Make-Up Madness Beauty Tip Tuesday - Eyeshadow

Here is where I do NOT go cheap. You probably wouldn't think it mattered at all when it comes to eyeshadow, but I promise you it does. Not only does it matter WHAT eyeshadow you use, but it also matters HOW you apply your eyeshadow. I'm not talking about technique, I'm talking about tools.

You know those little foam applicators that come with your eyeshadow? Go ahead and throw those in the garbage the minute you open it.  They are cheapy little tools that tear up the skin around you're eyes and cause wrinkles. Yikes! Nobody wants that. What to use instead? Soft brushes. I recommend these for $29.99. They're not too expensive, although you can always buy more expensive ones for around $135.00 and up. For those of you that just want something simple, for $10.99 I recommend these from Target. Mary Kay also offers an affordable set of brushes.

Just give them a try and you'll notice a world of difference.

TIP: When initially putting your powder on for the day always dust it on with a powder brush first. You can use your powder sponge (what comes with your powder) to touch up throughout the day. This gives your make-up a nice 'finished' look without causing it to look 'cakey'.

Moving on to eyeshadow. What I recommend....M.A.C. eyeshadows. They're AMAZING!

They glide on your eyes smoothly and  are super easy to blend, when you're using brushes that is!

What staple colors are in my make-up bag?

1.) Espresso (my basic everyday color)

2.) Carbon Black (used for smudging eyeliner)

3.) Club (a dab in the center of the eyelid is all I need)

4.) Knight Divine (for nights out)

5.) White Frost (for corners of the eye and beneath the arch of the brow)

6.) Blanc Type or Mylar (for an all-over underneath eye color. I switch between the two)

Each small little container is about $14.50. I know this is a lot for eyeshadow, but it's well worth it if you want something that will POP and blend well on your eyes.

Don't want to purchase a whole new color scheme? Try picking just ONE and see how you like it.

Do you have a favorite eyeshadow you use? Or tips you'd like to share?
Please share in the comments below!







Share

Roasted Raspberry Chipotle Sauce

My mother-in-law is the one who introduced this to my husband and I. It's amazing and flavorful. You can use this for many different things, grilling, dips, etc.......

We use this for a dip. We mix it together with cream cheese and Voila! An amazing treat. We just recently bought a differnt flavor, Orange Ginger Grilling Sauce, to try in a meal. Maybe for grilled chicken or we may use it as a glaze over an Oriental Dish.

You can purchase these at many different locations. We have found them at Cabela's and World Market.









Share

Share

Updating Our Living Room

Our African Themed (in case you were wondering) living room has been in serious need of updating. The curtains that we have had in there have been here for a LONG time and they're hideous (Sorry Honey!) My husband had these curtains when I met him and sadly we have never changed them. It has obviously not been a top priority. He blames the 'bad' curtains on being on a budget, which I believe, because he actually has excellent taste ;) and because 'good' curtains can be quite expensive.
This is where Overstock.com comes in handy. Yes, I love this online store! I found really amazing curtains here for really cheap. Not really that cheap, but much more affordable for really good curtains. We also found a really good rug for a REALLY good price!

Anyway we have done a little bit of updating and here are the before and afters.

DOING THE BEST WITH WHAT WE HAVE :)
The rug we bought is wool and happens to shed (I'm hoping this doesn't last), so please ignore any fuzzy's you may see!! :)
The update is not quite complete. We still plan to replace some of the artwork (with a zebra print in mind) on the wall and (of coarse) still plan on building that 'dream home' with a much larger living area in the near future. But for now, we've given our living room a nice 'face-lift' to keep us happy in the mean time.









Share

Organizing Bills

As some of you may already know, I Love to organize. So much so, that I dreamt about organizing our bills! Yes, I know how obsessive that may sound, but it actually makes me sane to have things organized, instead of the other way around.

Many people organize their bills every month, when they receive them in the mail. We have never done anything like this. Recently, though, my husband and I had let our bills pile up (which we NEVER do!), and it was driving me nuts. It was driving me nuts, because we had this big stack of bills that we needed to sort through and I didn't have a clue what bills we had or what was due when. It's not just this time, it's every month that I don't know what we have because my husband pays most of the bills.

We have always had certain bills that each of us pay. This may not be ideal, but it's what works for us (for the most part) We both need to feel some sort of control and for us this was working, because it wasn't just ONE person controlling the money and paying the bills, which I know a lot of people that do it this way. BUT, we also never sit down together to pay bills. This is a problem for me only because my husband pays most of the bills (because he makes more money) and I don't have a clue when most of our bills are due or even what all bills we have.

So.......that's what led me to doing this. I decided to make a reference folder of ALL of our bills (ones that he pays AND ones that I pay) so that we can both look to this if we want to know what bills we have and when something may be due. This helps us both so that we don't necessarily have to sit down together to pay bills, but will still be able to know what all bills we pay and what the other pays.

What I used:
a 1in. binder

clear page protectors

stick-on labels

FYI: You can purchase clear page protectors that come WITH the labels attached, but we weren't able to find any, so we just improvised.

What I did:

I slid a (most recent) copy of each one of our bills into a page protector. Then I labeled the top of each one accordingly. Example:  The Sprint bill was labeled SPRINT, the Gas Bill was labeled GAS BILL, Etc. Next to the name of each bill I put a number. This number represents an estimated due date for each bill. I then placed each bill into the binder according to due date.

I basically created a cataloged list of our bills for us to use as a reference. This is helpful for us to use also because, it is a good filing system to use for old bills. There have been many times when we have wanted to look back at an old bill and either didn't have it or couldn't find it in our filing cabinet. We've tried saving our bills in a filing cabinet, but it's not all that convenient.

How do you sort your bills?

Share