Lush Haul and Chit Chat

The day after Christmas, Lush did a sale that was Buy 1, Get 1 Free on their holiday items. I woke up early in the morning and tried for hours to get the site to work because there was no way in hell I was going to go to a Lush store and try and make a purchase. Their stores are already way too small to begin with, let alone when everyone is trying get the sale paired with the day after Christmas. Finally by mid-afternoon, I was able to get the site to load to start adding items to my cart. However, as I was adding items, they were selling out and I had to keep switching stuff out. After spending a significant amount of time on the site, I FINALLY got my order to process. Here we are, almost 3 weeks after placing the order and it just arrived. Yes, it even took almost 3 weeks to get my order. On top of that, even though the box says “FRAGILE” on it, most of the products are pretty beat up. Which is why I am not taking any out of the wrappers to show them or doing closeups of each item. I will do individual reviews on each of them and get better pictures when I am ready to open them up and use them. I don’t think I will ever make a purchase from the Lush website again due to the length of time to get the package and due to the condition of the items.

^from left to right, top row-Cinders bath bomb, Golden Wonder bath bomb, Yog Nog bath bomb, Magic Wand bubble bar, Stardust bath bomb. Bottom row-Holly Golightly Bubble Bar, Father Christmas bath bomb, sample of Karma soap, and Shoot for the Stars bath bomb.

 I mentioned earlier this week that my boyfriend was out of town for a few days last week. One of his cousins got married in Disney World and he was a groomsman. I had debated about going back home while he was gone, but I chose to stay up here in the apartment by myself to get used to being up here. It was definitely a bit of a struggle for me because I haven’t started my job yet (I start on Monday, YAY!!!!), so that really left me with nothing to do all day and I haven’t really had a chance to meet anyone up here yet. I went shopping for some work clothes, got a library card, and explored the area a little bit. It was supposed to snow the day that he was due to get back, so to minimize the amount of driving that I had to do in the snow, because we live in the actual snow belt, I went to his mom’s earlier in the day because he was going to get dropped off there when his flight landed. However, due to the snow and wind, his flight ended up cancelled. And I ended up kind of trapped at his mom’s for the night because I didn’t know the state of the roads back here and without knowing, I didn’t want to drive the roads at night. So I hung out there until he got home late the next day. He did however make it up to me because he brought me back a wand from Harry Potter World. He did know what wand I wanted and got me the Bellatrix Lestrange wand.

Now you might be asking yourself why in the world I would want Bellatrix’s wand. For one, I think it is one of the most easily recognizable wands and it looks totally different from all of the other wands. Bellatrix is also one of my favorite characters in the book, and especially in the movies. Helena Bonham Carter IS Bellatrix Lestrange to me. She is so deliciously evil and plays the part so well. To me, favorite characters don’t have to be the most likable characters. Ironically, Anthony got the Sirius Black wand for himself….

 

I just said that we live in the actual snow belt. As I am writing this blog post, it has been snowing since early this morning and we are expecting up to another 6 inches by tomorrow. Snow is not totally foreign to me, growing up in Cincinnati, but the snow we did get pails in comparison to what we get up here. I bought my first real pair of snow boots that I have had since I was a child. Today I will be testing them out. I went for a cute, but functional look. 
Living with my boyfriend has gone very well so far. It’s just now been a month, but I am definitely happy to be up here, minus the snow. It’s so wonderful to eat dinner together every night and see each other every day. We have been together for over 3.5 years now and it feels so good to finally be in the same place. I start my job next week and am so excited to finally be beginning the life that I have dreamed about for a while now. I cannot wait to see what 2016 has in store for me. My birthday is in a couple weeks and I know we will begin looking for a new place to live after I start my job. I have so many goals for the next year and I finally feel like things are starting to come together for me. Last year was a bit of a struggle for me, but it looks like the struggle is going to be worth it! I hope you are all feeling as optimistic about the next year as I am.

 

Las Vegas Chit Chat

On Saturday, I returned back home to Cleveland from our little trip to Vegas. Yes my friends, Cleveland is now officially my home 🙂 Tuesday was my last day at my old job and my girls had the biggest surprise for me. They all got together to get me my favorite candle as a housewarming gift and a $200 Sephora gift card. You read that right. $200. As soon as they told me how much was on it, I couldn’t help but cry and even still when I think about it, I still get choked up. I worked with quite a few of them the entire time I was there and even a few of them for only a few weeks, but it’s so overwhelming to know that many people cared. Tuesday evening, I visited with my mom and grandparents before my dad and brother helped me pack my car up. I had to leave all of my nail polish behind, but they helped me figure out how to get my Alex drawers and all of my makeup in my little car.

Wednesday morning, I had to tell Buster bye. Which honestly has probably been the hardest part. He is the family dog, so he is staying with my dad and brother. But you can’t explain to a dog why you are leaving. Hopefully it isn’t too hard on either of us. I made the 4 hour drive to my new home and got almost all of my stuff unpacked. All that is left is my makeup but I didn’t have time to start on it because we had to leave for the airport. That evening, we flew out to Las Vegas on what would be my first time flying ever. And it was such a great experience. I wasn’t nervous at all and actually enjoyed it. Granted there was almost no turbulence, but I probably couldn’t have asked for a better first flight.

We stayed at the Paris hotel, which is a gorgeous hotel. Our room was really nice and the bed was insanely comfortable. We got in around 9pm Vegas time, but that was midnight Cleveland time, so all we did was grab a snack and tour the hotel before bed time. Thankfully our bodies stayed on Cleveland time because we were up at 7am Thursday. Thursday was the day that we visited all of the casinos on our side of the strip. My favorite was Caesar’s. The casino seemed less chaotic, the decor was interesting, and of course there’s there are the Forum shops. I will share my haulage in tomorrow’s post as to not overwhelm this post. I really would like to stay at the Cosmopolitan in the future as well because it was just gorgeous. That evening, we had dinner at Mon Ami Gabi, which is a really nice French steakhouse at the Paris. The food was delicious and the boyfriend’s coworkers are all wonderful.

Friday, we journeyed to the south end of the strip to check out the hotels/casinos that way. From there, we took a short cab ride to In N Out burger. I must say, I don’t get the hype. We have Five Guys around us, and I believe I enjoy it more. To get back, we decided to try Uber. Words of advice to anyone going to Vegas, Uber your way around instead of a cab. From New York New York to In N Out, which seriously was a couple minute drive, it cost us 13. The Uber from In N Out to Caesar’s (which is way further than New York New York) was $7. We hung out with some of his coworkers that evening, but didn’t do very much because our flight early in the morning and we needed to leave by 745am.

Saturday, we made the journey back and returned back to the fabulous lake effect snow that you get up in the area that we live in. Because we don’t really live near the city, we are about an hour northeast of the city, so it’s serious lake effect snow up there. That is the one thing I am so not excited about. Cincinnati gets some snow, but it nowhere near compares to what I will be dealing with now.

I had a lot of fun while in Vegas. Gambling is not my thing, but there is so much other stuff to do. It’s so interesting walking around, especially at night. I definitely would go back and actually do hope to return to do some of the things that we didn’t get to do while we were there.

Life Update

Once again, I have become MIA on here again. But that is because this week has been insane for me. And it is only going to get crazier. I made the decision to quit my current job and my last day is going to be on Tuesday. As in like 3 days away Tuesday. Wednesday morning, I will be making the drive up to Cleveland to begin the process of moving in with my boyfriend. Wednesday night, we will be flying out to Las Vegas for a few days. Everything has just been happening so quickly for me. It’s been a whirlwind here.

I have been at the same place of employment for almost 3 years now. It’s going to be weird not working there anymore, but it is a change that I needed to make. I am definitely going to miss all of the people that I have worked with because I work with such an amazing group of ladies and I have made some very good friends in the past 3 years.

I have done a lot of trying to do what is right for everyone else instead of focusing on what is right for me. I kind of let this job dictate my life and I couldn’t even tell you why I let it do it so for so long and to such an extent. Because at the end of the day, as I sit here writing this, I don’t feel like I really have much to show for it. In all of the interviews that I have gone on in the past year, I have been asked the standard “where do you see yourself in 5 years?” question. And my answer to that has been that I want to be happy. I know that sounds cheesy and a bit of a cop out, but that is what I really want to happen. Making this decision is something that I hope will bring me closer to that goal.

I am hoping to get some intermittent beauty posts up here and there and get back to a regular posting after the holidays. I also intend to continue to share these life updates and share this new adventure with you all. Now my friends, I need to get back to packing!

Current Nails and Chit Chat

As I previously mentioned,  I have been pretty worn down lately and just flat out exhausted. I had my last weekend off until January this past weekend, but it was a wonderful weekend. The boyfriend got us tickets to the Ohio State/Michigan State game, so we booked a hotel for the weekend to spend some time together and to make life easier. For those of you who are not as familiar with college football and Ohio State, campus and the area surrounding it basically shuts down on game days. The game on Saturday set a record attendance of over 108,000 people. Yes, 108,000 in the stadium. Add into that the students that don’t go to the games and all the people that just come to campus to tailgate and hang out, and it is just a sight to see. I graduated from Ohio State and seeing campus turn scarlet and gray on game day is still something that amazes me. Of course I had to make sure my nails were scarlet and gray before heading to Columbus. I used OPI Over and Over A-Gwen as my base and OPI Gettin’ Miss Piggy With It on top. Gettin’ Miss Piggy With It is one of my all time favorite nail polishes and is perfect for the Ohio State fan.

   
 We arrived on campus around 10am even though the game was at 330. College Game Day set up on the Oval, so that was our first stop. College Game Day came to Ohio State a couple times while I was there but I never ventured over to it. My boyfriend went the last time they were on campus and actually made it on tv and everything, but he said this time didn’t even compare to then with the amount of people that were there. It was kind of insane seeing how many people were there. We went to grab some lunch and then headed back to the oval to see the picks and the head gear selection, which was pretty exciting for me to see in person. Afterwards we met up with one of my friends for some tailgating and got to meet Beanie Wells! He is actually my boyfriend’s all time favorite Buckeye and the first Christmas we were together I got him a Beanie Wells autographed mini-helmet and he got to meet him and get another autograph when he went to a game earlier this year. But of course he was super excited to meet him again and get another autograph.

   
 The game itself was obviously a massive let down. Ohio State lost in a way that I cannot even describe. I don’t think I have ever seen such a badly coached and called game. Add on top of that the wonderful weather conditions. And by wonderful, I mean a full on downpour for the first half of the game in the cold with a whipping wind. We were three rows from the top of the Shoe and definitely felt the swirling wind. My coat was still wet Sunday morning. We still managed to have fun and were happy we went to the game. On Sunday, we met up with some friends that live in Columbus for breakfast before heading back to Cincinnati and Cleveland.

   
   
  
Overall, it was a much needed weekend for me to recharge and get myself ready for Thanksgiving and Black Friday. I am going to try and get back into regular posting but am making no promises. I bought the Kat Von D Mi Vida Loca Remix palette and haven’t even had time to play with it 😦 Working retail during the holidays certainly is no picnic.

 

 

Going Through a Funk Chit Chat

It might have been noticeable by my lack of makeup related posts that I am going through a bit of a funk right now. I have just been so exhausted lately that on my off days I am not wearing any makeup and on the days that I do work, I am wearing minimal makeup. I also managed to crack my middle nail down the middle on my right hand, so the nail polish wearing has been cut down as well. My off days also consist of sleeping in and just lounging around the house; nothing too exciting to share. I’ve just been trying to listen to my body and respond to what it wants.  These little funks are totally normal for all of us. but that doesn’t make them any less annoying when they do happen.

Taking advantage of my desire to relax, I finally decided to start reading The Maze Runner series. I have wanted to read the series for quite a while now, but I could never get the book from the library so it kept getting put on the back burner. But the boyfriend saw the movie and loved it, so when I was in Cleveland, we watched the movie together and it increased my desire to read the series. So on Monday when I was feeling a little crummy, I took a trip to Target and decided to buy the first book. I had intentions of taking a few days to read the book, but I have started to notice more and more lately that I just devour books. I can’t drag reading out unless it is a book that I am not super into. I read all of The Maze Runner Monday night…I picked up The Scorch Trials after work on Tuesday night, started the book on Wednesday, and finished it on Wednesday. I am sure by the weekend, I will have finished The Death Cure as well. I get so into books that I just cannot stand to put them down. Teen Dystopian Fiction has become a genre of books that I have found that I really enjoy reading.  I’ve read The Hunger Games series (by far my favorite of the genre so far), some of the Mortal Instruments series, and The Divergent series. I would love some suggestions of what other books or series that are in this genre that you have enjoyed and think I should read.

Going through a funk definitely sucks, but it is something that we all go through from time to time. I am sure that this little funk will pass soon and things will be back to normal on here. What do you like to do to help yourself get through a funk?

Life Chit Chat

I just got back from spending a week in Cleveland with my boyfriend. I really cannot wait until I don’t have to go through the whole process of trying to take time off work to see him. At this point, every time I leave it gets harder and harder because I am just so ready to be up here. The good news is that I had three interviews while I was up there. Two of the interviews were with the same company. The first interview went so well with them that they wanted to get my second interview in before I went home, which is always a good sign. The other interview was with another company that I have already had two phone interviews with. I’m really crossing my fingers and hoping that one of these jobs comes through. I’m really happy about being able to interview with two different two companies in one week and I’m feeling better about something coming through for me. 

  
While I was there, I did manage to get some shopping in. I found that ridiculously cute sweatshirt at H&M. One thing about me is a I absolutely love puns and corny jokes. I actually passed on the sweatshirt when I first saw and then I decided that I had to go back and get it. I cannot wait for it to cool down here so I can wear it. The closest mall to us has a JCPenney Sephora, so I stopped in and went straight to the Kat Von D section, and lo and behold, THEY HAD LOLITA IN STOCK. I finally got my hands on the Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in the shade Lolita and I can’t wait to try it. I also stopped into Target because I decided to break my no new top coats rule to try out the new Essie gel top coat. I also picked up a heat protection spray from Tresseme because I forgot my beloved Paul Mitchell Hot Off the Press. I will update you guys on all of these products once I have tried them and can give you some feedback. 

The Luke Bryan concert that my boyfriend surprised me with tickets with months ago was finally this past weekend. He lives about 30ish minutes from Downtown Cleveland, so we left over two hours early so we could get down there and parked and not be in a rush. We also left so early because the Cleveland Air Show was also going on right next to the stadium. We got to the exit closest to the stadium and traffic was at a total standstill. We sat on this half mile stretch of highway for about two hours because Cleveland so brilliantly decided to shut that exit down with zero warning. It was a total disaster. Luckily my boyfriend was driving and once we finally got moving, he didn’t take the exit and took us into the city from another way. We ended up missing all of Dustin Lynch, who was the opener but I feel like we were pretty fortunate that was it. We got to see all of Randy Houser and he was fantastic. He covered Stay With Me by Sam Smith and it was so good. Florida Georgia Line was next, and fun fact, I actually despise them. The boyfriend is a huge fan though. And of course Luke was fantastic. 

Hopefully one day very soon, I will be able to post that I got one of the jobs I interviewed for and I officially be moving to Cleveland. Until then, I am going to keep enjoying every minute that I get to spend with my boyfriend and working hard to find a job up here.  

A Little Chit Chat

This month has just insane for me and this little blog. I hit over 2,000 views this month and it is seriously blowing my mind. Thank you to each and every one of you that has taken time out of your day to read this little blog. I seriously get excited about every single view that I get. I am constantly screen shotting my stats page and sending it to my boyfriend because I get that excited about it. I cannot even describe the feeling. Over 200 people have subscribed to my blog!!! I can’t wrap my head around it, but seriously you guys, thank you so, so much and know that it means the world to me when you read my blog. If there is anything that you would like to see on my blog, let me know!

  
Now for a story time. I always tell people how clumsy I am. I constantly trip and bump into things. But the other night, the clumsiest thing I have ever done happened. I managed to trip over my own feet and fall. And not just a little baby fall. I scraped my knees and shins up and really did a number to my left foot. I scraped my baby toe and the side of my foot so bad that we almost took me to the emergency room because of how badly it was bleeding. Luckily we got it to stop and I was able to calm down and go to bed. A few hours after going to bed, I woke up with serious pain in my left foot. I iced it and took some medicine and set my alarm so that I could make a doctor’s appointment in the morning.

  
I hobbled into the doctor’s office and after looking at it, the doctor thought that I probably broke it but we needed to do x-rays to be sure. It turns out that I very luckily did not break my foot; I just sprained it very badly. So I have been spending the past few days just laying around and propping my foot up and icing it. Of course I would do this the week before the Luke Bryan concert my boyfriend surprised me with. Hopefully it will heal up soon and I will be in good shape for the concert. By the way, I have had the best nurse. This guy has not left my side!

  
What is the clumsiest thing that you have ever done? Are you as clumsy as I am?

Makeup Chit Chat

I finally have a Saturday off of work that I did not specifically request off. But it feels so weird for me to have a Saturday off and to not be spending it with my boyfriend. Pretty much the only Saturdays that I have off are the ones included in the few weekends I get to take off to spend time with my boyfriend. I have basically done nothing and have no intentions of doing anything productive.

I am not wearing any makeup today. And that does not bother me one bit. I have zero problem going out with no makeup on. I am just as likely to go out and do things with no makeup as I am with makeup. I know so many people who refuse to be seen in public without makeup on. For me, makeup has always been about having fun. I have never felt like I needed makeup on to be pretty, let alone be presentable. I wear makeup because it is fun to wear makeup and put makeup on and to experiment with it.

During this past long and exhausting retail holiday season, I actually grew to resent makeup a bit. It is basically in my job description that I have to wear makeup to work. Working weird hours and crazy shifts and dealing with people nonstop exhausted me in every way. I hated that I had to take up precious time to put all of this makeup on. I felt no inspiration at all and was purely wearing makeup because I had to be wearing makeup. I cannot imagine feeling like that all of the time. When I finally got some time off at the end of January, I pretty much wore no makeup at all. And it felt refreshing. I finally felt inspired again and was excited to play with makeup again.

I feel as if there is not much of a point to this blog except to say this. Makeup should be all about having fun. You should wear your makeup how you want to wear your makeup and do what makes you happy. Makeup should never feel like a chore and makeup most certainly should not feel like a basic requirement to be seen in public. It’s okay to love wearing a lot of makeup and its okay to love not wearing makeup. No side is right and no side is wrong, as long as you are doing what you want to do. If you don’t want to put makeup on to go to the grocery store, then don’t. If you want to wear full on makeup, then do it. But make sure it is all about you and what makes you happy. I don’t have my blog because I think people need to be wearing makeup. I have my blog to share my adventures in makeup because it is fun for me; makeup is an adventure for me. We are all on our own little makeup adventure, no matter what our relationship with up is; just make sure it is the kind of adventure you want to be on 🙂

Life Update and Chit Chat

When I restarted this blog, I changed the tag line to my adventures in life and beauty; with the intentions of sharing more than just beauty products with you. I am probably going to be a bit behind on the blog for a week or so due to life’s happenings. And today I am sharing the most personal blog I have shared so far. 

It’s been mentioned several times that I am in a long distance relationship with my boyfriend. We are currently about 4 hours apart. After doing this for over 3 years now, we are both ready for me to make the big move to Cleveland. After a botched transfer from where I currently work that left me with the understanding that transferring was not going to be an option for me. So, I have been applying to jobs left and right for the past few months. After nothing coming through for me, I finally had a very promising job prospect thanks to the boyfriend’s mom. I spent all of last week feeling anxious and excited; this could finally be it. This could finally be what we have been waiting for. So I drove up here on Saturday for my interview on Sunday morning. 

Rewind to yesterday, which was the big interview. I show up for the interview and go through the first round of interviews to be told that I am overqualified for the position. I had applied for management positions and said I only wanted a full time position on my application. It turns out, I drove all the way up here for an interview for a part time, entry level retail position. Perhaps it was wrong of me to assume that I would be interviewing for the position that I applied for and perhaps I should have asked to clarify the position I was interviewing for. But any other job I have ever applied for has made it clear to me when the openings they had were different than what I had applied for. I left the interview feeling stunned and deceived. 

I drove the couple of minutes back to the apartment to tell my boyfriend the news. I was returning less than 30 minutes after I left for the interview. He was shocked and stunned as well. Being back at the apartment, the pain of the letdown hit me. It actually physically hurt. 

It’s moments like these that remind me why my boyfriend is so special. He let me be. He said a few things here and there, but knew exactly how to handle the situation. He let me go lay in the bed by myself for a while and joined me when he knew I had relaxed a little. We discussed what had happened and promised each other that we would find me a good job here. This happened for a reason and there is a better job out there for me. 

We made the most of yesterday by going out to lunch, seeing mad max, and just relaxing and watching Harry Potter. While I will be leaving Cleveland without a job this time, I am leaving feeling more assured of my relationship and I want to move up here more now than ever. Long distance relationships are a tricky thing. But if I have learned anything from our relationship over the years, everything happens in its own time.