I’m a girly girl at heart and usually feel my best when I’ve at least but on a couple coats of mascara! Most days I do a quick 7-minute makeup routine and put my hair in a topknot. Here you’ll find my beauty and hair posts including my over-40 skincare routine, my experience with microblading (wish I’d done it sooner) and lash extensions (took them off but miss them), and my easy hair curling tutorial for loose waves.
Good Monday morning! How was your weekend?! Too fast here! We had a busy weekend with a basketball game – I love watching James play, he’s small, but really good! I’ve been telling him since last year to visualize himself on the court, making baskets and owning the ball. At first he was skeptical and said he didn’t think it would work, but now when he goes out onto the court he proclaims to himself, “I OWN this ball!” It’s great to see his confidence build up!
And I got a start on planning Jordan’s 2nd birthday with one of her favorite shows as our theme- Paw Patrol!
Now that I’ve had a chance to peruse all the women’s fashion from the Nordstrom Sale (see my Must Haves here), I’ve been slowly but surely working my way through the other categories. I haven’t seen much I was crazy about for kids, but I sheepishly admit I really only looked for Jordan so far. I did snatch up these pink sneakers for her and she’s the cutest in them (size 5)! And, I got my hubby to choose his men’s picks, so I’ll have that for you next week,
“What do you use on your face?” is a question I’m frequently asked and today I’m spilling the beans and sharing everything I swear by! I’m 42 now and have definitely upped my skin care regimen this year!
SKIN CHANGES AFTER 40
I’m not sure what changed when I hit my 40’s, or maybe everything changes then! My usually good-looking skin started looking dull and didn’t have that smooth texture that I was used to.
It’s been 4 weeks since I got my eyebrows microbladed and today I’m sharing all about the process with lots of before and after photos and answering all of your questions – Does it hurt? How much did it cost? It is an actual tattoo? Where did you go? Does it look real? etc.
Isn’t that wild?!?! See . . . I told you I had no brows!
The morning of my appointment, I snapped a picture of my face with makeup on, but no brow makeup.
Happy Monday friends! We’ve got the first full week of 2017 behind us now and we’re starting to get back into the swing of things over here. But, I still didn’t finish the project post I was hoping to have ready for you today, so I thought I’d just share some highlights from this last week.
First off, it got COLD here. We’ve had such a mild winter here that we were begging for cold weather and it finally hit hard! But, just as quickly as it came, it’s supposed to get back up to the 70s soon!
Hello Monday friends! Did y’all have a good weekend? We had such a nice time with family celebrating my Mom’s birthday on Saturday. We don’t take her for granted for a minute and she’s been in heaven loving on her two new grandbabies. My little brother has a 6 week-old too and I’m so happy to see our small but tight family growing! Over the weekend, Jordan also graduated to full-on sitting on her own and now we have to watch her even more closely because she’s prone to tipping over and already bumped her head twice. I have a baby update coming for you next week,
Gah! Why does hair have to be such a drama??!?! It’s been almost a week since I screwed up my hair got lowlights and I still haven’t gotten used to it yet. It has already faded/washed out some with lots of shampooing (even liquid dish soap!), but until I can get it ‘fixed’ I’m just living with it. And I can’t even look at my profile picture on the top right of my blog or I’ll cry! #passthetissues On the bright side, my roots are no longer a problem! And my hair looks more like Jordan’s, which makes me smile.
I am so happy to finally have my hair curling tutorial ready for you today! Y’all are so sweet and know how to make a girl feel good about her hair and this is one of the biggest requests I get- to show you how I do mine. All you need is a 1-1/2 inch curling wand to achieve loose, wavy curls and I’ll show you how to use it with a step-by-step pictorial below.
But first, let’s start with the hair products. I sometimes switch up shampoos, but I really like Biolage Color Last since I get highlights and low-lights every 6 weeks (#highmaintence) and it smells great.
For the longest time now, everyday when I opened my makeup drawer to put on some makeup and get ready for the day, I was greeted with a mess! Not a great way to start the morning. I’d see overturned eyeshadows, pencils strewn all over, pencil shavings everywhere, and old makeup that needed to be tossed. I kept saying to myself, “I really need to clean out and organize this drawer” but I never got around to it. I knew it would make getting ready that much nicer if the drawer was organized, so I finally tackled it last weekend. Avert your eyes to the ugly before (but true) before makeup drawer.
The other day, I referenced a post I had written back in September 2010, when my son was just six months old, titled “The Road to Schlumpadinkaville?” In that post, I was feeling that I had gotten into a serious beauty slump as a new stay-at-home-mom. Everyday, I was putting my hair up wet, wearing no makeup, and my uniform was a pair of khaki capri pants and a tank top. Jewelry was out of the question, even my wedding ring! Even if you’re not a SAHM, you might be able to relate to “letting yourself go” and you want to get your spark back.
Good morning! I’m waking up today, already feeling a little behind in the holiday department! My cards are only halfway out the door (I still have to address and mail the rest), only the dining room and Christmas tree are decorated (I still want to spread the cheer into the kitchen, my room, nursery, and bathrooms), and my shopping isn’t nearly done! Are you with me or ahead of the game? I’m marking today as a day to GSD! So, after my morning workout, I’m gonna get after it today and hopefully, tomorrow, I’ll have more holiday decor to share with you!
It’s Friday and finally the night we get to go see Usher in concert! He’s on repeat on my iPod during my workouts, so I’m super excited to see him live! We saw Pink in Las Vegas last year and her show was amazing too. And while we’re talking shows, if you do go to Vegas, definitely see the Michael Jackson show- it was one of my favorites ever. Onto the Weekend Steals & Deals!
Who needs a top that covers your rear that you can throw on with leggings? I found the perfect one –
Is it feeling like Fall where you are? We’re still in the 90’s, but with it being September now and a few weeks of school down, I can feel Fall on the horizon. You’ve seen me pick out a couple of cardigans and booties in preparation for cooler temps, and I was thinking of adding some darker lip colors to my almost all-pale collection of lipsticks. Since I usually wear more sheer color on my lips, I always feel like my lips are screaming, “look at me” when I go darker. But, my motto for fashion and beauty lately is, “It should be fun!”
Rachel recently emailed me and and mentioned her blog (Useful Beautiful Home). I popped over and thought it was super cute ! I was then flattered and happy to see my blog button on her sidebar- so sweet! I always take note of that because it’s really thoughtful to show your support for other bloggers. If you have my blog button up on your blog, please email me to let me know so I can acknowledge you here.While reading Rachel’s blog, I found a post I really needed- how to clean your makeup brushes. I’m embarrassed to admit I cannot remember the last time I cleaned mine- eww!
Turns out, the gorgeous girl is Kate, a professional hairstylist with a blog called It’s the Small Things.
On her blog, she shows us how to achieve her fantastic hairstyle with a – get this- full VIDEO Tutorial!! Yay!! And that’s not the only video tutorial- she’s got lots of others. Or, she’ll teach us how to do these styles:
I think this must be how it starts. One day, you’re getting ready in the morning, carefully applying makeup, styling your hair (drying and curling), putting on high heels and cute work clothes, accessorizing, and adding a coordinating purse. . . then you become a stay at home mom.
It starts innocently enough. “I’m home, so I should be comfortable” (a barrage of tanks and capris ensue, quickly becoming the “uniform”), “my baby pulls my hair” (so I just keep it up, don’t even dry it anymore after showering- at least there is still showering:), “why fuss with makeup” (a quick coat of mascara is fine),
