Bridesmaid make-up

In my past life as a bridesmaid, my priorities were dress, hair, shoes, and then make-up.  I would likely do my typical make-up routine of bare minerals foundation, 2-3 coats of mascara and lip gloss.  I never wore blush because I thought it aged me and I thought bronzer was only for the summer.  Boy have I come a long way!  For my friend Leslie's wedding last weekend, as the matron of honor, how I was going to do my make-up was just as important as everything else to complete my look.  

Our dresses were a pretty coral and I googled tons of ideas for make-up with a coral dress.  I decided I wanted a bright coral lip that was a darker shade than the dress to be my focal point.  After consulting with friends, I also decided to skip any coral on my cheeks to not overuse the color!  My final look included a white base for eyeshadow with gold on the outer third of the lid and bronzer in the crease. I added a black winged liner and LOTS of coats of mascara.  My friend Shelley, another bridesmaid, was nice enough to let me help her with her eye make-up as well and I did a similar look of golds and browns but made hers a little darker/smokier because we used a coral lip that wasn't as bright as mine.  So her focal point was the eyes and mine were the lips.

This is Shelley...isn't she gorgeous?!

Of course I have to add a photo of the final look.  Many of you reading also know about my dilemma for how to make my strapless dress more modest.  I am not much for boleros...they seem outdated to me...I mean there are some that work but not any that I saw in David's Bridal for my taste.  I had this great idea for adding sleeves and am so grateful for my friend, Sara, who had the sewing skills to make the magic happen!  The dress was a David's Bridal strapless gown and Sara added the whole lace top from fabric I luckily found in a matching color.

Not only was I concerned about my fashion but my little boy was the ring bearer and had to look good.  There were some pretty stressful moments for me trying to get him to be quiet or stop running or do whatever he was supposed to be doing but when showtime came he did not disappoint!  I almost couldn't believe it!  He's not even 2 years old and he made it down the aisle holding my hand, hung around for some cute wedding party photos and danced the night away at the reception with no major meltdowns...was he perfect? Of course not, he's one, but he did so good and that was a relief!  I couldn't have done it without my husband by my side all day while I did maid of honor duties and he watched Joaquin.  Shelley also helped by letting me vent and putting her hand on my shoulder when she saw I was struggling.  It's a tough age to be a ring bearer (and to be his parents) and I'd like to think I wouldn't do it again with a future child at this age, but for how well it went, I guess I can never say never.

The wedding was so beautiful.  Leslie's church is amazing and her sparkly, all lace, amazing and detailed dress made the whole thing unbelievable!  The reception was decorated beautifully with teal, coral and gold with good food and special decorating touches by the crafty bride.  The Bride is also Lebanese so we all joined in for some traditional Lebanese dancing!  It was a wonderful wedding and she married a wonderful man!

And completely unrelated...I practiced my smokey eye again but this time using purple for Jesus's birthday date and here is that photo because I didn't blog a tutorial.

Smokey eye and the partys I rocked it at!

The smokey eye was always something that looked good on other people but not on me.  Or whenever I tried, it just wasn't very smokey or pigmented.  But that's all nothing a few tutorials couldn't change!  And now here is my tutorial for you of my first successful smokey eye!

1. Use a base!  I used a dark grey eyeliner.  I would have used black had I had one.  I drew some eyeliner on my lid, then blended it with my finger.

2. Since I was doing a dark blue smokey eye, I chose a dark brown color to blend into the crease.  I learned it helps to blend different shades together to get blended gradients of color for a smokey eye. I used my Pop Beauty bronzer for the dark brown shade only in the crease.

3. Then I used my Stila in the garden palette and swept the dark blue color freesia all over my lid and blended it into the dark brown in my crease. Tip: Get an eyeshadow blending brush...I can't believe what a difference it made!  

4. I used the lightest color in my stila in the garden palette under my brow bone and blended downward right to the crease but not in it.  I also applied this color in the inner corners of my eyes and a little on the inner lower lash line.  Oh and I put a small amount right in the center of my lid on top of the blue to give it a little shimmer pop! This color cleans and brightens everything up because you only want the smokiness to go to your crease and not all the way to your brow!

5. I lined my lower lash first with the stila dark grey liner I used as my base and then I went over the line with the dark blue freesia color and it didn't have to be straight because I wanted it thicker and smudgy for the smokey look.

6. I applied a little of this black color from a Lancome sample onto the outer v of my eye.  Remember the gradients of color I talked about?

7. I used my favorite loreal infallible super slim liner in black to wing my liner on the upper lash.

8. Dark colors tend to get all over your face so I cleaned up with a q-tip and eye make-up remover.

9. I contoured and highlighted with maybelline age rewind concealer and a heavier dose of my pop beauty bronzer.

10. I did my favorite nude lip, lining them with Ulta's nude lipliner and going over it with Wet n' wild matte Just peachy lipstick.  Tip: Find a nude lip that works for you!

How did I do? Looks like i can extend that blue a bit higher...but otherwise I am happy with it being a newbie.

After decking out my make-up (which my photos never do justice), it was time to par-tay!  First some friends and I threw one of my best friend's Leslie, her bachelorette party!  We played fun games, ate good food and had a mini photo shoot at home. Then some of the group headed out to the bar and  since that's no place for a non-drinking Mormon girl like myself, my family decided to go out and celebrate my husband's birthday that is on Tuesday of this week.  We went to Stila's fish cafe and were not disappointed.  Here are some photos from the festivities!

PS...I love my pleather pants! Is that ok?

Bloglovin'

Sometimes I'm a little late on the trends.  For instance, I just started using Instagram and still haven't found a groove with using it regularly.  There's another great trend going on for blog writers/readers like me and it's called Bloglovin'!  I'm sure I'm late finding this site too but today I want to share it with you.  It's a place where you can scroll through and read blogs that you follow.  It looks similar to a Pinterest page but rather than pins, it's all the latest blog posts from your favorite blogs to keep you up to date.  It even suggests other blogs to read based on what you are currently reading.  So check it out.  Click this link and join the Bloglovin' revolution.  Have fun reading blogs you love and finding new ones.  There's even an app for your smart phone.  And while I am plugging them, I'll plug myself.  Just click the "follow me on bloglovin' link" on my blog's sidebar and start following me on the site.  Hope you like this new find as much as I do!

Foundation Match

After I started my venture into make-up I got lucky and found a foundation that I really loved.  It's Loreal true match lumi and the main reason I loved it was because they make it somewhat easy to match your color.  You have to decide if you have yellow or pink undertones and then choose a shade based on that.  Their system at least narrows down the choices.  I decided I had neutral undertones because I can see both blue veins (typically means pink undertones) and green veins (typically means yellow undertones) in my arms.  I also decided that I don't burn easily (pink undertones) and while I can get tan (yellow undertones), I still burn sometimes.  You can google all kinds of things to help you decide if your skin is more pink or yellow based.  This is the first tip to picking the right foundation.  

While I was happy with my choice I kept reading reviews and watching youtube videos of all these other great foundation brands so I tried some others...and returned some others...this just taught me that reviews are a good place to start but it always comes down to what works for YOU! I tried revlon color stay mousse in the shade sand beige and I think it may have oxidized on my skin because after a few minutes of wearing it, it looked more pink/orangey than I thought.  This may have been the result of adding my bronzer and illuminator as well and the colors just didn't blend well.  

I also tried (and returned) revlon photo ready in the color nude.  I totally thought this was going to work based on some google searching to match my color but again it was too orange for me.  My friend suggested I go to MAC or Sephora and get matched for my foundation color to stop this madness.  That's tip number 2: go to the MAC store and ask them to match you to a foundation!  I found this to be super helpful and found I was the color NC25 in MAC Studio tech foundation.  One day when I leave my cheap drugstore ways behind, I'm buying that!  The big thing we noticed at MAC is my face has some redness and that can make it look pink but my body is clearly more yellow so we went with a yellow based foundation because it's important that your face matches your body.  That's tip number 3, match your body.  Side note: NC 25 may very likely be my summer shade as I'm a little tan so I may go and get re-matched in the winter to see what happens.  

Ok so now you know what color you are in MAC...how does that help with buying other brands?  Apparently the internet is full of people who wear MAC and has lots of information about if you wear this color in MAC, then you may be this color in another brand!  Cool eh?  Here's a fun website that I can't guarantee results but it's worth a try. 

Foundation matching website

I used this website to see what color I was in the Loreal true match lumi that I already knew I loved and it just put me one shade darker from what I picked originally still in the neutral category (the name is natural buff).  Here I am wearing it and look how it matches my body as I hold up my arm. (note: don't actually match your foundation to your arm...the photo was just to show you how it looks against my body.  I have heard matching to your chest is good but I'm still figuring it out...this is why I went to MAC and let them find my match.)

I do still like this foundation in the lighter shade that I have and will likely be wearing that in the winter as my small tan fades. I think the name is classic ivory or something like that but it's the lightest in the neutral series. Here are my two shades...at least I hope I am doing it right now!  (I guess I should add that there are also people all over the internet who say MAC did not match them correctly but the person I had tried multiple shades on me and asked what I thought as well as her opinion so hopefully you get someone good!)

Toddler Busy Bag Exchange

Today some friends of mine were so nice participate in a busy bag exchange with me!  I must have seen the idea on Pinterest a while back and couldn't wait to try it.  We simply exchanged our (previously made at home) busy bags at the park with a potluck of snacks while the little ones ate and played. We all felt like our first exchange (assuming we will have more) was a success. Here's hoping all of our little ones enjoy what we made!

I made a car-track out of felt that the kids can puzzle piece together and then push their little car around.

Selena bought us all little doctor kits.

Katy made two busy bags.  The first is popsicle stick puzzles with a picture cut apart then a piece is stuck to each stick. The second is a felt maze with a little marble inside to move through the felt (that one even involved a little sewing).

Melanie made us magnets (by sticking magnets on the back of erasers) on a white board with a dry erase marker.

Anjela also made two busy bags.  The first is matching the color on the clothespin with the color of the paint swatch.  The second is the numbers 1- 10 with the corresponding number of dots on each card and the child can put the corresponding number of beans on the dots.

 

Anna made popsicle sticks in the colors of the rainbow with velcro on the ends so the child can create shapes, letters and learn their colors.

An emotional rant on my decision to be a SAHM

With the school year fast approaching and numerous teaching job posts popping up in my life, I find myself struggling with my decision to be a stay at home mom (SAHM).  I get so excited thinking about the possibility to interview for a new teaching position and being able to share my years of experience from teaching inner city to the beautiful Somali population in Minneapolis, to teaching online, to teaching ESL in the Dominican Republic.  I just want to share it all and nail an interview or two!  You can barely get an interview in Minnesota without connections and after over 6 years of teaching in the state, I finally have some connections and just want to use them.  I went to school for another 6 years and got my Masters degree and feel like I want to put it to use for longer than the 6-7 years I taught.  (I heard a statistic once that most people with a teaching degree don’t last past 5 years in the field so maybe I shouldn’t complain about my 6-7).  Tonight I am feeling nostalgic for my old life…well, just my old career.  With so many teacher friends returning to work and the back to school sales and job postings, I can’t help but miss it.

I know that being able to stay at home with Joaquin is such a blessing and there is so much good I can do. I know that my education will be useful in teaching my children and it has already proven useful in other areas of my life.  This isn’t to say I won’t go back ever, I just don’t plan to full time while I have small children.  Even when I write that, I question it.  Sure it’s great to be a stay at home mom but I’m sure daycare could also teach Joaquin just fine…not to mention maybe he wouldn’t have the separation anxiety, or whatever it’s called, that he’s facing right now.  I could say that my teacher salary wouldn’t cover the cost of daycare but it would, maybe not for multiple children but at this point there are not multiple children.  That’s another thing; sometimes I feel like a mom with more than 1 kid is more justified to be a stay at home mom than me and thinking that too is terrible because I know that’s not true. 

It’s 1:30am and I can’t sleep.  I have this rant going through my mind and I need to get it out in a public forum so you can help me.  I need help remembering why it is good to be a stay at home mom even for one small, one and a half year old boy. There’s even this guilt I feel asking for that help because deep down I know I am lucky to have such an important calling to be a mother and I know of the significance I can do.  But sometimes, like tonight, I need help remembering.  Maybe you can share with me some great talk or quotes on motherhood or maybe you can tell me my feelings are justified or that you have felt something similar.  As much as I miss my career, I just can’t trade it for being able to be home with Joaquin.  If I could, I think I would have done it by now but this stay at home mom thing has me wrapped around its' little finger.  Thank you for your thoughts.

Silky Mama

I recently read a friend's post on Facebook that said this: "I co-sleep, I breastfeed a toddler while I breastfeed a 3 month old, I wear my baby, I question vaccination schedules, and take a visit to my essential oil supply before a trip to the doctors office. We are alive, we are healthy, and we are happy!"  To me this implied that she believed for doing the things she listed, others may perceive those as things that wouldn't keep her and her babies alive, healthy and happy.  I often have this same thought...that there are people who believe I am not doing what is absolutely best but for me it's because I am not doing the things my friend listed above. So we each have the same thought, that others may think our way isn't best while we are both doing different things...silly. (Apparently the mommy wars stuff gets into a lot of our heads one way or another).  I guess I do things the mainstream way and while you may think mainstream is popular, I haven't felt this way at all.  I think it's because most of my friends here lean towards being a crunchy mama, which is how I would define my friend of the original Facebook post above...if of course we're labeling.  So what's the opposite of a crunchy mama?  What am I?  According to Urban dictionary, I am a silky mama. "Modern mother who prefers medicated hospital birth, bottle feeding/part time breastfeeding, disposable diapers, crib sleeping, etc. One who follows the advice of established medical authority; often tend to be working moms who rely on modern products for convenience and time management."  I truly don't believe one way is better than the other.  The best way to raise a child is what keeps you all alive, healthy and happy.  I just find it interesting reading all these definitions and seeing where I label myself on the parenting spectrum.  

There are quite a few things that intrigue me about crunchy mamas like baby wearing and cloth diapering and I think we will just have to see how I am when another child comes along.  I do feel like my parenting experience was almost limited in a way, moving back and forth from the Dominican Republic during my child's first year and a half of life. We survived with the bare minimums for him like diapers, bottles and a few toys. We finally gave in and got a high chair but buying things was hard knowing our life in Dominican Republic was temporary and we couldn't ship items back and forth.  I also feel like I didn't have time (or make time) to learn about all the different ways to raise a baby.  I was too busy learning the culture, the language, trying to make friends and just figuring out daily life like how to pay my bills and get around.  I've noticed so many things since moving back that I just didn't have there.  First being all the cool baby products.  I recently saw a bib that has a lip to catch food in and rinses right out.  Did you know I had never seen one of those?  I don't mean this in any negative way but most of our friends with babies lived in poverty and did not have all these amazing products so of course I didn't see them.  Another thing here in the US are all the playgroups and mom meet ups online.  Internet and especially computers, are limited there so I definitely didn't have that!  There is even a group of moms here that have a Facebook group for baby wearing with a baby wearing library where you can check out all kinds of ring slings, mobys and backpacks.  Maybe for the next baby... The US also has internet shopping for some awesome baby products and cloth diapers but shipping internationally is much too expensive and most of the places I'd look don't ship internationally anyway.  So maybe I'd be a little more crunchy had I had a different experience with Joaquin but who knows because honestly this silky mama thing has fit my life perfectly and myself, dad and baby are all alive, healthy and happy so for now I'll just keep on doing what I'm doing.  Silky-silk-silk. :)