5 facts about me and (Christmas)

1. I love Christmas Trees.  All decorated and lit up.  I could walk around and look at trees for hours.

2. If you've ever sent me a Christmas card, especially one with a photo, chances are that I still have it.  I keep them filed away, sorted by year and look at them at the start of each season.

3. I hate shopping for gifts, but I love wrapping them.  Nothing makes me happier than giving someone a perfectly wrapped present.  Even if the recipient doesn't notice the time and effort I put into it.

4. I love Christmas Carols. 

5.  I also like to drive around neighborhoods and look at Christmas lights.

Christmas is right around the corner!!  Is anyone else still as ill-prepared as I am?  I have a couple of gifts that should be coming in the mail today.  I need to get my neice, my brother and my dad and a few more things for Jason (time permitting).  And I need to finish food shopping!  There just aren't enough hours in the day...

I also like Christmas Penguins.  And Pink Trees.

(stuff) those stockings

Christmas is literally just around the corner.  I am not nearly finished shopping.  But, in case you are and just need a few small things to put in that special someone's stocking, here are a few ideas I know I wouldn't mined opening up my stocking to find...

Boots brand hand cream.  Vintage feel metal tube with a soft lavender scent.  Super moisturizing but not at all greasy.  $6.99 at Target.

Say Yes to Cucumbers Facial Towlettes.  Perfect for freshening up during the day and PERFECT for traveling.  $5.99 at Target.  Also comes in a smaller travel size.

Burt's Bees Tinted Lip Balm in Honey Suckle.  A touch of color.  Ton of moisture.  $7.49 most drugstores/grocery stores.

Butter of London or Spehora by OPI nail color.  All super trendy colors right now.  Butter colors are $14.50 each and can be found at ULTA Sepora colors are $9 each and can be found at Sephora.

I hope everyone is a little more prepared than I am with Christmas.  I will be running around like a crazy person tonight food shopping for Christmas Eve dinner and attempting to finish my Christmas shopping.  Is it over yet?

Christmas (Freak)

I love Christmas.  A self proclaimed Christmas freak.  And I happen to live in the town where America's first Christmas Tree ever lived.

I am fairly certain that the actual tree that is here now isn't the actual first trree ever.  It's a descendant.  Otherwise, it would be enormous.  And the tree on display is not big at all.  The one in Rockefellar plaza is much, much bigger.

It's still cool to look at and is pretty at night when it's lit up.  You can go and put your own ornaments on it if you want.  They keep it lit all year long.  The tree lives in a cute little park that overlooks where the Lehigh River and the Delaware River meet.  Luckily, it was not flooded the day I was there.

You can also see New Jersey from there.  Standing in Pennsylvania and laughing at how much higher their property taxes are just on the other side of the river :)

FINALLY.

Texas.  Louisiana.  Cajun food.   Ashleigh Sarah.  The McIntyre's.  The Musso's.  Oh and Jason.

The only fast food worth eating.  Serioously.  My dinner tonight.

A sampling of snacks for the plane.  I have books and movies downloaded onto my iPad.  I'll probably fall asleep.  I'm hoping I fall asleep.

Full recap in a few days.  I'm disconnecting until Tuesday!

Exhausted

I had gone home to Pittsburgh to see my family over the weekend.  Traveling back and forth always makes me tired so I decided to take it easy last night.  I whipped up a quick, all natural face mask.

I used:
1 Cup of Pure Pumpkin (NOT Pumpkin pie mix!!)
approx. 1 Tbsp of honey

Organic would be best, but this is what I had on hand, so I went with it.

Mix it all up.  Cover your face with it, it will be gloppy and I promise you will not use nearly all of the mixture!  Leave it on until it dries, rinse and your skin will feel nice and refreshed!

Store leftovers in a plastic container for up to 1 week.

I also downloaded a new book onto my iPad that I have been dying to read, all with the intention of reading until I fell asleep, hopefully early!



The basic premise of the book is that the main character goes back in time to change the course of events that leads up to JFK's death.  It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I've always been fascinated with the Kennedys.

I got through maybe the first chapter and then received a text that one of my favorite Christmas movies was on:

So much for my leisurely evening of reading and going to bed early!  I love the movie as a whole, but one of my favorite parts is when Buddy runs around New York looking at all of the Christmas trees.  And there are some pretty great one-liners in there too!


I know it's not quite Thanksgiving yet, but just to get everyone in the spirit, What's your favorite Christmas movie?

Changing It Up.

I used to be a slave to Clinique's 3 step skin care routine.  Liquid soap for oily skin, the number 3 toner and the gel moisturizer.  For years this was my twice daily routine and it was a lot to tote around when travelling.  I've modified it a bit over the years, but I have recently gone completely rogue and tossed everything I knew about skin care out the window.

For Cleansing I now use Biore Blemish Ice Fighting Cleanser.  I wouldn't say that I have horrible skin, in fact, I totally blame my phone for breakouts, but this cleanser is fantastic.  It has a great lather without needing a ton of product and when you put it on your skin, you get an icy refreshed feeling. It also has lavender extract and eucalyptis in it so it has a great scent-meaning it does not smell like medicine, which I love.  It leaves my skin soft and refreshed and has kept breakouts at bay. I got this product as a sample in a magazine and liked it so much I went and bought it!

Moisturizer: I have been blessed with wonderful combination skin.  Kind of dry, kind of oily.  It can never make up it's mind so finding a moisturizer that's balancing is a huge challenge.  Not only that, but I live in Pennsylvania where it gets cold and windy in the winter.  Wind burn city!  I found Boots Intensive Nourishing Serum.  Its light, its moisturizing, it does not make my skin feel greasy.  It has also evened out my skintone all around which is an added bonus.  It's completely plant based so it's all natural!  I give this product an A++.   Boots has a whole line of skincare and lotions that you can find at Target!

As a side note, I do still use Clinique toner...to clean the oil and makeup residue from my cellphone on a daily basis!

Does anyone else have favorite drugstore beauty finds?  The makeup counter just doesn't do it for me!

Feelin' the Love

Today I am 10,951 days old (that's 30 years + 1 day).  I am not the type of person who ever feels like I deserve to be made a huge deal of, for any reason.  I love to make a fuss over everyone else, but when it comes to myself, I tend to stay in the background.  I would like to say:

to everyone who took the few precious (I'm not being sarcastic, I'm sorry if it comes off that way!) moments out of your busy day to stop by facebook or send me a text or even call on the phone (!) to wish little ol' me a Happy Birthday!  I will tell you, no matter our connection, or our relationship, or the short time we've known each other, it really meant the world to me.  From the bottom of my heart.  Thank you for thinking of me :)

And work friends, thank you for welcoming me so openly to your work family all those months ago.  As an outsider on this side of the state, it truly is hard to find people to connect to.  And you all have made me feel so welcome.  Thank you for making my desk look like this:

And a double, no triple,  thank you for not making it Flyers colors :)  I love you guys!