Last day of BEDA!

Last day of BEDA! And I'm not burnt out. Crazyness. CRAZYNESS. I still have some posts I want to get done still. So woot. But for today, just a quick one.




First up, as I mentioned yesterday, one of the friendship bracelets went to a lovely lady who was sending me a cake pin. While I was sending out the bracelet I found out that she is actually a part of the vlogging iggles. She's Monday. I thought I'd share the cake pin, I got it Thursday.

 Isn't that cute? Pink bubble wrap! Hehe!

OMG so cute. I wore it to the IGGPPC meetup on Saturday. :)

Friendship bracelets

So a few of the IGGPPC Nerdfighter folks are having a friendship bracelet exchange. I was excited to participate, because I've only ever made bracelets less than a handful of times. I can actually only think of two. Ha. About ten years ago, I made five, one for me and four of my friends. But the bracelets were really bulky and I think I chose some ugly colors, so I don't think anyone really liked them. Before that was probably closer to fifteen years ago. Back then, friendship bracelets were all the rage, and of course, my parents wouldn't take me to a store to get me any embroidery floss to participate. So the only bracelet I ever made I paid fifty cents (from my milk money) for the floss to make one bracelet. I could have bought floss to make a dozen bracelets for that fifty cents, but I couldn't go to the store to get any myself. Those were my two experiences with making friendship bracelets.

So I was excited to try these thingers again. My original thought was to crochet a simple thread three times in white, then braid those three together and intermix them with rose gold links. I wanted something simple looking, with the white, yet somewhat elegant, with the rose gold. So I grabbed these supplies:

I quickly figured out that this plan was not going to work. The crocheting didn't make the thread thick enough, and the intertwined links looked awful. I tried many ways to hook them together, but in the end I junked the idea.

 I just threw a clasp on either end and left it that way.

I kind of like how messy this bracelet looks, but in the end, it's just not for me. Does anyone want it? Free bracelet. lol.



So I went back out and grabbed some more thread, adding mint and pink to the white. Then I used this technique to make some bracelets.

When I first used the internet....

I thought for today this post could be a quick one. Just a writey one and not many pictures. One where I might ramble off on tangents. lol. Seeing as how a lot of my life is spent on the internet, I wanted to share a quick story on my first experience on the web.



I must have been 11 or 12. My then best friend lived in a different city than I did, because I'd moved away. Every couple of months though, our moms would take turns hosting the other's kid for a weekend sleepover so we could still see each other. (That lasted until around freshman or sophomore year of high school.)

Anyhoo, on a weekend where I was to visit her, I learned she got a computer with the internet on it. We spent most of that weekend playing with her Petz, which was a computer game that let you care for dogz and catz. It was also one of the first computer games I purchased when our family got a computer, and led to my first "successful" website. If I remember correctly, it was a Petz adoption site called Happy Benny's Petz Kennel... it took me nearly an hour to remember that... but I did. I spent most of that hour googling random keywords that might bring memories back - like I was doing a web search in my brain. Benny was a black giant chihuahua - which was achieved by breeding a female labrador with a male chihuahua. I spent a LOT of time trying to breed more giant chihuahuas. lol.

ANYHOO... She probably showed me some websites, but I honestly can't remember any she showed me. Then she got hungry and offered me her seat at the computer. I was now sitting at a computer with an internet connection. I potentially had the whole world at my fingertips. The first website I typed in to the address bar?



http://www.stupid.com



I do not remember if I was trying to be clever (I was 12) and see if something stupid would show up, or if I was just bored of it. lol. But I was highly entertained by the stupid things for sale on that site. I put that on my list of sites to go back to someday when I have money.  Since then I have purchased a Gumby patriotic pin (about seven years ago, it is no longer available on the site.) and two boxes of flavored grasshoppers. (probably about four years ago, got them in salt & vinegar, and sour cream & onion. Lost that second box though. Ah well. I don't believe those are available anymore either, but they were there for a loooong time. I know that because if I log on to my AOL Instant Messenger name, my "info" was copied from the description of the grasshoppers and pasted with a link to them. And AIM was a loooooong time ago for me.)

Checking out the site now, I see they have a giant inflatable TARDIS I'm interested in. Maybe someday.

But yeah... so that was my first experience playing on the internet for the first time. Fun stuff. Fun. Stuff.

Music I've been listening to non-stop

There are always songs I come across that I love so much I'll listen to them literally on repeat. I thought I'd share the ones that currently make that list. Sharing songs reminds me of the first time I attempted BEDA. lol. That being said, a lot of the songs I might have shared during the 2011 BEDA are still in "repeat" status, but for the sake of this post, I'll only share the newer ones. At least... the ones I most recently placed on the list. lol. There's just four songs, so I won't be taking up too much of your time. Heh.



First, Justin Timberlake. He's back with a new album, and while I thought his first single, Suit & Tie, was very "Justin", it wasn't until his second single, Mirrors, that I fell in love again.


This song just sounds so beautiful. Certain chord combos tend to tear at me in a good way in some songs, and this song tears at me for the first five minutes or so. It's an 8 minute song, because Justin does his lame Justin thing and keeps the song going even though it doesn't need to be 8 minutes long. The radio edit is 4 and a half minutes I think, and that's perfect for this song.





Second, this is the newest song to make my "Repeat" list. It was just released on the 19th.



It's a cover of WHAM!'s Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, which is a song I think is adorable. And they made it... more... current, I suppose is the best way to describe it without getting in to genres. I mean, I consider the original to be a dance-y pop-y 80's version. And this cover is a dance-y techno-y 2013 version. Even has a rap section. lol. But it makes me want to dance. lol. Fantastic. I like to use it as my alarm song to wake up. lol.

I'd also like to share just a link of another cover of this channel's... Gangham Style.






Third is a song by Demi Lovato. It's called Heart Attack.



I love this song. It makes me want to sing along at the top of my lungs. It's about a girl who really likes a guy but is afraid to let him in because she's afraid of the pain of love... I know. But there's one part of the lyrics that stand out to me:

But you make me wanna act like a girl
Paint my nails and wear high heels


That. That right there is how I feel now with my guy. I have always been the tomboy, perfectly happy in sneakers, a t-shirt, and jeans, with no makeup. Up until last year, I didn't wear makeup because I didn't even bother to learn how. And now, with him, I feel more girly. I'm doing my nails more often, I'm starting a makeup collection, I'm hooked on beauty guru Youtubers, constantly learning how best to apply makeup through videos, I've even started posting my own reviews and beauty hauls on the Youtubes. I identify with those lines. I get it. It makes me love the song more.





Last is a cover of a song named Hey Mama by Mat Kearny. I actually like this cover better than the original.



I found this cover in a beauty guru's (SaturdayNightsAlrite) lookbook video, and immediately went looking for it.

Candy I've never tried before - Skinny Cow, Snerdles, Bitzies and Kabang

So a few weeks back (I say that a lot. lol.) Skinny Cow had a giveaway for a free box of their new Divine Filled Chocolates. I managed to snag a coupon. I got it in the mail on Monday, and picked up a box on Wednesday.


They have two kinds, Peanut Butter, and Caramel.

Of course I picked caramel. There was a ton of the peanut butter ones at the store, and only a few caramel ones left - I had to reach all the way back to grab one. lol

Good morning Iggles it's Thursday.

Today is the day I made my introduction to the IGGPPCvloggers channel. Below is the video...




I can't wait for this channel to get going. Next week we're doing Harry Potter as a topic to talk about. I can't remember right off the top of my head, but that might actually be how we started FiveAwesomeBenPals too... introductions, then Harry Potter. lol.


Here's the pics I promised from yesterday of my hair. I'd say you can see it in the video, but the color is off in the video.

That's this morning, right after my hair air dried, so I haven't styled it, and it's super sunny out. My guy took the pic. :)

Quick post BEDA 24

Hello folks! It is past 10 pm my time, and I still have not written a blog post. Fail. In my defense, I was planning on waiting to write this after I edited my latest nail tutorial - but I have had it with my converting system. I set it to convert overnight like I normally do, and when I checked on it today, it didn't convert correctly. All corrupted. All of it. So I was attempting to reconvert all the videos (I took short clips of each step) and it was taking hours. So I was cussing up a storm and on the verge of tears - because that's how I get angry, cursing and tears - when my lovely guy offered to download an editing program on his better computer, and I could use his computer to edit. I accepted, but tomorrow I'll be needing to upload my IGGCCPvloggers video, so I needed to edit that before I edit my nails video. Of course I'm going to be busy tomorrow, and then there's C2E2... so I don't know when I'll get that nail vid up. Or if I will ever get it done. Depends on what footage I managed to take. I had an uncanny ability to turn the camera on, but not hit record before I did the next step. So we'll see I guess. Ah well.


Anyhoo... I re-redded my hair on Monday. This was a before pic:

There was yellow that was peeking through the red.

One Dollar Neon Shadows...

So I've been wanting to do some highlighting with bright shadows for spring, but couldn't really decide on how to do it.  I tried using the bright color as a bottom eyeliner - in this video:






but I had to use a black liner next to it too, so it didn't look so bright. I was just lost. Then Bubz (one of my favorite beauty guru Youtubers) posted a video with her take on bright shadows, and I'm in love. But my selection of bright shadows was mainly comprised of blues. (I have a couple eyeshadow palettes, and they all have bright blues, but no other bright colors)

Enter frickin' Party City. I am seriously falling in love with this store. lol.  They had these neon eyeshadows for one dollar each. Technically, the two choices they had were "neon" and "shimmer". I don't need shimmer, but whilst I was pulling multiple neons down to see which one I wanted to take, (sometimes the powder's all loose, or there's a smudge somewhere... sometimes I'm picky) I noticed there were some neon shadows that were slightly different in shade than the other. Probably a few older versions of this shadow, but still, I couldn't choose which one I liked better, and with them only being a dollar, I didn't have to choose.

There are the two. The Top1 has a dimmer yellow and a more fuchsia purple, while Bottom1 has a dimmer pink, green, and orange.

BEDA 22

Just another update post. I am in the middle of redyeing my hair red and laundry and... well, lunch. LOL. So I thought "HEY! What a great time to write a blog post!! BEDA!!!!"


This past Saturday my guy was in Detroit and bright and early that morning I headed over to my brother and sis in law's so we could hit Hobby Lobby.

They're supplying me with clay and wire to make TEN clay Chicago teddy Bears. Holy goodness. That's a lot of Bears. And I have a little over a month to make them. (The shower is on the 25th of May). That being said, I won't be starting the Bears until next week, which will give me less than a month. I can do it! I think.

There's all the clay. That should be enough for ten Bears, especially considering I use an aluminum foil base. Then I cover the base in plain white clay, (cheaper to buy in bulk) and then cover that in the colors the Bears will be. It's been decided that the Bears don't have to all be the same color, so I'm taking advantage of that fact. I think it will be cute to have some different colored Bears all in the same little jersey. Now, I do need to remember to ask what I'm supposed to put on the jersey. lol

Nail Mail QUICK Review

Another "New to Me" polish, Pretty and Polished's Nail Mail. I don't know if this color is available anymore.

Birthday Bash QUICK review

Just a quick review on  365 Days of Color's Birthday Bash nail polish.
I don't know if it's even available anymore, but I got it as a prize, so it's new to me!

BEDA 19 update

It's already 19 days in to April! That's so crazy! Even more crazy that I have not yet felt a hate towards BEDA. lol. I am amazed. Hehe.


So it's been a while since I've just written an update. It's all been posts dedicated to one topic or another. Thought today would be a nice time to throw some updates in.


First an update on the International Geek Girl Pen Pals Club... I finally gathered all the notecards and stickers I've purchased in the past on a whim. I finally have a use for them! Haha.

La Source Prize

So! A while back, a lovely youtuber named mscaryl82 had a giveaway in her "My favorite things" video. There were two winners, and I'm one of them. So here is the prize I got!

Teas

Have I mentioned how much I love tea? I'm not even all that picky about it, I just love tea. :)  I thought it would be a good BEDA filler to share my small tea collection. So here we go!!



Pic of my teas...

I'll just sort them in to pairs or so to talk about them. Though there's an odd number, so one will be alone.

Baby shower invitations!

 So I mentioned a while back that I was working on baby shower invitations for my brother and sis-in-law. I am done!

It started when my sis-in-law mentioned thinking about ordering a ticket image from someone on etsy. That person charges $20 for the image, then she emails it to you and you print it out on 4x6 photos - two to a photo. I decided I could make a better ticket image, especially since I'm not selling it. (blah blah, enter legalities over including logos and brands for personal use/for profit without permission) And then all she'd have to pay is however much it costs to print them, which will be around $.75 for five.

So, using a few different baby shower ticket invitations and an official Chicago Bears ticket as inspiration, here's what I came up with:

The image in the back of the bears logo is my brother's favorite player. I didn't include the address or the "assistant coach's" (the person running the shower) number on this one. And the UPC code on theirs links to a Facebook event of the shower, while this one - which I think is too small to read anyhow, links to my blog. lol.

I'm pretty happy with it. And luckily Jimmy and Nubia both like it too.

Tamagotchis - in App form!! Tamagotchi L.i.f.e.

Tamagotchi L.i.f.e.  (Love is fun everywhere)


That's what the app is called. It took me one day after I'd first heard of this app for me to download it. I was excited. I used to have a knock-off when I was little. And then a few years back, when Tamagotchis kind of came back, I ended up with two of them. They were fun, but I kept forgetting to keep the little egg with me to check on it. This app goes on my phone, so I can't just forget to check on it. It works out perfectly.


So I downloaded it. It has two options to view your creature, classic version and app version.

The app has different eggs covers and backgrounds that you can earn based on how many creatures you raise. This is the first egg that comes with it, and of my few choices, I liked it best.

Prize 2

A few weeks back, The Nail Files was having a "2,000th like" giveaway... I entered via rafflecopter and was chosen as one of the six winners! I was contacted asking for a list of the prizes in order of choice, and I got my first choice:

PRIZE #5: Four (4) prizes, donated by Galactic Lacquer!

• One (1) full size bottle of Birthday Bash, 365 Days of Color
• One (1) mini bottle of Nail Mail, Pretty & Polished
• One (1) 365 Days of Color miracle balm in Birthday Cake scent
• One (1) mini blue nail file

I mainly chose that prize as my first choice because of the miracle balm. I've been using Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream for a few weeks now to help my cuticles, but the miracle balm intrigued me.

Daisy Nails Tutorial

So I did my nails all pretty like a couple weeks back for Easter, and am finally getting around to posting about it. Ha.

I was on Youtube watching Bubz when she posted a nail tutorial on "Perfect Spring Nails"  Here it is below:


If you can see the thumbnail at least, you can see the daisies and the grass with the light blue background. At first I liked it all, but by the end of the video, I liked the idea of the nails without the grass as part of it. So I did my nails without and loved them! I thought I'd post a photo tutorial of what I did, even though Bubz's video above shows it all as well. It's the same thing, I'm not claiming to come up with it myself. This is just in case you don't feel like watching a video. :)



Daisy Nails

What's needed:

• A bobby pin or a nail dotter tool
• A toothpick
• A base coat polish (optional)
• A top coat polish (Also optional)
• A yellow polish
• A sky blue polish
• A white polish

These are the polishes I used:

• Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Hardener (Base coat)
• Essence Gel-Look XXXL Shine Top Coat
• Rimmel London 60 Seconds in Sunny Days
• Sinful Colors in Sugar Rush
• Maybelline Color Show in Porcelain

Dyeing my Hair!

Hoooly goodness. So I dyed my hair like flipping two weeks ago and I never posted about it like I meant to. Ha. WHERE DID TIME GO?!?!?




So here's some before and after shots....

Most of the red faded, especially in my ends.

IGGPPC and a mini giveaway!

So years ago, I really wanted a pen pal. In 2006, I settled for an e-pal. I had a couple, though they didn't last very long. Unable to find another site that worked better for what I wanted, I put my wants for a pen pal in the back of my mind. Then some weeks back, I saw Kristina Horner's video where she mentioned the International Geek Girl Pen Pals Club. They had opened sign ups and she mentioned having time to think on it, so I thought about it for a day. She posted the video on the 26th, the sign ups for that round started the 25th, and sign ups only lasted 24 hours for that round, they filled up that fast. So, by the 27th, I was unable to sign up, and was kicking myself for thinking so long about it.



To those who are curious about this club, it was founded last month, March 19th, 2013 by Leslie and Emily, and eventually joined by Emma and Jen.

Their mission is simple - to make an attempt at reviving the nearly extinct art of letter writing via snail mail.

You simply sign up on their site, and then they pair you with someone in your age group with similar interests. (via email) Then you and your new pal exchange addresses via email and start your new pen pal friendship! While basic letters and postcards are welcome, doodles and gifts are also encouraged!

Prize number uno

 So I mentioned a few days back that I had been entering contests/giveaways like crazy, and have won a couple of them.  This is a post on one of the prizes. I figured it would be a good BEDA filler - posts on prizes. Haha.



So on March 23rd, Magic Mineral Makeup had a random giveaway - first person to answer her question correctly gets the prize. Her question was "what tangible boutiques does she sell her makeup at?"  I spent a while looking for the answer, and could only find one, until she gave a hint that gave me the answers. I was successfully the first one with the right answers. Woot! So here's my prize....

Inside this envelope....

Was this box held together with cute Hello Kitty duct tape..

And this was inside!