The End of The Beginning

Well folks. I think its finally over.

I'm sad to say the Republican party seems to have finally, albeit begrudgingly, coalesced around their nominee. Governor Mitt Romney ladies and gentlemen!  I have to say I was sad to hear Senator Santorum was dropping out on Tuesday. I mean, you can't fault the guy. It was time. He had a pretty great run, especially considering where his political career was only 6 years ago. And with his daughter being as sick as she is, he really should go home and be with her. He's a young guy. He can spend the next four years on a book tour around the US and have another go at it in 2016 or even 2020. I'm sure this is not the last we'll see of the Senator. Or his daughter Elizabeth ,with the creepy smile. I can never tell if she's about to laugh or cry. I'm sure she's a lovely person, but she needs to practice smiling in the mirror.

So what happens now? No more primary debates? or twitter battles? public gaffs? Obvious pandering to the base? What is a political junkie to do for a fix. Don't you worry. Mr. Gingrich continues to hang around.

I have to say I love watching Newt. He really is a political genius, but his HUGE ego often gets in the way to his detriment. I do not love his policies, please--- I know you were very concerned for a minute there. He's so out of touch and some of the things he says... I mean where did that moon colony thing come from? And now apparently he bounced a check to the state of Utah for $500. Are you kidding me?

I don't know about you, but I'm ready for a bit of a break. I feel like we've been in constant election mode since the last election! Oh wait... we have.

But this is only the end of the beginning of the battle that will be the election this fall. Can't wait to see what comes next.

Beauty Tuesday: Naked Palette

I know everyone and their monther has reviewed the Urban Decay Naked Palette (1), but I need to jump on the bad wagon. Y'all, I use this thing EVERY SINGLE DAY. I love how versitile it is. I usually to do a subtle smokey eye with browns for work, which is great for this palette. Then I can easily step it for Saturday night and go deeper and darker. I can't tell you how much I love it.

Here are swatches of all the shadows

 These are the lightest 4 colors. I love Virgin as a highlight. It gives a great pearly finish with out glitter. Sin is a pearly pink color and is great too and (but of those two I usually opt for virgin). Naked is my go to color. It's a great all over color that mimicks the color of my eyelid. It's completely matte, no shimmer or sparkle so you can pair it with something a little richer with out going over the top. Sidecar is the one color in the palette I'm not thrilled with. It's beautiful, don't get me wrong, but it has glitter in it and no matter what primer I do, or how carefully I apply it, there is always glitter that ends up elsewhere on my face.

Buck is my other go-to matte shadow and is a great crease color. Half Baked is gorgeous. Its a bright shimmery gold. I have a single of it also, and I love to use this in the center of my eyelid to open the eye. I use it ALL the time. Love it. Smog is also wonderful, not quite as shimmery as half baked, but its close. This is my usual crease shade for the work week. When I want to step it up though, I opt for darkhorse. This smokey warm brown is absolutely beautiful. I also use this as a liner every now and again.  

Toasted is another go to shade. If you look at the swatch you can see its a medium tone burgandy shimmer. Very similar to smog, but warmer. Hustle is a deeper version of toasted and is absolutely beautiful. Creep is the darkest shade in the whole palette. Its a dark grey with some shimmer and blue undertones. I use it mostly to deepen the crease or as a liner. It's a beautiful color, but use a light hand if you're fair like me. Gunmetal is a medium toned silver/blue shimmer. It's really pretty on, but I generally like warmer colors, so it rarely makes it in to one of my naked palette looks.

I wanted to give you some of my favorite combos

Naked:Half Baked: Smog

Buck: Toasted: Hustle

Virgin: Half Baked: Hustle

Today I'm rocking Virgin all over the lid, Half Baked in the center, and Creep in the crease. All super blended out, with covergirl eye liner in black, curled lashes, no mascara.

Do you have a go-to product you can't stop using?

How is it Monday again?

Back to work... ugh. Where did that weekend go? I didn't really do anything, which was wonderful, but I also didn't accomplish ANYTHING so that's annoying.

I got off work early on Friday, swung by the grocery store to pick up some peeps and a six pack (what else do you need for Easter?). I had the house to myself Friday night which is always lovely. I love my roommates to death, but when you live with friends/roommates its always nice to get a little alone time. and I'm a girl who LOVES my alone time.

Saturday I hung out around the house some more. Did some cleaning, cooking, ran an errand or two, caught up on blogs, etc. Exciting life I lead. I finally got bored and took my roommate BW to explore our local neighborhood bar. We live in an area of DC that I'm not super familiar with. It's not the nicest of neighborhoods, but the longer I'm hear the more I love it. It's called Bloomingdale and is hipster-tastic. I'm certainly the preppiest person around, but no matter. I add to the diversity of the hood, right?

We popped over to a bar called the Boundary Stone and we immediately fell in love. It's a hole in the wall kind of a place. A solid list of craft brews on tap, well priced for dc ($5 a pint of a Saturday night sounds good to me)

The service was awesome! The bar tenders let us sample the beers before we ordered. Let us split a beer in half pint glasses (do bars normally do this? I don't think I've ever asked before), and were generally friendly and fun. Needless to say we tipped them well and told them we'd be back again soon. This could get dangerous.

Sunday was more lounging around. Easter brunch at home included: deviled eggs, salmon, potatoes, grits, spinach salad, etc. It was good.

Then I made the mistake of finally starting the Hunger Games (I know where have I been?) at 5:00 pm. Needless to say I took a 2 hour break to fold laundry and watch Mad Men and the season finale of Real Housewives of Atlanta (so sad it's gone). But I raced back to bed to do more reading before bed. Well. I read the whole darn thing. I turned off my light at 3:00 am, but my heart was still racing and I was thinking about whats going to happen in book two and three. I need to see the movie ASAP now. Anyone want to go with me?

Anyways, that's about it for me today. Hope everyone had a great Easter!

{Friday Cocktail} A Peep-tini

I would like to document the fact that I LOVE peeps. They are my FAVORITE.

I can could sit and eat trays of them at a time. I don't discriminate between the bunnies or the chicks, but nothing is better than the classic yellow chic. Have you ever tried one dipped in chocolate? You need to. Have you ever put one in the microwave to watch it turn into a godzilla peep? You need to. Have you ever had a liquidfied peep in your cocktail? well... not sure you need to do that, but you can make a delicious peeptini with a peep on the side :)

via

• 1.5 oz Marshmellow Vodka
• .5 oz vanilla simple syrup
• 1 oz cream
• 1 egg white (optional)*
• Peeps (for garnish or dipping... your choice)

In a shaker combine vodka, simple syrup, cream  and egg white. Shake for 1 min or until you are happy with the fluffiness of the egg white. Pour into a rimmed martini glass and top with a peep.

*Please don't be afraid of the egg white. The alcohol "cooks" it so no gross germs to worry about and it creates this yummy frothy foam on the top. You need to try it once.

This is going to be a super SWEET cocktail, which is not normally my taste, but it's easter!

Let me know what you think if you try this. Also you can try adding a little food coloring to coordinate with your peeps. Go crazy! Hope y'all have a great easter!