When my friend Deanna decided that she wanted a quiet girls night in, I decided I wanted to host it. I love having the ladies over, board games, and just girl talk. Deanna LOVES froyo, so I wanted to put together a sundae bar, complete with toppings. With the help of Michelle and Iza I think we did a pretty good job. Even number of ladies put us on two teams for board games. I had a really good night and think we should do this more often!
*siiigh. always a good time with the ladies!
Today’s face is brought to you by a crappy front facing android camera, and Birchbox. As you can see it looks like I have nothing on. That’s because people wear make up to look natural. I’m serious. Anyways. I’ve gotten two birchboxes so far and they are pretty fun. I am sure I will hate it in a few months, but as of right now, we’re cool.
I am only wearing two things, Jouer Luminizing Moisture Tint in Bronze which felt like nothing…and looks like nothing. And some theBalm® cosmetics Stainiac. As you can see, I don’t really know how to use make up, but I tried to do the stain. I ended up with blotchy cheeks. I guess I will stick to my “warmth” with bareMinerals.
This is perfect for summer. When you want to look polished and not just rolled out of bed and went to work (which I usually do), tinted moisturizer, a cheek stain and mascara is enough to make you feel like you put in effort, but doesn’t feel like make up!
I’d do this again, but I have to rethink my staining technique!
Don’t panic. You pack for trips all the time. You got this. Right? RIGHT? I GOT THIS? No. I don’t. What AM I GOING TO WEAR. Apparently France isn’t as hot as here. I have to accommodate for a lot of city walking, AND for beach. Blah. I need inspiration.
You don’t even have to read this post. It is just a reminder of what I need to pack for the week.
Things I need to pack for… Beach, hiking, going out, and city. Also a light rain coat. yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah. Continue reading
I think I have a weird fear of water that is involved with nature. I don’t jump at the chance to go into a river, lake, pond or even the ocean. I am happy with clean, animal free pools. I will get in the ocean, if I can see my feet (see: OBX adventure). But I wanted to try tubing. It took a lot of convincing from Deanna and the boo to convince me that everything was going to be fine. That snakes weren’t going to bite my butt, or that I wouldn’t get some kind of skin eating disease from the water.
Fears aside, after the storm that put out electricity in most of the DC VA MD area, we got on a river. We did flat water tubing through River Riders. Located in Harpers Ferry West Virginia, for about $30 bucks you get a tube, and a ride to the river, where you can lazily float along. The time that we went the water didn’t get too deep. We got to float down twice that day, since white water was closed due to fallen trees.
I had a lot of fun and I am glad I got to spend a day with my friends relaxing on the river. They have a store, which has bathrooms and changing stations so you’re not roughing it too hard out there. I would definitely go again, and its fairly tame if you get anxiety like me. They do have different levels of white water tubing/rafting as well..we’ll see if I’ll ever get at that level!
I survived!
I have a new favorite “local” beach. I say local because I don’t have to fly there. The Outerbanks! I know I am so late, there are already a bajillion people who have been there and love it. But I really do. The water is clear, and the beaches aren’t too crowded. And its more family oriented so there’s not crazy teens drinking and causing a ruckus. (Note if that’s what you want, don’t go). If you want a nice quiet clean place to relax…OBX is it. I had so much fun, even though I was only there for the weekend.
We stayed at the Days Inn Kill Devil Hills OCEANFRONT, and the beach was just a few steps out. The hotel itself is like an old colonial house. It was very cute and the staff was very friendly. We are pretty low maintenance so we didn’t really need much. They also serve a free breakfast every morning of your stay, and there’s a pool :D. Everything was very cozy. Plus there is a bbq pit and picnic tables in the back if you wanted to have your own bbq.
We spent the day swimming, reading and lounging at the beach. It was great. The water was clear, and there were plenty of sand bars to keep me feeling like I was safe. (I love sharks, but I am terrified of them). No trash or jelly fish. Just clear water…and your occasional mole crab carcass.
After the day at the beach, we got cleaned up and enjoyed this view at dinner. Review on the place later…
Before we headed out we went to explore the dunes. Where I got my first bug bites (3!) of the summer. No fun. Also its really hard to walk up sandy hills. We did see tiny tiny frogs though. It was so crazy! They were so cute. They were about the size of his fingernail.
It was a short trip, but a much needed break. I really like it out there and plan to go back a few more times before summer is over. Also, Who’s Bad, the Michael Jackson Tribute band is playing there later this month… might have to catch them out there!
Remember my lip obession? Time to start reviewing. I love love love Baby Lips by Maybelline. They glide on super soft and smooth. They are SPF 20 (which is important because my lips are so big, that they FRECKLE. Yes this is true) and completely moisturizing. They are juicy and come in different colors, as well as two clear ones, Peppermint
OMG. The smell of these lip balms are yummy. They don’t taste like anything though, if you were wondering. It gives you a light wash of color, so don’t expect it to work like a lipstick. These are my daily colors. Very little work since you use it like a lip gloss. No liner or lip brush needed!
Clean slate.
Out of all of these my favorite is definitely Cherry Me. It gives a red tint, which is a good way for me to transition from gloss to statement red. Also, if I am wearing a lip stain, and it starts to fade a bit, the Cherry Me is an easy pick me up!
What’s your favorite lip obsession?
*I was not compensated for writing this review, I just like to share my review in case you needed something like this in your life too!
{image via flickr)
For those of you that follow me on twitter, or know me personally, know that I have had trouble with my A/C since coming home from my memorial day weekend in hot hot hot New Orleans. Well let me explain it to those who are interested.
The A/C was turned on that weekend and worked fine. Monday (Memorial Day) it stopped working and we called a dispatcher to send us a tech from their list of providers. He was scheduled to come the next day. Clearly, I was upset and just made a rash move. Get me somebody, ANYBODY! ITS HOT.
Tuesday comes and the tech’s name is Ryan. Nice guy. Tells me I need to clean my 2 year old condenser outdoor unit and some more freon. Sounds like a simple fix right? I am relieved that that was it. Well, there isn’t a hose near by, so he has to acid wash it. Oh and by the way its a big unit, he needs to add 2 lbs of freon. I don’t know any better, so I’m like ok sure. Do what you have to do man. It’s hot. He gets it working, I sign the receipt, and pay the man about $600. Tech fee, labor, acid wash, freon. I get it. He leaves.
30 minutes later it stops working.
You can bet I called him back asap. He comes back about two hours later, and he fiddles around a little bit more. It works, he leaves.
Saturday comes, and it stops working. He doesn’t work weekends. Week of June 4th. He comes back one of the days this week. He is here for a few hours. It starts working again. He tells me to check this pipe outside, and make sure it doesn’t freeze over. If it freezes over, then call him, that is a bad sign and I will have to replace everything. He also tells me that if it doesn’t work, hes going to have to order new parts, new everything. So if it stops blowing cool air, let him know. He leaves.
The AC works for the rest of the week and THANK GOODNESS works through the weekend, when I had my family over for my nephews graduation. However, come Sunday after everyone leaves…the AC stops working.
Monday June 11, the tech gets called. He says cool, he’ll order the parts. Tuesday I realized he didn’t give me an estimate. He says that he doesn’t know until the company gives him in the invoice (really?WTF is that? I’m not that unfamiliar to really think that’s how it works)…. He doesn’t contact again for the rest of the week, nor does he pick up his phone. Call his main office, and they tell me they won’t send another tech because Ryan is already familiar with our case and the new techs wouldn’t. Wow. Great communication system you have there AAA Repairs. Frustrated by friday and a hot weekend. I’ve had enough.
Understand me, the reason why I kept calling and going back to this company and this tech is because, I PAID MONEY. And their receipt says I have a 90 day warranty. He needed to fix this, its his responsibility. Well, I was so fed up by the weekend that I took it as “I paid that money for freon and wash”. After I accepted that as a loss, it was time to let Ryan know that he’s off the books.
Called Monday June18. He didn’t pick up (Surprise, Surprise). He gets a message saying I no longer needs his services.
Tuesday no call back. Leave another message. IT IS SO HOT TODAY. After working 10 hours I go home to a steaming oven called my condo and I want to cry (and maybe I did a little bit, but you can’t tell because I was sweating and crying). Enough is enough. Remembering that I used Service Magic to find my locksmith (who was wonderful by the way) I decided to take this problem to them to find me a competent A/C guy.
Valpo Services calls me in about 5 minutes. Says he can come the next morning 9am. I’ve already missed a lot of work dealing with the other guy, can he come earlier? I hold my breath. He says sure, when? And I reply, how early are you willing to come? 7am it is!
Right on time Walter shows up. He resets it. The a/c is working, so he can’t diagnose it. Tells me to call again when he comes out, he won’t charge me for the next trip. I go to work. When I get home, the A/C is down again. He comes right away. Can’t get it to work, he has to go to the company Carrier, to see if my warranty is still good. I will need a new reversal valve, he wants to make sure its covered since my unit is fairly new. He doesn’t want me to spend money that I don’t have to (hm, I like him already!). Another night with no A/C.
Thursday comes, and he calls back. The unit is covered under warranty,everything except the reversal valve. Thats what he suspects is broken. He wants to try out one more thing before having to resort to buying a new unit. (He suggested buying a whole new unit for a couple hundred more than, just the reversal valve. A new unit would only cost a little bit more, but it would come with freon and all warranty covered parts for 10 years). He puts a booster on my unit. If it doesn’t work, he won’t charge me for the parts and labor since I would have to buy a new unit (what a good man). Worked for about an hour and it went down again. Call him back. Looks like I will need a new A/C. He comes back, I fill out the paperwork, and he’ll be back to install tomorrow.
I have A/C. The new unit works, and he will install a new thermostat. I am still holding my breath, but Walter and Valpo Services has my confidence and if anything goes wrong, he will be the man I’ll call.
Wish me luck that this drama is over and I can keep cool the rest of summer!
It’s been 3 years (yesterday) since the legendary Michael Jackson died too soon. Say what you want, all the scandals and negative things about how he lived his life, but you can’t take away the fact that he was an amazing performer, and pretty much shaped pop music. Usher, Justin Timberlake, Chris Brown… all their dance moves all their inspirations…Michael Jackson. I remember watching MTV (when they still played music videos) and how excited I would get when one of his videos would come on. You could probably get his videos on demand right now through your cable provider.
To this day, I am still scared of the Thriller video.
Last Friday, the boo, and my girlfriends went to see Who’s Bad, a Michael Jackson Tribute band at 930 Club on U Street. I saw them on MJ’s 1 year anniversary of his death. They are amazing, like it will bring tears to your eyes. They have not one, but 2 performing “Michael’s” one’s extremely good at dancing, and the other extremely good at singing. (That just goes to show how crazy good the real Michael is, it takes two people to make this show AMAZING.) It’s like he never left us. There show is better than ever. I can’t wait until they come back around again. Hopefully next year around the same time.
Tips if you go:
I am still on a Michael Jackson kick, so I’ll be singing all week. Sorry to those around me 😀
Remember how I mentioned before that my daily makeup (if any) is just lips and lashes? Well, to make getting out the door even faster, I’ve discovered a new product. A mascara that curls your lashes for you. And no I’m not talking about back in the day, when they had wonder curl, and you can “see” your lashes curl right before your eyes like the commercial. I mean you swipe on that first layer and they hold up in the way you swipe it. I usually spend a minute curling my lashes at the base then moving up to the tip to make sure the lashes don’t droop, but now I don’t have to. My new quick start mascara is Hard Candy Flat to Fab in BLACKEST BLACK
A couple of swipes and I’m out the door. I love IT! But it’s not water proof so don’t use this as your beach/pool wear.
*I was not compensated for writing this review, I just like to share my review in case you needed something like this in your life too!
I spent Father’s day with my big brother and his wife, my nephew and the dog. Here’s the visual recap.
Great weekend with family. Next up, going to the OBX for the first time!
