Hotel Spa Night

Every now and again I have to travel for work and sometimes I end up in a city where I don't know anyone, and there's nothing good to do by yourself.  Or sometimes you just need to enjoy the time to yourself.

That's when I started having spa nights.  You can usually find a grocery store or drug store close by to get everything you need.

What you need varies depending on what you want to do.

This time I decided on:

Balea unscented wipes (for make up removal)

St. Ives Apricot Scrub (for scrubbing)

Balea face mask (for masking)

Alberto V05 hot protein treatment (for my hair)

As a bonus, add some chocolate and maybe a glass of wine (I had some tea)

If you plan ahead you can definitely make some of these items, or bring things you have from home.  I usually decide on the impromptu spa night, so I just take a quick trip to the store!

My bathroom had a really great set up for this, the shower & toilet were separate from the sink.

Firstly, remove your makeup.  You can do this however you like - I bought wipes for it.

Now prep your hot towel.  I used my ice bucket and filled it with hot water & put my folded towel into it.

Now that your towel is sitting in the hot water, put your face mask on according to the directions on the package.

When it's time to take it off, use a warm face cloth to do so.  (sorry folks, no sweet pictures of me with no makeup and a face mask on!)

Now wring out your hot towel and place it on your face so that only your nose is out and the middle of the towel wraps around your chin.  This is good to do when you're lying down on your giant king bed with more pillows that you know what to do with! 

When the towel is no longer warm take it off and proceed with your treatments. 

Next I used my hair mask.  Any kind of hair mask or hot oil treatment would work here.  

And for a little extra decadence, you can run the shower as hot as possible, and sit in the nice steamy bathroom while you wait (I know, not exactly envirocrafty, but every now and again you just have to spoil yourself)  The bonus to doing this at a hotel is that it's not your water/heat bill, and I wouldn't want to purposely get my own bathroom that steamy!

Follow the directions on your hair mask for how long you should leave it on.  In the shower I finished off with using the scrub on my face and my body. 

To finish up, spritz face with toner & smooth on moisturizer.  My favorites are from Lush!!

Thanks for stopping by, now go ahead and have your own spa night next time you're staying by yourself! 

Temple Gardens Getaway

As I've mentioned a briefly, my boyfriend and I have had a very stressful last few months with my dad passing away in the end of November and his aunt getting sick recently.  We decided we needed a bit of a getaway.

We went to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan to check out the mineral pool at Temple Gardens Mineral Spa Resort.    They have a huge indoor/outdoor mineral water pool.  We made sure to spend plenty of time soaking!

This photo of Temple Gardens Mineral Spa Resort is courtesy of TripAdvisor

In addition to doing a lot of that (aka nothing!) we spent a fair bit of time trying different places to eat.  We went for lunch at the Copper Cafe in the Yvette Moore Gallery (which is in the old Land Titles building - very cool!)

This was probably my favorite meal.  Adam ordered the Saskatoon berry iced tea and then I was jealous!

The maple apple cider I ordered was good but couldn't compare to the iced tea!

We both ordered soup & sandwiches.  I got the egg salad which was everything egg salad should be - fresh bread, creamy inside, crisp lettuce! YUM!!  The mushroom soup was wonderful as well!

We spent time looking at the art too.  There were a bunch of pieces like this which where really cool!

There was also pottery and jewelry done by other artists, and I happened to find the perfect birthday gift for my sister! :)  Even though her birthday is on February 6th you'll have to wait until March when I go to visit her to see what she got!

We spent a fair bit of Saturday just wandering the streets.  Moose Jaw has some cool old buildings!

I was highly amused by the POLICE globes!

One store on the main street sold a few antiques.  We were going to hit up a couple other stores, but they were closed by the time we got there.  There's also a place called The Antique Yard just on the outskirts of town that sounds intriguing - I guess we'll have to come back for that!

Gorgeous tea cups!

The casino is attached to the hotel and you wouldn't even have to go outside if you didn't want to.  We stopped in for a bit just to waste $15 each! ;)

(if you didn't already know, slot machines with the real pull handles are the best :P)

There was definitely a lot to do and we didn't do it all!  I think we'll have to come back to do some antiquing!  

I had heard that Nit's is really good - both rated well on Urban Spoon and recommended by a friend of mine who lives in Moose Jaw.  It looks interesting because it appears to be in a building that was a theater! Next time I'll for sure have to try this place!

I hope you enjoyed this little look into our Moose Jaw getaway! We had a great time!