Curled Up With a Good Book and a Cup of Tea

It’s time for Monday Funday, a weekly collection of the things which have been distracting, delighting, or diverting me both online and offline.  Why not join in and link up over at  CM Claire . This week I watched the first season of Odd Mom Out.  I really enjoyed it, probably because I could relate to it just a little bit.  I felt like Jill was over-acting through most of it, but it is still a fun show and at only 10 episodes it’s easy to binge watch.   Because my to be read pile isn’t long enough, I love quizzes that help you find more books.  What New Book Should You Read This Fall from Buzzfeed gave me Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins, and I hadn’t heard of it but I think I will pick it up based on the description. Thanks Buzzfeed! I’ve decided it’s time to get a new cellphone, so this week I spent a lot of time on YouTube watching review videos of the different phones my provider has.  How on earth did we ever make purch...

This month I received my first Birchbox make-up subscription box.  I’m a pretty low maintenance girl but I do love make-up and new products so this is a fun way to try things I might not otherwise pick out for myself.  I thought I would add something new to my blog, where I share my favourite products as well as test-drive some new products.  So here is my first Birchbox review! (I desperately need a new phone with a better camera.) amika Un.Done Texture Spray  Styling spray that gives hair effortless, tousled volume, loads of shine and a dreamy scent  I really liked this product.  I tend to do a wash and go thing with my hair and rarely blow-dry my hair in the summer but I had a few places to go that my hair needed to be looking good so I used this product.  I do love the scent and there was definitely some added shine.  I tried this a few different ways (straight blow-dried hair, wavy air-dried, wavy blow-dried) but liked the...

The last time we saw Tess Brookes she was in Hawaii, pretending to be her flatmate, working as a photographer, and finding herself in way over her head in all aspects of her life.  And now, she has a major decision to make.  Charlie, her best friend and the guy she has been lusting after for years is finally starting to feel the same way.  He wants her to stay in London, start a new advertising agency with him, and more importantly, start a relationship.  But she also has the opportunity to head to Milan and start a new career in photography.  And waiting for her there is Nick, the frustrating but extremely sexy man she met in Hawaii.  For once, Tess has to choose between two lives she could only have dreamed of before.  It’s time for Tess to decide exactly what she wants out of life. What a Girl Wants , by Lindsey Kelk, picks up right where About A Girl left off and is a fun, breezy follow-up.  While the first book was about escaping from...

It’s time for Monday Funday, a weekly collection of the things which have been distracting, delighting, or diverting me both online and offline.  Why not join in and link up over at CM Claire . I was so excited to see that The Delivery Man is on Netflix.  It’s a British sitcom about a man that leaves the police force to become a midwife. The show picks up as he starts his new job at the hospital.  I’m such a fan of Aisling Bea who stars in the show. Staying on the topic of British television shows I like, I’m patiently waiting for the 4th season of Fresh Meat to start so I was excited to see the quiz over at Buzzfeed UK that helps you find out which Fresh Meat housemate you are .  I got Oregon which slightly annoyed me, but I guess with me studying History at university and being a teacher’s assistant, it kind of makes sense.  But that is all we have in common. Canada is in the midst of a national election and I tend not to pay too much atten...

Delia Moss thought everything was going pretty well in her life.  So when she planned a lovely, romantic marriage proposal for her boyfriend of ten years and he said yes, she was on top of the world. Until only a few minutes later, her new fiancé Paul sends her a text that was meant for someone else.  A text that says “She’s proposed. Don’t know what to do” and is meant for the twenty four year old Paul has been seeing on the side.   Delia is devastated.  She realizes that the only way she’ll truly be happy is to find out where the old Delia went and get her back.  She quits the job that has been causing her so much stress and hightails it out of Newcastle to stay with her best friend in London.  It’s not easy starting over in your thirties but Delia is determined to do it.  She takes a job at a small, brand-new PR company and goes back to one of her first loves - the comic strip she created in her teens. But London proves to be more tha...

Monday Funday is a fun idea that lifestyle blogger and my awesome internet friend Claire has been doing over on her blog CM Claire .  I love seeing what fun stuff has caught her eye online and thought “I wanna do one too!”  So she told me she’d do a link up each week and here I am posting my first one! Monday Funday is a weekly collection of the things which have been distracting, delighting, or diverting me all week long! One of the few shows I actually look forward to each year is Project Runway.  Now, I can’t sew nor can I even draw something resembling a design, but I love fashion so that is why I’m obsessed with this show.  Plus, you get great etiquette tips from Tim Gunn. When I work, I need to have some sort of noise going on in the background so I usually put on the UK Top 40 Chart on YouTube.  Which ends up distracting me from my work because while I should just be listening, I end up watching all the videos.  My favourite song ...

This book will be released on August 25, 2015. It is available for pre-order now. With her face on over five hundred magazine covers, Beverly Johnson is one of the worlds most successful supermodels ever.  But it is one cover that helped her make her mark in the industry and the history books.  In 1974, Beverly became the first Black model to be on the cover of American Vogue.  That cover opened the doors for many more young black women to enter the modelling profession. In The Face That Changed It All , Beverly Johnson shares the story of her childhood, her rise to supermodel status, and the troubles behind the glamour.  Johnson is brutally honest in this memoir, sharing her heartaches and redemption while also sharing juicy tidbits from backstage. I really enjoy reading autobiographies, though lately I’ve found I haven’t been reading much of them.  Which is why I grabbed this book, even though I didn’t know very much about Beverly Johnson be...

When Sara and Gerald Murphy opened their home in the Cap D’Antibes in the 1920’s it became a place of legend.  A place where expat Americans - artists, and writers - gathered for parties, glamour, and love.  The champagne flowed as did the ideas, and the Murphy’s loved the charmed life they were living. But when a tragic accident brings a man named Owen into their lives, the Murphys find their world upended.  An American aviator who fought in the Great War, Owen is a private man whose presence unsettles the Murphy’s.  And as the strength of their home is put at risk, their marriage is put to the test.   Villa America , by Liza Klaussman, is a beautiful and stunning story about a golden age and the glamour of the French Riviera that became the stuff of legend.  The story of the real life couple who inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is The Night , readers will instantly be drawn into this gorgeous novel. Following in the footsteps of other ...