Ready For the Summer

Four long months later.  Here I am beginning to blog again.

These have seriously been some of the longest four months of my life.

A lot of big changes have occurred.

Mistakes have been made.

Lessons have been learned.

A lot of soul searching has been going on.

A lot of soul searching continues to go on.

And if all goes as planned, big things will be happening in the near future.

If all goes as I hope it to, this summer will be pretty darn fabulous.

Not to mention busy.

As for this blog, I've missed it.

But my absence has given me the chance to catch up on some of my favorite blogs.

For the first time in a while, I am genuinely excited.

I cannot wait to share them with y'all as they happen.

Julep Polka Dots: Emilie

If you guys remember a while back,
I was lucky enough to offer one of you lucky readers a Maven Intro box of your very own.

This month, I was lucky enough to participate in another Julep VIP program.
It's called Fall In Love With Color.

Now let me tell you,
I love a lot of colors on my nails.
But when I received Emilie in the mail I was like
"OK, Julep.  Challenge accepted!"

I don't usually wear greens on my nails.
Maybe light green, but usually not dark or bold greens.
I was like
"What in the world am I going to come up with for this?"

And then it came to me:

POLKA DOTS!!

So this was a first for me.
I have never experimented with dotting, nor do I own dotting tools.
Second part of the challenge, accepted.

Before I go any further, let me just say,
I completely fell in love with this green after this manicure.

Emilie is a beautiful emerald creme polish.
Perfect for Christmas and St. Patrick's Day, in my opinion.
Only took 2 thin coats to achieve this opaqueness.

How to achieve this look:

These are the products I used.

I used a Base and Top Coat from Revlon, but Julep has some great ones here and here.

Of course, Emilie.

And an OPI mini polish, in I don't know what color (received in a mystery bag).

I don't personally own a white polish from Julep, but a great one to use would be Eileen.

Like I said before, I don't own dotting tools.

I simply used the two ends of a bobby pin to make my polka dots.

I started in the center of each nail and made little dots all the way down.

Then I placed dots to the left and right of the center line an equal distance between the original dots.

I experimented with big dots and little dots and found what worked for me.

For my first attempt, I feel pretty accomplished.

Learn from my mistakes:

Make sure your dots are dry before you put on the top coat.

Because the dots are thicker, the centers don't dry incredibly fast and will smear.  oops.

Also, try to have the same amount of polish on the bobby pin in order to achieve similar sized dots.

Any tips for a newbie polka dotter?

Leave 'em in the comments below.

Also!  Julep is offering all of my readers 20% off purchase of 20 bucks or more by using the code VIP20 at check out.

Interested in becoming a Maven?  Take the personality quiz that is offered here to receive your very own Maven profile.  Don't like your profile?  You can always switch it up each month.  Don't like any of the choices or don't have the money this month?  You can always skip a month and resume the next month!  Mavens also have access to products earlier than the public and at cheaper prices =)

Not sure?

Check out some of my favorite boxes:

• September 2012
• June 2012
• October 2012

December is the last month that Julep is offering the intro box for only a penny!  Use the code PENNY2012 after you take the quiz above to receive your first box for only 1 cent!  Only five days left to take advantage of this great offer!  Seriously though.

Cyber Monday Lack of Damage

I already shared my Black Thursday/Friday experience with you guys.
It must be time to talk about Cyber Monday!!

I only shopped at one store.
That store would be Ulta.
The funny part about it is that I can't share what I went online to purchase because it's a gift for my mom.
Shucks.

However, as always,
I bought something other than the gift.
My very first Butter Londons!

On the regular, these little beauties are just too expensive.

Luckily, they were on sale.

I will finally get to experience first hand what all the fuss is about.

Not unlike my first Ulta Post I got some free goodies with my purchase.

I typically wait to buy online from Ulta when they have some good little incentives.

Such as this bag of samples:

It came with some decent sized sample products from Aveeno, Big Sexy Hair, Ahava and some others if you squint enough you can see.

I'm most excited to try out the Ahava mud mask.

The bag isn't the best, mainly because it's a cheap plasticy material that I'm not a fan of,

and it's Packer's colored (yuck!)

But you can't beat free.

And I did get to choose my bag, so ya know.

In addition to the bag of samples, I also received the standard 3 samples that come with the online order:

I doubt I will ever run out of shampoo/conditioner samples.

As I mentioned in this post, I'm planning a post or two dedicated to all of my hair product samples.

We will see how that goes.

I also got a free gift with purchase of a 4 piece serving set.

I thought I had a picture of it to share, but I can't find it.

And quite frankly, I'm too lazy to go searching for it.

Did you do any Cyber Monday shopping??

Birchbox: November

Birchbox.  Sometimes you miss and sometimes you really hit.
November was definitely a hit!
At least with me.
I haven't checked out any of the other boxes, but I know I love mine!

Here's what I got:

• Curl Keeper.
• Stila all over shimmer liquid luminizer.
• ModelCo Fibre Lashxtend mascara.
• Chuao Chocolatier Assorted ChocoPod.
• Birchbox Jouer Fragrance Sample.

Neatest thing this month:

Definitely the mascara. 

Pretty awesome.

It was a full size product.

Packaging was awesome and includes a mirror built into the back of the tube.

I love the brush.

Downside?  Not water proof or watery-eye proof.

Other products?

The fragrance wasn't for me again, but it was quite a big sample size and was nicely packaged.

The chocolate was delicious!

I haven't tried the luminzier yet, but I cannot wait. It looks so pretty!

As far as the curl keeper, I'm pretty excited as well.

I've received quite a few shampoo/hair product samples and I'm considering doing a little review on them.

So this is probably one of my favorite Birchboxes.

I'm a little more than half way through my year subscription with BB.

I paid $110 for 12 months.

So far I've received more than that in samples and BB points.

I've earned $60 worth of BB points in the 7 or so months I've been subscribed and that was without spending another dollar.

Check out my two favorite boxes here and here.

Interested in trying out Birchbox yourself?  Check it out here =)

A Call For Help

Those of you who know me,  know I was in a more than likely car totaling accident yesterday.
This call for help is in no way, shape, or form related to that.
And as much as I wish I could post a little widget for you guys to donate money for me to buy a new car, I find that Isaac is much more deserving.

Erin, over at Living in Yellow made A Call For Help yesterday.
She introduced Isaac's story (seriously go read about it).
I can't imagine what it would be like to be told that your six-year old son is a cancer survivor and then just a short time later being told that it's back.
To be told that he is now paralyzed from the waist down.
It makes my what-once-seemed-huge-car-accident, seem like a trip on the sidewalk.

With the help of her readers, Erin has put together a bit of an Isaac Strong Movement together.
She posted this widget for all to share with friends and family.
THIS POST explains just exactly where all of the monetary donations will go to.
She has a goal of $2000 big ones!



My little blog is just a tiny little speck in this here internet.

I know that the blogging community is a tight one and with your help, this can go beyond my small readership,
and even Erin's HUGE one.


Now it's your turn.
Join in on the movement.
If you can't contribute monetarily, perhaps just spread the word along with the widget.

Don't have a blog?
How can you help?

What better way than to Tweet about it =)
Use the hashtag #isaacstrong or #isaacnation to get the word out.
A hashtag trend with meaning.

Black Thursday. . .

Black Thursday:  Because waiting to shop on Black Friday is overrated.

I did it!
Well kind of.
I participated in my first Black Friday, but on Thursday.
I partook in mediocre sales at Target.
All the same, it was fun.

I didn't buy a big TV.
I didn't buy an iPad.
I didn't buy the latest video game system.
What I did buy was this bundle of goodies:

Twilight Videos, Monster's High bed linens, M&M candies, Shampoo, Gum, and the latest J.K. Rowling book.

It's the little things in life, right?

Everything but the bedding were bought on a whim.

I may not be the best black friday bargain hunter, but I saved more money than I thought I would.

The line wrapped around the building to the back was completely worth it.

Not only did I indulge in Black Thursday shopping,

I even did a little at the mall today as well.

Super fun.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

While on the topic of super fun,
Have I mentioned how much of a sweetie of my boyfriend is?

He bought me boots!
I love them!

I think I once said that I would never post a picture of my feet on my blog. . . 

Well Mario gave me a pedicure so of course this picture is in the realm of making exceptions!

AND, when I came home from drill last week, these babies were at home waiting for me.

I have been drooling over them for a bit now!

Mario surprised me with a welcome home gift!

Fresh water pearls.  

My boyfriend is the sweetest boy in the world!

The Best Baby Shower Invites EVER

One of my best friends in the world is having a baby!
My mom decided to have baby shower invite making party.
(My mom is quite the card maker and has started her own blog too and she may or may not have posted anything since June, but we are working on it.)
The photo above were the options for the invites.

And the one pictured above is the one we ended up making!
So freaking cute!

Definitely worth the four hours my she, her sister, my mom, and I spent making them!

And of course there were refreshments!!