Blog Challenge: Day 13!

Your favourite musician and why.

oh man, I definitely can't narrow it down so I'll leave some band/artists below and you should check all of them out :)

the temper trap

vampire weekend

troye sivan

andrew belle

t-swizzle (taylor swift circa 1989 - SO GOOD)

city & colour

I'd have to say city & colour is more than likely my top musician just because his music has gotten me through so much shit that has happened in my life and kept me going. His sound is perfect and raw and emotional and I love it PLUS he's a genuinely nice/chill dude. I got the chance to meet him at a bar this summer while he was hanging with his friends post concert and he was so lovely.

xx

Blog Challenge: Day 12!

A photo of the town you live in.

okay, okay, please don't stalk me. 

Summerland, BC

It's tiny, but it's beautiful. 

Blog Challenge: Day 11!

What's in your make up bag?

I'm going to mega mega lazy and just tell you and link you to my previous post about my make up collection as well okay? 

Okay. 

My make up bag of essentials is...

Revlon photo ready foundation 

Covergirl coverup (the one with the blue cap idk)

Rimmel stay matte powder

Marcelle eyebrow pencil

Urban Decay Naked palette

Benefit Coralista blush

Make up forever smokey eye mascara

Baby lips balm (the blue one)

wooo exciting! 

Make up post here: http://thelifeofhales.blogspot.ca/2014/09/my-favourite-things-julie-andrews.html

Yay for being lazy! 

xx

Blog Challenge: Day 10!

A photo of your favourite place to eat.

oh dear. 

Okay, so I'll admit that I've only ever eaten here once for a wedding reception party but it was hands down the most amazing and tasty steak, potatoes, broccoli, asparagus, and calamari. 

I mean, I don't even like calamari. 

YUM, although it's not exactly your typical meal joint seeing as a steak by itself is upwards of 50 dollars. 

xx

Blog Challenge: Day 8 and Day 9!

sorry i'm such a slack, I put off blogging to get drunk. whoops. 

8. A song and photo to match your mood

THIS IS THE HARDEST THING EVER. I'm honestly in the most average mood and I'm not the type to listen to average music so I'm stumped. 

*searches itunes song list*

*finds christmas songs*

*gets excited about christmas*

okay, okay. SO. Andrew Belle - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. 

I am in LOVE with his version, something about it is so calming and beautiful to me. 

I love guinea pigs..

9. A photo of the item you last purchased.

I don't think that I can squeeze in ALL the items of my grocery trip today so I'll just put in my favourite. 

YASSSSS 

Blog Challenge: Day Seven!

Your Dream Wedding. 

To be completely honest I haven't put a whole lot of thought into this. I mean, yeah, I have a pinterest board with pretty pictures and what not but I don't really know what I want. I think that I would simply be happy with an event where I feel like a queen with her new king. Somewhere where everyone is getting along - two families merging for the rest of their lives. I want the room to be so filled with happiness that you care barely stand it. That's my dream. 

Also here are some pretty pictures from that pinterest board. 

xx

Blog Challenge: Day 6!

A photo of an animal you'd love to keep a pet.

This one is so incredibly easy. I went to visit my boyfriend while he was staying with his father in North Carolina this summer and I got the chance to go to this really amazing exotic zoo (don't worry everything was regulation, the animals got lots of love and space to play) and we had the pleasure of actually being able to view and hold a few really cool animals. I held lemurs, a kinkajou, a baby tiger, a baby kangaroo, and a baby lion. All of them were adorable and so much fun to play with. However, the kinkajou was hands down my FAVOURITE. If you don't know what a kinkajou is it sort of looks like a cross between a lemur and a ferret that's brown. They love love LOVE attention and cuddles and they're nocturnal. As much as I would love to have one as a pet, I would much rather they live their lives out in the wild where they should be.

 

Kyle and I quickly fell in love with it.

SO FREAKING CUTE

xx

Blog Challenge: Day Five!

A photo of yourself two years ago

*cringe*

Hannah and I (I'm on the right). 

I think the weirdest thing about this photo is that I look almost the exact same besides the hair colour and awful eyebrows. Oh well.

Blog Challenge: Day Four!

A photo of your partner/best friend/or loved one

I didn't want to limit myself to just one of these so I will do all three. :)

My amazing, thoughtful, kind and loving boyfriend - Kyle.

 

From left to right, Stefanie, Adrianna, and Karina (the closest, friends since grade 7)

                                   

This is a particularly old picture, I think I was going into grade ten when my family went on a trip to San Francisco. Absolutely stunning city.

Blog Challenge: Day 3!

What's your favourite store?

So I've kind of been thinking about this all day (woke up at 6, it's now 5, that's a lot of time to think about a question) and I still can't say definitively what it would be. I think the closest I've ever come to a store where I just love everything they sell would be Urban Outfitters or New Look but the problem with those is that their sizes aren't ones that really work with my body type generally so I rarely shop there. I think the winner is probably American Eagle because their pants are the PERFECT fit for my bum (if you got da booty go there) and pants are an essential and they also have other cute stuff from time to time. A little bit of a boho style I would say.

xx

Lord of Misrule Bath Ballistic

Lord of Misrule. 

This is one of the Halloween edition from LUSH. I picked it up thinking that it was a Christmas one do to all of it's festive colours and cute little crown on top. Once I realized it was a Halloween one I figured I would just pretend it was for Christmas.

The smell is absolutely lovely, it's got a sweet smell to it without being too over powering like the snow fairy scent (which I personally find makes me gag). It's made with patchouli and black pepper oils but don't let that throw you off. 

 After plopping it into the bath I was a little worried that the deep burgundy colour seeping from the middle would dye my skin (I had stuck a finger in the middle and it turned it red but with some scrubbing it came off). Luckily it didn't! 

My absolute favourite thing about this bath bomb is how lovely it made my skin feel, I came out feeling as though I had been moisturized in the most beautiful scent from head to toe! 

Not sure if it's strange to put up a picture of the water after but I was just in love with the colour, it felt as though I had just stepped out of a bath in the most lovely rosé wine. I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking to try LUSH products. I was so pleased! 

xx

Blog Challenge: Day 2!

Doesn't look too appealing, does it?
However it surprisingly is! This is actually my boyfriends (3rd) sandwich seeing as I forgot to take a picture of mine earlier. I only ate one. It's got hungarian salami (MMM), pickles, white onions, mustard, and lettuce! It's definitely not something you wanna eat before going to talk to your crush but Kyle and I don't mind stinky breath from each other.

xx

Challenges

Ok. So...I'm going to do this thing.
I will hopefully succeed at this thing.
No promises though.

It's the 30 day blog challenge! Not sure why I made it sound so serious, guess I wanted a little mystery in my life.

I'm taking this from Renee at losetheroad.blogspot.ca, a gorgeous lady from the other-side-o-canada. Go check her out!

So. Beginning with day 1. 

This is me. Excuse the yellow tinged teeth, gotta work on that. 

My day was really great, did the 1.5 hour commute to school and back which was surprisingly pleasant both ways, had a yummy coffee, ate a cheeky cookie, saw my loverly boyfriend Kyle and relaxed watching christmas movies :) I think i'll go have a bath with my Lord of Misrule bath bomb. 

(You can check the video for more info about LUSH products that I use on my youtube channel, www.youtube.com/haleypetkau)

thanks for the read, until tomorrow xx

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

It truly is the most wonderful time, everyone is moderately happy and going about their day with a seeming christmas joy in their hearts. Christmas lights are strung every where while joyful music bellows out the speakers of every corner shop in town. However, it's also the trickiest time of the year to those who's metabolisms are not of at 16 year old basketball loving boy. That is me. 

Over the last couple of weeks I have found it increasingly harder and harder to maintain a healthy diet and lifestyle. I think part of this is due to my birthday being directly after halloween (gorging on chocolates and copious amounts of alcohol) only to be followed right away by the christmas season (a.k.a. cookies, chocolates, hot cocoa, cakes, specialty baking, sweets, etc.) and the two don't really go great together. 

Within the last couple of days I've been really discouraged about my weight. It's not that I am overweight per-say, more just uncomfortable with my body around others. I don't have masses of weight to lose, maybe just 10 pounds to shed some of that uncomfortableness. Is that even a word? Probably.  I find myself searching the Pinterest boards and pinning all of these inspirational quotes and workout plans that I know deep in my heart I just won't get around to doing. I don't want to be that person! 

I've decided that it's probably time to make a few changes. I've also realized that this is going to be one of the hardest times of year to make those sorts of changes, so I've created a list to navigating through the sugary struggles of christmas. 

1. 6 glasses of water a day - this is 2 less than the encouraged amount, and yet far more that what I normally manage to consume in my average day. Not entirely sure why I struggle to drink a healthy amount of water, but I would like to slowly make my way to changing that. 

2. At least 15 minutes of exercise a day/7 days a week - this again is less than the recommended amount. I wanted to give myself a chance to get used to the idea of it before going full speed ahead. It'll go up to 30 minutes in a couple weeks (hopefully).

3. Only 4 cookies a week, and not all at once - I am not usually a cookie person, but lately I feel as though there has been freshly baked cookies either at my house or my boyfriends every day this week. It's like god is teasing me. Christmas season is the time for baking cookies, and I don't want to completely avoid that, so cookies will be my treat. 

4. Only 2 hot chocolates a week - this can be changed around with my favourite Starbucks drink (minus the whip cream) or kept the way it is. With the cold Canadian weather that's getting worse as the days go by I find myself craving something warm more and more. I think it's better to opt for a guilt-free plain coffee than the 120 calorie hot chocolate. 

5. Less alcohol! - I don't really want to give myself a limit on this because I am a freshly 19 year old girl (legal age in british columbia) and I would like to be able to go out and have some fun with friends, but I think less alcohol is a good idea regardless of watching your weight. It also helps that I'm broke and alcohol is stupidly expensive. 

6. Be happy - this isn't really going to shed any pounds from my body, but I want to keep my peace of mind throughout this process. I think that being happy with who you are and how you look and trying to find things about yourself that you love without being cocky on a daily basis is a very important thing. 

Those are my guidelines for the christmas season! I would love to hear what some of yours are, or if you have any tips and tricks to share. 

Thank you for the read xx

A Ruby Among the Rubble

So, let's just say I recently splurged. I know, I know "you're a broke college student" "you need to save up for your future" "stop throwing your money around" etc, etc. I know that I shouldn't have, but I did. 

And let me tell you something, 10/10 do not regret. This little bad boy is something that I truly believe every girl should have amongst their make up collection, whether they are a fanatic or just want a 'lil something to smack on their face in the morning.

Let me introduce, Too Faced - Natural Eyes.

The palette itself really pleases to all types of the day (which is what it is trying to do, but it does it so well, it's amazing). It has 9 different eye shadows. The looks Day, Classic, and Fashion each have 3 allotted shadows.

Under Day, there is Heaven, Cashmere Bunny, and Sexpresso
Under Classic, there is Silk Teddy (personal favourite), Push-Up, and Erotica
Under Fashion, there is Nudie, Honey Pot, and Chocolate Martini.

Naughty names, Too Faced, naughty names ;)

Every single one has a lovely silk-like texture with amazing pigmentation (I find the darker ones to be better pigmented than the lighter ones but ya know how it goes). I love, love, love, using this in the morning. I guess I just find it so easy to travel with going back and forth from my house to the boyfriends while I'm in school. All you need is a little mascara, foundation, and in all honesty you're good to go!

What's even more lovely about this palette is that it's so friendly to beginners at make up. It comes with a little pamphlet with step-by-step instructions of how to style each look. Brilliant!

All in all, definitely worth it's money ($45 Canadian, $36 American, or roughly 25 pounds).
Available in Sephora

Haley xx

Ways to be Productive

One of the things that I - and i'm sure many others - struggle with is being productive. I understand the need for an occasional down day here and there but there is no reason to be sitting on the couch watching Netflix day after day (I wouldn't complain though). I don't know about you, but I find that I need to complete certain steps and precautions in order to make sure that I'm completing everything that I need to. 

This being said, I figured I would put together a list of things that might help others out there remain or become productive. 

1. Lists. Lists are fantastic, I love lists. You can ask my mother this, she will 100% agree. I'm not sure where I got the particular love for lists from, but it's my life saver. Writing down what you need to do in a list and then checking it off as you go along is a great way to visually see exactly what you're getting done and what you still need to do. 

2. Arrange your days ahead of time. Calendars are great for this (they're great regardless, but especially for this). I personally like to take the month calendar and fill it out with my classes, work, coffee dates, mini trips, etc. It definitely helps when it comes to keeping track of what your day contains and it visually helps to solidify a schedule. 

3. Keep a day planner. This is something that I need to get on. Is it weird that I've wanted to splurge on a gorgeous day planner for myself for ages now? I feel like I'm 28, not 18. This goes with the same idea of arranging your days on a calendar, only this one is portable AND cute. I can't really see where one could go wrong with that. As long as it fits in your purse - or man satchel - you're good to go! 

4. Always keep 'me time' in between. Everyone needs to relax. I would love to keep chugging through the days and be the most productive person ever and solve world hunger and things like that, but let's be honest. Not possible. It's okay to give yourself a break here and there. Schedule it in and make sure that you keep it free for yourself so that you don't feel over worked in the future. 

5. Always be reasonable with what you give yourself. You're not going to be able to get done 20 big things in one day, how about shooting for 2 big things and 5 small things. You can balance this out to your liking, but my point is not to over-do it. 

6. Don't worry if you don't complete everything, just re-assign it. As long as you give yourself time before due dates and such, there's no reason why it should be the end of the world if you don't complete something on the day you've scheduled yourself to finish it. If you've had a hectic day and you've completed as many things as you can and you're going to collapse if you don't hop in the bath with a LUSH bath bomb, give yourself a break and take that bath. Deal with whatever task it is in the morning, or the next afternoon. All will be well. 

7. Lastly, if all else fails, bake cookies! That's technically being productive, right? 

Thanks for the read xx

Haley. 

**Please share your ideas for being productive in the comments below so that I can add to my list and you can give each other ideas that I might not have covered. 

My Favourite Things - Julie Andrews

As some of you may know (these "some" would be close personal friends who I would hope devote a bit of time to read my blog posts...oh well) I have a wee bit of an obsession with make up. There's something about going out to Sephora or Shoppers or really anywhere that sells make up and walking up to the till with products just knowing that you're about to go home and put them all on. 

Unlike some others, my make up obsession is a bit more recent I would say. I've always liked make up and wanted to use it from the age that most girls would (others were too cool for that and still hung with the guys) but I never really got in to it. It was more of a slap 'er on and get out the door kind of deal. 

To take this shocking news further (WHAT SHE DIDN'T LOVE MAKEUP WHEN SHE WAS YOUNGER?!) I always vowed to be one of those girls who never spent an hour getting ready in the morning because I thought it was a waste of time. Boy oh boy, was I ever wrong. Make up is amazing. 

So, without further ado, this is my collection. 

Naked  1 Palette (containing virgin, sin, naked, sidecar,
buck, half-baked, smog, dark horse, toasted, hustle,
creep & gunmetal) 

Little Black Book, Urban Decay in Virgin, Elf shadow stick, Pixie shadow stick, Elf shadow stick

Sephora blusher palette (Los Cabos Bronzer, Blushing Pink,
& Coral Punch) & Benefit - Coralista 

Rimmel Wake Me Up Conceller, Rimmel Clean Finish Foundation,
 and Rimmel Stay Matte. Apparently I really like Rimmel.

my beloved Body Shop InstaBlur eye & face primer

Bourjois volumizer mascara 2 step volume - tube #2 me likey

Marcelle Eyebrow stick & L'Oréal liquid liner

Left to Right: Revlon - Siren, Sephora - Samba, Revlon - Pink Sizzle,
Mac - Shanghai Spice, Mabyelline - Peachy Scene, Revlon - Berry Rich
Rimmel (Kate) - 01, Rimmel (Kate) - 107

I realize - and I'm sure some of you may as well - that I don't have an extensive amount of what one might call "high end make up". As much I would like to, I'm a saving university student and school comes first (unless it's Chinese food and then we're in a whole new playing field). However I can say that all of my higher end products are loved to a more extreme level than the others, making it all worth the extra cash. 

I hope you all had a nice time looking over this. I would love to see your make up collections, or get some tips as to what new lovely things I should add to mine to grow and improve. 

Thanks for the read xx

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's Off to School we Go!

I'm sure that not all of you will be able to relate to this, as there may be some of you who are older than me, simply not going to university or some who live in BC (like I do) and are younger, and therefore Christy Clark is being a dink and you're not going to school yet... that's a rant for another day though.

Anywho! Today was the first day of school for many, and for some more specifically, the first day of university or high school, or even middle school. This can be scary stuff! I'm personally going into my second year of university which means i'm fairly settled in when it comes to campus and classes and what not. However, this doesn't mean that it's not nerve wracking.

For those in the more specific category, just remember that you're going to be fine, you'll get used to the changes around you and meet new people and learn new things and all will be well. It's okay if you get lost trying to find a class, or if you have a word fart and pronounce your name wrong when introducing yourself to the people around you. Don't be too hard on yourself today, we're all just living our lives and it'll go on regardless.

All this being said, I hope you had a great first day of school, and many more to come! xx

Seaside - The Kooks

Most probably say that you don't just wake up one day thinking to yourself "Maybe I should start a blog". They obviously don't know me very well. As I am one for spontaneity, I recently found myself taking an impromptu trip to Vancouver Island as a way to get away from the stress of work, as well as to bring my boyfriend, Kyle, back to his apartment in the Okanagan. 

I didn't get a lot of shots, but the following are a few snip its from my two day stay. 

Enjoy xx

 view from the house 

seaside living

 driving up to cowichan bay

goofball waiting for food

hot boyfriend ;)