Beauty on a Budget: Part I

Here we are for Part I of my Beauty Series! Part I will cover foundations, bronzing powder and cheek color. Before we even start with application you have to find your perfect match.

• Finding your perfect Match!  

Favorite Foundation!

Samples can be your absolute best friend! Always always sample, just because it looks like a match doesn't mean it is. It is good to play around  with different colors to make sure you have a winner! Not only is it important to find a color match, it is just as important to find something that goes well with your skin type. I have pretty regular skin that can sometimes be on the dry side. I like a lightweight foundation that has medium coverage and goes on smoothly. I do not like the feeling of a heavy thick foundation on my skin!

• Clean and Moisturize

It is always important to start with a clean slate! Finding a great cleanser and moisturizer is absolutely essential. Did you know that a main cause for wrinkles is lack of moisture? SAY WHAT?? You better believe I moisturize my skin twice a day! A clean moisturized fave is like a blank canvas for makeup! Here are some of my fave products I wrote about recently. You can find my favorite cleanser and moisturizers there.

• Application- The 3 P's

MK Mineral Powder

a. Primer-can not express to you my love for primer. It helps your foundation go on so very smoothly! A little goes a long way here. I am also convinced that it makes my foundation last longer because it goes on so smoothly I am never re-coating!

b. Product-Like I said before make sure you have your perfect match! Something that works well with your skin. Tip: make sure to start at the center of your face and work your way out, making sure you are always keeping your brush in a downward motion.

c. Powder-I love to top my foundation with a light powder. It seems to seal everything together and give you a smooth finish.

I love trying different things and I believe that most people have to try and see what works best for them. A few things I found that work great for me and my skin type are a bronzing powder, a pink toned cheek color and a highlighter. These days with most things being mineral related, I have learned to interchange things. For example my "highlighter" is actually an eye color. Yep, it is meant to be eye shadow but I have found that it works great to highlight different areas. I use it right above the area I apply my cheek color, right above the center part of my lip and straight down my nose. 



**Here is a list of what I use:
Mary Kay Timewise Luminous Wear Foundation Ivory 7 ($20)
Mary Kay Mineral Powder Foundation Ivory 2 ($18)
Mary Kay Mineral Bronzing Powder in Desert Sun ($12)
Mary Kay Mineral Cheek Color in Shy Blush ($10)

Beauty on a Budget: Intro

New series coming your way ladies! Over the next few weeks I will be sharing some beauty products that I love and also share tips and tricks to help you look flawless!

Posts will go as follows:

1. Face-foundations, cheek color, bronzers.

2. Lips-lipstick, lip gloss.

3. Eyes-shadows, mascaras, eye liner.

Let me know if you have any topics or questions you would like me to address.

Master Bedroom Progress

I wanted to give everyone an update on how the master bedroom is shaping up. The husband finally got around to hanging the awesome mirrors I found. I absolutely love these mirrors and am so thrilled with how they look in this room!
You can see the original ideas for the master bedroom here. 

There's a whole lotta gray going on in this pic.

These are all phone pics so they are not the best quality, but you can at least see the progress made!

I was thinking of adding some turquoise-ish blue to this room. What do you think? I have this canvas and was thinking about adding the color of the bird in some throw pillows.

 Let me know your thoughts on adding a color!

DIY Project: Benches

Happy Thursday, Friends! Hope everyone is having a great week this far! 

Do you remember this post about my fabric coming in? Well some of that lovely fabric was for benches to go at the end of the beds in my guest bedroom. Found this pin on pinterest a while back but didn't have a need for benches..until now! They worked out pretty well. It wasn't exactly easy attaching the legs, but we made it work! We have made some serious progress in this room (considering it was filled with junk just a few weeks ago), but we still have a long way to go. 

Macy had to be part of the picture!

 

A few more pillows and some finishing touches and we have a guest room!

What do y'all think of the progress in the guest room?

Black Bean Burger Recipe

I have a recent obsession with Black Bean Burgers. They are all I order at Marlow's Tavern, which is a restaurant right around the corner from our house. I also recently tried one at 5 Season's Brewing Company, which was yummy! When I try something out that I love I instantly have the urge to try to make it at home. This week I took a stab at black bean burgers for the first time. I knew I wanted them to be a little spicy and of course delicious. I read a few recipes online and ultimately decided on the following.
*Note: these measurements are all approximate. I will measure exact next time I make them.

Ingredients:

• 1 can of black beans: rinsed, dried, then smashed with a fork
• 1/4 red bell pepper, diced
• 1/4 red onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, diced
• 1/4-1/2 cup of mushrooms, diced
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 teaspoon hot sauce 
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon chilli powder 
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Add bell pepper, onion, garlic and mushrooms to food processor. You want to chop everything up a little bit more, but not too much (you don't want to liquify it)! Next add the mixture to the black beans, then add egg and mix everything together. Now add seasonings, hot sauce and oats and mix well. Form into 4 patties.

Heat a pan on the stove over medium heat and spray with cooking spray. Cook on each side for about 5-8 minutes depending on stove top.

I topped mine with ketchup, red onion and lettuce!

Also, I made mine ahead of the time and refrigerated them and it worked just fine!

Enjoy!

Weekend Recap

Hi friends! I hope you all had a great weekend and that the beginning of your week is shaping up well!

I had a pretty relaxed weekend, not any huge projects or anything! We have been super busy the past few weekends so we wanted to take it easy and not put too many things on our plate.

The weekend started with an impromptu dinner with friends at Twisted Taco! Yum! We headed home and stopped at redbox to grab a movie. We ended up deciding on Trouble with the Curve. We wanted to see this movie because it was filmed right here in Atlanta! We both loved it and would definitely recommend to friends. 

Saturday we woke up and ran our long run. We are currently training for a half marathon so this weekend we needed to do an 8 mile run! It was killer for me. Some runs are just harder than others! I felt great during the 7 mile run we did last, but I was struggling this time! Runners- is it like that for you too?

After our run we headed to the North GA outlets! I was in search of some new skinny jeans and found some I love at GAP. These are kind of similar to the ones I bought.

We rounded out the weekend meeting our friends new born baby and then going to a basketball banquet for the team my husband coached this year. It was at Park Tavern, we had a great time! We will definitely be checking out upcoming events here!

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday Everyone!! 

Wanted to share a few of my favorite finds of the week with you! 

First of all, my fabric came in which I talked about here!

Second, I found this great shade of polish on sale at Target for 1/2 off! I love a deal, so I scooped it up! 

(Image from pixibeauty.com)

Luminous Lilac..reminds me of an Easter Egg! Can't wait to try it out soon!

 

Also on my list, is this pair of Old Navy active capri pants. I got these last weekend and tried them out this week. They are great and very affordable!

Here is a link to find the ones I got.

Lastly, chapstick, I can never have enough! I got it from Target as well and LOVE it! I got the mint one..

(Image from walmart.com)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

This just in..

Just got a shipment from fabric.com!! Can't wait for y'all to see what I am working on next! Here is a sneak peak of the fabric..

Top Left: Premier Prints Chelsea white/coral
Bottom Left: Premier Prints Vertical Stripe navy/white
Top Right: Urban Home Cotton Blend Velvet navy

 

 

Anybody know what these fabrics are for?? Can NOT wait to share what I am working on!

Living Room Update

It has been quite a bit of time since my last post. I have not been a very good blogger lately...to catch up with everything let me start with: Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! HA, I know I am so late on this but I hope everyone had a wonderul holiday season!!

I decided a few weeks back to order some fabrics for several different projects I had in mind. One being the living room. I ordered this awesome fabric (from fabric.com) with the a goal to make some new pillows to update the living room. I got around to making the pillows last week and can not be happier with how they turned out!!

Living room fabrics

I love these fabrics together and can't wait to get everything put together. For now, I am so happy with how my couches are looking!



What do you think of the fabric?

 

One more major update is...we FINALLY got a mantel! I am really so excited about having a mantel. When we moved in the house there was nothing on this bare old fireplace. I updated the brick with a chocolate brown color last year, you can see all the details here.  But, we still never had a mantel!

Last month, my friend and I went to Scott's Antique Show and I found a mantel that I thought would be perfect for our living room. The one they had there was just a little longer than what we needed so they built a custom one for me! They came and installed it last Thursday!!

 (Sorry for the crooked picture)

 

 

 

 

Couldn't be happier with it! Georgia Woodworks(Fayetteville, GA) made it for me. They did a great job!