Haul!

I recently went shopping to a bunch of stores so I though I'd show what I got!  My dear friend Clarice and I went to bath and body works first.  She purchased the Stress Relief Eucalyptus Spearmint Body Cream.  I was going to buy it, but then I realized that I don't really ever use lotion (which is probably not a good thing) so I was happy to see that they also had it in candle form (which I most definitely will use!)  But I didn't feel like paying over $20 for a three wick candle and they didn't have any smaller ones so I'm just going to have to wait for it to go on sale *sigh*.  Don't worry, I ended up buying something in the end...

Be Enchanted has been my scent for a few years now and I've always wanted to buy the more condensed perfume rather than the body spray but it was $30 ugh.  But today it was on sale for only 7 dollars, so I'd say that's quite a bargain!

Next we stopped in Tillys.

I bought this cute burgundy bat-wing shirt that covers the bum for $15 because I'm always looking for shirts that I can wear with leggings. 

Clarice and her other friend are going to the Lady Gaga concert at Summerfest tomorrow (LUCKY DUCKS!) so we stopped in Charlotte Russe to look for an outfit.  She ended up getting black and pink feather printed converse, a pair of pink shorts, and a black shirt with different shades of pink on it.  The colors matched PERFECTLY and we figured she could wear her leather jacket if she could cold and it would still match!  I didn't find anything to my liking there, but that's alright.

Next we went to h&m where I found a gorgeous dress that was unfortunately $50 *tear* so I could not buy that.  I'm currently ordering some things from h&m because there's a 75% off sale.  This is going to sound weird but I got a bunch of underwear because I've been in need of some new ones and these were quite cheap.  I also got blue patterned leggings that were super cute for $7, a pack of 27 bobby pins for $1, and sunglasses for $4.

We decided to pop into Teavana...

and I ended up getting almost $20 worth of tea.  But it smells like heaven so I'm happy!

We also checked out the new Yankee Candle shop and I bought two candles for $10.

They smell like summer mmhm.

Clarice's mom had a 50% off coupon when you spend $100 at Boston Store, so she came and Clar got a few things...

And I got these adorable loose fit elephant printed pants that cinch at the ankle.  They were orignially $40 but there was some kind of deal going on and something else so that they came out to be $16 whcih is quite a bargain!  I saw a super cute peasant dress that fitted perfectly but the price tag was nauseating ($150!!!) so I put that back right away.

Lastly we went to T.J. Maxx.  I only saw a pair of sport leggings that I liked but they were $30 (yikes) so I passed on that.  Clarice got these adorable shorts that we both wanted, but I already have one that is similar so I just let her take it.

Overall I really like everything I got and I'm even burning one of the candles I bought as I'm wring this!  I'm going to my church's picnic with my family on Sunday so I'll post about that later on.

Currently Listening To: We Made A Pact by Hey Rosetta

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Congrats to the Bride and Groom

I went to a wedding (reception) today!!!

I expected it to be really boring but it turned out to be loads of fun!  I felt like dressing up and getting all fancy because that's what they always do in the movies, so I thought I'd give it a go.

First thing I did was paint my nails using Essie's sittin' pretty, a pastel purplish color that I picked up just yesterday.  It caught my eye while I was shopping and I just had to have it because it looked perfect for summer!

(they were kind of sloppy but I felt like taking pictures, so I did anyways)

Next I curled my hair using the Hot Shot Tools 3/4" Titanium Curling Iron.  Even though my hair is quite curly already and my sister swears that it looks exactly the same whether I curl it or not, I decided to anyways.  I wanted no frizz and curls going in the same direction for a cleaner look.

As you can see, my parents got themselves some wine, which I took quite a few sips from (shh).

The first thing that caught my eye were the little party bags on the tables filled with M&M's and bubbles.  I think I consumed at least a pound of M&M's by going around and snagging them from other tables (oops haha)!  I also liked annoying my family by blowing bubbles in their faces... just kidding ;)

My sister forced me to go on the swings but I had fun so it's all good :)

(I also had barely any makeup on as you can see)

So today was loads of fun and I got to meet a bunch of family that I hadn't even known I was related to!  Tomorrow I'm going sailing (as I do every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) so I have to be up bright and early at the crack of dawn.  Ugh it's like school all over again ahaha

Currently Listening To: Five Years Time by Noah and the Whale

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A Lovely Day at the Beach

As usual, my mom forced my sister and I to go on a bike ride once again, so we decided the beach would be perfect.  It was supposed to rain for an hour at 11 so we went at noon (which it didn't... it also was supposed to rain a lot after 3 but that has yet to happen as well).  I almost forgot to take pictures so there are only a few.

Since the sun was beating down on us relentlessly, we slathered on sunscreen right away.  We biked down by the lake and took a quiet path shadowed by trees.  Once we found a good spot, we hauled our stuff down to the beach.  I immediately put on more sunscreen (since I really did not want to burn) and sunbathed!  I read a book but it wasn't too interesting so I won't mention it here.  

After a while I heard some honking and looked around to find geese swimming in the lake.

The baby geese looked so so cute but I didn't want to get too close so I tried to take pictures while they waddled around in the water nearby on their adorable webbed feet.

My brother was (at the time of this pic) out on a sailboat.  As you can see, the lake is currently spotted with boats and I thought it looked too lovely to not take a pic of it!

So that was my simple day at the beach.  It was very relaxing and I feel super good now that I've been in the sand and water and taken a shower because who likes to sleep with bits of sand on their body?!  Also, sorry I haven't posted in quite a while... I've been very busy this weekend but everything is slowing down now so I will be posting regularly (hopefully) from now on.

Currently Listening To: Smile by Lily Allen

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Rummage Sale Deals

Heyo!  This morning from 9:00 to 12:00, I was rummaging with my dad and brother.  We went on our bikes because it was a neighborhood sale, meaning that there were a lot of houses selling in one area so that made it very convenient for us.  Hoping to find some good bargains, I dragged my bum out of bed at that horribly early hour and went rummaging.

The first thing I found is the e.l.f. Matte Lip Color in Nearly Nude.  I've been meaning to get some nude-ish colored lip product for quite some time now, and I felt very lucky to come across this.  

Here's what it looks like on my skin and then on my lips (don't worry, I cleaned it before I used it).

It's super pigmented and is exactly what I was looking for.  But I definitely would recommend exfoliating your lips if their feeling even slightly dry because it will stick to dry patches!  Overall I like it very much and it lasted the entire day after I put it on, so that's good.

Next I got these pretty earrings that have a tiger-eye sort of stone in the middle.  One of the backs fell off as I was trying to get it out of my dad's bag after buying it (I found it eventually), so I'm a little worried that they might be too loose.  I feel kind of silly for not checking the backs before I bought it *sigh*.  Well I'll just have to try them out and see.

After that I bought a mirror because the one in my room mysteriously disappeared a few weeks ago so I've been having to sit on the floor next to my body-length mirror to put my makeup on every morning ugh.  I got it for only .50 cents, so I'd say that's a pretty darn good deal!

Lastly, I decided to buy two bath products; Body Luxuries' Sugared Plum bath salts and bubble bath. I took a bath using these right before I started typing this up, so I can give you some insight.  Honestly, I have never seen this brand before (Body Luxuries) and even after looking it up, still have no idea where it was bought from.  I'm not really sure how I feel about the salts yet... they had a slight chemical smell to them, and it makes me feel a bit strange but the bubble bath smelt ah-mazing!  

The bubbles were as I expected, but (sadly) I have yet to find a bubble bath solution that creates bubbles seen in chick flicks and other movies.  So if anyone knows of a high quality bubble solution that creates A LOT of bubbles, please leave a comment below!  It's kind of like my life goal...

Overall I think today was a great day because I got to check off a few things from my "Want/Need" list.  It may not have seemed like much, but it's not normal to find tons of things at rummage sales so I'm happy with what I found.  Tomorrow I'm organizing my room a bit and then biking over to my friends house just to hang out.

Currently Listening To: LDN by Lily Allen

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Granola for Breakfast!

Good morning, rise and shine sleepyheads of the world!

I woke up this morning feeling spectacular after being sick with a cold for a few days so I decided to get up and do something with my life.  Meaning, make some granola for breakfast and lunch and whenever else I feel hungry and in need for some!

I'm trying out a recipe from a fantastic book I recently rented from the library.

Power Foods -150 delicious recipes with the 38 healthiest ingredients from the editors of whole living magazine, foreword by Martha Stewart. (wow that's long)  It promotes organic ingredients, how to incorporate them into your diet, and why they are beneficial to you.

First of all, I would like to point out that I am very strange and picky about cookbooks.  Usually it takes me at least twenty minutes to find one that I like at the library, and even then I sometimes can't find one!  I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the insanely long and dauntingly foreign ingredient lists.  If my vision starts to swim when I turn to a page, I immediately put it back on the shelf and grab another, no matter how high quality it is.  Also it has to have pictures, or I won't even flip another page.  

I know this all sounds really bad, but it's just the way I am.  I think it's because I find more use in the idea of the recipe, rather than the actual recipe if that makes any sense.  Usually I know how to and can make things, but I can never find appealing enough ideas.  So this is why I was instantly drawn to this book.  I mean, just look at the cover... It's seasoned tomatoes on toasted bread topped with some kind of delicous looking spread.  I personally thought right away, "Wow, I could easily make this simple but yummy recipe in a second!".

Another thing that I LOVED about this book was the way it was organized.  The first sixty or so pages are 'power foods', meaning all the essential foods that are beneficial to you in different groups such as veggies, fruits, grains, nuts, seeds, eggs, yogurt, and fish.  

On each page there's the food and then on the side, a list of all the recipes in the book that included it.  Maybe it's just me, but I don't recall seeing this in any other cookbook so I think it's just wonderfully convenient.  So I'd recommend this book to anyone trying to incorporate more natural ingredients into their everyday diet.

Oops this kind of morphed into a book review haha anyways back to the granola!

Since I don't particularly feel like typing up the whole recipe, I'll just do a picture of it:
*also sorry for the super low quality pictures... I couldn't find my camera so I had to use my phone*

HERE is a link I found to the typed up recipe if you can't read my horribly low quality picture HA.

My ingredients (since it can vary):

I used a mix of almonds, flax seed, and later-to-be-added cranberries.

So first I put everything in a bowl and mixed it all together except for the dried fruit (refer back to the recipe for specific directions because there's a special order the ingredients have to be mixed in...).

Next I spread it evenly on baking sheets and popped it into the oven for twenty minutes.  After flipping, they returned again for another ten minutes.  After being cooled, the dried fruits are mixed in and VIOLA, behold the tasty granola!

The recipe was accompanied by an adorable picture of a jar of granola, so I decided to use their idea because I happen to be currently obsessed with jars!  Especially jar cups... see HERE for some adorable ones that I have been begging my mom to buy for me.  My aunt recently bought them and I also saw them at T.J. Maxx, so hopefully those will appear in my kitchen soon *crosses fingers*.
Unfortunately, we did not have any dried fruit at my house at the time so I'm going to run to the store later and add some in (I was thinking cranberries).

Here is the final product of my granola that I will be munching on when I go to my friend's house later today.  Hopefully somebody will make this because it's delicious (and made with naturally sweetened ingredients for all you health nuts)!

Currently Listening To: Elements by Lindsey Stirling

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e.l.f. Neutral Eshadow Compact Review

Today I am writing a review about the e.l.f. Eyeshadow Collection Neutral Eyeshadow Compact (also known as the e.l.f. Essential Beauty School Eyeshadow Compact in Neutral).  I bought this from one of my favorite stores, T.J. Maxx, for three dollars.

I was instantly drawn it's packaging; lately I 've been looking for a neutral compact because most of my colors are too bright for everyday use, so this looked perfect.

It came with a handy mirror and brush for on the go.

More than half of the shades are shimmer which I tend not to like, but that's just a preference of mine (as you can see above, the loose glitter has contaminated the other shades making it hard to see the differences between them so sorry about that!).  This prooved to be not so good; the powder isn't pressed so well and I felt like it was all dusting off my eyes and onto my face agh.

Half of the other reviews I have read for this palette loved it and thought it was very pigmented and held well.  The other half said that it was not pigmented at all and overall didn't like it.  I agree with the non-likers, unfortunately.  I don't know, maybe the colors sort of blended in with my skin tone, but I just felt like they were weak and barely made a difference on my eyes. 

*Sorry for doing the swatches weird... I'm super sun burnt right now from biking and you can also see that my skin is peeling a bit agh.  Anyways, I didn't want to mess up the look of the colors so I did it somewhere in between my forearm and underarm.*

But I did fall in love with one of the shades... the upper right one or the dark middle shade in the swatch above.  It's a soft and creamy matte brown that blends beautifully and is super pigmented.  It reminds me of high quality chocolate and that makes me hungry *stomach growls*.

Overall I did not really like this palette, but I know I will be reaching for the yummy chocolaty shadow a lot!

Currently listening to: Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
(wow that's a mouthful haha)

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