I cannot believe how quickly November is coming to a close! Seriously, with Thanksgiving on Thursday and then the official start of the holiday shopping season starting as soon as the plates are cleared from your turkey feast, it is time to get cracking with those wish lists. It always puts me in such a good mood whenever I create a gift guide, and this year is seriously no exception! With this Strange and Charmed Ultimate 2014 Holiday Gift Guide, I have curated 15 of the loveliest, most practical, but still highly luxurious items I am currently coveting! In typical Strange & Charmed fashion, we have a mix of productivity inspired gifts, must have beauty staples and the most charming accessories of the season. The best part is, everything on my list is under $150 and as always I made sure to include a range of price tags so you can find a beautiful gift at any price point! I hope you all enjoy this post, I have made sure to link below to all the items I have featured!
My glasses are by far one of the most defining characteristic of my style! I don’t think its possible for anyone to actually think of me without thinking of my glasses because they are so bold and unique no one can miss them! Although there is a terrible stereotype out there in the world that girls that wear glasses are not attractive (one that thank heavens is being countered left and right with the increase in popularity of horn-rimmed glasses among women!) I am definitely here to prove that you can wear glasses and be super cute at the same time! No need to hold back on your makeup just because you have a pair of glasses balancing off your nose!
If you wear glasses and think you need to step up your makeup game to help your face shine with frames or without, these easy tips will help you let your natural beauty shine through your lenses!
Tip #1.Define the brow: Because glasses tend to interact with your face shape giving it definition, its important for your eyebrows to be visible and strong so that the frames of your glasses aren’t taking over your face! Make sure your eyebrows are properly shaped for your face (tutorial in video linked below!), well-groomed and filled in so that they are clearly visible behind your frames!
Tip #2. Brighten under the eye: Glasses often cast a shadow right under your eyes in an area that already tends to be dark on most of us, so make sure to add an extra concealer or brightener right where your frames hit under your eyes so that you are drawing in more light to that area of your skin!
Tip #3. Use a base on your eye lids: Make sure your eyelid is like a blank canvas before you begin to apply eyeshadows for color and contrast. Choose a color that works with your natural skin tone and apply it all over your lid up to your eyebrows!
Tip #4. Define the crease: From behind the lens of your glasses, your eyes can begin to look flat and one-dimensional, so make sure to use a contrasting color in your crease to give your eyes added depth. I suggest choosing a color that is a few shades darker than your natural skin tone if you want to go for a natural day look! Once your crease is defined you can use other colors to highlight your eyelid and create a smokey eye shadow look if that is what you prefer!
Tip #5. Define the lash line: Again, it’s all about creating contrast around your eye and using an eyeliner to darken your lash line will help your eyes stand out behind the lenses of your glasses! It’s up to you which type of product you use, from a dark shadow, to a gel liner, pencil liner or liquid, but find something that works for your needs and skill level!
Tip #6. Make your eyes POP:Apply a few coats of mascara to your eye lashes to thicken them up and help to open up the look of your eyes! One big NO-NO if you are wearing glasses is using full sets of false lashes because they can hit your lenses and cause you discomfort throughout the day. If you find that your natural eye lashes need a bit of enhancing, try accent lashes that are just applies to the outer edge of your eyes to help give a fuller affect to your lashes! The Ardell accent lashes are perfect for this!
Of course, there is one last thing! I get asked all the time where I get my glasses from since they are rather unique! I purchased these glasses pictured above from Warby Parker! They are an awesome online retailer of fashionable designer quality frames and lenses that I would highly recommend, so check them out if you are looking for new glasses! My frames are called the Thatcher (similar)! And, also pictured above is my new Naked2 Basics palette that I have been loving! It’s not the palette I use in the video, but I have been using this everyday since I purchased it because it is fabulous and a very reasonable price!
If you’d like to see a tutorial of this look, check out my video below!
I hope you all liked this tutorial and the video as well! Let me know what you thought in the comments below!
Well, well, November is here and I have to say, I wasn’t really wasn’t expecting it this soon! This is an important month for me and my family. For one, my wedding anniversary is in November, the 10th to be more specific, and I am slightly ashamed to admit that I was sitting around watching TV with my husband the other day when we got on the topic of upcoming holidays and events and totally forgot that our wedding anniversary was around the corner. It’s not that I forgot the date of the anniversary, but more like I failed to realize that it was not months away as I had been thinking, but just a few short weeks away. For the past few years, my husband and I have gone on vacation to celebrate the day, but this year we were rather late to the game when scheduling our vacation and instead of going away in November, we are going away in December, so that may have something to do with the whole not remembering thing. November also happens to contain a heck of a lot of birthdays. My husbands for one and then a handful of other miscellaneous family members. For a few years, November was also very important to me as I had regularly participated in Nanowrimo, so I still get anxious at the end of October in anticipation for that, even though I skipped Nano last year and may very well do so again this year. Of course, last but certainly not least, November means Thanksgiving and Black Friday, at least it does in the U.S. I love Thanksgiving because I love to cook, and for the past few years I have been happily preparing Thanksgiving dinners for my family. This year, I am even hosting my first Thanksgiving at my apartment for part of my family, so this will be a pretty important holiday for me this year! Then of course, the next day, all bloated and hungover from food, I will partake in a mini shopping spree and then come home to set up my Christmas Tree!
So, this month I have a good many fun and exciting things planned for the blog and for my YouTube channel as well! First of all, I have put together a collection of must have apps to make your holiday shopping much easier, more organized and hopefully, save you some serious cash! I’m also going to give you all a run down of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes and the menu that I am planning on for my holiday party! If talk of menus and shopping is already giving you anxiety, I’ve got that covered too with a little pep talk about how to manage stress during this highly stressful time of year! Don’t worry, planner folks! I also have some wonderful plans in the works for you and your filofax! I’ve got some ideas for planner personalization and a number of new printables on the way! Excited yet? I know I am!
For now, take a moment to just savor this early November feeling. Maybe take some time to write down a few goals for how you can enjoy this time of year and also manage the daily mess of life in a reasonable balance! Go ahead, just write down three little goals you have for this month. Here, I’ll go first!
Goal 1: To create content of substance and of value to my readers to help them through the end of the year!
Goal 2: To find something good in everyday, no matter how crazy it gets and to reflect on how Thankful I am for my life!
Goal 3: To make reasonably healthy food choices during a time when I normally feel food takes control of me!
See, that wasn’t too bad? Now, if you would like to share your 3 goals in the comments below, feel free! I would love to see what you’re priorities are for this month and it may even inspire and influence some of the content I create for you all! Oh, one more thing I want to mention is that you can still download my free 30 Days of Thankfulness printable to help motivate you to live with more gratefulness in your heart during this special time of year! So make sure to hop on over to my shop and check it out!
Thank you all so much for reading and I wish you all the best of luck this month as you prepare with family and friends for what I hope will be a wonderful holiday season!
October was a really great month! I have to say, although I believe the days passed much too quickly, I feel like I have never had a more wonderful or productive month. I know I have said this before and I think I am beginning to sound like a broken record, but I really think that my 31 Things to Do in October printable was a major reason I was able to fit so much into my month and almost stay on track making sure that I was constantly in the fall spirit enjoying my days, the change in weather, and making special memories with friends and family! I am so pleased to know that so many of you also downloaded this printable and have also been enjoying it in your planner, utilizing it as a tool to also help you make similar memories and enjoy the little things that make the month of October special.
As you may have already seen, I posted my November printable, 30 Days of Thankfulness, yesterday, and I am hoping that this new printable also helps to keep me in a positive and grateful mindset during the month of November. I am already overwhelmed with gratefulness by the response from members of the planner community who have already gone ahead and downloaded this new printable. I know gratitude is a topic that comes up often in the planner community, and I think this printable will be a wonderful way to help us all take a moment to see what’s truly important in life and show our gratitude for our lives through thoughtful, well intentioned actions!
So, you are probably wondering what else I have been loving this month, product-wise? Well, to be completely honest, there really have only been a handful of items that I have been obsessed with this month since my main priority has been focusing on experiences and not “stuff” this month.
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My first monthly favorite has been my Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure nail polishes, yet again. I have been loving wearing a combination of three of my fall favorites, Pat on the Black, Almost Almond, and Jungle Gem. Next up is the lipstick I have been loving. Since it’s fall I have been all about a purple lip, and I picked up the Milani Violet Volt lipstick this month and have been loving the color! I also picked up a new drugstore foundation this month, after my long time favorite, the Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum Foundation, ran out. I ended up choosing the L’Oreal Visible Lift Serum Absolute Advanced Age Reversing Makeup, which is a total mouthful, but has been working wonderfully for my dry skin! My last beauty related favorite has been a perfume, my Dior Addict Eau Fraiche, which I nearly complete forgot I owned because it had been tucked away in the back of my beauty closet for months!
As for non beauty favorites, this month I purchased my first fur vest after deciding that I really wanted one this year to add to my wardrobe! I did some research on different options, decided on the quality I wanted and the price range I was willing to spend within and then found this beautiful black fur vest at Neiman’s! It’s currently on sale as well, so if you are in the market for a high quality fur vest, I do recommend this one! Also, this month I was lucky enough to receive a Fluoro Pink Original Filofax in personal size to review from Filofax! I’m not sure if its too early to say, but I have to admit, I think I may have found planner peace with this beauty! Keep an eye out on my YouTube channel for a set up video coming soon! Finally, my last favorite for this month has been my macaron planner charms that I purchased from an Etsy Shop called Mahal Made! If you love macarons or sweets in general and would like to purchase some cute little charms for your planner, I highly recommend this shop!
Of course, it wouldn’t me a monthly favorites without a video, so in case you would prefer to see me do a little show and tell, here is my October Favorites video linked above for your viewing pleasure!
Now, it’s your turn. Let me know what made your October favorites list! Do you have any suggestions for me of products I should try? Oh, also, if you were one of the members of the planner community who downloaded my 31 Things to Do in October Printable, let me know how you enjoyed it this month? How many of the items were you able to check off? I’d love to know, so leave me a comment or send me a tweet or Instagram picture!
It has been quite a while since my last real What’s in my bag post! I know I did the back to school version at the end of the summer, but that was more of a hypothetical on what I would carry with me if I was going back to school! Even so, I know you guys are like me and love a great bag and just have to see what is inside. Handbags are just one of those things that I think women are just naturally curious about. On on hand, they are a very personal item that houses the important items that get us through our days, and on the other, they can be a fashion statement of our personality and taste. I know anytime I see a new What’s in my bag post, I immediately feel the need to reorganize and reflect on my own handbag status. I find myself questioning how my own bag and it’s contents are working for me. Do I still like the shape? Is it the right size for my needs? How does the size of the bag work with my body frame? Am I happy with the hardware? Does the brand represent me and my aesthetic values? Ultimately, it leads to the question of do I want a new bag?
I know some of these questions may seem a little intense or overly analytical, but if you’re a person who is spending a few hundred dollars (or more!) on a handbag, I think these are important questions to ask yourself. Even if you don’t normally purchase “designer” handbags, I still think these sorts of questions are important because at the end of the day you are spending money on a fundamental item of your wardrobe, and when it comes to purses, the sky’s the limit when it comes to available variety. So, that’s why I wanted to share with you a very helpful little Style Guide to Handbags that was recently published by Rue La la. If you’re thinking about a new bag or just want to get a little more information and history on styles you already own, I definitely recommend checking out this free reference!
Now, back to my bag and what’s inside because I know you’re dying to know! Well, for about 6 months now, I have been carrying the super chic Phillip Lim 3.1 Pashli!t It is by far the most expensive bag I have ever owned, and was definitely a purchase I put a lot of thought into. According to the Rue La La Handbag 101 Guide, I would say this bag is somewhere between a Tote and a Satchel, which happen to be two of my favorite styles of handbag because you can just fit so much into them and look chic doing so! One of my favorite parts of this bag is the material, it’s a highly durable, almost pebble style leather that wears beautifully and really holds up well to the daily grind.
You can stuff quite a bit into this bag and I really do a good job at pushing the capacity limits! Since this is my “Blogger” bag, I use this to carry around not only my necessities, but also important tech items like my DSLR (not pictured) and my Macbook Air for working on the go! I carry my DSLR in a microfiber camera bag by Mod, so it’s protected while traveling, and my Macbook Air sleeps in a Michael Kors sleeve!
Since this bag lacks any organizational elements or a variety of compartments, I end up carrying most of my necessities in pouchesfrom Forever 21. I use one for general necessities and one for beauty!
Of course, I absolutely can’t leave home without a few essentials, like my iPhone 5 and my new Filofax Original Fluoro Pink planner, that keep me organized and on task when I am getting down to the nitty-gritty of my blog to-dos!
So, of course to go along with this post, I also filmed an updated What’s In my Bag video! Make sure to check it out if you want to see more exact details of the contents of my bag as well as the contents of my pouches! Make sure to check out the Rue La La Handbag 101 Guide online as well– it’s a great little resource for handbag lovers, so make sure to share it with your friends!
xoxo,
This post was created in conjunction with Rue La La to promote their new Handbags and Purses Guide. Thank you so much to Rue La La for creating this guide and for giving me the opportunity to share it with my readers!
Happy Friday Everyone! I have something very fun and exciting to help you kick off your weekend! This morning when I woke up, I had one of the best emails ever sitting in the inbox! Kate Spade is having their 3 Day Friends and Family Sale now through Sunday October 19th! So, as I usually do when I receive these sorts of sale emails, I popped over to their site and checked to see if there was anything I wanted and I was very surprised to find that there were a bunch of items I was drooling over! Now, I know and you know that I love Kate Spade, but normally I can only find a small handful of things I really want, but not today! Today apparently, everything in the online shop was to die for so I thought I’d share with you guys since I know many of my readers also love Kate Spade and sale time is the best time to shop Kate Spade, in my opinion!
Here’s what I was drooling over!
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I am definitely going to pick up a thing or two during the sale, definitely the leather gloves! I have been dying for those for some time! Oh and I for sure need those magnets for the fridge! What about you? See anything you like from my selection of must-have’s? Make sure to use the code F14FFUS at checkout to get your 30% discount when you shop online!
Immediately after I received my newest planner, the Kikki K Lilac and Gold 2015 Time Planner, I went through something of a Filofax revival! All of a sudden I was super obsessed with my planner again, I scoured the internet for new inserts and goodies and started watching way to many planner set up videos for new inspiration. At some point, I watched a video where a woman showed her setup and briefly commented on a DIY folder she had assembled for her planner. I remember thinking it was one of the cleverest things I had seen in a planner in some time, and made a mental note to attempt to DIY one for myself, not knowing exactly how she had gone about making hers. A few weeks later, I found a little note in my planner that referred to this file folder DIY, and feeling crafty, I decided to see what I could come up with!
Many of you have seen exactly what the result of my labor was, and have commented on your interest in seeing a DIY on the topic. So, I went ahead and filmed a video where I walk you through how I made mine. As this wasn’t my original idea, I really wanted to find the source of my inspiration and link you all to the original video I had seen that had inspired this creativity, but for the life of me, I can’t find the video! I searched through my YouTube history, spent days searching videos trying to find the originator of this idea, but alas, I could not find it and thus do not know who I should credit for this idea, but thank you, whoever you are! I love this little folder I have made for myself and I think you guys will love this DIY because it’s really almost too simple!
I considered whether or not I should write out the directions to this tutorial, but I know I will probably get a bunch of questions on the process because I feel like crafty tutorials like this need to be seen, not read. So, below is the video where I walk you through the process. Here is a list of supplies I used and suggest for this project:
A Target $1 Spot File Folder
A cutting mat
A metal ruler
An exacto knife
A permanent glue roller
Clear tape
Scissors
A single hole punch
I hope you all have enjoyed this video and this DIY! I think this little folder is great for storing a variety of different planner supplies like extra paper, sticky notes, page flags, stickers and more! It can also act as a divider as well or even a dashboard if you keep yours in the front of your planner like I do! If you have a planner that lacks lots of pockets or if you just need a more unique storage idea, definitely take the time to try this out and share it with your planner friends as well!
We are nearly half way through my favorite month of the year and although I am sad to see the time passing so quickly, I will say that I am very happy about how much I have managed to pack into this month thus far! This may be my most eventful October to date and I may have to credit my 31 Things to Do In October Printable for that! You seriously need to check it out and download it before the month is over- it has really helped me stick to the Halloween/Fall spirit! In 14 days I have actually managed to check off 14 items from that list, including take a hayride, visit a pumpkin patch, and complete a corn maze- three fun activities that I crossed off this past Sunday during my visit to a local farm. You may have noticed the Instagram picture of an adorable little pumpkin just waiting to be picked… yep, I brought him home with me along with a few of his friends. In fact, for the first time in a number of years, I not only purchased real pumpkins (I normally prefer the fake, non decomposing types) but I also had a blast decorating them! Yea, you see these pics? These aren’t designer pumpkins I pulled from Pinterest, no, they are my pumpkins! I decorated them all by myself, and I honestly couldn’t be prouder! Of course, for those who know me and my aesthetic, it should be no surprise that I went with a glittery black and white scheme with a punch of turquoise thrown in the mix. I’m especially pleased with my black and white rugby stripe pumpkin that I painted by hand after a few failed attempts at creating straight lines with tape. He’s quirky and a little messy… just like me.
These pumpkins were really fun to paint and decorate and not too difficult either. All I did was primed the pumpkins with a white spray paint primer (thank goodness I used spray paint because it made the process so much smoother and gave me a fresh base for my pumpkins) and let them dry. Then I painted two of them black by hand with some acrylic paint, and one turquoise. I knew I wanted to use silver glitter and plastic rhinestones to bling them up, so I got those over at the craft store! For the glitter topped pumpkins, all I did was spread Elmer’s School Glue in sort of a drippy pattern on the tops of the pumpkins and then covered the glue in glitter before it dried. As you can tell, some of the glue dripped down a bit more obviously in certain areas, but it all adds to the charm! Then for the rhinestone pumpkins I just applied some super glue to the backs of the rhinestones and arranged them in place. I like how one of the rhinestoned pumpkins looks like it’s wearing a jeweled collar and the other looks like polka dots. Of course my special turquoise pumpkin got the best of both worlds with the glitter and the rhinestones and I love her excessive bling. She is my official Strange & Charmed pumpkin, so she sits front and center!
Anywho, enough about painting pumpkins! On to the real topic of this post, my favorite non-Halloween, Halloween movies! Okay, so what do I mean by non-Halloween? Well, I mean movies that aren’t your typical blood, guts and gore horror movie! These aren’t necessarily all kid friendly movies, and some definitely fit into the horror genre, but they aren’t your typical slasher/monster/ghoul movies either!
So, I hope you enjoyed this little update to my month and got some good ideas for some movies to watch as we near Halloween! If you’re looking for some actual Halloween type movies, I found this list of the best Halloween films currently on Netflix. If you’re looking for a more traditional scare, I’m sure you could fill more than a few movie nights with some of those! Let me know in the comments which movies you are excited to watch for Halloween and if you do some pumpkin decorating I would love for you to tag me in an Instagram picture so I can see your October spirit as well!
Last year, I was obsessed with the Nordic Ware Halloween Skull Cake Pan from Williams-Sonoma. I’m not really big into baking, but the thought of being able to bake a cake in the shape of a skull was enough to turn me into Betty Crocker! Well, unfortunately for me, the pan sold out relatively quickly last Halloween season, but this year it came back and I had to have it! So, my husband surprised me with it last month and to thank him I immediately made him a cake using the pan!
Mike loves red velvet cake, and I thought it would be the perfect type of cake to make to test the pan! The cake itself is obviously red, and when covered with the off white cream cheese frosting, I thought it would look like a real (enough) skull, and then when you cut into the cake it would look like it was bleeding because of the red cake underneath! I was super excited to make the cake, and although I used a simple cake mix and pre made frosting, it was a really fun and festive activity.
As you can tell from the image of the cake pan, the cake is made in two pieces. The pan itself has two wells, one for the face of the skull and the second for the back of the neck and head. Once the cakes are baked, you connect both halves to create a complete 3D skull! But I was thinking about it and if you wanted to, you wouldn’t necessarily need to make the whole cake, you could just use the well with the skull face and that would make a festive cake that didn’t require too much coordination connecting the two halves of the skull. Using both wells, it took two boxes of cake mix, so it becomes a rather large cake in the end once it’s all together, so in the future I will probably end up making half of the cake more often than the whole head!
Now, although this is a Halloween themed cake pan, I think it’s interesting enough to use year round and I plan to make skull cakes for every event I plan to attend from now until forever! Really, the possibilities are endless. The next cake I make may be a white cake, perhaps an angel food cake?!? That could be awesome and it wouldn’t require frosting (which, admittedly, I am not so good at) but would still give that bone white skull look! For now, if you would like to see how my cake turned out and the process for how I put it together, check out my video below!
I love this cake pan, and if you are a fan of skulls and/or Halloween, I think this is a great festive addition to your bakeware collection! Now, if you like the skull motif but don’t think you would get much use out of such a large pan, Nordic Ware also makes a Mini Skull Cakelet Pan that makes 6 large cupcake sized skull cakes (face only). Since the Halloween bakeware is currently on sale, I may go ahead and pick this one up as well!
Thanks for reading (and watching)! So, tell me… who else is super excited for Halloween? What sort of festive treats are you looking forward to for celebrating the season of spooks and ghouls? Let me know in the comments below!
October is here and I am super duper excited! I know I mentioned this in my impromptu post yesterday, but October is one of my favorite months of the year, mainly because it’s the first official month of fall, and fall is my favorite time of year! October is filled with so many wonderful things, and this month I am hoping to share some of those things with you! You may be wondering, what the heck I am doing writing a letter from the editor to you, anyway. Well, the thing is, I am shaking things up a bit on the blog, as I tend to do from time to time, and I decided that at the start of each new month I would write a personal letter to you, my friends and readers, outlining my plans and the type of content you can expect! I know in the past you could never really tell what you were going to get from me each week here on the blog, and although I’m not going to reveal all my secrets, I thought giving you a sneak peek into the sorts of content you can expect would be a nice way for you and I to connect!
So, what do I have planned for you this month? Well, to start, food… lot’s and lot’s of food! Specifically, I have a couple of recipe posts to share with you guys starting on Monday with a very special seasonal experiment in baking that I have been very excited to share with you! If you follow my YouTube channel as well, you may have seen that last month I started a series called The Lazy Girl’s Cookbook, where I feature recipes for seasonal meals that are super easy and delicious! Well, that series is going to continue on this month as well with a few more of my favorite fall recipes! Moving on from food to fashion, I have a fun scarf tutorial planned just in time to keep you warm in the crisp fall air! Of course, since it is October, and I am obsessed with Halloween, you can expect a Halloween themed Geek Speak feature this month, as well as a seasonal installment of My Productivity Playlist! Rounding out the month, I am also planning a few new reoccurring features around planners and productivity inspiration!
I hope you’re all as excited about my upcoming month of content as I am! I also wanted to take this opportunity to say a sincere thank you to everyone who showed their enthusiastic support for my new shop yesterday and downloaded the 31 Things to Do in October printable! I am so glad that so many of you were as excited about it as I was, and I hope that throughout the month you will keep me up to date as you check those seasonal items off your list! Feel free to tag me in photo’s on Twitter and Instagram so I can follow along with the fun!
Thanks again everyone and I hope you enjoy the great things I have in store for you this month!
