Pottermore

I received my Pottermore letter at 10 this morning, 9:57 to be very exact. I checked my email on my phone and my eyes went big when I saw it. I raced upstairs (skipping my morning pee, even) to accept and see this magical world and finally figure out: Am I a true Gryffindor?

After perusing and interacting with the website, the sorting came, and I was very nervous, like I used to get before a big school test.

I thought carefully about my answers, and I did not rush. (Side note / slight spoiler, I suppose: right before the sorting, there's a short video made by JK herself, stating not to rush, take the time to think about the answers, and be honest.)

After much thought over the many choices and over the questions (which were relatively easy to answer, but not so easy that you could already sort yourself), my house banner appeared on my screen and I gasped. My heart jumped a little, kind of like when your crush first hugs you, or you are presented with a surprise birthday party.
I am officially:

Ravenclaw

I'm not upset with the sorting. However, I've never seen myself as a Ravenclaw up until now.

Clothes

So, I've been buying things recently. Of course, this is all on borrowed money... technically I have about 75 dollars to my name that is actually mine.

When I get depressed, I want to buy things. I don't eat or drink excessively. I just want to go to the mall, buy a new pair of shoes or pants / blouse, and go home. It makes me happy to have something new that I can use in the future.

Recently, I have not been so happy just because I don't have a job and I still live with my parents. How can anyone be happy when they spend almost all day at home cleaning / laundering / washing dishes? It's not a fun life. I am desperate for approval from my mother and I don't think I'm getting much right now because I'm not accomplishing anything. It really sucks.

So yesterday, I went to the mall and purchased a couple things. I took a few photos of me wearing these new things too. I'm excited to finally be an adult, get a real adult job, and wear these things to the job. I want to be taken seriously. The time for band t-shirts is over.

New pants & booties from Old Navy. I'm not the biggest fan of the color of the wedge on the boot, but I could not pass these up. Look at the grey color! I've had that shirt for a while, but haven't been able to wear it because it's too hot outside.

Changed up the outfit, and put on the purple flats from Target and the scarf from Forever 21. I can't wait to wear that out, seriously.

Wearing Nyx Abu Dhabi :)

This is from Monday. I went to go apply for a job at the local bank (they then told me to apply online, which I had already done, so I wasted an outfit). I'm wearing Nyx Antwerp.

Mrs. Wasp's Tips to Being a Domestic Diva

We could all use these right?!

Emily posted these on her blog, and so I copy-pasted onto my blog for future reference / for others to see. They are very useful tips and I enjoyed reading all of them!

Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the little 'stringy things' off of it. That's how the primates do it.

Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.

For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.

Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if you want a stronger taste of garlic.

Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert.
Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!

Reheat Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.

Easy Deviled Eggs
Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw the bag away when done - easy clean up.

Expanding Frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.


Reheating refrigerated bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

Newspaper weeds away
Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic - they will not get through wet newspapers.

Broken Glass
Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.

No More Mosquitoes
Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.

Squirrel Away!
To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.

Flexible vacuum
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

Reducing Static Cling
Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and ... ta da! ... static is gone.

Measuring Cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.


Foggy Windshield?
Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!

Reopening envelope
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.

Conditioner
Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.

Goodbye Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Get Rid of Ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

Nyx Soft Matte Lip Creme

So I'm not sure how I discovered the Nyx products. I think Emily revealed them to me. I can't remember. Anyway, they make some pretty awesome stuff.

I ordered 3 Nyx Soft Matte Lip Creme a couple weeks ago and they just arrived on Tuesday, so I thought I would blog about them! I know everyone loves seeing my face.

The Nyx Matte Glosses are not lipstick nor are they very glossy. They're just a thick type of pigmented lipstick. Like everyone says, it is hard to explain until you put it on your lips. It's not supposed to be too glossy. It literally just adds color, like you were born with that color lip. Nyx describes them as a "lip paint", which I think is the best description. After all, they made the product!

The glosses are named after cities. If you want to explore the different cities that they have, go to their website. They are phenomenal lip products.

I ordered Amsterdam, Abu Dhabi, and Antwerp. Amsterdam and Antwerp are like regular colors, every girl should have at least one at her disposal. Abu Dhabi is not a color everyone can wear... but I can! It's a brown-ish color - I think about Princess Jasmine in Aladdin for whatever reason. I feel like I should put on a mesh veil and bellydance.

When I get a job and make big girl monies, I will probably order Monte Carlo and then San Paulo. Addis Ababa looks like so much fun, but that would probably look really weird on me and also it just does not look appropriate for any occasion other than a cocktail party in the spring. And I don't attend those.

Commence pictures!

Amsterdam

I'm not the best at applying... especially in the corners of my mouth. But as you can see, it is *RED*

Without flash.

Antwerp

A nice pink color. But in the next picture, it looks completely different. So I added both.

It looks like a different lipstick completely. Don't ask me!

Without flash. I didn't get a very good one up close.

Abu Dhabi

MY FAVORITE OK

It might wash out my face a little, but I don't think it's too bad. Others will have to tell me if it does or not. I think it looks GREAT! It's sort of a light light brown.

With flash.

I literally want to go to Morocco in this photo. Too bad I am wearing green.

I couldn't get the best photos of it. I don't know how people with beauty blogs do this all the time, I would get really frustrated. This is the best I could do.

And that's it! I hope you enjoyed looking. And if you want to try the Nyx products for yourself, I suggest you do it. All I have right now are these lip cremes, but if I were to want to try something else from Nyx I would do it in a heartbeat! I can't wait to wear these out places (currently, I am going no where because I don't have a job... have I said that here yet? I guess it's time for a different life update post!)

No Heat Curls : Result

I've done the no-heat curls a couple of times now, and this is what they ended up looking like:

A bit fluffier than I expected but they are fun! And they bounce!

In Progress...

Sitting pretty for a couple hours to see if this works at all... right now I look like this! (Also, I was experimenting with some makeup)

Hopefully I'll have some nice curls in the near future!

New Hairstyle

As I have discussed earlier, I've been trying out new hairstyles, other than just "straight" and "not combed because I don't really care". Those are fun, but so played out, and it's all I ever do with my hair. So, I've tried the waver and that worked, but it is a lot of heat damage on you hair.

After reading Dana's post (she's over at The Abundant Life) about her hair style, I thought "Man I want to try that!" It looks super easy and the results are beautiful too. I will be attempting this hair style this evening.

Here is the tutorial video. I will update you all with how it turned out tomorrow hopefully.

Coolest ever. And the headband hairstyle is neat too!

I love getting new things

So, last week, I went on the Target website to apply for a job, but figured why not look for a new pair of pants? I found them. I also found a pair of purple flats that were only ten dollars, so I bought them and a new pair of pants.

The pants are:

Mossimo Women's Ankle Pant in "Federal Blue". They have a button on the inside of the pant, and two hook connectors with a zipper close.

Merona Marlis Suede Sliver Wedge Flats in "Purple". Very comfortable, but a little big. Nothing an insert won't fix!

So, I took a photo of myself in the new pants and shoes, and paired it with a white v-neck shirt and one of those "accessory shirts". I don't know what they're called, but you can see for yourself in the photo. Really, I just wear clothes. I'm not an expert.

You can't really tell the shoes are purple, and sadly although the pants are "ankle pants", they look like regular pants on me. They're a little too big for me also, but I always order a size too large... I still think I'm a size 16 sometimes but this is not the case. See the blue shirt accessory? What are those called?! Also, hair is waved. It looks really awful today, but the other day it looked so great.

I really like what I ordered. I think it shows that I am growing up. Five years ago, I would have balked at an outfit like this. Now, I am more than happy to wear it. I like the thought of growing up, in my mind, only for the fact that you are taken seriously and can pull off clothes like these without being seen as pretentious (if anyone wore anything like this at my high school, I would look at them like "Why are you wearing that when we are expected to wear t-shirts?"). I also feel very comfortable in this outfit - the pants are really soft and the shoes are comfortable. I forget there's a little wedge on the bottom.

This has been a post. 

Later, when I take a couple photos, I will do a post requested by Emily about my nail polish. That might be done tomorrow and not today, we'll see.

Let's Talk about Nail Polish / Beauty

For a second.

The other day, I went to Walgreens to see my friend Chris. I don't think I had been out of the house that day, either, so I needed to go do something.
Also, I bought six nail polishes, which is a first for me (normally I just buy one and treat myself for that week).

I'm not sure why I went insane, but I always ask Chris for his opinion on the colors (when he's there). And if he says he thinks it looks weird, I don't get it. He is my Wade replacement (normally he helps me pick colors). It's a nice way to include people, even though it's just nail polish. And lame. It also gives Chris something to do when he is bored at work, and Wade...well, he just has to put up with my crazy.

I bought 3 Wet n Wild, because they were only one dollar. I couldn't help myself.

Wet n Wild Wild Shine "Wild Card"

Wet n Wild Wild Shine "Night Prowl"

Wet n Wild "Sunny Side Up" (I swore I would never buy orange nail polish, but it looks awesome with my skin tone so)

Wet n Wild "Burgundy Frost" 

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Strobe Light"

Revlon "Beach" (scented... it smells like suntan lotion. Also, it is not as ugly as it looks in this photo... it is more of a green color, not baby poop yellow)

I have already used a few of them. The worst out of the bunch is the Sally Hansen one. It's more of a top coat for another color. It's straight glitter. I had to do three coats and it still didn't cover all of my nail. Then it came off in the shower a couple hours later. I was grumpy about it. This is why I don't do glitter polish! I will figure out how to use it later.

Speaking of learning how to use things, I just learned how to use a hair waver. Every time there's an event of some kind, I straighten my hair because I don't know what else to do with it. Sometimes I'll wear it in a high pony tail, or I'll leave it straight down and put a headband on to dress myself up. 

I bought a hair waver back when I was in college... wow, like maybe over a year ago? And the first time I tried to use it, I looked like a mess. I just didn't know how. So, on Sunday, I tried again because I wanted to do something different. And I succeeded! I don't have a photo of my hair, but I will probably have one on Saturday because I'm going to a wedding. 

What I did was: comb my hair, then separate it into two parts. I then halved those two parts, and just did 4 sections of hair with the waver. It all fit together after completion. It looked great! And Wade likes it more when it's wavy. So maybe I will start doing that more often!