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!

One Night and One Day in NYC

My friend Alison was in town from Pittsburgh this weekend so I drove into New York to hang out for the night.  Well, actually, first we watched WVU get pounded by Lousiville, but that's a whole other story.

On the drive over from New Jersey, I actually saw a building I've never seen before.  It was really cool.  The sky was very blue and brght and the way it contrasted with the bright white building was awesome.  I have no idea what this building houses.  I just like it.

I could also see the progress of the New Freedom tower coming along nicely.  Now the tallest building in the NYC skyline, I can still remember when the workers were digging below street level at the foundation.

No trip into the City is complete without seeing a minimum of 5 NYPD cas lined up.  In theis case, It was probably about 20.  But I couldn't get them all into the frame of the picture.  There were really that many.  One of them had the blinking sign on top that said "POLICE EMERGENCY".  Really?  I wouldn't have guessed!

When I was in the City last week, I tagged along while a different set of friends went to an event.  I was beginning to get cabin fever.  My friend Emily had a couple of stops she wanted to make before heading off to where she needed to go. 

The Disney Store in Times Square.  I've never been in there before.  2 floors of everything Disney.  They were all deceorated for Christmas and it wasn't even Halloween yet!

This sign was in 10 different languages!  You're welcome, Mr. Disney!

Once Emily and Chris went off, I had some solo time to wander off.  I was in need of a cupcake fix, so off I went to my favorite bakery in the City.

I'm strictly a cupcake girl, but their cheesecakes are delicious too.  The Key Lime Pie variety is to die for!  There is typically at least a 15 minute wait to get in the building, its a small bakery, but on this particularly cold and snowy day, I was in and out in just a couple of minutes.  8 cupcakes, 4 for me and Jason ( 2 vanilla and 2 red velvet) and 4 for Emily and Chris ( 2 vanilla and 2 chocolate ) and I was on my way.  After Magnolia, I didn't have to much of a plan and I had a lot of time left.  So I headed back into Times Square. 

Yes.  We have AE's at the mall's in PA.  However, I had a coupon and nothing else to do.  So off I went.  The Times square store house all brands of AE:  AE, Aerie, Kids 77, all under one roof so its convenient if you shop all of those brands.  I do not so I just headed to the top 2 floors.  No only did I have a 20% off coupon already, but Google was doing a promotion where if you signed up for their new email, they would give you 30% PLUS a $10 gift card!  And I could still use my other coupon!  Needless to say, I save quite a bit of money that day.  I'm glad I went in.

Radio City Music Hall looked lovely lit up and I loved the way the lights reflected off the street.



By that time, Emily and Chris were done with their event so we made a couple more stops that they wanted to make.

NHL Store.  Of course.  Then we headed home in a Nor'easter.  Perfect.

The last 2 weekends were lots of fun, but I'm exhausted!  I need a nice long nap.

(mini) Kate

I received this picture message from my cousin and I had to laugh.  It was reminicent of a photo that was taken of me in New Orleans back in 2006.

Tessa (about a week ago)

She was posing with the mannequins.  See how well she blends in?  That blank stare.  Smileless face.  She's a perfect mannequin.

Me (circa 2006, please excuse the overly blonde hair and overly done eyeliner!) (and my chubby thighs)  (thank you for not pointing out how awful this picture actually is).

We had found an alcove that was just begging for a statue.  I was perfect for the job.  And the only one limber enought to climb the 6 feet up the side of the building to actually get into the alcove.

I'm headed back to the NOLA in a couple of weeks for my (gulp) 30th birthday party.  But, I think Jason might be embarassed if I try to recreate this picture.  Actually, I know he'll be embarassed.  He hates when I do anything fun.