Superstitious

Superstitions are so weird, yet I bet you don't know a person who doesn't have at least one. Since today is Friday the 13th, I figured it's only appropriate to list some of mine, my Grandmom's, and Brian's. I don't think all of these are technically superstitions, mostly just habits, but you catch my drift.

Ladybugs. We assume my Great-Grandmother is my guardian angel because she loved ladybugs (and a lot of other reasons, which would need their own whole post!), and whenever I need reassurance in my life, I usually end up happening across a ladybug (I even found one in the freezer once!) and immediately feel like things are going to be okay. As as kid it used to freak me out (they were always around me, in my room, on my shoulder, my desk at school, it was weird!) but now I am relieved when I find one. Recently I did some research and apparently ladybugs ARE actually linked to religion, and people have taken their presence as meaning "let go and let God," so this is cool.

Knock on wood. I am out of control with this one. Anytime I feel like I "jinxed" anything, I literally HAVE TO knock on wood three times with perfect knocks (I don't even know how to explain what I mean, I'm just weird), or else I have to do it again, and again, and again. I'm a freak.

Love you drive safe. I always have to text or say this to Brian when he leaves work. Always.

Special sauce. That is Brian's name for his special clothing ensembles during sports games. I'll wait for you to stop laughing, because it is hilarious. Sports lovers are always into their superstitions, and what's that saying, "it's only weird if it doesn't work?" haha

Black cats and ladders and doors. My Grandmom was pretty superstitious, but the one she was most adamant about was leaving using the same door as she came in through. 

What weird superstitions/habits do you have? Linking up with Whitney. Have a great weekend!

What's in my Makeup Bag?- Face Edition

Yay it's Thursday already!! Tuesday night Brian and I went to the Florida Georgia Line concert at the county fair and it was awesome (also brutally hot! I was not used to that after my cool weekend!). They put on a great show! 

Yesterday, my Mom and I made this awesome wreath for her door, and I decorated my house for Fall! Loving it and so happy that the weather is cooling back down tomorrow :-)

But without further adieu, welcome to the 2nd edition of What's in my Makeup Bag?! Last week I talked about products I like that are specifically for your eyes. Next week, I'll talk about hair products, and the last week I will talk about moisturizers and other body products. *By the way, all pictures were taken by me, that way you know I have actually tried out and used these products! This is not a sponsored post, just wanted to share some stuff I've tried! These are merely my opinions and should not be taken as fact.*

Tinted Moisturizer/BB Cream. I have hopped all over the place with foundations. I really don't like wearing anything too heavy because I usually sweat like crazy, so I jumped on the tinted moisturizer/BB cream bandwagon. I've tried many expensive brands and drug store brands. I've tried Benefit Play Sticks, which I thought was cool, but you needed a brush to blend it in well, and I felt like even then it just didn't blend as well as I wanted-- it looked too much like I was wearing makeup, and I prefer the natural look. I then tried Almay Smart Shade Makeup, but that pretty much had no coverage at all. I bought Urban Decay Surreal Skin Cream to Powder foundation and though the packaging is gorgeous and even comes with a cute little brush inside, I just didn't love the way it blended on my face. I've also tried Neutrogena's Shine Control Liquid Makeup (not pictured) and I had to throw it away because I swear it felt like sand was mixed in, it was so gritty!! I also tried Benefit's Hello Flawless Oxygen WOW (not pictured) and I personally felt it was too runny and too much coverage for me, so I gave it to my Mom to use (she likes it). 

It wasn't until I found this tarte BB tinted treatment that I found something I will 100% buy again. It is smooth and just the right amount of coverage. I really really like it! Also, I've always been a loyal bareMinerals girl, and love the matte powder, which I will sometimes layer over BB cream if I am going somewhere special or need a little extra coverage.

Blush. 4 words: COVERGIRL Classic Color Blush. I use the Rose Silk color. It's all I've ever used in terms of blush, and it's all I ever plan on using. I love this blush, plain and simple. The price is definitely right (less than $5, heck yes!). I like to use the bareMinerals brush I got for free with a purchase though, because I feel like it blends better. 

Concealer.I haven't tried out a ton of concealers, but I did a lot of research before buying and this Benefit boi-ing had awesome reviews. I got it a year ago and just took this picture today, and this is how much I have left, so it lasts forever! A little bit really goes a long way. 

Face moisturizer. So many moisturizers are so heavy and thick, but this Garnier Moisture Rescue Refreshing Gel-Cream isn't and feels soothing going on. I use it at night. During the day, my dermatologist has me using a really really expensive moisturizer from her office with SPF 50 in it, because apparently I am very fair and freckly haha.

Face wash. I am not particularly partial to any brand. I try not to use salicylic acid because it's too harsh on my sensitive skin. Simple Refreshing Face Wash Gel (not pictured) is what I am using right now and it's fine, I'll probably buy the moisturizing one next time though. I got my Clarisonic Mia 2 in January. I use the delicate brush head (even the sensitive brush head was WAY too harsh on my skin) and I feel like it cleans my skin alright but honestly, I am just not sold on it. I know everyone and their brother love these things to death, I just don't think it really made much of a difference in terms of the health of my skin, especially for the hefty $150 price! 

If you have any questions, please comment or shoot me an email :-)

What are your favorite face products? Have you used any of these with different results? Let me know in the comments! Check back next week for What's in my Makeup Bag?- Hair Edition!

God Bless the USA

"We will never forget." This quote resonates with me, and I'm sure with every other American, because no, I certainly will not and cannot forget. 

I will not forget how innocent and naive us 8th graders were up until September 11, 2001. We had never heard the words terrorism, al qaeda (I refuse to capitalize that), taliban, and suicide bombers. That day changed the lives of so many Americans, even the ones who weren't born yet. I remember being sent home from school early, completely not understanding what was going on. I understood that airplanes had crashed, but thought it was just a horrible accident. I was blissfully unaware of the realities of this world up until that day. Now children, like my little brother and sister, grow up knowing what terrorism is and being fearful of it. In addition to all the brave lives that were lost that day, we lost the innocence of the world's children. Our world has changed so much, and is very scary with everything going on right now, so I'm going to leave you with this song I have loved as long as I can remember (in middle school, my friend and I actually loved it so much that we recorded our own version and put it on a CD-- thankfully that CD has since been destroyed). God Bless the USA.

LAKE!!

Woop so we just got back late last night from a long lake weekend, so that's why this weekend recap post is on Tuesday! 

I actually took no pictures until Sunday. It was FREEZING up in the Adirondacks (as in, I don't think the temp got above 55 the whole weekend!), so we didn't even get the boat out all weekend. Saturday we sat on top of the boathouse and talked pretty much all day in our sweats, hoping fruitlessly that we'd get a chance to take the boat out. Fat chance, so we headed back to the cabin and just hung out the rest of the night.

Sunday it was chilly again, but beautiful out. The picture below on the right I took at like 6am (when I got up to use the bathroom) and I thought "oh man, it's going to be cloudy again," but when we got up for the day at like 9, the skies had cleared and it was gorgeous.

We decided to take our time getting over to the lake house, since we knew we probably weren't going to take the boat out again, so we went up to Mount Defiance and took some pictures. The lake in the pictures is Lake Champlain (not Lake George where we go boating, but they are very close in proximity), and on the other side of the lake is actually Vermont (we're in NY). It was gorgeous! If you look closely in the first picture, you can see Fort Ticonderoga, which made Ethan Allen famous :-)

This quite possibly is my new favorite picture of Brian and me! (don't be fooled by our short-sleeved shirts; we took our coats off for the picture haha)

The rest of the day Sunday we stopped by Walmart to get some supplies (I actually hate baked beans but my family loves them so I had to take a picture to show them this huge can I found!) then hung out at Brian's aunt and uncle's lake house. I read a whole book, and we tried to relax on the boathouse, but it was too COLD and WINDY, even in our sweats and coats. That night Brian did a little 4-wheeling, Brian's dad made a fire at the cabin, and we watched the Giants stink it up. 

Yesterday we stopped at the Sagamore resort for lunch on our way out. All I have to say is you have to check this place out if you ever get up here. It is beautiful (but very very expensive, hence why we only have lunch there!). 

We stopped in NJ on the way back to PA to visit briefly with Brian's brother, grandparents, uncle, and neighbors, then got home late last night. We had a great weekend and it was a nice preview of the fall weather (considering it is supposed to be like 90 here tomorrow, gross). Tonight we're seeing Florida Georgia Line in concert! Have a happy Tuesday!

Recipes: Champagne Sherbet Punch and Greek Pasta Salad

Happy Friday!! I am sooo excited for this weekend, since Brian and I are headed to the Lake again! If you don't know which lake I'm talking about, check out this post and this post! Don't expect many pictures of me; I look like I've been punched in both eyes my allergies are so bad.

For your cooking baking concocting pleasure, I've decided to share with you two of the recipes from our cookout last weekend! For the punch, I combined two of my Grandmom's punch recipes, Sherbet Punch and Champagne Punch and it tastes really yummy! The pasta salad is something Brian and I developed and perfected the dozens of times we've made it. Make them and you'll love them, promise.

Champagne Sherbet Punch

Ingredients:

- 1 can (46 oz) pineapple juice
- 46 oz orange juice-- I just pour OJ from the container into the pineapple juice can to measure it
- 1 can (12 oz) frozen limeade
- 1 can (12 oz) frozen lemonade
- 3 bottles dry champagne-- you can do two bottle of champagne and 1 liter (3 cans) of ginger ale if you want
- a container of multi-flavored sherbet

Directions:

Thaw the limeade and lemonade. Mix the pineapple juice, orange juice, limeade, and lemonade together in a BIG punch bowl. Then pour in as much of the champagne as you can. Our punch bowl fit 2 bottles of champagne and 1 can of soda. You can add the rest of the soda or champagne in later once people drink some of the punch. Lastly, plop the sherbet into the punch, scoop by scoop. It will fizz and melt eventually into the punch, and it is so yummy! You can add more sherbet later when you add in the rest of the champagne to sort of freshen up the punch. This is definitely a favorite recipe in my family!

Greek Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

- 16 oz of whatever pasta you like (I usually choose penne or farfalle)-- boxes of pasta are usually only like 13.25 oz now, so I used a box and a third of another box.
- a bottle of Greek dressing
- container of feta cheese
- Cavender's greek seasoning (you can get it at Target, but if you can't find it there, here it is on Amazon)
- McCormick's Salad Toppins-- I found these in the salad dressing section of the grocery store
- green pepper, chopped
- pint of baby tomatoes, chopped in half
- cucumber, chopped
- half of a red onion, chopped

Directions:

You can omit the seasoning or salad toppins, and any of the veggies (or add others that you like!), depending on your individual taste. 

Basically you just need to boil the pasta (don't over boil it, you don't want soggy pasta salad!), then rinse it with cold water a few times so it isn't so hot, then mix it with about half of the bottle of Greek dressing and all of the rest of the ingredients. Add more Greek dressing as you feel necessary (I usually add more after it has been refrigerated). Refrigerate in an air-tight container until ready to serve, then add more Greek dressing if necessary. Enjoy! The leftovers make awesome lunch the next day!

Have a great weekend! I will be back to the blogging world next Tuesday. Be sure to check out my other recipes for The Easiest Cheesecake Ever and Greek Pizza :-) Linking up with Whitney!

P.S. If you want an invite for Influenster (you can earn boxes of FREE stuff, who doesn't love free stuff!), leave a comment with your email address and I will send one your way.. you won't be sorry!

What's in my Makeup Bag?- Eye Edition

More like, what's on/in my bathroom counter, because I don't actually carry my makeup with me. Once it's on for the day, I usually don't bother with it again. I have tried a lot of products and some of the latest fads, like the Clarisonic and expensive mascaras, and I figured I'd share the beauty products I love (and some of the things I don't). 

I am going to make this a weekly series for September. Today I am going to talk about products specifically for your eyes. Next week, I'll talk about products designed for your face. The week after that I'll talk about hair products, and the last week I will talk about moisturizers and other body products. Hope you enjoy! *By the way, all pictures were taken by me, that way you know I have actually tried out and used these products! This is not a sponsored post, just wanted to share some stuff I've tried!*

Mascara. I have tried dozens of mascaras over the last 10 years of my life and I never found one I truly loved; I just hopped around and got a different one each time I bought mascara. I have pretty sensitive eyes though, so in the past few years I have tried the more expensive brands, hoping to find a great one. I tried Benefit they're Real (it was okay but not anything special for $23), Dior Diorshow (so so messy), MAC False Lashes (I had an allergic reaction and my eyes swelled up and wouldn't stop tearing up), and Tarte gifted Amazonian clay smart mascara (I actually liked this one best of all the expensive mascaras I tried).

After the MAC debacle, I was fed up and decided to go back to drugstore brands, and since Almay is hypoallergenic, I tried the Almay intense i-color volumizing mascara and I fell IN LOVE! It is awesome! Not messy at all and it lengthens my lashes much better than any other mascara I have ever tried! I am an Almay mascara convert and I have officially bought it 5x in a row, which is definitely a record! I use it in the color Midnight, even though I don't have the hazel eyes recommended for it.

Eyeliner. I don't like hard pencils that you have to sharpen. I only like the soft kind that "click" up (I'm sure what they are called). I'm not too particular, but I usually just buy COVERGIRL Perfect Point Plus and it does the job :-)

Eye makeup remover. I hate hate hate oily eye makeup removers, and my eyes get really irritated by a lot of the removers out there. I have been using these Almay Lash Care gentle eye makeup remover pads for awhile now and they are very convenient and non-irritating. I received a large sample of Clinique's Take the Day Off when I bought eye cream at BonTon, and I have been using this lately with a cotton ball, and I really like it, too. I just don't know if I feel like paying $18 a bottle in the future.

Eye cream. Thanks to law school and allergies, I get dark circles under my eyes a lot now. Also, I've decided to be proactive about preventing wrinkles, so when I went to the Clinique counter the other day and told the employee my concerns, she recommended All About Eyes Rich. I bought the small container for $30, and it seems like it will last forever because I only use a teeny amount and pat it on my eyes at night and in the morning. I really like how rich and moisturizing it feels without being too heavy. I also love the samples Clinique gives... some of them are bigger than the eye cream!

Latisse. I wrote a little about Latisse in this post. I have been using this diligently for almost 8 weeks now and I actually have a progress appointment today. I really notice a difference so far when I wear mascara, but I am waiting the full 16 weeks before I make my final judgment. I will definitely do a follow up letting you know the final results. You have to get it through a physician and it is definitely expensive, but if you only use one brush and one drop per night, it will last double the amount of time. Also, shop around. The skin care center associated with my dermatologist's office was actually having a buy one, get one free sale when I got mine!

Whoa this post took me wayyyy longer than I expected to put together, but I hope I helped at least a few people out with some product choices! If you have any questions about anything I said, please comment or shoot me an email :-)

What are your favorite eye products? Have you used any of these with different results? Let me know in the comments! Check back next week for What's in my Makeup Bag?- Face Edition!

My Goals for September

So I saw that Erica is hosting a monthly goals link-up, and I think it's an awesome idea! I've wanted to become more purposeful with my time right now while I am searching for a job, so setting a few goals for the month should really help with that. Without further ado, my goals for September are:

One. Lose 10 pounds. This is totally do-able, as I did it already last month, but will entail working out 5x a week (I am doing Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred) and sticking to my daily calorie count with less carbs and less added sugar (I use Lose It! the app and I really like it). 

Two. Get some part-time work. Searching for an entry-level attorney position in this job market, especially where I live in semi-rural PA, is not an easy task. I am applying for everything that semi interests me within a 30 mile radius, but unfortunately there really are not that many jobs out there right now. I am trying not to get discouraged, but it is really hard. So for now, especially until we get the bar results in mid-October (when I am hoping more job possibilities open up, because, assuming I pass, I will actually be a licensed attorney and therefore more employable at that point), I am going to try to somehow make some extra money on the side. I will have to see how this pans out. 

Three. Finish my first knitting project. I just bought this book and now that I have put it out there for the world to see, I have to take the plunge and actually start my first project! 

At the end of September I'll do a follow-up on these goals, so wish me luck!! What are your goals for this month?