30 Days of Shades: Day 22 Sumptuous Olive

Today I used one of my favorite shades of MAC eyeshadow, Sumptuous Olive. (I say that a lot don’t I? My favorite… well, my favorite for today anyway!) It doesn’t look olive though, does it?? I paired it with my Naked palette of course. I used Naked and Buck for my crease color. They are the two matte shades in that palette. I used Virgin for the highlight, and Sumptuous Olive for the lid color. I wanted it to look a little bit more green though, so I experimented with my lower lash line. I first lined my lower lash line with a blue green shade and then topped that shadow with Sumptuous Olive. That made it look a little more green, which is the color I was originally going for.

Overall, I liked this look. It’s very neutral and natural. You can’t go wrong with golds and tans in my opinion!

Top 10 Favorite Beauty Products 03/2011

(All with clickable links!)
10. John Frieda Luxurious Volume Shampoo

9. Bath & Body Works Shea Cashmere

8. Bath & Body Works Lay it on Thick

7. Mary Kay Eye Makeup Remover

6. Philosophy Senorita Margarita

Philosophy Coconut frosting

5. Mally eyeshadow: Lavender Glow/Plum Glow

4. Maybelline Define-A-Brow

3. Laura Geller Blush-N-Brighten Tropic Hues

2. MAC Painterly Paint Pot

1. Urban Decay Naked Palette

Salty Balls!

I know, I know! I didn’t come up with the name people! I actually got the inspiration for this recipe from watching Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. Guy visited a place called Maui’s Dog House in New Jersey. They serve food in dog bowls, and the food mostly consists of different types of hot dogs.

They also briefly mentioned a dish called “Salty Balls” and they said it was salt-brined potatoes. I don’t know why, but it sounded so good to me!

This recipe is so easy, and so full of flavor!

Here is a little history for you: Salt potatoes originated in Syracuse and once comprised the bulk of a salt worker’s daily diet. During the 1800s, Irish salt miners would bring a bag of small, unpeeled, substandard potatoes to work each day. Come lunch time, they boiled the potatoes in the “free-flowing” salt brine

This reminds me of a fabulous book that I am reading right now-New York, by Edward Rutherford. It’s a historical fiction novel based on the history of New York…the beginning of America. It follows one family throughout the timeline, from the 1600’s through today. It even has George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Ben Franklin as characters! It makes me wish those boring history books in school were written like this! Reading this does make me recall learned history lessons though. It’s neat how we have the term “Benedict Arnold” (another character and real life person) and where we get the song Yankee Doodle Dandy from. It all makes sense now! 😉 These are just a few of the “Ahh-ha” things that I have taken from this book…but I digress…back to the taters.
Okay first you take your clean, scrubbed potatoes and put them in a pot with 6 cups of water and 1 cup of salt. Yes, you heard me, just DO IT! Now, I let mine sit in this water for about 4 hours to soak.

When it was time for supper, I just put them on to boil for about 20 minutes. Boil them until they are tender and you can insert a fork in them. Once they are done, you drain them, and the skin looks like this due to the salt. The skin gets all wrinkly and white.
Now, just throw some butter in there with them, and enjoy! These are seriously good! The texture of the insides are almost creamy-like and smooth.
I have never eaten any of these from Maui’s, but here is my take on the dish. I figured I had better come up with something, because there is no way I am making a trip to New Jersey, just for the potatoes.

Here is a little video on Maui’s if you are interested in checking it out!

30 Days of Shades: Day 21 Chartreuse Green

This is my actually the eyeshadow that I wore for St. Patrick’s Day. My sister watched the kids for us, and we went out to the Depot with friends. 🙂 I actually got a lot of compliments on my shadow. Normally, it’s a little bolder than I wear everyday, but figured St. Patrick’s day was the right time to wear it!
I started out by using my NYX black eyeshadow pencil, and covered my whole eyelid with it to create a base. Then I topped it with some M.A.C. Humid. For my crease color, I gradiated up with a chartreuse shade from my 120 palette, and used Virgin as my brow bone highlight. On my lower lash line I used M.A.C. Amber Lights to line the bottom of my eyes, just to give it a pop of color.

And yes, I know this shirt does not match my eyeshadow.
This is actually what I wore with.. black and green! 🙂

Coupon/Grocery Haul: CVS & Walgreens

I know this is supposed to be all about the coupons, but I had to include a couple of pictures of my cutie-pie bambinos.. just because! 🙂

Addison

Macyn

CVS

AND.. here is what I bought at CVS today! Regular $60.06… I paid $22.74. I always check-out twice. The first check-out I buy everything that will give me CVS Extra Care Bucks back on. Then I purchase everything else, and use my Extra Care Bucks that I just got back on these items.

My mom does it differently than I do. She will only use ECBs on items that will give her more ECBs back. This is a great way to do it too, but I am not so good about remembering to use them by the expiration date, which just would be a waste. I prefer to just use them immediately, and that’s just less paper I have to keep track of.
My two receipts.

Walgreen’s

And here is my Walgreen’s haul.

This was my most exciting purchase 🙂 If y’all watch my make-up videos, you know I like this mascara a LOT.

Here’s the breakdown:

$8.99+4.50=$13.49 (Buy One Get One 1/2 off)

$13.49-40%=$8.09 (Take 40% off)

$8.09-$3.00 =$5.09 (Three $1.00 off coupons. One was a manufacturer’s Revlon coupon, 2 were Walgreens coupons.)

And don’t forget, you actually get back $3.00 in register rewards…

$5.09-3.00=2.09

Now, technically that brings the total for these to $1.05 each!! Crazy! AND… I found some with a bonus eyeshadow included! (These were down by the register in the beauty section, not on the main Revlon wall.)

Those two Walgreens coupons I used for the mascaras came from these books. You can get these at the register by the makeup section.
Okay, so I am going to help you out here and tell you what you need to buy in your fist transaction…Everything you see here.

Coupons needed:

$1 off of Dial lotion (manufacturer’s coupon)

$1 off of Irish Spring body wash (manufacturer’s coupon)

$.50 off Irish Spring deodorant (manufacturer’s coupon)

$1.00 off Revlon Grow Luscious (manufacturer’s coupon)

$1.00 off Revlon (Walgreen’s Coupon)

$1.00 off Revlon (Walgreen’s Coupon)

You should pay $15.58 out of your pocket here, but you will get back $10.00 in Register Rewards.

Buy the rest of the stuff in this picture. Your total should be $12.05 before tax, and you can turn around and use those $10.00 Register Rewards, so you only pay $2.05 out of your pocket for this transaction. (Remember this is BEFORE tax.)

(By the way, I have a 24 pack of Spring Water Bottles back there that you cannot see in the picture well.)

You have to find your coupons for all of these items in order to get it down to the $12.05.

Coupons needed;

$1.00 off Purex (manufacturer’s coupon)

BOGO free Right Guard body wash (manufacturer’s coupon)

$3.00 off Renuzit Crystals(manufacturer’s coupon)

Buy 3, Get 3 Free Renuzit air fresheners (manufacturer’s coupon)

2/$1 Arizona Tea (Walgreen’s coupon)

0.79 Renuzit air fresheners (scan 6 times) (Walgreen’s coupon)

2.69 Spring water coupon (Walgreen’s coupon)

2/$1 Walgreen pantiliners (Walgreen’s coupon)

$1 off nail polish (this was in with the Sunday Paper coupons, but it was a Walgreen’s brand coupon.)

$17.63 before tax is what this should cost you. Before any coupons or sales, all of this would have cost a whopping $65.85!

There were a few other things that I wanted to get that they were out of, so I asked them for a raincheck! Now, I can get the sale price next time it’s in stock, and use my coupon with it!

Hope that helps you coupon ladies that were asking for tips! It’s a lot of work to break down this for you! 🙂

You can get all of these items on sale through this Saturday.

30 Days of Shades: Day 20 Shamrock Shadow

I’ve got some eyeshadow for the ladies who aren’t scared to play with color today! Here is something you can wear on St. Paddy’s day with pride! 🙂 I used my Naked Palette plus some Humid by M.A.C., and a Lime eyeshadow pencil to create this look.

Coupon/Grocery Haul!

I have to say thanks to my friend Cassidy for introducing me to Extreme Couponing on TLC! Now, I used to coupon a LOT, but I got busy…and lazy, so I quit. After watching that show, it brought my interest in couponing back! I thought I would share with you guys what all I bought, and what I paid for all of this.

What do you think??? How much would you have paid for all of this?

• 2 bags of Chex Mix
• Package Top Sirloin Steaks (3.41 lb.)
• Nacho Cheese Doritos
• Shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 blocks of cheddar cheese
• Dole baby spinach
• Apple Juice
• Yakisoba noodles
• 4 large baked potatoes
• 2 pkgs. Pizza Rolls
• 2 pkgs. 6ct. Trix Yogurt
• hot dogs
• bologna
• Dial hand soap
• Loofa

Now, keep in mind that I payed $10.20 just for the steaks alone…which is actually great! If you were to go out to eat with your honey, I am betting you would pay at least $10.00 a plate for you both to eat steaks. And those would not be near as big as these! They were $2.99/1b. y’all!

And do you see my total there? $26.16! (And don’t forget $10.20 was for steaks!) I used a coupon for almost every item on that table except the items that I actually needed this week: potatoes and apple juice..they were the only full priced items up there.
Original Price: $62.98

After Coupons: $26.16

Now, if that doesn’t want to make you clip coupons, somethings wrong with you! 🙂

Crockpot Thai Honey Peanut Chicken

I have to admit, the thought of peanut butter and chicken….well, it sorta didn’t seem right to me. I was skeptical. However, I made it and it’s SO GOOD! My friend Amber came over and turned her nose up at it, but after she took that first bite, she was hooked too. She ate a plate of it.. this plate! So, I promise that if you will try it, you will like it!

Oh–And cilantro is a MUST, so don’t leave that out!!

http://www.imageloop.com/swf/looopSlider2.swf

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients: 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs 1/4 cup soy sauce 2 tablespoons honey 1 tablespoon lime juice 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 tablespoon natural peanut butter 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes fresh chopped cilantro for garnish sesame seeds for garnish prepared white rice Directions: 1. Place your chicken thighs in the Crockpot. 2. In a bowl, whisk the soy sauce, honey, lime juice, garlic cloves, peanut butter, and red pepper flakes together. 3. Pour marinade over chicken. 4. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. 5. Serve over rice and garnish with cilantro and sesame seeds.

How does your garden grow??

I’ve decided to try my green thumb out again this year. So far, in years past, I’ve not been much of a gardener. I only got a few scraggly chives to grow last year, but I started with seeds. This year, I bought an actual plant. I will probably kill it quickly too, but we’re gonna give it a go anyway.

And just so you know, I am the only person in history who can get injured while potting plants! Seriously! I found the one chip in the pot and cut open my finger. After that, I decided that the gloves that Chris suggested I wear wasn’t such a bad idea.

Here was my little helper for the project. She was so possessive over the potting soil that I had a hard time actually getting enough to plant my herbs!

Addison loves being outside. She slowed down just long enough for me to take this photo. I have to catch her on the fly for sure!
MK with our Rosemary.
She saw me with gloves on, and she thought she needed them on instead. 🙂

And of course, I had to get a picture of Addison in the outfit she picked out to wear outside. Annalise, a.k.a. “That pretty girl”, gave her some clothes and shoes, and even though some are still too big (like those boots), she won’t wear anything else other than what she gave her.
Ta-Da!! Here is the finished project! I would have like to put some Aqua Globes in there, but my husband THREW THEM IN THE TRASH! Yes, you heard me right. *Sigh*
Rosemary… it smells FABULOUS!
I left the little cards in with the plants. I probably will have to refer back to them time and time again in order to take care of them properly.

This is a plant called a Snow Princess. I have no idea what it is really– I just thought it would look good in the owl that I bought from Hobby Lobby. I was going to buy an asparagus fern to put in it, because that was what someone suggested to put in it, but when I went to Home Depot, they all looked a little dreary. I couldn’t find one that didn’t look droopy and sad, so instead, I chose this. Sadly, it makes me think of Dora the Explorer… the Snow Princess episode. What?? I’m a mom, and I figured Addison would love the name, so there ya have it!

30 Days of Shades: Day 19 Tropical

I figured it was time I posted another eyeshadow look for you guys! I wanted to use some oranges/corals because I actually pick a lot of clothes in those colors for some reason. I wanted to wear a warmer tone on my eyelid vs. the blues and greens on the lid because I feel like it is more “Me” and more wearable for my skin tone. I will actually wear this as an everyday look. With most blues and greens, I have to be just in the right mood to wear them. I wanted to incorporate a lot of colors though.

I guess it’s the weather getting warmer that makes me think of tropical colors, so here is what I came up with.

I used my 120 palette mostly. I used a yellow/gold shade on the first third of my eyelid, a coral on the middle, and a light brown in the crease and outer V. I used Virgin as a highlight, of course.

I really put the majority of the color on my lower lash line. On the outer edge I used a dark purple, then went to an electric blue, then to a green closest to the corner of my eye.

I lined my eyes with UD Ransom, which is a bright purple, and applied my mascara!

Hope you all have a great Sunday!