Life By Nadine Lynn - Page 80 of 338

beauty, empties

Drug Store Empties

My empties bin is out of control again! I decided to grab several of the drug store priced items for this post, and will save the higher end and baby stuff for their own posts coming soon. Let’s jump in, shall we?

EVA NYC Freshen Up Dry Shampoo

I am a huge Living Proof dry shampoo fan. It is something that works really well for me. I had gotten this bottle in a voxbox and was actually quite impressed! For half the price, I felt it was almost as good as Living Proof, and you can find this brand at Target or Ulta.

Neutrogena Oil-Free Acne Wash Cream Cleanser

I have expressed my love for Murad Time Release Acne Cleanser over and over. It is my absolute favorite cleanser ever. The thing is, I hated spending that much money on something that basically gets washed down the drain every night. I would much rather spend more money on a moisturizer or serum. Well, I have searched high and low and have decided after my second bottle that this Neutrogena wash is as close as I can get for a fraction of the cost. It is a cream based cleanser, so it is soothing and not drying on my skin…but has the acne fighting ingredients that the Murad cleanser has too. In fact, several ingredients are similar. You can’t beat the price of this, and it has a pleasant scent.

No7 Beautiful Skin Age Defense Cleanser

This stuff was alright. There was really nothing special about it, and it is a little pricey for a drugstore cleanser. I probably wouldn’t purchase this again.

Garnier SkinActive Soothing Cleansing Milk

This stuff smells amazing, and it feels good when you are putting it on your skin. But that is where the good stuff ends. I was trying to use this as a makeup remover, and it just wasn’t happening. It made my foundation look like it was water proof or something. It was very strange. I just feel like it wasn’t doing anything for me, and as you can see, it was impossible to get the last bit out of the bottle too. Good riddance. I will not be purchasing this again.

Ivory Free & Gentle Body Wash

I got the Pear and Sandalwood scent, which I forgot how much I hate pear. So while we used this body wash and it was fine…I would much rather prefer another scent in it. Just personal preference.

Ganier SkinActive Micellar Water

I used about five or six bottles of this in a row. It worked alright, but I went through about 5-6 cotton rounds every night with it as well, and that just seems wasteful. I like Boscia Makeup Breakup Cleansing Oil a lot better, so I purchased that during the Sephora sale this weekend.

Have you used any of these? Discovered anything new lately that you love?

September 5, 2018 by Nadine

weekend shenanigans

Weekend Shenanigans

What is it about a three day weekend that will scramble your brain so much on what day it is??? It was wonderful and glorious to have that extra day off. I just wish I would have been more productive with my time! I meant to clear out our guest room and paint it this weekend. None of that happened. We did have some fun though!

I kicked off the weekend Friday with trying out a new to me restaurant, Abhi. I met two of my friends over there that I hadn’t seen in awhile and we had some delicious eats! I ordered a side salad, miso soup and the Sexy Lady Roll (spicy tuna with crab.) They both ordered some kind of spicy noodle bowl that came out in these super cute tin pots. C was so sweet and brought R and I bundt cakes since we both had August birthdays. It was great catching up, and I always leave a lunch with them feeling like my soul was fed in some way.

Saturday morning, Zoe and I went out to Michael’s to pick up some fall craft supplies. We also stopped by Sephora so that I could take advantage of the VIB sale and get my moisturizer and make up remover. I ended up picking up a skin care kit to try instead of what I went in there for. I used it Sunday and had two different people tell me that I looked 25. Sooooo the new skin care is definitely a keeper!!!! We also went to Publix to get some game day snacks, Zoe approved because Publix keeps her happy in cookies.

When we got home, we attempted nap time with no success. We gave up, and headed to Chris’s parents house to catch the Auburn game with them. Then we came home for the Bama game. No naps means a passed out Zoe on the way home.

Sunday morning, Zoe and I did our weekly grocery shopping at Target and picked up some Moe’s BBQ for us to eat on over the next two days. When we got home, we again tried for a nap with no success. We decided to hear out to Best Buy and Bargain Hunt instead. When we got home we had some color time and played with bubbles outside. Two days without a nap was starting to take a toll on all of us. Someone was being such a toddler!

Monday morning, we had scheduled a play date with one of our daycare friends. We decided since neither of our kiddos sleep in, we would meet up early at Chick Fil A for breakfast, and then head to the park before it got too hot. This was actually Zoe’s first time at the park, and she had a BLAST!!! Now that it is **hopefully** going to start cooling down some, Chris and I should be able to take her more. She had so much fun running around with her friend. They live close by the day care, and hopefully that is the area that we will be moving to soon…so clearly more of these play dates are going to need to happen!

Zoe had worn herself out, so when we got home we had lunch and she finally went down for a nap! While she was napping, my sister came over with my nephews and we all played Mario Kart and waited for Zoe to get up. After they left, we had some bubble time and settled in for the night.

I was running behind this morning and didn’t have time to get breakfast together for myself. I stopped by Starbucks and grabbed an egg white and turkey bacon sandwich and tried out a weight watcher friendly PSL. For 3 points you order an Americano with 4 pumps of sugar free cinnamon dolce syrup and 1 pump of pumpkin spice syrup. A regular non-fat grande PSL with run you 16 points. Yeah, no thanks. This was actually pretty tasty and I would definitely get it again.

I hope you all enjoyed your long weekend! Linking up with Biana.

September 4, 2018 by Nadine

favorites, friday favorites

Friday Favorites

Three day weekend, what up?!?!?! I am SO excited to have an extra day this weekend. And it’s a big one guys! FOOTBALL IS BACK! ROLL TIDE! I am so ready to spend my Saturdays eating delicious snacks and watching all the games. And by delicious snacks, I am hoping to keep most WW friendly. But you know, sometimes in a nail biter you gotta step up. This week was a complete shit show, and I am so ready for 5pm! Other than football, there are some things I want to get done around the house this weekend. My jewelry armoire came in, and it was broken. WHAT??? I was so pissed! But, Chris being the awesome husband he is, said he would handle all that. He said customer service was amazing, but in the end he decided to fix it himself. They told him we have about 80 days to decide if we want to keep it or they can switch it out. He did such a good job fixing it, I cant wait to load up my stuff! Other than that, we will probably hang low around the house. I am trying to get a play date together with a daycare friend this weekend too. What are you up to?

Favorite Moments: Laura and I finally got to try out Shake Shack yesterday! There wasn’t a line to order food, but we had to wait awhile to pick up our food…and stalk tables like crazy until one came available for us to snag. I got the SmokeShack Burger and cheese fries. It was good, and I was sooooooooo ready to have a burger this week! I thought everything tasted good, but there wasn’t anything super special about it. There are plenty of other burger places here in Birmingham, but this was a fun place for lunch. I would go back again, but when it calms down some.

For the lunches I had in the office this week, I ate the Whole 30 Chick-Fil-A nuggets. It was a nice break from the lazy lunches I had been packing the last several weeks. They kept me full the rest of the day, it were delicious!

Favorite Recipe: Some WW recipes for game day! Who doesn’t love nachos?

These sweet and sour meatballs sound good too!

Favorite Purchase: We got Zoe a pair of gold Puma shoes last week at Nordstrom Rack. She is obsessed and has worn them nearly every day this week. They are so darn cute on her! Here is the link if you are in the market. They are of good quality and not too crazy of a price. They are the shoes she is wearing with her denim dress and come in other colors as well.

Favorite Sephora Picks: Real talk? The Sephora sales really don’t impress me much. I mean, 15% off? Gee thanks. Sales tax here is 10%. You barely save anything. So I really only ever buy things that I am in need of at the time. Or if there is a palette or something I have been wanting for a long time, I might splurge on that. I never stock up or go crazy though. Right now, I need some make up remover (I hate the drug store one I am almost out of.) And I need a new moisturizer because I literally finished up the last of mine this morning. My favorite make up remover is the Boscia Make-Up Breakup oil, it works so good!

For moisturizer, my go to is usually the Clinique Moisture Surge. My make up goes on best with it, and it is just enough moisture without making my skin going nuts…but keeping the dry patches at bay. The price point isn’t anything too crazy, since this stuff lasts awhile. Are you shopping the sale?

I hit pan a long time ago on the Naked color in my Naked Palette. It is my absolute favorite shade, and I am trying to decide if I want to just get a single one in it…or go for one of the eye pencils from Bobbi Brown or Laura Mercier. What is your all time favorite shadow color?

Favorite Reminder:

Favorite Funnies:

All Zoe wants to watch at home is Secret Life of Pets. She talks about it constantly. And when we are in the car, all I am allowed to listen to is Welcome to New York by T Swizzle. It reminds me of Marshall and the 500 Miles song on How I Met Your Mother. It drives you insane, but then it comes back around and you find yourself singing to it. But seriously, send help. HELP!

Linking up with Amanda, I hope you all have a fabulous three day weekend!

August 31, 2018 by Nadine

weekend shenanigans

Weekend Shananigans

I have a feeling that today might be a three cup of coffee kind of day. I am not even sure why? I went to bed at a decent hour last night?! This was the last weekend before football takes over our Saturdays. Kind of crazy the season is here already! I am just hoping that this week goes by quickly, so we can get to that three day weekend!

Saturday morning, we met Laura and her crew over at Nordstrom Rack. Her and I took the kids shopping there while the boys looked around Best Buy. The plan was to eat at Shake Shack right at 11:00am. Well, there was a huge ass line waiting outside to get in, and no food is worth a wait for us. We ended up going to Tavern instead. I ordered the Baconjam Burger and it was seriously amazing!!! We all ordered mimosas and shared some crab dip too. Yum yum yum.

Zoe got the cutest pair of sparkly gold Puma’s at rack, some new hair bows and two pairs of leggings for the fall. She made out! I found nothing. Well, nothing that I needed. There was plenty I talked myself out of. And of course, we had to get a picture of Z & S while we were out!

After lunch, we headed back home. Zoe didn’t want to take a nap, so we watched Secret Life of Pets a million times and played with some bubbles outside. She also helped me do several loads of laundry, it’s not child labor when they want to help. And she spotted my old Care Bear chair in our guest room and asked if she could have it. And by asked, she pointed to it and said “mine.” But same thing in toddler language. It was pretty cool seeing her sit in it. That chair sat in our garage for years, and I always looked at it and wondered if we would have a kiddo of our own sitting in it some day. Pretty cool to see it happen!

It was an early-ish bedtime for her, since she didn’t have a nap and was starting to get cranky. Once she was down, I poured myself a glass of wine and watched To All the Boys I Loved Before. It was such a cute movie, very well done! I loved the book so much, so I knew I had to watch the movie.

Sunday morning, I tried out a WW recipe for Strawberry Lemon baked donuts with my new donut pan. While they looked so pretty, they weren’t all that great. Let’s just say you could certainly tell it was a WW recipe, and not in a good way. Maybe next time I will tweak it some how to make it better. After breakfast, Zoe and I headed to Target to knock out our grocery shopping for the week.

When we got home, she ate lunch and had some quiet time in her crib while Chris and I made a homemade pizza and watched an episode of Blue Bloods. She was supposed to go down for a nap, but it totally didn’t happen. Again. Don’t these kids realize that they are going to wish they had all these naps one day???

The rest of the day was spent watching more Secret Life of Pets…please send help!!!!…and taking walks and blowing bubbles outside.

Chris and I watched a few episodes of Blue Bloods after Zoe went to bed and called it a night. Just like that, the weekend was over and the Sunday Blues were strong! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Let’s do this, Monday! Linking up with Biana.

August 27, 2018 by Nadine

favorites, friday favorites

Friday Favorites

We are closing in on the last week of August!!! And the last free weekend before football season! I always wonder when football starts, what the hell I did with all my weekends in the off season?? Don’t you? Cue pinning all the Weight Watchers appetizer recipes!

I am not sure what all we have on the books for this weekend, but one thing I am super excited about is that Shake Shack opened in Birmingham this week!!!! Laura and B invited us to go with them tomorrow to check it out. Hello weekly extra points, it was nice knowing you! YUMMMMMM My sister mentioned wanting to see Zoe at some point, obviously a trip to Target to grocery shop must be had as well. We shall see what else we get up to. Hopefully a little more purging/organizing/cleaning.

Favorite Moments: Reading through all the comments that were left on Lindsay’s blog for my post Wednesday has felt so good. It was a really hard post to write and put out there, and it is so comforting to know that I am not alone in my feelings. I need to go back and respond to everyone, I have just been letting all the words sink in.

–Edit: I scheduled my post and then forgot to go back and grab Andrea’s link. She is featuring me today in her Friday Favorites. The blog love is real this week! I am sure you probably already know Andrea, but if you are living under a rock and don’t, go over and follow her immediately!! Girlfriend is super sweet and has the best style around. In fact, I am moving into her closet this weekend. She probably won’t even notice I am there 😉

–Laura and I hit up Urban Cookhouse Wednesday to get some of their delicious salads. I almost don’t mind that I am ordering a salad there, because they are that good. This time I decided to try a new to me one, since I always order the exact same one when I go. It was good! But I will probably stick to my favorite. At least I can say that I tried something else. When we left, we took a selfie in front of one of the graffiti walls because I cant remember the last picture we took together of us and not the food we are consuming. Too long.

–Non-scale victory over here this week!!!! I have hit and gone below my pre-pregnancy weight! Well, that is a scale victory. BUT. The non-scale victory is that I went shopping for jeans this past week and decided I should probably wait and see where I land after a few months of doing this, and shop my closet and see if I cant make something work in the meantime. I pulled on a pair of jeans that I purchased so long ago…I don’t even remember them. And they fit. AND THEY WERE A LITTLE BAGGY!!!! It felt so so so so damn good! My stomach hasn’t gotten the message yet, but the rest of me has. That mom pooch is a real struggle, but I will take these other victories!!

Favorite Purchase: My mom bought me a jewelry armoire from Big Lots back when I was in middle school. I loved that thing, and have had it all these years. The thing is, it is really small, no longer my style, and the legs are very wobbly after the many, many moves it has endured over the years. It is time to get a nicer, larger one. I have been pouring over a million sites and happened to stumble across the best deal I have ever seen on one this size at Home Depot, of all places!!! I just ordered this yesterday, and the free shipping will have it to my house on Wednesday. I cant wait! Not only do I plan on storing all of my jewelry and watches in it, I want to put my sunglasses and wallets in it as well. Sort of an accessory catch all.

Favorite Recipe: Just added this to my game day menu! Buffalo chicken dip is a staple during football season in our house! I also have a buffalo chicken crock pot recipe, which is basically the chicken breast cooked with some chicken broth, onions and hot sauce. But if you take celery and dip it with that….you don’t even really miss the cheese! I plan on alternating these two for awhile!

Favorite Funnies:

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

August 24, 2018 by Nadine

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