November Favorites '12

It's that time again! I cannot believe how fast this month flew by. Not only has this month gone by in a flash, but this week marks the end of my first full year at work - something that totally crept up on me. It feels like quite an accomplishment that I have been out of school for about a year and a half and working a job I love for most of my "adult" life so far. 

Moving on to the real reason you're here...my favorites this month! Completely unintentionally, they are mostly beauty items. Enjoy! 

Philosophy "Fresh Cream" body lotion 

I picked up this lotion a few weeks ago as I was suffering with dry, winter skin and my regular lotion just wasn't cutting it. This, however, does cut it. Not only does it smell fresh, it leaves your skin feeling super soft. 

Tokyo Milk "French Kiss" hand lotion 

Staying on theme, I received this lotion last year as a gift from my roommate, Aravinda. This has become my new favorite for my purse and I have been using it constantly. It's think & creamy, but not heavy. Perfect for these chilly days when you need a little pick-me-up. 

Maybelline Color Tattoo in "Bad to the Bronze" 

Bad to the Bronze is a cream eye shadow that is a great fall/winter color. It's really build-able, as shown on my hand, and gives your eye make up just a little bit of pizazz (yep, pizazz). 

Twistbands 

I discovered these through Youtube on a video I was watching a few months ago. They claim to keep your hair where you put it without leaving those "rude" kinks when you take them out. I was very skeptical, but got one anyway, and I can say I am a true believer! They absolutely work (not really the headbands, but who cares). The little knot helps to keep them in place so you don't have to make your pony tail super tight. You can find them here: http://www.thetwistband.com/. 

Twisted Peppermint Candle

I have had this candle since last Christmas and I have been savoring it ever since. It makes our whole apartment smell like baked goods and burns beautifully. Highly recommended! 

Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua Foundation

This foundation was a bit of a splurge for me, but after having used it for a few weeks, I have found that it is completely worth it. It's super light (a water-based foundation) and acts more like a tinted moisturizer than a true foundation, although the coverage is a bit better than most tinted moisturizers. It feels like you're not even wearing makeup and stays on all day. The best part - you barely need any to cover your entire face so it will last you quite some time! 

Being home with my family for Thanksgiving 

I was able to take about 5 days to go home for Thanksgiving this year and it was wonderful to spend that time with my family. I snapped this photo of our smaller dog, Sadie, while she was taking a snooze on a pillow like the little princess she pretends to be.  

With December just around the corner, the girls of 3A are prepping for our very first Christmas party. I'm sure I'll have some great photos and recipes to share after this weekend :) 

Happy November! 

Holiday Favorites - Nail Polish Edition

A large part of the holiday season for me is color. You see it in the Thanksgiving meal you'll be munching down on in a few days - cranberry reds, golden browns, and bright whites. It pops up again as we enter winter in the twinkling lights strung up on the trees outside, the warm colors in the house as you cozy up by the fire with a cup of tea, and the bangles and glow of New Years Eve.

Being me, one of my favorite ways to see holiday color is on the nails. Here are my top 10 holiday nail polishes broken down evenly into base colors and glitter polishes. I'm not a huge fan of glitter polish during the year, but the holiday season is when you should pull out all the stops.

Bring in the Base...

 Sinful Colors - Under 18 

 Perfect for the Christmas season, this is a shimmery red-orange color. It is the only base color that I'd recommend three solid coats, but is totally worth it once dry. The best part - you can find it at Walgreens for $1.99!

 O.P.I. - Casino Royale 

 From the new Skyfall collection, Casino Royale reminds me of cozy sweaters. It falls somewhere between cranberry and merlot and is perfectly flat (no shimmer, glitter, or any of that jazz).

Butter London - British Racing Green

 This is by far my ultimate favorite color this season. This deep green has the tiniest flecks of shimmer that show up in the bottle as silver, but when applied to then nail only reflect the light - it's pretty awesome. Stay tuned for a holiday nail tutorial with this color coming soon!

Essie - Bobbing for Baubles 

 Bobbing for Baubles is from the Essie 2011 Winter Collection and is a deep navy blue - almost black. It's a great flat neutral with a little hint of fun. Perfect for any winter day.

O.P.I. - Moonraker 

Moonraker shows up much darker in the bottle than it does on the nail. It's a great silvery-gray with little specs of silver shimmer making it look metallic. My only problem with this color is that it can be a bit watery and needs a little bit of a careful application to make sure it doesn't come out streaky. That being said, the color payoff is totally worth the extra time. 

And onto the Glitter! 

 Milani - Jewel FX Lavender 

This glitter polish, like the rest of the Milani glitters to follow, are a colored glitter floating in a clear base making them a perfect top coat or a blinged out accent nail when built up. Lavender is made up of larger hexagonal glitter pieces and smaller round pieces, but all reflect the light brilliantly.

Milani - Red 

Like its friend above, Red's glitter floats in clear polish making it very multi-purpose. Unlike its friend above, Red is only made up of large, hexagonal pieces of glitter that are much easier to build up on their own and can cover your nail almost completely in three coats. Awesome.

Milani - Gold

Not much more to say about Milani polishes at this point, but this gold color is amazing. It is my favorite glitter polish this season as I am loving metallics in general. This will also be showing up in a tutorial soon - stay tuned!

Orly - Mermaid Tale 

Mermaid Tale comes from the new Orly Flash Glam FX collection that they are beginning to release. It's a mix of different sized pieces of glitter that are green, silver, and slightly blue-toned making the color very multi-dimensional.

O.P.I. - Designer...de Better! 

This O.P.I. color comes from last year's holiday Muppet collection. It caught my eye as it falls somewhere between glitter and shimmer. It can totally hold its own as the glitter is suspended in a gold polish. The glitter itself is silver, gold, and rose gold making the overall color of the polish change depending on the lighting. I absolutely love this color!


Although these are my favorite holiday colors for the 2012 season, I have yet to fully explore the individual holiday collections released by each of the brands. So far, the China Glaze Holiday Joy collection seems to be the most interesting I've seen. 

Homemade Trivet

While browsing Pinterest last week, I came across a river stone trivet from vivaterra.com. With crafts on the mind, I decided to try and make my own. So, off I went to Michael's Craft Store to purchase the necessary items. 

You will need: felt in a color of your choosing (I got two colors, just because), stones of your chosen size, needle & thread, scissors, craft glue, and a pen - and obviously a glass of wine. 

I traced the outline of a standard pot onto both colors of felt to create an outline for the design and cut them out. You want to use two pieces of felt even if you use two of the same color. The glue comes through the first layer just a bit so the second layer helps it look a little nicer.

I sewed the two pieces of felt together with thread that matched the cranberry color felt, as that was going to be my top side, and cut off the extra felt around the edges. In this step, I found out just how lacking my sewing skills were. So, if you think you can't do this because you don't know how to sew - I promise you it will be okay! 

Next, I picked out all of the flat (or relatively flat) stones from the bag I purchased. I ended up getting two bags just in case and I'm glad I did. There were not enough in the first bag so I had to dig a few extras out of the second. I set aside some of the smaller stones for places that needed to be filled in after all of the larger stones were used. 

I started by creating an edge with the largest of the stones and worked my way in using a circular pattern, but you can use whatever pattern or lack of pattern that you'd like. It's okay if a little bit of the glue is showing because once it dries, it is clear. 

Just a note on the glue situation: 

As I have never done something like this before, there was quite a bit of trial and error - especially when it came to the glue. I ended up getting hot glue, rubber cement, and super glue before settling on the standard "craft" glue. All types of glue before the craft glue were wildly unsuccessful in getting the stones to stick to the felt. I did manage to get my fingers stuck together for a hot minute with the super glue though - I'd advise using gloves or something of the like when you are an amateur glue-er like myself.

Once you have finished gluing all of the stones to the felt, let it dry overnight before moving it. Your finished product will look like this: 

After the trivet had dried, I decided that I should have placed a piece of cardboard or something similar between the two pieces of felt. The trivet is quite top heavy, as you can imagine, and I think the cardboard will help it last longer. I will be cutting mine open and sliding a piece of cardboard inside. 

Overall, this is a really cheap and easy craft that produces something quite useful. Thumbs up for trying something new :)