Branching out...

 Hello, everyone!  How are you?

I've been considering expanding the range of topics on my blog for a very long time now.  I really do LOVE makeup and beauty products, but that's not the only thing I'm interested in and I really want to post different content.  Of course, I'll still upload beauty related posts and my seasonal empties (to help keep me accountable for using up the products I've hoarded over the years), but they just wouldn't be the only type of content I post anymore.  I'm very much into crafting, cooking & baking, decorating, fashion, and of course being a parent.  Incorporating my other interests into my blog is something I've longed to do for a while now, and I've decided to just go through with it.

For my first post away from beauty, I thought I would show you my most recent project.  I recently planned my son's second birthday party.  It was just with close family, so nothing huge and crowded and it happened to be nice out that day so we were able to be in our backyard for most of it.  We didn't get to have my son's first birthday party due to covid, so I was very excited to plan this one.  The party was train themed since my son loves trains.  Also, I saw posts on Pinterest that said, "Chugga Chugga Two Two" and I loved that.  Of course, after I started planning and making decorations, my son got REALLY into Mickey Mouse.  He literally showed no interest in Mickey Mouse until after I started making train decorations.  lol  I *could* have changed the theme, but I hate wasting things (especially my limited time) so we went ahead with the train theme anyway.  My son honestly didn't care.

 

My husband gave me a Cricut Explore Air 2 last Christmas and I'm definitely putting it to use by making all of the decorations myself.  I found a train image that I cut out using my Cricut machine and then adhered pictures of my son throughout the last two years to them to make a picture train.  I love this idea.  In fact, it's still up in my hallway.  I'll probably take it down when it starts to fall off the wall.

I scoured Pinterest for ideas for the train themed birthday party, and someone way cleverer than I am used two glass jars to hold straws and plastic utensils.  For the jar of straws they labeled it "Chugga Chugga" and the utensils were labeled "Chew Chew" and I cracked up like a lunatic.  I knew I had to borrow that idea for my son's party.  I had my cricut draw the outline for the letters and I used a blue highlighter to fill them in.  I tried to cut the labels out to look like steam.

 

 

The next decoration I made was a "Happy Birthday" banner.  I wanted the banner to look like a train and on each train car there would be a single letter to spell out HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

*I'm just going to add this here - My husband and I rent the house we're living in and the walls were painted this green when we moved in.  We do plan on painting eventually (we were given the OK to do so when we moved in) but we just haven't gotten around to it yet.*

 

I was originally going to use red card stock for the engines and cabooses but decided on black at the last minute, so I used an extra red set to add to the wall because why not.  lol  It only occurred to me just now that I should have put a picture of my son in the car.  Oh, well!

 

I had my husband place black electrical tape to our floor to look like train tracks.  My husband did his best, but he thinks it looked more like hopscotch than train tracks.  We only had it in our main hallway from the front door into the hallway.  Having it go throughout our entire house seemed excessive.

 

Finally, I used my cricut to cut out letters to spell "Chugga Chugga Two Two" and adhered them to our wall.  I used card stock when I probably should have used vinyl because I had to use A LOT of tape to keep them up on the wall.

 

I made white and chocolate cupcakes in the shape of a 2 and used green frosting, black gel icing, and Kit Kat bars to make them look like train tracks.  I purchased this little train from Target, washed it, and then placed it on top of the middle of the 2.  This is something else I saw on Pinterest and I'm very proud of how it came out.

 

I had all of the snacks in bowls and was going to label all of the bowls to look like train cars, but time got away from me and I wasn't able to.  But that's everything I did for my son's birthday party.  I can't wait until next year to be able to do it all again!  Hopefully by then more people will be vaccinated and we can have a bigger party with more than just family in attendance.

 

Do you decorate for your children's birthday parties?  What's your favorite that you've either done yourself or seen?  I'd love to know!

Thank you for stopping by, and I hope you enjoyed this non-beauty related post!

 

 

New Beauty Products

 Hello, everyone!  How has your week been?  Mine has been busy and hectic.  My son's second birthday is tomorrow *cries* and I've been preparing for his party on Sunday.  It's crazy how fast these two years have flown by!

Anyway!  Here are all of the new products I've been trying out!

Lancome La Vie Est Belle Soleil Cristal L'Eau De Parfum - $100.00

This was sent to me from BzzAgent.  The bottle is beautiful.  It's hard to see in the photo, but it's iridescent.  I really like the scent of this too.  It's fresh and fruity, and a little goes a long way.  I only use one spray, anything more is overpowering.

Amika Hair Straightener

My SIL gave this to me since she wasn't using it.  It came in a FabFitFun box.  The straightener that I have is a mini, travel size and it's not rounded like this one.  I'll be giving away my old one since I prefer rounded straighteners (so I can also curl my hair with it).

 

 

Lancome Clarifique Refining Brightening Dual Essence - $95.00

This is another product to review from BzzAgent.  It sinks into the skin quickly, and it seems to make my serums work better.  The bottle is huge, so you get quite a bit of product.  The price tag is also huge.

 

 

Color Street Nail Polish Strips in Sakura Festival and Dark Magic - $13.00 each

I've actually been using Color Street for a year now, but I always forget to add them into my beauty hauls.  These two are unfortunately retired designs, but my friend sells CS so she was able to track them down.  I love that they're super easy to apply and you don't have to wait for them to dry.  The directions say that you don't need to apply a base coat or a top coat, but I've noticed that when I don't at least use a top coat they chip fairly quickly.

 

 

Covergirl Clean Fresh Lip Tint in Pink-ture Perfect $9.99

Again, this is from BzzAgent.  The formula is thin and not at all sticky.  This shade is very light, so light that I don't really notice any color on my lips at all.  I don't think this is worth $10.  Maybe if it was in a different shade (one that actually shows up) that would be a different story.  But as for this shade specifically, you might as well wear a regular chapstick.

 

Marc Jacobs Glow Stick Glistening Illuminator in Spotlight - $29.00

I picked this up during the Sephora VIB sale recently.  I've been eyeing it since it came out, but I couldn't seem to get myself to shell out $42.00 for it.  However, it was on sale and I had the additional 15% off discount, so I finally got it!

 

 

 

Becca Cosmetics Sunlit Bronzer in Bali Sands - $38.00

This is also from Sephora.  I was deeply saddened to hear that Becca is going out of business.  I really love their highlighters, so I figured I better order the products I love/want to try out while I can.  I haven't tried this bronzer before, but I've heard great things about it.  I can't wait to wear it!

 

Sunday Riley A+ High-Dose Retnoid Serum

This was a 100 point sample from Sephora.  Sunday Riley is very expensive, so I like to try out deluxe samples of their products first to see if I will like them.  I haven't had a chance to use this yet, but I'll come back to leave an update.

 

 

That's everything for now!  Thank you so much for stopping by!

Winter Empties - 2021

 Hello, everybody!  How was your weekend?

I feel like I was able to use up a lot more products this season than usual.  It's such a great feeling!  I still have so much stuff, but I'm glad I'm actually using it.  Here's everything I was able to use up.  *Quick FYI: the first 5 products I finished off in the first week of January, so I don't know if you really want to count them as "winter" empties but I'm adding them here anyway!*

Pond's Original Fresh Moisture Clean Towelettes

Tony Moly I'm Charcoal Mask Sheet

Victoria's Secret Mango Temptation Body Spray

Clean & Clear Essentials Deep Cleaning Astringent

Botanics All Bright Bi-Phase Facial Oil

Clinique Dramatically Different Hydrating Jelly

 

Well, this is embarassing.  I took this photo so long ago that I can't remember what the product is!  I'm pretty sure it's a moisturizer, but I cannot for the life of me remember which one.

 

 Soap & Glory Clean On Me

 

Peter Thomas Roth Water Drench Hyaluronic Cloud Creme Hydrating Moisturizer

 

 

Urban Decay All-Nighter Setting Spray

 

 

Dr. Teal's Relax & Relief Body Wash

 

Garnier Fructis 10-In-1 Rescue Leave In Spray

 

St. Ives Blackhead Clearing Green Tea Scrub

 

Rimmel London x Kate Moss Lip Balm in Clear

 

 

That's all I was able to use up this time!  Thank you for stopping by.  Have a fantastic week!

Yes, Another Beauty Haul

 Hello, everyone!  How was your weekend?

I have more new products to show you, and I'm so excited for some of these!

Soap & Glory Treat My Lips Ultra Smoothing Lip Oil

I received this from BzzAgent and I actually really like this!  It's so hydrating and makes my lips feel so smooth.

ILNP polish in Say Love

I love ILNP polishes, especially red ones.  My husband gave me this as part of my Valentine's Day present.

Ole Henrickson Glow2OH Dark Spot Toner

I heard that this toner is great at fading dark spots so I wanted to give it a try.

Sephora Reward Point Scrunchies

I saw these scrunchies as a reward point option and I decided to get them since I'm really into scrunchies lately.

 YSL Rouge Volupte Shine in Rouge Caftan

This is the other YSL lip shine I ordered.  The shades are actually pretty similar.  I don't mind too much though since I love red lipstick.

YSL Libre Parfum sample

This was also from BzzAgent.  The smell is nice and the bottle is elegant.  I don't know that I love the scent enough to purchase a full size bottle though.  I prefer YSL's Black Opium.

Nudestix Lash Lengthening Mascara

Another BzzAgent gift.  I've used this a couple of times and it is a great lengthening mascara.  I like mascaras that add lots of volume though, and unfortunately this doesn't add volume.  If lengthening is what you like though, this is a good one.

 Pureology Hydrate Soft

I received this from Influenster.  I really like how soft this makes my hair feel!  After giving birth to my son (almost 2 years ago already!!) my hair went from super soft to very dry and brittle.  This has helped my hair feel normal again.  I have to say, I'm not the biggest fan of the scent.  Well, the scent itself isn't bad, but it is strong!  I can smell it the next day after using it.  It's actually too strong for me.

IT Cosmetics On-The-Glow Hydration Trio

Again, this is from BzzAgent.  I haven't had a chance to try these products yet, but I'm excited to.  I've heard a lot of great things about this line, so I have high hopes for it.

 

Dermalogica Hyrdo Masque Exfoliant

This is a product I wasn't expecting to receive from BzzAgent.  Usually they send out an email when you're going to receive a product to test, but I never got an email about this one.  It sounds really interesting though, so I can't wait to try it.

 

Botanics Revive & Protect Postbiotic Moisturiser

This is also from BzzAgent.  I've tried a facial oil from this brand and I really loved it.  I'm interested in trying out more products from this brand.  I hope this is amazing too.

 

 

Redken All Soft Mega Hydramelt Treatment

This is another surprise from BzzAgent.  I had no idea I was going to receive this product either.  I'm all for anything that will help make my hair feel soft though!

 

 

That's all for now!  Thanks for stopping by!