Babies and Birthdays......and Baking!

Just now getting around to posting about last weekend, but that's how life goes! I've been so busy with Christmas coming up, school work, and exams around the corner. Don't be surprised if my posting gets more sporadic :)

Last October I had a post about my weekend called Babies and Birthdays. Well this last weekend reminded me SO much of that considering I had a baby shower and birthday party to attend too!

On Saturday I worked on some pink and yellow cake pops in the morning. Today (Thursday) is my cousin (and goddaughter's!) 1st birthday, and her party was on Sunday. I was in charge of making all the sweets!

In the afternoon my mom and I went to a baby shower for my cousin's fiance. So fun!

Then it was back to more baking. I decorated the cupcakes pink and yellow too since that was the theme. I made everything from scratch, and I was so happy with the way it turned out.

Then it was a break from baking to eat Panera with my family and stoping over my aunt's house to help set up (which turned into me just playing with the girls!) for the big birthday party on Sunday.

I then went home and finished the baking by decorating a smash cake for Savannah. I LOVED the way it turned out using her monogram.

Sunday was the birthday party!

We got Savannah this totally tacky singing Christmas tree, but at least she loves it!

She wasn't too sure what to do with the smash cake....

....but she eventually got the hang of it!

And that was my weekend - filled with lots of family fun and baking. Hope you all have had a great week and a less busy one than me - ha! I'm so happy tomorrow is Friday!

Makeup Monday {Benefit and Revlon}

A month or so ago I went to Ulta and found some really good new products that I'm loving and wanted to share with you. One of the finds is a more recent one too.

First off, I got a Revlon Smoky Shadow Stick in Atomic. I love it so much and think I might want a few more colors! The one side is gold, and the other is dark green that's shows up dark like a black. It goes on smooth and I love to blend some eyeshadow on top of it. I've been using the gold end on my entire lid, and the dark green end in the crease. Love it!

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At Target a few weeks ago I picked up the Revlon Lip Butter in Creme Brulee. Let's just say I am now obsessed with nude lipstick. I never understood how a nude lipstick could be flattering, but I wanted to try it anyway. It is definitely flattering and now one of my new favorites. I have used it SO much the last few weeks that I might need another one soon!

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I also got a cute little Benefit sampler at Ulta.

I'd only ever tried Benefit's They're Real! Mascara, which is my ultimate favorite mascara, so I wanted to try some more of the Benefit products. I liked how this set allows you to try a small sample of a bunch of different products. There are some that I really like and would for sure pay full price for! This is what it all came with....

Posie Tint

This stuff is literally a cheek STAIN. It made me SO nervous the first time I used it. When you pull the brush out (it's like a nail polish brush) the tint looks super bright pink. I thought it was going to make me look like a clown. But I actually really like it. You don't need a lot of it, but it blends in pretty good to just give your cheeks a rosy glow. I don't think it would be for everyone, but I think it's really neat when used correctly!

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High Beam

High Beam is a product similar to the Posie Tint expect it's a highlighter. I am absolutely in love with this product! It does a fabulous job of lighting up and highlighting a specific area of your face. I put it on top of me cheekbones (I use the Posie Tint on the apples of my cheeks) and it really illuminates that area of my face. I think a full bottle of this may be going on my Christmas list :)

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"That Gal"

This is a face primer. I think it's supposed to even out your complexion and brighten up your face. I haven't used it a whole lot because the sample is really small, but it seems like a pretty good product. I'd need to use it a few more times to decide whether it's worth it or not. It smells really good though!

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Bad Lash

Like I said, I love Benefit's They're Real! Mascara, so I was eager to see how their other mascaras would compare. Overall, I like the product, but I still prefer They're Real!

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Stay Don't Stray

This is an eyeshadow primer. It's basically the same idea as the Urban Decay Primer Potion. I haven't noticed a difference in wear between the 2 brands, but I think I prefer the feel of the Urban Decay version better. I would stick with Urban Decay over this primer.

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Hoola Bronzer

I really like this bronzer as well. I have a Charlotte Ronson bronzer that's just alright. I like this Hoola one a lot better than that one. I still want to try the Nars Laguna sometime because I've heard such great things about that bronzer too. I would recommend this one though!

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I love the Revlon and Benefit brands in general. I think Benefit is a very high quality brand that is definitely worth the slightly more expensive cost!

Thanksgiving Thursday & Black Friday

I sat down Friday night to write this post, and I was so proud of myself for actually being on top of my posts. And then I went to upload a picture, and it went downhill from there. I got an error message saying I had reached my maximum amount of online storage, and I couldn't upload any more pictures. I just now resolved the issue, so I can finally finish this post!

Well, anyway, I hope you had a great Thanksgiving! I had a fabulous day spent with family and counting my blessings.

I had school on Wednesday, so my break didn't technically start until Wednesday at 1:50! Earlier in the week I had made some Thanksgiving/fall cake pops for my friend's sister. Her birthday was this past week, and she requested turkey cake pops, so Turkey cake pops I made!

After school my mom and I headed out to the mall to kick Thanksgiving break off right!

I even got my Christmas Dance dress :)

I was so happy to see the Cincinnati sign all lit up for Christmas on the way home.

On Thursday morning, my parents went out to do a Thanksgiving walk. I'm too lazy and wanted to stay home and watch the parade - ha!

I ran out as soon as I got up to pick up a newspaper and a doughnut. I loved sitting like this for a few hours - looking at the Black Friday ads, eating a doughnut, snuggling with Coco, and watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

This is what the floor looked like after I was done with the ads.....

My dad cooked our Thanksgiving turkey for the first time this year. I kept teasing him that the turkey was going to turn out like this.....

....but it ended up great!

We went over my grandma's house to spend this Thanksgiving with my dad's side of the family. It's always a fun time. We played Apples to Apples and joked around a lot!

I took this picture of Coco and I when we got home.

On Friday morning my family and I got up early to do some Black Friday shopping. We didn't have any doorbusters we wanted to get, so we got up a little before 6 and left around 6:30. It worked out well because we still got a lot of good deals, but we didn't get into any crazy crowds. We went to Bed, Bath & Beyond and Target first. I was surprised that Target wasn't crazy crowded!

I picked out 3 good movies that were on sale, and it ended up being $20 for all 3. Yay! DVDs are one of my favorite things to buy on Black Friday.

We also stopped at Home Depot before getting breakfast at Chick-fil-A. I love Chick-fil-A, but I had never been there for breakfast. Their breakfast is SO good! I got Chicken Minis - little pieces of chicken on a buttery biscuit.

Then we hit Lowe's and Best Buy before heading downtown to Macy's.

I found these at Macy's on sale, and I'm SO excited. I didn't even know they sold these in stores!

Some of our loot.... It always seems that on Black Friday we do more shopping for ourselves than for actual Christmas presents - ha!

My mom and I also headed out a little later on to pick up some things we had forgotten. I love this holiday dress I got for Coco. I think it's so stinkin' cute.

I also got my first college acceptance letter on Friday. I felt like it hit me in the face - college seems SO real now.

In the afternoon I set up some of our Christmas decorations with my mom and helped my dad put up our Christmas lights.

Then I spent a long time baking. I first tried to make some cupcakes using a recipe I just sort of made up (based on other recipes). The cupcakes turned out to be lacking in flavor and sweetness. I know what to work on for next time though.

Then I made cupcakes using a real recipe for my cousin's birthday party that was today. I'll post more on it later!

I also got a picture of our Christmas lights at night. It doesn't look like much, but compared to past year's, it's a tremendous improvement :)

And that's been my Thanksgiving and Black Friday - 2 of my favorite days of the year.

I'll do another post soon on the rest of my Thanksgiving break now that I can upload pictures again!

Happy Thanksgiving

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Have a great Thanksgiving! I'm looking forward to a day spent with family!

I have SO much to be thankful for, and I'm counting all of my blessings today.

You changed my mourning into dancing; you took of my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness. With my whole being I sing endless praise to you. O Lord, my God, forever will I give you thanks.

~ Psalm 30:12-13

Not Much To Show

This weekend.......was not what I had expected. I feel like I was busy pretty much the entire weekend, but I don't really have much to show for it.

Friday was just a bad day. I had a bad and disappointing day at school that pretty much altered my entire weekend. I don't want to go into details now, but a paper I thought was finished ended up having to be rewritten (for no fault of my own), and that's what I spent most of my weekend doing.

On Friday night I got to babysit sweet Lorelei though! She took my mind off my bad day :) I can't believe how big she's getting. It's so fun because every time I watch her she's doing something new.

On Saturday I literally did not leave my house. The farthest I made it was the mail box - ha! My day was spent working on homework and cake pops, and watching a Christmas movie. My cousin asked me to make cake pops for a gender reveal party for one of her friends. So I split the cake pops up and did half pink and half blue.

Today was a pretty busy Sunday: church, finishing up homework, stopping by my aunt's house, dropping off my Operation Christmas Child shoebox, going to Target to take advantage of the BOGO at Starbucks, and taking my grandpa out to dinner since we won't see him on Thanksgiving. We went to Cracker Barrel, one of my favorite places that I hadn't been to in a long time!

Sometimes you just need a big plate of Southern comfort food!

And that's been my pretty uneventful weekend. It was less than ideal, but I've learned from it and moved on. Now I'm looking forward to a short week (only 3 days of school!), no babysitting, shopping with my mom, Thanksgiving, and Black Friday!

Have a great {short} week :)