Get a Better Sleep

not my photo

Hey everyone! 2019 is now upon us and many people, as always, have made resolutions to be happy and healthy in this new year.

That is all and good, but I am a firm believer that a good night sleep is essential to this plan.
Unfortunately, not all of us are blessed with having the perfect beauty rest every night. Some nights we toss and turn and only have a light sleep.

All of that being said, here are my tips on getting a better night's sleep:

1. Have a good pillow

This is very important. Your pillow can make a world of difference and you want to make sure your head is comfortable while you sleep. 

2. Temperature control

I like having my room a bit cooler for sleeping. I have found that I can't fall asleep or sleep very well when it's hot in my room. I have a duvet on my bed all year round, as well as a fan. Having these two things enables me to get my perfect level of warmth. There are many times when I wrap myself in my duvet and only stick my foot out to cool myself down.

3. Noise control

If you can't sleep when it is noisy, I would suggest buying a pair of ear plugs. There are things that make noise that we just can't control and plugs will help you out for sure.

On another note, if you like sound, white noise helps. I don't like when it's noisy, but I also dislike when it's really quiet. What can I say, the silence is a scary sound.

In the past, I have downloaded white noise apps onto my phone. It's great to pick your own mix of sounds and you can set a timer for it as well. I've even asked Alexa to play some piano lullabies for me or some soothing rain sounds.

Like I said, I have a fan which keeps me cool and also satisfies my white noise needs.

Also my dog snores.

4. Light control

It can be hard to sleep when it's bright. I feel you. The corner street lamp is visible from my room if I'm laying at a bad angle. Invest in some room darkening curtains. I have white ones which helps cancel out bright light, but it also allows light into my room. I'm not a fan of the dark ones. While they cancel out all light, I find it harder to wake up because the lack of light can make it feel like it's still night time, when in reality it's time to rise and shine!

5. Don't over stimulate your eyes!

This is so important! Sometimes if you're on your phone, tablet, laptop, whatever before bed, your eyes are very stimulated and have a hard time relaxing.I would recommend watching tv if you need something electronic to relax because it's farther away from your eyes. 

6. Pamper yourself

Establish a night routine. Maybe it's doing a face mask to relax, having some tea and reading a book for a bit. 

7. Meditate

When you're laying in bed, try to clear your mind. I know, it's impossible to do sometimes. We have so much stress and worries that it's hard to relax. Spray your pillow with some aromatherapy mist (vanilla & lavender is perfect!), or put on your diffuser and lay on your back. If you have trouble clearing your mind, try to visualize putting everything boxes and tossing them away. Or just literally think of nothing. 

This might seem odd, but unclench your jaw, open your hands and have your palms out (or up, whichever). This really helps relax your body because no muscles are clenched.

Breathe deeply. Focus on different parts of your body. The feeling. Deep breath. And slowly return to normal breathing.

Goodnight!

Chris's New Year's Resolutions

2019 is my year. I can feel it. I’m getting married in September, and that’s already a huge change, so I might as well tackle everything else as well. I’m done with saying that every year, then panicking in July because I’ve actually gained 15 pounds instead of losing 20. No more excuses and procrastination, I’m taking 2019 by the horns.

First off is getting my finances in order. I was in college through my early to mid 20s, and I lived like a college student, spending my money on drinks and fun, without ever thinking of the consequences. Now that I work full time, I’m ready to get things sorted out. My goal is to set an appointment with a financial advisor by the end of January, and start getting things in order. I want to start putting a bit of money aside for a house, and start paying off my credit card and student loan debt.

Second is finally getting my life and home organized. My plan is to write down everything I need to do each day the night before, so I can keep it all in order and get it all done. I have huge memory issues, so I’m hoping this will help me out. I also want to get my house organized. We moved into our house in April, and I unpacked the important boxes, and then every single other thing got stuffed into our spare bedroom, still in boxes. Every couple of months, I go in there and unpack approximately two things, and then I get fed up with the space and leave. No more. I’m over this waste of space. A smaller goal of mine is to finally buy a desktop computer, and I want to clear out the room and turn it into an office with a computer and makeup desk as the centerpiece.

Not my photo. From Paper Magazine.

One goal that may seem crazy, but is totally doable, is walking 3 million steps this year. That may seem like a lot, but it’s actually only 8000 or so steps a day. I can do this. I’m going to keep track of how many steps I walk a day in a spreadsheet, and then add it up at the end of the year. I’ll let you know how this goes at the end of 2019.

My last goal ties into the one before. This is to finally shed 40 pounds. I rejoined Weight Watchers, and I’ve lost 10 pounds this past month. I want to lose another 40 by December 31^st of next year. Along with Weight Watchers, I also belong to a gym, and I’m going to make a concerted effort to actually use the membership. I was up until December, but then work got crazy, and I dropped off the planet. Planey Fitness, that is! Hahahaha I’m hilarious. I also want to get to a place where I can say I’m mentally healthy. I struggle with depression and anxiety, but this year I want to try to calm the firestorm in my head. I’m not really sure what the plan is for that yet, but I’ll get there.

So this is the plan for 2019. I can do this. I will do this! Let me know what your New Year’s resolutions for 2019 are in the comments below!

Last Minute Gift Guide

Hey guys!

It's almost Christmas and as always, some people haven't finished shopping yet. It's manic.
I put together a little gift guide for you guys to get the gift idea juices flowing. 
Happy shopping!

 So this first "category" is giving me very cozy/homy vibes.

The second "category" is beauty related. Any of these items are the ultimate pamper yourself type of gift. Everyone deserves to be pampered!

The third "category" is for that person who really loves drinking, baking and food.




The reason I did not put links is because I chose these specific items for their looks. It's more meant to just give you a quick idea on things to get. Also, it's so close to Christmas that you wouldn't be able to order online. I did find a lot of this stuff on the Chapters/Indigo website.



I hope that this helped if you're scrambling for some last minute gifts this weekend!

I wish you guys the happiest of holidays, a merry Christmas and a very happy new year!

Recipe: Rocky Road Bars

Christmas baking season is upon us, so I thought I would share a staple recipe in our family baking tradition. Every year without fail, we make these rocky road bars. Honestly, they're delicious and my favourite square by far!

This recipe will make approximately 36 bars.

You will need:

1 1/2 cups of graham wafer crumbs
1/2 cup of melted margarine or butter
1 1/2 cups of flaked coconut
1 package of chocolate chips (semi sweet)
1 1/2 cups of mini marshmallows 
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup of melted chocolate (you can use more or less - up to you)

How to make it:

Preheat the oven to 350 F
Combine the graham crumbs with the butter and press it firmly in a 13x9 pan.
Sprinkle the coconut over the crust - create an even layer.
Add a layer of chocolate chips and mini marshmallows.
Optional - add a layer of nuts
Using a spoon, drizzle the condensed milk over all of the layers. 

Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Once out of the oven, drizzle some of the melted chocolate over.
Let cool and cut into squares.

It's a very simple recipe, but super delicious!


Enjoy!

 

Review: Ole Henriksen Facial Sauna Scrub & Cold Plunge Mask

I love trying out new skincare, especially masks. Or anything to help my skin. I tend to have combination to oily skin and I like trying new things to control my skin.

At Sephora I saw the Ole Henriksen Pore Balance Facial Sauna Scrub and the Cold Plunge Pore Mask. They're both from the Balance range and I picked them up as a set.
To be honest, I already owned the scrub but (spoiler alert) I loved it so much that I bought another.

The facial scrub has volcanic sand, green fusion complex, neem seed oil and AHAs. What's nice about this scrub is that once you start rubbing it into your skin, it starts to heat up. Hence the name "sauna scrub". They recommend using it 2-3 times a week, which I agree with. The scrub isn't too abrasive on the skin, but you don't want to over do it anyways. 

The cold plunge mask was really something new to me. Firstly, I LOVE the colour. Am I the only one who partially judges a mask by how it looks? Yes. Okay, let's move on...
The mask has clay and snow lotus extract. It's quite cooling on the skin, which is slightly alarming at first, but then it feels a bit more soothing. When the mask dries down, it doesn't feel overly tight which I like. To take the mask off, you rinse it off with cool water. I don't know about you, but that goes against everything I've heard before. Usually, you would take the mask off with warm water. 

Both of these products recommend using a toner and moisturizer afterwards. They don't necessarily say to use these products together, but since they were sold as a set, I decided to try that out.

It works well. The scrub heats your skin, which opens your pores, enabling you to really purify your pores and get rid of dead skin. The mask afterwards feels refreshing and the coolness would help to close your pores after extracting impurities. To me, they just make sense together. Definitely use a light moisturizer afterwards to make sure your skin is balanced and quenched.

I've used this quite a few times now and I really like it. Even my boyfriend likes it, which means something! Dare I say, it might be one of my favourite masks? I love the different temperatures and sensations on my skin. It leaves my face feeling clean and my skin stimulated (if that's the right word?). I have combo/oily skin, but even with dry skin I don't see you having a problem with this. 

I would highly recommend using these two products. It definitely makes me want to try more skincare from Ole Henriksen! Honestly, everything I've tried from them so far, I have ended up loving. They are seriously killing it with their skincare. I applaud them.

Have you tried these products? Let me know in the comments below!

The scrub retails for $34 (Sephora) and the mask retails for $44 (Also Sephora).

Until next time,

Fall baking favourites

It's no secret that I'm obsessed with baking. I have a favourite recipe for every season, holiday, and special event. Fall is one of my absolute favourite times to bake though. It's not too hot to have my oven on for hours, and there's just something so cozy and homey about having fresh baked chocolate chip cookies or banana bread on the counter. Which is why today I'm giving you guys two of my favourite fall recipes, golden Crisco walnut chocolate chip cookies, and triple chocolate pumpkin seed banana bread!

First, the cookies! The recipe for these can be found on the back of any package of golden Criso, but I need to make sure that EVERYONE knows about this amazing chewy, soft, chocolatey marvel. Just make sure to not add 1 cup of baking soda like I did the first time I made it! I was making them for my siblings lunches and I ruined a triple batch because I wasn't paying attention. Oh well, lessons learned, even if I cringe every time I think about it!

Golden Crisco walnut chocolate chip cookies

3/4 cup golden Crisco all-vegetable shortening

1 1/4 cups lightly-packed brown sugar

2 tbsp. milk

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 375ºF.

Beat shortening, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in large bowl with mixer on medium speed until well blended. Beat in egg. Combine flour, salt and baking soda. Mix into shortening mixture until just blended. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

Drop by rounded measuring tablespoonfuls 3 inches apart onto baking sheet.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes for chewy cookies, or 11 to 13 minutes for crisp cookies. Cool 2 minutes. Remove to wire rack to cool completely.

Next, the banana bread. I happened upon this one on www.twopeasandtheirpod.com while looking for a chocolate banana bread recipe earlier this year. I'd never made chocolate banana bread before, but I'm so happy that I did! I am in love! It's so soft and moist and full of chocolately goodness!

Triple chocolate pumpkin seed banana bread

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 large brown bananas  (1 1/2 cups mashed)

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

1/4 cup canola, vegetable oil, or melted coconut oil

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup dark chocolate pumpkin seed Bark Thins, chopped

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1. Heat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, mash the ripe bananas with a fork. Add the melted butter and oil and stir until combined. Stir in the brown sugar, egg, and vanilla extract. Stir until smooth.
4. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, don’t overmix.
5. Mix together chocolate chips and chopped Bark Thins. Stir in 3/4 cup of the chocolate chip and Bark Thin mixture.
6. Pour batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of chocolate mix over the top of the bread. Bake for 50-65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out mostly clean, you might have some melted chocolate chips on the toothpick and that is fine. You just don’t want a lot of gooey batter. Check at 50 minutes, just to be safe. Oven times vary.
7. Remove the pan from the oven and set on a wire cooling rack. Let the bread cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the bread and carefully remove from the pan. Let the bread cool on the wire cooling rack until slightly warm. Cut into slices and serve.

You can also use a bundt pan, as I clearly did in the above picture. I find this makes for a prettier finished product.

Note-the bread will keep on the counter, wrapped in plastic wrap, for up to 4 days. This bread also freezes well. To freeze, cool the bread completely and wrap in plastic wrap and aluminum foil. Freeze for up to 1 month. Defrost before slicing.

Also, a personal note - I got this recipe from www.twopeasandtheirpod.com, and they used just a cup of chocolate chips. I'm sure this would be delicious as is, but I find the dark chocolate and chunks of pumpkin seed add a whole new depth of flavour, and the seeds a new texture. Also, if you don't have dark chocolate pumpkin seed Bark Thins, as I don't always, since they only seem to be available in the fall at Costco, you can just use 1/4 cup chopped dark chocolate with a couple tbsp. of chopped pumpkin seeds.

I really hope that you enjoy these recipes as much as I and anyone I force to have some has! Let me know in the comments below if you try either of them, or what your fall favourite is!

I Tried Using a Diva Cup

Menstruation cups are becoming a more and more popular method to maintain your period. They're eco friendly, cost effective, easy to use and generally risk free. That being said, I decided to give one a go. Anything to make my time of month easier - I will gladly do.

I decided to go with the Diva Cup - purely because it's arguably the most common one, therefore making it easy to find in stores. I usually choose a tampon as my weapon of choice because I don't like how a pad feels. It makes me feel like I'm wearing a diaper, I find it smelly and messy. I like tampons because they're easy to use, discreet and relatively comfortable.

When purchasing the Diva Cup, they only have two sizes:
Model 1: Recommended for women under the age of 30 who have never delivered vaginally or by caesarean.

Model 2: Recommended for women aged 30 and over or for women who have delivered vaginally or by caesarean.

Those being the only options available, I went with model 1.

I found the cup was a little difficult to put in. It's awkward and a bit uncomfortable. You have to fold the cup a certain way, insert and twist it to create a suction. I found the process to be a bit time consuming and it's hard to tell if it's in correctly. Diva Cup does say that it may take a few cycles of using the cup to get used to inserting it properly.

To be honest, I was terrified of overflowing the cup. Sometimes my flow can be pretty heavy (tmi?), but even on the heaviest day, it never overflowed. Saying this, I did experience minor leakage. It was nothing major, but I would feel more comfortable knowing that there was zero leakage. Since I never bled enough to make the cup overflow, it must've been down to the cup not being inserted correctly. User error.

Like the rest of our bodies, vaginas come in all different shapes and sizes. I don't necessarily think that only two models (having had birth vs not having birth) are enough sizing options. Someone could very well be inserting the cup properly, but because the size/shape isn't correct, it could cause leakages. I'm curious if other menstrual cup brands have more sizing options and if it's proven to be more effective.

One really nice aspect of the cup is being able to wear it for such a long time compared to a tampon. You just need to ensure that you remove the cup and clean it twice a day. It's also safe to wear over night - bonus! Diva Cup does have it's own wash for the cup that you can purchase. It's mildly scented, cleans the cup just fine and re balances the Ph levels. As you wear it more often, you'll adjust to how often you need to empty it. Unlike a tampon, it's not as discreet. If you work somewhere with a public washroom and you need to take it out and wash it, you might feel uncomfortable doing that out in the open sink area. If it works for you, emptying in the morning and night works well.

Removing the cup itself can be messy at first until you get the hang of it. Otherwise, it's very simple. Using a cup really allows you to get to know your body better during your period. Using a tampon or pad, you can't exactly measure your flow, but with a cup it's easy to do and it's handy to know.

I will continue to use the cup and I hope it'll get easier and be more efficient with time. Hopefully I'll be able to correct the slight leakage problem - if not, maybe I'll look into other brands.

Have you ever tried a menstrual cup? How did it work out for you? Let me know in the comments below!