Life By Nadine Lynn - Page 202 of 339

Weekend Shenanigans – Beaching for ‘Murica

I love long weekends. And by long weekends, I mean ones where I left work Tuesday night and headed to the beach until last night! 🙂 Be jealous bitches.

We were in Gulf Shores, Alabama. For those of you who aren’t up on their geography…Alabama has beaches along the Gulf! Pretty, white sand beaches! The best thing? The wifi at our condo was virtually nonexistent and unusable, so I stayed unconnected for days and days. It was wonderful!

The Rita’s Ice people had to stand in the pool for awhile because it was SO HOT two of the days we were there.

Other than relaxing pool side and ocean side, I finished reading Saint Anything, and started and finished Rescue Road as well! I also learned that no matter how much sunscreen I apply while at the beach, I always manage to burn at least one area of my pale, Scottish-Irish skin. This week my thighs got a little extra done.

This weekend in eats:

We stopped at Steak n Shake on the way down to the beach. I ordered my first Frisco Melt! I usually get a regular steak burger but decided to switch it up. On the way home we had Smash Burger for the first time. It was delicious and I am certain we will be back! While at the beach we hung out at Lulu’s where we shared smoked tuna dip (not pictured) and I had a burger with queso on it. Yes, queso. You guys….a burger with queso is probably the best thing ever. I also had a side of jalapeno hush puppies which were freaking amazing. We had grilled out one night as well….mmmmm!!!!!! Grilling out is the BEST at the beach. Isn’t everything better at the beach?

New friends I met

And this little guy….

This week in patriotism

This week in views

The worst thing about going to the beach? Leaving!!!! Who wants to leave? Also, who wants to sit in traffic??? Our 4 and a half hour trip turned out to be nearly eight thanks to stop and go traffic the entire way up I-65.

Check out this amazing storm that rolled in over us at the beach! That shelf cloud! People started running inside.

My favorite this is walking down the boardwalk in the mornings.

Now excuse me while I go wish I was back on the beach! I hope everyone had a great weekend and a great 4th of July!

July 6, 2015 by Nadine

June 2015 Allure Beauty Box

This month’s beauty box had all kinds of fun goodies and was appropriately named Day at the Beach!

What’s the Deal: For $15 a month, Allure sends you 5 deluxe size beauty samples, a mini magazine about the samples and a $10 off your $50 purchase on beautybar.com. I figured that was a decent deal for 5 deluxe samples! I pay for this on my own, and all opinions are my own. This is not a sponsored post, a girl just likes to talk beauty sometimes, ok?! You can see the box from last month here.

I didn’t have time to take individual pictures up close this month, but you can see above that everything was a decent size.

St. Tropez Self Tan Express (full size $44)

This tanner allows you to customize the depth of your tan by rinsing off after an hour, two or three. To be honest, I haven’t used this yet because I don’t really have time to apply this shit and wait an hour to shower. During the week I shower right after my work out and then have to get ready for work, and on the weekends I clean the house and cut the grass before showering and ummm I need to shower after those activities and putting tanner on then isn’t smart. I hope to try this maybe one Sunday when I don’t have plans, but that hasn’t happened this month.

eSALON Perfect Ending Leave in Conditioner (full size $19.95)

This is a leave-in conditioner for color-treated hair. It restores the shine and moisture, making hair smooth and detangles.

My thoughts: With my thin, tangly hair…this stuff was perfect! I just put a little bit in my hands after my shower and ran it through the ends, then started combing through the ends and working my way up. The tangles were so easy to navigate and this stuff left my hair feeling soft and hydrated. Oh, it smells good too!

E.L.F. Studio Small Stipple Brush ($3)

This brush is great for liquid and cream application of foundation, blush and bronzers.

My thoughts: I love E.L.F. so much that I actually already had this brush. But I never complain on having more! Can you have too many brushes? Surely not.

Lauren B Beauty Nail Couture in Polo Lounge Punch ($18)

This polish is a deep pink with a wet looking finish. The formula is free of DBP, toluene and formaldehyde.

My thoughts: I am like an addict with nail polish. Another thing you can never have too much of, for sure! This color is super pretty and great for any season. This was a streak free finish after two coats.

Completely Bare Wax Strips for Face, Bikini, Body ($12.99)

These are prewaxed hair-removal strips that remove hair when warmed with your hands. These are thin and small and would be easy to control in any area.

My thoughts: I am not a fan of wax strips and stuff, I basically shave everything from the waste down and do just fine so I wont be using these and can’t really give a review.

Cotz Face Sunscreen SPF 40 in Natural Skin Tone (full size 19.99)

This is a water resistant sunscreen with a sheer tint that provides long lasting sun protection while minimizing shine. The formula reminds me of a make up primer, which I love. The color is sheer and perfect, would be great for days you don’t want to do any make up at all, either.

My thoughts: I have heard great things about Cotz from several bloggers so I was really excited to receive this. They also made the best sunscreen list, which is always reassuring. I really love this, and can you get more serious than SPF 40 as your daily face protection? This will be a repurchase for sure! Sunscreen is so important, I don’t want to look like a leather handbag.

Overall:

I was really happy with the size of everything this month. Even though I am less than thrilled with the waxing stuff, everything else I was excited about! And if you think about it, that full size polish that I received is worth more than I pay for this subscription alone, so it was totally worth it! What is your favorite subscription box? Have you considered this one before?

July 2, 2015 by Nadine

book review, books, decor, garden, plants

Rooted in Design

I think you all know my new found love for plants. While I haven’t quite mastered them yet, they are still fascinating and I want to incorporate as many of them as I can in to my home. Interior design is awesome, but purposeful interior design? Even better!!!

I have a huge love for pretty books and pictures too. Enter Rooted in Design.

I was so ridiculously excited when I opened this book and saw all the gorgeous pictures of various ways to incorporate house plants around my home in a way that is appealing to the eye.

There are so many tips in here on how to decorate window seals and various areas of your home, as well as using plants as walls or living curtains. I mean, they are so right…you could totally use plants as a wall to separate rooms in your house!!! Just take a peak at a few pages of this book….

I could flip through it for hours admiring and planning all the different elements that I want to incorporate into my own home. What is even better is that there are paragraphs dedicated on how to select and care for the plants, and how to create the images you see in the pictures. They even give you ideas on items that you can re-purpose as a planter that you may already have in your home.

I think my favorite part of the book, besides all the useful information…is that the pictures aren’t over the top. They look like they weren’t edited much and were taken in real homes. It makes me feel like I could recreate nearly every single look in this book…which gives me more confidence than some ridiculously over edited magazine type pictures, you know what I mean?

You can learn more about the author of the book here.

If you are at all interested in indoor plants, I would suggest taking a look at this book! Ebooks are great and all, but this is one you are going to want the hardback version of. If anything, it makes a pretty coffee table book when you are done!

**I received this book from Blogging for Books but all opinions are honest and of my own. **

July 1, 2015 by Nadine

recipe

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chia Seed Pudding

Looking for a healthy, sweet snack? Look no further! I have been playing with chia seed pudding recipes for awhile, and I think I have found my favorite! With little prep work and time to chill over night, your sweet tooth will be satisfied in this little treat!

What You Need:

2 1/2 tablespoons of chia seeds

2 tablespoons mini chocolate chips

1 tablespoon cocao powder

1 tablespoon PB2

2/3 cup of unsweetened almond milk (regular or vanilla works great)

1 teaspoon of honey

What You Do:

-Put all ingredients in a mason jar, put on the lid and shake it like a Polaroid picture.

-Place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

-Stir the ingredients around, then place back in the refrigerator. I prefer to keep it over night to thicken up and be chilled, but you can start eating this after 2-3 hours of refrigeration. Just be sure to stir it first, chia seeds tend to stick together.

This keeps in the refrigerator for up to a week, so feel free to double up the recipe or make this amount and just take bites whenever you need that chocolate. That’s what I do!

So easy and delicious, so what are you waiting for?! Jump up on the Chia Seed Pudding train!

June 30, 2015 by Nadine

weekend shenanigans

Weekend Shenanigans

Well good morning there. Is it a bad sign on Monday morning when you wake up and you realize that you forgot to set your alarms (all four of them) and you are so thankful that you had restless sleep that stirred you awake at your normal time….only to pull your lower back out during your work out? I am thinking probably so….but this could just be my Friday trying to slide in to this weekend.

Friday…I don’t even want to talk about Friday. Let’s just say it was fucking awful. The only saving graces were meeting up with Laura for lunch and having gnocchi with Chris when I got home. Speaking of Laura, she was super sweet and brought me her China Glaze Pool Party polish to borrow for my nails at the beach! Can you go to the beach without bright ass polish? I think not…

This weekend was a productive one! Saturday morning I cleaned the entire house, did some laundry and started cutting Mac’s fur. I also vacuumed the inside of my car out and wiped down the interior. We then headed out to lunch at Munoz (local Mexican) before stopping by Chris’s parents house for a few hours so Chris could work on his dad’s computer. I got to read about half of Saint Anything while I waited 🙂

Sunday I cut the back yard, hedged the bushes and cleaned up that mess and continued to cut Mac’s fur. Then we met up with Chris’s parents for lunch at Billy’s and did our grocery shopping.

Chris has finally crossed over to the dark side and started getting in to New Girl! It has been about a year since I left off with it and I forgot basically everything, so we started from the beginning. Would you believe we are already in season 2 after last night?

I actually have a lot of posts pre-scheduled this week….for once!!!! I will be sharing my Chocolate Peanut Butter Chia Seed Pudding that everyone keeps asking me for too! I hope you all have a fantastic week, I am going to go try to survive the next two days.

Linking up with Biana.

June 29, 2015 by Nadine

Older Posts

Newer Posts