Thursday Thoughts + Debbie's Update

This may seem a little silly, but I have been following Jennifer from Ramblings of a Suburban Mom for quite some time, and I feel like she has had some sort of play in my starting to blog.  I'm linking up with her for Thursday Thoughts -- check below to see my silliness.

• Call me dorky... silly... loser... whatever, but I really get excited when I check my stats for my blog each day and see my amount of views go up!  I run into the room and tell hubs, who thoroughly acts as excited as I am about it.  (He puts up a great front considering he thinks the internet is a fad.)  I can't believe people want to read about lil' 'ol me!  But please, continue and share with your friends!

• I went to a children's consignment shop about 40 minutes away yesterday and got a few toys and such to bring to my parents house to leave there when we visit.  Baby J is obsesssssed with trucks lately and I found about 20 John Deere trucks, bagged/binded together for $10.  For anyone who doesn't know about John Deere, they are like the Cristal of trucks. What a steal! Right?? WRONNNNNG... They all were missing their tires or shovels/plows, which I didn't notice until after J was playing/loving on our new find.  So not only did I have to take back my child's  truck love (which I had to steal back from him while he napped with it!), I had to drive 40 minutes to do it. 

For realllll?

 

• My lips have been on FIRE lately.  Chapped, cracking and even turning white.  It's quite attractive.  Even my beloved EOS is no help.  Someone told me it was dehydration... I drank more.  Someone told me it was a fungus... I stopped telling people. 

• It has been so cold here the last couple days.  I know, I know... stop complaining.  But our ground is so frozen the ice from my car/to my mailbox/to my house is about an inch thick.  I am perfecting my penguin walk every time I go to my car/mailbox/etc., but I feel like NO ONE else (hubs, visitors, mailpeople, etc.) is having a problem. 

• Our custom made thank you cards finalllllly came in the mail (we got married in December...), and now that they are here we are so excited!  About the writing of the thank you cards... not so much.  Meh.

• For anyone that has a one level, small house, don't you feel like when you put your sleeping baby/toddler to bed, all noises multiple by 90384873586 decibels?  I know nothing of decibels, but I feel as though that may be an accurate number. 

Last night, I tried to Deborah Lippman Gel Lab (click here to go to the blog post about it) and after a full 24 hours, here are the finger poses:

I am a righty, but there doesn't seem to be a major difference between the two hands.  On my left there's a little chip on my ring finger, as well as my pinky.  Minor wear is visible on my middle finger.  On my right, my right hand has a good sized chip in it and my middle finger has a little wear.  Neither of my thumbs have any chips/show signs of wear. 

I'm pretty impressed considering all I was a little rougher on my hands today than I usually am:  Two showers, scrubbed the bathtub, did some kettlebell/weight work, taught a fitness class. 

Would I recommend?  I'm pretty impressed, especially because my nails literally chip hours later. But I'm not completely sold yet. It also could be user error; I could've not capped my nail tips that well or not really covered the top coat as well as I could've. 

Check in tomorrow for another update! -TPD

I'll Be The Judge: The New Healthy Alternative to Gel Manicures???

I hate nails.  I hate painting them -- they chipped immediately after.  I hate them plain ==I hate the "white" of my nails as they grow.  

A few years ago, I thought my nail prayers were answered; I found Gel Manicures.  You know.. Shellac?  It seems like every single line of nail polishes had their own version of  gel manicure.  I had gotten them done professionally a few times and loved it.  I didn't love spending the money, but I was happy I got a full week of pretty chip-free nails before I got antsy and picked them off. 

Then Red Carpet came out with an at home kit for gel manicures and I thought "hallllllelujah!" *play church hymn now*.  For about $70, I could buy a kit and have a manicure all the time?! Sign me up, here's my credit card, overnight it, checcccccccccccck.  'Cept one thing.  Holy snikes this &#(* is hard and annoying and damaging to take off.  So... my at home kit, although amazing to have... annoying to keep doing. 

I tried top coats and base coats galore.  Nothing was making a difference.  Ugly chips hours after painting.  Argh! Why waste my time?  And dry time?  Ain't nobody got time for that. 

But... an alternative, you say?  A solution, you say?  Nice nails; no dry time, any color I wanted (including the 50+ bottles of regular nail polish I've collected), and no chips, you say?!

Again:  Sign me up, here's my credit card, overnight it, checcccccccccccck. At Sephora, I was returning something (thank goodness for their return policy), and this was in their little "here you need to purchase this, too!" section while you're waiting to pay for your crazy priced goodies. 

Deborah Lippmann's Gel Lab!  A base coat and top coat that you can use with ANY nail color and it's supposed to last as long as a gel manicure... and it comes off with regular nail polish.  Say waaaaa?

From the Deborah Lippmann site: At long last - achieve a similar high shine, long-wearing finish and cushion-like texture of a gel manicure, only without the lamps, tools, extra time and damage to the nails. This simple, two-step system is your healthy alternative to getting the look of a gel manicure with any regular nail lacquer. Safe, simple and a cinch to remove. Apply a thin, even layer of Gel Lab Base Coat and wait one minute to dry. Paint two coats of nail color and wait two minutes to dry after each coat. Finish with a thin layer of Gel Lab Top Coat - apply sparingly to avoid uneven coating.

So I thought, I have to get this... it's a necessity... my readers need me to try it out.  People NEED to know... at least that's what I told hubs. 

I grabbed a tea, shaped my nails up, turned on "Dance Mom's" I've followed Debbie's directions.  I based, painted (x2), and top coated.  And there was MAYBE 3 minutes dry time at the end!!! This mama says THANK YOU! I even just stabbed my nails on my keyboard and nada; No chips/smudgies. 

Don't be jealous of my amazing paint job.

 

Can this really be true? I'll let you know.  Keep checking in with me and I'll keep you updated!

 

Cost: Trial Size (which is the one I purchased) ( each bottle.27 fl oz.) - $25 @ Sephora

Full Size - $45 (.39 fl. oz - regular sized polish) @ Amazon 

Would I Recommend: For right now, it's hard to say.  This baby has got to last a few days for me to recommend!

 

 

 

 

 

And if anyone is interested in the color I am using:

It's L'Oreal's Rough Around the Edges (139)

 

 

"Like" TWSS" on Facebook to stay updated on this nail debacle!

 

Kisses and Hugs - TPD

Usher Made Me Do It - A Linky Party

He did.  That U-S-H-E-R   R-A-Y-M-OND... he wanted to make me host a little link-up about confessions.  I'm not talking about those confessions.  These are funny little confessions that you find out about yourself/your life throughout the week.  There are definitely times throughout the week that I think... "ummm... that's not normal..." or "hey... I wonder if anyone else does that" and most of the time they make me laugh. 



If you have a blog, please, please, please make tell me some of your confessions by linking up and steal that little logo below:

• I eat horrible; like... bad. Not really a juicy confession.  But these... these are my nemesis.  Those darn BBQ Frito thingys... all day!

almost gone... say it isn't so. (and this may have been my second tub in a week!)

• My 17 month old son has more basketball skills than I could even hope for.  He even bends his knees to shoot a "foul shot".  I was that girl in school who the teacher used as an example of "that's what you don't do..."

I hate taking off my makeup/contacts out/brushing my teeth at night.  So instead, I sometimes take a shower.  Which takes way more time than if I just stood at the sink and did it... but it's justttt soooo annnoyyyinnnng. 

• I once turned the channel to watch Doc McStuffins... After Baby J went to sleep... And laughed... Out loud.
• Speaking of brushing our teeth: I sometimes use my son's travel toothbrush to reach reaaaaaaaaally far back to my molars.  Maybe I should just invest in my own Elmo toothbrush.
• As a SAHM, I sometimes have to take a good 45 second break to remember when the last time I washed my hair. 
• Sorry hubs, but sometimes I purposely start the laundry and then "forget" to finish it... soooo can you do it, please?

What are you confessing?!  Juicy?  Silly?  Downright gross (i.e. having to think  about the last time you washed your hair)?  Link up and share and make me feel less of a grubber! 



***Oh by the way! Did you notice I created a Facebook page?  Up in the top right of my blog, you can click to "like".  So like away... and share today.  Cheeeeese. ***

Kisses & Hugs - TPD

An InLinkz Link-up

Mommy Makeup Kit - Round 2

Yesterday I showed you my little arsenal of makeup that I use on a regular basis to bring me back from a sleep deprived dead look.  I call it the "Mommy Makeup Kit".  We covered face basics yesterday and today we are covering eyes/lips. 

I have quite a bit of variation here with my products for eyes, but tend to stick with neutrals that don't bring too much focus.  However, I like to rock a mean smokey eye, preferably with glitter. 

As I said yesterday: Now, please, do not judge.  I do not reach for these EVERYDAY.  These are the things I reach for on a regular basis for an everyday look.  I by no means think that everyone needs all these things, but being a mom and being a freelance, part-time makeup artist show no difference in my life.  As you can see there are a mixture of higher end and drugstore products.  There are some things in my collection that I think are important to use higher end products, but I love me some bargain beauty, too!

 

Disclosure: I paid for all of these products with my own money and I was not sent any of these items for review/monetary benefit.  I really do love and use these products. 

 

Here's our eyes/lips!

 

 

1. Urban Decay Naked Palettes (1 & 2 -- No, I do not own 3!!) ($52) -- These are the perfect neutral palettes and are so crazy pigmented and easy to use (even for the beginning makeup lover). And thank you to my sister for giving me letting me borrow the original palette and I just haven't returned it.  "Oops."

2. Wet & Wild Silent Treatment Palette ($7) -- Here's another little neutral palette, which I bought specifically because of the taupe color.  It's amazingly pigmented and is a wonderful everyday color.   The other two colors (the pink and black) are meh.  The black has goldish glitter and is quite chalky and the pink I can barely even see.  But the taupe... wowieee worth the seven!

3. L'Oreal Voluminous Million Dollar Lashes ($7) -- Mascara is mascara to me.  I have not found one that I need to have and don't believe in spending more on a super expensive one that needs to be thrown out after a couple months.  That being said, I did buy two in a row of this one, which is big for me!

4. Jordana Fabuliner Bold ($4) - Nope, not a typo!  Only four bucks for this thing!  If you can write with a pen, you can use this liner; perfect for that cat eye.  It's nice and dark, and stays put for a good amount of time, just make sure you let it dry.

5. Urban Decay 24/7 Glide on Shadow Pencil in Mushroom ($20) -- I love these pencils and cannot find them anymore at my local Ulta or Sephora.  This one is an amazing colored taupe that I use as a liner to add a little color to my lid that's a little different than your everyday black.  It stays put and don't get me started about pigmentation. 

6. L'Oreal Voluminous Smoldering Eyeliner ($8) - This is a great eyeliner that I use on my upper waterline.  It is so pigmented and makes my lashes look fuller.  I wouldn't use it on my lid though because when I did try that, it smudged like a motha. 

7. NYX Butter Gloss in Éclair ($6) - These glosses are so creamy and not sticky at all and create just enough pigment to add that pretty glossy color.  I use it if I want to be fancy... for my 17 month old son. 

8. Maybelline Color Tattoo in Barely Branded ($6) - Color tattoos are amazing and I have a bunch of them, but I reach for this the most. Sometimes I use them as a primer to make an eyeshadow more pigmented, but more often than not, I just use them as is.  It's perfect for covering up my aging vein-y lids.

9. EOS Medicated Lip Balm in Tangerine ($3) - If you haven't heard of EOS lip balms, you might've been under a rock.  They are everywhere and Walgreens even created a generic kind.  I have them all over the house in case if I'm one room and need a EOS pick-me-up.  Also, I don't now if all EOS' are medicated, but this orange one is! It even says so.

10.  Makeup Forever Aqua Cream in #13 ($28) - I use this just like my Maybelline product.  It's creamy, easy to use, and stays pretty well.  Pigmentation is okay, but it needs to be layered up. 

 

What do you think?  Interested in trying some of these products?  Need to know how to use any or these or see swatches?  What sort of things do you guys use? 

 

 

Kisses & Hugs - TPD

 

 

 

 

Makeup for Mommy (Part 1)

Being a mommy is tiring and very busy work.  Sometimes it takes a lot of effort to keep the little ones entertained, that there's little effort left for yourself.  But sometimes  you need to take a little time to make yourself feel good, too.  For me, if I put a little makeup on my sleep deprived face, I instantly feel more confident and can face the world looking more like a person in society and less like a person who semi-sleeps because their ears are always on listening for a noisy, but cute mini tenant in the room next door.  We will do this in two parts - face today and rest tomorrow!

So... drumroll... as I present... my...

MOMMY MAKEUP KIT KIT KIT!

(That was supposed to be like an echo.)

 

 

Now, please, do not judge.  I do not reach for these EVERYDAY.  These are the things I reach for on a regular basis for an everyday look.  I by no means think that everyone needs all these things, but being a mom and being a freelance, part-time makeup artist show no difference in my life.  As you can see there are a mixture of higher end and drugstore products.  There are some things in my collection that I think are important to use higher end products, but I love me some bargain beauty, too!

 

Disclosure: I paid for all of these products with my own money and I was not sent any of these items for review/monetary benefit.  I really do love and use these products. 

 

 

Let's take a closer peek at these amazing products for our face!

 

1. Garnier Skin Renew Miracle Skin Perfector Bb Cream, Combination To Oily Skin ($12) - This says it does all these super-dee-duper things (evens tone, hydrates, renews, protects, and brightens), but I use it because it's lightweight and it helps create an even canvas for the work of art I create on my face. 

 

2. Maybelline New York Instant Age Rewind Eraser Dark Circles Treatment Concealer, Brightener ($8) - Do you need any explanation for why we would need this?  I think not.  However, I use the brightener.  They also have a neutralizing color, as well as colors for your skin tone.

 

3. TOO FACED Matte Bronzing Power - Chocolate Soleil ($15-$30) - I love this bronzer to give my round face a little contouring.  It may be a little dark for some skin tones, but I love it! Plus, it smells like... chocolate!

 

4. Anastasia Beverly Hills DIPBROW ($18) - When I was in high school, I went a little tweeze happy, and they never really came back right.  Boo.  This stuff staaaaays.  After all day with Baby J, plus teaching a Zumba class, I still have to remove it at the end of the day!

 

5. MAC Powder Blush in Gingerly   ($18) - I once read somewhere that you should not leave the house without blush.  This is the one that Kim Kardashian supposedly uses.  I'll let you make your own judgment of that statement.

 

6. Clean & Clear Dual Action Moisturizer ($6) - Admittedly, I'm not a brand brat with moisturizer.  However, I do like that this one has a little salicylic acid in it because after I teach a class, my pores can still be a little clogged with yuck. 

 

7. The Balm In Stain Blush Argyle Blush ($17) - I actually have three of these, but this is the one I reach for the most.  They are longwearing and leave behind a natural "Nooooo... I'm-not-wearing-blush" stained look. 

 

 

 

So what about you?  What do you wear to make your face look a little more alive?  Do you guys want some swatches? 

 

See you tomorrow for Part II! Kisses & Hugs - TPD

 

 

 

Look What I Made - DIY with Me: Latch Board

So hubs has finally done his part in our little DIY project for Baby J, so I can finally show this cute little project we created!

 "What the heck is that?..." You say.  It's a latch board!  It was super easy to create and fairly cheap, too. 

Whatcha Need:

• A piece of wood/board -- we had one laying around the house the shed that I scooped up.
• Duct tape -- I preferred cutesy duct tape, which was $5 for the roll!  But if you have regular, that's perfectly fine too.
• Different Latches -- I got mine from Walmart for about $2-$5 each.  You can get as many or as few as you'd like, just remember some of them need room to streeeeeetch (like the slider one in the top left.)
• Electric Drill/Screwdriver

Whatcha Do:
1. Cover the edges of the wood with the duct tape.  This prevents those pesky splinters from getting into precious hands (and handy dudes, too). You can round the corners on the wood, if you'd like to make it super safe as well. 
2. Play around with the placement of your latches. Remember to leave space for those ones that need it!
3. Grab your handy dude (or do it yourself if you're not vertically challenged like me and can't get the leverage to use the drill, pesky thing...) and use that electric drill (or screwdriver, if you're Heman) and get to work! 
4. If you have a few pokey holes like we did, cover the backside with duct tape, too, which Hubs did without even being asked... awww. 

It kept this little guy busy for a good ten minutes! Whaaaaaa... ten minutes?! Ten minutes in a lot in his world... and mine.  His little hands loved exploring what each latch could do and how it can move.   I plan on using it when it comes to longer car rides that he could fall asleep during. 

 

Annnnnd if you're not the DIY type, you can also buy one of these types of toys from the beloved Melissa and Doug brand!
<---- Just click here to go to Amazon!

Try it out and show me your pics! I'd love to see your variation on this super easy, but fun and beneficial toy!

Kisses & Hugs - TPD

 

Fitness Friday

Today I began my journey back at the gym.  Although I have been teaching my normal Zumba classes during the week, my muscle mass has been deteriorating and I'm not too keen in my new body shape. I looked into crossfit and finding out that it's so much money for such a small amount of class time and being a stay at home mom made me realize it wasn't a good fit (for now anyway).  So I'm going to try to add some variation to my workouts. 

I did this pyramid style today and it killed me. I'm already sore so I can't wait until I have to move tomorrow. Ugh. Already groaning. 

I used an 8 kg kettle bell and the whole circuit took me 39 minutes. I looked at this and was like "oh... 25 mins. tops..." Pffffff. Granted there was a lot if chatty Cathys there. 

Try it out! Let me know if it works well for you/your time... Orrrr if you're already groaning and you've only been done for an hour, like me. 

TPD

Thursday Thoughts With Jennifer

This may seem a little silly, but I have been following Jennifer from Ramblings of a Suburban Mom for quite some time, and I feel like she has had some sort of play in my starting to blog.  I'm linking up with her for Thursday Thoughts -- check below to see my silliness.

 

• I'm not a huge fan of the Winter Olympics (I semi blame my sister and mom for making me watch all those years of sports I'm not a fan of (#kiddingbutnotkidding), but I've been watching the Women's Hockey Team because Hubs and I have a friend on the team (GO STACK!) and watching them lose to Canada today made me sad... for a minute.  Then I realized... ummm hellllloooo... they placed SILVER in the 2014 Olympics. They should be all kinds of proud.  Pff... All I did today was play in the water table and keep Baby J from trying to climb in it.
  

16! 16! 16!

 

• So I teach Zumba at the local college, and not to toot my own horn, but toot-toot, I'm a pretty good dancer, but these girls shake what their momma gave them... and more.  It definitely makes me feel like I shouldn't be looking in their direction while dancing anddddd also makes me realize I'm at least 5-10 years older than they are... and things shake on me that I'm not trying to shake...

 

• I have a "friend"... well more of an acquaintance, who recently moved to California to pursuit a career in comedy.  How do you tell someone who wants to be a comedian... that they aren't funny? 

• Lastly, here comes the cheese.  I brought Baby J to visit a friend who had a wittle baby.  He got this grossly loved penguin (which I avidly named Gino, the Penguino) when he was three months old.  He loves him. It goes everywhere with him and the one time I tried to put him to bed without it (Gino fell out of the car in a parking lot somewhere and my amazing nephew Penguin hunted for it), he screamed for about two straight hours and grasped the air in the crib for it.  Well today, he saw little three week old baby ND, and tried to give him his Gino.  I am so lucky to be raising such an amazing little boy who wants to make others happy. 
  
• 
  
  Here... you can snuggle him.

What are you thinking about today? 

 

Kisses & Hugs - TPD

Welcome

Hi and welcome to my new online home! This is a place to have all of my life happenings- mommyhood, being a wife, my sad attempts of a chef, beauty love, and just whatever life brings me.  I hope you enjoy and la-la-love it!