July, 2015 - sparkleshinylove

Roxymandy July 22, 2015

Little Monkey Designs Personalized Family Name Pillow

Now that summer is here, I just want to be outside all the time! I am a girl who loves her air conditioning, but when I look outside and see the sun I remember how cold the winter was, and I leave my TV behind for the backyard to lounge in the good weather.

We revamp our back deck a little each year and refresh our lounging space according to what we feel like that summer.

This year I decided to do a revamp with a nautical theme in mind. I have outdoor cushions on our furniture, but I find some of the best pillows end up being meant for indoors. That doesn’t stop me – I buy what I love the most, and when it looks like rain I bring everything inside that won’t do well in bad weather.

My husband thinks I am crazy for doing this, but on the other hand he admits that he really likes this year’s set up and pillows.

As a Little Monkey Designs Brand Ambassador I was able to get my hands on one of their personalized pillows to complete my summer look.

They have quite a few options for their personalized pillows, but the theme I chose was a classic design that showcased our little family.

The Personalized Family Name Pillow requires you to disclose your family name (of course!), year for EST (we chose our wedding year) and what your family “population” is. As you can see my answer is 3 1/2! This is because our family includes myself, my husband, our son, and our Yorkie Maverick – he’s the 1/2.

You can also customize the font color, and size of the pillow.

The quality is great – it’s made from a polyester blend which looks like canvas, and the cover has a zipper to remove the pillow from the case.

They are spot clean or dry clean only, and they are available in 16×16 (what I chose) and 20×20.

I think this would be a really great gift for a Bride to Be, or for a baby shower. It’s a great personal gift for someone who has everything, or just someone who would love something special.

It’s pretty comfortable too – this kid just wanted to sleep on it!

Don’t forget to use my code ‘sparkleshinylove’ to save 15% on anything in the Little Monkey Designs store – including sale items!

Visit them at www.littlemonkeydesigns.ca.

Disclaimer: This product was provided to me for review, but all opinions are fabulously my own!

Roxymandy July 21, 2015

Pretty Summer Off The Shoulder Tops

I usually shy away from off the shoulder tops because I have this thing with strapless bras. I find them so uncomfortable! They have to be tight to stay up, but then they slide down and you have to constantly adjust them. I don’t think I have ever found one that fits properly. I just generally dislike them, but there’re so many cute off the shoulder tops out there right now I had to suck it up and go strapless.

I love the pattern on this one I am wearing from H&M. I thought it would pair best with white jeans or a crisp white short for a mediterranean feel.

Off the Should Tops Round up of Off the Shoulder Tops - H&M Off the Shoulder Peasant Top

Get out your strapless bras ladies – here are a few more of my favourite off the shoulder tops!

Painted Threads Off the Shoulder Top

Rebecca Minkoff Dev Off the Shoulder Top

Vince Camuto Palm Print Off the Shoulder Top

Zara Elastic Off the Shoulder Top

Dynamite Off the Shoulder Blouse

Forever 21 Off the Shoulder Ornate Print Top

Talula Cabrini Blouse

Michael Kors Petite Sea Orchid Off Shoulder Top

Roxymandy July 20, 2015

3rd Annual Touch-a-Truck Event – Friday, August 21st!

When I found out I was having a boy, I knew the next 18 years of my life would include a lot of dirt, mud and trucks, but I had no idea that I would actually get pretty interested in those things myself.

It’s actually not that bad hanging out with the boys sometimes, and finding fun new activities we can do as a family is fun. One of them is the annual Touch-a-Truck event in Oshawa.

This year the Touch-a-Truck event will be entering its 3rd year, and will be taking place outside of the General Motors Centre in Oshawa on Friday, August 21st from 5pm – 8pm.

Last year when we attended many of my son’s friends attended as well, and they loved climbing all over some of the cool trucks at the event.

The event is free, but making a donation to big Brothers Big Sisters shouldn’t be missed.

Children of all ages can get up close to over 40 vehicles of all shapes and sizes they normally couldn’t interact with like giant cranes and bulldozers.

Kids can also check out the camel rides provided by the Bowmanville Zoo, as well as Bricks 4 Kidz Oshawa who will have specialty vehicle Lego sets that can be built and raced. There will also be a charity BBQ from the Spectra food and beverage team.

Current vehicle partners include the Durham Regional Police, Oshawa Fire Services, St. John Ambulance, Ontario Regiment Museum, GO Transit, Durham Region Transit, NICHE LIMOS, City of Oshawa, Mackie Group, Oshawa PUC, G4S Canada, Durham Kubota, CCT Auto-Trans Inc., Durhamway Bus Lines Inc., Hard-Co Construction, Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, Canadian Red Cross, Clarington Contracting Services, Verspeeten Cartage, and more.

For more information on the event visit www.generalmotorscentre.com.

Roxymandy July 16, 2015

Styling the Graham & Brown Pocket Watch Clock

This month Graham & Brown challenged me to do some styling with this year’s precious trend in mind.

“Precious is an appreciation for all things vintage and antique. Whether you are redecorating, buying a few wall art pieces, or simply making a statement of your attic treasures, make sure you have fun with this one. Create your very own museum of you, full of memories.” – The Precious Trend

My husband and I have been working on a wall project for the past year. We have been slowly adding things to our collection, mostly curated items from my husband’s families past.

The family owned a boat building business, and they built the boats we all still use today. We spend most of our summer’s at the boat, enjoying the sunshine and having picnics at the beach.

We spent lots of time pouring over photos, some decades old of different boats they made on the water.

Each photo had to be digitally re-mastered and reprinted because of wear and tear, but slowly our collection grew to showcase some great vintage shots of some of these boats.

It’s an ongoing project – there are a few more specific boats we would like to add, but we are slowly getting there. We added a few touches of our own like paddles my husband sanded and painted himself and a depth chart he created from wood found at the dock as well.

As something to add from our own family (and keeping to the nautical theme), we added a photo of a crab we saw on the beach when were in Turks and Caicos last year.

We wanted to add more to the room, and one thing that we thought would fit in perfectly was the Pocket Watch Clock. It says London on it which is perfect because that is the name of our son!

It has a great vintage look, and we thought it worked perfectly with the room.

I love that we have a wall in our home with so many items that are unique to our family. Adding the vintage-style clock was the perfect addition to the room!

The clock has the perfect colouring to give that vintage feel, and it really worked well with our existing theme.

I realized later this is the only clock we have in our house, so it was much needed!

To see this item, and to shop more of what Graham & Brown has to offer, visit www.grahambrown.com!

Disclaimer: This product was provided to me for review, but all opinions are fabulously my own.

Roxymandy July 15, 2015

Review of Yves Saint Laurent LE TEINT TOUCHE ÉCLAT Illuminating Foundation

Oh how I hate it when products I love are discontinued! It seems to happen to me all the time. It’s really frustrating when I love something, and suddenly there is a new formula, or the product is gone all together.

A couple weeks ago I went to pick up my favourite Make Up For Ever foundation only to find the shelves bare, and a new formula “coming soon”. There was no official launch date for the new formula I am not even sure I want, so I was forced to walk the make-up isles looking for a replacement.

I decided to replace my foundation with Yves Saint Laurent LE TEINT TOUCHE ÉCLAT Illuminating Foundation. Do not ask me to pronounce it – I am pretty sure I would butcher the pretty French name for my new makeup.

I have a couple other YSL items like my Creme de Blush and lip gloss and I was happy with both, so I gave it a try.

There is definitely a scent to this foundation, so I would recommend smelling it before you buy it to make sure you like it. I am scent girl, and I do think it smells pretty so the scent didn’t bother me at all.

It is so weightless to apply it’s pretty shocking! It felt so different then my previous foundation it almost felt like I had nothing on my face. With a primer it felt like it wouldn’t set properly, so I preferred it just on my bare skin. I also gave it time to dry and set before applying powder to my face so it would last longer.

This is the perfect foundation if you want a little cover before heading out the door. I feel like it looks much better on me when I am wearing light makeup – it really seems to enhance the look of your skin.

The foundation illuminates your skin, so I did have a great glow when I wore it. My only concern was that even with my oily skin under control right now, the illumination can sometimes look a little dewy or oily. I found that I only had that problem if I had quite a bit of the foundation on.

It is long lasting, but it seems to last longer with some powder to set it.

It is formulated without parabens, sulfates, petrochemicals, phthalates, GMOs and triclosan, which all sound like things you don’t want on your skin or in your makeup!

I was normally spending about $40 on my foundation, so moving up to $62 for a foundation hurt a little but I do see why it is priced a bit higher. It does illuminate your skin, which is something I haven’t experienced in a foundation before.

Would I buy it again? I would. At first I wasn’t a fan because I felt like it was making my skin look oily, but now that I have mastered the application I do like it! I think my skin does look better with this foundation rather than the one I loved from Make Up For Ever.

For more details on the product, visit the YSL website here!