Make-up Buddy

I have been planning on trying out my cheese making kits with Mom and went over yesterday. Since my nieces were going I grabbed my make-up at the last minute. Mom had sandwiches ready and a Frozen for my nephew to watch. I had not seen the movie and was looking forward to seeing it. I did get to see snippets between trying to get Cruz to sit down, eat, and visiting. The cheese did not get made either.

I did manage one very important thing. Maddy and I talked make-up and I tried some of my stuff on her. Look at that gorgeous heart shaped face, naturally wavy blond hair, and crystal blue eyes.

 I used my two tone cream foundation to contour her face. It was a little dark for her right now, but it wasn't bad. I gave her one of my black gel eyeliners and we tried that out. I hope she gets lots of fun with it. Then we used some products that came in our ipsy bags. We both had the Cailyn lipbalm in apple pink and the Dr Brandt's microderm abrasion. I used her lipbalm and my Dr Brandt Pores No More, I had the primer from a Birchbox. We used my Pops goes the eyeshadow in champagne as the base for both eyeshadow looks. I also cleaned up her eyebrows just a tiny bit.

I like how the contouring gives definition but still allows her skin to look like porcelain. With the neutral eyeshadow her eyes simply glow.

 For the first look I finished the eyes with my NYX eyeshadow from last months ipsy bag and the second  I used Beabombshell Bora Bora that was also in last months quad shadow. I also added a hint of her White gold eyeshadow and highlighting mousse on the top of her cheek bones. You can see this picture appears to have a more dewy look to it. The turquoise is a fun compliment to her blue eyes.

I can't wait to see how she looks for Prom in a few weeks. 

Rolling Along

I have been working on my budget, I paid ahead on my student loans, and I have money set aside for my vacation next week. Alex moved back in to work on getting her transportation and work issues sorted. The garb I ordered should be here in time for my trip and Diane and I went to our first Deodar meeting. We hope to get back into the SCA. It is great to have a friend with the same interests. Life is grand.

There is one little hitch. My car is finally about to kick the bucket. Luckily Charles has the van and is willing to help out when needed, but I need to start saving for another car. If only I had foresight I would have used my tax refund to buy a car. I canceled/ paused a couple more subscription boxes. Birchbox Man is going to be cut. It made me sad. The boys had not been thrilled with most of the items, but when the last box came today they were snatched up. I also paused the nibblr box until after my birthday. I can still cancel it at any time.

It is a busy time with planning and packing for my trip. We are also still trying to make room for Alex. I need to find out how much I can sell my car for and if it is worth more now before it actually dies. I give it a month max, likely much sooner.

New Budget for the New Year

Most people make New Years resolutions at the first of the year and then slowly forget them. I don't bother making new year resolutions. I do like to change things up every now and then though. As it is tax time I have been spending more time thinking about money. My income is fairly steady and I'm doing okay. I am however not saving as much or paying down as much debt as I would like. That means I need to start thinking about my spending. I have decided to down grade a few of my subscription boxes to start.

 Booty Bin made it easy for me. Last month was all cheap toys without a theme and I read that they are closing. The boys still have Loot Crate which was ten dollars less and had a better selection of items. Julep is so hard to quit. The boxes themselves are 19.99 with free shipping. However I had upgraded, added-on, bought mystery boxes and hit up the sales. They have quality products that I mostly love. I love them so much I have spent over $900.00 since July. I need to say good bye. I have already canceled Wantable after the first box. It was fun but $40.00 I would like to keep.

I have decided to keep Ipsy and Birchbox for myself. They are both $10.00 each and I enjoy them. I do need to be more careful not to let them lead me to spending more than I should. I have found some great items at Birchbox through both it original box and Birchbox Man. They also have great award points so you can earn free items over time. I need to be more selective. I'm less tempted by Ipsy to spend, but they did introduce me to Beabombshell.com and I love their products. They have high pigmentation and they gift free items with orders. Plus they keep coming out with new products that are so tempting. This is where self control and rewards will come in. I need to keep these extra purchases as something special.

My Graze, Nibblr, and Birchbox Man are still undecided. I like portioned snacks for work and the variety is both fun and tasty. If I had to get rid of either Nibblr or Graze I would have to choose Nibblr. Graze has a much larger selection and I have found some that I love. Birchbox Man has its benefits. The boys have enjoyed most of the lifestyle items and have been exposed to some hygiene items that they have used. Danny loved the socks from Novembers box so much that I bought him two more pair, he has also allowed me to show him how to shave. I use Harry's for a blade service and could use only their shaving cream though. I have also found some items that I have liked for myself.

Subscription boxes are not the only drain on our funds right now. We have also Kickstarted a few items. Most that I love, but some were impulses. I need to be more of my impulse buys in general. I have done somethings right. I have saved by not using cable, I canceled Hulu Plus as they lost my devices that used it and I am using my same old phone while others around me have the latest models. I found that Charles and I are both running out of minutes each month so I upgrade our minutes for $10.00 each, which is cheaper than paying for the minute. I still have a lot of work to do, but this is a start.

I have another goal that affects my budget. We have stopped buying as much food for the house with Charles bringing extra food home from work. I want to start buying healthy food for the house and having us cook more.

December into January

I spent the last four to five weeks working or sick, usually both. I work some 12 hour shifts so I have more days off, but they really wear me down. We have had a lot of sick patients that we have to get up close and personal with while suctioning germy secretions too. Everytime I get a few days off in a row I feel like I'm feeling better, but one shift will turn it around.

I was able to celebrate Christmas a bit. I went over Becky's and dropped off gifts and then later she invited us over for Christmas dinner. Alex even stayed over Christmas Eve so she was there too. This year, or was it last year now? Anyway we switched things up and had our stockings Christmas eve. That way we could enjoy the nuts and chocolates with the movie I rented. Alex had a gift card for a manicure so she has not let me paint her nails as she was planning to get them done. Eric knew that was one thing I looked forward to doing as mother daughter. I'm not saying he was intentionally trying to spoil our thing, he may have just been trying to be a part of it. More likely he was trying to prove to her that she doesn't need to stay in Iowa with me, that Daddy's pocketbook can take care of the girly things too. He has been working on them to move there.

 The one person I have been missing this holiday just called me as I was typing. Sadly, our cousin died today. My mother and I were just talking about him today. He has been sick for the past year, but I think it must have been sudden. I think my blog catch up will be postponed for now.

December Julep Maven, Be A Bombshell, and Birchbox purchases

The other day I had three packages waiting for me at the post office.

 I had ordered Be A Bombshell eyeliner in onyx and the One Stick in Southern Belle for black friday. They also sent me a free lipgloss in coco since I am an ipsy member. Southern Belle is a coral color and coco has a copper shimmer. I liked the colors on me. The shipping is pretty quick. I decided to try another One Stick in Buckwild. I think it will work even better as a three in one product. I don't see myself using Southern Belle on my eyes. As a cream blush it is lovely, and on the lips it is okay. It looks better with a little gloss over it.

 I had used some of my points to order some items from birchbox. I decided to try Its A 10 since I likes the 21Benefits so well. I don't think I like it as well, but I also had the sea salt spray in my hair the day it came. I decided to order Stainiac in Prom Queen since I already had a nice sized sample in Beauty Queen. Prom Queen is more of a pink, while Beauty Queen is red. They both work nice. 

 I chose the Boho Glam box for December, with an add on of an extra brush and eye shadow palette. The extra this month was the hair tie set. 

 The eye shadow palette came in neutrals. I have dark pigmented eyelids that look like I have brown eye shadow on. These tend to blend too much, so I need to try again after full make up with concealer. The brush they sell is actually a blending brush and does not apply the eye shadow well. It tends to dump loose powder. I have plenty of the eye shadow brushes so it was nice getting a blending brush for a change. I did like the lightest color as a highlight and the other colors are nice as well if I can get them to show up. I did use eye primer.

The nail colors that came in the Boho selection were Misti- a smoky blue that has a hint of teal and Joelle- a silver holographic glitter. I also used the diamond glitter from Crystal for this look.

Thanksgiving, Max, and Birchbox Man

We had an early thanksgiving at the house. I had a few days off so I cooked a turkey dinner on tuesday. While the turkey was in the oven I played with Max. He was trying to get my toes here.

 here he just looks cute

 I took wine and salsa to marinate the turkey, made green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, and bourbon cranberry sauce. The cranberry sauce was yummy, especially with the turkey.

 We also received December's Birchbox Man. It had the perfect comfy socks for winter. I let Danny have those. The small patch on my phone is a screen cleaner. It was an extra to promote their app. We got the Crew hair spray which I will probably steal for when my other travel spray is gone. The GO247 body wash for the boys. I added the Proraso shave cream and after shave to Danny's shaving supplies. Today would have been a good day to try it out, but he has decided to disappear on my only days off.

Celebrate November's Loot Crate

This month was great, everything was appreciated. 

 It had two Dr Who items: a wall decal and a balloon. Charles and I fought over the sticker and I won. I think Danny took the balloon.

 Danny snatched up the BFast as soon as this picture was taken. He said it tasted like strawberry milk, which he is a fan of. The shot glass stuck around a little longer. I thought it was interesting and as the only drinker in the house I generally don't do shots. I had placed it by the computer with my other shot glass, that happens to be holding hair pins. It has since disappeared. I assume they gave it to one of their friends.

 Danny claimed the tyvek wallet. He pulled his out and transferred the items immediately.

 The front matches Danny's hat. Yeah, Batman. Saddly he needs a new hat as he got a little too close to the candle he claimed from the Birchbox Man box. Now he looks even more like the stoner that he is NOT. Maybe I should have him cut his hair, but it is so pretty.

 The speaker figurine was cool, even f you don't watch South Park. I tested it out and it works well too. It is amplified and you can plug it into your computer's USB port to use it as a computer speaker or charge it and use it for a phone speaker. I kind of wanted this, but Charles suggested we give it to Alex. She doesn't have speakers for her computer.

 The last item in the box was a deck of cards. Charles snapped these up. He wanted cards to play with his friends. As long as he is still going to class...