Halloween at the Office

Normal at work:

Halloween at work:


(PS: I'm Cleopatra)

*edited to add a full body shot*

Fingers crossed that I win the costume contest! I have stiff competition, check out the transformer!

-b-

Mineral lipstick?!?!!

What's up with mineral makeup? I have a great color that feels super nice on my lips from avon, and it fades in approximately 5 minutes! I was going to give you a time lapsed progression of its fading, but that seems excessive - here's stock photo from Avon.

I have it in Crystal Coral.

What gives? is there some kind of trick to this stuff? Do I have to wear liner? ugh, that officially makes it high maintenance and defeats the purpose of me keeping this as my official desk lipstick. I have a full set of makeup at my desk made up of samples from all over for occasions when I'm running late/looking fug/was in the field and now back at my desk/etc. Lipsticks are my only full size item in the desk makeup kit.

This one is posing a problem to my little system.

-b-

PS: Bought some cheapO gloves last night at walmart and spray painted them silver in preparation for a Beyonce-ish glove. I painted both thinking that I'll try two different ideas.

darn

Wanted to do an outfit post today, but camera isn't allowing the use of the timer! darn darn darn.

Tomorrow is another day...I'll try somethign different
-b-

Weekend plans

It's beautiful in Houston right now. Which is awesome, but also means that I have to do housework this weekend. There are so many house-tasks that just plain can't be done during most times because it's too damn hot in Houston. No excuse this weekend - it's freakin' lovely.

Not sure what I'll tackle this weekend. Do you remember my window bars? I'm thinking that I'll finally strip the rusted paint and start to repaint. I bought the supplies in the spring but never did it. They are a little tacky to start with, and look much worse with rusted paint. Not sure how I can make this not mind-numbing....radio for sure.

I also have a halloween-related craft that I'd like to make this weekend, but I haven't figured out the best way to do it. The challenge: recreate Beyonce's crazy metal glove.....

source: people magazine

Source

Any ideas?


-b-

Craft time

I went on a huge crafting spree a week or so ago and never got around to posting. I made so many fun little things…with Halloween coming up, there were a lot of skulls.

These are earrings I made for each of the girls that came to my pumpkin carving night.

I have extras …want a pair? Shoot me an email at ramurray{at}hotmail.com with your address.

I made these for myself (hey I already have a pair of the skull only). I made a big circle using wire, then went back over it with a thinner wire and smaller beads. They are pretty fun earrings (clickable for closeup).
I also made these skull earrings. The skulls are carved wooden beads.


A NON-Skull item is this beautiful pearl necklace.

I loved the color of these, not too light and not too dark purple. I made this for a girlfriend that just announced her pregnancy. It’s too early to know if she’s having a girl or boy, so I thought I would give her something just for her as a mom. Moms deserve to look pretty and I thought the purple would compliment her skin.

Before my trip to Florida, I made one of these necklaces for each girl. You may recall this necklace is hanging from my dining room light!

The beads around the light were originally in 5 strands (one for each girl) when I decided that they would look good combined and hung from the light.

I came back a week later and made 5 new necklaces. I love these glass beads. They were super inexpensive from Joannes (I think $5 for a one POUND bag and then it was buy 1 get 1 or something like that). They make great necklaces b/c no two beads are the same and at least one bead in the necklace will pick up colors from your outfit. No brainer jewelry!

Remember to let me know about the skull earrings. I don't know how many pairs I had leftover or what colors, but I'll send what I have.

-b-

Pumpkin carving

I think I’ve said it before, but I’m really thankful that in the last year I’ve met an awesome bunch of girls. One example of their awesome-ness is the monthly Ladies Night In. This month was my turn to host and the theme was PUMPKIN CARVING.

I don’t know what is more fun than eating with friends, drinking wine and getting stabby with a pumpkin.

My pumpkin was a stunning white number (rare for TX, guess I didn't go local in this purchase):

*tough to see in the dark against a purple shirt, but I'm wearing my shell necklace. You can see it better if you click to enlarge*

I don't know why, but I was genuinely surprised that it was orange inside. I've never seen a white pumpkin, let alone carved one.

This is a group shot from the night. I was impressed with the variety and knife wielding skills.

What will your pumpkin look like?

Are you a tracer or do you freehand? I have a tough time carving designs that I think up, so I usually stick to a modified tracing.

-b-

Non-nautical shells

After reading a post by Punkystyle, I was inspired to make my own Alex & Chloe style necklace.

Here is mine from afar:
And Close up

I love it. It looks a little dark, but still comes across as an organic piece of jewelry. While in St. Pete, I picked up a lot of little shells and will probably make a couple more necklaces. Or maybe earrings?


I think I will try other colors with the next ones. Right now I’m thinking of hot pink and gray with glitter!

-b-

Haircut

I finally went in for a haircut and am really happy with the results. Here is a before:


And an after:

Not a huge difference, but it subtly revived my curls. I went to a ‘curl specialist’ this time, her name is Gerri and she works at Blue Mambo Salon in Houston. I learned all sorts of curly hair tips, such as:

• I don’t have curly hair, I have wavy hair


• Don’t brush and don’t comb, use my fingers for less breakage


• It’s fine to condition, but stop shampooing too much. Limit it to once a week so that hair isn’t dried out. When shampooing, use one without sulfides because you don't want all that bubbling (Suave naturals fits this, hello cheap!).


• Keep plunking. It works.


• I've been using Jessicurl's Confident Coils which has been helpfult and is good, but is supposed to be better when used with Rocking Ringlets

Not familiar with Plunking? Check it out here. At first it’s really funny to walk around the house with your hair tied up in a funny towel (I use flour sack fabric, but others use microfiber).

Here is me with my super cool drying flour sack thing (this is what I use instead of a microfiber towel):

Gotta go with what works!

-b-

Studly Shoes

I’m back! I was in Florida for the past couple of days seeing my girlfriends and also getting some fantastic family time with my sister and her family. We were on the west coast, mostly hanging out in the St. Pete area.

I got to visit the Lawry Park zoo with my niece and nephews, dance my butt off with the girls, and even relaxed on the beach. It was pretty great, I’m not going to lie!

St. Pete beach was nice and quiet on Sunday.

Hanging out with my nephew at the lake (my niece took this photo).

Goat feeding at the Zoo.

Before leaving Houston, I’ll admit to coping Kasmira’s star design, and bedazzled a pair of shoes to match my purse. It turned out great. I wore them this past wkd and got a lot of compliments with both the purse and shoes.

I think I’ve done my part to positively spread the word about bedazzling. I think my work is done!

-b-

stud muffin

I whipped out my gemagic last night and made a boring little black purse pretty rad:

The photographs STINK, but you should be able to tell that it's a combination of silver and gold studs. It came out pretty cute, I'm going to use it this weekend when I go out with girlfriends.

Total cost

Purse: $1.99 at goodwill

Gemagic set: $2.00 (although, this price is a little incorrect b/c I didn't use up the set - i can use it a million more times!)

Studs: $1.00 (came from a set of 200 bedazzler studs that were $5.99, but I obviously didn't use the entire package)

TOTAL = Less than 5 bucks!

Jewelry as Statements

Have you seen the book about Madeleine Albright's jewelry? Shiny Little Things brought it to my attention. It's about how she selected certain pieces of jewelry (in this case pins) to set a mood or describe her own feelings .

You can read a review and see some of the pins on NPR

I think that is a really interesting idea. I think most of us try to portray a certain image when we select our clothing and accessories, but do we ever convey what's really going on inside our minds?

hmm...

Wedding rings are easy. I'm taken.





I wear an Aggie Ring which is kinda big in Texas. It's a big, rather offensively large gold ring - but it tells the world that I attended Texas A&M. I didn't go to TAMU until graduate school, so I'm afraid that I missed out on a lot of their traditions (there are a ridiculous amount of them), but it was special for me to get the ring b/c my Grandfather went to A&M and wore his ring proudly for almost 50 years. For me it's a connection to him. I went to A&M after he passed, but I think he would've been proud of me.

The rings are good symbols, but don't really describe how I'm feeling ...

Today I feel a little lonely (my husband is working out of town and even though he drives me nuts, I miss him), but I'm also getting excited because I get to see both my sister and my high school girlfriends this weekend. I'm not sure what would illustrate this mood.

Maybe a watch brooch because I feel like I'm waiting a little? Waiting for a good time and getting antsy.

??

-b-

Today seems a little flat for me, I'd say that today is a

Outfit post

Yesterday I wore more Old Navy clearance. I haven’t liked their stuff for a long time so I was pretty surprised when I stopped for basics and found this dress. On sale.



I think it’s pretty flattering and easy to wear. There is a keyhole at the top, but I didn’t like it tied up. It’s a little too low when open without a tank though!

I think it’ll be great for fall & winter – all I need to do is add tights and wear over a turtleneck. That seems easy enough.

It’s tough to see in the photograph, but I do have a belt around my waist. I found this one at TJ Maxx and it’s perfect for wearing this way. It’s all connected, so when I tighten or loosen it there aren’t any loose ends. That’s my main complaint with the whole belted waist thing. I can’t figure out what people do with the part of the belt that sticks out.

What do you do with the loose ends of the belt?

Shark tooth necklace

I’m wearing my heart/shark tooth necklace that I made. I think the center bead is supposed to be a heart, but it reminded me of collected shark teeth at the springs as a kid.

Photo from Travelpod

We used to love going to the springs as kids. It was seriously the best.thing.ever. The water was super cold but it was so hot outside. Sometimes we tubed Rock Springs, sometimes we canoed or swam at Wekiva Springs. If we were swimming around, we’d root around the bottom to find shark teeth. We always took them home and tried to do something with them. Wekiva Springs, from http://floridanature.wordpress.com/2008/03/10/so-you-want-to-be-a-nature-writer/

Rock Springs, from Orange County webpage

People, I'm telling you that these photographs weren't doctored. That is how these places look. Lush, green, and just bursting with beauty!

There were always lots of baby red-eared slider turtles swimming around the edges of the water near the plants. This is kinda bad, but we would take a couple home at the beginning of the summer and keep them in an aquarium and then return them to the springs at the end of the summer when they were a little bigger. I remember a girlfriend in high school thinking that it was pretty odd, but it was a pretty normal summer thing for us.

If you were canoeing you were guaranteed to see an alligator or two or three (eep). About ten years ago, I saw a HUGE one chillaxing in someone’s yard that backed up to the springs. Dude slide into the water right before we were set to go by. Scared the bejesus out of me.

Picnics and/or grilling were required pieces of the summer springs puzzle. We used to get so tired swimming or canoeing around. I remember sitting at picnic benches and on blankets being pooped out and eating sandwiches from our cooler.

My mom recently went to Rock Springs with my sister and her family and I can’t tell you all how jealous I was when I saw the photographs. My 7 year old nephew was floating down and I remember being that kid!

So – that makes this my shark tooth necklace.

-b-

PS: Now have an intense sense of urgency that to purchase photographs of Wekiva & Rock Springs.

Team Spirit

My husband and I have been following the Houston Dynamo for the last couple of years and finally got season tickets for the 2009 season. We've loved it and actually just renewed our season passes for next year. Today was an important game with a sweet giveaway (scarf!) and so I trudged out ... even though I was going alone...hubby is traveling for work.

What's a girl to do? Take a photo before heading out!

Here is what I wore to Today's game:




It was raining for the last day and I went in full rain gear. Which worked out well, until the rain let up. Then I was a super sweaty hot mess...holy moley it was muggy today. I got the giveaway scarf, but don't think I'll be wearing it anytime soon.


Here's a close up of my earrings:




They are painted bottle caps & glitter! haha, they move around a ton when I'm cheering.

We didn't WIN win today, but we tied and that got us into the first round for the MLS championships. Yippee


-b-

Tretorns

I took a very small online shopping risk and bought a pair of Tretorns last month.

Holy smokes, I love them. I've worn them on every day with the smallest forecast of rain. I don't commute by walking at all, but you know there could be a puddle in the parking lot. They are comfortable for me, but I could see folks not liking them. They are technically rubber shoes and if you tend to be a little sweaty in the foot area this might not be fun at the end of the day. Also, i could see them not working for people with a wider foot. Mine are fairly narrow and they fit just right on me.

Thought I would throw my two-cents out there, since they are on sale TODAY at 6pm.com for $20 (which is what I paid last month).

Since I'm talking about my rain shoes, thought I'd show the result of recent rain - mushrooms perfectly sized for my little gnome friend.

Have a good weekend!

-b-

Woah, two outfits in a week

Here's what I'm wearing today (click to enlarge):

It seemed interesting this morning, but now seems a little flat. I blame poor lighting and camera work!

The shirt is a cheapie from OldNavy, layered over a navy tank. I really liked the little ruffle and color (despite being a pretty thin top). The website doesn't have yellow anymore, but I found it on super clearance last week.

The pants are a light cotton navy & white pinstripe (they look kind of gray in the photo). Since I'm freezing in my office, I actually end up looking like this during the day. Later in the afternoon I'll probably add my wool sweater to this combo.

After looking at the photos, I hate this belt. It's pinching me all wrong, the color doesn't really match, and it's too thin. I'm going to keep my eyes open for a slightly wider belt, maybe in gray?

From Speigel.

Would like to mention that as I was clicking around looking for a belt, I made a mis-click and wound up on a page for a 'Skanky stewardess' costume. Why was that even included in my search results? I was searching "womens gray belts"???

ewww.
-b-