Manicure Monday - Red Matte Love Nails

Happy Manicure Monday everyone - hope you all had a good week! (I am getting this up a little late, but just having a really busy few weeks and little time to write!)

I purchased everything in this post

I always look forward to this month for nails because for the whole month of February, the #CBBxManiMonday group is going to do Pink & Red nails for Valentine's Day! I absolutely love this colour theme and am hoping I can get some good inspiration all month for nail art! 

Five on Saturday - February 24, 2024 - Maude Horton's Glorious Revenge Book Review, Activate Calgary, Polar Plunge Calgary, Calgary Zoo YYC Hot Chocolate Fest and Monthly Declutter

Happy Saturday everyone! I hope you all had a good week! It was crazy busy for me, but good! 

ONE 

The book was received as a review copy - this post contains affiliate links

Maude Horton's Glorious Revenge by Lizzie Pook is a little different than what I typically pick up - it's a historical fiction with a little murder mystery twist! We follow Maude who is trying to find out how her sister died while posing as a ship boy out at sea on an arctic expedition. We follow Maude in the current trying to track down the murderer and eventually plotting her revenge on the murderer. We also follow her sister's journal that she wrote while out at sea and it helps solve the mystery. I thought the story started out a tad slow, but really picked up and I couldn't wait to see how her revenge worked out! It was a little dark too and I enjoyed this! 4 star read for me! 

Spring 2024 - The Jilly Box Subscription Unboxing

I'm a big fan of Jillian Harris, so when she announced that she was starting a subscription box, I was so excited! The box started with the Winter 2019 box and sadly, I was not one of the lucky originals who won a subscription spot, so I sign up every season and hope to get picked for a lottery spot!

I purchased this box - this post contains affiliate links

The Jilly Box is a quarterly seasonal subscription box - the products within the box include some of Jillian’s (and Team Jilly’s!) favourite items (and brands) from home decor, fashion, bath and beauty, health and wellness, accessories perfect for each season. Some of the items included will be custom designed exclusively for the Jilly Box. The Jilly Box really focuses on including products from small, local businesses while being ethically sourced and inclusive. They also focus on reducing plastic waste and packaging - the big boxes can be turned inside out and reused! Also, they try to include Canadian, woman owned brands, as well as Bipoc and LGBTQ owned brands as well. 

Rimmel Kind and Free - Tinted Lip Balm and Multistick Try-on and Review

I have been excited by some recent releases from the drugstore (I've been purchasing some makeup but reviews are slow over here so I can try everything out!) so there will be more coming, but in reality more drugstore releases have appealed to me than Sephora releases lately! 

I purchased these products on my own

So when I saw a review of these Rimmel Kind & Free tinted lip balms, I knew I wanted to try them out and they had a new cream blush too?! I was sold! Rimmel is actually a brand that I'm not super familiar with, I haven't tried a ton of products from them, but after trying these, I'd be excited to more products from them! 

Manicure Monday (or Tuesday) - Pink Aura Nails

Happy Manicure Monday! I hope you all had a great weekend! 

I purchased everything in this post

I always look forward to this month for nails because for the whole month of February, the #CBBxManiMonday group is going to do Pink & Red nails for Valentine's Day! I absolutely love this colour theme and am hoping I can get some good inspiration all month for nail art! 

Five on Saturday - Valentine's Day and Gifts, Galentines, Valentine's Baking, and Consignment Finds

Happy Saturday everyone - I hope you all had a good week! I have really exciting news - I got a new job at work! (No picture though!) I got a supervisor job so I will be overseeing the whole Programs area at my centre, which is going to be so cool! I started on Thursday so it was a quick start, but I'm really happy. 

ONE  

I purchased everything in this post

This week was Valentine's Day and we had fun! We aren't big celebrators, but I have started the tradition with my kids to order heart shaped pizza and they love it! 

Manicure Monday - Valentine's Frog Nails

Happy Manicure Monday! I hope you all had a good weekend! (Also, whoops - forgot to post right on Monday!)

I purchased everything in this post

I always look forward to this month for nails because for the whole month of February, the #CBBxManiMonday group is going to do Pink & Red nails for Valentine's Day! I absolutely love this colour theme and am hoping I can get some good inspiration all month for nail art! 

Five on Friday - February 9, 2023 ~ YYC Hot Chocolate Fest, February Most Anticipated Reads, Spirited Away, Little Gift From A Friend, and Sheets, Delicates and Lights Grahpic Novel Book Reviews

Happy Friday! I hope you all had a great week! 

ONE 

I purchased everything in this post

It's the start of YYC Hot Chocolate Fest - each February a whole bunch of Calgary places participate by making fancy and fun hot chocolates and donate a portion of all sales to Meals on Wheels. We always have fun buying a few and supporting a good cause over the month! 

Monthly Beauty Favourites ~ January 2024

Here's a look at what I was loving in January:

I purchased everything in this post

Seamless Cotton Elastics ~ $10.88 CAN for pack of 100. Soft and solid seamless design, ties are gentle on your hair, will not snag, are easy to remove without sticking to, pulling on or damaging your hair. 

Okay, maybe this feels a little unexciting, but these are so good - am I late to the game on these?! I wanted to something that was more gentle on my hair and these are perfect! The material is soft and it doesn't pull or damage my hair. But, it holds my ponytails with my fine, thin, long hair! 

Monthly Reads ~ January 2024

Time for a look at my January Monthly reads! Each month I share a quick look at the books that I've read with a little synopsis and my rating - anything that I love or is really intriguing, I will share a more in depth review on a different post! 

 

I purchased all these books

So, in January I read 10 books, with a mix of genres from adult spicy romance to young adult mystery. I love most genres, and I really want to keep my reads diversified this year! Also, I've been trying to read a mix of old and new books, and this month I'm right down the middle which is perfect! 

Manicure Monday - Valentine's Day Pink Heart Nails

Happy Manicure Monday everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend! 

The OPI polish was received as a PR sample - this post contains affiliate links

I'm so excited it's February - for the whole month the #CBBxManiMonday group is going to do Pink & Red nails for Valentine's Day! I absolutely love this colour theme and am hoping I can get some good inspiration all month for nail art! 

Monthly Beauty and Book Haul ~ January 2024

Back in 2022, I set a monthly beauty and books budget at $200 per month and I've been pretty good about sticking to it! I am trying to be thoughtful in my purchases, so this has been holding me accountable for being reasonable with my spending. Since it worked so well last year, I'm really trying to do the same thing this year! 

I do always love my Monthly Haul posts - it's a good way to keep track of everything that I picked up each month. I don't always blog about everything I pick up (I try to), but if you ever spot anything in here that you really want me to talk about, let me know! 

I purchased everything in this post

Shoppers Haul ~ $7.37 CAN. Always using my PC points on my Shoppers Hauls so they are nice and affordable! I really wanted to try then new Revlon Illuminance products and ELF blush - stay tuned for reviews comeing! And, a Sally Hansen collab with Hersheys - I couldn't resist! 

Five on Saturday - February 3, 2024 ~ Calgareads Book Club, January Month of Vegetarian/Pescatarian Meals, Dollarstore Valentine's Finds, Bare Activewear Pants, and Mario Videogame Find

Happy Saturday everyone! I hope you all had a good week! 

ONE 

I purchased everything in this post

I'm so excited - last weekend I joined a book club! It is the Calgareads Book Club and everyone met through instragram, so I met a online friend after years of beauty/subscription content and now bookish content! We had so much fun connecting with a new group in Calgary and chatting books! January's book was Gods of Jade and Shadow - I liked it!