Canadian Favorites; Kingston Edition

Since my second trip to Canada, I've started to collect a few favorite places to visit while in the country, keep reading to see my Ontario favorites!

Kingston Olive Oil Company

• On my last visit I was introduced to this awesome oil company in a pop-up shop near Fort Henry in Kingston. This year, my mom (who is equally smitten) and I made it a point to visit their full store in downtown Kingston on Brock street. 

Coffee & Company

• I popped into Coffee & Company for a quick "fancy" coffee beverage towards the end our trip (a week sans fancy beverages was almost too much). In addition to receiving a delicious "Milano" with latte art, I had a great 5 minute conversation with a few members of the staff and found myself wanting to sit down and grow some roots in the cute shop.

Cooke's Fine Foods

• Cooke's was recommended to us by one of our fishing guides as the place to pick up pepper jelly. Not a fan of peppers myself, I walked out with a pound of their locally roasted Chez Peggy II coffee beans for my husband and a cappuccino chocolate bar made by Galerie Au Chocolat for myself. Located on Brock St across from Kingston Olive Oil company, you could easily spend an hour in there browsing all the novelty foods available. 

City + Cargo

• Stumbling upon City + Cargo was such a happy accident. While waiting for my mom outside the Kingston Olive Oil Co (she got a bit carried away), I walked next door to City + Cargo after spotting GORGEOUS leather goods in the window. I didn't make a purchase that day, but I kept thinking about this classic tote bag and made a second trip to Kingston specifically for one of these totes to bring home. I love to support other small businesses and part of the fun of purchasing this bag was talking to the owner of the store who made my bag with his own hands. Hearing how passionate he was about his products was infectious and left a strong impression on me.

Bubba's Pizzeria

• While shopping for my beloved tote, the troops became restless. What I mean to say is that my younger siblings who have to eat approximately once per hour became quite hangry after realizing we drove 35 minutes for me to buy a purse. We wandered into Bubba's to appease them and wound up stumbling upon "The Best Poutine in Town". I have to say, I was thoroughly surprised, it was amazing. Having no other Poutine to compare against, I'd say Bubba's was definitely the best. What Bubba's lacks in decor, it makes up for in cheese curds. I'd happily stop back for lunch! PS the pictured size is listed as a "small", Canadians must have different sizing up there because I could only get through about 1/3 of it before one of the troops commandeered it. 

MDW Scores

I feel like I have been working like a mad woman. I mentioned in my last post that I've put more time and effort into my new job than ever before (and I'm loving it), but it has definitely taken a bit of a toll on me-I'm exhausted! The good news is that I did not realize that MDW was upon us and I was so delightfully surprised last week when I realized that I would have this Monday off! In addition to a much appreciated day off and some time to reflect on those amazing men and women that served for our freedom is the amazing sales that most retailers offer on this glorious weekend.

I spend a lot less time on the computer in my new role which means I am no longer trolling websites for sales and "next up" purchases, so now, online shopping has become a real treat and one that I indulged in quite a bit this morning. I made 3 purchases (J Crew, Forever 21, and Old Navy), see below for what was worthy of me forking over my hard earned cash!

Pay Day Priorities

So, I may be speaking only for myself, but I live for payday (you feel me, right?). I'm paid bi-weekly which means that 1 week I'm ballin' and the next I'm living on Ramen (cue exaggeration) and dreaming about all the things I'll promptly spend my money on once it hits my "expense" account.

Not to get too personal with how my husband and I handle our money, but I'll fess up that I have a separate checking account, lovingly referred to as my expense account which houses a small portion of my salary that is ear marked for fun (re. fashion/jewelry/makeup) purchases. I'm always fascinated by what people spend their money on, so I thought it may be interesting to share with you guys. This week's expense stash totals $300, with about $100 of it set aside for a hair cut on Sunday (inspiration here).

I'm trying this new thing where I don't spend all of my money on the day that I receive it, so we will see how that goes. So far, I've nabbed a Zara bucket bag and my new favorite mascara. Keep reading for a few more details and for a preview of what I'm saving for!

  

Originally I was planning to purchase this Loeffler Randall bag (see my sale picks here), and I sent the link to my best friend and she came back at me with this Zara bag for a quarter of the price of the Loeffler (even on sale). It was an obvious choice, I had to pull the trigger! PS. Refinery29 listed this bag among their Best Bucket Bag choices for Spring (yay! I'm cool!). 

I personally always wonder if bloggers truly "love" what they say they do on their blogs. I try to be 100% honest here on Novelty and I can tell you that I do honestly love this mascara. You may remember this post, where I called it my favorite product received in all my Petit Vour boxes, and I MEAN IT! It's $20, which is definitely more than I've been paying for drugstore mascara, but it's well worth it. It's vegan and all natural and wears beautifully. Also, if you order it from Petit Vour (here), there's free domestic shipping, and I'm a free shipping whore, so I'm in! 

SAVING FOR . . . 

I've wanted Illesteva sunglasses for the longest time (are you singing Billy Joel yet?). I thought that they were somewhere around $300 for a pair, so I was pleasantly surprised when I recently checked out their site and saw that they not only have an "eco friendly" collection, but that the styles are priced at $177! I've set aside a few bucks towards buying these babies and I'm hoping to take the plunge next pay day, stay tuned . . .