Beauty Haul! Jury Duty!

Hi everyone!! Do you like my new blog layout? : ) My friend Lisa created it for me! She made it where I can change out the header photos too. Sweet, huh?! Thank you Lisa!

I haven't had a chance to blog every since Thanksgiving break happened!

I served on jury duty for the past two days as well! I've been getting up at 6:30AM to get ready. I normally wake up at 9AM (the perks of being self employed, I know. :P) Jury duty was such an experience. I felt like I won the lottery today when I got dismissed early!

You never really appreciate how much freedom you actually have until you have to sit hours upon hours in the juror assembling room. Imagine yourself waiting at the DMV on an airplane for 8 hours!  That was my experience on the first day.  You just sit there in a room of 100 people waiting until your name is called over an intercom. lol You're then given a number, maybe a questionnaire, and grouped for a judge's jury panel. I won't get into too much detail. I don't want to spoil it for you who haven't had a chance to serve. lol

 I sure did learn to bring a phone charger and some magazines on the second day!

 I had a pretty relaxing Thanksgiving break. We spent it with his side of the family. We had 2 house warming parties and Thanksgiving lunch and dinner at two different places. lol Then we did so much Black Friday shopping! I had a lot of fun with the Tran's, but I can't wait to spend Christmas and the New Year with my family in Michigan. I miss my Mom and Aunt's home cooking!

It feels SO good to be home! I also loved coming home to some packages at the front door!

I always get home sick after 4 or 5 days of being away. I just love the comforts of home. :)

My newest beauty find is called the Beauty Box 5. 

 

Website: https://www.beautybox5.com/

Price: $12/month

Beauty Box 5 is pretty comparable to the Birchbox & Glossybox based on the number of beauty products you receive each month.

Everything is packaged neatly, and beautifully. (That's always appreciated!)

Funfetti Cake Batter Manicure!!

 

 

 Nicole by OPI "Rainbow in the S-Kylie"

Super fun multi-color, multi-shape glitter polish.

 

Nicole by OPI "Kim Konfidential," one of my favorite nude nail polishes.

 1. Base Coat Essie

2. One Thin Coat "Kim Konfidential"

3. Second Thin Coat "Kim Confindential"

4. One Coat "Rainbow in the S-Kylie"

5. Second Coat "Rainbow in the S-Kylie" (just to fill in any gaps, not complete coats.)

6. One Thin Coat of "Kim Konfidential"

7. Seche Vite Top Coat

And that is how I achieved this muted glitter-y look. :)

 I didn't like this look at first, but now the water color-ness is growing on me. (I'm too lazy to take it off. :P)

It reminds me of Pilsbury Funfetti cake batter! 

I wanted to do something fun on my nails for the 4th of July.  I never really get to have crazy fun nails on Wednesday's and Friday's because I work in an office on those days.  It's such a treat that the 4th is on Wednesday this year!! :D

Speaking of that, I found a super cute Funfetti dip & animal cookies recipe on Pinterest ^_^
Who loves Pinterest? I do! 

1 (18.9 oz) box Funfetti cake mix

2 cups fat-free plain yogurt

1 cup lite Cool Whip

Fat-free animal crackers

You can find the full recipe here. :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July vacation with family, friends & loved ones!
I'm going to be spending mine with friends this year in Seattle. =^_^=

P.S. There's a new cheek palette by NARS called Foreplay!
I am still in love with my All About Cheeks (Dan Mari) Palette by NARS, and I'm excited to see a new one on the market. : )  I'm passing on this, but I just wanted to share the new news. :D

The idea is to be able to customize your blush shade with the three smaller pans of color surrounding their number one blush, Orgasm.

Available at Sephora.

NARS Danmari All About Cheeks Palette!

I like the box it comes with! It looks like it would be very easy to gift wrap. : )

NARS packaging always look so sleek when it's new. After a few uses it becomes so blahh.
It's a magnet for dust!

The back has a sticker of the name of the palette and all the colors.

My friend Lara totally talked me into getting this palette! I wasn't planning on getting it because I have had 3 of the 6 colors. lol
I do love the fact that it's compact! :)

I snagged one from Sephora for Lara too!

You can find the names of this palette at Sephora (click here).
I don't want to write out inappropriate words on my innocent blog! lol

I'm going to be using this palette this weekend so I'll post pictures soon. :D
We're going to practice Van's engagement, wedding makeup this weekend so we'll experiment with the colors for sure. : )

The size in comparison to a regular full size NARS blush.

It's quite a bit smaller than the full size, but how can you resist a NARS cheek palette?!
I recently bought my first full MAC blush palette from a blog sale! I can't wait to share that one too. I am so in love with it! : ) I don't know why, but I'm all about blushes right now. Maybe it's the chilly weather that's causing me to lust after rosy cheeks!

Random: I got my hair done on Tuesday and it's a different color! :D
More on that later. ;)

You can find this Danmari palette at Sephora online, or in stores. It's usually sold out so stalk the website or your local Sephora! The palette retails for $65 which is a really great price for NARS blushes in my opinion. Can you believe they're going on Ebay for around $100?

Did you get this palette?

Random...

What I did today: Stalked a bum 4 times on my walk (we had 3 hours to kill in Renton because I got my car detailed through a Groupon). I talked to the man with the sign 2 times asking about his dog that I don't even think belongs to him!! I wanted to offer him money for the dog, but Minh says it's mean of me to take away his only friend../man's best friend. Sigh. :(
I can totally tell the man with the sign was not a dog person, he kept pointing at it and talking to it.. it was sad.
The dog kept barking at the bum too! I have a feeling it's not his dog..and he just found it.
Do you think the man dressed up his dog? That was a red flag!
I did see that he had a bowl of water for the dog. :/
What do you do in situations like this? My big issue was the fact the dog was freaking out and barking at the man with the sign. I pet the dog, he seemed pretty well fed, and healthy.
He says the dog's name is Brown Bear. He's a pom/dachshund mix, and not even a year old.
I'll be back to check on you Brown Bear and Mr. Bum Man. I'm not cool with that short leash either!