Month in Pics - April

I never cook, but I made this chicken florentine dish w/ texas toast

Gyro platter. Mediterranean food is my fav

Freshly squeezed blood oranges. So good!

This post-it was in a fitting room in F21

Bacardi always sleeps in the craziest positions lol. I took the blanket off of him to get this pic. Sorry weenie :)

We went a little crazy that night and ordered a ton of Mexican takeout. I also wanted to try the skinny girl margarita too. It was a big let down. I didn't like it at all :(

We were leaving the club when I spotted this Lambo next to us. 

Sushi! 

Check out these blue orchids at home depot. I never seen anything like it. They were beautiful - and pretty pricey. 

Charbroiled oysters at Dragos. I actually really dislike oysters, but they put this sauce on this that makes it taste amazing. As long as I don't think I'm actually eating an oyster I'm good. I only eat the small ones too lol, I have to work my way up to the bigger ones and I'm not quite there yet.

Sephora for Earth Day

I went to Sephora the other day for Earth day and they were giving out a free full size Origins moisturizer if you brought in 1 empty cosmetic container. They had 2 to choose from and I got the Starting Over age-erasing moisturizer. I also picked up a blush from the Sephora brand since I've never tried them before and they seemed to be really pigmented when I swatched it in the store. I got it in the color Peach Fusion.  

 Since I had almost 500 points, I turned in 100 of them to get the Benefit Bad Gal mascara which I heard so much about. I haven't tried it, but just looking at the brush I think I'm going to love it.

P.S. My room makeover has been going really well. I can't wait to share some pics w/ you guys. There's just a few more things I want to do, but the big stuff like painting is already done. Also, It's been about 5 weeks post op and I've been doing great, no pain and my bruising is all gone. Even those 2 reddish purple lines that I initially thought were stretch marks is gone too. As long as I don't try laying on my stomach I would never have known they cut me open 5 weeks ago ha :)

I can't believe how flat my stomach is now that they took that grapefruit sized fibroid out. I still have the tiniest bit of swelling, but nothing anyone would notice but myself. I wish I would have taken a before pic when I still had the fibroid so you can see really see the difference. 

Did any of you go to Sephora for the Earth Day freebie?

Splurge VS. Steal - Hermès Collier de Chien Bracelet

Ok girls, I think I've found one of the best Splurge VS. Steal's out there! The Hermès cuff bracelet.  Here is the original.

Top of bracelet is above & bottom side is below

I've found that this retails for $1,000

~~~~~~~~

Here's the one I found on eBay for only $8.59 w/ free shipping!

I was really blown away by the quality of this. It's heavy and feels very durable. I can't wait to wear it out. I looked up the seller to get the link for you guys in case anyone else is interested and it looks like he raised the price to $18.59. It's still not bad considering I've seen much cheaper (as in cheaper looking, not price wise) looking fakes that don't look anything like the real thing.  

What do you guys think?

Turning a Room into a Closet

I've been wanting to turn the spare room in my house into a closet/vanity room for a while now (ok, 2 years actually). I've basically been using it as a room to hold all of  my junk that I don't have a place for. Finally I decided to just go for it and I went searching online for some inspirational room design pics.

I came across this pic and I was sold. This is my main inspiration pic. I want that EXACT wall color paint. I did some research and found out that it's Benjamin Moore - Feather Gray. Bummer that I don't have a Benjamin Moore store anywhere around me :(. Isn't that chandelier to die for? I would love something like this in the room, but then I would have to give up my fan; decisions decisions. 

I have an all black dresser in my room that is almost exactly this size. Right now it's an ugly flat black, but I plan on buying some hi-gloss black and white paint to update it.

I love how this one reminds me of a boutique

I would love to be able to put a couch in the room, but unfortunately I don't think I have the room for it. 

Shelving would be great, not for shoes though since I have too many and I just keep them along the floor of my closet anyway, but something like this would be perfect for some of my bulky clothes like folded sweaters.

  I am loving this. It's just the right size for jeans and I can put something like a decorative glass bowl on top w/ all of my nail polishes for a splash of color :)

The openness and white walls of this is so glam to me (minus the horns on the wall, so not my thing). I love the little elegant love seat and I actually really like the long clothes hanger against the wall like that. It's not something I would originaly have thought to do, but just like in the first pic above, I really like it. Of course if I do something like that I would only hang my very best on it :)

So basically these are my inspiration pics for the room design. I don't exactly have a budget, but since the majority of what needs to be done is paint work, I'm guessing I won't need to spend much. I actually think I can get it the way I want w/ less than $150. I plan on getting started this weekend so I'll keep you guys posted on what I come up with.

What do you guys think of the inspiration pics? 

Brown to Red/Burgundy Ombre Hair

The time has come again where I am completely bored w/ my hair and I'm looking for something new. Last time I went through this I ended cutting all my hair off into a asymmetrical bob (which I totally loved, till I had to endure the growing out phase). This time I'm thinking about ombre hair. I kind of feel that ombre is on it's way out though. Maybe because I've been hearing so much about it. My hair is currently dark brown so I was thinking about dying the bottom part a burgundy or reddish color. Usually when you see ombre hair it's brown/blond so I want something different (and b/c blond hair looks horrible on me lol) I'm a little hesitant though because my husband hates reddish hair. 

I've actually had ombre hair before it was even the cool thing to do, back in 2007.

Clip in extensions obviously :) I loved how bold it was but that shade of red is hard to commit to because it fades so fast. This time I'm thinking about actually dying my hair and here is a pic I've found on google that is pretty close to what I had in mind. 

The same fade as the one above, but w/ this color.  

Have any of you tried the ombre trend? What do you guys think of the color I picked out?

Nail of the Day - Sheer Vanilla

I got this polish and another one by Sally Hansen in a 2 pack at the dollar store. I love Sally Hansen polishes because the wear time is really good and their Hard as Nails line is especially great for my brittle nails. For some reason they have been breaking and spliting on me a lot lately. I just don't get it, I don't do any manual labor what so ever lol. 

 The color is pretty sheer, just how the name states so it took me 4 applications to achieve this layer of opacity, but I love the color. I think it's perfect for these warm months ahead. I plan on wearing this color for a few weeks straight to see if it will help with my thin nails. I've used their clear Hard as Nails polish before and I did notice a difference w/ my nails not breaking and spliting as much. 

What is your favorite nail polish at the moment?

Trendy Spring & Summer DIY Bracelets

A few days ago I picked up some supplies from Michael's and I made these 3 bracelets. What you will need is some curb chain (I used 2 different kinds), some suede cord, jump rings, lobster claw closures and 7 layer string (I used 10 different colors) You will also need some basic supplies like needle nose pliers and scissors. 

I think I payed about $17 for all of this and I still have enough material left over to make at least 4 more bracelets. Check online for coupons because I was able to use 2 50% of and 2 20% off coupons for my purchases (I had Jason check some stuff out for me so I can save more). These bracelets were fun and easy to make so definitely give it a try. 

This was the first bracelet I made and I was pretty happy w/ it. It was also the most time consuming one of the 3. To see how I made it check out this youtube video here. 

This was the second one I made. I kind of made this one up as I went so I don't have a video I can post for you to follow. Basically I tied a knot at one end, looped the suede all the way to the bottom and then looped it back on the other side back to the top, tied a knot and cut it. As you can tell the end aren't as clean as the first bracelet except for one side (see far left bottom corner). 

This was the third bracelet I made and also the easiest of the 3. I did make a mistake in not making the 7 layer  string long enough so I had to stop 1 link short in order to be able to knot it. This one was a lot of fun to make and I used about 18 pieces of string split into 2 section to make it. So 9 pieces for each section. You will know what I mean when you watch the video. To see how to make this check out this video here. 

Here it is all stacked together. They are really a cute and fun way to add some color to any outfit so I think I will get a lot of wear out of them this season. The next one I want to try making is one w/ rhinestones or hex nuts and some with gold toned curb chains :)

What do you guys think? Have you made any bracelets for Spring?

Michael's and Dollar Store Finds

Since I've had nothing but time on my hands since I've been recovering from surgery, I had Jason take me to Michaels to buy some jewelry making supplies. I plan on making some trendy bracelets.

The Dollar store was right around the corner from my house so as usual I headed straight to the HBA section to see if they had anything good. I found these little shadow books that I thought would be great for travel. If they suck I would only be out of a dollar and I was interested in seeing the quality anyway. I also found this great deal on nail polish. I think Sally Hansen makes great polish and I especially love their Xtreame line. They had a bunch of colors all paired w/ this nude color. Definitely can't wait to try it out. 

I swatched a few of the shadows and the payoff was surprisingly pretty good. They do have a lot of fallout, but with a primer I think you can't go wrong for a dollar.