It's The Great Freakin' Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

So this year I feel like we got teased with a Spring that only lasted like a week. It went from snowing two week in February, to Dry Gulch heat starting in April. Spring is one of my two favorite seasons and I felt like I got scammed this year. I am a little bit fearful about my other favorite season, Fall. I LOVE fall. I start gearing up for fall mid-July. I love everything about it. I think the changing of the leaves is something only God could have designed. Just amazing. And here in VA, we have an especially beautiful transformation because of all the trees on the Mountains. I love fall colors, purples, dark greens, oranges, reds, golds, black. I love the return of turtleneck sweaters and cute over the jeans boots. I have these pirate ones that I am obsessed with! I love that Target gets exclusive fall flavored candy like Pumpkin Spice Hershey kisses!!! I am getting myself all excited. I also love Halloween. This year I am trying to decide whether to be Wednesday Addams or Teen Wolf. I have been Pippi Longtocking and Eddie Munster in the last two years, and people have come to expect greatness out of my Halloween costumes. It’s a lot of pressure. Another thing I love about fall is that all the new Fall makeup and nail collections come out. I actually just got my China Glaze Vintage Vixen nail polishes in the mail today! I will try to get a picture of them up soon. I ordered most of the OPI Switzerland collection too. I am loving the grays and teals that are in for fall. I am also really curious about two of the new Mac Collections coming up, Mac Fabulous Felines and Mac Disney Villains. The Fabulous Felines collection is filled with a lot of nice neutrals and a few surprise greens. And the Disney Villains has Cruella Devil, my all time favorite, so I am already on that. I cannot wait, all my hard earned money working for the school system will be spent on nail polish and makeup! I am also pumped to go to the Pumpkin patch again. They have this awesome tour where you get apple cider at the end and a ghost pumpkin. I am rambling tonight. LOL speaking of rambling, I also love to go apple picking, watch “Beetle juice” and my all time favorite “Addams Family Values.” I love that movie!! And you’re not cool unless you watch “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown” gotta love Linus and his schizophrenia! What are some of your fall traditions?




EDIT: Let it be said that Rochelle is obviously NOT cool, because she only watches Charlie Brown when Alissa is driving and traps her in the car with no way out.

Fall, Fall, Fall

Maybe it's because I'm a September birthday girl, maybe it's because I live in the mountains and get to see the country side literally explode with colors, maybe it's because I love Halloween and boots, whatever the reason...I love fall. This year I am really looking forward to so many things. I have a Halloween costume in the works, my cousins are playing volleyball and football, and best of all I can wear jeans without dying of heat stroke. More so than most years, I am really ready for fall to start.

Besides sports, jeans, and Halloween, what else am I looking forward to this fall? New makeup trends? This summer I have been REALLY into fairy makeup. I know this sounds insane, but I've been using really shimmery pastels and bright colors. I've also been kind of risky/tacky and been blending various shades together. However, with all the crazy hot weather we have had this summer, I haven't really been wearing very much makeup at all. Usually it melts off in no time flat. So that's another reason to look forward to fall. Cool weather=actually being able to wear makeup.

Now, I know what you may be thinking..."How is it that two girls who live in a town where CVS sells the most expensive makeup EVER hope to predict makeup trends?"* Seriously, I can't blame you. But Ally and I have an uncanny act of predicting trends. I made grey nail polish winter before last because I couldn't find a color like what I wanted. This fall grey was in almost every collection. I'm not saying this makes us the next Anna Wintours, but generally the things we like end up being popular.

THIS is a beauty expert

Since I generally look like this, I know it is especially hard to believe that I can be fashionable, and when it comes to clothes I'm really not. I am SUCH a jeans, t-shirt, Chuck Taylors kind of girl. Oh, but when it comes to makeup I get all kinds of giddy! I love eyeshadow, bright blush, and lip gloss. Outside of books, lip gloss is where most of money goes. Recently I have become a fan of bronzer. Mainly because my face refuses to not tan, and I am not about to buy four different shades of powder, especially since I can usually only use expensive brands, due to my insane allergies.** Needless to say you can imagine my surprise when I opened my new Sephora catalog early this week and realized that one of the models was wearing the exact same eyeshadow shades as me, kelly green and gold. She even had her makeup done the same way as I did, except since I don't live on a magazine page I had the gold shadow covering my lid and the green in the crease/lining my eye.*** There were a few more trends in that catalog that I really enjoyed. Mainly the purple smokey eye. I really enjoy having lighter smokey eyes, mainly because if the grey/black goes wrong you look like you were punched in the face. In January Alissa spent weeks looking for plum eyeshadow, with no luck whatsoever.

So there ya go. Even though ninety percent of the time I look like I just rolled out of a college dorm room bed, I still love my stuff. That is, I guess, my biggest point on this blog. Just because I don't spend hours getting ready each morning**** doesn't mean that I'm not interested in the trends. You don't have to look like Tyra, Heidi Klum, Emma Watson or Salma Hayek to be into beauty. And you don't have to wear makeup everyday to be interested in the trends.

*We ask ourselves this question all the time.
**Thanks a LOT skin chemistry/allergens.
***I may be fashion forward, but kelly green eyeshadow up to your brow bone is generally a NO!
****I work with kids who have severe behavioral issues, some days I need to sleep!

What I think about when Nickelodeon runs George Lopez instead of the Nanny, like I wish they would.

So tonight I forgot I had to blog for BEDA, and I was prepping to watch "The Nanny" on Nickeloden. Instead they were playing "The George Lopez show" which is/was a massive letdown. In my free time I was thinking about how I hadn't fully wiped off my beard from work today. That's right, I am a drag queen...no really....today was dress up day. I was a sexy cabin boy pirate and Rochelle was a gypsy. The kids thought we were a crack head and a pimp.The costumes made me think about how hundreds of years ago the standard of beauty was a lot different. Beauty trends and what is considered beautiful waxes and wanes like the moon (man, that was deep) one day thin is in, the next day they like big butts( and they cannot lie). I remembered  the movie “Amadeus” about  Mozart’s journey from musical genius to Mel Gibson alcoholic. All of the ladies in that movie have their breasteses pushed up as high as they can go in corsets.. They also painted their faces white and filled their hair/wigs with a white talc powder instead of washing them. A biology video we were shown in high school said that these wigs were often full of lice and sometimes even the occasional mouse. Can you imagine? That’s pretty freakin nasty.   A lot of women had to make their cosmetics at home. Lead based powders were used to whiten faces and rust was used to darken hair. Now if you do that, they assume the product came from China.  I also read about a book called "Secrets of a Ladies's Toilet" ( I don't think that is the exact title) which is a book about attracting a man by looking chesty, having a clear complexion, powdering your wig, etc. I just liked the title. Because lets face it, a lot of secret things can happen in a toilet. Anyways, these are just some things I was thinking about tonight. What are some crazy beauty rituals you have heard of? What is the craziest thing you have ever tried for beauty? (Mine was Sun-In, which turned my black hair Chester Cheeto Orange)

Sun Care Tips from Chelle

So, there are few things that I am like adamant about when it comes to my beauty routine, but one of them is without a doubt, sun care. Skin cancer TERRIFIES me, not to mention age spots, and having to buy new foundation and powder throughout the summer. Now, it is true that I tan. Not lay in the sun and bake, but if I am outside-even with sunblock on-for extended periods of time, my skin darkens. I wear sunscreen, I reapply, I even wear hats and the longest sleeves I can handle. I try to sit in the shade. The point is, you can't avoid the sun, or the shrinking ozone layer, but you can be as safe a possible. So here are some of my sun care favorites.




A cute hat is a must! These are both from Forever21. I have the Patriotic Floppy Hat, which has a great open weave so there is airflow. It may be a little loud, but I wore it to the pool on Friday for work and my face did not get sunburned.

This Straw Cloche is also available at Forever21, but they didn't have it last time I was there. You better believe I'll be purchasing it when I go with Ally to Forever21 next week!

Forever21 has a ton of cute hats, and they are pretty cheap actually. A hat is the number one way to protect your face in the sun! Hats also keep your scalp from burning, and honestly, no one wants a peeling scalp.

Now, my favorite sunblock is from Badger Balm. It is made from natural ingredients, so I don't have to worry about a freak allergic reaction, and I am comforted knowing I'm not polluting my body with freaky stuff. I also love Badger Balm's Bali Balm. It is a great after sun balm, and it smells AMAZING! So that is always nice. I hate when sun care stuff smells funky and you end up smelling like rotten beach. That's not cool, I don't care who you are!

A few other tips! 

• REAPPLY! I don't care if you think it's overrated, it is IMPORTANT! 
• Keep aloe vera gel in your refrigerator, by keeping it cool it will help draw out a sunburn. 
• If you have a really bad burn, don't peel the skin off. Use an exfoliating scrub in the shower. Personally, I love these felted soaps from Lucky LouLou at Etsy. 
• Oatmeal lotion is great for itchy skin. If you have a sunburn, use it with the cool aloe gel to keep from peeling and damaging the raw skin under your burn.
• When applying sunblock don't forget your ears or the back of your neck! They are two of the most commonly missed places!

I know it is later in the summer, but sun care is a year round task! Be safe, and stay cancer free!

Shameful Impulsive Buys-We've all given in to the temptation

So for whatever reason. despite the fact I make less money in the summer...I have been spending more of it. But not for things you have to pay for like your phone bill, or car insurance, instead I have been buying just random stupid stuff. So today Rochelle and I went out on yet another trip to Walmart...which is like the mall when you live in a small town. We had to get a few things for work. My game plan was JUST to get work things. I did okay until we got the toy aisle to look at more work things. (we work for the school system) Then I saw a knock off of "Silly Bands" and it just so happened they have a bag of dragon ones...which I do not own yet. So of course I NEEDED those. Later we went to the Dollar General and as we were leaving I had done so well not to buy anything, and then I saw it....Michael Jackson school supplies....so I felt it was important that I get some of those too. You need school supplies..and I feel like it is my civic duty to pay homage to the kind of pop. There was like 8 dollars spent. Why do they put the coolest silliest stuff right up front, I am telling you marketers are smart. I rarely leave a store without gum, Tic-Tacs, an Us Weekly....or Michael Jackson school supplies....What are some of your favorite or most embarrassing impulse purchases?

Project Runway

The new season of Project Runway premiered last week, and over the weekend I had the chance to watch the first episode. I love fashion, and I really used to love this show. When it first started on Bravo I thought that it was so awesome. The challenges were HARD! The designers had to construct items out of the outfit they had on, make a garden party dress solely out of items from a garden supply store, and so on. I felt like the viewer really got a chance to see how talented the designers actually were. The first few season I really felt like the best designers made it to Fashion Week. However, last season I was completely unimpressed. I don't even know who won. I was really disappointed. I wondered if maybe moving to Lifetime meant that Project Runway had jumped the shark. I wasn't even sure if I was going to bother trying to watch this season. I decided I'd watch the season premiere online and see where it went from there.

So far I really enjoy A.J., Andy, Christopher, both Michaels, and Nicolas. I'm not sure if I like any of the girls or not. Which is odd, generally there is one who stands out. I'm sure that all of these people will be eliminated jiffy quick. That's generally how things go, if I like them it's the kiss of death. Case in point...Spain won the World Cup, not the US, England, Mexico, Uruguay, or the Netherlands. Every team I cheered for dropped like flies.

I am interested in Gretchen, because she works with sustainable materials, dyes her own fabrics, and is basically a green designer. I love that concept, and her work is beautiful and intricate. However, I wonder if the monetary and time constraints of this show are going to compromise her design philosophy. That happens a lot on Project Runway. A designer comes in and is so sure of who they are that he/she has difficulties meeting the challenges. So I hope that Gretchen sticks around. I'd like to see her at Fashion Week so that I can see her process when she designs. I think that it would be different than what we have seen in the last few seasons.

Also, I love the judges. Nina Garcia is a beautiful woman, and I loved Elle when she was the editor there. Michael Kors is a fabulous designer and he knows what he is talking about when it comes to high end and ready to wear designs. I like that they are both firm, and usually aren't mean. It proves that there doesn't have to be a Simon Cowell to get the point across. I also adore Tim Gunn. He is the perfect mentor, and his advice is always spot on.

All in all, I'm looking forward to this season. For now I'm going to continue watching and I'll post my thoughts and feeling here. If you are watching along with me feel free to let us know what you think in the comments!

BEDA=Blog Every Day in August

Hello readers! So, last year Maureen Johnson, YA writer extraordinaire started this thing called BEDA, which means Blog Every Day in April. For some reason this year they did that in April and now they are doing it again in August. Well, MJ isn't doing it, but a lot of the BEDA-ers are. Since Alissa and I just started this blog we thought it would be cool to participate. Our main goal for this blog was to talk about all the random beauty things we are obsessed with: nail polish, makeup, purses, giant earrings, etc. However, we are obsessed with a LOT of random things. Disney, books, classic TV, Harry Potter, road trips, malls...there are a lot of random things that we talk about...and now we have decided to share them all with YOU! I know you are all excited. I mean...I certainly would be if I were you! So here it is...roughly 31 days of getting to know Ally and Chelle. Hopefully we won't scare you away!