Friday Favorites #103

Happy Friday Foxy Friends! I hope you all had a great week! We have lots going on this weekend, Legoland on Saturday and then Sunday we're headed to my cousins house for our annual cousin Super Bowl party. But first my favorites this week!

In case you missed it this week

Monday: Make Up For Beginners From A Beginner
Tuesday: Valentine's Day Wreath
Wednesday: Blush Cold Shoulder Outfit
Thursday: Sentence A Day

Last weekend was so fun meeting up with the bestie in Palm Springs. The drive was really pretty too.

Once we got there we headed straight for the Spa to relax and get some lunch and massages.

Then we headed to dinner, we wanted to go somewhere with really good dessert, so we headed to The Cheesecake Factory.

We tried to get to a movie but it took too long at dinner, so we headed back to the hotel, and guess what? The hotel let you sign into your Netflix account and watch movies from the room! Perfect, so we watch Jane Eyre, well part of it, we got tired so headed to bed and what would you know that we both woke up at 6:30, so we finished Jane Eyre and then continued our theme and watched Becoming Jane. Both movies were really good. Before leaving to head home we stopped by to say hi to the Flamingos on the property.

My drive home had pretty views too.

Sunday we hit up the gym pool with some friends. The water was heated to 86°, so that was nice. I even got in the water...surprise, surprise right?

This guy had to take his safety swim test so he could navigate the waters without me being within an 10 foot range.

This girl wanted me to make her some towel dresses.

Then we ended the night with my favorite, Thai food, yum!

Linking up with The Blended Blog for some of my favorite posts this week.

First up:

Amy from The Farmers Wife throw's the BEST parties, seriously, can I be her friend? Her party throwing skills are top notch and her Where the Wild Things Are party for her son turning 1 was the cutest thing ever! Go check it out here.

Next up is Cecilia from My Thrift Store Addiction, I just recently discovered her blog and I love it. This week she had a tutorial on how to make this cute heart wreath. I have always wondered how people get the heart wreath, and looking on Amazon they were $10 each! That's not doable, but nope she gave the great tip, they sell them at the Dollar Store! I hope mine isn't out when I go check! Click here to see her tutorial!

My last feature is Andrea from Andrea's Wellness Notes. She linked up with us for a Sentence A Day in January. I just loved getting to know her better. She's mostly a fashion blogger, and while she does give us some things here and there, this was just about her and her life. I loved it, mostly because I'm super nosy. She's funny and a pretty awesome all around person.

Usually I try to stick to 3, but this one was too good to pass up. Sarah (great name right?) is from Wander Dust, she covers everything from healthy eating to travel to fitness. This is her skinny taco dip, what a "healthy" dip? I'm in! It looks so good right?

 

Mini Fox started preschool! Say what?! I don't know how we got here...but here we are and she LOVED it. She went in, hugged the teacher, then hugged me, Mr and Baby Fox and went and sat down at the table to start playing. She was a rock star, ate all of her lunch and didn't want to leave when we came to pick her up.

 

We always get a treat after the first and last day of school. Mini Fox decided she wanted a repeat of the other night and got some rainbow sherbet from Thrifty Ice Cream.

 

 

 

Baby Fox was cold so Mini Fox put her arm around him to keep him warm. He's learning about penguins and how they huddle to keep warm. It was super cute.

 

 

Happy weekend and be safe out there on Super Bowl Sunday, did you know it's the day with the most accidents? Please be careful!

 

Linking up here

Sentence A Day: January Edition

1 - Unplanned slumber parties are fun.

2- Rose Parade on a Monday? What?

3- Don't make me go to work.

4- Zombies are after me!

 

5- I am in such a bad mood...grrr....

6- Mini Fox's first ballet class, cutest thing EVER

7- Tent making is always a win in our house.

8- Finally got to use our smoker...although I think we need to learn how to use it.


9 - The house is a mess...

10 - Random day off is the best!

11 - R.I.P.P.E.D to the core for the win.

12 - More rain...

 

13 - Lots of play dates today, yay!

14 - Bowling with friends is fun!

15 - Meeting a new baby, ALMOST makes me want another one.

16 - Do the kids ever go to school?

17 - Doesn't everyone always watch Frozen in an Elsa dress and fake hair?

18 - My new phone ring light came, woo hoo!

19 - Uh oh, another package, of course I need new shoes.

20 - Date night with friends, always fun!

21 - Birthday parties, dinner with family makes for a perfect day.

22 - It poured for 8 hours straight, that's just crazy.

23 - Mr. is so sick, poor guy.

24 - Yep never going to Korean BBQ every again.

25 - Brrr...it's cold outside!

26 - MNO, woo hoo!

27 - Uh oh, so many dr. appointments today.

28 - Palm Springs with the bestie!

29- Impromptu pool date at the gym, gotta love this weather and 4 dresses one towel. (she only let me take pictures of these two)

 

30- Beautiful end of life celebration.

31- Feeling awful today at the gym, but Baby Fox wanted to go to Karate, so I walked on the treadmill, I went 3 miles in 50 minutes...SO SLOW!

Alright your turn, it's February 2nd, so join us next month on March 2nd!

An InLinkz Link-up

Linking up here

Cold Shoulder Blush Top

Happy Wednesday Friends. It's half way through the week, you know that Thursday and Friday always go by so much faster than the first two days. At least it does for me. Tomorrow Mini Fox starts school, queue the tears...I can't believe she's starting preschool already. She has mixed feelings, she's feeling excited and scared, she says she doesn't know anything, haha. We keep telling her that's why she's going to school. LOL. Back on track, when did it get to be the first week of February! After Whitney did a whole year styling Rose Quartz things, I had yet to find anything, I finally found something. Jury is still out if I like it or not...

I guess I'm not used to wearing flowy things like this. I don't think it looks bad in the picture actually. Funny how we see things on our self vs what it probably actually looks like.

I added the scarf because you could see my cami through the shirt, so I added the scarf to hide the tank top line under it.

You saw these shoes last week, I just love them that much. Funny though I took these picture on two separate days, I just happen to be wearing the same shoes...and funny enough I decided to do almost the same pose, totally not on purpose.

What have you been styling lately? Link up below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Linking up here

Valentine's Day Burlap Wreath Tutorial

Hello Foxy Friends! Today I'm back with another wreath tutorial. This actually takes us full circle. This is the last wreath I'm making with the same exact wreath. That's right, I've made 7 Wreaths using the same exact base and I just changed out the decorations. Click here to see all of them.

Here's what I started with:

Some of the links are affiliate links and I will either receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you click on it or if you make a purchase from one of these links, I may also receive a commission on the sale of the product. By purchasing through Foxy's Domestic Side, you're helping me to continue creating fun things for this space. 

What You'll Need:

Burlap Wreath (I've been using the same wreath over and over again, but click here for my full tutorial, click here for the video)
Sign to put in the Middle (I found mine at Hobby Lobby for $6.99 on sale for $4, this, this or this would work too)
Twigs of Hearts (Hobby Lobby for $3.99 each on sale for $2.79 each, I bought 3)
Small Valentine's Sign (Hobby Lobby for $3.99 on sale for $2.79, I bought 3)
Small Happy Valentine's Sign (Hobby Lobby for $2.99 on sale for $2.09)
Red Deco Mesh (I didn't have to buy because it was in my previous wreath, that I reused)

Let's assume we've taken off all of the previous decorations, except for the red Deco Mesh.

Directions:

Step 1:
 
I tried to use the sprigs as they were, but I didn't have enough to cover the whole wreath and there were a lot in each bunch. I realized that they were individual wrapped with some tape, so I tore them apart to make separate strings of hearts, so I could spread them out a bit.

 

 

I spread them out to make it more even. I left space for things that I knew I wanted to add.

Step 2:

I then stuck the "Kiss" "Hugs" and "Love" signs into the wreath. I did not glue or tie these down.

Step 3:

I added a piece of floral wire with a glue gun to the back of the Happy Valentine's Day sign so I could secure it to the wreath without having to glue it down.

I then attached it to the wreath

Step 4:

I then cut the LOVE garland in half so I could put them on top of each other like this.

The LOVE signed turned out slightly larger than I wanted, but I still think it's pretty cute. There were so many different choices at Hobby Lobby. And the finished product.

Here is how it looks on my front door. Full confession, I didn't make a January wreath, just went straight to a Valentine's one, so this has been on my door since the first weekend of January.

 

Linking up here

 

 

5 Make Up Tips For Beginners, From A Beginner

Hello Foxy Friends! Happy Monday, I just got back from a girls weekend in Palm Springs...okay when I say girls I mean just me and my bestie. We had a blast! It's been WAY too long since the last time we did that. Glad that it actually happened, although it almost got cancelled, so glad that it didn't.

A couple of weeks ago I told you about my year long hair challenge, which I told you guys about and then documented it throughout the year. I feel like I really challenged myself and I think I almost got the hang of this hair thing! Don't worry I'm going to be sharing all of the hair 101 styling tips I picked up. I don't have many, but I think some of them will help. Anyway, back to this post. What I never told you that the year prior I did a make up challenge. I talked a little bit about that here.

Anyway, now it's almost 2 years after the start of that challenge, and I'm ready to talk about it...haha. I figured I'm an engineer, I like lists, you've been getting a lot of list from me lately...that's the reason why. Let's get started:

| One |

Practice, practice, practice. I cannot stress this enough. If you never do your make up and then suddenly you're trying to do your make up before a night out on the town, that is just not going to work. I know I fell victim to this. I would try and go out for a night and want some make up, but would have no clue what I was doing and it would take me 2 hours to get ready and it would look mediocre, or like I had no make up on at all. So I changed that and started to practice when my kids were in the bath playing.

This is back in Spring of 2014, this is how I typically did my make up. This to me was DONE up...like I felt like I had a ton of make up on here.

After a lot of trial and error this is my last week to a Mom's Night Out. Cause who doesn't want to dress up, put on make up and hang out with friends.

| Two |

YouTube is your best friend. Seriously, you have no idea how many hours of YouTube I watched. I tried to find people with my same eye shape and skin tone and tried to follow their tutorials. I really love Jen from Head to Toe, she has some awesome tutorials. Other Youtubers that have good tutorials are here, here and here (Judy has an amazing family, three girls and has a daily vlog channel as well. I love how real and authentic she is, and does a ton of reviews).

Bottom line figure out what you want to learn, then YouTube it, most likely it's there. I searched Monolids and that's how I found Jen, and then watch every video several times to try and get some sort of technique down. Still working on technique, and I am no where near as accurate/precise as all of the make up people out there, but I'm getting there, sort of. Bottom line what I figured out works for me and my make up looks, you just need to find what works for you.

Here's a YouTube Video I did on how I do my make up.

| Three |

Fake Eyelashes will change your entire look (for the better) and are not as scary as they seem. I was super intimidated by them, you have no idea. Like I said in number 1, I practiced a lot! Like maybe for a few months before I even attempted to wear them outside. While the kids were taking a bath I would practice putting them on. Again you cannot expect to never do something and then suddenly do it perfectly and have the heavens align for you to magically know how to put on Eyelashes. Start with some cheaper ones that have a thicker band. I went to the Japanese Dollar Fifty store (called Daiso, they are all over the U.S., see if there is one by you) and bought their $1.50 eyelashes. They have thicker bands which makes it WAY easier to learn to use than the more expensive Invisible band kind. Yes those are more comfortable but for practice these are great. I would practice a couple of times a week, and mostly it went awful then suddenly it was easier and I switched to the invisible brand kind, my favorite is Ardell Lashes 120 Black (I have this on a subscribe and save).

See pictures from number 1. Huge different right?

| Four |

Start with the cheap stuff, go to Target, Walmart, CVS is where I started, and bought some of the cheaper brands. It's hard to find out what is going to work for you. Like I said I watched a lot of YouTube Videos and saw what people were constantly saying they liked and then would try that out. Once I got a little comfortable with the drug store brands I branched out and started buying some more expensive stuff. Don't get me wrong I use both, so you don't need to go all high end or all cheap. A mix of both is good.

This is how many lipsticks I went through to find what I liked and what color looked good on me. I bought so many reds to find the perfect red.

 

Don't get me wrong I still like all of these, they just aren't my go to ones. I keep all the ones I really like out on the counter so I can easily grab them.

 

 

| Five |

Last but not least. Wear it with confidence. Start small and gradually work yourself into wearing more make up. You've gone X amount of years without wearing anything, this isn't something that you can suddenly cake yourself with make up and call it a day, and not think you look like a clown. Trust me it's taken time for me to get to where I am today.

Now go out and get some practice in!

If you're interested in how I organize my make up click here for a full tour.

Linking up here