All Posts By

Nadine

TBB Asks – Summer Lovin’

Hello there! The rain has finally cleared on out of here, and it was pretty dry this weekend. Well, I take that back. It was hot as SHIT this weekend thanks to the humidity, so it wasn’t exactly dry. I kicked off Friday with a free donut at DD for National Donut Day! That is a holiday I can get behind.

Saturday morning I did a little work around the house, and decided to take Zoe outside after breakfast. It was around 8:45am when we went out there. Here was what the weather station reported.

It was already 86 degrees, feels like 98. Sweet Baby Jesus it was hot out there!!!! I think I lasted about 25 minutes with us blowing bubbles, drawing with side walk chalk, and taking her for a few rides in the wagon. I was soaked in sweat when we came back in, and we both downed entire glasses of water. Woof.

Despite the horrid temperatures, Zoe did not want to come back inside. She loves hanging out there. I had to bribe her with some coloring and painting. These are Zoe Originals, people! Beautiful work!

After nap time, we all headed out to run some errands and grab an early dinner at Village Tavern. Chris was craving some crab dip, and Zoe and I split the burger and fries. After dinner, we went to Nordstrom Rack in search of shoes for Chris. While I waited in line to pay, Chris and Zoe had a blast running around the store. She was so much fun and didn’t fuss one bit while we were out.

Sunday morning we headed out to do some grocery shopping. We also hit up Sam’s and Home Depot while we were out, and ate at Kemp’s for lunch. I think I know why big box retailers are having such a hard time competing with the internet. We were at Home Depot to get a gate for the top of our stairs. Chris knew the exact one we needed and had it already picked out. After walking around the store for a few minutes, I finally spotted an employee and asked him where the gates were. He told me they were clear across the store in Building Materials, and acted bothered that I dare ask him anything. He didn’t bother to walk me over there or anything, he told me I would know when I was there. Well let me tell you, they were NOT over there. Chris looked online and discovered they were in aisle 32 bay 1. So clearly, that man’s job is no longer needed in the store if he cant be bothered. We hiked it back across to the other side of the store and there were the gates where the internet said they would be. They didn’t have the one we needed though, but online said they had them in stock. We went back to the front of the store to customer service because there were no other employees to be found where we were. Showed them what we were looking for, the woman called someone. We stood there for 15 minutes and no one ever came. Chris got online, ordered it and told them never mind and we left. This is why big box stores are in trouble!!! I expect shitty service from Lowe’s, and we quit going there because of it. Now Home Depot too????

After that frustrating experience, we went to Kemp’s Kitchen for lunch. It is new and I had been wanting to try it. Another frustrating experience. Our server was friendly and quick to refill our drinks, but that is where it ended. My chicken tenders came out luke warm, and my fries were cold and disgusting. Chris’s philly steak sandwich was cold and his fries were also cold and disgusting. I have never not eaten my fries before. Never. Zoe seems to like her side of mac n cheese that she ate. Probably because she didn’t have to wait for it to cool down LOL Even she wouldn’t eat the fry I gave her, nor the chicken tenders. It sucks because I love supporting little local places like that, but we would have had a better meal at Sonic for a lot less. The fried green tomatoes we ordered for an app were alright. At least they were hot. Chris got on Yelp, and apparently lots of people complained about the cold food. So it wasn’t just our server not getting it out in time.

When we got home, I got Zoe down for her nap. She ended up getting her foot caught in her crib rails, and there was no napping after that. She had SO much energy the rest of the day….and we had no down time since she didn’t nap. I was exhausted come bath and bedtime! We made homemade pizzas for dinner and caught up on The Originals and called it a night.

I am linking up with Biana for Weekending and Andrea and TBB for TBB Asks. This month is all about summer!!!

1. Walk or Bike Ride?

I haven’t rode a bike in so long!!! I think the idea of it is fun, but my neighborhood suckkkkks. So not set up for bike riding. Maybe when we move, we can get more in to it. Birmingham isn’t exactly a bike-able or walk-able city. I do walk when I can.

2. Favorite Picnic Food?

Crackers and cheese or fruit.

3. Pool or Lake?

Pool. I don’t get in lake water.

4. Favorite Flavor of ice cream?

Mint Chocolate Chip or Cookie Dough

5. Ice Cream Cone or in a Dish?

I do love ice cream cones!!!

6. Flip Flops or Slides?

Both! I love that slides have really come back in the last year or so.

7. Jean Shorts or Jean Capris?

Neither. I wear dresses or jeans. There are no shorts to be seen here!!

8. Favorite summer Fruit?

Strawberries

9. Corn on the Cob or Cut Off the Cob?

Corn on the cob is life!!! Especially fresh off the grill!!!

10. Favorite summertime song?

AWOLNATION Sail

11. Favorite summertime activity?

Going to the beach!

12. Favorite Berry? Strawberry, Blueberry, Raspberry or Blackberry?

I love all berries, but strawberries are my favorite!

13. Bikini’s, tankini’s or one pieces?

I prefer tankini’s. You wont find this girl sporting a bikini. Probably never again. I like tankini’s because they tend to conceal things better than one pieces. One pieces are highly functional when you have a toddler though, as long as there is chest support. I find most swimsuits lack chest support. Sigh.

14. Dresses or Skirts?

Dresses all the way!!!

15. One Word to describe Summer?

HOT!

June 4, 2018 by Nadine

Friday Favorites

Even though it was a short week, it wasn’t exactly an easy one….was it? It always seems to work out like that. I am glad that Friday is here and I **think** the rain is finally moving out of our area for tomorrow. I don’t really know what happened, but my allergies went insane this week! I have been downing Wal-itin D (Walgreens brand) and Sambucol Elderberry like it is my job. I don’t think we have any set plans this weekend, what about you?

Favorite Moments: Laura and I hit up Saigon on Wednesday for lunch. We always share the spring rolls and order our own entrees. Well, I have been wanting to try their dumplings, but didn’t want to not get the spring rolls. What is a girl to do??? I suggested we split the spring rolls, dumplings and a bahn mi so we could each get a taste of everything we wanted. Laura played along and it was seriously the best idea ever! Everything tasted so amazing, and we topped it off with some thai teas to go. Delicious food and even better company? That is the way I like to spend my Wednesdays!

When I was picking Zoe up from daycare Wednesday night, her teacher was telling me how big of a help she was at clean up time. Meanwhile, Zoe is walking around picking up every single toy on the ground outside of the “play area” and handing them to the other teacher. Apparently my OCD cleaning habits with her toys is rubbing off on her. I am not sure if I should be proud or worried that I created a monster. That evening when it was time to go to bed, she freaked out because her teapot wasn’t put back in the exact right spot and she had to fix it immediately. She cracks me up.

Favorite Finds: You guys, I have been on the hunt for some perfect summer shoes since about March. I keep looking at pairs and not really finding anything I absolutely love. I bought this tassel pair at Target that I love, and these DV Blush Wedges. Both are fabulous finds!!! But I also needed a new pair of black sandals that are little more casual, but still work appropriate. And I needed something cognac. Macy’s is running a $10 off $25 or a 15-20% off your purchase right now. I scooped up these Marc Fisher sandals for a good deal. And you all, they are a dupe for the $600 Chloe shoes that I loved a few months ago but wrote off because…who pays $600 for one pair of shoes??? Not this girl. I used my Ibotta money I have earned from grocery shopping the last few months, so I didn’t even have to really “pay” anything from them. If you aren’t using Ibotta, you need to be!!! Here is my referral link, go sign up with it and you can make $10 to start out with! https://ibotta.com/r/ptgvoaa

Next up are these Marc Fisher Cognac wedges with the woven bottoms. I am so obsessed with rock studding on shoes, purses, furniture. If gives it a little edge, but is still classy. Like seriously, how gorgeous are these????? I found a pair that are similar in the cork for $20 less. But I just think for me, it is worth it to have the woven look. I haven’t pulled the trigger yet, but I plan to soon.

Favorite Drink Recommendation: Have you seen the Mint Watermelon Tea from Trader Joes???? It is seriously SO amazing!!! Do yourself a favor and add this to your list next time you are there. Steep it and pour it over ice. Summer perfection in a cup.

Favorite Post: If you haven’t read Allison’s post I Love Me yet, go do yourself a favor and hop on over there!

Favorite Funnies:

Linking up with Amanda. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

June 1, 2018 by Nadine

beauty, empties

Makeup Empties

I gathered all my makeup empties for one post. This is a good mix of higher end and drugstore brands. A few holy grails, and a few major fails.

Urban Decay All Night Setting Spray

This is my third bottle of this stuff. I really like it and it is the best setting spray I have used. It does exactly what it says it is going to, and it holds up to the horrid heat and humidity we have here in the south. I will say, I saw that Glam Glow has a setting spray that I want to try, has anyone used it yet? I want to know if I should stray from this favorite or not??? I am sure I will repurchase this again at some point.

Essence Lash Princess

I know I am in the minority on this, but I hate this mascara. For the price and all the hype it gets, I was soooooo excited to try it!!! So many people compared this to Better Than Sex and I am here to tell you it is not. It flaked on me and smeared throughout the day. I really had to work with it to get it to look good. I would just rather pay for the real thing. Such a disappointment.

Mally Volumizing Mascara

I hated this mascara. It is a high end price and it sucks pretty bad! There are so many mascaras out there, please don’t waste your money on this. It was too wet when I first opened it, I had to put on numerous coats to see anything and it dried out pretty quickly. Just no.

Maybelline Volum’ Express The Falsies Mascara

This is one of my go-to drugstore mascaras. For the price, it works pretty good and doesn’t smear. I tend to grab this or Loreal’s Voluminous.

Clinique Chubby Lash

I actually really loved this one!!! I received it in a Clinique gift with some other items and didn’t expect much from it. After a use or two I was hooked and it became one of my favorite mascaras to use. My ultimate favorite is Too Faced Better Than Sex, but this is a close second.

Make Up For Ever Smoky

This was just ok for me. There was nothing special about it and not worth the high end price.

Clinique Acne Solutions Foundation

I picked this up in Fresh Alabaster. The color was good, I would say this is medium coverage. I think this was a little too dry for my skin. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it. Perhaps if you have oily skin, this would be a great option for your. It tended to cling to my dry patches. For the price, it is great. Much cheaper than the other high end brands.

Estee Lauder Double Wear

This is my holy grail foundation that you will find in my collection at any given time. This has the best coverage and is true full coverage. The color is a perfect match for my skin, which is so hard for some reason for me. I wear the 1N2 ECRU. I definitely feel like using a make up sponge like the beauty blender or real techniques version is the best application. Every now and then I will stray and try something new, but this is my absolute favorite. The only other one that compares for me is the Lancome Teint Idole which is up next.

Lancome Teint Idole Ultra

This is the only foundation I have found that comes even close to the coverage and match of Double Wear for me. I wear the color 230 Buff (W). This is another full coverage foundation that applies best with beauty blender type sponge for me. This is just a couple dollars more than Estee Lauder, but sometimes Lancome wins for me because of gift with purchase. If you are looking for a full coverage foundation and have a hard time matching in other brands, give this or the Double Wear a chance. And let me tell you, these both hold up to Alabama humidity. And that is saying something!!! It is a steam bucket down here most of the year.

Wet n Wild Cushion Highlighter

So I grabbed this at Walgreens one day when I was picking up a few things. The color of this is absolutely GORGEOUS!!! I love love love it. However, that is where my love for this baby ends. The packaging ruins the product for me. They did a piss poor job on the packaging. It is such a pain to open and close. The little applicator sits on top of cheap peace of plastic that separates it from the highlighter cushion. The lid never screws on properly and therefore left the product to dry out way too quickly for me. I know I only paid $5.99 for it, but when you are using high end products and then you grab this thing…you just get angry lol. If you are looking for a cheap option to dive in to the world of highlighters, like I said, this is absolutely gorgeous on. But it isn’t worth it in my opinion to deal with the crap packaging.

Rimmel BB Cream

For a BB cream that you can grab at a drugstore for under $10, this stuff is amazing. The coverage is closer to medium and the color light works just fine for me skin tone. This is a 9 in 1 and has some benefits and some SPF too. My absolute favorite to use is the Lancome Skin Feels Good Hydrating Skin Tint Healthy Glow SPF 23. But if you are looking for more affordable option, this would be the way to go.

Real Techniques Sponge

I will admit, I have spent $20 on the Beauty Blender. It was when it first came out and one of the Sephora girls used it on me and I was blown away by the application. But spending $20 on a makeup sponge that needs to be replaced every three months makes me want to blow something up. No thanks. You can grab a two pack of the Real Technique sponges for $10 or less and get the same. exact. results. I am all about you get what you pay for when it comes to most things. But let me tell you, RT stepped up their game big time when they made this product. As you can see in the picture, I cut open my RT sponge (the orange one) and another knock off beauty blender I bought at Nordrstrom Rack for $2.99, and they both do not completely absorb your make up. Which is what the real Beauty Blender claims they are good for. Save you money and go with RT!

Have you used any of these? Let me know what some of your recent favorite finds are!

May 31, 2018 by Nadine

weekend shenanigans

Long Weekend Shenanigans

Alberto decided to make today an extra Monday-y Tuesday. I basically left my house knowing my commute was going to suck hard and just accepted my fate and listened to my audiobook, trying not to let the world around me take me down. Why do people lose their minds when it rains??? Anyways, I enjoyed having an extra day off. It felt so weird getting up this morning having to be at the office. Woof. I was surprised to see that the weather was actually decent Saturday and most of Sunday. The weather forecast kept predicting rain, but we didn’t have any at our house until Sunday evening.

Laura and I kicked off the weekend with a late lunch at Babalu on Friday. They were having a special this weekend where their burger was only $7. They seriously have one of the best in town!

Saturday morning I knocked out some of my usual housework and laundry. When Zoe went down for her nap, I went out and cut the front yard and did all the bush maintenance. We had some fun outside time with Zoe too!

That afternoon after her nap, we headed over to Chris’s parents house to hang out over there for a little bit. Zoe loves running around their flat front yard so much more than our steep slope at our house. I was thankful that the temps remained in the 80s and weren’t up in the 90s like the past few weeks!

Sunday, Zoe and I headed to the grocery store early to knock that out. When she went down for her nap, Chris and I had lunch and realized we were many episodes behind on Riverdale. How exciting to have something to binge on our long weekend!!! We hung around the house the rest of the afternoon and just played when Zoe woke up.

Monday morning, Zoe slept in really late. I kept getting little things done around the house that I kept meaning to do. I didn’t even know what to do with all my extra time! When she finally did wake up, I made pancakes from scratch. So good!

My sister, two nephews and mom came over to hang out and have lunch with us. I made pasta salad, broccoli slaw, pigs in a blanket, BBQ weenies and crackers with pepper jelly and cream cheese. My sister brought of a veggie platter and queso. We of course had sugar cookies for dessert.

During Zoe’s nap, Chris and I played some Mario Kart and caught up on more Riverdale. I am always down for a game of Mario Kart! I decided to play King Boo instead of my usual CatPeach.

We finished off the weekend with some leftover homemade baked ziti I had made Sunday evening. It always tastes better the second day!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Linking up with Biana.

May 29, 2018 by Nadine

favorites, friday favorites

Friday Favorites

This week went by surprisingly fast, considering the three day weekend is upon us. I suppose being slammed at work helps with that. There just isn’t enough hours in the day to get all the things done that I need to do! I am not sure what our plans are this weekend, I just know I am thankful that we get an extra day!!!

Favorite Moments: My oldest niece graduated high school on Monday! She is already a CNA and has been taking college classes all year. She is so smart and I just know she is going to go far! My oldest nephew made the basketball team and has amazing grades. My sister raises some darn good kids!

When I was heading to Loft the other day, I saw this gaggle walking along the side walk and heading to the crosswalk. Geese gotta shop too! It really was the cutest thing.

This girl is at such a fun age right now!! She is so smart and understands a whole lot more than what she can say. And she is just so sweet! She has been saying hi to each and every one of her classmates at school when we get there in the morning. And now when we leave at night, she has to run over and wave bye to them all and gives her teacher a hug.

Favorite Purchases/Memorial Day Sales: Memorial Day Sales are happening people!!! Nothing makes me feel like getting more for my money than a dress on sale. You buy one article of clothing, and it is an entire outfit! Right now, Loft has 40% off your purchase. I scooped up this gorgeous blue dress that is so light and airy. PERFECT for the south this time of year! The back was a different material than the front, and I really liked it. I felt like it made it fit better, and gives it a more expensive look.

I want to scoop up this fig bar back sleeveless swing dress from the Loft too. They didn’t have the color I wanted in stores. It is under $30 with the sale! They had the autumn sage color and I tried it on, it just isn’t a color I want to wear in the summer. It was pretty though, and I liked the fit. I live for a good swing dress.

I also scooped up this high-low dress from Macy’s. They are running a 20% off your purchase sale online, or you can scoop it up in stores for $29. I love the detailing on it, and it is soft cotton. You can’t get more comfortable than that! You add some pretty wedges and it is nice enough for work. Or at least in my office it is.