This Weeks Top Picks

Most people post their favorite for the week on Friday. It's the end of the week, everyone's excited for the weekend, and we all look forward to some shopping on Saturday - so it makes sense to share some ideas of fun things to pick up while we're out and about the town. But I decided what better day to post my favorites than on Wednesday, when we all need a pick-me-up for the mid-week slump, or "Hump Daaayyyy" as the GEICO Car Insurance Camel so infamously calls it.



So, In honor of Hump Day, and in hopes of giving you an excuse to surf the web during a quick break at work or in between laundry duty and lunch prep at home, I've picked a few of my favorite things to share with you. These are things that I'm really enjoying at the moment and really excited to share with you! I'll post a weekly favorites with a variety of home items, beauty finds, fashion ideas...anything goes! I just love getting ideas for new products to try and learning how to style outfits off of my favorite YouTube guru's channels and blogger's websites. I often find that things that I'm personally impressed by get passed over by others, so I decided they need to get some props, too. Some of my favorites might be things you've heard of before, others might be brand new to you. I hope you enjoy them and maybe even get to pick up a few (or all??) for yourself!

This Weeks Top Picks

The Sigma Tapered Blending E36 Brush

Ooh, have I met a new love! As if my makeup brush collection needed an addition. I just couldn't pass this up! I'm one of those people who love to try lots of dimensional eye shadow looks. I like the one-shadow look well enough, but I really love experimenting, layering color and adding darker colors to the crease. There is just one problem: I can't ever quite get the color to stay just in the crease. Or go exactly where I want it. Somehow shadows always end up blended onto my browbone, up way too high, and I have to go back and erase what I've done, and start all over again, and it never quite turns out the way I wanted it. That is until I discovered the brush that makes ALL the difference, the Sigma E36 brush. It's still tapered, like my favorite blending brushes; but it's smaller, which allows you to be oh-so-precise when adding color to the crease. I can use it to place one color, or layer multiple colors, because it's so precise that color placement is a breeze! But it's also a blending brush, so I don't have that stripey-eye-shadow look with super defined edges. It's not my thing, although it works for some people. I love a smooth, blended, gradient look to my colors - even when using unnatural colors, like purples, blues, and greens. If you are like me and you like to blend away, or if you simply love trying new makeup brushes, I highly recommend adding this one to your repertoire. At just $10 - plus the monthly 10% off code on the Sigma website - it's a definite bargain.

The LORAC PRO Palette

This is a product that has been out for some time, but it's one that I have put off purchasing until a couple of weeks ago. I have so many eye shadows it didn't make any sense at all to buy yet another palette. (Well...makeup purchases for me rarely make any sense...I have enough makeup to last me years if I didn't buy anything else!) I would make my weekly (or bi-weekly, sometimes tri-weekly, I'll admit) quick-stop by Ulta, pretending to browse the drug-store aisles, meanwhile castings sideways glances towards the higher end makeup aisles. Then I'd slowly mosey on over towards the LORAC section, and, unable to help myself, pick up this palette for a good, long stare, each and every time. Eventually my covetous heart won out and I finally gave in and bought it. AND I couldn't be happier that I did!

First of all, these shadows are B-utiful! They are so smooth and creamy and pigmented, easily blendable, look gorgeous when layered, and can create so many different looks. Single shadow looks, multi-dimensional shadow looks, day-to-night looks, neutral and colorful looks...you want it? You'll get it with this. And my absolute favorite part about it? You don't need a single other color to go along with this palette! There is an entire row of matte shadows and an entire row of shimmery (NOT glittery!!) shadows, including colors great for highlighting the browbone and inner corner and for lining your eyes (if you're like me and like to use shadows and angled brushes to line your eyes), and everything else you need for creative, fun and sultry looks, in between. It's such a great deal at $42 for a high-end shadow palette, for the quality and variety of shadows included. I can see this lasting me all through winter and maybe even into the spring and summer next year, so long as I don't use it every single day. That will take lots of restraint. It's just so pretty, I can't see myself NOT using it! 

So, here's my advice: if you're looking for a starter kit, a shadow palette that is super easy and versatile to travel with, or if you're simply a makeup junkie like me, loving to try everything and have everything you love, then this palette is a must for you. Go get it!! You'll be so glad you did!

Bath & Body Works Mason Jar Candle

in Pumpkin Caramel Latte

We've talked about beautiful things for the face, so now it's time to talk about beautiful things for the home. And this one makes my coffee-loving-heart sing. There is nothing better in the fall time, in my humble opinion, than pumpkin flavored lattes. Oh. My. Goodness. Just typing "pumpkin flavored latte" made my heart skip a beat! I live in central Texas, where Fall doesn't bring cooler days, colorful trees, and sweater-and-boots weather; it's just plain old hot until around December 31st. So I have to "make" Fall happen, and Bath & Body Works candles are my gateway to Fall-time happiness.

This particular candle from BBW smells soooo incredibly good that my mouth begins to salivate every time use it. The scent is deliciously subtle, not overpowering, great for wafting the yummy scent of pumpkin spice and freshly brewed coffee throughout the kitchen and living room. And if coffee isn't your thing, BBW has so many other deliciously fall-themed flavors to choose from that your nostrils are sure to be humming with delight upon your next visit to the store. It's impossible to smell these cute little candles and not go home with one or two (or many!). So get your BBW coupon, head over to the store, and bring home some fall-scented goodness. 

What are your favorites for the week? Have you tried any of the above products? What are your thoughts? 

Changes

I feel like today is a new beginning for me. Up to this point, and for quite some time, life has been ... stagnant. Unmoved. Living day to day without acknowledging a greater purpose for being alive. In other words, not living as though I am truly alive.

I remember feeling this way shortly before we met our daughters for the second time, when I felt the Lord calling us to adopt them into our family. It was a sunny morning in our quiet, comfortable neighborhood. I was sitting across from my husband in my pj's in our home office, leaning back in my chair with my feet propped up on the edge of the desk, a cup of coffee in my hand; and I told him I felt like something was missing in my life. That I wasn't doing like I should be. That I was just working, and living, and breathing, and yet, not going anywhere. That something was coming bigger than either of us could imagine and I wondered, what it would be? What does the Lord have for me?

And then, a few months later in Kampala, Uganda, while sitting in our small group Bible study after another long day at the orphanage, the answer to that question came in the form of a quiet, consistent voice on my heart, my emotions pulled in one direction towards two beautiful little Ugandan girls... These are your daughters. I still get chills when I think about that moment. I just knew right then and there, that was the very moment for which God had been preparing my heart.

The last three years since bringing home the girls have been filled with challenges, ups and downs, doubts and comforts, prayers and tears, joy, fear, happiness, and, finally, peace. Peace knowing we are the family God knit us together to be. Followed by the realization that life is once again about to change, and that same question: What does the Lord have for me?

Suffice it to say that I've definitely experienced some pretty major life changes over the past few months...

Change #1: We found out we're having a baby! And as of this past Saturday, we know that it's a BOY!! My husband, living in a house full of women (wife, two teenage daughters, and college-age sister), is ECSTATIC to have some more testosterone on the way. Being someone who couldn't decide if she wanted a baby or not (we adopted our teens at ages 12 & 13), I am super excited for this new chapter in our lives, too! I just can't wait to hold him and snuggle with him. Only a few more months to go!

Change #2: Our girls entered Sophomore year in HS and started taking all Honors and Pre-AP courses. On top of church activities, family commitments, and team sports ... let's just say that it has been interesting, challenging, and helped me appreciate how *easy* the past three years have been (school-wise) compared to this!

Change #3: My sister-in-law moved in to attend our local college, Texas A&M University. If you know college football at all, you just might have heard of it? As with any new arrival to a family, the change in home and family dynamic created by having another person around has been both fun and challenging. How to parent/befriend a 19-year-old college Freshman, who still needs guidance, but should be - for the most part - responsible for herself now? She also has been a great help both around the house and with chemistry homework, and has shaken up our daily routine in wonderful (and much needed) ways.

Change #4: A new hospital opened up in this "medical corridor" that we (apparently) live in. Talk around town is that we need more docs and hospital beds for our growing community. And of course, competition is a great thing in health care. It provides patients with choices, fuels innovation and makes docs compete to provide the best care in order to attract patients. Without worry or anxiety, we will wait and see how - if at all - it affects business at the "other hospital" ER where my husband currently works.

So...those are the big changes we've had. Lots of little ones thrown in there, too. Some good, some "there" as our girls put it when something has neither a positive or negative affect on them, and thankfully, none that I would classify as bad. I remember the first time I realized, after bringing home the girls, that life would throw a curve ball just when I had gotten used to it. I'd finally work my way to feeling like I had a handle on things...and then another curve ball would come my way. And another. And another. So I've gotten used to expecting curve balls (after all, nothing in life is either certain OR guaranteed) and I've learned (through age? experience? maturity? all three?) that the best kind of life is not a static one, but an ever-changing one, filled with surprises and challenges to help me grow personally and spiritually.

As I begin to write this blog, which is something I've been contemplating doing for some time, my hope is that perhaps I'll connect with you in some way, whether it be through a beauty post, a post about what I'm learning through my Bible study, or a post about a day in the life of me or my family. I'm looking forward to tackling all of these changes - and I'm sure, many more! - head on, all the while having peace that there is One who has gone before me, knows my future, and has a plan - the best plan - for me.