December Favorites

We’re all upset that the holiday season is coming to an end, but the New Year means lots of new posts and products!  (As well as new favorites!)  Here are a few of our favorite things from December!

·      Covergirl Full Lash Bloom mascara- This was a late discovery for the month, but it’s amazing!  The brush is smaller than most volumizing mascaras so there’s less of a chance of getting mascara on your eyelid, but still just one coat creates huge lashes!  (And no clumps, so far!)  I used this mascara in my New Year’s Eve Makeup Look post so you can see it!

·      Starbucks Christmas Blend Coffee- I got the mini stocking stuffer bag to try it out at first, and it’s delicious!  It kind of has a dark chocolate note, in my opinion.  Unlike most coffees, this one didn’t have a really strong acidity that bothered my stomach after a while.  (However, they made a Christmas Blonde roast with a lower acidity if you’re really sensitive.  I haven’t tried that one, but it sounds great!)

·      Crown jewelry- This month I really loved looking for crown-inspired jewelry, like earrings and rings.  It adds a nice, small, royal touch.  ;-)

·      Cookie Butter- We made a post on Christmas cookie butter, but right before Christmas we made Oreo cookie butter too, and O. M. G.  It’s so good.  Follow the same directions as in the Christmas cookie butter post, but use one package of Oreos instead.  Delicious.  (We used all of the Oreo cookies, but only about half of the frosting from inside the cookies for ours.)

·      Heeled booties- Sine we didn’t have much of a white Christmas in our area, I’ve been loving booties with about a three-inch heel.  (No ice, no problem.)  Usually the winter means nothing but flat (snow) boots for me, but I’m taking advantage of this weird weather!  The heels dress up any casual outfit just a bit, plus you get a little bit of a calf workout throughout the day!

They weren’t raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, but those were a few of our favorite things!  What were your December favorites?

~Alyssa (& Katrina!)

New Year's Eve Makeup Look

This New Year’s Eve, go gold.  This makeup look is simple but fun, and the metallic shadow keeps the look festive while the gold lipstick adds a new twist.  Whether you’re attending a huge party or having a quiet night at home to watch the ball drop, you’ll shine!

Start with a shimmery cream-colored shadow on the inner one-third to one-half of the eye.  Bring the shadow down around the inner corner and along the lower lash line about one-third of the way.  Then add a shimmery gold shadow to the rest of your lid and bring that down along the lower lash line, from the cream shadow to the outer corner of your eye.

Blend the cream and gold shadows well (top and bottom!), then add a little more gold (or a darker shade of gold) right to the center of the lid and blend.  (If you have a gold pigment or some loose glitter, put that in the center of the lid for extra sparkle.)  Use a fluffy crease brush to sweep a bronze-y gold through the crease, starting near the outer corner of the eye and working up.  Blend well!

For a little more brightness at the inner corners of the eyes, use a cream or white liner.  (You can rim your waterline if you wish, and a little gold eyeliner looks great on the bottom lash line near the outer corner!)  Use a liquid black liner for a thin line on just the top lash line, winging it out slightly at the end.  Apply mascara (generously), and don’t forget the bottom lashes!  (Add false lashes for more drama!)

Warm up the look with some matte bronzer on the cheeks and a little on the temples.  Add a highlighter on your cheekbones and the bridge of your nose.  (I used a pearly light pink highlighter with some gold swirled throughout.)

Now add some gold lipstick!  Lots of people will probably go for a gold look, but usually it will be accompanied by some shade of a pink lip.  Stand out!  ;-)

After, I took just a little bit of the gold part of the highlighter and put it on my Cupid’s bow.

Happy New Year’s!

~Alyssa

How to Approach Your New Year’s Resolutions

It’s that time of year again, where lots of us think about the coming of a new year as an opportunity to have a new start. However, every year, statistically speaking, after about one week people feel their resolutions are impossible to maintain. Then lots of us lose our motivation and we give up. I have some tips that can help keep you motivated and achieve your goals!

                -Don’t make your goals too big at first. Starting with smaller goals makes them less overwhelming. If you want to lose weight, take it slowly and start off by trying to lose about 2 pounds per week.  To help you with this journey, I suggest having a composition book to mark down what you eat, your fitness levels, and your goals for each week.

                -Similarly, don't make too many resolutions! It's admirable to want to cut out junk food, exercise more, get more sleep, study more, get up earlier, stop spending as much money, watch less TV...  But taking on so many changes will set you up for failure.  Pick a couple of the most important ones (getting healthier and getting more sleep are always good ones to start with) and focus on those first.  Eventually you can add more of those resolutions in, making changes over the course of the year and not all on January 1st.

                -The biggest mistake I see is that people think they can just quit the junk food and exercise a lot and it will be easy. Doing this will make you go crazy, and honestly this will make your cravings a lot worse. Your mind will not like quitting cold turkey, so you must gradually get yourself on track. To do this, before the new year starts, keep a journal of the foods that you eat, how much you snack, and the workouts that you do. Then, eliminate some of the junk food in your diet. For example, if you find you eat 2 very unhealthy foods per day, reduce that down to one thing per day for 2 weeks. Make sure you log what you eat so you remember to stay on track. If you haven’t worked out in a while, I suggest planning to work out 3 days out of the week. (Log this as well!) Gradually get rid of more junk food, add more workouts, etc., and after a month these changes will become routine.

                -If you are planning on getting fit and you haven’t worked out in a while, this is the perfect time to find out what you like to do! Try a variety of exercises and keep doing the ones that you find fun. (If you make a resolution to start running a mile every day but you hate running, it's much harder to stick with your fitness goals than if you love to do dance workouts!) 

                -To help keep you motivated, try to give yourself a result that you can look forward to in the end. This can be the amount you weigh, the way you look, or (even better) the physical accomplishments you can reach! (Maybe you can run a couple miles in less time than you could before!) If you choose the second option, I suggest that you take pictures of yourself once you start and every week after that. This can help you see that your hard work is paying off. Even simple things like trying on new clothes can help you see these results.

                -Don’t be afraid to go to others for motivation. Tell your friends what you are doing and ask for their support. Especially go to those friends who have the same goals as you do for the new year. (They can even exercise with you!)

Just remember that you can achieve your goals! Have a good New Year’s guys!

~Katrina

Leftover Candy Canes

Now that Christmas is over you probably have a lot of leftover candy canes and are no longer in the candy cane-eating mood.  Here are a few fun things you can do with them instead!

·      Stir your coffee with a candy cane!  You can get fancy and add some white chocolate and whipped cream, or you can go lighter with just black coffee and a candy cane!  Overall, a plain coffee with a candy cane has vey few calories and the candy will give your coffee a nice flavor and sweetness all on its own.  Plus, it looks cute!

·      Crush a candy cane and rim your mug!  Similar to the first idea, a candy cane adds a cute touch to your hot chocolate when you rim your mug!  Just crush a candy cane and coat the rim of your mug in some melted chocolate (yum!), then roll the edge in the candy cane pieces!

·      Add them to some popcorn!  Make some popcorn and add just a small amount of melted white chocolate and crushed candy canes.  It’s a fun, festive snack that isn’t too heavy!

~Alyssa

Jolly Friday: How Murray Saved Christmas and Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol

Welcome to the final version of Jolly Friday! Today we will be reviewing NBC’s How Murray Saved Christmas and the CW’s Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol. Let’s get to it!

How Murray Saved Christmas:

In this episode the elves are upset, because Santa treats them like slaves. They work for long hours with no pay and he charges them a lot of money for cocoa. Edison elf thinks he has brilliant ideas for toys, and he wants to show them to Santa. (Really these ideas are terrible.) As he shows Santa his boxer jack in the box, it knocks Santa out and all the toys from his sleigh, fall on his head. (This makes matters a lot worse.)  Doctor Holiday is called in to check on Santa, and he says that Santa has a concussion.  The bad part about this is that Santa can’t make his deliveries, so Christmas would have to be cancelled.  Edison pleads with the other holiday characters to help him save Christmas. All of the people, in what I call holiday land, helped out Edison, except Murray. Although all of the holiday characters were willing to help, they were causing a lot more problems for Edison.  Edison decides that Murray must be the one who will deliver the toys this year. After much convincing, Murray finally agreed to do it. Murray didn't have a very good experience going to houses at first. The more houses he went, the more Murray enjoyed being Santa. After the real Santa becomes conscious, he thinks that his suit and sleigh were stolen. So naturally, he calls the police. We find out that Murray was the character who represented the milk man and there was a holiday for milkmen. People celebrated this holiday with a parade every year. But when you finally could get milk from a store, the holiday for milkmen stopped entirely. That is what caused him to be so grumpy. Murray decides that it is a good idea to not leave out the naughty kids this year. Edison agreed and they brought toys to them too. Once the deliveries are done Murray and Edison get pulled over by the cop that Santa called. The cop accidentally uses Edison’s boxer jack in the box and it knocks him out. Murray saved Christmas and everyone celebrated. This special was very enjoyable and I really liked it! It was very cute and was funny in some parts.

Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol:

Mr. Magoo does an interpretation of the story of the Scrooge. I find this to be an average interpretation of the story and there really isn't anything special about it. Having seen the story of the Scrooge before, I found this to be kind of boring and I mostly multi-tasked while watching the show. This special was okay, but it will never be something that you absolutely must see.

-Katrina

Christmas Cookie Butter

Are you looking for a way to get rid of those millions of Christmas cookies you have sitting around without just eating them all yourself?  This treat is delicious and perfect for snacking or gifting!  It’s quick and easy to make, so you can whip it up and put it in a jar for a last minute gift or just keep it at home and have a new way to enjoy those leftover Christmas cookies!

This recipe works for just about any cookie, but to keep it festive we used snowflake cutouts with red and green sprinkles!

Ingredients:

2 cups of cookie crumbs

½ stick of butter

½ cup of condensed milk

¼ cup of evaporated milk

Put the cookies in the food processor and crush until you have very fine crumbs.  (Only put dry cookies in the food processor; scrape off any frosting beforehand.  Frosting can be mixed into the cookie butter later.)  If there were not any sprinkles on the cookies or you want more sprinkles in the cookie butter, add some to the crumbs!

In a saucepan, melt and combine the butter, condensed milk and evaporated milk over low heat.  Then add small amounts of liquid to the cookie crumbs at a time, mixing until the crumbs are wet enough to stick together.  (At this point you can mix in any frosting you scraped off earlier.  It may need to be heated a little just to mix in correctly.)

Chill the cookie butter for a few hours, then enjoy!

This Christmas cookie butter tastes great on pretzels and spread on graham crackers or rice cakes!

~Alyssa

White Christmas Nails

These metallic Christmas nails stand out in a sea of red and green.  Keep it simple and classy (and professional, bonus!) for the holidays this year!

Start by painting each nail with a base coat and two coats of white polish.  On your pinky nail use a striper brush dipped in silver nail polish to create a snowflake.  I did a vertical line with a horizontal line and two diagonal lines all crossing in the middle of the nail, with two small dashes in opposite directions at the ends of each line.

On your ring finger use the striper brush dipped in silver to paint a vertical line and horizontal line across the middle of the nail.  Then where the lines meet create small loops coming out from the center point, like a present bow.

On the middle finger you can use either the striper brush dipped in silver or the brush from the silver polish (with most of the polish wiped off so as not to drip) to create a small pine tree shape.  Start with the top triangle shape: use quick brush strokes to make mall lines flaring out at the bottom of the triangle and coming together in a point at the top.  Then do one or two more rows of brush strokes underneath, getting wider at the base each time.  For a little more definition, dip the striper brush in white polish and add some small dashes to the tree, like snow.  Finish by putting a dab of silver glitter top coat right at the top of the tree.

On your index finger use the striper brush in silver polish to create just a few lines going from one side of the nail to the other, dipping down slightly in the middle of the line.  (They can cross each other and do not all need to be the same size or length.)  These will be the light strings.  Then use the silver glitter top coat brush to carefully place flecks of glitter along the lines, as lights.  (I used my finger to gently push the glitter flecks into better spots after getting them off the brush.)

Finally, on your thumb use the striper brush with just the tip dipped in silver polish to write “fa la la” (or “let it snow,” or anything you wish) across the nail.  Finish everything with a top coat and you’re done!

~Alyssa

Jolly Friday: Baby Daddy, Melissa and Joey, and Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas

Welcome back to Jolly Friday! Today we will be reviewing ABC Family’s Baby Daddy and Melissa and Joey Christmas Specials, and NBC’s Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas.  Let’s get into these shows!

Although these specials premiered last week, I just had time to watch them and I felt they were appropriate for this edition of Jolly Fridays.

Baby Daddy Christmas Special

For this episode Emma has a pageant at her daycare and Ben’s mother wants everyone involved. She embarrasses Ben by making him wear an angel costume. Then his mother wants them to be the grand finale to the pageant, to which he disagrees again. (His mom won’t take no for an answer.) Ben feels like his Christmas is ruined because he has a lot to do and his dinner will be ruined (since Riley will be cooking and he said right in front of her that she can’t make anything right.) Ben upsets everyone by not helping out with the tree, Christmas dinner, and working on Christmas. After everyone gets upset, Ben wishes Christmas to never exist, and it actually happens. (No decorations and he also doesn’t have a daughter anymore.)  Ben is confused and looks everywhere for his daughter. So, it turns out that Ben without Christmas has ruined everyone’s life.  Ben tries to get everyone to believe in Christmas, but his friends think he’s crazy. Once he realizes what the true meaning of Christmas is, everything goes back to normal. Ben ends up doing the pageant and makes sure to enjoy the holiday with his daughter.  

This show was okay. I liked the message, but it isn’t my cup of tea.

Melissa and Joey Christmas Special

In this episode, Melissa tells the story of her great great-grandmother to show the significance of the silver star she has, and she hopes it will be enough for it to go on top of the Christmas tree. Her grandmother is poor and on Christmas Eve she wants to impress this rich guy, Alistair, so that he will propose to her. (This will also save her home.) However, she doesn’t love him. So Josiah (Joe) tries to stop this because he actually loves her. Alistair does propose and they will get married that night. Mel has mixed feelings about the marriage.  It turns out Josiah made the star and asks her to remember him when he is gone.  After her father's sight is restored, he tells her to forget the money and only marry the one person that you love.  Mel tells Josiah that she loves him and kisses him. Alistair sees it and decides to fight him to the death. In a twist it turns out, Josiah is Alistair’s brother. (This doesn’t make sense...)  So, Mel and Josiah get married and they end up rich anyway.  

This show was a lot better than Baby Daddy. It had some funny moments and I enjoyed it.

Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas

Elf is a Christmas movie that must be watched every year. I mean, I absolutely love it and can’t start the season without this movie.  Most of us know the story of Buddy the elf who came to NYC to find his father. This NBC special has a little spin on the story, as they created a musical. Jim Parsons does a very good job of voicing (animated) Buddy, however I could not compare it to Will Ferrell’s performance of him in the original movie. The animation style was cute and clay-like, that we have seen in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  (Classic!) I do feel that some of it was a little goofy, because some of the animals were cross-eyed, but I still liked it a lot. This special was very enjoyable and I would recommend everyone who loves this movie to watch it!

~Katrina

Quick Holiday Party Hairstyles

Whether you want your hair to be the focal point of your look or you want it to just quietly complement your killer dress, these three styles will work perfectly!  Each look is a slight twist on a simple classic style, and each features a sparkly headband to keep with this season’s trend, but it’s optional!

When you want to keep your hair down but out of your face, a half-up style is perfect!  For this look, part your hair on whichever side you like (or go for a middle part).  Grab some of the hair at your crown (keeping it even on both sides), leaving some down in the front and at the nape of your neck.  Slip your headband on behind the hair you left down in the front, with the hair at the crown pulled through to cover the band.  (If you need to, use a couple bobby pins underneath the hair you pulled through to hold the headband in place.)

Now that the headband is in place, grab some hair that you left down in front from each side and pull back to the center of your head.  Gently tie these pieces in a knot.  (If you’d like, you can double-knot the hair.)  Use a couple bobby pins pointed straight down and through both sides of the knot to hold it in place.

To pull all of your hair back and out of the way, but still keep it a little longer, a ponytail is a great choice!  For this look the headband goes on the same way as in the look above.  Gently pull all of your hair back, excluding about a one-inch section just above your neck, and secure in a low ponytail.  Wrap the one-inch section that was left out around the hair tie you used for the ponytail, and secure with a bobby pin or two.

Now, for a little more volume and texture, backcomb the entire ponytail!  I used a brush to do the whole thing then switched to a small comb for some individual pieces, especially on top.  You can make it as voluminous as you want.  Finish by gently smoothing out any frizzy pieces that are sticking out.

A bun is the best way to get all of your hair out of your face and off your shoulders, and especially to show off a dress with cool details on the back!  For this look, backcomb all of your hair so it’s extremely voluminous, then pull all of it back (forgoing a part) and secure in a ponytail in the center behind your head.  Gather all of the hair in the ponytail and just push it back in a bunch against your head (don’t wrap it around the ponytail!) then randomly place bobby pins to hold it in place.  Keep pinning until the hair forms a bun shape and is secure.

By backcombing all the hair and pushing it against your head instead of wrapping it around the ponytail you’ll create a much larger bun.  Slip your headband on by pushing it back over the front of your hair, and adjust however you like.

~Alyssa