Scenes from my weekend : June 23 & 24

This weekend was supposed to mark our first camping trip of 2012. While, we did get out to Kananaskis Country for one night, the rain and damp ended up being too much for us and our friends so we packed up on Saturday and headed home. I'm sad we didn't get a full weekend out at the beautiful Mount Kidd RV Park but I'm happy I got to sleep in a warm bed and we still had fun exploring the small towns near the city on Sunday.

Stunning drive but the weather definitely had us worried for our camping prospects. This is why most people in Alberta camp in RVs.

 On Sunday we took a drive South of Calgary down the Cowboy Trail. There has been so much rain (and mountain run-off) that the rivers and streams are swelling their banks and flooding roads.

Just a quick pass through Black Diamond.

 

We headed down to Longview to pick up some of their famous beef jerky. The first kind we tried was Sweet with Heat - so good!

It was still a little early for dinner so we popped in to Ian Tyson's Navajo Mug where I had what was possibly the best London Fog of my life.

We debated Mexican or local homecooking for dinner. The Heartland Cafe and their awesome food won out. I had bacon-wrapped, mushroom-stuffed bison meatloaf with house-made tomato-peach chutney. Yum!

We ended the evening with a quick swing at the park. I can't believe she's big enough to sit on the big swing now. *sniff*

How was your weekend? Did you attempt to camp in the rain?

Scenes from my weekend

This past weekend was very kid-centric - Saturday was spent cooking and baking and Sunday we hosted the (early) 3rd birthday party for our Birth & Babies group. All the kiddos were born in July but with birthday parties galore, camping, and other scheduled events, we decided to have a party for them in June. Can you believe that our little group has continued to get together monthly for 3 years?! Love them all!

 M. turns 3 in July and the theme for her party this year is "ice cream social." I worked with my amazing friend Laurel, who is a graphic designer, and she came up with an awesome invitation.

Someone has decided she's a baby again - she rides around in her baby stroller and occasionally sucks a soother (even though she never did as an actual baby!). The thing that makes it funnier (to me anyway) is that she always wants to wear her "woman" shirt. Sorry kid, you can't be both. :)

I made cupcakes for the party - not bad if I do say so myself.

 I also made dried strawberries (which look NOTHING like the picture on Pinterest but were still yummy) and roasted chickpeas. The chickpeas didn't really get crispy though. Tips?

Every year we do a book exchange (which makes M. very happy) so I put out a basket to collect the books. This year we gave "Henri's Walk to Paris" by Saul Bass and received "Leonardo, The Terrible Monster" by Mo Willems.

 

I think the cupcakes were a hit! :)

How was your weekend?

May 2012 GLOSSYBOX Review

The second beauty box to arrive in the mail was from GLOSSYBOX. I was excited to try this one because I had read excellent reviews of their product selection as well as the sizes of their samples. It is the most expensive of all the boxes - $15/month & free shipping - but, as you'll see below, I think this is definitely a good value. (By the way, please excuse the horrible camera photos - it was night and my good camera is dead.)

 First, the packaging. The products come tucked into a cute pink box that only has one tiny GLOSSYBOX logo on the outside. Perfect for reusing!

Simple eye make-up remover for sensitive eyes and refreshing facial wash gel. These are decent sized travel samples that I will definitely toss in my bag for weekend trips. The eye make-up remover did a good job removing shadow & mascara although it did sting a little bit. The facial wash gel rinsed off nicely and didn't leave a film or my skin feeling dry.

Curel Foot Therapy cream. I have been using this product every night since the box arrived on Friday and, while I haven't seen a noticeable difference, I like the texture of the product and the light floral smell. I have a pretty sensitive nose so I'm happy it's not overly fragranced - kind of reminds me of my grandma. I will continue to use this product nightly and will probably buy more once I run out since I don't have a regular foot cream.

Pandora's Lips lipstick (can't remember the colour and don't have it here). I wasn't overly thrilled to receive this since I don't ever wear lipstick (the insert card did say lipstick OR gloss so I was hoping for the latter) but I'm always willing to give a new product a try. I really like the packaging of this product and it's the first time I've seen a paper lipstick tube. The lipstick itself went on smoothly and didn't smell funny or have a funky "lipstick" taste but the colour was too frosty for me. Will probably stay in the sample pile.

 

Sebastian Volupt volumizing shampoo. This is a full-size bottle of shampoo from a brand I recognize and have used in the past. This is the only product I haven't tried yet but when my current bottles run out I'll be adding it to the rotation. I'm always on the look-out for a good volumizing shampoo so hopefully this will work for me. I like to use products from the same brand so I will most likely purchase the conditioner as well.

All in all, I am quite pleased with my May GLOSSYBOX and, if the quality over the next few months stays consistent, this beauty box is a good contender to be the one I keep.

Scenes from my weekend

We had an incredibly busy (but fun) weekend and that looks to be the trend right up until September. Here are a few snapshots from the weekend.

I received my first Glossybox on Friday! Will post a separate review later.

I go once a month for a gel manicure. After my crazy purple and gold disco nails last month, I decided to go with something a little calmer this time. This glitter is what my nail lady calls her "shit mix" - basically just a bowl she uses to catch glitter when she opens all the small containers. I love it!

Sunday was my dad's tree dedication ceremony. I'm not sure what I expected but what we ended up doing was choosing a tree and removing a tag so other people knew it was taken. The trees are planted quite close together so when they are grown I don't think there's any way we'll be able to find it, but my step-mom put a little mushroom garden stake under it for future identification.

While out at Big Hill Springs Provincial Park, we looked up and noticed an unusual sun shining down on us. People called it a sun dog but from my reading, I think it's more likely a 22º halo.

 

My step-sister and brother-in-law own two adorable (and high energy) pugs named Starbuck and Apollo. They kept everyone entertained all afternoon.

 

While driving home we saw this awesome vintage car. A. called it a motorized carriage. 

 

And last, but definitely not least, our crazy daughter would put socks on her hands and called them her gloves. Apparently she was cold...

Have a great week!!