I'm not going to pretend to be any sort of health savant, or deny the fact that I have eaten several items off of the floor (guilty), many items past their expiration date (guilty), and even the occasional desperate "I won't let it go to waste, I don't care if someone else threw it in the garbage" as a child (embarrassingly guilty). However, I must be doing some things right, since I hardly ever get sick. I moved to Montreal in August 2011, and I have only had one case of a cold that lasted longer than 48 hours, and keep in mind, I lived in communal student residence during that time. Now that it's the start of a new year, and ambitious resolutions that won't be kept, I thought I would share one of my favourite little products that packs a punch - the scented hand sanitizers from Bath & Body Works. 

I recently picked these four tubes up, but I have gone through several of these in the past. Depending on the season, the prices of these vary but they are always super cheap. Right now, you can buy these for under a dollar each, and that's a pretty fair price to pay for clean hands. I try to keep one near me at all times: in my purses, on my night table, near my makeup mirror, etc. As much as we all remember to wash our hands after we go to the bathroom, many people neglect doing so before they eat, apply makeup, or handle food (hey, myself included). Striving for cleaner hands in one of the most realistic resolutions we can all make. The best part about these hand sanitizers, is that they come in a multitude of delicious scents from the Bath & Body Works line. Personally, I love my hand sanitizers in sweet, gourmande flavors (can you tell?), but they also have plenty of neutral, fruity, floral or masculine scents available to satisfy your scent preferences. Note: the scents on many of these have better staying power than some of my perfumes, so I would pick scents you enjoy quite a bit.

I have faith that 2014 will be one of the best years yet (and if you won't believe me, then you should at least believe one of my favourite authors, John Green). Stay healthy, and get thee some cute holiday-scented hand sanitizers to bring those warm, celebratory feelings into the new year, while resisting illness as best as you can (also, vitamin C!). 

Happy New Year world! Crazy to believe it's already two thousand and fourteen...time can really fly eh? Personally, when someone refers to 2009, I feel like that was super-recent, but it was actually five years ago (holey moley cakes). This time of year is always very crazy for my family of six, since four of us have our birthdays during the month of December (and one in November, oy). Between Hannukah, exams, all of those birthday, the power outage we had from the 21st to the 25th (ah, Canadian ice storms), and finally New Year's...it's been a pretty crazy month. 

Out of all of the December family birthdays, mine is the last on December 30th; and by then, we're all kind of over birthdays, including myself. Given the holiday-timing of my birthday, I've never really done much to celebrate anyways. Unfortunately, this year I actually felt pretty ill on my birthday, and just in a generally foul mood. So what's a girl to do to lift her spirits? First thing in the morning, it was manicure time.

In my opinion, deborah lippmann is to nails, what Christian Loboutin is to shoes, or what Diptyque is to candles. Yes, they're rather expensive compared to similar alternatives, but at least they are masters of their craft that deliver consistently original, high-quality, luxurious products that can command such a price tags. Now, I've never actually bough a deborah lippmann nail polish, nor a Christian Loboutin shoe or Dyptique candle, for that matter. Thankfully, my mother has picked up a couple of her glitter shades over the years. I decided to go with Happy Birthday, because (a) it was my birthday, and (b) confetti glitter is most appropriate for New Year's Eve. Unfortunately, after one coat of Happy Birthday, I realized that the polish was a lot more sheer than I had anticipated, so I grabbed Today was a Fairytale, and ended up using two coats of each to reach a decent level of opacity.

I know that I kind of have a glittery mess all over my fingers in the picture, rest assured that this peeled right off my skin (but remained on my nails) after a couple of hand washings. I was very pleased with the end result, and still smile a little to myself every time I catch the light reflecting off of my fingers. Glitter nail polishes tend to have amazing longevity, and on Day 3 (today), there still isn't a chip in sight. If you don't feel like splurging on a deborah lippmann (and I wouldn't blame you), I've used some amazing glitters from OPI and Urban Outfitter nail polish (I kid you not). The only downside is that glitters are a pain to remove, so I recommend using an acetone nail polish removing tub, such as this one from Target.

As much as my birthday was no fairytale, I would argue that 2013 was quite a year of fairytales for me. I couldn't be more excited for my year to come, making Barcelona my temporary home, and having Europe at my fingertips. Here's to hoping the sparkle on my nails metaphorically symbolizes the sparkles in our year to come, and the many fairytales ahead. 

Before I said goodbye to my beloved Montreal apartment until next fall, I sort of had a lot of dishes to do that I had neglected during finals season. As you can imagine, my nails looked a hot mess afterword, so I had to take off my beloved OPI Elephantastic Pink manicure. Unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity to re-paint my nails prior to my bus ride back to Toronto. It may be pathetic, but I feel completely underdone without my nails painted. Although this may not be amazing for the health of my nails, I have a rather extensive manicure routine that manages to keep them growing strong. Naturally, I had to paint my nails almost immediately upon my arrival at home. 

Essie's Bikini So Teeny was released as part of their Summer 2012 collection, and it was lust at first sight. Since I already owned so many blues, it was hard to justify adding it to my collection, but I just could not seem to forget it. As coincidence would have it, my younger cousin wound up with two of these in her collection, as she got gifted one and already owned the shade. Fortunately, this meant that I was finally able to cross this off my ever-expanding wishlist. This bottle still features Essie's old thinner brush, which I find harder to work with, yet it still showed up beautifully in two coats (one would not have been sufficient). Truthfully, with my Revlon Colorstay Base + Top Coat, no nail polish shade can disappoint.

People often ask me what I consider more my "home" between Toronto, where I was born and raised, and Montreal, where I have lived on my own for 2.5 years. Honestly, I consider myself a dual-citizen of both municipalities, with half of my heart belonging to Toronto, and the other half to Montreal. Realistically it's more like a quarter for each, because significant amounts belong to NYC, Paris, etc., but you get the gist. However, there are some undeniable benefits about coming home to my parents and household comforts after a long independent semester of living a student-lifestyle (don't get me wrong, I still live nicer than most). My favourite part about being home? Hands down, our fridge built for a family of six with sumo-wrestler appetites:

There are many useful advantages of living with your family in a house that was built in this millenium, that I simply took for granted before moving out. These include, but are not limited to:

• A dishwasher
• A gas stove
• Private laundry machines
• Alarm security systems
• Access to a car (and someone to drive me) if necessary
• Other people that can cook!
• Storage space/more space in general

Additionally, there are several little luxuries that I get to enjoy when I go back home. These are just some of the many over-the-top benefits of having a foodie/great cook, homebody mother and a coffee-connoisseur, avid television-viewer father: 

• Heated floors
• Multiple televisions
• Big showers
• So. Much. Food. (leftovers!)
• Our family's DVD collection
• Multitude of spices, flavoured oils, seasonings, etc.
• Fancy red wine (enjoyed a lovely bottle of Mastro Janni 2007 last night)
• Several pod-style coffee makers

My father just happens to be a bona-fide caffeine addict, which has led to several coffee-maker purchases over the course of my childhood. Currently, our kitchen features a Cuisinart standard coffee-machine, a standard Keurig machine, a standard Nespresso machine, and a Nespresso Aeroccino milk frother. When I was only five years old, my dad took me to a Chapters bookstore where he got his standard black Starbucks Venti bold roast. I asked him to try a sip (remember, this was straight-up black, unsweetened, un-milked coffee), took a large gulp, and spat it all out straight onto the Chapters carpet floor. My dad then went to get paper towels to clean up, and was extremely satisfied in his successful attempt at turning me off coffee for years. Until my second year at university, I barely had anything beyond a sip of coffee in any form (no lattes, no cappuccinos, not even any frapuccinos or Coffee Crisp chocolate bars).

Then came second-year McGill University, when I chose to take a full course load and get all the difficult required classes out of the way. Well, when trying to balance accounting, statistics, and managerial economics midterms while still in the midst of my regular class schedule, my teas and energy drinks just weren't cutting it any more, and I slowly brought myself to a place where I even could drink coffee (with the help of much milk and sweetener). As with most bitter flavours, frequent consumption can eventually lead to a transformation of taste buds, and I grew to actually enjoy my coffee. Nowadays, I have coffee on most days, especially during any exam season. My parents gave me an old french press to make my own in Montreal, so I do that on occasion. However, I frequently wander over to a Starbucks (or another cafe) in order to take advantage of the ambience and to study more effectively. 

Now that school is out, I no longer need the added sitting-space and wifi that justifies a five dollar cup of coffee. Besides, who needs a cafe or professional barista now that pod-style coffee makers have gone mainstream? Inspired by my favourite cafe drink, a traditional café au lait, I now present you with my step-by-step guide to making your own damn good coffee in the comfort of your own home, featuring Keurig and Nespresso.

"As long as there was coffee in the world, how bad could things be?"
- Cassandra Clare, City of Bones

One of the many benefits of attending a large university (McGill) in a major metropolis (Montreal) is that there are a variety of opportunities to get involved and to take advantage of. This past weekend, I was lucky enough to glimpse the inner workings of CBC Montreal, by none other than the seasoned anchor Debra Arbec, who currently hosts CBC News: Montreal at 5:00pm, 5:30pm and 6:00pm from Monday to Friday.

As someone who has always had a passion for television and broadcasting, this experience was truly invaluable. Yes, I have been on the NBC studios tour in New York City (which was a blast and a half), and I have also been to CBC studios in Toronto several times to dance for the Easter Seals Telethon. However, the opportunity to spend over an hour with an actual anchor answering all of my (many) inquiries made me learn a whole lot about a career in news broadcasting and journalism. Not only was Mrs. Arbec extremely friendly and relatable by providing us with tons of insight and personal stories, but she also made a great effort to introduce us students to any member of the CBC Montreal team we encountered throughout the tour, which included her co-anchor Andrew Chang, reporters, producers, interns, writers and directors. Every single employee that we met was more than willing to answer our questions and offer advice. Additionally, I was able to learn the distinctions in job responsibilities across all of these different positions, and how they are increasingly becoming blurred as CBC employees are expected to be more and more cross-functional. Below is a slideshow of some of the pictures both taken by me, and by the McGill Women in Leadership club, who graciously organized the tour:

I once again want to thank the McGill Woman in Leadership club for organizing this event. In fact, the tour was originally supposed to be limited to fifteen students, and I was shocked that there were only a total of eight of us in attendance. I want to encourage any students reading this to stop immediately deleting all of your University emails, or walking by every bulletin board poster without so much as a glance. I know that we all get very busy, and that it can be hard to filter through all of the information being thrown at us constantly (considering a lot of it may have no relevance to your life), BUT you may just be missing out on some wonderful, unique opportunities!

So for anyone interested in a career in broadcast journalism, or who may just be interested in learning about the industry, I can share some of the insider anecdotes and tour highlights from Mrs. Arbec and her crew at CBC: