Let's Talk: Hair and Make-Up

Linking up with Andrea and Erika for Let's Talk. Today's topic is hair and make-up. Both things that I love! Where to start, where to start...

Well I guess I should start with my hair. I'm in week 17 of my hair challenge. In case you missed it, I decided last year that I always wore my hair down or a ponytail so I set out at the beginning of the year to change that. I don't necessarily do my hair every single day, but I try to do a new style or two a week. Click here for all of hair styles so far. Here's a quick recap on some of my favorites.

Week 2 // Week 3 // Week 5

Week 6 // Week 9 // Week 10

Week 13  // Week 14 // Week 16

I can't tell you how many hair YouTube videos I've watched. Here's my collection of hair styles I've done, and here's the ones I want to do. Do you have any you want me to try out? I'm always looking for new videos.

Back in week 5, I bought a bunch of hair products that I wanted to try out. So after 11 weeks, I've narrowed it down to my absolute favorite product, one that I use on almost every hair style and the one that I had never heard of before. Hair Wax...Specifically the Dry Hair Wax*, it goes on like a hair spray but it's sticky and gets rid of the fly aways. It's pretty amazing stuff! Seriously, you need to get some, your hair will turn out so much better when you start using it.

Hair Wax is the second from the left

Another product that I use a lot is Amika Un-Done Texture Spray*, I use this a lot when I have freshly clean hair. Seriously it gives your hair that dirt that you need to do a good hair style. This would also be a good product to use if you have fine hair and need some volume, just lift hair and spray and gives you volume, it's like magic.

I also love the Amika Dry Shampoo*. Before I started this challenge I was having to wash my hair every other day before it got too greasy. It took a while, but I've finally gotten to the point where I can go 4-5 days between washes, thanks to this dry shampoo. If you want tips on how I go more day between washing, let me know down below!

Oh and we can't forget the bobby pins I use. The drugstore ones just don't cut it. Kate from Small Things Blog said she uses these, and I found them to be perfect as well. Click here for the black ones and here for the bronze ones.

As far as make-up goes, I don't have anything ground breaking.  I love my Urban Decay Make-Up Naked* and Smokey* palettes. They have great coverage and stay on all day.



I just discovered the Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Kit*, it's amazing, while I'm still discovering it, the few things that I do know how to do, are pretty awesome. One thing that I learned is I run my blush brush across all of the colors on the bottom row to create a darker blush. I really like the way it comes out for evening events and things where I want to be a bit more dramatic.

Here's how it comes out.

So what are your favorite hair and make up products?

*I did buy these with my own money, but linked products are affiliates and I will receive a small commission if you click on it. Thank you for your support!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a "Hello I'm Fabulous" T-shirt c/o Chico's!

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Friday Favorites #66: Vegas Style

Happy Friday Foxy Friends! I thought today's Friday favorites would be a bit different. I'm going to  tell you my favorite things about meeting my blogging friends - Deena, Shuanacey, Lana, Alison, Carrie and Sheila this past weekend.

Here's a recap of the week:

 

 

Monday: $10 Target Haul

Tuesday: 10 Things I learned about Sons of Anarchy

Wednesday: Style Perspectives - Graphic Tee

Thursday - Vegas Recap and a Give a Way!

Ever wonder how bloggers get behind the scene photos? This is how:

You see this - not recapping outfits this week, but you would have seen this...

In reality this is what it looked like to everyone else.

Again this is the result:

This is what it looked like

Or this:

But really we are standing in the dirt trying to get that perfect shot.

Teaching everyone how I take my hair style shots. I didn't have to this day because...well there were 6 other people around me to do it :)

 

They do come out way better when someone else is taking them

 

 

Shopping is just fun when you have 6 other people with you who know your style.

Yep top and that necklace came home with me. The necklace is only $10.98!!! A deal in a half I you ask me. The top was on sale for $39.99, you have to see the back, sorry didn't take a picture, it's super cute, and oh so soft!

 
Sometimes they're not all winners. We weren't sure if this was a vest, jacket or dress...what do you think?

We thought it would be fun to all buy the same dress and style it, then we just put them on and called it done.

Another great thing about traveling with bloggers? They share pictures immediately! Haven't you been with someone and they take the picture and they you say, send me that and then they never do. Monday morning, I started a share folder on Google+ and within a few hours everyone had loaded their pictures...dream come true I tell ya.

We all tried macaroons (I do not like them...at all), can you guess who's is who? In case you forgot who was there, your choices are Deena, Shuanacey, Me, Lana, Carrie, Alison.

 Or this one. I just loved this photo of all of us!

I almost don't to write this last one, because then my recapping will be done and I'll have to wait till next year to see these lovely ladies. But I had to save the best for last...the selfies...oh the selfies we took. I'm fairly certain that we took more selfies than actual pictures. My people I tell ya. This is just a fraction of the selfies we took...SO.MUCH.FUN!

 

 

Linking up here

Meeting My Fellow Blended Bloggers, Oh And A Conference Too

There is so much to say about my recent Vegas trip. I can't even believe that one day we all just decided to take Lana's advice and go to the BAM conference in Vegas, and suddenly less than a day later my Canadian friends, Shaunacey and Deena had booked their tickets, like holy heck this is actually happening!

Here are a few bullet points of what I learned while at the conference (one of the sponsors: Chicos. Keep reading for a small giveaway at the end, I know so exciting right?)

1. Twitter isn't as hard as I imagined. I always think I don't want to bother people with a bunch of twitter stuff, but in reality only a fraction of your followers are going to see any given tweet, so go ahead and tweet away, I think I tweeted more this weekend than the last couple of months combined.
2. I think the panel of how to get a book published was WAY more interesting than I thought it would be. I wasn't even thinking of writing a book, but these ladies got me fired up...afterwards some of us took a break from the sessions to sit outside and chat in the sun, and when they asked me what I would write about I had no idea. Deena had suggested she would like to read about my marriage and how interesting it seems (in a good way)...which got me thinking...what would your book be about if you were to write one? I'm giving this marriage one some serious consideration. Have you read my marriage series yet? What topic do you want me to cover that hasn't been already?
3. There was another panel about how to get essays published. While I haven't really dove into this area yet...it really got me thinking and excited to maybe jump into those world of essays and getting published else where.

I think that Sheila did an excellent job recapping the conference, so if you want a full in depth recap of the conference then click here. 

Okay so now what I thought about meeting these ladies in real life...this is a picture of all of us, Alison was last to arrive and we couldn't wait to take a picture together, our first selfie together. Warning: There might be an overload of selfies.

Since there are so many lovely people to talk about I'm just going to go in the order in which I met them, just like the movies...only seems fair right?

I made these for the ladies, I know they always see them on the blog, but never get to eat them, so I thought I would give them a taste. Consensus was: delicious, first thing everyone grabbed when we got back to the hotel each time.

So I was off and driving and this was my view for a really long time.

And then I had to pee...and it looked like that...screwed! Finally after about 45 minutes I found a bathroom! Phew!

Okay enough about me, onto the ladies! I cannot tell you how nervous I was meeting everyone. First up was Sheila, I stood there waiting for her in the lobby of the Venetian...just like a first date, butterflies in my stomach. But you know what happened? As soon as we saw each other we gave each other big bear hug like we were old friends who haven't seen each other in a while. Totally normal meeting someone for the first time after talking for 2 years. Our first selfie, of many, was on the way to the airport to pick up Lana and Carrie. Where Sheila taught me how to use Snapchat. in the cellphone lot.

Next up was Carrie and Lana (which is pronounced Laana, like it rhymes with banana...I had been pronouncing it wrong for 2 years, it was hard to break that habit). Funny when you meet people for the first time, Carrie was MUCH shorter than I thought she would be, for some reason I thought she would be super tall. Not so much, she was my height.  Carrie gave the biggest, hug where it was an embrace that was so filled with love it almost made me cry, is that weird? I'm sure it is, but I told you anyway. Lana she was exactly the height I thought she would be and gave an equal great embrace. I feel like we're on Son's on Anarchy now.

We hung out for a while and got some dinner while we waited for the others. I gave some group selfie lessons. I've pretty much perfected them. Anyone want a lesson?

Finally, after a lot of texts with pictures like these in them...

Happy that they were together on a plane with wifi!

Sad that they still had a long way to go before they saw us. 

 

We finally met Deena and Shaunacey, in the same spot I met Sheila, we ran towards each other like that in a romantic comedy giving each other hugs all around. Just kidding, but there were some great hugs. They were tired, but there was still one more person we had to meet!

Finally rolling in around 10pm was Alison! Sweet, sweet Alison. She was the one I knew the least, but since we were sharing a room I knew we would get plenty of time together.

After spending 3 full days with these ladies, eating 9 meals with them and countless hours chatting and talking and laughing, oh the laughing, my cheeks hurt from smiling so much the whole weekend. I can honestly say that they are the best group of woman I have ever met. We met because of a style challenge but we have become so much more. I cannot wait to meet the other Blended Bloggers, hopefully next year, we're thinking Toronto!

What I loved most, was that even though we've never met, just because we read each others blogs, I feel like I know them better than some of my friends in real life. Although now that I've met them I can say that they are my in real life friends too, not just some people I met on the internet. It was actually pretty cool hanging out with fellow bloggers, I've never done that and it was awesome that you could just stop, take a random picture and no one even bats an eye.

Tomorrow I'm going to being doing a Friday Favorites on more of the Weekend that didn't make it in this post so stay tuned for some more fun and a lot of selfies!

Now go check out the other ladies and see how they are recapped their experience in Vegas.

Deena - The one who makes you feel at home and that she's your best friend, you've known her forever and you know you can call her for anything. She's the life of the party, always has great ideas and keeps our group whole. And she brought ketchup chips and jam...Mr. has been eating the chips non-stop!

Shaunacey - The one who has two kids roughly my kids age who just gets it. My beer buddy. Has my same sense of humor and we can joke about all things kids related, but know at the end of the day we love our kids to death. I love her cute accent, even though she didn't think we did,  I really did and I could listen to her talk all day long!

Lana - The one that lives closest to me, and who I hope to see again before Toronto. The one who has a great smile (despite nothing believing so) and goes along with the punches, says what everyone is thinking and is so encouraging it makes you feel like you can do anything (actually that is really everyone).

Carrie - Sweet, sweet Carrie. The who is small and petite, but you just know that she's beat down a bear for you. And I'm fairly certain she could bench press all of us put together, no joke! She's determine, loveable and has the best laugh. She makes me believe that anything is possible.

Alison - The one who was the shyest at first, but watch out this girl is funny! She has this one liners that just has you rolling. I love that even though she didn't go to the conference, she was right there with us before and after, she's so creative and outgoing, not afraid to be by herself all day while we were conferencing. I love that about her, she wanted it, so she did it. I want to be more like that, carefree and curious with a love of pretty things and puppies, always the puppies, although I think her blog should be called kittens and cute stuff or something like that. Her cats really are cute.

Sheila - The one I shared a bed with. Strange that you can share a bed with a "stranger" and totally be okay with that and it not be weird. The first one I met and we kept getting lost while picking up Carrie and Lana because we were chatting and laughing so much. She taught me snapchat...which I'm still not sure of, but she's my tech girl, it could have to do with all the teenagers she has running around.

Okay enough of the mushy stuff. Since Chico's was nice enough to give us some extra shirts, I'm going to give away three shirts! I have sizes X-Small, Small and Medium. I will keep picking names until the all of the sizes have been given away, so don't forget to enter what size you are! The shirt you are getting is a graphic tee, fitting from yesterdays post right? It says "Hello I'm Fabulous" and quite frankly you all are fabulous!

I am wearing an x-small here, so the sizing is very forgiving

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Style Perspectives: The Graphic Tee and Hair Challenge Week 16

Hello Foxy Fashion Friends. Yet another week of the Style Perspectives with The Blended Blog! I am loving seeing everyone style the prompts and meeting new people through the link up! Keep 'em coming!

This week was Deena's choice, and she could not have picked anything more like her than a graphic tee. I basically think they are one in the same...okay not really, but seriously love the prompt. Fun fact...I did not own a graphic tee until last year during one the style challenges.

Then I decided to style my very first Graphic Tee that I got...It was the first one that really spoke to me...

Now onto the hair...I actually got a machine to do the twists (hopefully unboxing video coming soon, it's been recorded, now I just need to find the time to put it together), so I twisted three together and then braided the three twists together.

And how could pass up a jumping shot, curteosy of Mr...because I took about 15 with the remote timer and failed miserably and was sweaty hot.

Tip #1: Key to looking good in a jumping shot...make sure to tuck your knees up behind you, makes you look like you've gone higher than you really have.

Tip #2: Set your camera to rapid fire picture taking, so the person taking the picture just rapid fires and you're sure to get the peak of your jump.

Now go check out Deena's post on The Blended Blog, I think she has something pretty fun up her sleeve...

In case you missed it, here is how everyone styled their Tee, Cardi, Jeans and statement necklaces.

Okay now onto the hair challenge. I actually did pretty good with this, mostly because I was at the conference in Vegas and you know, dress to impress right?

This was last Wednesday. I needed to do something, since nothing was done Monday or Tuesday. I threw these braids in and put them together and I probably couldn't repeat this even if I wanted. I was tired and just trying to do anything in less than 10 minutes.

Thursday was driving to Vegas. I don't like wearing ponytails while driving, so I threw it up like this...sort of like this video, hers looks way better, ah well. This was taken after driving for 4 hours and walking around...so it's a little messed up from when I started.

I totally forgot to take a picture of my hair on Friday, how could I?! Here's front view...Oops. And now I can't even remember how it looked in the back, so much happened, yikes!

This style was because Deena said she said someone on Canada's version of The View (it's called The Social), anyway Lainey, had something sort of like this, but not really. But we got the style inspiration from her.

Sunday was spent all day shopping. I was trying to do this hair style, but couldn't hear the directions, for some reason the audio was out, and it was too hard to follow, so I just threw it in a few knots and called it a day.

I even got a comment on the elevator from a hair dresser trying to figure out what I had one...so fun having someone that's a professional asking me how I did my hair!

That's it on the hair front. Next weeks prompt is: A plaid looks, bring out that Spring Plaid and bring your A game next week.

Now go check out how the other ladies styled their graphic tee look.

ONCE UPON A TIME & HAPPILY EVER AFTER : Library-Lovin’-Lady

DAILY STYLE FINDS: The Personal Stylist

FOXY’S DOMESTIC SIDE: The Crafty Engineer

SIMPLY SHAUNACEY: Reformed Frumpy Mommy

TWO TEENS AND THEIR MAMA: Stylish Midlife Mama

RSQUARED: The Not So Nerdy Accountant

SHOES TO SHIRAZ: The Shoe Hoarding French Teacher

PUPPIES AND PRETTIES: Cube Dwelling Fashionista

MISHAPS AND MAYHEM OF SOLITARY LIFE: Single Girl, Simple Style

A LOVELY LITTLE WARDROBE: A Casual Petite

MAKING THE MOST OF EVERYDAY Classic Yet Current Over Forty

NICKANDNIK: Mama with Curves

LIVING ON CLOUD NINE: Blissful Fashionista

WHITNEY À LA MODE: A book-loving French Teacher

An InLinkz Link-up

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