My Birthday!

My birthday was a couple weeks ago.  I feel like my birthdays are coming faster and faster.  I must be getting old.  This year we were lucky enough to have work off all day!  It was amazing.  We had time to laze around the house and watch one of our favorite shows and also go to Sea Life Park for the dolphin show.  For dinner we went to Macaroni Grill, and it was amazing.  They gave me balloons, free dessert, and a coupon for free dessert next time I come in.  How cool is that?

Aaron made a lovely drawing of us...

My family sent me the funnest present.  My mom made a 'Birthday in a Box' filled with birthday decorations, treats, and even party hats for our pet chickens.

 And they gave me the cutest card ever.

 I had red velvet birthday cake and it was DELICIOUS!

It was a fantastic day!  Thanks to those who called/texted me and made it extra awesome. :)

Too Faced Shadow Insurance

For my eye primer, I use Too Faced Shadow Insurance Anti-Crease Eyeshadow Primer.  This product is amazing.  It keeps my shadows from creasing at all, as well as makes even cheap eyeshadows look fantastic. I bought mine from Ulta for around $18-20, which seems like a lot, except this tube lasts a long time.  I've had it for almost a year now and it isn't even getting hard to get the product out of the tube yet.  Below I've added a picture comparing eyeshadow with the primer and without.  The ones with primer are on the left, the ones without primer are on the right.  You can see there is quite a noticeable difference. 

If you are in need of an eyeshadow primer, I highly suggest you check out Too Faced Shadow Insurance!

January 2013 Ipsy Bag

In January I got my first Ipsy Glam Bag.  Ipsy is an online beauty community, and they offer a super fun subscription service.  For $10 a month (free shipping if you live in the US) you get a cute pink package mailed to you every month with a makeup bag and 4-5 deluxe sample sized or full sized beauty products, usually worth $40-$100!  They also give you a coupon code for each of the brands they feature that month, which is super awesome.  I love how you can see what all of their past glam bags have contained before you decide to join.  I would have been happy with any of them, so I decided to start my subscription.  I have looked into lots of other beauty subscriptions and to me, none of them looked nearly as awesome as Ipsy.  So, without further ado, onto the January Glam Bag!

I was sooooo happy with the contents of this month's bag!  Some people were sad there wasn't really any makeup in it, but I actually thought this bag was brilliant and I hope there are more like this one.  I use all of these products often.  The only bad thing about this bag was that it contained hairspray, which meant it had to be sent by BARGE instead of in an airplane and it took forever to get to me here in Hawaii.  Many people got theirs two weeks or so before I got mine.  But that isn't something that can really be avoided.

I liked the bag this month.  It is a good sized bag and has an adorable star print on the inside.  It's also a shiny canvasy type fabric that seems like it will be easy to clean.

The first item in the bag is a 2.5 oz deluxe sample of Pacifica Tuscan Blood Orange Body Butter.  This stuff smells like Jamba Juice!  It's seriously so good.  However, I didn't really find it any more moisturizing than any other lotion I've used.  I'm not a big lotion person, so a small size like this is great for me, and it's under 3 oz so I can bring it with me when I travel back to the dry mainland. :)

The next item is a Soho Eyeliner Brush.  I guess you'd call this a full size product.  Ipsy sent out three different brushes this month: an eyeliner brush, a concealer brush, and a crease brush.  I actually wanted one of the other two brushes besides the eyeliner brush.  But when I got this brush I decided to try it out and I actually like it a lot.  It's opened me up to using eyeshadow as eyeliner which works really well for me when I want a softer look. 

Another item we got was a 1.5 oz deluxe sample of Big Sexy Hair Spray & Play volumizing hairspray.  This is the item I am least excited about in this bag.  When I tried it out, I saw a little bit of added volume, but really it's hardly noticeable.  It also makes my hair a little crunchier than I like.  Basically, it's a decent enough product, but I wouldn't go spending money on it.  I will definitely use all of this sample though.

Next we have a full size .5 fl oz bottle of Nailtini polish in the color Frappe.  Ipsy sent out two colors this month, this lovely pale pink/peach nude and a color called Bloody Mary which is a bright red.  I was hoping for Frappe as I am not really into red and I was very happy to find it in my bag!  I normally wear brighter colors on my nails, but this color looks very classy and it will also be great for french manicures.  In the picture above I have like 4-5 coats of it on.  It is rather sheer.  But it stays really well, I didn't start getting chips until after a whole week of wearing it.  I am very excited about this product and am glad I got it.

The last item in my bag is a 5mL deluxe sample of Josie Maran 100% Pure Argan Oil.  I've been using this on my face every night and it seems to be helping my skin a little bit.  It kind of sounds wrong to put oil on your face, but it doesn't make you greasy at all.  In fact, I can't be sure it was because of this product, but I felt a big zit coming in on my forehead one day.  I put this product all over my face including my forehead that night and by the next day it was gone.  Hurray!  I'm trying to decide if I will buy some more argan oil when this one runs out.  I've heard you can get some non-name brand kinds for cheaper, so maybe I will try some of those.

So that's January's Ipsy bag!  I was so pleased with what I got in it and I am excited to see what I get for the rest of the year.  If this looks like something you're interested in, just go to ipsy.com and sign up.  I hear they have a waitlist right now though so be prepared for that.  If you sign up, let me know!  I'd love to talk with you about it and compare the stuff we get. :)

Pali Lookout

Pali Lookout is a fun place to stop at if you are heading through the island on the Pali Highway.  It is really easy to find, there are signs for the lookout exit on the highway from either direction.  Parking is $3 at the lookout.  You can enjoy a beautiful view from between two mountain peaks down to the valley and ocean below.

At times it can be very windy there.  Like really really windy.  Here is a video of Blake's cousin and her friend when they were vacationing here.

There are also some hikes/walking trails nearby.  The one I have done so far is actually the old Pali Highway that is now overgrown.  It is pretty awesome.

 The next picture is a view of the lookout from the walking trail.

And now, a picture of us at the lookout.  Cuuuuuute.

The Tall Book by Arianne Cohen

If you are a tall person, you MUST read this book!  It is full of so many interesting facts about tall people, and will make you feel pretty good about yourself.  I learned alot about what it means to be tall and why us talls should celebrate our height!

The Lowdown:

Awesome rating: 8/10

Adult situations/material: 3/10

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

 I like to describe this book as the DaVinci Code of Dracula books.  If you like mystery, history, danger, and good old fashioned sleuthing, this book is for you.  It is a very thick novel, but it is fun to read all the way through.  I would highly recommend this book.

The Lowdown

Awesome rating: 8/10

Adult situations material: 5/10

Bossypants by Tina Fey

If you love Tina Fey like I do, you will love this book.  From her quirky growing-up years to her famous run as Sarah Palin, this book is full of hilarious details and amusing stories.  A must-read for Tina Fey fans.

The Lowdown:

Awesome rating: 7/10

Adult situations/material: 6/10

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

 This novel paints a beautiful, somewhat sad, somewhat peaceful picture of the life of an African American woman during the Great Depression.  I thought it was a great read, and it really makes you think about life and the grand scheme of things.  You follow this woman through her highs and lows, and learn that no matter what happens you can be content with your life in the end.

The Lowdown:

Awesome rating: 7/10

Adult situations/material: 3/10

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

 I would have a hard time describing to you the plot of this book, because most of the time I wasn't quite sure what was going on.  I didn't really understand the heavy 'country speak' the book was written in.  Maybe someday I'll be smart enough to realize why this is considered one of the best books out there, but I'm sure not now.

The Lowdown:

Awesome rating: 2/10

Adult situations/material: 3/10

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

 If you like the post-apocalyptic theme that is popular in movies right now, you will like this book too.  It's a sweet yet sad (but not cry your eyes out sad) book about a father and son traveling to the coast in post-apocalyptic America.  The only thing I didn't like was that it never tells you how the world got to that point, because the main character didn't even know.  It was interesting that there were no chapters and that you never learn the names of the man and his boy.  Overall I'd say it was a good read.

The Lowdown:

Awesome rating: 6/10

Adult situations/material: 4/10

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

 This book was rather slow and a little boring for the first half, but became much more enjoyable during the second half.  Overall I can't say I was extremely impressed, but it was a mildly entertaining read.

The Lowdown:

Awesome rating: 5/10

Adult situations/material: 4/10

1984 by George Orwell

 My first thought upon finishing 1984 was that it did not go the way I was expecting, which in some ways is kind of refreshing.

The Lowdown:

Awesome rating: 7/10

Adult situations/material: 5/10

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

 This is definitely the strangest book I have ever read.  I'd say that it was worth reading, just to have the experience.  But honestly I can hardly tell you what the book is about.

The Lowdown:

Awesome rating: 5/10

Adult situations/material: 6/10

Next by Michael Crichton

 Next was a very enjoyable read.  It was made up of several different seemingly-unrelated stories that all came together at the end, which was quite fun.  It also made you think hard about the way genetics is moving now.  I will definitely be reading some more books by Crichton. 

The Lowdown:

Awesome rating: 8/10

Adult situations/material: 6/10

The Green Mile by Stephen King

 I LOVE this story.  I first saw the movie version which is fantastic.  I decided to read the book and was not disappointed.  This is one of those stories that really sticks with you after you read it.  Don't let the fact that Stephen King wrote this book scare you, it is not a horror novel in any way.

The Lowdown:

Awesome rating: 9/10

Adult situations/material: 7/10