ThatsDarling

Life Well Complimented: Talaria Flats
June 11, 2017

Hello, beauties!

 

SO MUCH has happened since my last post! Can you believe it’s JUNE already?!

In the past month, we traveled to Hong Kong, attended weddings, our pup was born & finally saw some sunny weather in Vancouver! If you’ve been following my Instagram, you can see that I’ve added a compliment staple to my jet-setter, go-getter lifestyle. My latest go-to essential, packable flats from Talaria Flats!

Founded by Michigan Native, Ingrid Sarver, she saw the rise of the need to change shoes after (or during) a long night of dancing & fun. The idea of Talaria Flats was born. When I stumbled upon this brand, (girls, I know you do this too) I couldn’t help but think “How cute would these be as bridesmaids’ gifts?!”. <enters into idea board via Pinterest>.

Not only they are perfect gift-giving items, they really come handy with their small packable nature and the cutest shoe bag. In Hong Kong, I would swap my flip flops or heels to gain instant comfort to my feet. These shoes are available online and in select boutiques across North America (Kleinfeld is one of them!)

 

What do you guys think???

Find out here to shop & learn more

 

 

xoxo,

 

V

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Collaborations  / Life Well Curated  / Lifestyle  / Travel  / Uncategorized

Home Renovations: Update
May 8, 2017

Wow wow wow! It’s been a WHILE!

 

Life has it’s moments. Since my last post, we have made strides to get our renovations in check and WE MAY START DRYWALL SOON!!!

 

If you follow my Instagram, and my Instagram stories, you can see my trials and tribulations in determining the final pieces and decisions for our trades before we get our City Inspection and then DRYWALL!!! Once the drywall is up, it’ll be a fast process to bring in tile, fixtures, appliances, paint, MILLWORK and so much more!

 

This post I’ll show our inspiration and some of the choices we have made!! Scroll down below 🙂

 

INSPIRATION

 

Powder room! We decided to have a BLACK powder room! The mirror will be lined with LED strip lighting to have a “glowing” effect, and we have chosen a light pendant to drop on the right, just like the photo! We are thinking of a wooden vanity with a white Caesar Stone top and BLACK VENETIAN PLASTER as the wall!! What do you guys think??

 

 

The kitchen! My lovely kitchen!

We have decided to go with a GRAY KITCHEN!! Yesterday we agreed to go with Benjamin Moore’s Coventry Gray – it’s a beautiful, soft blue/purple light gray and ties in nicely with our Caesarstone Calacatta Nuvo, white tile and gray pendants from Norburn Lighting over the island! Did we also mention that we are putting WHITE HEXAGON TILE in the flooring?! Thank you, Olympia Tile!

 

 

Our Media room! Thank you, Josh, from Sage Cabinetry for being so patient with us and making our millwork choices so easy! Here is an idea of how our media center could potentially look like! It will have a nice white (Chantilly Lace) and wood stained look!

 

The doors! Since we are painting (almost) all our walls white, we’re accenting the unit with gray doors! (Coventry Gray by Benjamin Moore)

 

 

Our master bedroom inspo! Our next bedroom will be much smaller so we thought this cove-like millwork above and around the bed would be suitable for our needs! We are going with a wood stain-grade finish as the millwork and a dark backing with led ribbon lighting around the gable.

 

 

Master bath!

Our master bath is also much smaller, so to increase the value, we put in a trough sink for his and her sides! The vanity will be a Sidler Medicine Cabinet – from Norburn Lighting (Honestly everyone, ask for Fairen! She’s the best!) This is a space-saving idea and great for us girls… because we need the best light for our makeup, right? The color scheme for the master is light grays and a wooden vanity.

 

 

A feature accent wall! This lovely dark, blue-gray will be an accent wall in our dining area! We went with Benjamin Moore’s Midnight. It’s going to really pop our chandelier, dining chairs and dining table from Studio126YVR!

 

Color Choices:

Who knew choosing color could be the most difficult part of a renovation? I quickly learned that there are hundreds of different types of grays… and you can’t always determine the color right off the bat because you have to see how it looks in different times of the day, as well as in different weather conditions!

Kitchen: We chose to go for a soft gray kitchen, allowing it to be accented by our white walls. The gray we’ve finally decided to go with – is Coventry Gray by Benjamin Moore

 

 

Our walls: We decided to have white as our main wall color (surprise surprise!) See Chantilly Lace by Benjamin Moore

Our window frames in Chantilly Lace

 

 

Accent Wall: In our dining area, we wanted to really make our Studio126YVR table to really stand out, that’s when the idea of a dark accent wall came in. The winner of the dark wall swatches was Midnight by Benjamin Moore

 

 

More to come! Stay tuned for the next post!

 

xx

 

Veronica

 

 

Please note that the INSPIRATION photos are credited to Pinterest. The rest are Copyright to LifeWellCurated.com

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Life Well Curated  / Lifestyle  / Top

Waikiki Dreamin’
February 19, 2017

Long time no blog! I’m working on my blog/life balance. Renovations have started, we have been helping family members go through a transitional period as well as manage other things that seem to come up out of nowhere. I was so grateful for a special trip to Hawaii we booked a few months back. This was the first time for me to travel to Hawaii, I was beyond excited to eat my weight in fresh fruit and poke!!

 

As an avid traveler & wander luster, I was eager to try new things and explore with a healthy dose of Vitamin D and Vitamin Sea… Check out below for my trip highlights 🙂 I highly recommend the places we went if you are ever planning a trip to this beachfront neighborhood on the beautiful island of Honolulu

 

My first Acai bowl EVER! From Island Vintage Coffee

Gorgeous steps to our hotel – we stayed at The Sheraton Waikiki (Shoes & Romper: Revolve)

 

Which had a gorgeous infinity pool!! (Bikini: Revolve)

The hotel had an amazing selection for their buffet breakfast (What bikini body?) – The buffet had dim sum, congee, to pancakes & fruit!

Burgers & Poke from Duke’s Waikiki

Wandering around the island and looking up to these majestic giants…

Balmy air, salty hair… (Vest: Aritzia, Romer & Shoes: Revolve)

Mike surprised me by booking a special catamaran trip to snorkel with fish and turtle! (via: Sail Holokai) (Beach cover: Muraboutique)

My lash stylist texted me shortly after this to remind me to wash my lashes lol! (Bikini: Triangl)

The most beautiful sunset after the catamaran!

Poke!!! I can’t believe how much FISH you get for the price! (via: Poke Stop) (Top: Aritzia)

 

Every night is date night! This was taken at a beautiful indoor & outdoor restaurant called Il Lupino, apologies for the blurry/ filtered photo, it was incredibly dark and I’m not a fan of flash! (Dress: Revolve)

Our trip was also during Valentines <3 We had a lovely couples’ massage and I got a facial! I got quite a bit of sun so it was great to help my skin exfoliate, cleanse & rehydrate! (Dress: Muraboutique)

The most picturesque beaches, watching waves come in was incredibly therapeutic.

This Valentines, we had an extremely laid back, but romantic dinner by the beach. A few days prior, we went to Costco and scored on a $15 picnic bag & enough food & snacks to have for the week! (Did I mention that Costco in the States are a-ma-zing!?)

A nice sunny stroll down Kalakaua Ave for some shopping for our nieces… & an obligatory ice cream (Häagen Dazs Mango sorbet to be exact) and OOTD pose for the ‘gram 😉  (Outfit: Aritzia)

 

On one of the sunnier days, we drove down to Makapu’u beach for it was one of the less crowded beaches, I was astonished at how bold the kids were in bravely jumping into the waves! The waves were big (in my opinion) and they seemed to crash down hard. Mike and I chuckled with a few friendly strangers around us as we watched some young teen boys try to impress girls. One even faceplanted as he was trying to run with his board into the waves! (Beach Towel: The Beach People)

From the Makapu’u Lookout – one word, Wow!

 

On our last night, we went to a beautiful restaurant, La Mer. The service, ambiance, food & views were amazing. Mike and I both had a 3-course meal and though the portions were small, we were so stuffed! I highly recommend this restaurant for any special occasion! (His shirt: Indochino, my dress: Revolve)

 

Sunshine me happy

That’s all for now, folks! Keep posted for our next adventures 🙂

 

xo,

 

V

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Life Well Curated  / Lifestyle  / Travel  / Uncategorized

Milestone: Our First Renovation
January 29, 2017

What can I say? The past year has been a year of extremes – a multitude of high’s and low’s. This post is to talk about an extreme high!
Mike and I have been looking for a home to fit our needs for a little while.. man, the Vancouver market is aggressive! After countless open houses, hundreds of hours on realtor sites and 3 offers… we finally found the one!

The property is a DREAM! I was glad we saw it early and basically shotgunned an offer… not to mention Mike was leaving town that night! After a stressful 12 hours… the offer was accepted and in 45 days, we got possession! We spent a quite of bit of time in looking at what to change to maximize the space to ensure one day, maybe we can use it for income, but for now, it’s our first special project together. See below for some photos of the “before” stages 🙂

 

I forgot to mention… what a view?! This is the TV/Living space

Looking towards the bathroom and walk-in in the master bedroom

Gorgeous balcony off the master

Looking at through the kitchen to the living space.. and a shot of our awesome realtor Mike Wilcox – not to mention he was super knowledgeable of the current market and had great input in terms of helping us with optimizing the space!!

Kitchen from the media center/ living space

 

Entrance hallway, powder room to the left, washer/dryer, coat closet & storage on the right

Looking for the living space to the dining area… the feature wall + pendant lighting looks like a present! Lol

 

Looking to the second bed/office & stairway to….?

 

Second bed/office space

Second bed/ office space

 

That view though…

Second living space

 

 

After 6 months of planning, designing & working with the city & strata… we are finally ready to renovate!!!! I can’t wait to show you guys the finished product… we will have trades come through next week and start ordering plumbing, furniture & think about tile & furnishings!

This is what design dreams are made of (Ames Tile & Stone)

Trying to find the perfect pairings (Ann Sacks)

I must be dreaming (Aeon Stone & Tile)

Can you guess what our colour palette is?

Mocking up furniture & layout!

The dining table! 

TV/ Living furniture

 

So excited to say that last week we got great news… OUR PERMITS ARE FINALLY APPROVED! Stay tuned to see the full process & the decisions we made to get to the final product!!!

 

XO,

 

Veronica

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Life Well Curated  / Lifestyle

Wishing You a Budget – Friendly, Appetizing Holiday
December 19, 2016

Happy Monday! With 6 days left until Christmas  – I’ve decided to share a few tips and tricks on how I found a few budget-friendly Christmas Appy’s for your upcoming Holiday festivities!

Homemade Hummus:

Hummus is a great option for an appetizer because of it’s nutritional value, cost effectiveness, and it is delicious! It is super rich in protein, dietary fiber which promotes healthy bacteria and a happy digestive system. What I love about homemade hummus – is that I am not afraid to douse it in a ton of olive oil! (Olive oil is a healthy fat – and helps with the digestion of the dietary fiber)

Ingredients:

  • 1 can of chickpeas (look for the can with the lowest sodium)
  • 1 lemon
  • A tablespoon of cumin
  • Paprika, to taste
  • Salt ‘n Pepaaa
  • Olive Oil (I free pour)

Recipe

  • Open the can of chickpeas & drain – I often rinse out as much preservative as possible by running the chickpeas under cool water
  • Pour the chickpeas into a blender, add spices & olive oil till it reaches about 1/3 of the height of the chickpeas.
  • Cut the lemon and squeeze all the juice into the blender.
  • Blend. And maybe do a happy dance.
  • Pause the blender and taste the hummus, add more paprika, or any of the spices of your choice to taste. I sometimes add Siracha salt… because it’s Siracha salt!!!
  • Use a spatula to pour the creamy goodness into a bowl, use a large fork to make circular striations.
  • Powder the striations with cumin then paprika, add more olive oil on top!
  • Yum!!!

Homemade Lentil Dip:

Another great source of dietary fiber, I learned my lentil recipe from my bestie, B! (She just founded Wellspace Studio) These little legumes are great with cucumber slices and has a refreshing taste & profile! See below for the recipe:

Ingredients:

  • 1 can of lentils (find the one with the least amount of sodium)
  • Cumin
  • Paprika
  • Salt ‘n Pepa
  • Lemon Juice
  • Parsley flakes
  • Dijon Mustard
  • Olive Oil

Recipe:

  • Open the can of lentils, rinse under cold water.
  • In a mixing bowl, add the lentils with the spices
  • Free pour (in a zig zag pattern) the dijon mustard, do the same with the Olive poin
  • Cut the lemon open and squeeze all of it’s juice
  • Mix and add more spices to taste, how simple is that?!

Prawn Skewers:

Armed with its’ protein & omega-3’s prawn skewers are a quick and easy appetizer to entertain your guests!

Ingredients:

  • Frozen large prawns, find the uncooked ones in the freezer section
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • Parsley flakes
  • Salt ‘n Pepa
  • Lemon (1/2)
  • Coconut oil

Recipe:

  • In a non-stick pan, melt a tablespoon of coconut oil
  • Dice the clove of garlic to tiny pieces, add to the pan
  • Let the garlic sit till sizzling
  • Take the prawns out of the freezer and lay them into the pan, cook until pink
  • Salt & pepper to taste
  • Add lemon juice and cook till the prawns have a brown cooked tinge, or till the lemon juice has evaporated
  • Yum!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas & a Happy Holiday Season!

Cheers,

Veronica

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Food

Hello!
December 5, 2016

Hello, World!

Welcome to my outlet & snapshots of my life. I am a 26-year-old foodie, creative, photographer, traveler, and techie.

It’s been a while since I last blogged… Not sure if you followed, but I used to write a blog called Polaroids & Peonies. My life has changed significantly since then. This year, I’ve traveled a multitude of about 17 cities, 5 countries and countless memories. I learned so much about myself, my mental & physical limits and the importance and true value of the relationships I’ve made. Here, I’ll share you my story on what has happened in my life, decisions I’ve made, as well as tips and tricks on how I live a happy & wholesome life. Follow me on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram to find out more!

Hope you enjoy!

With love,

V

#LifeWellCurated

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Life Well Curated  / Lifestyle


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