Amanda's my name.. CORAL is my game.

WORD to your mother.. It's been a while but I'm back.

This past Saturday I had an awesome opportunity to attend the Nordstrom Beauty Trend show with my bestie Miss Sharon.  Other than the fact that I had to wake up at 5:30 to be there at 8am, it was pretty awesome.  We walked in and we got a.. you guessed it CORAL tote, not like a lame one, but a pretty legit one.  They also handed us a $15 dollar gift card.. pretty nice (however, note to self: tickets were $15 and it was supposed to be a ticket reimbursement, however they never checked your tickets, so if you want to go this fall, don't buy a ticket ;) ), also the tote was full of coupons for a bagillion samples.  Anyways, we went up and watched a 'fashion show' for make up  and anyone who knows me, knows I was RIGHT at home.  It was pretty awesome hearing about all the new products, and of course the new seasons color CORAL..  Everything was CORAL, the background, the MC's top, the lights, the models lips.. I mean you name it, it was CORAL.

After the show- which ended at 9, we went down to the cosmetics area where there was Make up FOR DAYZ..  I mean, it was like black friday in the Nordstrom Cosmetics department.  Bows were being thrown, insanity.  Each Fragrance, and Cosmetic line had multiple stations to showcase their newest products, giving away free samples- there are some maaaajor suckers for samples out there, and all the ladies getting there faces did.  Sharon and I happened to be one of them.  We went to NARS, because well according to me, they are the best.  I found out they are sisters with Shiseido, which I also freakin love.  It's a super popular skincare line within the Asian community, and I'm 99% certain that is why they don't age.

I ended up running into a girl I went to college with who now works for NARS.  She, btw, did Sharon's makeup and did a phenomenal job, and if you EVER need wedding makeup, prom, whatever, I'd hit her up (Kelly Peterson- find her on my FB page).  Hope she doesn't mind I'm plugging her :/

Along with the copious amount of samples I accrued, I picked up some pretty major new items to add to my make up bag that I would suggest any gal looking to spruce up there face add.

Item 1- This is the tinted moisturizer and since I'm ghost white, my color is Alaska.  I've never tried a tinted moisturizer before, but I heard that NARS' is the holy grail of TM.  Also, there is an SPF 30 in this, which is unheard of.

Color: Alaska

Item 2- Being eye shadow obsessed, I'm glad they come in duo's.. I only purchased 1 this time, but being that I'm so in love with the one I already had, thought I'd share.

Color: Alhambra

Color: Kalahari

Item 3- The multiple.  This epic little wonder works for your eyes, lips & cheeks.. I'm so excited to use this for that summer glow on my cheeks!!

Color: Copacabana

Item 4- If I was trapped on a deserted island and I could only bring 1 makeup item I was allowed to take, hands down it would be a stick of Red Lipstick.. I am obsessed with anything lip- 9 x out of 10, the brighter the better.  Adding this little gem over your fav red lip color or by its self is amaze-balls

Color: Super Orgasm

Item 5- I already owned this prior to the Beauty Trend show, but I had to share because it's so awesome. I'm also pretty certain its the #1 blush in America, but I couldn't find the website.  Anyways, its a total go to for spring!

Color: Orgasm

Also, the dude checking me out, threw in this pretty outrageous eyeliner (for those with bad eyes, its electric blue), but I'm not gonna lie, I'm kind of excited to try it.

Color: Kitty

Well, I have to get ready to watch the Real Housewives of New Jersey premier, so hope you enjoyed my little Spring premier of makeup must-have's.  And FYI, I am wearing Tiger Blood (AKA Coral) Gelish Shellac polish.. Thanks Kelly ;)

Happy New Jersey Premier and thats all.

Fighting TOOTH and nail

Holy COW! Honey Buns just lost her first tooth!!  This was a pretty emotion experience, I mean I'm not crying but I definitely got a lump in my throat and my eyes got a tad teary.  It's quite an experience to see your first child growing up and getting bigger.  It makes me a little sad, as I miss her cubby little baby legs dancing in a diaper to Ne-Yo in the living room, but when we are eating dinner and she's explaining to me what a decade is, I am in awe by how much she has blossomed and how smart she has become.

Enough with the emo babble.. She has had this loose tooth for a few months.  Within the last couple days it has gotten VERY loose.. I almost thought she would loose it at school today..  but no, it was hanging by a couple threads when we got home from work.  For the longest time she has said she wanted to tie a string to it and shut a door.  I'm pretty sure I was more nervous than she, but after a few times it worked!! And she is 1 less baby tooth closer to being a big, big kid!
 I love you Jojo Honeybuns!!!  Congrats on losing your first tooth!
Watch a video including bloopers here!!

Putting her tooth in her Tooth Fairy Bear made by her Grandma Nancy

Thats all...

Got some Junk in your... mailbox?

Okay.. lets be honest, junk mail sucks.  No one likes junk mail.  If fills up your mail box, it wastes trees, its almost as annoying as getting a bill in the mail.  Well my friends, when life hands you a lemon, make lemonade.. kind of.  My mom showed me an AWESOME way she gets rid of her junk mail, and I think everyone should go ahead and adopt this new way of life.

Step 1: Check your mailbox and find that credit card application that they continue to send you, yet you have no use for it..

Step 2: Open it to make sure there is a PAID POSTAGE envelope (this only works with paid postage)

Yep its there..

Step 3: Find any junk mail laying around including all material that was used to send the original junk mail.  Or any envelopes from other mail opened.

Step 4:  Tear up any and all junk mail, saving the PAID POSTAGE envelope.

 Step 5: Fill envelope as full as you can possibly fill it until you can hardly seal it shut.

Not quite yet.. still room for more

Just right..

Step 6: Seal the envelope.  This will probably be hard considering you have just jammed packed it full of garbage.  I put mine under the cutting board to dry.

Get it as thick as you can get it.

You may be asking what the purpose of this is... Well.. These businesses send you postage paid envelopes to clearly trying to make money off of you in the long run, they also have to pay pay PER WEIGHT. So the more you put in there, the more they have to pay the Post Office.  Garbage in, Garbage out.. if they send want to send me junk mail, I will send them junk mail and in the process giving the mail man job security :)  Not to mention.. they don't send me junk mail for a while :) While the appropriate thing is recycling.. this give you more pleasure.  Enjoy!!

Thats all..

United Way-Cool

I have met so many people who say there is nothing better than a good book.  I myself have been reading Twilight (The 1st Saga) for almost 3 years and am on page 100.  It is extremely hard for me to a) find time & b) get so engrossed I can't put it down.  But I do have a dream to one day finish a book that I was not required to read.

While I have a hard time reading myself, I truly believe there is nothing better than a good book for a CHILD. About a year ago my boss introduced me to a great program initiated by none other than Miss Dolly Parton herself.  

Dolly Parton's Imagination Station Library is a great program that is for children below the age of 5 to get FREE books mailed to them once a month by Miss Dolly.  She picks out books that are age appropriate and totally fun for children & parents.  Already almost 700,000 children get free books every month!  AND my kids always find it fun to get new books in the mail for bedtime story time.  

United Way of Snohomish County is supporting Dolly's Program in my area. You can sign up to receive great children's book c/o Miss Dolly here.  

If there isn't currently a program supported in your area, you can start a program in your neck of the woods.  Using the link above, click on the red "Start a Program" on the left side of the screen.  OR register your child here.  

This is a great opportunity, especially for those cutting costs with this crappy economy we have going on right now!  Take advantage of it!  Your children will love it!

And remember to thank Dolly!

That's all....

Boom SHELLAC-a lacka

I cannot remember a time when I was not absolutely and utterly in love with nail polish.  As a child I was not allowed to wear it which obviously only made me want that beautiful lacquer more. I remember painting my nails at my cousins and friends houses.. even in CLEAR and having to remove it only hours later, but it was sooo worth it. 


Once I hit my teens and was allowed to wear it, I'm not going to lie.. I went a little over board.  I remember polishing my nail polish bottles, polishing my pager (yes, you heard correct, my pager), polishing my storage containers to hold my polish.  It was a little over the top.  I pretty much had every shade under the sun- green, purple, red, yellow, blue, orange, and yes black.  I always remember my polish pet peeves being that it didn't usually last me more than 2 days.  Then the chips set it.  The cracks, the crappy looking polish job that I had worked so hard on mastering the left handed polish.


As I got into high school, thats when the Acrylics became 'the thing'.  And I love them. I have very brittle nails, so they always were breaking or peeling, or something redic and annoying. I can't even tell you how much of my high school part time job pay checks went to Hy-Tek nails at Columbia Center Mall.. But I didn't care.  Then the grow out would set it, and they would look crappy, so I would peel them off and I was once again left with nasty ass nails.  


I'm pretty sure there was a time in my life when I fully gave up on polish, probably my lowest polish point being an addict for so many years.  After starting a family, my regular polishing pretty much went out the door.  First, I didn't have the TIME to pain my nails 3 times a week, let alone with doing chores around the house it just is pretty much impossible to keep a beautiful manicured hand.  


THEN I was introduced to my new Love Affair.. SHELLAC.  For those of you who don't know..a) where have you been? and b) you betta ask some body.  My Mom introduced me to Shellac about a year ago, and since then I have been going to my Local nail salon about 2x a month to get them done.  Keep in mind, this costs about $30+ dollars per time, which my friends adds up. 


Let me give you a little background:
Shellac in Laymen's terms is pretty much a Gel nail polish that is baked onto your nails under a UV light.  It lasts about 14+ days depending on how much you use your hands.  They pretty much carry every color except those super crazy ones, but for a day to day polish they are your 1 stop shop. Not only do you have beautifully polished phalanges all the time, BUT it makes your nails super strong, which then for me.. allows them to grow.


I had been doing a little background investigation, watching, and studying how the salon had been doing the polish.  After going to Amazon and checking out the pricing of the items, it was genius.. I wanted my own Shellac. But I continued to put if off and put it off, until.. Christmas day, when my mom got me the UV light of my dreams!!!

I know, she knows I wanted it.. But I also think she had an ulterior motive.  See, she comes to my house to help me with my laundry now and then, and I think this may entice her more to visit :).. but I know she will deny it (its okay mom I still love you).  Anywoo.. I then ordered my FAV colors off of Amazon (awesome place for all things Shellac).  Sticker shock sets in at first since each bottle is around $20, HOWEVER- if you are as obsessed with Shellac as I am.. 1 bottle is less than 1 time at the salon, so you can go ahead and do that math.

Wildfire, Fedora, and Romantique.  Wildfire looks pink in the photo, but its very Cherry red, which my 9 time out of 10 my nails are.  Fedora is a dark brown, and Romantique is a pail pink. CND is the best, if not the only company that makes Shellac polish..I probably would not recommend going with any other brand, but you can make that call. But along with the polish, you need the top and bottom coats

Here are the steps for doing a bomb.com Shellac:


#1 Rule: Do not allow the Shellac to get on your cuticles, this will cause it to peal.
#2 Rule: Do not pull out your fingers while under the UV light before the time is up because they will ripple.


1) Apply base coat and bake under UV light for 3 min.
2) Apply 1 coat of your Fav color (mine is Wildfire)and bake for 5 min.
3) Apply a second coat of your Fav color and bake for another 5 min.
4) Apply top coat and bake for 3 minutes.
5) Wet a cotton ball with Isopropyl Alcohol and wipe sticky cover off nails.  


You now have a beautiful manicure that will last for 14+ days :)I chose Romantique in this picture:

The Shellac will eventually crack and start to chip.  You can remove it by pealing it off, soaking the nail in nail polish remover, or buying the Shellac remover pads they sell. 


You can buy all the things you need and more to have awesome nails all the time Here.


That's all.

Lovin' me some Ted

This my friends, has been a long time coming.. I have been wanting to start a blog, but it was just so overwhelming that I put it off and put it off.  I never realized just how long I had been thinking about starting this until I logged into my account and it said "Member since May 2010". Many thoughts went through my mind, but mostly I had flash backs of when I worked at Macy's in college and the old white hair'd ladies would come in with their Macy's cards dating back to the 1950's.  I mean, while I do realize that's exaggerating a bit, my 30th birthday is quickly sneaking up on me. I have yet to decide if this is a good or a bad thing.. And realizing just how long it had been since I initially toyed with the idea of a blog was insane.


A few things you must know about me before you start reading my blog is.. 1) For a college graduate, I have horrible punctuation.. You will be glad to know that I am actively working on this. 2) I was not the 4th grad Spelling Bee champ, so don't judge my grammar. 3)I have so much running through my brain at once, I sometimes loose track of my initial though and go off on a tangent (sorry). Knowing all these flaws, you will pretty much just have to get over it :)


SOOO.. Onto my newest Love Affair I would like to share with you all. Ted Baker. I have a few people to thank for contributing to this Christmas purchase, first my brother, my grandmother, and my step mom. THANK YOU.  Having started out as a mens shirt designer in 1987, he has seriously excelled in women's handbags.  Check out this lovely gem I got my hands on today:

This is the 'Leelar' Patent Satchel, in Natural with Rose Gold.  The best part about the wallet besides the obvi jeweled clasp, is the inside:

For those of us who need our glasses to read this, it says "Ted Says, 'The more you give, the more you get'.  I love this little reminder to always donate and help others! And when your going through those grocery lines and they ask if you want to donate $1 to prostate cancer... Say YES!


I made my purchase at Nordstrom. Check out more with Ted Baker here.


That's all.