Enter AceNaturals. Founder and owner of Organic Mobile Tanning, Erik Ace in Miami Florida, is an esthetician student and handmakes all his products. He has this liquid that is a mixture of oils which, when combined with PMF, creates a creamy luscious liquid foundation. The bottle of oils sells for $5.99. So, a small investment and oils, which work with my skin such as avocado, carrot and chamomile seed oils- all of which are great for the skin no matter your condition- how could i be dissapointed?
When it arrived in the mail I was so excited! Here is this small bottle of liquid gold that will help my face. The bottle was shrink wrapped and came with a paper of detailed instructions and a small .15cc measuring scoop for my PMF. The mixture of oils is silky smooth. When you follow the directions and incorporate with the PMF the result is a creamy, luxe combination of MMU. I didn't think this small scoop of PMF would cover my face but it does! The LMF glides on and sets to a powder finish that is light and barely detectable. My face felt soft, moisturized and lines were not visible. Remember, I do moisturize and prime before. I also put on a very light dusting of finishing powder. Still had my glow from my foundation and the bennies of a liquid..yay! Great day in the Nation! Check out AceNaturals on Etsy!
Okay so I have raved about Rhassoul Clay, and Argan oil is so wonderful for skin, hair and everything. Combine the two and you have a great mask or separate them and it can be a Rhassoul clay mask/ facial cleanser, the Argan oil moisturizer post mask/cleanser. If you add Sugar in the Raw, you have a great sugar scrub that leaves your skin hydrated and baby soft.
Here is my Recipe:
Sweet Moroccan Scrub:
This is for a single preparation:
1tbs. Rhassoul Clay
1tsp. Argan oil (yup that much)
1/4 packet of Sugar in the Raw
Wet face with luke warm water.
place Rhassoul Clay in palm of hand
Add Argan oil to clay
Add sugar
Mix with indx finger hen evenly distrubute on hands and scrub into face.
Use gentle circular motions.
Rinse face with cold water and pat face dry. Face should feel smooth, hydrated and silky.
If you need a little more hydration use 1 to 2 drops argan oil and apply to dry areas.
Love doing this before bed and my face is perfectly balanced when i wake up. Argan oil is such a God send for me. If you do not wish to prepare the scrub in your hand use a small nonporous bowl or cup and mix ingredients with a spoon then follow the rest of the directions. I hope you enjoy this scrub and please let me know how it works for you.
Merry Christmas y'all!
I am so glad to have some time to be able to post. I haven't in soo long. Well with the Christmas season in full swing, I have to say one of my favorite things about Christmas is the Nutcracker Ballet. I have been watching
it on PBS and live since i was a little girl.
While it's best live, it can get expensive, so i am eternally grateful for my PBS station to allow me to see the George Balanchine Nutcracker and various other versions of the ballet (love the San Francisco Ballet version). Now that i have my own kids and in particular my daughter is now big enough to understand it, watching the Nutcracker with her for the second year in a row has been very fun and educational for us both. It also has provided us with something to
bond over and discuss. Who doesn't love the Sugar Plum Fairy?
The colors of the costumes and the Land of Sweets always captivated me as it does now with my daughter.This year she was so enamoured with the Flowers and the Dewdrop fairy...pink was everywhere.
Beauty From the Earth has put out three Limited Edition eyeshadow collections which I think capture the feel of this beautiful ballet.Each set contains three full sized jars of loose mineral eyeshadow. enough to provide for many fun looks and days of enjoyment.
The first, Sweet Tooth, with a beautiful purple, sugary pink and spicy yellow colors reminded me exactly of the backdrop to the New York Met Balanchine Nutcracker. It just cries out candy shoppe. Lovely for a party or to spice up a neutral look.
The Nutcracker Collection also with three stunning colors, has Cavalier which is the beautiful red color. The Cavalier has a great solo after his dance with the Sugar Plum Fairy. With such great leaps and turns, very exciting. Red is such a great shade to describe how powerful this male dancer has to be in order to lift, catch, spin, and leap in the Nutcracker. The Mouse King shade would look great in the center of the eye to give an extra pop. Clara, the green shade is wonderful because i always associate her with the Christmas tree as it grows large and Clara shrinks to the size of the Nutcracker. It is truly amazing how the theater works to make a production larger than life.
The final collection, still yet to be released is called Winter Wonderland. Another favorite part of mine is the Dancing in the Snow scene. The icy cool shades of light blue, white and the dark of the night time sky in a beautiful shimmering silvery grey are wonderful combinations.
For the true Nutcracker enthusiast this collection is a great tribute to the ballet and captures beautifully the mood, fun, and innocence of Tchaikovsky's ballet, which he had doubts about after writing the suite. I am glad he decided to allow people to hear it, because it struck me as a child and turned me on to ballet and has brought so much joy to so many generations. It is a tradition on my house and next year I hope to take my daughter to see it live as performed by the Moscow Ballet.
Cheers y'all and Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Feliz Dia de Los Reyes!
I was dress shopping today for my Christmas dress. Yes i understand Christmas is still a ways a ways, however, I plan ahead and hate a crowded store so shopping ahead of time is always a plus for me. I did find some dresses I liked. The Mad Men cable show has had such a positive influence on fashion and has embraced clothing that shows curve and is feminine via character Joan Holloway.
I love how she has real curves and a real bustline. Christina Hendricks is just so buxom and gorgeous. The fashions she wears in the show make me go gaga. I love the jewel tones and the hip huggin fit. The length is perfect for curvy gals with the majority of the outfits hitting the knee. There is just something about an exposed knee that can be very sexy and not trashy.
So with all these dresses hitting the scene since the series hit the air I have been stocking up on dresses of this type. So one of my fave types of ways to dress. However, pulling off a dress like this does take some effort when you happen to be a curvy gal. I remember an interview with Hendricks where she had to learn about the foundation garments that help to polish Joan visually. It reminded me of the movie Pleasantville with Reese Witherspoon where she complained about wearing 50lbs of underwear and that she might kill someone with the pointy boobs. I always marveled at how much underwear went into making a polished look. It is something that i think is often neglected today where mega skinny is the way of life and mujeres con curves get pushed to the back.
Foundation garments are another way of saying shapewear. They are garments that help to smooth, lift, and tighten, and in some cases minimize the body so that one can present the best shape possible in a given garment. Think about a wedding gown or even a prom gown. These are two times in a woman's life when we truly concentrate on foundation garments to help us look our best on these important days. Well, foundation garments also help us to look fab when wearing dresses for work or for any occasion. I found some vintage explanation of such garments on Couture Allure Vintage Fashion Blog. The one in particular i really appreciated was the garments for the sheath dress. There was a strapless bra and a high waisted girdle to bring in the hips and flatten and control the tummy. What gal couldn't use some help there. The contraption may look uncomfy but hey ladies if we can wear 5" heels during the day, then we can wear shapewear to help present a better picture of ourselves in a dress.Spankx help alot with being able to present a more flattering figure when wearing dresses and more form fitting garments. However, don't discount the need for a long line bra and high waisted girdle..yes girdle. Rago makes really good quality shapewear that is fantastic in it's construction and durability. Less expensive shapewear can ride up or roll down and this stuff does not. Herroom.com has the Rago line and presents some reasonable prices. also check Retailmenot.com for further discount coupon codes.
Taking the time to put on foundation garments can help you to lift your bust, smooth you tummy and improve your posture and improve your appearance in a garment. It's worth a try and can even be sexy. Go for the Mad Men curvacious body of Joan. You're soo worth it.
Okay having recently checked out Money Saving Mom.com blog, I have fallen in love with her freezer ready recipes. I was very intrigued at the French Toast Casserole in particular. I'm new to freezing meals and having them ready just to heat at a moment's notice. Taken to allrecipes.com (one of my fave sites EVER!) and it looked very similar to bread pudding. Less butter but still quite yummy looking. I added it to my weekly meal plan and tried it out on Friday. Since it was so close to bread pudding i knew to up the amount of Vanilla Extract in the recipe. I am a vanilla extract nut. when a recipe calls for 1tsp I add 3. So yeah i added more then the recommended amount and to the top raisins. Yum! It bakes at 350 for 45-40 min and my house began to smell the way it doe when my mom used to make budin or Bread pudding with raisins.
when the timer went off this is what i had:
Can We say Yummy! This was sweet,warm, gooey,crunchy and comforting all in one bite! I've never seen my daughter go through food so fast before. Even my 9 month old son loved it!
This was so easy and I always have the ingredients on hand. The hubby came home from drill and devoured what was leftover. I made it again for Father's day breakfast and I know he loved waking up to the sweet smells of baking in the morning.
This is going to be such a keeper for the the recipe binder. Though there is no need for a recipe. It's committed to memory. I love that it only has 2 TBS butter in addition to the butter used to coat or as I call it "color" the baking dish. I call it coloring because i used butter in a stick form and it does feel very much like coloring.
According to MSM and the comments to the post, you can either bake this through and freeze it or leave it raw and freeze. If baked through thaw then bake at 350 for 30 min. How easy is that!
This is great for a quick go to recipe and would brighten any occasion or holiday. Click HERE to get the recipe. I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.
Okay I LOVE my Kobo ereader. It is perfect for my needs which are:
1. read a book without having pages to turn and distract infant while nursing.
2. Easily download and read Library digi books.
3. adjust text size and have wifi
Okay when looking for an ereader i wanted something that was almost bare bones and just simple to use. I didn't need touch, cause the boy is getting bigger and arms are getting longer so touch screens are out. Kobo has only one button with four points on it to aid in menu selection, page turning, and adjusting text size and a few other things, but I'm not going into that. If you'd like good reviews please see a YouTube review of the Kobo. Price was a factor too and i got this on ebay for less than $60 including shipping!
It has WIFi which is great if I'm away from my computer and wish to buy a book. It can easily handle epub and pdf formats and digi books from the library which is great! Increasing Library circulation and letting the higher ups know that ebooks at the library are where it's at! Customer Service is nice too.
I also love the quilted texture on the back of the reader which helps with gripping the reader. Fabulous! However, being the lover of accessories ..ie I'm a woman...had to dress up and protect (protection being high on my list..hardy har..yes it was there..somewhere...but there) my ereader. So, to Etsy I went. I did a search for kobo ereader covers and found that seller are willing to customize covers made for the Nook and Kindle to match the size of the Kobo ereader. Yay! It really came down to one seller who had soem striking covers: Dana Designs. She had two that were basically the same thing but with different band colors. One in Magenta and the other in a rich purple. For $24 these are a steal and a treasure!
Dana has been on Etsy since 2009 and is SAHM to three kids, a military wife, and loves shopping for fabric (sister we need to hang out).In addition to ereader covers she also makes tooth-fairy pillows and coffee cup sleeves.
So my decision came to:
(I love getting parcels. That and handwritten letters.)
Okay above is Dana's gorgeous pic of the cover. Here are my amateur pics, so hang on and i apologize for the glare ..still figuring out lighting and camera settings.
The item came wrapped meticulously in pink tissue paper with a label of Dana Designs.
The magenta stripe has velcro so the cover shuts and protects (see there it is) the ereader. It's cushioned and safe in the custom cut corners and fits in a as snug as a bug in a rug. I can still easily access the Kobo button for page turning etc. On the right hand side there are two little pockets for whatever..USB cords, reading light, paci. Will be handy when i travel with my ereader. 
I love summer. The island girl in me really awakens and my skin itches for sand surf and salty sea air. When relaxin by the pool, having a quiet afternoon or just wanting to have some night time reading, I always turn to a few authors for great reading. I have so many but these are my top 8. Not all are series books but each author has had me addicted to their style and their attention to character development that i find myself itching for the next book to release even if it's a year or two away.
1. Clive Cussler - Dirk Pitt, Kurt Austen, and Fargo series are my fave. Great action adventure novels with underwater action and Historical tie-ins. Great stuff. I've been reading Cussler since I was 15. My Dad started me with Inca Gold I've been hooked ever since!
2.Lauren Willig - The Flower Spy series. Mystery, intrigue, Jane Austen settings, romance and great historical fiction fun! Can't wait for the new book to come out in January 2012.
3. Charlaine Harris - Sookie Stackhouse Novels aka Southern Vampire Mysteries. These are the books that started the whole True Blood Series on HBO. I love these books! Mystery suspense, thriller, vampires, weres, Fae, shifters, witches and a whole lot more and a little small town bar maid who is more than she appears to be. What more could you want? (Eric in person! duh) The audiobooks are great!
4. Sarah Addison Allen - Her novels all take place in the south and have such great magic and small town lore about them. Her first couple of books even have recipes. There is always great food involved in her books. But the mystery is what really keeps you going. Her main characters are strong and curious. These for me are especially great summer reads.
5. Michelle Moran - If you are fancying a trip to the ancient world, then Michelle Moran is your author. Her first novel Nefertiti, is rich in historical fact and fiction. Heretic Queen is another wonderful trip down the Nile and Cleopatra's Daughter are all wonderfully written books with rich landscapes and powerful storylines that will keep you turning pages well into the wee hours of the night. Audiobooks are great here too!
6. Colleen Gleason - Before there was Buffy there was Victoria Gardella. Lady of the ton by day and vampire slayer by night. As her website says " Balls, Beaux, dance cards..and fangs?" Great page turners and the characters are all interesting with their own histories and tales. You will love Victoria and how she naigates her new role and tries to balance family and romance through out this series.
7. Kresely Cole - Immortals After Dark Series is HOT! Paranormal Romance fans will find this a great series as will other readers who are just getting into vampires, werewolves and the like. Cole weaves in mystical characters with myths and legendary characters like the Fae and Valkyrie along with vampires werewolves and witches. The men are hot and the women are strong and complex. Plot lines are always winding and weaving leaving the reader wanting more. Great cover art too.
8. Sherrilyn Kenyon - Dark Hunter series. Love Greek gods and vampires then this series is the ticket. Kenyon blends myth and romance beautifully. You will find you have a love-hate relationship with Artemis goddess of the hunt and her temper tantrums and love of family. You will totally go for Acheron and his band of dark-Hunters who are sexy strong and captivating. The cast of characters is long and wide in Keyon's Dark-hunter world but all is explained and as you delve into the series, it becomes easier to remember who does what and what things mean. Various Pantheons of gods and goddesses are used to bring in different characters so that there characters are not limited to just greek and roman type characters. Audiobooks here are also great and you will Love Simi! If i had the money I would so get the custom doll.
I hope that this list can provide you with some great summer reads. Let me know what authors you find addictive and love to read cover to cover almost in one sitting.
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