Can you believe it is almost 2015!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Crazy, I know everybody sets resolutions and we don't always stick to them but there is something about taking some time and thinking about life and things you want to work on, improve....I always plan to eat better, stay more organized, read more....etc....even if you don't stick to them I think it important to TRY and at least take time and put things into perspective. So I thought why not some BEAUTY RESOLUTIONS????
1. TAKE MORE TIME FOR YOUR HAIR
I mean wake up, do a full blow out and style...I promise you will feel fabulous and if you are one of the lucky girls you can wear it for 2+ days.
2. TAKE CARE OF YOUR SKIN
Buy the right products, invest in a clarisonic (it is so worth it) and treat your skin right. Do a mask once a week, use your moisturizer....JUST DO IT!!!!
3. MAINTAIN THOSE LOCKS
Get your hair trimmed regularly....for short-mid length hair that's 4-6 weeks... for long hair 6-8 weeks but if you are really trying to grow it go 8-10 if you can.
4. FULL MAKEUP APPLICATION
Have fun with your makeup and at least once a week do a full makeup application...I mean take the time to do flawless foundation, contour, highlight, etc....whether its for a date night, girls night out....or even a trip to the store....you will fabulous because you are naturally beautiful but makeup is fun and why not dress things up now and then????
5. HYDRATE.....
Hydrate your hair with masks, great conditioners, etc
Hydrate your skin with body butters and proper facial moisturizers
Hydrate everything by drinking more water
6. BE FREE
I mean natural....take time to let your hair just air dry no flat iron, curling iron, extensions...etc....no makeup...or for me just a little mascara lol....and just embrace the beautiful you. I think its important to dress it up and feel fabulous but its just as important to give yourself a break.
I hope these help you set some goals and embrace yourself and take care of yourself. Happy New Year's everyone. I know 2015 will be a great one.
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
My favorite Skin Care Products
So as some of you may know I struggle every day with my skin. I have pretty oily skin and I also have endometriosis which has a little to do with my crazy skin. I do take prescription medication and also use prescription topical treatments.
My skin can still sometimes be all over the place but the biggest thing is WASH YOUR FACE EVERY NIGHT. Of course I always knew I should but through the years especially when my kids were younger when I went to bed I would just climb right in and fall asleep...I was too tired to care. It is soooooooo important to wash your face morning and night but I think especially at night. You have had makeup on your face all day or even if you don't wear makeup think about all that has touched your face today..YUCK...So I finally invested in a Clarisonic. I waited and waited until one went on sale. I have to say I still break out occasionally but my skin feels so much better. I think its definitely worth the price.
I purchased the MIA 2
Next on my list is Mario Badescu skincare products. I have talked about hem before and I will over and over again. I just love their products. Not too expensive...they make my skin feel wonderful and everything I have tried from them is just wonderful. The eye creams are great and the facial cleansers...I love it all.
One another tip is to just let your skin breathe sometimes. I do wear makeup most days but on the weekends when we get home from running errands or if we aren't going anywhere I either wash my makeup off right after we get home or I just don't wear any makeup that day.
Just a few little ideas for people just starting to wear makeup or followers that are taking more interest in skincare.
Check out Mario Badescu prodcuts at http://www.mariobadescu.com/
Clasisonic http://www.clarisonic.com/
My skin can still sometimes be all over the place but the biggest thing is WASH YOUR FACE EVERY NIGHT. Of course I always knew I should but through the years especially when my kids were younger when I went to bed I would just climb right in and fall asleep...I was too tired to care. It is soooooooo important to wash your face morning and night but I think especially at night. You have had makeup on your face all day or even if you don't wear makeup think about all that has touched your face today..YUCK...So I finally invested in a Clarisonic. I waited and waited until one went on sale. I have to say I still break out occasionally but my skin feels so much better. I think its definitely worth the price.
I purchased the MIA 2
Next on my list is Mario Badescu skincare products. I have talked about hem before and I will over and over again. I just love their products. Not too expensive...they make my skin feel wonderful and everything I have tried from them is just wonderful. The eye creams are great and the facial cleansers...I love it all.
One another tip is to just let your skin breathe sometimes. I do wear makeup most days but on the weekends when we get home from running errands or if we aren't going anywhere I either wash my makeup off right after we get home or I just don't wear any makeup that day.
Just a few little ideas for people just starting to wear makeup or followers that are taking more interest in skincare.
Check out Mario Badescu prodcuts at http://www.mariobadescu.com/
Clasisonic http://www.clarisonic.com/
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Re-enlistment
So last week my husband re-enlisted in the Army. We found out we are moving to Fort Benning Georgia....so crazy how it all happens at once....I guess that is the army life haha. We won't be moving until next spring so we have plenty of time to continue enjoying our time in Germany.
The kids are out of school for summer so we are taking a little trip to Edelweiss lodge and resort in Garmisch Germany. The Bavarian alps are your view from your room and its absolutely breath taking.
Anyways back to the re-enlistment....when he told me he was having the ceremony I really had no clue what to wear or what to have my kids wear...it was our first time going through it and I didn't have much time. So I tried to research it and with no luck I just decided to wear a green dress I had bought online at american eagle over a year ago and the kids sort of matched with wearing blue and white and I put a cute red bow in my daughter's hair. Obviously everyone has different styles but I would love to hear your ideas for what to wear to little ceremonies like that in the military. It also gave me the idea to do a video of re-enlistment hair/makeup???? I will have to do it next week when we get back but It's just one of those things you don't want to be to over done but you definitely want to look nice and put together. I don't know I thought it would be fun :)
I am sharing some pictures of my husband's special day...can I just say how amazing he is. The Army life has been good for our family and I am still amazed at all the adventures that we have been able to have and memories made because my husband has been able to be in the Army and let us explore the world. It truly is incredible and I couldn't be more proud of him. I will just say for anyone who also hasn't done a re-enlistment yet ...It is over very quick so don't stress too much. It was fun and I loved that our kiddos were able to be there and see their Dad do all of that.
Upcoming posts will be about summer hair ideas....simple makeup for summer....and some videos soon too.
The kids are out of school for summer so we are taking a little trip to Edelweiss lodge and resort in Garmisch Germany. The Bavarian alps are your view from your room and its absolutely breath taking.
Anyways back to the re-enlistment....when he told me he was having the ceremony I really had no clue what to wear or what to have my kids wear...it was our first time going through it and I didn't have much time. So I tried to research it and with no luck I just decided to wear a green dress I had bought online at american eagle over a year ago and the kids sort of matched with wearing blue and white and I put a cute red bow in my daughter's hair. Obviously everyone has different styles but I would love to hear your ideas for what to wear to little ceremonies like that in the military. It also gave me the idea to do a video of re-enlistment hair/makeup???? I will have to do it next week when we get back but It's just one of those things you don't want to be to over done but you definitely want to look nice and put together. I don't know I thought it would be fun :)
I am sharing some pictures of my husband's special day...can I just say how amazing he is. The Army life has been good for our family and I am still amazed at all the adventures that we have been able to have and memories made because my husband has been able to be in the Army and let us explore the world. It truly is incredible and I couldn't be more proud of him. I will just say for anyone who also hasn't done a re-enlistment yet ...It is over very quick so don't stress too much. It was fun and I loved that our kiddos were able to be there and see their Dad do all of that.
Upcoming posts will be about summer hair ideas....simple makeup for summer....and some videos soon too.
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Luxembourg City, Brussels, and Amsterdam all in one day....with KIDS
Okay so as most of my followers/blog readers probably know we are stationed in Germany. My husband is in the United States Army and we started out in Schweinfurt Germany and then moved to Grafenwoehr Germany because Schweinfurt Army Garrison is closing down.
We are fitting in as much travel as possible with a teeny tiny budget :). We want to make the most of our time here but don't want to break ourselves doing it.
Our ways of travel might not work for everyone but we choose to pick out a couple sights we want to see in each place and move right along to the next. Of course we would love to stay for a week or more in each place but we don't have the means to do that. The longer you stay, the higher the hotels costs....the more money you need for food, etc. So we say at least we have been there and walked around and enjoyed it rather than not seeing it at all.
On the training holiday (4 day weekend) in March we decided to go to Brussels while on the way stopping in Luxembourg and trying to make it to The Netherlands if we had time. Here's how it went down. We stayed at Air Force Lodging on Ramstein Air Base. Its like 45 minutes from Trier (a beautiful must see city in Germany) The kids had testing at school that week so we couldn't leave as early as we had planned but we took them out at about 11:00 drove to Ramstein, checked in and everything. Drove to Trier...unfortunately it started getting dark but we got to see the Roman baths and a few other sites but the pictures didn't turn out great. We went back to the hotel after the short trip and went to bed because we had to get up early.
So on to day 2......
I believe we were out the door at 6:00am and on our way to Luxembourg city. We walked the streets and strolled through the city market and saw the outside of the Grand Ducal Palace. Stopped for pastries and hopped right back in the car and set out to Brussels. Now just to be clear we had planned on just Luxembourg and Brussels this day but plans changed.
So its about 2 hours from Luxembourg city to Brussels. Our first stop was the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. We thought the kids would love the Dionosaur exhibit and honestly we did too. We had never really seen that kind of stuff. Here is the link..... http://www.naturalsciences.be/museum/dinosaurs
We made our way through the museum quickly and then had a heck of a time trying to find parking to to the Grote Markt (The Grand Place) in the center of Brussels. I almost gave up honestly. We walked and walked but really we got to see a lot more of the city and enjoyed it once we knew we were in the right direction. The traffic looked crazy so we were kind of glad we ended up walking. We stopped for Belgian waffles (amazing by the way) and of course picked up some Belgian chocolates. We finally reached the beautiful Grote Markt and honestly pictures just don't do it justice. To see it all in person was incredible. I could of stood there all day staring at everything.
We had to move on though. We decided on our walk that we should just try to shoot up to Amsterdam while we were closer. We would have been back tracking if we went back to the hotel since we opted to stay at the same hotel both nights. We were making good time so we hopped in the car and made our way to the Netherlands. The drive was nice and easy and the kids enjoyed the different windmills along the way. We found parking pretty quickly and realized we parked right by some kind of boat museum with really old ships and boats out on display....it was beautiful and the kids loved it. Then we started walking in hopes to finding the Anne Frank house. Even though we knew we wouldn't make it inside we at least wanted to see the outside. We enjoyed strolling the streets, the canals were so cool and the city itself is just beautiful. It was starting to get dark and a little cold out so after strolling around for maybe 1.5-2 hours we got back in the car and drove 4 hours back to our hotel.
Needless to say we slept in a little. We got back to the hotel around midnight and then we just explored post and went out to lunch before heading home to Grafenwoehr. The hotel was very inexpensive and we mostly spent money on gas. I always pack a lot of food so we don't eat out as much.
So the best way to save money when traveling.......
We are fitting in as much travel as possible with a teeny tiny budget :). We want to make the most of our time here but don't want to break ourselves doing it.
Our ways of travel might not work for everyone but we choose to pick out a couple sights we want to see in each place and move right along to the next. Of course we would love to stay for a week or more in each place but we don't have the means to do that. The longer you stay, the higher the hotels costs....the more money you need for food, etc. So we say at least we have been there and walked around and enjoyed it rather than not seeing it at all.
On the training holiday (4 day weekend) in March we decided to go to Brussels while on the way stopping in Luxembourg and trying to make it to The Netherlands if we had time. Here's how it went down. We stayed at Air Force Lodging on Ramstein Air Base. Its like 45 minutes from Trier (a beautiful must see city in Germany) The kids had testing at school that week so we couldn't leave as early as we had planned but we took them out at about 11:00 drove to Ramstein, checked in and everything. Drove to Trier...unfortunately it started getting dark but we got to see the Roman baths and a few other sites but the pictures didn't turn out great. We went back to the hotel after the short trip and went to bed because we had to get up early.
So on to day 2......
I believe we were out the door at 6:00am and on our way to Luxembourg city. We walked the streets and strolled through the city market and saw the outside of the Grand Ducal Palace. Stopped for pastries and hopped right back in the car and set out to Brussels. Now just to be clear we had planned on just Luxembourg and Brussels this day but plans changed.
So its about 2 hours from Luxembourg city to Brussels. Our first stop was the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. We thought the kids would love the Dionosaur exhibit and honestly we did too. We had never really seen that kind of stuff. Here is the link..... http://www.naturalsciences.be/museum/dinosaurs
We made our way through the museum quickly and then had a heck of a time trying to find parking to to the Grote Markt (The Grand Place) in the center of Brussels. I almost gave up honestly. We walked and walked but really we got to see a lot more of the city and enjoyed it once we knew we were in the right direction. The traffic looked crazy so we were kind of glad we ended up walking. We stopped for Belgian waffles (amazing by the way) and of course picked up some Belgian chocolates. We finally reached the beautiful Grote Markt and honestly pictures just don't do it justice. To see it all in person was incredible. I could of stood there all day staring at everything.
We had to move on though. We decided on our walk that we should just try to shoot up to Amsterdam while we were closer. We would have been back tracking if we went back to the hotel since we opted to stay at the same hotel both nights. We were making good time so we hopped in the car and made our way to the Netherlands. The drive was nice and easy and the kids enjoyed the different windmills along the way. We found parking pretty quickly and realized we parked right by some kind of boat museum with really old ships and boats out on display....it was beautiful and the kids loved it. Then we started walking in hopes to finding the Anne Frank house. Even though we knew we wouldn't make it inside we at least wanted to see the outside. We enjoyed strolling the streets, the canals were so cool and the city itself is just beautiful. It was starting to get dark and a little cold out so after strolling around for maybe 1.5-2 hours we got back in the car and drove 4 hours back to our hotel.
Needless to say we slept in a little. We got back to the hotel around midnight and then we just explored post and went out to lunch before heading home to Grafenwoehr. The hotel was very inexpensive and we mostly spent money on gas. I always pack a lot of food so we don't eat out as much.
So the best way to save money when traveling.......
- planning ahead as much as you can....
- Packing water and food
- Budgeting your spending/souv. money and sticking to it (we pulled out 100 euro)
- Realizing you aren't going to get to see everything
- Not going in every museum/attraction
As cool as it might be it gets expensive with a family of four so we have been in so many castles/palaces/ etc in our time here that they all start to look the same on the inside. The outside of each one is unique and beautiful but I don't feel the need to go into every place. So that really saves a lot too.
If you are stationed in Europe or just coming to travel just keep that in mind. Its beautiful here and we feel so blessed just to see all that we have seen but it does get very expensive, even if you do live here. So make the most of it but try not to go crazy. Honestly every little city it beautiful to me so we try to just enjoy it all and take it all in. I hope someday we can be stationed in Europe again because there really is so much to see and do and experience.
I hope this post helps a few people travel to a few places they want to see or helps them save money. If you have any questions please let me know :)
Have a great day.
Friday, February 21, 2014
A Little Update
Hey everyone,
Should have some new videos up in about a week and a half....YAY sorry for being all over the place with the makeup and hair tutorials. I really had the best intentions but life just gets crazy sometimes.
I have been trying out a few new products and I will have reviews on those and maybe some swatches coming soon.
Ethan and Kylee have been suuuuppppeeerrr busy with school and sports, girls scouts, etc....you guys know it how is and I try to be involved with as much as I can.
This is also our last year in Germany....kind of bittersweet. I am going to miss all the wonderful things in Europe and I am disapointed we didn't get to see more but grateful for all the opportunities we have been given...and the year is not over yet!!!!!!!! It will be busy though....my husband has WLC coming up and training and preparing for the promotion board on top of figuring out his re-enlistment has him crazy busy. So therefore I have been a little crazy busy myself and neglected my blog/you tube, etc.....I love hair and makuep products, skincare products, etc and I started all of this for a reason----to share my love and knowledge of this industry with all of you, so I intend to keep improving and staying more consistent.
I am also trying really hard to stick to my goal of losing 20 pounds before summer. I have been going to the gym with my best friend here in Germany and she is keeping me motivated. I will keep you updated on my progress with all of that.
My baby boy is about to turn TEN.....AHHHHHHH I just can't even believe it....It doesn't seem real. He is so incredible...smart, athletic, fun...just an all around amazing kid. We are so very blessed and grateful for all the joy he brings to our lives every single day. I think we are headed to Berlin for his Birthday.
Have a wonderful weekend and I will let you know when I have a new video up
xoxoxo
JS
Here are a few recent photos of my beautiful Children. The one of me is from Valentine's Day when My solider, the kids and I went to dinner.
Have a wonderful weekend and I will let you know when I have a new video up
xoxoxo
JS
Here are a few recent photos of my beautiful Children. The one of me is from Valentine's Day when My solider, the kids and I went to dinner.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Sedona Lace brushes~Vortex Professional Set
HELLO FELLOW BEAUTY LOVERS,
I LOVE THEM. I think that even at $90.00 they are worth it but I was much happier paying $45.00 I know they have different deals and specials all the time so keep an eye out for that and one of the best ways is to like their FB page
Just wanted to do a quick review on the Sedona Lace brushes I ordered.
First of all I ordered these on black Friday so they were 50% OFF. Seriously an incredible deal. It also came with a free liquid liner.
http://www.sedonalace.com/Cosmetic-Brushes/53/Vortex-Professional-Makeup-Brushes-without-Belt.asp
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sedona-Lace/119334004766579
I love the jumbo fan brush, so many uses.....It's great to use for highlighter. Another favorite is the crease brush, perfect for getting that neutral shade in the crease for blending out. I am also obsessed with the bent liner brush. I wasn't sure I would really like it but I LOVE it. All the other brushes are great too and I use all of them. They are super soft, they wash well...I have no complaints.
The bigger brushes also come with the plastic coverings to store the brushes in and help them maintain their shape. This is a great brush set for anyone, professionals...beginners....you will enjoy it.
Really glad I purchased them and just wanted to share with you guys because I know with so many out there it's hard to make a choice sometimes. I have other brushes that have just fallen apart and shed...I haven't noticed anything bad about these brushes. I hope this review helped and please let me know if you have any questions or what you want to read about or see next. I have some other posts coming up and hopefully I will be back to filming soon.
Have a great Tuesday everyone
XOXO
~JS
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