In the Mail

Just a warning that this post has a lot of words and pictures!! Okay okay, so last month I put an order in online at e.l.f. because they had free shipping and I finally received my package this week! For those who are unaware, e.l.f. (Eyes Lips Face) is a cosmetics and beauty company that sells most of their products online for a ridiculously cheap price. They say they have the ability to charge so low because they don't spend money on advertising. Instead, they use word of mouth. I thought, "their quality must be so cheap and crappy" but I read so many reviews I just had to order.

Contratry to my belief, their products turned out quite well! I ordered this on March 17 and I received it April 17 so I'd say their 2-4 week timeframe listed on their website (for Canada) is quite accurate. The only thing was that shipping wasn't actually free. I still had to pay $8 because I'm in Canada.. They only gave me $6.95 off otherwise shipping would've totalled nearly $15. Additionally, they said that if I spent more than $20, I would be charged some amount because of duties and our taxes. Those also didn't happen. Instead, this was stuffed in my mailbox and I gladly accepted my duty-free package.

I don't intend to do a review in this post because you'd be here reading all week so I'll just talk about them as I use them. Here's what I got and the prices:

Essential Eyelid Primer in Sheer

$1

Essential Brightening Eye Colour Quads in Drama and Butternut

$1 each

Studio Powder Brush

$3

Studio High Definition Powder

$6

Studio Eyebrown Lifter & Filter in Ash/Ivory

Studio Kohl Black Eyeliner

Studio Concealer Pencil & Brush in Light

$3 each

Matte Finisher Clear Polish

Nail Polishes in Coral Dream, Mint Cream and Metal Madness

$2 each

That was my little haul :) I spent a total of $29 which I thought was amazing (and so did Hubs!)
Mel also put in an order around the same time so I can't wait for her to show what she got because she hasn't told me yet - she wanted to leave me in suspense :P

Hope you guys enjoy your weekend and happy 4/20 to those who celebrate it, haha.

♥B

Baking Edition: Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake

Happy Sunday Mel and everyone!

I bought a new toy this weekend...

They're mini springform pans :D! These babies are about 4" in diameter making it perfect for smaller sized cakes. I have regular cake pans but find that between Hubs and I, we struggle to finish an entire cake before it goes bad. Thus, I came across these smaller sized pans that I just had to get. For anyone watching their waistline but not willing to give up sweets, this is a great way to portion out your dessert servings too  ;)

For my weekly baking, I chose a chocolate swirl cheesecake to make. Cheesecake is my absolute favourite type of cake because of how creamy and dense they are. This recipe was my own creation but used the swirl technique from Zoe Bakes - she's a great blogger and always has good recipes to offer! I did make a minor *noob* mistake that caused my crust to not be as crispy but the flavours were there at least.

Preparing the crust!

WARNING:
The following pictures might make you hungry...

Okay, I'll admit I'm a little lazy to post the whole recipe here.

But if you would like the recipe, please feel free to email me at belleplusmel@gmail.com and I'll happily share it.

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!

♥B

Waking Up in Heaven

Happy Friday the 13th!

This is the crazy view I woke up to this morning:

View from the front of my balcony

View from the side of my balcony

I woke up thinking, "Omg, did I die and go to heaven?" Clearly not but great scenery nonetheless!

And I know, I've been gone for over a week hehe. Just a little update though. Hubs and I spent all Easter/Good Friday long weekend buying home-related stuff. We finally got our couches on Sunday and boy were they worth it. We also fixed up our daughter's room and the kitchen (with an added pantry)! Home decorating is AWESOME. I will do another post on that soon once we're done decorating! Thanks to the recent postings of Elle&Ish, Hubs and I are looking forward to lots of DIY ideas and thrift shopping for the rest of our home decor stuff. Check out her blog for ideas and tips on saving money yet making your space look stylish :)

Included in our upcoming projects: staining our kitchen table to a darker espresso wood colour, DIY picture frames, kitchen pots/pans hanger, DIY dry-erase glass board, and staining our daughter's crib. I have so much more ideas cranking in my head but those are the top priorities for now!

Work has been ever so busy. It's one of the busiest time of the year. Well, the whole year is actually quite full but I'd say spring is just insane for us. I had the opportunity to attend a very inspirational event on Tuesday: an awards ceremony for women of distinction. I listened to their struggles and successes and it just really inspired me to work hard. It reminded me not to take things for granted and to truly appreciate the simple things in life.

So after coming home from a long day of work , I opened the fridge and was surprised with this:

I already had a feeling what was inside heheheh

*DRUM ROLLLLL*

CALIFORNIA ROLLS!!!

Hubs knows me so well :)

I inhaled this in seconds.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

♥B

Top Man

I recently purchased a button up denim shirt that I've been searching for too long... at first the price tag caught my eye more than the shirt itself but it eventually grew on me and I love it! I was skeptical of the fit having found it in the 'Top Man' section of the new Top Shop store located in The Bay at Yorkdale Mall but in a size S it fit perfectly to my liking. I paid $18 with an additional 20% off discount coupon they were giving out... Holy $hit.. a DEAL AND A HALF! In terms of quality, I'm no denim expert but right off the bat the denim definitely didn't feel cheap unlike a typical denim shirt you may find for an even greater price. What can I say? I was a lucky girl that day and glad that I took a stroll in the men's section. Great find for a great deal.

♥M

Island in the Sun

Today was so fun! It was ridiculously warm outside today and we had to take advantage of it, duh. Hubs, baby and I headed downtown for a day of walking, shopping and eating. I didn't get to take as many pictures as I wanted to mostly because I was stuffing my face with food lol. But I'm going to say this is quite a pic-heavy post compared to my previous posts. Look how gorgeous it was today!

We went shopping and decided to buy shoes.

Matching shoes :) I know, we're so corny. Take a look at our purchase!

 His: Converse PC2 in Black/White (similar here)

Mine: Converse All Star in Black (similar here)  

My AS on me. Teehee. They're sooooooo comfortable it's unbelievable!

 

To end the day off before hubs went to work, he spoiled me with chocolate. But not just the regular chocolate from convenient stores... Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. YUUUUUM.

I wish I remembered the exact names of these things but I think the white ball is a cheesecake chocolate bomb, and the flat chocolate piece is a chocolate and caramel pretzel mogul. There was also another one that I quickly shovelled down my mouth right outside the store and it was a banana cream pie white chocolate bomb. It was soooooooo gooooooooood omggg. Then hubs bought some chocolate almond brittle for take-home. He really knows how to treat a woman ;)

To end the day...

DINNER: 

Grilled Chicken with Mushroom Sage Gravy

Garlic Bacon Mashed Potatoes

Garlic Pan-fried Asparagus

Goodnight!

♥B

Event Ready

Hi all. After a long and insanely busy week (or two...) I'm finally DONE with the event that has been eating up my time. I didn't get a chance to take as many pictures as I would've liked but here you go:

Nails: Anacapri Pink by Borghese | Ring: RW & Co | Dress, top and blazer: H&M | Shoes: Ardene

I work at a non-profit organization that prevents the sexual exploitation of children and youth. Our organization's colours are fuchsia and gray, hence my slight touches of pink here and there. I didn't want to be overtly fancy at a business formal event so I went with all black but popping accessories paired with some nudies on my feet tee hee :) Thought I looked damn professional.

Anyway, the event turned out so successful and we got great feedback for it so it is definitely rewarding despite the fatigue that comes along with it. We were able to fundraise a good sum of money so I'm just happy that nothing went wrong. I also ate like a pig last night with all the unlimited food there so I can certainly say I feel like I gained a few pounds. The end.

♥B

Retail Therapy Sesh

I'm incredibly busy this week and will be next week because we're hosting a huge event at work, and yours truly is the planner/coordinator. Soooo, this will be a short post paired with a bunch of pictures! I went for some retail therapy yesterday and bought a bunch of stuff that I probably won't use much:

Blazer & Skirt from H&M | Shoes from Ardene | Purse from random store | OPI

I'm totally into the nudes and browns this season. How boring, I know. Meanwhile everyone is frolicking in bright reds and blues. I've never really liked too much colour, but most of where my colour is found in my tops. I have everything from teal to bright pink to yellow to purple, etc. Also, I didn't own any dark browns in my stash of polish so I decided to get this from my local drugstore. The lady working there told me to keep my eyes peeled every February because that's when most beauty companies discontinue their previous lines and have a huge sale. Most of the colours were gone but I managed to get my hands on the last decent colour available - yay! I paid $5.99 CAD for it as opposed to $10.99 CAD regular price :) Anyway, back to haulin' ass. It's Friiiiiiiday ♥

♥B