Halloween FEVER

SO, I'm going to extend my giveaway ONE more week. Not sure what I'm gonna do if it keeps going this way, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. The people over at My Memories entrusted me with this duty and I'm totally failing :-/ my ego is a bit bruised lol

Help me out here!

Okay, I am getting Halloween FEVER! It's absolutely without question my favorite holiday.

I don't know what I want to be yet, but I have a few ideas. I also agree with, but don't necessarily follow the "Mean Girls Halloween Rule" (the one night a year when a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything)

My current thoughts on a costume are:

An Indian

A Sheriff

Marceline from Adventure Time

One of the people from the background of the Ball Scene from Labyrinth

Could be one of those. Could be none.

Here are some photos from Halloween last year

My husband is partial to being a zombie

I was Baron Samedi

The little giraffe on a hay ride

She was missing some spots

Can you believe the Halloween store had the tail and ears of a giraffe, but not a costume?

So we made one.

With my dad.

The year before last we were all zombies, she had fun being scary :-p

Let's catch up:

• Since I last posted, with the exception of yesterday's filler post, I got a hair cut, went shopping and got lots of goodies, been stressed and looking for a new job and have also been very happy with life. I know those last two contradict each other, but life has been happy outside of work and that overshadows most of the stress. Or should I say overshines?

Anywho!

• I finally got to try that new mysterious makeup and I LOVE it! The eyeshadow is really pigmented but easily blendable and silky with just the right amount of shimmer. I LOOOVE the lipgloss the best, it's so smooth and not the least bit sticky and lasts for hours! I'm convinced I got a good deal.
• I'm starting to get over one of my biggest self conscious deals: being sleeveless.
• I had a job interview yesterday and I was humiliated. I'm always nervous doing things like that. So I sweat. And the dress I was wearing showed it SO BAD, even magnified it.
• I learned some photo taking tips and tricks from Sweet Verbena that I'll definitely being using for your viewing pleasure.
• HEY! I decided that when I get to 10 followers I'm going to do a giveaway of crafts by ME!

Didn't Make The Cut

A few not so exciting or incomplete outfit posts.

Because I have nothing new to say or show you, but didn't wanna leave ya hanging. :-)

You can attribute the poor quality to the husbands Iphone.

Again, I'd like to remind you that I have a giveaway going on that no one has entered.

Come on, be the first!

Should've Worn My Chucks

Good news! I wore my ear adornment all day today and I barely noticed it was there it was so comfortable, but it made me feel fabulous :-)

This is not today's outfit, it's from yesterday.

The only thing I'd change about this outfit would be the shoes. I kept kicking up dirt in between my toes. I really hate that. I wish I had put on my grey converse.

Skirt: thrifted

Plaid button down and watch: Dress Barn

Shoes: Forever 21

Sunglasses: Burlington Coat Factory

I really should be getting ready for bed. I have a big day ahead of me tomorrow. My favorite kind of day: Shopping Day! I'm also getting a haircut, a much much much needed haircut.

I love newness.

Will someone PLEASE enter my giveaway :-(

DIY Ear Adornment

I saw this pretty ear thing at Hot Topic and wanted it sooo bad, but not the $12 price tag. I thought for sure I could recreate it and maybe even make it better.

You'll need:

jewelry wire

jump rings

scissors

pliers (I just used tweezers with scissor handles)

and a variety of chains

I also used old necklaces I don't wear anymore

I found most of these items at walmart for a $1

Start by making a tight spiral at the end of the wire

Then about 2 inches down make a loop.

Then start wrapping the wire around itself above the loop towards the spiral

Keep wrapping

and wrapping and wrapping until you reach the top and snip the wire and try to tuck it under the spiral so it won't get caught in your hair.

Gather a variety of chains in different lengths

Bend your wire thing so that it comfortably fits behind your ear

Decide what chains you want where, gather them on jump rings and attach them to the loop and spiral.

TA-DA!

I've already made 6 or 7. It's a fun little project :-)

What do you think? If you decide to make one email me a picture, I'd love to see them.

I'm also extending my giveaway another week seeing as how no one has entered it. :-p

So a winner will be announced Friday, September 23th. I mean, unless no one STILL hasn't entered.

Giveaway!

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from the fine folks at My Memories, a digital scrapbooking software site, offering to give myself and one of my readers their My Memories Suite software FREE!

I've been playing around with it and it's pretty neat!

It was really easy to figure out how to use from the get go. I like that it gives you the option to start with a blank page and get creative instead of having to choose from a template BUT it also gives you the option to use templates in case the creative juices are in short supply. It's easily fixed if you make a little mistake. The pictures load quickly, although I do wish there were more editing selections.

I haven't had much time to do a whole scrapbook, but I've done quite a few cover pages and photo collages. I really like that you can take a photo you already have and make it the background.
To enter the giveaway:
Visit the My Memories site
Click on Free Kits
Pick your favorite (mine is the Coffee Time Quick Page)
And comment here with your name, email and your favorite free kit
That's it!
The winner will be chosen at random and announced in a new post on Friday, September 16th.
Here are some of the things I've made *including my new header* --

I made this for my good friend Allie who recently found out she's having a girl!

Visit her blog which is all about keeping her sanity during her pregnancy!

My little punkin loves to dance!

Her favorite kind of picture is a silly picture. It's like pulling teeth to get her to smile unless you bargain with her to do silly ones first :-p But I'm not opposed to that.

For Fun

This is an example of taking a picture you already have and making it the background. My husband took this picture last year when it snowed.

I'm working on a full scrapbook, but it's not near finished. I'll be sure to share it with you when it is!

Previously Loved

Warning: LOOOOOOONG post ahead.

Everything I'm wearing, except the marroonish cami, belonged to someone else before me. (I'm not counting undergarments)

The hubs and I went to one of my favorite thrift stores and while I didn't score as much as I usually do, I did find this gorgeous vintage dress in perfect condition. It's meant to be buttoned up to the neck but I wasn't feeling that so I left all the buttons unbuttoned and let the top hang loose. In addition to this dress I got two belts, another dress and an old picture frame.

Dress-thrifted

Shoes and belt-hand me downs from my mom

Necklace- a gift from my Grandmother, the little bird used to wear moccasins but his feet fell off long ago.

So I have a little interesting story to tell:
I had just walked into my place of work and this woman approached me and as soon as she started talking I knew she was a saleswoman, which usually makes me cringe and want to run away, but I listened. She told me that she was a representative for a new line of cosmetics and she either compared it to or associated it with (don't really remember her exact words) MAC. She said that this line was going to launch later on this month. She showed me her product and I was pretty impressed. She said that she had been selling them all day for around $50 and that that was even a great deal but she only had three left and that she had to get rid of them all so she'd give it to me for $20. I just so happened to have a 20 dollar bill in my wallet, a rarity because I don't usually have cash. It sounded like fate. She started talking about the other products and showed them to me and said that they'd be included in my purchase. Too good to be true, right? I wasn't really sure, and I'm still a little wary about the whole exchange. BUT I figured "what the heck" she looks trustworthy, I'm a sucker for a good deal and even if she's flat out lying to me I'm getting cosmetics at a good price even for drug store standards.
I just had to share this story and what I ended up getting with you guys.

I handed her my 20 and she handed me this.

I'd also like to say that everything was well packaged and wrapped tightly in plastic so I'm sure it wasn't used.

My pesky yellowish lighted pictures again. I need a new place to show you things with better lighting.

Gold shimmer powder

Lip gloss with retractable brush

I totally didn't think about lifting up the little plastic things over each color so you could see them better. Sorry!

Top row: eyeshadow

Middle: blush and brushes

Bottom row: lipgloss

To show you they pop out so you can arrange them as you please and replace them easily.

And the top three and brushes with the mirror come apart to take with you!

So what do you think? Did I get the deal of a lifetime or am I a total sucker? I'm okay with either one :-p

I'd tell you how the products work, look and feel, but I haven't tried them out yet. Because of the recent wildfires in my area the smoke and chemicals they're using to put them out are messing with my allergies like crazy so I'm forgoing using unnecessary eye makeup for a bit.

I'd also like to mention that today is 9/11 and we should all take a moment to send good thoughts and prayers toward the families who lost someone and their memory on that tragic day.

Feather Experiment

Yesterday I was looking at my abundance of white feathers and felt as if I needed more variety. So I decided to perform a little experiment.

This is what they look like straight out of the package

This is the coloring after soaking in tea for about 30 minutes

This is the coloring after soaking in tea for about an hour

This is the coloring after soaking in coffee for a non recorded amount of time

(I kind of forgot about them)

I think this is my favorite effect. I painted the middle in an outward/upward motion with water color paint. After they dried I soaked them in water for a while to get some residue off. After they dried from the water bath they still left a little black on my fingers, but they're so pretty!

The same method of water color painting with different colors. My favorite is the lavender pinkish color to the far left. They all had that square top but I decided to trim the top to a point, I think I'm going to do that to all of them, it looks more natural to me.