The Beauty Blog: Face and Body Edition

June 21, 2012June 18, 20121 Comment

I love knowing what my friends are using for their hair, make up, perfume, you name it. I always like to know when something is worth the money or where to find a steal. So today is the beauty edition and I’m starting with face and body care – I need more than one edition because it takes a lot to make this face and body look good these days…

Eye Cream

Splurge: Bobbi Brown Extra Eye Repair Cream – I have dry skin and my under eyes are no exception. If I had to choose 1 product to take to a desert island, it would probably be eye cream. I love this stuff because it soaks in fast and leave skin soft and moisturized without being greasy. It’s pricy, but I slather this stuff and a jar will last me anywhere from 4-6 months.

Splurge: Bobbi Brown Extra Eye Balm – I use this guy at night and it’s like putting ointment under your eyes. You’ll still feel the effects in the morning. The moister is second to none. Again, pricy but lasts and lasts.

Face Cream

Steal: Neosporin. Yup, I said it. After a particularly bad round of adult acne, I splurged on a facial and this was the last thing the esthetician put on my face. And it worked like magic. Generally anything with salicylic acid or benzol peroxide irritates my skin in addition to clearing a breakout, which just makes everything worse. I slather a good round of Neosporin on clean, broken out skin and it’s generally clear within one to two days.

Splurge: Bobbi Brown Extra Broad Spectrum SPF 25 Tinted Moisturizer Balm – yes, there is a trend here. I’ve tried some of the more expensive and less expensive brands and I keep coming back to BB. The value for the product is just so high. And to find a moisturizer with SPF that works is like finding a diamond in the rough!

Splurge: Bobbi Brown Extra Repair Moisturizing Balm – I use this at night. It has the consistency of marshmallow fluff and is easier patted into skin rather than rubbed in. It. Is. Awesome.

Splurge: Facials – I had my first facial ever right after Baylor was born and I was less than impressed. It wasn’t until last year when I found out that the esthetician who does my eyebrows had great prices on facials. I treated myself and was insanely impressed. Even Peter, who was concerned at my new found love of something else expensive (hello kettle? this is pot…) remarked at how good my skin looked. If you’re in the Scottsdale area, you must go see Noel at Skin Studio AZ.

Splurge: La Roche Posay Sunscreen – my mom found this at CVS and it is amazing. You get it behind the pharmacy counter and they carry both body and face varieties. The face SPF is broad spectrum, SPF 60, not greasy and not chalky. It goes on totally unnoticed under makeup, in the part of your hair and on your ears.

Steal: Keihls Rare Earth Pore Cleansing Mask – this is a fantastic mud mask that gets pores super clean. Clears up blemishes and keeps the new ones away.

Body

Steal: Aveeno Daily Moisturizing – what can I say? It does the trick leaving skin moisturized but not greasy. And you can get three bottles for like $11 at Costco.

Steal: Bio Oil – While prepping for the emergency c-section to deliver Baylor, the anesthesiologist was poking and prodding my lower half to ensure I had no feeling (which is always reassuring when you’re awake and about to be cut in half). I was shaking uncontrollably from nerves, medication and exhaustion – it was a real treat all the way around. The anesthesiologist looked over the screen at me and declared “You don’t have one stretch mark on that belly of yours!”. Not really what you want to be hearing from the man that is responsible for making you pain free and not paralyzing you at the same time, but a complement none the less.

That was a long way of saying that Bio Oil really does work. It soaks in fast, smells nice and it apparently does what it promises.

Splurge: Aveda Foot Relief – Ali my sister bought me a bottle of this recently and I’m obsessed. I love the cooling feeling that it gives my feet and hands. And the smell…it is so refreshing! I sit in bed for a good 5 minutes after applying it to my feet and just huff the scent off my hands. PW is a bit concerned that I’m developing some kind of addiction.

Stranger Danger?

June 20, 2012June 18, 2012Leave a comment

I am a paranoid person – not a tin foil on my head, no Face Book page, off the grid kind of paranoid…but I am convinced that there is danger around every corner. I’ve roped PW into my insanity too and my mom feeds it as she is also convinced of the constant danger around us. Therefore it’s natural and B is picking up on a little of it – I’m not teaching her that the aliens are coming, but I do try to temper being friendly to people with being aware of strangers. More than once I have said that she can’t stay in the car by herself, play out in our front yard alone or talk to adults she doesn’t know without Mommy there because there are people who do steal kids. I’m not trying to freak her out, but I would rather her be overly cautious and come home at night than be concerned with offending someone she doesn’t know and never being heard from again.

That said, these conversations came to a head last week. We were at the grocery store and a little old couple was everywhere I needed to be. They were in front of the onions, blocking the corn and man handling every banana. Every time I turned around, one of them or their cart was in my way. I was hustling so I parked the cart with Baylor in the seat and made a bee-line for the strawberries when I saw an opening. The cart was no more than 4 feet from me, but B’s guard instantly went up and when the lady of the couple asked Baylor “Hi there. What’s your name?” B lowered her chin and looked straight at the woman with a don’t-mess-with-me face and said “Don’t try to steal me”.

I heard the entire transaction and was completely unable to stop myself from laughing out loud. The little old lady did not think it was funny so I quickly countered by letting Bay know it was ok to answer nicely since I was with her. Thankfully the woman and her hubby hurried off and kept their distance from us. Which lead to B and I giggling for the rest of the trip. Two problems solved; old people out of our way and lesson learned that even nice looking old people are potential kidnappers.

I mean really. It doesn’t get more intimidating than this….

Dependable Divas Giveaway!

June 19, 2012June 18, 2012Leave a comment

The lovely ladies from Dependable Divas (who I featured in my Friday post on Scottsdale Moms Blog) are sponsoring a giveaway for 6 hours of their services! Can you imagine what two ladies who organized for a living could do in your house in 6 hours?! The kids room, the garage, the laundry, the office, the kitchen…just think of all the places they could make neat and tidy! It makes me a little jealous that I can’t win…

Head on over to Scottsdale Moms Blog at 1pm today and enter to win – just tell us all about the messiest, craziest, most in need of the Divas place in your house. The winner will be chosen at random on Friday June 22nd. Details and fine print on the site.

Good luck!!!

Happy Father’s Day

June 18, 2012June 18, 2012Leave a comment

June is a busy month around here – Baylor’s birthday, my birthday, father’s day and our anniversary. Generally by the time we get to our anniversary, we are so partied out and broke, we are happy to have frozen pizza to celebrate!

And true to form, PW bought himself a little present and requested we didn’t spend any money on him. Done and done. Instead, he got to spend some time at the shooting range while B and I recreated the breakfast from her favorite new book Tyler Makes Pancakes! . The book comes with a recipe for blueberry pancakes and calls for cantaloupe and bacon on the side. I happily take my demotion to sous chef when Chef Wand is in the kitchen.

Baylor also presented Peter with her gift she made at school. How cute is the frame with nuts, bolts and washers?? And I love that she has tools and a hard-hat. Such a great pic for dads!

The pancakes were delicious! And we had a lazy morning around the house after breakfast followed by family nap time and then swimming (thanks Missa!). It was a great day not deterred by the “soul crushing heat” (direct quote from a meteorologist). And as I write this post, the Wildcats are winning in the college world series. Life couldn’t get much better.

Happy father’s day to all the dads in our lives!

Zip It or the Doll Gets It

June 14, 2012June 14, 20121 Comment

I was woken up early Tuesday morning by loud shouts for Mommy. As soon as my heart started again, I realized the shouts were demands for me to come to Baylor’s room and help her favorite doll, New Baby, put on her hat and find her pacifier. I ignored the first shout, but the second one infuriated me (Momma doesn’t like being woken up, even more so to help out inanimate objects). I marched to her room declaring either New Baby comes out of the crib or her accessories do, but either way, waking Mommy and Daddy up to dress a doll at 2 freaking am was completely unacceptable. There was more shouting, crying, a brief tug of war and then finally an agreement which lead to everyone except for me going back to sleep.

I laid awake for the next two hours unable to get comfortable and also thinking about when Mr. Man is here and he is sharing a room with Bay. What am I going to do when she pulls something like that and wakes the real baby? Or vise versa? Which is why I tossed and turned for the rest of the night leaving me oh-so-friendly on Tuesday morning.

The end result is that New Baby either gets put to sleep in her own bed OR her accessories do not go to sleep with her. Either way, the doll’s on notice.

That’s right New Baby, I’d sleep with one eye open too…

Birthday Recap

June 13, 2012Leave a comment

I planned to post about my birthday yesterday, however, I was severely sleep deprived due to Baylor’s favorite doll, New Baby, loosing her hat and pacifier in the middle of the night. More on that tomorrow. If the doll makes it to then.

Anyway, I had a lovely 30th birthday. It hasn’t quite sunk in just how old I am, but I’m sure as my back gets achier and the cost of my face cream continues to increase, I’ll get a good dose of reality.

I treated myself to a lovely pedicure, breakfast with the sister (including presents!), a nap, phone calls from family and friends, endless FaceBook well wishing and dinner with B and PW. It was a fast, but totally relaxing day. We dined at one of my favorite places, Cowboy Ciao and then came home for some cake and presents – it was a fantastic day spent with the ones I love…I am however, looking forward to the birthday remix where we have cake AND cocktails in a few months!

And yes, that dress and hairdo do look familiar. It’s the only damn thing I own that fits right now and doesn’t look too horrible. Not to mention my hair is atrocious due to the need for a cut and color and hormones. Did I mention that I love the end result but hate being pregnant??

June 11, 2012Leave a comment

It’s finally here – the big 3-0! More to come on this tomorrow…today, we eat cake!

Hand Over the Camera

June 6, 20122 Comments

When we were kids, my dad snapped pictures of everything and anything we did. He had a great camera and always had it handy. So I guess it’s safe to say I come by my need to document life via photos, naturally.

I invested in a Cannon Rebel T3 last summer after exensive research. I needed something that was fast, easy to use, small and didn’t cost us Baylor’s college fund. I realized that in order not to break the bank, I’d have to ditch the small requirement. I settled on the T3 because it wasn’t enormous and it got great reviews for newbies like me.

I snap pictures all the time with it – which means I’m never in the pictures. PW will take over periodically, but then there’s never a picture of the three of us. So this past weekend for Baylor’s party, I grabbed a friend that I knew took great pictures and asked them to snap a few shots of the important moments so that I could actually be present and enjoy. And the result? Awesome. The pictures are beautiful because they’re done with someone else’s eye so the light is a little different, the zoom is a little closer, everything is just different enough that it’s fantastic. And the best part is that I get to help blow out the candles on the cake, eat it and have the picture to remember it for a lifetime.

So next time you are busy snapping away, hand over the camera and see what happens. At the very least, you’ll be able to prove you were actually there!

Case in point? I love the flowers in the front of this pic.

I love catching me mid song and B’s sweet smile!

Compartmentalizing

June 5, 20121 Comment

Compartmentalizing is the name of the game today. It’s been a year since we lost Mame and I just can’t do it today. I can’t disolve into to tears. I can’t think about how much I miss her and all the other sad feelings that would overwhelm me if I let them. I had an ugly cry (a really ugly cry) on PW’s shoulder last night so that I could face today and the tasks at hand without puffy eyes (it’s not going to great so far). I just need to get through today in one, non tear streaked piece and can and will accept and feel whatever emotions come my way on another day. It’s just too much today.

I have a voice mail from last May on my phone from Mame and I can’t delete it. It’s so funny – it’s her telling me that she swears there is a bird in her yard and when he chirps, it sounds like he’s saying “Baylor! Baylor!”. She ends the call by noting that she has yet to take her pain meds so it is clearly real and not a hallucination. It makes me laugh and cry all at the same time.

So, no sad comments please. No long hugs or “how are you?” questions. Only jokes, snarky comments and funny stories today. I’m terrible at hiding my feelings so I need all the support I can get. We’ll deal with the sad stuff later, ok?

Happy Birthday Baylor!

June 4, 2012Leave a comment

Phew, what a weekend! We spent the entire weekend celebrating Baylor and the amazing fact that she is now three years old!

The festivities kicked off with some presents from mom and dad – Dr. Barbie, Hello Kitty everything and pancakes for breakfast. The morning quickly ran into her party for her buddies. PW and I are suckers for backyard shin digs – when we remodeled our house, the phrase “oh, that would be so awesome for a party” came up many, many times. Therefore we spent the last few weeks planning the best splash party any kid without a pool could ever ask for. I started a Pinterest board and had a blast collecting ideas. The best one though was the Kid Car Wash. Peter was pumped for a new hands on project and his creation was amazing. There was also our (ghetto) water slide that consisted of a small pool at the bottom of the swing set slide. Add in some big buckets of water (which turned out to be a hit all on their own), some water balloons and giant squirt guns and we had a hit on our hands!

Sunday afternoon was the family get together which consisted of actual family and also our close friends who we consider family. It was so nice to catch up with all of them, eat Baylor’s favorite food – quesadillas and open presents. All in all, it was amazing and totally exhausting – everything a birthday should be!

Pancakes and Dr.Barbie

Either craftyness is contagious, or PW’s been holding out on me. I showed him this free printable website and he nixed it as being too much work – then surprised us with this Saturday morning!