Product Reveiw: LUSH

This year for my birthday I really wanted to try out some new LUSH cosmetics. A new store opened up recently at my mall and several of my friends have been saying how great it is. I have to say that I've been pleasantly surprised! Now, I should preface this post with saying that I am NOT a makeup guru...I would not consider myself to be good at applying, wearing or recommending make up! This is NOT a beauty blog. [obviously!] Okay, now...here's what I think... :)

 

Jackie Oates - Oh, how I love you already! Most of the reviews for this mention mixing it with moisturiser, but I find that I like it with out mixing it. It's very creamy and the color is perfection! I have very light/pale skin and I've never found a color that is so effortless. It is absolutely seamless. It doesn't make the best concealer, but that's okay.  

Emotional Brilliance - Gets the job done. It gives my Jackie Oates a more matte finish, and makes it easier for me to use my cream blush (MAC) with out my face looking too dewy. Its not better or worse than any other translucent powder that I've used before. 

Lip Service - Once you break it in, it works great! I'm not usually big on using lip balms in tins because I always find that it gets kind of messy. This one has kind of the opposite problem, its a little hard. Now that I've been using it for a day or so it has softened a bit, but it wasn't my favorite at first. I will say that it has cocoa butter in it and it tastes fantastic! 

Liquid Lipstick  - Hello color!! I bought the Ambition liquid lipstick and it is a little jar of awesome. The color is not really what I thought it was going to be. The bottle is an obvious firey red...but when I put it on it is a lovely poppy pink color! (I'm wearing it in my 24 before 25 post) The color seriously lasts forever! It is my new obsession and I've worn it every single day since I've purchased it. I plan on getting more colors soon! Also, I have been wearing the Lip Service under it as well, which I hear helps it last. I really cant recommend this enough - its great!

Eyes Bright - This is not a volumizing mascara. It is very natural and nice, but doesn't wow me with its awesomeness. I can say that my lashes feel better and healthier. My eyelash curler broke so maybe once I fork out the $5 to buy a new one this will cure my boring eye lash blues.

So far my experience with LUSH has been fantastic! I also bought a tea tree water toner and my skin already feels better and clearer. Everything is affordable, really natural and good for you - and really, you cant go wrong with that!



24 before 25

1. Make a quilted blanket

2. Visit a new state

3. File official adoption paperwork!!

4. Bake homemade bread

5. Make a Christmas Village

6. Complete a 10k with Craig (and be prepared...)

7. Learn to spend money on quality - not quantity. 

8. Try brussel sprouts

9. Continue to grow vinyl collection

10. Start upholstery part-time

11. Recreate a paint-by-numbers project

12. Go to a jazz club

13. Learn Spanish

14. Learn to crochet granny squares

15. Hot Yoga

16. Go to a show. Any show. 

17. Cut that Pixie - for real.  check it out here

18. Bake a tiered cake from scratch

19. Buy photoshop and learn

20. Ride on a train

21. Find the perfect pair of eyeglasses

22. Learn to meditate

23. Family beach vacation

24. Sew 5 articles of clothing 

the flu.

It got me. The flu got me. Actually, it got both me and Craig. We are just a bunch of sad bunnies over here. Chills, coughing, nausea, sneezing. Please tell me that you all got your flu shot...because, seriously, this is the worst flu I've ever had. My fever hasn't been below 100 in 4 days. 

I'll be back shortly with some regular posts. Hopefully. Until then I'll be curled up on the sofa with some tea and some saltines. xoxo

Yum: Vanilla Cinnamon Walnuts

This snack might be the best thing I've ever made and maybe even the easiest. I found the recipe on Pinterest (I mean really, how did we ever cook/decorate/get dressed with out this site?!) I made a big batch as a thank you gift for a friend who watched my Kennedy-Buttons while Craig and I had a night in the city. I might have kept a small bowl for myself too :)

I always felt a little intimidated by recipes that had anything to do with ''candy'' for fear that I might have to stir with just the right amount of speed or break out the ol' candy thermometer. But this recipe only took about 20 minutes and made a huge batch!

Here's what you'll need:
4 cups of Walnuts
1 1/2 cup Sugar
2/3 cup Water
4 tsp Vanilla
1/2 tsp Cinnamon

First, you're going to want to spread out all of the nuts onto a baking sheet and toast for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

Then, combine all of the nuts, sugar, water, vanilla and cinnamon into a pot and allow to boil. Once the mixture has started to heat up you'll want to start stirring. Keep stirring until all of the liquid has been absorbed - this process will only take about 5 minutes or so.

Lastly, lay out the mixture onto the baking sheet to cool. If you don't do this they will clump!

Eat the whole batch immediately!

Before & After: Spare Bedroom

I have been looking forward to showing off my spare bedroom makeover for weeks! There is still a small project or two that I am working on, but really...isn't there always ''one more project''?

As you can see I kept the same quilt, headboard, large picture and chair in the room, but everything else is different. I wanted to keep it bright and fun, nothing too serious. I used the small pink flowers in the chair as an excuse to add pink into the room...which will obviously trickle into the attached bathroom once I get around to finishing it too.

I gave myself about $150 to finish off the room...which I probably went over, slightly.

Here's a quick break down of where most of the items came from: Bedside Tables: ikea (refinished) | Knobs: Hobby Lobby | Lamps: Hobby Lobby - on sale! | Prints: ikea | Black Alarm Clock: ikea | Succulents: Target | Orange Clock: Pottery Barn | Euro Shams: I made - fabric found here | 20'' Pillow: ikea | 18'' Pillow: I made - fabric found here

I'm pretty happy with how everything turned out..and just in time for a friend to come visit!  xo

Fisheye: Weekend in the City

Okay guys, this is my very first attempt at using my new fisheye camera. 

I thought it was really fun! I like how the pictures turned out grainy and how the large buildings downtown look all bent around the lens. I'm not sure that I'll use it nearly as much as my Holga, but it's a lot of fun to try out new film and see how it turns out. 

(Side note: I have taken 2 recent rolls of film with my sweet Holga and neither one of them turned out a single picture! Needless to say trying something new was pretty refreshing.)

We stayed at a nice hotel in the city, had a fancy dinner and got all dolled up. All of the pictures that I took were mostly of the day after while we were walking around after brunch. 

 Have any of you tried using toy cameras? I really love all of the imperfections and how you never really know how the roll is going to turn out. I also like how the first or last frame always seems to get cut off...

(Craig putting air in our tires before driving into town)

Birthday Wishlist

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9

Other notable mentions: nail polish (always!), new vinyl, a bathtub pillow, lipstick & other girly things.


Aren't birthday's just the best?! One of my best friends is coming into town to visit for my special day and I could not be more excited.....cause I mean really, that is probably the best gift out there. My birthday is on a Sunday and I'm hoping to go out with all my girl friends for dinner and dancing the night before. On the day of I want to stay home in my PJs with Craig, bake a big cake, get Italian take-out and watch a girly movie.

Make This: Lemon Sugar Scrub

Is it just me or is January kind of drab? Honestly, if it wasn't for my birthday (hooray!) I'm not sure quite how I would feel about it. I'm usually in love with bundling up with a good scarf and using any excuse possible to buy a new coat...but this year I'm kind of over it. Can we just get some sunshine around here?

With the weather being what it is -and my obvious inability to do anything about it- I decided to make a little sugar scrub to make Craig use it 'cause his hands are so manly and dry help my hands out a bit. I love going to Bath and Body Works and using their sample scrubs, but I can't seem to ever fork out the cash for something that seems so easy to make. So here it goes...and it really is so easy!

Here's what you'll need:

1 1/2 Cups of Sugar

1/3 Cup of Coconut Oil

1 Lemon

Sealed Jar - I found mine here

Here are the easiest DIY instructions ever: I started out with a bowl of the sugar, and just added the coconut oil {I used all-natural!} all at once. I found it easier to use a fork to form the mixture into crumbles and then to add the lemon juice. Mix it up and scoop it into your jar! 

Easy or what? I'm telling you its the best thing that ever happened to my hands. I keep the jar in my kitchen and use it every day when I come home from work...you know, right after I put on my stretchy pants, obviously. You could also use it as a body scrub in the shower! It's every bit as good as the BBW kind and its all-natural...not to mention that it cost me a fraction of what their's would have! I'll take that deal every.single.time.

Make This: 2013 Calender

I'm so excited to finally show you all my 2013 calender! I was supposed to post this on the 2nd but there was NO SUN to take any good pictures! For a week straight it was cloudy - I hate it when that happens. Actually the picture above was taken when it was still cloudy, but I had to just roll with it.

It was an easy, but slightly time consuming project. There are a lot of tutorials out there for the basic steps on how to do this, whether you're transferring to canvas or wood. This cute video is my favorite...so if you've never tried anything like this before you'll find all of the details there.

For this specific project I printed out the calenders (backwards!) and cut them to size. I found it easier to tape the tops of them onto the board to make sure that they were level first and that way I could move them around.

Once they're all in place it's easy to flip them up and put the gel medium below...then all you you have to is lay the calender back down and smooth it out. Thhheeennnn let it all sit over night.

The next step is the fun (and extremely frustrating, sometimes!)  part of getting all of the paper off of the wood. You will simply need to saturate the wood and start to rub it all off. I went one month at a time and it took quite a while. Note: I used more of the gel medium than I really needed because I wanted to really make sure that it soaked up the ink. Because of this I had to use a sander to get some of the extra residue off at the end.

I gave myself about 2 inches in between calenders to add the months at the top. Basically, just complete all of the steps above again for the names. Easy!!

Here are the fonts that I used:

Calender: Baskerville Old Face (comes pretty standard with most programs - did not download)

Months: Signerica (bold)

Year: Ribbon

I did this same thing last year for the individual months, except that I used a color background and white for the type. This could be a cute idea for a wedding gift! Make sure to put the year on it and change the specific day of the wedding to a heart (see above on September 20th for our anniversary!) It's best to sand and seal the project once you're done to finish it off.

One little goal // handmade

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

Since everyone is going over their New Year's Resolutions this week, I thought I would share one of mine...buy more handmade/small biz!

I'm not going over my whole list this year. Especially after reading Elsie's post about keeping some things to yourself, I'm chosing to be a little more low key about my goals and lists. (I'll be sharing a 25 before 25 list in a few weeks, but thats a little different)

I don't know about you guys, but I'm a last minute shopper. And with my one word being focus, I'm going to try to do more planning this year. That should include intentional shopping, right?! I think its so important to buy handmade and support local small buisness, so I'll go ahead and lump that into this goal as well.

Making goals is my fffaavvvoorrrriiitteee! I think this one will be fun too!

Project 365 // Black & White

So last year I started a 365 Project....and it ended around February-ish. haha!

I would love to focus on my photography this year. Not as anything professional (im sooo far from that!) but just for fun and for documenting important events. I love black and white photos, but will usually pick a brightly colored one everytime. This year I'm hoping to focus more on the beauty of black and white. Some of my favorite film was the black and white ones that I used last year.

So thats is! Easy enough that I should be able to complete, right? 1 Black and White picture every day of 2013.

Are any of you taking on a challenge this year? I'd love to hear about it :)