Swatch It

There's a few things in this life that I have deep love for. 1.God 2.Family/Friends 3.Make-up and 4. Coffee. They may or may not be in that order :s Today I want to talk about my deep love for make-up! I don't always love the process of putting it on but I love the way it makes me feel when I do. It's amazing how a little bit of make-up can be a total confidence booster! It's taken me some time to master what looks good on my face and what techniques work for me but after many hours spent with my good friend YouTube I'm gettin there! I wanted to share my fav products with all of you and it may also resemble somewhat of a starter kit for someone with not a lot of make-up or someone who wants to expand their collection. Shall we begin?

This first ones obvious, every girl should have this in her make-up bag - I'm talken mascara ladies! My personal fav? CoverGirl Lash Blast Fusion (the purple one) in blackest black. Sorry for the poor quality photo, I took it from the interweb seeing as I'm at work and forgot to take a pic of my own at home. I love this mascara because it seems to work the best for me. I love to try new mascara's just to see what's out there but I always come back to this one.  My eyes are more inset so when a mascara flakes it just looooves to sit on my cheeks- not pretty! This mascara doesn't flake or hardly flakes at all, I love the formula to  this one and I also like the rubber brush. The rubber brush tends to work a lot better with my lashes, not to mention makes them look longer! I've been asked a few times if I'm wearing falsies just by wearing this mascara!!

Next up is Primer. MUST HAVE. I cannot stress how important this is. Primer should be applied to the entire face before you put on foundation, this will help keep your foundation on your skin all day and give you a better 'finish'.  I do not have a picture because I've yet to find one that I love but next I will be trying Arbonne's face primer for $45. Before you freak out on me and tell me I'm crazy for spending that much I'd like you to take a moment and slap yourself on the face! How dare you almost lash out on me when it comes to make-up!! First of all Arbonn'es primer is in a huge bottle (30ml or 1 fluid oz.) this will last you forever people. Now take $45 and divide that into forever and you've got yourself a good deal! Also I really like Urban Decay Primer Potion. The purple bottle, not the yellow bottle. The yellow is shimmery and that's just dumb. I only apply this onto and around my eyelids before my foundation to really make my eyeshadow pop and stay put all day.  

Then we've got my good friend Liquid foundation, we go way back. My skin is far from perfect and on those really far from perfect days my face begs for liquid foundation. Lately I've been using L'Oreal Visible Lift liquid foundation. It does have a brush attached to the bottle but I use a stippling brush for the actual application. I've tried a few foundations in my time and this one I find to be my fav as of late. Everyone's skin is different though so find what works best for you. Don't forget, you can return foundation with receipt if you take it home and decide you don't like it. Why would you want to keep a foundation that doesn't match your skin tone and/or doesn't apply as smooth as you'd hoped? You wouldn't cuz thats just crazy! So exchange it for something that better suits you my friend! 

Next I'll be trying L'Oreal's True Match because I've been hearing a lot of good things about it. 

As mentioned previously, I apply my liquid foundation with a stippling brush. I've tried my fingers but hate how it gets behind my finger nails. I've tried sponges but I can't get that down so I end up with streakyness. A stippling brush is my fav and it looks like this: 

After I apply my liquid foundation I set it with a face powder. Right now I'm loving Maybelline's Dream Matte Powder. It give's good coverage, good color and keeps my skin matte. It comes with a pad like "brush" but I like to use a larger fluffy brush to apply the product all around my face. 

Then I'll use a bronzer to contour my face. Contouring can be tricky, my advice would be to look on YouTube to learn the techniques. I usually apply it  under my cheek bones (below where you would put blush), under/on my jawline and on the sides of my nose. Contouring is basically creating the affect of a shadow. You can use it to make your nose look slimmer (my personal fav), your cheeks more pronounced and your jawline more pronounced. The trick is to make sure you blend it all out so to not have any harsh lines. And to use it in conjunction with highlighting, contouring brings it in and highlighting brings it out! I haven't tried a lot of bronzer's but I hear good things about Benefit's Hoola Bronzer. I just ordered this (don't tell the husband) so I'll be sure to let you know how I like it. Just a tip, in store it's really expensive, I bought mine on ebay but I got the old packaging (shown below) which made it cheaper then one with the new packaging. 

To highlight I like to use Mary-Lou Manizer highlight. This. Is. The. Bomb. Diggity. If you do not have it, you should! It is quite pricey, I think I paid $25 for mine on ebay but I use very little of it each day and it still looks like I've used nothing. This baby will last me for years! Here's my swatch, it doesn't really do it justice. If you can see it gives a subtle shimmer look and I apply this above my cheek bones and blend it into my blush. I apply this with a fan brush also shown below. I got my brush from Coastal Scents and if you haven't already heard of them be sure to check out their site! 

And last on the docket is blush. Sadly I've only been wearing blush for the last year, I knew about it of course but I never felt like I needed it. If you feel this way as well then take it from me -> wear blush!!! I love me some blush!! I will not, would not, could not leave the house without it. It completely livens up your face, here I was walking around looking like I was dead! What happens is when you apply foundation to your face you are creating a matte blank canvas, that is why contouring and highlighting and blush is so important, it's bringing out all of your lines to in a sense recreate the bone structure in your face (and by lines I do not mean wrinkles people!)  My personal all time fav blush (which also happens to be the first blush I ever purchased) is Mac blush in Cantaloupe. It's a peachy/coral color and works so well with my skin tone whether I'm tan or pasty white! 

I also really love the blush palette from Coastal Scents, it has a variety of colors to choose from and the pan size is awesome, this little gem will last you a long time. My personal fav is bottom row second from the left, it too is a peachy/coral color. These colors also rival some of Mac's blushes so if your looking for a cheaper alternative this would be the way to go! The colors are gorgeous and very pigmented, you can also mix two colors together on your cheeks to create a different look. If you do happen to order this palette don't freak out when you see the colors- some look very bright but as you can see from my swatches it wont apply to your skin that way. I apply blush with a fluffy angled brush (not pictured). 

I noticed that a lot of these colors look brown

in the pic but I assure you none of them are. 

This palette is full of pinks, fuscias and peaches. 

I apologize for the very horrible quality of this picture,

it definitely does not do these gorgeous colors 

any justice. Also I think my arm skin really

sucks for doing swatches :( boo. 

Hope this was helpful, now go out and spend all your money on make-up and don't tell your husbands! Or don't take my advice and walk around looking dead, it's your choice! 

Collage Time

 1. After the halloween party
2. Can't wait to set up this little baby in the new apartment (also will be sharing pics of the new apartment                 when we get settled in. Maybe some Pinterest projects in future?)
3. This is how The Little sleeps. How precious
4. How I'd like to spend the majority of my time- snuggled up and sipping on some Asti Martini
5. How The Little eats a cupcake- puts it between her front teeth and lip and lets it sit there for a while.
6. Nellie's sweet eyelashes that I'm totes jeals over!
7. Sidewalk chalk behind my building- to be a kid again :)
8. Sipping Tims triple triple after a long hard morning of triple barrelling my hair.
9. Time well spent at work I'd say!
10. My day to day
11. Moments with friends :)
12. The home opener of hockey season, too bad it was downhill from there #cmonflyers
13. Just love this pic, so serene
14. What I wish I could eat eeerrrday mmmmmmmm

Halloweeeeeen

Hello All!

Well I have definitely been lacking in the blog department, sorry! I have plenty of ideas on what I'd like to write about but every day it just seems like those topics don't interest me. I don't want my blog to sound forced, I want it to flow, and to reflect me, and also to write what suits my mood. I have some Halloween pictures that I'd love to share so I'll do that throughout this entry, for some of you that have me on Facebook then you will have seen these already- my apologies! In between photo's I'd like to share what's been on my mind lately. This might get a little deep so I'll lighten the mood with some Halloween awesomeness!!

The Husband and I- Markio and Flapper/Sugar Skull

I've been married for just over a year now and I can say we're one of the "first year is the hardest" couples. I wish it weren't so, I wish that I could have experienced the lovey-dovey, can't be without you stage. But I didn't. I'm slowly realizing why I didn't have that but let me tell you- people definitely weren't lying when they said the first year can be the hardest! 

Our fwends Tony Stark & Halloween Faerie 

I'm just going to take this moment to tell future Desiree "ALWAYS LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER"!!! She knows best, she's been through it, NO, you are not smarter then her! NO, you are not 'going through something different'! No, she is not out to bring you down! NO, your emotions do not affect you differently then hers do to her! She is wiser then you will ever be because she will always be 21 years older then you, so save yourself a lot of time, worry and hurt and do as your mother says. 

Markio and Luigi obvy

Alright, so the first year of marriage, do I have any advice? No, not really. If I did you probably wouldn't want to listen to it. I have gained a lot of knowledge but I don't know that I'd do anything differently. Would I have gotten here if I had done things differently? I'm not sure. One thing I am sure about is that I am a very unsure person! I move at a slow pace when it comes to something that's important to me. Was divorce ever on my mind? Absolutely, but thankfully for my slow pace I never made any rash decisions. Divorce in the first year for me would have been giving up. It probably wouldn't have sat right with me and I most likely would have regretted it at some point. I need to learn not to run from my problems, I'm very good at pushing them down so they are forgotten. Sometimes they sneak up on me and I'll experience random outbursts of crying, that's when I know I need to push them down further. This just isn't healthy, but I'm learning. 

Mobster and his Bride

I met with my Pastor a few days ago and he helped me to realize that I hold too much resentment towards people. I can't let things go. I started to really think about this and a desire started growing inside me. A desire to rid myself of this anger. I envision this fire-y ball inside of my core that keeps growing, and some day I'm going to release that fire-y ball and I will be at ease. I'll be able to breathe, and what a sweet sweet breath that first one will be. I can see my shoulders straightening, my head held a little higher because I'll know, that God won the battle inside me. I'll take knowledge and tools and use those things to keep the fire-y ball away, and I'll be free. I'll be free and I'll breathe. 

The Ladies

People have always said that Men think differently then Women. Maybe I just had to experience this first hand for it to actually sink in- Men undoubtedly think differently then Women. Mark grew up in a household where he was taken care of, his Mother did a lot for him (like, a lot!). I grew up in a household where we had to do things ourselves. I'm not saying Mark's parent's parenting was wrong, it is what worked for their family. And I'm not saying my parent's parenting was right, it was the cards we were dealt. My mother battled with depression and my Dad was hardly home due to his job. Us kids had to grow up pretty fast and learn how to take care of ourselves. I don't resent this childhood though, it taught me independence. Mark on the other hand was not taught independence in such ways. When Mark moved in with me we started to clash because of our independence levels. I expected him to just know and was unwilling to help him figure things out if he didn't (big mistake). This made Mark feel afraid. He was afraid of me. How would that make you feel if your spouse was afraid of you? All I wanted was to be equal yet I was the one getting in the way of that. 

Lovely photo bomb courtesy of Mr. Stark

After a few months of living together... okay, a lot of months of living together, Mark started to catch on to how I wanted things done, so we started meshing a liiiiiittle bit better. But it seemed as though another problem would occur after another. We were constantly struggling to understand each other but going about it in the worst ways. Instead of communicating our issues we were shutting down, thinking this was helping us to live more harmoniously. We couldn't have been more wrong. 

Red John made an appearance, as usual he went unnoticed

Then Mark started reading a book. I forget the name of it but it had been a wedding gift. It was a book for Men about Women. To help Men understand how Women think. I picked up the book as well to see what kind of things it was telling him. And this book was bang on! The biggest thing he could take away from this book was that women's emotional needs need to be met for a more harmonious relationship. After I had read this I realised how true that was. I hadn't even known that that is what I was looking for, after that came to light it made things so much clearer. And I was learning that I needed to speak to Mark in a different way to get the response that I wanted (the truth). He needed to not be afraid of me. If he was afraid of me the greater lengths he would go to keep the truth from me no matter what it was. If your spouse is afraid of you, then they will be afraid of what you will do when they tell you something they know you wont be happy about. 

Pirate and Killer Bee

So here's to the second year! We come into it with new understanding, and new goals set. We aren't just gong to 'try and make it through' we are going to 'work through it'. 

Have you ever seen anything cuter? No, no you have not

The Old Die Young

Let's get a little sentimental, shall we? My biggest fear in life would have to be my loved one's dying before me. It's something I've been fortunate enough not to have to endure thus far, but its one of those things where you just feel it could be around any corner. Well lets face it, it really could be around any corner. I've always thought of myself as a strong person, one who could break down and categorize my feelings and emotions and deal with them accordingly (.... that sounds so robotic :s ). I often wonder how I would deal with the death of a loved one, would I be able to categorize? Would I be able to deal in a healthy way? Although I know what death will mean for me in my religious standpoint, it doesn't mean it will happen like that for everyone I love. Maybe that is what I fear the most, will I ever see that person again. In heaven you will know no sadness, does that mean the people that I know and love that are not Christians will be completely forgotten? I'll be living it up in heaven and a lot of people will be in the fiery pits but to me it wont matter? I shed a tear for those souls, I wish they would know, I wish they would repent. My heart would be a lot less heavy and I'd be ready for death like a coffee at 8am Monday! Imagine that, everyone welcoming Jesus into their heart's, of course we'd still lead a life of sin because lets face it, we're human but EVERYONE would go to heaven, I'd want to die tomorrow! But this world is not like that, and we are in fact still human so I will be trying my best to lead an example and pray that I will see you all up there.

Anyway, what brought all of this on is a dream that I had. Two nights ago I dreamt I was in the army (irrelevant but it was cool), my Grandpa (my Mom's Dad) was also in the army and we were walking side by side, arms around each other, talking and laughing. I don't remember the exact words, I know he told me a joke and I laughed. I also pointed something out to him in the distance and we talked about it. I woke up and my heart was swelling (with happiness, no I do not have a heart condition people). See my Grandpa has a hard time hearing, when you talk to him you have to yell. He can usually hear men a little better because their voices are deeper (good thing I have a man voice lol!), because of this people tend to avoid talking to him if they don't have to. I know that I'm guilty of this as well. Not only does he have a hearing problem but he doesn't speak perfect English, so if you're not repeating yourself because you spoke too quietly, you might be repeating yourself because he just didn't understand.

A few months ago my Mom had told me that Grandpa had said no one came to visit him at home (Grandma was in the hospital for about a year), and that he should just stay at home because no one liked to talk to him because he couldn't hear them anyway. When my Mom had told me that I guess it really hit me, I was always thinking -He's not going to hear me anyway, I don't want to repeat myself all the time, or, I don't want to be in the room alone with him. I feel so ashamed of myself. I was always thinking of me, I never once thought of how my Grandpa must feel, knowing people may go out of their way NOT to talk to him. So I have made it a point to go the extra mile when around my Grandpa and talk more with him. You never know how long your loved one's are going to be around and you really must take advantage of the time you have together now. I know everyone always says that but sometimes you might need a little extra push to help it sink it further.

Unfortunately I do not have any pics of my Grandpa handy so instead I'll leave you on a lighter note, showing you my convo with my brother Matt.

This may not be as funny to any of you but I'm STILL laughing!!! Too good.

To Serve and Protect??

For those of you that know me you'd know that my brother's are... well... less then saints for lack of a better word. Having said that, I'd also like to point out how hard it is to be the sibling of trouble makers. My two brother's aren't your average left-the-milk-on-the-counter-overnight kind of trouble makers, they're more so the run-ins-with-the-law kind of trouble makers. Last year was one of the hardest years of my life. Both of my brother's ended up going to jail at the same time. One was for 5 months and the other was 8 months. To some that may not seem like long but when you're not getting answers and waiting and wondering- it feels like a lifetime. I wont get into that part of my life right now, it deserves its own post entirely, but I just wanted to set the background for this post.

Seeing as I've gone through a lot of ups and downs being the sister, I know when it's right to punish someone, and I know when its wrong. My brother's have made mistakes, and they have had to be punished for this. Did I agree with those punishments? Yes, sometimes. Don't even get me started on our justice system in Manitoba though, it is flawed at its best. A few months ago something happened to my older brother and I 100% did not agree with how it panned out. I was so upset at what had happened that I wanted to do something about it. I wanted to speak up, to be heard, so I wrote an article for the paper. A big part of me felt like it wouldn't get published simply because in my article I "attack" the intentions of the local police, but I tried anyway. As expected, they did not publish my article. So I thought I'd post it on here. Maybe it wont be read by many, maybe nobody at all, but I need to know that it is out there to be read. I need to know it wont go completely unnoticed. So without further ado, this was my unpublished article:

 Growing up I was taught that Police were there to protect the public, that laws were put in place for a reason and those who broke those laws were brought to justice. I was taught to abide by authority without question, but as I grew older I realized I did have questions. If I have to answer to the law, and as a Christian I whole heartedly believe I do, then who do law enforcement have to answer to? I’m sure there is a chain of command and each person has to answer to another but in my life experiences it seems as though the local police feel they can do as they please. I feel like I’ve been discriminated against simply because of my last name. I had my first run in with the law when I was 17, the situation was minor and I was not at fault but while sitting in the back seat of the cop car the officer read my last name aloud. I could hear in his tone that I was being judged. As I sat in the back seat I was questioned on my brother, what he was up to, if he was still dating the same girl, I gave vague answers, after all I was the one in that car, not my older brother. I walked away from the situation feeling wronged. I doubted my own intentions and integrity. Those police officers made me feel like my name was tainted. I cringed when people would say my last name, I didn’t want to be associated with it. I was ashamed. The people that were supposed to protect and serve me made me feel ashamed of who I was. Granted it was most likely unintentional, some might argue that it was a tactic to scare me out of doing wrong, I’d argue that my upbringing is why I’ve stayed on the right path.

         

   This was the beginning of my ill feelings towards my local police officers, it only escalated from there. While being perfectly honest, my brother has recently been to jail. Was this just? Yes and no. He’s done things that had consequences, and he has served his time for it. I’ll be the first to admit he deserved it, I’ll also be the first to say he deserves a fresh start. Obviously the police have their eye out for my brother, I don’t blame them. What I do blame them for is treating a person badly because they have a bad history.  People do wrong every day, does this mean they don’t deserve a chance to change? I’m writing this article because I feel people aren’t always given that chance. Two weeks ago my brother came home to his apartment that he still lived in with an ex girlfriend. He came home and her dad was there alone and drunk. My brother had also been drinking. He opened the fridge to find his food had been eaten, after which an argument ensued about eating the food he bought for himself. After heated words were exchanged my brother sat down on the couch, at this point the ex girlfriends father towered over him and started punching my brothers face. Before he knew what was happening and could shield his face there was blood everywhere. After this act of rage my brother called the police to get this man out of his house. Two young police officers, I believe they are relatively new to Winkler’s police force, showed up and assessed the situation. My brother’s face was bruised and swollen, a quarter of his front tooth was chipped off and he had a few cuts on his face, after taking this all in the police told my brother that they wouldn’t do anything because the fight was mutual. My brother was attacked in his own home by a man twice his size and he called the police as a form of protection and he was told by them that this fight was mutual! Then my brother was angry and said “If I had a baseball bat this fight would have been mutual” at this point one of the officers pinned my brother on the ground and accused him of threatening the officers with a baseball bat. They then arrested my brother and escorted him out of the building and into the “drunk tank.” Me being the average person would have also taken in my brother, and by that I mean I’d rather deal with a 175 pound drunk male then a 250 pound drunk male, but I’m just that- an average person, not the police. I could also argue that race was a deciding factor, 175 pound drunk white male versus 250 pound drunk native male. Did these young officers have something to prove?   Have our law enforcement officers become racist or just simply lazy? Just to paint an accurate picture for you, the ex girlfriend’s father has also recently gotten out of jail.  After being brought to the police station my brother asked to make a statement at which point he was told he could not, he then asked to make a phone call to his lawyer at which point he was again denied. He spent the night in the cell and was released the next day. 

          

  Given this outcome, I am writing this to say: If I get attacked in my own home, who am I supposed to call? Would my last name decide the outcome of an arrest? Would I be denied my rights as a citizen of this city? To me, all of this does not sound just, to me, this does not sound like serving and protecting. I am but one voice, all I’m asking is to be heard. 

Winter Time

Note to self: Work on title originality.... you're lacking. 


Fall is here, and I'm loving it! I used to be a summer person all the way, but then I put on a few pounds and realised sweaters are my friend :) Also, I discovered boots!! Who doesn't love boots?! I usually jump the gun and wear boots long before anyone else does, does that mean my feet get crazy hot and uncomfortable? Yes. Do I care? My feet look awesome in my boots, of course not! This year I have vowed to not buy any new pairs of boots (I did happen to buy one pair already but they were $10 so that doesn't count right?!?). We need to save money for other things so my boots wardrobe will have to suffer. I do however get to treat myself to a new fall/winter jacket Yay! Because sweaters are my best friend I tend to wear a lot of cardigans, and they  tend to get long. Maybe some people can pull off a sweater peaking out of their jacket but somehow I just can't make it work. So naturally my solution is to buy a longer jacket (and the husband gave me permission to do so!). Now I'm on the hunt for the perfect jacket! Here are a few that I've had my eye on.....

So cute right? Pro: not a lot of people will have it

Con: It's so light colored I'll probably get it dirty...and fast.

This is my second choice as of right now. It's a bit more practical but

doesn't quite look the same as what everyone else has.

This one isn't really me, I just thought it was cute! 

Seriously, how cute is this ?!? Again, not my style, 

I just wanted to share :) 

Basically there are two options I'm looking at. Buying a coat online is stressful, I don't want to make any rash decisions, I need help! So to all of my 2 "followers" what are your thoughts lol??? 

The Beginning

I decided to finally start a blog! I thought to myself, everyone else has one, I should have one too. I've always liked the idea of writing my thoughts down, and from time to time I have but I'm usually not consistent with it. A few months ago I did start writing in a designated journal but those entries are few and far between. Whenever I've had a good thought or experience I wanted to document I'd usually grab the nearest paper and start jotting or email myself, both of which usually get forgotten about. Creating a blog I feel will be a nice way to always access what I want when I want it. My intentions are to have a blog about how I feel, experiences, things that I like, things that I don't like, DIY,  music, tv shows, beauty related things- basically a lifestyle blog. So if you interested, please follow along! I don't promise to be witty, to be extraordinary with my words or to have amazing photo's but I'll do me, and that I promise :)

I haven't decided what to officially blog about first, so keep checking in, hopefully I'll have something up in the next day or two!

                       And since an entry isn't an entry without a photo, I'll give you this...