Back to School I Go

I have officially completed my first week back at university! Hooray!

It's been an amazing week. I'm getting back into the routine of university and the term is off to a fantastic start. I'm even adhering to my new year resolutions so far!

Taken at the ferry terminal as we waited for our sailing to
bring us back to the mainland

Between last Sunday when I returned to campus and today - a week - I worked out five times. I'm really enjoying keeping active and how accomplished I am feeling, and will totally be working out lots in the coming weeks so I really get into the habit of being active! 

I also got new workout shorts yesterday, for sale at Sport Chek. New athletic clothing is something I'm always excited about!

Orange & purple (looking a bit blue in this light) Adidas shorts

Along with being more active, I'm trying to get into the habit of eating healthier. Besides eating way WAY too much caramel corn yesterday, I've been decent with it! And I can already feel a difference - so much more energy. My body is happy with the few small changes I've been making, such as no more fried food, more fruits and vegetables, and decreasing drastically on sugar consumption.

I also have learned and continue to practice filling in my eyebrows. It feels so exciting to be able to enhance the shape of them, make them as bold as I like or keep it low key, and generally just play around with finding what works best on my face. Such fun! I'll be doing an eyebrow post one of these days for sure.

I'm feeling super satisfied with how this week went, and I hope my next weeks are even better. I hope your 2014's are off to a great start!

-Hannah

When life gives you walnuts...

...Make maple walnut loaf!

Just kidding, I used a pre-packaged recipe. But still. Good use of walnuts!

I spent my Wednesday loafing around (GET IT?! HA. I'm hilarious) and baked this loaf. And that is what you missed in my wildly exciting life.

And I made cream cheese glaze to go on top, which worked really nicely! They suggested a maple glaze but for SOME REASON, we don't have any maple extract or syrup in my house. A crime, I know.

If you happened to be curious, this is the box from which this loaf was born! It was a super good loaf, and the box had nice and easy baking instructions. And as you can see by the box, it has real English walnuts. Like, that's true quality, guys.













I'm serious, though, very yummy :) maybe I will actually make a loaf from scratch next time! Though we must remember that when I make things from scratch, they turn out looking horrifically ugly, see this post. Hey, though, guess I outta practice!

Hope your days are going swell!

Cookieessss!

So, I made COOKIES yesterday! Yay! What fun!

I made these cookies from Fine Cooking - Black and White Crescents. They're basically chocolate cookies with white chocolate stripes. Very delicious. Though I will admit that mine didn't look nearly as perfect as theirs do.

A really nice thing about this recipe is that none of the ingredients are exotic or anything like that; I tend to back away from recipes that call for really wild things like self-raising flour or castor sugar or dragon blood, etc. This is probably because I have never used them before and get a bit nervous at the idea. It's also probably because I'm too lazy to go hunt for them in the grocery store.

Basically, this recipe was really easy and simple to follow, and the cookies I made, though pretty ugly, didn't taste half-bad. I'd venture to say they tasted good.

 Here they are just after coming out of the oven. Like I said, not exactly the prettiest things you've ever seen. But yummy nonetheless.

 The white chocolate drizzled over top may have been, in my opinion, the best part. Just pure melted white chocolate. Yes.

The white chocolate helped make them look a little bit better.











Anyway, those are my cookies! I suppose next time I make them I can try and make them a bit easier on the eyes. But I DO recommend making them if you like chocolate and/or cookies, because they tasted FANTASTIC.

Byeeeeee!

Of video blogs, candles, and pumpkin pancakes

HELLOOOO THERE.

Too intense? Should I tone it down a little? Still working on this whole "blogging" thing. My apologies.

I just got back from filming a super-awesome-semi-awkward-yet-still-utterly-fantastic video with my buddy HUYEN! (see nofact-nofame.blogspot.ca for amazingness)! We decided to start a joint youtube account in which we'd make videos involving beauty products, hauls, and various other things. First filming period took place just an hour ago (mark this down on your calenders, people, for it is a historical event) and it was much fun! It's a little bit odd, how much I enjoyed talking to a camera! Anyways, I'll make sure to link the video once it's posted.

And now onto part two of this post: CANDLES. I've recently realized I have a thing for candles. Apparently I can't go without buying them if I see them in the store. Seriously. Like, I don't even burn candles that often, but I just keep getting more. I have a problem. But candle buying addictions aside, here are some of my favouritessssss:

I particularly like the scent of this one - I'm not quite sure what exactly the smell is but it's super fresh. Plus, it's a soy candle which is apparently better for you.














And secondly, there's this one. I haven't burnt it yet but it smells SO GOOD. Like, berries and forest and just general loveliness.

And the packaging is adorable, I love the jar.












I LOVE CANDLES.

Anyway, that was my day, basically, besides school and work. Video making. Candles. All the good stuff, right? And now I'm about to have a dinner of pasta (ONE OF MY FAVOURITES, YAY) with my family. All is well.

And I hear talk of a possible pumpkin pancake breakfast on the weekend.

That makes everything about ten times more awesome.

BYEEEE