Lipstick League's February Photo-A-Day Challenge

I decided to participate in this fun photo-a-day challenge on Instagram from the ladies of the Lipstick League.  A few friends are doing it with me and I've already found some awesome accounts to follow and have entered a fab contest from the My Beauty Bunny blog and Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab which you can enter too.

 Day one: My most recent purchase was the rest of the Wet n' Wild lipsticks in the new collection as well as a pretty blush.

Day two: I couldn't actually rock this Smashbox Nylon Nude lipstick because I have strep throat so I decided to approach it with humor.

For today's post I chose boscia's luminizing black mask as my favorite facial treatment.  I love all peel off face masks, and have since I was a kid and my sister Marilyn let me use a peel off egg white mask she had from Avon.  I'll buy pretty much any peel off mask, but this one is the best I've come across although it is a bit expensive.  I always wait until they offer a bundle of free items with your purchase so I can try something new and make my favorite products more budget friendly.

Day four's goal is to feature a product from the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab.  Before I started this challenge I hadn't heard of them but I loved checking out all the many fragrances they offer.  I want to get a few of the Yule scents before they disappear.  If you want to learn more about their unique fragrance oils (with names like "embalming fluid" "eat me" and "wolf's heart"!) check them out by entering the contest sponsored by the My Beauty Bunny blog for a set of 12 Lipstick League member favorites by clicking this special link:

BPAL Fragrance Oil Giveaway


You'll also help me earn a few extra entries this way, so thank you in advance!

I'm having fun with this challenge and I feel like it is pretty stress free since I'm not obligated to post a ton of selfies.  I always feel too intimidated when I'm with  a bunch of twenty year olds with their perfect skin, hair and eyebrows.  There is no faster way to feel bad about yourself than comparing your photos with ones of a girl who could be your daughter.

I slept most of today and had planned to review a cookbook for blogging for books tonight but after sleeping most of the day and being worn down by medicine and feeling under the weather, I decided to gold off.  Thankfully Andy always takes care of me and tonight he made a wonderful dinner of pork loin, southwestern corn, and smashed potatoes.  It was wonderful.  Thanks babe.

Sicko

You won body.

You want to go and get strep throat and leave me in the dark about it?

Fine.

I give up.

You win.

For your enjoyment you get antibiotics and Burger King.

I hope you're happy!

Late Christmas

I finally got to see my sister Marcia today.  Our conflicting work schedules always seem to keep us apart even though we only live 30 minutes from each other.  She brought me some amazing Christmas gifts and I'm totally going to brag about them because they're fab and she did a brilliant job at picking them out!

First off is my late birthday gift (you know it has been forever since I've seen her since my birthday is in August).  I gave her a birthday present too and her birthday is I'm April.  We're crazy like that.

They're so cute!  I love the brand name too "Naughty Monkey" - this is getting used for makeup storage for sure.

 These are a little hard to see, but they are stickers, a notepad with snowflakes on it and two beautiful dream catchers.  I especially love the white one - it is glittery and has holly on it.

These kits have gorgeous beads and instructions to make shambala bracelets.  I've always wanted to learn the weaving to do these.

This will go so nicely with the one Andy and I have already.  We haven't planted it yet so we can put them in the same container.

I'm pretty obsessed with Marilyn Monroe.  Marcia said she rescued these from a film class student who was going to trash them!
That is flat out crazy pants.  I'm glad they are finding a good home with me.

These are the softest socks ever.  They are going to connive with the couch to get me to stay in one spot and watch Downton Abby all day.

Best coffee ever.  I'm beyond excited for a Steelers cup o' joe.

 My sister still knows that I would freak out with excitement over a Little Golden Book of Frozen.  Who needs kids to love these beautiful books?

 When I first opened this I was a little puzzled.  The box said "saki set" and had these beautiful Asian characters on it but what's inside was soooooo much better!

Marcia is SO freaking talented!  I love this Rudolph hat so much.  Next year I am going to wear it everywhere during the Christmas season.  I will hand out Halloween treats in it if it's cold enough?

Seriously.  How could you not love a person wearing this hat?

And her sweatshirt was the best.  It says "I'm a fabulous hooker".  Indeed.  (Although I think the hat was knitted).  She can knit or crochet just about anything you can think of and she showed me a fabulous Sven from Frozen she's making for me too!  She also made a fab piece for Andy which fits over the bill of his baseball cap and covers his ears and the back of his neck so he won't be cold at work.  He looks great in it and it is really timely because he just shaved his head!

We also had lunch at Pizza Hut and had some of their new drizzles and crust options on our personal pan pizzas.  Mine was flat out amazing.

Thank you so much Marcia for all the awesome Christmas gifts.  It was great to see you even though the snow cut our visit short.  I love you!

There Is Nothing More Exhausting Than...

Cleaning.

Ugh!

But at least the house is kind of presentable.
In the middle of picking up things that I have left laying around for months Andy fixed a bookshelf that was broken and now I have a wonderful place to put all of my "to be read" novels so I see them and pick them up.  Hopefully I can't put them down because I have a TON of amazing books to get through.  I'll be reviewing one tomorrow, so stay tuned.

He also brought our rocking chair out into the living room so that I get more use from it.  It has been acting as a hamper in our bedroom for far too long.  It's one of the very first things Andy bought for me for our new house and I love reading in it.  He even brought a lamp out to set beside it so I have a new nook to curl up in with a novel and a cup of tea.

One other thing that I accomplished today while Andy helped me clean was making a new sandwich for lunch.  It was a twist on chicken salad that turned out pretty delicious.

I used a can of chicken, three tablespoons of mayonnaise, 2 tablespoons of hot dog relish (mustard and relish mixed together), and a quarter cup of a mixture of Craisins and unsalted almonds that were then finely chopped.  The nuts give a nice crunch and the cranberries have a great sweetness to them.

And now I'm beat.  I can't wait to see my sister tomorrow so we can exchange Christmas gifts.  We even left our Christmas lights up just for her!  (Or maybe because it is stupid cold and windy and they look nice where they are, no matter what the neighbors think).

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend!

Another Food Discovery (Courtesy Of My Darling Husband)

Andy surprised me tonight be making a stupid delicious dinner.

It involved tuna fish.

If you would've asked me yesterday if I liked tuna I would've said "no way!" but then my husband made a meal with it that was so awesome I ignored my diet (which has been going really well!) and asked for seconds.  It probably helped that he said "keep an open mind" when he gave it to me and that I didn't even know it was tuna, but if this is what tuna fish is all about I have seriously been missing out.

My yummy dinner involved crispy pan fried tuna patties with the fish, mashed potatoes, onions, spices, an egg and breadcrumbs.  It was phenomenal.  He made mine as a sandwich on toasted potato bread.  It tasted kind of like a Filet O'Fish but better. (Aaahhhhh!)

I bet you wish you had a husband who made you amazing food and insisted you try new things even when you're sure you won't dig them.  In the last few years I've discovered that I actually like a ton of things I thought I hated.  I guess my tastes are changing as I get older, but here are a few of the things Andy has convinced me to try that I wound up enjoying after insisting I wouldn't:

Steak cooked to medium
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Asparagus
Sauteed mushrooms
Cooked carrots
Spinach
Pulled pork and pork tenderloin
Tartar sauce
Slow cooker pot roast
Celery and apples with "peanut" butter
Lima beans
Calimari
Succotash
Squash
Zucchini
Hog maw


And now tuna fish!  Yes, it's a vegetable heavy list, but I suddenly find the prospect of eating more vegetarian dishes pretty exciting.  Now that I have lentils and I'm not afraid of dried beans and grains there will be lots of vegexperiments on the horizon.

This weekend I'm going to give barley a shot.  It will be new for both of us.

Thank you Andy for making such a delicious dinner and for constantly encouraging me to try new things.  I may kick my "we'll have pasta because that's all I know how to cook" pattern yet!  I love you Bubba!

Asleep In My Dinner Plate

Last night I fell asleep during the last fifteen minutes of Sons of Liberty and I didn't get to see John Hancock sign his name real big.

Tonight I fell asleep just at the end of Top Chef and I didn't even know who had to go home.

The conclusion?

I need sleep.

I'm so tired I can't even think straight.

I made dinner - crispy tofu fried rice which was delicious, but after that I crashed and zonked out.

Start with pepper strips, scallions, and carrots lightly sauteed in a tablespoon of olive oil.  Add a cup of rice and simmer in 2 cups of beef stock until water is absorbed - about 15 minutes.

I added sauteed mushrooms, an egg and soy marinated tofu dredged in corn starch and pan fried until crisp.

Truly, I barely made it through Supernatural and it was a Charlie episode!

So I'm going to bed.  Hope you enjoy this simple stir fry on a night when you can function better than I can!

Nighty night!

Soup For Days

I know that all of my recipes won't be successes, but I was really hoping tonight's soup would be better.  I ruined it by using a box of stock that I was unfamiliar with.  I think I would've enjoyed it if I stuck with chicken stock, but I used a Cajun flavored vegetable stock instead.  I thought the onion, carrots, celery and pepper flavors would work nicely with the cauliflower and lentils, but I didn't ananticipate the seasoning in it would smell like Old Bay.

I hate Old Bay.  Just the scent of it in the can makes me nauseated.

When I worked at Alabama Shakespeare Festival we had a one man show called "The Fula From America" and on opening night they had a cocktail party that featured shrimp boil.  The day of the show the entire theatre reeked of Old Bay and I was incredibly ill at the time.  Now every time I smell it, it instantly makes me sick.

On the plus side I really liked the cauliflower.  I somehow made it to this point in life without ever having tried raw cauliflower.  I thought I hated it.  I don't.  I thought it tasted lovely and similar to the pods of snow peas.  Even in the soup (which was Old Baying me to death) I really dug the texture.  The vegetables have really been upping their game lately.  Tomorrow I'm going to do a veggie stir fry with all of my newfound vegetable friends.

I put lots of melted cheese on Andy's dish and it looked just like the photo in the One Pot cookbook, but my bowl was very small since I was afraid of it.  Andy has lots of leftovers, and I need to buy more lentils!

Thank you to Blogging for Books for the awesome One Pot Martha Stewart Living Cookbook.  I am checking out a cookbook on healthy affordable meals from Melissa D'Arabian (of Food Network fame) this week - it just came in the mail today so there will be an upcoming review soon.