Back to School for Me!

Hi all!

I start school today!!!!! It actually felt like forever due to the move. I stopped going in Europe back in mid March. I am excited and super nervous. I actually missed my school routine and now that I am somewhere new and still adjusting it's really nerve-wrecking.

The schedule I have is pretty intense and there is a lot I must do schoolwise. Not mention at home. I have birthday parties to plan, I have a guest from Germany coming, I have a husband who will be TDY for 3 weeks and of course normal day to day mom stuff. EEEK. So it's really hard for me not to feel overwhelmed.

I hope to continue to blog. Another thing on my plate, but it will help me plan and structure things as odd as that sounds. When the kids go back to school, I hope to have some freedom. My youngest will not be in school which will be a little hard, so I have to plan and plan to keep him entertained as I dedicate 40+ more hours to school on a weekly basis.

Any moms in school who reads my blog?

I did have a pretty awesome break. 6 countries 3 continents and a big move. I think this was the best school break I've ever had so now it's time to work hard! Because when I do, my kids do as well!!!

Happy back to school!!!

Makeup Mondays: The Evolution of a Beauty Junkie and The Color of the Rainbow Tag

The secret is out. Over the last 6 months or so, I think I've gone through a 'oh shit I am turning 30 soon crisis'. Along with that came all things beauty that I thought was too stupid and 'girly' to try for many years.

My makeup routine was and still is beyond simple. But now I love to add color! Before my makeup was pretty neutral. Then back in December when I was in Switzerland I wore a bold red lip color. I've worn red lips before but mostly stains that isn't so bold. But this lip color was a fire engine red and in your face. I was only bold enough to wear for a couple hours LOL.


Bold and Cold at a Technical Museum in Switzerland


After watching and reading about caring for my natural hair, I watched and read more and more about beauty. From chemical peels to hot pink lipstick. After reading about an orange lipstick, I was HOOKED. I bought orange lipstick, then fuschia, then a deep deep purple, and I loved them and I wore them confidently.

Bare Face in the Morning---no filter! lol

 I am not great with make-up---yet, but I have stepped out my comfort zone with different eyeshadows, nail polishes (don't get me started on those) and just looks in general. I have tried the whole "Kim Kardashian-style highlight and contour schtick, but it was too much. Plus I did it during the day, so I wasted a lot of makeup that day because I washed my face with a quickness.


Well that's the back story and I want to share my new love with a post! I watched these tags all over youtube and thought it was super cute. You can use makeup, beauty products, clothes, accessories, and even little things around the house. Since we still do not have all of our stuff (furniture clothes etc), I didn't have much to work with except for beauty items even then it was hard to find yellow and green. I did have some but it was kind of hard to choose from a small amount of things. That's weird huh? And Indigo? NO CLUE. I hope the shower cap was a proper choice.

Lets get started!
 For RED


Rimmel Lipstick: Lasting Finish by Kate Moss. It's moisturizing, smells nice and lasts for a while I LOVE it.

For ORANGE


L'oreal Color Riche Orange Magique. It's nothing like this color. It's more of a reddish orange. My makeup look with an orange lipstick is similar to mine with a red lip. Eyes, cheeks are toned way down. But always make sure your skin tone is even with a lil powder or foundation or you can look really washed out. Not bold enough for orange? Try coral!

For YELLOW


Clean and Clear's Morning Burst in Lemon and Papaya. I love this because I use it in the mornings in the showers and honestly it does give me a boost. I tried their other scents and this is my favorite one. I need to get some more soon!

For GREEN



Garnier Fructis Anti-Puff Eye Roller. I love to use this in the mornings. It's so cooling and soothing under my tired eyes! I also follow up with another eye cream with sunscreen etc because the sun is NO JOKE here in in Okinawa!

For BLUE


Rimmel's True Union Jack Palette I chose the blue from this palette, because there is some stigma against black women wearing blue eyeshadow. However, I believe if worn right anyone can pull off any color and I LOVE this color whether it's on my lid or anywhere else on my eye. It takes a mean strategy, though to get it just right.

For Indigo (?)


Japanese Shower Cap. It;s snug without giving me a mean headache. Does the job and doesn't stretch. Which is good because I have a biggol head. Best shower cap I've used....ever. May buy another one for when I deep condition.

For VIOLET


Revlon Berry Haute Lipstick. WOW. I LOVE this color! Wear it while it's still summer because it's absolutely PERFECT! It's not too purple so you won't look like you and Barney the Dino....well let your imagination finish that. It may beat Rimmel Kate 01 for my #1!


Included in this tag is the color pink and multi colors!

For PINK


VO5 Pomegranate and Grapeseed Conditioner. I LOVE this conditioner. Not only is it effective it is amazing for my hair. I love it so much. I use it as a rinse-out and leave-in conditioner. It doesn't leave white flakes and is incredibly conditioning. I can seriously go on and on and on and on. Go see for yourself. It's amazing!

For MULTICOLORS

I chose two Too Faced- Return of Sexy Palette! I love to play with this palette and my favorite is the purple!

 and

CURLFORMERS!

I love the results of these babies. They get the kinks out of my kinky hair heat free and gives me pretty curls that I can style in a fro, a bun, etc after a few days wearing the curls. I love how silky my hair feels. However with the crazy humidity here,  this style doesn't last but only two days. 


Hope you all enjoyed the tag! AND EVERYONE WHO WANTS TO TRY IS TAGGED! CAN NOT WAIT TO READ MORE!
Thank you for reading!!!!!!!!!!!

Random Thoughts

HELLO EVERYONE!

I cut my finger pretty bad last night. I was chopping green peppers for stir fry and SLICE. It hurt more than normal and bled a lot more than normal. I put the chunk of fingernail back on and the husband bought me some band aids--he was out when it happened. He brought home about 12 different bandages. He's such a sweetheart. My kids kept their distance as they get woozy pretty quick. They usually place a band aid and neosporin on a cut for me but this was too ugly for them lol. They are too funny to me. So I am typing with my middle finger instead my index finger lol. I type with two hands so it's no big deal.

Didn't take a pic, but here's a pic of my cute little man :)


I am addicted to soundcloud. I found so much great indie music there and mainstream music i never heard. I discovered Kendrick Lamar there. I've read several status updates with people talking about him, but I never heard his music before. I am happy to have discovered him. Looking forward to buying his album now. I also discovered The Stuyvesants, Akira Shelton and a few others. Actually the last two I discovered watching natural hair videos on youtube with their music played in the background. So I did my own research which lead me to soundcloud and now I am addicted to the site. And I am definitely supporting these artists on iTunes. Check them out. Here's a great song from Akira Shelton feat Jasmine Jones:


I love love lovvvve make up lol. I don't wear it all at once but in the last few months i've learned a lot and gotten better. Thanks to youtube. I follow so many beauty gurus there it's crazy. Look out for make-up posts here soon. Not tutorials, but stuff I am loving. Was thinking about having make-up mondays.

I am homesick for Europe. Not just Germany but Europe. But I LOVE it here in Japan so far.

If you don't follow me on youtube,  instagram or facebook I froed out my hair last week. Just for a day and I loved it. I gotta find a heatless way to do it. http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_L-mfPV_hYyZ6j1-wHMNaQ

I GOT MY IPAD BACK. I haven't really used it since I got it back, but I am looking forward to using it for editing vlogs etc.

Tips For Buying Halloween Costumes for Military Members Overseas

Well folks, it's August so it's about that time to start thinking about Halloween. Yes, Halloween. When you're overseas you have to prepare for holidays well in advance. My husband and I were shopping at the commissary and we noticed that there was Halloween candy out! So yeah it's time to get on it. 

I've lived overseas for 9 years and of 5 of them, I and the kids went trick or treating at Halloween. What I learned is that if you're not so crafty (like me), you must buy your Halloween costumes well in advance. If you're one of the lucky ones who can sew and make their kids' costumes from scratch.....GOOD FOR YOU :P lol I'm not hating, I promise. Ok, maybe I am.

I made my son's costume when he was 5 and whilst trick-or-treating, he made me promise to never ever make another costume for him again. My daughter loved her cat costume and still remembers it to this day. My son has nightmares about his however.....dang where did I go wrong.

As I am scouring through pinterest looking for costume and decorating ideas, it struck me that maybe I should share with my fellow military families, the newbies at least, my experiences with Halloween costumes. I had plenty of time to get things totally WRONG. So learn from my mistakes! Trust me. Living here in Japan now hopefully we learned our lesson!

TIP #1

Make sure your kids are totally sure who/what they want to be by early-mid September. There aren't a lot of great choices at the PX/BX and if there are any they're whisked away with a quickness like anything else that's awesome overseas. And people often buy multiples of the same dang costume and they only have one kid! 

 So look online now in August, like me. My daughter wants to be Frankie Stein from Monster High and my boys want to be Mario and Luigi.....again. But of course they outgrew last year's costumes and they wore their costumes all day everyday so they look too tattered to wear this year anyway if they were to fit well.

(www.buycostumes.com)

TIP #2

In the last couple years I've lived in Germany they extended their costumes choices from clowns, 'indians', witches, princesses, and cowboys to way more mainstream choices. I saw a few different costume choices at stores, but there aren't nearly as many choices as there are in America. They don't really do Halloween like Americans do and I am sure the Japanese don't either. Though in Germany it's definitely becoming bigger and they have the AWESOME Fasching in February.

(I bought my son this Iron Man costume shortly after the Ghost-Gate 2010 to get a head start on Halloween 2011, however he wore this to his Kindergarten's Fasching Party)

TIP#3 

Order before mid September because even online they run out of costumes and the orders may take longer because the high influx of orders coming in! If you live off base you can order from costume sites from stores in that country. For example, while I was living in Germany, I used amazon.de and amazon.co.uk often but there aren't a lot of choices, even if there are, it's still extremely expensive from my experience.

TIP#4

If you don't want to buy a costume,  make your own. There are a lot of websites to get tips from. My daughter was a cat in 2010. I just bought black tights, a black tutu, a friend of mine made ears which she glued to a headband and my daughter loved. www.parents.com have a lot of tips that I've used. From cakes to costumes they have a lot of fun easy DIY projects that I like. I love when easy and DIY are in the same sentence, don't you? But if you want something a bit different, make sure you know what you're going to do and buy any missing supplies in advance, because crafty things also move fast at BXs/Craft stores on base. Look off base but make sure you know where to go. You can also buy accessories online, but again, make sure you plan ahead.

(my daughter going for seconds on treats)

TIP#5

If ordering from Amazon and you're ordering in September or October (eek) make sure you order from Amazon and not another company. It'll take alot longer. Just order from the outside company directly, it's usually faster unless stated otherwise.

TIP#6

Walmart, Party City,  BuyCostumes, Target (it depends sometimes they do not ship some costumes to APO addresses for whatever reason) and Amazon ships pretty quickly. But shop around because there often deals where'd you wouldn't expect!

(Costumes purchased from www.walmart.com however the boys want to switch it up this year and it's ot available on walmart this year so far. Keep looking out, though!)

TIP#7

Have FUN!!!!!!!!! And make sure your kids know you get 10% of the candy loot since you're doing all of this work and all.

 

Hope this was helpful! Have a great Halloween!!!