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Monday, April 30, 2012

Flapper Make-Up

Happy Miscellaneous Monday! Here's something random for you. =)

I was a flapper for Halloween this year and, not being one to waste a costume, I also wore my flapper outfit to a 20s Jazz Banquet I went to. Here's a simple outline of tips for 20s makeup.

For the eyes:
Dark kohl eyeliner- Apply around eye twice. Extend upper line past the eye a little bit.
Darker neutral eye shadows, especially browns. If desired, use white eyeshadow as a base before applying the brown eye shadow.
Big eyelashes - some people prefer using fake eyelashes, I just used black mascara.

For the cheeks:
The "pale" look was very in. To achieve this I used:
Liquid foundation - I just used a lot of it because I'm pretty pale already
Powder - This just gets ride of shine
Blush - In a pink/rose color

For the lips:
I don't own lip liner, so I couldn't use that, but you can to create fuller lips.
Red Lipstick with Clear Lip Gloss - To create a dark red look for the lips OR
Red Colored Lip Gloss - Gets the same effect, just depends on what you already own



It's not the best picture, but you get the point. =)


Saturday, April 28, 2012

Sippin' Saturday

Happy Sippin' Saturday! Here are another 10 drinks I've tried:

1. Fuze Tropical Punch Slenderize
This is probably the best Fuze drink I've had - and that's not saying much. This drink did have a nice banana-pineapple flavor, but that's about it. Overall, I find Fuze drinks disgusting and way too diet-flavored. And, on a random note, my sister googled some of their ingredients (being the plant-science major she is) and discovered some of them have really bad side effects, like cancer. So be careful next time you pick one of these up!


2. Naked Orange Juice
This tasted like normal orange juice. Slightly pulpy and very "strong" on the orange part (less sweet). It's great if you have a cold and no other choices, but nothing special.

3. Simply Orange
This one is less "strong" than Naked Orange Juice. It still has great flavor, but is a little bit watered down. I really enjoyed this one with breakfast foods.

4. Einstein’s Peppermint Hot Cocoa
I love this drink! I'm not sure if it's in season, but if you have a chilly day (hey, it snowed here on Thursday) this is definitely the drink! Imagine peppermint ice cream melted into perfect hot chocolate, and that's the drink you get. It is flavorful and creamy, but not overpowering like Starbuck's is.

5. Shamrock Farm’s Egg Nog
I love this egg nog. Granted, I've never had the "real" version, but I like this one. I've always been leery of egg nog due to the raw egg factor, but this version is pasteurized, so I know I'm not going to get some weird stomach bug. It's also super creamy and frothy and has a perfectly balanced blend of spice.

6. Snapple Noni Berry
While the Noni berry is undiscovered and supposedly cool, this drink was not. I understand why I'd never heard of it before - it tastes awful. This drink isn't worth your time.

7. Snapple Mangosteen
I love this! It was the first Snapple flavor I've ever tried, and it's delicious. It is perfectly cool and refreshing with a flavorful taste of mango that isn't overpowering.

8. Tazo Green Tea
This is the best premade tea I've had! It is perfectly sweetened and has just a slight hint of mint. I grab it anytime I want a refreshing drink that isn't jam-packed with sugar.

9. Arizona Iced Tea Mango
I really like the mango flavor. This tea was no exception. This drink was very sugary, but still had a great flavor.

10. Arizona Iced Tea Pomegranate
This drink was refreshing, but the pomegranate tasted a bit too much like cold medicine.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Aqua Earrings

I don't have a full picture tutorial for these, but I do have directions. They are super easy to make and super cute too!

Materials
2 head or eyepins
2 earring hooks
2 teardrop beads
5 small (not quite seed-beads) beads
wire cutters
needle nose pliers

Directions
Put teardrop bead and then 5 small beads onto the head or eyepin (I used an eyepin). Use the needle nose pliers to bend the remaining part of the pin at a ninety degree angle. Add the earring hook and cut off excess headpin wire. Use the needle nose pliers to turn the ninety degree angle into a full closed loop. Repeat for the other earring. Voila! You're done. And it was super easy. =)


Linked up at Flamingo Toes.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Damaged by Melody Carlson

This book is about a girl who is sexually assaulted and then has to deal with the aftermath of what happened. This book was really really hard to read because an eerily similar situation happened to my friend. This book is (due to the maturity of the topic) definitely for a more mature reading audience, at least those of high school age. I would read this book if you want to see a different worldview/perspective on rape, but I would avoid it if you want to get information elsewhere - it is a tough read.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Baked Pork Chops

So maybe it's just because I'm a college student, but I really enjoyed this recipe. It took a little bit of time, but I made three pork chops at once and just made them throughout the week. The recipe is from allrecipes.com.

Ingredients
6 pork chops
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups Italian-style seasoned bread crumbs
4 teaspoons olive oil
1 can (10.75 oz.) condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup white wine

**Since I was making this meal for a college student and not for a family I halved the recipe. I also used chicken stock instead of white wine. **

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Rinse pork chops, pat dry and season with garlic powder and salt to taste. Place the beaten eggs in a small bowl. Dredge (that means drag through/coat) the pork chops lightly in flour, dip in the egg, and coat liberally with bread crumbs. Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Fry the pork chops for five minutes on each side, or until the breading appears browned. Transfer the chops to a casserole dish and cover with foil. Bake in the oven for one hour. While baking, combine the cream of mushroom soup, milk and chicken stock (or white wine) in a medium bowl. After the pork chops have baked for an hour, cover them with the soup mixture. Replace foil and bake for another 30 minutes.

Frying the pork chops 

The finished product

Yummm

So it doesn't look amazing, but what is lacks in looks it makes up for in taste. Happy Tasty Tuesday!

Linked up at Flamingo Toes.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Our Lady of Einseldeln Archabbey (Einseldeln, Switzerland)


This is Our Lady of Einseldeln Archabbey in Einseldeln, Switzerland. I believe I enjoyed celebrating mass here even more than I did in the Vatican. They don't let you take pictures inside the church, but it is decorated  everywhere. (If you even go to churches in Europe, take some time to look up at the ceiling). I remember it being quite pastel and pink. Mass was wonderful, and it included polyphonic chants by the monks. It was also during mass here that I realized that "Peace be with you" can be understood in the context of mass, even if you don't speak the same language as the people around you. (Mass was in German).

This monastery is famous for it's black Madonna statue (Madonna is code for Virgin Mary... it took me a while to figure that out). The story is that they burned candles around this statue so much that her face turned black. At one point they tried to clean it and paint it back to its original color, but the people had fallen in love with the black Madonna, so it is now painted that way.

So Fr. Matt (who is the priest from the Newman Center here who traveled with us) knows a monk who lives here (who actually grew up on the real Matterhorn) because the monk studied abroad to Fr. Matt's seminary. Anyways, this monk was super cool and took us to different places around the monastery. Here are pictures from the amazing library they had there.


What's that? Square-note notation music? Yes! Yes it is! Isn't that crazy and amazing? At least for you music geeks out there?


This is the second Bible ever translated into German (after Martin Luther's). The monk who showed us around just picked it up off the shelf and read a bit of it to us.


The shield here shows two crows, which is all around the monastery. I believe it has something to do with St. Meinrad, but I couldn't tell you for sure.


Now to set the setting around the monastery. This is literally what Switzerland looks like - I didn't edit these pictures at all. It is by far the most beautiful place I have ever been.



They are also famous for a certain breed of horses, but I'm not too sure what those are either. This is just a fountain outside of the monastery. (On another note, nearby is a restaurant where I got the best meal of my entire life. If you're ever in town, check it out.)


On another Catholic note, the bishop was at the Newman Center today to confirm new members. Congratulations to all of my new brothers and sisters in the faith!

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Sippin' Saturday

Here are reviews of ten random drinks that I've tried.

1. Lipton Lemon Tea
This was okay. If you are a big fan of unsweetened tea, this may be for you. For me, it was lacking some flavor (and sugar).

2. Honest Ade Pomegranate Blue
This tasted like nothing more than watered down grape juice. But for some reason I kept drinking it. So although it had no flavor and wasn't unique, it was surprisingly refreshing.

3. Sierra Mist Natural
I love this! This is only a proof that advertising works - since Pepsi sponsors our school, they give us (the marching band) free soda (it's okay because it's clear?). It has such a great taste - perfectly sweet and perfectly lemon-limey, not too much of anything. And also perfectly refreshing for after a half-time performance.

4. Naked Blue Machine
This was so gross - to me it tasted like black licorice. I took maybe two sips and then gave it to someone who actually liked the flavor.

5. Naked Green Machine
Considering what is in this drink (like garlic and algae) it didn't actually taste too bad. The consistency does weird me out though - I guess I'm just not into juice smoothies.

6. Naked Red Machine
This is probably my favorite of the Naked Machines that I've tried. Like I said, the consistency is a bit weird, but the flavor is fine, just a fruity berry mix. However, considering the price, I'm not sure I'd ever buy this again.

7. Naked Gold Machine
This one was okay - I drank it while I had a cold because it had a lot of Vitamin C. It is your typical banana base sort-of-fruity-sort-of-bland smoothie. So, good, but I'm not going to buy it again.

8. Teddy’s Root beer
I really liked this stuff. Someone gave me two liters of it for a secret schlo-mo (because Santa is religiously affiliated?) gift. I drank a whole liter of it in one night. It is more sugary than normal root beers and has less carbonation, which is a plus on my part.

9. Chili’s Mango Iced Tea
Love this stuff! I get it every time I go to Chili's. (Although I usually add three or four packets of sugar). This drink is a great perfectly flavored tea that is light and refreshing.

10. Tazo Plum Pomegranate
I wasn't too much a fan of this one. It was just too... eh.

Well, that's all folks. Tune in next week for another ten or so reviews. And hopefully soon I'll be making drinks of my own to share with you guys, just in time for summer.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Bracelets!

So lately I've gone a little bit crazy making friendship bracelets. Here's what I made.

This is a really easy (and quite pretty) bracelet to make. You can get the tutorial of how to make this one in one of my previous blog posts here.

This is a trio of fun bracelets that I made for Easter. One is just braided (with six strands) one is a simple friendship bracelet (tutorial here) and one is the same friendship bracelet as above. And since it was for Easter, I added a cross charm.

Sorry the picture is so blurry! I made this bracelet during class (sometimes my teachers are just not that interesting) and I love it. It is a standard V-Pattern Friendship Bracelet in rainbow colors. (Tutorial here).

This is a classy version of the V-Bracelet - every four rows I added a small bead before completing the center stitches. And instead of adding a bead for the middle occurrence, I added a cross charm.


I love this bracelet! It is braided with four colors. To braid this way, take the outer strand and pull it over two strands. Then pull it back towards the way it started underneath a strand. Alternate outer edges. I added a fun bead to the end for a clasp.

Heat pattern! I found this pattern on Pinterest, which links to here.

This bracelet is made with two "ropes" of four-braided strands. Also, I have discovered the wonder that is fiber crimps and pretty clasps. They add a whole new dimension to the bracelet.

I saw this pattern online and I just had to figure out how to make it. It took me a couple of tries (and even some sketching) to figure it out, but I did. Unfortunately, it's something I can do but can't quite explain yet - maybe I'll get a tutorial up someday.

This is the same as the previous bracelet, but made with 24 strands instead of 12 - like there are two bracelets next to each other.

This is your traditional diagonal bracelet made with ribbon with beads added every six rows.

This is another traditional diagonal bracelet, just with three beads in the middle and the great fiber crimps and clasp at the end.

As you can see - I've gone a bit (okay, a lot) crazy making friendship bracelets. But I've learned lots of cool new things, and I really enjoy making them. All of these are in my etsy shop right now. =)

Linked up at

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Mini Garlic Monkey Breads

I got the recipe for this from Eat Cake For Dinner. (Because what's the point of Pinterest if you never actually try anything you pin?) Anyways, I absolutely loved these - they were easy to make and very delicious. My roommate and a friend I had over both loved them as well. I would add more garlic next time - or maybe some garlic salt. Otherwise, it was perfect!

Ingredients
2 (7.5 oz) cans buttermilk biscuits
6 Tablespoons butter, melted
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons dried parsley flakes
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions
Tear biscuits into approximately 6 pieces and place in a bowl. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over biscuit pieces. Gently toss to evenly coat. Use a greased 12-cup muffin tin and place 6-7 pieces in each cup. If desired, sprinkle cheese on top. (I omitted this step). Bake at 400 degrees for 12-14 minutes. Serve warm. Makes 12. (But if you want to reheat them, just add a bit of cheese on top and pop them in the microwave. And if they go stale, you can eat them with soup.)

Yum

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Sippin' Saturday

So I recently tried a drink that I thought was amazing, and although I have plenty of other drinks to review, this one gets to be featured today. The Georgia Peach is offered at Wildflower Bakery - I hope one day to be able to make this on my own! The drink is comprised of peach, yogurt, honey and lavender. It is like an upscale Jamba Juice- the perfect peaches and cream flavor with the added flavor of lavender. It was amazing.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Love Finds You in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts by Melody Carlson

This was a cute, refreshing book. It's no secret that Melody Carlson is my favorite author... and she writes so many books that I never run out of stuff to read! This is a great Christian chick-lit book that would be a nice summer romance. The book follows the story of a girl who moves to Martha's Vineyard to own her own art gallery - only to discover a surprise.


On another note, if you need a good book, check out www.azbooknook.com. =)

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Cookie Dough Truffles

Sorry there hasn't been a Tasty Tuesday for a while! My sister and I made these over spring break and absolutely loved them! The recipe is originally from Chef In Training, which is a pretty awesome blog - you should go check it out!

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
14 oz can sweetened, condensed milk
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
To coat: 1 1/2 lbs chocolate disks or chocolate chips (We used 1 package of chocolate chips, plus what was left from the mini chocolate chips)

Directions:
In a large bowl cream butter and brown sugar until creamy. Add vanilla. Gradually beat in flour and add milk. Add mini chocolate chips, mixing well. Shape into 1-inch balls. Place on waxed paper; chill 2 hours.

Melt chocolate chips in a double boiler (or make your own like we did... see below!). Using 2 forks, dip cookie balls into chocolate to cover. Place on waxed paper and chill to set. Store in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Our cheater double boiler (The bottom pan has boiling water in it)

The finished product! Yum!


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