Baby Pierce's First Halloween

What a night! Carrying a 20 pound baby door to door is a workout for sure. Pierce was so amazed by all the face paints and masks he saw today. He especially liked staring at his oldest cousin Jaiden who was a skeleton football player. All day today, he kept looking at me and smiling and laughing. I'm glad he didn't get scared though! Halfway through he started getting really tired so I let him sit in the stroller and he knocked out for about 20 minutes. After going through several blocks we went home and dumped out all the candy! He loved looking and picking up each one and trying to eat it haha. We got a big bag of candy but only that my fiancé and I can enjoy! Sorry Pierce! Anyways hope you enjoy these pictures of my baby's first halloween.

DIY Toad (Mario) Costume

Here is a DIY on how I made this costume for my son. My son is only 8 months old so the white beanie fit his mushroom head, if you plan on making this for someone bigger you might need a chef's hat or white fabric. To see how I made the vest look at the video..

The Hat:

You will need a cowboy hat or semi-sturdy hat with a brim that fits your person, and a cardboard cut out into a circle around brim of hat then cut the inside of the circle like this

Tape the cardboard circle to the hat

Stuff some socks with plastic bags and tape around the hat above the cardboard

get your white beanie with red felt circles sewed onto it and wrap it over the whole hat

 The Costume on my son:

for Halloween I will let him wear a tan or white long sleeved shirt underneath his vest

So hard to get a good picture with this boy!

White pants are from the thrift store

Blue vest was a shirt or cardigan, I cut off the sleeves and added gold ribbon to the trim of the whole shirt using hem tape!

not the best work but he still looks like a mushroom head!

My little Toad!

DIY Mario & Luigi Costumes

Here is a simple tutorial on how to make your own fast and easy Mario and Luigi costumes! This is perfect for couples or a group costume for Halloween!

So here I am with my hat and mustache as Luigi!

You will need yellow felt for buttons, a red tee shirt for Mario and a green tee shirt for Luigi

Some blue ribbon for your "suspenders"

White Felt Circle & Red Felt for M (Mario) if you don't have a plain red hat

Here I cut out the "L" for Luigi since I have a plain green hat

My green hat from the thrift store (was originally a st. patrick's day beret, but I just cut off the thread that was connecting the top to the visor)

Here I just taped the "L" to my green hat

For the suspenders, just bring the ribbon from one side and bring it around your neck to the other side (saves more ribbon and is easier to attach to your pants)

Some jeans or shorts (Blue pants or blue shorts would be more ideal but this way still looks cool!)

Some yellow circles cut out of felt for your "buttons"

Safety pins

to attach to the front of your pants or shorts

Black Felt and Mario and Luigi Mustache Templates

glue dots to attach your mustache (or tape)

The completed Luigi costume

The completed Mario costume

Me as Luigi

Paul as Mario

& here is a video of this tutorial if videos are easier for you...

Awesome Find!! Kleancolor Nail Polish Remover Pads

So I was digging through my Mom's bathroom when I came across these nail polish wizard pads with cuticle oil. These are acetone free and the cuticle oil softens up your fingers wonderfully. My cuticles are totally dried out, after using these pads they felt so much softer and noticeably nicer. I used just one pad to clean all ten of my finger nails. It didn't rip or tear at all! After using it it was a bit oily so I had to wash my hands. Another great thing is that these pads leaves your hands smelling so good! The purple one has a grape scent that isn't too strong yet very pleasant. I hate using regular nail polish remover because it leaves my fingers smelling horrible for hours. I asked my mom where she got it from and she told me her friend gave it to her who bought it online. So as soon as I got home I looked it up. These pads are extremely cheap!!!!! Only 1.99 each! Amazing! And each pack comes with 32 pads! Google these bad boys and get yourself some now! As soon as I'm out I will be ordering them from their site here!

http://kleancolor.com/nails/KleanColor/471-B/471-B.html

My Son's Outfit!

So I love dressing up my baby boy. I love shopping at Old Navy and H&M. Their clothes there are soooo cute and reasonably cheap (especially Old Navy's clearance section).

How to Deep Clean and Store your Makeup Brushes

My cleaned brushes laying out to dry

I designed my brush holders using stickers from Michael's

I got the jars from Michael's, and I store them using beads like Sephora

Yay! I finally got around to cleaning my brushes. I typically deep clean my brushes every three to four weeks. I lightly clean them every two to three weeks. Though with all the bright makeup looks I've been doing lately I had to clean them earlier.


How I Deep Clean My Brushes

Regular cleaning of your makeup brushes will help your brushes last longer and prevent your skin from bacteria which can lead to clogged pores and pimples -- ew. You don't want to keep using those dirty brushes on your skin. It's important to try to clean them at least once a month.

I have purchased MAC's Brush Cleanser before, but with the price and it being a pour cap instead of a pump or spray cap, it made me waste a lot of product. I used the MAC Brush Cleanser only 4-5 times before it was all out. I didn't want to keep spending $12.00 for 7.9oz on MAC's Brush Cleanser, so my friend told that I can use Johnson's Baby Shampoo, or any gentle shampoo with warm water. I figured that made sense since the brushes are made of fine hair, so why shouldn't we use the same things as we use on our hair, right?  The Baby Shampoo leaves my brushes clean, soft, and fresh. This is my normal routine for cleaning my brushes.

To clean my brushes I use these steps:

• Step 1: I pour a small amount of baby shampoo into a small cup
• Step 2: I grab my brush rinse it quickly under the water
• Step 3: I then dip the brush into the baby shampoo
• Step 4: I gently massage the bristles, working the shampoo into the brush (make sure the brush is upside down so water does not go into the brush handles)
• Step 5: I rinse the bristles under the running water (you will see the dirty makeup cleaning from your brushes -- lets you see how dirty your brushes really are!)
• Step 6: After rinsing, I shape the brush back to its original shape with my hands and make sure there are no stray bristles 
• Step 7: Finally I lay them flat on a towel and allow them to air dry overnight

Storage

As you can see in the pictures, I store my brushes in the rectangle and square jars (which I bought from Michael's). The black square jar is used to hold my face brushes, since I have less face brushes than eye brushes. The white rectangular jar is used to hold all of my eye brushes. I use beads (from Michael's too) to hold my brushes up right.

I love these beads because it makes it so much easier for me to see all of my brushes! I stick my brushes in them and they stay standing up because of the beads. It's so much better than simply sticking them in a jar (where you have to meddle through just to find the brush you need). And to put a little of me into it I had to get stickers and personalize them! You'll see that this is the best way to store your brushes and it looks great!

My First Blog Post

Hi all! I wanted to start a blog since I will be having so much free time during the summer! I used to blog all the time on xanga and myspace but this is a first for me. I cannot wait to get started on this blogger. I hope I know what I am doing...haha :)