Beauty: Russian Navy!

I was feeling a navy and I'm very sad to find that my favourite navy shade is MISSING. I've been a huge fan of Yoga-Ta Get This Blue by OPI. It was a beautiful blue that had a nice simmer to it. Looking through my nail colour selection, I settled with something similar.

Russian Navy by OPI is quite darker. It's a very dark navy nail polish that has purple simmer. With the first coat, you can see more of the navy tone. But, as you layer on more polish, you can begin to see the purple simmer. With flash on the photo you see above, you can see it looks more purple than navy. 

I still prefer OPI's Yoga-Ta Get This Blue over Russian Navy. I hope I find it again soon! 

These will be my nails for the week. The messy paint job would look nicer tomorrow when the sides get cleaned up. 

-Susan

Tea: Sencha Kiwi Garden

I must be crazy. It's 28 degrees C outside (and feels like 38 degrees C with humidity and all that) and I still thought it was a good idea to brew some tea for myself.

I looked through my stash of tea and felt like it was a green tea kind of day. I've been slowly going through my big ol' tea collection trying to finish some up before I can purchase more. To my surprise, I don't have a selection of green teas anymore. This is one of the only ones left.

Sencha Kiwi Garden by The Tea Emporium was given to me as a gift for my birthday two years ago. It is one of the best blends that I have come across. The company's describes the tea as:

"Delicate Japanese green tea with the exotic flavours of kiwi and added Q10. Q10 promotes cell growth as well as stimulates the immune system."

Pretty happy that my friend have given this to me for my birthday...or else I wouldn't have discovered this wonderful tea.

So, today, this is my cup of tea!

-Susan

Toronto: Blackouts and Storms

Toronto had a huge storm yesterday that basically left Toronto in a terrible condition. Thunder, lightning, and heavy rain - the worse triple combination. I read from different sources that we received around 123-126mm of rain last night...that's insane. Check out BlogTO for some photos of the storm...pretty crazy eh?

I had a blackout for 2 hours yesterday and another one today for 6 hours. I must say, I learnt a lot about myself (and probably a majority of the Toronto population as well). Without electricity, everyone goes insane. When we were hit with the first blackout, I didn't freak out right away. My first initial thoughts were "Oh well, my laptop was charged earlier today...I still had the internet..." But, having it slip out of my mind, the internet modem and wifi router clearly needs electricity....and that was when I reached my lowest point of the day (of course, there's a little exaggeration there). My brother, especially, has his life relied on the electronics and the beautiful diverse world of the interwebs. So, you can see he literally went insane.

To keep myself occupied, I ate a lot, napped a lot, read a lot, and blasted a ton of music. And now, I have my fingers crossed that the electricity will not fail on us again...anytime soon.

With the blackout, the roads in Toronto/GTA was probably pretty dangerous. Streetlights weren't working, flooded highways, streetcars were all stuck and lined up along the main roads, etc. The city pretty much couldn't run anymore...

Just thought I'll share a little about my life the last 48 hours. It was a really self-reflecting moment for me...literally like a coming of age moment or something.

Does any of you live in the GTA area and was affected by Toronto's storm? E-mail me your stories or leave a comment below! I'll love to read about them

-Susan

Music: I'm in love.

This must be the best discovery that I've done all summer. One of my all time favourite songs, Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol, being covered by Ed Sheeran...with Gary Lightbody.

This is truly amazing. Nothing can compare.

Give it a listen! What do you think? I'll love to hear your thoughts! 

-Susan

Beauty: Nail of the Week

I must admit that I'm a terrible nail painter. But, I even amaze myself, that I still paint them myself on a weekly (or biweekly if I'm extremely lazy) basis. I had an interview this morning and was wearing a navy dress, so I figured why not do a light blue. I ended up choosing to paint my nails "No Room for the Blues" by OPI. 

This is evidence of my terrible nail painting skills! But, the colour is absolutely gorgeous for this summer season.

-Susan

Music: What I've been listening to lately

I am one of those people who can listen to the same song all day and not get sick of it. My family absolutely hates when I do this, especially when I blast my music for the whole house to enjoy as well. For the past few days, I've been having easy and low key days - just sitting around, cooking, baking, and internet surfing.

I have recently discovered Angus and Julia Stone from the Recommended For You box on Youtube and it was the perfect music to fit my recent days. A few of my favourites from the duo include:

1. Devil's Tears 

2. All of Me 

3. Take you Away

The sibling duo has an absolutely stunning voice. I must say most of their music has a very melancholy feel to them. But, it's helping me get through the slow summer days. 

Another artist that I've found on YouTube the last year is a Bostonian musician, Charlie Puth, and instantly subscribed. I love absolutely love his original music with the random music videos he makes with scenes of Boston (Fun Fact: I absolutely love Boston, it's definitely one of my favourite cities). His covers are well done as well. Here's a recent new original he has released last week: 

Check out Charlie's Twitter! @CharliePuth

What are your current favourite music? Share in the comments below! 

-Susan

Food: Homemade Strawberry, Mango, & Guava Smoothie

We had so many rainy days the last week that the sunny/hot weather is such a relief.

A while back ago, I went out for brunch with a childhood friend to a small local restaurant and we both ordered a strawberry guava smoothie. You don't even know how happy I am to have ordered this smoothie - it was just a perfect summer smoothie.

For the last few weeks, I've been trying to locate a guava in my grocery store, but no luck. I was walking down the juice aisle and found Ceres guava juice and I figured this would do for now. I also found a mango lying around in my kitchen, so I thought to give it a try to give the smoothie a different twist. Instead of using ice, I decided to just leave my fresh strawberries in the freezer for a few hours. So, it worked out!

I made enough for a single serving. I actually just eye balled all my measurements, but I made some estimate and made a recipe out of this for you guys. 

Simple Strawberry, Mango, and Guava Smoothie

• 10-13 strawberries diced or 1 cup of frozen strawberries
• half of a banana
• 1/3 of a mango 
• 3/4 cup of guava juice
• Optional: 3-4 ice cubes

I hope you all enjoy this recipe!

-Susan