Oscar Week!

Hey all!!

I hope I am not the only one with Oscar fever!!  This weekend cannot come soon enough!!  Check out all of the nominations at http://oscar.go.com/nominees and give me all of your opinions!!  I actually haven't watched that many of the movies nominated for best picture, so I need to catch up!!  I have seen The Help and The Artist and loved them both!!  As for my pick of the two, I vote for The Help.  It has a more controversial story line that seems to be a favorite of the Oscars.  However, poles are showing The Artist as the winner!!  Either way I would be happy, I am in love with both movies!

And don't forget red carpet interviews!!  I love award season because it always makes me want to wear pretty dresses.  My pick for best dressed at the Grammy's were Carrie Underwood and Jessie J.--gorgeous!!

LOVE THEM BOTH!!!

The most popular votes for best dressed seemed to be Rihanna and Fergie.  I for one LOVED Rihanna's dress, but not her hair or really the shoes.  Fergie's dress was a FANTASTIC color but, I am not a fan of the big black granny panties, it ruined a perfectly good dress.  I would have liked to see it with a nude lining. 

I can't wait to see what's in store for us at the Oscars!!

What do you think??  Who will be best dressed at the upcoming Oscars and who will show up in a surprise??  Any recommendations for favorite nominated film??  I am ALWAYS looking for a good movie :)

Happy Oscar week!

Homemade Soothing Face Mask

Hey all!!  Enjoying your Valentines Day!?  If you don't have plans tonight or if you just need some relaxing afterwards try a soothing homemade face mask!!  It's really easy and really cheap (my trademark).  I found this recipe online at http://elqalatawy.hubpages.com, and altered it to include ingredients that could be found already around your home or dorm.

Soothing face mask, what you need;

1 Tblsp of Yogurt (full fat is the best, but whatever you have)
1 Tblsp Honey (I have some for tea, but you can snag a packet from your cafeteria as well)
1 Tblsp Aloe Vera Gel (I used Vicks Vapo rub, you can use anything "tingly")
A few drops of Chamomile oil (I just used the Chamomile tea I had in my dorm)

My version of ingredients;

First, wash your face and pat dry.  

Add all of your ingredients into a bowl and stir.

For the Vicks Vapo Rub, I heated mine up in the microwave for a little bit to make it easier to combine.  You could also use Aloe Vera Gel if you have some, mint or eucalyptus oils, or anything "tingly".  You will have to adjust the amount for the amount of "tingle" you want.

For the Chamomile, since I didn't want to go out and buy the gel, just wet the tea bag in a little bit of hot water and squeeze it out into your bowl.  Be careful how much water ends up in the bowl because too much will make it hard to mix to the right texture.

Apply to face and let sit for 20 minutes, or how ever long you feel like being soothed, then wash off with warm water!!

I couldn't get the texture of mine to look like the one on http://elqalatawy.hubpages.com probably because I used household ingredients, but my face felt very soothed :). 

Go to http://elqalatawy.hubpages.com to check out other versions of this same mask for dry or oily skin or an exfoliating version!  There is also information about what the ingredients do for your skin.

I hope you have a wonderful and SOOTHING Valentines Day!!

DORM FUDGE

Thought you couldn't make Valentines Day goodies in your dorm??  Think again!!  I have modified a recipe to make THE BEST FUDGE right in your microwave, for under 5$, in about 5 minutes.  It's basically amazing.

All you need to make your fudge is a 12oz bag of your favorite baking chips (I used chocolate chips and peanut butter chips), a teaspoon of vanilla, a can of sweetened condensed milk, a microwave safe bowl, a spoon, and either a plate or a butter dish.

Add your chips to the microwaveable bowl (i used a plastic container because that's what I had) and melt the chips in the microwave.  I didn't have any trouble with the chocolate burning, I just heated in increments of 15 seconds, stirring in between.  You can use a microwave double boiler if you really want to, just google it!!  I also used mini chocolate chips, they melt faster.

Next, add the can of sweetened condensed milk and stir.  Once they are combined cook in the microwave for 1 minute.

Remove your bowl and stir in 1 tsp of of vanilla.  At this point you can also add nuts, or maraschino cherries, or anything else that sounds good to you.

After the vanilla is completely combined, pour your fudge into the butter dish or plate.  The container doesn't matter much as long as it has walls to keep the fudge in and is big enough to hold it all.

Place your fudge in the fridge over night, or for about 8 hours.

After 8ish hours take out and enjoy!!!  

This is seriously the best fudge EVER!  You can make any flavor you wish, as long as you can find a 12oz bag of it.  You can also add nuts or chopped up toffee or dried fruit to add flavor.

Have fun making your fudge!!  Share your combinations and any questions or tips in the comment box below.

Now go enjoy your Valentines Day with some AMAZING homemade sweets!!!

Check out my DIY!!

Hey all!!  I just posted the first of my Valentines Day excitement!  Check out the DIY page by clicking the icon on the right of the page or the tab right under my banner above this post!!

Enjoy!!

Fall in Love with Valentines Day!!

Hello everyone!  I know it is just the beginning of February, but you all know what February means...Valentines Day!!  Now I know that many girls are very bitter about Valentines Day, and I am determined to change the single girl's hatred of this awesome holiday!!

I am speaking from experience here, I have been single for every Valentines Day of my life.  I understand how especially the single girl could feel hatred to this holiday that seems to point an accusing finger at anyone who doesn't have a dozen roses and chocolates thrown at her on the 14th.  BUT Valentines Day could be a single girls dream!!

Valentines day is the greatest excuse to eat candy, watch mushy movies, lounge, put your feet up, and just take some me time!!  Whether you prefer a girls night or a nice hot bath, it is a holiday to indulge without guilt!!

SO, I have set up some fun posts for everyone to make your Valentines Day all about you and not all about someone you don't have, why would you want to waste an awesome day like Valentines Day on a guy that is no less than perfect anyway!?!

Here is the line up!  For single and taken girls alike, INDULGE!!  It's a girls holiday :)

• DIY- shirt scarf!! (super cute, trust me)
• Homemade yogurt face masks (can be altered for ALL types of skins)
• Microwave fudge!  (Haven't decided what kind yet, perfect to make in a dorm)
• Mushy movie reviews (for my favorite love stories; Moulin Rouge and Tristan and Isolde...oh ya)
• Anything else you want to suggest to make your day AWESOME!! And all about YOU!!

Photo Editing Fun!!

Hey all!!  Sorry it's been so long since my last post!  I've been busy!!

I wanted to share with you guys my new favorite website; pixlr.com!!  It's a lot like photoshop and the best part is...it's free!!  You don't even have to do a download!!  I have used pixlr.com before to make all my beautiful buttons on imCarly, but I've just recently really started exploring.  One of my friends sent me a saying that I really liked and I wanted to make it my desktop but I didn't want just a boring Word.doc for a desktop so I spruced it up;

Isn't it pretty!?  I actually had someone ask me where I got it!

So to start making your beautiful pictures, choose whether you want to use a picture or a saying to beautify.  If you are doing a picture I would suggest doing all of the editing you can on iPhoto, you can do everything you can do in iPhoto in pixlr, but it's more condensed in iPhoto which I think is easier.  Once you've decided on your project just start playing around and see what you can make!!  Here are a few steps to get you started;

1. Head to www.pixlr.com!!  On the start up screen, I would suggest choosing "open photo editor" then you will come to a screen like this;

2.  I would suggest clicking on "Create New Image" even if you are using a photo and then just adding the photo as a layer

3.  Make sure that you have the box at the bottom that says "Transparent" checked, you can add in a white background later if you would like.  To choose your canvas size, check out the size of the area you are going to fill, if you want to upload it to a blog or website, it should usually tell you the dimensions otherwise it doesn't really matter

3.  Then, as I said before, just play around!!  Here are some things to remember when you are playing around;

• Use the command bar on Pixlr, not on your desktop to Undo and Save
• To insert an image go to "Layer" then "Insert Image as Layer" on the command bar
• USE LOTS OF LAYERS, especially when you are using text, another layer will be added automatically when you add another set of text, and then to add another layer just click on the tab at the bottom of the layer box on the right side of the screen

• To adjust the size of your canvas go to "Image" then "Canvas Size" to adjust the size of your picture go to "Image" then "Image Size", remember the image is what you insert, the canvas is your original working space
• Make sure you keep up Pixlr until you are FOR SURE done with your image because you can't reopen and adjust the layers on an image once you exit out of it

OK!  Now you have a beautiful image or a beautiful saying, you can beautify it even more!!

 Just open a new tab, go back to the main www.pixlr.com page, and choose "Retro Vintage Effects", it's pretty self explanatory just play around!!!

You can manipulate the different sections with the odometer looking thing at the bottom of the screen.  For my saying I used "Peter" on the red section, "Redrum" on the blue, and "Dirt" on the yellow.  

Happy Pixlr-ing!!!!!!

All info from www.pixlr.com

Snow in Tulsa!

It snowed in Tulsa!!  Being from Colorado, I LOVE SNOW!!  You can imagine excitement when we walked out of the TU men’s basketball game (which we won woop woop!) and found snow falling to the ground!!!!

Naturally, I had to show these southern kids how to have a real snowball fight!!  It was also a must to document this amazing phenomenon!!  Snow in Tulsa!!  The snow was so beautiful and I had a ton of fun!!

Isn’t it pretty!?  The flowers are still colorful and the grass is still green because it hasn’t gotten cold enough here yet!

AMMO!!  We totally won the snowball fight….

Fun with iPhoto!  My camera is not very high quality so it got all smudged and foggy while I was taking pictures.  I was able to take a few fun photos using my smudge (like the first one in this series) and then sharpen them up in iPhoto, but for the most part many of my pictures were very out of focus or had weird fog patches.

Bailey’s snow angel!!  Perfection!!

I hope it snows again soon!!  This is only my first year in Tulsa but from what I’ve heard it might be a while, maybe by then I’ll have saved up enough for a better camera and those southern kids learned a little from their experience (INVEST IN SOME GLOVES!)