Beauty Review: Bare English & Co.

In my previous Bare English & Co review, I raved about the wonderful texture of these vegan lip balms from Toronto. With organic ingredients and tea infusions, the non-toxic formula is the best I've come by. My friends at Bare English & Co just came out with 5 new flavors and I'm so excited to share these with you!

They currently have 7 flavors available;

Repost: There's Bacon in my Cupcake!

As some of you may know, I have recently teamed up with some fabulous ladies to form a blog called The Mindful Mavens. It was started as a way to share various vegan lifestyle options available in Ottawa, including food, businesses, events, etc. Click here to learn more about who we are. I recently wrote this post, which is about cupcakes. Look how gorgeous they are!

The two ladies at The Compassionate Rabbit know how to make a good vegan cupcake. Inspired by their pet rabbits, they aim to share love and compassion through delicious vegan treats. Willing to take on a new challenge, they went to their Facebook fans to decide on a new flavor. It just so happens that they chose mine! What was this winning flavor? Well, Maple Bacon of course.

Not only did they succeed on the flavor notes and a great coconut bacon recipe, but they went above

Beauty Review: Bare English Co. Lip Balms

Lip products and winter go together like peanut butter and jelly. We all know that finding a suitable lip balm is a harder task than it may initially seem. It needs the right scent, flavor, packaging etc.. but the right texture is one of its most important components. Achieving a smooth “non-sticky” application can be pretty tricky for producers of such products, especially without using any animal products or harmful chemicals (petroleum jelly, parabens, etc). Since the average woman consumes 2 kilograms (yep, that's kilos my friends) of lip products in her lifetime, it’s important to avoid nasty dangerous chemicals.  [Source: Terra20]

Like most women, I have a huge stash of lip products. They are hidden in every coat, every purse, hidden in drawers and pant pockets all around me. Also, vegans are always on the hunt for really good vegan lip balms, since they are sometimes hard to find. This is why I was so excited to have won a pack of 3 Bare English Lip Balms from Andrea Tomkins’ blog, A Peek Inside The Fishbowl. I put them to the test, and January is one of the best times to do this, in full blown Canadian winter. 

Urban Craft Fall 2013 Edition

On Sunday, September 22nd 2013, the Glebe Community Center hosted the fall edition of Urban Craft Market. This event gathers over 45 local vendors in the Ottawa region and nearby to display and sell their crafts, food and unique items.



On that gloomy Sunday, I went to Urban Craft with my two favourite girlies, Myriam from BeauteOptic and Stephanie from Lip Stains & the Walk of Shame. Before we even went inside, we had a magic moment. Steph and I spotted these adorable purple bikes! This adorable bike rental stand just outside the Glebe Community Center. The company is called Right Bike and it's a membership-based bike-sharing program. Check it out!




I've always loved going to craft shows. It was one of my favourite things to do with my mom growing up, especially during the holidays. It's so much fun to try and see every single booth, not wanting to miss any of the cool new things. Here are a few of the fabulous vendors I went to see.

5 Ingredient Recipe: Grilled Apples with Hazelnut-Maple Caramel

There I go again, another 5 Ingredient Recipe for my lovely readers, and it's a sugar-free desert this time! This one was a very spur-of-the-moment post, here's why:
If you have ever had supper with me, you would know that when I finish supper, I usually want to have a little something sweet to finish it off. It turns out, I'm the queen of throwing random ingredients together after dinner and making up a desert as I go. While I'm still working on emptying pantry items, I had a huge bag of apples that were starting to go bad. So I cut them up and grilled them, of course! I already had our George Foreman Grill (our awesome yard sale find!) set up from supper, so I used it again for desert. Why not! I wanted some sort of dip for them, and to the pantry I went. Maple syrup, hazelnut butter and cinnamon answered my call. This sweet yummy dish turned out to be extremely easy and sugar-free too!
I have to warn you, it doesn't photograph very well, and neither do I. It would seem that I need to do more collaborations with Myriam from Beauteoptic. And by collaborations, I mean using her photography skills for my blog. So, I'm sorry about the awful photo, but here is the turn out: