Stuff I like

Happy St. Patty’s Day!  I’m going to celebrate by hauling dirt and working in the yard.  Fun, eh?

You know what sounds like more fun than that?  How about my next giveaway?

In my humble opinion, there are few things better than finding the perfect lip gloss. Sure, sure, smelling babies heads and ice cream and sleeping in all rank up there pretty high, but still… there’s something about the perfect lip gloss.

This is my personal favorite…

I love this stuff. This is the 3rd little tin of it I’ve purchased over the last few years, and I use it almost every day (well every day that I put on make up anyway…) I don’t do that as often as I used to before I started staying home with my babies, which is probably why I’ve just had to buy 3 little tins of it. But really it does last a nice long time, which is part of why I love it.

I just ventured out to buy some more and discovered they no longer make it. Booo! I looked all over at Ulta and checked out the Too Faced website and it’s nowhere to be found. They also make my favorite eye liner that is also now unavailable. What gives!?!?! I clearly need to update my make-up preferences, I guess.

So I combed the Internets and found an online retailer that had 2 left in stock. Two!

And since I’m nice and not a hoarder or a stingy person, I would love to give one of them to you!

I’ll send you the one on the left that is still sealed… I opened mine up and stuck my finger in it. I’ll go ahead and keep that one.

It’s a really subtle shiny pink color. The one downside to this lip gloss is that you do have to stick your finger in it. Or a Qtip. Or a lip brush that you provide yourself. But this stuff is totally worth it. It supposedly tastes like grapefruit, but it doesn’t taste like anything to me. It does have a nice slightly citrus smell and it is seductively conditioning. Just like the lid promises.

So here’s the scoop… Just like last time – all you need to do is leave me a comment on this post and any future posts between today and the end of the month. You can comment on each post for separate entries. Just any ole comment will do! Tell me your favorite lip gloss since I’ll clearly need to find a new favorite soon. Or tell me your middle name! Or tell me what you had for breakfast last week. Whatever floats your boat.

I’ll announce the winner on April 1st. Good luck!

P.S. some fine print… this giveaway is sponsored by The Cootie Queen. I’m not affiliated with Too Faced. I just like their lip gloss that they once made but no longer carry. Boo.

Thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway! I’ll start another one up in the next few days… Here’s a hint… Lipgloss! That’s a real subtle hint, huh? LOL!

And the Winner is…

Mandy! Congratulations, Mandy! I’ll email you and get your info. Enjoy your new pretty nail polish colors. You better post some pictures on FB when you paint your nails so I can see.

Jen’s birthday was August 2nd, and Jen, much like myself, has a history of some crummy birthdays.  Mine is just a matter of bad timing.  Apparently 4 days after Christmas and 2 days before New Years is not the time to go about celebrating something as silly as a birthday.  But Jen… Jen’s just had some crummy luck.  Just off the top of my head I can remember Jen being laid up with a crazy back problem, being miserably huge and pukey 3rd trimester pregnant, being sickly, having her BFF be in the hospital due to pregnancy complications and birthing a baby the next day.  Hey, I did her a favor – I kept him in until the day after, right?

So this year Jen and Adrian had the bright idea to celebrate Jen’s birthday by going to Painting with a Twist.  We decided to celebrate later in the month so as not to get involved with any of Jen’s bad birthday juju.  …not really.  I think it was more that the painting we all agreed on was on August 29th.  But it’s more dramatic if I say it the other way, right?

I’d never heard of Painting with a Twist.  It’s a pretty cool concept.  You pay a fee and that reserves you a seat in a class with all supplies provided, and there is an instructor there to walk you through creating a painting.  Every class has a painting assigned to it, so you just browse through their calendar and sign up for the class that has the painting you’re interested in painting.  Brilliant, right?  You can bring in food and, more importantly, booze!  And when you’re done, you’ve got a nice art project to be proud of.

Jen, Adrian, and I are all pretty crafty in our own ways, but I wouldn’t consider any of us to be painters or overly artistic.  We didn’t really know what we were going to end up with, but I think we were all pleasantly surprised with how well our paintings turned out.  We were all following the same directions, but every painting is slightly different.  Here’s my finished painting:

Not too shabby, huh? Right about now is when I’m wishing we’d taken a picture of the instructor’s painting… but, hey, I didn’t even remember to take my own camera! Jen, however, came prepared, so here are some of her pics of our fun Sunday afternoon painting adventure.

This is the three of us with our finished paintings.

During our last break… almost done!

They really break the painting process down step by step. It was pretty cool to see how everything comes together.

Hey, wouldn’t it have made a lot more sense if I would have posted these photos in the reverse order? You know… start to finish, instead of finish to start? I realize I could edit, but Henry’s not really feeling the blogging right now, so I’m just going to go with it this way.

Oh, I can’t forget the Irish Dancers!

We happened to sign up for the Painting with a Purpose event. Every month they do a charity event where they donate all of the proceeds from the class to a different group. Our class was benefiting the McTeggart Irish Dancers of North Texas, and they were there to give us a few performances during our breaks. It was way cool! And as Chandler would say… their “legs flail about as if independent from their body!”

Painting with a Twist was a lot of fun. We went to the Grapevine location, and if you’re in the area and looking for something different to do, I totally recommend it!

I thought I’d show off some photos of Aaron from back when he was in the Navy.  My brilliant husband pointed out that this post would have been much more appropriate for Veteran’s Day (and of course he is right), but I figure any day is a good day to show off my hunky husband in uniform and with hair!

And everyday is a great day to shout out a big fat thank you to the men and women who serve our country, right? Right!

Aaron served six years in the navy.  He left home and joined the Navy when he was 17. He lived on a ship, went to some amazing places, and lost most of his hair.

Hard at work on the ship

Pose for the camera cutie pie!

Doing some more work in a different uniform! Exciting!

Um, excuse me Sailor, but aren't you supposed to be working?

I ♥ uniforms!

Ahh the Dress Blues! Gotta love it! This, I think, is right before he got out.

So there ya have it, folks.  Aaron being all little and young and in uniform and being generally awesome! I hope everyone is having a lovely Memorial Day and starting the summer off right!

That is all,

~sarah

I can’t help it… I luurrvve my garden!  Things are going nuts out there!

My Sunflowers are doing their thing and lookin’ sunny and making a lovely home for a whole mess of ladybugs! I love opening the blinds in my bedroom and seeing these little lovelies getting all bright and cheery.

My zucchini plant is trying to take over the world.  I started this sucker from one tiny little seed.  Go me!

She’s making some adorable little zukes.  They taste delicious too… I done ‘et me one in a taco salad.  How’s that for odd?

I also planted some Lemon Boy tomatoes that look like they’re doing good things.  I’ve never had a Lemon Boy tomato, but it should produce some really nice looking yellow maters, and that, in my opinion, is a good thing.  Just like Martha says!

And last, but not least, my Sweet 100′s are looking almost good enough to eat! They’re so close I can taste ‘em! And taste them I shall! In a few days!!!

The herbs are also coming along great… They’re tasty and plentiful! I actually am able to give herbs away to my friends, which is fun! Who doesn’t like a nice gift of fresh herbs?!?! Oh shhhh.  Not THAT kind of herb! Get your mind out of the gutter.

I have been battling some really freakin’ hungry caterpillars the last few days.  The damn caterpillars are strippin’ my poor little peas.  We’ll see who wins that little battle.  I’m putting my money on me and my big bug smushin’ thumbs.  With gloves on, of course.  They still give me the heebie jeebies.

That is all,

~sarah

The Wedding Shadowbox, originally uploaded by TheCootieQueen.

My two besties, Jen and Adrian, made this shadowbox for me after I done got hitched. I love it. Even though after they gave it to me, I put it in my guest room and forgot I had it. But there’s a REALLY good reason for that and his name is Henry. I was pregnant and miserable when they gave me the shadowbox and if it wasn’t ice cream, a snow cone, or some cheerios, I was not interested for the most part. This is not the only gift I received… pretty much EVERY SINGLE THING I received for Christmas of 2008 was put in the back room and forgotten. Until recently. And it was like Christmas all over again! I found some really rad stuff, yo! And this is one of the best things I remembered I had! I love love love it. And just because it hung out in my guest bedroom closet for a year and some change does NOT mean I don’t love it, but I was worried my pals would think I didn’t like it because, well, as I just explained…

Anyway. The shadowbox is a little tribute to our wedding. They strategically placed various momentos from my happy day and events surrounding my happy day. I worked with a friend of mine who is the world’s greatest graphic designer and she custom designed and hand made all of my invitations, the programs, my thank you notes, the shower invitations… pretty much everything on paper was designed and made by her. And I lurve her for it. ::high five, erin!::

Jen and Adrian saved all of these fun little items and made them into a keepsake just for me. ::squee:: Wanna know what everything is? Sure, why not, right?

In the bottom left corner is the wax seal that I used on the wedding invitations. The wax seal is a “C”. Right above that is the stamp from the wedding invitations. I used one of my favorite engagement photos to make stamps with our purdy faces on ‘em. The stamp is sitting on the inside invitation part of our invites. Behind that is the front of the invite – with a single peacock feather hand sewn on with our monogram in the corner. Have I told you guys how much I love erin and everything she made for my wedding? Yes? Ok… good.

The purple box at the top says September 27, 2008 aka The Big Day. Below that is the CD I made as favors for the rehearsal dinner. The CD contained all of the songs that were planned as part of our ceremony and various parts of the reception. Perhaps I shall list out all of the songs that were an integral part of The Big Day. ::making mental note for future post:: Below that is the tag I made to go on the favors that we gave our guests at the wedding. I made cute little boxes of custom M&M’s and tied them all up with these little tags that “Happily Ever After… Thank you for being part of our special day. With Love, Sarah and Aaron Carlock” I just HAD to put our new married name on there. Tee hee hee.

In the upper right corner is the invitation to my wedding shower that my bridesmaids worked with erin to make. They matched all of my other print stuff which my anal OCD controlling personality found very very soothing and awesome. In front of that is the Save the Date cards we sent out to remind folks to, well, save the date! Genius! …And on top of that is the front of the cards I used to write thank you notes to all of the wedding attendants wonderful people who participated in The Big Day… They were attached to lovely gifts!

Everything is nestled perfectly inside of a shadow box. When I found it, I immediately placed it up on my mantle. But with my mantle redo I’m working on a new permanent home for this little gem. I’ll report back when I get it in it’s forever home. I love my shadowbox because it reminds me of the second best day ever! (the first best day ever is the day I had Henry, of course). It’s a very very close second though.

Big Thank You’s and sloppy wet kisses to Jen and Adrian. You girls rule! MUAH!

That is all,
~sarah

Since it decided to finally stop raining, I got outside and played in the garden today.  The World’s Best Husband went out this morning and fetched me a few things I needed while I did some maintenance work in the garden.  I pruned the and fed the mater plants.  I also ejected a few Brandywine tomato plants I’d started from seed awhile back. I don’t have room for them to keep on doin’ their thang, so they’re going to live with my parents.  Don’t worry… they’re being relocated to a good garden home.  I also snipped some basil and parsley to use in dinner tonight.  I still cannot get over how freakin’ cool I feel every time I actually use the herbs I’m growing.  Makes me all giddy!

Aaron fetched me these pretty little ladies to keep my tomatoes company.  Apparently the marigolds are supposed to keep the bad bugs away.  I tell ya, I learn something new everyday! (Thanks for the pointer, Aprille!!!

Squeeeee!!! LOOK!!!

The tomatoes are coming! The tomatoes are coming!!!

My herbs are coming along nicely.  I’m in love with them.  I want to eat them all up.  In fact, I think I will.

Here we've got some tiny baby basil, dill, sweet basil, there's actually some cilintro hiding out in there and some chives.

I think the stuff I keep calling tiny baby basil is actually Boxwood basil.  I like it! It tastes good and is growing nicely.  I actually just rooted some clippings and got those planted today… I’m going to expand my tiny baby basil empire!  I’m not, however, in love with the chives.  They’re not doing what I want them to do, and as I’ve thought about it… I don’t really like chives.  So I think I’m going to dig em up and put some rosemary in that little blank space.  I LURVE me some rosemary and I only have a little going right now.  I’ve got some clippings hanging out in water so they’ll root and I can expand my rosemary empire, too.  The wonderful thing about having your own garden is you can tailor it specifically to your own tastes.  Fantastic!

Speaking of rosemary... Here's what I've got started already. It shall be expanded! I've also got some lemon thyme and more basil (shocker, I know) going here.

Check out my crazy zucchini plant! This sucker is taking over! I put a couple of squash and zucchini seeds in this container and then about a week later it snowed.  I didn’t think anything would come up, but whaddaya know?!?! This little puppy sprung up! It’s really irking my OCD gotta-center-stuff tendencies that the one plant that sprouted is all off-center.  I’m fighting the urge to relocate it and just embrace it’s caddywompusness (<– so totally a word).

And now, if you haven’t already figured it out, I will explain why I previously said my garden was weird… actually I said it was a “crazy funky garden set up.”

The amazing trash can and various other kinds of container garden!

My garden isn’t a fun raised bed… It’s freakin’ trash cans, yo! The World’s Best Husband dug me some holes and buried these suckers so they wouldn’t tip over in our slightly sloping backyard.  I had to have something that my dogs could’t get into and that would work in my space.  We got the trash cans and made the bottom of them look like swiss cheese and then put some big rocks in the bottom to further facilitate the draining.  So far they all drain wonderfully! Except for the zucchini pot… Second from the left.  It stays kind of soggy, and I don’t know why yet.  I’m workin’ on it.  If it doesn’t get better, I’m hittin’ the side of that sucker with the drill to get more above ground drainage happening.  I also have some various sizes of pots hanging out behind the trashcans with more herbs, a patio tomato and some sunflowers.  Sunflowers are the world’s easiest thing to grow and they attract predatory insects that eat the bad guys.  Gotta love that!  The great thing about this type of set up is you never run out of room! Want to plant something else? Fetch another pot!

I’ve also gotten my hanging plants and the patio all happy happy.  I always get ferns going in hanging baskets.  I love how gigantic they get over the summer, and I also love the way the patio feels when you water the hanging plants and the water drips out on to the hot patio pavement.  Cools everything down and just feels right.

I’ve got some more herbs up on the patio, and had to move my mint up here today too.  It was getting a little too roasty toasty out in the yard.

I picked up this jasmine vine a while back and just threw it in this pot along with these pretty little purple flowers that are shade lovers.  I can’t remember what they’re called.  I’m notorious for planting stuff and not knowing what the heck it is.  I look for sun or shade plants depending on what I need, pop ‘em in the ground and forget what they’re called.  So the next year when I want the same thing… I’m kinda screwed! ANYWAY! I put this jasmine and the little purple flower plant with hopes of the jasmine growing up the post… until I paid attention and the jasmine is more of a sun plant.  Oh well, I thought… Let’s see what happens..

This little booger has surprise me though! It’s about 4 times the size it was and spits out wonderful yellow blooms here and there.  If it got a wee bit more sun it would bloom more, I’m guessing, but it’s really taking off here.  It gets a decent amount of sun in the later 1/2 of the day, so I guess that’s good enough!

I’m absolutely loving gardening and being home with The Boy and actually having time to devote to my little plant babies.  Gardening gives me something fun to do outside while Henry is napping, and Henry likes to take trips out to the garden for herb fetching with me.  It’s good times all around!

That is all,

~sarah

There is just way too much cuteness going on here!

That is all,

~sarah

PS – Adrian – thank you for letting me take pics of your adorable boys.  I ♥ them ever so much!