Laine Blogger Award

The beautiful blogger Selma was so sweet and awarded me with the Laine Blogger Award. Selma at Crazy Little World of Mine, is a fabulous blogger and was probably my first blogging friend I made.

This is a cool award for me to write about because I've been really into beauty stuff since I've been back. In Cambodia it was hard to feel pretty because you're sweating all the time. If you did do your hair and makeup about 20 minutes later it's like you didn't do anything at all. Since we've been back I've fallen in love with my old beauty supplies and I've collected a few new ones.

The Rules:

Tag the blogger who awarded you.

Answer the 5 questions below.

Award the Laine Blogger Award to 5 of your favorite bloggers.

1. What is your current beauty obsession?

This is always one of my beauty obsessions. I love this chapstick. I pretty much always have it on me. Some of my pants have a little wear spot on the pocket from this always being in my pocket.

I got this in my Vox Box and I'm obsessed with it. My hair was SO frizzy after coming back from Cambodia. This stuff works!

2. What is one beauty item you wished you owned?

- There's been quite a few that I've been dreaming over for the last year, but one that I'd really like to have is

It's Gucci's Flora line, and my favorite is the Gorgeous Gardenia one. Over the last year we were in airports a lot, and every time we'd stop and try on perfumes and colognes, and I just fell in love with this scent. It is spendy though, so that's why I'm still wishing I owned it.

3. What is your favorite post to read/write about?

- I like to read posts about people's every day life. So many people only blog when they have something to show off, so I really like to just read every day posts; about what you did this weekend. I feel like that's how you really get to know the blogger.

-I think I'm still trying to figure out what I like to write about.

4. What inspired you to become a blogger?
- I started blogging to write down the plans for my wedding, for myself and for people who didn't live in town. Then I just kept blogging because I really like the blogging community and all of the lovely people out there blogging.

5. What nail polish are you wearing right now?

- Right now I'm wearing OPI Big Apple Red. My old co-worker gave it to me as a going away present and I never got to wear it. It makes for the perfect red nail, and since it's OPI it lasts for a long time.

I'm passing on the love and nominating the following ladies:

1) Savannah at Rolled Up Pretty

2) Jillian at Because She is a Mother

3) Kellie at Kelleidoscope

4) Torrie at Autodidactic Ambitions

5) Jennifer at Crazy Shenanigans 

Top Knots

Top knots have become a favorite hairstyle of mine lately in Cambodia. As I've already posted about, it's gotten freaking hot here, and wearing my hair down has sort of become unbearable. Instantly it's wet from the back of my neck sweating. Gross, I know. Really gross. So the solution? Pull it back. Reason #1 why top knots are awesome.

It's hard to pull my hair back in a way that won't get completely messed up while I'm lying down...such as right now. Solution? Top knot. Hair is out of the way and up high enough that it stays up when I'm having my afternoon nap. Thus this is reason #2 why top knots are awesome.

Reason #3 for why top knots are awesome...is when you're riding in a 12 passenger van down a bad dirt road to see the tonle sap, when you hit and bump and you catch serious air, because you're sitting in the back row; your top knot hits the roof of the car, and not your head. Solution = top knot!

The only draw back of a top knot that I didn't really experience in America, stems from the fact that Cambodia's constantly humid....and I have curly hair. At the end of the day I kind of end up looking like a lion, mane and all. It kind of goes something like this.

+ humidity 

+ curly hair

=

Ok, that might be the absolutely most ridiculous photo I've ever posted on here, but I assume you get my point.

After story. Hal just said oh can I read that post before you publish it, because you know I'm never going to read it otherwise. Of course I was so nice and accommodating. He reads it and then starts hysterically laughing saying "It's True!" In the words of Stephanie Tanner from Full House "How Rude!" How Rude Hal, How Rude....

Loose Ends

Hal and I had an intense last night in Utah. We were up until about 2 AM, and were up again at 5 AM to catch our flight. We had a lot to do that last day, and the last thing we did before we left was to cut some loose ends(pun intended).

In Cambodia men don't have beards. Hal loves him some beard, so the night before we left he had to get rid of his that he had been growing out for a few months.

After many steps of goatees and mustaches, he ended up like this.

Doesn't he look so much younger without a beard?

Now the big shocker is what I did...

My hair was a little big long. Actually it was really long and I loved it. But there was no way I could do that in the Cambodian heat. So I decided to donate my hair and sport a shorter look for the Cambodian heat that I would be heading into.

One thing that we forgot to take into account is that my hair is curly...so we pulled it straight to measure the donation, and then forgot to add that the top half would be curly. So I ended up donating about 12 inches, and my hair was a little shorter than I was thinking, but I really like it. It has a  lot of body to it since it's short. It took me a little getting used to, but I really like it now. Many thanks to my sister who spent hours cutting my awfully thick hair. Thank you!!

I just took this picture from the balcony of the guesthouse where we are staying for the next few days in Cambodia so pardon my sweat, but it lets you see my hair.

Getting ready with Pinterest

For my friend's wedding this last weekend I had a hard time deciding what to do with my hair and what not. So what did I go to for inspiration? Of course Pinterest!

I went to my hair board and searched through and settled on this.

via Pinterest and loveMaegan

And here is my version

 via MaddieThomasPhotography

I obviously didn't get the best picture of it, and I didn't get one at all from the other side...so hopefully someone else there got a picture of it. It didn't turn out as darling as the original, but I really liked it. It stayed in all day with no problems and was great with the wind and the cold.

I also found another source of inspiration on Pinterest, for my nails.

via Pinterest

and here is how mine turned out.

In that bottom one I still had newspaper print on the sides of my fingers, haha. I took pictures for a little tutorial on how I did these nails, but I can't find them now, so I'll have to re-do it. 

-You paint your nails all pretty. I just used a nude color. 

-Soak some newspaper in Alcohol, I used Vodka because it said it was the best.

-Press the newspaper to your nails for 30 seconds, peel off, and voila! 

-Paint over with clear nail polish and you're all set!

Birthday Weekend Extravaganza

We had a pretty big weekend this Memorial Day Weekend....maybe because it was someone's birthday...uhh, THIS someone. And by this I mean, ME! But before the birthday extravaganzas started, my friend got married on Friday, and I was so lucky to be a bridesmaid. I didn't get too many pictures because I spent a good portion of the day wrapped in a blanket because dinner was outside and it was freezing. The little cottage where she had her reception was darling, and they decorated it really nice.

 Her reception ended rather early, so Hal and I went to the movies and saw Water For Elephants. I had just read the book, and Hal was 2/3 of the way through it. He told me that his summer as a carnie is forever romanticized now. The movie was pretty good. They didn't have super great chemistry, and the changed some things at the end that didn't really need to be changed, but I bet you would like it if you hadn't read the book first.

On Sunday we had my family birthday party! Yay! Now Hal and I have a huge dinosaur sheet cake from Costco that it very slowly getting eaten. You want some cakes, pie or cupcakes? Come on over! I got some great stuff that I'm sure I can use in Cambodia, and I got a pair of boat shoes that I've been wanting for literally years.

My mother in law scored these amazing vintage dresses and told me I could have whatever I liked. I took home 4 amazing vintage dresses. Seriously amazing. Funny thing? I'm a size 2, and all of those dresses that I tried on from the 40s and 50s said size 13 on them and they fit me perfectly. Isn't it crazy how much the sizing has changed?

On Monday we continued the celebration by going to the Hoogle Zoo with some friends and my sister's kids. My sister's kids really like the Zoorassic animatronic dinosaurs they have at the zoo right now. They were seriously impressed/scared of the life size T-Rex they have.

Our friends that went to the zoo with us were so nice and took us out to dinner for my birthday! We went to a place called Eva. SO good. We were all really impressed with what we got. It's Mediterranian/ tapas, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was down right good. I loved the white pizza and the spinach gnocchi.

via

For my actual birthday I had to teach my ESL class. So I made the most delicious cupcakes to bring to class. I only had one student, but she was so nice and brought donuts to celebrate my birthday!

My favorite part of my birthday? When Hal came into my work to bring me these:

Thank you to everyone to who took the time to wish my a happy birthday!

1940s up-do

Alright guys, I'm about to unveil hours and hours of work...on my hair. It seriously took a really long time. It took at least 2 hours to put pin curls in my hair, 9 hours to let it dry, during which I slept with a scarf over my hair, and then probably another 1 1/2 hours to actually style my hair. I was trying to go off of the video I posted here. It was hard because my hair is not only long, but thick.

I'm pretty bummed because on Friday night my SD card in my phone somehow got damaged and I had to reformat it, which meant I lost all of my personalized settings, and ALL of my photos. Luckily I have a lot of them, here on my blog, or on my email, but it's still such a bummer because there were some that I hadn't uploaded yet, like the pictures of my pincurls when we finished at midnight. If you don't know, this is what they look like...except I had so much hair that my pin curls had to be layered.

 via

Apparently pin curls is how they started most of their hairstyles in the 1940s. That's how they got those soft waves in their hair, and that's how they did their up-dos. What's nice about pin curls is that your hair will do almost whatever you want after you've done pin curls. You have to brush it out like crazy though if you don't want little curls all over. Ok, so here starts the picture palooza of the process of doing my hair. This is it right after we took out all of the curls.

 

It's just a little bit curly...My hair is so much longer than that, it's crazy how much shorter it gets after setting in curls all night. Then you're supposed to run your fingers through it.

Did someone say big? I thought it look like a judge's white wig from back in the 1800s or something. Especially because the top layers were so curly and the top was more flat. 

via

Similar, no?

Oh man, I was a bit worried at this point, but after a lot of brushing, and a lot of magic on the part of my mother-in-law and a lot of hairspray it ended up like this.

I'd say it turned out pretty similar to the hair in the video, but a little longer since I have a lot more hair. A lot of people asked if I cut my hair. Nope, it's all there, it's just tucked away underneath. It probably would have lasted longer if I had made it a bit shorter because it kept rubbing against my coat, or anything really and then stray hairs would come out from underneath. When I took out my hair at the end of the night I had 33 bobby pins in it. I wish we hadn't used so much hairspray either. My hair usually does pretty good with whatever you want it to, so I bet it would have done better if we had finished it all and then hair sprayed it, instead of hair spraying it to try and get the hairs to stay underneath. Good to know for next time, because we have a lot of gel and a lot of pin curl clips that we need to put to use!

Some of you may have seen this picture on twitter. I tweeted it right before we left the apartment for the church. I'm so glad I wore these tights, I thought they pulled everything together well, and they're so comfortable, especially on a cold December day.

 

 This is another bridesmaid and I, all ready and waiting for the bride to finish getting ready. We wore the same dress, and the other 2 bridesmaids wore a similar cut dress, but in burgundy, but the cardigans and the belts pulled everything together so well. The wedding was so fantastic, and I'm really sad these are all of the pictures that I got. That's what happens though when you're in the wedding party and all of your stuff is locked in a room in the basement of the church. I'll definitely have to post pictures once I see the photographer post them, because you'll want to see her vintage inspired dress that she had made! I was so honored to be a part of their wedding, it was such a special ceremony.

Just in case this is my last post for the week, I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas, filled with family, and the true meaning of Christmas!

1940s Hairstyle help

I need some advice. My closest friend is getting married this weekend and we've decided to go for a vintage look. I've done the vintage look before. I did it at my wedding, my amazing brother in law did my makeup and his friend did my hair. I went to link it to picture from my wedding and then I realized that I haven't ever posted many pictures from my wedding, so here is one of my hair by the end of the night, so it was a bit messy, but it was hard to see it when I had my veil in earlier in the day.

 

Don't you love the intensity of the guy talking to us? This is Hal's Dad's best friend, and Hal's middle name came from him. Oh yeah, pardon my tangent.

I have 1940s style on my hair quite a few times for different events. I did it for the vintage photo shoot, if you need a refresher. I also did it for Halloween this year because I was a 40's girl. So anyway, I wanted to try a new way of doing it for the wedding. Maybe make it a little bit more true to the 1940s. I started searching on youtube to find videos, there were a lot of really good ones.

I found this one:

But my problem is...I have long hair. The girl in the video's hair looks so cute, but my hair is like twice as long as that. I have long, curly/wavy really thick hair....Does anyone have any suggestions or seen any videos on how to turn long hair into a really cute 1940s hairstyle? My hair pretty much does what I tell it to do, so if you have a suggestion, it might work on my hair. I was thinking of trying to do an altered version of this hairdo and somehow change the long part, like maybe pin it to look shorter? So please, if you've done 1940s hairstyles, or if you have come across a video, please let me know...because I am going to do pin curls in my hair tomorrow night and sleep on them so they'll be dry Saturday morning. So please, give me your suggestions, and quick!

Beauty Regimen For the Lazy Girl

I've seen some other bloggers do this and well, since I've taken my test and life has calmed down for a bit I figured I'd share some of my beauty regimen with you all. I don't have a crazy beauty regimen, in fact, thanks to my naturally curly/wavy hair I re-wet my hair in the morning and I'm good to go on that front. So we'll call this a beauty regimen for the lazy girl! Eh? Like them apples? Another side note my nephew calls all fruit apples. So funny....

We'll start first with the most basic thing and what I mostly wear: Mascara. Now they stopped making Maxfactor in the US. I loved their mascara, so I've tried out two since they stopped making it. I'll compare them for you. They're both Covergirl.

I started out with last exact, and since I had seen multiple people post about last blast I decided to try it. I've been wearing it for 3 days now and I'm undecided. The actual brush is huge, like huge. I think I like the brush on the last exact better, it's a little more easy to use. So far I'm not convinced, but sometimes it takes a while to get used to using a new mascara, so I'm not throwing in the towel yet.

MAC makes my favorite lip gloss. Seriously go to the mall, go to Nordstrom, go to the MAC counter and try out their cute little lipglosses. This looks like the kind that I really like. With a little chapstick under them they are smooth and last longer than most regular lip gloss.

And onto hair. Now I don't profess much about hair because I'm pretty lucky with my hair, it does what I want most of the time and it doesn't take much to do it, but in the summer months during the dry heat I have to put product in it, or I end up like this.

So what I use are two different things. Since I mix up my shampoos and conditioners a lot as to not create icky build up, I have realized that one works better with some kinds and so does the other. The main one I love is Sunsilk. I use Captivating Curls styling cream

They changed the look of this and when I went to the store this weekend I had such a hard time finding it because they used to be all green. Either way, it's fantastic for frizz.

I also use biosilk for certain conditioners. I've noticed sunsilk and pantene don't pair well so I use biosilk with that, even when I'm not doing any heating to my hair. That's what biosilk is made for, to protect your hair from heat, but I use it whenever I feel like it because it also makes your hair soft, manageable, and helps with frizz.

 

 I really like this stuff, it's awesome for when you're blow drying or straightening or even curling your hair. That reminds me, I feel like straightening my hair, I haven't done that since before I got married and I've been in the mood lately. It's really thick, almost like a syrup and you have to wipe off your hands after because it's still on there, but it works really well.

Does anyone else have the problem that after the shower your hair dries really well, but then you go to sleep and you wake up looking like a monster? It drives me nuts, but it beats getting up earlier to shower. So what I've started to do is shower at night and then in the morning I re-wet my hair under the shower head and then just let it air dry with one of the two above products in it and it's all peachy again. I do have the hardest time getting my hair to do much after waking up, but if I re-wet it, it will work great for me. Anyone have any suggestions on this? Even if I try putting my hair in a pony tail with bed head my hair is all over the place and don't want to do the simplest thing. Suggestions, Please?

Ok, my last two products are under the same section: face lotion. I put lotion on every night after I shower and it makes my face happy. This is what I have been using for a while.

It smells so good and I really like it, but it's running out so I thought I would try a new kind.

I love this new stuff. Hal says he doesn't like the smell, but he said that about the lavender one and now he loves it, so I'm sure he'll get used to this new one too. Aveeno makes really good lotion with some natural ingredients. This new positively nourishing stuff makes my face feel so great, probably better than the lavender one.

So that's the main bulk of my beauty regimen. I'll try and keep you updated as I continue to try out new products. Please, share with me your ideas and what you use that you love, so I can try them out too!

Nails

This post might seem a little bit weird. Just think of it as learning the quirky little things about be. Then you can tell people that we're besties because you know some random facts about me. So today we're going to talk about fingernails. Weird, right? Yesterday I bent my fingernail backwards and ended up breaking it. I don't care what guys say, it freaking hurts when you do that. People should be more sincere when they say "oh no, you broke a nail." It's like yeah, I did, and it hurt real bad because this thing that grows out of my body just was bent the wrong way and then broke, so what if it makes me maybe want to cry a little bit when it happens. It's called pain people.

Anyway, my fingernails grow pretty long naturally, but they do this little weird thing. Don't ask me why I thought to post this, but for some reason I decided to. So my pointer finger nails do this really weird thing. You can't really tell just from looking at it head on.

See you can't even really tell can you? Well, let me show you a I can't even think what kind of view that would be...Let me show you another view so you can see what I'm talking about.

Do you see how it downturns on one side? Isn't that kind of weird? It sucks because then as it grows it becomes more and more weak as it leans to one side more and more and then finally, one side gets a crack in it because it's bent to far. I think it's genetic or something because my mom's nails did this too, and my sister's do also. I kind of like that, that my mom's did it also because then I get something that was definitely from her. These pictures were taken just over a month ago, and I cut them right after this picture so they wouldn't bend back and break, so I took another one of my nails today since they're already long again.

Can you see how it's bent even more? It already has a sliver in it so I'm going to have to cut them. Sniff Sniff.

Alright, I'm done with the weirdness about nails. How do you like to keep your nails? I'm not much of a nail polish person. Although one time I got a manicure with red nail polish and my nails looked so chic and fantastic. I was bummed that when I tried to recreate it for my photoshoot it didn't work out. Seriously, go back and look at the picture where we're holding the S and H and you can see they had already chipped from doing it a day earlier. Dumb nail polish. Check out this blog. Isn't that crazy? How does she do it, someone please tell me!