Happy Monday! It's Canadian Thanksgiving Monday and I've been spending as much time as I can with family. I just wanted to take a moment to say how thankful I am to have the support from everyone who reads my blog! Your encouragement means the world, and I am so happy that I am able to continue to blog and do what I love! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Moving onto today's post, I have to gush about this new eyeliner that I'm loving. Last month Make Up For Ever launched Artist Liner, an eyeliner that promised to be highly pigmented and smooth gliding. To be honest I've never been a fan of pencil liners. I find that they always smudge and give me panda eyes, which is why I only ever use liquid or gel liners.

The Artist Liner looks just like your usual liner, but with a twist-up design it means there is never a need for sharpening. However, the trade off for a twist-up design is that you get less product than that of a pencil liner. The eyeliner is very sturdy as it is housed inside the shiny black plastic that Make Up For Ever is known for. The diameter is smaller than that of a pencil, making it easy to hold onto.

Reading the description of the Artist Liner, I was pretty skeptical of its promises to be smudge proof and long wearing. But let me tell you, this product definitely lives up to it's claims! I tested out matte black (shade M10) and one light swipe gave a highly pigmented swatch, as seen above. The formula is creamy, and blendable as long as you work quickly.

I found that immediately after application the formula was blendable for a very short (we're talking seconds here) period of time. The formula almost seems to set right into your skin...that eyeliner isn't going anywhere! After my swatch I vigorously rubbed over the area where I applied the product. As you can see, the formula lightened up a tiny bit but it did not budge. The eyeliner survived an 8 hour workday without any problems other than lightening up a tiny bit. This formula is a dream come true for me!

If you're after a highly pigmented, long wearing eyeliner in pencil form, look no further. The Artist Liner is available in 15 different shades with matte, metallic, iridescent, diamond, and satin finishes - there is something for everyone!

Available via Make Up For Ever Boutiques and Sephora across Canada for $24.

*Disclosure: This product was sent for consideration of a review.

The Rocky Mountain Wine & Food Festival is back in Edmonton for the 13th year for two days of indulgence on October 24 and 25, offering a little something for everyone. The Festival offers the opportunity to sample an extensive variety of world-class wine, scotch, premium spirits, import and micro-brewed beer along with gourmet culinary creations from local restaurants, hotels and food purveyors.

This year the festival is welcoming Sobeys Liquor as the Title Sponsor! At the festival you can stop by the on-site Sobeys Liquor store to purchase some of your favourite sips to enjoy at home. Make sure to enter into the grand prize draw for an all-inclusive weekend getaway for two at the beautiful Sunshine Mountain Lodge!

I've attended the festival for the past two years and it is always a great experience! My favourite part is checking out what new dishes all the local restaurants have for sampling. Take a look at the list of food samples available this year - there is definitely something for everyone!

The event is a lot of fun, and I want to make sure you can get in on it too. I have one pair of entrance tickets for the Friday night tasting on October 24 from 5-10PM to give away to one lucky reader! The tickets will gain you entrance to the event, but tasting for the food and wine will cost coupons, priced at 50 cents each. Please note that this event will NOT allow minors - not even if you are bringing an infant along with you. Follow the simple rules below to enter.

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THE GIVEAWAY

ONE pair of tickets to the Rocky Mountain Wine & Food Festival
(October 24, 2014: 5-10PM)

DETAILS

To enter you must leave a comment on this blog post answering this question: Which dish on the festival menu would you love to try? See the menu here. Please make sure you leave a valid email address in the giveaway widget as this is how I will be contacting you.

ADDITIONAL ENTRIES

1. Follow Little Miss Andrea via Facebook
2. Follow me via Twitter (@littlmissandrea)
3. Tweet about the giveaway: "The @RockyWineFood festival is back Oct 24-25! Enter to win a pair of tickets from @littlmissandrea! #yegfood #RMWFF" and link back to this post
4. Follow me via Instagram (@littlmissandrea)

This giveaway is open to everyone able to attend the tasting session on October 24, 2014. All entrants must be 18+ years of age. You have until October 16th to enter, and the winner will be selected by random and contacted via email. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Ever since I had brunch at Cucina in Calgary I needed to go back for more. And while I haven't had the chance to return, something different has come on my radar. Recently two of the chefs who worked at Cucina, John Michael MacNeil and Alison Bieber, co-opened a brand new restaurant (and got married!). For me that meant saying "bye bye" to Cucina and heading to Black Pig Bistro on my next trip to Calgary.

Black Pig Bistro - 825 1st Avenue NE - Calgary AB

Black Pig Bistro gets its name from the Black Iberian Pig, native to Spain and Portugal. The restaurant opened earlier this year in the Bridgeland area of Calgary and has even been nominated to win the title of Enroute Magazine's 2014 People's Choice Award for Best New Restaurant. With the opportunity to drop by on the way to Banff, you bet I convinced my boyfriend to stop for lunch!

We arrived late on a Saturday afternoon to a quiet restaurant and were seated right away. As we walked to our table I eyed the Jamon Iberico behind the bar and immediately fell in love with the decor. The light teal, white, and black contrasted against one another is one of my favourite colour combinations, and happens to be the colour scheme in my room. Bonus points!

With so many great options on the menu, my boyfriend eventually decided on the Serrano Ham & Cheese Sandwich ($15): smoked pepper aioli, manchego and fresh tomato on a baguette. The sandwich came out to the table with a side of housemade pickles that were a mix of sweet and sour, a little spicy, and deliciously crunchy. Black Pig Bistro has taken the classic ham and cheese sandwich and elevated it with the use of quality ingredients. The serrano ham combined with the manchego are delicate but give the sandwich an almost creamy consistency. Add in the tomato for texture, slap it inside a soft baguette with a crunchy crust, and you've got a pretty stellar sandwich. The sandwich was so easy to eat and was a great portion size for lunch.

As the self-proclaimed glutton in our relationship, I chose to go with the three course lunch for $25. First up was a Tomato Tartar with a sherry vinaigrette over garlic croutons. I loved the presentation on this one since the top of the tomato acted as a lid to lift and reveal the tartar below. Inside the tomato was a bruschetta salad of sorts, well flavoured with salt and basil. The crunchy croutons were a great accompaniment as they were extra garlicky, and the vinaigrette added a tangy punch.

My main course was a Sous Vide Alberta Beef Sirloin with roasted shallots, pine nuts, kale and piquillo pepper sauce. When the dish was presented before me, all I could think was "wow!" Look at the colours on that plate and how beautiful our Alberta beef is. The sirloin was a perfect medium rare and lightly seasoned to allow the true flavour of the meat come through. I loved the mild kick of heat from the pepper sauce, and the lightly sauteed kale was tasty on its own or combined with the dish. The flavours were incredibly well balanced, and it wasn't long before a fork from the opposite end of the table came to help me out.

The last course to my lunch was a Honey Yogurt Mousse with raspberries and pomegranate pearls. The mousse had the consistency of a thickened panna cotta, and it was nice and tart on its own. In combination with the honey and other accompaniments it was a perfect light finish to the meal.

Black Pig Bistro surely didn't disappoint, and I was already thinking I needed to return for dinner on a subsequent trip. Lunch service was quick and our server was very attentive to our needs. If you're in Calgary for lunch you should definitely consider stopping by for the $25 three course meal! You get delicious food and great bang for your buck!