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Holiday Gift Guide Giveaway # 2
The holidays are just around the corner, and I couldn’t be happier. A few weeks ago, I went to mail a friends birthday present two days after Halloween was over, and the Christmas music was already playing. Love that. It’s never too early ;)
In fact, Christmas decorations and trees were decorated in the basement part of The Bay when I went shopping with my co-worker to buy some wrapping paper, and ended up buying a set of sheets instead. Oops.
At least they keep me warm — I love a classy look to the bedroom. Unfortunately, everything I buy is grey. Guess that’s my new favorite color shade.
I’m just excited to go home for Christmas. There will be plenty of parties, family dinners, friends from all over the country flying back home and us all getting together. Plus, hanging out with my sweet little nephews.
For any guests or visitors, you need to have a clean home. Inevitably people will either be in the kitchen or the bathroom at some point in the evening.
Ain’t that the truth!
One day I’d love to be fortunate enough to hire a maid to clean our apartment. But right now, I’m the one who has to clean things.
I have a nice and easy way to clean up in a breeze, using these Rubbermaid products despite anyone’s busy work schedule.
Here I am getting rid of all the water marks in our shower. This scrubber-thing is a winner. It’s… WINNING! in my books (Sorry. Had to). Loved how abrasive the cleaning pads were. Little elbow grease was used here, and I made the Rubbermaid scrubber do all the work! ha!
You guys get to win one of these mop sets too, valued at $50.00. YAY!
 Contest is only open to Canadians.
A few questions on what you can leave in the comments, for your blog post entry!
Do you have any holiday traditions?
We do! On Christmas morning, everyone opens their gifts at home. Then, with our PJs still on, we put on our winter coats ‘n boots and head over to the neighbours house to have Christmas breakfast, coffee and open a few more gifts. It’s always something I look forward to.
Do you have a set day that you clean? or do you clean as you go?
I would love to be a clean-each-day person. But I honestly wouldn’t stop running around if I did that. I usually keep the kitchen very clean on a daily basis, because otherwise I’d get overwhelmed.
How often do you clean your shower?
Gotta be honest. I only clean my shower walls when it looks like I haven’t done it in a while. As for the bathtub, sinks and toilet – those suckers get cleaned on a weekly basis. There’s nothing more gross than a dirty bathroom.
Saturday solo trip
What did your weekend look like?
I got my Boyf to drop me off at the bus station bright and early on Saturday morning, so I could take a day and just explore shop Toronto. I love navigating the big city and taking the subway and feeling super independent. Sometimes I do get lost, but everyone’s friendly and will help you out if you ask. Though I didn’t feel like asking anyone on Saturday… and of course, got lost.
I snapped a bunch of photos with my blackberry. So let’s just go in for a re-cap!
First stop: Luminato Vichy “tent”. I met up with Priya, a friend I’ve met online as she previously worked at Glymm in Montreal. Now she’s with L’Oreal and we finally had a chance to meet!
Vichy booth (courtesy of Vichy’s FaceBook page)
I got my skin analyzed. It was interesting to find out that I have dehydrated skin, and not dry. My skin’s moisture level was at 30.6% and should be anywhere between 40-50%! I also got a UV filter snap shot of my face. It was scary looking, but I didn’t have any sun damage on my face, luckily. Since I tanned for about 5 years in tanning beds a number of years ago.
Priya and I went for iced coffees together, spotted the Beibs singing at Much Music, and giggled about how he was actually here and we don’t even like him! Ok, I lied. I like one song. His newest, where he sounds like Justin Timberlake.I wonder if that was really Sarah McLachlan singing next to the Vichy booth after all? Some random guy walked up to me and asked who was practicing singing. I blurted out immediately that it was her, but I got the strangest what the f look from the guy. I laughed so hard, but I mean it sounded just like her! Who knows.
I thought this stage was set up especially for the Lil’ Beibs but apparently the Much Music Video Awards was about to happen that weekend. I got yelled at for going back and stopping to take this photo. On this side of the street, you weren’t allowed to stop and look. Had to keep on keepin’ on. The other side was filled up with teeny-boppers screaming.
One of my favorite places in Toronto: Young and Dundas Square. It’s always soo busy. There was even a 8 foot Spock (from Star Treck) standing around. I jumped a little off to the side when I saw him, and he just stared. Stared! I wanted to take a photo but I didn’t. I have to admit. The only reason I snapped this photo was because I saw a CrossFit billboard :)
Next I went to Forever 21. Sure I may be classified by some as being too old to shop in this store. But I have to disagree. I can’t help but get sucked in. They have such nice, trendy, inexpensive clothes. I have some expensive clothes, mixed in with some not-so-expensive clothes. I like my style and pairing things to make a good outfit. It’s not like I’m shopping at Hollister or Abercrombie plastered all over my t-shirt. Forever 21 has some really nice pieces, without it looking like it’s from there. Know what I mean? If you can make it work, shop there. I wear my Forever 21 jeans way more often than my $100 jeans from Fidelity. I love their $11.30 jeans. I wear them every Friday to work, including yesterday to Toronto. May I repeat myself? They were $11.80.
I spotted some Nike Free’s 3.0 at the Nike store in Toronto. I kind of want them. They’re not as nice as the one’s I already own though ;)
I did a bit of browsing around at Urban Outfitters for the first time in a really long while. There was a band playing upstairs called Young Magic. The music definitely wasn’t for everyone. But I enjoyed it while I was there, and contemplated buying their CD. You can listen to their music on the link I provided just above.
After doing some shopping I grabbed some food…
That was basically it. My entire day revolved around mostly the Young/Dundas area. I had a quick bite at the Food Court (chicken ceasar crepe) and hopped on the greyhound back home.Â
What did your weekend look like?
I’ll have another blog post coming up this week of what’s inside those two shopping bags above! I must sort through all of my receipts from the past few months and shred them. Looking for paper shredder ratings is silly. I don’t know why I’m doing it. All shredders really are pretty much the same.
Golden Arches hunt for #EqualCanada #CBias
What a weekend! There are now just a few more days until Christmas and a few more days until our holiday break from work. Of course, the malls and everywhere in between are jam-packed with shoppers finishing up the majority of their Christmas shopping. But it wasn’t as bad as you may think. Yesterday, Scott and I ended up heading out to shop and, at first, the mall was pretty busy. That is, until the traditional mall closing time of 6pm when the crowds suddenly began to thin out. I’m not sure everyone realizes how late the stores stay open for Christmas shoppers!
We hit up a bunch of places including Walmart to pick up a few groceries for the rest of the week. We didn’t need too much; just a few essentials.
As we were finishing up our shopping, supper time had come and passed and our tummies were growling a bit. I think my tummy was growling at the impatient shoppers. But that’s a topic for another day. I thought this was a perfect time to treat Scott and I to a feed of McDonalds, thanks to #EqualCanada and #Cbias. I’m always a fan of stopping at McDonalds since they offer free wi-fi and I can use my iPad.
Hmm, what to order? 
Scott ended up using a free Big Mac Meal coupon he had, and I got my specialty: the McDouble, plain. Only cheese please.
I give my extra burger patty to Scott since it’s cheaper to order a McDouble (2 patties) than it is to order a cheeseburger. (I think…maybe it’s just because Scott likes to have an almost-double Big Mac). He went for an extra McDouble as well for good measure.
Love free re-fills. Did I get the Coke Zero, or the Barq’s? Take a guess!
When I placed my second order of the evening, I decided to get a coffee so we could take it to go, and bring it with me to sip on as we finished up our shopping.
After I placed my order I asked the cashier if there was Equal available instead of sugar. He honestly had no idea what #EqualCanada even was. It was funny. He asked me and I said it was a sweetener. He then asked me why I’d rather Equal than any other options and I told him that it just tastes better in my opinion. He nodded and smiled as he was ringing my coffee through. One of the credit card machines was down so we continued to chat.
From there, I asked him if there was a comment card that I could fill out. He called out to the manager who came over to greet me (they were both super friendly and great to deal with), but the manager apologized and said they didn’t have any comment cards. I thought that was a bit strange, because aren’t they usually hung up in a little holder on the wall where you can grab one and fill it out yourself? I told him it was okay and I suggested that I could just fill out the survey mentioned on the back of the @McD_Canada receipt instead to suggest that McDonalds carry a variety of sweeteners to give customers more selection.
The situation got more silly at this point because I ordered a medium black coffee, but the guy filling my order said there weren’t any medium cups in stock either. So, as a bonus, I ended up getting a large, filled to the brim with coffee. We were both laughing.
Sweet, upsized for free! The one thing I really enjoy about McDonalds coffee is not only the taste, but the cups are from the future. The lids are not flimsy and the top easily pops up and stays with the lift of your finger.
And no asking for double-cupped cups anymore since they are already two layer insulated!
As soon as we got home from our shopping excursion, I did fill out a McDonalds survey. They don’t put it on the back of their receipts for nothing, right?
Hearing feedback from customers is important to any business and a really great way to interact with large corporations.
Have you ever filled out the McDonalds survey before?
I hope everyone is almost finished up the majority of their Christmas shopping. Does anyone have people left to buy for?
If interested, here is some more information about Equal. Visit Equal online, tweet @EqualCanada, and @McD_Canada or like Equal Canada on Facebook.
Disclosure: This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. #CBias. All opinions are my own.