Motherhood February 11, 2016

Hotslings Adjustable Pouch Baby Carrier

I’ve tried two different carriers before the hotslings one. The first one I had was one from wal-mart that you have seen me wear on snapchat and some of my posts on instagram. It was good but very bulky looking. It definitely wasn’t my favourite accessory when I wore it during our trips to Mexico and Italy. But carriers are different from slings. A sling looks like a hammock. When your baby is a newborn up until they are ready to sit, their spines are best supported in slings. This is because their weight is distributed along the length of the spine. Most carriers that hold the baby in an upright position with their legs hanging down, can stress the spine because they put all the baby’s weight at the base of the spine. I wish I had the hotslings when we were travelling. It would be perfect for that! Especially if you pick out one with a pattern that would go with most of your wardrobe, you’re pretty much set! Not bulky,easy to fold to put into your handbag and super light!

Baby carriers usually have all of those ribbons hanging down and you have to snap it on in more than one place. It can be really discouraging and annoying. On the hotslings, the adjusting ribbons are all hidden but easy to find. Here’s a video of exactly how you would use hotslings:

So how do you know if you really need one or if this will become one of those never used items? You can start off by answering these questions:

Does your baby like being held?
Does he/she enjoy watching you cook/clean?
Does he/she sleep better close to your chest (skin to skin)?
Do you hate being bothered with taking out a stroller every time you go shopping or for walks?

If you answered YES to almost all of those questions then honey, you need one! Have you tried the fabric sling that has no adjustments and it’s basically just fabric? Well I also had one of those too and I had zero patience in putting it together to use. I tried it once and it was cool and comfortable but one day when I was in a rush, going in and out of the car at an outdoors mall/plaza, I was so annoyed that I didn’t have something easier to throw on to put baby D in. Instead I just kept him in the car seat and held that! And you know how heavy those car seats can be. True story. But thanks to my new hotslings, that will never happen again! Yay!

Side note: Here’s a good read on some of the many benefits of holding your baby more often that you can check out, by James Prescott, Ph.D.

One of the most helpful times to use the hotslings in my opinion is at home when you’re trying to get chores done. Especially when folding clothes! He loves watching me put clothes away and a little part of me hopes he retains what I’m doing.

What baby carrier/sling are you using now? Do you prefer one over the other? Leave a comment below.

Fall February 8, 2016

5 ways to wear a womens necktie

You may have seen the womens necktie at Zara (Which was first $20, then $10 and now on sale for $3.99), magazines and dare I say, the Kardashians. Aside from those places, I’m sure if you asked your mom, aunt and any working woman from the 70’s/80’s, she’ll tell you that the womens necktie is a spin off of the pussy bow blouse. So these ties we’re rocking in 2015/16, are really a tribute to the boss ladies of the 80’s. Nice. Check out the documentary – Makers: Women Who Make America, a three-hour documentary on the history of modern feminism that aired on PBS. Meg Whitman, CEO of Hewlett-Packard said:

“We used to dress in suits with a skirt and a jacket with button-down shirts and a little bow tie, because that was sort of our interpretation of the man’s tie…It was our attempt to be feminine but fit into what was then a male world.”

Now, here are 5 ways to wear a womens necktie:

Straight like a man
Under any button up collar shirt this looks exactly like a regular tie for men. Skinny tie actually.

2. Tie it in a bow
Style it this way with pretty much anything!

3. Wear it like a choker

Wearing it like a choker is a statement look. It looks best with a dress that has less fabric at the top. Whether it’s strapless, sleeveless or boat neck. You can get fancy by tying it in a bow at the back.
(This is my favourite!)

4. Keep it loose

5. To the side

Wear it to the side with a blouse or a dress.

The necktie worn above was made by my talented friend Sharadha Ramjit. You should check out her blog post where she rocks the necktie and some of her other beautiful creations! *GIVEAWAY ANNOUNCEMENT* I’ve teamed up with Sweet Shard to giveaway a necktie and I’m throwing in a Shoppers Drug Mart gift card for $50 so you can finish the look with new beauty products! Head over to my instagram and follow the instructions on how to enter to win. Good luck!

Beauty January 31, 2016

BeautyBlender announces new product: Liner.Designer

If you haven’t heard already, the makers of the famous beautyblender…..”you know that pink sponge that looks like an egg?” are coming out with a new product called Liner.Designer this March 2016! I love the beautyblender. I truly believe it makes a huge difference applying your foundation with a damp sponge vs a dry one. Love the shape as well.

So let’s talk about the Liner.Designer. It’s suppose to get you the perfect eyeliner look with no mistakes. It comes in a small case with a mirror and has three different sides you can use. One side is straight, one round short and another curvy edge. It reminds me of a guitar pick. Which I have tons of sitting in my guitar bag at home. After seeing this I’m considering taking one of them and placing it in my make-up bag. Why not?

These are the eyeliner looks you can achieve with the liner.designer. Pretty cool. However, I think it isn’t worth $16. You can save yourself $16 and use hacks like a guitar pick, paper or tape.

So if you have money to blow, go for it. Otherwise you can easily get the above results with things you probably already have at home.

Motherhood January 3, 2016

#IChooseHuggies: Huggies Little Movers Review

This is my first baby related post under my baby series! Yay! I received a Huggies little movers diaper pack complimentary for testing purposes, so I figured I’d take this opportunity to really dive in on my opinions, reviews and stories on baby related things.

If you’re a part of any mommy groups in the real world or online on Facebook etc you’ll see occasionally posts pop up regarding diapers. The most popular diaper post being the famous question: Pampers or Huggies?

As a new mom I was clueless on which brand to go for and I know some people say Pampers are better for boys and Huggies for girls or vice versa. But really there’s no right or wrong diaper brand. It all comes down to what works best for your baby. I’ve been using Pampers diapers on Daniyal (my now 10 month old son) since day one. The baby dry ones for overnight and regular during the day. I’ve had a few messy leaky ones but just thought that’s just the way all diapers are. I like to fold the top inwards and then seal the sides. When I don’t, 70% of the time I get a leaky diaper to change. In that case, I always fold in the top.

He’s now crawling, standing and getting into all kinds of adventures. Definitely a little mover 😉 Love the name of these huggies diapers by the way. My little mover put these huggies diapers to the test and here’s what we found:

About Huggies Little Movers Diapers

Designed specifically for the way your baby moves.

DryTouch® Liner: absorbs moisture on contact, providing comfortable movement for your baby
Contoured Shape: ensures the diaper stays in place and moves with your baby
Double Grip Strips: Use your baby’s weight and movement to help keep the diaper in place and fasten at four points to provide your little one with an outstanding fit.

The Results (from using the diapers for 2 days)

DryTouch® Liner: There were no leaks, so it definitely does absorb moisture.
Contoured Shape: The shape is perfect! No need to fold in the top and tuck in. Stretches out enough to go around the waist.
Double Grip Strips: These strips are awesome! Not the regular strips that lose their stickiness when you accidentally stick it to the wrong place. Guilty.

So, will I purchase these diapers again? Yes. #IChooseHuggies

Desserts December 25, 2015

Mini Gingerbread Houses for Cups

It’s Christmas Day and you’re with your families thinking of activities to do together. Maybe? Well if you are, this is a lot of fun to do and not as much mess because the gingerbread houses are a lot smaller. Once you’re all done decorating and voting for the best one, you can all sit down by the fireplace with hot chocolate and your little gingerbread houses. Sounds good? Let’s get started!

You’ll need

3 1/3 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoon of cinnamon
2/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon of ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon of Himalayan Salt
1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
3/4 cup of corn syrup
1/2 cup of butter

So just in case this happens to you, my brown sugar was a little dry (due to me not soaking that ~~clay thingy~~ terracotta clay disks into my brown sugar canister to keep it moist) and I think because of that my gingerbread dough became crumbly and dry. I just added water and it was all good! So if that happens to you don’t worry. Also the gingerbread result after they are baked and cooled down was not too hard. I know some gingerbread recipes turn out really hard, but this was hard enough to make a house, but soft enough to bite into and enjoy.

What to do

Stir all of the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Then combine the corn syrup, brown sugar and butter in a saucepan and keep stirring constantly over medium heat until butter is melted. Pour this liquid into the flour mixture and stir.

Mix it all together to make the dough and don’t be afraid to use your hands to mix it together. The dough will get stiff and a spoon won’t do. I let the dough sit out on the counter for half an hour but you can refrigerate it as well.

As you can see my dough here was a little dry so I added water. If you have any suggestions please share below!

I used this template for cutting the pieces out. Use parchment paper under the dough to roll and work on.

Bake the pieces for 15 minutes or until they’re golden brown at 350 degrees. Make sure they are completely cooled before icing/decorating.

Also, some of my pieces were uneven so I couldn’t use them. It is really important that the pieces are precise because when it comes building time they will not stick.
P.S This was my first time baking gingerbread houses from scratch!

With any left over dough you can either re-roll it and make more mini houses or do what I did and make some side cookies for your friends. :”)

Happy Holidays everyone!

Food December 4, 2015

Friday Faves: National Cookie Day!

I haven’t done a Friday Faves post in awhile! Truth be told, when I woke up this morning and noticed #NationalCookieDay trending, that was all I could think about. So made sense to share with you my three related faves.

Make Your OwnI love this recipe I found on The Girls on Bloor‘s blog for mint chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches! If I hadn’t made cupcakes last night I’d be in the kitchen right now baking this. Pinned it for later.
Bobbette & Belle – 1121 Queen Street East
I’m pretty sure you wont leave here with just a cookie! I had their gingerbread cookies and they’re SO good.
Just for laughs

Me hear it #NationalCookieDay… Me have name for dis kind of day. It called everyday. pic.twitter.com/2F0LRodPd2

— Cookie Monster (@MeCookieMonster) December 4, 2015

Beauty December 4, 2015

GIVEAWAY + REVIEW: illuMask

illuMask, as seen in Harpers Bazaar, Elle, InStyle & teenVOGUE.

You may have seen bloggers or stars using some kind of light therapy. Usually at a spa or skin specialists office. Well, good news! You can now do it at home! I know there were some smaller versions of something like this, but I have never seen a full face light therapy mask to use at home. I remember the first time I really got interested in light therapy was when I saw Jessica Alba’s instagram post:

I follow Dani Song (Blogger/Entrepreneur) on snapchat and for the longest time she ended her stories with a light therapy session, and then I got really curious! Waahh!! I can do this at home?!

I did my research and found illumask! Which by the way, at the moment their not selling on their website because their coming out with something NEW! I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.

What is it?

A really cool plastic mask with little LED lights (pink: acne/red: anti-aging) to clear up your acne or fix signs of aging for $1 per use!

How do I use it?

Prepare your skin by cleansing it first. You put it on and press the start button on the attached remote. A 15 minute session will begin. Easy peezy! The hard part is sitting for 15 minutes but it’s the best for those who have trouble unwinding after a busy day. Each mask comes with a 30 days use. Also taking the mask off early doesn’t mean those lost minutes will add up to your next days session. They’ll be gone. So do the full 15 mins. It shuts off automatically after 15 mins, so don’t worry about falling asleep with it on. Once your done apply your regular moisturizer.

How does it work and is it safe?

Yes it’s safe. The light emission is similar to what you get from your LED tv according to teen vogue author Dan Koday. The red light helps stimulate rejuvenation and blue acts as a bacteria-fighter.

I was really looking forward to using the anti-aging mask since the acne one didn’t apply to my skin type. However, I read details that the illuMask has not been tested for use while pregnant or breastfeeding and to use it at your own discretion. Womp womp. I’m BF’ing so I immediately put it to the test on more mature skin, my mom. She’s used the full 30 days and I must say her skin looks great! After 15 days I noticed her face was a lot more radiant and she says from one use her skin felt softer. She’s definitely continuing her light therapy routine and I’m looking forward to using it as well, when I can.

My teenage brother used the acne one. Yes, guys can use this too! He has the usual teenage mayhem on his face and within a week I could see his face clear up and acne scars get much lighter! I wish I had this when I had acne. Because he’s a teenager I had to remind him to use it, but after a while he actually got into it.

Get creative with your illuMask and draw on it or place stickers like Dani Song did!

Here’s your chance to WIN! Yaassss you can win of these masks! I’m giving away two. One for acne and one for anti-aging! Just fill out the below rafflecopter and GOOD LUCK! P.S This giveaway is open to Canadian and US residents only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Beauty November 27, 2015

#NYXINTHESIX Event & NYX HAUL

Two NYX events, one NYX store and a Rexall with a NYX section. Here’s my story…

#nyxinthesix lotus leaf — Photos by // Photagonist.ca

I was excited to be invited to the #NYXINTHESIX event at the East Room. So many top Toronto influencers that I recognized right away and some when I went through the hashtag #NYXINTHESIX on IG, at home… was like ohhhh yeaaaa. It was a perfect night for roof top shinanigans, photo booth fun, great music, bits and bites. So here are some pictures from this great event organized by Lotus Leaf.

east room toronto — Photos by // Photagonist.ca

Photos by // Photagonist.ca

#nyxinthesix 💄💋#torontoblogger

A video posted by Hum (@humjk) on Sep 26, 2015 at 9:55pm PDT

There was a time when you could only buy NYX products from a Rexall store, who by the way only have “some” products from the line and never have the ones that everyone is raving about, in stock. Hmph. But now not only can you shop online, go to Rexall if you must, you can shop at an actual NYX store! I’ve collected a lot of their products so here’s my mini haul with some swatches! (YouTube NYX review coming soon)

NYX HAUL

The packaging colour of these mascaras don’t lie. They really are bright!

nyx coloured mascara — **Colour Mascara in Blue & Perfect Pear**

I tried this lash primer and I have medium length lashes. The fibers in this primer made my lashes thicker and longer, giving the illusion of falsies! See for yourself (below image)

Top #makeup faves: taupe in MAC// browzings in Benefit// mufe hd found // Lash primer #NYX 💋👌 A photo posted by Hum (@humjk) on Oct 29, 2015 at 1:39pm PDT

nyx blush — **Blush in Baby Doll (left) Crimson (right)**

nyx black & white pencil — **nyx black & silver pencil**

I used this under my make up to moisturize and I didn’t have to use as much concealer as it had some coverage as well. There are no strong scents from this Beauty Balm.

NYX Soft Matte Lip cream Tres Leches (Left) Stockholm (Right)

I love these Soft Matte Lip creams. The texture of a lipstick but look of a pigmented gloss. The colour sets really nicely with a promised “matte” look. Although these colours look almost identical in their packaging, in reality Tres Leches is more on the pink side, where Stockholm is more beige/nude.

NYX highlighter liquid — NYX liquid illuminator sunbeam

I was a bit disappointed with this one. I was expecting a natural looking highlighter but this is almost sparkly. Too heavy for a daytime look. To be honest probably wouldn’t wear it at night either. It’s just too sparkly/bright for my liking.

NYX Intense Butter Gloss and soft matte lip cream — Intense Butter Top to bottom (Banana Split & Funnel Delight) and Soft Matte lip cream in red (Monte Carlo)

nyx solo eyeshadow — Punk Heart (left) & Smoke & Mirrors (Right)

The eye shadows are somewhat pigmented but will definitely need to build these shadows when doing a smokey eye look.

NYX matte lipstick and high voltage lipstick — Matte Lipstick Nude (right) Perfect Red (middle) and High Voltage Lipstick in Rockstar

So if you have olive skin tone then the matte lipstick in nude is not for you. Way too pale. The other two colours are gorgeous and go on pigmented. That’s it! In case you didn’t already know there’s a store at Square One and downtown on Queen Street. Enjoy shopping and let me know your NYX faves!

Food November 22, 2015

TerroniTO: Sud Forno Review

Toronto has an ample amount of cafés and coffee shops. But what sets others out from the rest? What do you look for in your next study or remote working place? Most importantly they’ve got to have really good drinks and desserts. So what draws you in? Interior, the food, free WiFi perhaps?

At first when you walk in you can see that it’s a small place with minimal seating. You get that feeling that you’re in a bakery. All their delicious baked goods to the left and straight ahead pizza! There are stairs to the second floor where you’ll find a big table with more seats. I didn’t try the gelato, but they have that too!

And then there was this yummy drink and cake! Ok, so Sud Forno so far has the best Nutella drink in Toronto. It’s funny and sad at the same time that Canada’s first ever Nutella cafe that opened up here in Toronto doesn’t have a hot drink figured out but there are places in our city where you can get such a drink.

Portland Variety also has a Nutella drink however their steamer machine when I went wasn’t working so I’ll have to check that one out another day.

I’m on the hunt for the BEST nutella drink in Toronto. Do you know of any places that I should check out?

Fall November 18, 2015

Hoods up, Sunnies on

Just one of those “hoods up, sunnies on” type of days. I got this sweater a while back online from The Bay. It’s from the Style & Co brand. When I first looked at their items I was a bit turned off from the styles and options they had but if you keep going through their items you’ll find something that speaks to you and your style. I opted for this sweater because at the time I was pregnant and loved the flowy idea for more belly space but I also knew it would be something I’d wear after as well. I guess most of my casual wear is loose fitting and flowy. My sisters call it “dressing cute“.