August Favorites!

Thought I would start doing a monthly favorites! This month has been great!! My boyfriends 3 1/2 years anniversary was this month. I know we celebrate half way points. Also I turned 21. It is really weird being able to order a margarita in a restaurant. But AWESOME.

1. Iphone 4S- I love my new iphone. I was thinking of keeping my poor 3GS until the "possible" new Iphone comes out. But my mom got a new one so she could give her old one to my little brother. I started playing with it and man the differences between my old phone and the 4S is amazing. The camera is what got me. I was tired of having my pictures come out to pixely. I really like having a Flash. And Siri is awesome.

2. Revlon Color Stay Whipped Foundation- I picked this up at the end of July. I have used it just about everyday since I bought it. Which is kind of ironic because at the beginning of July I bought a Tarte tinted moisturizer that is like 4X as much. (Which I still love, I've just wanted more coverage.) This has really great coverage!

3. Ocean Salt- I did a post on this a couple of days ago and kind of raved about it. I can not get enough of this. It is going to be an immediate restock product when I run out. My skin thanks you Lush.

4. Real Techniques Powder Brush- This brush is amazing. It is insanely soft and blends so well. I have been using this to put bronzer all over.

5. Lowepro Slingshot 202 AW-This was a gift from my parents for my birthday!!! I love my bag. It is really neat because it is a sling I can slide it to the front of my body and take my camera out of the special side pocket. I can fit 2 separate lenses, camera body + lens, and large flash in the bottom padded half. There is more room there too for at least another lens. Then the top part is great for all of the extras! I have yet to take this on a real adventure but I'm sure it will be comfortable plus it has a waterproof cover! So I do not have to worry about that! 

6. Maybelline Define-A-Brow Eyebrow Pencil- I bought this in August and I have used it everyday since. I used to fill in my eyebrows with an eyeshadow. I LOVE a strong brow. But the eyeshadow I used was the matte one in the Tarte True Blood Palette and it is fairly large. I decided to give the pencil a go after going camping with my boyfriend and not bringing my palette. I felt funny without doing my brows. I am color Medium Brown and I love it! Stays all day on me.




Those are my favorites for the month! I hope y'all enjoy them! If you have tried some of them let me know! Also tell me some of your August favorites!


Emily



On a side note. I thought I would discuss PR because I have not said anything about it yet. On my small about me section it does say that I am a PR major at school. BUT I have never received a PR sample. I have bought all of my products myself. If I am ever approached by a company I will definitely stipulate it in the post. Even if I was given a product I will give my honest opinion. I do not believe in lying to my readers. I have not been approached by anyone. After the first week of my classes I decided that it would be good to announce that to avoid confusion! Thank you!

Back to school pick me up!

Hey! Last week I after class I went to Ulta. I went for my free brow wax. I love the free birthday wax. I did not realize it but you generally have to have an appointment for those. The girl Kelly was great and did it for me really quickly before her next client came. 

While I was there I decided to grab a couple of things. A Real Techniques powder brush and some erase paste. I have wanted another Real Techniques brush for a while. I love the quality and this brush is super soft! I use it for powder and bronzer for all over. 

 Also on the way home I decided to stop in at my Walgreens. I was thinking that I would just pick up one of the special edition color tattoos to try. I saw a couple of blogs that had swatches on them and found the color barely beige. I stopped by and found the special edition ones there. I decided on Barely Beige of course and Bold Gold.

So far they have both been extremely long wearing. I would totally recommend the colors I have tried. I know that there is also a jewel tone set that just came out along with the neutrals. I might have to look at a few of those. 

Emily

Photography

Hey!!! 

I have not really mentioned my photography on my blog before. I just finished editing some images for a wedding that I did the photos for at the beginning of the month. I thought that I would share some of the images and see what y'all think! This was my second wedding. I have done engagements, family, and some single shoots. So far I think that weddings are my favorite. 

The bride of this wedding worked with me at my current job and I was very excited when she asked me to do her wedding. Her request was that she wanted a picture of her, now husbands, face when she walked down the isle. Told me that she did not care if there was not a photo of her entrance and very seriously said that was exactly what she wanted. I hope I did not disappoint! (I'm not going to share that photo in case they would not like me too.) But when I was editing the photos the first look photograph of her husband seeing her walk out made me tear up.

There is something incredibly scary about taking wedding photos. The idea that these are going to be the pictures that are around forever. They are going to be the treasured photographs that their family and possibly children look at for years. It is a lot of pressure. But extremely rewarding. 

I hope y'all enjoyed seeing some of my photography! Please let me know what you think!!!!!!


Emily

Mall Time + LUSH

 Hey guys!!!!!! Sorry I have not posted in a little while. I started fall semester this week and yesterday was my birthday!!! Wooooooooh! 21 now! But this post is a actually about last week. 

There used to be a LUSH in Town Center mall that is like 5 minutes away from my school. But they closed it about a month ago. I guess it stops my pattern of just "stopping in" when I do not have to go to work after class. Now though I have to drive to Perimeter mall closer to Atlanta.

It was the week before school so my friend Alyssa and I decided that we would go to the mall and shop before we have to start. It was a great way to relieve the stress of starting class and trying to get in the classes that we need. For some reason at my school it is crazy hard to get the exact classes that you need. 

 We both got mugs from Anthropology that have our initials on them. Then I got a belt and a pair of earrings from Forever 21. Then we went to LUSH!!!!!

 I am obsessed with the Ocean Salt scrub. I have gotten samples from the LUSH that was at Town Center. Finally I broke down and bought the tub. It is totally worth the $20. My skin loves this stuff.

 This is what the inside of the tub looks like. It is very chunky. I tend to use this in the shower because it will go everywhere. I would not suggest using this everyday. Especially if you have very delicate skin. I think I kind of overwhelmed my skin a little bit and have cut back to using it every other day or every two days. I was trying to think of a way to describe this but I think that the description on the LUSH website explains it pretty well. 

"Back in 2005, our inventors had come up with a number of fantastic cleansers but there was one category they had yet to conquer: The scrub! A sea salt scrub! With that, they whipped up (our now enormously popular) Ocean Salt. Washing with Ocean Salt is like taking your face on a trip to the seaside for an invigorating splash in the water. We mix in fresh avocado and coconut to hydrate thirsty skin, while the antibacterial effects of lime and vodka is ideal for blocked pores, blackheads or blemishes. The minerals in sea salt soften as it scrubs away dirt and blockages."

 

Then I got the Brazened Honey fresh mask to try. You do have to keep this one refrigerated. It is the first time that I have tried a fresh mask. They are only $6.95 so I thought I would give it a try. I will say that it looks kind of gross in the tub. It is supposed to be a brightening mask and clear congested skin. Now I am not a 100%  sure it brightened by my skin did feel better after the mask. While you have the mask on though it kind of makes you look like a monster/creature because it is a pale yellow and when it dries it gets all crumbly looking.

I hope everyone has a great first day of classes!



Emily

Thinking Ahead

Hey everyone!!!!! I decided a couple of days ago that I would box up some of my thrifty finds. I still live with my parents while in college. My school is around 30 minutes away from campus, even though I do have to leave an hour early in the mornings because of traffic and limited parking spots. I do this so that I can save money and not spend student loans on housing. So my space is pretty much limited to my bedroom and I have limited storage space. I have been piling up my thrifty finds under my bed and on the floor of my little closet. I decided that it is time to put things up giving me more room and there is a less chance of things getting broken.

I tend to collect vintage housewares like Pyrex, Fire king, and miscellaneous cute old things. I already have a Hope Chest full of some of my first finds. I looked it up on Wikipedia to see if "Hope Chest" is the universal term for this and apparently not so if your from the United Kingdom it might be considered your "bottom drawer" or from Australia a "glory box." If this is wrong its on Wiki! I know it says traditionally that it is for linen but I just put anything that I want for the future in mine. I have a Lane Cedar chest that was my great grandmothers. BUT it is full now so now I just have to put things in totes.

Alright so I am going to show some pictures of the things I boxed up. I am going to start doing thifty hauls so hopefully there will not be another post like this and i'll remember the prices plus other information on the pieces.

 I love mixing bowls!!! The first set is a pyrex set. Then in the second picture the blue bowl is a pyrex mixing bowl. The white bowl was un-marked but I think it went with a kitchen mixer.

This is in the running for deal of the year. It is a blue Fire King mixing bowl. I got this for $8! $8!!! These are $30 on Etsy. Now I just have to find the other two in the set.

 So I found these bird glasses at a Church Yard sale earlier this year. I probably did not pay more than $4 for all of them. LOVE church yard sales. I pulled out two of my favorites to show! I love the chickadee one because my Aunt calls me that sometimes. Then the gold finch was just visually my favorite with all of the yellow.

 These are just classic tumblers that I found at Pier 1 for a dollar each.

 I am in love with the vintage glasses with the printing on it!

 Found this neat appreciation dinner mug. It is for a politician. I googled Sam Nunn. Read the wiki. Besides that I do not know anything about him and his political views. I just thought the printing on the milk glass mug was cool.

 Finally this hand stitched table cloth. I got this at an estate sale on the last day when they were doing the anything in a bag for $5 sale. It is wonderful the amount of time that must have taken someone to do this is incredible. It does have some stains, it was well loved. But I think I will eventually take it to a dry cleaners and see if they might be able to fix it. The table cloth also came with 6 hand stitched napkins. Its glorious. I hope one day I can have this on my dining room table. I'm glad I found it!

I hope y'all enjoyed this!! Sorry it was so long! I am going to keep up with all of the finds I have and not have to do another post like this. Trying to make them Short and Sweet soon!

What are some of your thrifty finds???


Hope your having a good week!

Emily

Day 2 of Cruise

Alrighty guys! Here is my post on the 2nd day of my cruise. I've been trying to space them out because I do not want to overwhelm everyone with cruise info. I know some people would not be interested in cruising.

The second day aboard the ship was a ship day, meaning we did not dock anywhere and we were just cruising out in the middle of the ocean on our way to Half Moon Cay. We did actually pass Nassau on the way to Half Moon Cay and hit that on the way back.

So that morning we went and ate breakfast in the dining room we were assigned. We could have went to the lido deck and ate the breakfast buffet but we wanted to see what it would be like in the dinning room. It was wonderful! Great service and the food was so good. Plus they had grapefruit juice, I LOVE grapefruit juice. There was a waiter that walked around with pastries so we got one of those to hold us over until our food was ready. And it did not even take that long for our food to get there. I had an omelet with bacon. I learned after this morning that I could have ordered like an omelet, pancakes, and bacon. Pretty much anything on the menu in combination. I tried to eat a big breakfast because I didn't really go to the lido deck during the day besides lunch time.


After breakfast we went and laid out on the deck near the water slides. Something that I was really disappointed with was the size of the pool. For the amount of people on the boat the pool was super small and cramped with chairs around it. So we went to the water slide area. This was good so if we got too hot we could go run under the water park things and get wet. There were a lot of chairs set up here too. We had heard that there are crazy towel people that will lay out like 10 towels on chairs and then will leave. Now at least for Carnival if you leave your things on a chair for more than 30 minutes and your obviously not present they will take the things and put them in the towel hut for you to pick them up then. There are other people who need the chairs so this is understandable to me. So we laid out for a while and my dad and brother went down the water slides. I wish I had went down them this day because it rained on the other ship day, more on that later.

There was going to be an Art Auction on board. I am an Art History minor so I thought that this might be interesting. Also I was thinking that since this is a carnival ship that it would probably be like cheap little prints that I could bid $10 on and get. OH NO I WAS WRONG. Holy crap there were people spending thousands of dollars on pictures/paintings. Lots of Thomas Kinkade and they had some Peter Max. I was completely surprised. So I just sat and watched. There was nothing under $250. I did in fact win a drawing and got a picture frame and travel mug. Also if you go through the whole thing at the end you get a print of a painting.

The Promenade

One of the club/ lounges

The New Coffee Shop, kind of like the Starbucks on Board

One of the theaters

The Diamonds are Forever club. hehehe this one was so cheesy.

I decided that after the Auction that I wanted to explore the ship and take some pictures.  It was fairly easy to get around. And once you went around twice it is easy to remember where you are. Granted this ship is a smaller ship than most. The rest of the night was normal dinner. I dressed up a good bit for dinner. I love to dress up and I do not get the chance to do so often at home and I took advantage of that. After dinner we went and walked around outside and watched the stars.

This was my first time being on a ship in the middle of the ocean. I thought that I would be scared at first, I am a child of the Titanic movie era. I could feel some movement every now and then. We would be sitting at dinner and I could tell when we were rocking a bit. I did not take any moving sickness medicine the whole time though. I think that when your on the ship that it is really important to take some time to yourself. This is vacation! When I went on my walk around the ship I found a window and stopped to read my kindle and just relax. I think that if you have a balcony it would make this easier because you could just step outside and have alone time.



I hope you enjoyed reading about the 2nd day of my cruise and the pictures!!!

On a side note I love the Olympics. I totally cried when the U.S. won the Women Team Gymnastic medal!
Which events are you enjoying?



Emily