So You Think You Can Dance Canada

n Saturday, I had the opportunity to go to a taping of CTV's So You Think You Can Dance Canada.
We had shot Tré Armstrong for our magazine so her PR person invited my coworkers and I to a taping. We got to choose between the Saturday evening taping (the performance show) or the Tuesday evening taping (the elimination show). I definitely wanted to check out the dancers dance so I opted for the Saturday evening taping. It was an amazing experience and I was blown away by the dancers. I think my favourite dancers were Jordan and Melissa. Girl power! It was also interesting to see how TV is so different than magazines. On TV everything flows so smoothly, but at the taping we taped each segment in parts.

At the end of the show my co-worker and I got a chance to meet the judges and get our picture taken with them. It looks like I have my arms resting on Tré's shoulder, but I was just resting it on the back of her chair. Haha. Anways, I had a great time and it was a blast.

What I did this past weekend

orry I've been MIA. I had so much going on the past few weeks. Most importantly my twin sister had a beautiful baby girl last Thursday! I'm now a proud aunt :-)
Last week I was so busy at work and on top of that I was making jewelry for a film festival swag bag. This past weekend I participated in a local craft fair where part of our proceeds were donated to a charity that supports women in Africa. It was my first time doing a craft fair so I was so nervous. I wasn't sure how people would respond to my jewelry and if it would have any interest at all. Thankfully I did pretty well and I had a great time meeting new people and setting my station up. Sorry for the quality of the photos (my SLR is still in the shop), but I wanted to share with you my little station.

All the local crafters had a small table that they could display their goods. The stations came with
a white table cloth, but I decided to put my own tablecloth with a lace detail to
give it something extra. I was still in the midst of setting up, but you get the idea on how everything
looked.

Some of my necklaces.

Here are my earrings displayed in a dessert stand.

I also put a little bio about my jewelry line near the front of the table so people could see how
June/July/August came to be.

My rings were my best-sellers.

Here are my hair pins. These are popular with little girls.

31 is the new 21

hat's what my friend wrote me today on an email.
I still want to be 21 though...

Besides the age thing, I had an awesome day. I had a perma-smile plastered across my face all-day today. Why can't everyday be my birthday?!?!

The day started off with my husband putting my gift in my son's toddler bed this morning. It was in a Tiffany's blue bag and he had the handle touching my son's hand while he was sleeping. What a perfect way to start the day- with some bling!

Now, I'm not a huge fan of Tiffany's like most girls are, but I absolutely loved what he got me. It's a black onyx, toggle bracelet. I've never seen anything like it.

So beautifully wrapped.

Weeeeeeee! I couldn't stop looking at my wrist the whole day.

Isn't it so unique? I much prefer this than the classic silver bracelet.

My SLR is currently in the shop so I had to make do with capturing the bracelet with my crappy iPhone
camera.

Here it is on figure.

31 is the new 21!

Amrita Singh jewelry

ver since I started making jewelry I've been amassing a significant amount of pieces to my jewelry collection. I love accessorizing plain outfits with amazing jewelry. I have found great cheap finds at Forever 21 (one of my favourite places to get jewelry), but I've been wanting to get higher-end jewelry as well. I'm not so much into diamonds and brands such as Tiffany's that everyone goes crazy for, but I'm talking about high-end costume jewelry. I've recently been interested in Amrita Singh jewelry. I love most of her designs and they come in such striking colours. Hautelook is currently having an Amrita Singh sale (ends on Monday! If you don't have an Hautelook membership yet, here's an invite link). Her jewelry is up to 85% off! I made a couple of purchases on Thursday and I thought I would share with you what I bought:

Cary Necklace. Originally $100, but I got it for $24.

Pachac Necklace in Coral. Original price was $150, but I got it for $29.
I was initially wanting to get the turquoise coloured one, but I think
turquoise is a lot harder to match. Plus, I think this coral colour will look so
good for fall/winter. I don't have anything like it.

This is the same Pachac Necklace, but in Evergreen. I just wanted to show
you how the necklace looks on.

Baby shower sneak peek

emember how I mentioned I was going to show you what I was going to be doing for my sister's baby shower? Well, here are some shots of this past Saturday's baby shower that my younger sister and I threw for my twin sister's baby shower. It was a lot of hard work, but it turned out really nice. My younger sister keeps insisting that we should open a party planning business together, but I'm still hesitant to take the plunge.

I designed these heart lollipop flowers to give out as favours for all the guests.
I had a pink, yellow, and orange colour scheme for the baby shower so I incorporated those
colours in these flowers. My expecting sister wrote personalized messages to each
individual guests in one of the petals.

I made labels for all the foods that we had made so that our guests would know what they were eating.
I propped them up with wooden clothes pins.

A preview of some of the finger foods.

I made these phyllo cups with lemon cream cheese,smoked salmon and chives on top.

My younger sister made these sliders. Aren't they so cute?

I also made these. These are endives with goat cheese, bacon, and homemade croutons.

These are french baguettes drizzled with olive oil, bocconcini, basil, and cherry tomatoes. I loved these.

My sister made these mini crab cakes and her homemade aioli. The aioli was delicious.

Here's the table spread.

We had a dessert/candy station. We put candies in little sundae cups and I incorporated the colour scheme
of the party by using yellow, orange, and pink straws.

My sister loves to bake and she made these delicious mini vanilla cupcakes with
strawberry buttercream frosting. These were a huge hit.

Another view. We also had assorted sandwiches that my mom made, a fruit tray, and
an arugula salad with goat cheese, walnuts, dried cranberries with a rice wine vinaigrette.

We hung my banner that I made on one wall.

I also hung doilies that I had painted in our colour scheme in place of streamers. I think it was much
more elegant.

Here's another look at the favours.

We also had more desserts by the living room where our guests were hanging out.

I bought these Pantone inspired cups for $2 each in our colour scheme and we stuffed it with goodies
as gift prizes at the shower.

Beauty haul- mainly Asian

sian makeup is not the most accessible where I live so when I get a chance I try to pick up a few products. I currently have a few days off from work so I decided to check out a few places where I can easily get Asian makeup. I was using a sample of the Missha M Signature Real Complete BB Cream in shade 23 that I got a while ago, but I was starting to run out. The Dr. Jart BB Cream that I was using in the winter time was too light for summer so I started using the Missha one. Let me just say that I'm really loving it. It covers really well and it gives my face a flawless finish. I have oily skin and this one gave my face a satin finish.

This is the bag that my Korean makeup came in.

I picked up the Missha BB Cream, but I also got the Missha M BB Boomer. The sales lady told me that the BB Boomer was 50% because I bought BB cream. I tried it on the back of my hand and I was curious to try it. I got the BB cream for $28.99 and the BB Boomer was $9.50 (original price was $19).

Here is the BB Boomer (left) and the BB cream (right) swatched on my hand.

The BB Boomer is supposed to go on your skin before the BB cream and it's supposed to make the BB cream last longer and also give your skin look brighter. You know how Korean actress' skin looks so luminous in the ad campaigns? Well, this is supposed to do exactly that. Here it is blended out a bit. It has a pearlescent finish to it.

Here is the BB cream blended out. I know it looks really light on my hand, but when it oxidizes it's not as white. Plus, I use a bronzer on my face after applying this and it matches pretty well.

Here it is blended out completely. See how it blends in?

Here's another look.

What I love most about Korean beauty counters is all the freebies they give you. They are all Missha samples. I got a Super Aqua Oxygen Micro Essence Peeling- this is a peel that you leave on your face after washing your face and after a few minutes it's supposed to form bubbles. After the bubbles pop (I know it sounds gross!) you're supposed to rub it gently off your face. It is a peel that is supposed to create cell turn-over by getting rid of dead skin cells. Next I got 2 Misssha BB Boomers. I'm going to give one to my co-worker who is wanting to try BB creams. She is Greek, but she started hearing all about BB creams and is curious to try it. I also got a sample of the BB cream to give to her as well. Lastly, I got a sheet mask in lemon.

Next I went to an Asian mall, which isn't that close to where I live, but they have all the hard-to-find makeup brands.

I got more cotton pads. The Asian ones are far superior than the Western cotton pads. They are oh-so-soft and some of them are bound at the edges so they don't come apart. I bought this one because it was bound at the edges and it has 2 sides- a textured side (shown here) and a plain side. The textured side might be good for taking off harder-to-remove makeup. I'm not sure how many comes in this box because all the writing is in Japanese, but it was $4.

I also got a cleansing lotion. This one is by Mandom Beauty. I was using the Shiseido Perfect Cleansing Oil, but I didn't love it. I didn't feel that it removed my waterproof makeup completely. I think the Laneige one I bought did a better job, but that one was heavier. The Shiseido one was much more water-y.

So when I was talking to the sales associate she recommended this one. It's a little more costly than the Shiseido one, but she said this one was way more potent. She said you don't even need to wash your face with water after using this. You can wipe your face with a cotton pad and you're good to go. I think I would still wash my face with water afterwards though. I got the Mandom Cleansing Express Brightup Cleansing Lotion. This is the lavender coloured bottle. This one is supposed to brighten your face afterwards. There were other ones, but this one was the one I wanted to try.

Here's a non-beauty item. I got a portable fan. It's been super hot where I live and I just wanted a portable fan that I can have in my purse to cool me off during the day. Isn't this cute? I think this was $4 or something like that.

Next, I got some NYX products. NYX is not available at drugstores here. Well, they sell it at Rexall Pharma Plus, but they don't have the whole range. Plus, it's REALLY expensive there. The Asian mall I went to had way more NYX products and they were better priced. I got the Jumbo Eyeliner in Milk (white). I already have Black Bean (black), Dark Brown, and Oyster (light pearlescent purple). This was $4.99.

I got a whole bunch of NYX Round Lip Glosses. They were $2.99 each.

This one is in 22 Natural. It's a nude-y pink with no shimmer. It's a cream finish. They are more water-y than MAC Cremesheen Glasses, but I still love it. It is quite pigmented and is not sticky at all. I would say they don't last as long, but I still love how it looks on my lips. I'm very happy with these.

This one is in 20 Kiss (2nd swatch). It is a nude-y pink, but is a tad more pink and bluer toned than Natural. It has a pearlesent finish to it. This reminds me a lot of MAC's Love Nectar Lustre Glass, but Love Nectar has very find gold glitter and is a tad more peach.

This one is in 06 Mauve (3rd swatch). This is a pink-y nude and it's in a cream finish. This one is really pretty on.

This one is in 34 Real Nude (4th swatch). This is an in-between colour of Natural and Mauve. It is a cream finish. There were other colours in the range, but I only chose the colours that had more pigmentation. There were pink one, but they were more of a clear gloss.

Lastly, I got 24 Café Latte (5th swatch). It is a peach-y nude gloss with a pearlescent finish. This one is probably the most sheer out of all the glosses that I got, but this one makes my lips look delicious! I think this would look great over lipstick.

Here's another view of all the colours. I'm sorry I couldn't zoom in. My camera lens won't let me go closer than this.