Product Junkies Anonymous

Hi, my name is Brittany and I am a product junkie.  If it gets a good review or I regularly hear about it from friends, I will probably try it.  Since I love to hear from others what their favorite products are, I thought I would share some of mine. 

Nuetrogena Oil-Free Acne Wash

This face wash is hands down my favorite.  I actually don't have oily or acne prone skin but I love the way this stuff makes my skin feel and it actually removes all of my makeup, and it smells great too.

 

Paul Mitchell Super Strong Shampoo and Conditioner

I found this shampoo and conditioner a few years ago and it is one of the few that I have tried that actually work.  For any of you other ladies with long hair, you know it can get EVERYWHERE.  After i finish straightening my hair every day, I look down and wonder how there is any left on my head!  Well with this little miracle I actually notice that my hair not only looks and feels great, but there is less hair on the counter and in my brush which means less breakage. YAY!

Urban Decay Eye Primer

This one is definitely a cult favorite but it W-O-R-K-S!  I have used it for years and there is absolutely nothing else that compares.  My eyeshadow stays in place all day and I have even slept in it after a night on the town on rare occasion when i forget to wash my face and my eyeshadow is still on the next day.  If that's not a testament to the power of this little baby, I don't know what is.

 

smash box Photo Finish Primer

This is a definite must have for me year round.  Whether I'm using my full coverage daily foundation or just throwing on some BB Cream to run errands on the weekend, this will always be underneath.  The texture and consistency is phenomenal and my makeup lasts so much longer with this than without.  For any other makeup/product junkies you've probably heard that Monistat Chafing Gel has the same ingredients and consistency, well I tried it and although it feels similar my makeup definitely doesn't last as long - just a heads up. :)

e.l.f Gel Eyeliner

Gel Eyeliner is probably not something you want to wear daily, but these bad boys are only $3 a piece and come in quite a few colors.  The consistency and pigment is great and they glide on easily and last through a night of drinking and dancing.  Not to mention, with that price tag, you can pick them up in every color. 

Duo Lash Adhesive

For any of you ladies that like to wear falsies like me, this is definitely a go-to.  A little amount goes a long way, and it really does last all day/night without feeling like you need to constantly check your lashes.  It also comes in dark or clear/white so you can figure out which option works best for you.

Victoria's Secret Fresh and Clean Lotion

I have this lotion at home, in my truck and in my office.  It has just the right amount of scent and doesn't leave you greasy.  If you are the type of girl who likes a full set you can also get the body wash/scrub and the body spray.  

The one product that I am always on the hunt for is a great mascara.  I'm definitely a fan of layering them to get the desired effect, but seeing as how every time I'm out I buy a different one, goes to show that I just haven't found my favorite.  If you ladies have any good mascara recommendations, send them my way. 

 

XOXO
Brittany

I'm Too Old For This

Somehow this week, the stars and planets aligned and the husband is working out of town in Houston and took Ainsley WITH HIM.  This never happens! If I get one night off I get excited let alone an entire week.  Since I'm solo all week when some friends invited me to go check out a new restaurant/bar in Victoria I jumped at the chance.

We started off the night with drinks, then had dinner, followed by a few more drinks(see: 4 glasses of wine and a Mexican Martini). All in all I was feeling pretty good when i got home, until that god awful alarm went off at 5:00 AM.  F.M.L. 

Somehow I managed to stumble to the shower and get my tail somewhat presentable for the office, but it was definitely a challenge, and no amount of makeup was going to fix these blood shot eyes.  When I made it to the office I was in BAD shape, I'm talking headache, shakes, nausea....the whole 9 yards.  Two bottles of water, some Gatorade, half a kolache, and 3 hours later I finally started to see a light at the end of the tunnel.  By the time 5 rolled around I could not wait to get out of there.

Now I'm curled up in bed catching up on blogs and watching Betheny, but you can bet your sweet cheeks this girl will be O-U-T in the next hour, if not sooner.  And I definitely will not be drinking again like that on a school night.....until someone invites me out the next time.


XOXO
Brittany

Keep It To Yourself

One of the things I loathe most in the whole entire world is unsolicited advice.  I'm all for listening to your words of wisdom if I have asked you for your opinion, but otherwise....keep it to yo self.  This bothers me even more when I see it directed towards someone else, and it seems to be the worst with people giving advice on having children and parenting.

First off, why is it that when a couple is together for awhile everyone around them is pushing for the next step (ie; "when are you getting engaged, when are you getting married, when are you going to have a baby, when are you going to have the next one, don't you want to try for a girl/boy.....").  These are very personal decisions for people and are really not the business of anyone but those involved.  If two people want to date forever and never get married, let them, or maybe they're more the "get married after 3 weeks of dating" type(in my case I was the wait until your knocked up, then get married type)
.  My point is, who cares, if it's not affecting you, why is it your business?

The having children thing probably bothers me the most.  In my not so humble opinion I have the cutest 2 year old on the planet, but I'm very serious when I say that right now, I don't plan on having any more.  People regularly make comments that she shouldn't be an only child, or don't I want to try for a boy, or she should really have siblings to play with .......(trust me this list goes on and ON).  While this may be a choice for us, what if it wasn't?  What if I was unable to have more children, do you really think that's something I want to discuss with some random lady in line at Target???  Will I change my mind on this in a few more years? Maybe.  But for now, I don't want anymore and I'm very happy with my little family.   

The next big one is "unsolicited" parenting advice.  Yes random stranger, I'm sure you raised 7894 wonderful kids, but just because you never let your kids play with your cell phone to get them through the mall without pulling your hair out does not mean you know better.   It simply means that you didn't have smart phones back then and you didn't have the option.  It's not my fault technology has improved....now leave me alone. Really though, whether I decide to use the cry-it-out method, or whether I want to breast feed and how long is my decision.  Unless I ask for your opinion, I probably don't want it.  And for that matter, every Mom and every child is different so why don't mom's support each other instead of playing the one-up game all the time.  If that's the case, I bribed my child with a bag of cheetos to get through the grocery store yesterday and then let her have a popsicle while said groceries were being unloaded....top that Mom of the Year :P


For the record, I do regularly ask my friends and family for advice and I do often take advice that works for us, but if I don't ask, please don't give me your two-cents.

XOXO
Brittany

I Confess...

I confess...  I have not blogged since *gulp* February and it has been driving me crazy.  I am hoping I can really step it up and stay on top of it this time.  I have just been so busy at work and then by the time I get home and get Ainsley to bed I'm BEAT.  I'll definitely be working on this though.

I confess...  I have been obsessing over one of those Phillip Lim for Target totes but it sold out online so fast i couldn' get it and they were sold out at our Target too :(  Does anyone know if this was a one-time thing or if Tarjay will be getting additional stock???

I confess...  I once Tebow-ed on a table in the middle of the chute club at Rodeo.

(Exhibit A)

I confess... Between two full time jobs and our daughter, our evenings are pretty hectic in this house.  Chores have always been a point of contention, so we decided to split the rooms in our house.  I know this is rediculous but so far it's working.  I guess the tasks just seem less daunting if you're not cleaning the ENTIRE house.

I confess...  I am so excited for Fall!  I don't care if we will be back in the 90's this week, my boots will be on and the fall decorations are coming out today!

Scarves & sweaters here I come!

I confess...  My Texans are going to give me a heart attack this season.  These games are killing me!!!!!!!!!!!!

I confess...  I am not a cat person AT ALL, but somehow two outside cats have recently adopted us.  ughhhhh

I confess...  I am the "tough" parent when it comes to Ainsley going to bed in her own bed every night, but since Daddy was hunting all weekend we stayed up late and she slept in bed with me both nights.  Now I have to pray it won't be a fight when she sleeps in her bed tonight.

I confess...  I drove 2 hours to Houston last weekend to surprise my bestie for her birthday and forgot my wallet....in Cuero....two hours away.  I also did not realize this until I was ordering drinks at the bar in the restaurant.  I did manage to still have a good time ;)

 I confess...  I think I have a serious addiction to Target.  I go at least once a week, and if we lived closer I would definitely be there more.

I confess...  It's time for the princess to wake up from her nap but I'm letting her sleep longer just so that I can finish this post :)    

XOXO
Brittany  

What I Miss Most in The Big City

Well hey there!  I promise I'm not neglecting le blog already, I have just been sick and work has been crazy busy lately.  I mentioned previously that we moved to a small town in south Texas about 3 years ago.  I absolutely L-O-V-E where we live and the amazing community we have found, but there are definitely some things I miss about the big city.  I thought I would fill yall in on some of the things I miss most.

Shopping. Mama loves to shop, and while there are some adorable boutique shops in town where I can definitely spend a pretty penny(esspecially during the annual wine run-that's a post all in itself), I miss real malls!  Being just minutes from a big mall and less than half-an-hour from the Galleria was something I definitely took for granted. 

Food.  Houston and the surrounding suburbs provide a plethora of options come dinnertime.  We have a few basic fast food restaurants and thanks to the oilfield, one "nice" restaurant in town, but other than that, our selection is pretty limited.  We can head about 30 minutes to Victoria for a few more options but my once weekly staple, Chipotle, is not one of them.   Waaahhhhh!  (Seriously, if anyone wants to send me a chicken burrito bowl...i'll be forever in your debt!)

(Oh sweet chicken burrito bowl, how I miss you!)

 



Places To Go.  Although we don't go out very often now that we are parents, it's nice to have options when you decide to fork out on a babysitter and hit the town.  There are a few places to go in Victoria, but definitely nothing to write home about.  In Houston you have TONS of options: you want Country? check.  You want a wine bar? check.  You want a dance club? check.  You want a dive bar? check.  You want a hoighty toighty down town club? check.    Get my drift?

My Friends.  I have some of the most amazing lifelong friends a girl could ask for.  I have made some GREAT friends here like this lovely lady :

 but there are definitely a few that I miss all the time.  Luckily everytime we go in for a visit I can usually see at least one if not more of these awsome ladies.

My Bestie.  I luuurrrrrvvvvve her!

 

At Erica's Wedding

 

My Family.  I am probably the biggest Daddy's girl you will ever meet.  My Daddy is my rock and my go to for any advice.  Sucks that I don't get to see him all the time.  I definitely wish my parents were closer to me.  All of the siblings are spread pretty thin from Texas to California, wish I could see all of them more.  Can you believe my parents have 9 grandchildren???? yikes!

 

 



 

I hope yall are having a great week so far.  I'll be spending the rest of my evening sipping on some Cab and catching up on all my favorite blogs.

 

xoxo

Brittany

Cold Medicine and A Computer

So, three posts in one week?  That's not bad for a new blogger right?  This post should absolutely have more substance to it, unfortunately I'm writing whilst sipping on Thera-flu and will probably be knocked the eff out in the next 20 minutes.

So I know most, if not all of the lovely ladies I follow have iPhones.  In fact, by a large majority most of the people I know in real life have an iPhone but I have yet to jump on that bandwaggon.  I was a die-hard fan of the blackberry.  I think I had 4 or 5 of them when they were the "it" thing.  I actually had my last blackberry up until a year ago when it had an unfortunate incident with a mug of coffee in the car.  After that I switched to a windows phone and was seriously considering the iPhone until I heard the best news ever yesterday.... blackberry is coming out with a new phone!  Woo Hoo!!!!  You can bet your ass I'm already on the waiting list to find out when the phone will officially be available...counting down the days til march baby!



In other not so exciting news, I got a manicure on my lunch break today and in less than an hour, this happened:

What the?  I seriously think my nails hate me.  So after shelling out for a manicure 8 hrs ago I have now had to re-do them...although for my DIY manicure I did find an awesome shade of navy that I'm loving.


I know this post isn't very exciting AT ALL, but I'm hoping this thera-flu will do it's job and I will feel better by tomorrow!  I promise I wont make a post this boring again.  I'm off to get some zzzzz's so I can wake my sleepy butt up at 5:30 AM (uggghhh i hate writing that almost as much as I hate actually doing it) and get to work.  Anyone out there want to pay me to drink wine and watch Real Housewives and re-runs of OTH all day?


xoxo
Brittany

Shopping With A Two Year Old

Yesterday after I picked Ainsley up from daycare I decided to take her to "town" in Victoria for some yummy chick-fil-a and some shopping for Mommy and baby.  Keep in mind as cute as this face is?  Not so cute when she's throwing a fit in the first store because "I no chop mama."

It seems I will never learn my lesson and continue to fly solo on these shopping trips with her.  This time I had the brilliant idea to stop at chik-fil-a in the mall and let her eat in her stroller while I shopped.  This actually did work wonderfully for about 1.4 minutes, then home girl decided she didn't want to sit in the stroller.  I calmly informed her that if she would sit in the stroller and let mommy look at clothes for a few minutes I would take her to the play area.  She then proceded to not-so-calmy (see: put her feet on the wheels and yelled "no chopping!") tell me that this was not a bargain she would like to be party to.

Needless to say after her lovely temper tantrum we left the mall but I did have a few things to pick up so we headed over to Tarjay for a quick stop ( is there such a thing as a quick trip to Target?).  I was able to pick up a few things for her and myself but in order to do so the trip may or may not have included: bribary, telling her repeatedly not to stand up, a cookie, some candy, and threats of timeout....but I got the job done.  Don't judge.

Brittany