Sephora Time :)

So recently I made an online purchase with sephora and was very thrilled a couple of days ago when the package arrived. First of all I have recently become obsessed with finding the perfect mascara. Although I've just been browsing because I have a tube of DiorShow that I am finishing first. I have to say that I am no longer a fan of DiorShow, it is a very different formulation from the one I remember and loved. It is wetter and I feel like it can take forever to dry and this also leads to terrible raccoon eyes (which I hate because I have terrible bags under my eyes on a regular basis). So this lead me to figure out what to buy once I was done with it (which I almost am). Instead of buying mascara and having to return it if I didn't like it, I decided to get a lash stash. The one I got was the Sephora's favorites (because it was cheapest haha). It is pictured below and contains ten mini mascara tubes.

From left to right they are: Hourglass - Superficial lash, Urban Decay - Skyscraper multi benefit mascara, Korres - Abyssinia Oil mascara, Benefit - Bad Gal Lash, Smashbox - Lash DNA, Laura Mercier - thickening and building mascara, Fresh - Supernova, Sephora - Lash Stretcher, Tarte mascara and Cargo - Lash Activator.

I think my plan of attack is to try each one for a while and then do a mini review series as I go along. But I am really looking forward to trying them all and hopefully finding something I would re-purchase.

The next things I purchased were from Boscia:

I got the Restorative Day Moisture Cream SPF 15 (on the left) and I am very excited to try this once I run out of my other Boscia day moisturizer. And the clarifying detox mask (on the right, not that you really needed me to point that out). I find myself using almost exclusively Boscia face products these days. I have very sensitive skin, and Boscia is one of the few brands that doesn't irritate it no matter what the product. Most products from other lines make my face red and it stings and is very irritated but I've never had that happen with Boscia. I am very excited to try both products. And just for good measure here is a picture of all the Boscia products I currently am using:

They are from left to right: Clear Complexion Creamy Cleanser with Botanical Blast, Willow Bark Breakout Treatment, Vital Daily Moisture SPF 15, Luminizing Black Mask and Restorative Night Moisture Cream. I know, I know, obsessed is putting it mildly. I am always like this though, I use one product, I like it and then I'm buying out the whole line (last time around it was Korres). I'm just weird like that I guess, but oh well. On a side note I got the daily moisturizer for free as part of that promotion Sephora has where you buy 4 skin products and get one free :)

This picture is pointless because you can't really tell what it is but what can I say? I'm picture happy... Anyways this is the DiorSkin Nude skin perfecting hydrating concealer in 001 Ivory by Dior. I've used it a couple of times and so far I'm not impressed and contemplating taking it back. I'm going to give it some more time and I'm currently giving it the benefit of the doubt because as I said my dark circles are akin to what you could imagine my face would look like if my son colored under my eye with black crayon. So we will see what happens. But overall I'm just really excited to have new stuff to try. Hope everyone had a marvelous Thanksgiving and a wonderful Black Friday :)

Haloween Goodness (Yes I am Well aware it is November)

So I have recently (if you would say June is recent) been very lacking in the blogging department, and this is mostly due to the fact that I got a new job over the summer. Great news for my bank account, not so beueno for the bloggging. However, I am really trying to get back into it because I find it to be a great stress reliever for me and I just really enjoy it. I have a lot of things coming up that I will be blogging about because I have vacation coming up soon, one of the first may be an update on what our kitchen looks like now that we did a bit of remodeling (even though it is not finished). So be on the look out because I'm back (but don't hold me to that haha).

But I digress...here is a really quick look at our Halloween. It was a lot of fun, mostly because it was on a weekend. My husband always says that Halloween is one of those holidays that should always be the last Saturday of the month (kind of like thanksgiving). Now that I am older, we have 2 kids and I have a job, I agree with him more than ever! But never the less, it is a holiday that I love and my kids had a blast so that's all that matters :)


This was our massive trick or treating group... I joked with some neighbors that we brought the whole neighborhood at once to make it easier on them :)

Me and my baby boy aka Yoda! And yes I am rocking a Captain EO shirt! You know you want one...

Babies have it made on Halloween, especially when they get awesome views like this one (his dad is about 6'1") and don't have to walk :)

This was a neighborhood house, my older son is usually a bit of a scaredy cat so I had to take advantage when he agreed to pose here.

Anakin Skywalker (in case you weren't able to figure that out) at his best, showing off his light saber skills

The only decent picture I got of the two of them with that baby of mine running around as fast as he could.

Cake Time Fun

I have a lot of back-blogging to do because I have had a very busy month to say the least. Now though, I have committed myself to making up for lost blogging time (as much as I can with two small kids running around).

The first stop on my quest to make up for lost time is a blog about birthday cakes. Every year for my sons birthday, I make him a special cake just for himself at his birthday parties. This year he wanted a skateboarding party so I decided to make a skateboard cake using fondant. I have never used fondant before so i decided to have a trial run (which proved to be a very good idea!).

The first thing I did was make a chocolate cake and cut it into somewhat of a skateboard form. This admittedly did not go as well as I wanted, but it was a trial after all. This is what it looked like.

My next step was to frost the cake and that looked as follows...

I know, I know, who hasn't seen a frosted cake before right? But I had the picture so I figured I might as well use it.

Now it was about 9:30 verging on 10:00 at night at this point and I was mighty surprised when a little helper emerged out of the shadows of the living room. It was the birthday boy himself, so I could not say no to a little bit of help from my favorite kitchen helper. I was getting ready to roll out the fondant and he insisted on having a piece for himself, he then began ripping it into tiny little pieces and telling me not to touch his "mini pizzas."

My next step was to color the fondant using black coloring to get a gray skateboard-ish color and roll it out. I then covered the cake with it. The coloring wasn't as I had expected but I was in fear that my hands would stay dyed for weeks so that was as good as it was going to get (on top of the fact that it was already past my bed time - not to mention my helper's bed time).

Here is that little helper of mine smoothing out the fondant and eating some of his "pizzas." Yes it didn't take him too long to figure out that fondant is a fancy way of saying sugar :).

After I convinced him to stop I snapped a quick picture of the cake.

My last step was to cut out some skateboard logos for the cake. Because my son is so obsessed with Rob Dyrdeck and his fantasy factory show, he is also obsessed with DC. So using some of the left over white fondant I cut out some DC logos and this is what I ended up with....

For the cake for his big day, i made some adjustments: I made it skinnier and I also added screws to the top and this is what the cake looked like on his big day. I had a blast and it will definitely not be my last adventure with fondant.

Here are the birthday boy and his baby brother with the cake.

A year through pictures...

With all my deadlines lately I have not been able to post. The big reason I have not been able to post is the fact that we were finishing all our construction and last Monday was my oldest son's birthday so we had a party for him last Saturday. He is truly a gift that I cherish each and every day. I can't believe he is already 4!! The time goes by so quickly, below is a snapshot of the past year of his life, enjoy :)

Perfume and Parties...

I just realized how literal the names of all my blogs have been... At any rate, a while back (about 6 months to be exact) I purchased a deluxe fragrance sampler at sephora. Basically you pay $50 or so and you get 12 sample sized of various perfumes and you get a card that you trade in for a bottle of your favorite of the 12 once you have tried them all.

The scents that were included in this particular sampler are:

Aquolina - Pink Sugar / Donna Karan - Cashmere Mist / Juicy Couture - Viva La Juicy / Prada - Infusion D'Iris / Dior - Addict 2 / Emilio Pucci - Vivara Variazioni Acqua 330 / Kenzo - Flowerbykenzo / Stella McCartney - Stella Nude / Dolce & Gabbana - Light Blue / Harajuku Lovers - G / Michael Kors - Very hollywood / Versace - Bright Crystal

I actually liked quite a few of the fragrances (hence the reason why I barely made a selection 6 months later!), I really love Very Hollywood, Bright Crystal and Pink Sugar, I also sort of like G. Eventually I decided to get Pink Sugar.

The reason you ask? Well of those previously mentioned this one gave me the most bang (more specifically perfume) for my buck. With the majority of the perfumes I would be getting a 1oz. bottle and with pink sugar I got a 3.4 oz. bottle so there you go I admit it, I can be a bit frugal sometimes :)

I do however plan on buying Very Hollywood and Bright Crystal as well sometime in the near future. I also absolutely love Issey Miyake's L'Eau d'Isssey it is so fresh and amazing I got a sample of it and plan on purchasing it (once I am receiving a steady paycheck), I haven't yet because it is a bit on the pricey side.

My oldest son is going to be 4th on May 3rd and I am so excited for him. We are going to have a birthday party for him at our house and then we plan on taking him to Disneyland later that month as well. We call him The Boogs (or booger, boogies, sometimes even booger bear, we are a family that is big on nicknames) because when he was a baby he constantly had boogers in his nose. When he was 2 we or my family would ask him, why do they call you the boogs? And he would reply "because I have booger in-a my nose."

But I'm getting off topic, so because we are having his party in a couple of weeks I could not pass up these great bowls for salsas and things of that nature when I saw them at Bed Bath & Beyond. They were $1.99 and I heart them :)

I honestly love them so much I had to take pictures from 2 angles....I am such a dork.

Lastly for your viewing pleasure here is a photo of The Boogs and I leaving the swap meet yesterday afternoon.

He said we were twins because we both had glasses on :)

And here we are being silly...