It has come to my attention that I speak on behalf of Emmy quite a bit...probably more than any sane person should. What is even worse is that now I make sounds for her and then translate them. I apparently do it enough that Nick knows right away when I'm "speaking" on behalf of Emmy through AIM. This was our conversation about ten minutes ago.
Me: Worrorwww woo wooorr woor woooo
Nick: Translated?
Me: That translates to, Nick, mommy just groomed me and I feel so much better.
Me: Hehehehehe I'm glad you knew it was Emmy.
Nick: I would hope so!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Grilled Chicken
Nick and I decided that we would kick off the grilling season last night. It was so warm and sunny that we couldn't pass it up. I had seen at Food Maxx that whole chicken legs were being sold for $.76/lb. If you are unfamiliar with grocery store prices, this is a good deal. A fabulous deal, in fact. I was able to get enough food to feed six people for under $8. Since I had some fresh thyme in the fridge and grow my own sage, I didn't have to worry about buying expensive herbs. When it comes to season, I will be planting thyme, basil, and rosemary. My mom gave me the idea to plant some cilantro too, but I'll have to check to see what season it best grows in. I don't think that I want to do tomatoes this year. If I do, then I will only put in one or two plants. There were too many tomatoes to eat last year, but not enough to put up in cans.
Back to the subject at hand. Originally we were going to throw our chicken legs in the oven to roast, but when we woke up to this beautiful weather we decided that it was time to break out the grill. I was a little weary of a marinade because I find that you don't get much of the flavor when you grill, but it turned out pretty well. I prefer spice rubs to marinades when grilling. Nick suggested that we use some thyme, sage, cayenne, and lemon in our marinade. This is what I came up with:
I added garlic to his idea because I always add garlic to everything. This weekend Uncle David had given us a bunch of lemons. This was the best lemon that I had ever used. My mom thinks that they are Meyer lemons. If that is the case I'm going to plant a tree in my backyard when I get a house. I don't like lemons that much, but this one was so pretty and juicy. The zest looked like candy and there had to be at least half a cup of juice in that one lemon.
Unfortunately, because we have the grill on the opposite side of the house, we can't see it from our backyard window and failed to put on the cover over the winter. The flavor plates that disperse the heat evenly got rusted and the gas element was cracked. My mom is going to get new flavor plates and we're hoping that little gas pipeline within the grill will shoot enough gas in to power the far end of the grill. We're a little disappointed that one winter of not covering it has done so much damage, but next year we will be sure to cover it. The grill we had in NY was out in the heat and snow and it never had this kind of wear and tear. Too bad Costco no longer has their lifetime guarantee otherwise we'd take it back.
Nick ended up taking off the flavor plates because we didn't want rust fumes and particles near our food. He was a little worried that there would be hot spots and that the chicken wouldn't cook evenly, but he did a good job at watching and rotating the chicken so that didn't happen. The chicken was quite tasty, and perfectly grilled.
Back to the subject at hand. Originally we were going to throw our chicken legs in the oven to roast, but when we woke up to this beautiful weather we decided that it was time to break out the grill. I was a little weary of a marinade because I find that you don't get much of the flavor when you grill, but it turned out pretty well. I prefer spice rubs to marinades when grilling. Nick suggested that we use some thyme, sage, cayenne, and lemon in our marinade. This is what I came up with:
Chicken marinade
4 tbsp fresh sage, minced
3 tbsp fresh thyme, minced
1 lemon, zested and juiced
8 cloves garlic, grated
4 tsp salt
4 tsp pepper
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
6-8 tbsp evoo
Directions:
Combine all ingredients into gallon-sized ziplock bag. Let chicken marinate in refrigerator for 3-4 hours, rotating chicken every hour.
I added garlic to his idea because I always add garlic to everything. This weekend Uncle David had given us a bunch of lemons. This was the best lemon that I had ever used. My mom thinks that they are Meyer lemons. If that is the case I'm going to plant a tree in my backyard when I get a house. I don't like lemons that much, but this one was so pretty and juicy. The zest looked like candy and there had to be at least half a cup of juice in that one lemon.
Unfortunately, because we have the grill on the opposite side of the house, we can't see it from our backyard window and failed to put on the cover over the winter. The flavor plates that disperse the heat evenly got rusted and the gas element was cracked. My mom is going to get new flavor plates and we're hoping that little gas pipeline within the grill will shoot enough gas in to power the far end of the grill. We're a little disappointed that one winter of not covering it has done so much damage, but next year we will be sure to cover it. The grill we had in NY was out in the heat and snow and it never had this kind of wear and tear. Too bad Costco no longer has their lifetime guarantee otherwise we'd take it back.
Nick ended up taking off the flavor plates because we didn't want rust fumes and particles near our food. He was a little worried that there would be hot spots and that the chicken wouldn't cook evenly, but he did a good job at watching and rotating the chicken so that didn't happen. The chicken was quite tasty, and perfectly grilled.
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| Nick hard at work manning the grill |
Turmeric Broccoli
5 cloves garlic, minced
3 bunches broccoli, cut into bit sized pieces
2 tbsp turmeric
2 tbsp EVOO
Directions:
Parboil broccoli until bright green and still slightly raw. Rinse under cold water to stop the cooking. Sautee garlic in EVOO for one minute. Add turmeric and stir. Add broccoli and toss together. Serve hot with rice.
Pseudo Book Club
On Sunday Bonnie and I headed out to Burlingame to have a pseudo book club at Abby's. I'm calling it pseudo book club because we didn't actually read any books this time around. After realizing that we would read the books only to discuss them for about five minutes and then hang out for the next six to seven hours we decided to just call it what it is, a get together. Abby made an awesome egg, sausage, and Granny Smith apple strata that was so light and fluffy and a super delicious garlic cheese ball. Oh man, I couldn't stop eating it, but didn't eat as much as I thought I would because I was talking so much. Bonnie and I always know that if we go to Abby's we're going to eat well. She has always been an excellent cook. Bonnie brought some super sweet pineapple and a berry salad, which was nice and sweet to go with the scones I brought (my usual Ina Garten recipe).
As soon as I picked Bonnie up I think we were thinking the same thing. We wanted to know if Abby would want to walk to Sephora. I'm not the only one with the makeup bug! After we ate and had a little bit of food coma, we headed to downtown Burlingame to wander and check out Sephora. If I lived where Abby lives I would practically be living in Sephora. It's only a 5 minute walk from her apartment! It would take longer to find parking downtown than it does to get there by foot. After complaining so much about not getting at dual ended 24/7 eyeliner in the Naked Palette, I decided to bite the bullet and just buy one. I got the color Underground, but haven't used it yet. I saw that on Hautelook.com, a boutique site (free sign up), that Urban Decay was going to be on sale. I haven't opened the liner yet in case by some chance they are selling them for less than the $18 price tag at Sephora. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. When I tested the liners at the store they were so smooth feeling that if they're on sale I might get a bunch of them.
After we finished walking around downtown, we headed back to Abby's to watch a movie, but then ended up chattering the rest of the time. This is great though because we're planning on getting together for a movie night so that we can watch the movie we ended up not watching. Woo hoo! More girl time!
As soon as I picked Bonnie up I think we were thinking the same thing. We wanted to know if Abby would want to walk to Sephora. I'm not the only one with the makeup bug! After we ate and had a little bit of food coma, we headed to downtown Burlingame to wander and check out Sephora. If I lived where Abby lives I would practically be living in Sephora. It's only a 5 minute walk from her apartment! It would take longer to find parking downtown than it does to get there by foot. After complaining so much about not getting at dual ended 24/7 eyeliner in the Naked Palette, I decided to bite the bullet and just buy one. I got the color Underground, but haven't used it yet. I saw that on Hautelook.com, a boutique site (free sign up), that Urban Decay was going to be on sale. I haven't opened the liner yet in case by some chance they are selling them for less than the $18 price tag at Sephora. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. When I tested the liners at the store they were so smooth feeling that if they're on sale I might get a bunch of them.
After we finished walking around downtown, we headed back to Abby's to watch a movie, but then ended up chattering the rest of the time. This is great though because we're planning on getting together for a movie night so that we can watch the movie we ended up not watching. Woo hoo! More girl time!
Monday, March 28, 2011
Essie: One Day Without Blues
On Saturday we went out to the City to have dinner with our family. Whenever we go to Chinese dinners I drink a ton of tea. I've noticed within the last couple of years that I have become very sensitive to caffeine. After dinner we went back to my grandma's where my aunts were making Dunkin' Donuts' coffee, which is my favorite. I couldn't resist. By the time we got home I was wired. I ended up watching Army Wives until 3am and painting my nails because I was just sitting around at my desk. Bonnie and I are planning on getting our nails done on Wednesday, but I felt like I was wasting my time just sitting and watching TV. This paint job will just have to come off before it needs to be. Oh well.
I had gotten this bottle of Essie: One Day Without Blues free for "liking" Tom's Shoes on Facebook. Tom's and Essie joined forces to promote Tom's fundraiser, One Day Without Shoes on April 5th. I'm assuming that this color is a limited edition and was only made for this fundraiser, but is very similar to Coat Azure that I've seen in stores. I wouldn't be surprised if they just changed the shade by one gradient. It's not exactly my favorite color, but I wanted to try it out since it was sitting on my desk and I really enjoy Essie polish. Can't argue with something that is free and supports a good cause!
In these pictures the One Day Without Blues looks much lighter than Coat Azure, but when I was walking around a store yesterday I saw Coat Azure and thought it was the same one that I had received. I would describe One Day Without Blues as an Easter egg blue.
I had gotten this bottle of Essie: One Day Without Blues free for "liking" Tom's Shoes on Facebook. Tom's and Essie joined forces to promote Tom's fundraiser, One Day Without Shoes on April 5th. I'm assuming that this color is a limited edition and was only made for this fundraiser, but is very similar to Coat Azure that I've seen in stores. I wouldn't be surprised if they just changed the shade by one gradient. It's not exactly my favorite color, but I wanted to try it out since it was sitting on my desk and I really enjoy Essie polish. Can't argue with something that is free and supports a good cause!
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Friday, March 25, 2011
Urban Decay Naked Palette: Initial Thoughts
Tonight I plan to try some of them out when I go to the grocery store. I know it's just the grocery store, but I really want to try it since I stayed home last night because of the rain. I didn't feel like wasting it on sitting around the house and watching Army Wives, which I'm addicted to. This swatch was done by Marlena from Makeupgeek.com. She is one of the first makeup gurus that I started watching back in NY and got me through my breakup. ...Though admittedly I did try some of her more bold looks to go to clubs with girlfriends and now that I think back on it, whew, glad those days are over and that I discovered neutral colors. Marlena, who I feel like is a close friend even though she doesn't know I exist, has done quite a few looks with this palette that I really enjoy. You can also read her brief review and see more pictures here on her site or watch one of her many videos here.
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| Compliments of Makeupgeek.com |
Okay, so here is my initial reaction:
- Aesthetics: The casing is really pretty. The outside is covered in a chocolate brown velveteen with gold printed writing. I like that the box resembles a book. There is a magnetic closure so that nothing falls out, but it does open easily enough that you don't have to pry it open with your fingers like some plastic cases from the drugstore. When open, there is a nice clean row of 12 shadows ranging from light to dark and a fair sized mirror on the top flap. Beneath the row of shadows is a slot for the synthetic-feeling eyeshadow brush.
- As far as scent goes, I stuck my nose in the palette, (got a little too close and got Creep on the tip) and it has a funny soapy scent. I'm not sure if this is the actual eyeshadow smell or the casing that it comes in. It is not unpleasant and so mild that unless you were like me you won't be able to smell it. It is not something that would deter me from buying it.
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| The packaging straight out of the box |
- Eyeshadows: The quality is great! I love that there are different finishes within this palette. I have noticed that a lot of drugstore shadows are full of shimmer. Urban Decay has offered four different finishes: matte, shimmer, satin, and sparkle. Personally I still like the shimmer shadows, but I know the value of having matte finishes in your palettes. You don't want to be walking around looking like a disco ball. The matte shades help give you a natural look and for what I can see there are two, Naked and Buck. As for the others, they all hold some sort of shimmer whether it is a slight iridescence or full on bling. I swatched the colors yesterday without primer and they turned out pretty well on my hand. The light colors were difficult to see, but I like that quality. It gives me the option of going really lightly with my looks or packing it on for more pigmentation. Even though some of the shadows have some pretty visible glitter specks, all of the shadows have a silky feel to them. With the kit comes Urban Decay's famous Primer Potion. I would most likely use this when using the light colors so that they pop a little more, but wouldn't always find it necessary for the darker shades because it might make them too bold for my taste. Though I know that the primer is supposed to prevent creasing and make your colors last longer, I don't always use it.
- I'm not an expert, but these are the shades within each finish as far as I can tell:
- Matte: Naked and Buck
- Shimmer: Half Baked and Smog
- Satin: Virgin, Sin, Toasted, and Hustle
- Sparkle: Sidecar, Darkhorse, Creep, and Gunmetal
- I enjoy all of the colors, but the Naked color really is naked. I think this will be a pretty, matte base color, but against my skin, you really can't see it much. I think that if you are more fair or a little darker than my skin tone that this shade would look really pretty. I will probably use this color as my under-brow highlight.
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| I'm sure there are better pictures of this online, but since I took it I figured I wouldn't have to steal someone else's picture for the blog. |
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| This is a scan of the description on the back of the packaging. |
- Brush: They call it the Good Shadow Karma Brush. I'm not exactly sure why, but holy moly it retails at $26.00. It must be made of gold or something! It does feel nice in my hand and is much heavier than any other brush I own. We will see how well it performs. It is also apparently 100% vegan, which doesn't matter to me, but they have it in their product description. I still would have rather had the eyeliner, but that's just me.
- I was quite disappointed when I found out that they were no longer selling the palettes with the dual sided 24/7 brown and black eyeliner, which normally retails at $18.00 for a singular color. I really wanted to try out the liner and thought it was a great idea to have a dual sided liner included with eye shadows. I suppose that it makes more sense to have a eye shadow brush instead, but I would have much rather had the eyeliner since people were raving about the quality.
Overall, I think I got my money's worth. This is the first time I've purchased high-end makeup for myself. Since the palette was released in late 2010 the price has gone up by $4.00, but maybe that is because of the switch from eyeliner to brush. Each palette comes with a mini Primer Potion. I bought a regular sized Primer Potion a while back from Sephora for $18.00. They don't sell the mini ones on their own so I'm not sure the value of that. The whole palette retails for $48 on Sephora.com, but at the end of the day it came out to be $58.36 with tax and shipping. Because this palette has been sold out at both Sephora and Ulta, I put myself on Sephora's email list to have them contact me when it was in. I looked on Amazon, which is my usual go-to, but they jacked up the price to $85! I couldn't believe it since they are usually so much cheaper than other websites. I guess the palette was in really high demand. As I see it, this is a great bang for your buck palette. Without factoring in the "gold laden" brush and mini Primer Potion each shadow cost about $4 each, which is about the same as you would get in the drugstore. Granted, the pans for each shade is smaller than a single Covergirl shadow, but I'm going to pretend that I didn't realize that.
So far I love the palette and feel like I'm getting my money's worth. This seems like something that I could easily take along with me on trips and be able to get many, many different looks from it.
If you are interested in makeup tutorials for this palette I have linked a few of my favorite gals below:
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Purples
For Briana's Senior Ball she is having a purple dress made for her by a seamstress she knows. We've been practicing different makeup looks to see what she would like to have for the big night and she requested to have some purple in her makeup. Since I don't wear much purple myself, I went out and bought some inexpensive pallets. I'm pretty darn impressed with the quality. As you know from previous reviews, I'm enamored by the quality of the ELF products, but I'm now also throughly impressed with Wet n' Wild's new approach. I had heard that Wet n' Wild has become a pretty reputable low-cost cosmetic company in the last few years. When I was a teenager I bought mostly their inexpensive nail polishes...and still sometimes do. I've been seeing in videos lately that they have been coming out with small, but easy to use palettes. They have a bunch of trios out, but also three or four different six-pan shadow palettes. My CVS was pretty much out of their whole stock of Wet n' Wild stuff, but thankfully they had the purple palette left. I would like to acquire a few of their trios and their neutral six-panned palette to try them out also. Didn't I just say in my last post that my makeup purchasing needs to peter out?
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We have yet to actually try any of these out yet, but I have swatched them all and really enjoy them. I particularly like the Wet n' Wild matte shades and that sparkly black/purple color in the bottom row. The good thing about purples is that they look good on pretty much any skin tone. Now the only thing is to try them out! We may not even use that much purple since I don't want her walking around looking like a grape, but I think that I can figure out a way to make at least one of these shades an accent color to match her dress.
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Stay tuned! I'm expecting the Urban Decay Naked Palette to come in the mail tomorrow and am very excited. I will be posting pictures and my initial thoughts on it after I play around a little bit. Since I'm really not that great at doing makeup, I will be linking to some pretty nice looks on Youtube that you can do with it. I'm so excited!
CVS Extra Bucks Addiction
Since I discovered the CVS Extra Bucks coupons that come on the bottom of the receipt if you use your CVS card, I've been hooked. Maybe a little too hooked. I used to throw them all away because I didn't know what they were for until I actually saw someone use them and how easy it was. Now when I'm sitting at the stoplight to go home I pull out my nice long receipts to look at what my spending has "earned" me. I cut my coupons off and put them in my wallet for the next time as soon as I get home. My Auntie Mary sent me a 25% off coupon and I'm tempted to us it, but that means that I have to go down there and buy things that I don't need. My dad's philosophy is that I can save 100% by just not buying anything, but I have to tell you, I love getting things at a discount if I:
- Need it
- Really want it
- Will eventually buy it
When those are the cases I love using the coupons. I do recognize, however, that they make me spend more. For instance, a couple of weeks ago I went to get a package of baby wipes for makeup removal. Those were $8 by themselves and I had a $5 Extra Bucks coupon. I could have walked out of the store with my giant bag of baby wipes that will last me months for only $3, but did I? Of course not. I also had a coupon for $3 off a $15 purchase or more to accompany my $5 Extra Bucks. (I like that you can pile coupons at CVS.) As I was walking down the face cleanser aisle I saw all the little tags that said, buy $15 of CVS brand facial care products, $5 Extra Bucks back. Perfect! Since I'm not extremely fond of the Boots makeup remover I decided that I would try out the CVS brand remover that is supposed to be like the L'Oreal brand and also to try their cold cream. My mom has always used cold cream for her make up removal, but I never really liked it when I was younger. I decided that I would give it another shot. After those two items, I didn't have $15 worth of facial products so I also got myself a CVS brand facial toner. I got all of those things just so that I could get another $5 Extra Bucks back. Is that crazy or what? I'm spending more money trying to save money!
In this case it worked out because I ended up returning the cold cream and makeup remover because they stung my eyes, but still got to keep my $5 Extra Bucks coupon. I guess you could cheat the system by returning stuff all of the time, but that becomes tedious. For now I still get my kicks from saving $8 when I go to the store, but I think I will have to slow down soon. There is only so much that I need at CVS. Now that I'm running out of storage for my makeup and have enough makeup to last me a lifetime, I really need to stay away so I don't buy even more products that I don't need.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Garlic-Crusted Roast Rack of Lamb
A few months ago Groupon had a special for 15 issues of Food and Wine Magazine for only $12. Every year I like to subscribe to a new food magazine, and this deal was too good to pass up. I got my first issue last week and read it cover to cover. It seemed like there was a lot more talk about wine than food, but that could be because I'm not as interested in wine. I didn't realize that so much went into wine making! Anyway, the cover of the magazine was a spectacular looking rack of lamb and the recipe was simple. If you're a lamb lover, you will certainly enjoy Garlic-Crusted Roast Rack of Lamb. The only one who didn't enjoy it that much was my dad. He gave it a B because he said he wasn't really in the mood for lamb, but my mom even liked it, and she doesn't like lamb! On with the pictures.
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| Nick "Yan Can Cook"-ing the garlic. The knives were going so fast that they're a blur! |
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| This is a little less than three heads of garlic for the lamb rub. |
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| Usually Nick is the one who handles the meat because I don't like touching it much. I had tossed him a metal bowl to mix the rub in. We look down at his hands and he goes, "Did you cut yourself?!" because there was a little bit of blood on one of his fingers. So I stick out my hands and take a look but nothing is there and then we're staring at the bowl, but then he realizes that he has an ity-bity little cut on his finger from the foil. Since he had that little cut he didn't want to touch the raw meat and risk getting any kind of infections. |
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| Greek yogurt mixed with minced dill weed. |
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| I had so much extra dill for the yogurt that I paired it with some lettuce as garnish. |
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| These were a hit! Usually with a roasted dish we roast potatoes along with it, but Nick has been wanting to make country-style potatoes for a while so we decided to try it out. |
Nick's Country-Style Potatoes
Serves 8
Ingredients:
10 red, cubed2 poblano peppers, seeded and cubed1 yellow onion, diced7-8 cloves garlic, sliced1 tbsp cayenne peppersalt and pepper to taste4 tbsp waterDirections:Parboil the potatoes for 8-10 minutes until they are soft, but not mushy. Drain and run under very cold water. In wok, saute pepper and onions until they become soft over medium-high heat. Add garlic and sauté for another minute. Add potatoes, cayenne, salt, and pepper. Saute for about 5 minutes over medium-high heat or until potatoes have a nice crust. Pour in water and cover immediately. Let steam until soft, about 7-8 minutes.Note: Nick did his potatoes in two batches so that they would cook evenly.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Space System: Saturn
I got this nail polish a long time ago, so I don't think they sell it anymore. I tried to google it but nothing came up. I'm guessing since I got this in my early college days that I got it at a dollar store or something of the like.
Originally I put down a hot pink base, but hated the contrast of the two. It gave both the pink and the glitter a muddied look.
Originally I put down a hot pink base, but hated the contrast of the two. It gave both the pink and the glitter a muddied look.
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Seche Vite Top Coat
I had been going back and forth to Sally's Beauty to try to find the Seche Vite top coat. I was able to find it the first time I went to the store, but for the month of February they were having a sale where you could get the Seche Vite base coat free if you bought the top coat. That is a bargin because the base coat is normally $6.99. I had to have the deal especially since I was going to purchase the top coat anyway and was looking for whichever brand of base coat was the least expensive. The only thing wrong was that my Sally's never had the base coat in! By the end of the month they still didn't have the base coats on their shelves so they gave me a rain check. I was able to go get it a few weeks afterwards at the February sale price. This was great because I had a coupon for $5 off too! Of course I was unable to just get top and base coats I went for. I got a couple of sale items while I was there too.
I've been using the base and top coats for a couple of weeks now and really enjoy it. I've never used base coats before and boy, what a difference it makes. I do like the top coat because it's nice and thin. I'm still a big fan of the Sally Hansen's Super Shine that I've been using since high school, but I find that it gets really thick in a couple of months depending on how frequently I use it. Since I just got this top coat I will have to see how it holds up, but so far so good. It's not quite as shiny as the Super Shine, but that's to be expected since it's a plain top coat. The one thing I really dislike about it is the smell. It reminds me of terpentine. I know the nail polish doesn't smell good as it is, but this is ultra stinky.
To sweeten the pot, the top coat is normally $7.99, but because I belong to the Sally's beauty club I got it for $6.79. The best part of all? Because of the $5 off coupon and the top and base coat sale I walked out the door only spending $6.63 for all four items. Can you believe it? I spent less than I would have on the top coat alone!
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| Ridge Filler Org: $2.99 Sale: $2.29 |
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| Ardell Dark Angel False Lashs Org: around $12.50 Clearance: $1.99 Get a load of these lashes. I plan to wear these next Halloween but wanted to get them on major sale. |
I've been using the base and top coats for a couple of weeks now and really enjoy it. I've never used base coats before and boy, what a difference it makes. I do like the top coat because it's nice and thin. I'm still a big fan of the Sally Hansen's Super Shine that I've been using since high school, but I find that it gets really thick in a couple of months depending on how frequently I use it. Since I just got this top coat I will have to see how it holds up, but so far so good. It's not quite as shiny as the Super Shine, but that's to be expected since it's a plain top coat. The one thing I really dislike about it is the smell. It reminds me of terpentine. I know the nail polish doesn't smell good as it is, but this is ultra stinky.
To sweeten the pot, the top coat is normally $7.99, but because I belong to the Sally's beauty club I got it for $6.79. The best part of all? Because of the $5 off coupon and the top and base coat sale I walked out the door only spending $6.63 for all four items. Can you believe it? I spent less than I would have on the top coat alone!
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
E.L.F
If you didn't think I was obsessed or crazy before, you will now. I've been waiting for my giant shipment of E.L.F. products to come in the mail and it's finally here! I had heard many good things about this product line and am not disappointed. I'm astounded by the color pay off of their loose Pigment Eyeshadows. I'm not sure if Target is selling these or not. When I was there on Saturday I didn't look that hard since I knew I was getting this shipment in this week. I do have to say, the website has a lot more variety than the stand at the store. I do know that they sell some of the $1 quad eye shadow palettes and the color pay off in those is excellent also. I was trying to make swatches of them, but my little Canon was washing out the color.
If you go on their website, eyelipsface.com, they always have sales or specials going on. Their products aren't very expensive to begin with, but I got all of their Studio line products 50% off. All of their Studio line [except the liquid foundation] is only $3.00 an item. That is a bargin on it's own, but I got them all for $1.50! Unfortunately, you can't pile on coupon codes. I was hoping to get the 50% off and get the free shipping for buying over $25.00 worth, but it only lets you do one code per order. I saved around $15 with the 50% off code though so I'm not complaining much. I purchased 19 items all for $31.45 after tax and shipping. That is a steal and puts each item at an average of $1.65 each. Can you blame me for going buying crazy? At prices like that, I could have bought one of each color shadow and not broken the bank.
Without further ado, here is my loot.
I've been getting more into blushes since it's winter time and I'm as pale as my doggy's white fur. I have a few pinks and rose colored blushes already, so I thought I'd try out a soft peach color. I bought the whitish blush called Gotta Glow for the purpose of highlighting.
These were the two things that I was most excited for. One of my favorite makeup gals swears by both of these so I wanted to try them out. I thought that the bronzer was a matte bronze, but it has quite a bit of shimmer in it. It's not over powering, but it does shimmer. Since it's winter I've been wearing matte bronzer since it would look funny to have a summery glow in the middle of March.
I got the Complexion Perfection on a whim. The description and reviews were good and the idea of it is pretty cool. This product is supposed to help even out your complexion for red spots and blotchiness. We'll see if it works. I don't think that my complexion is that bad, but I wanted to see what it was like and for that price it was a no brainer. That's also why I tried the pressed powder. I'm still on the fence about all this foundation stuff, but I figured for $1.50 I'd try it.
The makeup girl said that this was her favorite eyelash curler. I had a Revlon curler, but it always pinched my skin. I will have to try this one out more and see if I like it. I do really enjoy the grip of the handles.
If you go on their website, eyelipsface.com, they always have sales or specials going on. Their products aren't very expensive to begin with, but I got all of their Studio line products 50% off. All of their Studio line [except the liquid foundation] is only $3.00 an item. That is a bargin on it's own, but I got them all for $1.50! Unfortunately, you can't pile on coupon codes. I was hoping to get the 50% off and get the free shipping for buying over $25.00 worth, but it only lets you do one code per order. I saved around $15 with the 50% off code though so I'm not complaining much. I purchased 19 items all for $31.45 after tax and shipping. That is a steal and puts each item at an average of $1.65 each. Can you blame me for going buying crazy? At prices like that, I could have bought one of each color shadow and not broken the bank.
Without further ado, here is my loot.
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I really like these quads a lot and think they are very pretty. When I go back to Target I'm going to see what other colors they have. I might end up collecting all of them!
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| Mocha Swirl and Olive Duo Eyeshadows $1.00 each |
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| Studio Blush: Peachy Keen and Gotta Glow $1.50 each (reg. $3.00) Natural Radiance Blusher: Coy $1.00 |
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| Tinted Moisturizer: Nude Pressed Powder: Buff $1.50 each (reg. $3.00) |
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| Contouring Blush and Bronzing Powder Translucent Matifying Powder $1.50 each (reg. $3.00) |
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| Complexion Perfection $1.50 (reg. $3.00) |
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| Eyelash Curler $1.00 |
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Separation Anxiety Training Progress
I haven't talked about it recently, but Emmy is getting much better. I have been working with her on and off the last few months for her Separation Anxiety (SA) whenever I have time. On Saturday I found myself home alone with her, which rarely happens. There is always someone in the house. It makes it really difficult for me to do SA training with her when she knows that there are people around even if I have them hiding in their rooms or Christopher is still asleep at noon. We finally had some one on one time so I snatched up the opportunity. We started at her being alone for 5 minutes and then we tried 10, 20, and 45 minute segments afterwards. I even went to CVS during the 20 minute segment to get my mind off of her. I worry about her when she is in the house by herself and always look at the clock when I'm waiting in the car. I'll post the things that I just happened to purchase while I trying not to think of Emmy in a different post. I also went to get gas at Costco during the 45 minute session, but the line was so absurdly long that I turned around and left. By the time the 45 minutes was up, she was a little huffy and stressed when I came back in, but she was fine. I knew after the last session that she had reached her limit. She was in her "Don't ever leave me again" mode. There were no stress poops and she hadn't torn any bags. She loves tearing cardboard and plastic bags, which I'm fine with because it keeps her away from furniture (with the exception of the bathroom, but she was trying to escape that time). I was feeling pretty confident about her being home for 45 minutes with no signs of damages and what appeared to be minimal stress on her.
The next day we planned to leave her home so that we could go out to pho. Usually we take her with us and leave her in the car, but with summer approaching, I really need to get her ready to stay in the house because the car will be just plain deadly. I have a feeling I was just as stressed out about her being home alone as she was, if not more. She had two Kongs stuffed with peanut butter, her While You Were Gone: Music Pets Love cd on, full bowls of water, and free reign of the house. I had taken her to the park for some fast-paced frisbee throwing too. While we were at the park I noticed that all the peanut butter from the training the day before had given her the runs. I was so worried that she would get stressed out and poop in the house. When I got back after a little more than an hour, the house was perfect. There was no poop, no torn bags or boxes, and all of our door jams were intact. Whew. My parents were out doing stuff together so my plan if she pooped was to Resolve the heck out of the carpet (if she stress poops it's always on the carpet) before they got back. Being her mommy, I took one big inhale when I walked in and knew she didn't poop anywhere. I could pick out the scent of her poop out of a pile. Gross, I know, but after picking up your pup's poop for so many years, you start to recognize the smell. I comfort myself in thinking that it will make me less squeamish for when I have to change diapers if that ever rolls around.
My priority now is to get her at least used to being home for an hour or two while we go out to our weekend lunches. Leaving her for more than that isn't even in the works right now. We will take it slowly and see what becomes of my problem dogter. From what I've read though, it seems like once you get your dog used to being home alone you can gradually build up the time that they stay at home. We used to leave Emmy home alone all the time in NY and she got into minimal trouble. I rented then though and didn't mind as much if things got ruined. Heheh. But now, being that we live in my parents house, I don't want her to ruin any of their stuff. So for so good!
The next day we planned to leave her home so that we could go out to pho. Usually we take her with us and leave her in the car, but with summer approaching, I really need to get her ready to stay in the house because the car will be just plain deadly. I have a feeling I was just as stressed out about her being home alone as she was, if not more. She had two Kongs stuffed with peanut butter, her While You Were Gone: Music Pets Love cd on, full bowls of water, and free reign of the house. I had taken her to the park for some fast-paced frisbee throwing too. While we were at the park I noticed that all the peanut butter from the training the day before had given her the runs. I was so worried that she would get stressed out and poop in the house. When I got back after a little more than an hour, the house was perfect. There was no poop, no torn bags or boxes, and all of our door jams were intact. Whew. My parents were out doing stuff together so my plan if she pooped was to Resolve the heck out of the carpet (if she stress poops it's always on the carpet) before they got back. Being her mommy, I took one big inhale when I walked in and knew she didn't poop anywhere. I could pick out the scent of her poop out of a pile. Gross, I know, but after picking up your pup's poop for so many years, you start to recognize the smell. I comfort myself in thinking that it will make me less squeamish for when I have to change diapers if that ever rolls around.
My priority now is to get her at least used to being home for an hour or two while we go out to our weekend lunches. Leaving her for more than that isn't even in the works right now. We will take it slowly and see what becomes of my problem dogter. From what I've read though, it seems like once you get your dog used to being home alone you can gradually build up the time that they stay at home. We used to leave Emmy home alone all the time in NY and she got into minimal trouble. I rented then though and didn't mind as much if things got ruined. Heheh. But now, being that we live in my parents house, I don't want her to ruin any of their stuff. So for so good!
Monday, March 14, 2011
Emmy Pictures for Auntie Julie
Besides my mom and myself, I think that Emmy's Auntie Julie is the only other person who enjoys Emmy pictures so much.
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| Ground squirrel hunting |
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