Target Summer Sample Bag

I got my Target summer sample bag a week or so ago. I opened it up a couple days ago, and squealed with delight to discover that there was a sample of Revlon ColorBurst Lip Butter in the exact color Emma Stone is wearing in the ads in my magazines, Peach Parfait! I've been wanting to try it so badly because it looks beautiful on her and being a pale skinned ginger myself (she's a red head in the ad) it seemed to be a fantastic idea. Plus peach parfait is an adorable name for a color. I pulled it out of the bag to use it and left the rest to lay on my coffee table for several days.
The deal is that Target has released these cute little free sample bags for Spring and now Summer, I would venture to guess that they will do the same with Fall and Winter. Like Target Style on facebook to find out when they come out. It's a little free sample treat from them to you.

The summer one is teal with a cute print on it and is fabric, as opposed to the spring bag which was pink and orange striped and made out of a plasticy type material. Inside was a sample of Revlon ColorBurst Lip Butter, Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Dry-Touch Sunblock Spf 70 (I believe I mentioned being a pale skinned ginger, so spf 70 rocks my world), Aveeno Living Color color preserving shampoo and conditioner for medium-thick hair, Fructis Color Shield fortifying shampoo and conditioner, Tresemme Split Remedy split end shampoo which came in a lovely little sample bottle instead of the normal foil packet, and a booklet of coupons for all the items I had samples of and then some, of course only to be used at Target. I'm certain I can make my way over there for $3 off the lip butter.

I'm not totally sure why I was clenching my fist so tightly...

The Revlon ColorBurst Lip Butter was nice, it had a pleasant smell, not unlike a soft vanilla, and decent color payoff. It was much more shimmery then I expected though. Like a pixie flew by hit my lips with an extra dose of pixie dust the second looked away from my mirror. It also lingers after you attempt to wipe it off. It left my hand and face all sparkly. It literally looks exactly like it does on the card, which gives me hope that the rest of them look the same in life as they do in the picture. I got about an hour of wear out of this one, either it has a little more staying power when you apply it from the tube or it's meant to be more of a gloss then an actual lip color. It disappointed me slightly on that front, but not enough to make me not want it. 


The Neutrogena sunblock is a little on the liquidy side and has a very strong smell that reminds me of a cross between sweet pea bath and body works lotion and my grandmother. It's not unpleasant, but I'm not a fan of super scented sunblocks, smells seem to intensify in the heat. I put this on me and my daughter. The scent seemed to disappear after about 30 minutes although she made the comment that it smelled like grandma. My daughter has really sensitive skin and can't use most sunscreens without irritation, I'm pleased to say this one worked out just fine for her. It felt less greasy then our normal sunblock and "dried" pretty fast, leaving our skin dry to the touch, for the most part. I went out and dug weeds in our garden for about an hour or so, needless to say I was a sweaty mess, normally sweat and our regular sunblock means I feel like an oil slick if I touch my arms or legs but with the Neutrogena sunblock it pretty much felt like nothing more then sweaty skin. No oil slick with this stuff! I will be buying this for our vacation this summer!

I'm not going to do a review on the shampoos or conditioners, I feel like you can't effectively get a feel for it when you have about a palm full of each, which for me and my mess of thick hair is less then I need for a one time use. I generally go off of smell, weather I like it or not, price, and then if both of those work out nicely then I'll buy a bottle and test it out. I also don't have color treated hair or split ends so it's kind of pointless I guess.
I will say that the Tresemme shampoo smells just like Tresemme products, sort of a clean pleasant smell. The Aveeno Living Color smells like shampoo, like the strong shampooy smell of a clarifying shampoo. And the Fructis smells like Fructis normally does, like a fruity creamy smell. Obviously prices depend on where you buy it and how large of a bottle you get. Check out your local grocery store or Target for these.

*These are my honest and true opinions, I received this for free thanks to a free sample promotion from Target, I do not get paid to give good reviews.*

Summer means Smores Bars!

I'm not a huge sweets fan, but I could eat these all day every day. I get tons of requests for these once it's summer. The best part is around the end of June, beginning of July, all the ingredients generally go on sale and you can get everything for $5 or less. 

2 6packs of plain hershey chocolate bars (I think it works out to 6 of the giant bars if you go that route)
2 bags of mini marshmallows (I used 1 large this time but minis work out so much nicely and you can get better coverage.)
1 box of graham crackers, I like the honey but if cinnamon is your thing go for it!
1/4 to 1/2 cup of sugar (more or less depending on your taste. start with 1/4 cup and go from there)
Melted butter, like a quarter to half a stick. 
A foil lined greased pan. No size requirement. I've used every size, I generally use a large rectangular pan but you can use a smaller one and just add more layers. (Foil line that shit, trust me! Melted marshmallow is AWFUL to try to wash off. Plus you can just pop the foil out, wrap it up, and then your bars are mobile without fear of losing your pan.)

If you use a small pan half the amount of graham crackers I said above. You don't need a super thick crust.

Working in batches put your graham crackers in a plastic ziplock and crush until fine crumbs. This takes some time, you can totally get the kids involved. Fine crumbs are what you're after but it's ok if you have a couple chunks in there. 

Transfer all crumbs into one ziplock. Add sugar, mix it around. Pour in melted butter 1 tablespoon at a time until all crumbs are saturated with butter. You don't want it all liquidy in there, just so all the crumbs are wet, it'll form like a paste. When you squeeze a chunk in your hand you want it to stick together. That's how you know it's wet enough.

Reserve about a handful of crumbs in a small bowl. Press the remaining crumbs into a foil lined, greased pan, bake in the oven for 10 minutes at 350.  

Take it out but leave oven on, let cool for 10 minute. In the mean time unwrap your chocolate and open your marshmallows

Layer chocolate, pack them in loosely, you don't want HUGE gaps between chocolate, but small gaps are fine.   Pour a thin layer of marshmallows over that, pack another layer of chocolate on top, pour the rest of the marshmallows over the top.

Sprinkle the reserved graham cracker crumbs over the top and press down on the entire thing lightly. 

Pop in the oven, checking every 10 minutes, until the top marshmallows are golden brown.

Let it cool completely before you cut into it or you'll end up with molten lava marshmallow on everything! I speak from experience yo, it sucks and it's painful.  Make sure to cover it after it's cooled, it can sit on the counter, no need to refrigerate. 

I hope ya'll love it!!

Bic Soleil Savvy Razor

I just want to say first that, normally shave with a 5 blade men's razor. It's amazing. I haven't used a woman's razor in quite a while, but I gave this one a whirl!

My first impression with the Bic Soleil Savvy razor was that it was adorable with it's pink sparkley handle. I found the concept interesting, 1 disposable razor handle and 4 refills, the entire thing to be thrown in the trash when the cartridges are used up. It seems a little wasteful to be honest, but interesting non the less. It does make it ideal for travel. The retail price is $7.49, so less then what I pay for refills for my Hydro.
To be fair I ditched my 5 blade razor and stole a (Unused!) random 3 blade disposable from my mom. The brand doesn't matter, but it's not a Bic brand disposable. It also has a "vitamin strip" and a pivoting head. I used the same shaving cream on both legs. I normally lotion my legs after I shave them but this week I've decided to forgo that. Hopefully I don't turn into a lizard.
I shaved one leg with the Bic razor and my other leg with the "Other" razor. I have to say, I wasn't expecting much difference but there was. The Bic leg is so super smooth, no nicks, no cuts, no tugging or pulling, perfection in the form of a smoothly shaved leg. The other leg I had some problems with, I ended up with a cut at the back of my ankle and 2 on my knee. It felt so scratchy as I was shaving my leg. In the end it's not as smooth, there are places that are still kind of prickly and it almost feels like it does after you dry shave, that pins and needles feeling. 

As far as stubble goes, there was no difference on either leg. the other razor didn't get as close as the Bic razor, but the next day I had the same amount of regrowth. I shaved again today and I ended up giving in and shaving my other razor leg with the Bic razor after I had already shaved it with the other razor. I couldn't stand the stubble it left behind. The Bic razor took care of everything the other razor left behind with minimal effort. The vitamin strip doesn't have a smell that I could tell, which is lovely because normally they smell like baby powder and it annoys me to no end.

Over all it's a decent razor. It does exactly what it's supposed to, give me a close shave, pivots like a pro (which is a feat because most "pivoting" disposables don't really pivot very nicely), it's adorable, the vitamin strip doesn't have a strong smell if at all, and it's lovely for the price. 4 blade refills for under $8? You can't beat that!  I don't think I'll give up my regular razor for this one, but I will keep it on as a travel razor. You can't beat that convenience! 

I want to conclude this with a neat little shaving factoid that was in my information packet along with the Bic razor...  I guess I never thought of this and it was interesting to me.
"Shaving removes dead skin cells and the superficial layer of skin. While the process is healthy, it reduces your skin's defenses for a couple of hours. Shaving at night gives your skin time to recover it's strength and suppleness to resist irritation. "

You can check out the new Bic Soleil Savvy Razor at feelthesoleil.com or their facebook at facebook.com/BICSoleil

I received this product sample from BzzAgent for review.
This is my honest opinion of this product. I do not get paid to give a good review.

Summer favs! So far...

I've got a couple things that have really worked their way into my summer routine this year. Although with the weather, it's a little less summer and a little more monsoon season. But with our lack of snow last winter, we do need the rain. I don't want to see any more giant, empty, dried up pits where our local lakes used to be. Plus I love selling bait to all the hottie fishermen, so a lack of lakes tends to put a crimp in my people watching.

I looked in my cabinet this spring and noticed that I had about 20 different varieties of tea. I decided right then and there that sun tea was my drink of choice this summer.
In case sun tea is just a Minnesota thing and I'm totally unaware of it, here's how you make it. get a large clear pitcher, fill it with water, throw in tea bags to your taste (I use about 10 in a gallon jug), put it in the sun, throw a lid on it to keep the bugs out (a paper plate works nicely for most sized pitchers), and wait several hours, pour over ice, enjoy.
I've lived up to that by constantly having this awesome gallon pitcher in my fridge full of sun tea. I've had mostly winners and only a couple losers (Orange spice and Raspberry/Mint I'm looking at you.) but one winner in particular was Celestial Seasons Candy Cane Lane tea. (It's a holiday one, obviously) It had somehow gotten stuffed in the back and forgotten. Which is a feat because I LIVE for holiday tea flavors. I bought it because it had the most lovely scent, like sugary, marshmallow, minty candy canes.The taste as a hot tea is delicious but nothing extraordinary.  But as an iced tea... Oh My! Best mint tea I have ever tasted! It has a very sweet, subtle mint taste, like you soaked candy in your tea. Actual candy canes have a much stronger mint taste then this tea, so don't expect it to be super minty like Bigelow's Plantation Mint, which is extremely minty. You can easily throw a couple extra tea bags in your sun tea pitcher and it won't overpower it. But in the end it's my most favorite tea. I had resolved to stock up next christmas when it comes out again but when I looked it up I discovered you can buy it online year round!  Pretty sure I'm placing my order today. You can buy your very own right here. It's amazing and you will love it if you love mint tea. Bigelow's Earl Grey tea is AMAZING iced as well. It's one of my most favorite teas, hot or cold, so I ended up with an economy sized box and decided I needed to make sun tea with it. the result was so delicious it should be illegal. Once in a while I'll make a single cup and pour it over ice when I don't feel like making an entire pitcher. Ok, when I'm too lazy to make and entire pitcher.

The second thing I'm in love with this summer is Bath and Body Works Tangelo Woods body wash. It's like Orange Earl Grey tea in a body wash. It has mandarin and bergamot oils in it and it's amazing. The scent explodes in the shower and makes the entire bathroom smell fantastic but it doesn't linger on your skin, and I love that. I hate taking a shower and 10 hours later still smelling a faint hint of the soap I used mingling with my perfume. I like the scents in my shower to stay in my shower. I like that my shampoo and conditioner scents don't linger as well. I have far to many lovely smelling goodies to have to compete with a body wash. Also Tangelo Woods reminds me of a manly smell so it might be a tad strange to wander around smelling like a men's cologne all day considering I'm a woman. But I used to use some kind of awesome soap from Lush that made me smell like patchouli all day long and when I was married I used my husband's deodorant to the point where I bought myself one so we didn't have to share, so it wouldn't be the first time I wandered around smelling a little manly I guess.

I'm obsessed with the new L'Oreal Magic Lumi Primer. I mix this shit with my foundation and it's magical what it does to my skin. I have constantly rosy cheeks (thank being a ginger for that one I suppose), so I really just wear foundation to even that out and make me look like a normal human being, not some creepy overly rosy cheeked doll.  This just makes everything go on super smooth and adds just a touch of "light". I wouldn't say a shimmer but just something special to my normal make up. It looks more dewy then anything. Very lovely. If you wear make up, I highly recommend this.

Fructis sleek and shine shampoo, conditioner, and the smoothing milk have changed my life for the better. If left up to it's on devices my hair looks like a cross between a stray long haired cat, a wolf, an alpaca, and Side Show Bob from The Simpsons. No joke. It's awful. This whole little "system" has calmed my ungodly thick wolf hair down so much it even amazed my mother. I've never worn my hair down in it's natural state, and thanks to Fructis and lets give a little credit to Merida from the upcoming movie Brave, I wear it down and natural all the time. Summer time is not a time that I want to spend an hour and a half straightening my hair just to look presentable, so this is a rather lovely addition to my whole routine. And it smells like apricots! Which is a plus plus check in my book, such a wonderful smell!

I've got to throw in Super Miracle Bubbles brand bubbles. Because I can get them at walmart in GIANT jugs for like $2. No joke, I found a gallon, a freaking gallon jug of bubbles for $2. If life gets more fantastical then that I don't even want to know about it. Especially since me and the nugget are massive bubble blowing freaks. Once in a while in the winter we bust them out and blow them in the kitchen, but then it ends with me having to mop so we don't do it as often as we do in the summer. I love being able to blow bubbles outside with the kid! 

There are also the usual summer favorites, watermelon, popsicles, China Glaze nail polish in Pink Voltage (of which I buy 2 bottles every single spring to last me through the summer), sprinklers, the electric clipper for the dogs, and painting outdoors (FINALLY!). OH! And this super amazingly delicious pasta salad recipe I discovered somehow, but that'll be in the next post. The suspense!

**I purchased everything I talked about in this post with my own money. I always state my honest opinions on products and do not get paid to give good reviews.**

I'm kind of a horror freak. I also hate most purses unless they have Hello Kitty or fringe on them. so I started painting them. I'm telling you, this is much much easier then you would think. All you need is a steady hand, paint (obviously), some brushes of all different sizes to suit your needs (I often only use 4 because that's just how I roll and I'm too lazy to sort through 10 different sized brushes), and some purses!

More often then not I'll change the color of the purse so the original color doesn't normally matter. The texture and the shape are what makes me need them or not. My only requirement is that they have to be plastic or a stiff leather, I can't have a purse that's flopping all over the place and creasing when my paint is still wet. Or creasing when it's dry because that would cause it to chip off before I can clear coat the shit out of it. I use a regular matte multi purpose craft paint, it's just what I have acquired the most of in my life and I enjoy using it. I suppose you could use any type of paint you'd like. Unless you're painting on a fabric purse, then Use A Fabric Paint! It won't work to clear coat a fabric purse like it does with a stiffer plastic or leather one and all your paint will chip off the second you start to move it around. You will set yourself up for a failure. I like to draw my design out with a white pencil first, just as a guide line. Be careful with that though, sometimes the white will shine through when you're all done and you'll have to go over it 50 more times. I speak from experience. Then I paint it up. Simple, yeah?
You don't have to paint zombies or spiders on your purse, you could use a stencil and paint some flowers, or ants, or pumpkins...Whatever suits your mood at the time! You can find alot of really great purses at your local thrift store just waiting to be given a second life! Many of them are under $5.
When I'm totally done with them, I put like 5 or 6 (or 10) coats of a glossy clear coat spray paint. I like to use the indoor/outdoor gloss, crystal clear, Rustoleum spray paint. It's super easy to use and the smell diminishes after a couple days.
*On a side note, Rustoleum now makes a clear coat for fabric things such as chairs and crap, I haven't tried this yet but I just wanted to let ya'll know about it*
I like to clear coat on a sunny day, set the purses out in the sun for 10 minutes to warm up before spraying. I know it says on the can not to let it dry in the sun, but I've found that keeps the purse from getting too stiff, I let them dry in the sun for about a half hour and then bring them inside the garage. I stick a folded up dryer sheet in all of my finished purses and set them in the garage for about a week. This pretty much takes care of the spray paint smell, I mean of course if you hold it up to your face and take a deep breath like some weirdo creeper you'll get a small whiff of spray paint, but who does that? No one is going to be able to smell it if you carry it out. I've actually gone out with my zombie one the day that I clear coated it and no one could smell spray paint, I normally give them a week just to be sure though. I spray everything except the zipper, if your purse is shaped in a way that you will inevitably spray the zipper, cover it with a piece of tape. It will stick and be exceptionally hard to open if you clear coat it.
The end result should look all shiney and beautiful, the outside will be waterproof, and the paint underneath should be uv protected as well from fading. (hence the reason I use indoor/outdoor clear coating)

I hope this inspires you to customize your own purse/wallet/shoes/jackets/luggage! Good luck!

Enjoy!

The Restored Spring Horse!

One of my very first "restoration" projects came in the form of a sad neglected spring horse that I found at my local Thrift Store. I bought it for $35 plus tax, used all my strength to toss it in the back of my mother's SUV, and giggled the entire way home. You couldn't have paid me to stop smiling at that point. I almost didn't buy it because it didn't have a ground base and I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to figure out how to mount it in the ground, that it would sit gorgeous and useless in the back of my garage. My dad spied it and instantly had a plan, which is actually in action as I type this. The cement slab is drying in my yard right at this very moment, begging for a handsome spring horse to be bolted into it.  All in all I spent about $80 total, including the price I paid for the horse to begin with, to jazz it up.  I've heard you can find these at flea markets for a little cheaper then what I paid for mine. Hopefully I'll find another this year! Anyway, it took me about a week to do everything, mostly because I had to work. I put in maybe a solid 12 hours sanding, spray painting, driving to the hardware store, eating popsicles with my daughter, and cutting stars out of tape. My tip: wear a mask when you're sanding. It doesn't matter if you are up wind from it on a blustery day, it will still end up all over your face.
I'll go to pictures at this point.

 

There she is! Obviously you want to pick one that's structurally sound. I knew I'd probably have to replace the rusty bolts holding it all together but the rust on the actual spring area was just cosmetic. Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty, turn it over, pick it up, look at the bolts and rusted areas closely. Bolts are a couple bucks at a hardware store and can almost always be replaced. But the actual structure would cost much more, if you can replace it. Another thing to note, I had noticed on my horse that someone had cut larger holes in the bottom of the spring, where it would meet a ground base, so I had to take that into consideration. Would there be a solution to that? Turns out we just used some washers and larger bolts.

 

So I removed it from it's base in order to sand down the actual horse which is plastic. I basically sanded it so that I would have a smooth surface to spray paint over. I wasn't trying to get every shred of paint off but enough to make it smooth. However, after I started it was a mad house! The original color was red and the eyes were yellow, but on top of that was blue spray paint, red flat paint, black, red, black, yellow, red. There were about 4 layers of paint on any given part. More on the black hooves and tail. Horrible. But after about 6 hours of sanding it was good to go. 

I primed it, not only would I see if it was raised up in places, but also so that my midnight blue would be as blue as it possibly could be.

I hadn't painted an eye at this point, but I had taped off the saddle blanket and the reins before I sprayed it blue. I wanted a crisp white base for the silver. And those areas are silver, it just looks white in the sun I guess. After it had all dried I taped around those areas and used a paintable silver on the reins, threw some stripes in the hair, and a spray silver on the saddle blanket. The lesson I learned this day was, don't use your favorite, perfectly sized, paint brush with metallic outdoor paint, because it won't wash off and will ruin your brush.  I ended up using squares of tape and just cutting stars out of them directly on the horse. Then spraying a gold spray paint on that. It was super liquidy and I ended up having to touch it up. So, if you spray a can of spray paint closely onto a paper plate (outside!) it'll stay wet and you can use a paint brush to go back over mistakes. It was a lovely discovery for me. I'm certain some spray paint veterans are slapping their foreheads right now.

 

 

An eyeball! Basically it's finished and almost ready to be mounted back on it's base. Which I used an electric sander for. It took my dad about 5 minutes to finish that. I'm majorly accident prone, so I generally stay away from electric tools that can rip my skin off. My dad was nice enough to let me use his sander, so I was nice enough to not risk getting blood on his garage floor, and just let him do it.  I spray painted the base black and the foot area silver. All that was missing was about 5 coats of outdoor clear gloss. Which I used on everything. (the horse, foot hold, and spring) Also, make sure you use all outdoor paint if your project will be outdoors. It just saves you peeling in the end.

My daughter's new beautiful spring horse! 

 

A nice side by side. Before and After.

 

My point here is that with a little time and a will to work on it, this was a pretty easy peasy restoration project. It took about 12 hours out of my life, not including digging the hole and pouring the concrete slab we decided to bolt it into, and it was a pretty minimal strength/endurance project. Cutting out stars requires very little, artistic wise, so even if you don't consider yourself "artsy" you can do this.

All I needed was sand paper, medium grain
A medium sized flat paint brush
Painters tape
A box cutter
and spray paint

I hope this inspires you to start a project today!

Enjoy!

Awkwardness, my dogs, and THE horse.

First blog posts freak me out. I've contemplated for months about this and in the mean time I've had tons of other things going on that I could have totally posted about and plan to. But I can't just start it off with the spring horse restoration, or my amazing brownie recipe, or how I discovered THE MOST adorable hair style ever for my daughter, or even the crap review I had of a certain crappy shoe insert. It all has to start with something yeah?
I hate talking about myself in a "I'm Jessica, I have a kid, and some dogs, and I like to travel but hate leaving my home" kind of way. All of it is true, but it doesn't seem very interesting. Chances are that you know about 59 Jessica's, you may also have a child or know someone who does, and probably have a dog or cat (which I also have), and who doesn't like to travel?
I suppose I could tell you what this is all about...
I'm slightly obsessed with my dogs. One dog in particular. Clyde, Bonnie isn't nearly as photogenic or patient as him so she is absent in most of my pictures. That's something to expect. Photos of Clyde. I could throw a couple in here right now.

My kid. Enough said. She's amazing. You'll probably see her in the background of several photos.
I'm a free sample freak, so I get tons of random delicious sometimes cruddy things to review and need to put them somewhere.
And....
I'm a project freak. I NEED to have some kind of project going whether it be painting, sewing, cooking, or restoring.

Being a hobby cook means I have several lovely recipe gems that are tried and true.

I recently discovered my passion for restoring things. Although, I'm not sure it's restoring since I'm not making it the same as it was when it was new. I'm more, fixing it up and making it look how I want it to It does look new when I'm done, but less like it did when it came out of the factory. The beauty that started it all was the horse. A gorgeous playground spring horse that I got from my local thrift store. It had been repainted several times and was peeling and rusted.... Ok this is a whole new blog post.

I feel this is sufficient enough for a first post yeah? done.

Enjoy!