Spooky Trashy Friday: American Horror Story Freak Show and Marry Me

Halloween is Friday and we have been super excited to celebrate. We will end Spooky Fridays with FX's "American Horror Story: Freakshow" and NBC's "Marry Me." Let's get to it!

American Horror Story

I have been watching this season of AHS after Alyssa recommended it to me and it just seemed like a fun thing to watch to celebrate Halloween. Although, according to Alyssa, this season has been a little disappointing on the scare factor. I actually agree with her, after watching a little bit of season two of AHS.(Which was just plain awesome!) This season tries to make something out of the freaks, but they really aren't the most interesting part of the series. It is claimed that normal people are really interested in freaks for entertainment and sexual pleasing purposes. This season they try to show how the freaks want to be accepted into society and they are willing to do anything they can to protect themselves from discrimination. They have this clown, who is pretty creepy at first, but he loses that vibe as the show goes on. The clown kills people and selectively kidnaps some, but the reasons why he does it are unknown. (The clown can do a good job of creating tension that would cause a scare, but the scares that happen are really disappointing.) There is also this momma's boy who they introduced in the show. He really likes the creepy clown and wants to be friends with him for some reason. We last left off with Elsa(the leader of the freak show) summoning Edward Mordrake, who is a two faced person who will kill someone on Halloween if a freak performs in a show. (Edward's story is very interesting and it's worth looking up.) 

Edward Mordrake goes to each freak and asks them specific questions in order to find the purist freak to add to his collection. His questions give good back stories on the freaks. He lastly interviews Elsa, and tells her that he is thinking about taking her because she is being ignorant about her talent and has questionable motives for having a freak show. Meanwhile the clown does more creepy things for the people he has kidnapped. (Seriously, why does this clown want these people?) Jimmy and Emma Roberts catch the clown chasing this girl and they go to investigate.  Elsa reveals that she was a prostitute who would  inflict pain on people for arousal.  (This made her feel famous because people loved her and were paying to watch her.) Edwards second face isn't satisfied with her story and wants to know how miserable the body part that makes her a freak makes her feel. It apparently feeds off of it and those who have horrible stories get to live. Jimmy discovers that the clown is the killer and is willing to go to the cops, but momma's boy knocks him and Emma out.   Elsa eventually became a German porn star. One day she was making a movie while drugged and for some reason two men cut off her legs with a chainsaw. These men left her to die and Elsa was lucky to be saved (but she doesn't appreciate it) by one soldier who really liked her. Ever since she knew her career was over. The second face says that she is the one to go and Elsa is very happy to be taken.  But Edward doesn't kill her yet. Momma's boy and the clown have fun with Emma and the rest of the people who have been kidnapped.  Jimmy saves everyone and the clown knocks him out. Edward decides to visit the clown and see if he is the one who has to go. Now we get a back story on the clown. Clowny loved being a clown because he could make the children laugh, but didn't like the freaks. (The freaks were very mean to him.)  The freaks made up a molestation accusation against the clown, saying that kids would say that he touches them. Due to the accusation he couldn't be a clown anymore and he decided to recycle garbage into toys.(No one wanted his stuff so that made him sad. Clowny decides to attempt suicide by shooting himself in the mouth with a shot gun. Which explains the way he mouth looks.) After he did this he decided to perform at the freak shows. Clowny thought that the freaks stole the kids away from him, so he decides to kill people and keep some for a show. Edward's other face decides that Clowney is the one to go and he kills him.  This was because the clown couldn't see what he was doing was wrong.  Momma's boy finds the clown dead and he decides to take his place by putting on his mask. The cops come and interview Jimmy and Emma. Everyone is naming Jimmy a hero for saving the kids and getting rid of the killer. The towns people come to the freak show and show Jimmy respect by shaking his hand. Everyone seems really accepting of the freaks and show them all appreciation for the first time. They now sell out a show and that guy that Emma works with has come too. Momma's boy finally cracks and kills the maid. This has to be one of the best episodes this season. I really appreciated the back stories as it helped to tie a lot of the show together.

Marry Me:Scary Me

It's Halloween in this episode and everyone is making plans to go out trick or treating or attending fun parties.  This blonde lady(Julie) who has Annie's dream life(Julie has kids and thinks that she is better than everyone else), comes over to invite them to some safety thing for Halloween. She makes fun of Annie for several odd reasons and I really do not like her at all.  Jake and Annie get upset when they aren't invited to the best party of Halloween, so Jake decides to contact the party list guy so they can get invited. (But Annie thinks it a better idea to do something new and not go to the cool party.) They decide to do trick or treating with the kids because they are so adorable. Jake and Annie end up going to Julie's class. (I can see something not good going to happen between them sometime soon.) Julie doesn't want them to do anything fun and turns down all of Annie's and Jake's ideas.  Annie decides to do a haunted house themed thing for kids just because she hates Julie. So Jake's fat friend is going trick or treating with Kay, and he claims to have found the best street for candy. It turns out that he went to his ex wife's street to spy on her. (Seriously he needs to let her go. Its so confusing!In just about every episode he seems like he is happier without her, but he can't shake her off his mind.) Annie and Jake have their haunted house and the children seem to enjoy it. (Which makes Annie happy because it proves that Julie was wrong.) Julie comes over and was mad that they did the house anyway. Annie and Jake rub it in her face because their haunted house was a huge success. Denna calls them saying they could come to the party and that there was some drama happening. (She for Halloween dressed up like a slut and wore a very revealing outfit.) But they decide to not go to the party and have sex. However this little boy stays over their apartment and kills the mood. So they have to take him home. Jake's fat friend is upset that his ex wife is so much happier than he is. (I think he really needs to move on, he can't keep his mind set in the past.) To get rid of the kid they have to go to Julie. Annie reveals that she doesn't like Julie because she is a mom expert and Annie feels like she won't be a good mom. (Haha that is not true, kids take experience and lots of patience.) Jake's fat friend convinces Kay to steal a bowl from his ex wife. His ex-wife feels very sentimental about the bowl and due to the fact that she is hurting too, he gives it back. The boy in their apartment was Julie's son and they seem to be on good terms after Annie returns him. This episode was pretty entertaining and I'm still a huge fan of this show.

Happy Halloween Everyone! Please have a fun and safe day. <3 Katrina and Alyssa.

Last Minute Halloween Nails

 If you’re not really wearing a costume but you still want festive nails for a party, here are some fun, quick, and really easy Halloween nail designs!

You’ll need:

Base coat

Top coat (I prefer Seche Vite)

Striper brush

Dotting tool

Black, white, orange and red nail polishes, plus an orange glitter top coat (I used: Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in 880 Black Heart; Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in 110 Hard to Get; NYC Long Wearing Nail Enamel in 112 Times Square Tangerine Creme; and Victoria’s Secret Beauty Rush Nail Paint in a bright red)

 Start with a base coat on every nail.  Paint your nail black then, using your striper brush, create small white ghost figures.  They are rounded at the top with three or four points at the base.  Use a small dotting tool to put two small black dots (eyes) on each ghost.

 This is extremely simple and great for an accent nail!  Just paint your nail black and top it off with some orange glitter!  (A little black glitter would be great for some extra dimension, too.)

 Paint your nail orange then, using your striper brush and/or your dotting tool, create a black jack-o-lantern face.  I made a Jack Skellington-inspired face for mine!

 Paint your nail black.  Use your striper brush to make a set of red lips, leaving a small space in between them.  Then dip your striper brush in white, fill in the space between the lips, and create two small upside-down triangles on the bottom lip as vampire fangs.

 Again, really simple, paint your nail white then add black vertical stripes.  (I just used the side of the nail polish brush.)  Finish each nail with a top coat and you’re done!

~Alyssa

Spooky Trashy Friday: PLL Halloween Special and Freak Out

PLL Halloween Special

Omg we have been waiting for this to come out ever since Mona was murdered. (She will be missed!) Now the cast from PLL answers lots of questions and reveals a lot of juicy secrets. The main 5 girls were really surprised on how the show took off and its popularity. They talk about the costumes they've worn in Halloween episodes and they were so cool. Their costume designer does an amazing job! Then they talk about the guys! The Ezra-Aria relationship is really cool and the actors have amazing chemistry. Troian and Keegan are best friends as well, and Troian considers him like a brother. It is also shown that the writers of the show try their best to listen to the fans. They love to take favorite characters and make them evil. (Even the actors enjoy that part and it is awesome to see how passionate the cast is about the show.)  PLL gives a great example of how good friends can help get you through everything. The girls always tell each other what they think, like real girls who have been friends forever. 

This episode also interviews the people who create the sets. They do a really good job of creating suspense and giving the set personality.  They said they make sure to put a hidden A in as many scenes as possible to remind you that A is always watching. (Such as when the girls were trapped in the burning lodge- the fire created an A shape along the edges of the building. Omg this is so cool and I absolutely love it!) Sasha discusses being buried alive 3 times during the show (and Andrea, Mrs. DiLaurentis, adds that the graves they lay in are actually 6 feet deep!). Also, the creepy elements with the dolls and the creepy characters, so good. (Seriously, I’m loving PLL even more haha!) Then they touch on the characters who have died. The cast loves how when someone dies, they really don’t go away due to flashbacks. The writers have revealed that they are bringing in a new character to stir things up with Spencer. The writers also say they will reveal who A is before the start of the 7^th season (!!!!!). We got a sneak peak at the Christmas episode, and while I was disappointed before that they chose a Christmas episode rather than the traditional Halloween one, I think this looks really good.  Well, this just makes me more excited for the Christmas special and makes me love PLL more!

Freak Out: Part 1

This show is just like Scare Tactics, so I just knew that it would be fun for Halloween. For the first prank, Katrina pranks her sister, Chelsea, by giving her a free hair treatment that is going to go terribly. The actresses freak Chelsea out by pretending that the treatment burns their scalps and makes their hair fall out. Chelsea orders the stylists to rise her treatment out right away, so they grab clumps of fake hair and show it to her as if it were hers. Katrina starts screaming from the back where she was getting a "free massage," so Chelsea runs to her and discovers her hair has all fallen out (and, naturally, Chelsea screams and heads back to the sink to save her own hair instead of helping her sister haha!), After she starts freaking out and crying they reveal that she is on Freak Out. 

Shelbi pulls a prank on her friend, Nikki, because she ditched Shelbi and backed out of a plan for matching tattoos. So it’s payback time.  Some guy tries to hit on Nikki at the party and jokes that it would be awesome if he pushed the host into the pool, with which Nikki agrees The guy pushes the host into the pool, who is holding a plugged in radio and is then "electrocuted;" he gets out of the pool and makes all the other electronics and lights go crazy by standing next to them. (Some of these pranks go too far!) The guy that was hitting on Nikki blames her for the incident and she is on her way out when they reveal it was a prank. 

Jeff pulls a prank on his freeloading son, Javen. (Javen deserves this haha.) Javen goes to help out at a place that deals with bugs of some sort, and the one gel who is there has been "bitten" by a mystery bug and isn't feeling well. She shows her massive bug bite and they have a doctor come check it out; he asks Javen to help him drain the fluid from the bite, but when he cuts into the bump a bunch of cockroach-like bugs crawl out. (This prank is disgusting, I didn’t like it at all.) 

The next prank involves a stalker, a really creepy concept.  Mara is the target this time, Chelsea is pranking her because she's a messy roommate. They go to a random mansion for a party and one of the girls there explains how a guy she doesn't know has been calling and texting her creepy things. He sends them a picture of themselves inside the house, then he is illuminated sanding outside the window, watching them. The guy confronts them inside the house (!!!) and they reveal that she’s on a show. (So, Mara barely freaked out when the girls thought a stranger was watching them and dying to get inside... She seemed a bit like a stereotypical party girl without much concern for their safety!) 

Enrique gets pranked by Yolimar because he calls her a baby all the time. (Get new friends?) He and the guy he works with hear noises and such like someone is in this building with them. The "robbers" are there with pantyhose on their heads looking for money. (Haha, this is just silly.) The robbers find the guys, and while Enrique is offering them all the money he has on him they reveal that he is on the show.  

Katy gets pranked just because her friend Michelle feels like scaring her as a going away present. (Haha, the best reason of all!) She starts work in a museum kind of place and weird things start happening as she is left alone. A "ghost" appears and disappears in the hall where Katy can clearly see him.  

This show is very fun, the pranks are not very realistic but they're still fun.

Freak Out: Part 2

Alyssa is being pranked by Felicia because Alyssa toilet papered her house. They perform an exorcist prank.  Alyssa goes to a teen home thinking she will be helping some of the kids there. After visiting with a girl, she starts screaming. So the priest thinks that she is possessed and performs an exorcism. (Haha, when it's revealed she's on the show, the girl is  like "Why are you freaked out?" and Alyssa says "Because you need jesus!") 

Next is the photo booth prank! They have a free photo booth at a beach to scare people. (To be honest, it was the best prank they did on the show.)

Heather is being pranked by Erin because she had her friend think her car was stolen. (That’s not funny...) So Heather is brought to a nail salon and she goes in alone while Erin gets a smoothie. The pregnant lady sitting next to Heather in the salon starts to feel ill and she starts to feel pain. Heather is being really nice to the pregnant lady and offers to hold her hand to help her through the pain. Now the baby is really moving around and her water breaks. The baby's hand stretches out the side of the woman's stomach. (I wasn’t a fan of this one either. Haha, but Heather wasn’t that scared and asked why Erin didn’t bring her a smoothie.) 

Ashton is being pranked because he convinced Ashley, his twin sister, that she was fired from her job. (He isn’t very nice.) They do a levitation prank at a restaurant. Their waiter gets fired by the manager and he gets angry and starts making things move with his mind, yells, and breaks things.  After it is revealed, her brother was laughing and he swore a bit. 

Jessica and Ayanna prank Jasmine because she always scares them when they are in the shower. They are at a wedding and the father of the bride is pushy and complains about everything.  Jasmines goes to steam the dress and ruins it when she gets brown stuff on it from the steamer. The bride finds the stain and tells her dad. (This makes him so mad!) Then they reveal that she is on the show and Jasmine laughs about it. 

Next they do a Men in Black mind erasing prank in an elevator. (It is really funny when one guy just flat out runs away from them!) 

Jaeda is being pranked by Mara, her mother, because she is an ungrateful brat. She gets a job at a mausoleum and she sets up flowers. Things break and move at the place. More things happen as an actor breaks the urn that belonged to recently deceased person. When the girl’s father comes and he notices that the urn was broken, he said a ghost seemed to be disturbed, because she was put with other people's ashes and she didn’t play well with others. Jaeda was scared by this, she and her mother cried.

~Katrina

Sparkly Spider Web Nails

This look is fun and simple for Halloween!  The purple is a great way to stand out from all the traditional black and orange (and candy corn!) nails, and the subtle glitter looks great in the light!

You’ll need:

Base coat

Top coat (I prefer Seche Vite)

Striper brush

Purple, purple glitter and white nail polishes (I used: Sephora by OPI Nail Color in Stop Stocking Me!; Pure Ice in 540 So Into; and Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in 110 Hard To Get)

 Start with a base coat then apply two coats of purple to each nail.  Add the glitter accent color over the purple and apply a top coat to each nail to create a smooth finish.

 For the spider webs, dip the tip of your striper brush in white polish and create small, inwardly curved lines for the outer edge of the web.  Then continue to make small curved lines inside the web, following the shape of the edge.  Paint thin straight lines from each point on the web to the center of the design.  Put the spider webs anywhere on your nails, in varying shapes and sizes!  Finish with a top coat and they’re done!

~Alyssa

Back to Campus: Keeping Your Spirits Up!

It’s just over a month into the semester and things are really, really busy for everyone. You are most likely finishing up the first set of midterms and there is still sooooo much work that has to be done. Some are very comfortable as they are doing well with everything (great job, keep up the good work!), some are just realizing that things are getting really hard and are freaking out at this point, and others are just waiting for break to start. Don’t worry, I have some tips to help everyone continue to stay motivated!

                -First of all, if you haven’t done well on your first midterms, please take a second to calm down. This does happen to people and this is really a wake-up call that you need some more help than you might have anticipated.  You can and will do a lot better. First, you must realize that college is different than high school, so you may have to change your study habits. Then try to see the teaching assistants and the professor to get extra help on anything you do not fully understand. Also, take more time to read your textbooks, look over your notes more often, and do as many practice problems as you can! Doing this can help you do better throughout the semester and you can still achieve the grades that you want. You may also want to start to get tutoring or form a study group so you can get help with studying.

                -Now, with all the work! It seems like you get sooo much and there is no time to do other things. Well, of course there is time for that, but you have to budget your time wisely. It is really important that you schedule days so that you can go to fun school activities or hang out with your friends. Try your best to get the majority of your work out of the way before the weekend. If you do not schedule your time, it will make the semester less fun and more stressful.  (Plus, waiting until Sunday night to do all of your work and studying is never fun.)

                -Now the question comes, how do I continue to meet new people on campus? Well, you will see new people around campus from time to time (or all the time). This is why it is still very important to go to school activities! You will meet tons of people there and it will help you continue to make friends. There is also still a lot of time in the semester to join clubs and other groups that you may find fun.

                -Another really important thing that will become apparent is doing things to keep your stress level down. Find something that relieves your stress and do it pretty frequently! Everything will begin to overwhelm you if you do not do something about stress.  Again, clubs or groups are a great thing to join for some fun.  You could also sign up for a workshop or small class, like yoga, which is relaxing, fun and healthy!

                -If you are getting sick of the work and feel like giving up, well, you have to keep yourself going. This can be your grades or just waiting til the semester is over! Whatever it is, give yourself little rewards to help keep you going, and always remember to try your best with everything!

~Katrina

Trashy Friday: Marry Me and Bad Judge

Welcome to another fantastic edition of Trashy Fridays!  We have some really good (not so trashy) sitcoms this time.  They are the series premiere of NBC’s Marry Me and the new episode of NBC’s Bad Judge.  Let’s get to the trashiness!

Marry Me

So, this couple has been dating for 6 years and she seems impatient because she is getting old. (Aaahh, the biological clock is ticking!) The girl, Annie, seems to want to celebrate now that they are back from their vacation (and she wants a proposal), but the guy, Jake, wants to sleep. So she goes off because she is mad, but really, he just wants to propose. (Haha.)  She angrily moves around the kitchen, yelling with her back to him (on one knee) the whole time. This argument is so annoying and Jake is annoyed as well. OMG so Annie is so mad she calls his mom a bitch (haha really bad idea). He finally gets her to turn around and asks if she’ll marry him, and she says yes. (There is a surprise party, as everyone comes out from behind the couch and the doorways, and it’s crazy because she just complained about everyone who is attending the party. So some people are mad.) No one stays for the party and she apologizes, but everyone still hates her. After, Jake decides to leave because he doesn’t want to stay and he says that they aren’t engaged. He doesn’t want to remember this moment and he is gonna try again in a few days. (She so blew it!) 

Now the friends of the guy are talking about how everything she said may be true or not. The guy’s mom is awesome and listens to Pink. Then, flashback to when the couple met. (Not very romantic haha.) They meet at a Mexican restaurant and discuss gay marriage. (Very strange.) It was really weird and they get each other to laugh at the end of it, because apparently they all are horrible people who eat at a homophobic restaurant. 

The couple talks to their friends about the disaster that was the night before. Annie decides to propose to Jake herself to make up for the night before. So she goes to his work and totally embarrasses him. But he agrees to marry her anyway. It is revealed that he lied to his boss about being sick the week before (while he was on vacation) and he gets fired.  They are back at square one. Jake goes to the same homophobic restaurant where he met Annie. (He enjoys the Hate Nachos.) 

Another flashback happens at a karaoke night. That was a disaster because that is when Jake’s fat friend decides to divorce his wife. And after only a year of dating, Annie seems pushy with love and an engagement, just like the beginning of the show. He doesn’t seem to mind, and says that he loves her that night. 

They apologize to each other and discover they are both actually at the restaurant of Hate Nachos. (Like it's fate.) Both of them think it's a sign and Jake proposes again. Annie says yes. They go to their party and no one wants to celebrate their engagement. Annie gets to make up with their friends and Jake’s mother. 

This show is very enjoyable and I recommend it!

Bad Judge

We start out looking wrong, but a guy is teaching Rebecca self-defense. (Haha, literally my mind was in the gutter for a second.) The poor guys asks her out on a date. Instead she knocks him out with a choke hold. Judge Walsh is afraid of hurting the guy’s feelings. (But he’s really cute, how can you say no???) 

Walsh and the prosecutor talk about a sexual harassment case. She says she’ll help him get some evidence in as long as he goes to her courtroom. (So, Rebecca can be really nice at times.)  She tries to help out the prosecutor but the defense attorney is very pretty and tries to dominate the courtroom. (Um, not gonna happen sister.) The defense attorney tries to get rid of all of the women in the jury, but Walsh is able to save one of them for jury duty. (They excused the jurors give for not wanting to serve, reminds of the time that I had to go and do it.) 

So Judge Walsh is avoiding hot fireman Billy, and he has been calling her all morning to see if she will go out with him. Her bailiff says that she never remembers names and tries to avoid people situations, and he thinks that she should change that. So she starts out with the typing lady, and that is very awkward. The defendant is very good looking and he is trying to win the judge and jury so they decide in his favor. Now, testimony, yay! The attorneys interview a former employee of the defendant and argue over a consent form signed for a Hooters-like business. Judge Walsh just says "Oh, that has nothing to do with the law" and tells the jury to ignore the consent form. Then she calls a recess, like a boss. (I just love the judge!) 

Billy comes to the court house to again ask Walsh out on a date. (Girl just tell him no! Quit playing with him.) Rebecca doesn’t want to deal with him at all, and she continues to try to ignore him.  She seriously wants nothing to do with him and tries everything to get rid of him. (And it doesn’t work.)  Walsh goes car shopping with Billy (because her car blew up last episode). Rebecca tries to get her sense of humor across and Billy just won’t get a clue. (Bad Billy.)  Billy asks if she has been avoiding him and Rebecca denies it. She takes a car and drives away. (Good going, girl!) 

Continuing with the trial, Walsh is really siding with the prosecutor on the issue. (Really, the owner of the Hooters-like business was a real jerk.) The defendant testifies and does a very good job advocating for himself and getting sympathy from the jury. (This frustrates everyone involved in the courtroom.) So, the prosecutor’s diary is ruled inadmissible by the boss and the judge has no choice but to dismiss the case. But Walsh warns the defendant that some other employee will attempt to turn him in and he will be in trouble. 

After the trial the defendant approaches Walsh and she performs a take down on him that Billy showed her. (Go, judge, go!) At the end of the show she goes to a bar with Billy and finally tells him how she felt about not wanting to continue a relationship with him. Actually, Billy felt the same way and just left her with his number in case they want to try things again later. 

Seriously, I love this show as well! I love the characters and it is really entertaining to watch! 

~Katrina

How NOT to Do Your Eye Makeup

When your eye makeup is done well it can change your whole look.  Some styles enhance your eye color; some widen your eyes and make you look more awake; others give a sultry, smoky effect.  On the other hand, bad eye makeup just looks tacky.  Here are some common looks I see that shouldn’t exist:

·      Light Blue Eyeshadow- Just light blue eyeshadow.  All over the lid, smeared across the lash line or even just in the crease.  I’m not sure why anyone ever decided this was a good look, but it is one of the biggest signs of someone who doesn’t know how to do makeup.  Blue eye makeup can be tricky, but it’s not that bad!  A full blue look can be done well as long as the blues get darker from the inner corner to the crease, and an electric blue liner looks great paired with a thin line of black or winged on its own! 

·      Thick Black Pencil Liner- Not in general, but thick black pencil liner all around the eye (or just on the lash line), smudged, but not on purpose.  (You know that look.)  A lot of girls seem to think that if they don’t have enough time in the morning for full eyeshadow or carefully winged liner and a little mascara, they can just take a black pencil liner and completely rim their eyes (or just scribble some on the lash line) because that’s better than nothing.  (Wrong.)  The thicker the liner, the more it looks like you put some effort into getting ready, right?  (Wrong.)  For some quick black pencil liner, draw a thin line just on the lash line (maybe with a little near the outer corner on the bottom) and carefully smudge with a Q-tip.  Or, skip the liner altogether and put on a little mascara!  Just a little, focusing on the tips of the lashes and the ones near the outer corners, opens your eyes and looks so much better!

·      Chunky Glitter During the Day- Just, no.  Leave the chunky glitter eyeshadow for nighttime.  It’s way too much for the daytime.  If you want a little sparkle during the day, use some shimmery shadows or metallic liners.  Shimmery white shadow or liner on the inner corners of your eyes brightens them and draws attention to your eyes.  (Just don’t go too white and make sure you blend the edges!)

·      Mascara on Just the Top Lashes- Why not just keep going with the bottom lashes?  Eye makeup looks incomplete when you skip that step.  Some people are afraid their bottom lashes will look too clumpy with mascara, and some people have naturally long bottom lashes that they think may look spidery with mascara.  But a quick swipe of mascara, even just on the tips, will complete your look and open your eyes even more, and they won’t look clumpy or spidery at all!   

~Alyssa

Healthy and Simple Breakfast

Need a healthy breakfast with protein that doesn’t take forever to make?  Well I have the perfect recipe!

Poached Eggs with Salsa

Ingredients:

1/2 tomato

1/2 small white onion

The end of one jalapeño

2 large eggs

Water

Some shredded cheese (I use cheddar but any kind you like will work)

Salt and pepper to taste

1 slice of toast (I prefer Italian but, again, any kind works)

Directions: Dice your onion and tomato.  Mince the jalapeño, add salt and pepper, mix the salsa together, and set aside.  Boil 1/2 to 2/3 a pot of cold water on a high setting using a lid.  Crack two eggs into a small bowl.  When the water boils, turn to low, swirl the water with a slotted spoon, add the eggs, and cover.  You will cook the eggs 3 to 4 minutes.  After putting the eggs in you can put your bread in the toaster.  After 4 minutes, take the eggs out and drain for a few seconds with the slotted spoon to get rid of excess water.  Once drained, place on a plate and sprinkle your cheese over the eggs.  It will melt over the hot eggs.  Top eggs with your salsa, serve with toast, and enjoy with your coffee or a nice glass of juice!

~Katrina

Trashy Friday: Are You the One? and Girl Code

Welcome back to Trashy Fridays! Today we will be covering MTV's season premiere of Are You the One? and trying MTV’s Girl Code. Let’s get to the trashiness!

Are You the One?

We start with a look at what will be coming up this season and there are a lot of conflicts.  Well this is a great start.  In this show every cast member sucks at relationships so they've gone to Puerto Rico to find love. (You see some clips and it’s really bad! They somehow found people worse than John from Virgin Territory.) There are 10 boys and (surprise!) 11 girls.  Each guy and girl has one perfect match (though one guy has been perfectly matched to two girls) and they must find out which person is their perfect match over the course of the show.  If you find your match you leave with love and $1 million.

The girls are introduced to the 11^th, named Kristina, who they want to kill because 1 boy has a perfect match with 2 girls (one of them being Kristina and she is really pretty). So there is competition already. The guys, on the other hand, are excited to get this thing started. Brandon thinks he’s really hot. (Um, not bad, but not the hottest thing ever.) The girls feel like ostracizing Kristina because they feel like she has stolen their men, when they haven’t found their matches yet. (These girls need to calm down.) Tyler feels that, because he’s all muscles, girls will be intimidated and think he’ll beat them up. (Really, no, not true.) But he is really goofy and that is fun to see.  Briana and Curtis are finding a connection and we all agree on how relationships should be (like, you don’t need to spend every waking minute together and you need time apart. Alyssa and I approve). 

This guy clocks Briana in the face (while jumping over her head as she's lying on the bed. So dumb.) and breaks her nose. (Omg it looked really bad!) They are forced to take her to the hospital. Kristina is looking for a male figure to love her (due to the face that she didn’t have her father around when she was growing up) and will let everyone walk all over her to get it. Brandon feels a connection with Kristina.  Jess and Anthony kiss a lot, because (as she says) you can’t find love without sexual chemistry. They almost have sex and this upsets Jess the next day. She feels like she keeps making the same mistake over and over with guys. The next morning they play a game where they work in teams to melt a block of ice and get a key to open a box to win a trip. So they have to use their bodies to melt it. Brandon wants to be with Kristina but Garland grabs her first. (So he’s stuck with Jess.) Layton and Alex get the first key.  Lots of the couples basically hump the ice and it isn’t pretty. Miss "I used to work at Wendy's" says that the vagina is hot so she uses it to melt the ice. (Gross.) They then tell us there is an after show for this series. (Is that even necessary..? I will not watch it.)  

Pratt has a religious debate with a girl and realizes that she isn’t his match. Pratt and Paris make a connection so they pretend to hate each other (in order to avoid being sent to the truth booth and messing up their chances of winning the money, I guess?). People who won the competition go on the excursion. Brandon feels like he has no connection with Jess. Jess doesn’t like Brandon either, but she’s into Layton. People at the house vote on the couples to go in the truth booth and they mostly vote for Jess and Brandon. Jess realizes that she needs to take things slower with guys so they can like her for reasons other than sex. (Duh...) It is also revealed that the Paris/Pratt feud is fake. They come home and they need to vote to see if someone is a match or not and someone gets kicked off. The winning couple (if that’s what it is called) gets a honeymoon suite so they can have some alone time and explore each other. (Like, no, it's way too soon, seriously!!) 

It's truth booth time. Jessica and Brandon go first. Since Brandon isn’t into her at all, he doesn’t really care if they're not a match.  He makes the comment that he likes real boobs. (Omg I hate people.) It is revealed that Jess and Brandon aren’t a match. But Brandon is happy because he can get with Kristina. (So he kisses her in front of everyone and I think she likes Brandon because she didn’t want him to match with Jess.) Jenna confronts Layton about his connection with Jess. He says she is pretty but doesn’t know if he wants her. So now it’s another matching game. Briana is back and she is perfectly fine. (No broken nose?!)  

Then we come to a matching game (kind of...) where the guys are asked to pick one girl they think could be their perfect match, then the couple "lock in" their handprints.  Once every couple has been locked in (excluding one unfortunate girl due to the odd number), the host reveals how many perfect matches have been made (but not who they are).   Layton goes first and he must decide if Jenna or Jess is his perfect match. (Why exactly?? Seriously, the rules of this show are not explained well so I have no idea what is going on.) He decides that his perfect match is Jenna. So they lock in. Next is Daria, and his match is Ashley. Pratt goes next and he chooses Paris, what a shocker. (So everyone is upset that he faked the fight, get over it!) Curtis is next and he chooses Briana. (They are cute, tbh.) Then John goes and he chooses Jasmine. (Where did Jasmine come from!? I haven’t seen her all show.) Brandon chooses Kristina. (Not a shocker, again.) Anthony chooses Jessica.  Everyone kind of treats Jess like a slut. Tyler chooses Alex. Nathan chooses Shelby. (Again, who are you..? Some of these names come out of nowhere.) Alex chooses Miss. Wendy's. So, Tyler is left alone, which makes her upset. Now they reveal how many correct matches there are but won’t say which ones specifically. (That keeps the fun going I guess?) There are only 2 matches. So they now know that their match is there so some can keep searching or see where their relationship goes.

To be honest this is such a trashy show and it is sooo bad.

Girl Code

We are going to start to cover the sexuality episode that was aired last week. (This episode honestly was more interesting to me.) So they first start out discussing "The Talk." This girl with a jersey accent said that it is when your parents talk to you and you want to die. (This is really true, but the way she said it was just great.) We get other testimonials and some of the cast reenacts what happens when your parents talk to you. (My favorite was Nessa, whose mother said you don’t know your body enough to have sex and you better listen to me.) Nicole came up with a very strange idea of where babies come from. She says that God makes the baby, pushes it out of heaven in the form of a seed, the baby lands on a hamburger, the mom eats it, and then becomes pregnant. (Haha omg what? Just how do you come up with this idea??) 

The girls move on to sex ed and all agree they need people to be more honest about what happens and need someone younger so the issue is more approachable. Then they talk about more really weird details about sex. Like, one girl was like "Oh, well guys make weird faces," like, I really didn’t need to know that at all.  After, they talk about how the first time you feel things down there. All the girls say that it’s an amazing, but unexpected feeling they experience. They also believe that being a girl means that you know how to run the bases and you have control over your sex life. Control, in their opinions, is having the ability to please yourself first, and knowing what you like and what you don’t so you can set your boundaries with your partner. With the bases they agree that you need to do all of them slowly and be willing to help your partner out when necessary. 

Next they talk about sex appeal.  They have 2 sides of being sexy. One is the way you are presenting yourself to guys and others think it’s your attitude more than the way you dress. Being confident is the best way to be sexy. One girl was saying how you can use your looks all you want, but if you aren’t a nice girl then you really won’t be getting far. (You know what, even though some of the advice is out there, generally these girls have a pretty honest view on how it should be for us ladies.) Then the girls talk about our libido. The girls say you need a balance of knowing when you want it and when you don’t. And most importantly it is okay to not be in the mood! Girls need to stick up for themselves and tell their guy no, and he is just going to have to accept it.  

They end the show reminding us to get what we want, stand up for ourselves when we don’t want it, find our own way to sexy, listen to ourselves, and be careful when having sex. I really liked this show. The girls were okay, the advice was pretty good, and it was really entertaining.

~Katrina

Festive Sugar Skull Nails

 I love how colorful sugar skulls are!  This look is completely customizable and creative.  I did two sugar skulls per hand with confetti style nails in between, but you can do as many sugar skulls as you’d like!

You’ll need:

Base coat

Top coat (I prefer Seche Vite)

Striper brush

Dotting tool

Small round nail gems (optional; I used a set of different colors and shapes from Simply Sweet)

Mint green, white, pink, yellow, bright blue, red and black nail polishes  (You can use any bright colors you want for the accents and confetti nails!  I used: Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in 340 Mint Sorbet; Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in 110 Hard to Get; Cover Girl Continuous Color in Parisian Pink 052; Pure Ice in Excuse Me; OPI Nail Lacquer in Can’t Find My Czechbook; OPI Nail Lacquer in I Eat Mainely Lobster; and Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in 880 Black Heart)

Start with a clear base coat.  Paint your pinky mint green, your middle finger pink, your thumb yellow, and your ring and index fingers white.  (If you choose to do more or less sugar skulls, you can paint other nails white or choose another one of your bright colors.)

Use your dotting tool to make small dots in your different bright colors in the shape of a circle, with two small circles next to each other just above half way up your nail on all the white nails.  The colors can be in the same order for each circle, or completely different!

Now add some colorful designs to your white nails!  (I stayed near the top of each nail, but you can add details around the sides.)  To keep the look really personal and interesting, do a different design on each sugar skull!  On my ring finger I used my striper brush to put a curvy mint green shape at the tip of my nail.  Then I dipped the striper brush in pink to outline the green shape, add a matching, smaller shape inside the green, and to add some extra curved lines near the top on the sides.

On my index finger I used the dotting tool to place four small pink dots together at the top center part of my nail.  Then I used the dotting tool to put a blue dot in the middle of the pink shape.  I used the striper brush to add curvy blue lines at the sides of the shape.

Now dip your striper brush in black and paint a small shape that is sort of like an upside down heart in the middle of each sugar skull nail, between the colorful circle eyes.  Underneath the upside down heart nose, use the striper brush in black to paint small vertical ovals in a line next to each other, with a thin horizontal line painted through the middle of them.  Now that you have the decorations, nose and teeth, put a small dot of clear polish in the middle of each colorful circle and apply a round nail gem.  I used blue stones on my ring finger and hot pink on my index.  (If you don’t want to use nail gems in the eyes, just use your dotting tool to put either your brightest color or black in the center of the eyes.)

For the confetti nails, use your striper brush dipped in your different bright colors to make short, slightly curved lines going in random directions.  I did roughly 3-4 lines of each bright color (that wasn’t the base color of that nail) for each confetti nail.  Finish with a top coat!   

~Alyssa