Style Icon Saturday by Meg Featuring Clémence Poésy

I was immediately drawn to Clémence Poesy's sense of style when I saw her for the first time, outside of the Harry Potter films. Being French, she has a very Parisian look to her: simple, yet chic.

Photo Courtesy of Elle UK

Photo Courtesy of Elle UK

Clémence Poesy has reportedly said: “I tend to wear exactly the same things at night that I wear during the day. I don’t really like dressing up unless I have to. I also tend to go out to places where you can wear a sweater and jeans.”

I can appreciate a sentiment like this. Although I do get the urge to dress up sometimes, I am more comfortable in the casual and laid back. But that's not to say that Clémence doesn't dress up, she's a huge fan of Chanel. 

Kit Hydrating Facemask with Sunflower Oil Review

This week's facemask is the Kit Hydrating Facemask with Sunflower Oil. When researching sunflower oil I found it has many positive skincare links, including helping to protect your skin from the sun as well as antioxidants to help with anti-aging.

(Am I the only one who always gets facemask everywhere, especially my hair?

Doesn't matter if my hair is up or down, it's messy!)

The instructions for this facemask will be familiar to you if you've read my other facemask posts: apply evenly to a freshly cleansed face, massage for one minute, leave on for five minutes and wash up! Easy-peasy.

Sarah's Key - Book Review

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay is the story of an American journalist, Julia Jarmond, living in Paris in the 2000s. Julia's whole life changes when she stumbles upon the history of the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup: the arrests of over 13,000 Jews, including more than 4,000 children, who were contained at the Veledrome de Hiver for weeks in inhuman conditions (lacking proper sanitation, water, and food) before they were shipped to concentration camps to be murdered. Julia's life becomes intertwined with the life of Sarah, a young inhabitant of the apartment Julia and her husband are renovating in 1942 and who, along with her family, was taken to the Vel' d'Hiv and later the concentration camps. 

This is a very emotional fictional tale of a real event. I have always been interested in the Holocaust since I was a little girl and read Number the Stars by Lois Lowery and The Diary of Anne Frank. Since then I have read many, many historical accounts of the Holocaust, but had never heard of the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup and I had to ask myself why?

It's possible that I have heard if it and have simply forgotten the name and details, as I was familiar with the French complicity of World War II. Likely it us simply that as a Canadian with limited time in History class to focus on World War ll and the Holocaust, specific incidents like these, no matter how horrific, just slipped through the cracks. I remember only spending one or two days on the Holocaust in highschool (which translates into two hours, give or take!). And since there is much to be taught about the Holocaust, not everything can be mentioned. 

Side note: I am not saying my education in Canada on the Holocaust was lacking, I had a good teacher who went over the main details and stressed what was important, read numerous articles, watched an informative documentary with actual footage from the concentration camps, and had the opportunity to listen to a few survivors speak. The point is, you will never known everything about everything, especially with a small time frame! 

In The Kitchen With Cate: Pineapple Onion Pork Chops & Oven Roasted Garlic Brussels Sprouts

Hello again,

Today I am back with another cooking post. This weekend I went out of my comfort zone and made something other than chicken (gasp!) and it was delicious. This proves that going out of your comfort zone, even if it's just food wise, can result in something really good and in this case it resulted in something quite tasty.

I am also doing two recipes in one post today. I decided to make a side dish as well that I found on the oh so lovely Pinterest (which if you don't follow us already, you can here).

The first recipe is for Pineapple Onion Pork Chops. I found this recipe on the site www.tasteofhome.com and you can find the original right here.

Pineapple Pork Chops 

You want to take your Flour, Salt, and Ground Pepper and coat your Pork Chop pieces in them. The recipe suggests using a Ziploc bag for this but I did not have any large ones so I used this bowl which I found worked well as long as you make sure to coat the pork evenly. 

Once you coat the chicken you want to lightly cook them in your frying pan until they are slightly brown. Don't cook them all the way through since you will be baking them soon. 

You then add your Pork Chops to a greased pan. Add your Water as well as your Chopped Onion on top.