New summer hair!

 I had my hair done last night by the lovely Lucy at Thrixx Salon, she has been doing my hair for years now and does a great job. Plus, we get a long really well so it's always fun catching up, we always have a ton to talk about!

When I arrived I didn't really know what I wanted, which is so unlike me. Usually before a hair appt I spend lots of time going through pics etc until I find a cut/colour that I really like. This time I had decided to keep the cut I had(it's a great cut that really works for me, plus I want to grow my hair out), but I was really waffling between dark burgundy highlights or lots of blondish ones for summer. In the end the summery ones won out and this is what I ended up with...super happy with it. :)

Made a delicious dinner tonight! So good, and I can't believe it was fairly low calorie. I am getting addicted to the Skinnytaste website, so many great and really yummy ideas!

Tonight was Sweet and Fiery Pork Tenderloin with Mango Salsa. I didn't add any sriracha because quite frankly I don't know what that is and I was worried it would be too spicy which wouldn't go over well with the kids. I did end up cutting a bit of the outside off of the tenderloin off when I gave it to the littles just to make sure it wouldn't be too much for them with the sweet chili sauce. I left Ella with a little but I don't want to do anything to discourage Marshall from eating. As I side I made: Brown Coconut Rice with Cilantro, again a total hit. I used jasmine rice(love!) instead of brown rice. BOTH kids ate everything right up tonight so it's a definite "make again". We finished everything off with some strawberries for dessert.

I leave you with yet another song. :)

Kaskade feat. Martina of Dragonette - Fire In Your New Shoes 

Product review and other things

 I mentioned in a previous post that I had picked up a beautyblender sponge from Sephora and that I would be reviewing it once I had a chance to use it a few times. Honestly, I have nothing bad to say, this sponge is A-mazing. Chris even came home from work and said to me "you look all glowy", that is how good it is. You just dampen the sponge with a little water, put a little foundation either on your face or directly on the sponge and stipple(pat) it all over your face. I do a combination of stippling and pulling the  sponge over my face. The large end of the "egg" works all over your face and the small end is great for harder to reach areas like the spots around your nose. This sponge is worth every penny, I won't be using a brush or cheap wedge sponge ever again. It gets two thumbs up from me. :) Here is a direct link to it's page on Sephora: beautyblender

A little update on the They're Real mascara from Benefit I've been using, still loving it and one of the best things about it.... ZERO flaking. That to me is worth it's weight in gold.

I also mentioned in a previous post about a lower calorie potato salad I was going to try and it turned out great! Here's the link: Baby Red Potato Salad 

Instead of having a ton of mayonnaise like regular potato salad would you just use a little low fat mayo, a bit of olive oil, dijon mustard and red wine vinegar. So tasty and way less calories. I always use Chris to gauge the "yummy" factor and he finished it off later in the evening so I would say it passed. ;)

I've almost hit the 6lbs lost mark and I'm feeling amazing! I got out for another hour+ walk with Marshall today, between that and the clean eating(minimal processed food, lots of veggies, large amounts of water all day long) I really do feel so much better. And the best part is I feel encouraged to keep it up.

 I had a long overdue hair appointment last night and am now sporting my full on summer hair, love it! Pictures to come!

I'll leave you with my new favourite running song: HAVANA BROWN - WE RUN THE NIGHT 

Take a walk with me

I have been really trying to spend more time outside lately. The weather has been so amazing, bright sunshine and perfect temps. Today was a little overcast with some sunny periods, a great day for a walk. I naturally walk quickly so it turned into a decent workout too and I was gone for about and hour and 10-15 min or so. I took a lot of pictures along the way, as there was just so many things in bloom. The wild roses smelled lovely, Marshall was perfectly behaved and it was a real spirit lifting walk. I feel very grateful to live where I do. 

The first picture is hawthorn I believe(Mom, if you're reading can you leave a comment below and tell me if I'm right?) and there was a lot of it and in three different colours...white, dark pink and a nice pale pink.

Wild roses.....about half of the roses were done blooming and in the hip stage already.

Someone's beautiful lilac bush. These people were out working in their garden and gave me a wave and a smile when I took a picture of their lilac. So friendly. :)

The broom is in full bloom right now and it's everywhere. I know...I know....people spend so much time trying to get rid of it but it is so beautiful. It's too bad it's so invasive.

Am I the only one that finds this sign ironic??

I think these are snowballs and ??? Mom, what do you think? You're the gardening guru. ;)

More hawthorn.

I went a little farther than I usually go and ended up on a part of the trail I hadn't been on before...the best part! It was so peaceful here with a gentle breeze and the birds singing their hearts out.

The pictures coming back are dark for some reason...who knows how the iPhone works...it just does what it wants sometimes. 

Lots more broom blooming.

Took this picture of a clamatis blooming over someone's fence. I know this is something you have tried to have bloom for years Mom so this picture's for you. :)

I had a beautiful view of Mt Prevost on my way back.

This is how Marshall enjoyed the walk...totally relaxed, his hands were even behind his head. I tried to get a picture like that but he moved.

This one's close.

I will definitely be walking this way a lot more, I'm going to try for three times a week. Marshall wasn't good in a stroller in his younger(?) days but he has gotten way better which makes things much easier for me.

 Eating has been going well. I got a little off track over the weekend with Chris's mother here, which means she sends us out for a movie and we have popcorn and we go out for Chinese food at some point. I felt very tired and sluggish after the Chinese food, all that grease(and it's good Chinese food) drags you down so I think it will be easy to stay away from it.

I made quesadilla's last night for dinner and they were actually pretty healthy and relatively low fat. The  tortilla wasn't that bad and the cheese was low fat, the rest was grilled chicken and vegetables with spices and a bit of olive oil. To go with the quesadilla's I made a new salad which turned out quite good and is very easy to make:

1 can of black beans(drain and rinsed)

1 can of garbanzo beans(drained and rinsed)

1 cucumber diced

2 tomatoes diced

chopped cilantro to your taste(I like it and put in a lot and I still thought it could use more)

1/4 of an onion diced(I skipped this step...not a fan of raw onions)

For the dressing:

2tbsps of olive oil

2tbsps of balsamic vinegrette

1/2 a lemon squeezed

salt and pepper to taste

You can adjust any of the ingredients to your liking of course. The salad was yummy and with the beans it was also very filling.

Tonight I'm trying out a low fat version of potato salad. I'll keep you posted!

A new product and a fun weekend

 I'm starting with a new mascara I got from Sephora this weekend because I really like it. I had been hearing good things about this particular mascara so decided to give it a try even though the price point is on the higher side. I usually use one of the different versions of Cover Girls Lash Blast. I like a big fat brush that delivers quite a bit of product as I don't have a lot of lashes on my own. I took some test photos to show you the difference between my lashes with no mascara and with this new Benefit Cosmetics They're Real! Mascara . I like how the brush is designed(there is a close up of it in the link) with the spiky ball on the end.

I can see quite a difference, what do you think?

One side

 One side

Both sides

I also got a Beauty Blender sponge which is supposed to be amazing for doing your foundation. I haven't had a chance to use it yet but I will post about it in the next couple of days and let you know what I think.

The weekend started with painting our master bedroom. I was really excited to do this as we had picked out and bought the paint when we moved to this place in September and with all the things going on and keeping us busy we just never seemed to get it done.

Prepping walls, such a happy guy. :)

I'm just giving you a little tease of the colour because I want to show you the full on finished look once the trim is up and the bedroom is back together. The colour we used was Granite Grey and it looks amazing! The perfect grey and exactly what I wanted. Quite a change from the hospital white that was in there before.

 On Sunday we made a trip into Victoria to take the kids to Beacon Hill Children's Farm . We had taken Ella a couple of times before, but this was Marshall's first time. He had fun running around and touching everything(I was continually washing his hands....duck water...ewwwww!), but he isn't as in to the animals as Ella is.

There were peacocks everywhere and the males were really putting on a show for the girls. You could hardly turn around without seeing another one like this:

So beautiful!

And last but not least a parting shot of my girl and I. Love her so much. :)

Eating well

 Working at slimming down is going well so far. I stepped on the scale this morning to a sweet 3lb loss! I'm thrilled with that even though I know it's just water loss. I have been drinking so much water and eating so much watermelon that the rest of my day is pretty much spent going in and out of the bathroom because my back teeth are floating. ;)

I thought I would share this recipe for the meal pictured below. It is Sweet Potato and “Un-Fried” Bean Tacos and they were DELICIOUS. I made a couple of adjustments(more cumin and flour tortillas instead of corn), but pretty much followed the recipe. Ella and Chris both ate them right up and I could have eaten them all day long. Really good, and really healthy too, a win win dinner. :)

 I found another website that I have been pinning(Pinterest) recipes from that look really good. It's Skinnytaste and I think that I will be able to incorporate quite a few of the recipes she posts to our regular meals. I've been trying hard to find some tasty meals that are also low in calories. I will try to post different ones I've tried to this blog. It's always nice to have a guinea pig testing them for you first. 

Ah watermelon...how I've missed you. I think it may be the perfect diet food. It's sweet and delicious, fills you up and you can eat a lot of it without really worrying much. I was glad to see it making it's way back into the grocery stores just in time for me to really be needing it.

I've finishing a couple of books lately. The first one I have mentioned on here a couple of times and that was Bringing Up Bebe. Overall this book was kind of a fun read and there were some things I agree with(parents need parent time away from the kids -they need a life too!, offering as many different kinds of food in different styles and flavours as you can: please, thank you, hello and good bye to everyone, and teaching kids to play on their own - it's ok not to have someone entertaining you), but there was a real degree of coldness in a lot of the parenting style in my opinion. The author talked about  the french mothers taking their kids to the park and then pretty much ignoring them, they don't get involved in their play, most mothers get their babies on formula as fast as they can and they are sending their kids off on week long field trips that are hours away from home at five years of age. There are no little ones crawling into bed with parents if you follow what this author is saying and quite frankly I like that my kids do that. I prefer a warmer, more affectionate style of parenting.

The other book I finished was A Stolen Life: A Memoir: Jaycee Dugard.  This book was about the girl in California who was kidnapped on her way to school at 11 years old and then kept in the her kidnappers back yard for the next 18 years, even giving birth to two of his kids there. It was written by Jaycee herself and honestly, it was horrifying. Her kidnapper was an animal, and I can't believe there are people like that out there, never mind that they can find someone to marry them like this guy did. His wife was fully aware of everything going on. They are both in prison for life now, but as the title of the book says Jaycee will never get her life back. Terrible.....

 Now for something a little lighter.....

 I've been finding some great, very different music lately so had to share. The first is actually not all that different, just someone I hadn't heard of before. Here are a couple samples:

Yuna - Favourite Thing 

Yuna - Lullabies

The next is in spanish so I don't even know what she's saying but it's so sexy...love it! ;)

Bebe - Siempre Me Quedara

This is great background kind of music:

Dzihan&Kamien dundadeova 

An older song from Moby that I really like:

Moby - Honey 

And just to add in something mainstream, I really like this new Sam Roberts song:

Sam Roberts Band - Let It In

Hope you're enjoying the sun, it's gorgeous here! :)

Happy Birthday Amanda!

 We had such a wonderful long weekend here. It started with a day of shopping in Nanaimo with one sister and ended with a trip to my brother's Coastal Black Estate Winery to celebrate the birthday of another. 

My sweet Amanda, always so supportive of me and an avid reader of this blog, huge Birthday wishes to you my girl. I love ya! :)

 We enjoyed some pizzas made in the brick oven at the winery. They turned out very yummy and with most of the family there(miss you Jasmine and Josh!) they didn't last long. Add to that a delicious salad, wine and home made coconut cake(baked by Mom) and it made for a really enjoyable afternoon.

 The winery is expanding all the time, and just recently put in a huge new patio around the brick oven and are in the middle stages of big new reception building. Pretty soon there won't be anything you can't do there. 

  Today brought another trip to the airport to ship a dog(yay Westjet!), and afterwards I decided to take the kiddies for a "breakfast for lunch" at White Spot. I had two eggs with my breakfast and had stomach pains until late this evening. That was the worst it's ever been and I think I can safely say they are off my list to eat anymore, definitely have an allergy going on! It's really too bad as I like eggs and they made such a quick, easy and protein packed meal. I guess I will just have to find something different.

 I'm feeling really fired up and ready to shed some pounds(don't look at that picture above of me eating pizza..haha) and did a good grocery shop today with that in mind. I look forward to posting some "after" pics in a few months! :)

EllaMarsh giveaway on Facebook!

 I'm doing a giveaway of the braided hex nut bracelet on the EllaMarsh Facebook page. This is a chance to get one of your own so be sure to check out the page and share it with your friends. Here's the link: EllaMarsh
 Thanks! :)