The Perfect Tuesday

This week I had a near-perfect day. My husband was off work on Tuesday and it went like this:

6:30am~Ryan slips out of bed when Holden wakes up and together they go to Home Depot to buy some yardwork supplies.

8am~I am still sleeping (woohoo!) when Ryan, upon his return, wakes me to see if I want to go to IHOP for breakfast. Does he even have to ask??

8:30am~Harvest Nut Pancakes with blueberries and bananas with scrambled eggs and coffee.

9:45am~Leave the house (without the children!) to meet up with my long-time best friend of 13 years to go see the Titanic exhibit at the Georgia Aquarium.

2:30pm~Late lunch at Taqueria del Sol. So delicious!

4pm~Arrive back home to a beautiful yard, husband working away, and a dozen red roses waiting inside for me! Clean out Ryan's car (and I mean ArmorAll, Windex, and pulling out the Dyson to vacuum).
Aside: This may not sound like fun, but I really love organizing and the sense of accomplishment that follows!

5pm~So much fun with the family. One of those moments that you consciously try to etch into your brain for safekeeping. Boys laughing and hugging and playing.

6:30pm~Boys to bed, then Ryan and I order Buffalo's (they deliver!) and spend a quiet evening at home together.

Ahhhh....I just needed to document this perfect day.

Before & After

There are very few things that I love more than a great Before/After shot!! I have actually been wanting to do a before and after post with some of my makeups, then saw tonight that the theme for IHeartFaces this week is...(you guessed it)...Before & After! Of course so many makeups came to mind, but we had a bit of a milestone at our house this week that deserves it's own post. Turner's haircut. So this is a 2-in-1 Before and After. First you can see the haircut difference, but also a difference in the quality of the shot.
Before:
After:
While I truly loved the locks, it is so great to see those expressive eyes all the time now! I can't stop kissing his forehead. So while I will probably grow it back out, I am SO enjoying this phase!

Oh and be watching for my makeup before and after post soon!

Fix It Friday

When I logged on to IHeartFaces this morning, I was a little surprised to see such a beautiful "before" picture! This was pretty close to perfect:


So I decided to give it just a bit of stylization:

Product Reviews

Recently I seem to be very opinionated about some new products I’ve tried. And I wanted to share these opinions in order to help you, the fellow consumer, be better informed.

Bionic Mascara by Smashbox
This was the first of two products I bought at Duty Free in the Miami Airport. I was really excited to try this mascara not only because I have loved Smashbox’s ultra-pigmented eyeshadows in the past, but also because of its claims to be “the first ionic mascara for longer, stronger and more voluminous super-power lashes.” I was also totally drawn in to the fact that this mascara boasts aloe, wheat protein, silk, and olive oil to strengthen and nourish lashes. And a noted point I should add is that Smashbox claims that this mascara is a “revolutionary long-wearing, water-resistant formula.” All sounds great, right? Well while the nourishing points may or may not be true, this mascara will NOT stay on my lashes. After only an hour or two of wear, I find it creeping all over my face. And although the mascara doesn’t stay put when I want it to, I find myself utterly incapable of thorough removal at the end of the day. As an esthetician I know how to properly remove mascara; and after spending a long time in doing so, I still woke up with black raccoon eyes. To add insult to injury, I also found my lashes actually falling out while I was using this product.
In review: don’t buy it.

O-Glow Intuitive Cheek Color by Smashbox
After such a scathing review, I feel compelled to redeem the Smashbox reputation a bit. Because the second product I purchased at Duty Free was their O-Glow Intuitive Cheek Color, and I LOVE it! Whenever I see blush in a tube, I am immediately taken back to being a 6-year-old digging through my Nana’s makeup drawer, applying excessive amounts of a maroon/burgundy “blusher” from a tube. So maybe I love this product because of sweet emotional memories, or maybe it’s because of the gentle, dewy pink that perfectly appears on the apples of my cheeks. O-Glow squeezes out as a clear gel and apparently reacts with your skin’s personal chemistry to become the shade that you naturally blush. I’m not sure if/how this could be true, but I do know that I love the color on my cheeks! Added bonus: O-Glow contains Goji Berry-C Complex, vitamin C, pomegranate seed oil, and marine botanicals.
In review: run to your nearest Sephora now!

Kelly Clarkson’s album, “All I Ever Wanted”
I know that being a makeup artist allows me to speak with a little authority and clout, but music? I’ll review it only on the grounds that I love it. I have to say that I am in love with Kelly Clarkson’s “All I Ever Wanted” album! It is typical Kelly Clarkson: mostly upbeat declarations of independence or getting over a guy (“I Do Not Hook Up,” “Whyyawannabringmedown”) mixed with quite a few beautiful ballads (“Cry,” “Already Gone,” “Save You”). Almost every song on this album is one I want to crank up in the car loud enough to drown out my own (not-so-pretty) belting out.
In review: buy this album in its entirety on iTunes for two bonus tracks!

Bubble Attempts

This week's theme at IHeartFaces is "Bubbles." I absolutely love this shot of Holden from Fourth of July, 2008. He tried so hard for so long to blow bubbles, without much success. So I yes, I am aware that there are, in fact, zero bubbles in this picture. But I thought it was Holden's effort to create those oh-so-elusive bubbles that counted for the theme! And the way he is holding his floatie arm out in a concentrated effort is just so cute. I love him.

Last Minute...

This is my really last-minute entry into I Heart Faces' weekly contest. The theme this week is "Silly Faces." This was Holden (over two years ago) practicing one of his signiature funny faces.
Come to think of it, this is STILL the face he makes when you ask him to smile for a camera!

Fix It Friday, Period Piece

It's another Fix It Friday over at IHeartFaces! This week's challenge was really interesting to me because the photgrapher of this shot wanted it edited "to make it look like it fit into the time period of the little girl's clothing." Here is the original:

After cropping it, the pot in the background was really bothering me because I wasn't sure if it would be realistic in the time period. So I took it out, then went to work on the color and whatnot. Here's what I finished with: