lifestyle

What Makeup & This Blog Mean to Me

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blogging

To close off my Sunday’s of lifestyle posts for NaBloPoMo, I wanted to post something that has been in my drafts for eons and I’ve been making edits to for years. It’s something that is always on my mind and it is what makeup and this blog means to me.

I’ve had this blog for a bit over two years now and I can honestly say I am proud of it and I love working on it. I put my heart and soul in it. This is the place where I am openly talk about my passion about beauty products. This is a place that I can share my knowledge with other people who share my passion about beauty products and I’ve virtually met a lot of incredible people through. Continue reading →

4 Things That Improve My Well-Being

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Improve my well-being

As part of the National Blog Posting Month Challenge (NaBloPoMo) that I’ve undertaken this month, I thought I’d dedicate Sunday’s to something a bit different and do some lifestyle posts. Today I’d like to share four things that improve my well-being. I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting and working on myself this past year. Through this I’ve been able to isolate four things that boost my overall happiness and health.

Yoga

I had been doing yoga sporadically for about two years but over the last year I have adopted it as part of my regular routine. For the most part, I’ve been pretty good about going two times a week (excluding the summer as somehow those sunny days create a giant roadblock to the gym, who knew?!). My favourite type of yoga class is hot vinyasa. In a vinyasa class movement is coordinated with your breath to flow from one pose to the next. It’s a bit more of a challenging yoga class which I love and the hot environment makes it even more enjoyable. I always feel so refreshed and recharged afterwards. Not that these items are in any particular order, but I truly believe that regular yoga has been the biggest catalyst to improve my well-being this year. Continue reading →

5 Tips for Reducing Stress

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5 Tips for Reducing Stress.jpg

Hi guys! This post is a bit different than my usual beauty-centred posts as I do want to include the odd lifestyle post from time to time. As we get older there are more and more things in our lives that contribute to stress. Whether it be work, finances, negative people in your life, the stress can come from a variety of places. I know I experience stress frequently from different sources and I think part of that can be chalked up to the fact that I am a chronic worrier. It’s been proven time and time again that stress is not good for your body and mind. I’m always looking for ways to distract myself and reduce stress so I thought I would share a few things that help me keeping in mind that everyone is different so they may not work for everyone.

  1. Snuggle a pet (or someone else’s pet): After a long, stressful day there is nothing better than coming home to my dogs. I swear they just know when I need the extra snuggles and will curl up either on top of me or beside me. Animals can be so therapeutic if you enjoy their company.
  2. Read a book: I love reading as it feels like an escape from reality. A good book should be able to teleport you to another time and place. It takes my mind off of whatever is causing me stress and gives me a chance to re-group.
  3. Exercise: When you exercise your body releases endorphins which is a neurotransmitter that makes your body feel good. They help you sleep better which also helps reduce your overall stress. It doesn’t have to be too strenuous, anything that will get the blood pumping will help!
  4. Talk to a loved one: Talking about what is causing you stress is great for two reasons. The first being that you’re not bottling it up inside which isn’t good for you. The second is you may gain someone else’s perspective and they may offer advice. I find talking about what is stressing me out makes a world of difference.
  5. Do something that makes you happy: Doing things that make me happy like working on this blog, playing with makeup, watching a show I like and so on, helps so much. It distracts me and also lifts my spirits. I temporarily forget about what was causing me stress and I end up feeling so much better because I’m not dwelling on it.

I hope this post was useful in some shape or form. As I said before, this is just what works for me. I am not a psychologist by any means (although fun fact, I studied psychology in university and I wanted to go down a similar path but, life took me elsewhere). I would love to hear your tips for reducing stress so please feel free to leave them in the comments down below!

xoxo,

Robyn

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Inexpensive Valentine’s Date Ideas

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Hi guys! With Valentine’s Day just around the corner I thought I would share some date ideas that won’t break the bank!

  1. Make a special meal together at home: For Valentine’s Day I usually make my husband a special meal. I normally do a lot of the cooking to begin with but I aim to go above and beyond with this meal and make something different from the norm. We do usually go out for dinner around Valentine’s Day but usually we prefer going out when there isn’t a pre-set menu so this was my solution! I think it would be really fun to stay in and cook a meal with your significant other to celebrate Valentine’s Day!
  2. Movie night: I always enjoy a good movie night! Whether it each one of us picks a movie, or we pick them together. And of course there must be a movie snack!
  3. Day trip to do an outdoor activity: This would depend on where you live. There are lots of outdoor winter activities you can do where I live whether it be going to one of the local ski hills, going snowshoeing, skating or cross-country skiing. Enjoying these activities with someone special can be a lot of fun! You can always warm up after with a nice coffee, tea or hot chocolate! If you live in a warmer climate then a hike and a picnic would work as well.
  4. Playing video games: This is one of my favourite things to do if I have a date night with my husband. We really enjoy playing video games together! It’s a lot of fun and not something we always find the time to do together. Super Mario games are particularly fun to play together and there is such a wide variety of them!

I’m sure there are many more inexpensive date ideas you could use. These are the ones that came to mind when I started thinking about it. Share any inexpensive date night ideas you can think of in the comments down below!

I hope you have a lovely weekend!

xoxo,

Robyn

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Snapshot Sunday

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Hi guys! I hope you all had a wonderful week! Mine just flew by.

Top Row: View of the Sleeping Giant from the Terry Fox Monument, One of the photos we did using sparklers, Kakabeka Falls, and another view from Kakabeka Falls

Top Row: View of the Sleeping Giant from the Terry Fox Monument, the birthday girl, Kakabeka Falls, and another view from Kakabeka Falls

My week started out with a trip to the Terry Fox Monument. My husband and I were talking about how we hadn’t gone together in awhile so we took a short drive there to enjoy the view. This was followed by a trip to Merla Mae for an always delicious ice cream cone.

I also had another coffee date with one of my best friends and her baby. This is seeming to become a regular thing and I’m really enjoying that. You really do learn who your real friends are in life and it is so important to spend time with them.

This week was another one of my best friends’ birthday. She had a little get together at her place to celebrate which was full of great food, and great times. We spent some time playing with her camera and sparklers which ended up creating some awesome pictures.

Today my husband and I decided to take a drive out to Kakabeka Falls to walk around and enjoy the view. The weather was absolutely beautiful today so we thought we should take advantage of it. It is places like this that remind me why I love living in Northern Ontario.

I hope everyone had a great week! Let me know if you did anything interesting in the comments below!

xoxo,

Robyn

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