Things I've been loving

I realize I haven't done a "Things I've been loving" post lately... or really any post at all! So I thought I would share a couple of things that well...I have been loving. Both are things I would  not have expected to show up in a post entitled things I've been loving, but they have so here they are!

Vitabath Body wash in Grapefruit Vanilla

Whenever I see Vitabath I think of my Grandma...  I always remember seeing a big bottle of Vitabath (think the original spring green) on her bathtub. I never thought of using it myself and then one day I was perusing Ulta and noticed they make more than just that particular scent....hmmmm....still I didn't think of buying it.  However as I walked past I noticed a few important words SULFATE & PARABEN FREE... OK Now it had my attention.  We are hearing sulfates are not good for our hair and parabens are not good for us in general so I've been trying to stay away from both as much as I can. In all honesty body wash is body wash in my book, but the smell of this is so head over heels yummy and the fact that it's sulfate and paraben free makes it a winner.  They have other scents I love too, but this is my fave.

Wen Cleansing Conditioner in Sweet Almond Mint

I've watched infomercial after infomercial on this stuff and I can't tell you how many times I've almost ordered it off of QVC.  But, I don't because why would you wash your hair with conditioner???  To me that just doesn't make sense. I didn't think it could 'clean' the hair. Well, my mom bought into the hype (she always does with anything beauty related and lucky for me she always shares)  She told me to take some home and try and I thought ok, I have been curious and figured I would just use it on a day that I didn't really mind if it didn't work as it claimed. Was I pleasantly surprised with the results! My hair really did feel clean after I used it and it looked really nice and shiny. I haven't been using it long enough to see if it will be a must have product but I am loving it right now!

That's all for now. What products are you loving?

*Disclaimer: I have not been paid or compensated otherwise to write this. These are my honest thoughts and opinions about the products and wanted to share them with you because I enjoy them and think you would too.

4th of July Nails

I've been extremely busy between work, kids, summer, etc so I haven't had much time to post lately but thought I'd share our 4th of July nails.  We love going all out for the holidays in my family right down to our nails. 

 What I did was paint a red stripe, white stripe and blue stripe and while the polish was still wet I took a toothpick to create a zig zag through my nail. Now you could leave that as is but I decided to put a coat of silver and blue glitter polish over it. I actually preferred it without the glitter but didn't feel like redoing the nail. 

I did my daughters nails using this technique with red and blue polish and used the white shatter.

I didn't feel the white shatter turned out quite as nice as the black but she was happy and that's all the matters right?

If we have the time my daughter wants me to do a post about her 4th of July hairdo we did.  So maybe look for that in the next few days!  Hope everyone has a happy and safe 4th of July!

The GREEN post

Green... weird how one word can take on so many different meanings... color, young, jealous, earth friendly, money...

Green Breakfast

Spinach for breakfast? Sounds inviting right?  Ya didn't think so. I had a hard time just pulling the bag of spinach out of the fridge before 8am until I tried this super yummy but extremely healthy drink.  Even those who don't like spinach will like this because well, you can't taste the spinach but you will reap the benefits of eating it! Sounds like a win win to me.

 Gather your ingredients

Combine in blender until smooth

Enjoy

Green Smoothie Recipe
1 banana (previously peeled, sliced and frozen)
1 spoonful of peanut butter
1 cup of almond milk (you could use regular milk but why not up the health benefits with the almond milk?)
1 single serving container of vanilla Greek yogurt (once again you could use regular yogurt but why not make it more healthy?)
2 handfuls of spinach

Put all ingredients in blender in order they are listed and blend until smooth.

Original recipe found at:Iowa Girl Eats

Green Nail Polish

Seeing as mint nail polish seems to be one of the in colors this season I figured I'd give it a try.  Since I wasn't quite sure I was going to like it I just picked one of the cheap-os up at Target.  I got the Sally Hansen Extreme Wear in Mint Sorbet. I painted my fingers and toes.... While I'm not an overall fan of this particular brand of nail polish (it's thick and clumpy) the end result isn't too bad. 

While I didn't love it when I first applied it, I must say after a day or so. It's starting to grow on me.  It definitely won't be my go to color but I think it will make it into the rotation of a fun spring/summer color.

Green Cleaning

As I mentioned in a previous post about vinegar, I would like to start cleaning my house with more earth friendly products.  I have since then started to switch over to homemade 'green' cleaners and I must say the switch has been a lot easier then I thought it would be.  As a matter of fact over the weekend I cleaned with my store bought 'chemical' cleaners and I didn't realize how much I prefer the homemade ones.  Here's the recipe for the glass cleaner that I'm loving!

Glass Cleaner

¼-1/2 teaspoon liquid detergent (I use Mrs Meyer's dish soap in the basil scent seriously this must be the best smell on earth as far as clean goes)

3 tablespoons vinegar

2 cups water

Spray bottle

Put all the ingredients into a spray bottle, shake it up a bit, and use as you would a commercial brand. The soap in this recipe is important. It cuts the wax residue from the commercial brands you might have used in the past.

At first I found this recipe to be too "wet" and I thought oh no that's going to streak my mirrors right up. In fact it does the opposite.

Also, try using newspaper instead of a paper towel to clean windows and mirrors... Much better results! No matter what cleaner you are using.

Green with Envy

My brother and sister in law moved into their new house this past week and I must I am green with envy of how much space they now have... Mostly all the closet space! Congratulations on the new house!! It's beee u tiful!

Stretch your beauty dollars a little farther

I am a product junkie, and most of the time I can not wait to finish a product so I can try another.   However, there are my holy grail products that when they get down to the end I panic if I don't have another one standing by. I would try so hard to get every little drop out of the bottle and then I discovered this trick and couldn't believe how much product was still in the tube. It's usually at least a few more days worth.  Now this won't work for all products, only those that come in tubes.

 This works for products in tubes like this. 

(This product is one of my favorite hair products by the way)

 Cut the tube in half.

You can now scoop out remaining product.



 To store push bottom half into the top half

This tube fit together nicely so I left it like this. If I have a tube where I feel air will

get in and dry out the product I will then put it in a Ziploc bag.



Things I'm Loving Right Now

First of all today is my oldest son's birthday... 14.. I can't believe it.. Where does the time go? Happy Birthday Christian!

And now on to some things I've been loving lately.

Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment in Rose

I'll admit it, I'm not a huge fan of lipstick.  I mean, I do like the way it looks, and I do tend to leave the house with it on, but after it wears off that's the last of it for the day.  I'm just to lazy busy to keep applying throughout the day. And honestly I really don't care for how it feels. I'm sure this drives my mom insane considering the fact, that I'm pretty sure she (and probably my grandma too) came out of the womb with freshly applied lipstick.

I do however love me some chapstick. I like the way it feels better than lipstick and I like the fact that you don't need a mirror to apply it.  However, sometimes a girl needs a little color on her lips... and I've tried the tinted lip balms before and they all leave me looking like I've had one too many cherry koolaids. 


Lately, I've been using the Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment in Rose. O.M.G. am I in love. This stuff is amazing! It feels just like a chapstick. Has a SPF of 15 AND adds the most perfect tint to your lips.

Tazo Zen Green Tea

I love green tea   I have been drinking it for years, because I like the taste.  Now throw in the research that is showing all the health benefits that come with drinking it. BONUS!  I like all green teas, but this is by far my favorite.

Pampered Chef Pizza Grill Pan

Pizza on the grill...Need I say more? 

Have you tried any of these products?

*Disclaimer: I have not been paid or compensated otherwise to write this. These are my honest thoughts and opinions about the products and wanted to share them with you because I enjoy them and think you would too.

Things I'm Loving Right Now

Right now I have two sick boys in the house, the little guy and the hubs. They are both passed out on the couches in the living room, and while there's a whole ton of things I could be doing around the house, I'm hiding out in my room so I don't wake them. So I figured I'd let you know about some things I'm absolutely LOVING at the moment.  None of these are really new products so you may already use them, but if not, you may just want to try them out.

Oxo Good Grips POP Storage Container

I received one of these bad boys for Christmas. It's a little on the pricey side for a storage container, but I feel it's worth it. If you ever were to get pathetically excited about a plastic storage container this would be the one. The POP button creates an airtight seal and it just fits better in my cabinet.  I have the 4qt one and use it for my sugar and would like to get more of them for my flour, powdered sugar, etc, etc.

 

Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser Dark Circles

This product is A-MAZING! The fact that it's a drugstore item makes it even better. I was using Benefit's BOI-ING and while I liked that I like this better and it's half the cost! I have it in shade Fair.  They also have a pink shade (I believe it's called brightener) and want to try that out as well. With this product you just dab a little under each eye and then LIGHTLY blend out with your ring finger. Don't use the sponge applicator to blend.  It blends really nice and does a good job hiding under eye circles and just brightens up the whole under eye area.

Yoplait Greek Yogurt in Honey Vanilla

Never thought Greek Yogurt would be something I would love.  Greek yogurt is good for you people. Much better than regular yogurt. It has about double the protein and half the sugar. When I hear something is good for me I figure I should be eating it. So I tried Greek yogurt after Greek yogurt and I hated it. I couldn't even trick myself into eating it. I thought all these people on the Greek yogurt band wagon are out of their minds.  Then I stumbled upon this gem and guess what?! It's deeeeeelicious! I actually prefer this over regular yogurt now.  I've tried a few of their other flavors and they were good too, but this one is my favorite.

Well that's all for now. Let me know if you use these products or if you try them what you think of them. 

*Disclaimer: I have not been paid or compensated otherwise by OXO, Maybelline, or Yoplait to write this. These are my honest thoughts and opinions about the products and wanted to share them with you because I enjoy them and think you would too.

Fun with Shatter

First before I get to what I did to my nails, let me tell you about my morning. It all started out fine, and then, a short while before I had to leave to bring the kids to school is when they showed up... The tree trimming trucks and the orange construction cones. If you read my post about parallel parking or know me, you know backing up is not something I do well.  So, when I seen that there were thousands of orange cones in front of my driveway (probably more like 10) and hundreds of huge trucks (there were 3) I panicked. How was I going to back out? I texted my neighbor knowing he had to leave shortly as well "Are we going to be able to get out of our driveways" to which he replied "Ya". Oh no. Now I will have to back out into this obstacle course.  If other people can do it, there's no reason I can't. All I could think of is the part in The Wedding Singer where the guy is trying out to be the limo driver and he took out all those cones. But with the help of my neighbor making sure I wasn't hitting any of them I did it. Piece.Of.Cake. Yay me :) OK now on to the nails. Hope you like them!

I love the shatter/crackle nail polishes and found a way to create a new look with them.  I did my daughter's nails this way too so we are matchers.  This is what I did, but you could add your own twist by adding even more colors.

First I applied a base coat and then painted a stripe of 3 different colors down each nail. Don't worry if they aren't perfect stripes. The shatter will disguise any imperfections.  I did all my nails the same. On my daughter's I alternated in which order I put the stripes and I think I liked how hers turned out better.

Then I applied a coat of black shatter.  The trick to applying the shatter nail polish is to apply a heavy coat slowly. Then I finished with a top coat.

For reference the products I used are:
Orly Bonder (LOVE THIS STUFF)
Magenta Bliss by Mary Kay (not sure if this is still available it's probably 8 years old! Amazing it's lasted this long!)
Super Star by Pure Ice (this is the best white nail polish I've found. Only needed 1 coat)
Purple with a Purpose by OPI
Black Shatter by OPI
Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

Hope everyone's having a good Monday!