I have been a bit absent from the blog the last few week, I blame an awful cold that I just could not shake. The worst part of feeling sick like that is not being able to write at all, I honestly could not focus enough to write one full sentence. Well I am back now and ready to write.

You may not know this about me, but in addition to collecting makeup, Coco-Cola items and tea pots, I also have pretty extensive tea collection (it works well with the tea pot part). While I was sick I drank an exorbitant amount of tea, one of which I am going to review for you now.

Fall for me is all about getting back into tea and really only one type of tea will do, Chai! Yep Masala Chai is what I am all about. Now I feel someone might yell at me if I don't clarify here, but chai actually means tea, but in North America Chai tends to refer to Masala Chai which is a blend of spices and tea. Most of the time you get cinnamon, clove, cardamon, anise, and ginger. While you can always pick up a chai tea in loose leaf and tea bags, most people end up getting lattes.
Trader Joe's Makes a Chai Tea Latte Mix that I have been fascinated with for the last few years. A mix that you need less then a scoop of to get a strong and spicy latte without the need for anything but hot water (although you can add milk too if you like).

I love how frankly it is a powder and not a liquid in a tetra pack like Starbucks, it makes it last a lot longer (you get about 10 to 12 servings per tin) and I don't have to mix it half with milk and try not to burn it on my stove like with the liquid concentrate. I just have to boil water and stir, if I really want I can whisk it a bit for a froth. I also really like that it is a spicy mix, not a horribly sweet one, it really makes having a chai latte worth while to me.

I also have bought some Chai Latte Mix from Bulk Barn in the past, there is honestly no comparison. That stuff is incredibly sweet and lacks any flavour at all. It really is like comparing Tim Horton's French Vanilla Latte mix to an actual latte, ick.

I personally make it with about 2/3 of a scoop instead of a full scoop and into a very large mug (not the 6oz that is recommended). This way I get a nice spicy latte that isn't too sweet for me and my tin lasts a lot longer.

The only down side to this tea is, it is from Trader Joe's, a store that I love a lot but is sadly not in Canada. I try to get friends or family to bring me a container at least once a year, so I don't ever run out (that's how much I like it).

Last week I went to the launch of the Bier Markt's Oktoberfest Menu which runs until October 4th.

My husband used to work in a German restaurant and I am half German in ancestry (my grandparents speak and write German), so it is natural that we love German food. Oktoberfest is one of the few times of the year we really get to go all out and enjoy it in a joyous fashion.

Last year we went to Kitchener for their famous fest and had a great time, since we couldn't go this year we were so happy to go to the Bier Markt for their celebrations.
First off we had some yummy yummy Bavarian Pretzels. So soft and salty, I want more right now. It is served with a homemade mustard that I really liked (I like vinegary mustard).
 Next we had a Currywurst Poutine. I have heard so much about currywurst over the years but never had it. Traditionally it is a knackwurst served with a warmed up ketchup with curry in it next to potatoes so the idea of making poutine out of it sounded perfect and it pretty much was.
I was completely blown away with the ketchup. I don't really love ketchup from stores, but this homemade sauce with its curry was just so tasty.
 I was officially full but the husband wanted more and got the Chicken schnitzel and subbed out the sauteed green beans for the sauteed red cabbage (he loves cabbage). When it showed up I was in shock it was a massive plate and enough schnitzel to feed at least two. I ended up eating about 1/3 of it since the hubby got full.
Everything about this dish was perfect, I mean lingonberry jam with schnitzel, yum yum.
Finally I decided after a sampling of the Paulander's Oktoberfest beer that I should get a pint, but I somehow got talked into a stein, which was too heavy to hold with just one of my hands.

This is now my favourite beer, and I hope to get lots more while the season is on.

the hubby with the beer I thought was just too big for me.

I already have plans to go to the Don Mills location with a friend and the hubby has already gone back twice for a pint and pretzel since he works near the Esplanade location.
To make the season even more festive, every on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights during the festival there will be live Oompah Oompah bands playing. I found the one at the Esplanade very entertaining, I'm sure my grandfather would have loved it.

I highly recommend if you love a good beer and some German food to check out a Bier Markt near you for some Oktoberfest festivities before the 4th and it all ends. Check out the full menu at thebiermarkt.com





*I was not paid or compensated for this post, just invited to an event where I got to sample a some of the menu items, all other items were paid for by myself.

Time again for another FOTD, this time it's with just L'oreal Paris Canada products.

I love my L'oreal True Match Lumi Foundation, love it. This time I am pairing it up with the Magic Lumi Light Infusing Primer for a glowy look. Visible Lift Blur Concealer with the  Infallible Pro-Matte Powder are rounding out the face part of the look. Giving me a glow, but not a shiny look.
 Infallible Pro-Matte Finish Powder in 100 Porcelain

Lips:
Infallible Lipstick in 111 Passionate Petal
So that is about it for the look. I am really happy at how flawless it all turned out. The eyeshadow primer is definitely one of the best I have tried in a very long time, it makes the rose toned quad stay all day and blend like a dream.
I had heard some mixed things about the Infallible lipstick, but I must say I found it stayed all day and once the moisturizing top coat was applied I had no complaints about my lips being dry. Don't get me wrong, they felt like pretty darn dry until that top coat went on, but once it was on, it they felt just fine, and for the rest of the day.

Here are a few more shots of the overall look of the day.

Ingredients: Honeybush, almonds, safflowers, almond, macadamia nut and rum flavour.
Ingredients: Black tea , ginger root, green cardamom, chocolate chips and chocolate flavour.
Herbal Winter Elixir:
Ginger root, orange peel, mint leaves, eucalyptus, ginger and orange flavours.
Lady in Blue:
Ingredients: Whole leaf black, blue mellow blossoms, lavender flowers and bergamot flavour.
Melon Lemonade:
Honeydew melon cubes (honeydew melon, sugar), apple pieces, hibiscus blossoms, orange slices, flavoring, acidifying agent: ascorbic acid.
This blend featured very large chunks of dried melon. I assume it will make a fantastic iced tea.
Almond Cookie:
Green tea (80%), orange slices, planed almonds, flavoring, pink peppercorns, safflower.
This tea smells like almonds, sweet sweet almonds. Amaretto is what I think it smells like (surprisingly amaretto is not made with almonds but apricot pits).
Maple Walnuts:
Sencha green tea (80%), walnuts, brittle pieces (sugar, hazelnuts, invert sugar), almond pieces, flavouring.
This tea has gigantic walnut halves in it, but not too many. Sort of odd. It smells good.
Lemon Rock Sugar:
Sugar, flavours. 
I like rock sugar, I do. I buy mine at Walmart or T&T in the tea section, but I pay less than $2.00 for a  bag with over 200g in it. This bag has 50g and I don't feel it will go very far. It does appeal to me for black tea.
Green tea (64%), lemon grass, pineapple cubes (pineapple, sugar), pineapple flakes, flavoring, freeze-dried acerola cherries, sour cherries, freeze-dried sour cherry pieces, safflowers.
This tea has pretty big pineapple chunks in it. It sounds like it will make a great iced tea in the summer time. Cherries, yum!
Bai Mu Dan white tea, hibiscus, cornflowers, rose hips, with lychee, goji berry and cabernet flavors.
This tea comes in a bigger bag, since the teas are weighted some are physically bigger than others. I love hibiscus so this one makes me happy.  It also smells of lychees pretty strong and reminds me of the green lychee bubble teas I used to drink.

A Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick in Aria which is a magenta plum colour I believe $10.99.

 I did get the Lorac TANalizer Highlighter and Matte Bronzer Duo, it was $12
 I picked up some NYX as well, two Butter Glosses (apple strudel and sugar cookie) and Dark Circle Concealer in Fair, it is a orange toned concealer.
 Too Faced Sugar and Spice contains 12 shadows and a mini Better Than Sex mascara in a cute little bag.
 Tarte Away Oui Go set is meant for the traveller. It has four sets of four shadows and blush, 3 glosses and a Lights, Camera, Lashes mascara.
 The idea is that you can pop out the set you want and take it with you in the blue travel case.

We got two Triple Ginger Snaps, the best ginger snaps ever! a Fruit Jellies for the hubby, he really likes fruit jellies and I am always looking for some for him. Finally we got the product that started our TJ obsession, the Chocolate Orange Sticks.
 Three tubs of  Speculoos Crunchy Cookie Butter, they were out of the regular one. This might be my favourite stuff on earth. The hubby got a PB&J Milk Chocolate Bar.
 Now on to pumpkin madness....
 Pumpkin Spiced Chia Tea Latte Mix, yeah that just sounded too yummy not to get. Pumpkin Cornbread Mix I plan on making Chili and making these to go with it. Pumpkin Spice Coffee I needed coffee and this has all the pumpkin spices (no pumpkin) in it. It smells amazing.  Pumpkin Body Butter I have the Coconut version and love it, so I had to get this. Pumpkin Bread and Muffin Mix and Pumpkin Butter, I got the Williams-Sonoma version of this a few years ago and it was a hit at Thanksgiving. While the WS was tasty it was also pricy as hell, these were $2.99 each. They were also doing tastings of them together and it was just as good as the WS version. Finally I got the Toasted Pumpkin Seed Oil which is such a pretty dark green and just the right amount of toasted, it is going to be used on salads for months to come.
 The hubby loves candy corn, I mean LOVES it. He picked up some Brach's S'mores and Pumpkin Spice Candy Corn. I hate the texture of candy corn so these are all his (he already ate most of the S'mores).
 I always have to get Swiss Miss Diet Hot Chocolate. It only has 25 calories and taste amazing.
 Kelly McKelly raved about Coffee Mate Hazelnut on one of her Coffee Time With Kelly videos, so heck I had to grab one. Hazelnut is one of my go to flavours (as well as pumpkin, pumpkin spice and mint chocolate). I also got Archer Farms (Target brand) Pumpkin Spice Coffee Syrup, it happens to be sugar free and the exact same bottle of my empty Starbucks hazelnut syrup. So I am putting the Starbucks pump onto this one. I saw that they had regular flavours as well (hazelnut, carmel, vanilla) so I am going to go for a hunt to see if they are in Canada or not since it was ¼th of the price that Starbucks charges.
 I picked myself up some tasty other treats, Trident Layers gum in Pumpkin Spice and Mint M&M's.
 I also stopped by the Under Armour outlet. I picked up a few shirts on clearance and this fantastic gym bag for $39.99. Very happy about it since it is still listed on their USA website for $69.99.