Tuesday, October 30, 2012

OctobIRTHDAYS GALORE!

October is such a great month.

The air gets a little more crisp. All of us girls get to break out our boots and scarves that have been locked away in the closet since the first hints of summer. Tv watching is now done in sweats with a blanket and perhaps a warm beverage. And best of all, I, personally, get to spend the month celebrating all of my favorite people!

I don't know what it is but I seem to have a strong affinity for Libras and Scorpios which keeps me VERY busy in the month of October and some of November. Let me give you just a little run down of my month...

So as you can see, it's quite a busy month for me but I love celebrating the people I love so I'm not complaining :)
 
And when I say it's all my favorite people, I mean it! Just look at my "Favorites" on my phone! (yes, I have GoCountry on my favorites... I want to win Stagecoach tickets!)
 
For Danica's birthday we spent a fun evening at one of our favorite local bars. Very "us". For her gift, among other things, I got us tickets to see the Long Island Medium LIVE! I am addicted to almost every show on TLC and whether she likes it or not, I have gotten Danica into a few of them. Long Island Medium is one of those shows and we LOVE her. I saw that she was coming to Long Beach so I got us tickets and we are SO excited! :)
For Stefana's birthday we went to a nice brunch at Lazy Dog Cafe. I wasn't feeling real well but we managed to get a couple new cute photos to put up in the house. :)
I got her this cute necklace from Jessica Jane K's Etsy shop:
Stefana loves all things Dr. Seuss and I love all things gold and girly so this gift was the perfect mix.
 
For my grandma's birthday me and my mom and my cousin all surprised her and showed up at her house (in Oceanside) for dinner. When she saw us she couldn't even form a full sentence she was so surprised. It was awesome. I've never seen her so surprised. For some reason lately she seems to refuse to smile in photos but she was happy I swear! :) (her best friend Meryl came and surprised her as well!) It was a really great night.

 
Katie had a mellow birthday at one of our go-to spots Tantalum in Long Beach. Danica and I went over there for a bit but, sadly, didn't snap any photos.
 
And then it was my moms birthday. My mom (like most moms) is one of those people that never does anything for herself. She always takes care of everyone else, cleans up after everyone else. So I try my best to make her birthdays special.
These photos are from a few years back. I got us a limo and all of her girlfriends (and mine) together to go to a nice dinner in Newport Beach. (and yes, obviously the "25" candles was a joke).
This photo was from last year. A group of us again got a limo and treated mom to a nice dinner, drinks, and even a little dancing. :)

My parents just recently bought a new home so my mom wanted to just do a mellow birthday this year, which, was fine by me. So I baked her the standard birthday cake that is made for everyones birthdays in our family. Yellow cake with chocolate frosting.
I love any excuse to wrap a gift so, even though my gift already came in a gift bag, I had to re-wrap it myself.
We had a nice dinner at a restaurant within walking distance of their new house it was a nice mellow night with family.

Sadly, my friend Maryam celebrated her birthday on my moms birthday so I wasn't able to join in her festivities but I plan on celebrating with her soon. I have some of my very best college memories with this girl and wish I was able to spend more time with her.
Same goes for my sorority big sis Jackie!
And lastly, my newly married friend who left us all for a job in Wisconsin... yes... I said Wisconsin... but is now BACK in California (In San Francisco... but STILL it's California!). I won't be able to celebrate with her but Sam and I have been talking about planning a trip up to San Fran to spend a weekend, which I'm really excited about because I haven't seen Haley since her wedding AND I love San Francisco. It's a win win! :)
 
 
 I had a wonderful time celebrating all of my most favorite people and now that it's all over I'm looking forward to the holiday season!
 
Hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween and my thoughts and prayers are with all the east coasters who are in the midst of the storm.
 
xoxo,
shea

Friday, October 26, 2012

OctoBIRCHBOX

Aaaaand here it is!
The October Birchbox!

Finally! I'm all caught up! I did all four Birchboxes in less than a month. To be honest, I'm kind of surprised I did it, but, it's been fun and I've been enjoying it.

So, without further adieu, I present to you, the first time I've ever done a Birchbox in the month that it actually IS! haha

{Side note: the "sponsor" this month is "Goop". Danica uses that word all the time and I find it hillarious, SO... watch me try to keep a straight face every time I have to say it.}


xoxo, 
shea

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Tutorial Tuesday!

My best friend Danica and I love any excuse to get together and craft.
I'm a crafter by nature and she has become one over time and has become quite the crafting buddy!
 
So, we decided to get together to do a Fall/Halloween craft. After searching around pinterest, I found these cute Halloween inspired mason jars. Danica was on board so this was going to be our craft of choice.
I have what is referred to as the "craft cave" with pretty much every craft supply known to man BUT I DID have to go out and buy the mason jars (they were about $10/case which is less than a dollar a piece, not bad). I got two different sizes because I feel like varying sizes makes it more visually interesting.
 Other Products Needed:
Mod Podge
Tissue Paper (orange for pumpkin, green for Frankenstein)
Gauze (if you'd like to do a mummy... white tissue paper could work too for a ghost)
Paintbrush (we used the sponge kind)
Black construction paper
Scissors
Pencil (optional)
 
So, I started by cutting the tissue paper into strips about 1.5 inches. You can measure your jars to see how tall the strips need to be and cut them accordingly.
 
Here is where we did things a little differently... The original tutorial (found here) placed the Mod Podge and tissue paper on the OUTSIDE of the jars, while we chose to put it on the INSIDE. I think that it proves to be a little more difficult that way but makes for a cleaner look in the end.
 So, as you can see we did a coat of Mod Podge on the INSIDE of the jars and placed the strips on the inside. We used the eraser on a pencil to help flatten it out and ensure that it was down. Then we put another layer of Mod Podge over to set it.

**For the mummy- we DID to the gauze on the outside to give the effect of it being a mummy but the same technique was used. Paint a layer of Mod Podge. Wrap the jar with the gauze (being sure that it sticks) and then added another coat of Mod Podge to set it. **

Then we got creative and made faces for each jar. I decided to do just a pair of eyes for my mummy (which I guess could also pass as a ghost unless you see the gauze up close. haha). I did a standard pumpkin face for the pumpkin (and as you can see I went a little crazy with the Mod Podge and perhaps put a little too much on his eyes). And lastly I created a little Frankenstein face, bolts and all, for Frankenstein. To apply the face parts, the same technique was used, putting a layer of mod podge on the jar, placing the face and adding a layer over top to set.
 I was pretty pleased with the results. I'm a liiiiittle bummed that I went so Mod Podge happy on the pumpkins eyes, but I'm still happy with the way they turned out. Plus, it was a fun excuse to hang out with Danica! :)

On a side note, since this was a crafty post, I just have to share my latest crafting toy.

So... to give a little back story... Yesterday while I was at work, my boyfriend sent me a craigslist link for a vintage sewing machine. I thought it was so sweet of him to see that and think of me. I even sent the link to Danica and we both agreed it was a really cool piece. After work my boyfriend calls me and asks if I can go in the garage to look for something for him. I turn the corner and what do I see?
The vintage sewing machine!
 
He contacted the seller and went and picked it up to surprise me! How lucky am I?! I literally almost started crying. Haha. He sure knows the way to my heart... ANYTHING CRAFTY! Haha.
 
The seller told him that everything works and I'm looking forward to testing it out. I mean, truth be told, even if it doesn't actually work I still LOVE it!
 
If you have any question or comments about the tutorial feel free to let me know and be sure to check out Danica's post on it as well!
 
xoxo,
shea

Monday, October 22, 2012

Catchin Up!

It has been less than three weeks and here is my THIRD Birchbox review as promised. I'm pretty proud of the fact that I've kept up with it (with sporadic timing, yes, but I've kept up nonetheless haha).

This is the review of the September Birchbox which means, I am almost officially all caught up! I received my October box just last week so once I do that one I will be up-to-date.
 
On another note this last weekend was a busy one.
My boyfriends dad recently had, what I understand to be a couple of minor heart and had to get two stints put in, so we drove down to Pala Casino (his destination of choice) to spend the evening hanging out. It was actually a lot of fun and I got a chance to know him a little better AND he gave us a free room that they got!
Then Saturday was my moms birthday. We spent the day spoiling her. I made her favorite, yellow cake with chocolate frosting. A family birthday tradition.
And, of course, I love any excuse to use all the cute wrapping paper that I have :)
 Then Sunday was my beautiful friend Tina's bridal shower. I've known Tina since I was probably 18. We used to work together at the hell hole that is best known as Red Robin. It's funny because I'm sure anyone who has worked in the restaurant industry would agree, it is both the best and worst times EVER. The people that you have to deal with on a daily basis are awful, BUT the people that you work WITH... are some of the best friends you'll ever have. I'm still friends with so many of the people that I spent my Red Robin years with. I even live with one of them! (Stefana) But anyways... back to the shower.My friend (and Tina's Maid of Honor AND yet another fellow Red Robin-er) Wilma (of Lovely Jubilee) truly outdid herself. Everything was gorgeous from the invitations, to the linens to the icing on the cake (literally, it was pink and gold! so cute!) It was a lovely day with lovely people.
 Tina is going to make the most gorgeous bride.
 
 
All in all it was a busy busy weekend but a lot of fun.
 
Stay tuned for my October Birchbox review!
 
xoxo, shea
 
 

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

August Birchbox

In my last post I did my first ever video and it was my July Birchbox review. I received a pretty good response to it and even though it was kind of terrifyingly embarrassing to post a video of myself and hope people liked it, at the same time it was kind of fun so... here I am, back with another one!

Here is my August Birchbox review. Enjoy! :)



I tried to kill two birds with one stone and I also filmed my September Birchbox review last night but once I was finished recording it was nowhere to be found on my computer so... looks like I'll have to redo it. I'm actually having fun with the whole process and am starting to learn things on iMovie and on YouTube and am looking forward to possibly doing more videos like tutorials, hauls, favorite things and whatever else I can!

In other news, I have a new obsession. I told my friend Danica that I wasn't going to tell anyone about this obsession but I must. Ready for my obsession confession? Here goes...

I'M ADDICTED TO "THE WALKING DEAD"
 
There. I said it! Not since my heart was broken when my favorite show "Lost" was cancelled have I allowed myself to get involved in another TV drama. The loss of "Lost" was like a break-up for me. I would tell people that "Lost" was the longest relationship I ever had. (Six years is a pretty long time). The other night my boyfriend convinced me to watch an episode of "The Walking Dead" and let me say, I was pretty reluctant. Of course, after the first episode, I was hooked (After all, it DOES have kind of a Lost-vibe to it). I had my snide comments about the marginal acting and the southern accents that faded in and out but really I was just giving him a hard time because I didn't want him to be right and I didn't want to be sucked into this show but... it was too late. We proceeded to spend the rest of the weekend watching the entire first and second seasons so that I could be all caught up for the start of season 3 on Sunday night and now, I am officially an addict. I find myself spending a lot of the day playing out scenarios in my head about what would happen in the event of a zombie apocalypse. I've never been the type who is into zombies (which I know is like a giant chunk of people) and, to be honest, I still wouldn't say that I'm "into" zombies. But I AM into "The Walking Dead". And I feel much better since getting that off of my chest.  
 
Stay tuned for my September Birchbox review and if there are any other "The Walking Dead" addicts out there, feel free to let me know.
xoxo,
shea

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Birchbox!!


To say it's been awhile since my last blog would be an understatement. I keep saying I'm going to blog and then never make the time for it. I've become one of those girls that we all hate who spends almost all of her free time with her boyfriend. barf.

Luckily, my friend Kristy, of Little Miss Running Pants, has lit a bit of a fire under my booty. Several months back I decided to check out Birchbox. If you have never heard of it, it is a monthly box of high end beauty and lifestyle samples. It's pretty much a girls dream. At only ten dollars, it is worth it just for the sheer excitement it brings when you see a new one in your mailbox. What also makes it worth it is that you are given a chance to test out products that you may not have bought otherwise, perhaps due to price. This way you can test out the products and if you don't like them you don't have to feel guilty for spending a ton of money... BUT if you DO then you can buy the product with confidence in knowing that you've already tried and and like it. It really is a great idea and to be honest, I'm almost upset that I didn't do it sooner.

Now, back to Kristy... she was one of the first to know that I had decided to join Birchbox and when I got my first box she asked me about it. Rather than telling her everything that was inside, I told her that I was going to do a blog on it that week so that she can see what it's all about. Now, here we are, a couple of Birchboxes and a couple of MONTHS later and I still haven't done that original post. She asked me again today about it and I decided thats its! I need to get this done...I'm going to do it today!

So... I've decided to kill two birds with one stone for this post. I will finally be doing my review of my first Birchbox AND I decided to do it in a video/vlog/whateveryouwanttocallit. PLEASE don't judge me too much on this video, like I said, it's my very first one so bare with me. It's hard to know where to look and which direction is which and I found myself stumbling over my words and saying "um" "uh" and "and" a lot. Still, I feel like a video is the best way to really show the box and I'm glad I did it. So, this one's for you Kristy... enjoy! <3
{Side note: for some reason the video skips in a couple of spots. I didn't do any editing to the video so I'm not sure why it cuts out but... you'll still get the gist}


xoxo, 
shea
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