Mega Giveaway Bloggers

Hello everyone!

I know I've not talked about the ladies that I am doing the Giveaway with. I do want to talk about them since I have not touched based about them. :)

Broke, Fierce and Fabulous contacted me on twitter, asking if I would like to help co-host. I was a bit leery at first, since I've never done a huge multi-blogger giveaway.. but I figured, heck why not?!
I have a thing where I have an entire folder of bookmarked blogs that I read.. incidentially, I tend to bookmark them instead of actually subscribing to them. Pretty lame huh?! D: Broke, Fierce & Fabulous was one of those blogs that I bookmarked and forgot to subscribe too. I always feel bad when I do that though. I absolutely LOVE Dianna's blog. I don't know what it is about her blog, but it is one of those ones that I can just read and read and read!

dBeauty Junkie is someone I have been following for quite some time.. I think 6+ months.. probably more than that, but I'm not keeping track..(no lie I honestly just can't remember) I won one of her twitter giveaways a while back when I first discovered her and have been addicted to her blog ever since. Since I'm broke (no shame in admitting it) I LOVE reading and looking at the pictures she takes of all of the high end products I will never own in my life. Aimee is such a lovely woman and her and I became quick friends over twitter. (Twitter friends are always better and way more cool) Plus, that Grey Friday lipstick from MAC that she swatched... OoooE! It actually looks gorgeous on your lips!

The Fight Between a Beauty and Food Junkie is a newer blog that I started following. I think I found her blog 2 weeks ago. Now I've never talked too her before but I love reading the posts on her blog. There aren't many but hey, it doesn't matter how many you have. :)

Just the two of Us and Deals, Beauty Within and Mom Needs A Drink. Make It A Double are all new to me blogs. So I can't really say much except for the fact that I am quite enjoying each of your blogs! I do love how Mom Needs A Drink. Make It A Double is blunt and doesn't sugarcoat motherhood.

These are the lovely ladies I am co-hosting the Mega Giveaway with! I definitely recommend checking ALL of their blogs out!

I am sorry that I have not gotten to chat with all of you ladies individually, but it sure is a pleasure to be in the same company as you all!



Don't forget to enter the giveaway!! 

Christmas Memories

Hello everyone!

I figured since it is 4 days till Christmas, it is now or never for this blog post. On my giveaway post, I asked everyone what their favorite Christmas Memory or Traditions were with their families or in general. I know I've not been blogging much in the past two weeks, I've been in a serious funk. I promise I will be out of it soon! xx

anyways.

I have quite a few Christmas Memories with my family.  I am going stay onto the tradition side of things for this post because the memories are amazing, but thinking of them make me cry.. good tears though and I think I have done quite enough crying in the past week :).

Every year my Parents go out and decorate the yard like crazy people. (lol) When I lived with them, I always helped them decorate outside, this year, I didn't get a chance to help unfortunately. My Mom wasnt going to decorate but the neighbors and other people kept coming around and asking her (for over a month) if she was going to decorate the yard this year. She didn't want to do it this year, because we always do so much, that by the time we get it all up, we feel like it's time to take it down. Extremely understandable! My Nephew helped them this year! :P He's too cute being almost 4 in February! 

This is from last year.. actually all of the pictures in the yard are from last year. The one inflatable on the right is Santa in an outhouse and he pokes his head out and goes back in and shuts the door. It's cute! In the back in our "Light Tree" is a Santa reading a list of names, his head turns. 

Now, this is not nearly as many inflatables as my Mom has. We actually had to get rid of quite a few of them because they had holes. :( Sad day that we had to get rid of the 8ft Penguin couple. haha I LOVE penguins. <3 My Parents gave our 8ft Santa to my Sister so they could decorate their yard a little bit. That Snoopy there on his Dog house is my Moms, she LOVES Snoopy.. well anything that has to do with Charlie Brown.. He is flying his house like he is the Red Baron. 

This is a bad picture, but you get a little close up of the Santa. Two of his bed post lights went out, but funny enough, they kinda went together haha. Those are the only pictures I have of the yard. It's been extremely more elaborate then this, BUT last year there was so much going on we didn't really want to over crowd the yard.. considering there are two dogs who go outside :P

Another tradition that we have been doing for.. jeeze I am not sure, we have been doing this for as long as I remember. One person in the house gets my Dad a Hess Truck. Normally it would alternate between my Brother, Sister and I, but it's been alternating between my Brother and I lately. I normally get it, but this year we decided to let my brother get it. :) 

The cool thing is this year they made it available for you to buy online! You can see all of the ones that they ever made, which is pretty freaking cool! :P They costs $26.99 plus tax, then whatever shipping is. I've never bought them online, since this is the first year they have done it. They are fully functional toys or you can collect them. We used to play with my Dads when we were kids, but we always made sure we were careful and we ALWAYS put them in the box. :P 

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That is this years truck. I've not see what it does, but it's pretty cool :P .. actually they have an interactive thing on the website where you can see what it does, hah how cool! :P

Every year, no matter how old I am, just for the fun of it I like to check out Norad Santa and claus.com . Why? Because you can TRACK SANTA. How cool is that?! :P It is definitely a really fun thing to do with Kids. I did it with my nephew one year.

Claus.com is an interactive Santa Village. There are recipes, coloring pages you can print. You can even type your name or your childs name into the Naughty or Nice list and see what it says! It's a really fun thing to do. I really enjoy playing around with it every year and I just turned 22! Don't hate :P

Santa Tracker is exactly how it sounds. I honestly think this is so cool.  On Christmas Eve load it up and it shows you everywhere Santa has been it even has little videos of Santa flying through the cities. It's a really cool thing! 

Definitely check those out! 

Those are my two favorite traditions. I have more, but I decided lets keep it down so this doesn't get too long. :P

What are your favorite Christmas memories or traditions with your family!? I really would love to know!

I hope you all have a lovely day! xx

PS. don't forget there is still time to enter my giveaway! The link is above! xx  

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Norad Santa or Claus.com. I just wanted to share them with you all because I really enjoy the websites!

Birthday Nails!

Hello everyone!

I hope you all are doing well! Have you gotten your Christmas shopping done?! I know I haven't. I only have to get a couple of things though, so it's not too bad! :P

Since my Birthday was the 19th, I wanted to try a little nail art.

I painted each hand opposite of the other.

This was my first time ever trying to do any type of nail art, so they aren't perfect but I thought they were extremely cute!! :D

The polishes I used were:

Sally Hansen Continuous Growth Treatment

Orly Artificial Sweetener (pink)

Orly Faint of Heart (grey)

Out the door top coat.

(I won these in a giveaway, I know they were a collection, but I'm not sure you can get them anymore :( )

To make the hearts I just used a bobby pin :) Do you want me to do a tutorial showing how to do it?

Oh, that random piece of red on the one nail, is a piece of a rose. I was slightly bored when I started doing these nails. Haha.

I really love how they turned out! :D

Beauty Gift Ideas

Hello Loves!



This is my first time doing something like this, I have no idea what I am doing, so I hope this turns out well! :P I know tons of other bloggers/youtubers do this kind of blog post, but at the moment I am at a loss for a blog post and I figure, what the heck, mine as well give my take. I'm keeping this to beauty related products.



I decided to do a Beauty Gift Idea type of blog because I'm sure there are plenty of men out there who have makeup obsessed wives, girlfriends, fiances, or even Moms and Sisters. This time of the year where there are so many new products from all of the companies that it is hard to choose what the heck to get. My aim here is to help kind of narrow down the kind of items that in my opinion are a good value or I think would really appease others :) I hope you all enjoy!

First I want to start off with E.L.F. (eyes lips face)

Holiday Glitter Eyeshadow Set

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Essential Holiday 15-Piece nail polish collection

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The reason that I chose this is because it is perfect for those who are nail polish obsessed and since this retails for only $15 it wont break the bank ether. you get a nice range of colors in this set which I really like. You can purchase this HERE . I think that this is a fantastic deal for the money you will spend. :)

Revlon Eyelash Curler

Hello Beautiful!

 

Today I have a review for you about the Revlon eyelash curler. This is VERY affordable, which is why I purchased it. I was in need of an eyelash curler and short on funds.  My previous curler was from Maybelline, I had been saving to get the Urban Decay one, but they discontinued it. Why? I have no idea. Anyways.

 

This eyelash curler retails for around $3.99, it comes with an extra rubber insert so you can change i

Dream Water Review

Hello Beautiful!

I have a review for you today about Dream Water. There has been some buzz about it lately in my Twitter feed because it was in one of the Influenster boxes, I don't remember which one. Anyway's to get onto why I decided to purchase it. Many people don't know but I suffer from a severe case of Insomnia, and it really stinks.

I'm not going to lie, i'm up extremely late every night and it's bothersome to me. Now, typically if I have them I will take a PM pill, but to be honest, I try not too unless I have too because I ALWAYS wake up feeling like crap. With a PM pill, I wake up with a migraine, body aches, especially in my back. I figured I would take a risk and see how the Dream Water would work when I came across it in Target the other night. I bought a 2 pack of it, that way I could give it a real go instead of just a one try review.

Each of these are 2.5 FL OZ (74 ml) and zero calories, which is nice so you don't feel guilty drinking these before bed. As for the taste of this, I get a hint of a berry taste but otherwise it does not really have a taste to me. That is something I really like because I don't want to drink something nasty just to go to bed. Otherwise, it will just sit around and be un-used.

▲▲Instead of typing it all out, that is what is in this product.▲▲

( I also just realized that this is distributed from Miami. It's not exactly LOCAL to me, because it's a couple of hours away, but I like supporting Florida businesses being a Floridian myself. )

I took this around 9pm the first night and stayed up for a few hours, to be honest I was fighting the sleep even though I kept dozing off. I was seriously so relaxed that it's not even funny. I was lying in bed enjoying it because my back wasn't aching , I wasn't getting a headache, nothing! I felt so relaxed that you probably would have thought I was doped up on something if you didn't know me. I really like that it relaxes you instead of just putting you to sleep. This has no drugs in it, so you don't have to worry about putting something like that into your body. This also helps to reduce anxiety, which is wonderful because I get a terrible anxiety over stuff lately.

The second night that I took it, I didn't force myself to stay awake. I fell asleep within 20-30 minutes. It was lovely. Each night I did not wake up with a migraine or any type of body aches. I also didn't have any funky dreams that normally are associated with the PM pills.

I really do enjoy this stuff and recommend it if you have trouble sleeping! Heck, even if you just want to really relax before you go to bed this stuff is really good. I wish I could seriously stock up on this. I really can't say enough good things about this! I don't want to sound like a broken record so I am going to stop here before I start repeating myself.

I will say this, if you honestly have trouble sleeping go out and buy this. I really recommend this stuff wholeheartedly. It truly is an amazing product and I've never tried anything else like it.

I found this 2-pack at Target on Clearance for $2.99. I'm not sure if it is just my Target that is clearing them out or what.

You can check out Dream Water's website HERE

You can also purchase them at CVS and Walgreens.

Disclaimer: I purchased this product with my own money. I am not affiliated with the above mentioned company, nor am I being paid of sponsored to do this review. All opinions are 100% my own and in the best interest of my readers. 

Update

Hey everyone!

I just wanted to let you know that I am moving my recipes over to another blog. I asked on twitter and got a general, keep this a beauty blog, so that is what I am going to do.

However, if you would like to continue seeing more recipes from me my the blog is http://auttyskitchen.blogspot.com/

Since it is on blogspot, you can follow with GFC (google friend connect), which unfortunately you can't get on wordpress, or I just haven't figured out. You can follow this blog and that one by email as well.

I just wanted to let you all know what was going on! The recipes that I HAVE posted here already are going to stay but the 2 that I had scheduled to come out Friday and next week are going up on the other blog :)

 

I hope you all are having a lovely day!

Do you think this is a good idea?!

Christmas Memories

Christmas Memories

I wont lie, I am writing this well before Christmas... like November 30th. :P
Do you have those Christmas memories that will ALWAYS stick with you. I know I have plenty! From being a child and getting so excited Christmas Eve that I had to FORCE myself to go to bed. My Dad ALWAYS brought up Norad Santa or the Santa Claus website and we would track Santa. It was seriously the coolest thing ever! They still do them as well! I wont lie I will be 22 on December 19th and I STILL watch it. It's really exciting to me. :P
My family never had tons of money, but you know what, my parents made Christmas special for my Sister, Brother and I every freaking year! Seriously, my parents are behind every freaking single Christmas memory I have and I wouldn't have it any other way.
We ALWAYS decorated the outside of the house and the inside like we were crazy people. I even had to put my Mom on a Christmas decoration buying ban one year because we had so much! It really wasn't a ban though! :P My parents bought Blow ups for the yard, we had a HUGE 55 gallon tote FILLED with only Christmas lights. Decorating the house was the best. It was so joyful at night to see the inside and outside lit up. The people in the neighborhood absolutely loved it! We really were the only ones who ever did anything huge.
My Mom absolutely LOVES Christmas, unfortunately this year she just is not feeling it. :( It really bums me out that when I go to my parents house that it's not going to be decorated this year. Skiing Santa, Santa popping out of his out house. The Christmas Trees, reindeer's, Lights all over the trees.. the Light Tree we always made from the mast hanging in the tree. It was so bright and colorful! I understand why my Mom doesn't want to do it, because there is so much stuff it takes a while to put up and it feels like as soon as you get it up, you have to take it down. It just sucks because it was always a tradition with the family to decorate like crazy people. Even when Chris and I moved out we went over and helped decorate. Since we have an apartment, we can't really decorate much. Plus, we don't really have any inside Christmas decorations except for our tree and MAYBE an extra strand of lights. Pretty lame huh. As much as I say that Halloween is my favorite holiday... secretly its Christmas because it is family oriented. I love the stress (no lie) of trying to figure out what to get everyone. Even though my parents said not to get them anything, I still am going to do it. We always get my Dad a Hess truck every single year because he collects them. I remember getting him one for as long as I could remember. Even when we really couldn't afford it, we always scrapped together to get him that Hess truck.

Honestly, through all of the tough times I am so thankful for my family. Even though we haven't seen eye to eye on exactly everything and here have been some extremely tough times for which I regret deeply, I love them for sticking with me through everything. I don't think I could ever ask for better parents.. actually I WOULDN'T ask for anyone different. <3

Going back to Christmas Memories, this one year, I was around 7 or 8.. I don't remember, My Sister, Brother and I were all in the living room. We didn't want to go to bed because we were so excited. We were watching out of the window for really no reason and all of a sudden this ELF walked in front of the window STARRING at us. It seriously freaked us all out. We told my parents about it and they went outside to check and see if they could find the person and there was NO ONE. They called and asked BOTH sets of grandparents if they were the ones who did it and they said No. We even asked the neighbors if they knew anything and no one knew anything. It seriously was legit and needless to say we were all in bed like 5 minutes later. That is the one thing I will always remember.

No matter what anyone says, Christmas music will remind me of my parents. The Alabama Christmas CD will definitely remind me of my Dad for sure. Him and I absolutely LOVE that CD. I have a lot of good memories associated with different Christmas songs.

My parents made sure to create some FANTASTIC Christmas memories for my Sister, Brother and I for sure. One year they told us they didn't have the money to get us presents, which was of course a bummer being a child, but that morning we woke up and holy crap, you COULD NOT walk into the living room! There were so many presents that it is not even funny.
Dad always dressed up and played Santa for us as kids and for other kids around. Seriously, he plays a beast Santa Claus. Mom has all of the Classic Christmas Movies. We always watched them together as kids. I used to hate it (not really) but not I kind of miss it. Chris and I are making a tradition to get a Christmas ornament for the Tree that has some relevance to us or something of that nature. This year we got one that says "First Christmas Together" .. it's etched into a Wedding cake. It's really cute actually.

When you get older, you start to Cherish those traditions that you had as a kid and you really miss them. However, you get older and create your own traditions and memories. The memories I had as a child though will NEVER be forgotten. (No lie crying right now) I'm such a family oriented person that it's not funny. I actually kind of hate when I don't get to talk to my parents every day. Okay this post is long enough!

Norad Santa

Claus.com

What is one of your favorite tradition or most memorable ... memory (hah) that you can remember?! I honestly would love to hear them! :)

Beauty Bloggers Tag

Hello everyone!



I saw Hello Miss Niki do this on her blog back in the beginning of November and SAVED the email (I get her blogs posts sent to my email best thing ever!) with the intention of doing it! SO here I am FINALLY getting around to doing it! :P I wasn't tagged to do it, I just wanted too! :P

When did you start blogging and how long have you been blogging for?

Per my beauty blog, I have been writing it for over a year I believe. I "think" I started it around the end of 2010. I honestly can't remember when :P It's been a while. I was doing YouTube reviews and wanted to extend it into text form and it just blossomed from there! I actually enjoy typing blog posts more than a normal person should LOL.

Whose blog did you fall in love with first?

Fall in love with? I'm not "in love" with their blog, but I have been following it for around 3 years and its Sirvinya .I was following her YouTube channel long before she stopped doing tutorials and started to basically focus on her blog. I'm not sure if she still is going YouTube videos though. I do know she still does her blog! 

Most important part about doing a blog post?

I like to make sure that whatever I talk about appeals to my followers and even to myself. I'm not going to spend the time to photograph something for a blog post and writing the blog post out itself if I don't think that it will be something that will appeal to others. I pride myself on being extremely honest with everyone. If I don't like the product, I will tell you the reason(s) why and if I do like it I will tell you the reason(s) why I do. I don't feel lying to people will benefit anyone.

What kind of Camera do you use?

Honestly, I switch between two cameras. It really depends on what I am photographing. I've been having issues with both of my cameras though haah.  I use a Nikon CoolPix L110. That is the first one I started using and have just recently started using again. The second camera I use is a Sony Cybershot DSC-W370. I have issues sometimes getting the Sony focusing close up. So I just the Macro on my Nikon :P

What was the first blogosphere hyped product you bought and was it worth the hype?

Uhm the first product? *thinks* Oh! I remember. The L'Oreal HiP cream eyeliners! Those were the first products that were hyped and I just HAD to buy. Back then though, I was not very good with cream or liquid liner.. so for me back then, they weren't. They wound up drying out on me because I didn't know how to use them. ALTHOUGH the me now, totally thinks that they were worth the hype! They were pretty amazing! Pigmented and creamy, long lasting too! I'm not sure they make them anymore though. 

What are your favorite five things about blogging and being a beauty bloggers?

1. Meeting new people for sure! I've met SO many other bloggers from around the world. I absolutely LOVE it!


2. The support that comes from other bloggers! It was really not known to me how supportive other bloggers are! There is so much love in the Beauty community!


3. When a company recognizes me! I'm not talking free stuff, I mean when I do a review and a company LOVES it and lets me know about it! I've had it happen a few times already and it makes me so ecstatic!! I get the biggest smile you have ever seen!! :P It is so flattering!


4. Talking with others who have the same interests! I mean it would not be fun at all if there were no others around that shared your interests! Even just talking about it on forums, twitter and facebook. It's so fun to get together with other bloggers and just chat about beauty products! Goodness knows there is no one around me that understands the excitement I get over new products. (You should have SEEN me when I realized the new WnW palette is the EXACT SAME palette as the I <3 Matte lol)


5. I've learned so much about beauty and even skincare since becoming a beauty blogger. I finally was able to get my acne under control which I had been suffering with since Middle school. There is ALWAYS something new to learn every day! 

What have you learned from being a beauty blogger?

Don't expect to get recognized right away. When I first started I thought I was going to be extremely easy. Well let me tell you right now. It is not. It really takes a lot of patience to be a beauty blogger. I've talked with friends about it before and they never knew what it took to write a blog post and even take pictures. They though it was like a 5 minute thing. Depending on the blog post, depends on how long it takes me to write it. It could take me 20 minutes, to even 2 hours! Yes, I have spent that much time on a blog post!

Have you changed anything since being a beauty blogger?

Yes! I've actually changed a lot. I've changed how I purchase products, how I apply my makeup. I research new products like crazy sometimes to see if they are a good fit for me. I also don't just go out and BUY BUY BUY like I used too! I used to spend gross amounts of money on products I would probably never use. Now I just purchase things I know I will use. Yes, I know being a beauty blogger means buying new things, but if its not going to work with my skin, I am not going to waste the money! :P

What advice would you give to a beauty blogger just starting out?

You need to have patience! Don't expect to be discovered or get 1k followers with your first blog post! Also, be yourself and let yourself show in your blog posts! People like relating to the bloggers whose blogs they read! I know that I do! If I feel like there is ZERO personality or just something off about a blog post, then I honestly wont take the time to read it.  I think that a new blogger will get far as long as they take their time, don't rush and don't try and take on too much! You also don't need to go out and buy every single new thing that comes out! You probably will not use half of the stuff that you would buy if you did buy every new thing that comes out. 

Your Favorite Eyeshadow Palette?

That is a tough one. I actually love my Urban Decay Naked and Naked 2 palettes. (I don't have pictures right now of them) I saved up my money and purchased the original Naked palette and it was the best thing I ever purchased in my opinion! I also love the Naked 2 palette, but that one I won in a giveaway from Urban Decay themselves a while ago. With these two palettes you will have all of the neutral eye shadows you will ever need. One is cool toned and one is warm toned shadows! (also, shh I'm not saying this, but you DON'T need both. Since I won N2 in a giveaway that is the only reason I have it :P But I absolutely love it!!)

The Best Beauty Deal?

The ELF eye shadow "C" brush ($3) and the ELF angled eye shadow brush($1). I can use ONLY the angled eye shadow brush and call it a day! The one end is rounded and small enough for my crease!!

Makeup Regrets?

That is a hard one, but at the same time it is not. I have quite a few products that I regret buying, but at this moment, I can't remember them lol.

Name your top five Beauty brands!

1. Urban Decay


2. Revlon


3. L'Oreal


4. Maybelline


5. E.L.F (eyes lips face)

Recommend your top give favorite beauty products!

1. Urban Decay original Primer Potion


2. Rimmel Stay Matte pressed poweder


3. Revlon ColorStay liquid foundation. 


4. Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes mascara


5. Mario Badescu Special Healing Powder

Woo! That is the Beauty Bloggers Tag!

I tag anyone who wants to do this! :)

If you do this tag have fun with it! :P

Weightloss & I

Hello Loves!

 

I decided that I am going to start tracking my weight loss  Why? Well, I've always been unhappy with my weight, BUT I have never had such an issue with it until I got out of high school. I was always the big girl in school, I was always super active, but never lost the weight. In high school I hit an all time low when I developed an eating disorder. (cats out of the bag) I've only ever told a couple of people about it, but I've done pretty well in keeping it in control and not doing it. :)

 

Chris informed me last night that we are going to start our weightless journey, RIGHT after I finished baking these amazing Brownie Bottom Cheesecake Cupcakes. Bah. Which its a good thing, I have eaten a few, BUT it kind of ruins my love of baking.. well its not going too! :D I'm just going to send everything to work with my Dad (Busch Gardens) and to work with Chris (Target). I will just make everyone else eat it. LOL. :P

In all seriousness, starting Today, Chris and I are starting our weight loss journey and I figured I would keep you all informed on mine! Unfortunately at this time I do not have a full body shot of me, because I am always too self conscious about it! You can't even count my wedding pictures because I was wearing Spanx LOL. 

There that might help. You can click it to make it bigger. :P I didn't want it in your face LOL.

Look at all of those yummy cupcakes and the cake that my Grandmother made! SO TEMPTING. Coincidentally, if you would like to know how to make them, she kindly gave me the recipe :).

Anyways, so now you can see me. I'm not setting a weight loss goal end point. I will reach my desired weight when I reach it. I'm not even sure what that weight is, but I will know when I reach it! :P

 

I'm going to do a more "in depth" post probably on Monday because right now, Chris and I have to talk about our plans on what we are going to do :)

 

Have a lovely day!

China Glaze Cast A Spell

Hello loves!

Sorry for being kinda MIA.. I've realized I've got a million things to do and I've still not cleaned the apartment up or put my makeup away from Saturday. We've just been kind of enjoying everything being quiet and the stress level being down. It's been lovely! :P I've got to get back on the blogging bandwagon though!

 

Anyhoo. The nail polish I have for you today, I got on Clearance at Sally's, so I am sure you will still be able to find it there since Halloween was NOT that long ago!

When I saw the Wicked Collection come out, this is one of the polishes that I was lusting after, I am so glad that I finally got it!



It's a blackened green/gold polish. Kind of a dark olive green. This is so lovely!

With this polish you can use 1 coat if you do it slightly thick, or just use two coats! Yup! This bad boy is a two-coaster! Also, this picture is taken WITHOUT a top coat! It is extremely shiny without it!

I say if you can still find this at your Sally's, definitely go and get it! I am so glad that I did! I might have to go and pick up a back up! :P I've been wearing this for around 9 hours so far and no chipping! I know that does not seem like a lot, but with a lot of nail polishes, they like chipping on my nails after an hour of two.. so this is exciting for me :P

 

I got this for $3.29 on clearance where it normally would retail for $6.49.

 

This is what it looks like outside of the apartment at this moment! I hope we are in for some rain! :D

 

Do you have this nail polish? What is your opinion of it?!



 

 

 

China Glaze & Sephora Haul!

Hello everyone!

The wedding is finally over and I have a small haul to show you all! I decided to hit up Sally's and pick up a "few" China Glaze nail polishes! I've not bought anything from China Glaze in a long while to be honest! When I saw HelloMissNiki put a picture on Instagram of some of the polishes, I started lusting over one and was going to wait for her review to buy it, but me being me just could NOT wait! :P



I bought a mini set from their 2012 Holiday Charms collection.



Then I bought 2 full sizes of other polishes from the same collection. :D (regular priced) As I type this, I am swatching them on some fake nails and I am absolutely IN LOVE with the 2 full sized ones! (Glistening Snow & Angel Wings) I actually don't like the one I was lusting after as much as these two lol. Good thing it was a mini!There are also a couple others that I love, but you are going to have to wait until that blog post! :P



The next set I bought was from their 2012 Halloween Collection (Wicked) Bizzare Blurple reminds me of Tempest. I saw someone compare the two side by side. But I will do a comparison soon! (On clearance for $6.99)

I also got Cast a Spell from the same collection. This is one of the main polishes that I was wanting so I am so glad they had one left! (On clearance for $3.29)

The next polish that I got on Clearance is from ORLY and its Liquid Vinyl. I've been in need of a good black, so I figured I would give this a try. It is from the Flash GlamFX collection. (On clearance for $3.79)

Then I just got a big bottle of nail polish remover, because my nails chip easily, so I go through remover like its going out of style.!

Onto what I got from Sephora.. I really only got one thing. I have a deluxe sample of this and it is what I wore for the wedding. It's the Dior Addict To Life Eau De Toilette. I got the 0.67 FL. OZ bottle because the deluxe sample is still pretty full, but I wanted this just in case they ever decide to discontinue this. (Please don't!!) Seriously though, thank you to CookieFarrer for the sample!

I plan on putting up blog posts for each set of nail polish that I purchased today! So be on the look out for that! <3

Wedding Series?!

Hello Loves!
I hope you all have having an absolutely amazing day!

First off I want to say Happy Birthday to the Lovely Stephanie from Tavarua Skin! Woo!! definitely go tweet her and tell her happy birthday!! (Her Birthday is November 8th)

 

On to what this blog post is supposed to be about (lol)

So! As most of you may know I am getting married on November 10th. Which is literally 2 days away! :O Holy moley! Bah.

The wedding is pretty hands on and kind of DIY and budget friendly. I am making all of the food for it! (gasp) Yes, I know I am crazy taking on something like that, but it was my choice and I don't regret it :). I am basically going to be making Hors d'oeuvrs. Basically finger foods. I don't want a full meal and neither does Chris, its going to be way too busy to be eating a full bloody meal. At least in our opinion, so this is what we decided. :)

I was wanting to share some recipes for the foods that I was making. Would you like to see them?! I was also considering giving my personal tips on how I planned my wedding. If you all would like to see that, PLEASE leave me a comment and let me know! Because I totally will do it! I'm super excited for Saturday and I think that it would be really fun to show you and talk to you all about how I made our day ours. Considering Chris and I are pretty easy to please and we don't like making things complicated and gross. (Lol. like my wording!?)

 

Please let me know your opinions if you would like to see a wedding series from me! :D <3



 

Manicure Of The Day! HGH

Hey Ladies!



I decided to show you all my manicure that I did earlier today! I absolutely LOVE it! <3







Don't you all just absolutely love it! It is my best manicure to date! :D #proud

I used Essie - Miss Fancy Pants

and OPI Cuckoo For This Color



.......................................................



Actually, I am kidding. Did I destroy my perfectly fine manicure that I had done earlier in the day to prove a point about something?

You are damn straight I did!! It has recently come to my attention in a group that I am in on Facebook that a group of bloggers created a "coalition" against having "dirty cuticles".  Because sometimes nail bloggers miss a spot or two on their nails when they are cleaning them up and still post the pictures on their blog. How dare they!? I mean, how dare you post dirty cuticles!

Pft. I'm kidding. I don't see why they are being so catty about it to be honest. NO I am not going to link you to the said place, because I do NOT the blog to be getting more attention then it should. Especially if it were to come from my blog. I think it is absolutely ridiculous that they started something like that. Just because someone missed a spot of nail polish before they took the pictures! I don't see why they are making such a big deal about it!

Now the person who created said "coalition" is saying they were doing it in all good fun. Well ya know, everyone is human and everyone has feelings. How do you know what is going through someone's mind when you give them hate because they missed a spot of nail polish on their nails. Absolutely ludacris. Some of you may agree with me and some of you may not agree with what I am saying. No I am not an active member in the nail polish community because I have shoddy nails and no artistic ability to do nail art. But the beauty community is hard to deal with as well. Why create a group for hate?

(Its also supposed to say No H8 In The Nail Polish Blogger Community)

I think there should be NO hate in any type of blogging community or in general. I love doing my Blogger/Company Spotlights because I love spreading a positive message and I am sorry for this being so negative, but it just irked me so bad that people would do something like that. Bullying in any shape or form is absolutely WRONG. Even if it was "meant as a joke" it is still wrong! I was bullied my entire life and I know how horrid it can make you feel. So go take your "joke" and shove it down your throat.  =^_^=

But, I am done with my "rant"  Also, hate all you want but I will say this.  Hell to the no I will not clean my cuticles. If you have an issue with dirty cuticles, there is a pretty little exit button calling your name, so you can just take yourself off of my blog. I promise, I WONT miss you. :)

Haters gonna hate.

Check out The Crumpet 's blog because this is where I heard about the group!

I hope you all are having a lovely Saturday! I am off to go fix my nails and do a video for my YouTube channel! Take care! <3

Hello Lovelies !

Hello lovelies!

I know, two posts in one day! Crazy crazy. I was literally sitting on YouTube and listening to a few videos thinking about posts that I want to do on my blog and I am coming up pretty much empty handed! How crazy.

I might be gone for the week of the wedding (November 5 - November 11th) with the Wedding being on the 10th! I honestly might not have the time to blog because I have no idea WHAT to expect that week with Chris' family coming in. Because some time needs to be spent with them for reasons. (Reasons which we shant discuss. BUT they are good reasons so have no fear!) Then there is going to be time being spent with my family then just all around PREPARING for the wedding! Then on the 9th it is going to be a bloody full day of cooking! Which, girl! (and guys!) I don't mind, I LOVE cooking! <3 Its my other passion after beauty.

Anyways, almost went off on a tangent. I'm not sure what kind of posts that I want to start doing. Obviously review after review can get a little boring and that is TOTALLY not who I am! I love mixing things up and keeping ya'll on edge for what is to come! :P So I definitely need help getting ideas for what you all want to see/read! I definitely want to do blog posts that ya'll want to read instead of the same old bring schtuff! :P

I seriously tend to get super excited when I get really cold.. if you couldn't tell! I am not sure if it is translating into my typing but you have no idea how excited I am to be typing this blog post! Ahhh! :D

Okay okay, back to what I was saying. Sheesh scatter-brained lady is scatter brained! :P  I do have some blog posts that I have planned, but I can't take the pictures for them until I cook them. I hate putting blog posts up without pictures! .. well kinda, but still. So, I have going to put some recipes for the food that I am cooking for the wedding. (yes, I am cooking pretty much all of the food.. it is going to be like a hors d'oeuvres kind of thing. I really don't mind doing it, I actually am the one who suggested it! now I am not going to be the only one cooking! I am going to have help! Have no fear! CookingAutty is here!! ... okay that was pretty lame) I am also considering doing a wedding blog post or two. Ya know maybe like pictures and yadda yadda. makeup yadda yadda (a giveaway maybe?!) and things of that nature. Then I was thinking of doing one along the lines of how I planned it and everything since I seriously have had no help, except for my Mum, Grandma and my Lovely Aunt. That's pretty much it. I don't mind either! I love them all the more for it!

 

Anyways.. woo almost another tangent. Lol. It's pretty chilly here in Florida right now. I'm pretty cold, so I am typing in a happy frenzie and such ness. I want to also give my blog more life and personality. Help!? I'm such a knob sometimes when it comes to my blog layout. I wish I could get the twitter youtube button things, but I have NO IDEA how to even work that to be honest. The HTML aspect is SO CONFUSING to me.

Before this blog post gets to long

HERE IS A PICTURE OF ANYA

She is so purdy! :P I'm probably going to have to upgrade my Wordpress account and pay for more space because I hit 16% of my 3.0 GB, and I don't want to be running out of space! :P

 

Anyways, I am off before this gets too much longer!

Toodles!

xx

 

My Grandma's Makeup Drawer

Hello Dolls!

 

That is right! I took a sneak peek into my Grandmother's makeup drawer. I was really interested in seeing what she used!

 

What I found surprised me! .. Well, kind of. I knew she wore lipstick, but I had no idea that she found foundation! It looks so natural on her! Just holy wow, that is a skilled woman! :P

 

I don't know all of the brands because the names were worn off of a lot of packaging, so you know she actually uses her stuff!

 

This was taken on my phone so sorry for the shoddyness of it!

As you can see she has 2 Covergirl compacts, then under it is a CoverGirl blusher. Then she uses an L.A. colors powder to set her makeup I am assuming. Now I didn't get the exact names or fiddle around trying to figure out whatever was. I am sorry that I don't have exact product names.

 

You can also tell that she has a CG Outlast Lip stain and 3 of their other stains that have that gloss you put on it. I had one years ago and oh my god it was horrid. Why? Because I was like 8 and it wouldn't come off! Haha these days I would welcome something like that.

She also had 4 lipsticks. Again, I couldn't find the brand names on these. I actually looked because I was curious. You can already tell that my Grandmother is an avid CoverGirl fan!

On this side you see that she has a makeup brush that has the remnants of something. (lol) A mascara, no idea the brand but I have never seen a tube like that before! She has some cortaid cream because she has very dry skin, her roll on deodorant, another container then she uses two shades of CoverGirl Clean foundation. You can also see that they both have different undertones, which I though was pretty neat.

 

I am sorry that I didn't get the exact names of everything in her drawer. I was over there for my wedding dress fitting, not to peak around her makeup drawer haha. I am sorry though! Next time I will get the names! :)

 

I hope you all enjoyed this post and seeing what my Grandma uses for makeup! She has very simple tastes and a lot of the time I've only ever realized she was wearing lipstick and blush, so it was a shock to me that she wore foundation and what not! Pft. She doesn't need it at all! :)

 

I hope you all are having a lovely day! <3

 

Wedding Chat!

Hello loves! This is going to be a different kind of blog post. Why? I am talking about my wedding! Squee! I am just starting to get really excited for it! There is a reason why I was not looking forward to it, but we shall get into that later!

 

As I sit here painting my nails for Halloween (yes, I know they probably wont even last a day), I am starting to think about the wedding. Thursday we are going to be sending out some very last minute invitations. What do I mean by last minute, in a little over 2 weeks I am getting married. Oh. My. Gawll! Seriously excited and nervous.

 

We still have quite a bit of minor stuff.. or well major stuff that we need to pick up but we can't get it until the 3rd for reasons. Hah. I still haven't figured out how I am going to do my hair or my Maid of Honor and Bridesmaid's hair. ( I only have 1 bridesmaid so thats simple enough lol) We are having a very small wedding like around 35 people at the most. I think it is really only 30 with Chris and I. Let me check my list... Okay 31 including Chris and I and we are still not sure if 2 people from his side are coming or not.

 

If you have been following me on Twitter, you will probably know that a lot of stuff has been going wrong with the wedding. We have had 2 cancellations for venues and 2 others that were pre-booked. So it has not been a fun experience trying to find a place to get married! Thankfully everything has fallen into place and we have somewhere. Thank goodness because I was starting to get discouraged! That is one of the main reasons I was not looking forward to the 10th of November because everything kept going wrong. Hopefully nothing else will go wrong! *knocks on wood*

I did have a second bridesmaid, but that wound up not happening, but its okay. To be honest this wedding would probably not be happening if it were not for my Parents, Grandma Morgan and my Aunt Helen. They are the 4 people that have helped up out the most! I will be forever grateful to them for that! I will also be forever grateful to my Uncle Rick for marrying us as well. I don't think I could have ever asked for such a supportive and helpful family! They are the best!

To all of the ladies out there who are planning a wedding, I just want to say, don't give up! I almost gave up planning the wedding because it started to become way too stressful. I also want to say that you can do it perfectly well without a wedding planner! Goodness knows we are! :) Ours is a very budget friendly wedding, but at the same time we are spending more than I probably would have liked to spend. I also have been making all of the centerpieces myself. So really, it is a very DIY wedding. I am even cooking the food for it! Pft holla!

 

I still haven't figured out how I am going to do my hair, so that is something I need to figure out ASAP. I haven't decided if I am going to be going to a Salon (probably not) or if I am going to be doing it myself. That is something I need to figure out hah. I am doing my own makeup and I pretty much have it figured out how I am going to do it :) I even know how my Bridesmaids are getting theirs done.

I was thinking about doing a giveaway with the products I used for my wedding makeup, but I wouldn't be able to afford it honestly! I have been planning a giveaway or two after the wedding though! I already have the majority of the products for that (thankfully) bahah, but for my wedding makeup I wouldn't be able to afford it, unless I were able to find drugstore equivalents. Or if it were sponsored, but don't hold your breath. I'm not holding mine! :P

 

For the week of the wedding I am probably going to have scheduled blog posts. I am going to make sure I get them done before then, because I don't want to leave you all hanging! I always feel bad when I don't blog! Definitely keep an eye on my twitter though! I will be so active on that baby that it wont be funny haha

That is really all for now! I am seriously starting to get super nervous. My Grandma Morgan has been super cute, every time we talk about it she starts to cry. She told me when we went to go do a fitting for my dress (seamstress woo) that she loves being in the know because she is so excited, then she started crying. I don't know who is going to cry more. My Dad, My Mom, My Grandma or myself! Hah, we are a bunch of emotional saps huh!? :P

 

But, I shall talk to you all later! I hope you all are having a lovely week! I am going to go back working on the centerpieces! (Yes at 2:36am!)

 

<3

Revelations about being Plus Size

Hello everyone!

This is going to be a different kind of blog post. Its going to be some personal revelations that I have gone through in the past week.

 

Now, I have always been "bigger" for as long as I can remember, even as a child. I am used to the heckling, torment and the words that other people have thrown at me. Sometimes it even came from some family members, so needless to say it broke me down a lot. I didn't feel attractive, so all through elementary school, even if it was 90 degrees out, I was in a jacket. I always wore baggy clothes, I just wanted to hide away in a corner from everyone.

 

I've been called every word in the book, even easy when I am not. Needless to say, I have been struggling with confidence and self esteem for a while. I know that I am beautiful in my own way and I am loved for being me. Chris tells me all of the time that he loves me for me, even being big. He used to say "there is more of you to love" but I always took that as an insult. It always was an insult to me, when I told him that he explained that it wasnt what he meant and it did make me feel better.

 

That is not what this is about though. lol. What started my whole ish with everything is I am getting married on the 10th of November. Aka next month. I am/was absolutely TERRIFIED of wearing my wedding dress. Why? I HATE my arms. I mean I HATE them with a passion. They are big, I like to call them my arm pillows. Lol, just a me thing. Anyhoo for the past week or more I have been getting REALLY into the plus size blogging world. I've been following Plus Sized Panda for around 4 months I think but that was really the only one. Then I just had the urge the other day to look into more plus sized fashion bloggers. I am not into fashion at all honestly, but I am wanting to start dressing more like a woman. I'm normally in a pair of jeans and a baggy shirt. I really don't want to dress like that anymore. Chris doesn't mind it, but I do.

I want to be confident in my own skin. After reading quite a few plus sized bloggers blogs I have started myself on the road to self acceptance. I actually feel more confident that I did yesterday. :) So I thank all of the lovely #psbloggers out there :) I am going to start adding them to my Blogger Spotlight on Sundays. :) So definitely keep a look out for those! :)

I wish you knew how much of a positive impact that you all have had on me in the past week. :)

 

That is all I really wanted to say. I just wanted to get it out! :P

 

I hope you all are having a lovely day! <3

 



Don't forget that you are beautiful not matter what anyone says. No matter your shape or size :) Everyone is beautiful in their own way!

Influenster's Relaunch!

Are you a member of Influenster?


Its an amazing site where you can do reviews of products, collect badges and answer questions that other people have.
It is a really fun website in my opinion. You can even get boxes of products to try out if you get selected! Each box has a fun theme to it and the products are all amazing!



Recently Influenster revamped their website! Its even more interactive and you can earn more badges. It is very user friendly and you earn the boxes instead of just being randomly picked out of everyone on the website. There is even a points system, the higher points you have the more chance you have of getting a box. I really love the updates to this website!



I think if you are not a member you should defintely go check it out and join!

http://www.influenster.com/





This is not a sponsored post. I just wanted to let you know about an amazing website! :)

Urban Decay Friends and Family sale!

Hello everyone!

I just wanted to let you know that Urban Decay is doing their friends and family sale!
It starts at 12 pacific standard time! Or if you live on the East coats 3am! Tuesday October 9th and goes until October 13th (Saturday)
The code is FFHOLIDAY12 It's 20% off!
The sale even includes palettes!! So go stock up on your favorites!
If I had the extra money I sure would be picking up a few things!


I hope you all are having a lovely evening and get some amazing things!

xx Autty