cold

Weekly Medley #49

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My, my, has time flown by … since I started writing these posts last January, in the most unbelievable way – but I digress. Back on Monday, I headed back into classes and began the winter semester, emerging myself back into that whole life completely. I’m exhausted and it’s sort of ridiculous that I’ve only been back a full week but in some ways it feels like I did not actually have a holiday break in the first place. It has been one of those week that manages to both feel like the longest and shortest ones ever. When you’re exhausted in the mornings (and afternoons too to be completely honest), time feels like its frozen and its hard to believe that only an hour has passed when it feels like an eternity that you have to endure three more times that day, but in terms of being a productive human being and accomplish your designated tasks, time seemed to slip between my fingers. Another common feature of my week was just how cold and how typically Canadian it has been this week, with temperatures going between freezing and -20 plus a generous windchill. We might have had a mild December around these parts, but now winter has definitely hit us full force. I should have taken notice of this when I referred to a -2 degree day as nice weather in conversation without even a hint of sarcasm.

I’m actually quite a fan of the cold weather, as I tend to get perpetually overheated, can tolerate low temperatures surprisingly well and kind of adore that whole cozy feeling, but the unpleasant side effects are certainly there – the perpetual skin dryness, having to leave extra-early in the morning, the need for gloves etc. and generally questionable road conditions. Going with that whole cozy theme, I have been enjoying lazing around in my room underneath my covers, or under a blanket when I’m not just casually hanging out in bed with the gloriously relaxing Target Be Peaceful Jar Candle($12.49) burning in the background. The soy candle is not overwhelming in the slightest in the way that some other candles can be and has been a much appreciated Christmas gift from the mother as the lavender and eucalyptus scent is just so relaxing, calming and mellowing.

On Thursday, I finally managed to post my Top Fourteen Products of 2014 and it was kind of ridiculously laborious, even by my standards. As I’ve mentioned before, I spent eons debating which products deserved to be included in the post but even outside of that, I had this sort of block against writing it in full so I wrote it bit by bit in chunks, beginning on Monday. Long ramble aside, I’m very pleased with how it turned out and have not questioned any of my choices – as of yet. The weekend brought a nice dose of rest and pure relaxation and also spending money on two things. The first happened on Friday, when I was strolling around town and suddenly found myself surrounded by Chanel makeup and at the cash with my second Chanel product ever, the Chanel Rouge Double Intensite Ultra Wear Lip Colour in 57 Darling Pink ($39)  In my defense, I had received Christmas money and I could not resist the good feeling that comes from retail therapy-ing your sorrows away even in the smallest of doses. I’m pleased yet mildly terrified to report that the stain gloss duo somehow is the most ridiculously long-wearing lip product ever while being pleasantly silky to apply and not particularly drying or irritating on the lips whatsoever. I’m stopping myself before I dedicate a couple of paragraphs to my newfound lip product love even before I’ve had it for three days. The second thing I spent money on was movie tickets – something I rarely do – and on Saturday, I dragged my migraine-afflicted but out of bed to attend Exodus: Gods and Kings with two of my long-time close friends. Believe it or not, it was worth the money and I actually found myself enjoying the length biblical biopic even outside the amazingly beautiful ancient scenery. I’ll give you a warning about the movie, though: don’t expect it to be anything faith-affirming.

How was your week?

Maggie, x.

Weekly Medley #34

Recently Updated341. An addition to the whole blogging notebook family… Being as perpetually disorganized as I am (but still a notebook freak), I’ve decided to up my game by adding another notebook to my blogging game – one for planning out individual posts in full, rather than just fitting the details of everything together. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it ups my blogging game!

2. An edit of my beauty bits for when the cold hits… I still have last week’s cold and it hasn’t exactly dwindled in the slightest and seeing as I have to act human and get out and face the world, I thought I would share the essential beauty bits and an add-on or five here.

3. Essentially my week in picture form… The unbearable fatigue, stuffy and runny nose and general crappiness that has summed up my week. And I have a super cute zit, too. Woo.

4. A daily face that I was partial too… I really liked my makeup on Friday and I took a decent picture too so it obviously had to include it. On my eyes, I’m wearing the Maybelline The Nudes Palette that I’ve picked up and am fairly impressed with along with my fave MAC Kinda Sexy Lipstick.

5. Another document of my week… I might have only started classes again recently but the reading has piled up and I wasn’t going to let a measly cold stop me from getting things done – no. I’ve been forcing myself in a slightly upright position to do my reading with a tissue box in the other hand for some appearance of having manners.

6. A post on the Productive Pamper, a subject that I know fairly well … Obviously, I wrote a post yesterday and the subject of that post was how to give yourself a bit of a pamper while getting stuff done. Part of said pamper was lighting the above candle — I’ve finished with my summer ones. Woot.

7. Perhaps my favourite distraction this week… I really love magazines and I’ve been obsessively pouring through this special issue of Glamor, dedicated to all things beauty. It’s actually worth the ten dollars that I didn’t realize that I was going to pay for it.

 

Remember that cold that I was going on about on Thursday? Well, it certainly hasn’t passed yet. I’m still so tired/fatigued that its ridiculous but on top of that I don’t seem to be able to sleep more than two hours at a time without waking up, my whole body has become dehydrated like a prune despite my best efforts to inhale gallons of water and slather my entire body with cream and I can’t seem to stop sniffling and/or blowing my nose. Plus, there’s that cough that I’m in denial about… Okaaay, I’ll stop with the complaining now. I’ve been feeling fairly craptastic this week but regardless, I appear to be alive and putting along, writing a few blog posts here and there, while I’ve been at it. I might only be on my third week of classes but I feel the strain of it already. Figures.

How was your week?

Maggie, x.

P.S. Any other cold sufferers?

Weekly Medley #32

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If you remember last week’s post, I’m sure you can recall that I was feeling “under the weather” and unfortunately I wasn’t feeling any better this week; that feeling transformed into a cold with the runny nose, dry skin and heavy fatigue but fortunately it’s not too much of a serious one of the head variety. At the beginning of the week, there was this onslaught of scorching weather and I wanted nothing less, given how I was feeling, so I was as happy as a clam when the cooler weather came along. Along  With the perpetual exhaustion and runny, the sahara dry, flaking and generally red skin was problematic, both on my face and body and two products that helped immensely were the above moisturizing mask and facial oil. Although the Origins Drink Up Intensive Overnight Mask does tend to burn slightly upon contact with irritated skin, the thick and nourishing mask did work wonders on my reddened dry patches and general irritation, when I was applying it at night. I swear, my skin absorbed it instantly, it was that dehydrated.  On the soothing and redness-reducing front, the By Nature Organic Rosehip Oil worked wonders; whenever I didn’t have the mask on, this was slathered all over my face because I could quickly see the difference with this one. This was one that stopped the itching and took down to red irritated patches within hours. In short, this duo has restored the state of my skin tremendously and I adore both products — and slathering my face in both products.

At this time of the month, there’s an onslaught of favourites posts (and videos), which I know is redundant and irritating to some, but I salivate at the very appearance of them. I love favourites posts and videos like I love lattes in my sleep-deprived state. My absolute favourite of the ‘favourite’ themed posts/videos had to be Suzie’s and if you haven’t watched it already (and every other video that she has ever made), I would highly recommend giving it a go – here. She’s relaxed and amusing and can probably sell me just about anything… but honestly, she’s great.

I was also rather pleased with this weeks posts in general. It’s definitely rewarding to go through your archives and not even questioning whether you’ve uploaded a post or two. My three favourites would have to be my ‘August Favourites‘, ‘Beauty Bargain‘ and ‘The Pre-Fall Haul‘. Writing this down, I feel more than a little bit self-indulgent so I better stop myself. I’m back to classes on Thursday, as absurd as it feels and equally as absurd are my thoughts on my new Smashbox Cherry Smoke Photo-Op Eye Shadow Palette – I stand by what I said about the amazing pigmentation and general formula of these gorgeous shades but I don’t love it as a staple palette for putting together entire ‘eye looks’ and because of this, I might actually be returning this. However, the formula is so great. Angst.

How was your week?
Maggie, x.