Saturday, April 16, 2011

"Cooking is like love; it should be entered into with abandon or not at all."

My blog today will NOT feature love/men/beauty/strippers....it is about food, oddly enough! I was given the chance to be extremely inspired while watching a movie this morning. Which movie you ask? well, I have watched this movie about 5-6 times by now and I STILL smile throughout the entire thing. Its funny, romantic, and has a killer soundtrack! The movie is.....*Drumrooooolllllll*... 'Its Complicated'!!! Its with Meryl streep and Alec Baldwin and its about a 10 years divorced couple who both seem to be going through midlife cris's and end up having an affair with eachother. Fortunately, that's not the part that inspires me every time i watch this movie! Meryl streep plays this amazing mother, who owns this perfect bakery/bistro with amazing treats and goodies. In the movie she creates lavender ice cream (when she cannot sleep), scones, and also what I MUST try, Croque Monsieur! BUT, my true inspiration lies, when she is on a date, and after a party they attend they go back into her shop and bake up..wait for it...CHOCOLATE CROISSANTS! Ugh...EVERYTIME i watch this scene I die a little inside b/c i want one SO bad...they look SO delicious!

"The best way to execute French cooking is to get good and loaded and whack the hell out of a chicken. Bon appétit. "
-Julia Childs

SO, this brings me to my next point. FINALLY having a completely free Saturday with no day/evening plans, i decided to go and do sum casual shopping. I went and visited "Queen of Tarts" Bakery downtown, bought some sinful goodies and then Sobeys is right there and I thought to myself...IAM MAKING THOSE CROISSANTS!!!!!!! Sorry for the CAPS, but that is honestly what i thought haha. I bought my goodies and long story short...they turned out even BETTER than i had hoped!!! (there is a picture of them on my facebook!)

"Learn to cook--try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun!" 
- Julia Childs

This brings us to my REAL point..I am going to try and master different recipes! It will be a new project! I will not be focusing on one certain cookbook and recipes, but just ones i find interesting and a little difficult. Today i have mastered, chocolate croissants and I also making BBQ pulled pork for supper, which is currently tenderizing in the oven..mmm. I even made homemade beef n barley soup last weekend!! and it was SOOOOOO good! Also here are somethings I plan on making..:


  • Bacon n' Egg Quiche or any quiche for that matter
  • Cake Pops
  • Whoopie cakes
  • some type of fancy cheese ball
  • Borscht (without calling Faye 600 times)
  • Perfect apple pie
  • Beer Can chicken
  • Perfect BBQ Chicken (not a charred piece of leather)
  • Big delicious red velvet cake
  • ...anything else that i come across
To some, these may seem simple. And don't get me wrong, I know how to cook! I have been doing it for a long time and I truly learned from the best! But i suppose someday I will need to cook for my own family, and I'll need to perfect my own dishes, and give my own fun spins on them! and in the words of Julia Childs "Cooking is like love; it should be entered into with abandon or not at all." 


- Love, Laura xoxo


Question: Do you have anything you have mastered??? Or maybe something I should add to my list that you have tried and loved!???

Friday, April 8, 2011

...Shellac?? Gelish??...Gelish?? Shellac??...

Why hello!!!! I have decided to do something a lil different tonight...I have recently gotten rid of my artificial nails and began getting manicures...because who likes to look at gross hands??? NOT ME! Going down this manicured path, I have discovered a whole new world of polish-gel hybrids. They claim to go on like a polish..yet have the staying power of a gel! And the staying power is anywhere from 2-3 weeks! Of course will have some growth (as with artificial nails), but if your the typical work-a-holic home-maker, you are free to wash your hands, clothes and your dog, all without needing to re-polish or fear chips in the nails.

SO, I have tried two different lines so far, one is called "shellac" by CDN and the other is called "Gelish" by Harmony. They both have a wide range of colors, base and top coat and need to be cured under a lamp. NOW, based on my personal experiences I will explain why I love one more than the other..here goes:
Shellac by CDN
I received this delightful manicure at Eveline Charles and the cost was a steep $65 for the full Shellac Manicure (which actually wasn't much of a manicure, much to my disappointment..more of a "light clean up"..not even a soak). It all started out fine and well, but it seemed to be taking a long time to dry! It took about 10mins PER COAT (base, 2 color, top) which was kind of annoying, and after she had my hands curing under the UV for 10mins with the top coat, it STILL was tacky. So we did it a couple more times and she claimed it would dry over time, as I shopped. So I tipped her well and off I went shopping. After  about 30 mins i checked how my nails were doing and much to my surprise all of my nails were COVERED in little fuzzies from the sweater i was wearing!!! Yuck! So i attempted to wipe if off, with not luck, so I sat down at Starbucks, and began scraping off the top layer. After i managed to get that off, it look OK...a bit streaky and a few marks, and considering i got hot red, i wasn't pleased. Now, i know i should've gone back and asked why or what is going on, but I didn't. I made another appointment for 2 weeks later to get it taken off and re polished (by this time it had chipped a bit and grown out some) and thinking maybe it was just beginners bad luck. Well, alas, it was not...it happened and this time i had some creases in it too....LONG STORY short...i kind of feel it was a waste of my time AND money.

Gelish by Harmony
I received this AMAZING manicure at Studio J spa downtown, and the cost was $45 for the Gelish manicure. AND this was the FULL manicure!! So right from the start i was excited! I also noticed they had the ACTUAL Harmony lamp that speed dries/cures the gelish. It took 10 seconds for the base coat, 30 seconds for each polish coat (I had 2 colors, and one glitter on top..at NO extra charge) and then another 10 seconds for the top coat. SO once again..i was HAPPY!! My esthetician (Breanne) was amazing and so nice..and chatty..but not to chatty, just perfect! She did a great job on my manicure (as I am quite picky seeing as i was once in the industry). At the end of the manicure she actually REMOVED the tacky layer, and added cuticle oil...and my nails were literally perfect!!! I could have polished rocks as soon as I stepped out of the spa and they wouldn't have gotten wrecked! All in all, I WILL defiantly be recommending the gelish manicure at Studio J downtown....it looks perfect and will last for over 2 weeks, and without fuzzies or creases AND the price is CHEAPER than what i paid at EC and this was a much better job!!!

Anyways, I just wanted to update ya'll on this one. I have been HARDLY waiting to do this review!!! Perhaps I will check out the Gelish pedicure next...as summer tootsies can come out form hiding pretty soon! Hope you enjoyed!!

- Love, Laura xoxo

QUESTION: Have you gotten either of these mani's done??? Or do you have any certain products you've tried and compared??? speak ya peace!!