EOTD: may lily, neon lights & hemlock . . .

I'm wearing a brightly-colored tie dye effect flowy tank top today so I decided to do my eyes to match. They're not quite as bright as the top but they "go."

*All makeup is by Aromaleigh

may lily (spring solstice LE) - inner 1/3
neon lights (hot in the city LE) - middle 1/3
hemlock (spring LE) - outer 1/3 and crease


Thanks for checking out my look!

Check out these great cosmetics sales!

Here are a few online sales I came across today that I thought might interest you. I'll add to the list if more sales come to my attention.

• Aromaleigh 25% off weekly sale. Click here to view featured items.
• Aromaleigh 20% off (even off regular weekly sale items) with code: virgo20 through 9/6.
• ULTA 20% off your entire purchase with promo code: 28671. Click here for more details.
• The She Space (aka About Face Cosmetics) 20% site wide. Click here to go to the sale page.

Happy shopping!

Martha Monday - "Roast Chicken with Plums" . . . better late than never!

The idea behind Martha Mondays is that anyone who would like to participate in the weekly challenge could do so either on Monday, Tuesday or really whenever they can get around to it and then they can post their results on their blog or on the Martha Monday web site. But the cool thing about actually doing it on Monday is that you get that warm fuzzy feeling knowing that you and a bunch of other fellow "Martha Monday-ers" are doing the same thing on the same day. Frankly, I was just grateful to get this week's challenge in before the week was over. Here's how my "Roast Chicken with Plums" turned out. . .

Here are the plums in their pre-cooked state covered in honey. I couldn't find small plums so I bought 6 regular sized plums and pitted and quartered them prior to roasting.

The finished dish. The dark striping across the skin is from the honey I drizzled over it prior to roasting.

All pretty and plated up next to a dried cranberry and candied pecan-garnished salad.

And the piste de résistance... the plums were the hit of the dinner!

"Friday Favorites" (a product review). . .

Today, I'm sharing my love of Clairol Herbal Essences "Long Term Relationship, " a leave-in split-end protector.

From the company:

"Prevent split ends and maintain your long locks—that's the secret of a long-term relationship. My luscious leave-in is like a velvety kiss of protective conditioning that strengthens your hair against split ends and breakage. Hey beautiful, let's stay together until the end."

"With a fusion of red raspberry & satin, our love grows longer."

On the website, it gets 4 out of 5 stars. Click here to read the customer reviews.

From me:

I'm always on the lookout for products that make my highlighted, long, wavy hair (which I blow dry straight and/or use a curling iron on every single day) more beautiful and less damaged looking without weighing it down or making it look greasy. This product does just that.

It has a thick lotion-like consistency, a pretty pink color, and a very light raspberry scent (the scent doesn't stay with you or complete with your perfume). I squirt a little bit less than a dime-sized amount into the palm of my hand and distribute it throughout the bottom 4 inches or so (and just the very ends of my bangs) of my freshly washed and towel-dried hair before blow drying. It leaves my hair very soft and manageable and protects those delicate ends from the wrath of my electric beauty tools.

I highly recommend this product and will definitely repurchase it again. If you have processed hair of any length, I suggest you give it a try!

"Shine a Light" on Aromaleigh and get a chance to win $3,000!!!

Click on the banner above for further details or click here to go directly to the "SHINEALIGHT on Aromaleigh" site and enter your endorsement* for Aromaleigh. If you're not familiar with Aromaleigh, please click here to learn more about this amazing independently-woman-owned internet mineral cosmetics company that I love sooo much.

*Once you get to the site, you will need to click on the "register" link in the upper right corner of the screen before your vote will be counted.

Wordless Wednesday...

Miss K says..."Iron is the new black for Fall 2009"

...and I couldn't agree more! Check out these gorgeous inspirational photos from the Fall 2009 runways. You can adapt the looks to your own personal style and pair them with these deliciously rich Aromaleigh eyeshadows.

Visit Miss K's blog post here to read more about it!

tapestry, fig, and lychee of the Aromaleigh "opulent lustre" collection

Photos courtesy of: Miss K and Aromaleigh

What's for breakfast . . . Pigs-in-a-Blanket Dippers!

I made this simple yummy breakfast for the kids this morning.

• 1 package (8 links) Farmer John original pork sausage links; cooked according to pkg directions
• 1 tube refrigerator reduced fat crescent rolls (no, this is not a low-fat recipe)
• Roll up 1 cooked sausage link inside 1 triangle of crescent dough
• Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes
• Serve with warm maple syrup or honey for dipping

HG mascara search and comparison . . .

As some of you may already know, I have been searching for my HG (holy grail) mascara for quite some time. I need a mascara than adds some volume and length but most importantly, I need one that lasts. I don't know if it's because I have combination skin or the fact that I have occasional eye allergies that cause me to blink a lot when they're acting up, but many mascaras I've tried (budget and high end) end up underneath my eyes by midday. Not the look I'm going for.

In the past, Covergirl Marathon waterproof mascara (green tube) was almost my HG mascara. It lasted all day and provided separation (no clumps), but that was about it. Nothing in the way of a dramatic false lash effect whatsoever. Then one day it disappeared from my local stores never to be seen again. Was it discontinued? I don't know. Perhaps so many new products came out (Lash Blast and the like) that the stores had to remove mascaras that weren't selling as well. So my search continued.

That's when I re-discovered Max Factor 2000 Calorie waterproof mascara. It has the "old school" bristles that I like and it provides volume, length and it lasts all day. The one drawback I see is that products tends to get thick fairly soon after opening for the first time compared to other mascaras.

Then a friend told me about Max Factor's Volume Couture mascara. She had used it in the past and then for some reason started trying several others in different price points. She went back to it and realized that it was her HG mascara all along. So I decided to give it a try in the waterproof formula. I also tried the Max Factor Lash Perfection at the same time. The ingredients are identical (and they both have those new plastic bristles) but the Volume Couture costs about $.60 more since it has more product in the bottle. Yay, no clumps, nice length, volume and separation and...it lasts all day! And I'm getting used to the newfangled bristles.

Sadly, I recently read that Max Factor isn't going to be sold in the U.S. starting in early 2010. What?!? I finally find my HG mascara and you're going to take it away from me? So I decided to do a google search of the ingredients and discovered that Proctor and Gamble (the manufacturer of both Max Factor and Covergirl), released Covergirl Lash Blast under the name Max Factor False Lash Effect in Europe. This got me curious so after digging a bit further, I found that Covergirl Lash Exact and Covergirl Last Blast have the identical ingredients that my beloved Max Factor mascara has. I'm going to purchase a tube of Last Exact (Lash Blast's brush is just too gargantuan for my taste) and give it a try. I'll post my results here in the future. Wish me luck!



Ingredients: Petroleum Distillates, Polyethylene, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Copernicia Cerifera Wax (Carnauba), Trihydroxystearin, Propylene Carbonate, Pentaerythrityl Hydrogenated Rosinate, Tall Oil Glycerides, Panthenol, Propylparaben, Tocopheryl Acetate, Phenoxyethanol, Tocopherol, May Contain (+/-): Iron Oxides, Ultramarines, Titanium Dioxide

5 FREE eyeshadow samples from Aromaleigh!

Send an old, used, or unwanted eyeshadow to Aromaleigh and they'll send you 5 FREE eyeshadow samples of your choice. Here's what Aromaleigh has to say...

"Send us an old eyeshadow and get 5 FREE eyeshadow samples of your choice!

Yep, you read that right! (Change is good, remember?)

We want you to mail us an eyeshadow that you don't like and in turn, we'll send you 5 FREE Aromaleigh mineral makeup eye samples of your choosing! (stock collections only- Limited Edition Collections not available for this offer).

The goal? To spread the Aromaleigh joy far and wide. To Tweet and share and post and blog so that others can mail in something they don't want and in turn receive something new and exciting to try from a brand they may never have heard about if it weren't for your sharing the love and the freebie goodness!" READ MORE...

Purple/Aqua FOTD

I was inspired by a fellow Aromaleigh Aficionada's recent FOTD when I put this look together. I was going shopping with my daughter for school supplies (ugh) so I wanted something to make me look and feel cheerful. This color combo did it! I hope you like it.

*All makeup used in this look is from Aromaleigh.

Color Descriptions:

• ice (pure eyes matte) - A pure white matte eye shadow
• dollhouse (eye plush) - Dreamy plush finish purple with delicate beige and grey undertones
• penelope (eye lustre) - Lush, gemtone purple with a pink pearl highlight
• purple princess (gothic lolita) - A deep, satiny purple with rich rose tones and a russet shadow
• aqua nightmare (gothic lolita) - Technicolor bright aqua pearl sheen with divinely bright aqua sparks
• breathless (rocks! sonic rouge) - Lush, clear bright pink
• shortcake (gothic lolita nourishing color creme) - Sweet wearable pink pearl

Martha Mondays: Grilled Vanilla Peaches

This was the first assignment for Martha Mondays. I used white peaches (I thought I was buying yellow ones) for my recipe. They taste just as good but are not quite as pretty. I love the look of contrasting foods. But once the peaches were covered in ooey gooey cinnamon sauce, there was a good measure of color contrast there with the vanilla ice cream.

It was in the high 90's here today around dinner time so I decided to alter the recipe a bit and "grilled" my peaches in the oven instead of on the barbeque. They were so tastey. Cameron had two helpings. Sierra thought they were a little sweet for her taste. Jason hasn't tried them yet. He was at the mall getting an Orange Julius while I was making dessert. I'm sure he'll try a bowl before he goes to bed though.

I washed and peeled the peaches (I used 6)

Here are my peaches (in the lemon/oil liquid) in a 9x13 pan.

Again I veered from the recipe and quartered my peaches.

Yummy cinnamon/brown sugar sauce

Sauce drizzled all over the peaches

Covered with foil and ready to pop into a 425 oven for 15 minutes

De-lish!

Martha Monday Assignment for 8/17/09: Map Coasters!

Aromaleigh contest: Celebrate the start of this year's butterfly migration and find the hidden butterflies!

From Miss K..."The last few days, my front gardens have been full of butterflies. I plant Lantana (Butterfly Bush) on purpose... it not only grows amazingly well, but it's sweet smell attracts hundreds of butterflies to my garden from mid-August through the full height of the butterfly migration in October!

Every year, hundreds of thousands of Monarch and Cloudless Sulphur Butterflies pass through South Carolina, on the way to Florida, the Caribbean and Mexico. As the weather starts to get a little cooler, I love standing in my front window and seeing 20-30 butterflies in my garden at a time, from dusk till dawn!

This year, to celebrate the Butterfly migration, we are going to have a little fun at Aromaleigh. Not only will an upcoming limited edition eye collection be inspired entirely by gorgeous butterflies, but I will be hiding a butterfly on the site each day through September 10, and there will be prizes every day for those who find the butterfly and report in first!"

Click here to check Miss K's blog for the daily butterfly hunting contest! The complete rules are listed on each day's contest page. She usually announces each day's contest on Twitter first so click here to follow her.

*Limit of 3 wins per person.

I've already reached my limit of 3 wins. Here are my prizes: (1) a 10 gram jar of "Bluebell" Satin Petals Frost eye shadow, (2) a Limited Edition Hot in the City "Summer of Love" lip gloss; and (3) my choice of any Aromaleigh eye shadow (I chose "Lychee" Opulent Lustre).

Below are some of the beautiful butterflies we've been hunting for!

Happy hunting!

Robyn

Trader Joe's Annual Manager's Party 2009

For those of you who don't know, my husband Jason is a manager for Trader Joe's grocery store. Every year the company hosts a lavish party for all the managers in each region of the country. Our region is Northern California and the party is hosted in Sacramento.

This year, the party was held at The Citizen, the only downtown boutique Sacramento hotel offering 20th century grace redefined by 21st century urban luxury. Just moments from California’s State Capitol, the Sacramento Convention Center and the Sacramento Superior Court, The Citizen is where the elite come to meet. READ MORE ABOUT THE CITIZEN...

The Citizen Hotel

Front entrance

The lobby

Trader Joe's pays for one night's hotel stay for all guests who have to travel 30 or more miles to the event. My favorite part of the room was the cushy pillow top King size bed with fluffy down-filled pillows...aahhhh.

Our room

Cute velvet chair in our room

Our bathroom

The reception (hors d'oeuvres and an open wine/beer bar) and 3-course sit down dinner was held on the 3,000 square foot roof top tented terrace with a stunning, unobstructed view of the California State Capitol.

I took this photo of the Capital Building while standing next to our table. It was the first time I'd ever seen it in person.

Jason and me (you can just see the Capital Building over my shoulder)

The menu (I know it's difficult to read). Jason had the Grilled Beef Tenderloin and I had the Roasted Pacific Halibut.

After dinner, everyone adjourned to the Ballroom for dancing (and more drinks).

The band was great! We danced for hours.

Thanks for taking a tour of the party. It's a special night for us each year because it's held right around the time of our wedding anniversary so we use this night as our own personal celebration. This year is our 15th!!!

Robyn