The Old Mill Inn

With the warm summer weather quickly approaching, I decided to post a flashback to the so-called "most wonderful time of the year"...

The warmth that classic Christmas decor can bring to a space is exquisitely presented in the dining rooms.

Just around Christmas, we celebrated with a big family dinner at The Old Mill in Toronto.

The buffet dinner at The Old Mill is to die for. 

This inn and spa is such a beautiful and rustic establishment, located in the West end of the city.

Blue dress- American Apparel, Skirt- H&M, Tights- H&M, Shoes- Payless

Couldn't hold back a smile while sitting on the "throne". As the baby of my family, this is the last place I should be sitting!

Necklace- made by me

Posing with my sister.
Beautiful chandeliers never fail to catch my eye.

Lets enjoy the spring time before we need to pull out the long sleeves again.

Madeline,

xx

New Revlon Nail Products

Here are some pictures of a few great new products from Revlon, which I received courtesy of the Revlon Selects program. Scroll down to the bottom to watch my review!

Revlon diamond collection nail file

Just your typical nail file with a beautiful sparkly pink side.

Revlon nail artist expressionist in Vincent Van Gold and moon candy in orbit

Just enough polish in these bottles and relatively easy application, even though its a big handle. Not much bigger than a regular revlon polish handle.

Vincent Van Gold
Left: one coat of the purple, Right: two coats of purple, two coats of gold

 Such beautifully pigmented colours. This one removed very easy also.

Orbit
Left: one coat of deep purple, with one coat of moon candy on top of ring finger, Right: two coats of moon candy and barely two coats of deep purple

A bit difficult to remove the deep purple shade since it is so richly pigmented. Overall one of the best nail polishes I've ever used. The moon candy flakes were a bit difficult to apply; I would have loved to see a polish more saturated in glitter for easier application. Very cool effect after applying it though. Not too difficult to remove either.

Closer picture of Revlon Orbit, trying to capture the opacity of the purple polish and the 3D effect of the moon candy

Watch my review here:

Madeline,

xx

Cafés, Crêpes, Cupcakes and Cashmere

There is no better way to start off the weekend than going out for Saturday brunch with fantastic company. Some of my fellow French conversation class ladies and I visited Celestin on Mount Pleasant Road in Toronto last weekend.

Il n'y a pas de meilleure façon de commencer le week-end que d'aller pour le samedi brunch avec des gens fantastiques. Nous avons visité Celestin sur Mount Pleasant Road, à Toronto la semaine dernière.

Overall I was quite impressed with their service and the quality of my meal. I was unfortunately a bit disappointed with my teeny glass of "freshly squeezed" grapefruit juice, which didn't taste as delicious as I expected. The fruit was great but I would have loved to see more of my beloved raspberries in the mix.
J'ai été impressionné par leur service et la qualité de mon repas. J'ai été malheureusement déçu de mon jus de pamplemousse « fraîchement pressé », qui n'a pas un goût très délicieux. Le fruit était super, mais j'aurais aimé plus de framboises.

Crepes with fresh fruit from Celestin in Toronto

Mmm.. crepes. These were some of the best I've ever had. With a side of maple syrup and some more fresh fruit, I was in heaven.

Voici quelques-unes des meilleures crêpes, sirop d'érable et des fruits plus frais, j'étais au paradis.

Later on that day, I visited the Holt Renfrew on Bloor Street to see one of my all time favourite bloggers: Emily Schuman, the writer of Cupcakes and Cashmere. This is one of the first blogs I ever read, starting in 2009. She is so down to earth and has the most amazing content, all based out of L.A. I got her book from my best friend Elena for my birthday in August 2012 (right when it was released). Despite only having a few minutes to chat, I got some fantastic advice on blogging (you can see her telling me in the second picture above!). The main points she made were "never focus on ads, or blog traffic. Provide readers with quality pictures and content. Write about what you truly love and make sure to post frequently". By no means are these revolutionary ideas, but coming from one of the most successful bloggers, it's such a great reminder to truly focus on what you're writing about and not on who is reading. With time, more and more people will discover a good blog and will constantly revisit if it is unique and good quality; that is when true success is attained.

Ce jour-là, j'ai visité Holt Renfrew sur Bloor Street pour voir Emily Schuman, l'auteur de Cupcakes et Cashmere. C'était l'un des premiers blogs que j''avais lire, depuis 2009. J'ai reçu son livre grâce à ma meilleure amie Elena pour mon anniversaire en août 2012. J'ai reçu quelques conseils fantastiques sur le blogging. Les principaux points qu'elle disait : « jamais se concentrer sur ​​les annonces, ou le blog trafic. Fournir aux lecteurs avec de bonnes photos et de contenu. Écrivez sur ce que vous aimez et n'oubliez pas de poster régulièrement ». Ce ne sont pas les idées révolutionnaires, mais venant d'un blogueur très réussie, c'est un grand rappel de se concentrer sur ce que vous écrivez au sujet et non pas sur qui est la lecture. Avec le temps, plus de gens vont découvrir un bon blog et constamment y revenir, c'est quand le vrai succès est atteint.

The beautiful Emily Schuman and I!

My signed book and a little bracelet I made for her

Alexandra the figure skater and the fabulous carollers

While walking around Holt Renfrew, I realized that they're seriously trying to make their shoppers feel extra festive and jolly. They set up a plastic mat and wintery backdrop for the very talented figure skater, Alexandra, to show off her best moves. I was extremely drawn into this interesting display, being a former figure skater myself (...ok until I was maybe 8) and never having witnessed someone skating on plastic before. They also had an amazing group of carollers at the bottom floor entrance. I absolutely loved listening to their beautiful a cappella songs which were in perfect harmony. Here is a little clip I filmed while listening:

Holt Renfrew est à essayer de faire leurs clients sentir très festive et joyeuse. Ils mettent en place une natte en plastique et une toile de fond festif pour la patineuse artistique, Alexandra. J'ai été très dessinés dans cette scène, n'ayant jamais vu un patineur sur plastique. Ils avaient aussi un groupe de chants de Noël à l'entrée. J'ai adoré l'écoute de leurs beaux chants « a cappella » qui étaient en parfaite harmonie. Voici un petit clip que j'ai filmé:

Happy Holidays!

Joyeuses Fêtes!

Madeline,

xx

Joe Fresh Makeup Review

Here are a few swatches of my favourite products from Joe Fresh cosmetics:

 Joe Fresh matte lipstick in rose, coral. Lip gloss in praline

Covergirl lipstick in heavenly as a comparison, then top-bottom: Joe Fresh matte lipstick in coral, rose,  lip gloss in praline

Joe Fresh cream eyeshadows in marigold and slate

Compared with Maybelline tough as taupe cream eyeshadow

 Cream blushes in apricot, melon and bloom

Top-bottom: Joe Fresh cream blush in apricot, melon, bloom

Wearing Joe Fresh cream eyeshadow in marigold and slate, Joe Fresh cream blush in apricot, Joe Fresh matte lipstick in rose

Watch my review!

Madeline,

xx

Au centre-ville de Toronto

Last week I went on an early morning shopping trip to the Eatons Centre, with the beautiful Akkila visiting from uni in Ottawa. My day started off very well; I gracefully woke up before my alarm. Unless I'm having a bad dream, this never happens. So everything was all rainbows and flowers, until I was sitting on the subway and looked into my bag...

Yes, the battery decided to stay in my wall instead of joining us on our journey. Greaaaatttttt. iPhone pics and an extra few pounds to lug around. Ahh c'est dommage.

Sephora lash bar

The outfit of the day- Dress and cardigan from H&M, tights from the Gap and booties from Aldo. 

(cute sock there kiki ;) )

We went to lunch at Spring Sushi right at Yonge and Dundas. They had a very affordable lunch option, and "all you can eat" too. Best of all, you order on iPads!

mmmmm...

Gorgeous girl!

Walking into my beloved H&M is always amazing for me, but not so much for my wallet. This sweater had to come home.. and it might just be my new favourite piece of clothing.

Madeline,

xx

Captures

Here are some of my most recent snapshots taken with my iPhone. Enjoy!

Voici quelques photos que j'ai pris avec mon iPhone récemment. 

A latte break with this little cutie. Gingerbread men are a necessary component in a festive lifestyle.

Une pause café au lait avec cette petite puce. "Gingerbread men" sont une composante nécessaire dans un style de vie festif.

Timmies knows how to do Christmas properly. And how to make my Saturday morning at work a great one. 

Timmies sait comment faire Noël convenablement. Et la façon de rendre mon travail le samedi matin fantastique.

A few gold sparkles never fail to make me happy.

Quelques scintilles d'or ne manquent jamais de me rendre heureux.

I pulled out an encyclopedia at my grandmothers house and fell in love with the section on jewellery (both ways of spelling are accepted, btw)

The first sentence of the 10 page long segment is exactly how I view my jewels, both handmade or bought. In today's society, we sometimes loose respect for craftsmanship and only focus on price tags and appearance. Although those aspects are very important, many pieces of jewellery are worth a pretty penny, considering how much time and effort some dedicated artists put into producing them.

J'ai trouvé une encyclopédie chez ma grand-mère et je suis tombée en amour avec la section de bijoux. La première phrase est exactement comme je vois mes bijoux, fait à la main ou achetés. De ces jours, quelquefois nous perdons le respect de l'artisanat et nous nous concentrons seulement sur les étiquettes et l'apparence. Bien que ces aspects soit vraiment important, plusieurs pièces de bijoux sont valent beaucoup d'argent, considérant combien de temps et d'effort des artistes dévoués mis en les produisant. 

Looks like the Maison Martin Margiela collection didn't fly off the racks at H&M... but lets be honest here. You could fit a solid 3 humans in that one jacket. Is that really a practical use of fabric? Or a valid sacrifice for fashion? hmmm....

La collection de chez Maison Martin Margiela n'ont pas été vendus complètement... mais regard ce manteau. Vous pouvez mettre trois humains dans celui-ci. Est-ce manteau une utilisation pratique de tissu? Ou un sacrifice valide pour la mode ? hmmm...

Starting off the winter season right with a skating trip to Nathan Phillips Square.

La saison d'hiver ont commencé proprement avec une visite à Nathan Phillips Square pour le patinage.

Playing around with some dark lipstick and Instagram. This is the result of some free time.. Don't judge.

Jouer avec mon rouge à lèvres foncé et Instagram. Ceci est le résultat de mes temps libre .. Ne jugez pas.

Never turn down the opportunity for a photo. They say one picture tells a million words, right?

Happy snapping!

Ne refusez jamais la possibilité d'une photo. Ils disent une image vaut mille mots, non ?

Claquement heureux !

Madeline,

xx

Newest News

After a very busy week of events, I have a few exciting and not so exciting tidbits of fashion/lifestyle  news to share.
Starting off with the exciting. 
Melissa, one of my favourite quirky shoe brands is teaming up with Karl Lagerfeld to create a capsule collection being released this spring. If you dont know who Karl Lagerfeld is... you essentially don't know anything about the fashion industry. 
...Ok that was harsh. But he is the head designer and creative director for the relatively well known (sarcasm) fashion house called Chanel. To put it plainly, there will be REAL rubber Chanel shoes in production. As long as they aren't as outlandish as this bag from their most recent spring/summer show... I will most definitely be owning a pair in the near future.
Next, introducing one of my favourite homes in the world. Ellen and Portia have always been one of my favourite couples, and their home enforces just how amazing they are at life. I'm so drawn into interiors that uniquely amalgamate classic, vintage pieces with modern architecture. You can tell that this space encapsulates who they are, without being overly flashy. Although this home has a simply grand bathtub and some museum like rooms, you can tell that it is a lived in space with cute accents like their contrasting shoe shelves. I've always wondered how Ellen stays so happy and care-free... one glance at her backyard is the perfect nonverbal explanation. 

Now for a bit of H&M news. I'll get the bad over with first, for a change of pace. Lets just say it doesn't need much explanation at all.... just click here. In my humble opinion, I cannot find one piece of their spring collection, displayed in the video, that is worth my hard earned money... let alone a spot in my closet. I haven't yet researched the major spring/summer 2013 fashion trends, but if this is an accurate representation, I'll be quickly transition into saving mode.  
And the VERY exciting part! 
"H&M is launching a new win-win recycling program: Bring in your used clothes to an H&M shop, and receive a discount on a future purchase. In return, H&M's partner company, I:Collect, will reprocess those textiles and create new garments with them.... H&M will collect any kind of garment (even if doesn't have an H&M tag!) in any kind of condition. Drop a bag off, and receive a voucher for an in-store discount on a future purchase.... Look for the I:Collect bins near checkout, starting February '13, in every single H&M market around the world."
(taken from Refinery 29)
I think this is a phenomenal initiative and I am so happy that a huge company like H&M wants to help reduce, reuse and recycle. The clothing collected could be "upcycled" into new garments to be sold, or donated to the less fortunate. The most important part is that these pieces of clothing will not end up in landfills, creating a closed circuit for textile fibres. And who doesn't like a discount off of already affordable clothing? This sounds like a big win-win to me! It's hard for us hoarders to let go of those old, useless pieces in our closet that 'might be in style in the next 30 years'. 
When spring cleaning, make wise decisions and don't let go of the timeless or well crafted items that will truly become more valuable with age. 
Ahh the future looks relatively bright, my friends. Now lets study for finals and/or get ready for Christmas!

Madeline, 
xx