Wednesday, August 31, 2011

WIAW #1 - Carb overload

I've been following this sweet lady for a while now, and I've been wanting to enter her linky forever, and today I finally will. Even if I'm sharing LAST LAST weeks meal, it's better than nothing right. So check out What I Ate LAST LAST Wednesday, lol. 




For all you WIAW regulars, PLEASE don't be horrified by my lack of veggies, or fruit, or other super awesome stuff. This particular day I was TOTALLY on a CARB mission, and I just couldn't get enough. 


Dinner, was super yummy. I made a SPICY potato paprikash, with some organic spicy italian chicken sausage, and of course a pickle. 
I had a yummy pb and banana sandwich snack, for my mid afternoon snack!
I know these soups are LOADED with sodium, but omg I just love them. Especially the Spicy ones.
My breakfast was just some simple french toast, with whole wheat bread, and a banana. I only use real maple syrup too. 

There are no drinks to share, since we just normally drink water. So thats easy enough to picture right?

Thanks for stopping by, and if you get a chance make sure to stop by and say hi to Jenn, there is so much food inspiration there on Wednesdays. You really don't want to miss it. 



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The WINNER of the $200 Shop till you Drop Giveaway


Can I just tell you all, I am just amazed, how much support I've gotten with this giveaway. I am thrilled that my incredible sponsors had such a warm welcome from all of you. I am so happy that I was able to do this for my readers, my friends, and for my sponsors. 

I really wish I could give all of you an opportunity to shop with my sponsors. I've been fortunate enough to   get a little something from almost all of them, and I can tell you, I love them ALL. Now that THIS huge giveaway is done, and now that you know who the sponsors are, I am excited to move on to the next stage in this celebration of mine. Hey, you only turn ONE once right?

So get ready for MORE giveaways coming up, and don't worry, I promise you don't have to jump through a million hoops like you did here. Although I THANK every one of you, for following the rules. You are awesome, and I would hug you all if I could!!

Alright so now that I'm all nervous, I must excuse myself for one second, while I go pick the lucky winner!

Who will it be? 

YIKES

Oh man, this is hard!!

Ok, are you ready?

The winner of the $200 shopping credit is........


124. 
Life, Crafts and Whatever said...

Now following Amanda Lynne's blog thru GFC!
Can you even believe it?
Let me just tell you, Jenn, TOTALLY deserves to win this. Go visit her blog, and you will know why! Just check back at around the same time when she entered the giveaway, and see what was going on with her, oh man, I could just hug her!! I hope that this puts a little smile on your face girl, and that you can pamper yourself just a bit. You sure deserve it mama!!

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OK, now it's DONE. I'm sad, I wish I could tell everyone they won. 

SInce I can't do that, I'll do the next best thing!!

How about I pick 2 more winners. 

That seems only fair, since I was READY to give up another $100 for my other giveaway which nobody entered, WHY not award the second place winner to this giveaway $100.

SO let me go pick another winner, shall I. 

Ok, I'll be RIGHT back!

The winner for the $100 shopping credit is........


9. 
whitneyfreeman said...

I twitted about Bella Before & After!!
Well alrighty then girl, how excited are you right now???? WOO HOO!!!
I sure hope you don't mind getting $100 to shop with my awesome sponsors. I'm pretty sure you figure out some way to spend it, he he. 

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Last but not least lets do ONE LAST winner. 

This time it is a $50 credit to shop with any of  my sponsors, and although it's not $200, or EVEN $100, it is still pretty awesome, and I hope it has put a smile on that pretty face of yours. So are you READY to find out who the last lucky winner is?

Yeah ME TOO... 

Ok, the winner of the $50 credit goes too.......


111. 
Roxanne K said...

Like The Lucky Elephant on FB / Roxanne K
monorox (at) gmail (dot) com
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WOW, so now that I feel a little better, lol. I REALLY hope all you lovely ladies are as excited and thrilled as I am about these great sponsors. I hope you have TONS of fun shopping with them. 

Now I know it wasn't in the rules or anything, but dang it, if you don't show off all your pretty stuff, and share it with all of us, I'm going to be rather sad. So make sure to take TONS of pictures, and then send them over to me, so I can do a special post on all of you. That would make me super happy! 

Thanks again to EVERYONE who entered, and if you didn't win this time, NO worries. I only have like 20 more giveaways coming up, SOON, or is it more. I kind of lost track, lol. 

For my lucky winners, please start shopping, once you've figured out what you want, shoot me an email, with the items, and I'll pick up the tab girl. Pretty awesome hugh?

Good night friends. I'm exhausted!!

Monday, August 29, 2011

Amaze me August #52- WIWW - How I apply my makeup

Welcome to the 52nd edition of:


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Today I am sharing with you how I put my face on. I don't normally wear makeup, but really enjoy it when I do. I will never wear makeup unless I will be in an air conditioned room. I hate sweating when wearing makeup. I can't stand taking forever on my hair, or makeup either, and have been wearing the basic same style for most of my makeup wearing years.

I'm also doing my WIWW post on Monday, hope you don't mind, lol.

Today I am not going to give you all the colors, and makeup I use, but will instead show you some basic steps I take. (If you want to know what makeup I use, just ask).
This picture was taken at around 1am in the morning, after many hours of eating, dancing, playing cards, and having fun at the party.
Can you tell my lipstick is almost all off, lol.

This is what I looked like when we left.
Shirt - gift
Pants - Had them forever, can't even remember from where.
Shoes - Ross
Necklace - Fabulously Flawed
Headband - Agape Love Designs
Bracelet - A necklace I wrapped around my wrist.

This is what I look like on most days, lounging around the house. Lovely right?

A quick blow dry with a round brush. Five minutes max. I don't use ay product in my hair, but since not washing my hair with shampoo anymore, it is so easy to style, I love it.

My hair is thicker, and healthier than ever. However I really want to cut it again, maybe chin length, what do you think? I'm also growing out the bangs, still can't decide to keep them or not.

I want to cut my hair, because I can't stand sweating, and having it on my neck, ewww. So then what is the point of having long hair, when it's always up?

This is also BEFORE and makeup, he he. Can you tell or what?

I don't use foundation. So a quick 10 second powder application took care of the shine, and covered up a little. I don't like looking flawless, because clearly I'm not, so I think if you have freckles for example, DO NOT try and cover them all up. it looks so fake, and I don't like that.

Also if you look closely, you may or may not see some lovely hair on my upper lip. Yeah, I don't wax, or shave it, because my legs are too much work already, BUT sometimes, like NOW, I wish I did.

Mmm, hmmm, do you see it. Ok, then, enough about that. Yes I have a mustache, ok, thanks.
Oh and I haven't plucked my eyebrows in YEARS as well. I guess after doing it for a good 10 years, they just remember not to grow back. Having a nicely shaped brow is so important. It can open up your eyes, and make you look younger, it is amazing what a good tweeze can do for you.

My next step is applying some blush. I love blush, and even on days when I don't wear powder I might apply some blush. I apply it to the cheek bones, and middle of forehead down towards the nose, and frame the jawbone a little.

Next I apply a metallic cream color, all over the lid. Sometimes it is matte, but since I normally on wear makeup at night, then it is usually shimmery.

Then I go in with a mauvy reddish, brownish color. This is my most favorite color ever, and I apply it in the crease of the eye. Sometimes I go in with a darker color just to give it a deeper look, but these two shadows are my most basic, and favorite color combo.

Ok, so now that a whole 2 minutes have passed, I quickly applied a little eyeliner to the top lid. Making it thicker as I get towards the edge of the eye, and I then sweep the liner upwards just a little. I use a pencil black liner, sometimes brown, and this time I also went over the black with a mauve.

Usually I only line the top a little, but this time I did a thicker line on top, and did a little on the bottom as well. Liquid liner makes a crisper line, but I prefer a softer look.

Next of course is eye lash curler, (a MUST), and mascara. I use a black, and never waterproof.

So I'm almost done.

Just need to put on the lipstick. I couldn't find my sharpener, and my lip pencil, was totally worn down, so I could barely line my lips. I love a well lined lip, and I just couldn't do it this time, he he. Oh well, and I love red lips, but recently bought a more pinkish color, and have really likes it as well.
A quick smile, for a quick makeup job. YAY,, I think maybe 5 minutes tops. Not bad right?
No I'm not showing off my pimple, although it is pretty big. I never use concealer either. I know I'm totally weird, but I like to look as natural as possible, even though CLEARLY I am wearing makeup, does that even make any sense. I mean I did powder the zit a little, but well, duh it's there, and no amount of concealer or foundation will cover it up. In fact when you look at me, you will just see a covered up zit, so whats the point of that, lol.
My bracelet, is actually just a long necklace that I wrapped around my wrist.

My pretty necklace that Lesley made - Fabulously Flawed
That about wraps it up. 10 minutes from start to finish, NO JOKE. Well maybe it took me a bit longer to take all these silly pictures, BUT it was for a good cause, lol.
 On Wednesday I'm linking up to these great parties. Go get your groove on, join the fun!



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Saturday, August 27, 2011

More Mehndi, Henna designs - fun with the family -

Henna, Mehndi Designs
Last night I just wanted to chill. While at the Indian store this week my daughter picked up a couple cones of henna, so we decided to have some fun with it last night. While this wasn't our first time, it has been a pretty long while since we last had this done, so we were both pretty excited.

With the help of my dear friend Khadija over at Creative Mind. and all her wonderful henna designs I had no problem getting inspired. So I got to work trying to recreate a beautiful design myself. While I always use a picture as inspiration because I'm just not good at coming up with designs myself, I can never duplicate it exactly. I always start doing my own thing, and I guess thats what makes it so much fun. It's like taking a pen to paper and you just keep going. Our hands were the canvas, and I had an entire cone to use up :)

The smaller hand and foot are my little princess, and the Japanese writing was my oldest sons. He tried to do the top of my hand, but said it was too hard, lol. It is hard holding a henna cone. You really need to get used to it. I am such a beginner, but hopefully both of us can work on it, and get better. I really need someone to help do my right hand, he he. (Big B that would be you), not to mention he is an amazing artist. That would be so fun, and maybe one day I'll let the princess do it too.

Do you want to check out our previous Henna designs? Go HERE to see!!






Was that fun or what? Have you ever tried doing henna, or mehndi?

Before I go just wanted to remind you all that there is only 4 more days until I pick a winner.
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Have you entered yet? Have you even checked it out? You do not want to miss this!


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In my spare time I enjoy cooking, and baking. In fact my mother and I have been making cakes for over 30 years. I also love gardening, traveling, and all things crafty. I struggle daily to keep my like organized, along with my never ending battle to keep the house clean. I adore my three kids MOST of the time, and can usually be found doing the mom thing from morning till night. I try to catch a few mommy moments, but those are hard to find in this wonderful life of mine. I am blessed and happy, and am thrilled you stopped by today :)