December's not so Nerdy Craft Time and other miscellaneous things

December will not have Nerdy Craft Time posts. Not because I ran out of things, but because I've been extra busy this month and now it's almost the end. I have 2 Nerdy Craft Times set up for January, it's completely possible that I will add in an extra one.

We ended up springing for all new LED lights for our tree this year, I can't get over how bright they are! 

Christmas preparation has been crazy for me and my family, we started early but it just feels like I'm going way too slow and time is passing way too fast. I can't wait to cook on Christmas Eve, large family meals are what I live for! There has been plenty of snow, hot chocolate, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas this year though which I think makes it extra awesome.  I'm so excited for Christmas! It ties with Halloween for my favorite holiday. My family has always been huge on Christmas so it is super special for everyone. 

We made these super fun little ice "marbles" a couple of weeks ago when it was really cold. All you need are balloons (we used dollar store birthday ones), water, and liquid food coloring. (and freezing temps either outside or a spacious freezer)  I put a couple of drops of food coloring into the balloon (about 5-10 drops), then filled it up slowly with water from the faucet until the balloon was the size I wanted. I tied them off and placed them gently in a bowl. I transferred them in 4's because I didn't want to put them on top of each other and risk breaking them inside my house. I gently set them in the snow and let them sit for a few days. If you want your color a little more evenly distributed you may want to wait 6 -8 hours (depending on how cold it is) and flip them over. Then I cut the tops off the balloons and peeled it off the newly formed ice ball. Then you can sit back and enjoy your new ice marbles!
Word to the wise, do not place them on concrete if your temperature will get above freezing, the colored water will stain. You could certain do what we ended up doing though and place a plastic sheet underneath them, just remember to move them into the yard once it starts to warm up so they can melt without the chance of ruining anything.

After 9 months of flirting with platinum, I'm back to being a ginger. It's a bit lighter then my natural ginger hair but I'm pretty much in love with it. Blonde was nice but I do enjoy being a red head. Although I hated growing up with it, that was before "ginger" was a thing and it was all about certain horrible names that I won't type ever. Ginger is funny as long as people don't take it to a physical level. Nasty names are not. What I find the most interesting about being blonde though is hearing every time I tell someone I'm a natural red head, "Oh I LOVE red heads!" as opposed to every time I hear that rocking my natural color... Oh wait, that's never. I never hear anything about how people love red heads when I have my red hair. Most people like gingers in theory, until they actually meet us and realize most of the rumors about us are true. I also love when people tell me the red looks so much more natural on me.. well... I am a natural red head, I'm literally made to have red hair, of course it will look more natural. But I appreciate the compliments all the same. Red head problems.

Before with the blonde

And back to being a magical gingery unicorn. And yes, those are ghouls on my window, around Christmas... I may never take them down. They look hilarious when the sun hits them and they are silhouetted through my blinds. 

Aside from everything, I'm so excited for 2013 to end. This year has not been so kind to my family and we are so ready for a fresh new year. I can't complain too much, we still have food in our bellies, a roof over our heads, and family around us. But we've have a year marred by major health issues and strange mean spirited occurrences.

So, I'm sorry that I haven't thrown up 2 new Nerdy Craft Times including a new food edition. I promise I have one in the works for next month!

I probably won't have anything new up until January so I hope you and your family are having a wonderful time during the holidays, whatever you celebrate or traditions you have, I hope they are filled with joy and love. Have a lovely new year and I hope 2014 is the best year for all of us!

Milani Thankful for Color Giveaway Prize Pack!

I ended up winning one of the Milani Thankful for Color Giveaway prize packs on facebook!
I believe mine was titled Emerald City. Everything is green, which is exciting because green is my favorite color! Not normally to wear on my face, but with these I'm thinking I'll make an exception! I've never tried anything from Milani before so this was a wonderful way to get introduced to the company.

YAY! Prizes!

Not only is everything on the Milani site extremely affordable, the make up they sent me is lovely, and rivals several other companies known for their staying power. I'm not going to go all crazy in depth for these ones. I don't really have a ton to say considering everything was amazingly pigmented, super smooth, and gorgeous. I'm so excited to try more products from Milani.

You can check out the Milani website HERE. You can find all of these on the site, I'll include the retail price of each but not the link, since they all come from the same place.

Milani Ultrafine Liquid Eyeliner in Emerald Glisten $7.49
This comes in 5 shades including the one I received.  I am in love with this liner! Although I do love the color of this one, I'm not sure I love it for me to wear. It is beautiful! It is a true emerald green (although it looks blueish in photos) with small silver sparkles in it. It is opaque in a single swipe, there is no reason to build it up but it does layer smoothly over itself or eyeshadow.
The liner formula is fantastic, it goes on smooth without snagging or skipping, it doesn't crease, dries down within a minute, and it stays put through anything until you wash it off and then some. I actually had to wash this and then use make up remover before it would budge.

This liner and the Shadow Eyez fall in to my very favorite category of make up, almost unwashable.

Milani Shadow Eyez cream shadow pencil in  Green Safari $6.99
This comes in 12 shades including the one I received.  This went on super smooth, even, and opaque with a couple of passes. It blended out easily and dried down within a couple of minutes. It is a super pretty jungle green color. I used this as an eye shadow base and it lasted through several hours in the snow and over the course of a day, probably about 10 hours until I washed it off and even then it took soap and water and eye make up remover.

Milani Eyeshadow in Just Perfect $5.99
This comes in 12 shades including the one I received. The swatch of this looked like it was barely there, but this went on super pigmented. It went on butter smooth with hardly any fall out. It is a gorgeous shimmery mermaid green.(although it looks blue in the photo)

Milani Jewel FX Nail Polish in Teal $4.99
This comes in 8 shades including the one I received.  I loved the chunky pieces in this! It was a fun mix of tiny glitter pieces and large multi colored confetti type pieces. Because the large pieces were hard to distribute, I had to apply this in 2 stages. I applied a couple of coats, let it dry completely, and then apply a few more coats. This dried completely within 5 minutes and was smooth when I ran my fingers over it, which surprised me because most of the time you find glitter polish to feel gritty and uneven without a top coat. This lasted several days (without a top coat) before it started to chip.

(Left to Right) Just Perfect, Green Safari, Emerald Glisten (Double Swatch)

I saved the swatches for an all together collection for this one. I could not get my camera to focus on the eye shadow swatch to save my life. I ended up getting really frustrated and gave up. So it just looks really sad which is a shame because the eye shadow is the star of my prize pack. It is so gorgeous! This photo just doesn't do it justice.

Overall, I loved everything in this prize pack! Beautiful colors, crazy awesome staying power, and highly pigmented, everything I love in make up, plus everything is super affordable. I'm definitely a Milani fan now!

Enjoy! 

Ipsy December Celebration Glam Bag!

Holy sweet marshmallow goodness! It is already the middle of December! This month is just flying by. I'm sorry I have been so inactive this month, although I'm unsure if anyone reads this anyway (not that it would shut me up). I've done 3 people's Christmas shopping for them, plus I've been making a Harry Potter themed gift for my child (more to come!), I've taken on a new project of making an ugly Christmas vest for my dad, and I've been doing the usual Christmas things. You know, baking, decorating, putting up our tree, wrapping gifts. It's also been like eight thousand degrees below zero here for the past week and a half. Ok, it's been like -8 but my weather man assures me that it only feels like -22. ONLY.  None of this applies to my Ipsy Glam Bag, I know this. What can I say, Midwesterners never get straight to the point. Ever.

So the Celebration Glam Bag has been full of sneak peeks on the Ipsy facebook! If you didn't have a clue about what you were getting then you haven't checked it out at all. I still stand by my thought that it would have been magical if we had little confetti poppers in our bags this month. But life will go on some how I suppose.

The Celebration bag is a shiny, sleek, black, textured bag. It has a tiny little quilted pattern, it almost looks like it's covered in tiny black jewels. It is a gorgeous make up bag. Inside we find...

Be A Bombshell The One Stick in Sunset $16
You can find this HERE. It comes in 7 different shades, all of them are beautiful. I was confused on this after first, is it a cream blush, can I use it on my lips, is it an eye shadow stick? Apparently it's all of this. You can use The One Stick on your eyes, lips, and face. This is super pigmented, goes on smooth, and can be blended out easily to almost nothing. Because this smells like straight up crayola crayons right out of the box, I wouldn't use this on my lips in any situation, I'm not a fan of that scent being stuck under my nostrils all day. The smell made me so sad because this would be gorgeous on my lips but I'll live some how. However, this worked lovely as a cream blush. I'm a super baby pink or pink peach blush worshiper, I rarely stray from those colors, so I was surprised at how nice this looked.  Just a touch blends out beautifully to a slightly bronzey flush. It lasted about 8 hours on me until I washed it off without any settling, caking, or movement. I have dry/normal skin though, so I'm not sure how this would be on oily skin. If I only used this as a cream blush it would last forever considering the generous amount you get in a single tube. Overall, I think this is a fantastic product. The fact that you can use it on your eyes, lips, and face makes it perfect to keep in your purse for touch ups. (Not that you would need them!)

Pop Beauty Bright Up Your Life eye shadow palette in Naturally Bare  $24
I received 3 shadows from this palette but I'd like to mention that the full palette ($24) has 10 neutral eye shadows in it. You can find this HERE. This was a really well thought out trio of colors. They all work well together. All 3 are a shimmer, easily blended, and easy to build up the colors. The first color on the left which is kind of a champagne color, was the most pigmented for me, I got that much color in 2 swipes, the only problem I had was getting it to show up in the swatch because it melts into my skin tone so well. The middle color is a medium cocoa brown, and the last color was almost a grayish brown, it is much more brown then it looks in the photo though. Each of these shadows felt super soft and I had minimal fallout from them, although they did get pretty powdery in the pan. They stay shimmery even when blended which is fun, I come across a lot of shimmer shadows that loose quite a bit of their sheen once blended out and it makes me sad, not with this though! Overall I was really surprised at how much I loved this because I've had such horrible luck with Pop lately. If I didn't already have a neutral palette, I would be buying this.

Ardell Lashes in Natural 120 Demi Black $3.49
You can find these HERE.  You can buy them HERE. I don't normally wear false lashes because I also wear glasses so they tend to be too long and hit them every time I blink, which hurts my eyes after a while and doesn't look beautiful. BUT on the occasion that I do not wear my glasses, I love false eyelashes. These were interesting because my first impression of them was that they seemed a little sparse. They are on a strip and it just seems like the lashes are spaced out a bit too far. These definitely lengthened my natural lashes however, they didn't really give them the appearance of being much thicker then they already are. These are super soft though, not at all stiff or pokey. I love that they get slightly longer at the end of the strip and sort of wing out all on their own. They blended in easily with my natural lashes with a couple coats of mascara.  I removed and cleaned mine and they held up nicely, with gentle handling you would be able to get atleast 3 wears out of these. Overall these were pretty casual, they weren't anything crazy special (not that you would buy "natural" lashes for crazy special night out lashes) for a night out, but they did enhance my natural lash. I would wear them again.

JCat Beauty The Big Lip Pencil in Carmel Mocha $3.99
You can find this HERE. This comes in 12 gorgeous shades including the one I received. This lip pencil is chubby enough not to be a lip liner but skinnier then a lipstick, it is creamy like a crayon liner rather then a pencil consistency. It went on smooth and was opaque in 2 swipes. It didn't settle into my lips, but it didn't dry down either, so it sat on top of my lips like a gloss and was easily worn off within an hour. However, it looked fantastic on! It ended up being a nudey slightly rose color on my lips, not my natural lip color but it did look like a natural lip color which was awesome. I love lipstick probably more then the average 20 something but sometimes the "understated" shades end up being so completely unnatural which is not what you're going for when you pick a subtle color. I pretty much love everything from J.cat and this was no exception.

Starrily Nail Polish in Bzzz Bzzz  $12
You can find this HERE.  The first thing I saw on this website was their holiday collection and how funny their polish names are. "Ho Ho Whore" was cracking me and my mom up. I love glitter polishes so this was right up my ally. Although, this wasn't really glitter as it was more confetti with gold glitter in it. There are 5 different sized shapes in two different colors in this bottle. I had to glob this on just to get an even mix and coating, I would assume that if you wanted that over another color you would have to let it dry between coats. It dried smooth though which was impressive, normally you get a texture with glitter polishes. Overall I didn't like this. I mean I loved  the way it looked, LOVED IT! But it was so hard to get it to look even half way decent that it was ridiculous. Also, $12 for a single nail polish is crazy expensive in my book.

As usual, if you would like to receive your very own Ipsy Glam Bag you can sign up HERE! It is $10 a month and each monthly glam bag has a theme of it's very own, right down to the mini make up pouch. You also take a beauty quiz when you sign up to help personalize your glam bag. To personalize it more you can review the items you get in each glam bag, stating if you like the color, item, or brand, or if you hate it completely.  

Enjoy!

*Ipsy Glam Bag is a monthly beauty sample bag that I paid for with my very own money. I do not get paid to give good reviews*

Yummy Potato Soup

There is something about potato soup that is instantly comforting, the rich thick texture, the soft chunks of potatoes, the delicious flavor... All of it together makes me want to take a nap.
If you want something to warm you up on a super cold afternoon/evening then you have come to the right recipe!
I've adapted this recipe from 4 potato soup recipes, kept what I wanted, threw what I didn't. All potato soup recipes are pretty similar, some have ham or bacon, cheese or no, different types of potatoes and spices, milk or cream. You can really mix and match any recipes you find, most veggies are interchangeable (aside from the potatoes of course) and you can always add what you want instead of what I have on here. Peas, beans, additional carrots, squash cubes, broccoli, cauliflower...  Just remember that stronger tasting veggies will change the taste a bit. It will still be good I'm sure, just different. I don't like to add cheese to my soups unless I have to (such as broccoli cheese soup) because I think it changes the texture when it's reheated and gets grainy when you freeze it. If you want cheese in your potato soup I suggest that you add it to your individual servings. Then everyone can adjust the amount of cheese they want and you don't have to compromise on the texture of leftovers. I like to use ham and bacon, but if you prefer to use only bacon or ham you can without flavor loss.
I can't claim that this soup is healthy, but it's not as unhealthy as some other versions I've seen that add the bacon grease and heavy cream.
So you'll want about 13-14 medium sized potatoes (or like 9-10 large potatoes), I like to use Yukon golds for this because I love their flavor but you can use regular potatoes as well. You probably want to stay away from baby reds because they have a very distinct flavor and are pretty small. You can also cut your recipe in half and make a smaller batch. I know it seems like a ton of potatoes but I use them as the "soup" as well as chunks of potatoes in the soup.
I use yellow onions in my soup because our grocery store has them in abundance and they don't have a crazy strong flavor. You probably don't want to use red, but white onion or vidalia should be fine as well as yellow.
If you don't want to use an emersion blender or don't have one, you can mash the potatoes with a hand masher or electric mixer after you drain the water and before you add broth. If you need a little liquid, add a small amount of the broth until the potatoes are smooth and creamy, then add the rest of the broth and stir well.  To mash the carrots and onion, instead of pouring the carrot/onion mix straight into the potatoes you'll want to pour it into a bowl and tightly seal it up with some foil for like 10 minutes. peel the foil off (be careful with the steam!), then using your potato masher you should be able to smash it all up until it's relatively smooth. You don't need freakishly smooth, but you don't want any chunks. Then throw that into your potato mix and stir it up really well.

On to the soup!!

What you'll need

• 13-14 Medium sized potatoes or 10-11 large potatoes, peeled
• 4 cups of chicken broth
• Milk (you'll need anywhere between 1-3 cups don't worry about exact measurements of this)
• 1 large onion
• 4-6 carrots peeled
• 1 pkg of frozen corn or 1 can of corn drained
• 4 T (1/2 a stick) of butter
• 6 strips of bacon
• 5 slices of deli honey ham (like lunchmeat ham, it doesn't have to be honey)
• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Soul Food Seasoning (you can find this at Family Dollar stores and many grocery stores)

 

1. Take all but 3 of your peeled potatoes and roughly cut them into chunks, place them in a large pan (the one you'll use to make the soup in) or a dutch oven, cover them with water, and boil until soft. You'll want them a bit softer then fork tender because we are going to mash them up.
2. Drain the water, add your chicken broth and cook them on low.
3. Using another pan, melt your butter, thinly slice your peeled carrots and onion, add to butter, and cook on medium/low with the lid on until the carrots are easily mashed with a spoon. Stir occasionally.
4. Once the carrot/onion mix is soft add the entire pan (butter drippings and all) to your potatoes.
5. Using an emersion blender, blend the entire mixture until smooth and creamy.
6. Add 2 Tablespoons each Garlic powder, Onion powder, and Soul food seasoning, mix it all up and taste. Adjust the seasonings if needed. The more Soul Food seasoning you use the more spiced up it will be.
7. Put the lid on and set the entire pan aside, removed from the heat.
8. Take your remaining potatoes and cut them up into bite sized pieces, throw those into a sauce pan, cover with water, and boil on high heat until tender.
9. In the mean time, using the same pan you cooked the carrots in, add your bacon and cook it until done. (I prefer mine not crispy but cook it to the doneness that you like)
10. Scoop out the bacon with a fork or slotted spoon and place on a paper towel lined plate, set aside. Cut up the ham into small pieces and throw this in the same pan (grease and all) you cooked the bacon in. Cook until just crisp.
11. While it's cooking, cut up or crumble the bacon and place it back on the paper towel lined plate.
12. Once the ham is done scoop it out with a slotted spoon and place it on the plate with the bacon.
13. At this point your potatoes should be done, so you'll want to drain the water out of that pan and pour your potatoes into your mashed potato mixture. Add your bacon/ham as well. Stir it all up.
14. If it's frozen, throw your corn in the microwave until hot and add to your soup, if it's in a can, drain it and throw it in your soup without heating.  
15. Add your milk. Start with 1 cup and increase from there at 1/2 cup intervals until you get the consistency you like. You don't really have to measure this though, just pour and stir until you get the consistency you want. I like mine to be thick enough to cling to a spoon but some people like it thinner then that. If you want everything to be super hot, place your pan back on the stove and heat through on medium/high heat.
16. Serve and enjoy!

If you want to add cheese go on and add it to the individual servings. Shredded cheddar goes really nicely with this. If you really want to add cheese to the pan, bring your soup to a simmer and turn the heat off, then add your cheese, and stir until melted.

I know it sounds like a lot of work and pans but in reality you're only using 3 pans. It isn't that much work either, I probably spend about 30 minutes prepping for this and most of that is peeling potatoes. I spend about an hour and a half cooking. I do my dishes while things are cooking (such as the carrots or ham because they require very little attention) so in the end my kitchen is super clean and we have a super yummy pot of soup!

 

As always,

Enjoy! 



Cream Salad!

I know it's a little last minute but I did want to share one of our family holiday traditions! Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, we always have... Cream Salad!
I know there are a million different variations of this, but this one is the one we've used since as long as I can remember. I'm sure my grandmother clipped it from a magazine or something at some point but I couldn't tell you where she got it. It's super simple, super yummy, and super awesome!

Cream Salad

What you'll need
1 pint container of heavy whipping cream
2 packages cream cheese softened
1 or 2 jars maraschino cherries Depends on how much you love cherries
1 can of crushed pineapple
1 bag of mini marshmallows

That's it!

So what you'll want to do first is drain your cherries, but save the juice in a bowl and set it aside. Drain the crushed pineapple too but you don't have to keep that juice.

In a medium bowl pour your whipping cream and whip that cream with an electric mixer until it is whipped into submission! It will have the consistency of soft whipped butter, slightly thicker then whipped cream you buy in the store. It'll take you like 10 minutes. Literally. Pop it in the fridge until you need it.

Your cream will look like this

In a large bowl, whip up your cream cheese. You just want it mixed a bit so it's creamy.

Then add the cherry juice, a little bit at a time, and whip until it's pink and creamy.

Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese until it is all mixed up. Although I get lazy and just stir it up instead of folding it, it all works the same. Don't over stir though, your whipped cream will start to separate if you go too crazy on it.

Add your remaining ingredients, if you want smaller cherry pieces you can cut them in half or quarters, we used to do that but we stopped because it's ridiculous unless you have small children. Throw the cherries, pineapple, and marshmallows in and fold all of this until it's all mixed up and awesome.

That's it! Now you can sit back and love yourself a bit more because you made something so delicious and it took you like 20 minutes!

 

YUM!

As always,
Enjoy!

 

 

I hope you all have a lovely Thanksgiving!
and if you don't celebrate, then have a fantastic Thursday! 

Ipsy November Glam It Up Glam Bag!

This month I cheated and sneaked a peek at what I would be getting in my Glam Bag. I normally don't look, because I receive the email the exact same day my package arrives in my mail box. Why spoil it when I would see it in an hour or so? But I couldn't resist when I saw that gold bag. I received the exact colors of everything I was hoping for so Ipsy must be paying attention to my reviews and quiz! Straight out of the bag I LOVE everything except the hair spray. I'm not a huge hair product user or fan. My hair is pretty much unruly no matter what I do with it so I either straighten it into submission or let it go crazy. I'm not picky. Almost everything surprised me in this bag. The thing I thought I would love the most is one of my least favorite, the thing I was most excited to try turned out to be a dud, and the thing I was least excited about turned out to be amazing!  And then you have the Star Looks eyeliner, which of course is fabulous. Everything I get from Star Looks is always crazy amazing.

The bag itself is gold with an alligatorish texture, and it has a huge loop/handle which you could hook on your wrist and use as a little purse for holiday parties. It has a hot pink zipper and inside as well. It's very cute!

EM Michelle Phan Pillow Plush Cushiony Lip Balm in Berries $15
You can find this HERE.
The color of this in the jar is gorgeous! It's a deep dark wine which is beautiful for fall and winter. You get a generous amount at 5g and the jar is thick and sturdy with a twist top. The balm itself is soft and easily applied with a finger. This would be perfect for in your purse or traveling. Because it's so pigmented in the jar, I assumed it would be pigmented on my lips, I was wrong. It's extremely sheer, thin, and had a gloss feel. I actually had a pretty hard time building up any color at all, it just kept wiping away or getting pushed to the outside of my lips. Most tinted lip balms I've tried have felt almost satiny on my lips, left no glossy top coat, and soaked in to the point where I forgot I was wearing it. Which is why I say this felt more like a gloss to me. It was very shiny, sat on top of my lips, and moved around constantly, even the heat of my mouth was melting it and making it slip a little. I was also put off by the smell of this. It's like wax, like unscented dollar store candle wax with a hint of something underneath but the wax smell is so overpowering the other scent can't come through. At the very least, for a balm that costs $15 + shipping I would expect it to smell a little better. Scent can take an otherwise amazing product and make it feel cheap at even the best of times so this just added to my disappointment. It feels like the packaging was more thought out then the product inside.

The left is pretty much caked on where I attempted to layer it and build up some color the right is a single swipe

On my lips, I globed it on pretty thick to get this amount of color but it's still not nearly as dark as I hoped it would be

Overall I was very sad about this product. I had really high hopes for it, and I'm a huge Michelle Phan fan! I was so excited to see samples of her new makeup line in the past 2 glam bags and I really hope she continues with it. I feel like if this were labeled as a gloss and put in a tube with an applicator I would have been ok with it. I would have expected it to be the way it is now and it would have been fine. But as a tinted lip balm it fails completely with me. To use this as a gloss in the packaging that it is in now, is difficult. Applying it over a lipstick, with my finger or a brush, that I've spent time making look perfect is not ideal. I attempted to layer this over Hot Damn (below) and it really just pushed the color around while not adding anything but mess. I don't see myself using this very often and that is such a shame.

Be A Bombshell Lip Crayon in Hot Damn $14
You can find this HERE.
This is something I thought would be difficult to use, because it is so large. But much like the lip balm above, I was wrong. This color is so fantastic! It is a bright siren red with a super slight glittery shimmer to it. The crayon tip is perfect for my lips and less time consuming then using a lip pencil. I do wonder what will happen once the tip is gone from use, as it twists up and I have no way to sharpen it. I suppose that's when I start to use a lip brush. Which is sort of inconvenient but that's the way lipsticks are so I guess I should judge them all the same right? This went on super smooth and slightly sheer. I was able to build the color up to and got an opaque red in about 3 swipes. I got about 9 hours of wear out of this, no primer, no liner, no setting it with powder. It didn't feather or wear unevenly, and it didn't fade away after 9 hours, I actually wiped it off before I settled into a giant pizza with my family. I was unable to see how large a full size lip crayon is but mine is 2.5g which is a little small but it's possible that this is full size. MAC lipsticks are 3g and Urban Decay's are 2.8g. I have a few Revlon lip butters but they don't have a size on the packaging and I was unable to find a size on the Revlon or Covergirl websites, 2 popular drug store brands, to compare with. I wore this out and about shopping, I must have been stopped 6 times with women wanting to know what color lipstick I had on and men telling me I looked beautiful, it was ridiculous. Obviously it really is a delicious shade of red! Which is funny because this is not something I would have picked for myself, color wise or product wise. I'm all for red lipsticks, but I prefer mine a little less bright and a little more cool toned, which I feel go better with my blonde hair. Much like Jon Snow, I guess I know nothing. (tehe! GoT humor)
Because it's such a chubby pencil this should last quite a while, even at the size it is now I feel that it is totally worth the $14 price.

Just Be A Bombshell's lip color, no liner, gloss, or primer

Pixi Beauty Bronzer in Subtly Suntouched $18
You can find this HERE.
I was so excited to try this, I love a nice subtle bronzer but hate buying them because they are ridiculously priced. The last really lovely one I had was from almost a year ago. I save it for special occasions because I'm down to only a ring around the edge and I refuse to pay $30 for a bronzer. Strangely enough, I didn't even get into bronzers until a couple years ago. I always thought I would end up looking like I belonged on The Jersey Shore, Snooki's new BFF or something. I never knew how to use it so I just avoided it. Once I finally tried it and realized it's magical properties, I was hooked.

All you can see on my skin is the shimmer, I tried all sorts of random editing techniques to get this to show up a little better but it was hopeless. Which is sad because it really is a beautiful colored bronzer that some how magically works for me.

Subtly Suntouched is a medium/light taupe brown with some full on shine in all of my swatches. I thought for sure this would work better as a highlighter. It's also almost the exact same color as my skin tone when applied, which means it's about 10 shades lighter when applied then it is in the pan. I had a really hard time swatching this because it just wouldn't show up. I didn't think this would work very well with my skin tone, but once again, I was wrong. It is probably one of the best bronzer colors I've ever used! And that shine, it disappears once you blend it in. So you could use it as a highlight if you applied it with your fingers and didn't rub it at all but not if you're planning on blending.

From the left, 1st swatch is 3 or 4 swipes, 2nd is 1 swipe, and 3rd is 2 swipes. I don't know why I didn't put them in order, I'm a rebel that way confusing everyone all the time.

Star Looks Gem Pencil in Topaz $14
You can find this HERE.
Topaz is a gorgeous shimmery silver eyeliner. I ended up using this all over my lid and blended it out. It was literally like I put silver foil on my lid. It is so shiny, bright, and the pencil is super pigmented. I'm in a delicious silver liner overload here. Ok, this went on opaque with 2-3 passes, it blended easily with a finger or a brush, and dried in a short amount of time. I wasn't racing to blend it but I wasn't waiting for it to dry either. The pencil was smooth and creamy, it went on without skipping or snagging on my lid. I got at least 7 hours of wear out of this without creasing or fading without primer, before I ended up washing it off so I could go to sleep. I'm already planning my holiday make up around this. It really is a freakishly beautiful liner. I would highly recommend this.

 Nailtini Straight Up Nail Polish in Champagne $13
You can find the straight up nail polishes HERE. I was unable to find Champagne on the website though. I'm not sure if it isn't for sale anymore or if it's new and just isn't up yet.
So Champagne is a frosted rose gold color. It is a perfect color for the holidays! It is very sheer, I applied 3 coats and you could still see some of my natural nail tip through the color. Champagne went on smooth, even with 3 coats, and dried fully in about 5 minutes.
Nailtini's are designed to wear alone of be layered over other nailtini products. For example, you could use a base coat (designed to lighten or darken) under this, then pick a top coat that will add shine, multicolor glitter, or a colored sheen. You can also pick a "garnish" which is a stencil to add a design on top. They also have drink themed sets which would be very cute as a shower or birthday gift.

Tresemme Extra Firm Control Hair Spray $6.97 depending on which store you buy it from
You can find this HERE. You can find a store that carries it from there as well. The average price seemed to be $6.97. Although Target had it for $3.99. I ended up using this to tease my hair for a costume and it smells divine! Hands down, best smelling hair spray ever. It dried quickly, wasn't overly liquidy when it was sprayed on, and held it's shape for 10 hours several of which were filled with dancing and general merriment. It also snowed that night, so the air was pretty damp, which didn't affect my hair style at all in the slightest. If I used hair spray more often I would defiantly switch to this one!

As usual, if you would like to receive your very own Ipsy Glam Bag you can sign up HERE! It's $10 a month and each monthly glam bag has a theme of it's very own, right down to the mini make up pouch. You also take a beauty quiz when you sign up to help personalize your glam bag. To personalize it more you can review the items you get in each glam bag, stating if you like the color, item, or brand, or if you hate it completely.  

Enjoy!

*Ipsy Glam Bag is a monthly beauty sample bag that I paid for with my very own money. I do not get paid to give good reviews*

Nerdy Craft Time! Coasters!

This summer I went to Home Depot to help my mom pick out some tile for her new bathroom and ended up leaving with a bag full of single white tiles. I promptly put them in my closet and forgot about them. Until now that is!

So the promise for this one is that you draw on a mug with a sharpie, pop it in the oven, and then it should be permanently stuck on there. Well I have an abundance of tiles, not plain white mugs, so coasters it is!

Because I've been a bit hooked on Percy Jackson and The Olympians lately, we are going with a God/Goddess theme. I love the books, Percy Jackson is adorable, and I love all the mythology fun. If you haven't picked up this series yet I highly recommend that you do. If you have read them and you're dying for more Percy Jackson, Rick Riordan has another Olympian themed series out, Heroes of Olympus. It introduces new demigods while keeping Percy Jackson around as well, and fleshes out the new great prophesy. I haven't read them yet because I need something to put on my Christmas list. But you can bet your boots that I'm going to read the crap out of those ones next! The last book won't come out until October next year but at least there are 4 to tide me over. I totally get that they are geared towards middle school children and I'm 28, but I still love them. They are super easy to read with fun stories. Rick Riordan did an awesome job with Percy Jackson. (minus a couple inconsistencies that I swore not to mention farther then this. They don't stop me from reading the books and I'm done.)

(Top left to right) Zeus, Poseidon, Hades
(Bottom left to right) Apollo, Artemis, Hermes 

I decided to create coasters for my favorite gods, minus Zeus because he seems like a jerk and I didn't really want him in my coaster collection, but I felt I needed to include him because I included Poseidon and Hades. We have Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hermes, Apollo, and Artemis.

I used regular and metallic sharpie markers (permanent markers) and .39 cent ceramic tiles from Home Depot. Mine have a glazed surface which worked out really nicely because I could wash off any mistakes I made. I found that if you made a small mistake you could wipe it off with a wet paper towel if you did it right away. After it dried it was stuck. You could scratch it off with a finger nail, but even that didn't work too well. I also found that certain colors never "dried" and I could always wipe the marker off. So if you allow yours to dry overnight before popping them into the oven make sure not to stack them on top of each other.
I also sprayed mine with a clear coat after firing them and letting them sit overnight. Some of my metallic marker was raised up and didn't have a smooth texture so I felt it would be better to clear coat them. I could totally see that snagging on my cups or whatever else and chipping away. I wouldn't recommend clear coating them without cooking them in the oven because it might over saturate your maker and cause it to run.

Some colors changed after being in the oven, Yellow turned brown and over all the colors weren't as bright coming out as they were going in. It isn't a huge deal but fair warning.
Also, sharpies don't make the smoothest looking solid color surfaces. You'll pretty much always get lines. Go with it and don't get discouraged.
You could use craft paint and clear coat the tiles instead of putting them in the oven if you are crazy about making it look solid colored instead of textured. Just don't mix markers and paint.

As always, I'll remind you that these are your nerdy craft time coasters. Mine aren't perfect and I don't care because I like them. Make what you like and love it.

Other then that, I don't really have a lot to say about this one. It's pretty straight forward and easy peasy.  I put individual pictures at the end.

On to the directions!!

 

What You'll Need

Plain white ceramic tiles (with a shiney glaze on top, don't use the rough unfinished ones)

Permanent markers (I used Sharpie brand)

Spray paint clear coat (I like Rustoleum, they never let me down)

An Oven (like the oven in your house, you need one)
Newspaper or cardboard

 

 

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
2. Make sure your tiles and clean and dry. Draw your design on each tile and set aside to dry. Do not stack them on top of each other. Allow to dry for at least 10 minutes.
3. Once your oven is at 350 degrees, place your tiles on a cookie sheet (either an old one or one coated in foil, they shouldn't ruin your baking sheets, this is just a precaution) and place in the oven for 30 minutes. Set a timer!
4. After 30 minutes, turn your oven off, leave it closed with the tiles still inside, and allow the tiles to cool.
   This will keep them from cooling too quickly and they have less of a chance of cracking.
5. Once your tiles are cool to the touch remove them from your oven.
6. Allow to set overnight.
7. In an outdoor or well ventilated area (I used our garage since it's like 20 degrees here right now) lay out your cardboard or newspaper, place your tiles on top, and spray them with a thin coat of clear spray paint. Allow that to dry completely and if you'd like to add another coat you can do so.
8. Allow it to dry overnight. If it is cold where you live now, like it is here, you can bring them inside to dry. Just put them in a large open area. Don't let them sit in the cold overnight, your tiles or the clear coat could crack and that would just suck after all that work.
9. Done! Admire your beautiful creations!

 

It sounds like it has a ton of steps but trust me, it is super easy. If you aren't comfortable drawing free hand on your tiles, use a stencil. You can make one by printing a picture off your computer and using an x-acto knife or scissors to cut it out. Bam! Stencil.

 

I hope you're inspired to make your own nerdy coasters! Just remember that these aren't going to soak up any condensation from your glasses, like Thirsty Stone coasters, so be aware of that.

 

As always,

Enjoy! 

Believe it or not, Zeus' lightening bolt was yellow before I started. I'm not sure what happened in the bottom left hand side of the lightening bold, it looks like the yellow bled into the blue, this was the only coaster that did this. My only thought is that I didn't line the yellow completely and it mixed into the blue some how.  It is the only coaster with a solid color background, so maybe that's what happens when you color that much? But the green didn't bleed into the blue in Poseidon's coaster and the black didn't bleed into the purple on Hades' coaster so I really have no idea.

If I could do this over again, I would have painted Poseidon's coaster. I love the metallic marker but his trident could have been so much better.

I can't draw helmets. But I did find this nifty picture of Hades holding a staff that looked a bit like this. Because Zeus and Poseidon had backgrounds I thought it needed something else. So we have the purple river styx because it can't be blue and a cypress tree because I read somewhere they were sacred to Hades. I should have left the tree out but whatever. This is my favorite coaster. I might actually make 3 more like it and use them in my house.  

Hermes is one of my favorite gods with my least favorite symbol of power. I'm pretty sure his snakes are both green but it was hard to see them intertwining if they were the same color.  They have the giant loop and then smaller ones in all of the pictures but on mine it looks unintentional.

The goldish bronzey lines in between the orange were yellow when I started. I still like how it turned out. I think Apollo's sun is pretty cool.

It is much harder to make a decent looking crescent moon then you think, especially when you're going to stick an arrow through it. But I'm glad I ended up finding a silver marker and Artemis' moon is just fine. I actually went over this twice, I colored it once, cooked it in the oven, and then went over the sparse areas again. This worked well for the metallic markers but started to remove paint when I tried this with the regular sharpie markers.