i n • p u r s u i t

Mike recently built us a little deck of the dining room and everyone loves it; the dog, the chickens, they all love it. We love it too. Last Friday, I brought home takeout from the Greek Festival (love that they have a drive-thru!) and after dinner, we sat on the deck. I was alternating between watching the animals and reading my book and Mike was alternating between yardwork and relaxing beside me. The deck isn't quite finished as it still needs to be sealed. I need to buy new plants to go in the pots that are full of dead plants. But it was so nice to sit out there and enjoy what is surely one of the last cool evenings of the year. Once it got dark, Mike lit a bonfire and we sat around that with Bella asleep in the grass between us. Most of our evenings are spent inside as we are quite the lovers of technology. But this was such a very nice treat, I hope they deck brings us more lazy outdoor evenings. :)

Got my Ipsy Glam Bag over Mother's Day weekend and it turns out Mary and I got the exact same one!   It was a pretty good bag this month :) This bag's theme was "Spring Fling" and this month's bag was the cutest bag I've received so far. I currently use it as my travel makeup-bag that I keep in my purse.  Zoya Nail Polish in Piaf (full-size, value: $8). Buy any 2 bottles and get 1 free + Free 1oz Remove+ & $5 Shipping at  zoya.com/ipsy . Enter code  ipsyz  at checkout. I was so very excited to get a Zoya polish, but less excited when I saw the color. I know a lot of people like Piaf, but I'm not a fan. It's a good polish though (got an A- from Temptalia), so I might keep it around in case I change my mind. yaby concealer refill in buff (full-size, value $4.85). Receive 20% off your purchase at camerareadycosmetics.com . Enter code ipsyluvsyabycc20 at checkout. I was initially underwhelmed by this product. What am I

I took this photo of Joan earlier this week. Mike had left the back door open and Joan followed him inside! She looked around for a few minutes and then walked right back out. Mike says she was disappointed that there wasn't a mountain of corn in the dining room!  Our animals LOVE to follow Mike around. Bella because she's curious and the chickens because they're hoping for food. This means that when Mike walks outside in the morning, he's got two chickens doing their funny chicken run to catch up with him and Bella at his heels. 

So, I have a bit of natural wave in my hair and I've recently felt like embracing it. And after seeing before & after pictures on the curly girl forums, I was really inspired! So, yesterday and today, I followed this guide loosely. After two days, I've got cute beachy waves happening. I'm excited to see how it continues to progress if I keep styling my hair like this. Here's what I did today: Co-washed in the shower with Tressemme Naturals Nourishing Conditioner Scrunched in some of the same conditioner as a leave-in. Scrunched my hair dry with micro-fiber. Used my Turbie Twist to kind-of plop my hair. (Didn't twist my hair into the twisty bit. Just put the turbie on and let my hair fall back into it, on top of my head, and then sealed it up. Does that make any sense?) After a little while, scrunched in some Not Your Mother's Kinky Moves Curl Defining Hair Cream And then let it all air dry I gotta say. If I'm going to let my hair air dry,

If you were fancy, you might call these photos "lifestyle photography," but I call them snapshots. These are just photos I've taken while hanging out with family. They're just moments that I've been blessed to capture simply because I happened to have a camera on my person. Obviously, I believe that getting family portraits is an important thing. But family portraits shouldn't be your exclusive tangible memories. Don't wait for the special moments to take photos...you never know what you might miss in between. I realize that I have very few photos from last year because I was so busy working that I just didn't take very many. Then, I was visiting a friend who has a ton of snapshots on her wall. Just photos taken of her family living life. I visit her a lot and I've seen these pictures more times than I can count. But for some reason, it hit me that day and I found myself marveling at the importance of a snapshot. You don't have to

If you're not on r/makeupaddiciton , you may not have seen a whole lot of these. Meanwhile, I see them everyday. I felt like posting this because I did a photo shoot where a before photo was posted that made me look like a sick zombie. And I just knew I didn't look like a sick zombie without makeup. I might not look my best, but better than without makeup. I chose a particularly bad hair day to do this b&a. This is what my hair looks like if I shower the night before and sleep in wet hair. It's super sexy. This was my pretty much my daily makeup routine for a while. Like most of my recent posts, though, I took these photos a while ago, so it's changed just a bit. I know, my eyebrows still need work. Products used: Pixi Flawless & Poreless Primer --No strong feelings. Lumene Vitamin C+ Illuminating Anti-Age BB Cream in 02 Medium --Blends nicely to my skin. Needs primer & powder to last all day. Light but even coverage. Urban Decay 24/7 Co