Livin' La Vida Latke: My Family's Latke Recipe

Channukah is now upon us all, and while I realize I'm pretty late in posting this... that's the beauty of this holiday. Eight nights of chances to post your family's latke recipe to the internet.

So while a small fraction of you reading this might know that a year ago I attempted to make beauty/lifestyle videos, an even smaller fraction of you might know that my ventures in making YouTube videos go even farther back than that. The videos I was making for my hauteteawithhoney channel didn't feel right to me, like I was trying to be something I'm not. Maybe one day I'll try to return to that channel and start again, but lately I've returned to completely different style of vlogging that's more my comfort zone. When I was in high school I used to be pretty into YouTube and its community, but ended up fading away from it all when it became more... industrialized. But after a half-decade hiatus I've returned and it's starting to feel fun again. The videos I'm planning on making don't necessarily have a theme to them, and while I know according to YouTube that's not exactly conducive to channel growth, my mickiebee14 channel is a place I've always used as a dumping ground. Stupid username from my high school days and all. (Can you guess the age I was when I made the channel?)

So in getting back into video making, I invited my friend Katia (blog) to come over and make latkes together as per our tradition, this time with the added twist of filming it.

This is the latke recipe my family uses every year for the holiday season, and let me tell you with or without my nostalgia bias, they are delicious. So whether or not you celebrate Channukah, I hope you enjoy this recipe! And if you try it, leave a comment and let me know what you think!

My Personal Post-Editing Commandments

Well it's been a bit, hasn't it?

For the last little while I've been planning some posts concerning my favourite beauty products for Autumn. However, during my planning I got hit pretty hard with a virus/cold that's been going around Toronto. So, for example, swatching different lip colours on my lips didn't seem the wisest choice.

During my sickness though, I realized the importance of editing. I decided to really pare down my previously 'Top 10' lists to 'Top 5's. I found that while it can be nice to scroll through a blog post of lovely swatches, most of the products I put in were there more as just what I generally would wear rather than what my must-have, loved colours were. And, as I do tend to lean more towards the budget/drugstore end of the beauty world, I figured I'd keep the posts wallet-friendly for the time being.

So here's the rules I've given myself for future "Top __" posts for editing down to my favourites. If for no other reason I'm posting these for the sake of reminding myself to stick to them, and for reference when I write future posts.

Butterbeer Cupcakes!

I think it would be safe to say I've been on a bit of a baking kick lately. I used to bake fairly often when I was in high school, but as soon as I began university I found it difficult to set aside time to even just throw a batch of cookies into the oven. But the past few weeks I've been making dozens of cookies, and the other week I decided I wanted to retry a recipe I made once before moving out for first year that I had botched a bit from lack of proper ingredients. (NOTE: When a recipe asks for "Butter Flavouring" don't just add extra butter. Just... don't.) The recipe I'm referring to is the scrumptious Butterbeer Cupcake recipe from the blog Pastry Affair. This recipe is pretty complicated, and as my baking game has been pretty low lately I enlisted my friends Katia (her blog is here) and Brandon to help me out!

Review: Lush Lord of Misrule Bath Bomb and Gold FUN (Bath Bomb SPOILERS)

So it looks like pretty much all of the posts I've been writing lately have been reviews. What can I say? They're the quickest ones I can put together, and honestly they're the blog posts I enjoy reading the most!

Currently I'm on my Reading Week, so on Tuesday my friend Vicki and I went skiing/snowboarding for a couple nights up in Collingwood. While it was fun to get out there and be active and unwind, holy crap am I sore. I've been skiing since I was about 6 years old, but I haven't been able to for the past few years thanks to a couple of concussions. It wasn't difficult to remember how to ski... but let's just say my poor body, dominantly my shins, were not ready for that kind of physical exertion.

First night back home... what do I do? Nice hot bath, of course. Trying new products... why don't I review them? :)

Unboxing/Review: The Curious Case of the Mystery Brand Voxbox

So one fine Monday afternoon I was sitting around on my computer, as I do, and I receive an email. I'm going to get my second Influenster Voxbox? And it's a Mystery Voxbox? About L'Oreal Haircare? Wonderful!

This prompted me to realize I hadn't checked the mail that day yet... so I did. What do I find? The Voxbox already there?

It was magic, I swear.

Swatch and Review: My Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter collection + lip/hand swatches!

Am I a little late to the lip butter party? Probably.

I love Revlon lip butters. Like, a lot. Why? Because I am likely the laziest person you could ever meet. My makeup needs to be quick, light, and simple. Because I am admittedly not very experienced when it comes to makeup.

I can barely even do a smoky eye.

Review: Batiste Dry Shampoos

Dry shampoo: the best product I've discovered in the past two years. What is it, you ask? A lazy girl's pipe dream come true. A product that refreshes your hair the moment you feel it gets greasy without requiring you to constantly strip your hair by over washing. This stuff is great for everyone. I love it as I am one with crazy thick, dry hair that frizzes if I wash it too frequently, and takes at least three or four days to start getting noticeably greasy. 

And out of the dry shampoos I've tried, I've preferred the ever-classic Batiste over all of them.

This vs. That: Lush Celebrate Body Lotion vs. Lush Snowshowers Shower Jelly

This Lushmas, Lush came out with a new body lotion called "Celebrate". And, after sniffing it in the store, I fell in love with the scent. A citrus-y, rich body lotion that smells like how I wish champagne would smell. It's light, sweet, effervescent, and very moisturizing. The issue for me? I'm a student that works part-time, thus making the $30 price tag a little steep for a body lotion. This scent also comes in a bath bomb, the Golden Wonder, however I am not a fan of glitter or glittery baths whatsoever. So, the lovely ladies at Lush (alliteration!) kindly made me a substantial sample of Celebrate and I went on home to deliberate whether or not I wanted to splurge at a later date (rhyming!). However, Lush recently had a perfume chat party that I dropped in on where a Lush employee mentioned that Lush once sold a shower jelly in the same scent as Celebrate and Golden Wonder called Snowshowers! At this point, they hadn't made the jelly live on the website for December, but as soon as I saw on the site that Snowshowers was available (which I had no idea that it would be) I snatched it up on December 1st! The price tag, at $13 was much more appealing for my wallet, but I figured once I received my beloved jelly that I'd use my sample to compare both products to see which product is more worth it for my lovely readers if you enjoy the scent.

So on to the comparison!

My first haul video... EVER! (VIDEO)

Hello to all you lovely people reading this!

So I wasn't sure if I was going to post this after posting my first video such a short while ago... but I posted part one to my first haul on YouTube!

Back to the vlogger life, I suppose?

For those of you reading this who didn't know, which is likely 95% of you, once upon a time I used to my videos on YouTube. Fairly regularly. I used to be pretty active in the community, have friends I would talk to every night on Skype, and go to gatherings.

And then, university applications and then classes took over my life and I haven't made videos since...

UNTIL NOW.

Prepare yourself for my awkward ramblings and excessive jump-cutting. It's an addiction.

Stay sweet.

x,

Mickie

Unboxing/Review: Influenster Maple VoxBox.

My first VoxBox just came in! An on the crappiest of days, no less. Just the thing I needed to cheer myself up a bit!

For those who don't know what Influenster is, it's a site that you have to be invited to or request an invite for. You complete some surveys, write some reviews and if you are active enough you can qualify for boxes of new products for you to review. It takes patience, I've been on Influenster for over a year, and I believe this is their first box for Canadians that I luckily qualified for.

So to keep from blabbering, on to the unboxing!

Halloween DIY: Fake melted pillar candle tealight holders!

Holy wow. Is that DIY name a mouthful or what?

Here I give you the first of what will likely be many more DIYs I will post to this blog. This is the first Halloween I've had living in my own place that I actually want to decorate. I was living in student housing before (nothing like a room with thin plaster walls and checkered tiles?), and since moving into my new place almost a full year ago, I never really got a chance to even think about decorating for holidays. Mostly just unpacking boxes and assembling furniture. Which I am still doing. It's a little pathetic.

So I bring to you today an easy, wallet-friendly Halloween DIY that you can make with supplies you likely already have lying around the house!

Toronto Fashion Week 2013: My first fashion show!

So yesterday, I was definitely walking on clouds. At 1:45 PM I got a text from my friend Christine Lieu of In Lieu Of Apparel asking me if I wanted to go to see the 3 PM Hilary MacMillan show at World MasterCard Toronto Fashion Week. After about 15 minutes of deliberating due to the on-call I had at work for 6 PM (that's about a 1 1/2 hour commute away), I leaped into action and began scrambling for what to wear. You see, I have never been to Fashion Week. I have never seen a fashion show live. The closest I've ever gotten to seeing a live fashion show before yesterday was watching runways online and the Victoria's Secret fashion shows on TV. I had no idea what clothing to put on my body.

So after throwing probably every article of clothing and footwear I own around my apartment, I got dressed, threw on my most chic Steve Madden coat and ran like a mother****** out my door. I got to the tents right as it started to rain with 15 minutes to spare before the show. I was sweaty and gross and astonished my makeup had stayed in place... but I didn't care. I found Christine and we bolted inside and took our seats.

Review: Honey by Marc Jacobs

So... first post, eh? Awkward. Feels like a first date. Only it's over a blog, not a dinner table or bag of popcorn.

It seems that most of my social networking names link back to the first motif of my internet identity, a bumblebee. So I figured... hey, why not find a way to tie that into the name here too? On that note, I figure it only appropriate to start off by doing a review of this new scent in my (albeit, quite small) perfume collection.

WELL, HEY THERE.

My name's Michaela, or Mickie as my friends call me.

I'm a student, an illustrator, a blogger, and a seasoned vlogger. I love fashion, beauty, art... and this is my little soapbox to tell the whole world about it.

Let's be friends?