White Lace and Wine

This is what I wore on Thursday (and I'm now caught up with my outfit posts!).

I recently bought this lace top from a thrift shop, it's quite shapeless but the lace is very pretty and it's really comfortable. The jeans are also from a thrift shop, I love the colour of them -- wine is becoming a favourite colour of mine! The heels are the same Aldo ones from other recent outfits, and I bought the necklace for a $1 at Claire's.

I don't normally do outfit photos sitting down, but the truth behind these photos is that my heels had given me blisters earlier in the day and I didn't feel like I could stand standing in them any longer, haha.

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Mixed Berry Buns

This is a slightly adapted version of a recipe from Vive le Vegan by Dreena Burton (one of my fave recipe books!). This is a delicious recipe for vegan berry buns which are sort of a combination of a cookie and a muffin, and they're quite healthy as far as baked goods go!

Ingredients:

1 cup gluten free all purpose flour

1 cup garbanzo bean flour (not pictured below)

1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup unrefined sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp sea salt

3/4 cup rice milk

1 tbsp flax meal

2 tbsp pure maple syrup

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup canola oil

2 cups frozen (or fresh) blueberries, raspberries, blackberries or a combination

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and line a pan with parchment paper (lining the pan saves a huge mess to have to wash off the pan as you can simply remove the paper and toss it). First off, start by combining all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Now for the wet ingredients.

Combine the rice milk and flax meal in a bowl, and let sit for about a minute before mixing in the rest of the ingredients.

Add the maple syrup, vanilla extract, and canola oil. Combine well.

And now of the final and most important ingredient, the berries! I used frozen mixed berries, which included blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. But you can use any of those on their own or any combination of the three. I've even used sliced peaches in this recipe for something completely different and it worked out quite nicely! It's a very versatile recipe as far as the fruit you choose to use goes.

Add the berries to the wet mixture of ingredients, gently stir a couple of times just to combine them completely.

Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and combine well. If you find the mixture seems a touch too dry, add a tablespoon of water at a time until it seems just right. You don't want it too dry, but you don't want it too watery, either.

Once you have the ingredients combined well, place large spoonfuls onto your pan. This recipe makes about 12 buns, but you can make them larger or smaller depending on how large or small you'd like them to be!

I sprinkled a bit of sugar over them once they were on the pan, but this is completely optional.

Bake at 350 degrees F for about 35 - 40 minutes. The original recipe calls for a baking time of about 20 - 25 minutes, but my adaption uses more berries than the original recipe, because of this it takes the buns slightly longer to bake completely.

You will be able to tell the buns are finished baking when they are slightly darker than golden brown.

Let the buns cool on the pan for about 10 minutes, and they will be ready to eat!

They can be kept in the fridge for a day or two, and if you want to keep them for a longer period of time simply pop them in the freezer! They freeze very well and can be quickly defrosted in the microwave when you want to serve them (or just have one as a nice snack!).

If you have questions, feel free to leave a comment below -- I'd be happy to answer them for you!

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I Love Leopard Print

I'm still trying to get caught up with posting, I have one more batch of outfit photos and I'll be up to date with them (if I don't take anymore in the meantime, that is!). I've a few various non-outfit photos and such to post, also. That aside, here is what I wore last Sunday.

I've had that leopard print cardigan for ages and it's one of those things that, even several years later, I still love. Most of my clothes from a few years ago were... well, not things I'd wear now! But I've kept a few of the nicer things that are still wearable. As for the terrible graphic print t-shirts, colourful false hair extensions, and whatnot, they're long tossed out. The cropped jeans are from Forever 21, and the heels are the same ones from my last outfit post and are from Aldo.

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REVIEW: Sally Hansen Smooth and Perfect Colour + Care Nail Polish

Last week I tried out a new nail polish by Sally Hansen. It's from a relatively new collection called Smooth and Perfect Colour + Care and comes in several pretty, pastel colours. Light pink, mint green, pastel blue, and a number of other nice shades. The one I'm wearing in these two photos is the light pink shade called Satin.

The polish has a lovely porcelain finish and, for me, wore about as long as any pricey nail polish I own when worn with a top coat. The only grievance I had with it is that it boasts that it is a 'streak free formula', but after three coats my nails still looked slightly streaky. That said, my nails have quite bad vertical ridges on them, and many nail polishes (especially light colours) look streaky on my nails. I wore this polish for about a week, the first time I applied three coats and an OPI top coat, and the second time I went with four coats and a top coat. I know four coats sounds quite excessive, but I found it really made all the difference in making the ridges on my nails less noticeable.

One other great thing about this polish (and many other light polishes of all sorts) is that you don't need to worry as much about it wearing off the tips of your nails. That's the lovely thing about light nail colours, I think. Little chips or signs of wear aren't nearly as noticeable as they are when you're wearing a dark colour.

I love the little square bottle they chose for this collection, I think it's a nice deviation from the usual round bottles.

Overall, I'd give this cheap, but pretty polish an 6.5/10!

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Tears Dry

Hi everyone, sorry for the lack of posts lately -- my computer has been acting up a bit. But even though I haven't been posting, I've been taking photos and getting some post ideas together and ready to post -- so I should be doing more new posts shortly!

This is what I wore last Thursday. My black bodysuit from SheLikesClothing on eBay, thrifted navy and white dotted skirt, skin tone tights, and new Aldo heels. I keep wondering, is there a rule against black and navy? I used to think so, but I've begin to feel that both combinations (black with navy or brown) can work nicely depending on the specific items and overall look.

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Epperley Heels

In my last post I mentioned that I'd bought a new pair of heels that I absolutely loved, so here they are! I'd been looking for a nice pair of covered platform black heels and just happened upon these at Aldo a couple of weeks ago when I popped in one morning. They look nice with everything and fit perfect in a size 39, plus they were on sale! So pleased with them.

I love the leopard print sole, so cute!

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17th of April Update

Hi lovelies, I figured since I haven't done an update post in a while that I should do one. I have a bunch of new post ideas, but I also have a bunch of more minor things that I wanted to mention but didn't want to make a special post for -- so I'll be writing about those here.

01. I've just listed a few new things on my eBay, including a couple of tops, a couple of bags, a couple of vintage items, and a few other various things. The photos below click through to the ads for more information. If you have any questions about any of my items, don't hesitate to ask about them! All listings are ending on the 23rd of April.











02. I'm just about to begin reading Love by Leo Buscaglia, have any of you read it?
If so, what did you think?



03. Paloma Faith released her new video for her new single, Picking Up The Pieces. I mentioned how much I love her new song on my blog a little while ago, and the video is just as amazing. I just love Paloma and her music, she's a massive inspiration to me!



04. I ordered a pair of heels from Aldo before Easter and received them last week. I've taken some photos of them and will be posting a few soon. They're exactly what I've been searching for and they fit perfect, so I'm really pleased with them!

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Springtime ♡

Here are a few photos I took last weekend -- all the pretty spring flowers are coming out and the weather is slowly but surely getting nicer. The photo above is of one of the little fellows who lives in our barnyard. There are about five or six who live together, we've gotten them all spayed and neutered with the help of one of Victoria's animal rescues. 

We did this not to interfere with nature, but mostly so the poor little girl rabbits wouldn't be almost constantly pregnant and having babies. There were so many instances of the girls having babies and being so young themselves that they couldn't properly care for them and many would end up passing away. They can have longer and less stressful lives this way -- spending most of their time eating, lounging in the sun, and running around with each other.

The rest of the photos are of some of the spring flowers that have come out so far. The tulips haven't yet, but they should do soon -- in the past years we've had yellow and red ones. And hopefully the deer allow some to bloom and don't just eat the tops off almost all of them before they have a chance like last year!

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Never Let Me Go

This is what I wore on Sunday. This outfit was a bit different from what I've been posting (and wearing) in the past few months, but I quite like it. I think I should start wearing shorts more again, it'd at least help me mix it up a bit as far as dressing goes.

I bought the cardigan at a thrift shop a few months ago and hadn't worn it before -- I love it, but it leaves fuzz all over the place, haha. The shirt and shorts are both from thrift shops, I forget which brand the tights are but I bought them from The Bay, and the heels are an old pair from Le Chateau! I hadn't noticed 'til today, but the cardigan and shirt are both originally from the same shop, St Michael.

Sunday was one of the really nice, warmer days we've had. It's cool again today, but hopefully the warmer weather comes back and stays -- the little taste of it we had made me want more! It's honestly one of the best things to be able to go out without a coat after months of having to wear one every time you go out!

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Shopping From Last Week

I bought this vintage dress from one of the thrift shops I go to often, it was $4 and I really like it. It could be dressed up easily or worn casually, and it fits really well! Going by the ILGWU tag, I reckon it's from sometime between the mid fifties or early sixties.



This top was originally from Sirens -- I really like the cut and think it'll be nice for summer. It was $1.



The last thing I bought from the thrift shop was this set, it was $1, also. I love the lace details and colour is really lovely.



Also, last week I finally made a trip to MAC to get a new eyeliner since I was running out. The type I've been wearing for the last year or so is their Fluidline liner in Blacktrack. It's a really nice, smooth gel liner. One of the reasons I really like it (and switched from their liquid liner) is because it's very black but not extremely so, this way my eyelashes stand out more and don't just blend right in with the liner.

I bought an eyeshadow, as well, called Blanc Type from their Matte² collection. It's a really nice vanilla/off white colour. I'd been looking for a new shadow to replace the old one I've nearly run out of and this one matched it almost exactly, so I was quite pleased about that!



And while I was out, I decided to wander down to Sirens and found this dress and promptly fell in love. It was $20, which I think was a really good deal. I rarely find a non-thrifted dress I really love so my first thought was 'Want! I need to try you on!'.



Finally, I added a list of my most frequently used labels on the right of my blog under the archive. I'd also like to figure out a way to have whichever labels I use show up at the bottom of posts as they used to -- but I'm not sure yet what I need to do to have that happen.

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