Tobacco Tam

I did this look today to go with a beret/tam I made this morning! It's made from a really nice cotton crepe, the color is called "Tobacco."

Fyrinnae Polar Bear

Fyrinnae Dark Magik

Fyrinnae Mephisto

Fyrinnae Monarch Butterfly

NYX Black

Brazen Au Natural on lips

The hat is super slouchy! If I made one using this pattern again, I'd probably cast on less stitches to have it fit more tightly around my head. I'm excited to wear this for Fall!

The World is a Vampire

Tonight we are going out to celebrate my Mom's birthday. Happy Birthday, Mom!

I also randomly played around with a curling iron today, just flipping out my bangs. I've never used a curling iron before, so I hope the curls hold for a few hours!

Aromaleigh Astonish (If they were still in buisness, I would order a full size of this in a heartbeat.)

Meow Unlucky (part of the Friday 13th collection)

Aromaleigh Raisin

Darling Girl Dreamcatcher

Darling Girl Chococat

Darling Girl Fantasia Blush

My cala lilies are still blooming in the garden, I'm glad summer has lasted as long as it has here. The weather is looking good for next week, so I will hopefully have these babies growing for a while yet!

I managed to snag a photo of this beauty today in the garden!

Swatch Bangles

I learned how to knit a little over two years ago now, at my LYS (local yarn store for those of you non-knitters, who I will now try to convert!) Our instructor first taught us the basics of knitting, such as casting on and the Knit and Purl stitches. If you know just knit and purl, you can combine those two stitches for thousands of variations. Each class we focused on a few different "swatches" of different sorts of knitting stitches; ribbing, basketweave, feather and fan, seed stitch just to name a few, and eventually onto cables. We compiled all of our tiny stitch swatches into a book, for reference.

I came across this tutorial for making swatch bangles awhile back, and couldn't help but thinking of what a great project it would be for a beginner knitter, or someone who's never knit before. Instead of hoarding those swatches in a book, or stitching them together to make an afghan... Try a bangle! This is also a great idea for destashing those bits of yarn leftover from other projects, as it doesn't require a lot of yardage.

Mine are made from recycled duct tape rolls! They come in a few different sizes, so you can have different thicknesses. One thing to keep in mind, depending on your wrist/hand size, you don't want to use *too* bulky of a yarn, otherwise you might not be able to fit it over your hand. My mom has rather large hands, and can't quite slide it over her knuckles. For these I used a ball of Lion Brand Vanna's Choice which I had lying around, you can easily pick up a ball for yourself at Michaels or Joanne's. The top one is made in seed stitch, (k1, p1), and the bottom is a cabled piece. The nice thing is, the bracelets look nice in just about any stitch, and would be a great way to learn cabeling!

Easy Peasy Tuesday

Here's a quick look I put together today! I spent most of the day cleaning, and just wanted something quick & easy before going out for an appointment.

Eyes:

DG My Melody

DG Mustang

DG Los Angelos

Face:

DG Fantasia blush

Jane Bronzer in Tahiti

Birthday FOTD + a experiment

Matt took me to a beautiful Italian resturant for my birthday on Saturday night, afterwards we went to see Horrible Bosses. It's been a long time since I've seen a movie in an actual theater! The movie was actually quite funny.

Darling Girl Los Angelos

DG Saddle Up

DG Badtz Maru

DG Chococat

NYX Black

DG Fantasia blush

I also received my orders from Sobe Botanicals and Hi-Fi Cosmetics which I purchased during their heartsy deals. I will do a swatch post later. I wasn't really impressed with how the Sobe eyeshadows blended, though.

Sobe Nog

Sobe Petticoat

Hi-Fi Millions of Peaches

MAC Satin Taupe



Garden & a FOTD

My vegetable garden is slowly growing! The tomatoes are slow this year, but my peppers have started to change colors, and I have a few red ones almost ready for picking.

Today's FOTD, once again playing wtih my new Darling Girl shades :)

Eyes:

DG Los Angelitos (highlight)

DG Atlantis

DG Mr Ed

DG Dreamcatcher

DG Fantasia Blush & Los Angelitos to highlight

Summer Blossoms

When I first started following Susan of Darling Girl Cosmetics blog, one of my favorite FOTDs of hers was using the combination of pink/purples & greens. It sounds like a strange combo, but I thought it was so beautiful. Yep, I copied the look, using Plum Blossoms and REM! I'm going out for sushi today to celebrate my birthday; Matt will be working evenings all weekend. (Saturday is my 21st birthday!)

I lightly patted the blush on, over bronzer. The color looks extremely pigmented in the bag, and it can be applied that way as well or toned down as shown here. It's a really interesting blush with a pretty duochrome. I think I'll do a nude eye tomorrow using more blush, so you can see how gorgeous it really is.

Eyes:

DG Los angelitos as a highlight

DG REM

DG Plum Blossom

Face:

DG Fantasia blush

Jane bronzer

MAC creme de nude on lips

Smokie Stirfry

After a long day, or when I'm feeling lazy, I'll make a smokie stirfry for my family. It's very simple to make, and fairly inexpensive.  I will typically make enought to feed 5, in hopes there will be leftovers, but there hardly ever is! It only takes about 30 min, including prep time to cut the veges. I first started using this as tinfoil dinners while we were camping. Last weekend I made it with my friend's vegetarian faux sausage.

 

I use 1 pkg of smokies (about 3 per person), check the fat content on the labels because some have an insane fat %. Matt loves the cheese smokies, but those have an even higher percentage of fat. I purchase the ones with the least amount of fat, and add in 1/2 cup of cheese when the stirfry is almost finished. The smokies are nice because they are already cooked, so you only need to brown them.

1 red/yellow pepper chopped

1 large onion

2 cloves of garlic

a handful of carrots, chopped

half a stalk of celery, chopped

I start off by frying the onion with the carrots in the butter, as they take the longest to brown & soften. Then I add the rest of the mix as I'm finished chopping!

Darling Girl: First thoughts

I received my order from Darling Girl Cosmetics today! This is my first purchase with DG, so I was very excited to recieve it and get swatching. I placed an order a few weeks ago, when the TAT was 10-12 days. My order was shipped after 12 days. Everything was well packaged; my purchases were wrapped in the pretty pink paper, and a couple of sweet freebies/GWP's in the other!

I've been checking out the Facebook page every now and then, as Susan posts upcoming & new product photos regularly. I've asked a few questions on the page, and she has always been very quick to respond. I highly recommend giving DG a try! I plan on ordering some of her glosses on my next order.

Free gifts! The GWP blush is a very generous size as well.

My complete purchase. The mini jars, or Petits as they are called by DG, are 2.00, and the samples were .60 each! Their prices are very affordable, even with the recent announcement of an *slight* increase. The prices are very competitive, with sample portions being more than Meow's 1/6 tsp size, at less cost.

Now onto my swatches!

Chococat, Badtz Maru, My melody, Princess Peach & Falling Leaves

Deery Lou, REM, Dreamcatcher, Mr. Ed, Mustang

Atlantis, Plum Blossoms, Purin, Dapple

Fantasia (blush), Dancerta, Innocence, Seabiscuit, Saddle up

I can't wait to try out the Fantasia blush, it looks like a very interesting duochrome and it blended well on my hand. I will be needing full sizes of Plum Blossoms, Falling Leaves, Purin & Mustang. They are all very interesting, unique shades, which I can't wait to show you in upcoming FOTDS.