I tried a 60s inspired makeover over on Whoreders, where we’re celebrating Mad Men week. Can false eyelashes be permanently attached?
Mad About Lashes
22 Thursday Mar 2012
22 Thursday Mar 2012
16 Friday Mar 2012
Tags
birthday, cheese, dog in tuxedo, fashion, food, friends, tea parties
I celebrated my thirty-something-th birthday last Sunday, and finally had one of my party dreams come true. My lovely friend Kim threw me a tea party the day before my official birthday. We talked about it a couple of times, and in the end she said she’d run a little short on time so she just, “threw some things together” the night before. Behold Kim’s idea of a last minute party spread:
All this time, I had no idea this girl was hiding such incredible inner party hostess skills! She made two kinds of tea sandwiches (cucumber with herb goat cheese and pimento cheese), homemade savory scones (with pancetta, cheese and green onion), goat cheese stuffed dates rolled in prosciutto, and an assortment of cheese, crackers and jam. Also on the table is a red velvet bundt cake and some homemade Samoa bars (made by homie Charlotte). Let me just say how much I really love my friends.
I was so busy stuffing my face, I didn’t get a good close up shot of Kim’s beautiful vintage tea set (you can see it on the left in the photo above). A cup of Lady Grey tea and some adult refreshments washed everything down nicely. My mind was blown buy the Dubliner cheese and fig jam combo, for the love of all things dairy, go try it if you haven’t already. Then ask youself what I kept mumbling in between mouthfuls, “why have I never had this before?!”
Obligatory birthday fashion shot! Dress from ASOS Curve, which is adorable and made me feel like a pretty, pretty tea party princess. Halogen cardigan sweater from Nordstrom, one of about a dozen in my archives. Cake hat by the sweet ‘n sexy Marie at Agent Lover. You can’t see them, but I busted out my Jeffrey Campbell Partridge Family shoes which my dog Oliver almost destroyed when he was a puppy. It’s okay, I distracted him with a old Converse I’d lost the mate to but still held out hope of finding.
Speaking of that little scenery chewer, my date for the weekend was Oliver… I love a dog in a tuxedo. Thanks to Oliver and all my friends and family for making it a great weekend and giving me all the best slow-motion-confetti-slash-movie-montage moments in my life.
09 Friday Mar 2012
Posted idle hands
inTags
beauty, curls, hair, idle hands, straight hair, tutorial, what if
Sometimes I find myself sitting around the house with nothing to do. It’s during those times when I’ve come up with some wacky ideas – imaginary cocktail parties (where I dress up head to toe, or sometimes just wear my favorite shoes with my pajamas), make up experiments, and filling a kiddie pool and trying to get my reluctant dog to join me inside, you get the idea… Most of these ideas should remain hidden on my list of secret behaviors, but every once in while I’ll come up with one that’s worth sharing, which brings us to Idle Hands.
I won’t dare call them tutorials, as I’d actually have to know what I’m doing for it to truly be a tutorial. But here’s my idea – I’ll come up with something to try (a product, technique, etc.), document the results and give you the gory details. One day, given enough liquid courage, I might test my skills with an actual video. For now, I’ll stick to plain old photos, and I promise to try to recreate any hilarious mishaps if need be.
First up? The You Curl from Infiniti by Conair, which I’ve had for a while, but never tried out. Well, that’s not entirely true, I started to try it out one night but gave up halfway – leaving me with half a head of curls, which made me look mentally unstable. The hair equivalent of Two-Face. I got the You Curl after watching this tutorial on The Hairpin, if you haven’t already, watch all of Jane Marie’s tutorials. When I’m not having imaginary parties or annoying my dog, I’m watching and reading all her stuff – but not in a scary stalker way.
Okay, back to curls… I did a much better job this time, guys! The You Curl is like a skinnier curling iron, but without the clip. It looks likeĀ magic wand, and I kept pointing it at my headĀ and saying, “Expecto Patronum!”, but nothing happened. Without magical shortcuts, I went at it the old fashioned way, you wrap your hair around the wand and have to hold it while it heats up. It took me a little time to get the wrapping technique down, but once you figure it out it takes just a few seconds to do. That wand is hot, crazy hot, so watch your fingers!
06 Tuesday Mar 2012
Posted beauty
inIt seems many others share my obsession with eyebrows, and I’ve heard more and more people vocalize their curiosity about threading. I’ve been threading for about a year or so, and I promised a couple of friends I’d do a before & after post. Warning: you’re about to see some completely untouched (well, almost untouched, I added borders) photos of my untamed eyebrows.
I let them go an extra couple of weeks so there would be a dramatic impact, and it’s kind of mortifying but entertaining to see these. Okay, ignore the dryness around my nose.
Deep breath, I’m going for the full reveal, complete with headband to get all the hair out of my face.
Ugh, the things I do for entertainment… I hate seeing my hair pulled back. You will note I have a small forehead (dubbed a “two-head” by many friends) and my brows are a little outta control. Nothing crazy, but a little unkempt.
My first threading experience was at a Layla Beauty location in Ventura, they moved their original location so I tried another place and wasn’t completely thrilled. I ended up finding another Layla location minutes from my office, so I went back to them and have been completely satisfied. Ten minutes in the chair and $10 later….
I took this in the car, immediately after getting threaded. I did get a little scrape from the thread, as you can see. It didn’t hurt, and was 90% gone by the next morning. It can sometimes happen, and isn’t a big deal, in a year of threading I’ve only had it happen twice. You can see, my brows looks much cleaner and there are zero stray hairs! My skin is a little pink and tender, although it doesn’t show up in the photo very well. That faded in less than an hour, I went out in public and didn’t need to cover up with any extra makeup or anything.
Threading salons are popping up everywhere, so you can look around, do research on Yelp, or ask friends/co-workers for their suggestions. It’s so fast and much cheaper than waxing, I pay $10 and my brows take less than 10 minutes. Threading also lets you get absolutely perfect shape, and no breakouts or skin irritations like waxing can sometimes cause. I was devoted to waxing for over ten years, and with a single threading session my loyalty switched.
If you’re at all curious, find a friend who threads and go with them on their next appointment to see how it’s done. Although, I’d highly suggest trying it for yourself! I won’t lie, it does hurt. I think it’s more painful than waxing, but that would be my only negative about the experience. Waxing is painful, but the pain lasts a few seconds and the tenderness only a few minutes. The threading itself isn’t that much more painful than waxing, but the sting will linger longer than with waxing, maybe about 30 to 45 minutes. But once it fades, you’re left with perfect brows for weeks, with no skin irritations or breakouts! And as a bonus, you’ve got a little extra cash left in your beauty budget.
Would these brows lie to you?
02 Friday Mar 2012
Posted fitness, oliver, Uncategorized
inTags
boston terrier, fitness, inspiration, lazy, motivation, oliver, running
After three weeks of slacking, I’m happy to report that I’m back on the exercise wagon! I don’t know what happened, I was on track, running three times a week and really motivated. Then suddenly…
I just couldn’t shake the sleepy, lazy feeling – even Oliver was under the same spell. Suddenly, I realized over three weeks had flown by while I was connecting with my inner-sloth.
Using my trusty canine companion Oliver as inspiration, I shook the dust off my running shoes and hit the trail.
That’s Oliver, with his friend Max – both of them go bonkers at the park and serve as the ultimate motivation to go outside and get in gear. Who couldn’t feel inspired watching Oliver’s ears jiggle up and down while he power walks his way into heart?
I’m going to shake off the last few weeks, and just focus on getting back into my routine. And, of course, forgive myself for the giant burrito I had for dinner last night.
Have a great weekend!