Monday 28 July 2014

HUGE Summer Haul | 2014

Being relatively deprived of shopping during the school year... I can say that I went a little crazy with shopping this summer. In my defence, I wasn't the only one who did damage. Since my older sister and I are practically the same size, we always share clothes, so some of this is her doing as well. Just saying. Moving on from excuses and such, let's get started with all the clothes I bought so far. (And I'm going to Toronto sometime in August so further damage is expected. On the bright, at least I have a job now...)

GARAGE

Every time either my sister, mom or I have went to Garage, we've managed to bump into some really great deals. I'm really happy with all the items below, and my sister and I are venturing out from our comfort zones and have yet to find a way to wear a bralette... (Note: There's a sweater I forgot to take a picture of. It's a grey oversized sweater with a huge printed smiley face we found for $5.00)

Tribal Eye Cropped Tank Top
$5.00
Pairs well with: Distressed High-Rise Jean Shorts

Floral Printed Bralette
$5.00
Pairs well with: Maxi Skirt

Floral Double Layer Cropped Tank Top
$7.50
Pairs well with: White/Black Shorts

Floral Printed Cami
$2.50
Pairs well with: High Waisted Shorts

Purple Banded Back Bandeau
$1.60
Pairs well with: Open Back Tank Tops

Maroon Sweat Pants
$5.00
Pairs well with: Hoodies?
(lol, if you're wearing sweat pants, you probably don't care about looking fashionable anyway...)

GUESS

Lace T-Shirt
$9.99
Pairs well with: Skater Skirts

ZARA


Grey Maxi Skirt
$20.00
Pairs well with: Cropped Tank Tops

OLD NAVY

While downtown on Canada Day, we spent a little time browsing through shops and found some great Canada Day deals.

White T-Shirt with Pocket
$2.00
Pairs well with: Leggings

GAP 


Coral Knitted Cardigan
Around $18.00 (lost the receipt oops)
Pairs well with: Any neutral outfit... :P

Blue and White T-Shirt
Around $5.00
Pairs well with: Lace White Shorts

H&M


Zebra Printed Cardigan
$10.00
Pairs well with: Brighter Outfits... :P

Black T-Shirt with Pocket
$12.95
Pairs well with: Skinny Jeans

FOREVER XXI

Saving the most exciting for last. We accidentally stumbled upon a huge  sale on dresses in Forever XXI after deciding to peak into the store quickly before leaving the mall. If you know me, I am perfectly content just living off wearing dresses.


Burgundy Lace Dress
$9.99


Porcelain/China-Print Dress
$6.99


Floral Dress with Transparent Lace Waist
$9.99

Pink and Black Polkadot Cropped and Tied T-Shirt
$4.99
Pairs well with: High-Waisted Jean Shorts

And that brings us to the end of the haul. I actually realized throughout the writing of the post that I actually forgot to take pictures of one or two items... which makes me feel even worse. I pretty much have come to a stop with shopping, but the trip to Toronto definitely is not going to help. Let's hope there won't be another huge haul like this before school starts for me, haha.. Anyways, I hope you were able to be inspired by some of the things I bought in this haul, or even are lucky enough to find the same items in stores. I'll see you soon with another post!


Tuesday 15 July 2014

Double Chocolate Brownies

My first time making brownies and I didn't fail. This just proves that the recipe I'm presenting to you guys below is essentially... fool-proof. I found this recipe online a long time ago, unfortunately, I don't have a source, just know that someone else out there came up with these brownies haha :P So let's get started!
Ingredients

1. 3/4 Cup All-Purpose Flour
2. 1/4 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
3. 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
4. 1/3 Teaspoon Table Salt (If you're going to use unsalted butter.)
5. 1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter
6. 6 Ounces Semisweet Chocolate
7. 1 Cup Sugar
8. 2 Large Eggs
9. 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Directions

1. In a medium container, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.

2. Whisk the contents together until you obtain an even mixture.

3. In a separate and microwavable container, combine your chocolate and butter.

4. Heat the chocolate and butter in 30 second intervals, stirring in between.

Final melted chocolate mixture.

5. Add your sugar, vanilla extract and eggs to the chocolate and stir until evenly mixed.

6. Add the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture and fold it in without overmixing.

Final mixture.

7. Spread a small piece of butter across the pan to keep the brownies from sticking.

8. Cross two strips of parchment paper along the bottom of the pan. Leave a slight overhang which you will later use to transfer the brownies from the pan to a cutting board.

9. Pour your mixture into the pan and spread it out evenly.

10. Heat your oven to 350°F.

11. Bake the brownies for 30-35 minutes.

12. Set the pan over a cooling rack to cool, then transfer the brownies to a cutting board and cut into 16 pieces.

There we have it, double chocolate brownies! I always like to reword the recipes I post on here so I hope it still makes some sense. Once again, it's super easy to make and tastes amazing. I'll see you soon with a... HUGE summer haul. Oops.



Tuesday 8 July 2014

June Favourites 2014

It has been ages since I published my last favourites post. I hope it isn't too late into July for this post to be coming out... either way, most of these items were used near the end of June and beginning of July, so the list is recent and up to date. So without further ado, let's see if I can still make a proper favourites post!

❀ Fashion ❀

Black Skater Skirt from H&M
I've been wearing super often since spring arrived. I have a bunch of black skirts in my closet simply because they are so  easy to pair with any shirt. I particularly like this skirt because it fits super nicely around my waist and the black belt with gold rings gives a perfect touch to the otherwise neutral skirt.

Grey Baggy T-Shirt from H&M
Before this shirt was even mine, it had its own spot reserved in my closet. I had been hunting so long for a comfortable loose grey shirt to wear over leggings, tuck into jeans, etc. and this one from H&M has been the perfect find. I believe that I found this t-shirt in their basics section and immediately fell in love with it because of the cute accent the little chest pocket added to the plain shirt.

Brown Sandals from Skechers
If any of you have been around for long enough, then you'll remember the pair of sandals I wore practically every day. When I took them out of the box for this summer, I was devastated to find that the glue had worn off. I found this pair of sandals at Globo shoes and even from the first time I tried them on, I could tell that they would be extremely comfortable. Unlike most of the sandals these days, this pair actually has a slightly elevated heel for more support, not to mention that the whole shoe is very well padded. I'm painfully admitting that these shoes are better than my last pair.

XOXO Snapback from Taobao.com
As I mentioned before in my China Haul, I had been looking for a snapback to block out some sun during the summer. Needless to say, I have been wearing this snapback very frequently since a sort of heat wave hit Ottawa near the end of June and the sun here is always very strong in the summer.

❀ Beauty ❀

Cupcake Face Mask from Lush
After hearing my mom rave about the Sacred Truth face mask my sister and I bought her for Mother's Day, we decided to go out and buy another kind to try for ourselves. This supposedly helps clear your skin and take away some oil, and it does every one of those things. Surprisingly, even with the small container, the face mask lasts for many uses. I love using it on nights where I've had to apply some light makeup during the day, or when I've just spent a lot of time in the sun.

Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Dry Touch Sunscreen
Yep, you heard right. Dry touch. I can actually apply sunscreen now without feeling disgusting and greasy. That pretty much sells this sunscreen right there, haha... 


Moisture Shampoo by Kirkland
After trying out multiple different kinds of shampoo and conditioners trying to repair the damage my hair received from colour treatment, I was extremely surprised to find that Costco's own brand of shampoo worked best for my hair. I find that it provides enough volume after washing you hair with it, yet it doesn't dry out your hair in the process. The one downside is that they do not have a conditioner to go with this yet.

CC Cream by Clinique
Makeup?!?!? Jenny's actually using makeup? Yep, I finally found the need to put on some makeup in the month of June. With my sister's graduation and prom, my whole family found the opportunity to dress up a little and have some fun. At home, we have three foundation type products. After experimenting with my sister's prom makeup, she settled for a Clinique foundation, but since I was just going to be the photographer for the day, I found that their CC cream almost gave just the same amount of coverage, but was much lighter on the skin.

❀ Food ❀

Organic Cranberry Lemonade
As some of you may know, I love everything citrus... meaning that in the summer, I may as well drown myself in lemonade. So far, I'm really loving the little twist to lemonade by adding some cranberries, and I probably will for the rest of the summer.

Berries
Not just strawberries, but I just love berries in general. That is all.

Sour Candy
Sour candy is my Achilles Heel. Okay, it might not be that severe, but I tend to hoard sour candies. I've specifically been loving the sour keys that you can buy in huge tubs from Costco, I've eaten more than I should in the past year.. but there's no stopping yet.

Desserts
With so much more time on my hands with summer vacation, I have been baking up a storm. So far, I've made more batches of the chocolate chip cookie recipe I posted here and I just tried to make my first ever batch of brownies last night. I think they actually turned out amazing, and I'll be posting the recipe I followed very soon, so keep an eye out for that!

❀ Random ❀


2048
I have an unhealthy habit of playing this game. It isn't even an addiction, it's just that if I'm waiting in line somewhere and have to kill some time, my fingers naturally click on this app. With the new android update including Practice Mode which gives you unlimited undos, I have reached 131 072 after playing it leisurely for the past two months... So I've technically beaten the game.

Sherlock
The perfection is real. I have never watched anything better than Sherlock. I never want this series to end. I might even have to save the very last episode to the day I'm 80 just to make it last. I'm watching it very very  slowly. I'm on episode 2 of season 2 simply because I don't want to join the rest of the fandom in waiting for years  until the next season comes out.


The Fault in Our Stars
I'm sorry that I ever thought this book was overrated. I'm still reading my way through the book, however, I'm taking my time since my heart still needs to recover from watching the movie, lol.

Canon 60D
I HAVE A NEW CAMERA! It's definitely a huge upgrade from what I used to use and it also films videos so I'm super excited to use it to film my short film. I've already been using it a lot for random bits of photography and the photos have turned out amazing. I can't wait to be able to post some more of my photography on this blog with the new camera!

So there's my long overdue favourites post! I hope I still have the touch and I'll see you all soon with a little brownie recipe! :)

What have you been loving in the month of June?