Fabulous Recommendations from a fellow Product Junkie!!

Hi Bloggers-Here are some products that a cute friend/Product Junkie has recommended. I haven't tried them all bc I'm trying to control my spending (whoa who knew baby crap was so expensive?!?)!

"hi! i saw you had a request for an under-eye cream...i have that and a couple others for ya...

1 - hope in a tube/by philisophy/high density eye and lip firming cream

2 - c-esta face serum/by jan marini (have you tried her stuff???)

3 - AND MY NEW FAV!!! i.d. bareVitamins/by bare escentuals/it's an eye "rev-er upper" with caffeine and light-refelcting minerals you put under your eyes before your makeup...LOVE IT!!!

i never realized what a product junkie i was too until i started reading your blog!!! let me know if you ever need more ideas!"

Thanks Yami for the suggestions!! XOXOXO

Guess who is trying to get organized??

That's right. I figured it was time I get my life organized. I didnt have the excuse of being too busy with work or with the move (we moved a month ago-so that excuse doesn't work anymore!!). Sooooo first things first-I want to start planning out our dinners for the week. I'm doing this because I do love to cook-but I swear that eating in is sometimes as expensive as eating out! That's not cool-we are supposed to save $$ by eating in, so in order to accomplish that-I need to do some strategic planning.
Target has a new line of organizational stuff that really got me excited!! This meal planning list is so cute and very helpful! I sat down yesterday with my favorite cookbooks and while Kevin was watching the world cup-I planned out our meals and made a coordinating shopping list :) Easy breezy right? Well sort of-when we went for a walk last night, we were discussing our plans for the upcoming week and I realized I need to know those plans before I make my list...We have dinners plans with friends that I forgot about and Kevin will be out if town for work on Thursday and we will both be gone this whole weekend. So I love the idea of planning out our meals and for the 3 nights we will both be here this week-I'm sticking to my meal plan!!

OMG Yummiest Smell Alert!

Bloggers-I was putzing (putzing?) around in my bathroom yesterday and saw I that I had a sample of Bliss Lemon & Sage body scrub. I decided to give it a whirl and holy crap-this stuff smells AMAZING!!!! Delish! Magical!! I can't wait to buy more stuff in that scent! They have the whole line in Lemon & Sage, everything from soap to body butter to body spritz! I love it because its clean and fresh and not too girly. Those of you who stay at W Hotels have probably tried this before bc that's what they use for the in room products. I kind of want to book a weekend at the W just so I can hoard these little goodies...but a more practical approach would be just to order the products myself :) So that's what I'm doing!

On a side note, my handsome hubby and I went out for a little "date night" to dinner and a movie last night. "Grown Ups" could possibly be the WORST movie of all time (well its between Grown ups and Confession of a Shopaholic!). It was just so NOT funny :( With all those funny guys in it-it is a shame it was so lame-o. Oh well-we should have seen Eclipse (whoop whoop Team Edward!). Have a great weekend everyone!!!

A Must Read for Summer!!

You may have already read this awesome book, but I just finished last night. Sooooooooooooo good! "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett is my new favorite book. I'm not going to try to summarise it, for that you can go to Amazon. It is both heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time. I cried at some parts-but it wasn't one of those books that's too hard to get through because its so sad-in fact its a major page turner. It made me have a lot of questions about life back in the 60s (Ive put in a call to my mom-but she hasn't called me back). I'm actually sad now that I finished it, do any of you feel that way after you are done with a really great book? I'm not sure what to read next-but I'm headed to Barnes & Noble this afternoon to pick my next book. Happy reading!!

Skinny Secret: Fiber!!

Alright Bloggers, most of you who know me know that I am a dieter. Always have been, always will be (not while I'm preggo-but I'm still eating healthy and making sure I get my 30+ grams of fiber daily). I like being thin, love having clothes fit me and unfortunately when I eat what ever I want, I get big. So I have a few rules that's I follow-mainly things that I must include (not exclude) in my daily diet. My #1 secret to skinniness is fiber. Love it! Seriously-it is the key to maintaining my weight. It keeps me regular (sorry for tmi!) and keeps me feeling full. There are so many ways to get your 25-35 grams a day. If you aren't a fiber eater now-I suggest easing your way into it-don't shock your system and go for the gusto at once or you may have some GI issues. I'll share some yummy food products that are high in fiber in future posts. A great way to get fiber in your diet is through fruits and veggies-but I also get mine through bread, cereal, soups, crackers, etc.
Some high fiber cereals get hard to eat after a while(All Bran Buds for instance), but this yummy cereal is so delicious that I get excited for breakfast everyday :) It is Fiber One Raisin Bran Clusters and it is sooooooo yummy! I make it with a 1/2 cup of non fat milk. The nutrition looks like this (for 1cup of cereal with 1/2 cup of nf milk):
Calories 210
Fat 1g
Fiber 11g

Love it!! And by the time I finish eating it-I'm 1/3 of my way to my 30gram a day goal!!

Got Zits?

With this product-you won't for long!!! Let me start out by saying that this is a no no for my fellow preggos because it has salicylic acid in it. For everyone else: it's basically the bomb. A zit blasting bomb!! I love to hear about celeb's beauty must haves and I kept hearing about this dude Mario Badescu's drying lotion. I think I finally bought it (at nordies) after Jessica Alba said she swears by this stuff(isn't she just sooooo pretty?!). Let me tell you Bloggers-this stuff works! You would use it if you either have or are getting a pimple. After you wash your face, moisturize like usual (except avoid the zitty area) and then take a qtip, dip it in this little pink bottle and then dab it on the zit. It will stay pink which is perfect because then you know that you got your target. Sleep with it and wake up to better skin!!! Love it! Brilliant! The only not so cool thing is that it stinks like rotten eggs (Im guessing they used sulfur in the formulation which is great at zapping zits-but a bit stinky). But Id have a stinky face when I sleep if that means I have clear skin the next day!!

Cheap Chic Day 5: Simple yet Effective

Bloggers this is the last day of Budget Beauty. I have a bunch of other great inexpensive finds and will post those in the future. Today I'm posting about Olay Active Hydrating Beauty Fluid. I get the sensitive skin one and its a very nice, fragrance free moisturizer. This is a good summer time moisturizer-but in the winter Id step it up a notch with something a tad heavier. I use it morning and night after I wash my face and before I apply my daily sunscreen. It makes my skin nice and soft and is very affordable :)

Have a wonderful 4Th of July!!! Make sure to wear your sunscreen!!!

Cheap Chic Day 4: Easy Tissue Tees

Bloggers-I have a confession: Since leaving my corporate job about a month ago, I tend to wear work out clothes all day every day. Obviously if I have plans or somewhere that calls for cute, I will dress it up-but mostly I am working out, unpacking from our move and running errands all day-so it seems appropriate to stay comfy. I splurge on my workout pants(Lululemon!!!!) but for the tops-anything goes. Which brings me to my Budget Beauty item of the day: Mossimo Tissue Tees from Target. They are only $9 and they go on sale! The long sleeve white top pictured above is only $6 right now! These are great over the tank that I wore to exercise in. They are light and fitted-but not so tight that my expanding belly feels uncomfortable. I also wear these layered in the winter with jeans and UGGS. They are great bc if you get a stain on them its no biggie bc they are so darn cheap. Kevin always comments on how soft they are too!

Cheap Chic Day 3: Bronzer Bang for Your Buck

My husband is such a typical Southern California guy. He was born and raised in sunny San Diego (Del Mar to be exact) and he has always loved the beach, surfing and getting sun. So he definitely thinks that women having a nice tan=pretty. This would never have been a problem in my college years where I would bake myself all day, but now that I am hanging on to my youth with all of my might, I refuse to tan my face. My body on the other hand I do get color on but we will discuss that in a future post. So enter one of my top beauty necessities: face bronzer. Not the self tanner kind. I like a solid powder form and I put it on with a nice big fluffy powder brush. Once again-Ive done the hard research and tried everything from Nars to MAC to Cover Girl and I really like this Physician's Formula the best. Its about $10 at Target and as long as you don't drop it and shatter the powder-it lasts for a long time. I get lots of compliments of people saying "you are glowing", most of them say think the glow comes from being preggo but I know that it is from this Cheap and Chic bronzer :)

Day 2 Cheap Chic: Great Lash mascara is pretty great!

By now bloggers-I hope you trust that I am a sucker for all the beauty hype. This means I have probably spent hundreds (maybe thousands?) on mascara over the years. I started using the clear Cover Girl mascara at the ripe old age of 13. Since then I've tried every brand, formulation, color, etc. At times I would shell out $25 for Chanel, Lancome, Lauder, you get my point. I keep coming back to this preppy little tube of pink and green goodness. Maybelline's Great Lash Mascara in Very Black is my fav. It does what all good mascara does: lengthens, thickens, seperates and makes lashes look luscious. I hate the waterproof stuff bc I feel like I cant get it off at night. You can get this for super cheap at Target and I just saw it on Amazon for a buck. Now that is Cheap Chic :)