Something a bit different today....

Good afternoon darling readers!  Today I have something a bit different.  Instead of polish, I have eye shadow.  Hubby and I ran into town to rent a couple of movies and I asked to stop at Walgreen's to see if I could find the dupes of some eye shadows I'd been reading about.  I then told him about the Urban Decay Naked and Naked 2 palettes and how expensive they were and how I wasn't about to spend that kind of money for just 24 eye shadows.  $104 for 24 eye shadows seems a bit excessive to me, but then a lot of people think that when I pay $8 for a bottle of nail polish, that is too much, so to each their own.  We each have our own preferences when it comes to make-up products and what our limits are for what we will spend on them. (I read about the dupes here.)

To be completely honest, I quit wearing make-up every day when I had to quit working.  I really didn't see any reason to wear it since I wasn't going outside the house much and who dresses up to go see their doctors?  My doctors want to see me in my natural state not in full make-up and acting like there is nothing wrong, so I just never bothered.  A few months ago, I'm not quite sure what happened, but I decided I was going to start wearing make-up again.  Not because I was going somewhere or doing anything special, but just because it made me feel better.  It gave me some color and I liked it.  I still don't wear it every day, but I'm wearing it enough to want to buy more and experiment with it again to find the colors that work well with my skin tone, instead of just wearing everything I bought (like I did before I was aware that things worked and didn't work with my skin tone).

Read more after the jump.

November Ipsy-Glam It Up!

*This post contains a referral link*

Good afternoon, darling readers!  August was the last time I posted an Ipsy bag so I have a few to catch up on, but I did want to share this one with you because it was a special one.  Instead of receiving our regular 4 to 5 items, we received 6 items because everyone received an item from the new em Michelle Phan make-up line!  From what I gather in my Glam Room, the em Michelle item could either be a lip balm, an water liner, a lip stick, or a mascara.  To see which item I received, you'll have to keep reading.  :0)

Up first is the bag itself.  It's made of a gold lame fabric made to look like crocodile skin trimmed with a hot pink zipper.  The inside is hot pink and has the trade mark Ipsy tag sewn in.  It has a long wrist strap you can wear so you don't lose it while out, if you so choose to take it along on a night out.  All the items I received this month fit inside the bag, so it can hold quite a bit of stuff.  As with all make-up bags, I suggest not over-stuffing them as the zippers aren't meant to hold up to some of the abuse us ladies can put them through.

November 2013 Ipsy bag.

Inside view of November 2013 Ipsy bag.

To find out what I got in my bag, please continue reading after the jump.

My First Press Sample! Rainbow Honey-The Final Battle

*PRESS SAMPLE*

 



Good morning, darling readers.  I hope you are all staying warm!  We had our first measurable snow earlier this week.  It wasn't as much as they predicted it would be (1.5 to 2 inches) but we did get a good ground covering.  Thankfully it held off long enough for us to get our new back door installed.  Our old one, the dog was able to get his paw in between the door jam and the knob to let himself out for unannounced strolls through the neighborhood at 4 am.  With this one, he will no longer be able to do that as it is an inward swing door.  Even if he is able to manage to able to get his paw between the jam and the knob to open the mechanism, he won't be able to open the door unless he somehow figures out how to pull it to himself.  With the other one, he was just able to push it outward and off he went.

So today, I have my very first press sample for you!  I'm very excited about this.  Back in September, I got an e-mail from Rainbow Honey requesting that I update my info with them as they updated their system, then a few days later, I got another e-mail stating that I was going to receive a sample kit.  I can't tell y'all enough how excited I was to receive this e-mail!  Freebies and samples isn't the reason I got into blogging, I started because I wanted an outlet to share my little bursts of creativity with my friends and anyone else who might be interested.  I also wanted to be able to get to know those in the nail community a little better and thought I might be able to use my blog as a way to get to do that.  It certainly has helped in both of those regards, so having waited to do any press samples, in my opinion, has been completely worth it.  :0)

More after the jump.

Pardon my dust while I do a little updating...

I have decided to do a little updating to the blog.  Mainly some background changes, that you have probably already noticed.  I have changed to a fall background and as we get closer to the holidays, will probably change it again.  I tend to like to change things like that fairly frequently, so I hope y'all don't mind that.  I also got rid of the Give-Aways page and have decided to just list them as I find them, either here, Facebook, or on my Twitter feed.  I have also taken the Blog's I Follow off of the home page and put them on a page of their own.  I'll be adding to them in the next few days as I don't have them all on there yet.  I will also be adding to the FAQ's page by the end of the year as well.

I am also now accepting PR items, either press releases to be published or items to be reviewed.  If you are a company looking to have something to reviewed, please see my sidebar for more information!

If you have any ideas or suggestions for improvements you would like to see or if there is a polish on my inventory list you would like to see me wear or if you just want to say Hi, please drop me a note and I'll see what I can do.

Thank you for stopping by to see what I'm up to today and spending a few minutes with me this morning!  Huggles!

Quick morning photo

*photo provided by PetiteandSweetD

used by permission

 



Good morning darling readers!  Back when I had my last give-away, I sent the winner her prize and when she opened the package, she was disappointed to find out the bottle had shattered in shipping.  Thankfully, Julie of Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer had sent me an extra bottle for my own use, so I decided to send it to the winner because it wasn't her fault the bottle was broken during shipment.  The second bottle arrived to it's destination safely and here it is on PetiteandSweetD's nails.  Isn't it beautiful?

 

Thank you, PetiteandSweetD, for allowing me to share your beautiful mani with everyone!

That is all I have for y'all, for this morning.  Thank you for spending a few minutes with me this morning.  Huggles!

Happy Halloween...and why I've been gone.

Happy Halloween, darling readers!  It's been awhile since I've blogged and I'm very sorry.  The last several weeks have been a bit rough.  I had surgery, again, September 24th.  This time was to move the battery I just had put in back in April of this year.  I had requested back then that they move it somewhere else because I was having an issue with it feeling like it was resting on a nerve, but my doctor thought, with it being a smaller battery, it wouldn't cause that feeling any more if he modified the pocket and made it smaller.  Unfortunately, it didn't stay that way.  The modification he made came undone and it was sliding back and forth and was resting up against the bone, as it had done with the larger battery.  He agreed, once he had the pocket open and the battery out, that I was right and it should have been moved when I had the first surgery.  The battery is now in the muscle of my mid-back, about 1.5" to the left of my spine.  Well, it's supposed to be there.  I think the doctor is going to be surprised when I go in for my follow-up check up to see that it's already popped out of the pocket he made for it.  But after he hears why, I think he'll understand a lot better why.

This was only the 2nd time that I've kind of had a bit of complications after a surgery.  The first surgery I had complications afterwards was my hysterectomy back in 1996 and they suspect that was caused because my appendix burst just as the doctor did the incision.  That was one of the first things I remember him telling me about when I regained enough of my senses after that surgery to recall anything.  He said he got the surprise of his life because it was the last thing he expected.  I ran a fever for nearly 2 weeks after that surgery.  The 2nd surprise with that surgery was finding out I was allergic to the surgical staples they'd used to close my incision with.  With this surgery, the doctor used a special glue to close the incisions.  I have two, one for the old pocket and one for the new pocket.  Both are maybe 3.5 inches long, if that and they might be 5 inches apart and both on the left side.  I'm glad my doc knows how to make a straight line.  ;0)

My husband and I really debated on if I should reschedule my surgery or not because his father had been admitted to our local hospital, I think it was on Sept 6th, where he spent a few days, before being transferred to a larger hospital where he underwent surgery for a possible bowel obstruction.  They did not find an obstruction, but the doctor did repair several small hernia's.  Overnight, after surgery, his heart started racing and they thought it best to transfer him to the ICU department.  They did a procedure to get his heart back in rhythm then he started having problems breathing and had to be put on a vent to help him breath.  There was some debate over this for awhile but I'm not going to get into that here.  I talked with a few members of my husband's family about if I should go through with my surgery or if I should reschedule it and those I talked with all said I should go ahead and get it done.  The night before, hubby and I talked and debated for a couple hours and I stayed up all night, going back and forth about it.  I had my hand on the phone to pick it up to cancel when I heard my hubby's alarm go off so he could get ready to go and I thought to myself that I'd better get it over with and I got dressed and now here I am, a month later, wishing I'd picked up that phone because 6 days after my surgery, my father-in-law passed away and I didn't get a chance to say good-bye to him since I was recovering from surgery when he was moved to hospice and it was suspected that he had MRSA in his lungs and it was too risky for me to go see him.

Back in 2010, when we lost my husband's mother, it was difficult.  She had heart problems and really started going downhill when Dad had surgery for an abdominal aneurysm in December of 2009.  He spent 17 days in ICU after that surgery, another 13 or 14 in a step-down unit at the hospital, then 2 weeks at a nursing home before he finally came home.  The same day we brought him home from the nursing home, we brought Mom home from respite care at hospice.  She passed away 3 weeks later, just after Dad had been re-admitted to the hospital for a UTI.  He was released from the hospital the morning of her funeral.  My husband was recovering from his first shoulder surgery at that time and although it was hard on both of us (me with my back problems and him with a bum shoulder), we were both thankful to have had those 3 weeks with both of his parents together.  (Yes, we moved in with them during that time to care for them.)

I almost forgot, October 10th, we had stopped to get a price quote on some items to do a home improvement project we want to work on soon (we're going to put a new door in) and decided to pick up dinner on the way home.  The main drag through town is a 4 lane highway with a lot of traffic lights and we were the first vehicle waiting at the red light.  Hubby and I were just chatting idly, about what, I have no clue now, when I saw the light change and the car to the left us took off like it had been shot out of a cannon.  All of a sudden, I felt a jolt go through me.  The car behind us took off before we did and ran into us!  Hubby hadn't even lifted his foot off the brake pedal yet.  The guy behind us hit us hard enough it pushed our car about 6 feet from where we'd been.  Thankfully there was no damage to either of our vehicles, but the jolt I felt left both my legs and feet numb for a few minutes and we thought it best if I went to the ER and got checked out.  The next day I felt as if I'd been hit by a train.  I still need to schedule my follow up visit yet but I don't think there is any lasting damage but won't know for sure until after my check-up.

There is some good news...I signed up with my first indie company to do a review and got my first polishes to swatch and review!  :D  Those came in the mail on the 10th (I had them on my lap when our car was hit and the first thing I said to the EMT when they leaned in the car was "You'd better take care of my nail polish!" ) and I'm very much looking forward to posting my review of them in the next few days now that things are starting to get back into a bit of a routine again around here.  I've really missed doing my nails (I've only painted them maybe twice) over the last few weeks.

Thank you all for sticking around and waiting patiently for me.  I appreciate each and every one of you who've stayed with me over this last year.  That is something else I missed, my first year blogiversary.  I'll try to get something going next month to celebrate it or maybe wait until December and do a bigger Christmas give-away.  What do y'all think?  Huggles to you all!