Valentine's Day Gingerbread House Project

 

Boyfriend and I bought some gingerbread kits during the holiday season but never got around to doing the projects. We decided to finally build the house but added our own Valentine's Day twist to it. Above are our two little gingerbread people.

My boyfriend recently shaved his head and is now sporting a (teensy) mohawk which is what that line of blue frosting is. I was going for a Madonna vibe but then changed my mind and went for a Jackie O look.

We decorated the pieces first before putting the house together and let me say -WHAT A MESS. We had to add loads of extra frosting to get the walls to stick together which is why it doesn't look as neat and pretty as it should.

This is my favorite part of the whole house. While I was striving to make the house look "normal" and pretty, he was getting creative and doing things like this!

I like my candy corn Valentine's Day lights.

Decorating supplies

Although our house collapsed in the end (we rebuilt it 19395343 times), we had so much fun building it. It was nice to just make something together and see the end result. I'm very lucky to have a boyfriend who will do things like this with me. Our next project will be finishing up the gingerbread people kit!  -_______-

Best Birthday Present Ever

Made by my mommy.

Weekend Presents: MAC Dress It Up Pro Longwear Lipcreme, Stickers, & Friendship Bracelets

Sometimes the best presents are small and thoughtful. Well in this case, only one of the items (the lipstick!) was meant to be a present but friend boy ended up buying me the other things while we were at Walmart. I got the new MAC Pro Longwear Lipcreme in "Dress It Up" (from the Styledriven collection), cutesy stickers, and a friendship bracelet set.

MAC Pro Longwear Lipcreme in "Dress It Up"

MAC Pro Longwear Lipcreme in "Dress It Up"

I swiped on Dress It Up (a pale blue pink) today and it's become on of my current favorites. I love that while it's still a pale pink, it's "dark" enough to wear for fall. As for the formula, it applies smoothly which I really appreciate since so many pale lippies tend to accentuate any dryness/cracks in the lips. I'm not sure about the wear yet -I'll have to test it out more. (Christine's review here)

Now, is Dress It Up different from the other 54935840 pale pink lipsticks in my collection? Not really. However, I do often run into problems with my pinks being too cool or making my lips look super dry (not cute) so this is a winner in my book. It's just a really nice standard pale pink and I urge your warm skinned ladies to give it a try (it'll look amazing on cool toned gals as well.)


Have a wonderful (rest of your) Sunday lovers. <33

CSN Haul

Last Summer (OMG talk about lagging), I was contacted be CSN and they me and sent me a gift certificate to use at any of their 200+ stores. Well, being the horrible blogger I am, I totally forgot about it. Finally, the day before it expired (at the end of the year), I placed my order. At first, I wanted to get this Bulls backpack but it was impractical since the last time I wore a backpack was in high school. Here's what I did get:

Mr. Sketch markers! This set of 18 markers was the BEST part of my haul. I love, love, love these markers because they all smell totally delicious. The scent even lingers after you've used them on paper. I used to sit around and sniff the markers as a kid and I found myself STILL doing that the other day. =P My favorite is the brown..

I also got the Melissa and Doug Fashion Sticker Collection book for my little sister and me. It's a pretty cool book -like paper dolls but sticker form.

I thought this 8 pack of colorful R.S.V.P pens would be perfect for taking notes in class. While the colors are nice, the grip where I hold the pen really hurts my hand -it's too stiff. I recommend this for the colors and price but NOT when it comes to comfort.

I also got two packs of assorted construction paper (seen in first photo) for crafts and projects. This was a really good deal for all the colors and amount of sheets included.

Now what did I think of the CSN experience? Honestly, I'm kind of undecided. While all the items I bought were reasonably priced and cheaper than if I had purchased them in the store, I felt that lots of items were overpriced. I initially wanted to get a bag or shoes but holy moly they were expensive! But then when I would see something that was reasonably priced and pretty, it was out of stock. I swear, all the good purses were out of stock and that made me mad! I wish they'd just take the product down instead of having me click on it and see it be out of stock. =( All in all, it was a toss up. There are some very low priced items and then so really overpriced items -but I guess you'd find that anywhere.

Another thing I noticed was that while many things were up to date (I saw some Toy Story toys), there were lots of things that were out of date -especially when it came to the shoes and accessories. Also, the whole site is so incredibly random. It's like Forever 21 x100 -just too many items that it left my head spinning! I think that if they chose their products more carefully and left out all the random bits, the site could be really great. BUT, there are some hidden treasures. The search engine is your best friend. That's how I found all my products and I really do love all the products I got (except for the R.S.V.P pens.)

And for the customer service? PERFECT. The order shipped the next day and I got my first package within 2 or 3 days. At first, I was irritated by the shipping costs (LOL I hate paying shipping) but because many of the items were shipped separately, I completely understand why shipping was $8. The items were also packaged with paper/foam packaging peanuts. One thing that did bother me though (not really a customer service issue) was that their website was so slow. Sometimes, it would kind of "crash" and I'd have to open another window. I think the reason behind this is that they just have too many items on there which means more items to load which means more time waiting!

Would I order from them again? I probably would for the school and crafts supplies but I don't think I would for shoes or purses. I also saw some reasonably priced toys so I'd maybe come back for that. I had LOTS of pens on my wish list but I restricted myself to only 2 sets so I'd come back those. Something I'd definitely come back for though is their customer service. Customer service and fast shipping are extremely important to me -I liked that they gave me quick updates and that all my items arrived with lightning speed.

Have a look around their site. If you could order some things, what would you get?

Michael's Haul (some ideas for wrapping your Holiday gifts)

I'm back!! My new storage space has been processed and now I'm able to include more pictures again! =) So happy and relieved.. Anyways, because Christmas in in just around the corner, I thought I'd show you some gift wrapping ideas.

I bought a bunch of baskets in hopes that it would fit all the goodies I was giving to my boyfriend's parents this year. I bought 2 baskets (for that purpose) and then 1 really pretty gold one for me.

Isn't this gorgeous?! (Only $5.19)

 2 candles to complete presents.. (On sale for $3.33 each)

 More butterflies! The blue one actually had wire in the back (for Christmas trees) so I had to return them. I could've added clips but I didn't want to bother with them. (Red Butterflies were $1.49 and Blue Butterflies were $1.59)

 Foam stickers. I love the glitter Christmas lights! These are great for cards or scrapbooking. (Snowflake stickers were $1.49 and Christmas Lights stickers were 74 cents)

 Here's one of the baskets -I really loved this one but it still wouldn't fit what I needed it to. ($7.99)

I really liked this one too but same issue as the one above. ($5.99)

I got all of the items (except for the blue butterflies) on sale with an extra $10 off my purchase -I thought it was supposed to be $5.00 off but I got $10 for some reason. The blue butterflies were regular price ($1.99) so I got 20% off (I had a 20% off all regular items coupon.) Sadly, I also returned all 3 baskets because they didn't suit what I needed them for.. I just thought I'd share the deal with you though! This week, all Holiday baskets should still be either 50% of 60% off at Michael's.

And here's the basket I ended up using. It was basically the same size as the other 2 I bought but I liked this one because it could be used year-round instead of just during the Holidays. I was trying to achieve something like this:

 I just wrapped the basket holding the gifts in clear wrap -I think I need to trim the top though because it looks a little awkward. This would've been fine if the basket had a handle. Inside, I've included a candle, yummy truffles, and a L'Occitane set. I'm also including some baked goods on the side (they wouldn't fit!)

And here's what the rest of the presents look like:

 No tree this year but the gifts are stashed in the corner of the living room. I'm still not even done wrapping gifts but this is most of it.

And this is my favorite wrapped present because it's obviously so Sephora. The girls over at the store gave me a ton of boxes, wrapping paper, and ribbons to wrap all my things. I'm saving the paper for throughout the year too when I have to wrap birthday presents from Sephora. ;) I just love how nice it looks.

Are you done wrapping all your gifts for the holidays this year?

Vacation Haul! Makeup, Clothes, & Disney Stuff..

During my mini-vacation, I picked up a few things here and there. I definitely didn't go all out -I was saving for Fabulous Felines and Venomous Villains.

A look at everything..

LORAC Perfectly Lit in Spotlight, LORAC Baked Matte Satin Blush in Exposed, MAC A Rose Romance. The Perfectly Lit powder was only $9!! Go pick one up!

The day before I left, I went to Sephora to pick up my free VIB Swag Bag. Sadly, they were all out (and this was the 1st day too!) but since I was really upset they were all out, they gave me a bag of samples.

Burberry, Bliss, Lancome, Clinique, BE Buxom, Givenchy

I thought this little cell phone charm was so cute! But my phone doesn't have a "hook" thingy for it.

I got these from Downtown Disney! Belle is actually my favorite but she looked funny. I thought Ariel looked the best.. All the other princesses didn't really look like themselves.

I also picked up some beads. I would've bought more but each was 90 cents -totally overpriced! I didn't even want to buy these 4 but gave in because they're adorable.

We went to the Carlsbad Premium Outlets and I picked up these Chinese Laundry "Sweet Revenge" jelly flats from Factory Brand Shoes. I ended up returning them when I got back because they were too big -they'd slip off when I walked. I LOVE the way they look -very different from anything I have but even a size 5 was too big (I'm usually a 5.5.)

 I love them..

 <3

 GAP Black/Brown Racerback dress- $17.99 on sale! This can be dressed up or down.

 GAP Ruffle Dress- $39.99. I ended up returning it because I thought it was way too expensive for what it was. Plus the quality wasn't as good -probably because it's GAP Outlet.

GAP T-Shirt Dress- $4.97 on sale. I love this dress and it was so cheap too!

GAP Cardigan- $34.99. This was another one of the things that was too expensive for what it was. It ended up being a return. I rather get one from (regular) GAP that's thicker.

At Disneyland, I got 2 Vinylmation figures. The thing about these figures is that they're in boxes with now "windows" so you can't see which one you're buying. There are several different collections but if you buy 2 from the same collection, you run the risk of buying 2 of the same kind!

I bought 2 figures (one for me and one for my boyfriend) from the Urban #2 Collection. Above are the designs included in the collection.

 Luckily, I got 2 different designs! The one on the right was actually the one I wanted -I wasn't too fond of the on the right. I don't get why they'd make one like that! It looks like someone dunked mud/poo/chocolate onto Mickey!! =O

 At Legoland, they were having "Star Wars Day" so they gave out free stuff. Here's part of a really cool poster they gave out (contains many of the Star Wars characters in LEGO form) and a limited edition LEGO brick.

That's it for my haul! I'll be doing reviews for the makeup I bought soon.