New Year's Eve

This afternoon I'm relaxing with a cozy scarf and a cup of tea before tonight's festivities begin. 


 I hope 2012 brings you happiness, love and wonderful memories,

And I wish you all a fabulous and safe evening tonight. 

The importance of sweaters.

Staying at my parents' place means cozy oversized sweaters. They like to keep the temperature at sub-zero levels (not really but it feels like it). Without sweaters, you might turn into an icicle. Luckily I scored this one for Christmas! It's so nice and cozy that I can wrap myself in it if I get a little chilly. I just love the colour. It didn't show up very well in these photos, but it's a nice deep burgundy.



Zellers sweater; Dynamite jeggings; Payless boots; F21 shirt

Oh how I love the snow this time of year. It goes well with the warmth and comfort of the holidays. Come January 2nd, I'm tired of the snow. But it's not Jan 2nd yet, so it's still okay! Fall snow, fall before I get tired of you!

White Christmas

This is my favourite part of winter - when the snow falls lightly, blanketing the ground and covering the tree branches. The snow-flakes are huge and it doesn't take long before a foot of snow has accumulated. I decided to get pictures in before the storm.

We were extremely lucky to be graced with a white Christmas this year. 



Old Navy sweater; Dynamite leggings & tunic; F21 belt; Spring boots

These photos were taken with my new Canon Rebel T2i. I'm so excited about it. I feel like my photography skills have increased dramatically, but in reality, it's just the camera. Seriously, it gets ALL the credit.  Now, anyone got any good tutorials so I can actually learn how to use it without the "auto" mode? 

Now here's a picture of the puppy for good measure (it's just too cute not to share).


Happy Wednesday!

For the love of plaid.

Thanks to my favourite cousin ever, I finally have decent blog pictures! I just don't have any photo-editing software on this computer right now, so they're in their raw form!



F21 blazer, jeans & accessories; AE shirt; Payless boots

A couple of days before Christmas we spent the day shopping.  We both looooveeee shopping, but for some reason, neither of us could really find anything we liked. It was sort of sad... I haven't been shopping and ages, and when I go, I can't find anything! Oh well, my wallet is happy I guess.

If you didn't know, my awesome cousin blogs over at Line Andree.  She rocks my socks off. I can't wait to spend the rest of my holidays with her! We will attempt shopping again soon, specifically today when we try and get to the boxing day sales first... See you all at the finish line!

Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas

Dear lovely readers,

Happy Holidays and have a Very Merry Christmas :)




You guys seriously rock my world.

- Kelly

Sale racks and coupons.

I wore this outfit to a Christmas party a friend of mine had (it was super casual, nothing fancy). The whole night I was wishing my pants were red to channel the Christmas spirit... :(



Dynamite pants; AE jacket; F21 shirt & necklace; Spring boots; H&M socks

Aside from the pants, this wool jacket was a steal from AE a couple of weeks back.  I was browsing the sale rack and came across it when I knew that it had to be mine. The price was right, originally $80 on sale for $34.99. The size was also right.  I got to the cash in all my excitement and remembered that I had received a coupon for $10 off my order. Sayyy whaaat? Yes, this wool jacket cost me $24.99. And then tax, but that's irrelevant... !!! I am super excited about it. Come spring, I'll get tonnes of use out of it. Especially when I start working...eventually.

All I gotta say is I love sale racks and coupons!

Food Love: Candy Cane Christmas Cookies

I'm sure many of you have been busy baking up a wonderful Christmas-y storm of cookies! I know I have been! I made these candy cane covered cookies for a cookie exchange that I went to. They were yummy, and as usual weren't my own recipe. I found the recipe here.. They just look kinda burnt because my oven is crazy and likes to overheat without warning... Not my fault...


What you'll need:
1 cup softened butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup crushed candy canes
3 tbsp granulated sugar

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, cream butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy using an electric beater (medium speed).

2. Add the egg and peppermint and vanilla extracts and beat until well blended.

3. Gradually add the flour and salt; mix well.

4. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.

5. In a shallow bowl, combine crushed candy canes and granulated sugar; mix well.

6. After the hour's up, pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees F...

7. Shape the chilled dough into 1-inch balls and then roll each ball in the candy can mixture; place on baking sheets and bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until browned.

8. Immediately remove from the baking sheets and place on wire racks to cool.

This lady is done!

Done exams that is! 
And, as a result, I've completed my undergraduate degree...




Here I come world, watch out!

Fur vests

I need a fur vest. ASAP. Why? I'll give you three reasons...

Reason 1:
fur 3






Reason 2:
Fur 2





Reason 3:
Fur 1





What are your thoughts on the fur vest? Yay or nay?

Sweater fever.

My fashion inspiration has been suffering. I feel like I'm in this stage where all I want to do is wear sweats and not care. I think it's the exams. Hence why I tried to dress up a sweater in this outfit. Not quite sure if it really worked:



Aritzia sweater; Old Navy gingham; Dynamite pants; Walmart boots; F21 accessories & bag

Sorry for the lack of outfit posts recently. Like I explained above, I blame exams. I'll be free the 21st... SO SOON!  I promise you there will be some wonderful outfit posts coming to you in the near future - especially when I get my new camera(!!!)

Meanwhile, I'll be studying in my sweats...

Chapped lips and Vaseline.

Seriously.

I dunno about you guys, but this time of the year my lips get sooooo dry.  It's gross - they get chapped and peel and it's gross and I know I shouldn't pick at it but I do. What's worse is that I have never found a lip balm that has actually helped. So I did what most people would do: googled "how to get rid of chapped lips".  There were tonnes of random ideas on there, but when I saw a few of people mention Vaseline, I figured why not? It's pretty cheap, gives a lot of product, and if it doesn't work I can find another use for it.

I got this for $2 I think at Walmart. 
Don't look too closely at the nails. I free-handed them... They're messy.

Seriously guys, it's a miracle worker. Three days ago my lips were chapped and peeling. Today they're completely smooth and soft. For the first couple of days I was re-applying it all day long, but now, I only apply it when they start to feel a little dry. Soon I'm hoping I'll only have to use it at night :)

Do you guys have super chapped lips like me? What do you use?

Food Love: Chicken Souvlaki on an Open Pita

Here's the deal guys, I've been horrible with recipe posts. I don't think I've done one for about 4 months now. Most of you probably don't even know that I ever did them!

But I found one, stashed away in my files, that I forgot to post from the summer.  It's a recipe for Chicken Souvlaki on an open pita. It was SOO yummy! I didn't come up with it, it came from the Milk Calendar for 2009. Read on, or check out the link to learn how to make some of this yummy goodness!


You will need:
1 tbsp. butter
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp dried oregano
Salt & Pepper
1 onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 & 1/2 cups of milk
Grated zest of 1 lemon
Whole wheat pitas (8 small or four large)
1 cup diced English Cucumber
1/2 cup plain yogurt (I substituted Greek Yogurt to keep it a little thicker)
2 tomatoes, chopped

Directions
1. In a large skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat.  Add garlic, onion, oregano, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper and sauté for about 3 mins until softened and starting to brown. Add chicken and sauté for about 5 minutes or until lightly brown.

2. Whisk flour into milk and whisk into skillet; stir in lemon zest. Cook, stirring often, for about 5 minutes until sauce is thickened and chicken is no longer pink inside.  --> This step took me longer than 5 minutes, I found that for the sauce to thicken, it took closer to 15 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, toast or heat pitas. In a bowl, combine cucmber and yogurt**. Spoon chicken and sauce onto top of pitas, dollop with cucumber yogurt and sprinkle with tomatoes. 

How I customized the recipe: 
**Instead of just doing a cucumber-yogurt sauce, I googled how to make Tzatziki sauce and went with that.  If you plan to do something like this, you'll need to start dinner a little in advance because it takes a while to drain the cucumber.  I will post the recipe I used for the sauce below.

------------------------------

Tzatziki Sauce Recipe
1 container plain Greek yogurt
1 cucumber
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 lemon, juiced and zest
1 & 1/2 tsp chopped fresh dill
1 & 1/2 cloves garlic, peeled
Salt & pepper to taste

Directions
1. If you are not using Greek Yogurt, follow this first step: The night before, place yogurt in a paper towel-lined strainer over another bowl and leave in the fridge overnight.  It will drain some of the yogurt and you want to be left with a thicker yogurt-like consistency for the sauce.  


2. Peel, seed and cut the cucumber, and place the pieces in a strainer over a bowl. Cover with salt.  The salt takes the water from the cucumber and drains it for you.  This will make sure your sauce doesn't get too watery. This step was the most challenging, in my opinion =). 

3. In a food processor or blender, combine all ingredients. Process until they are mixed and the sauce is smooth.

4. Transfer the sauce to a separate dish and cover & refrigerate for at least an hour.

ENJOY!!!

Keeping warm with my poncho

Only three exams to go. This is comfy living.



F21 pants and poncho; Joe fresh top; Payless boots

It's exam time and I'm in the process of moving some of my things home. I don't have much to say except all of the snow that you see here is now gone.  I need a white Christmas!!! =(