Honest to Blog: Julep Maven

If you follow me on Instagram you'll know that for the last little while I've been getting monthly boxes from Julep. I received my first box free back in July as a promotion I saw on someones blog. I loved it so much that I thought what the hell, I'll sign up as a Maven and get boxes each month as a nice gift to myself.

My first box that came for FREE with, Clara, Gabrielle, and Cuticle Oil

So as a Julep Maven (this title makes me feel important) you get a $40 box full of goodies for the price of $19.99 a month. When you sign up you take a fun little quiz to find out what your 'style' is, and based on that you get two polishes and a beauty product, which can range from make-up to cleanser, or hair products. My style is Classic with a Twist.

 August Box

 September Box

 October Box

 Bonus October Box. I received all this during a 50% off sale and with all my Julep points I had saved up.

 November Box

 December Box

January Box

Now I'm a notorious nail bitter so unless I'm wearing fake nails I have no real use for polish on my fingers but I do love pedicures, especially in the spring, summer, and fall.

I love this polish for the following reasons:

1.Its a high end polish that last days. In the summer I managed to not bite my nails for a few months and when I did use this polish it would last seven to nine days without chipping. I've painted my toes and that last a lot longer but they're feet so I mean maybe that's different.
2. It dries extremely fast and the Freedom top coat helps it last longer. So I'm not waiting around with my feet levitated waiting for the moment when I can put shoes on without the fear of all my hard work being ruined.
3. The colours that Julep have are amazing.
4. The bottles are shaped in such a way that when you get close to the end you can still get the last little bit at the bottom of the bottle.
5. Each month you get what are called Julep points which you can use to towards extra products from their store, and shipping and handling are free in Canada and US.

Also if a month comes along and you don't like the products for your 'style' you have the option of choosing one of the other 'styles' or skipping the month all together, or even gifting that month to a friend. And if you don't want to receive the boxes anymore you can close your account whenever you want without too much hassle.

From right to left:

Clara, Gabrielle, Veronica, Sylvia, Florence, Padma, Winona, Anisa, Cleopatra, Karen, Fiore, 

Freedom (which is the Top Coat), Sheila, Cynthia, Misti, Joelle, Abigail, and Mona.

After receiving these boxes for eight months I now own more polish then ever. Super cute feature is that all the polishes are named after women. No Paula yet, but I'm crossing my fingers for one with my name.

Just the beauty products.

However I will be more cautious from now on with which months I get as money is tight but also because I bite my nails its a waste to have so much polish and not be able to show it off. I really need to stop that nasty habit.

If you want to try Julep's monthly beauty box and become a Maven you can do so by signing up here.

Mission Impossible- Rescue Paula and Richard from the Cold Canadian Climate

Its days like today where I'm so thankful for mine and Richards family.

Disclaimer: There be swear words afoot. I get pretty vulgar when I'm angry. Or happy. Let this be a disclaimer that for most posts you will see swear words. Moving On.

I knew today was going to be a cold one and in the late afternoon the temperature started to drop drastically just like all the weather channels said it was going to. My main concern was for Richard to have a ride home from work so he didn't have to walk in the cold. Me having the car, despite it not having a properly functioning heating system, I knew I would be fine. I text him around 4:00pm just to be sure, and he responded back saying he was good and someone was going to be driving him home. So here I was at work looking at the clock tick by and thinking it might be good to run out early and beat traffic.

As I opened the door and Mother Nature blasted me in the face with her cruel frozen winter wind, I walked to my car. Our crappy but still functioning car. I opened the door and started to put the key in the ignition, already thinking about what music I was going to sing my little heart out to when I turned the key...and nothing happened. NOTHING FUCKING HAPPENED! Our poor little dying Sookie (Yes I named our car) didn't even make a whimper. I tried again thinking it was a cruel joke and it would start. It had to start. I finished work, and it was cold and getting dark out. It had to start.

But it didn't.

And what does Paula do when she starts to panic and her eyes start to water, with the tears that will inevitably take over all her senses. I call my Sister.

Karen: Hello my Sissy. (In a very clearful voice)

Paula: My car won't fucking start. (quietly)

Karen: Oh no. (Speaking to her husband) Paula's car wont start. (Back to me) Like at all?

Paula: Nope (quietly) What the hell am I suppose to do? 

Karen: Call CAA. Do you have CAA?

Paula: No (I can feel the tears starting but I try to control myself)

Karen: How can you not have CAA? 

This was said in a 'Really Paula' kind of way. My sister is very aware of my lack of car expertise, as well as the fact that all cars hate me. Seriously, I have personally owned two cars and have gotten them both, individually I might add, towed over three plus times. This current car has left me and passengers stranded in not only Orangeville (forty minute drive away) but also in the wonderful drug capital of Ontario, Oshawa (over two hours away).

So my sister, my own personal Tom Cruise if you will, came to my rescue with the help of her hubby. I should point out at this point that my sister is basically dying from a cold and still managed to come to her baby sisters rescue.

As I walked back inside my work defeated and on the verge of a meltdown, but pleasantly warm, I waited for their arrival. I explained to Richard what had happened and that the most common explanation was that it was so cold outside that our car was frozen and wouldn't start.

My rescuers came, saw, did their best to fix Sookie, but did not conquer Mother Nature and her whorish winter frost. So we piled into their truck and left Sookie to brave the winter weather on her own. It was at this point where I waved pitifully to my car.

Paula: Bye Sookie.

Jeff: Sookie?

Paula: Yes I gave her a name so she would know she was loved, and wouldn't do stupid shit like this to me. I guess it doesn't work though.

Karen: Maybe you should try giving your cars stronger names. Like Brutus or Butch. Then they won't die on you.

So as we all crammed into their warm and toasty truck and they dropped me off at my apartment, I was mentally thinking about how the hell we were going to get through tomorrow. Richard works at 6:00am and I work at 8:30am. Both of us working in opposite directions. We eventually decided that Richard would take a taxi and I would ask to hop a ride with my Father in Law as we work at the same location.

Phone conversation with Richard and his Dad. His Dad's lines are improvised as I don't know what was said but this is what I gather.

Richard: Hey Dad, our car is at MicroAge as it wouldn't start and Paula and I have no way of getting to work tomorrow. I'm going to take a taxi into work but can Paula get a lift with you?

Dad: What time does she start? I'm actually off this week but I can pick her up if she wants.

Richard: She starts at 8:30am so I guess a pick up at 7:15am.

Dad: Sure. What happened to the car? 

Richard explained what happened and hung up the phone. We were once again saved. As Richard and I are discussing the fact that he needs to go to a bank and pull out some money for the taxi tomorrow, while I start on dinner, Richard's phone rings.

Richard: Hello?

Kerry (Richard's sister): What time do you start?

Richard: 6:00am but I have to leave at 5:30am.

Kerry: Ok Mum and I will pick you up, and drop you off. We don't want you taking and spending money on a taxi.

Richard: Really, thank you. 

Paula: *Yelling loud so they can hear me* I love you. We will give you gas money. 

Kerry: Tell Paula to shut up, she can give us cake instead. See you tomorrow. 

 Richard and I are truly blessed to have our family. Thanks you guys.

Honest to Blog: Book Nerd...of the Smutty Kind.

Well over the last year and a bit I have become quite the book worm. I never really read much as a child, I've always been more of a visual person so movies were always my friend. I never read unless I had to for school and even then I remember a lot of times I stuck to the Cole's Notes and just skimmed through English. Unless we were reading a book that grabbed my attention right away I wasn't really interested. In fact there is only one book that really comes to mind when I think about my four years in high school-The Chysalids by John Wyndham. I loved this book and got through it within a couple of days. When everyone else was answering question for Chapter Two and told to read Chapter Three I was already finished the book and re-reading it.

The book that got me back into reading was, and this will come as no surprise if you know me, "Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone' by JK Rowling. I can still remember being in the library of my High School and some classmates talking about how the trailer for the Harry Potter movie was just released and how excited they were. After asking what the movie was about and finding out it was about a boy wizard, I was like "pass". Then I saw a movie where they featured the trailer for the first movie in the series. Knowing my friends were going to eventually see the movie and seeing that the trailer wasn't entirely horrendous I decided to borrow the book from my sister and read it. I was HOOKED. I read through the first four books in no time. When I finished the fourth book I would just go back to the first one and reread them all again. Over and Over. I was obsessed, with both the books and movies. I went to the midnight showings for five of the movies, as well as the midnight book release of the last two books in the series, but this was just for Harry Potter, I still wasn't into much else book wise. Sometimes I would find a book in the Young Adult section that I would read but that was it.

Eventually I told my sister Karen about how I only really read HP and she in her big sister way scolded me for not reading other things. I eventually picked up a couple other books and would read them and really like them, and through the years have read a number of books. Richard has tried countless times over the years to get me to read some of his favourites, but alas I could not do it. We just differ on what we like in books too much that I couldn't get through his books.

But it hasn't been until the last couple of years of being a receptionist that I got back into reading, and found a genre I like. I like my books to have fun characters, and I want to get into the story right away. If it's gonna take me a hundred pages of font size eight to get to the real story then honestly I have better things to do. It's like I have A.D.D and I need a story to grab me in the first couple chapters.

I mainly stuck to the Young Adult section of books. I've read the 'Twilight Series' and Stephenie Meyers other book 'The Host'. I really jumped on the bandwagon of the Twilight Series and it wasn't until reading the fourth book in the series that I realized just how crappy it was. That's my opinion. If you read it and liked it then more power to you. It took me a long time to realize I didn't like it and that most of my interest in it was because the pages must have been laced with drugs that made me addicted to it. That or I was just really attracted to Robert Pattinson and didn't care about the actual story. I mean come on, we're talking about the guy who played Cedric Diggory in HP4. What's not to love? Again a period of no reading followed this until one day my nephew told me about a book series he'd read and enjoyed. He explained the premise and eventually I was introduced to 'The Hunger Games' series, which I devoured and loved.


Having read the Twilight Series with an ending that made no sense, all the rave was on the new 'mommy porn' that was Fifty Shades of Grey, previously written as a fan fiction of Twilight. I don't know what possessed me into buying that first book. I've read fan fiction before and came to the decision that I hadn't found anything I really liked in a long time. But there I was in a Chapter's lineup with Fifty Shades of Grey in my hand knowing that the person who was about to ring it up was going to know I was buying Porn. So here I was at the till most likely blushing profusely and giving some lame ass excuse that it was a joke gift for a friend. I went home that night and started reading. Ignorning my husband's protest for dinner I read and read. Yes the book may be silly and based off of Twilight fan fiction, but if Stephenie Meyer had written her characters like Christian and Ana I would still be reading Twilight.

I had finally found my genre. Smutty Romance. I like happy ending books where girl meets boy and there's some drama but eventually everything works out. I was later introduced to 'The Blackdagger Brotherhood Series' from my sister and a friend. Took me a while to get into the series but I was promised that while that series took sixty odd pages to really get into, once I got there it was all going to be worth it. And boy was it ever! I was first scared because the series was so large (that's what she said). We're talking eleven books plus a novela, people. This was going to be no easy task, but I had a job answering phones for eight hours a day, with a lot of free time. Its crazy to admit but I was able to get through that series in just under two weeks.

I discovered the website Good Reads, and after buying my first Kobo book, I kept getting emails of books I may like because I read Fifty Shades. From here I was introduced to Alice Clayton, Colleen Hoover, Christina Lauren, Maya Banks, Mia Sheridan, and many others. All of these authors are fantastic but like Horror Genre Movies, Smutty Romance has some real downers and I was also introduced to some really craptacuclar books.

Last Year I challenged myself to the Good Reads Book Challenge by trying to read 30 new books, but finished the year by only reading 27. Granted I did read a lot of these books over and over. To me reading a good book is like watching a movie. Sometimes I love a certain scene in a book and I will read it over and then put the book down. Sometimes I will need to read the book all over again. This happened a lot with Colleen Hoover's stories. I've become a huge fan of her writing style and love how fleshed out her characters are. So in a way I did read over 30 books last year, but I only read 27 new books.

I'm putting myself to the challenge of once again trying to read 30 new books. With my promotion at work I don't have the time to read during the day, therefore most of my reading now gets done at home. So I feel like 30 new books is a reasonable challenge for me. I already have books on my list and on my Kobo that I want to read, not to mention some new releases from the the authors listed above that I'm excited to read. I'm looking forward to another year of losing myself in books and characters, and maybe actually completing this challenge.

Oh and if you ever want to see what I've read or connect with me on Good Reads, just look to the left of the blog. I have my challenge posted at the bottom as well as a button at the top that will take you to my Good Reads page.

Honest to Blog: Goodbye 2013 Hello 2014

So we are at the end of another year and only a drunken breath away from a new year. I for one am pretty happy to be done with this year. It was a hard one for me. This was one of the hardest years for Richard and I in our 7 year relationship. A lot of that was to due with the fact that I was hit super bad at the beginning of this year with one of the hardest bouts of depression I've had in a long time. I was in the hospital earlier this year with a really bad kidney infection as well. In my defense I was trying to be healthy and took some daily vitamins which ended up giving me the kidney infection. Then being on even more of a 'got to get healthy' attitude I decided to work out and my knee slipped and I've had to deal with that injury. So if this is any kind of lesson it should be to stay unhealthy, but I know that's not the best attitude to walk away with.

But lets talk about some of the amazing things that happened this year. I became an aunt not once but twice to two beautiful girls. Both my brothers had daughters this year: Callie and Sarah. Add those two to my new nephew Caleb that was born last year, we are now up to 7 nephews and nieces.

Left: Simon, Valerie, and Caleb. Top Right: Tyler, Macayla, and Callie. Bottom Right: Sarah

Seriously?!? How beautiful are all these kids. Ridiculous, I know but there you have it.

I joined all the cool kids and signed up for Instagram this year, and it reminded me of how much I love taking photos. So much so that I did a 30-day photo challenge with a Beautiful Mess. I am really proud of the photos I took for the challenge, and tried being creative with how I took them. 

On top of these photos with instagram alone I have taken just shy of 400 photos since May of this year. I have also done Photo Adventures with my friend Hillary and Uncle Chris. All of which you can see here, here, and here. 

I got promoted at my work from Receptionist to a Call-Coordinator. I like that I have a lot more tasks to do and the team I work with is awesome. They really make the days at work more interesting. And I've made new friends at work, but shh don't tell them that. 

These are the girls on the Deskside Team. Our team lead Neil was MIA for this photo.

Speaking of work I was a part of the Social Committee for the second year in a row and we put on two very successful events. A 50's Breakfast and, my ultimate favourite, our Masquerade Holiday Party. You can see all the photos of those here and here. 

I also challenged myself to read more books this year, and ended up reading 27 new books. I wanted to challenge myself to read 30 new books, but fell in love with so many this year that I ended up re-reading the same books over and over. So I guess technically I did read over 30 books. Challenged Accepted- Challenge 'sort of' Completed. And with reading comes wanting to write. I joined Richard's writing group and started writing a novel. Ya that's right I'm writing a book. Pretty awesome if I do say so myself. 

After getting out of my depression in the beginning of the year the rest of the year went pretty darn well. I'm happy with how this year ended and I'm looking forward to next year. This is around that time where people post their goals and talk about how they want to lose weight and stop smoking and learn a new hobby. Well I've done that on here before and let me tell you, those goals where never accomplished. 

But I do want to set myself up with some goals, so here is a list of what I want to do next year:

1.Stay positive.

2. Spend more time with family.

3. Cross off more things on my Bucket List. (You can see what I have on it here.)

4. Finish my book.

5. Throw out my weight scale and never weigh myself again. EVER. My health goal next year is not going to be to lose X amount of pounds but instead get myself to a point health wise where I'm happy. Screw the number on my clothes and the number on the scale. My goal is to be happy with my body and how I feel. 

6. Stick to my passions and complete my home decorating ideas. 

7. Chisel away at our debt. I would really like to be debt free as soon as possible. 

Well, that's all folks. Thanks for reading this little bit of the internet world that I have. Hope you all will stick around next year and see what other crap I get up too. 

Happy New Year Everyone.