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Friday 27 June 2014

Summer Goals 2014

This summer will be the first summer in 2 years that I will actually be home for all of it! Last year I was working up in north for a month (loved it) and the year before I spent 6 weeks in Africa! I am a little worried that I will miss being away for that long again but now the whole "being a grown up" and "having a real job" is kicking my butt and has me grounded.  Not to say that I won't have a good summer! I already have 2 weekend trips planned, one to visit my sister on Vancouver Island and one to head to Seattle with Mike for our anniversary. I haven't skimped on the longer trips too, my friend Kelly and I have planned to go to her family's cabin on Hornby Island as well as hike the Westcoast Trail at the end of August. This summer will be a blast and hopefully have some good weather for everyone!

me and kelly, see goal 5!!




my sister and I on our last road trip to the island!














Since Summer for me is really just beginning I have decided to create some summer goals after coming across this post from Cupcakes & Cashmere

Some of these will be super simple and some of them may be a bit more difficult!

1. Go to the Cloverdale Flea Market

2. Run a 5k

3. Finish reading at least 2 books! I am thinking:
      Is Everyone Hanging out without Me? (and Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling
     & MaddAddam By Margaret Atwood (if you haven't read Oryx & Crake it's a must!)

4. Bike along the Seawall

5. Take more pictures (especially having good photos with friends that aren't selfies!)

6. Explore a part of BC that I haven't experienced before Went to Cortez Island and Campbell River!

7. Go for a hike at least once a week

8. Master my Oma's Pea Soup

9. Have a clothing swap with friends

10. Get Harvey (my doggie) to finally swim!



I think these goals are pretty attainable! I will cross them off as they get complete!

What about you guys? What are some goals that you have for the summer or any suggestions of what I should add to mine?

stay clumsy
xx Jamie



Wednesday 25 June 2014

Luxe Box: Summer 2014

As a Canadian who frequent American beauty blogs quite often, I see birch boxes show up now and then and I didn't know how to get my hands on one of this adorable boxes. Well turns out that Birch Box is not available in Canada! Yes, I could do some cross border delivery and do it that way but I knew their had to be an easier way. Enter: Luxe Box! I found a website called www.loosebutton.com and what they have are called Lux Boxes – they are a quarterly delivery so every few months I get the most adorable little packaging in the mail.


Look how cute this arrives! I love the symbol too J



The thing I like about Luxe Boxes is that all the gifts come in this little bag that I use all the time – this is my third box so I have three of these and I use it for everything! For shoes in my suitcases to hair products so they don’t get too messy as well as I place to put dirty clothes while travelling.



When I opened up the June Box I discovered there was an extra special addition to the box! There were three samples of whitening packs and who doesn't want white teeth during the summer – all the red sangria isn't going to help but might as well get a help start, amiright ;)

So now, here is the breakdown of what I got:



Coconut Kiss Macadamia Oil Hand Cream by Barefoot Venus
This stuff smells amazing- I for one love the smell of sun screen lotions that have that coconut scent so when I put this hand lotion on at my desk in the office, it takes me off to the beach.
Toxic Tangerine' Nail Lacquer by Teeez
So I love the Teeez brand although the only products I have gotten a chance to try have come from my Luxe Boxes. I love their packaging and the nail colours go on nicely and have good pigment so only 1 – 2 coats is needed. I can’t handle this Toxic Tangerine Colour! I love it, it’s so summer and you know I will be rockin’ it on my toes for the next few months. The only downfall of Teeez cosmetics? I CAN’T FIND THEM IN / DELIVERED TO CANADA! If any of you have any ideas where I can get a hold of more Teeez products let me know!

Skinny Liquid Eyeliner in “Black” by Eyeko
This eyeliner is so silky. I don’t usually go for felt tipped eye liners however; this one may have converted me. It’s very pigmented and gives the straightest of lines so I’m excited about this one. My friend Kelly mentioned always to store felt tipped eyeliners with the tip down in order to maintain its lifespan – I never thought about it but it definitely makes sense!

Angled Tweezers by Loose Button
Every girl needs some good tweezers, especially for those sunny days. Stray hairs = not cute




Introductory Collection by Eslor
I am excited to try out this introductory collection. I like the fact that they are made with the use of no toxic chemicals and are paraben free but I will keep you updated on the results! Especially since my skin seems to be confused and thinks I’m 14 years old all over again.
Acqua di Gioia by Giorgio Armani
 This scent is fairly nice, it’s a bit too musky for me but I also think the 7 dollar sprays at Victoria Secret count as perfumes so I don’t know how far my opinion goes with this one. I will definitely save this for a date night to make me smell nice.
K-PAK RevitaLuxe by Joico
I haven’t had a chance to use this yet however my friend had only good things to say about the
 K-Pak line. Since I recently received an ombre on my hair, my poor ends could use some special treatment!




So that’s this season’s Luxe Box and although I’m very happy will all of the products, I’m sad that I need to wait another 3 months for my next one!

stay clumsy
xx Jamie

Monday 23 June 2014

Tough Mudder 2014: Whistler

While this isn't a craft or DIY post, this is about to get messy!

This past weekend, myself, my boyfriend and a couple friends travelling to Whistler in order to challenge ourselves to do the Tough Mudder. Now, usually going up to Whistler is a relaxing time spent with friends snowboarding in a quaint snowy village in the winter or hiking the beautiful trails in the summer. Well, this wasn't one of those times. It was muddy, it was dirty, it was tiring, it was tough but it was also one of the best times in my life.

The Tough Mudder is a military style obstacle course with 15 obstacles and stretches 19.2 km on mountainous terrain. We got bruised and battered but we also had lots of laughs in between. 

Here is our team, the Dirty Mudders, and just look at how clean those shirts are!


It was so much fun seeing the different costumes and names people had for their teams, any thing from team  "Why did we think this was a good idea" to team "Ninja Monkeys"


Here are the ladies of the team getting ready, if you look at the wall behind us, this was just a sneak peak of what we had to do, we had to climb walls just like this that were 12 feet tall! No wonder my arms are bruised and battered.

 
Signs like these brought a bit of humour to the challenge as we went and every time we saw another kilometre mark, we got a little more excited.
photo: http://cabana9nerd.com/tag/tough-mudder-northstarphoto: http://thelastonealive.wordpress.com/2010/11/21/tough-mudder/

This was the first obstacle and that water was near freezing!


As you can see, we are getting muddier and muddier, but this was kilometre 18 and we still have smiles on our faces!




The one main thing every one strives for at the Tough Mudder is to get one of those orange headbands around your head and wear it with pride. The reason I'm crouching? Mostly because I couldn't feel my ankles any more!


And lastly, besides the headband, what else is waiting for you at the finish line?

An ice cold beer.... worth it.

I loved doing it and you can bet that you will see me there next year as well! The obstacles were different levels of difficulty but if we didn't have all 6'5" of my boyfriend there, I don't think we could have made it over most of them!

Unfortunately, one of the other guys that was supposed to do it with us hurt himself the week before so he couldn't compete, but I will leave you with this picture

I think it is a great way to show how dirty we really got!!

If there is a Tough Mudder happening near you, I definitely recommend it!


stay clumsy 
xx jamie

Friday 13 June 2014

Casual Fridays: Panel Wall Clips

Happy Friday Everyone!

Usually I don't try believe in the superstitions people have regarding Friday the 13th or full moons but I gota tell you, today has been wacky! It started off with my friend / carpool buddy Kell's car not starting which never happens! Then in the office one thing after another went wrong but at least it is Friday!

I work in an office tower and have a cubicle to myself, but as those of you who work in a similar environment may know, it is very hard to be creative or expressive when your workstation looks like everyone else's. So I have decided that every Friday I will be posting a little DIY or project on slowly making my cubicle more... ME! I already have lots of ideas but I though I would start off will a super easy DIY that I did last night while watching tv.

So for this post all you need is some panel clips and nail polish!


Please ignore the quality of the photos! They were all done on my iPhone

Panel clips are clips that you can find around the office and they are for the cloth walls of your cubicle, they are actually really handy as they can hold documents, notes, photos, anything really and you can leave the clips there all the time. The only problem: the ones I had were UGLY.



I have a picture of my adorable doggy, Harvey, hanging up and these clips are an eyesore.
So I decided to give them a little makeover! 


I put a piece of paper in the clip just so the nail polish wouldn't run everywhere 
but also to give me something to grab onto it with



I painted 10 of them all different colours and for most I only had to do one coat 
but for my Essie nail polishes, I had to do two or three


Once the base colour dried, I put little designs on each one, this one I was putting hearts onto

But I did a little bit of everything to make them fun and stand out.



Here are all the clips! I think the polka dots and the flowers are my favourites!


Doesn't it just look so much more appealing now!

Definitely more unique and I have already gotten a few compliments on them :)


It's just a small change but I think it makes a big difference!

Let me know what you think :)

stay clumsy
xx jamie

Monday 9 June 2014

Grandma's Mirror Redone

There is always that one person you know with too much stuff for their own good. That person in my life is my Grandma.This woman has everything and anything that you could find in a thrift store. Just when I thought I had seen everything that she owned, out comes the golden mirror. This thing was pristine and as much as the gold is beautiful (and plastic), I am just not a gold type of girl. Well, my Grandma was downsizing and guess what was now mine? The golden mirror! There was no way I was letting it go, however there was also no way I could enjoy it as is.

Below I will show you the steps I took to take this tacky plastic mirror back from the 80's and one of the favourite things I own!


Here she is in all in all her glory! Look at how that gold plastic shines!


Detail like this is gorgeous, just not the most modern look


First I made sure that every nook and cranny was well cleaned and dried in order to make it ready for spray paint.



Next, I took tape and made sure I made clean lines all the way inside on the mirror to ensure no bleeding onto the glass! 

Then, I laid down a layer of plastic and again taped all around the inside edge of the plastic to 
protect the mirror - this is a no paint zone!!


 

I decided to use Rust-oleum Forged Hammered in "Antique Pewter"
I decided to go for something with a bit of texture so it didn't end up flat. The pewter would add a nice modern touch and the hammered look will make the detailing in the mirror look even better.


I took everything outside and placed the mirror on two boxes just to help protect the driveway from the paint
I pressed the edges of the tape again just to get away from any paint bleeding once again


 I ended up having to do 3 coats of paints in order to cover up all that bright gold
Some would tell me to use a primer but honestly it wasn't that hard to cover the gold and because it was plastic, the paint really stuck to it. I left the paint sit 24 hours between each layer just was a precaution because it was fairly cold outside so I wanted to make sure it had enough time to dry.


One thing I was worried about was losing detailing from paint mucking it up however as you can see above, 
there was no such issue!! It turned out great!


Look how gorgeous it looks!

I am so happy how it turned out and from getting the mirror free from Grandma 
and spending less than $15 dollars at Home Depot for paint and tape,
it is probably one of the cheapest  DIY's I've ever done!

Beautiful detail is still there, just not as gaudy now that the gold is gone! 
There were a few gold specks here and there that the paint couldn't reach but all I had to do
was take a silver sharpie and cover the gold and now I can't even tell where those spots were any more!





Here again is the before and after! Let me know what you guys think!

stay clumsy
xx jamie

Friday 6 June 2014

Classy and Clumsy

As you can tell by my blog name, I tend to be a little on the clumsy side. I try so hard not to spill something on my clothes, or not to trip over myself while walking in a straight line pretty much every day of my life. Fact of the matter is: I'm like a baby giraffe learning to walk most of the time however I try to make up for it by at least looking cute in the process. I decided to start this blog since I have ideas for crafts or tips and tricks for daily life and didn't have a proper forum and was too lazy to do them. So in order to kick my butt and do something about it, here I am. I could call this blog a lifestyle/DIY blog but really, anything and everything that interests me (and hopefully a few of you) will end up in my posts.

This is me, Jamie. Now as much as I wish I had an elephant as a friend, this picture is from a trip I took to Africa. Without sounding too much like a dating website, I will tell you a bit about me. I am 24 and live in a suburb of Vancouver, BC. I have an office job and graduated from university a year ago so I'm still trying to figure out what makes me happy. I hope you guys keep coming back as I am going to try to post as much as possible each week.

stay clumsy my friends,
xx jamie