Easy Morning Makeup

So I've been getting a lot of questions lately about an easy morning makeup routine. For days where I should put a face on but really don't feel like going through the whole she-bang, this is my go-to...5 items and I'm out the door! 

Step 1: Starting with a clean, moisturized face, apply a tinted moisturizer or BB cream (not a fan) with your fingers to even out discoloration. Stila has an awesome oil-free tinted moisturizer with SPF 20 that comes in 10 shades ranging from fair to deep. If spending $34 for a tinted moisturizer isn't in the cards for you, you could always make your own by mixing tiny amounts of whatever moisturizer and foundation you have on hand.

Step 2: Well groomed brows frame your eyes, making you look awake so make sure you fill in sparse areas with a brow pencil or powder (eyeshadow that match your brows works great too!). If you have unruly brows, tame them with a brow gel or clear mascara.

Step 3: Wake up your eyes with 2 coats of black mascara to your top lashes.

Step 4: Add glow with some blush! Nars' Orgasm is universally flattering but at $28, might not be accessible to everyone. A great alternative is Hot Mama by theBalm, $19.

Step 5: Finish with your favorite lip gloss aaannnddd you're done!!

O-M-G!! Happy Blog-iversary to Me!!

(You liked how that rhymed, huh?? I know you did!!)

I have been on here ALL day and don't know why it didn't dawn on me until now that a year ago today, I published my first blog post...!! One. Whole. Year. Wow, how time flies!! And I owe it all to one person: Danae AKA Le Thrifty Madre!!!

 

And thank you to you too, followers!! Thank you for being an audience to my rants, commenting and being generally helpful when needed!! To another year...



My wedding cake cherry has been popped!!

My family has been blessed to have had 3 weddings this year! And I was fortunate enough to have been the Maid of Honor for 1 and cake maker for the other 2!! Back in March I wrote a post about Mujer's* wedding (remember Wedding Day/Dottie's Birthday Night?) where I played her right-hand girl. Well in June, our cousin Marlon married his long-time girlfriend Amanda, and I got to pop my wedding cake virginity!!

The cake!

Top tiers...

Close-up of the top

 

Two months later, his older brother Chris married the love of his life! Click here to see the cake I did for his wedding and how I made it!

*For those of you who may be new to my blog (or may have just forgotten), Mujer is what I call my mom

Pillow Wedding cake

On August 11th, our cousin/brother/uncle married the love of his life! The cake I made for them was probably the most difficult, and beautiful, cake I've made to date. Since it was my first time making a shaped cake, I took progression pics chronicling the process.

Day 1: Bake all layers twice and let cool completely. Refrigerate overnight. Color fondant to desired shade(s).

 

 

Day 2: Level all layers. Crumb coat then frost bottom layers and let set

 

 

Cover in fondant and trim edges; trim cake boards if needed

 



 

Carefully, flip over bottoms. Frost and/or fill then place top layer on

 

 

Just as before, crumb coat, frost, set and cover with fondant. Make quilt design with a ruler

 

 

Add tassels and buttons to bottom tier; pipe trim

 

 

Stack tiers and anchor with dowel(s). Add embellishments to top tier and cover all tiers with edible pearls

 

 

Shape bow and let set overnight

 

 

Day 3: Carefully remove bow from form, cover middle with a strip of fondant and secure on cake...DONE!!!

 

 

 

 I absolutely loved the end result and I hope you did too!!

 

Makeup Challenge: Hello Kitty and Flounder

I'm into makeup, it's no secret. I have hundreds of pictures saved to my laptop and phone for inspiration (or to flat-out copy) and the collection grows damn near daily! My friends have even got into it by posting cool makeup looks on my FB page! But when it comes to actually putting it on, I've been in a bit of a funk lately. Maybe only working one job right now and spending most of my time at home has something to do with it...

A few of the looks posted to my FB page got some major attention from friends and co-workers, so much so that I was getting challenged daily from multiple people to recreate the look on myself...and soon!! The looks were a little extreme (read: NOT FOR DAILY WEAR) but I tried a few of them anyway. I can always find the flaws but overall I think they turned out pretty good! Ok, enough! Without further adieu:

HELLO KITTY

The inspiration! (I have absolutely no idea who this image belongs to...sorry!)

 

My version! A few flaws but not bad!

 

 

FLOUNDER

 

This look belongs to Sarah C. You can find this look and more from her at MakeupBee.com

 

My interpretation! Clearly I don't have as much eye space as her but I made it do what it do!!

 

So far I'm pleased with my re-creations and look forward to doing more!

 

 



 

Weight Loss Check-in: Unexpected Inspiration

8/15

So my week without meat went pretty well! I did eat lobster twice but no beef, pork, chicken, etc. The following week I added poultry and fish back to the equation and that went well too! This past Sunday I weighed myself and I am happy to announce I'm down 3lbs from last weigh-in and I am officially in the 240's (248 to be exact!)!! Food is still my biggest obstacle though. I use an app to help me count calories and that has really helped a lot but there are some days where if I wanna eat a pizza, I'm gonna eat that whole pizza!!

8/26

I haven't been to the gym or done any sort of exercise in almost 2 weeks. I haven't made any real effort to eat healthy and I haven't counted a single calorie! I'm not happy with the way I look but after two and a half months of working hard with minimal results, I think I've given up. Maybe I'm just meant to be fat? Or am I?? I think back to times where I wasn't and it makes me sad because I honestly don't know how to get back to that. Then today rolls around...

I spent the night at my mom's last night and woke up wondering how much I've gained back. I mean, I had only lost a measly 5# since June 1st anyway. I hopped on the scale and closed my eyes real tight...I'm nervous! I don't really want to know (if I don't acknowledge it, it's not a problem, right??) Fuck it! I need to know!! I opened my eyes and the scale read: 243.6... This can't be right! I hopped off, waited 5 minutes and tried again: 243.4. I still don't believe this! Something is wrong with the scale, right??!! An hour later, One. Last. Time...243.6.

I don't know how I did it but somehow I lost 5 more pounds!! This may sound crazy but, I think my body wants to be smaller and I just have to try harder to figure out what it needs to make that happen. My granny made a roast today though, so that'll have to wait until tomorrow! LOL!!

Weigh-in Results

So yesterday I weighed myself, as promised...*sigh of frustration*

I don't know if it's because of all the weights in lifting but I'm not seeing the loss that I'm looking for. I'm not giving up though! I'm gonna keep trying different ways until I find what works for me!

I think my two biggest downfalls may be beer and eating late. I refuse to give up beer all together but maybe I'll stop keeping it in the house and as for eating late, that's gonna be a struggle!! I am the definition of a snacker...I can't help it!

Lastly, in light of this plateau, I'm giving up meat for this week to see if that helps. I'm not planning to become a vegetarian indefinitely but a week here and there can't hurt, right?? If any of you out there has any tips or suggestions, please feel free to comment or shoot me an email! Thanks!!

xoxo

I've Got a Love/Hate Thing Goin on With My Gym

I've had a membership with my gym since 2007. Seems like I'd be skinny by now...but I'm not! I'll go for a period but it never lasts long. The summer of 2009, my department at IKEA held a "Biggest Loser" competition. There were like 12 of us, we paid $5 each and the winner got the pot! I ended up coming in 2nd place having lost a total of 18.5 lbs!! While I didn't reach my goal weight, I got down to 202 lbs and I felt amazing! Now fast-forward to present day...

I've gained that weight back plus about 30 lbs!

At the end of May, I made decision to start again and really give it an effort. I asked my friend Jason (the buffest dude at work) for a few workout tips and he offered to let me train with him! We do a lot of weight training and some ab work then I do most of my cardio on my own. While I shoot for 5 days a week, if I make it 3 days, I'm happy.

I'm givng myself until March 1st, 2013, to get down to my ideal image. I've also set "mini goals" at 3 month intervals. I don't really like scales and I don't really have a number in mind but I know what I want to look like and that's what I'm gonna make happen! I've dedicated my mom's scale for my weigh-ins, just to make sure I'm on track. The last time I weighed was 2 weeks ago (or 2 weeks in) and I was down 3 lbs! The next time I weigh-in will be in a week and I'm hoping for another 5 lb loss.

Another goal I have is to post periodic updates sooo look out for those!!

The month of May...

The month is damn near over with and I just realized that I haven't posted a thing!! While I can't make up for lost time, I can tell you  a little about what's been going:

* I booked my first wedding cake!! It's for the second week in June so I've been busy getting ready for that! I was nervous at first until the bride-to-be told me that she actually wanted a Kroger cake but the groom (my cousin) said no!! On my worst day I can blow a Kroger cake outta the water! Now that I know her expectations (or lack thereof), the nerves just vanished! Ha! Moving on...

* Last Friday I lost one of my jobs. I've never been fired from a job before... The first day I was all messed up but now I'm dealing with it (what's done is done) and I'm in the process of picking up the pieces. Thanks sweet Jesus for IKEA, they've really been doing everything possible to help me out right now! Now if only I can become full time...(wink, wink/nod, nod)

* I recently joined an online dating service (the free version) called HowAboutWe.com and it's actually kinda cool!! Don't know if I'll get a date out of it but I definitely plan on stealing some of the dates that others have suggested on the site!

I haven't been doing much makeup either (bummer!) but I do have 2 looks to share with you all (hooray!)

Sunset Over the Ocean:

Black & Blue Liner:

*ignore the work badge...LOL!!

  

April FOTD: Last Week

Once again, I only did 2 this week which gives me a total of 12 for the month (or 3 shy of my goal)... Even though I didn't reach my goal I'm still proud of me! 12/30 isn't that bad considering a.) It was my first time doing this and b.) I work 2 jobs, bake cakes on the side AND started back going to the gym!!

So without further adieu:

Day 23: Metallics

Day 24: Bold Brows

Gold is always a safe color for me but I really enjoyed doing the bold brows! It was my first time attempting and got tons of compliments!! I used lip liner but I think the next time I try it, I'll take the guru's suggestions and use lipstick...DEFINITELY will be doing this again!

April FOTD: Week 3

This shit is tough!! LOL!! I did accomplish 2 more looks this week though...

Day 16: Bronzed Beauty

Day 17: I Never Wear This Color (Lime Crime's Dragon Scales)

Things I learned this week:

     *Because I was trying to avoid looking orange or unnatural, I went light with the bronzer and ended up looking too natural...#GoBigOrGoHome

     *Idk why I don't wear Dragon Scales more often but I'm gonna fix that!! #SuperPretty

I would've KILLED Day 20 (Rainbow Brite)!!! I didn't have enough time to do what I wanted so I skipped it... Besides, I do bright eyes ALL. THE. TIME!!! LOL!! Anywho...

Hits or Misses...what do you guys think?

TMNT Cake

My preggo cousin called me 6 days before her son's 5th birthday party, stressing out about the cake (or lack thereof)...seems no bakery in the town she lives in makes Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cakes!! Even though it was super short notice and I already had a full work week ahead of me, I couldn't let my cousin go down like that!!

#DaniToTheRescueTime

I was given free-range to design it however just as long as it had at least one Ninja Turtle on it and was easily recognizable to kids (no mosaic TMNT this time *le sigh*). After doing some research, asking some friends and looking through what seemed like 1,000,000 pictures, I decided to try this DVD cover:

The beginning phases:

**Notice the phone in close proximity...it's crucial to have a pic nearby when you're free-handing!

Almost finished...

Finished product!!

I could easily point out the mistakes I made in this cake but for a last minute job, I think it looks pretty damn good!! Oh, and if you're wondering if the birthday boy liked it...he didn't!! Turns out he doesn't like the red one...LOL!!!

April FOTD: Week 2

This week was definitely not as productive as the previous week but I did accomplish 2 of the looks and here they are:

Day 10: Ombre

Day 11: All About Liner

I'm not too fond of the ombre look...my "nude" color was too shimmery but I absolutely loved doing the 2 liners!! Tons of compliments came my way that day!! :-) What do you think?

April FOTD: Week 1

So once again, my goal for Nymphette's challenge calendar is to do at least half...I'm off to a good start! Here's pics from days 1-6:

Day 1: Bold Lips

Day 2: Coral

Day 3: Shop Your Stash

Day 4: Color Blocking

Day 5: Monochromatic

Day 6: Mermaid

Retirement Cake

So my latest cake was made for a woman who attended a baby shower where I had made some cupcakes and cake pops. While I believe this cake is far from my best work, I do think that the logos came out pretty sweet!! I used colored sugar then piped on top of it...can't say that I'll ever do that again though LOL!!! In the end she absolutely loved it and even referred me to some of her people!

Wedding Day/Dottie's Birthday Night

On Saturday, March 17th at 1pm, Mujer married the man she loves!! Tons of pics so I'll jump right to it!

*Mujer*

*Pun'kin and I*

*Almost time...*

*Mujer and I*

*Mujer and the in-laws*

*San Fran with the new son and grandson in-law*

*Cake!!*

*First cut...*

Then that night...



My first attempt at a double wing

A closer look...

Happy 26th Born Day Cuz!!!