Product Review and GIVEAWAY!

I LOVE Makeup!

But, I'm also on a budget.  Many women love expensive makeup, Bobbie Brown, MAC, Urban Decay, etc. and that is great (I'd love to be able to buy whatever I wanted from Sephora) but not everyone can or wants to blow their paycheck on stuff you wash off every night.  After experimenting with expensive brands, super cheap brands and everything in between, I found a relatively inexpensive way to get my eyes to POP!

*Cue Kate Hudson with her perfect everything*

 ALMAY Intense I-Color

If you aren't familiar, they enhance your natural eye color and leave little (or none really) room for error.

I have all 3 kits (Smokey, light reflecting, and original) that coordinates with my green eyes.  Depending on time of day, where I am (work, play or home) I will wear the kit that fits.  ALMAY also makes matching eyeliner, and mascara to give you the total look.

From experience, they don't crease, they don't fade, and they stay on all day...really.  The mascara give me full and long lashes (I was blessed with great lashes anyways, but I still love this stuff) and the liner is so smooth.  It is available in a self sharpening pencil and a liquid.

The whole system will run you about $24 (1 shadow kit, 1 liner, and 1 mascara).  But, with the GIVEAWAY, it's yours for FREE!  What is great is that you can buy different shadow kits  later that still coordinate with the liners and mascaras.

For more product info check out Almay's website

So, to the GIVEAWAY!



I am giving away YOUR CHOICE of Smokey Eye, Light Interplay, or Original eyeshadow kit, the coordinating self sharpening or liquid eyeliner, and the coordinating mascara. 

AND, a travel makeup bag to keep it in!  What do you have to lose?!

The winner will be drawn on Monday August 22nd.  I will post to my blog the lucky winner, then send her an email to get her personal info (including eye color!).

To ENTER:  Leave me a comment, something nice please, along with your email.

Follow me!

For ADDITIONAL Entries:  Blog about the giveaway and let me know where to find it.

Tail Wagging Tuesday!

Today I'm linking up with CMae for Tail Wagging Tuesday!

I love anything that has to do with animals, especially my Sophie

This week, we are just posting some of our favorite pics of our babies.

Halloween!

Red's Game, Bark in the Park... Rally Cap for a win?



How is this even comfortable?!



Sophie (1 year, 1 month)

Red's Game & TREATS!

Saturday was SO MUCH FUN!

Husband and I went to the Red's game with his brother and his wife.

 Jared and I in front of a our main man Joey Votto (*crush*)

This game was one of the coolest I had ever been to, and I've been to my fair share of baseball games.  The Red's played the San Diego Padres and the final score was 13 to 1 Reds.  Every single point scored was a direct result of a home run.  I don't think I have EVER seen that many home runs in a professional baseball game.  There was at least one per inning, amazing.



Also, Sophie got some treats made for her... spoiled rotten little brat, I mean... cutest thing ever :)

She seems to really like them, Tuna Stars.  They're all natural and so easy to make!
Just tuna, flour, oats, an egg, some herbs, EVOO, and cornmeal.

As you can see, they get cut out just like sugar cookies, and bake into little nuggets of nom nom.

Do you enjoy making special treats for your fur baby?

Weekend Update

6 Places, eh?

1)  Hilliard, Ohio... where we live and where we have made our home

2)  Loudonville, Ohio... where we said "I do"

3)  Mansfield, Ohio... where my roots are

4)  Cozumel, Mexico... where we honeymooned (We need to go back, next year's vacation perhaps?)

5)  Hocking, Ohio... one of our favorite places to camp (a big hobby of ours) especially in the fall when all of the colors come out!

6)  Our bedroom... where we get our snuggle on!

FITB and Foodie Friday!

I'm linking up with Magan for a Foodie Friday (Just because I love weddings so much!)

 

 

This is what my our wedding cake looked like.  It was really simple because we were afraid with all of the decor and flowers it needed to be.  If you look at the bottom of my page, you'll see a slideshow of some of our pictures of the big day.  The cake had a bottom layer of chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling, a middle layer of vanilla cake with blackberry filling, and a top layer of carrot cake with cream cheese filling.  Needless to say, there wasn't much left!  I especially loved the topper, flowers with pearl "KJ" on it :)

Who ya gonna call...

The Pizza Man?  Oh, I think not!

Tonight, we decided to bust out our "Pizza" cookbook.  As the name suggests, a cookbook of only pizza recipes.  We opted for the Genoa Pesto pizza.

Super simple recipe, takes almost no time to put together.  If you like salami and you like basil pesto you should really give this one a try.

Genoa Pesto Pizza
1 home-made or store bought pizza crust (I bought mine)
Pesto  (either store bought or home-made, mine was home-made, see recipe below)
 Shredded Mozzarella cheese

Genoa salami sliced thin

Just slather the pizza crust with pesto, sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top, then add salami slices.  Since my pizza crust was store-bought, it only needed to brown up in the over.  425 degrees for 15 minutes.  It came out looking all gooey and browned on the edges (as you can see!)

Pesto recipe
handful of fresh basil leaves
about a 1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp. minced garlic
olive oil


In a food processor combine basil (leaves only, no stems), garlic, pine nuts, and cheese.
Add a light drizzle of olive oil and pulse to combine.  Slowly add remaining olive oil until the desired consistency is reached.
That's it!

And, if you make more or have extra, fill an icecube tray with the leftovers and freeze.  Then you are left with little pesto cubes that can be transferred to a ziploc baggie and saved for later :)



GHOST BUSTERS!

Had a big meeting for work last night and we had to clean up when it ended.

Instead of making one lady sweep the whole room, I chipped in to help.

Found this SA-WEEEEET Ghost Buster-esque vacuum in a janitor closet.

Yep, never afraid of a dirty job :)

Eating Better for ME (or you)

There's a GIVEAWAY going on over at Katie's site

for LARABARS (Yum!) that I am totally into at the moment!

My weight has always been a struggle for me, ever since I was young.  Terrible portion control, always feeling hungry, etc. all lead to me not being the best me.  In September 2010 I was dianosed with severe IBS (gross, I know) which isn't really a big deal, just inconvenient.  The Dr's. decided that maybe it was "strange" things I was eating because I couldn't pin-point one food item that triggered my attacks.  I began to change the way I eat and cut out most all of the mono-this and tri-thats.  If I couldn't pronounce it on the nutrition label, or knew it was a preservative or artifical color/flavor, I wouldn't buy it.  Although I occassionaly eat these items (either out to dinner, or if someone else cooks), my IBS went from attacking 3 times a week to almost never.

In January of 2011, I began adding exercise into my already healthy eating regime.  In these last 8 months I have lost over 20lbs, to achieve a weight that is right where Dr's. want me to be.  With the help of LARABARs, Lunabars, ZonePerfect bars, VitaMuffins, tons of complete proteins, whole grains and lots of fruits of and veggies, I am always full but my waistline is shrinking.  We leave a bowl full of nutrition bars on the counter in our kitchen.  They are always there in case there isn't time for a full cooked meal.  Paired with a fruit or vegetable, it's a meal in a pinch.

As someone who is now in the best shape of her life, I can 100% say that the old adage of "You Are What You Eat" is so true.  Fill your body with GOOD, HEALTHY, and WHOLESOME food and that is how you will feel.

Check out Katie's site for more information on the LARABAR giveaway and how you can enter.  She has teamed up with LARABAR to give away a 4 pack (that's right, read it, a 4 pack, not just 1) of a new or favorite flavor of these super nutritions and clean bars.  Give it a try, you won't be disappointed!