Stila lipstick

A Birch Box sample was a deluxe mini of the Stila Stay All Day liquid lipstick in Beso. The reviews were fabulous and this fall/winter season red is the color to wear. 

Well I tried it and it was instant love. I'm always on the look out for a perfect red pout and I think this may be it.  I tried the sample on, went out for drinks and dinner and the lipstick was still on when I looked in the mirror at the restaurant.

When I finally got a home a few hours later the red was still going strong. It looked like I just applied it.

I picked up the full version at my local Sephora because I need instant gratification.

Now if you are worried it won't come off, because (seriously it does have amazing staying power) 2 quick swipes of my facial wipes and it's off.

I did try to get a pic of me wearing it and it was a windy day. So that's the picture you get to see.

Birchbox - Stila All Day- Beso $22 & free shipping
Sephora- Holiday Essentials Kit (comes with mini Beso) $19
Sephora- Stay All Day $24 3 day shipping free after $50

 

October Birchbox

Here's the goodies from this months Birchbox. So far I've liked all the products, the stain and chapstick are by far my favorite and I do enjoy the mircodermabrassion. The smell is delightful.

Love & Toast handcream

I wanted to share a recent fave of mine. It's a hand cream that comes in a tube by Love & Toast (cute name) and I can't get enough of it.

I spotted it surprisingly at my fave grocery store Harmon's. It has it's own little display and not with the other lotions.

The price is $9.99 and it is worth every penny. Easily carries in your purse and I don't have to worry about the lid flipping open, like I've had happen before. YUCKY!

I tried every single sample and seriously loved them all.  You can buy them online on their website or even amazon has them.  When I'm done with my current one I'm ordering the Collection set and it's only $45.90 which is cheaper then buying them as a single tube.

Hand cream - http://loveandtoast.com/t/classic-collection/hand-cream
Main site - http://loveandtoast.com/

More info- Paraben free, Phthalate free, Never animal tested, No animal ingredients, No artificial colors, Packing paper sources come from 100% annually renewed resources. YAAAAY!!!

Also they have been featured in People, Better Home & Gardens, Good Housekeeping and Organic Spa just to name a few.

Birchbox!!

I finally signed up for Birchbox and after my 1st box I'm loving this service.

For those that don't know what it is, it's basically a beauty sample program. You create your beauty profile and each month they send you out a box with a few deluxe size samples for you to try out. 

The cost is $10 a month and includes shipping. You can cancel at anytime which is a key reason to why I decided to try it out. 

I loved all the stuff in this months box and I can't wait for my cute pink box to be delivered next month. :)

If you want to try it out let me know and I can send you an invite. There is a waiting list, but internet rumors are if a member sends you an invite you can get in faster. 

Things to come....

This weekend I will be posting images of my rock garden. This was a fun recycle/upcycle project.

-Nail marbling step by step image how-to.

-DIY fun wall art for any room.

-2 ingredient all natural face cleanser and brightener. 

I've had several readers write me asking if I have an Instagram and Twitter account, and the answer is yes, yes I do. 

You can find me on both social media sites as Marylikesthis. 

ON VACATION!!!

I've been super busy with work and other stuff. 

However, I'm finally on vacation!!!

When I get back I will be posting some fun DIY projects, gardening crafts and my perfected fingernail nail-polish marbling tutorial.  :)

Fancy Brunch

A group of 6 of us takes turns each month hosting "Fancy Dinner". This means, we dress a little nicer, serve a full course dinner and table settings.

We all have fun doing it and it's always exciting to see what the others will do.

This time I decided to host Fancy Brunch over memorial day.  

The menu was as follows:

Start-
Assorted cheeses
Mini croissants
Fruit salad

Middle-
Hash brown parmesan cups
Chili waffles, with cheesy scrambled eggs, bacon, avocado and topped with salsa verde

Finish-
Toffee cupcakes
Key lime cupcakes

Refreshments-
Bloody Mary's
Mimosas
Lemon water
Coffee


NOTE-

I had some people ask about the chili waffles and I have to admit I made it up on the fly, so I didn't take pictures. Basically I followed the Bisquick pancake instructions for waffles and added in 4 tablespoons of Sriracha. (more or less to your taste, but my friends like it spicy) Gives it a nice salmon color.

I cooked them till the light went off on my waffle maker and let them stay in there 2 minutes more. I wanted them with a crunch outside. I then layer the bacon on them, added the 3 cheese scrambled eggs, sliced avocado and topped off with 2 tablespoons salsa verde.

If you have any questions on anything else, send me a comment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little sweet app called "Happier"

I came across an app today in the App Store under the New and Noteworthy section.

I should be up front and tell you it's a social media app (like we need more of those) but I wanted to try it out and so far I like it.

It's just an app to share and save little things that made you happy thru out the day.

Here's more info from the app page and some of my screen shots.

Be "happier" and download this.

DIY chalkboard

My friends and I have fancy dinner once a month and it's so much fun! There's a total of 6 of us and each month one of us hosts the dinner party at their home.

It was my turn to host in February and I served Italian food and wanted to go all fancy with my table setting. I was searching for new place mats when I came across chalkboard place mats and fell in love with them, but not their price tag. Two mats were $25 and I needed 10.

So I said to myself  "Self, you can make these!" and my response was "Hell yeah I can!"

And guess what...... I DID!


This project was super easy and only cost $26 and some change.


Things you'll need from your local hardware store:

-1- 1/8" 4'x8' tempered hard board (cut into 12 x 18 pieces)
-Smooth roller
-Paint pan
-Rustoleum chalk board paint
-2 rolls of fabric shelf liner (enough to cover the amount of place mats you want)


I went to Home Depot and got all the supplies except for the shelf liners. I picked those up at Target.

The wood can be cut up at Home Depot and it's a free service. YAY!

Instructions:

Some of the board will need to be sanded to smooth them out. In all honestly only 3 of these needed to be sanded down. The paint says to do a primer but I did two thick coats and had no issues.

Let dry 4 hours between coats.

After the 2 coats have been applied I waited till the next day to apply the shelf liners on the back. I did this by using a hot glue gun around the board and then did an necessary trimming once dried.

I got 12 boards made from the one piece of hardwood. These are great for children to use, place mats, dinner parties to identify your appetizers with, or art for your home.... the possibilities are endless.


NOTE- Easy to clean with a washrag.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I added Italian words to my hand made napkin rings & wrote the definition on the back.

I hope you try making these and let me know how it goes. 

Wine party

I had a wine and vinyl party a couple months a go and it was a huge success!  I wanted to keep it intimate so I only invited 10 people. Each person brought their favorite wine to share and their favorite album to play during our drinking and eating time.

I made cupcakes, a couple of appetizers and served 3 kinds of cheese.

Instead of buying wine charms I made my own and because I'm narcissistic I used images that I was in. 

I printed off colored images about the size of a nickle and attached them using a thin ribbon. I made 2 extras with images of corks and a wine glass, just in case an unexpected guest showed up. (which they did)

I printed off signs for the cheese and included the name and where they were from. The image of the cheese below tasted like butterscotch. It was delicious.

I recycled some old blue wine bottles added some stickers to spell out water and placed them on the table for my guests to use.

For the frames around the images I used an iPhone app called Instaframe and then emailed them to my gmail account, saved to my desktop opened them in word and sized them down.

I can't wait for it to warm up a bit more and have another wine and vinyl party.

Bird nesting cage

Our backyard is full of trees. I love it during the summer, but curse it during the fall raking season.

As you can imagine our trees are full of birds. All types of birds. We already have some existing nests and yesterday I saw some birds picking up twigs and making some new ones. I was thinking what a cool idea to get them some supplies for their nest and give it some color!

I went to a local craft store and bought some colored wool, yarn, feathers and picked up a bird feeder at Target.

I wore plastic cooking gloves so my smell didn't get on the supplies.  I stretched the wool apart and balled into the cage. I added some cut up yarn in various sizes and multi-colored feathers and just layered them on top of each other.

When it was all done I hung it up near my existing bird feeder and threw some seed into the nesting material cage so it would attract them.

Fingers crossed for some pretty bird nests!