Where to Shop - sparkleshinylove

Roxymandy September 15, 2015

Jean on Jean For My Version of the Canadian Tuxedo

Jean Shirt: H&M | Distressed Jeans: Garage {similar here} | Fringe Boots: Forever 21

I love this blue jean shirt, and as much as I’d love to wear it with some of my favourite jeans on the bottom, I feel like it only works with a few of my jeans. The Canadian Tuxedo as it’s often called (blue jean top, blue jean bottoms) only seems to coordinate well with either a lighter jean on top with a darker jean wash on the bottom, or a very very light jean on bottom with a darker jean on top. When the top and bottom jean match too closely it doesn’t look quite as easygoing.

I love wearing this jean top with white jeans, but I thought I would try to create my own jean-on-jean outfit for something different. I really love how comfortable and easy the look is, and pairing it with my fringe boots makes it look a bit trendier.

Tucking in the top also gave this outfit a bit more of a 70’s vibe for me, and right now that’s exactly what I’m looking for!

Roxymandy September 10, 2015

Kids Clothing on Trend with Coccoli

If you read the blog, you know I am always searching for fashion-forward kids clothing! I love to dress my toddler up (while he still lets me) in great clothes that are not only durable, but are playful and fun.

Last week I learned all about a brand that shouldn’t have been so new to me – Coccoli! They are celebrating their 20th anniversary this year, and this fall are launching their 40th collection. That’s pretty impressive! It also means they are doing something right.

Coccoli is a Canadian brand founded and based in Montreal, and their clothing ranges from age premature to 10 years.

They present a new collection each season made up of several themes. You can mix and match items all while staying in the same colour palette.

I love that they stay on trend! If I’m shopping each season for myself and paying attention to the trends when making purchases, then why wouldn’t I want to do the same when I shop for my child? I think it makes it fun to put together a great outfit for my son.

I love that Coccoli uses very durable fabrics as well. If I want to buy myself something trendy that isn’t the best quality it’s usually fine since I don’t play quite as hard as my son does in my clothes! It’s nice to buy clothing that can withstand some of the tests my son will put them through with a day on the playground.

My son was lucky enough to receive one of the items from their fall collection to try out – these awesome leopard pyjamas! As always I’m wondering why awesome clothing like this never comes in my size. These are really cozy pyjamas, and I want a pair of my own!

The Coccoli website is actually very fun to shop. It’s imaginative and full of great clothing that is available to view in their lookbooks and compiled into collections. To actually shop the brand they link straight to their own boutique. They truly have so many great items in their boutique – I can’t believe how many fun pieces they have.

They also have a great gift wrapping option. I have started to take advantage of this when I online shop now to save me extra time when sending out gifts.

For more information on Coccoli and to shop their store, visit them here!

Roxymandy September 9, 2015

The Perfect Fall Dress

Dress: c/o American Eagle Outfitters | Wool Hat: c/o H&M | Boots: c/o Minnetonka

When I saw this dress at American Eagle Outfitters, I knew it belonged in my closet. What a perfect dress for fall! I paired it with my fringed Minnetonka boots and my wool hat from H&M, and I had the perfect fall outfit. For chilly days and nights, you wouldn’t believe how warm a wool hat like this makes you! It really does keep you cozy, and these boots have enough coverage to keep my legs warm as well. The boots are suede so I need to be careful at this time of year with rain and mud, but otherwise they are a great addition to my fall uniform.

I love that the dress doesn’t really have a shape, and it flows in the wind. I suppose I could have belted it for a different look to add more shape, but why not go with the comfort style of the dress and just let it fall?

Roxymandy September 8, 2015

The Eureka Trend with Graham & Brown

As a Graham & Brown Ambassador I’ve been challenged this year to take on a decor trend each month.

My latest challenge was with the Eureka trend!

The Eureka trend is a chance to create, delight and wonder, offering the opportunity to inspire others through your own interior design ventures. Creating a sudden, unexpected realisation to all those who enter the doors to your humble abode on how they can represent their own characteristics with colour and vibrancy. “- The Eureka Trend.

Our home has slightly different decor in each room, but each room has one thing in common – a pop of turquoise. No matter what the color scheme or decor we find a way to have a flash of turquoise to keep things exciting and to tie each room together.

The Lit Arrow Wall Art from Graham & Brown was perfect for adding out favourite pop of turquoise to our home.

I paired it with the Graham & Brown Pocket Watch clock I previously posted about on the blog because I thought it would be a great contrast to the Lit Arrow Wall Art.

We previously had this Threshold cabinet downstairs, but we decided to move it to our upstairs hallways as it had the turquoise pop we wanted for our hallway as well.

Our hallway was previously bare, and likely still needs more decor on the remaining walls, but this great pop of color from the Lit Arrow Wall Art is the perfect addition to our home.

For more information on Graham & Brown, visit them here.

Roxymandy September 7, 2015

Back to School Lunches with StenLock

I can’t belive it’s already time for back to school!

My son spent the summer in camp at his Montessori School, and will be heading back there next week after a break, and I’ve been preparing by picking up new fall clothes for him, and gathering supplies like a new backpack and lunch bag.

I’m lucky because I don’t need to make my son’s lunch every day because his school takes care of that, but for class trips and events I need to put something together.

It’s easier when I’m with him to convince him that he needs to eat everything, and remind him of what he likes. He often says “I don’t like that!”, but forgets that he actually does! This means that when I’m packing his lunch for days I’m not there, I need to be creative with his food so he’s interested enough to eat it.

StenLock contacted me to give their Tupperware a try for my son’s back-to-school lunches, and I jumped at the chance to see what I thought of the Tupperware, and what my son thought of it as well!

All StenLock containers are made of food-grade stainless steel, which resists bacteria and germs more effectively and will not impart peculiar tastes or smells to your food.

StenLock is 100% BPA free, stain-resistant, light, and has a leak-proof airtight seal.

With all of the different sizes of StenLock I tried out, I was able to create a fun lunch for my son. He loves having his sandwiches cut up into shapes, so I used fish-shaped cookie cutters to create is sandwiches.

I picked up some mini-grapes from Farm Boy which are perfectly bite-size for toddlers to mix in with his blueberries, and I cut up lots of green and orange pepper and cucumbers. I finished off his lunch with crackers and pretzels fit together in different patterns and a pasta salad. Very easy lunch, but organized in a fun way so he would be interested in eating.

My son was easily able to open all of the StenLock containers, and close them back up when he was finished. The containers were lightweight enough that he could stack them up, and they hit the ground a few times during clean up and they weren’t damaged at all.

Although it’s suggested the lids are washed by hand, the rest could be thrown in the dish washer which was handy! Any excuse not to do dishes works for me.

For more information visit http://www.stenlock.ca.