Blogmas, Day One: November Favorites

On the first day of Blogmas...just kidding! For those of you who don't watch YouTube, Vlogmas is something that YouTube gurus started a few years back, vlogging every day from December 1st through the 25th. It is most definitely one of my favorite parts of the holiday season because you get to see how everyone prepares to celebrate Christmas and generally gets me pretty pumped for the season as a whole.

Today, for my very first post of the month and of Blogmas, we're talking November Favorites. If I'm honest with you...and I always am, I really didn't discover a whole lot of new things this month. November was kind of just a flyover month for me this year. I barely wore makeup, stuck to my winter standby clothing choices and generally kind of mucked through the month at work. But for the very few things that did become favorites this month, I thought that I would put together a little blog post and share them with you. This is going to be super quick, I promise.

Makeup

Sigma Beauty Finishing Touch Eyeliner. I saw this on one of MakeupbyTiffanyD's favorites videos early in the fall and was instantly intrigued by the slightly pink tight line pencil so, naturally, I HAD to order it. 

I'm sure for most makeup mavens (and by that I mean any woman in the world who spends more than 5 minutes of slap-dash on her face), this is a last step in a full on smoky eye look to brighten up the lower lash line and balance out the darkness of the upper eyelids. I, on the other hand, laziest of makeup wearers prefers to use this as a tool to make me look more awake all the time. 

It's pretty rare that I wear makeup to shipment shifts at work because, really, who needs a full face on at 7 am when I won't be seeing customers, but when I do, this is a must-have to make me look like I'm actually alert. You just pop a little bit on your waterline and bam! Instant eye brightening and fake awakeness. 

Sigma F35 Contour Brush. Another YouTube discovery, MeghanRosette talked about this in her November favorites...last year. Initially I thought, contour schmontour. However, in my lazy ass makeup routine, taking the time to contour my cheeks a littl but does actually make a huge difference in my face. I'm still looking for my ace contour product, but thus far, this little brush couldn't make the whole thing more easy if it tried. 

Food

Just as a heads up, all of my food favorites were discovered at the very end of November and they come from Trader Joe's because Trader Joe's, and not Whole Foods, is the mothership.

Trader Joe's Candy Cane Green Tea. This is seriously the best tea ever. First of all, it has a narwhal on the packaging ("Bye Buddy, hope you find your daaaad.") and a really cute little Santa polar bear which is undeniably cute. But most importantly, it is SOOOOOOOOO good! It's minty without being too minty because it's balanced out with vanilla and some other delicious holiday flavors (at least according to the packaging. I really just taste the peppermint and vanilla). I will literally drink at least 3 cups of this each day and have since I got it.

 

Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Covered Minty Mallows. This was a horrible mistake. Horrible, horrible, horrible. My mom and I picked these up for snacks on our Thanksgiving trip out to the North Coast and I am obsessed with them. I love dark chocolate as a rule and for whatever reason lately, I've been really liking marshmallows even though I never have previously. So when I saw the box sitting on the shelf, I ran for it and threw it in the cart. Now I'm thinking I'm going to have to be making a trip to Trader Joe's just to stock up on these. 

Random Favorites

Starbucks Travel Mug. This is part of the Starbucks Holiday collection and when I saw it on the website, I had to have it. I love the metallic flecks all over. They kind of remind me of mermaid scales. I mean, it's a travel mug. There's not much to say. It keeps my drink warm and holds my Trader Joe's tea when I have my second cup of the day. 

The Cousins O'Dwyer Series. When I was graduating from high school in 2009, Lifetime did a set of movies based on Nora Roberts books and I loved them. A few months ago I got a hankering to watch one of them and, after needed to download the second and third books as well, which I did, in the parking lot of the Fort Bragg Starbucks yesterday morning. According to my Kindle Fire, I have 50 minutes left in the second book and will be starting the third one this evening. 

Other than making me feel like its about time I got into a relationship, the book series has been such a great escape and a really good read. I honestly wish there were more books. But for right now, I think I'll content myself by discovering what happens at the end of the second book and start the third. 

doing so decided to look her up on Amazon where I found a series about Irish cousins with a bit of magick going on. Needless to say, as an Irish girl and a big fan of all things magical, I bought it. Aaaaaaaand then forgot all about it until I charged up my Kindle to take with me to Thanksgiving and saw it in my carousel. Soooo I started the first one...and devoured it. Which meant that I

Anyway, guys, that's Blogmas, Day One done. Told you I had very few favorites for last month and I wasn't lying. 

Cheers, and see you tomorrow!

October Favorites

First of all, how is it November First?! I feel like I was just celebrating New Year's and here I am watching Christmas things on Netflix (yes, I caved early this year. But I bought myself a Fresh Balsam candle at Bath and Body Works, and the Christmas tree scent is killin' me!). 2014 has, so far, been one of the best years of my life. I'm actually thrilled with how my life has turned out so far. 

After that profound little moment, let's move on to my months favorites, shall we? 

-City Classified Ankle Boots. Hi, I'm Chelsea and I spend a lot of time on Pinterest. I see thousands of outfits, and most of the outfits I pin seem to feature adorable ankle boots. Which clearly means I also need adorable ankle boots.  

For the last two fall/winter seasons I've been searching for the perfect ones and accidentally found them in the front window of Tilly's one day last month. 

These are the perfect boots. They're so comfortable, even with the little heel. I think if I had designed them they wouldn't have come out any better. 

-Jack-O-Lantern Charm. I got my first Pandora bracelet 6 months ago on my trip to Punta Cana. Nothing else stood out to me as a souvenir so I went to the Pandora store at the resort looking for a unique charm. 

Unfortunately, there are no unique charms with Pandora, but I've worn my bracelet every day since. I only take it off to shower. I wasn't really interested in other charms from the store (I mean, besides the obvious mermaid charm) until I saw the little Jack-O-Lantern charm they brought out for Halloween. My mom got it for me as payment with helping her out at work, and I've loved the festive little touch he's added to my wrist this month (and for every month from now on).

-ELF Mauve Blush. Basically there is no reason for me to have bought this other than being bored with my entire makeup collection and needing to switch things up. I was all ready to splash out on a Nars or MAC blush until I hit Target one day for something completely unrelated and remembered ELF's $3 blushes. This shade looks like a natural flush on me and gives my every day makeup an edge for the cooler weather.

-About a Boy. Never paid much attention to this show when it premiered. I saw snippets because my mom watches it, but never saw anything good enough to sit down for. 

Bored one day, I clicked on the first season and proceeded to laugh my ass off. The premise of the show is that an independently wealthy man (we later found out he wrote a smash-hit Christmas song) living in San Francisco gets some new neighbors: an overly clingy hippie mother and her 11 year old son who, as you can imagine, desperately needs some male influence in his life. Main character, Will, rescues the boy from bullies one day and their friendship grows from there. It is such a funny and sweet show that I think anyone would like to watch it. 

-Call the Midwife.  I'm definitely a Masterpiece kinda girl. I found this on Netflix and thought I would give it a shot earlier this month. It was fantastic. I don't know what it is about midwives in impoverished South London in the 1950's, but I watched all 3 seasons in a week and have the premiere of season 4 already marked on my calendar...next year. It's a great show with great writing and an interesting cast of characters. Definitely check it out if you enjoy BBC Programming. 

-Last Man Standing. Let's just say it was a really good month for me and Netflix. I watched this show back in the day when it first premiered, but between the first episode of the second season and the new Kristen, Boyd and whatever the heck the obnoxious baby daddy's name is, I couldn't take it anymore. It was just not the same show. 

However, in my post Call the Midwife search for something to watch, I decided to give it a try and loved getting back into it. It's also opened my eyes to the fact that I'm apparently a 60-something year old man on the inside because ALL of Tim Allen's jokes make me laugh.

November is going to be a big month. I have a lot of things going on and you can expect a few blog posts about pre-holiday shenanigans, especially after Thanksgiving.