Yesterday, I witnessed some of the most beautiful sights that I've ever seen. I love water, and woods. Minnesota is the place for me. (in the summer anyway)

KITTENS

My sweet cat, Iva finally delivered her babies! We have been awaiting these little bears for what feels like forever. I was worried that they weren't ok, or something would go wrong during the delivery, but fortunately we have five adorable healthy kittens.

The labor was so much easier for her than I was expecting. She let us know it was time at around 7:30pm by meowing at us non stop for just a couple minutes. We knew right away what that meant, so we led her to her cat bed that is under my daughter's bed. She stayed there and I thought it would be at least an hour before anything happened. I went in to check on her about 10-15 mins later and I heard a little kitten meowing before I even looked. Sure enough, there was Iva with a little beige colored meowing kitten. We all went in there to be with her at that point and the rest of the babies were born within the next couple hours. About an hour after the 5th kitten was born, I saw her belly contracting again and there was another kitten about to be born. This kitten didn't come out easily, I saw it emerge, then go back in, and it took about 10 minutes to come out after that, while all the others slid out pretty easily. Iva ate the kitten's placenta and began vigorously licking it just like the others, but this kitten wasn't moving or breathing at all. Unfortunately this grey little kitten was a still born. I really hoped they would all be healthy, but there wasn't anything we could do.

 The 5 kittens and their mom are doing well now. I've already started finding homes for them, but I have a feeling we will keep one of these little cutie bears. Cora's named one of the grey one's Olive, but we haven't settled on names for the rest yet. Having kittens is a little stressful, but a fun new experience. To anyone concerned about cat's having babies, please don't worry. I promote spaying and neutering, and this will be my Iva's only litter.

Mermaid Face

My recent hair color change has inspired my Halloween makeup look this year. (yes, the makeup was as far as I went with the costume) The burgundy I put into my hair in September has faded to this reddish orange shade, which isn't my favorite color, but reds are so hard to maintain!

Anyway, about the makeup. I knew I wanted to use my NYX Macaron lipstick in Earl Grey, so I based the look on blue and incorporated some purple on my lower lashline, and in the gems on my cheekbone. I attempted a scale effect using a cutout piece from a loofa, and a light blue eyeshadow. I didn't quite get the look I was going for, and you can't see it in the photos at all. I think using the shadows wet for that scale effect would have worked much better. You live and you learn right? Here's the list of the products used:

CG Ready set Gorgeous foundation
Rimmel Stay Matte Setting Powder
Too Faced Leopard Love cheek Palette
Revlon Single Eyeshadow- Sea foam
L'Oreal HIP E/S Duo- Showy
Maybelline Single eyeshadow- Amethyst
L'Oreal Lineur Intense liquid eyeliner
Tarte Lights Camera Lashes Mascara
Elf dramatic false lashes
NYX Macaron lipstick- Earl Grey
Gems from random halloween kit

Drugs and Society

Things in my life are going a lot like usual. There's large amounts of stress, uncertainty, and overall anxiety in just about every aspect. I recognize all of it, and feel it most of the time...but honestly I'm always able to find my happy place where I enjoy myself, and not let the stress get to me, no matter how huge it may be. All that it takes for me is a little time to myself to be alone (or with my cat ^-^) relaxing, decompressing, and just enjoying a little TV. I don't need drugs or any type of substance to alter my brain, just a little me time.

There are so many people out there who turn to drugs and alcohol to ease them through life, and I find myself completely understanding why. Life is hard. Every person on this planet struggles somehow everyday. I get it, and I really empathize with them. The reason this is on my mind is because there are many people in my life that are addicts. Some are on more intense and dangerous drugs than others. It truly makes me sad that they can't figure out a way to get through life's difficulties in a less destructive way. Drugs change you, that's a fact. The problem is, people using them cling to the idea that they are changed for the better by their drug of choice. This way of thinking leads to the user's life being overtaken by their habits. Everything that was once important becomes background noise to their love of getting high. 

I know that everything I'm saying isn't a shock to anyone, but I wish I could think of some way to change this giant problem. There's always people to blame, mostly I blame our entire way of life, for Americans at least. I feel like our economy and society as a whole is just broken. There are some fundamental things that need to be changed, in order to improve the quality of life for our citizens. The entire meaningless rat race we put ourselves through, aspiring to be middle class.

 Unless you are born privileged, we have to put ourselves through college in order to get some mediocre career. Then, IF we are lucky enough to find a career in our field, we will need to desperately cling to it and spend the next 10 or so years being a slave to that job in order to pay off our student loan debt. Middle class people are screwed over. They are the hardest working people, and are treated like slaves. Middle class, pays for the rich and the poor. It's completely unfair, and something needs to change. 

Okay, this blog was all over the place. I didn't intend to write about this at all when I started. These are the types of thing that are on my mind a lot though, so I guess it needed to come out.  Anyway, next time I will update with fun projects I'm working on because all we can do is make the most with what we have. As cheesy as that sounds it's what I truly believe.

Baby Name Buzz

It's official, I've come down with a serious case of baby fever. It's been over four years since I've been pregnant, and up until recently I haven't really missed it. It seems that everywhere I look someone is getting pregnant, I even have a new baby nephew in the family who has definitely added to my condition. I'm not sure when we will start trying again, but I'm hoping for sooner rather than later. 

Anyways, one of the major "symptoms" I've been experiencing is obsessing over baby names. I've always had a pretty healthy interest in them, but I think that was because I didn't like my own name growing up. So, I've been researching baby names. I like looking at the history of a name, the meaning, and it's origin. The meaning isn't something I'm overly concerned about, I mostly find the history and popularity of a name over time most interesting. So, naturally I've made a list of my favorite baby names for boys and girls. Here they are.

Girls:

Leia Pronounced Lay-ah, like from Star Wars. Although that's not the main reason I like the name, I just love how it sounds. I am afraid it would be mistaken for Leah too often though.

Ava Unfortunately this one is a little too popular for my liking. I still might consider it though, just because I love it so much.

Avery Another popular one, I just love the sound. (I also like it for a boy)

Eva A cute alternative to Ava, but pronounced Eve-a.

Anastasia It's quite long, but totally beautiful.

Leila Pronounced Lay-la. This is another one I go back and fourth on.

Madelyn I love the traditional french spelling, but I feel like this way is more simplistic.

Boys:

Adrian This is my top choice for boys right now. I love names that have been around forever.

Tristan This has been a long time favorite of mine, I could definitely see us using this adorable name.

Evan- I'm a big fan of names ending with the an sound- this one fits right in!

Silas Short and cool sounding.


Grayer This one is quite different, but I love the nickname Gray.

River  I think this would make a great name for a boy.

Elijah This one is quite popular, but definitely usable. 

Colin Short and sweet, and goes well with my daughter's name Cora.

I like names that are quite simplistic and easy to say. That was one thing I didn't like about my name growing up, I felt like it didn't roll of the tongue nicely. I always longed for a nice simple name that didn't need to be repeated. If I had a baby right now, I'm not sure which name I would choose! In a year or two I might not like any of these, but it's just fun to think about. 

xo

Bare Minerals Review

I remember seeing infomercials for bare minerals years ago as a teenager. Like most infomercials they made it seem like a magical life changing product, so naturally I've always been curious about it...but a bit skeptical. On a recent trip to Ulta I spotted a table full of trial sized box sets and figured I would pick one up and see what I've been missing out on.
 
It comes in eight different shade options from fairly light to golden deep. I went for the fairly light shade, as the box claimed it was best for light skin with neutral undertones, while the next one up was suited for olive undertones. I like that there are a variety of shades and it customizes to different undertones. (although the lightest shade was still too dark for me)
This is a 30 day trial box so the containers are fairly small. The price of the kit is $20.00 with a $76.00 value, so it is a good deal if you've been wanting to try it.

It made sense to start with the original foundation, so that was the first one I tried. I used the little brush that it came with and was quite surprised to see it actually covering up my redness and imperfections just as well as a liquid foundation would. I happily buffed it into my skin, then used the concealer under my eyes and finishing powder to set it. It felt really nice and light on my skin, not like a liquid foundation that can sometimes feel heavy or cakey.

Just a few hours into wearing it, I noticed my T-zone looking rather oily, and my skin is usually on the normal to dry side. The color wasn't a great match for me either, it's a little too dark and yellow toned for me, and with it being the lightest shade I can't exchange it for another color. The concealer seemed to have a slight shimmer in it and did not cover my under eye circles as well as I'd like.

The matte Formula wasn't much better for me, the color just isn't right and by the end of the day my skin looked blotchy. I even used a primer when I tried the matte formula hoping it would reduce shine and improve staying power, but unfortunately it didn't. Another con to this foundation is that it can be a bit messy to apply since it is loose powder.

Final thoughts...I was surprised at the initial coverage of these foundations, but the color match and staying power just isn't there, and that's a major issue for me in a foundation. If you can get the correct color match, and don't have super oily skin, I think you can make these work. They could be especially helpful on days when you don't have a lot of time to get ready. I would say if you're curious about bare minerals this is the perfect kit to pick up.

xo

Miranda

Butter London Nail Polish- Teddy Girl

With summer officially here in all it's glory I find myself gravitating toward my bright and pastel summery nail colors. Teddy Girl by Butter London is my most recent go-to polish and it satisfies my need for a lovely pink summer manicure. Butter London nail lacquers are more of a higher end polish, compared to drugstore brands like OPI or Essie. These polishes retail for $15.00 a bottle and can be found at Ulta. If you're lucky you can sometimes (not very often) find them on a BOGO free deal. 

 I would describe Teddy Girl to be a light yet bright creamy pink, I absolutely love the color. Unfortunately, it takes about three coats to get that nice opaque color. I am someone who wants the nail process to be over as soon as possible, as I'm sure most people do. It's not easy to do things with wet paint on the nails! I more often than not end up needing to redo a nail or two because I've used my fingers before the polish is completely dry. So applying three coats of a polish along with a layer of top coat isn't my ideal, especially when the polish is so pricey. There are definitely dupes out there for this color, so I can't say this is an entirely unique shade. If you like this creamy barbie pink color, but don't want to spend the extra money you could easily find a dupe in almost any drugstore brand. 

I took the pictures outside to get the best lighting, and the color is coming off very true to life. I hope this was a helpful review and I plan to do many more like this in the future, so check back! Have a great day :)
-Miranda