Whats pink and green and zebra all over?

My niece's sixth birthday party of course! My homeslice with her hairbow flowerpot centerpiece. I'm not sure if you can tell but there are 9 different hairbows stuck in there.

Zebra cake, I'd never had black icing before today - just how much dye does it take to make black icing? Check out her snazzy birthday hat!

I also attended a Passion Party tonight, not really my cup of tea but I admit it was hilarious. There were about only about 7 girls present, half of us unmarried. We played some "naughty" word games and she let us sample all of the body lotions, body powders, candles, etc. I loved the soy based candles, the wax never gets searing hot so you can use the hot wax as kind of a moisturizing treatment for your skin. Of course you should purchase something if you go to one of those home shows. I bought Pure Instinct - a pheromone fortified oil that smells differently on each girl. Mine smelled very fruity and clean, my friend's smelled very floral. There was also this heated massager that you can use to relieve sore muscles that I decided to buy, I'd never seen one like it anywhere else. My selections were extremely tame compared to the others! I went shopping this weekend and picked up a few items that I'll probably post tomorrow, most of the stores at my local outlet mall were having fantastic sales that I couldn't pass up!

Skin cancer is crazy scary...

Everyone is so tan right now including my six year old neice. I miss that glow and I'm thankful that I've found products to help me "fake it" even if it is an inconvenience to have to reapply every few days. I haven't been in a tanning bed in over 3 years and I haven't been in the sun without adequate SPF in almost 4 years. So what made me change? God told me to stop. I remember an afternoon a few years ago, it was after the prom / springbreak tanning bed rush and my boyfriend and I were going to try to look cheap tanning packages from different tanning salons around town. We went home that day to make comparisons and decided on one that we were going to sign up for the next afternoon. The next morning I got a facebook message from a sorority sister that informed us another sister had died. She was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma, it was too advanced for treatment and she was dead within six months. She was three years older than I was in college and the same age I am now when she died. It really hit me hard - she wasn't a tanning junkie and she wasn't naturally as fair as I am. I took it as a sign because I believe God talks to us in many different ways; I haven't been tanning since. AOT to my Kappa Delta girls and rest in peace Corey

Things I'm loving right now

Periodically I like to do updates on things that I'm loving at the moment. Some of the products I've already written reviews on but some have reached HG status! Tanwise bronzing mousse from Sally Beauty Supply. Yep I'm still using it, I'm on my third bottle since last March. I also use the facial tanning lotion from the same line but I mix it with my night lotion to make the color a bit lighter and natural looking on my fair skin.

Avalon Organics Vitamin C Cleansing Gel and Toner. I love this line! I can easily find it at Target and most Walmarts, it soothes the reddness in my skin and works well with my clarisonic. I love that it's formulated without all the parabens, SLS, etc.

Tarte Cheek Stain has been fantastic this summer, it's light and longlasting. I also like that I don't need a brush to apply it. This has been the color I've worn to all outdoor events like concerts and cookouts and it hasn't melted off yet!

My best friend makes the most amazing sangria. I'm hopefully going to get the proportions from her so I can share the recipe on my blog!

The kindness of strangers, err friends and family. We have had a great response since mom has been under the weather, visitors have brought fresh homegrown peaches, watermelons, apples, blueberries, field peas, green beans, tomatoes, and cucumbers. We have so much good food in our fridge it is ridiculous!

Korres. I love the whole line but the Wild Rose Foundation is a standout performer. Such great products, decent prices for Sephora, and formulated without all the perservatives that are supposedly awful for my skin.

Ice cream sundaes, this has been my splurge of choice this summer. Good-ness I love it! In fact I did a whole post on my love affair with vanilla bean ice cream.

I started using Aussie Awesome Volume Hair Spray a few weeks ago and it has excellent hold and gives my hair a boost. I love the smell and it seems to do fairly well with Carolina humidity.

Yum Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi! I tried this randomly a couple weeks ago and I could easily become addicted. This is a treat for me right now (whereas my Sprite Zero is a daily lunch staple).

Happy Hump Day!

I love the phrase hump day, it's kind of like looking at the week as a glass half full - it's almost the weekend. Isn't it crazy how we work all week just for those couple days off or in my case a 4 day weekend. Its the end of the month and my labs have been drawn already so I'm taking Friday off and my boss scheduled a meeting for next Friday so the best day next week to take off is Monday. I love a 32 hour work week!!!! Our centers are only dialyzing Monday, Wednesday and Friday so it's the new thing to dress down on Tuesdays and Thursdays - anything goes, just cover your modesty. It also gives me the option to wear open toed shoes; a few years ago I had the MOST AMAZING SHOE COLLECTION but I had to tone it down and buy closed toed flats when I worked in the hospital. Healthcare is not a field you want to go into if chic clothes and shoes are your poison. I work in one center where skirts and shorts are comfortable but the other center is more suited to a snow suit - usually I keep my space heater on. I'm actually trying to figure out how to wear my black yoga pants tomorrow since it is my monthly "fat week". Speaking of "fat week", I started running today. It's been several week since I'm exercised, with mom being sick and starting a new job (and my newly found social life) it fell to the wayside. I ran for 30 minutes with a 10 minute full body stretch - I just couldn't keep my mind on it any longer. It's crazy, when I lived in town I never liked running with my ipod, it was this fear that I'd get attacked or mauled over by a vehicle; now that I'm in the country I feel much more comfortable wearing my earbuds. I need to run for stress relief, the last few weeks have been hectic. I just joined a bloggy bible study - what a great idea! I just ordered the book for our study as well as a few other fun summer reads. If anyone is interested in joining I'm hoping it's going to be a good experience. I'm having a hard time finding that niche in my life, most single girls my age don't go to church around here, in fact most of the churches I've visted have been very family oriented which is awesome except when you're the odd one out. To tweet or not to tweet - I can't decide if I should get a twitter account. What in the world would I talk about. Aren't I involved with enough social networks? I didn't realize this post was going to be so random, I hope everyone has a great week!

Lazy summer dinner...

I forgave myself a long time ago for not wanting to prepare a large meal (for myself) after a long day of working. I like to experiment with cooking but honestly I hate preparing a meal that only I'm going to get to enjoy. I enjoy crackers with cheese, fruit, and a glass of wine for dinner often. It's especially good in the summer when you don't want to stand over a hot stove and eat a heavy meal. This week I have blueberries, apples, fresh peaches, and ranier cherries sitting in the fridge. I like the Triscuit reduced fat crackers and usually a couple different kinds of really good cheese. YUM!

Anyone else have any dinner cheats??

Beans for supper...

This isn't exactly a recipe but it is a great crockpot meal that is healthy and simple. Too simple. So simple you can do it without any brainpower and on very little money. You'll need 1 bag of mixed dried beans (also sold as 15 bean soup but I don't use the seasoning packet), salt and pepper, thinly sliced onions, a small splash of olive oil and water. Directions: Mix all ingredients in a crockpot and cook on low over night. Salt and pepper to taste and check it every few hours to make sure there is liquid covering the beans. This works as a side dish when the water is drained and as a soup with the liquid lift in.

For variation I've made this before with some leftover breakfast sausage, very tasty especially if you like spicy sausage. I've also made it with broth instead of water which is also good and with rice of course, the way most people make it.

Hair Inspiration

I'm in such a hair rut. I was thinking of making a hair appointment with a new stylist and I was trying to collect a few ideas. I'm not sure if I want it cut into a cute style or if I want to get a trim and let it grow. I'm not sure if I wanted it colored to one shade or if I want to continue with highlights and / or lowlights. I have a long face with long features and I'm fair (MAC NC20) with light eyes. I love how quickly I can style shorter hair - it's easy to blow out and I can get it super straight. I also love long hair because it feels so feminine. Here are a few photos I collected from google images. Natalie Portman - These are bangs similar to mine, I was curious how they'd look with longer hair.

Kate Beckinsale - I love that she has angular pieces around her face instead of chopping bangs, maybe I'll trying growing mine out. I've had a hairstyle similar to this but I never put the time and energy into styling it.

Jennifer Love Hewitt. I love her hair color in this photo, the highlights are so well blended. She is very pale so I love the way the blonde doesn't wash her out.

Carrie Underwood. I love her hair in this photo. This is what I'd hope mine could look like in the transitional phase while I'm growing it out. My hair is about this length now but it needs a trim and some blended layering.

Angelina Jolie. Love her hair color here. This is almost my natural color but it looks like Angelina had lowlights for this photo. Part of me would like to color it all one shade and start all over again, I have a lot of blonde and red in my hair now and the last stylist didn't blend it as well as I would have liked.

Natalie Portman. This is my favorite photo I found, long layers, dark brown with a touch of golden highlight, and angled bangs. Natalie's hair isn't super thick and neither is mine so I think I actually can achieve the look in this photo. Bonus - if I grow out the bangs in this photo I'd have something similar to the Kate Beckinsale photo.

I'm probably going to splurge on new hair care products soon. I'm trying to use up the last of what I have now and replace with a new brand. I'll definitely be doing some research to find the best products for me...it will take several trips to Ulta and Trade Secret I'm sure.