roommate adventures. shopping and many new skirts

Jade usually has the weekend off so I'd see her around often. Within the last month or so she's been having to work Saturdays as well. I noticed that this cut back on our roommate time in a big way. I previously took for granted seeing her all the time but I've noticed how lonely the apartment gets without her.

More sad news. Last week Jade found out that we'll be getting even less time together. This past weekend was her last Sunday off which meant we had to make a day of it. We did our hair and makeup, got all dressed up, and hit the town to have some shopping fun.

We started by hitting up the Value Village near Whyte Ave because Jade mentioned that it has the best selection. She is the Value Village expert since, each time she goes, she comes home with the best finds!

Since there were a couple other places we wanted to go, we decided that we needed to concentrate mainly on skirts, shirts, and purses. I needed Jade's expertise with these time constraints. She had such a fluid motion in which she looked through the racks. I made the decision to leave it up to her expertise on what to choose. I am the Value Village newbie after all.

Since she knows my style pretty well and we have similar tastes, she cruised through the rows; throwing things for both me and herself into the cart. I used this time to look at the housewares section and found quite a few pieces that I really liked.

Jade taught me the art of her Value Village success with two very important rules:

1. Everything you may be interested in goes in the cart. Even the items you're iffy about. Sometimes the things that you're unsure of end up looking the best on you.
2. You're only allowed buying the things that you love.

Once the cart was full we had to sort through everything and make the final cuts on what was staying and what was getting the boot. That on it's own took a while because of how full our cart was! (I may have gone overboard in the housewares section. Luckily rule #2 took care of most of those items.)

Next it was time to try on all the clothes Jade picked out for me. I felt that a couple selfies were in order while in the change room. I mean I did dress for the occasion and they had a giant mirror perfect for full length pictures.  (On a side note, I'm really wanting to get a tripod so that I can take pictures of my many cute outfits and share them with you!)

I tried on so many adorable clothes (and later bought most them) that I think I'll need a whole post dedicated just for them! Stay tuned for that later this week!

Jade found the cutest slitted fake leather skirt for herself! I can't wait to see her wear it out.

She also got these amazing black and white heels with a little flower on the side. It's moments like these that my small little feet make me sad. There were no size 5 shoes for me to try on because, the few that they had, were not something anyone should be caught wearing in public.

While wandering around I happened to find a mini Hello Kitty figurine. We both knew it was fate that we found it together. It went perfectly with Jade's super awesome Hello Kitty sunglasses. But why are the bows of different sides?! Which Hello Kitty is the real Hello Kitty?!

I ended up leaving the store with two super cute shirts, two adorable purses, six skirts, and a bunch of housewares/decor items. I would deem this Value Village shopping adventure a success!

Our next stop was Sanctuary on Whyte Ave for some purple hair dye for Jade. This store used to be one of my go-to places a few years ago. If I could afford buying the clothes from here I would own more than half the store. I love the vibe you get when you walk in and you can find so many unique items that nowhere else carries. It took  all my willpower not to look through the shop too much while I waited because I knew that I'd end up wanting to buy so many things.

By then we were starting to run low on time before Jade had to be at a mandatory work meeting (on her only day off this week). We usually like having a couple hours to kill when we're going to Ikea because there are always fun things to look at and decorating ideas to come up with. I ended up getting a set of sheer drapes that I was looking for. I forgot to measure the width of my window so I wasn't able to get the hardware to mount it. I guess I'll have to make yet another trip to the deep south for some more Ikea fun.

Since Ikea is on the opposite end of the city from our place we needed to make sure we had enough time to get to Petsmart before Jade's meeting started. It's almost an hour drive to get back but we made it in time. I figured whilst I was dropping her off there, I should go in and buy some more cat food. It's a good thing I always go with Jade because she helps me fend off my temptation to buy more kitty toys. There is already a surplus at our place which is why I must resist! By the time I got home I was exhausted. I couldn't wait to crawl under a blanket with a cup of tea and watch some mindless TV.

All and all it was a great weekend adventure.

steak, potatoes, beer, and furry things

This weekend I went to my friends' house to watch rocket speedboat. Rocket speedboat is code name for Battlestar Galactica. That what we've been calling it ever since I texted them one day asking if they wanted to watch it. I thought it would be funny to use emoticons to ask. The only ones my phone had that I thought were similar was a rocket (cause I thought it looked like a bomb from battle) and a speedboat (cause I thought it could possibly be a ship).

As soon as I walked in the door there was an amazing dinner waiting for me. Carrots, mashed potatoes, and a perfectly cooked t-bone steak. All with a side of garlic bread and an ice cold Keith's.

The steak was so juicy and flavorful. The seasoning was perfect and the middle was a nice pink color. It was probably one of the best steaks I've ever had. He said it was the first time he's ever cooked a steak on the BBQ but you definitely couldn't tell. I've tried cooking steak on the BBQ a couple times and each time has ended in disaster. It's not as easy as it sounds like it would be to cook it perfectly.

For dessert we had my favorite pie. Pecan pie.

The rest of the night was watching TV with two furry little animals by our sides. Both of them were adopted within the last year from the Edmonton Humane Society. They got their puppy, Haley, last summer. She's two this year.

They got their cat, Imoen, in last December. She's a snowshoe with beautiful blue eyes. She just turned one.

board games and karaoke

This weekend was extremely busy. But I do like getting the chance to dress up, put some makeup on, and do my hair every once in a while. I know that I could put in the effort on weekdays too but for me sleep trumps beauty any day.

You can actually tell that my hair is a different color in these pictures which is extremely exciting! I am so glad with my decision to dye it and I think it's a great shade for me. I've been wearing my hair down a lot more cause I've noticed that you can see the red hues a bit better that way. Notice the little braids (or plaits as Jade calls them). She helped with braiding them for me cause I just couldn't get my arms to twist the right way to get it done myself.

I decided on a bit of blue eye shadow with some black liner. I'm not 100% sure how I feel about the blue. I feel like it matched great with the blue pants I was wearing but I thought it took away from the blue in my eyes. It didn't make them pop the way other colors can.

My weekend started with Friday night board games and beer.

I love going to nights like these cause I get to try new games and play the old ones that I love.

A few games we played were:

• Cards Against Humanity
• Farkle
• Five Crowns
• Ticket to Ride

One of highlights though was the puppies that were sitting on my lap and helping me play.

The next night I went out for karaoke. It's only the second time I've gone and another great chance to dress up!

I actually sang this time too. I sang Moment of Weakness by Bif Naked. She's one of my favorite female artists and it's one of my favorite songs by her. I feel like a rocked it at least a little bit. Considering how nervous I was I could have definitely done worse.

When I got home each night both Coconut and Waldo were waiting patiently for me to hop into bed with them. Waldo seemed a little more concerned as to my whereabouts than anyone else.

weekend breakfasts. egg wrap

One thing I love about the weekend is having time in the morning to make myself a nice hot breakfast. Today I felt like making something relatively easy but that I wouldn't bother making on a weekday. An egg wrap! Mmm!

Ingredients:

• 1 large sundried tomato wrap
• 1/4 of a green pepper
• 2 thin slices of original style ham
• Small handful of Tex Mex shredded cheese
• Bull' s Eye Barbecue Sauce - Guinness flavored
• 1 large egg

I started by cutting up some green peppers while the fry pan warmed up a bit.

I laid my wrap on a plate. Ready and waiting.

Then I fried some thin slices of ham.

I placed the ham on the wrap and I sprinkled on some shredded cheese. Next I added a little BBQ sauce.

I put the green peppers in the frying pan and stirred them around for a couple minutes to heat up.Then I added my egg and scrambled it until it was cooked. I quickly placed it on top of the cheese so it could melt nicely while it was still hot. And voila! My wrap was complete. It was almost as fun making it as it was eating it!