cleanser with cold-pressed olive oil so it is noticeably a bit more moisturizing than other Body Shop shower gels.  Mostly I just really like the scent of this.  It's a scent that I think you're either going to love or hate because it's obviously quite a bit different than their usual fruity or floral scents.  This shower gel smells almost grassy and very fresh and I just find it to be a nice change from other more traditional cleanser scents.  It is a little strong in the shower but it doesn't linger very much so you won't feel like you surrounded by an olive scented cloud all day.


My book for this month is definitely A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin (the sequel to A Game of Thrones).  The first thing I wanted to do when I finished exams was dive right into this.  It's the kind of book you can kind of escape into and if you haven't read any of the series I would highly recommend it (I haven't watched the show yet so I can't tell you which one is better).

And finally I had to include my song favourite for the month because me and my cousin/roommate have been listening to this nonstop and singing and dancing to it in our kitchen (my sister is super unimpressed).  The song is She Looks So Perfect by 5 Seconds of Summer (don't judge me it came up on 8tracks and by the time I found out how old they all are I was already too invested).



Do you have any favourites for this month? I'm almost always looking for song and book suggestions also if there's ever anything you want me to talk about on here let me know, see you next week!

I've also updated the results and rankings page for this season. Overall Canadian and Ontario rankings haven't been released yet.