Monday 16 February 2015

Gelous review


 
I LOVE a good manicure, I feel so put together when my nails are freshly done.  But I have really soft nails so traditional polish usually chips within 48hrs.  When I go to the salon I like to get the gel polish done and I even have the supplies to do my own at home (a great cost saver when a single polish costs $20 each time).

While I love the look and longevity of a gel polish I sometimes miss the colour options that my traditional collection has.  So when I was messing around on Pinterest and saw the tutorial about how to create a 'cheater' gel polish look using the Gelous topcoat I decided to give it a whirl.

I am happy to say that this is a GREAT substitute for a gel manicure.  It doesn't last as long as the traditional gels but it also doesn't chip off within 48hrs like a normal polish.

Just in case you don't want to take my word for it (what don't I have an honest face) I did a manicure last week.  On my left hand I used the gelious topcoat and on my right just a regular Nicole topcoat.
Left hand with Gelous topcoat

Right hand with Nicole by OPI topcoat

Left hand 9 days later

Right hand 9 days later

While both hands had chips the right hand was considerably worse.
If you are looking for a good substitute for a gel polish (or trying to save a little money on manicures) I recommend the Gelous topcoat.  It helps extended your traditional polish wear and it's about $8 a bottle (found at Sally's Beauty Supply Stores) you can't beat the price.

Pintrest results = Pass



Thursday 12 February 2015

A Fantastic Week

It has been such a long time since I have done a weekly recap.  This week has been a pretty great week.  A great balance between busy and relaxing.

I was off from work on Wednesday and instead of sitting around watching TV and napping all day, I had a great sushi lunch with a friend.

We sat around for about 2.5hrs and just chatted and ate.  It has been a really long time since I have had a lunch or dinner like that.  The conversation flowed so easily and the time pasted without either of us noticing how long we had been there.

The weekend was a mix between relaxing and busy.  I went for a long over due massage on Saturday and then prepared and served a charity dinner.

Every February our church has a charity auction where people can bid on services or items donated to the auction.  For the last couple of years I have offered to make the lucky winner a home cooked dinner for up to 6 guests.  This weekend was the weekend that I made the lucky winners dinner.
It's a pretty simple/rustic dinner of roast lemon chicken, mushroom risotto, roasted root veg and tiramisu.


Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves so I am going to say that dinner was a success.  I think this might be mine and the hubs contribution each year. 

My blogging hasn't been the only thing that I have been neglecting, family dinner has been less then reliable.  But this week I changed that.  Since I had a pretty busy Saturday I wanted to have a more relaxing Sunday so I decided to make a winter and slow cooker staple....chili.


Where there is Hope, there is Faith.  Where there is faith Miracles happen.

Saturday 7 February 2015

Creamed Honey


A little while a go I saw this post on Pinterest about how to make Creamed Honey.

It looked like a great way to use up some crystallized honey (something I always have because it takes me FOREVER to use up a container).  So after reading the post a couple of times I thought I would give it a try.

To view the original post click here.

For my version I basically took the "idea" of the post and sorta free-handed it.

I started by dumping all of the honey I had into my stand mixer.
Then I scooped out about 1/3 to 1/2 of the honey, put it in a bowl and microwaved it till it was liquid again.  The original post says to mix liquid honey with the crystallized honey but I was too lazy busy to run to the store to get fresh honey.

I combined everything in my stand mixer, attached my whisk attachment and turned it on low.

Honey after 10 mins of mixing

That's all hard work it took.  I let the mixer do it's thing, changing to medium speed about halfway.
Honey after 40 mins of mixing

1 hour of mixing
After about an 1hour and 20 mins, I decided that was as whipped as I needed and transferred it to a small glass jar.

While I did find mine still had some crystallized bits in it I am sure that could be solved by reducing the crystallized honey and adding more liquid honey.

All in all I am going to say this is a great way to use up old honey.



Test Results = Success