New Beauty Purchases (and Organization!)

CVS is having a few good deals this week on most of the major drugstore beauty brands. Spend $10 on Physician's Formula, get $7 ExtraCare Bucks. Revlon products are buy one get one 50% off. Loreal also had a good deal (spend $15 and you get $5 ExtraCare Bucks). I know I don't really need anything new, but I've heard so many great reviews on these products that it just made sense to get them...

That's my justification... I'm sticking to it!

Revlon ColorBurst Lipgloss in Bellini and Peony. 

Physician's Formula Organic Wear Jumbo Lash Mascara (GlamLifeGuru made me do it!)

Physician's Formula Happy Booster Glow & Mood Boosting Powder

Milani Nail Lacquer in Disco Lights

I also picked up this letter organizer (Office Depot; I have a matching post-it note container thingy) to store my two palettes (the smallest number of palettes owned by anybody). 

By the way, those two palettes are the NYX Nude on Nude palette and Stila Snow Angel Color palette. 

I'm really looking forward to trying these out! I'm kind of on a rose gold kick, and most of the products (minus the mascara, obviously) fall into that color category.

And are you seeing how great the quality of these two photos are? We picked up a new digital camera tonight (an early birthday present) just for me (since Jeff has is fancy schmancy DSLR and I have a camera I bought back in 2008) and I'm seriously in love with it. Don't be surprised if you see a lot more photos of products and things like swatches (you know, stuff proper lifestyle/beauty bloggers post on their blogs)!

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Instagramming It: Organizing My Beauty Collection

I don't have a very big beauty (makeup and skincare) collection, but what I do have often gets cluttered and disorganized between many different locations in the bathroom. So the other night I decided to sit down and reorganize a bit with what I had, and I'm happy with the end result.

I keep most everything in the containers you see here, plus inside a large plastic organizer I keep in my bathroom drawer (where the bigger items - like palettes - live when they're not being used). Things were getting a bit out of hand and I had to look in multiple places to find what I wanted. It just didn't make any sense. 

So I just dumped everything out and decided to start from scratch. Some items, such as the palettes in my drawer and some of the skincare items already in the pharmacy cabinet, were not included in the reorganization simply because they didn't require any organization. 

Does this look like a lot of makeup? I've seen some beauty collection videos on YouTube and they're all so, so much bigger than mine. I think mine is very modest.

Finally! Some clarity. The items I use daily, such as foundations, powders and a couple primers were put into a lovely green organizer from the Martha Stewart line at Staples. The smaller version of that box (to the right) has blushes and bronzers (I think I literally have two of each), and the acrylic container in the back just had mascaras, eyeshadows, some more primers and concealers. I reused a Birchbox box for my lipsticks/glosses (after throwing a couple old ones away) and then put pretty much everything else (tools, some samples, little items) into my Sonia Kashuk bag (I'm in love with that plaid print). 

And back into the bathroom they went. This used to be Jeffrey's side of the vanity but I kinda/sorta took it over. I don't think he even noticed. I've heard some people say that you shouldn't keep makeup in the bathroom because it can collect bacteria (let's be real, that's not a huge concern in the grand scheme of things), but all of it is sealed and not likely to be contaminated. I did, however, move my makeup brushes into the bedroom because those are exposed and may get "contaminated". 

I also took over the majority of the pharmacy cabinet (again, Jeff didn't notice) and organized my most used skincare items into the mix. 

So that's pretty much it! Honestly most of the products you see here were acquired within the last six months or so as I was building up a collection. I'm not buying any new things now because I don't really feel I need much. I do want to invest in some more, better quality brushes over time and introduce some nicer skincare items, but that can all be done over time rather than dropping that kind of money all at once. I'm quite pleased with what I have anyway!

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Anniversary Post: January 2nd

January 2, 2012, "Ikea Catalog Shopping, Part 1: the Terrace"

I had so many ideas for gardening and including greenery in our apartment a year ago, but I came to find out that I'm really not the greatest gardener. In fact, Jeff is much more adept at it than I am. Of all the items I loved from the gardening section of the Ikea catalog the watering can was the only one we ended up getting (in green, and not from Ikea).

For a while we were growing parsley in this contraption that sat on top of our kitchen counter but eventually we stopped that when it just became too much. Honestly who can eat that much parsley? It was like a mini jungle. There were other attempts at growing herbs and small plants but they pretty much just died.

For now we have four distinct and separate areas for growing greenery, the last of which is a brand new addition to our home. From left to right: On the table we are growing a gardenia that is doing much better in the winter than it did in the summer/fall, some bamboo, and dirt (used to be growing daisies); the big plotted plant is a dwarf lemon tree that I blogged about here back in May; I'm not sure what this plant is but it is tropical and very very green; our newest addition is another tropical plant that we decided to put in our newly redone bedroom. 

One day I'm sure we'll have more time and space to devote to beautifying any of our outdoor living space but for now these four areas will have to suffice. 

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Five Years in Ornaments

On our very first holiday season together Jeffrey and I started a tradition. Each year we buy one ornament to represent that year of being together. The very first was an animal and we've kept the tradition going ever since, buying new animals each year. I thought I would share with you our five years of ornaments as they sit prettily on our first real Christmas tree!

1st year: a penguin from Happy Feet 

(Hallmark)

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2nd year: a frog prince/fairy 

(Target)

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3rd year: a glass bird with gold and feather detailing 

(Pier One)

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4th year: an owl made of twigs and branches

(Target)

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5th year: a red knitted fox

(Target)

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Television Shuffle

A short time ago we somewhat impetuously purchased a new television. The TV we've had for a long time is the one Jeff bought off of Craigslist in undergrad, and it's a 55" rear projector that was a near disaster to move into our upstairs apartment. It's held up great over time but we were starting to notice some digital wear and tear. So I randomly spotted a sale for a TV in Target for a really great price, and when we went to one of our Targets that night we found another TV that was also a great deal but on a better TV. It had a better refresh rate, was LED instead of LCD, was slightly bigger, and originally much more expensive. Even with the sale price it was more than we had anticipated purchasing. So we signed up for a Target Red Card to take off an additional 5% and bit the bullet.

And then we came home and realized we had nowhere to put it.

Since the weather started cooling down, and because I tend to need more space than my desk has, I'd been using the dining room table as my work station/office. However that afternoon I had cleaned the desk up and was preparing to move back to it so I could have some peace and quiet again.

Well, plans change. The new TV went on my desk in the bedroom and when we realized how stunning the picture on it was, we started to forget about the old clunker sitting in our living room. Soon we came to realize that we were using one more than the other and that it was more difficult to sit and watch movies/shows on our bed than it was on our couch, and so began the great TV migration.

Yes, this was actually my idea. And to be honest, I didn't really think Jef would go for it. But he did.

Thankfully the TV is on wheels so it was easier to slide it into the other room. There was a tough corner to navigate but that went surprisingly smooth. 

The couch became the temporary home of everything in the living room. I have never appreciated that sometimes you have to make a mess before you can clean. 

The new TV in the old place. Once we got the big one out we saw just how spacious our living room is. When this TV (which is 40") was in the bedroom we were so close to it that it seemed huge. Now in the living room, with us sitting on the couch several feet away, it seems really small. But now it has the Bose sound system installed with it, and it's pretty kick ass.

Trust me, you don't want to see what the big TV looks like in our bedroom. It's a black hole that sucks all the light out of the room. And I don't even think it is plugged in right now. We're discussing ways to get rid of it so that we don't have to move it ourselves once we move next summer. It was a ridiculous feat to get it upstairs in the first place and short of taking it out piece-by-piece, we have no idea how it's going to move out. I'm thinking a piano moving service, or selling it on Craigslist with the caveat that the buy has to move it him/herself. We shall see.

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Instagramming It

Retiring this lovely coin purse as my wallet. It's still pretty so I think I'll just keep it in my purse.

Out with the old, in with the new. From Target.

Why are these so delicious?

Purposefully awful manicure is purposeful. And awful.

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DIY To Try: Crayon Art

The first time I saw this on Tumblr I wanted to know how it was done. It's amazing how easy and versatile this project can be!

Take a look at the video to see how it's gone (it's really easy). Hmm, I wonder if they make neon crayons? It's been forever since I've purchased crayons.



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Waiting For the Guest of Honor