This is an interesting little meme going around the internet right now, several bloggers that I read (FB, Asian Pear) have tallied up the approximate costs of everything they regularly carry in their purses.

It seems the average total of all items for most gals is around $300, but since my purse alone is $300 it got me wondering: just how much IS my bag carrying?

I’m about to find out. And also clean this sucker out, I have way too much stuff in here!

• Purse – $300
• iPod Touch – $250
• Blackberry – $50 (it’s a hand-me-down)
• Sunglasses – $500
• Keys – $30
• “Emergency” makeup kit – $40
• Chinese fan (perfect for hot TTC rides!) – $3
• Various lipgloss products – $40
• Wallet – $50
• Random USB sticks – free!
• Metropass – $100
• Customized purse hanger – $13
• Miscellaneous (hanky, gum, mints, etc.) – $10

TOTAL: $1,386

Holy shit.

I just have sort of average stuff… or at least I thought I did :S I guess because I like to save up and buy quality items over time they add up! All my costs are what I assume it would cost to replace those items.

It’s amazing to see how having just 3 good-quality lipgloss products can suddenly mean you’re carrying around $40 of merch in your bag. I don’t think I even included my hand cream.

The thing is, I don’t really want to get rid of anything in my bag. It’s all useful and I use it regularly. It just shocks me to see how much it would cost to replace everything.

But I’m kind of glad I did this exercise! I will be much more aware of what I do with my bag and will be more motivated to keep it! Sheesh!

So… what’s in your bag?

Well! I’d say the tea party was a resounding success, despite a few minor setbacks!

Friday night I went all over the place to pick up the final ingredients and such for the main event. I visited a number of bakeries, cheese mongers, florists and grocers to get everything I needed. By that point I was so exhausted I got myself a pad thai and a taxi home :S

I spent Friday night setting up the table, the flowers & decor and prepping some of the foods for the next day. I got the chicken salad successfully curried and… well… now that I look back I think that may have been the only food-related thing I got done, aside from washing the fruit. Next time around I will definitely prepare more ahead of time!

I totally could have done the minted cream cheese for the cucumber sandwiches, and pre-rolled all the asparagus spears in smoked prosciutto. Thank goodness for helpful friends!

My new pal “Hattie” came over early to help me set up, and boy am I glad she came! Despite waking up early to get things done, I was still scrambling at the last minute. I put her to work slicing bread and applying delicious, delicious cream cheese while I got the asparagus and cucumber ready.

We went along at a clipped pace until I realized that we had already passed my “3pm SHARP!” arrival time for guests. Ruh-roh! This is one of the few times I was glad my friends were tardy! Hattie offered to finish the sandwiches for me while I went to get dressed.

It was then that I realized that I had completely forgotten about the focal point of my tea party: THE SCONES!!!! Chaos ensued while I got up to my elbows in butter and flour to whip a batch out before everyone came. Good thing I did the practice run last weekend!

After a hasty mixing session I was shooed out of the kitchen in order to dress myself. When I popped out Hattie and another gal pal were finishing everything up in the kitchen. I love my friends! Pulling me out of the fire at my own party and all that…

Finally, everything was pretty much done, and we got down to the business of socializing like the wonderful, civilized ladies we are! The scones turned out beautifully, by the way

Now, everything in a tea party is about the details and little touches, so I offer you:

The Details

My menu consisted of the following:

• Fresh-from-the-oven sugared scones
• An assortment of homemade jams (plum, apple butter & raspberry…except the raspberry wasn’t homemade. Oh well) plus double Devon cream which was a total bitch to find, but absolutely necessary in my cream or low tea
• An assortment of petit fours I picked up from the local boulangerie
• Cucumber mint sandwiches
• Smoked prosciutto and asparagus with honey mustard sandwiches
• Curried chicken salad sandwiches with apple & cranberry for a kick+colour!
• About 20 different types of teas, from traditional to rooibos to the exotic!
• Fresh fruit
• Candy!
• A special liqueur plus champagne drink recipe I brought back with me from Europe

Tea party buffet

The set-up:

• The main table set with delicate china, flowers, ornaments, bowls of jams & creams and my very special handmade Italian tablecloth I picked up at a traditional lace-making school in Venice
• A buffet for the food
• Flowers and decorations throughout the room
• My cat. Decorated. With a pink bow. She’s awesome.

Tea table set-up

Flowers that match the decals in my kitchen

More flowers!

The only details left to mention are the fashion and the meaning behind the tea party. Stay tuned!

This coming weekend I am hosting my very first tea party for my closest friends.

I’ve been mulling over the idea for quite some time now, and with the popularity of Alice in Wonderland bringing the focus back on this tradition, I thought the time was ripe for my own!

While I myself am not the biggest tea drinker (although my collection would beg to differ!) I have always loved the classic idea, rituals and etiquette of a traditional tea party.

The usual elements of a tea party include:

• formal table settings
• petit fours (little sweet cakes and pastries)
• tea sandwiches
• scones with jam and cream
• TEA!

When most people think of tea parties, they think of stuffy old ladies with hats and gloves sitting around with pinkies up and “hemm-hemming” over the latest faux pas someone in the community has committed. But this isn’t always the case!

I think tea parties offer a great way to get your friends together to appreciate the civilized side of life that we so often neglect in society these days.

Tea parties can be in any theme that you like, from classic traditional to wacky, zaney or even morbid! The key to setting the mood is the decor, menu and etiquette that you choose to observe during the event.

For my party, I’m going with a “funky & elegant” theme, and have asked my guests to dress up with their interpretation of the term “tea party”. I have some diverse friends each with their own unique style so I am really looking forward to seeing their outfits! With their permission I will be posting them on the blog afterwards Of course I’ll be dressing up, too!

I don’t have a ton of money to spend on this event, so the decor will be a bit on the eclectic side as I pull together all the cool serving dishes, decorations and linens that I have to make one cohesive theme. Good thing I’m an old hand at the eclectic look!

So far hot pink seems to be the dominant accent colour, but we’ll see what shows up in the end!

This week I will be pulling everything together, including the decor, table set-up, menu and trial runs of some of the tricker treats that I am preparing and posting about it on the blog.

I would love to hear of your own tea party experiences, and if you have any tips or tricks to share with me as I prepare for my own.

Thanks, and cheerio, darling!

After another craptastic day at work I came home to a nice surprise:

DRINK ME

Someone has sent me a nice bottle of Black Tower wine and some bracelets! How sweet. And what good timing.

I haven’t been writing much lately because life has just become unwieldy. I’ve realized that I really don’t like my job anymore, don’t want to just get another job somewhere else doing the same thing but I don’t really have a clear idea of what I WANT to do. What a pickle.

Top that off with the month from hell at work with tight deadlines and all kinds of crazy and you’ve got one unhappy gal. Last week I drowned my sorrows in a bottle of wine. It was the first time I’ve ever finished a whole bottle by myself.

Well, not by myself. I did drink the whole thing but I was at my friends’ place for dinner that night so they took care of me. It was bad.

Then I found out that my pup passed away. It has not been great lately, folks.

So this is very well-timed bottle of wine+sparklies. I can either crack ‘er open this weekend as I end another shitty week, or I may save it for my upcoming tea party (one of the few lights in my sky right now).

I don’t know which PR company sent this to me, but thanks. It made my day just a little bit better.

I am SO PROUD of my family!

I just found out that my uncle who is a captain for Air Canada volunteered his time off the clock to fly a relief jet down to Port-au-Prince filled with supplies and support workers. On the way back they brought home sick and injured Canadians. His flight was the first non-military aircraft allowed to land.

Here is the email I received from my aunt:

Hey guys Uncle was on the CTV news last night!  Uncle took a volunteer group for Disaster relief to Haiti yesterday.  He flew the Air Canada plane out of Montreal at 6:00 am yesterday with armed police guards, nurses, doctors, medical supplies and a bag of $90,000 in his hand just in case they got into trouble and he needed to buy something.

There was no control tower so I am not sure how he landed but he said he was almost hit by a plane while they were sitting on the ramp.  He was way past the legal time to fly but he waited at the airport until they collected as many sick and injured people as possible to take back with them to Canada.

He arrived in Montreal last night close to midnight, absolutely exhausted!  Before he left (we got the call just the night before) so in the morning we contacted various people in our town who needed to get medical supplies to their contacts in Haiti.  He met a lady who ran to the drug store in town and cleaned them out, wrapped up the supplies and gave him this huge box to take with him on the plane.  When he went through security they didn’t want to let him go so he demanded to see the manager and the manager just waved him through without even looking at the box.  No rules apply when you are in the middle of a disaster!

He had to have armed guards to protect him and the plane because of the unrest and violence in the country.  Air Canada wanted that plane back!!

He told me he saw things he couldn’t even put into words.  He should be arriving home any time now and I can’t wait to hear his stories.

It was so cool seeing him interviewed on the CTV news though!  He looked so professional…not the funny Uncle that we know.  But most importantly he made it home safely!!  I just got a call from Air Canada and they want to debrief with him re: the flight.  They are planning another one and they want him to do it again…you know once is enough.  He’s home safe now and it was exciting and everything but I don’t really want him going back again…

We are glad to have him back. I had no idea that he would be doing this! I scooped some photos that he took while there (below). I don’t think they let him leave the airport (or possibly even the plane) for safety reasons. I never realized how valuable and at risk my uncle could be!

I’m going to email him and see if he has any stories to tell.

If you would like to help the Haitians, these are the two major organizations you can donate to:

DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS / MÉDECINS SANS FRONTIÈRES (MSF) – CANADA

Canadian Red Cross

I just had to share with you the awesomeness that is my feet:

Don't mess with these babies

I went to my favourite spa that happens to be South African this weekend for a charity function. A couple of tickets got you a polish change so I opted for their signature look and let the girl “go wild”!

I think all my pedicures will be this awesome from now on. I’ve got to find those little nailpolishes with the fine tips so I can do this at home!

Next time I’m going with jaguar spots

I have something to confess:

• Fire up your frying pan and start cooking the sausage. Leave some space in the pan for the egg to be added later.
• Meanwhile, whisk your egg, salt & pepper together in a small bowl with a fork (this is the scrambled part!) and pop your english muffin sides into the toaster.
• By the time you get that done, check on the meat–if it looks like it’s almost ready, throw your egg on. I tried using a cookie cutter, small round pan, etc. to make a perfect egg round, but it just didn’t work. So I tilt the skillet towards me and drop the egg goo there. It sort of pools in a crescent shape.
• Once it’s cooked a little bit I just poke & shove the egg around on the skillet with my spatula until it looks like an english muffin-sized blob, and I let it cook.
• Once your muffins are done, butter them, put the cheese on and add your cooked egg & sausage. Top with ketchup and begin salivating!

Not gonna lie, blogging life is pretty sweet right now!

I’m at my parents’ place right now where they’ve been holding onto all the awesome deliveries for me for the past 2 weeks, and boy! What a haul!

Keeping in mind that it’s not like this all the time for me, there has been a flurry of PR activity out there and I am the happy recipient of the PR people’s bounty.

Behold!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

The people at Revlon sent me some fantastic false eyelashes to try. I am totally stoked about this. I have never actually tried on false eyelashes, but I was thinking about getting a pair to wear for Halloween with my various costumes (BTW I love love LOVE Halloween and all of October!!)

So yeah, perfect timing! They sent me 5 pairs of their Revlon Fantasy Lengths glue on eyelashes. Some are self-adhesive and some came with a little tube of glue. I CANNOT WAIT to try them out!

Oh… does anyone know if you can re-use false eyelashes, and/or have any application tips for me?

Bronzed is better

Ok, this isn’t exactly related to my blogging abilities, but it still counts as PR!

I won one of 50 L’Oreal Sublime Bronze Bronzing lotions from BeautyEditor.ca! This will be a great way to keep the ghost look away this winter without subjecting myself to cancer in the tanning beds. (I used to tan a tiny bit in the winter, but now that I’ve read that report I think I’ll stick to lotions instead!).

Eco-Conscious shopping

I got a fab new reusable bag from a Canadian designer called MyBag. I picked out a beautiful design and they sent me one to review! I’ll be able to compare it to both the Envirosax and RuMe bags. Yippee!

Stay tuned for a review!

Feed your mind

My dear southern friend Phil Villarreal sent me a special signed copy of his new book Secrets of a Stingy Scoundrel. I’m almost done reading the promo copy of it and am going to do a bang-up review shortly!

It’s so cool when a fellow blogger gets published but still keeps posting like a normal person and not one of those folks who “make it big” and only ever post to welcome new readers and to sell their books (Phil, if you ever do this I will come down to Arizona and smack you myself!) so I am delighted to get my very own signed copy!

Another review to stay tuned for!

Give your skin a drink!

The good people at Vaseline heard my cries for moisture! Moisture! For my poor, dry skin. I’m slowly coming off the Accutane but my skin is still dry and delicate, and now that winter is coming it is doubly important that I stay moisturized.

I received a lovely package of three of Vaseline’s new Sheer Infusion moisturizers to test drive. Again with the perfect timing I am almost out of my regular cream! I am definitely glad that these came when they did. Maybe I’ll give them a shot after my next shower?

So yeah. When it rains, it pours! Getting all these products for free is great since it means I don’t have to pay for them… but I really wish I could figure out how to make money off this darn blog! LOL

To any other PR companies out there: Wanna help me spread the love? I’m always on the lookout for great prizes to give away to my readers! Call me!

Check this out!

My worlds are colliding, man!

It’s a KITTY CAT PIGGY BANK.

My love of cats + money in one!

It’s only 8 bucks on the Animal Rescue Shop, too! I think I may have to get one!

The best part is that for every purchase on this site, food is donated to animals in need. I am totally on board with that. I really like this site, too. Sure, there’s lots of tacky stuff, but for every 2 tacky things there is at least one super cute thing, too.

OOOOHHH! I think I just saw plant pots! Time for me to go!