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.
Hello friends! We’re continuing the vacation train today and I’m following up on the What to Pack for a Beach Vacation post with this handy “What’s in My Travel Case” post.
I like to keep this bag packed so that when I head out of town, it’s ready to go. Of course, a few things like my eyeglasses and toothbrush (I take my fancy electric one) go in last minute. It’s so nice not to have to worry about packing these essentials and they all fit inside this cute bag I’ve had for ages.
Happy Sunday friends! I hope y’all are enjoying your weekend! We were expecting loads of rain, but unexpectedly are getting tons of sunshine!
I’ve been asking y’all on Stories what you want to see more of and I LOVE hearing your responses! Two of the big ones are a makeup tutorial and updated hair tutorial now that I have short hair.
Thank you to ShopStyle and Nordstrom for sponsoring today’s post!
Hi friends! How was your weekend? We had a really good one that started with a rainy baseball game on Saturday, then the select baseball league tryouts on a gorgeous Sunday. It made for a loooong Sunday, but it’s really fun for the kids!
5 MAKEUP TIPS FROM A PROFESSIONAL
I’m really excited for today’s post focusing on beauty and makeup! I like to put on a little bit of makeup each day to make myself feel better and be more productive, but I usually stick to the basics.
My Take Care of You post was one of my most popular ever, and I’ve been blogging for 8 years! Y’all loved the wise advice from my Grandma Nola and she got a kick out of it too! I was talking on the phone with her last week and she was telling me that at her age, 91, she remembers the past way better than what happened yesterday.
ADVICE FROM GRANDMA NOLA
She has wonderful memories of growing up healthy and happy in rural Missouri, being raised by her Aunt Bernice and Uncle Mack. They lived very modestly on the farm and didn’t even have electricity.
I grew up with parents that had me as teenagers. I’m 43 now and my beautiful Mom is 59. She had to leave high school for a while after she had me, but went back later to get her diploma. While she was working and going to school, I stayed home with my Grandma Nola. What’s funny is that Grandma Nola isn’t my blood relative, but she’s one of the people I’m closest to in my life and one of the most influential. I love her so very much.
Hello friends! Welcome back! Thanks so much on the feedback on my nightly cleaning routine. Today, I have a fun beauty post for you and we’re talking all about easy summer hair styles! When the heat and humidity hits, we usually want to get our hair up and off our shoulders! But, we still want it to look cute!
My go-to summer hair styles in the summer are messy buns and voluminous ponytails. Both are great for work to weekend and even the pool or beach! And trust me, if I can do them, you can too!
Good morning friends! How was your weekend?! Are you getting ready for Fourth of July?! We didn’t make any plans other than to chill out at home and then head to the pool! Maybe we’ll go see some fireworks since Houston puts on a pretty good show!
A few months ago, I shared my Morning Beauty Routine and have gotten a lot of requests for the nighttime routine. Truthfully, it’s not all that different, just a swap in some of the products I use,
I want to give each and every one of you the biggest bear hug for showering James with such kind comments on his first post yesterday! It’s one thing for y’all to be so sweet to me, but when the love is directed toward my son, it really touches my heart. Thank you! He read every comment and was so thankful! You guys are seriously the best.
Some of you also asked me to include the link to LOG YOUR EXERCISE at the top of every post, so I’ll do that from now on.
Hi friends!! I hope you had the best weekend and a wonderful Mother’s day! We certainly did and on Sunday, we did a big grocery haul and meal prep, so hopefully this week will go smoother with healthy lunches and dinners ready to go. That should make life so much easier with all the million extra things that have been on the agenda with the end of the school year approaching. But let’s get into today’s weekend recap and microblading eyebrows review!
WEEKEND RECAP
Some of my girlfriends and I kicked off the weekend early with a mom’s pool party!
Good morning friends! How was your weekend?! We did lots of celebrating around here! It started on Friday night with my longtime girlfriend Trisa’s 40th birthday party, followed by the last baseball game of the regular season, and then on Sunday, I finally got to meet the newest member of our family- my sweet nephew Carter! I’m totally smitten with him! I haven’t held a baby this tiny since Jordan!
Isn’t he sweet!! I swear he’s giving me #babyfever!!
Today, I’m going to tell you my secret for getting long, full lashes!
Good Monday morning to you! I hope y’all had a great weekend! Ours was super special because the kids got baptized and James also got Confirmed and had his First Communion! I’m not Catholic (I was raised non-denominational), but I know that Confirmation normally comes later for kids. They let James do all three at once since he’s grown up with a Catholic education and we took some classes and studies to prepare. He was so excited for it and took it very seriously, which I really admired for a young kid. Jordan screamed when the Priest poured water on her head,
Last week I shared my Easy Everyday Makeup tutorial with you and that’s a great way to look put together quickly! Today, it’s time to take it up a notch for when you want to feel a little bit Extra! I usually do my makeup like this when shooting professional photos for my blog or for a party or date night. It’s only a few more steps, but the difference is dramatic and includes an easy way to contour your face to emphasize your best assets!
Ever since I can remember, I’ve loved playing with makeup! When I was little, I used to watch my mom get ready for work in the morning and I’d tell her, I can’t wait until I can wear makeup! Later, when I got to high school, she used to let me make her up (including her hair) and it was so fun! I was also doing all my friends hair and makeup and even last weekend some girlfriends came over and I took turns curling their hair!
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!
