Say YES to the Dress...

I LOVE the show say yes to the dress.  I could watch the show all day long.  I fell in love with this dress by Enzoani called Elena. It has a vintage feel, romantic and just amazing.  I found the dress now i just need the man!!!! 

CAKE POPS! Semi-homemade!

My first experience with cake pops was on a recent trip to Puerto Rico.  I was in downtown San Juan and stopped into the Starbucks.  I was online waiting to order when I saw the cake pops and i had to order one! I took a bite of the cake pop and instantly fell in love!  They are very sweet but since it’s just a bite…its PERFECT.  I came up with a way to make to them “semi homemade.” 

What you will need:       

Vanilla Cake Mix – any brand

Whipped Vanilla Frosting – any brand

Wilton Candy Melts – pick any color!

Long Lollipop sticks

Sprinkles
Styrofoam 

Sandwich Bags – the ones that fold over not zip
Ribbon

1.  Bake the cake.  Follow the directions on the back of the box. 

2.  After cake is fully baked - place it on a cooling rack

3. After cake is completed cooled off.  Get a large mixing bowl and rip the cake into small pieces and place in the mixing bowl. Take the icing and little by little start mixing it into the pieces of cake until you make a sticky batter. 

4.  Roll the batter into balls about the size of a large gum ball.  You want to keep them this size because if the balls are too heavy they will fall off the popsicle stick.  Place them on a cookie sheet lined with foil paper to prevent sticking.

5.  Melt a small amount of the Wilton Candy Melts.  Just enough to dip the tip of all the lollipop sticks.  This is an important step it holds the stick in the cake batter.

6.  Put them back in the fridge for about an hour.  You need the balls to be as cold as possible so the hot chocolate sticks on the cake pops easily.

7.  Melt a large amount Wilton Chocolates.  Melt the chocolate in the microwave (follow the directions on the back of the bag) Make sure you melt enough so its deep enough to cover the cake pops.

8. Sprinkle Sprinkles on the top and stick in Styrofoam.  After you finish put the cake pops back in the fridge to harden.  This takes about an hour.  

9.  As you wait for the cake pops to harden you can cut the sandwich bags and the ribbon.  I used the fold as my cutting line.

 

THE FINISHED PRODUCT...SOOOO CUTE!!!

Horrible - Bullying

I would not want to be a teenager these days.  The bullying tragedies that have been happening recently are absolutely disgusting!!!  Everyone, at some point has been picked on.  I remember getting picked for having freckles when I was in the 3^rd grade.  I remember the next day I wanted to wear my uniform sweater (I went to catholic school) in June to school.  My mom said “NO, it’s 90 degrees out.”   I told her that someone was making fun of me and she responded “Get over it – he probably likes you.”  Luckily people accepted me for my red hair and freckles and that was the extent of me being “picked on.”

The term they use now a days is “bullying” because that’s what it is.  With all these social networking sites, I can only imagine how a “bully” could traumatize someone.  The more stories I read the more this makes me sick!  How can you treat someone so badly?

Just venting!! 

I head this story today.  Broke my heart!

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/diary-that-broke-silence-on-torment-of-a-suicide-teen-1248598.html



My AMAZING New Purse

On a recent trip to Nordstroms i went into my favorite department called "trend."  They have unique/trendy accessories that you won't find in any other store.  I fell in love with this purse called "Felix" by Duex Lux  Today my very generous job *sarcasm* gave us a Visa gift card. As soon as i got off of work i drove straight to the mall and purchased it =)  I'm obsessed with anything gold so this purse was meant for me!!! Pictures do NOT give this bag justice, so i also attached the picture from the Duex Lux website. =)

Nars - Purple Look

Being a redhead with green eyes, it’s not easy to play around with eye color without looking like a clown.  Neutral/earthy colors always look best on me.   The only "color" that works with my hair color and skin tone are purple shades.  I purchased two new colors from Nars this weekend.  Ondine and Cyprus.  They look amazing blended together.  

I applied Ondine as a lid and crease color, blended Cyrpus into the inside corner or my eye, and Mac Phloof as a highlighter.   To give that extra pop, i lined my eyes with Mac Fig shadow.   

 Nars Ondine

Nars - Cyprus

Mac - Phloof

(I'm still trying to get the hang of this blogging thing :)

Hair TRAMA and Hair LOVE!

Let me first give a shot out to my friend JillieCat for convincing me to start blogging again. Thanks Cookey!

I love surfing blog spot/you tube looking for product reviews. I find myself doing it for hours a day. I guess it’s time for me to start voicing my opinion and maybe it will help someone out there!

My first (new) blog is about a TERRIBLE experience I had with WEN shampoo. (yes I am a INFO commercial junky – which is WHY I love reading reviews, hehe) After researching WEN and reading all the great reviews on the shampoo, I decided to purchase it. It came on a Saturday morning. I was so excited to use it. I snapped a picture and posted it on facebook. Many of my friends were commenting on my picture about how they loved it and wouldn’t use anything else. My hair texture is normal, It’s niether dry nor greasy. It has to be washed daily for the most part but sometimes I can skip a day. I quickly got in the shower and started washing my hair. WEN is a conditioning shampoo. My hair is always tangled after shampooing so, I was shocked when I didn’t need any conditioner after. WEN was sweet almond mint scented and it smelled amazing. I couldn’t wait to start styling my hair to see the results. I let my hair air dry for about 30 minutes and then started blow drying it. I noticed the top of my hair wasn’t “drying” but I clipped up the top section of my hair and started ironing the bottom. My hair had a sticky feeling but I didn’t think anything of it. I took down the top section and started blow drying to get the dampness out. After another ten minutes of blow drying I looked close in the mirror and noticed it was a buildup. I ran into the bathroom and shampooed the front pieces of my hair with regular shampoo. I went back into my room to blow dry it again! It looked like I was prepping my hair for dreadlocks! I went out and bought clarifying shampoo and used it for a few days. My hair was still flat and lifeless!

I started researching shampoos and I came across a website called Lush homemade cosmetics. I thought it looked familiar and realized I had been in that store when I was in Ireland. It is a all natural/organic soap shop that is based out of the UK. They sell handmade soaps, bath bombs, hair products, shower gels and a whole bunch of other fun things. I started looked around the site. The shampoo and conditioner bars caught my attention. They have amazing reviews. I checked locations and they happened to just open up a store in my local mall. I went in and the staff was AWESOME. I told them about my bad WEN experience and they went over all the products with me. I’m not really into the whole organic thing so I wanted to just buy some things to try.

Here are the items I purchased:

Seanik solid shampoo bar:

Description: Its has Sea salt gives body and volume to hair that's fallen flat and the lemon oil makes hair shiny.

My thoughts: AMAZING!!!!!! My hair felt sooooooo clean and smelled wonderful. It has a very earthy clean sent! All you have to do is rub the bar from root to ends. (Rub the sides and then down the middle) It leathers very nicely so you can really massage into scalp.

Jungle conditioner bar:

Description: Jungle feels different on your hair from liquid conditioner; until you wash it off, you hardly notice it's there. It smooths and detangles, leaving a fruity scented coat of shininess. Smooth it along the length of your hair from root to tip, then rinse out.

My thoughts: After rubbing the conditioner in (apply same way as shampoo) I had mixed feelings because It didn’t feel like my hair was soft. After letting it sit in a towel for about 20 minutes. I was a little bit nervous but I used a wide comb and it wasn’t tangled at all!!! I don’t think I would recommend this conditioner for people with dry thicker hair but if you have the in between hair this product will be PERFECT! It worked great for my hair type

I started to blow dry my hair and was scared of the results but I was 100% happy!!! My hair has volume and life again! I blow dried and ironed my hair (had NO other style product) and my hair looks and smells fabulous! Lush is amazing!!! I’m going to go back and buy EVERYTHING!!!! I hope they have styling products because I need some type of protection from my hair iron! =)

Here is the link to Lush’s website: http://www.lush.com/

Thanks for reading!!!

XoXo,

Shannon!

I also purchased soap that I haven’t used yet. I will blog my review about it in another post!