Happy Holidays!

Hey everyone! Short but sweet post today. As you know I take pictures of Delilah every year for her Christmas card and this year was no different! I waited to post them until the holiday cards went out but here they are! Biggest change this year is that they took a family picture instead of solo portraits of Delilah. We made it fun though ;)

I love this picture so much, it really makes me laugh every time I look at it. It perfectly shows off how mischievous she can be :)

And a straight up family portrait with the pups. I don't think either of the dogs could look less interested in being in this family portrait. So funny.

I hope you all had a happy holiday! I'll be puppy sitting for the next week and won't have my computer to post but I will be keeping up with your blogs on my Kindle. I hope to get back into the blogging groove after the New Year! I'm hoping to make lots of positive changes in the coming year and I'm bringing you all along for the ride :)

Rockin' the Red

Hey everyone! I'm back today with a really quick post. I just wanted to show you my makeup look from today because there were two victories achieved ;) First, I finally had the guts to rock the red lipstick outside of my house! I love the look of red lipstick but never had the confidence to actually wear it outside. I don't know what changed today but I kind of had a who really cares thing happening and this resulted in the outside world seeing my red lips, ha!

My second victory was an eyeliner victory! I can not do eyeliner to save my life but it ended up coming together pretty well today and managed to have some control over my black eyeliner pencil. Hooray!

Here is my look from today. I used a combination of e.l.f. cosmetics and Tarte cosmetics.

My sister-in-law's niece has been in town for the last week and today we went shopping together. I picked her up and Delilah was still home so I got to see her for a few minutes. She wanted me to give her a kiss and I knew what would happen so I gave her a big smooch on the forehead and documented the aftermath ;)

Here she is with her big, goofy, cheesy smile.

And here is her forced smile that is hilarious. She thought this was hilarious :)

That's all I've got for you today. I'll be back at some point with some food to show you. Things have just been crazy here. I hope you are all doing well!

Cookin' The Books: Chloe's Kitchen

Hey everyone! I know I disappeared again but I ended up getting sick last week and just didn't really feel like doing anything... except spend money apparently! I have this dangerous hobby of shopping from the comfort of my bed when I'm sick and this bout was no exception. Luckily I purchased reasonable items. Ever since I saw her on Cupcake Wars I've been a little bit of a Chef Chloe Coscarelli fangirl. I loved that she showed everyone that vegan food is not just as good but better than omni food and that you don't need eggs and butter to bake. You can imagine how ridiculous I felt that I owned exactly zero of her cookbooks! Well, I changed that and downloaded Chloe's Kitchen and Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen. I am so excited about both, they look amazing! I decided to start with Chloe's Kitchen and made a few recipes today to prep for the week. I figured I'd pop in to show you how they came out!

Included in the first batch of recipes I tried is this absolutely gorgeous Tuscan Beans and Greens Soup. She has it served over garlic toast but I skipped that. This soup is a beautiful and hearty soup packed with cannellini beans, tomato, garlic, onion and greens. Chloe uses escarole in the recipe but I decided to go with spinach. I can't wait to try this for dinner tomorrow!

This recipe was the one I was most excited about! It is the Mongolian BBQ Seitan and holy wow!! This is an absolutely gorgeous dish! It has warmth and a touch of sweetness from the spices and touch of agave along with the earthiness of mushroom, heartiness of seitan and freshness of snow peas. I am so glad I tried this one!

I added some sesame seeds as garnish and it looks so good. The sauce is thick and sticky and this is perfect to warm up on a cold, disgusting day like today.

This dish is not in Chloe's books but they were a happy mistake! I was set to make the Mini Potato Skins Stuffed with Avocado Salsa but I only noticed once it was too late that we have entered mealy, disgusting tomato season so this was not happening. I had already roasted my potatoes and wanted to do something fun with them so I decided to make baby twice baked potato bites!

I scooped out the center of each potato and took the insides and mashed them up with some daiya and fresh green onion. If I had been prepared I would have had some sour supreme to help make the filling more creamy but this recipe developed in the moment so I did the best I could. They actually came out good and look so adorable! There are a ton here so I'm wondering if they would freeze well.

Anyway, that's what I've been up to today. I'll try and photograph some meals this week to keep you posted! I hope you have all been well!

Show & Tell Sunday: e..l.f Golden Goddess Look

Hey everyone! Happy Sunday. I seriously love Sundays so much... especially now that it is my Saturday. Anyway, earlier in the week I asked if anyone would be interested in seeing some makeup looks as I play with my new products and everyone seemed to be into it so here we are! I went out for a family friend's birthday this afternoon and was really happy with the way my makeup came out so I decided to share the look with you here. I am going to show you all of the products I used, include my thoughts on them and show you how everything came out. I hope you like it!

I titled this post the e.l.f. Golden Goddess Look because I used the e.l.f. Golden Goddess eyeshadow quad for my eyes. This is by far my favorite eyeshadow that I've gotten from e.l.f... I've actually been disappointed by the other palettes I've gotten but that's for another day.

These are all of the products I used. Except the blush. I forgot to photograph that but I used e.l.f.'s baked blush.

Lipstick: e.l.f. Moisturizing Lipstick in Cheeky. This is my favorite lipstick at the moment. It is a pearly/frosty rosey bronze and it is so pretty.

Bronzer: e.l.f. Essential Bronzer in the shade "Sun Kissed." I'm kind of meh about this product.

Foundation: Tarte Amazonian Clay full coverage foundation. I LOVE this stuff. It has amazing coverage, feels super light on your skin and it is a mineral foundation and contains no chemicals which I love. Really great product! My shade is "fair beige."

Concealer: e.l.f. Maximum Coverage Concealer in the shade "Porcelain." I really like this product a lot, it does a pretty good job hiding my insanely dark circles under my eyes.

Mascara: Tarte Amazonian Clay Smart Mascara. This was a free sample with my Tarte purchase and it is AMAZING! I love the way it makes my lashes look. It does an amazing job lengthening and separating my lashes. Love this product a lot.

Eyeshadow: e.l.f. Essential Flawless Eyeshadow in Golden Goddess. This is by far my favorite eyeshadow by e.l.f. I've had problems with my Baked Eyeshadow Palette and the large palette I got because there is tons of fallout and it gets really messy but this one isn't too bad. And the colors are gorgeous. 

Setting Powder: Tarte Smooth Operator Amazonian Clay Finishing Powder. Another sample from Tarte and another great product. There is so much product in it for a sample too! It does a really great job setting my concealer and foundation.

I swatched the eyeshadows that I used so you can see what they look like. Aren't they gorgeous?! The far left is the shadow located at the top of the quad in the photo and is a beautiful shimmery champagne color. I used this as my inner corner highlight and my brow highlight. The middle shade is the second shadow from the top of the quad and I used that on the inner 2/3 of my lid. It is a gorgeous metallic gold shadow. So beautiful. The far right shadow is a beautiful metallic copper shade and I used that for my crease and outer 1/3 of my lid. 

Here is the finished look. I'm still not great at eyeliner so I didn't use any since I was going out and didn't have time to play around with it. How pretty is that lip color?!

You can tell how great the mascara is in this photo I think. It makes a huge difference in the look of my eyes. I know the Lights, Camera, Lashes Mascara is the popular Tarte Mascara but I really like this one.

Close up of my eye :X It is a little out of focus but it's kind of difficult to get this shot yourself, ha! It's a subtle look I think but I really like it. I'm going to start playing with color soon and see how that works out.

I also tried out another one of the e.l.f. Essential Nail Polish colors. This color is "Garnet" and it is GORGEOUS! This is perfect for the upcoming holiday season. It is a rich burgundy color and really stunning. There are a lot of negative reviews for these nail polishes and I don't know why. The formula is really great, the coverage is great and the five colors I got are gorgeous. They lasted about 5 days before I got my first chip in the Copper color which I think is pretty great for a $1 bottle of nail polish. The only thing I agree with is that some of the swatches for the colors are completely horrible and misleading but I was still incredibly happy with the ones I got. I expected this to be more red but I'm definitely still satisfied with what I got. I still definitely recommend this product... maybe just google image search some real swatches of the colors before you order them. From my understanding the teal color is actually a Kelly Green which would annoy me, ha!

So there you have it! I don't think I'll have one of these posts every Sunday but I will do the best I can! I hope you have all had an amazing weekend!

What I Ate Today

Hey guys! I'm on a roll with all of this posting lately! I told you I'd come back and show you what I ate today and here I am. I don't think I'll be able to post tomorrow because it is going to be a crazy day for me but I'll still photograph what I can to show you later in the week :)

I'll keep this one short and sweet and get right to the meals!

Breakfast was cold cereal with almond milk and banana. Does anyone else eat banana in their cereal? I thought it was a common thing but I never seem to see it on blogs?

Big blackberries for a morning snack.

Not a traditional lunch but kind of what I was craving. A huge honeycrisp apple, a bunch of carrots and some unpictured almond butter.

Coconut cream pie Larabar for snack.

I have been craving pizza and tried to go the healthiest route possible. This is a tortilla pizza with lots of spinach and broccoli and a sprinkle of Daiya. It was really good.

So good in fact I took two pictures of it ;)

So there you have it! Tomorrow will be a lot more green and I'll do my best to photograph it. I'll be back later in the week with more eats! Hope you have all been well so far this week. Cheers!

Weekend Wrap Up

Hey everyone. I decided not to go three weeks before my next post :) I promised to show what I did with some of those groceries and I got pictures of three of my meals that I made from my haul last week. Not a huge amount of photos but I'm working on getting back into the habit! I also made huge batches of some of these meals and they lasted most of the week. I actually have some great meals planned for the next few days so I'm going to challenge myself to photograph them all and show them to you. We'll see what happens. Of course I do this challenge after daylight savings so it is pitch black outside when I get home from work and there is zero natural light to photograph dinner. That's pretty much how my life works.

This weekend my mom and I were recruited to watch Delilah and the fur children from Saturday evening through Sunday evening. Stay tuned to the end of this post for a few pictures from that!

I made a big batch of a green tofu scramble with some tofu, spinach and roasted broccoli. It was delicious and lasted for days. Great for a quick savory breakfast!

I saw this recipe for Chickpea and Cabbage Soup on Pinterest and was really excited to make it! I love hearty, chunky soups in the fall and it has been pretty brisk here the past few days so this meal has been perfect. I'm sorry that the picture is horrible but trust me, the soup was delicious :) The only thing I did differently was I left out the oats and it was still great.

Finally, this week was the return of avocado toast! I used the delicious multi-grain bread that I got from Trader Joe's and it was really great. A simple meal that is perfect every time.

And now I know what you all really wanted to see. Or should I say who?

Can you believe how big she has gotten?! She will be 4 this month. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by. She's such a beautiful kid and has so much personality. 

Here's TJ! He's been feeling a lot better since the last time I babysat for him and he is equally as adorable. I didn't get a picture of Tyler but he was as adorable and snuggly as always. At one point TJ decided to climb up on my back and go to sleep and Tyler snuggled up right next to me. 

So there you have it! With any luck I'll be back over the next few days to show you the yummy meals I've been eating (I know they will be yummy since I actually took the time to plan the next few days of meals)! 

Just out of curiosity would you guys be interested in seeing some of the makeup looks I've been coming up with since the purchase of my new products? I've been having a lot of fun with it but I don't know if it is something you are interested in? I was thinking about making it my Show and Tell Sunday posts and showing you the looks along with the products I used to achieve them. I would also review the products since I've had mixed results with the products I've purchased. Please let me know if it is something you would be interested in seeing in the comments! Keep in mind I'm not great at applying it all but I'm getting better!

Have a great night my friends!

Grocery Haul!

Hey everyone! Happy Halloween! I hope you are all doing well, enjoying your Halloween and gearing up for a great weekend! I have some grocery pics to show you from two separate hauls this week. I thought this would be fun to show since I'm working on getting pics of all of the meals I've made from these ingredients.

The first haul is from Trader Joe's!

The first pic is just a pic of my cart. I stole this idea from Shen :) Lots of fun goodies!

First off, I'm sorry about the horrible tablecloth. I normally photograph on just the table but forgot to move the cloth this time. Anyway, above we have some organic tofu, seaweed snacks, a loaf of multigrain bread (avocado toast anyone?!) and a giant bag of rolled oats.

For produce we have honeycrisp apples, sweet potatoes, edamame, carrots, a frozen veggie medley, a cucumber, celery, romaine, avocado and broccoli florets.

Later in the week I went to Whole Foods to pick up a few fun things!

I finally found the So Delicious CoCo Whip!! Coconut whipped cream in a tub! I was so excited about this because I'm just entirely too lazy to make it myself. I can't wait to try it. I also got the So Delicious Mint Chocolate coconut milk because it is my favorite seasonal milk. I also have seen a lot of people using Amazing Grass in the blogosphere so decided to give it a try! I was warned against the chocolate flavor so I just got the original... What flavor do you recommend? I also stuck to the coconut theme and grabbed a few Coconut Cream Pie Larabars.

I tried my first color of my new e.l.f. nail polish. This is the "Copper" shade and I thought it would be perfect for Halloween! The color is gorgeous and the formula is really nice and thick. I really like this nail polish and the quality is really great, especially given the $1 price tag. I'll show you the rest of the colors as I use them!

I'm not gonna lie, I struggled with whether or not I was going to post this pic all day. At first I thought it was ok then the more I looked all I saw was my gray hair and my nose but I wanted to show you my Halloween makeup! I used Tarte products and e.l.f. products and was really happy with both brands! Also, I don't know why the color looks weird but my eyeshadow was a pretty coppery color even though it comes off more brown in the pic. And I'm looking down in the pic so you can see the eyes :) 

So that's what I have! When I collect a decent amount of meal pics I will come back and do a meal roundup for you! I hope you have all been well! Enjoy your weekend!

Elf Cosmetics 50% Off Haul

Hey everyone! Long time no see! I know I disappeared off the face of the earth, sorry about that. I'm back! With a similar post as my last one because I couldn't resist the 50% off sale that e.l.f had on all of their products! I know it is a drugstore brand with incredible prices but I've been really impressed with the quality of the products so far. And with some of these prices I could not resist!

As a side note, I know it seems like I have a ton of makeup between these two hauls but keep in mind that this is pretty much all the makeup I have... I just had to start from scratch :) Also please excuse the horrific photos... natural light has been hard to come by lately!

Here is the haul!

Up first I have two lip products. On the left is the Lip Exfoliator. I'm really excited about this one because my lips get super dry and cracked to the point that they split so I like to keep them exfoliated and moisturized at all times. I have the Lush Lip Scrub in Popcorn and I love it but it can get a little messy and I love that this is one compact application! I really can't wait to try this one! It takes care of both the exfoliation and moisturizing processes and I think that is great. And I got it for only $1.50!

On the right is a really gorgeous Studio Moisturizing Lipstick in the shade "Cheeky." It has a little bit metallic which I LOVE in a lipstick and it is kind of a rosy bronze color. It is a little sheer when you put it on but is definitely buildable. I 100% recommend this product and color and I also got it for $1.50. Can't go wrong with that price!

The next product I got was this AMAZING Baked Eyeshadow Palette in "California." They are gorgeous warm neutral colors which is what I tend to gravitate to. I have blue/gray eyes and have been loving browns, bronzes and coppers for the fall and this palette really delivers. The shades are shimmery which is something else I really like. I'm a sucker for shimmers and metallics ;) I got this palette for $5.00.

I also purchased this 96-Piece Geometric Eyeshadow Palette. As I just mentioned I prefer browns, bronzes and coppers and neutrals in general but I also do enjoy playing and adding a pop of color. I had zero palettes with blues, greens or purples and the price on this palette was too good to pass it up. It has a combination of shimmer and matte shades and some really beautiful colors I want to try working with. This palette was originally $20.00 and I purchased it for $8.00.

Up next is the Maximum Coverage Concealer in the shade "Porcelain" which is naturally the lightest shade as I'm super pale. I can't wait to see how this works because I've got some pretty intense bags under my eyes. This also cost me $1.50.

I also got the Essential Bronzer with Brush in the shade "Sunkissed" which is also a pretty light shade. I noticed I was missing a bronzer in my collection so I added this to my cart. This cost $1.60.

Finally, I purchased five GORGEOUS bottles of the Essential Nail Polish. This photo is particularly terrible and it's hard to see the colors so I'm really sorry about that! Trust me, they are beautiful. From left to right is Garnet, Dark Navy, Cranberry, Copper and Metal Madness.

I did some swatches for you but they also came out terrible. The formula is really nice and there is great coverage. The colors are in the same order as above. I will be wearing Copper for Halloween :) I will try and photograph the swatches in natural light another day to give you a better idea what they look like. Or I'll just wait until I apply them and show you then! These were $1.00 each. How could I pass up that deal?!?!

That's all I got! Thanks for bearing with me for all of these reviews :) I'm excited to try everything out! I'm going to try to post some meals this week so stay tuned for that! I hope you have all been well! 

Celebrations Part Deux: Treats & Haul

Hey everyone. I'm continuing my lackluster posting frequency but sadly my life is less than exciting nowadays. My birthday was great, I had a nice dinner with my family and we all enjoyed some vegan treats after (you'll see that gloriousness in a minute). Otherwise things have been quiet which is the way I like it. I just got home from a big shopping trip that was a lot of fun and I figured I'd share the amazing vegan treats we enjoyed as well as my shopping haul (which is not edible but still fun).

First up, the edible treats! They were all purchased from Sweet To Lick bakery, the first all vegan bakery on Long Island!! And it's super close to my house... I don't know what took my so long to get there! My mom and I picked out a ton of treats to try.

First box contains a delicious S'more (that says eat me... I thought that was hilarious), three cookie sandwiches (there is a chocolate chip, pumpkin oatmeal maple, and a chocolate one hiding underneath), and a vegan swiss roll (which was AMAZING!!).

We also got some cupcakes to sample which include cookie dough, chocolate cake with vanilla frosting, raspberry, cookies and cream and two s'mores cupcakes.

Even with eating dessert on my birthday and giving my sister in law some stuff to take home for Delilah we still have some treats left over a week later. I'm sure the cupcakes have seen better days (the only one I got to try was a half of a s'mores one and it was delicious - not too sweet!) but the cookie sandwiches are holding on strong. I tried the pumpkin oatmeal obviously and it is amazing. I have half left for another sweet treat this week. They have a lot of amazing options and even do "Vegan Lunch" on Thursdays and Fridays so I'll have to figure out a way to try it... it's from 11-4 and I work at that time but maybe one day I'll be able to enjoy it.

Now here are my non-edible treats that I have purchased!! As I mentioned I consider my birthday as sort of a "New Year" for me and I made a resolution to myself to really learn how to do makeup and to take care of my skin and to use those things as a way to relax. I LOVE watching beauty videos on YouTube and have learned a lot about applying makeup and I'm excited to start playing. I did some research and I believe that everything I purchased is vegan. I haven't opened anything yet so if anyone has heard differently please let me know!

My makeup brushes are disgusting right now so I decided to start over and purchase two sets of Eco Tools makeup brushes with an Amazon gift card I received from one of my favorite people on earth (you know who you are lady, thanks again!! <3). I got the Essential Eye set and the Complexion set so I think I should be pretty good on brushes. 

Another friend gave me a gift card to Ulta (which is now one of my favorite stores ever, ha!) and I splurged on some high end makeup by Tarte. I went for the Amazonian Clay foundation (naturally I'm the second lightest shade because I'm pale as hell) and my theory for splurging on this (with the gift card so I guess it's not really splurging?) is that Tarte uses natural ingredients and the foundation does not contain parabens, sulfates, mineral oil, phthalates, or triclosan. I figured if I'm using this stuff all over my face I'd like it to be as natural as possible. The purchase came with a free gift of a sample of their mascara and finishing powder as well!! Score!! I love Tarte because it is Cruelty Free and I believe most of their products are vegan... I think a few colors are not but their website really clearly labels all vegan products.

I didn't get the eyeliner at Ulta but it fit in the pic so I added it :) I got a set of three Physician's Formula Nude Eyes Eyeliner. It comes in Champagne, Pewter and Black. I am pretty sure that this product is vegan, has anyone heard any differently?

As far as skin care I decided to try two new products. The first is a face mask that I decided to try for relaxation purposes in addition to the skin care aspect of it. I've heard the Freeman's brand face masks are vegan. The one I wanted was a Chocolate Strawberry mask and naturally it was the one mask they did not have so I decided to try the pineapple mask. It is supposed to brighten your skin so we'll see!

I also wanted to try this cleanser which is supposed to be really great for your skin. It is by Yes To Carrots and I chose the Grapefruit line because I have an uneven skin tone thanks for my minor rosacea so we'll see if the cleanser helps even out my skin tone!

Finally, I got a TON of eyeshadow!! I've read in many places that Elf cosmetics are all vegan (their brushes are not though!) so I went to town on the eyeshadows (each palette was only $2.00!). The one all the way to the left is a GORGEOUS shimmery brown color that I could not leave without. It's really amazing. The first palette is a natural brown look, the middle is a golden look and the last to the far right is a pink and brown look that I think will be really pretty. I can't wait to play! 

I'm looking for a medium dark berry lip color as well. I haven't found one I like (I think I look awful in dark lip colors and all berry colors I've seen are really dark) so if anyone knows of a berry lip color please let me know! I'm also looking for an eyeshadow primer so if you know of a good one please let me know in the comments :)

I feel really lucky that everything I purchased in this haul was courtesy of a gift card (the last few products were also purchased from a gift card) and thank you to my generous friends and family for spoiling me on my birthday! I'm so excited to try my new products and work toward crossing an item off of my bucket list (learn how to apply makeup).

What are your favorite makeup brands, products and colors? I'm always looking for suggestions!

I hope you all had a great week! I'll check in again soon.

Celebrations

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. I'm back from my trip to Rochester and have some randomness to show you. I'm sure Rochester seems like a very unlikely vacation spot but I went to college in the area (SUNY Geneseo) and grew to love Western New York. I have probably only been up there 2 or 3 times since I graduated (almost 10 years ago... what?!) so it was time to visit and see a friend (I wish I could have seen everyone, most of my friends live up there) and enjoy a stress free weekend. It was a lot of fun and also very relaxing, a combination that I was definitely craving.

Anyway, here is a bunch of totally random pictures from last week!

Totally random picture from before I left... I felt like fall had finally arrived when I consumed this AMAZING honeycrisp (!!) apple and my favorite spearmint tea. It was a very exciting morning ;)

Last Monday (also before my trip) I met up with my friend Alex for an early birthday lunch. I had a great time, she is so awesome and definitely a really fun person to be around. I enjoyed this delicious portobello mushroom panini that I altered (no cheese or roasted red peppers, add tomatoes - keep spinach and mushrooms) with some fries and some amazing pickles.

Better view of the panini. Obviously this thing is ginormous so I got two meals out of it. Gotta love that. Thanks for an amazing lunch and a fun girl's day Alex!

Out the window of the plane on the way to Rochester on Friday. Clearly it was a beautiful day and you can definitely tell we were not anywhere near a city :) I love seeing all of the farmland from the plane, I think it is so beautiful.

I got to my friend's house and one of her cats (James) promptly decided to make himself comfortable on my adorable owl duffel bag. He is too cute and he and his brother are the sweetest little kitties ever. So cuddly and loving.

It seems to be birthday tradition to see a live Impractical Jokers show now! The first show of their fall bus tour happened to be in Syracuse so we took a mini road trip and saw the show! It was hilarious like the first time I had seen them and we saw their adorable tour bus outside of the venue. It was a really great night.

Totally random meal I ate while I was there. Those tomatoes were INCREDIBLE. I purchased them from one of the farm stands and they were some of the best tomatoes I've ever eaten. Naturally they were paired with hummus because tomato and hummus is pretty much my favorite combo ever. Added in some pita chips and pickles and thoroughly enjoyed this plate.

Big fluffy clouds and a beautiful blue sky on my flight home. It looks almost the same as my first pic (location-wise on the plane) because I was sitting in almost the same exact seat. It was gorgeous and you have to love a flight that is under an hour.

So that was last week. I am officially 31 years old today. I'm approaching the day like New Year's Eve and tomorrow is my New Year's Day. Day one... a fresh start. And I'm looking forward to it. Today has been a lot of running around but I should be going out to dinner with my family (and definitely enjoying a baked goodie) and I'll be having a proper girl's day with my mom on Sunday to celebrate. 

I hope you are all doing well!