I want to...

I want to get ripped

I want to teach fitness classes

I want to learn more about fitness

I want to learn about food and what different foods do in the body

I want to be a makeup artist

I want to have a makeup office

I want to build a portfolio

I want to do peoples makeup

I want to film videos for youtube

I want to work at a makeup counter

I want to travel abroad

I want to teach

I want to improve my Spanish

I want to see results

I want to be the best

rainy day tortilla soup

What a lovely, rainy, productive, relaxing, fall day to have off of work!

I fit so much awesomeness in today, a new class at the gym, coffee and a bagel thin while watching the rain, lunch with one of my all time best friends, shopping with the boy, nap with the boy, grocery shopping and homemade soup making! Whew! Sounds like a lot, no? It was but it's been wonderful! We had such a big delicious lunch that I wanted a light dinner and because it was a rainy day we dreamed up a lovely light chicken tortilla soup. It was sooo tasty so I thought I'd share!

We looked up a few recipes and nothing really stood out so we decided to just wing it and this is what we came up with! We'll call it "rainy day tortilla soup" hope you try it and enjoy!

Rainy Day Tortilla Soup

by chef Joe ;)

Ingredients:

1 large onion chopped

1/2 poblano pepper diced

1 jalapeno seeded and minced

1 red bell pepper diced

2 cloves garlic minced

1 to 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil

1 small zucchini diced

1 to 2 32 oz carton(s) chicken stock (broth is fine too)

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp mexican oregano (oregano oregano fine too of course)

 1/2 lb chicken (cooked and cubed or shredded if you prefer)

1 tbsp fresh cilantro chopped

1 can diced fire roasted tomatoes 

Toppings (all optional or get creative and add your own):

1 avocado sliced

fresh squeezed lime juice

sour cream

tortilla chips

cilantro

Directions:

Heat olive oil in dutch oven over medium heat. Saute onions, poblano, jalapeno, zucchini and red bell pepper with 1/2 tsp salt for 5 minutes or until onion is translucent.  Add garlic, cook for 30 seconds more.  Add cumin and chili powder and stir.  Add chicken stock (32 to 48 oz. depending on how chunky or brothy you like).  Add oregano.  Increase heat to high and bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and cover for 15 min.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Here you can add the chicken or add it when serving (it doesn't make a difference).

Serve:

Coarsely break up tortilla chips and place in bottom of soup bowl

add chicken (if not already done) and ladle over the soup

top with sliced avocado, dollop of sour cream, squeeze of lime juice and a sprinkle of fresh cilantro.

Bon appetite-o! 

relaxation...

Last week was a long week...

its about to be another loooonnnnggg week...

and then its plaza art fair which mean ANOTHER loooooooonnnnnnggggg week

and one very stressed out Katie!

WHEW!

Work can be very stressful and sometimes it's hard to remember to relax. Let your mind relax, let your body relax, and let your soul relax...it's harder than it seems.

Yesterday I was supposed to work but I was lucky enough to get someone to cover my shift so I spent my day focused on RELAXATION

Brunch with fabulous girlfriends and a munchkin

Famers market with the boy

Grocery trip

Gym time (which was hard but SO worth it in the end)

Long hot shower

Homemade dinner of mixed green salad with grilled chicken, roasted butternut squash, red onion, goat cheese, craisins, and homemade mustard vinaigrette

Red wine

and a foreign film to top off the day (listening to a foreign language while reading the english subtitles actually helped me relax and keep my mind off other stressful things)

It was a good day. A good relaxing day.

Don't forget to take a little time to cook good food, be with good people, drink wine, exercise, and let your mind go blank.  You deserve it.  I certainly did! Haha

crèpes!

Just wasn't feeling like cereal this morning (ok ok! afternoon) so as the coffee brewed I searched my cabinets and fridge for something else to have for breakfast...

eggs? no...  french toast or pancakes? no syrup... bagel? meh... yogurt? maybe... crèpes?! YES!

Now I have never made crèpes before. Ever. Never seen anyone (except on TV) make crèpes. Never tried to make them. But for some reason this morning I was inspired to try!

I got out my little iPhone and started googlin'

I used the first recipe I came across (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/basic-crepes/detail.aspx) added a little vanilla extract, ground cinnamon, and freshly grated nutmeg and started crèpe-in!

I was surprised how easy it was! My pan was a little big but that's ok. They didn't need to be perfect. I halved the recipe above and ended up with 4 crèpes...perfect serving for the two of us. 

When the crèpes were done I filled them with pomegranate blueberry yogurt à la Dannon light and fit and fresh slices of banana then topped them with a little powdered sugar and a dusting on cinnamon and...

voilà!

HOW GOOD DO THOSE LOOK!?!

I was practically squealing when I finished these and was taking pictures! I'm awfully proud of myself, not only for making something new (and kind of intimidating) but mostly for making something from scratch out of my pantry without having planned it!

My mother and sister will understand what an accomplishment this is for me.

I hope this inspires you to dive into your fridge and pantry and come up with something fun and new to make. Make a crèpe! They're so easy! 

with love and (hopefully!) inspiration, 

Katie

btw these were absolutely DELICIOUS! I told Joe "Now that I know how to make crepes we can move to Paris!" haha!

to ombré or not to ombré?

I've been eyeing this hair trend for a while now. Celebs have been rockin' it for over a year so maybe I'm a little behind the times but "they" say its still in style this year, hooray! Ombré hair, for those of you who don't know, refers to hair that is darker at the roots and gradually lighter on the ends. This can be done all over the hair like so...

...or it can be done with more subtle highlights throughout the bottom of the hair like so...

either way i kinda love it! Not only is this style super easy to maintain (hello! no root touch ups necessary!) but it ads a little somethin' fancy to your otherwise monotone hair. Finding a stylist that knows how to do this may be a little tricky but I'd venture to say most have figured it out since its been on trend for a while now. 

Armed with lots of pictures I finally made an appointment a few days ago to get my ombré on! I wanted my hair to be more subtle like the second picture (that was my favorite) or Jessica Alba's here...

We decided to do ombré highlights on the front half of my hair. She teased random sections and painted the bleach onto the hair, a technique called balayage I believe, and then left me to process. 

Here's the before...

and after!

Yay! I kinda love it! I took lots of pics so you can see it from different angles...

So there's my experiment with ombré! If you're thinking about trying something new I say go for it! I'm in love with my new 'do!

What do you think??

on my day off...

I slept in
I woke up to freshly made coffee
I did some yoga (which I never do and was AWESOME btw!)
I went to World Market and the grocery store
I tidied my house
I went to the gym
I showered
I made dinner with my bff and my sister
I got a surprise visit from my Momma who got to see the new performing arts center tonight (so jealous!)
I cleaned up dinner

and

I wrote a blog!

Yay for a productive awesome relaxing day off...

now to sit on the couch, watch some sex and the city, eat some dark chocolate, and ponder my life

good good night,
Katie

slacking...

Friends, I have got to tell ya... lately I have been a MAJOR slacker! I've kept up with working out, so that's good but as far as the diet goes...whoa buddy! bad news! It's not like I've been eating cheeseburgers and french fries and chicken fingers and pizza (doesn't that all sound delicious though?! haha!) but I have been sneaking in a lot more little bites of chocolate here and there, or an extra little helping of dinner, and I most definitely let loose in the alcohol department. Womp womp :(

IT ALL ENDS TODAY!

Im giving my self a kick in the pants and getting back on track! I made myself an omelet this morning with 1/2 cup "better n eggs," (60 cal) some diced onion, (we'll call it 0 calories!) and 1/2 an ounce of reduced fat cheddar (45 calories). I served it up with some fire roasted salsa I had in the fridge (10 cal) and it was delicious! Personally I don't count calories but I thought I'd throw them up there for those of you who do. Served it up along side 1/2 a slice of milton's fat free multigrain toast from trader joe's with a little I cant believe its not butter and for under 200 calories (and only 3 WW pointsplus points for those of you on that system) I had a pretty tasty breakfast! I got 12g of protein just from the eggs! 

Can you tell I'm a little proud of myself?

Also, I make a mean omelet, let me tell you! I should have taken a picture of it...I will next time I make one.

Enough bragging, the point is, I'm rededicating myself to eating healthy and staying on track. I have definitely started to notice a difference in the way I feel after eating and drinking all this junk again and IM OVER IT! "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" my mama used to say! (OK some things definitely DO taste as good as skinny feels but that's for another day! haha!)

Let me know how your health journey goes and I'll keep you posted on mine. We can do it together!

Love and healthy eating!

Katie

man its hard...

There's a sign on the door of my gym that says something along the lines of "know that getting here was the hardest part" and ain't that the damn truth?! I've been going to the gym approx 4 days a week as of late and working out a 5th day outside or at home (doing dvd's and exercise-tv type dealios) but man I tell ya, getting there is never easy! You may have also heard that getting into your workout clothes is the hardest part. This, I think, is even more accurate. Once I get off my butt and actually put that sports bra and running shorts on I'm usually good to go! Having cute (and comfortable!!!) workout clothes helps immensely. I have recently invested quite a bit of money in various workout shorts/pants/bras and tank tops and even asked for more for my b-day.

insert awkward picture of my favorite under armor running shorts
(which i now own in two colors! thanks bmax!)

under armor tank courtesy of my favorite cousin and aunt

Not only does having a few cute options help motivate me to actually get into my workout clothes it also keeps me from making excuses. When you have 5 workout outfits you have no excuse to not work out 5 days a week! Haha! Sometimes you just have to trick yourself to get things done...or maybe that's just me!

ANYWAY what I'm getting at here is that it is HARD! Its hard to get my butt to the gym 5 days a week. Its hard to get off the couch and put the workout clothes on! Its hard to get in my car and drive to the gym! Its even hard to run the X amount of miles I have told myself I have to do each day (some days its harder than others and that's ok.) But man... I'll tell you what... it feels sooooo good when I'm done!

I never leave the gym stinky, and sweaty, and with wobbly legs, thinking UGH I wish I hadn't done that! haha! Some days I wish I had done a better/faster/longer/harder workout but I think that's normal.

Why is it that even though you know how great you'll feel when you're done its still just as hard to get up and do it all over again tomorrow? Whats with that?!

Oh well. I'll just keep pushing on and refusing to allow myself any excuse not to go... except of course, when I really do have a good excuse not to go! Right? right...?

Me: "I keep telling myself 'I get to go the the gym today! I GET to go to the gym today!' "
My friend Emily "Huh... How's that working for ya...?"

LOL

"Work hard...work hard..."

Sending lots of motivation your way!
Katie

changing things up...

In the past few months I have...

-gone on vacation 

-become a runner

-ridden a bike like...5 times!

-practiced my mad (haha) makeup skills with some fun new products

-spent WAY too much money

-given myself a pedicure WITH self done flower detail

-lost a few more lbs

-had a birthday

and...

-neglected my blog!

IM SORRY! Thanks for still being here. Thanks for reading.

From now on the conversation is going to be a little more casual... I hope thats ok :)

LOVE Katie

getting used to it

Most of us are creatures of habit. We get up. We go about our day. We have our routine. We do our makeup in a certain order...we eat the same things (at home or at fast food restaurants)... we sleep, we go to work, we run errands, we sleep.

Over and over and over again.

Thats why for most of us changing our habits and changing our lifestyles is H A R D!

Obviously eating healthier, getting in better shape, becoming more active, and more healthy, none of this is easy! Over the course of my journey to accomplish some of these aforementioned goals I have stumbled upon a simple yet profound, to me at least, realization. You (or rather I) have just gotta get used to it!

Its amazing what a little routine can do. Do something enough times, eat an orange instead of a cookie, drink a glass of hot tea at night instead of a beer, and the new albeit less fun thing becomes the routine. Another example...I gave up diet coke for lent, not really because I was worried about it being unhealthy but more because I drank it kind of obsessively every day and I wanted to give up something that would be difficult for me. Difficult it was! Man did i want a diet coke! Easter day came and I was so excited I poured my first one at work at about 11:00 am and went to drink and rather than melt into my glass in delicious relief I was more than underwhelmed. At first I thought maybe it was just the diet coke at work so I had another glass the next day and another a couple days after that until it finally hit me that I don't really want diet coke anymore. I had unintentionally but effectively broken myself of my diet coke addiction. (I may however have a new beverage obsession in iced tea but thats gotta be healthier than diet coke right?...right? haha!) 

In spain my routine consisted of walking a mile and a half or so to school and back, walking all over town, walking the mile and a half back, walking another mile and a half in another direction to go to the gym then walking back. I did this nearly every single day. It wasn't hard. It was routine. I had gotten used to it.

I watched my manager at work last night order a red velvet cupcake for herself and kids, our red velvet cupcakes (with cream cheese icing btw) are NOT small. Think giant coffee shop muffin size with icing piped in the middle AND on top. Yeah its huge and, I'll definitely admit, delicious. But when I saw her sit down with that cupcake that could easily feed two...three...four...for dessert my initial thought, my instinct, was "ugh! I would feel so gross if I ate that whole thing!" 

I was shocked. 

This was the moment I realized that I had finally managed to change the way I think about food. Don't get me wrong I'm definitely sitting here writing this at 1 am thinking about the hot pockets I have in the freezer and the left over easter candy I've got on top of the fridge but I've also got really cold grapes calling my name and the fact that they came to my mind with equal cravings playtime means something.

Get up a little earlier every day, go to the gym instead of sitting on your couch shopping online, eat a handful of grapes instead of a handful of M&M's...it's all about getting used to it.

love and healthy habits, 

Katie

taunting teal and my icky nail injury

I am a girly girl. I like makeup. I like hair and dammit I like gettin my nails did!

For years and years I had acrylics. I got my first "full set" in maybe....7th grade? They were purple and pretty white trash-tastic! Haha! I started with the clear tips, then I graduated to white tips, then to pink and whites (white acrylic for the tip and pink acrylic for the nail bed) which I wore forever because they just make me feel pretty!  There's something about having my nails done that makes me feel fancy and more put together, even in sweats. 

I've done overlays, shellac, gel polish, the works! I finally decided, a few months ago, to let my nails go bare...all this polishing, and shellac-ing, and especially acrylic-ing isn't good for my nails after all and sometimes they just need to breathe (not to mention it tends to get a little pricey after a while). So anyway I let them go...let them breathe...for a whole, oh i dont know, month and a half...maybe, and the VERY DAY I decided I was going to give in to my superficial urges and get my nails did I had a horrific accident!

OK so horrific may be a little dramatic but it was no fun, no fun at all! I was running around the house doing some chores before I ran my errands and decided to make my bed like a good kid. Bad idea. I went to tuck my sheets under the mattress which sits on top of a slab of particle board and a nice big sliver of particle board decided to shove its way ALL the way under my fingernail! ALL the way. Like the end of it went past my cuticle...like so...

EWW! I know! And yes...it hurt! I called my mom and then my Aunt, who is an emergency room nurse, and then my best friend who is in med-school, and then my boyfriend who was at work, and then my other best friend who was on her way to work, and then my mom again! haha! I need people to share in my misery! After much deliberation and medical advice we (mom and I) decided it'd be best for mama to come over and yank the sucker out! She showed up at my house about an hour later with a bottle of percocet, a pair of needle nose pliers, and a bottle of vodka! haha! Disinfecting power and liquid courage! Mama's are smart like that :) 

So anyway we prepped it and prepped me and got it all ready to go and when she finally yanked...wouldn't you know it...the little sucker broke! It broke about halfway down under the nail so there was not much we could do. 

Our options at this point were to go to the emergency room where they would probably cut through or remove my nail (ahhhh!) or to just leave it in there...keep it from getting infected and wait for it to grow out. Obviously I went for option two.  It's now a month later and the little sucker is definitely still in there. It moved up to the top of my nail within the first couple days and hasn't moved much from there. I've trimmed my now ugly nail down and tried to dig the little guy out but to no avail. It never got infected, which is the good news, but I'm ready for it to be outta here!

My yucky nails had me feeling all self conscious and depressed so I've finally decided to take a good friends advice and take back my nail freedom! Rather than stress over this stick sticking out of my finger and have the constant ugly reminder of my accident staring me in the face I decided to just....

...paint over them!

I feel so pretty again! haha! My short stubby little ring fingernail there is the icky one but you'd never know it! It doesn't hurt, it isn't infected, so I'm just going to keep it covered up for a while and hope it wiggles its own way out eventually.

In the meantime I once again have pretty polished nails. They make me feel sassy!

I'm glad teals are still popular for spring. I think I got this Sonia Kashuk polish last fall. It's called "taunting teal" and I LOVE it!

excuse my sloppy late night self-done manicure.

So there you have it. I have decided to free myself from the oppression of ugly wounded nails! I will take back my manicures and the power they give me to feel fancy in big baggy sweats typing a blog at 2am! Happy polishing!

with love and "taunting teal" spirit fingers, 

Katie

april showers...

"It's a rainy day, its a rainy day, its raining outside and I can't go out to play, why do we need the rain anyway?"  Comment below if you remember this song from Sesame Street! I sing it every time in rains, without fail, to this day!

Today is a dreary thursday. It's been a dreary week, chilly and rainy and all around gloomy...and i love it! Don't get me wrong I love a good sunshiney warm spring day like the rest of you but nothing makes me happier than waking up on a grey cloud filled spring morning (okay, okay, afternoon! who am i kidding! haha).

Rainy days are just so much more poetic and cozy than sunny days. As I type this Im curled up on my grey suede-y couch under a blue fuzzy blanket drinking a cup of caramel-ey cinnamon-ey coffee dreaming up a soft grey purple-ey makeup look! Haha!

Only I would be so inspired by such grey days! With any luck I'll come up with something soft and romantic, with maybe a light pink lip or a nude lip and a baby pink cheek, to show you in pictures or maybe another video tutorial!

A very good, and very intelligent, friend of mine said to me the other day "Did you just say you're thinking of going to beauty school?!" And it made me flinch a little. There's such a stigma with the beauty industry. "Cosmetology school" sounds like such a cop out. Like something that unintelligent or superficial girls do when they cant do anything else. For this reason I've been avoiding telling people that that's what I want to do. I don't want people to say to me "Did you just say you're thinking of going to beauty school?!" because I know what they're thinking... "You went to college! You have a degree!" I know I did! I know I do! But its really hasnt gotten me very far.

Yes...I am thinking of going to cosmetology school. If I do it'll be a commitment. It'll be a sacrifice. And it'll be expensive! And in the end I will be doing what I love and what Im good at and I will be sharing my creativity and my knowledge with the world...one soft romantic grey smokey "rainy day" inspired makeup-look at a time!

With love and positive thoughts for the future
Katie

I'm gunna be a star! haha!

I posted this video a couple weeks ago on facebook but realized not everyone sees that so I thought I'd put it up here too!

This is my first makeup tutorial video. I had to do a LOT of ghetto-rigging to get the right lighting and my camera in the right spot so you could actually see what I was doing! I wish you all could have seen me with my precariously stacked 13 book camera tower and carefully balanced mirror behind the camera so I could make sure my face was actually in the view finder, haha! It was entertaining!  In the end it all worked out pretty well and this is what I ended up with. It's nothin fancy...just a little video using the products I bought a few weeks ago. A simple everyday polished look to get you out the door.

Hope you like it and thanks for watching!



love and more new videos coming soon,

Katie

new beauty product...not what you might think!

It has been FAR too long since my last post! I'm so sorry! I've been sick, I've been wounded, I've been uninspired but its no excuse! I've gotta hop back on this blog horse and get back into it so here we go!

Through my illness and injury my obsession with all things makeup/skin-care/beauty products has persevered! haha! I spend much of my free time youtube-ing and blog reading and googling and I came across a product that many of you may already have in your medicine cabinets.  If its not in your medicine cabinet check your mother's or grandmother's...I'm betting you'll find it in theirs'. This little miracle product of many uses sits gathering dust underneath bathroom sinks everywhere and I am here to resurrect it! 

"What is this miracle product already?!" you ask?

It is none other than.... 

Witch Hazel!

If you're anything like me you have heard of witch hazel, sorta kinda know what it is, but really know nothing about it.  I came across a video by the lovely Miss Kandee Johnson on how to make your own all natural eye-makeup remover in which she used and talked a lot about Witch Hazel. I got curious so I did some googling.

Come to find out Witch Hazel is a natural astringent which most of us know means it is a natural toner.  I decided to use my dictionary to look up what astringent actually means. "Astringent: : causing contraction of soft organic tissues." Naturally this makes sense. Women have been using witch hazel for decades as a "natural" and affordable toner to tighten skin and contract pores. But this little cheap bottle from the drugstore can do so much more!

Witch hazel is extremely gentle on the skin...it has a tiny bit of alcohol by volume (the one I bought is 14%) and so is a very good product for cleaning extra dirt, grime, and skin cells from the skin.  The alcohol helps to sanitize the skin while the witch hazel plant itself boasts natural calming properties. It helps clear up stray pimples by cleaning out extra dirt and by reducing inflammation and can be used under the eyes to reduce bags and dark circles. I've never been one to use or feel the need for use of a toner but I have to say I do LOVE the way my face feels after I use this. 

Witch hazel also has natural healing properties. It can be used on minor cuts and abrasions to prevent infection and to speed up the healing process.  When used before or after shaving it prevents razor burn and ingrown hairs. It can be used on external hemorrhoids when combined with aloe or vaseline to calm itching, help dry up bleeding, and reduce inflammation. It helps heal bruises and can constrict and help reduce the appearance and pain of varicose veins. It locks in moisture when applied immediately after showering...it reduces itching and inflammation from poison ivy and oak...it helps heal sunburned skin... for about $4-5 a bottle what can't this product do?! 

I got so excited when I was googling that I ran to CVS and got me a bottle! So far I have not been disappointed.  I do have a nasty varicose vein (thanks genetics) that I'm excited to try it out on so I'll be sure to keep you updated. 

Well thats it! That's my newest beauty product purchase and I just had to share it with you. I hope you pull out that old bottle or go buy yourself a new one and test out a few of these great new uses! 

Please comment below if you know of any other uses for Witch Hazel or, if you've tried it, what you think!

loooooooooooooove and more beauty blogs coming soon, 

Katie :)

(info pulled from various websites including bohemianrevolution.com and ehow.com)

St Paddy's Day and a green smokey eye

Happy almost St. Paddy's day guys!

My " 'Sup??" face! haha!

I love holidays...all of them! I love being festive...I love all the silly little decorations and I love wearing festive holiday appropriate colors! I've always been that girl that has to wear red or green on Christmas, green on St paddy's day, pastels on easter, and red white and blue on the fourth of july. As I've gotten older I've stayed true to my color coded holidays but I like to try to find new, slightly more subtle, ways of doing it and one of my favorite ways to do that is with makeup! This year on St. Paddy's day I'll be working all day and in all black so I decided a green smokey eye was going to be necessary to keep the Irish spirit alive! Lots of people on YouTube have fun St. Paddy's day eye tutorials but mine is a little darker and a little more subtle. Whether you like a bright crazy look or a more subtle one I hope you like what I've done! 

BTW: I wanted to do a St. Paddy's day makeup look for you and I was going to do a video but I just couldn't get it to work! So sad :( So instead I took lots of pictures and I'll walk you through what I did and what colors I used. Here we go!

I don't look too excited here but i am, really, I promise! haha!

So the first step is to take a big fluffy brush with a nude/beige color of your choice and put it all over the lid. I used this pinky beige from my Victoria's Secret palette

Next take that same big fluffy brush and wash a bright green shadow all over your lid concentrating the color at the lash line

This color is "Kelly" from covergirl. MUCH brighter than it looks here.

I should have taken a picture of this next step so instead I'll send you to a video by makeup goddess Kandee Johnson here! She is doing this technique with a purple eye but its exactly the same idea. 

Take a creamy black eyeliner (I used my elf eyeliner and shadow stick) and color in the outer "V" corner of your eye up onto your brow bone and into your crease a little. This will look messy but don't worry! This is an awesome technique because you can really get precise about the shape you make and end up with.

Next take a smaller flat brush or a small blending brush and with a little bit more of the green start blending out the black liner you just put down with little circle motions. You'll be amazed at how gorgeously the black blends. Build the green on top of the black and blend until you're happy with the color.

If you want you can take a lighter green, I used a very pale pastel green again from my Victoria's Secret palette, and brush it onto the lid with a fluffy blending brush to brighten everything up a bit and to give you a little more green.

This is a gorgeous pastel green! I'm so sad the color didn't come out in the picture!


Take a light beige, gold, white, or light pink (whatever works best with your green and your skintone) with a big domed blending brush and blend out the edges of the color all around. You can also use this color to highlight under your brow bone and in your tear duct.

Next line your eyes and waterline with a black eyeliner. For this look I stay very close to the lashline and only go about halfway in.

To give your face a finished look fill in your brows with a brow powder of your choice.

I'm using my elf brow palette and a small angled brush.

Curl your lashes....

put on a little mascara...

and we're done!

 

I finished off my look with a little tan colored blush and nude lip gloss. You dont want too much color on your cheeks or lips when you're doing color on your eyes.

I will work on doing another video soon but for now I hope you liked this look and I hope it works for you when you try it at home! Comment below if you have any questions or comments! 

with shamrock earrings, green smokey eyes and lots of love, 

Katie

ps: Here's another fun green look you might like. Enjoy!

a different kind of beauty

a warm spring day, sunshine, cocktails, appetizers, shopping, wonderful friends...

Today was about a different kind of beauty.  Today I was reminded of one of the most beautiful things in life... our relationships with others. What would life be without those we love surrounding us, encouraging us everyday, reassuring us when things go wrong? laughing with us? crying with us? telling us when we are being ridiculous or completely unrealistic? We'd be lost. At least I know I would!

I spent my day today with two wonderful friends at a dinner table, in a dressing room, taking shots at a bar in between buying dog biscuits and lacy underwear. These are the days we remember. The moments that make us smile...that make our hearts grow...and our wallets diminish just a little :) But in the end its not the bank statement we'll remember, its the day. The sun shining and the friends smiling. 

This lenten season I have many goals the first of which is to open my heart. I want to open my heart to my friends and to my family. To my acquaintances, my colleagues, my peers, and especially my enemies. I want to learn to be humble and to let God enter my heart and my life.  I would never push any kind of religious agenda on you but I did want to share the beauty that I experienced today in my life and to say that I saw God in it. And for that i am grateful. 

with love and humility your friend, 

Katie

a case of the mondays

Leave it to a Target excursion and a new minty flavored nude lip gloss to pull me out of my funk today! Haha, sometimes I feel like I am so predictable :) I have to learn to stop spending money when I have nothing else to do or, more likely, when I have no motivation to do any of the things I need to do!

Monday is my day off so I'm generally very productive. Running errands, cleaning house, etc, etc. But today I have had a very unproductive day... I just couldn't get myself to do, well, anything! I did manage to wash and fold a couple loads of laundry and do all of ten minutes of a workout DVD before I got frustrated and gave up. I just had a bad case of the mondays!

I finally gave up trying to workout and trying to clean and got my butt off facebook and off the couch into the shower around 6 oclock. Terrible I know! Once I showered and did my makeup and hair I felt much better but still had nothing to do. The bf was at work and I just HAD to get out of the house. After wrestling with the idea for a while I gave in and made a totally unnecessary trip to Target.

I spent more money than I should have but I did get three new fun beauty products! Hooray! I will have to make a video using them to show you but for now you just get pictures and me rambling :) So first up in my Target makeup haul is...

Covergirl's Wetslicks Amazemint Lipgloss in number 635 

"no care bare" (shown on the right).

I don't remember where I heard about this...Marie Claire maybe (I'm a magazine-a-holic) but I wanted to give it a whirl. It's infused with crest peppermint oil and so claims that it "provides a minty-breath sensation while the gloss itself gives a dazzling high shine without all that "sticky." My analysis? Totally true! I'm not usually a lip gloss girl but this one goes on so smooth and does not leave my lips sticky or gritty at all and the peppermint oil definitely does leave me in amazemint! hehehe :) I'm also always on the hunt for anything that gives me a beautiful nude lip and this color is PERFECT! A little taupe-y a little shiny and a lot gorgeous! Can't wait to do a video and show you!

Next I got the Studio Eyebrow Kit from e.l.f. (in medium)

This kit has a dark pigmented wax to fill in brows and to hold them in place, a lighter podwer to set and soften the look of the brows, a double ended brush and a mirror for application ease. I played with this a little when I got home but I already had stuff on my brows so I have yet to see how it really works. If this is anything like the other e.l.f. products I have gotten it'll be great! I have been looking for a cheap eyebrow kit of sorts at the drugstore for a while now and NO ONE i mean NO ONE had one! It was starting to drive me crazy! I finally looked at e.l.f and lo and behold they had this in multiple colors. E.l.f. is quickly becoming my favorite drugstore makeup line especially with most products being $1, $3 or $5 dollars! If you haven't checked them out yet go do it!

My third beauty purchase was also an e.l.f. product (which stands for eyes lips face cosmetics by the way) I got their Studio Cream Eyeliner in "Midnight"

This is a gorgeous dark blue cream eyeliner that comes in a supercute little glass looking container with its own little liner brush. Using dark blue eyeliner might be my favorite makeup tip of all time. Blue makes white pop so by using a dark blue eyeliner your eyes look bigger, whiter, and even, in my opinion, a little sparklier. I usually pat a dark blue eyeshadow over my black eyeliner when I feel like my face needs a little pick-me-up so I'm really excited to skip this step and use my new cream liner. Yay!

So there you have it. Fun new makeup cures a bad case of the mondays. Check back in the next few days for a video using all three of my new products! 

Happy Monday guys! Hope yours was more productive than mine!

loooooove, Katie

how i miss curly hair & my first video

For years and years I permed by hair.  It was probably terrible for it and I know I made my poor hairdresser slave away for hours wrapping my tons and tons of hair in perming rods... oh the hours I spent, the money, the smell! But man was it worth it! I loved my curly hair!

I feel at home in curly hair! 

I think it suits me (and my beautiful sister of course).

 But alas... my hair dresser no longer does perms and the older I get the more brittle my hair becomes and the less easily it seems to bounce back from such harsh things as chemical processing and so I deal with the bland straightness. Perhaps my hair will decide to be naturally curly like my sister's one of these days but until then I can only remember it fondly and attempt to recreate it with products and tools. 

This brings me to my first ever YouTube video! 

This is a very basic tutorial on how to use a diffuser to make your straight hair wavy or, for those of you lucky ladies with naturally curly/wavy hair, how to use a diffuser and product to define and enhance your curls. I hope you like it...I hope its not too long...and I hope I can do more (better) videos like it in the future. 

Let me know what you think and if there are more things you want me to do a tutorial video on!

love and curly hair dreams,

Katie

If I were a painter....

Listening to my iTunes "jazz vocals genius mix" while I try to think of what to blog to all of you lovelies about and Norah Jones' "Painter Song" came on.  This song has always made me happy and years ago inspired a little poem I wrote and it make me think...

Its funny how things start to come together as you get older. I've always thought that my interests and desires were a little all over the place. I love poetry. I love writing. I love when people read and react to what I have written. I love traveling. I love spanish. I love makeup and beauty and skincare. These things never meshed in my head! It's like how I love this lamp...

and this rug...

and this bedspread....

...but don't know how to bring them all together! I have always felt a little eclectic but not in a good way,  in more of a schizophrenic way like I've never really known which of all of these things I really am.  The older I get the less these things feel like separate interests, the more they seem to melt into cohesion and the more comfortable I become in my own skin. Maybe I'm just a late bloomer...who knows!

"If I were a painter - I would paint my reverie..."

Maybe thats what I'm doing here...painting my reverie... I want to create. I want to inspire. I want to transform people with my brushes and with my words. I hope that I've found a way to do both with this blog! The next time I post I promise it will be with a tip or trick or tutorial but for now I just wanted to share this thought with you and I'll try to take my own advice. Don't worry if it doesn't make sense now. Don't let go of ANY of the little things you love that make you YOU even if they don't all seem to go together. They are who you are and they are a part of who you will become. I am trying more and more everyday to embrace what I love and to share it with the world and you should too! Now if I could find a way to do this while sitting in the Plaza Mayor in Salamanca or Granada or Madrid or Valencia...wow...what an amazing life that would be :)

BIG dreams and all the love I have

Katie

Living by a Nightlight

i wish i could climb

      up onto a star and swing

  quiet and simple 

        and raining mystic confetti

        where the wind

        is slow and cold on

  my lips

        and the clouds that

     swell around me

           blanket

     the world in its sincerity.

    i  wish i could live in

a dream

     where reality is smeared 

  and thick between my

     f i n g e r:p a i n t

give me a blank canvas

      dark and new

and i'll punch holes in it

       so the light can drip through

  and i can start

         over.

Poem I wrote circa 2002 - Unedited

nails, scissors, and bobby pins

I had a few precious hours off this morning to sleep in and run some errands! Hooray! I desperately needed to go to the bank which is incidentally very close to a drug store and a nail salon...haha! How convenient! Time off work generally means I'm out spending money, which is why I don't mind working so much, and today was no exception. As of today I have worked eight days in a row and I have five more to go before I get a day off so I decided I could treat myself a little. 

At the drug store i got these...

...some cuticle scissors! I dont intend on using them for my cuticles...I'll leave that to the professionals less i gouge myself! Instead I bought them for some much needed eyebrow trimming. Hooray! Check out Kandee Johnson's AWESOME video on how to groom your own eyebrows here.

I also got these...

..."roller pins" or, for me, the only bobby pins that will actually hold my hair in place. Im very excited about these as I have very straight hair and a TON of it! Now I can wear a flower in my hair at work (its required, isn't that super?) with a lot more ease. Pretty excited to use them tonight. It's the little things in life that make my day, haha!

 And lastly I went to the nail salon...

...and got my nails did! 

This is an awesome gel polish by opi that lasts two weeks with out chipping! It feels more rubbery than normal polish and comes off in a big flexible sheet when you take it off.  You have to have it done in a salon because it has to have UV light to set up (unless of course you own a UV lamp). I love this stuff especially because I work in a restaurant. It really stands up to all the water and abrasive stuff I encounter everyday. The color is a little more pinky than it looks here. I'm very into these super pale pastels that are popular this spring! I wanted a lavender but they didn't have one.  Boo! This pink is awfully pretty and girly though and it makes my half a day off all the more indulgent. 

Find a salon near you and go get a gel manicure! Its awesome, it lasts way longer than a normal manicure and it'll make you feel pretty. Hope everyone has a b-e-a-u-tiful day!

looooooooooooove, 

Katie