A few top notch products!

I recently ran out of my usual eyeshadow primer (Mary Kay, which is awesome), and decided that I'd splurge and see what the deal is with the Urban Decay primer potion since it now comes in useful packaging. While I was at it, I thought I'd try Urban Decay's All Nighter setting spray and see if it helped from mid-day T-zone oiliness. These are definitely expensive products (at least on my budget), but if you buy them from beauty.com, you'll get free shipping over $25, plus I got a coupon code from their catalog for $15 off of $40. That's an awesome deal! Plus 5% from that purchase to go towards a future purchase, plus get 6% of that purchase towards ebates bucks when you click from their website. So I got both of these products for a grand total of $35.83, just a little bit more than the All Nighter Spray by itself. Awesome! I'm such a bargain hunter it's ridiculous. ;) My thoughts in a nutshell: both do exactly what they say they will- no creasing, no greasing! However, if you're on a budget, my Mary Kay eyeshadow primer works just as well, trust me! ;)

I also exchanged my Hoola Benefit recent purchase (it was too muddy on me) and got Dandelion instead. I was worried it would be too sheer and not show up, but if I pack it on just the apples of my cheeks it leaves me with THE best pink glow to my face. I absolutely love it and use it almost daily now. Try it!

Stargazer Lily

Recently my brother's girlfriend Kirsten had her 25th birthday. I was excited to be able to make a cake for her and whip out my skills. I knew that her favorite flower was a stargazer lily, so of course I wanted to attempt to make one. But when my mom asked her what kind of cake she might like, she said, "I don't like chocolate, and I want a unicorn cake!" Hah, yes, she's a strange one. Since I wanted a fancy cake, and well, she wanted a unicorn, I compromised and found a way to incorporate the lily AND the unicorn. I came up with the idea to make a funfetti cake with lemon filling, stencil a unicorn on top, cover it with fondant, and then put the gumpaste lily on top. However, I ran out of time to make the fondant so I just slapped the lily on top (a little ghetto I know). BUT, I thought the flower came out nicely. I was going to make it all yellow but decided to tint in a little orange as well, so it kind of looks like a tiger lily, but whatevs! I was still proud. Enjoy!

The last two look almost identical but I couldn't choose. See the hidden unicorn?! :)

Let Them Eat Cake!

In a previous post, I talked about how my mother enrolled us in our local Wilton Cake Decorating classes for gumpaste and fondant back in January. You're technically supposed to start out at the basic class and work your way up, but obviously we didn't. But after having such a fun time in the gum paste class, we figured it might be a good idea to learn the basics because I tend to focus on the decorating and I don't have perfect skills with the basics! So we took the basic class and learned a TON of great tips, it was totally worth it! I learned how to bake a cake evenly so it doesn't come out with a domed top, how to make a really simple buttercream frosting, how to use all sorts of decorating tips, and how to frost a cake with ease. Here are some pictures of our final cake! (We also made a couple of cupcakes because the cake was being sent to my mom's work and the boys just HAD to have a taste of our work!)

Animales

I'm a big time animal lover of all kinds, and feel most at ease when I have a zoo of animals around me. Just thought I'd share some of my favorite pictures of my pets, because they're too cute to keep to myself. Enjoy!

Baby the Netherland Dwarf (March 1999-April 2011)

Link the Maroon Bellied Conure

Pachuco the Lady Gouldian Finch

Blossom the Lady Gouldian Finch

Log the Dog! (Pug)

Kitty- my baby <3

Dank the Parakeet

Crack the Parakeet

Gulliver the Bearded Dragon

Another one of Gulliver

Mario the Cockatiel

Betsey the Betta (the shrimp was a bad idea, had to take it out!)

Momma protecting her eggs!

And there are a couple of finches and some other fish that aren't shown. These are my buddies!

Orange-Almond Biscotti

Alright- so I must admit that I've never been a big fan of biscotti. Who wants a hard, crumbly cookie?! Soft is where it's at right?! Well, my aunt loves biscotti, and probably about a year and a half ago I told her I'd make her some. Right. We all know how life goes, so it just sort of never happened. Then randomly one day a found a recipe that I thought she would love, orange and almond. If you know my aunt, bright colors and citrus fruit just seem to shout her name. So I decided to make some orange-almond biscotti using this recipe, and I actually thought it was awesome! Especially if you eat one before the second round of baking, since they're still kind of soft. ;) Yes, "biscotti" means twice baked. It was a great recipe, so I hope more people make good use of it!

Splurge! Sigma 12-pc Brush Kit- Make Me Classy

Okay so I may sound like a nerd saying this, but it really took me some courage to buy this! Being a poor college student, I've learned how to never spend money on myself unless it's for essentials like deodorant and such. But, I love me some makeup and I just really wanted to buy something that I knew I would use and love. So, when I saw this super convenient travel friendly brush set, I wanted it so bad! I finally decided to splurge and go for it. All I've had as far as brushes go is a Mary-Kay set from my aunt and random brushes that I've added here and there. This gives you a 12 piece set of what I consider the essential brushes, plus they gave me an extra one for free. They are amazing quality. All super soft...and I mean super soft. Every brush is totally useful, so I don't feel like I wasted a single penny on the expensive (at least for me) price tag. Anyway, here are some pictures I took to give other people an idea of what they're getting if they were considering buying these brushes. And I suggest that you do! p.s., did I mention that they have it in purple, coral, and blue as well? :)

Comes with a great booklet describing every brush.

Great for liquid foundation. I almost wish this one was a bit softer because when stippling, it does feel just a little harsh.

Nice all over powder brush.

Good angle brush for contouring and blush.

Another good brush for liquid foundation.

Great for gel eyeliners.

Love this brush! Perfect for creating a neat outer v, defining your crease, or blending under the eye.

Great brush for shading.

Great for eyeliners.

Perfect for smudging under the eye.

This is an all over lid brush, but for me it's just a little too big.

Concealer brush.

Fluffy domed blender brush.

Free gift! Another fluffy domed blender brush. I've dedicated this one to highlighting my brow bone.

And snap it together if you need to travel!