Beauty: Manicure Time in Waterloo

January 14, 2016 | Leave a Reply

Soon after making a connection on Twitter with Waterloo’s All My Nails‘ owner, Peter, I stopped in the salon for a gel manicure and pedicure. Gel manicure, I learned, is similar to the Shellac manicure. (Gosh – this reminds me that I know very little about the beauty department.) Since I’m generally up for trying new things, I accepted Peter’s invite for a gel mani-pedi.

My nails were in desperate need of attention, that much I knew! Here’s what All My Nails had to work with:

before: chipped polish, uneven shaping, dry cuticles

The staff at All My Nails are very friendly, and during my visit, a lot of repeat customers came in. The staff called them by name, and I appreciated the personal attention that was given to each customer. The staff who worked with me were friendly and did a good job getting my nails back in a decent condition.

Here are the dramatic after photos:

after: shiny and tidy nails

As you can see, I opted for a very light shade of pink for this manicure because I don’t like having colour on my nails when they’re in short, rough shape. Once they get a bit stronger and longer (which I’m hoping will happen after the gel polish experience), I can opt back into a red or another (slightly darker) neutral. My toes, on the other hand, got a hot red coat of pomegranate, and it’s a perfect winter shade.

Before I left the salon, I was also given this little bottle of cuticle oil which should help with my dry cuticles this winter.

CND SolarOil Nail and Cuticle Conditioner

A gel manicure and pedicure will cost you about $75 at All My Nails, which is generally more than I’d spend regularly, but maybe that’s the going rate? I’m not so sure. That said, I loved the quick drying time of the gel polish (impatient me!), and my nails are still shiny days after my polish was applied. I’m a touch worried about the removal process, but I’ll deal with that in 2-3 weeks, once my nails have grown, and the polish looks worn. Any advice, dear readers?

For those of you in the Kitchener-Waterloo region, did you know that All My Nails has been in existence for 18 years (wow!)? It is located at 22 King St. South in Uptown Waterloo (in the same building as Café22).

Note: I received a discount on my services. All opinions are my own.

Update (Feb. 11, 2016): My fingernail polish held up well for 2.5 weeks, which I was very pleased about. Then, I did something that I wasn’t supposed to do – I peeled off the polish. Terrible. I shouldn’t have. But I did. Against all the recommendations. It’s true. My nails were obviously in somewhat poor shape, but I took care of them, they grew quickly, and they were back to normal in about 2 weeks. My toe nail polish is still going strong. No chips. No peeling. Nothing. I’m way too lazy to go to the salon to remove or change the polish. I’m realizing some beauty routines are just hard for me to upkeep!

Marketplace: I’m Curious about S’well Water Bottles

January 13, 2016 | 1 Commentary

So…can anyone tell me why a S’well water bottle costs nearly $50?

images via S’well and Chapters Indigo

So many of the university students I see every day are toting one of these bottles. I don’t get it. The website claims that the bottle keeps drinks cold for 24 hours and hot for 12 hours. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never needed to keep my water cold for 24 hours…I usually need to refill my water after an hour or two. And hot? I’m not really a fan of 12-hour old coffee.

Maybe I just don’t have the need for a high-end water bottle because I was never a plastic-bottle water drinker, and there are perfectly good drinking fountains at work where I can fill up my glass.

What do you think? Do you own one? What do you think of it? Do tell!

Travel: Charleston, SC – Part 2

January 12, 2016 | Leave a Reply

Yesterday, I shared part 1 of my trip to Charleston, SC. I was only there for 24 hours, but I managed to fit a lot in. I ended yesterday’s post with lunch at Hominy Grill, and today I’m sharing what we saw post-lunch.

Since my sister and I were re-energized after lunch, we drove to the house district beside the harbour (I’m not quite sure that this is the name of it) and spent a couple of hours walking around, staring at the architecture, and wondering about the history of every mansion.

And a few charming smaller houses were thrown into the mix, too.

I mean, a golf cart? Awesome!

As you can imagine, there’s a lot of work to upkeep these homes. I watched in awe as this team of painters worked their magic using a crazy ladder-scaffold set-up.

It’s hard to imagine the scale of these homes in photos, but I hope the image below helps with this. There’s our mini-van parked in front of one mansion. As you can see, the van barely reaches the height of the front steps. I mean, amazing, right?

And there you have it – my two-part review of Charleston, South Carolina. Have you been? Would you like to go?

Photos by me.

Travel: Charleston, SC – Part 1

January 11, 2016 | 1 Commentary

Way back in 2015, I took a quick trip to Charleston, South Carolina, and then I delayed uploading my photos. It’s a new year, but I don’t think it’s too late to share my travel experiences with you. Am I right?

In a nutshell, Charleston is glorious. If you haven’t already been, I would recommend that you put it on your must-see list. The weather (October) was perfect (not too hot, not too cold), the architecture was beautiful, the streets had charm, and the service was friendly.

I booked my sister and I into the Marriott Renaissance Charleston right in the historic district, and this was a convenient location for walking around various neighbourhoods. My TomTom (oh, I love that thing) navigated us through all the one-way streets when we drove in, but I was very happy to leave the car and travel by foot for the remainder of my 24-hour stay.

bikes available for Renaissance guests

The College of Charleston was a must-see considering the fact that I’m an academic and education is my life. The campus is charming, lush, and all-around beautiful. The palm trees caught my attention as did all the exterior porches (traditional architecture in Charleston). I even ran into a professor I met at a conference last spring. Random, right? Such a small world!

the College of Charleston campus

We passed by so many impressive churches as we explored the city.

the churches were massive

The Charleston City Market was very touristy, but it was still nice to see.

I’m a sucker for cobblestone streets. They’re so hard to walk on, but so full of history! This one, in particular, made me think about the past, especially as we walked by the Slave Mart Museum.

Pretty details were to be found everywhere! Just look at this sweet bunny knocker:One thing that surprised me about Charleston was the restaurant options. Several of the guides I read recommended several Italian restaurants, but because I eat Italian food all the time, this was definitely not what I felt like eating in the South. I also thought there would be charming cafés on every corner, but there weren’t. Maybe we were just in the non-café area of town.

Since we had a bit of tough time finding a high-quality-casual-non-Italian restaurant downtown, we took a quick drive over to the well-known Hominy Grill. I was a little hesitant to eat here because I didn’t want to end up at a very touristy spot (and every guide I read had Hominy Grill on it), but I was pleasantly surprised. Hominy was AMAZING! I’d highly recommend it, and I’d go back right now if I could beam myself over! The restaurant diners were made up of locals and tourists, and the service was very friendly. The food was Southern. Good ol’ southern cookin’. We feasted on sweet tea, boiled peanuts, biscuits, collard greens, and pecan pie (among a whole selection of things). Oh, the pecan pie was incredible!

After a morning touring on foot, my sister and I were so happy to have had such a good meal. Just look how happy I am in the above photo!

Come back tomorrow, and I’ll share what we saw after lunch!

Photos by me (and my sister).

The Friday Five: Kitchen Essentials

January 8, 2016 | Leave a Reply

I know many of us just finished a couple of weeks of holiday feasting, but I can’t help but continue to talk about food and entertaining. This year, I really want to try to declutter and get rid of items that I no longer regularly use. In so doing, I’m also going to be paying close attention to what I do use.

In the kitchen, for example, these five items get quite a bit of use at my house, and they’re here to stay.

I use my KitchenAid mixer on a weekly basis to make bread, pizza dough, pasta, or desserts. It was a great investment, and I keep it on my counter for easy access.

KitchenAid stand mixer

I use cloth napkins at my place, and I’m always looking for new sets to replace old ones. Most of mine are colourful (big surprise), but I’ll be looking to add beautiful white sets this year. They’re just so crisp and lovely.

linen napkins

I recently purchased pie beads (for Lucy Waverman’s saffron chocolate tart), and they definitely kept my tart crust in top form. I look forward to baking up some more tarts and pies this year.

pie chain

I use trays quite regularly to carry food from one room to another while I’m hosting, or simply to carry my tea and treats to the living room while I veg out. Trays come in very handy during the warmer months, too, when I’m bringing things to and from the barbeque.

tray

Finally, I have a stack of ramekins in my cupboard that I use for just about everything – from serving olives, nuts, or candy to making baked eggs.

ramekins

What are your kitchen essentials?

previous 1 … 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 … 383 next