(late) birchbox december 2013

Ahhhh I received my January BBox today, and realized I had completely forgotten to post December's box! Here's a quick recap of what I received for my final box of 2013.

different box! cute.

"Hello" perfume by Harvey Prince. I LOVE this perfume, and wear it all the time since I received it in this box. Very citrusy, but light and a little floral as well. 

Color Club nail polish. The name of this one escapes me at the moment, but it is a nice dark, deep teal and looks great on the nail!

I have always been pretty "meh" about these hairties.  I don't understand what's so special about them. Maybe someone can explain? 

Embrolisse Lait-Creme Concentre Nourishing Moisturizer. I have been using this a lot as an eye primer, and for that it works GREAT. It makes my eyelids silky and smooth, but not greasy or shiny looking. I haven't tried to use it as a moisturizer yet, though.

Jour d'automne Non-Aerosol Hairspray. This one is kind of 50/50 for me. It really just depends on what I want out of the hairspray for the specific style I'm going for. If I just want to have natural looking volume and leave my hair down, this works just fine. It gives a really light lift, and doesn't make your hair all crunchy like some other non aerosol hairsprays. If i want more hold, however, this doesn't quite do the trick, and I have to use an aerosol hairspray. Granted, I don't use hairspray all that often to begin with, so it's not a huge loss, and I have used it several times since I received it.

So there's December! I'll be taking photos of my January box tomorrow to show all of you, because I am SO EXCITED ABOUT IT!!! 

xoxo

Meagan

Holidaze

Hey blog world!
Christmas was a blast! Shane and I road-tripped it to Iowa for a brief Christmas vacation. We spent 4 days there, laughing, drinking, exchanging gifts and spending time with friends and family. I wouldn't have had it any other way!

For our first day there, we had sort of a triple-date dinner party/except not dinner/basically dips and jenga. It was everything I needed and more. Jenga nights are sort of a tradition with us, so we had to keep it real and now Shane is officially a Jenga night participant! haha.
Here are some hilarious pics of Jen and Kasjen.

The next day, we had plans to go get Indian food with Cassie for lunch, but all decided we were too zombified from the night before, so instead we hung out, watched some Doctor Who and ordered Chinese. Not disappointed in the least. Once we left there, we had Christmas Eve with my family, opened gifts, and had a great dinner made by my sister. Here are some pics of the kids opening gifts...

nieces ayanna & mackenzie

jake opening one of his gifts

niece madyson (soon-to-be baubleheadz jewelry model!)

mackenzie opening a super glitter package!

ayanna and mackenzie being dorks :)

nephew, jake. the mustache and eyebrows moved up and down! hilarious.

my brother-in-law steve wearing the incognito glasses

caught him changing into the sweater we gave him, hahaha. 

asia and her art box!

bunch of goofballs

steve with his "#1 Everything" mug. hahah.

Christmas Day, Shane and I (but mostly Shane) made a ham and some sides for dinner with my dad and sisters and two of my nieces. We had a nice lazy day, lounging around playing with gifts, looking through REALLY REALLY old pictures (I'll scan and share some soon!)  It was a nice day, and when everyone left, Shane and I went out to the bar to meet up with a bunch of friends. Here are some pics of that...event. :)

NYE was last night, and a few days ago on Buzzfeed, I saw a post about making tiny party hats for your cats. I was immediately hooked on the idea, so I crafted a couple cute party hats. I could only (BARELY) get one of the cats to cooperate, and this is what I came up with.

It was every bit as hilarious as you might expect. She would not stop glaring at me, and she couldn't get the hat off on her own, so she started running in circles underneath the Christmas tree, attempting to knock it off with the low branches. Still unsuccessful, she plopped down underneath it in defeat, and glared at me until we got it off her and let her take out her revenge on it. She has since forgiven us, and no cats were harmed in the making of this photo. haha. :)

I have a lot of reviews and such to catch up on (including the holiday birchbox and several other makeup reviews, yay!!

Hope everyone's holiday was as satisfying as ours! Happy new year!

Create Your Own Band!

I stumbled upon a Buzzfeed Article from 2009 about a Wikipedia band name generator. For some reason I couldn't figure out what they were using to generate these names and covers. I now realize it's most likely because the post was from nearly 5 years ago, and the websites in use have changed since then. I changed it up slightly, and came up with some hilarious fake albums.

(Photo Credit: flickr)

Look out for Ameca River's debut album, "You're Behaving Like The Best Friend", due out in March 2014!
This Seattle-based folk-pop band is lyrically brilliant and brings to light the issues of our generation.

(Photo Credit: flickr)

Equally amazing, Bratsk Reservoir, a Russian acapella trio is releasing their first album, "I'm Still Waiting For Aliens to Come". Each track is masterly crafted using only their voices as recorded atop the peak of a mountain in the harsh Russian winter.



and last, but definitely not least...

(Photo Credit: flickr)

An up-and-coming Russian metal band, Mezhdusopochny drops their new album, "588" this winter!
As told by the lead screamer, "588" was named after "the number of bodies we dumped...wait, are we recording this conversation?"

Here's how to do it yourself...

1) Go to Wikipedia & click "Random Article". The title of the first page that pops up is the name of your band.
2) Go to WikiQuotes & click "Random Page". The last line or 5/6 words of the VERY LAST quote on the page is your debut album title.
3) Go to Flickr & click "Explore". From the drop-down menu, select "Recent Photos". Close your eyes and use your up/down arrow keys to scroll up and down the page at random. Click anywhere on the page, then open your eyes. That is the cover photo. (Please remember, if you are planning on posting these in your own blog posts, credit the photographer!)

Put them all together using My Banner Maker, come up with the genre and a backstory, then go out and get yourself a record deal!

Update

Hello blog world! Long time, no update! Since the last time I posted, We've had Thanksgiving and my birthday, which explains the absence. :)
To recap, my birthday week was amazing. I had the greatest time. We had originally planned to go to Iowa for my birthday/Thanksgiving but decided to wait until Christmas instead. On the day of my birthday (the day before Thanksgiving), we had a pretty laid back day, did a bit of shopping at the mall, ended up with two adorable sweaters, two pairs of leggings, a black cardigan, and a black v-neck tee. Needed to stock up on some layering basics now that it's getting much colder! :)
I received several other wonderful, thoughtful gifts, including a soldering iron and some other hardware from Shane's parents (they know me so well) that I am SO excited to start using!!
His sister, Kristen, and her boyfriend gifted me some awesomeness; a bead storage bin, some screw-on filters for the Canon that I had been eyeing on Amazon, and the piece de resistance, a book called Pimpology by Pimpin' Ken that had been on my Amazon wishlist for about 6 years. I had completely forgotten about it, and when I pulled it out of the bag, I laughed so hard. It is perfect! Shane's mom read passages from it outloud that night, and I was in tears it was so funny. Everyone needs to read this book.

Dad sent me some cash, which is ALWAYS appreciated, and Zee got me a great NYX matte eyeshadow and blusher palette that I have already used several times! I love it! Thank you everyone for the gifts, they were lovely, and made me feel special! :)


Anywho, Thursday was Thanksgiving, and we spent the morning making mashed potatoes and party pinwheels for 30 people. They were both a huge success, especially the pinwheels i whipped up. I will post the recipe soon!

We brought the tray into the house, and they were all GONE within about half an hour, I swear. And I received so many compliments on them! We went to Shane's aunt's house, which was absolutely beautiful, and I had only met about 2/3 of the people there, but I wasn't too worried, because there was an entire room devoted to beer and wine there, LOL. Shane, Kristen, Matt, Shane's cousin Bria and I camped out in the corner playing Monty Python Fluxx while the women mingled and the men watched football. The dinner was delicious!

Shane waiting for some Thanksgiving nomz

Friday was the best day of the week for me, though. We drove into Chicago that afternoon to meet up with Sharelle and Dusty, a couple of friends of mine who were in the city for the evening.

me and sharelle, both a liiiiiiittle drunk. :)

It was so nice to see some people from back home around my birthday, because that's all I really needed. :) We had a few drinks(yeah, I carried around a flask full of cake vodka that night. don't judge me), talked some shit, and then Shane and I headed to a small Chicago venue called Gorilla Tango Theater to see Don't Blink: A Doctor Who Burlesque.
I wanted to take photos so badly, but they were not allowed. :( I did get some pics of the outside of the theater, and some of the things inside with my phone, so here are those pics:

I thought these were hilarious. 

Saturday and Sunday, we lounged around and slept in, which was much needed after that long week! I had a wonderful time, though, and I hope all of you had as much fun as we did!

xoxo
meagan

Birchbox November 2013

Hi all! It's time for another Birchbox reveal! I received November's box a couple weeks ago, so my apologies for the lateness of the post!
Here's what I received this month!

yayyyy fresh birchbox!

Alright, first up is the WEI Golden Root Purifying Mud Mask (Full Size price: $42)
I will start off by saying I love masks, but this one didn't really do it for me. The part I love most about masks is when you take it off and your skin feels tight, clean, refreshed and healthy. While this mud mask did make my skin feel nice, it didn't quite give me exactly what I was looking for. I will say, however, that this is the first soft mud mask I've ever done, so maybe that is why. It's just not what I'm used to. They also didn't provide a brush, and they recommend you use a brush to paint it on. Well, I would have just used a foundation brush, but I do not have one anymore (need to pick up a newbie) and I'm not about to use my acrylic paint brushes, so I used my fingers. So it could be that was the reason for not getting the full effect? I don't know. I'm done making excuses for the damn thing though. It's ALRIGHT. That's all I'm going to say on it.

Next up are the Mighty Leaf tea pouches (Full Size: $9.95)
I am a coffee girl, and rarely ever drink tea, however Shane does, so I have given these to him to try and will report back once he does! The flavors do sound delicious, though, and I'm glad they included three different types of tea.

Next is the Joie Folle de Joie eau de parfum (Full Size: $98)
I LOVE this scent. It is exactly the type of perfume I would pick out on my own. The aroma is a mixture of mandarin, rose, and sandalwood, which I love. Sandalwood and rose are two of my favorite fragrances out there, so I'm glad they're both incorporated in this perfume. Lovely sample, very happy with it!!

I am super excited about this Chella Ivory Lace Highlighter Pencil (Full Size: $18)
I have been wanting to experiment with some light highlighting and contouring lately, so I was ecstatic when I received this in the November BBox. It's a nice, smooth chunky pencil, and I have tried it a couple times, adding some subtle highlight to my nose and brows, and I could definitely see a difference. I am going to do some more experimenting with this, and hopefully get some photos along the way!

Next up is the WEI Pomegranate Buffing Beads (Full Size: $20)
These things are so weird to me, and I'm not quite sure what I should do with them. They are buffing beads that are meant to add into your regular face cleanser to turn it into a scrub to brighten and declog skin. The problem I have with this is... my face cleanser already has those beads in it for exfoliating, so why would I add more? I certainly don't want to buy another brand of face cleanser just to get two uses out of it with these packets, so I don't really know how to review these. They're weird, that's all I can say.

And last, but not least, I've got the BeeKind Body Lotion (Full size: $15)
This honey & chamomile-based lotion isn't amazing by any means, but there's nothing wrong with it either. It's pretty much just like any other lotion I've got lying around. It does smell nice, and doesn't leave the skin feeling greasy. I will definitely keep using it, it's always nice to have a little purse sized lotion to take with you. :)

Well, that's it for this month! Adios, Makeup addicts!