Why can't we be friends?

Sleep we used to be friends. I don't know what I have done to upset you but frankly I am sick of flirting with your cousin 2:00 am and then battling with your friend 3:00 am. Sleep, I want to hang out with YOU. Sleep, why can't we be friends?

Up until about 2 months ago sleep and I were tight. I mean real tight. I have never (even in college)been one to stay up late. I would put the kids to bed and then hop into my own. Usually succumbing to my ex-friend around 9:00 pm and slumber all night long until the alarm went off.

Now, I am dead tired at 8, put the girls to bed and then WHAM, I am wide awake until oh, MIDNIGHT. If I do fall asleep before midnight I will often wake up around 2 and seem to only fall back asleep a mere hour before my alarm goes off.

So what is a girl to do?? Fake a good nights sleep. Here's how:

1. Blush - Peach cream blush beats pink for a quick pick-me-up. Peach tones brighten skin and takes the focus away from dark under eye rings. Cream blushes work wonders, they give a slight dewy look and make skin appear more supple.

2. Don't go dark. If you normally apply dark shadow or liner to your eye, you may want to consider a change. Stick with light, shimmery shades, especially to the inner corners of your eyes. This will bring light to your eye and give you a bright boost.

3. DO NOT underestimate the power of a lash curler. I always scoffed at a lash curler. I never really thought I had long enough lashes to curl. But it was recommended to me to open up the eye and by golly I think it works.

Alright it is 10:58 pm. I am shutting down, let's see what the night brings me.

…C

Giselle, Blake Lively and ME!!

What do Giselle, Blake Lively and myself have in common??

Well not much other than we all have something called hooded eyes. Now hooded eyes are not like having the body of a Victoria Secret model or being married to Ryan Reynolds. No these hooded eyes I speak of have been the bain of my existence since I started wearing make-up.  A hooded eye is essentially an eye that is set in such a way that the natural crease in the eyelid is not readily seen. Most times, as is in my case, skin also usually folds over the eyelid. So when I put on my makeup and open my eye, you can basically see nothing. By days end, my makeup has essentially vanished due to this thing we do called blinking and the skin rubbing it off. Now I do not want to sound completely shallow here and act as though I was born with three arms or a rare heart condition. Is a hooded eye something that I can live with? Of course. I just had to make some adjustments to how I apply my makeup to make the most of what God gave me. Here are some tips:

• To prep the eye I start by putting Stay Don't Stray from Sephora on my eye lid, covering the entire area.
• I apply a light eye shadow in the inner corner of the eye and on the entire eye the from the eye lash to the brow. 
• I follow with a darker shadow. I have blue eyes so I use browns to bring out the blue color. I put this darker shadow on the brow bone above the crease to create a false illusion of a crease since my natural crease is covered and unseen.
•  Line the upper lid to open the eye, and apply black mascara to the upper lashes.

Thou shall not...follow the rules

As a teacher, I am always insisting my students follow the rules within the four walls of my classroom. However, to me some rules are made to be broken. By that I mean the conventional rules of fashion. Such as thou shall not wear white after Labor Day or thou shall not mix jewelry metals.

Playing with fashion and breaking the traditional rules is fun and allows you to create your own unique look. Pairing in-season with off-season articles of clothing can create an eclectic look. Also mixing dress up and dress down pieces and/or fabric creates a funky style and can look really chic.
Here are some looks that you too can experiment with, have fun and don't worry about being assigned detention for breaking these rules.

The best part, as always, these are looks for less brought to you by me.

Here is a tip when mixing patterns, make sure you keep the pieces in the same color family and keep patterns subtle.

 

 

Subtle polka dot skinny jeans paired with a stripped top.

~Jeans, Old Navy, Top, Old Navy, Shoes, Target


Mixing dress up and dress down pieces with a chiffon pleated maxi dress paired with a simple knit top and adding a dash of fun with a pair of sneakers.

~Chiffon pleated maxi skirt, similar, Top Old Navy, Sneakers, Target

 A BIG shout out to my friend Sarah. She is the owner of Sugar Snaps Photography and responsible for these great photos. She has a great eye and makes you feel so comfortable while shooting. Check her out at www.sugar-snaps.com and book a session with her today!! I highly recommend it.

Spotted...the perfect dress for less

My handsome hubby and I had the honor and privilege of attending the wedding of some dear friends a couple of weeks ago. My before mentioned handsome, yet frugal hubby feared that I would have to go out and purchase a new dress to wear. He knows me all too well after all these years. However we are planning to build a house soon so I promised him that I would not spend money buying a new dress. I assured him that I had plenty of things in my closet to wear. Which I undoubtedly do, however I am also a girl~I like to shop. I tried on the slew of dresses I had umpteen times, while they are all nice, after all I purchased them for a reason, I cringed because they just weren't what I wanted to wear on this occasion. But I kept telling myself, I can do this, I can make one of these work. Alas I broke. Two days before the wedding I had to run to Target for one thing or another and spotted a dress that I knew was what I wanted for the wedding. Remember though I said Target. I found the perfect dress I wanted to wear at Target. So I made myself happy by getting a new dress and frugal hubby happy by spending a mere $24.99 for the perfect dress.
The best part was Nicky Hilton wore her leopard print dress for around $400, mine looked great for $24.99. Your welcome hubby, I think I am red carpet ready for far less!

 

Nicky Hilton in her $400 Torn by Ronny Kobo Leopard Dress

 

 

Me in my $24.99 Merona for Target Dress

Upcycle

A few months back I was cleaning down in the basement (must have exhausted all my other options for having fun at that particular moment). Anyway, I stumbled upon a bin of select clothes that I kept from when my daughters were little (ones that I did not want to give away or donate). I wondered what to do with them. I finally decided to cut the outfits up and use the material to make some stuffed animals that they can enjoy and pass down to their kids.

I Googled a pattern for an owl and found one that was cute at ashbyfamilyblog.blogspot.com. I printed it out and rough cut all the material (I changed the legs though) I did not worry about making the cuts perfect because 1. the material was a bit difficult to work with because it was from old clothes, therefore I had to deal with hems, stitching, etc. And 2. I did not mind the rustic look.

I have never sewn before so my mom came over and gave me a quick tutorial. It pretty easy to pick up, I mean I was only doing straight lines, nothing fancy. This project was overall remarkably easy.
So go for it, get crafty and trust your ability. Even if it does not turn out perfect, you can be proud that you created the finished product. This is Emma's owl that includes the outfits she wore for her first professional picture, her first Thanksgiving and first Halloween. I think it turned out really well for a first attempt.

 

 

 

…C

Get Real

As we (woman) age it seems that we can't help but take notice that we need to work a bit harder to maintain our desired weight. At least I know that I do. Gone are the days in which I could wolf down two lunches at school, stop home quickly after school for a snack of a sandwich and Oreo's before practice and then head home for dinner. I have always been active and enjoyed exercise, but now I must incorporate nutrition into the equation.
At work I often have woman ask me how I do it. How do I manage to stay in shape and look the way I look. After I jokingly tell them that I haven't eaten in six days I am quick to tell them my true philosophy.
If you go down any grocery aisle or look at any commercial that is targeted to our demographic (25-45) you will notice there is no shortage of 100 calorie FUdge Shop cookie snack packs, or Slim Fast commercials telling us to have a Slim Fast for breakfast and lunch and then a sensible dinner. No offense to these companies for making this stuff because, after all, they are making a killing off of our misguided perception of healthy eating and thinking counting calories, and/or calorie restriction is our answer. We really need to stop thinking it is OK to fill our temples with refined, processed nutrient-lacking junk and think it is OK because the package tells us it is only 100 calories. Instead, and here is the great part, we can stuff our faces with endless amounts of real food~veggies, fruits, anything REAL.
I read a book called The Beauty Detox Solution and while some of her suggestions were not realistic for me or my family there were some great tips I did take away. Most notably was my new breakfast of choice called The Green Smoothie. I highly recommend this one little change to any woman's "diet". This little baby has helped me to stay fuller, longer in the morning. Sometimes it is lunch time and I am not even hungry. I feel as though it has aided in the overall tone-ness of my body and it has a ton of fiber which you may all know what fiber does~keeps us regular.
Now I am not going to give you the officially recipe with measurements and all. When I make this I just eyeball and approximate while throwing all the ingredients in, it works for me. Cheers!

• 1/2 cups water - add more or less depending on how you like the consistency
• 1 head romaine lettuce - I buy the bags that have three in them and use one each time I make a new batch
• hand full of baby spinach 
• handful of chopped celery
• 1 apple, cored and chopped
• 1 pear, sliced
• 1 banana, sliced
• squeeze of 1/2 a lemon

When making, add the first 4 ingredients to the blender, blend until mixed well. Add the last 4 ingredients and blend well again. This will make me two mornings worth of the drink.

Again though ladies, my philosophy, eat as much as you want as long as you are eating real food! Not the processed, refined junk that claims to help you reach your goals because it is only 100 calories.

mmmmmm

 

 



…C