Friday, December 28, 2012

it's amore

Hello lovelies!  I came home tonight to find Tony making one of my favorite dinners, spaghetti!  He even made me MorningStar Veggie Meatballs since I don't eat meat.  He also bought me a bottle of Skinnygirl Sangria, which I hadn't tried before tonight.  Such a sweetie!

All the makings for a delicious night, including Neapolitan ice cream!


Once the spaghetti had been thoroughly devoured, Tony and Chloe played a little Wii bowling.


Strike!


I need to take a second to point out how awesome Tony's "Gone Squatchin" hat is.  Yep, we're total Finding Bigfoot nerds.  This hat was the only thing he wanted for his birthday earlier this month!


While they enjoyed their intense bowling match, I sat back and relaxed, Skinnygirl style.  Aww, yeah.


And just for fun I took a picture of my favorite West Elm owl ornament, which you may have seen on my Instagram.  I just love him so much.  Hoot hoot!


How did you enjoy your Friday night?


friday favorites

Happy Friday! Working only three days a week is pretty awesome, I'm not gonna lie! To spread some end-of-the-week cheer, I’d like to share a few of my current obsessions with you, and hopefully some of you will share yours in return.

#1 - My Summer Raindrops Necklace from Ruche. I love this necklace because it goes with just about everything. It works as a statement necklace without being too overpowering. Seriously, every time I wear it I get at least two compliments on it, sometimes from strangers.

 
#2 - My XOXO watch. I have a huge crush on rose gold right now, so when I found this watch on Amazon I knew it was the one. Being white makes it so versatile, so I can wear it all the time. And it's made of silicone so it's really comfy.

#3 - Kevin Murphy Angel Wash and Angel Rinse. This is by far my favorite shampoo and conditioner. The shampoo is very mild and doesn’t strip my hair of moisture the way some products do. My absolute favorite part is that they have a distinct smell that reminds me of Pillsbury Orange Sweet Rolls, which were my favorite as a kid. Yum!


#4 - Osis + Dust It Matifying Powder. Oh man, this stuff is life-changing when it comes to pumping up my hair! I used to use hairspray when I teased my roots, but then I read about this stuff from Kate at The Small Things Blog, and my hair routine was forever changed. You just sprinkle it on your roots and tease to your heart’s content. If you hair starts to fall flat throughout the day, you can just massage your roots with your fingers and voilà, your hair is big again. I also love that you can easily brush it out, which is not always the case with hairspray. I’ve also used Powder Play by Big Sexy Hair, which is pretty much the same thing but in my opinion it doesn’t have as much staying power as Osis.
#5 - Tech Touch Gloves from Target.  I honestly wish I would have come up with this genius idea.  Gloves that work on a touch screen!  I can remember last winter clearly, standing outside in the freezing snow waiting for my bus, trying to decide if sending a text was worth taking off my warm toasty gloves.  "If only there was a way to use my touch screen while wearing gloves!"  Well, now there is!  In all honesty, I wore these gloves for over a week before I even realized they were touch-screen compatible.  I'd like to shake the hand of whoever invented these wonderful things.  Now I can check Facebook in the snow and not lose any fingers to frostbite!

So there you have it, a few of my favorite things right now. What are yours?






Thursday, December 27, 2012

december birchbox

It's time for my December Birchbox review!

The packaging was very festive this month, and I can't wait until I have a chance to re-gift this box.  All it needs is a bow!





I loved this little gift tag that came with it!  I'm pretty sure I used it on Tony's sister's Christmas gift, although in the haze of holiday gift-wrapping I really can't be sure.


Kérastase Resistance CimentThermique – Protect
Another hair product... I haven't used it yet so I have no review right now.  I'll let you know how it goes!



Chuao Chocolatier AssortedChocoPod
Can't complain here, chocolate is always great!



Aerie Shimmer 1.7oz Fragrance
Another perfume sample...I like this one a little more than the sample in the November box.  But I'm really not a perfume person.  I prefer body spray, and Victoria's Secret Love Spell is still my all-time fave!


Benefit it's potent! eyecream
I was excited about this one!  I love Benefit products, and who couldn't use an eye cream?



ModelCo SHINE Ultra LipGloss in Red
The bright red color freaked me out a little at first, but it actually goes on almost clear with just a subtle red tint, and it smells good enough to eat.  Plus, there's a mirror on the side for easy application.  A girl can never have too many lip glosses, am I right??




Overall, I was happy with this month's Birchbox.  Did any of you get anything different this month?







Wednesday, December 26, 2012

rub-a-dub-dub, paint in the tub

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!!  All of our family Christmas festivities took place before Christmas day, so Tony and I actually found ourselves with a completely free day on Christmas!  We (briefly) considered a day of snowboarding, but settled on seeing The Hobbit instead, which suited my lazy tendencies just fine.  If you haven't seen it yet, you should!

And now, back to the point of this blog.  Homemade bathtub paints!!  I came across the idea on, where else, Pinterest!  It's just food coloring and shaving cream.  So easy!  I came home and told Tony all about it, and, being the practical one, he was a little worried that the tub would get stained.  So I googled "food coloring and shaving cream paint" and found lots of blog posts by Moms who swear by this method, and not one of them said they had a problem with staining.  But, just to be safe, I only used 1-2 drops of food coloring in each blob of shaving cream.  The "paints" ended up much lighter than the inspiration photo on Pinterest, but Chloe absolutely loved it and said it was the most fun she's every had in the bathtub.  Success!





If you have any little ones in your home, I definitely suggest giving this a try!

Do you have any more tips for bathtime fun?


Ruche Bridal Fall 2012

Friday, December 21, 2012

merry christmas

Hello everyone!  I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone reading this a very Merry Christmas!  I hope you all get to spend some good quality time with your family, friends, pets, reality tv shows, whoever or whatever it may be that you love.



Xoxo,


getting krafty


I decided to get a little fancy-schmancy with my gift wrap this year.  I found this image on Pinterest a few months back and couldn't wait to try it!



You can check out this blog for a step-by-step guide on how to create these pretty packages.  Basically, it involves printing out an alphabet template, tracing letters onto a page of an old book, cutting them out, and gluing them onto the package wrapped in Kraft paper.  I added twine as an extra touch.

The blog says to use a lightbox of some sort to use for tracing the letters.  Does that bring back memories of high school art class for anyone else?  Luckily we still had the overhead projector stashed in the garage from our deer silhouette project.  Yay for cheap craigslist finds!  The light on that thing is so bright that I actually had to rock sunglasses while tracing all the letters.  (Sorry, no picture of that!)  Even with the shades on, I still ended up with a bad headache and was seeing spots for a good twenty minutes after I finished.  But I powered through for the sake of Christmas cheer!

Finished!


The concept seems simple enough, but it actually took a LOT longer than I would have predicted.  I love how the gifts turned out, but probably wouldn’t do it again.  A word to the wise: Use an X-ACTO knife to cut out the letters.  All I had were giant scissors, but an X-ACTO would have made my life a whole lot easier.  Also, this is probably a given, but trace the letters lightly in pencil.  Believe it or not, I couldn’t find any pencils around the house so I had to use a pen.  A lot of the letters still had black ink on them after I cut them out, which wasn’t very Martha Stewart of me.

Here they are under the tree, looking all pretty!



Confession: The tree picture was totally staged.  These gifts were all hauled to my mom's house for our pre-Christmas celebration, and did not live under our tree for more than about 20 minutes.

Did anyone else try any Pinterest-inspired wrapping this year?


Friday, December 14, 2012

pinterest & my closet

I've been trying to pretty up my wardrobe over the last few months by slowly getting rid of clothes I no longer love, and little by little building it back up with some new additions.  I've been using Pinterest as my inspiration.  I'm definitely not the most creative/trendy dresser out there, so getting ideas from Pinterest has been extremely helpful for me!  I found a method that has been working for me pretty well so far, so I'll let you in on my secret.

First, I find a look that I think I can pull off, like this one.

Source: katiedidwhat via Pinterest

Cute, yes?  Then, I search online for similar items.  The cheaper, the better!  Next I add them a new board on Pinterest, like this.  (Hint: I make a new board for each outfit.)


And then, I put the look together in real life!  Please don't judge me for the a crappy bathroom mirror pic, I forgot to take a real picture.

 

Each time I buy something new, I add it to my "In My Closet" board on Pinterest.  It's so much fun mixing and matching outfits!  It's like my own virtual closet, and it really helps me visualize what looks good together.  Especially with accessories. 

So there you have it, folks!  Easy peasy. 





Thursday, December 6, 2012

november birchbox


The other day I was reading one of my favorite blogs, The Small Things Blog, and I saw a post about something called Birchbox. Basically, you pay $10 a month and receive a box full of high-end samples every month. Sounded good to me! I love samples. So I signed up, and after waiting a few weeks I finally received my first box yesterday. As Tony sat on the couch shaking his head in disbelief that I could be so excited over “free samples”, I quickly tore into my package!


Oh the anticipation!


I have to admit, I expected the box to be...bigger? I'm not sure what I think of the samples yet, but here's a list of what I received:

Birchbox and Color Club® Custom Collection Nail Polish in "Put a Pin In It"
This was probably my favorite item in the box. I love the color!


stila all over shimmer liquid luminizer try-me-set in “PinkShimmer”
At first I was super excited because I thought this was a lip gloss, but it’s actually a face shimmer. The instructions say to “dab a small amount on your eyelids, cheeks, and collarbones for a flirty glow, or mix it with your foundation for a subtle all-over sheen.” Hmmm… not sure how often I will actually use this, but it’s worth a try. Might be fun to add some shimmer to the mix for holiday parties!


Shea Terra Organics Whipped Shea Butter UltimateMoisturizing Body Crème
Although this smells like bananas which is AWESOME, I’m not sure how often I’ll use it. I have so many creams and lotions, and really don’t need another one. But it’s thick and creamy so I’m sure it works well. I do tend to get dry hands in the winter, so maybe this is something I will carry in my purse.


John Varvatos Artisan
A tiny thing of perfume…meh. It smells ok but it's not a scent I would have chosen for myself. But I’m sure it will get used at some point!


Kérastase Masque Chroma Riche - Treat
I have mixed feelings about this one. I’ve been trying to cut down on the amount of hair products I use. (More on that in a future post!) This product was rated 4.5 out of 5 stars on Birchbox.com, so I’ll have to give it a try at least.


twistband™ Hair Tie
What the??? A hair tie? I forgot to get a picture of mine, so here's one I found online. Mine is light gray. I don’t plan to use this. Ever. And I’m not sure who would pay $18 for a 12-pack of these.


Overall, I’m semi-happy with the November Birchbox. Hopefully they redeem themselves a little bit in December and I don’t get another hair tie! I think the element of surprise is actually worth $10 to me, believe it or not! It’s like my birthday every month.

Anyone else use Birchbox?