My Paranormal Experiences

Hello everyone. I have been absent for a long time, all I can say for that is school is killer. It's the day after Halloween and I hope everyone had a good one but I still thought I'd share these stories with you even if it is up a little late. If you don't believe, fine, to each their own.

First off, I've had wayyy too many for my liking. My friends and I were really into the paranormal, wanted to go on ghost hunts and were just fascinated by it. Partly because we had had a lot of things happened to us, before we met and after.  Also I'd like to say we were not these people who saw a dust ball and automatically said everything was a ghost. We tried to find explanations, re-create what happened.  I won't say all of them, but I will put a few.

I have two nights that always stick out in my mind from when we were together, and when we talk about old times it's obvious these are the ones she remembers as well. Oh and btw, we always say her house old house is haunted (she's since moved out), because there are just so many things that go on there.  Anyway, I was spending the night at her house and we needed to be up early to go to a car show and help run a booth.  Between her and her sister they have quite a few cats. I know animals are always ones to freak you out.
        Well everyone was in bed, including her sister and we always slept in the living room, she on the couch and myself in the recliner. All the lights were off and we decided to go to bed finally, her sister had the cats locked in her room with her. We shut our eyes, and in the silence...click,click,click....click,click...we looked at each other. No lights were going on or off and yet it was the same click from a lamp. As if someone was turning it on and off. She went down the hall to see if it was her family, everyone was asleep.  So we tried to go to go to sleep again. Click..click..click........click..click click. It wouldn't stop for a good 10 minutes I think. Next thing you know we hear her cats hissing and growling like crazy so we jump up and the cat is in the corner near  us. We couldn't figure out what she was hissing at and then we realized...why is the cat out here? So we went to her sisters room and asked her if she had let the cat out. Well we had woken her up out of a dead sleep and her door was literally locked. So...how the cat got out is beyond me. It was a crazy night, and neither of us slept very well.

Another story in her house is one of the greatest ones I think. Because we didn't talk about it much at the time but at school a couple days later we realized we had heard the same things. It was confirmation that we weren't just hearing things and that we heard the same thing without realizing what was going on.

Another night at her house, we had pulled an all nighter. We decided to go to bed when we realized the sun was coming up, but we were both on the couch. It's one of those big L shaped ones. As we were going to sleep I heard a young woman's voice say something. I thought it was her saying something to me but no she hadn't. I was a little freaked but kept to myself and fell asleep.
     I'm going to call my friend A during this. So A's experience was she heard a young woman say "hey"  and she thought it had been me, because it was so loud in her ear and clear.  At the time we did the "did you say something? no did you?" game.  At school we were talking and realized we both heard a young woman, closer to her but enough where I could hear it. Freakiest thing ever to know you had someone talking to you.

Now I have a few recent ones of my own I'll share with you. My daughter was very young, only a few months and was sleeping in a little rocker next to my side of the bed. My husband was working through the night so he wasn't home but I remember someone kicking the bed, hard next to me. I have no other way to describe it.  That was it but still haha.

Another similar one, my husband was working through the night and my daughter was the same age. I had turned over since I had woken up and was still trying to go back to sleep when I felt someone sit on the bed next to my legs. Full on sit down, I was groggy and thought it was my husband before remembering he wasn't home. No one was there but man I felt it.

Can I just say ghosts need to knock it off with bothering me while I'm in bed? haha

More recently, a couple months before we moved it was morning, and I was still sleeping, but the bed shaking woke me up. I remember thinking it's an earthquake or a ghost. I was just really annoyed. I've had my bed shake before multiple times but I guess I was just fed up either way.  I said, "go away" and I still don't know why I decided to do that to this day. But it was a mistake.  Next thing I know I have someone poking the crap out of my neck and each time with a "No, NO, NO".  It hurt sooo bad. And it scared me to death and I'm still scared something like that will happen again.

So there are  few of my experiences, hopefully they weren't too scary and you enjoyed them. If you don't believe, hopefully you just got a kick out of them.  Hope you all had a great Halloween. If you have any experiences yourself leave them in the comments below!

And most importantly:     DON'T LET THE GHOST STEAL YOUR CANDY!

Art

I really miss drawing. I miss reading too. There is just never enough time during the day.

                                                           

8th grade, one of the first 

also one of the first

not so skilled at painting

my best, it won a ribbon at the fair

yes it has no face

for a friend

How to apply for Mycaa: A Simple womans breakdown

                                                                   

Hello military spouses! I'm just going to get right into it. Mycaa is a pain! At least trying to figure out how to
go about getting it and enrolling in school.  I know for maybe half a year to a year I have been asking off and on for help applying for this scholarship. The answers I usually got were contact your school adviser or just go to the website it will tell you.  While that's fine and dandy for some people that just doesn't work for me. Never has. I need steps, explanations before I start diving into things. I get too confused with how does it work? So maybe your like me and had the same experience. Well luckily I'm at the home stretch of enrolling in Career Step and thought I'd share my experience with you.

1) Alright first thing I did was to visit the education center on base to get the website and information I needed to apply for Mycaa. Well I got home and it didn't work! I use Google Chrome and it would not let me on. So I went back and had them get me onto the site. Really it's just your computers settings because it has a different type of certificate since it is a military site. At any rate just open up Internet explorer. It's annoying but everything you do for this will be done through explorer. It says it's not secure up top, but if you go to the education center, they will just do the same thing.

2) Be sure you know kinda what you want to do before making an account. It will ask you and will make it a lot easier to just go through if you're not second guessing. Register for that, easy peasy. If it takes a few minutes on one of the pages and seems frozen, just leave it alone. It does a live DEERS check so it takes it a few minutes. I promise it will load the next page.

3) After this hopefully you have a school chosen. Whatever school you decide you want to attend (mine is just an online school) Contact the Career counselor/adviser.  They make it super easy. Just let them know you aren't sure about all the steps to using Mycaa and they should be more than happy to give you emails with the steps you need.   They will provide you with an attachment of a career plan.  On the Mycaa website on the right hand side it will ask you to submit a Career plan. This is where the email from your adviser will come in handy, it should tell you how to fill out every line of that form.

4)Now once you submit that call the 1 800 number at the top of the page, it probably says SECO next to it. You need to make an appointment to have a consultation call. This takes 10 maybe 15 minutes to do. They ask you a few questions like your name, email, address, spouses branch, pay grade things like that. After you make your appointment you get to play the waiting game. I personally had to wait a week for my call so definitely get on that.  Whoever you talk to will also send you an email asking you to make a SECO account. This is different than the Mycaa one. Be sure to do that before your call, it will make it so much easier.

5) Your consultation call can last up to an hour is what I was told. Mine really took 25 minutes. I think it depends on what you want to do career wise but just be aware to set aside that amount of time just in case. They basically ask what your goals are. Now between the time of making your appointment and the actual call you may have seen that your plan has been deferred. Don't panic. The consultation call fixes that. They approve your plan after that call. Contact your adviser and let them know that you have had your call and that you are approved.

6) They will now probably send you two emails. One with step by step instructions to apply for FA (financial assistance). I know that is weird. But once you get approved to use Mycaa you then have to actually request the amount of money you need.  The other email will be a electronic signature so that they can enroll you once your FA has been approved. I did both of these things this morning. Now I wait. I was told it can take up to 2 weeks for it to go through but that it rarely takes that long. Maybe a week if that.

And so far, that's all it takes! It sounds like a lot but with the helpful emails from your adviser it's really very easy. Annoying if you don't use explorer but not too bad. And there you go! A little breakdown of what happens. If you have any questions please contact me here in the comments or on Twitter. The link is up top :)

How to use up bad mascara and other lash tricks

Ok so this post will be a little scattered. Just a few random things I've come across that work for me personally to get my best lashes possible. It's really hard to get pictures of the full effect on here though so please try it for yourself!

                                                                     

Tip #1: Always tight-line.  For those of you who may not know Tight lining is basically applying eyeliner below your top lashes.  You know the water line right? Well same thing on top just under those lovely lashes :)  You don't have to be heavy with this, in fact I rarely actually apply the stick liner there. I usually take a flat thin brush rub some liner from the stick onto that and push it into the lashes. this will give your lashes a fuller look without screaming "I'M WEARING EYELINER!!!"  Focus on the outer third of your eyes with this.

Tip #2: Do the tight-lining before your eye shadow. I find I have to pull up my lid a little bit to get my eyeliner on and I hate messing up eye shadow after spending all that time on it. You can touch up if need be but you should be fine. Plus this gives it time to set.

Tip #3:  When using an eyelash curler blowing on it, running under warm water, or blasting it with the hair drying for a couple of seconds can help your lashes curl better and last longer!

Tip #4:  Curling your lashes seems to be a "Must do" for people and some may wonder what it's actually doing. Honestly, you may not need to curl them! I figured this is true for myself, my lashes are pretty long and are already curled a little bit. So if you're new to this concept try a cheap curler like one from Elf, I think it's $3 so if you find you don't benefit from it no harm done.

Tip #5:  If you find your lashes don't hold a curl throughout the day try applying a very light coat of waterproof mascara (try a lighter shade like black brown) and then follow up with your normal mascara.

Tip #6:  Have you bought a mascara that you loved but found it smudged on you like crazy? I mean black all over your cheek kind of crazy? Try the trick above! Not only will it hold a curl but when I tried this my mascara didn't smudge!

Tip#7: Less is more in my opinion. If you try the tight lining go a little lighter on mascara, you don't want to be clumpy spider eyelash girl.  


Remember my last post on the Revlon lash potion mascara? Well I can use it now thanks to tip number 5!

                                                                   

I'm sick and just out of the shower..excuse me 

Revlon Lash Potion Mascara Review

Alrighty today I have some more terrible pictures of another beauty product, go figure. Anyway this is Revlons newest mascara out that promises length and volume. And really I know a lot of people do multiple coats of different mascaras to get those two things. However I'm lazy and want 1 mascara to do it all. On top of that, I don't even bother with more than 1 light coat. I hate when my eyelashes stick together and start looking like spider legs. I also hate when they are crunch and just bleh.
   I needed a new mascara in black since I grabbed the wrong color when I used the clump crush and decided to try this, it's new and I had a couple coupons that made it only $2.69! Since when is mascara ever that cheap? Speaking of price this retailed for $4.99 at Target which is cheap to begin with.

                                                                   

Its super pretty packaging. Purple blue green and sparkle! 

It's quite a large tube. One thing I find interesting as that it comes like this in the package, I kinda like when the brush is separate in the package. I feel like it keeps the mascara fresher and I get a weird sense of satisfaction from seeing that clean brush haha.  Another downfall for me is that as far as I could see, there is no water proof version. 

                                                                      

A ginormous wand! 

The wand is huge which scared me when I saw it, I thought for sure I'd poke an eye out! But it's actually quite nice. Its a spiraled brush which you can't tell from here, but it reminds me of those pictures of the spiraling DNA strands. Is that weird? Why must my brain make these comparisons. Anyway it's a great brush for getting those strands separated.  

Now I love that this mascara is cheap, the brush, and how it makes my lashes look. It really does add length even though my lashes are pretty long. I didn't curl them for the upcoming pictures and I know they are blurry, stupid webcam but in person it is a crazy difference. I'm not sure how much volume it gives but length for sure. It's fantastic. 

                                                

Before application

Excuse my crazy wide eye, I didn't curl my lashes. But I can tell the difference it makes in the upper lashes they look thicker and separated. 

That being said I will not be re-purchasing this mascara. The reason being that it smudged on me like CRAZY!  Now I do have oily eyelids and skin in general so that could be a problem. So maybe this would work if you didn't have that problem or live somewhere crazy humid. But I have both of those problems and even if it was only worn on the top lashes a little while later I literally had black on my cheek. It was terrible. So I'm not sure that I will use this up, maybe if I just do a certain look for this blog and not going out which is a shame. I really like the formula except that it's not waterproof and smudges. I think if there was a waterproof version it would be my go to mascara. So if anyone knows if I missed that please let me know!  

I think it's worth a try for those who don't have oily eyelids or live in crazy humidity. I mean it's cheap after all so I'm not sweating it too much. 

Any recommendations for a good mascara? 

4th of July Nails

Well this is super late but I thought I'd post anyway, who doesn't like nail art right? I wasn't really sure what to do until about 10pm on the 3rd. So I stayed up way late to do them. I did some crazy makeup too but I couldn't get a good pic of that. Sadly it was less crazy than what I would do in High School.
     Imagine the technique of how you would do normal eye shadow but just with different colors. I used the color tattoo is barely branded on the whole lid, and used sin from the naked palette to make it stand out more. Then I applied a dark blue on the outer half of my lid and red in the crease and blended it all in. I it dunno, I thought it looked cool but really, I'm too old to be doing that shit lol.
    Anyway here are my nails which I am a little more proud of.

                                                                 

Blue Nails: Blue is OPI Swimsuit Nailed it!, Silver glitter Orly Tiara

White China Glaze Platinum Pearl

Red is OPI The one that got away from the Katy Perry Collection

We took our little girl to see the fireworks last minute and so glad we did. She loved them. She rarely speaks but she managed to say "It's Pretty" then when we went into a store and came back out after the show was over she pointed up and went oooo pretty! So that was pretty cool. Hope you all had a great holiday and didn't get to drunk ;)  

Yo Mamma!

What? No one else thinks of Yo Mamma jokes when they see the "Not Your Mothers" hair care products? Well fine then, onto the actual point of this blog.

I was terrible and had some retail therapy yesterday and while in the hair aisle I decided I need to start trying to do my hair.  So naturally I went for the most interesting bottle that was also fantastically cheap.  No kidding at Target this brand is $4.75 across the board.  For a big bottle might I add.

                                                         

Sorry terrible pic but you get the basic idea of what it looks like. 

 So the proper name of this is actually "Not Your Mothers Beach Babe Texturizing Sea Salt Spray"  Infused with Dead Sea Salt and Sea Kelp.  That might sound scary but anything with sea salt in it I'm all over. I keep seeing this sort of thing pop up as well. But seriously back to the price, the size of this bottle ( 8 oz) for $4.75 how cool. 

So basically I've always sucked at hair and this seemed perfect for summer, just spray and go and have it be wavy and awesome and be a model. Well in my head. It is supposed to add waves, texture, and separate. All you have to do is mist generously all over your hair and you can use it dry or wet.   

My hair does tend to have some wave to it already but nothing great and some pieces are flat while pieces like my bangs curl so weirdly that it looks like the letter L.  But after I came home I tried it on my pretty straight dry hair.  I have to say I wasn't a big fan of it that way. I felt like it made it chunky to the point of looking like I hadn't washed my hair in a couple of days on the top of my head.  It also just felt strange. I brushed it out a bit and that helped but it looses some of the effect that way.  

This morning right out of the shower I decided to try spraying it in wet hair.  I think I like it better this way  but for me it does make my hair take quite a long time to dry for some reason.  I think the wave looks better, though I did miss pieces. And another downfall is that it made my hair incredibly frizzy and had a lot of fly aways. I guess that does happen after being on the beach but I have a problem with frizz to begin with. But no matter I took some styling spray (I'm sure you could take hairspray or anything you use with frizz normally) and just sprayed it on my hand and combed where I needed it. 

                                                           

This is what it does for me. It's a little difficult to see with my dark hair but it does add nice wave. 

I'll continue to experiment with this but I do like it. The smell is strong but lucky for me I love it haha. But for the price why not try it?  Hope you have a good day!  

Should You Believe the Body Shop Hype?

So if you are like me and constantly watch beauty videos on Youtube or look at beauty blogs you may have seen The Body Shop pop up a few times, more specifically, their body butters.  Now I love the idea of putting on lotion, and I have a few but I just can't stand the slippery feeling forever after I put it on, and then when it does go away I don't feel very moisturized. As much as I love Bath and Body works I just can't be bothered to put the lotion on. Which really sucks since I have a few bottles. But anyway I tried the Bath and Body works body butter once and I liked it more, and used the whole tub but I couldn't be bothered to run out and get another one.  But after all the attention and love these body butters were getting I really wanted to try one. However they are about $20 a tub and it's a little bit of a drive for me so I wanted it to go on sale when I was up there, which isn't often.
    Well my husband and I walked into the MCX on base one day and right as you walk in they have little tables with different perfumes and whatnot on them and immediately my eye caught none other than a table full of The Body Shop body butters.   Of course I flipped and raced over and started sniffing each one. Sadly they didn't have the coconut one which is the one I wanted to try the most and after consulting with the other person who would be sniffing me all day I ended up buying the Clementine scent.  Oh and why did I buy it there? It was $16 which is the same as Bath and Body works.

                                                       

Clementine...orange..whatever.

Anyway this is what it looks like.  Basically they all look like this just with a different fruit on the front to go with the scent. So I did go into this with pretty high expectations but ready for disappointment.  Holy cow you guys....this stuff is so amazing I can't even tell you.  I don't think I've quit putting it on and for me that's huge because like I said the idea is fine  but eh I always forget or don't want to. This stuff makes me want to put it on which is good. It fells really nice on the skin and for me it doesn't leave you greasy, the more you put on you will feel it but not in a slippery sort of way. I think it really sinks into your skin  and makes it nice. I put it on my feet which were..quite nasty to say the least from wearing flip flops and ballet flats all the time and I could tell the difference the next morning. My legs feel super soft and I have been having dry patchiness on my arm that I was honestly considering going to a dermatologist for since nothing I used worked to make it better. This stuff has reduced that patchiness and it hasn't even been a week! I am in love with this stuff and already want to go back and get more. So yes believe the hype! 

Now this does linger on your skin for quite some time after you put it on so be conscious of that and get a scent that will go with your perfume, or hey maybe this can act as your scent. They do have perfumes to go with it if you want.  The only downfall with this was my own, we were in a hurry when I was smelling these and my husband picked this one. Well once I got home and put it on I realized it didn't just smell like oranges...to me it smelled like that citrus cleaner. So at first I was all...."crap!" and the funny thing is my husband smelled it again and said "more pledge?" joking around. So I wasn't the only one. So I won't get this scent again but its ok once you get used to it. But the product itself I can get over it for sure. Who knows maybe you will like it, just smell it a few times before you buy it lol.   

                                                              

                                                                  

Just a creamy white/orange

It is more expensive than the average lotion but for me, if it works and fixes my problems like it has and I love it why not. Plus it is a pretty big tub.

                                         

See it's 200ml, 6.75oz, or 192g

A small swatch, very thick and creamy

Overall I think this is a great product to at least try, they do have travel sizes you can buy too to try them out over the big jar. Can't wait to try more things from The Body Shop! 

I'll Do It My Way

Hello everyone. So if you read my "goodbye" post, which I only think 1 person did you probably realized I hit a pretty rough patch. Everyone does. But understand I went from a completely sedentary state all day every day, to doing exercise every day except weekends. Eating better and less, being totally committed. And I know losing weight takes time. I would have been ok if I had just stayed where I was. Instead I had somehow gained weight. That made me lose hope and motivation. I just didn't understand how that could happen unless I really was just destined to be fat forever. So I just said whatever and ate what I wanted when I wanted. What did it matter right?

So my husband struggles with his weight standard for the military, he's never ridiculously off but he has problems keeping the weight off the healthy way. So we decided to try and eat mostly vegetarian. A big leap. But we have been doing it, granted I only have a few recipes and it's weird not preparing meat but it's actually not bad at all. We also bought a new blender to make smoothies more often and have protein shakes for lunch. So now that we are going all out on that front I decided to get back on the treadmill and do small arm workouts. Yesterday I also bought the green coffee bean extract to take before meals. It's starting to get a lot of hype about managing weight so I thought we could try it, not like it could hurt.

So we are trying that journey again. I can't say I don't have a bad body image and that I'm embarrassed to talk to strangers, or even people I know. But that's going to take time. Sitting here trying to be a "plus size inspiration" to you all was kinda a lie. By trying to just inspire you and help you really didn't do anything. I can't be fake and being fake happy. SO this blog is going to take a different direction. It will be beauty, it will be reviews, recipes, or just boring stories of my everyday life. You can see my ups and downs and maybe since that will be real, you can draw real inspiration out of it. Who knows what will be in this blog anymore, so stay tuned to find out.

Maybelline Color Whisper: Pin Up Peach

Alright I'm back!  Today I have a new find over the weekend for you. I had a rave review awhile ago about the Maybelline Color Whisper in Mad for Magenta and have been eyeing the rest of the collection ( I know that's a bit overkill) for the last couple of months. Well I finally got another color.  This one is called Pin up Peach.

Now this one is hard for me to model, the camera doesn't do it justice and on another note my lips are already really pigmented so if it's a lighter color generally it doesn't do much for me. However its a gorgeous shade that I think is another must have for just about anyone.  It is a wonderful peachy pink color and of course feels great on the lips, not sticky at all.

                                                           

Excuse my face, no makeup on whatsoever. plain lips as you can see they are pretty dark already

Nice little swatch, not as bright as mad for magenta but a nice color

Ok I do have it on here, as you can see it doesn't do a whole lot for me but in person it does add a little color and evens out the color of my lips. I love that it's not super bright because this make it a great every day lip for me. 

A little closer. 

Overall  think this is a great color, especially if you have lighter lips than I do. Any darker I'm not sure how well it will show up on you its very light on me and like I said mainly evens out my lips. I wasn't sure that I liked it that much the first time I put it on. But once I knew it wasn't going to be bright and tried again I actually really liked it.  Great for just easily completing a look if your going out shopping or something. No fuss! Love these color whispers.  

Tips and Tricks for Doing Your Nails

Hello everyone, so today I thought I'd share a couple of my little tricks that I do when I paint my nails. Or better yet my nail care routine. Nails seem to be that tricky part not many people talk about unless it involves nail art but the care is very important. I've learned that the hard way these past few weeks.

• My first recommendation is to find a nail strengthener that you can use as a base coat as well. A couple of years ago I thought I had pretty good nails, they always grew pretty long on their own and I didn't think anything of it. I started noticing them slowing down in their growth and I picked up a strenghtener + growth polish that, you guessed it, could be used as a base coat.  

                                                             

Salley Hansen Green Tea+Olive Growth

I love this little gem. Let me just say I had no idea how bad my nails really were until I started using this. My nails were so much stronger and healthier looking. And they did grow a bit faster. 

   I picked up a different base coat when I finished this bottle and I think I need to go get this again now that I haven't been using it my nails are the shortest they have ever been and they constantly flake. I hate that. 

• Next I say always always file your nails before painting them or even just to keep them in check. I figured out otherwise you might paint them all nice only to have a random jagged end snag and break. Or they might look ok but be weak and break. So frustrating!
• Next is probably a little weird but take the little file thing out of the nail clipper (I hate those things so I personally use the thick end of special tweezers I designated just for my nails) and gently scrape along the base of your nails. Why you ask? Well because even when we wash our hands a lot of gunk that we may not notice builds up there. When you scrape I bet a bunch of white (gross I know) stuff will come off. After this I always wash my hands with soap so my hands are nice and clean before the polish goes on.  For me this helps the polish not have a weird edge on the back of my nails and stay on longer.
• Ok so now that's all the prep work so just choose your color and paint like normal. But I do have to say my biggest thing is to do all this at night. For me this is relaxing and I need to relax at night. Plus I don't have to chase a toddler around or anything. But the biggest thing is if you paint sloppy like I do, don't worry about getting it on your skin!  I used to take hours doing my nails because I had to go in with a Q-tip and fix up the edges and every once in awhile i'd take off polish and ruin it and I'd have to do those nails again. Plus it's just a pain. So I just do it at night, don't worry about it, go to sleep.  The next morning in the shower just shower like normal and I bet you most if not all those little bits on your skin are now gone! I sometimes help some stubborn parts but it comes off easy and you don't even really have to think or take extra time since you were going to shower to begin with (I hope haha) 

Another note on doing it at night and not showering right away is that polish really takes 4-5 hours to completely dry. Even if it's not super wet and all that it still technically wet. I know I've done the nail test only to go about my business, look down and see my polish completely ruined by who knows what. Well this is the secret! 

So those are my few little tips, I hope they help out! 

Mani Mania: I'm seeing orange!

So I have a quick nail color for you today. I fell in love with the Essie Resort Collection this year and now have all 4 colors. It's a problem I know.  Last night I had just enough time to get 1 coat of Essies "Come Here!" color on. So do bare in mind this is only 1 coat of polish, no topcoat. Also my lighting today is crap because it has been cloudy and stormy the last few days so I apologize.

These pictures do not do this color justice, it is brighter in person, brighter than what I was expecting but it's still good!

                                       

So this is quite a glare but hopefully you can see orange!

This is the most accurate picture I can get with the lighting. It's a quite bright orange color.

Granted it's a lot brighter in person but it's gorgeous. I probably wouldn't have bought it if I had expected orange just because it sounds scary but this is wearable somehow haha.

    I would say it's similar to Cute as a Button but this does not have a pink undertone like that one. I'm sure if you look at the Essie website this would say coral but in my book it's orange. I'm simple like that. 

Well Hello Again

Well hello there, it's been awhile. There has been a lot going on and just as a warning, if my sentences aren't understandable I've had about 5 hours of sleep the last 2 days because of a sick kiddo.

So I do have to say while it's been busy I also could have posted but I was at a loss as to what to post. I was also feeling pretty down about things and myself and didn't want to bring that here. It is supposed to be a place to feel good and enjoy not be a downer. So now that I think I've had that out of my system here I am haha.

Sometimes life just throws you curve balls and even if you try to have a pretty positive outlook on life some things can just get overwhelming. My husband is getting out of the Marine Corp and that's scary. Then I found out we will be getting half the pay we do now so I've been worried on how to survive here with a growing daughter. Then I've just had my weight problems and not having the motivation, you know that "I'm gonna be fat forever so what does it matter?" stage. But I'm hoping to get out of my rut, get back into it and hopefully, prove myself wrong.

I realized too I've been spending way more and letting my husband spend more so I wouldn't feel bad going out of our budget just because I was trying to not be sad or overwhelmed I just wanted to forget and get things. Stupid I know. I have a shopping problem.  So I think I'm going to be putting myself on a restriction for awhile, there are some bigger things I want to get for other people and if I'm going to be able to do that I think I need to quit spending to make up for this last month. So not too many reviews coming up sorry for that. Maybe if I get my butt to reading more again I'll start doing book reviews. That would be fun right?

I've also started crocheting a blanket, I haven't decided if it looks good or just a jumbled mess yet but it's soft so if anything I'm sure my kid will play with it...or destroy it, whatever she enjoys.  Anyway I hope to have more posts up today or tomorrow but we will see what the kid allows. Sad how it's what they allow right?

I'm going to leave you with this song, which I've had on repeat all morning and has put me in a decent mood despite my sleep deprivation. Enjoy!

Mani Mania + weekly recap

Hello everyone! I've been gone for a little bit since my husband was on vacation all week. We were out and about all day every day just about doing chores and things. We also did quite a bit of shopping so I'm hoping to post/film a haul video :)  Not to brag, its just things I've gotten over the last few weeks. With that haul I'm hoping to do some reviews as well. Ok that wasn't the weekly recap I thought it would be but oh well haha.

A couple of things I got were 2 of the polishes in the Essie Resort collection. It finally came to the CVS near me. I swear it took me forever to choose, and not to get all 4. I did get In the Cab-ana which is everywhere so I'll wait to show that one. I haven't seen so much of the purple shade of the Under where? though so I bought that one and decided to show you guys today :)

                                                   

I will say this isn't my favorite color. It's nice and everything and I will wear it for spring but it just wasn't what I expected. For me it's not  as bright as I was hoping, more milky and quite so to speak.  It also took 3 coats to get this shade which as you know does not work for me most days with a toddler running around. But this may work better for you like I said nice color just wasn't what I was expecting. You know how that goes. I will say personally it is not a toe color, just sayin. 

Hope this was helpful and keep a look out for more reviews!  

Also I made a new facebook page so please visit and feel free to start some conversations!  You can find the link at the top right of the page along with my pinterest and twitter! 

Weight loss wednesday: well shit.

Honestly this segment will probably have it's last day today. If not I might as well call them weight gain wednesday. I have gained even more weight than before, but I have been eating less, eating out less, and working harder. I don't really understand it. Especially since when I lost weight before I was active, I had a job I went to my husbands house and sometimes went on walks before he went to bootcamp. After that I just had my job. Now when I started I sat on my ass all day, quite literally. So I figured I'm not going to be sedentary all day, I'm actually going to do something. And yet here I sit, heavier than ever. I don't get it. It's really discouraging, even though I know I'm supposed to be helping everyone. Sometimes I need help too.

We all have low days this just happens to be one of mine.

Beauty Inside and Out

I know this is an inspiration blog, but really it seems more like a beauty blog. I apologize for that. I honestly just love makeup and forget sometimes. It's such a passion for me. And I got to thinking about when I started this blog, watching all the beauty guru's online. But I want to be a bit different than them. Obviously I'm plus size and most of them are not. Ok got it. Maybe we strive to be like them, they just seem so perfect right? Great life, super pretty, seem to have everything together.  And maybe you love makeup too, have a bunch of it  you can never use up in a year even, wear it every day. You might not even be able to go out of the house without it.

Or maybe you wear it in the house, with no one to see you, just so you can look in the mirror.

That's when it gets scary. If you are that person, or doing it more and more I ask you to listen.

I'm guilty of these things. I want to be like those perfect people. I want to be skinny and shop at any store I want. I want to look flawless and have big beautiful eyes and all of that.  But I truly love makeup. Don't get me wrong I don't love makeup because I want to change myself no no.
   There was a time I wouldn't go anywhere without makeup on. Not even down the road, just to get the mail would cause me to panic and hope no one would see me. I'd take forever to get ready, because I had to be perfect and do makeup. Which hey who doesn't take forever with it haha. But only after I had my daughter did I have to sit back and realize I couldn't wear makeup every single day. I didn't have that luxury of time. It really sucked and I'd be so irritated when I tried to do it that I couldn't get very far in before I'd have to give up. Even when I was home all day just us.  But I got used to it, at first I felt like a ugly disgusting mess.  Only to add to the sleepless nights and frantic cries of a newborn. But eventually I forgot makeup, I focused on nails until I didn't have the time for that anymore. Nothing in my boxes were touched, not even the 50 dollars worth of palettes and brushes I had bought only a few months before.
 
I think it really did wonders for me. As much as it sucked then. I had to go out of the house without makeup, whenever I went somewhere it was just me. Nothing hiding my zits, or redness, or dark circles, nothing to make my eyes pretty, not even perfect hair. And I was ok with it, because I was getting out of the house letting the baby sleep in the car, getting small treats whatever. I did really try to improve my skin but I always have, but that is what I spent my time on instead of trying to cover everything up I just wanted to fix it to begin with.

Gradually I started doing makeup more, usually just for going out somewhere because it's almost like an event to me now, I stay home until the weekend. That is my time to get dressed up and have fun. I still go out without it sometimes even then. Now I appreciate it and having a clean face all day.

Not wearing makeup helped my skin, and now all I have usually is some redness, I do break out sometimes but who doesn't. But now I can say my skin is smooth which helps with going out without it. But really it just helps you feel better about yourself, more than makeup can.

You don't have to wear makeup to feel pretty, or put together. That is horrible. It's still you..just fake in a way. No one is perfect and no one should have to feel like they need to hide themselves. It's not a necessity. It should not be your crutch. It should be a fun tool to play with. I think if you are like me you need to force yourself, if only every once in awhile and in steps depending on where you are, put the makeup away. It will be hard, but you will see your friends, will still be your friends. Your family who loves you? They will still love you. Makeup doesn't change who you are inside. So if your beautiful inside, it will shine through and make you more beautiful than makeup ever can.

                                                             

Inner beauty is key!

Mani Mania: A Cheaper Alternative

Ok so I know I've been on an Essie kick through this whole thing. That hasn't changed too much, there are still a lot of colors I want in my collection, especially in the Resort collection.  For the last 3 weekends I've searched every store I've been near hoping to find In the Cab-ana and Under Where? A Blue and purple that I've been obsessed with finding. But frustrated I found myself in Target looking one last time hoping to find it, but nope of course not!  But I did see the display for L'oreal polishes.
   Back when I was younger I tried a few Salley Hansen polishes and a couple glittery wet n wild ones that I just wasn't a huge fan of but hey, how could I complain? Now that I'm on my own I've been a China Glaze, OPI, and Essie only person. I know I feel like a snob but really it was just the other polishes always chipped right away and I just don't have the time to do my nails every other day anymore.
   There were two blues on the stand and since I was mainly after a blue, just to shake up my normal colors, I took a look. There was a brighter one that was pretty but the one I bought was a darker turquoise color. The name is quite appropriate, I've been obsessed with getting back to the ocean and just the colors of it all and this really seemed like a good color for me.

What is it you asked? Of course it is L'oreal but it is called Now you sea me.

                                                     

Such a beautiful ocean blue. I love that it's a brighter color but it's not a super bold blue like most polishes I see. I just can't pull off blues very well. 

It's very opaque, I only ended up needing 2 coats though in the beginning I thought I'd need 3. The brush I'm not sure about, it is a wide brush a lot like the Nicole by OPI. I'm not a fan of big nail brushes but I got used to it pretty quick and it's just a personal preference. 

The great thing about this that has really impressed me though has been the lasting power. I bought it thinking it would only last a day and chip all to hell.  But as you can see they look brand new, I just took this picture, but painted my nails on Sunday. Crazy right?! Plus it's only about $5 and some change. I'm all for a great polish at a cheaper price. I am not a L'oreal fan for makeup but I am in love with this polish. I will probably take a closer look at the other colors next chance I get! 

Amy Lee Inspired Look, just for fun!

So I love to play around with makeup. I always have, me and my friends would do each others hair and makeup and have "photo shoots" so much fun! I was thinner then but they always said I looked similar to Amy Lee and whenever it was my turn to have my makeup done that is where they drew inspiration fr om.

If you don't know who Amy Lee is she is the lead singer from Evanescence. Widely known for her smokey dark eyeliner and a red lip.
Now I've never tried to copy someone's makeup so go easy, and I did it using the webcam as my mirror..because i'm too lazy to stand in front of a real mirror haha! First I'll show you the pictures I looked at to get inspired for my look.

                                                         

                                         

So here is my sad attempt lol!  

                                         

                                         

 

                                                 Just a side look at makeup and eyes

                                         

                                      From the front...my lip is a little more red in person but oh well haha

hope you enjoy! 

Wednesday Weight Loss: New Routine

So now that I'm sitting down to write this I think I might have mentioned this already, at least somewhat it my last post.  But oh well!

I'm getting an actual routine down this week. I know I was talking about starting pilates which I'm doing still but I don't want you to think I just do one thing constantly.  For me personally that has never gotten me anywhere. I've always needed something slightly different every day to see results and to not get bored. Now  that I'm doing this I've been doing better at sticking with it. So I'm only back down to 185.2 but normally my low is 185.4 not much but something. And I think I have lost 2lbs this week (those applebees pastas can really pack on the weight!)  Anyway I think it's working pretty well.
   In my mind (no way am I educated in it, just speaking from experience) there does need to be cardio and something else. I'm not a stickler about those rules but I get it. It takes time to warm up and by the time you get done with your 10 minute workout it really isn't working as well. So in the pilates video I linked in my previous post it actually includes your warm up for that work out and stretches.

Here is what my week looks like

Monday: Pilates ab 15 minutes, Treadmill 10-12 minutes
Tuesday: Pilates butt blasting workout 6 minutes (will link down below)
Wednesday: Pilates ab 15 minutes, Treadmill 10-12
Thursday: Pilates butt blasting workout 6 minutes
Friday: Pilates ab 15 minutes, Treadmill 10-12

I know It's still repetitive but its still where I'm at and if anything gets to be too easy I will make it longer or find another workout.  My treadmill time is also limited to a very impatient baby.

Treadmill time is different, on Monday I  did a fast paced walk (on speedl 4) for 4 minutes then ran on speed 5 for 3 minutes, then walked for another 4 on speed 3 and on a level 4 incline.

Then today I only walked on speed 3 but I started normal, after 2 minutes raised it to a level 3 incline, another minutes went to 4 and so on until I was on 7 incline and stayed there until I finished my time.

I find doing this you can adjust to what your day is like but still get a good workout in. If you are tired you are more likely to do something if you let yourself take it easy. But if you have a rigid schedule you won't want to do it at all. This is just what helps me, maybe you should try it?

Anyway do you have a routine like this? Let me know!

Click here to visit the Butt Blasting Workout!

Weekend Shenanigans

Well this is my break time from cleaning and unpacking so I'm just going to go over my weekend with you all.

So for the second weekend in a row I went to Torrid to hopefully find a tank top or a shirt of some sort to find absolutely nothing. The only thing they had in my size were sweaters it was crazy. All I wanted to do was shop on Saturday, get makeup and clothes and just not care. Lets just say I needed some retail therapy. But of course the tank top I was stalking online suddenly was online exclusive. Now I have a funny body type even for some Torrid clothes, especially their tank tops so I really don't like to buy without trying it on.

That was a dud, so then we walked over to Target and holy crap. Is it always the 3rd level of hell in there? I had a whole list in my head and could not think to save my life in that place, that never happens. I usually don't get too bothered by crowds but man I could not deal with that place. So I've been after the Essie polish "in the Cab-ana" and it's another thing I haven't found anywhere. So frustrating! But I got a new heat protectant...yay? It's the new Keratin smooth by Tressemme if you are wondering. And I suppose I did get a new Essie base coat to replace my Salley Hansen one, which I completely used! I didn't know it was possible to use a whole bottle of polish.

I've been looking for sunglasses for awhile now. Mine were almost 3 years old, courtesy of the 7-11 in Twenty-nine Palms before a road trip haha. They were peeling in weird spots and my daughter liked to play with them. Plus they were thinner and I just hate seeing the rim of the glasses. Finally I found a pair after looking for a month or so. They were at Charlotte Russe for 5 bucks! After military discount but really they were 6 bucks but on sale 2 for $10. I just didn't have time or the desire for more shopping at that point. But I'm happy with them. If I wasn't disheveled from cleaning I'd show you, but I'm sure they will make an appearance once I'm decent.

So here is the part of the weekend where I rant. Why are people just automatically pissed and think they are so much better than you? We were at a stop sign in a parking lot waiting to turn left after a car pulled in farther at the In and Out drive through. No one was around. Well a car came around that last car in line, cut them off and started like they were going to turn next to us, no big deal.  But then shes basically stopped half turned looking right at us. She's a big car and we aren't so much, so we can't really see and with the line going out we couldn't go anywhere. We were confused and then I realized, oh she must want that spot right next to the stop sign. Ok fine, but we can't go around at that point. She could wait right?
NO! Of course not, she rolled down her window and said "I want that spot" ok my husband said "well we need to go that way" and she immediately started screaming and said "SO WHAT?" now my husband didn't hear that but that threw me into a rage, I can't stand that. and we are yelling at her that we are at a stop sign and she asks if we know how to drive. Frankly I yelled for her to quit being a bitch. Why can't people just ask nicely? They have to have that exact spot right that second? They couldn't wait for us to turn before they made everyone stuck? When people ask nicely or let us know nicely I'm more than happy to back up if we can or let them into the lane. Same with my husband, so since this lady was so important he put the car in park and she got pissed and flew around us to a parking spot maybe 25ft away. We then turned and went to the line like planned. But I saw her son get out and then he got back in and they turned around and left, didn't even go back to that spot. So what was so important? I don't understand people.
     The real kicker is my husband thinks she was an Officers wife. Officer in the military, not a cop. Which irritates me even more. Wives should not wear their husbands rank. They, including me didn't do shit to earn entitlement. Wives are equal, because that is all we are, wives. We have no rank. UGH! ok I'm done ranting haha don't you just have those days though where everything goes wrong and people piss you off?

But I did get to eat out at Applebees and have my daughter behave until the very end which was way better than normal. And we went to Trader Joes which is always a gold mine. Oh! Try the Salsa especial with some blue corn chips. So good!

Anyway back to cleaning for me, how was everyone's weekend? Let me know!

                                                         

The look I was rocking this weekend

Easy look for running around, what do you think?

 Click the links if you want to check out the products used!

Eyes:

Maybelline Color Tattoo Bad to the Bronze

Benefit They're Real Mascara

Mac Smolder Eyeliner

Lips:

Maybelline Color Whipser Mad for Magenta

Face:

Maybelline BB Cream Light/Medium

Revlon Nearly Naked Powder in Light

Nyx Matte Setting Spray

NYC Sunny Bronzer