My makeup stash

Happy Election Day Eve!  I hope everyone plans to get out and vote tomorrow.

My family and I have recently gotten over various sicknesses.  All three of us had colds, and while Matthew and Micah beat theirs, I had a nasty ear infection for a few days.  Let me tell you, they SUCK.  I'm really glad to be over that crap.

Anyway, I have a lot of things I want to blog about, but it's late and I want to get a quick post in.  So, for my beauty and makeup loving friends, I thought I would follow the "show your stash" trend.  My makeup stash used to be huge, then it dwindled when I went through a purging phase.  Finally, I started getting interested again and re-building my stash.

I have one of those three drawer on wheels things from Target.  The top drawer is my "face" drawer.  I have all my foundation, powder, blush, ect.  I got the little white boxes at Wal-Mart for like $1.50 for a 3-pack.

My second drawer is the "eye" drawer.  The boxes on the left are all my shadows (with the exception of big pallets, which have a different home).  The top right box is mascara, primer, and my eyelash curler.  Then I have my primers randomly by the little tube with my liners. 

Finally my most sparse drawer: the "lip" drawer.  I've only very recently started getting into lip color.  I used to hate lipstick and refused to wear it.  The makeup girl had to bribe me to wear it at my wedding.  Anyway, I've started to experiment, which is why the little box on the far left is so empty (the lipstick box).  The middle is all my glosses, and the one on the right is all my balms.  

That's it for now!  Not pictured are my pallets and my brushes.  I keep my brushes in a vase on top of the three drawer thingy.  I bought paint at Hobby Lobby this weekend to paint the vase and make it prettier.   :)  

A easy recipe success!

Whoa, I haven't posted a new blog in awhile.  My semester is in full swing.  My two second half courses started last week, and while neither of them are hard, they are taking up more of my time.  Fitting in all the things I love with the things I need to do is getting harder and harder.

Anyway, the other day my husband and I tried a new recipe that had been sitting on my Pinterest board.  We love (especially me) French Dip sandwiches, and I had tried a crock pot version  a few months ago that turned out okay but was kind of complicated and the bread was really soggy.  Well,  we tried this recipe  for crescent roll french dip bites and they were uh-maze-ing.  And super easy.  I love the blog poster's recipe for au jus sauce, too.  It's so easy, in fact, that the au jus takes longer than the crescents!

If you're looking for a tasty and easy addition to your menu, give it a try.

Manicure Roundup

I hope everyone had a good week.  I'm sitting here catching up on season two of The Walking Dead.  Yes, I love this show.  I can't wait for the third season premiere.  What better way to spend a TWC marathon then with a manicure post??  :-)

Of course, this is just a collection of manis I've done over the last couple of months or so.  I usually change my manicure about every week.  That's generally how long they last.  I don't have the time, patience, or desire to do it more often then that.

I had been waiting for this one!  OPI's Mod About you.  I got my bottle on Amazon for around $6 with shipping.  I was looking for a light pink that was opaque.  It was a little goopy and not perfect, but I was in a hurry, so I'm not going to blame the polish for that one.  

Another accent nail mani!  The purple color is Lincoln Park After Dark by OPI.  I can't remember the green color (it's by Sinful colors) or the shimmer I used over top (it was a Pure Ice).  Turned out nice, though.  Put me in the mind of grapes.  

Ok, so I saw this glittery silver idea on Pinterest and had to have it.  The chunky silver polish is by Milani, but don't ask me the name.  The other nails are in black by Sinful Colors.  I think it's literally called Black Out but I could be wrong.  It takes buttloads of shades to get the silver to cover completely  but it was  worth it and dries pretty quick.  

This is what I'm wearing currently.  It's Suzi says Da by OPI and You're a Piza Work by OPI on my ring finger.  I used Essie's Matte About You topcoat.  

The Generations Photo

My son is lucky enough to have three living great grandparents.  So when I saw an awesome idea for a four generations photo on Pinterest, I HAD to do it.  Well, after taking the trip to Illinois, Florida, and back, I have my photo and I LOVE it.

Okay, I know the quality of this photo is lacking because I'm  taking a picture of a picture, but you get the idea.  The small, blurry image at the very bottom is my son, which my husband holding the frame.  Then my father in law, and my husband's grandfather (grandfather in law?).  Four generations in one photo without having to wait to get them all in one room!  I'm so glad I was able to do this, and so thankful to my mother in law and my husband's aunt and uncle for helping me snag the final two photos.

What's on my hook/needles?

I hope everyone is enjoying their week.  My husband is on leave (military for vacation), so it's been really nice to have him around. School is going so well.  I know it's only the 5th week  of  the semester, but I'm carrying all A's. This is something that never happened the first time I was in college. It was probably because I was young, immature, and on my own for the first time, but I didn't take college very seriously at all.  And so, my GPA reflected it.  This time, I'm out to prove (to myself mostly) that I have what it takes to succeed.  Plus, I want a nice padded resume so I can score a good job after I graduate.

Anyhow...  One of my favorite hobbies since my husband was in Iraq has been knitting, and later crochet.  After Micah was born, I didn't have a lot of extra time to devote to it, so it's slacked off.  And when I say slacked off, I mean that I haven't completed a single project since Micah was born.  He's 8 months old now.

I'm slowly getting back into it, though, so I thought I'd share what I'm working on now.

Here's what I've got on my hook.  It's going to be a hat, the link of which I found on Ravelry, which is an awesome site by the way.  You should follow me. Anyway, I'll post a picture of the completed project.  Hopefully that will be soon.  The pattern can be found here.  

And here's what's on my needles.  Yet another project I've been working on for what feels like forever.  This is a headband.  The pattern is free and is here.  

I'd love to have the top one done by next week.  Crochet goes a lot faster for me than knitting.  Oh, and please excuse the crazy ass balls of yarn.  My cat keeps deciding to make her own projects; all over the living room.  

Pinterest, Part Two

I have a few more Pinterest projects I wanted to share.  I had these saved from  my first Pinterest post, but I had  other things I wanted to blog about first.  Then I realized I hadn't updated since the 1st?!  Shame on me. I'm trying to learn to prioritize my time, but I have a lot of things I want to squeeze into that time. I have my To Three: Micah, school, and keeping the house looking like it hasn't be hit by a tsunami.  To my credit, I think my home looks pretty darn good considering I have an infant, three pets, and a husband who is less than neat.  (Still love him).  Finding room  in between all that for my Other Three (fitness, writing, crafts) is where it gets difficult.  I'm still trying to get the hang of it.  

Anyway, onto the Pinterest stuff!

Ok, I love this one.  I got the idea here, and even though we changed it up a bit, I did love this template she did.  I have to give credit where credit is due, and that also extends to my husband, who actually did about  65% of this.  He's pretty crafty.  My kitchen and dining room are done in a vineyard/winery theme, so this looks perfect.  Besides looking cute,  this is a great tool for helping us plan our dinner menu for the week.  We know what we're having from day to day (or at least what we have in the kitchen), and it cuts way down on the number of times we'll ask each other what we want for dinner, only to settle on fast food... again.  

This one was so easy it's crazy.  The original blog can be found here.  It's a heck of a lot cuter than the normal dry erase board, too.  When I did this, Micah was about 6 to 8 weeks old, and we actually had to have a photo of all three of us taken for the frame.  It was the first time I had worn makeup since he was born, and I'll be damned if I'm photographed without it.  

Onto an awesome and FREE printable (find it here).  I just love this saying, so I had to have it on my wall.  Total, it was $10. $5 for the frame and $5 to have it printed at Wal-Mart.  The original file is for a 16x20, but I found the 11x14 fine for my wall.   I just love it.   

Ugh!  I had one more printable I wanted to share, but I can't for the life of me remember where I got it!  I don't want to post it without linking to the creator, however.  If I find it, I'll post the picture with the blog link.  It's a subway art type print for a boy's room.  It was a freebie, too.  

I have some blog ideas tucked away (in the old mental file), so I'll try to get a post in tomorrow.  If I know what I'm writing about, it really only takes like 10 minutes.  I can spare that, right?  

The Search Continues....

I hope everyone is enjoying their (long) weekend.  I've been enjoying the extra time with my husband, and I think Micah is enjoying the extra time with his Dad.  We checked out Spirit Halloween (only open around this time of year), which was really fun.  Trying to figure out what to dress Micah as this year was not easy, however.  And my brave little man never got scared once with all the spooky decorations; I'm so proud of him.

The title of my post refers to my quest for the Holy Grail of  mascara.  Sounds silly, maybe, but I'm a girl who loves her makeup, especially eye makeup.  What I really love is the look of false eyelashes.  What I don't love is the way they feel, or getting them on.  I'm on what feels like an eternal quest for a mascara that gets me as close to that look as possible.  I've tried a lot of mascaras, and I've yet to find one I love enough to keep buying.

When I worked at Macy's, the lady at the Lancome counter told me I needed to start using a eyelash primer to help achieve the results I wanted.  It did seem to help, but of course Lancome is pretty pricey, so  I'm  also on the search for a good primer.

Here  is what I have, or have had recently.

I bought these two together, and I do like them.  I haven't had a chance to use the mascara much, but I did use up the primer.  I like it a lot, but it is pricey, so I'm searching for something more affordable.

I found this primer by Sephora on E-bay and got it for a really good price.  So far I like it just as much as the Lancome one, and it's a lot cheaper.  This is the one I use a majority of the time now. 

I also have the above one from  Hard Candy in my stash.  It's a fiber primer, and I find it a bit difficult and time consuming to get enough fibers on my lashes.  Once I did, however, it is a nice primer.  I use this one less often, on days I want a more dramatic effect.

I got the two above on sale at Harris Teeter, plus I had a coupon.  LashBlash Luxe is supposed to have a bit of a shimmer to it.  I can't tell weather it does or not.  Both are nice, but not as dramatic as i like.  They go own easy and aren't in any way clumpy, though, which is really awesome.  They do well for more "natural" days, although I probably won't repurchase when they're empty.

With the name False Lashes and Mac's reputation, I kind of expected this one to work the best.  And it does, sort of, with a couple of coats and primer beforehand.  But it's still not as dramatic as I expected.  

There are a couple of brands I would  like to try later; a couple by Too Faced and a couple by YSL.  Of course, this is after I use up a couple in my stash.