Ikea: Round One

I say 'round one' because it's evident that I'll be back for many, many other things. I decided my make-up area, or space was not cutting it. One night, I was watching one of my favorite You Tube beauty gals show off her vanity tour & make-up organization. Now - I'm a girl that loves a good organization session, so naturally, I watched the video with high concentration and awe. 14 minutes and 30 seconds later, I knew I had to replicate what she had. The room. The drawers. The white, sleek table top. The drawers that I knew I could only fill half way and in turn, would give me an excuse to buy more products.
Here she is. My love. My happy place.
THE SPACE.

De-Slick

 I'm definitely in love with everything summer. The beach, patio dinners, days in the park and late night drinks. But let's face it; doing all of the above involves the heat. The heat/humidity and my face are not friends. In fact, they're enemies. My fresh face of makeup would look great until I walked out of the AC and into the humidity. My contoured/highlighted face would look like a shiny mess. I've had a few mattifying powders before and they only seemed to work for a couple of hours.
Enter: Urban Decay's De-Slick Mattifying Powder.
Love. Love. Love. Couldn't say anything more about this product. It's totally worth the $32. I do not let this baby out of my sight. I sweep this all over my face with a powder brush as a last step to my morning routine, then it comes with me for the day. Just in case. So far, I've only had to touch up once throughout the day.
Don't let the summer heat ruin your summer activities because you're worried about a shiny face.

 

 

 

Thursday Song

What I Love About Sunday

 

there is still something about a carnival that pulls me in every summer. sure, the beer tent is one of the main reasons. putting the beer aside for just one moment; the atmosphere and energy that comes with a carnival is priceless. the entire town gets together for two days to laugh, eat cotton candy and fried dough, play games and maybe even go on a ride or two. It's the ultimate summer perk for kids - and the beer tent gives us adults a reason to join in. it's a mini high school reunion. it's observing the young teenagers and wondering if we acted the same way (we did). it's forgetting that diet you're on because fried dough and kettle corn doesn't happen every day. & when it's over, it's the reminder that summer is coming to an end and we need to soak in each day we have.

Thursday Song

... loved this song before and have fell in love all over again with the Kaskade remix.

Squash Cake

The other day, I posted a picture on my instagram of my very first squash cake. I follow a few health & fitness accounts on there; by follow, I mean look to them for inspiration to work out and eat healthy - and sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. Guilty.
This time, I got serious. I was leaving the gym and knew that I had to go grocery shopping. Per usual, I was buying the staple items that I always throw in the cart. I remembered seeing a picture of a 'squash cake' and thought that I should try it.
You may think it sounds disgusting and that's okay - because I did, too. Even in the middle of the cooking process, I thought "I'm either going to eat this and still be starving, or I'm going to hate it and throw it out in disgust".
Neither were true! It was actually delicious and I was s t u f f e d!
So, I saw this recipe and kind of did my own version of it.

 

 

BEFORE you judge: It tasted like a peanut butter surprise. It was delicious. I couldn't even finish all of it.

 

I used (did not measure exactly):

About 1 cup of fat free, plain greek yogurt

Organic peanut butter - about a tablespoon?

Almond milk with coconut - just a splash!

Cinnamon - a dash

Vanilla extract - very little

 

I cooked:

Cut and then cook the squash in the microwave for about 5-7 min

While that was going on, I mixed my ingredients above in a separate bowl

Once the squash was done, I scooped out most of it and mashed it up

Mixed squash with filling - put filling back in squash

Pop that baby in the microwave again for about 3-4 minutes

DONE!

 

I ate.



What I Love About Sunday

Extra long weekends are great, aren't they? It was incredibly difficult to get out of bed this morning; in fact, when my alarm went off I was very confused. I thought for sure today would involve the gym and watching re-runs of Sex and the City while sipping on coffee in bed. I was very, very wrong. I have to admit I was a bad blogger this weekend, because I hardly took any pictures. A girl's gotta live too, right? :) Here are a few highlights (hint: I did go shopping, which obviously included new makeup purchases. A review will definitely be up soon!):

artichokes at a new market in town

caved and bought high waisted, fringe shorts

frozen yogurt, you get me every time.

The Josephine Files - #7

I had to look back into my posts to see how long it's been since I've wrote about good ol Josephine.
It's been a looong time - but she hasn't been on her A-game with comments; until last night.

I stopped over to visit her late last night (9pm) where she went on to invite me to eat carrot cake and/or popcorn. Clearly she's not aware it's bikini season and those types of foods are not welcome past 6pm. Okay, 7pm.

Anyways, she started to tell me a story about a couple in their mid-40's that live together, go on trips with each other, but aren't together, if you get my drift. She must have thought that I in fact did NOT get her drift because she proceeded to explain that they don't have sex. I don't know how she knows this, but she seemed pretty upset about it.

I was encouraging continuing the conversation with her by making sidebar comments, asking questions, the usual.

"What kind of relationship is that?" I asked.

"Who knows ... not one that I would want, I'll tell ya" Josephine stated.

(awesome - thank you for that, Josie)

"Yea, it definitely sounds like they're just close friends" I said.

"Psh. Well I'd say to him 'Sure - we can be friends. Friends with benefits!'" she exclaimed.

......

She surprised me with that one. I was pretty stunned.

After one last offer of carrot cake, popcorn and now coffee, I decided it was time to go.
I'm still not over the fact that my 86 year old grandmother knows the term 'friends with benefits', but you just can't make this stuff up.

What I Love About Sunday

Happy Short Week!
I've been saying this today in hopes that the Monday blues would be quickly forgotten; technically, it's Monday. But really - in the office world - it's Wednesday, because we (at least I do) have Thursday and Friday off for the holiday!!
Woo - Happy early Birthday, 'Merica.

a friendly game of 'keep the ball up', and good friends

a lovely jewelry display at an adorable store; research and design