Newest nail obsession

After my last post, I got a few questions about this mani:

Revlon Colorstay's Passionate Pink, 

silver nail striping tape & Sally Hansen's nail art pen in white

How did I get those stripes on my nails? 

I know, I'd be asking the same thing cause they're so freakin' pretty. 

I wish I could take credit for finding these little gems... but I can't. I first saw them on Franziska (who by the way, always has the prettiest nails - see for yourself here) and fell in love. So obviously, I ordered them right away. 

I got 10 different colours of nail tape for under $2. Sweet deal, right?

The nail strips are pretty thin but overall, I've found them pretty easy to apply (...the only problem is trying to decide what colour to use!).  Just stick 'em where you want them and cut them to the length you need. Might take a bit of time and patience but next thing you know, you'll have a super cute mani that looks something like this:

Essie's Tour de France & gold nail striping tape

If you love them as much as me, then go ahead and order some! You can find them on EBay here or at Born Pretty here. I ordered them off EBay in December and received them a week ago - so expect to wait about 4 weeks before you get them!

The past 4 months {according to my Instagram}

spent a day at the Fair with these girls

got a little crafty and made myself some new jewels 

the sushi cravings kicked in early and couldn't be ignored 

celebrated this lady's birthday...

...with the coolest birthday cake I've ever seen. 

watched the guys put new floor down at the cottage 

while I sipped on delicious (virgin) caesars

said goodbye to summer and hello to fall 

scary kids on Halloween

one week apart :) 

brought baby (aka Tiggy Smalls) to his/her first concert

Allen Stone, obvs. 

followed that up with a JB concert

holiday drinks hit Starbcuks and

I've been drinking caramel brule lattes ever since

thinking they may have contributed to this ;)

tried Sally Hansen nail strips for the first time ever

LOVED them

the Christmas tree went up 

just in time for our annual ugly sweater party 

and then the snow came.

and did. not. stop.

spent the holidays in town, relaxing with the fam

my most recent mani - 

and if I had to choose one to have for life, 

it would be this one.

MIA

First thing's first: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

And secondly: Yes, I'm still alive.

It's been a whole 4 months since my last post. Time has been flying. I've been contemplating a new post for some time and just kept putting it off.  Funny thing is - as much work as having a blog is and how I sometimes really had to muster up the energy or find the time to post, I really, REALLY started to miss it. So here I am, back for now for good (that's the plan, anyway!).

If you follow me on instagram (you can find me @shampel) then you already know what I've been up to over the last 4 months. For those of you who don't, then I offer this as an explanation:

While pregnancy certainly isn't an excuse to not blog.... it kind of is mine! Obviously, there are tons of girls out there who continue to blog during their pregnancies, especially during those rough first few months (and all the power to them).... BUT I've just been so, SO tired. I can hardly make it through a workday without wanting to nap on my keyboard so getting home and sitting in front a computer to write up a new blog post has been the last thing on my mind.

And, of course, the inevitable happened. My clothes started fitting funny. And things got tight. Real tight. I don't think anyone needed to see that.

So fast forward to today, I'm just about 26 weeks into the pregnancy and thankfully I've regained a bit of energy - although I am still waiting for that second trimester burst of energy that everyone talks about. WHERE IS IT!? I'm just happy to be feeling a bit more like myself again and finally ready to jump back into the blogging world that I've been missing so much.

I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to blog about over the next few months. Preggo outfits (do you know how hard it is to find stylish maternity clothes in Ottawa? IMPOSSIBLE.) Nails? DIYs? Who knows. But I hope you stick around (is anyone even reading this?) as I figure it out :)

Feels good to be back. Happy weekend!

Fall Luxe Box

I can't remember the last time I blogged about Luxe Box. A couple months, at least.

The Loose Button team recently made a few changes to their boxes. So, instead of receiving a box of 4-5 products every month, subscribers now receive one box, of 7-8 products, for every season. When I first read about the changes, I wasn't convinced it would still be worth it, especially considering the boxes were being reduced from 12 to 4 a year. BUT I figured I would give it a chance before making a decision on continuing my subscription or cancelling.

Here's a look at what I got in my Fall Luxe Box:

 Fall Luxe Box products:

• Benefit's Stay Don't Stray
• Eyeko's Skinny Liquid Liner
• Paco Robanne Lady Million perfume
• Calvin Klein Beauty body cream and purfume
• an exfoliating pad
• China Glaze On Safari (from their Fall collection)
• Kerastase Elixir Ultime with millenium rose 

The verdict? The first thing I noticed was that Loose Button definitely spent a bit more on packaging (gets me every time!). Overall, I was happy with the products featured in this season's box.... and even happier that I received 2 full size products - the polish and the liquid liner. I have no plans to cancel my subscription yet, but hoping that Loose Button adds even more full size products to next season's box!

Interested in signing up or learning more about Loose Button's Luxe Boxes? Check out the Loose Button website here.

Dream skirt

Remember a few weeks ago when I said I would be back with more outfit posts? Turns out I'm a bit of a liar. It's definitely been a mix of fatigue and laziness. Mostly laziness. But all that really matters right now is that I'm here, with a new post. Yay!

I'm still pretty obsessed with all of my recent Old Navy finds. Like this striped skirt. It's soft, stretchy, a great length for work AND it has an elastic waist. Basically, my dream.

Apologies for the fake smile (can I even call this a smile? no. don't think I can.)

shirt: Smart Set (similar)

cargo vest: Old Navy... sold out and can't find anything similar :(

skirt: Old Navy (here)

shoes: Winner's (similar here, here)

necklace: J. Crew knockoff via EBay

jewelry: how did I forget to wear any?

Have a great week, and thanks for reading :)

5 days on "The Rock"

I'm back! And it feels sooo good to be home. As fun as it was to be away and exploring a part of Canada that I've never seen before, nothing beats coming home to your own bed and home cooked meals (thanks mom!).

I could go on and on about how great St. John's was.... The people were nice, the views were spectacular, the food was delicious and the nightlife was something else. But the weather. That was a completely different story. On Friday, we arrived to cold winds and rain (...nothing a trip to Winner's for socks and an extra hoodie didn't solve) and although the temperature got progressively warmer as the days went by, it wasn't until the day we left that we saw clear skies. Figures. So as much as we wanted to go whale and puffin watching, it just wasn't going to happen for us. We did manage to fill our days (and nights) with other stuff though... and lucky for you, we documented all of it ;)

free drinks in the Porter lounge? 

sucked for Maja who had just spent 4 dollars on a bottle of water

taking in the sights &

 braving the wind and cold

'nough said.

so proud to be holding an official Olympic torch

Maja having (too much) fun in the back of the cruiser

(no, we didn't get arrested)

perfect sweater for touring the city

colourful shops on Duckworth

taking in the view of St. John's harbour

cuddled a (150 pound) Newfoundland dog

sociable!!

final stop on the pub crawl

heading home

found some super informative reading material

Hoping to take some time this weekend to get some posts lined up for next week and catch up on what everyone else has been up to!

Have a good one, and happy Friday :)

Leaving on a jet plane

Here we go again, ladies. Packing my bags, because tomorrow afternoon Maja and I are heading off to a conference in....

 

 St.John's Harbour (via) 

.... St. John's, Newfoundland!

What is this place I speak of? Well, for one, it's an island (actually the world's sixteenth largest island) and it's the closest Canadian province to Europe! The island is also home to some of the world's largest and most accessible seabird colonies in North America AND there are more than 29 types of marine mammals in the water surrounding the island. What does this mean? Looks like I might be seeing me some whales and puffins this weekend!!

Exciting!!!

Maja and I are both crossing my fingers that the rain holds out so we can get our butts out on a boat tour to see some of this stuff! We are arriving a few days before the conference starts to give us plenty of  time to explore and see what Canada's East Coast is all about. And by this I mean, time to eat as much lobster as possible.

Follow along on instagram (shampel) if you want to see what we're up to! See you back here next week :)