Shutterfly Giveaway Winners!

Thank you to everyone who entered my Shutterfly Giveaway! The 3 lucky winners are...

15 Beth

6 Amanda G

21 Lindsey of My Dolce Vita

I'll be emailing you ladies tonight with your codes for 25 free holiday cards!

Again, a big THANK YOU to Shutterfly for hosting this giveaway!

Happy Halloween + OOTD

Carving pumpkins is so hard! Next year, I'm definitely following this Halloween Decor post and going with other creative themes instead. Matt's is a scary face and mine was supposed to be a wedding dress and a tie/pants with the words I Do on the side. Totally obvious right?

LC Blazer, Scarf, Nordstrom Tank, Mossimo skinny jeans

Hot Man Parade

Just wanted to tell you guys that I love Joey Lawrence. 

I watch Melissa and Joey all the time (I love Melissa Joan Hart) and it's such good clean comedy. 

Kind of reminds me of TGIF when I was young. 

Happy Friday everyone!

Candied Almonds, I'm Obsessed

Bavarian Vanilla Almonds via My Baking Addiction

Last weekend I made the most delicious treat, candied almonds! I found the recipe on Pinterest (of course) and it was so easy.

I brought it to snack on for the Pumpkin Festival and Bug Fair and all of the family ate them right up! I plan on making them for the holidays to give to friends, neighbors and co-workers in cute gift bags.

The best part about them, besides how easy they are to make, is that they're natural without artificial ingredients or dyes (which has become a big deal in our family) so they're great for everyone. Plus, you can use a variety of nuts based on your preference.

Bavarian Vanilla Almonds via My Baking Addiction

Ingredients
1 egg white
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract if you are using regular granulated sugar instead of vanilla sugar
1 tablespoon water
1 pound almonds or pecans
3/4 cup of vanilla sugar (if you do have vanilla sugar, simply substitute regular granulated sugar)
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1 ½ teaspoons of Vanilla Fleur de Sel (if you do not have Vanilla Fleur de Sel simply substitute fine grain sea salt)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, combine egg white, vanilla extract and water. Beat mixture until frothy. Stir in almonds and mix to coat.
3. Gently combine sugar, cinnamon, and sea salt and stir into almond mixture, thoroughly coating all nuts.
4. Evenly spread nuts onto prepared baking sheet and place into oven.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
6. When cool, pack in an airtight jar. They will keep at room temperature for about 2 weeks.

I used raw almonds from Costco, regular granulated sugar, regular table salt, and covered my baking sheet with aluminum foil. With these simple changes, the nuts still turned out delicious! I can't wait to make them again and try different nuts, pecans would be delicious!

What goodies do you like to make for the holidays?

Recent Purchases: Sephora F/F

I recently won a $50 giftcard from Everything According to Erin (thanks again love!!) and was able to to use it towards Sephora's Friends and Family discount they have going right now. The funny thing is, is that I bought the products just a few days before the sale started so after talking to their customer service I returned the products and re-bought all of them. LOL. When I went into the store the staff said I was like the 5th person to return products just that day. I did the math to see if it would be worth the trouble and it totally was because I was able to pick up an extra item for less than the original price!

Here's what I bought and reviews will be coming soon!!

Sephora Collection Cream Lip Stain in Always Red (color not shown in pic)

I've seriously been obsessed with red lips, but it's so high maintenance to wear them. I thought that going with a lip stain may be a better and easier route. The Always Red is a true red shade with a blue undertone, I'm hoping it will be gorgeous on.

Sephora Collection Ultra Shine Lip Gloss in 20 Shiny Perfect Nude (color not shown in pic)

I know I don't need ANYMORE lipglosses, but I've been trying to find a gloss that's tinted and slippery that lasts a few hours. I'm hoping this gem will do just that. The color I bought is a really sheer pink without any shimmer.

Sephora by OPI Only Gold For Me Top Coat 

I never bought this before because I have two polishes that are really similar, Milani, and e.l.f. Golden Goddess but this polish is just so much superior because it has both large and small glitter specks and it's in a clear coat. Milani only has large glitter specks, and the e.l.f. is perfect glitter, but in a tinted yellow base which can discolor my polish. So with the combo of the giftcard and the sale, I went for it.  I just can't justify spending $10 on a polish when I have so many and have never once used an entire bottle of anything before. I think this might be my favorite purchase because I've been using gold glitter on almost all of my manis.

Sephora Collection Moonshadow Baked Palette - In The Nude

Duh, I love eyeshadow. These shades are gorgeous and have super crazy shimmer to them that reminds me of JLo on American Idol. 

I browsed the store and online forever before deciding and I can't believe I went with all Sephora brand products instead of splurging for something I wouldn't typically buy for myself, but I seriously love their brand. I've used their shadows, bronzers, and blushes and have re-purchased all of them. You can see my Sephora brand purchases and reviews all here. So I thought why not get what I want right?

Have you used anything of these products before? Have you tried the Sephora brand?

Have you bought anything from the sale yet? Get your f/f code here the sale goes through November 2.

I Tried It! A Top Knot via a Hair Donut

I tried it and it's life changing people! Dead serious here.

You know the top knot trend that these ladies are wearing? A donut is how you get the look my loves.

Conair Bun Maker

The first time I heard about a hair donut was on Glamour's online beauty column The Girls in the Beauty Department. It's a hair product shaped like a donut that you place at the base of your ponytail to form a larger bun with your hair pinned around it.

Genius right? I always wondered how some celeb beezies got such gorgeous giant buns.

This is perfect for my hair because it's medium length and very fine. My buns are seriously like 1 1/2 inches in total. If that. Previously, I could only find these gems at beauty supply stores, but they've recently started popping up at Target and Rite Aid. Then, imagine my surprise when I spotted it at the 99 cent store! I couldn't wait to get home and road test it!

I rocked this last week for work (no I did not wear that tank to work, this is at the end of the day in my pj top) and all my girls asked me how I did it. I couldn't wait to share my secret! I love finding great things or learning new tricks and telling everyone within earshot how cool/easy/awesome it is.

I'm using Conair's Bun Maker, but at a beauty supply shop, you can get different colors and sizes as well.

The whole process takes maybe 5 minutes and you're good to go. Sleek bun for a wedding? Done. Want a side chignon for a date? Done. Messy bun to wear to meet your girlfriends? Done. Best. Invention. EVER.

I put my hair in a pony where I'd like my bun to be, pull my entire pony through the donut so that it's at the base of my pony tail (right on top of the elastic), then pin my hair around it on all sides. I've teased it a bit for some extra texture and then messed with it a bit afterward with my fingers for a not so perfect look.

The way I did it works best for my length, but for those of you with long hair, here's a quick how-to for you:

Oh and yes, you can use a tube sock to make on for yourself if you can't find the one I have. I chose not to do this because I didn't have a sock to use and I didn't want to buy a pair just for this. Also, the Conair one is kind of a netted material so bobby pins go right through it without any hassle.

I can't wait to use this more and to get a messy updo that's super chic. I seriously see myself using this product regularly. Since my hair is fine, I rarely do updos without the used of my extensions for extra volume or length and this product is so simple to use and is exactly what I need to just throw a cute look together.

Have you heard of this trick before? Have you tried it?

Let me know if you'd be interested in seeing a how-to video, I was thinking of doing one for it...

Shutterfly's 2011 Holiday Promotion + Giveaway!

Shutterfly is having a blogger promotion again this year, check out last year's here, and I couldn't be happier! I've used Shutterfly for years now and everyone loved last year's Christmas cards I sent out, see those here. They were super cute and gave me a way to use our engagement photos and this year I plan on using some wedding photos for our cards. Gotta make use of pro photos right?

Have you used Shutterfly before? Their website is so user-friendly and they have a great selection of products. Right now, I'm actually working on some photo books for our honeymoon trip through Shutterfly. Their quality is really nice, the photos are crisp and clear with great color, the cardstock is thick, and their designs are adorable. 

This year, they have so many Christmas cards  and Holiday cards to choose from, I'm not sure which I'll use yet, but here are some of my favorites so far:

So Mod Snowflake Holiday Card

Modern Pinecone Holiday Card

Holiday Love Sketch Christmas Card

Bright Holly Jolly Holiday Card

Joy To World Religious Christmas Card

Merry Bright Script Christmas Card

Now for the giveaway, Shutterfly is giving me the chance to give out 25 free cards to 3(!!!) of my readers! To enter, just leave a comment below with your email address and a winner will be chosen at random next Monday night. 


FTC: Shutterfly is the sponsor for this post and the giveaway, but all reviews of their products are my own true feelings.

OOTD + NOTD

So I'm still working on getting you guys better pics than from my cell phone, but I haven't figured something better out yet. So stay posted please! Sorry this post and my last OOTD post had several pics together, I've been really busy after work and for now it's just been easiest to lump them together.

A few of my outfits were inspired by my Fashion Inspiration board on Pinterest. I know I talk a lot about Pinterest on here, but it's seriously my favorite. I pin everyday. It's such a great source for recipes, party ideas, home decor, DIY project and of course fashion! Whenever I'm in a rut for outfits, I just check out Pinterest and easily find something I can replicate. For last week, I also turned to Twitter for work outfit reccomendations so here is some of your recs in motion paired with Pinterset. Thank you to everyone for your ideas and pics, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your support and ideas. You gals (and guys) rock!

F21 Blazer and Necklace, Nordstrom Tank, Target Mossimo Skinny Slacks

Old Navy Ruffle Tie Neck Blouse, Target Mossimo Skinny Slacks, Single Pearl Necklace

Lulu's Knotted Skirt, Fitted Scoop Neck, F21 Necklace

 

F21 Scarf, Nordstrom V-neck, American Eagle Skinny jeans

OPI In the Spotlight, e.l.f. Golden Goddess

Hot Man Parade

Hope everyone has a great weekend! I threw in some new guys this week that haven't been feature before on HMPs. Hope you enjoy the eye candy!