Polishology's One Year Giveaway

I absolutely love this blog! She's doing a one year anniversary of her blog giveaway.
Head on over and check her out!

Polishology!!

L'Oreal Studio Secrets Base

I'm always on the look out for a new primer/base. I almost refuse to buy the really expensive ones but I think that's the direction I'm heading in.

The older I get the worse my face gets. Damn hormones. So I was looking for a new primer to try to smooth everything out. I had read quite a few reviews on makeupalley.com and they were pretty good. Why not? I'll give it a shot. Can't be that expensive...

I hit up Kroger for my weekly groceries and I remembered I wanted to try this. It was on the bottom shelf with a little baby price tag on it. $10.86. Hm, kinda expensive IMO. Then I picked it up. $10.86 for this little bitty jar?!? Seriously it better be a little slice of heaven in a jar. It better make my skin scream "I'm healthy and glowy like 20 year old!" I threw it in the buggy and got out of there.

Of course I got home and ripped open the package and looked at it. Very silky and smooth looking. I touched it to test it out and it was literally like silk sheets in between my fingers. At least it would feel good going on.

I tried it out a few days later (I don't wear make up everyday)and I wasn't exactly pleased. I got it on and let it sit for a minute to absorb and applied my foundation. My foundation was not happy with it. It's like it sat on top of it and tried to clump (?) up? I'm not sure clump is the right word. It didn't sit on my face like it normally does. I'm assuming I didn't let it 'dry' long enough. OK, lesson learned. Next time wait a little longer.

I also noticed that my foundation looked a lot lighter. A lot. I almost wanted to put another layer on to see if I could darken it up. I looked ghostly. That doesn't make me happy. At all.

When you first apply the base, it does lighten you up, but I was thinking it would more even me out not make me look like I just saw a ghost. I tried it again today and got the same results.

Another flaw, because it is so silky and smooth, it slides right off your face through out the day. I put my make up on around 8 this morning, at 2:30 I just looked closely at my face and my make up is almost gone off my nose.

So all in all, I would not purchase this again. I'm very disappointed. I can say that I'm not breaking out with it like I have with some others in the past so that is a great thing. That is the only good thing about it.

I'm going to continue to wear it and play with it to see if it can get better.

Showfest

Showfest is a huge truck/car show that has been around since about 1996. I've heard nothing but good things about it. We decided we'd take the trip this year and go. It was May 13-15 in Tunica, MS.
With the Great Flood of 2011, we honestly didn't know if we would be able to make it. Showfest moved it up a casino or two and it was on!

We were seriously excited. We had only hear great things about it. How bad ass it was. Um...These people are liars or they have very low expectations. I was NOT impressed. There were hardly any vehicles there that wasn't your every day lowrider you can see on the streets.

Here are a few pics of the ones that did stand out. I promise this though, unless something drastically changes, we won't be making the trip again.

My Luck Turning Around???

I don't have good luck. I'm not one of those people that good things just happen to. I have to work for pretty much everything in my life. (Some things are easy, I can't lie about that)

In the past 3 weeks, I've won two contest.

My first contest was for a Sigma brush. A travel sized E25. I can not explain how wonderful this brush is. Applies the product perfect and effortlessly.
*I would link back to the blog that I won this from but for some reason it is now gone. :(

Then I follow iPhone AppStorm on twitter. They were having a contest, giving away a free OtterBox Defender case for the iPhone. Well, guess who won!!??! Yeppers!!

I love it! Maybe I should hit the casino?!?! Kidding!!!

We've Decided

We've been talking a lot lately about what the future holds for us. We knew this wasn't our forever house but with the economy absolutely bottomed out, we honestly didn't think we could sell.
And honestly, we still aren't sure if we can sell or not.
But...we are going to give it a-go.

We talked to a mortgage guy and were actually thinking of just refinancing. He told us we really just have to stay here 6 months after closing. That would save us some money, but really not enough to tilt the scales in that direction.
When we bought this house, we got a pretty damn good interest rate. (when my mom bought her first house after the divorce, I think her interest was like 19%. can't imagine)

After getting the numbers back from mortgage guy, we talked it over and decided to let him run our (K's) credit to see what we could get approved for. I was seriously nervous about this one. With them being so strict on the mortgage rules, you just never know what they will say.
He text me Friday and said let's set up a meeting and discuss the numbers. Um...What?!?! Holy shit! I honestly, don't know if I was hoping he'd say "at this time, I think it's best you stay".
Now my nerves are fully shot. We have *so* much left to do to get this house on the market. Of course, my husband begs to differ but he doesn't look at all the little things like I do.

So today, I got up and cleaned my ass off. K has to work all weekend (and late tonight) so I'm thinking about breaking out the steam cleaner and/or the paint tomorrow. Ack!!!

BTW, (if there is anyone reading this, I realllly need an answer) should I repaint my 'office'? It's a bright ass sunshiny yellow. It's fresh-ish paint from the previous owners. I'm thinking I should, but good gawd, I do not want to paint an entire room right now. But, I will do what I have to do.

So that's where we stand now. So much to do. So little nerve pills to get me through it. :P

♥

Peanut Butter Dream Bars

Serves 8
Calories per serving 157

1/2 cup low calorie thin chocolate wafers, finely ground
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbs unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup creamy reduced-fat peanut butter
1 1/2 ounces reduced fat cream cheese, room temp.
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 Tbs semi sweet chocolate chips, melted

Line a 9x4 inch loaf pan with wax paper
Combine the ground wafers, oats, sugar and /4 tsp salt in a medium bowl. Stir in the butter until everything is evenly moistened. Stir in 1 Tbs peanut butter until mixture forms large clumps. Transfer mixture to lined loaf pan and press an even layer. Refrigerate until firm. about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, beat cream cheese on medium speed until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add vanilla, remaining 3 tbs peanut butter, and remaining 1/4 tsp salt and beat on med. speed until pale and nearly doubled in volume, about 7 minutes. Transfer to the loaf pan and spread in an even layer over cookie crust. Freeze until firm, about 10 minutes.

Spread the chocolate in a thin even layer over the chilled peanut butter layer. Refrigerate until firm, about 10 minutes. When ready to serve lift bars out of the pan using the wax paper overhand. Cut crosswise into 8 bars and serve cold.




* Cook Yourself Thin pg 200

Sigma Dry n Shape

Sigma Beauty has just released a revolutionary drying system for you make up brushes. I can not wait until I get my hands on one. Having to wait over night for you brushes to dry ends now! You can now have them dry in 4-6 hours.

Dry'n Shape from simone oliveira on Vimeo.

STEP 1:
Wash your brushes using a mild shampoo or brush cleanser.

STEP 2:
Gently press the bristles to remove any excess water. Place the clean, damp brushes into the Dry’n Shape using the smallest band the brush will fit into. Make sure that all bristles are firmly compressed.

STEP 3:
Wait 4 to 6 hours and your brushes will be completely dry and ready to use! In addition to being completely dry, the bristles will be reshaped to their original form. Your brushes will be perfect for your makeup application!