October, 2014 - sparkleshinylove

Roxymandy October 22, 2014

The Viva La Juicy Couture Overdose Event at World Mastercard Fashion Week

I was lucky enough to be invited to a brunch celebrating the launch of Viva La Juicy Gold Couture and Noir at World Mastercard Fashion week on Tuesday.

When I heard the event would be put on by the Candice & Alison Events Group, I knew I had to attend because I’ve seen photos of some of their previous glamorous parties.

I usually attend shows at World Mastercard Fashion Week each season, but this year I haven’t been able to attend any shows, so this was my only event with Fashion Week this year.

The brunch featured the hashtag #coutureoverdose, and if you snapped a photo via Instagram with that hashtag and tagged @JuicyCouture then a photo printer at the party would instantly print your photo for you. It was really cute!

The food and signature cocktails were provided by the Ritz-Carlton, and it was one of those parties where people were actually eating because the food was so good! I feel like at some of the events I go to I’m the only one hovering around the food – this was a nice change. It probably helped that the Ritz was catering.

Models walked around with custom cakes, Macarons, and other treats from Cake Opera Co., and they were pretty amazing just to look at, let alone eat. Even though they were pretty, and I ate a lot of Macarons anyway!

Each guest received a full size perfume of either Viva La Juicy Gold Couture or Noir. I received a bottle of Viva La Juicy Noir, and I actually really like it! It’s very light with a sweet berry smell. I thought it was surprising it was so light since it’s called Noir. Plus the bottle is freaking adorable and looks cute on my counter, so there’s that!

To learn more about either fragrance, visit www.juicycouture.com.

Roxymandy October 21, 2014

Fabulous Tulle Skirts from Space 46 Boutique

Tulle skirts have been taking over my Instagram and Pinterest feeds, and I’ve been dying to get my hands on one.

With a little research I found out that the most fabulous ones come from Space 46 Boutique!

They are designed and handcrafted in the home of sun and surf in Orange County, California. Space 46 tulle skirts are sold at select boutiques worldwide and online, which was great news for me since I’m based all the way in Canada (probably the opposite of Orange County!).

What did I need a tulle skirt for? Well I really wanted just to have one to play dress up, but my actual reason to make the purchase was that we had family photos scheduled this fall and I needed something fun to wear.

The boutique’s website features a Real Style Gallery, where customers who have purchased a skirt have allowed their photos to be posted so you can get a better idea of how they look for fit and style.

Not only are there lots of options for the colour, length, and style of their tulle skirts, there are also dresses and garters as well.

Skirts can even be ordered in a custom fit, and there are skirts for young girls starting at size 5-6, running up to size 12-13.

I decided to purchase the tulle skirt called The Wendy in Soft Pink.

It arrived wrapped with care, and a very polite thank you!

The skirt was everything I hoped it would be – pink, pretty, and fabulous. I immediately started playing dress up. There are so many ways to wear this skirt!

I was so impressed with the quality, and the fit was exactly as described on the site.

To get your hand on one to you can visit them at www.space46boutique.com, or visit them on their Facebook page here, or on Instagram here.

Roxymandy October 20, 2014

It’s sparkleshinylove’s 1st Birthday! Plus a Sweet Kate Spade Handbag Giveaway!

This month marks the 1st anniversary of sparkleshinylove!

It’s been a really fun year and I’ve learned a lot along the way. There have been some really late nights, grammar mistakes that have haunted me, and technical issues that have dumbfounded me, but somehow I made it to this point.

Thanks to all of you who have been reading my blog this year – I appreciate it more than you know!

I love writing this blog, and I hope that you enjoyed visiting the site over the past year.

Hopefully the next year will be even better!

To celebrate I’m giving away a fabulous Kate Spade handbag! It’s pretty, pink, and I really want to keep it.

It retails for $398.00. CDN, and you can enter below via the Rafflecopter App.

This contest begins today, Monday, October 20th, at 8:00am EST 2014, and ends Saturday, October 26th, 2014 at 12:00am EST. This contest is open to all residents of the US and Canada.

Good luck to everyone who everyone who enters!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Roxymandy October 17, 2014

What to Expect at This Weekend’s Delicious Food Show

This morning I was lucky enough to attend the media tour, breakfast, and press conference for the Delicious Food Show. I previously posted about the show and what to expect, but now I’ve experienced it first hand and I can tell you what not to miss.

This morning we met with Chef Chuck Hughes as he was prepping in the kitchen for a workshop he would be doing with a small group of people who purchased tickets for the Exclusive Chef Series. He was super nice, and very animated! It made me wish I had signed up for that workshop!

We did a tour of the show, and I got a great overview of which booths were there. We were treated with breakfast done by one of my favourite restaurants, BUCA. Everyone was raving about breakfast – it was amazing! I had a caprese-style breakfast sandwich, fresh cheeses and cured meats, and lots of their baked treats.

Next up we had the press conference featuring Chef Mario Batali, Tyler Florence, Chuck Hughes and BUCA’s Rob Gentile.

One of the most interesting topics for me was what the chefs feed their children. They were saying they didn’t have kids menus at their restaurants because they though kids should be able to enjoy their regular menu items. Mario and Tyler were saying that they thought if you offer you kids chicken fingers and fries all the time, that is setting the course for how they may want to eat in the future. I found this so interesting! I always thought if restaurants didn’t have kids menu’s, then kids weren’t welcome. I may have been totally wrong!

If you are planning to go to the Delicious Food show today, Saturday or Sunday then make sure you visit some of my favourite booths!

Jacqueline Poirier creates custom ceramic art, and the plates she had on display at the show were really pieces of art! I loved the pizza plate!

I couldn’t help but stop at the booth of Sophia Saunders because I loved her prints! She can put any of her designs on tea towels as well, and I thought the Toronto-themed ones would make a great gift! Everything is hand-printed, and no two pieces are the same.

I seriously don’t think I’ve had a good cannoli since my vacation in Italy, but the one I tried today may have changed all of that. Holy Cannoli makes fresh Sicilian cannoli’s that are totally delish. At the show you can purchase fresh cannoli’s, or they have cute little packs of cannoli pieces with dip as well. What I really loved were their take-home kits! You would get a packages of shells, and the filling separately so you can make them fresh in time for a party.

I’ve blogged about one of my trips to Rock Lobster before (which I loved), and their booth at the Delicious Food Show was one of my favourites today! They are serving up some of their signature food on one side, and their is a bar serving Samuel Adams on the other side.

I really liked the art by Hanna V. for the kitchen! Hanna and her husband actually make the frames themselves too.

The prettiest booth has to go to Anet Gesualdi Macarons! It looked like a cute little boutique, and it was very busy! I sort of just wanted to hang out there all day because it was so cute.

My favourite doughnut of the show had to be from Von Doughnuts! I had an amazing monster doughnut that pretty much made my day!

The Delicious Food Show runs from Friday, October 17th from 10am – 9pm, Saturday, October 18th from 10am – 8pm, and Sunday, October 19th from 10am – 6pm at the Direct Energy Centre in Toronto (Direct Energy Centre, Hall A, 100 Princes’ Blvd, Toronto).

For more information on the Delicious Food Show, check out these links below:

www.facebook.com/deliciousfoodshow
www.twitter.com/deliciousshow
www.instagram.com/deliciousfoodshow
www.pinterest.com/deliciousshow

Roxymandy October 16, 2014

A Pirate Themed Bathroom With A Little DIY

The most difficult room in a house to decorate HAS to be the bathroom. They are usually small, strangely-shaped, and since the focus of the room is normally cleanliness, it’s not like you can make it more comfortable than it is with some throw pillows.

What’s worse than decorating a bathroom? Decorating a kid’s bathroom! Kids are messy. Things are unavoidably going to be destroyed, so things they can reach need to be durable and practical. Wow, who would have ever thought I would ever use those words – durable and practical! How boring.

Winter is when I work on those home projects I have left by the wayside in favour of summer weather and drinks on the patio. My first project when summer ended was to finish up my son’s bathroom. This bathroom is all his to use, so I could get away with a theme he would like. I asked him what he thought, and he said “Pirates!”. If I asked him today what he would want his bathroom to have he would say “Cars!”, so I’m just not going to ask him for a while.

It wasn’t very Pinteresty of me, but I started out at Target! They had a really cute pirate set of a shower curtain, hooded towel, garbage pail, soap and toothbrush dispenser, bath mat, and matching washcloths and towels.

When I showed my husband my haul (it took me a while – I love Target but they never seem to have a lot of stock so I probably went to three stores) and what I had done with it, he said he was glad it was finished! He felt like the room was done, and it could have been, but I felt like I had to do a few other things to make it a bit more personal.

I picked up these great rope knots from Homesense for $4.99 each which was a steal!

For wall art I went to Etsy to find some cute prints that I could frame myself. I found these first two at the Only Printable Art store here. The prints were only $5.57 CDN each!

The next two prints I chose were from different stores on Etsy. The lobster print was from Digital Art Downloads by Jonathan who’s store can be found here.

The octopus print was from The Artsy Type Shop found here.

I picked up the frames at Walmart for two for $12.00.

I wasn’t overly happy with the mirror in the bathroom – I wanted something more nautical. I looked everywhere and couldn’t find anything! I had an image in my head of what I wanted, so I decided to do it myself.

I wanted to incorporate rope into the mirror, so I went looking for materials. Do you know how hard it is to find rope? I thought I could just to one of those obscure isles at Home Depot and find the rope I wanted. Not so easy! I went to Home Depot, Lowes, Canadian Tire and Walmart and couldn’t find what I wanted. Finally Michaels had what I was looking for.

Each package was $9.99, so I made a few trips to the store with one of those 40% off coupons you can find online. I grabbed my pink glue gun (obviously it’s pink, right?), and got to work!

I glued the rope right to the mirror frame, covering the border completely. It was easier than I thought it would be!

Before I knew it, I was done and pretty proud of myself! I did a DIY project! I don’t usually get too crafty, so this was a big deal. The good news is my son loves his bathroom. For now. Just don’t ask him what theme he wants in there next, because I don’t feel like glueing cars to the mirror instead.