currently.

brimming with ideas, thoughts, inspirations, + concepts.
finding that there just aren't enough hours in the day to follow through with everything all at once.
trying to get a handle on blogging regularly again after a very busy april.
watching the challenge on mtv, which is forever my favorite reality show.
recovering from a weekend in AC with my girlfriends.
drinking so much coffee and documenting it every day.
missing R now that he's back in England until July.
wearing shorts and sandals whenever it's the least bit sunny #coldbutworthit.
tucking my shirt into my pants whenever it's remotely possible (once I find a look that works, it's an all day erryday mentality).
eating pretzel crisps in every flavor like it's my job. these are my faveeeeeee.
lusting over army print everything: see this, this, + these from my current wishlist.
reading wild by cheryl strayed and really loving it despite it being something I never thought I'd like.
waiting on the library request list to finish the goldfinch.
making lists and taking names.
working on opening the etsy shop (I feel like this has been a work in progress for months now, but may is most certainly the month, people!)
obsessing over Amy Tangerine's plus one paper pack for all of my project life and paper lover needs.
planning some facelift operations for this blog in the near future.
scheduling a fingerprinting appointment for my NY teaching certification to finally go through #newyorkstressesmeout.
loving the beginning of spring & sun & flower buds & dog walkers & sidewalk chalk & lemonade iced tea.

april beauty favorites.

1. sigma E35 tapered blending brush // 2. lush karma kream body lotion // 3. nyx parisian chic eyeshadow palette // 4. bareminerals marvelous moxie lipstick in get ready // 5. body shop almond hand & nail cream // 6. c.o. bigelow lemon lip cream // 7. lush bubblegum lip scrub // 8. revlon lash potion mascara // 9. bite beauty agave lip masque // 10. macadamia natural oil deep repair hair masque.

This month I had a lot of favorite things in the beauty department. First off, I got an amazing blending brush for eyeshadow, which has made application a dream along with my newest eyeshadow palette, which feels like it was made for my tastes. I have been slathering my body with a new lotion every chance I get because it smells like heaven and hydrates like a champ, and I've found a hand and nail lotion counterpart to do the same. I've been exfoliating my lips every few nights and then applying a lip masque while I sleep so that in the morning my lips are baby smooth and so moisturized, which has made for perfect application of my current favorite lip cream and lipstick. I found a new mascara after years of loving the same one (covergirl lash blast fusion), and I'm so obsessed with it. It lengthens, separates, and volumizes all in one and I don't get clumps or chunks. Finally, I've given up on regular conditioner all together and have switched to a deep repair masque for my thin + brittle hair seeing as I only wash it twice a week anyway. All in all, a great month for beauty.

project life 2014 // week fifteen.

Dated: April 7 - April 13. This spread proves I have a boyfriend sometimes, so I liked that about it.What I did this week: R was here and even though I worked all week it was so nice outside that we got to spend a lot of time outdoors together. The Yankees started their season, so we watched them every night that they were playing. Max was hilarious this week, as usual, but he was particularly silly during bath times and with potty time, hence the blurred out photos this week: they had to be included because they were too great.About this spread: For some reason I had a hard time with this spread. My ink just about ran out in my printer and I didn't want to get a new cartridge and reprint, so I just dealt with the duller photos. Then I didn't know what I wanted to do for journaling cards and things because I had just received the Amy Tangerine plus one paper pack in the mail, as well as my Studio Calico monthly kit, bluegrass farm. So I had a lot to choose from, which is sometimes much worse for me to cope with. Plus, all last week (the week I would have normally worked on this spread), Max didn't have school, which meant not coming home during the day to handle blog posts and work on my spreads. Also with R around I didn't want to spend all of my free time at home doing Project Life rather than living the life that I so love to document. So this was a difficult spread for me to put together, but in the end, it's one week of many and it still looks good all things considered.Details + interesting tidbits: I had a lot of photos this week just because R was here and it was so nice outside, so I separated the photos from our weekend outside by using a Design G page that I cut down (below: front side on the right, back side on the left). It was a little bit easier knowing that I could still include all of the photos I wanted to while highlighting a very lazy, but very fun weekend with R and Lucas. I used mostly papers from the plus one pack for this spread, and since I got the 6x6 version, I cut down most of the pages to two 3x4 cards, and some that I knew would look great as date cards to 4x6 (but they can always be chopped in half later if I choose). I also included a screen shot of my phone's photo album to show how amazing it is to have a shutter remote for my phone. I went nuts taking selfies on Monday afternoon and it literally took two minutes to get about 50 varieties of the same photo. Yeah, it was unnecessary, but it was fun and it's not something I would do normally, so for an intentional shot like that one, it was great.Photo breakdown: phone photos: 16 // canon t3 photos: 1 // polaroid photos: 0. Taken by me, the self-timer, and shutter remotes.Materials, supplies, and tools I used: seafoam core kit, design A pocket pages, design G pocket page, elise joy stamp, less is more stamps, studio calico bluegrass farm monthly kit (photo label), Amy Tangerine plus one paper pack (date card, numbers card, card behind button), seafoam flair button from TheFlairShop, fiskars corner rounder, fiskars paper trimmer, staz-on jet black ink, hp everyday photo paper, smash date stamp, zig writer for vellum marker in black (on photos), zig writer marker in black (on journal cards).

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Project Life is a simplified solution to scrapbooking created by Becky Higgins that helps you to record the memories of everyday life. Document your story either physically or digitally along with me and so many others. Find out more here, how to start here, & see all of my PL 2014 posts here.

a love letter to my leggings.

Dear leggings of my past, present, and future,

We've been together for a long time, and we've sure been through a lot. We've seen a lot of good men lost to holes in the crotch seam, and we've seen some newcomers steal the spotlight of the pairs before them (that's directed at you, leather leggings. Nobody likes a showoff). But no matter who comes and goes, I want you to know the intense passion I feel for each and every one of you and your luxurious elastic waistbands, and even long after you're gone I will still reminisce of the great times we had together.

To start, you know how to make me look thin on days when I feel four thousand pounds. I can pack on the layers up top, but no matter what, you silhouette my legs like a champ and keep them looking firm and lean. You keep everything tucked in where I want it tucked, and you flaunt my skinny ankles when I pair you with sneakers or moccs. Let's not even get into how thin my legs look with a tall, roomy boot thrown into the mix. But more than that, you provide me with hours and hours of long lasting comfort. You hold me in and swaddle me like a newborn baby.

On nights when we order in, you are the first pair of pants that I reach for. There's no enjoyment in a belly full of chinese food if your jeans are making an imprint on your stomach that you're going to frown at later. You leggings keep me comfortably fat on junk food night and most importantly, you never judge. You stretch with me as far as I need you to and you never ever tell me I look chubby. I adore you more than you could ever know for that.

When my friends want to go out and dance in the winter, you are the ones I turn to to keep my legs warm but my outfit lookin' cute. This is where you come in, printed leggings and leather leggings - you guys are sassy and you know it, and you stick by me even when I spend hours on the dance floor. What can I say, sometimes I can't quit - and neither do you guys. So thank you for the dances we've had, and the ones I know we will share in the future.

I am not even going to get into the way that I feel about you, yes, you, the classic black legging. The only pair of pants that I can wear seven days in a row (remember, judgement free zone here) without anyone really noticing. Sure, there may be the odd thought here or there from someone who I see every day, but really, I alternate the same three pairs and it just works for all of us. Hey, nobody ever gets crap for wearing the same pair of jeans everyday, do they? No.

You are all collectively the best pair of pants that I have ever owned and loved, and before anything else is said, I don't care what side of the argument anyone else is on - we all know that leggings are pants. You have to know how to work it, and some people just don't. Don't let their envy get you down. In this house, leggings are pants, and they are the best pants besides no pants.

I have enjoyed you all immensely since leggings came back into popular fashion in 2007 (and obviously back in the day when I was a lanky youngin' who couldn't find jeans long enough on the bottom but small enough on top), and I will continue to enjoy you for the rest of my life. And not only on junk food nights and at dance parties, but when my belly starts to grow with a little one and my jeans aren't even an option, and when I'm in full-on mom mode and jeans take way too long to pull up. I know you'll be there for me forever, and I will love you and adore you until the end of time. It's a love affair for the ages, they'll write novels about us.

Yours now + forevermore,
Alessia xo

oreogasms (name patent pending).

Way back in my week three project life spread, I included a photo of the "oreogasm": an oreo wrapped in a sugar cookie with sprinkles everywhere. Though I now know that it's been done before (don't you hate it when you think something is your idea and then google ruins it?), the idea came to me literally in a dream (I dream about food 90% of the time). The brilliant (and so obvious to me now because of my love for funfetti) idea of adding tons of sprinkles in and on top of the cookies came from here. I used my new go-to sugar cookie recipe, which can be found here, and made the most delectable combination of cookies ever.// 1 1/2 C flour
// 1 tsp. cream of tartar
// 1/2 C unsalted butter (at room temperature so it's soft)
// 3/4 C sugar
// 1 large egg (at room temperature)
// 1 tsp. vanilla extract
// 1/4 tsp. salt
// 1 tsp. baking powder
// 1/2 tsp. baking soda
// 1 box of oreos (you'll need about 15)
// 1/2 C sprinkles (I like the round nonpareils or fairway's thin + crunchy sprinkles)1// cream the softened butter, then add the sugar and mix until blended together and fluffy.
2// mix in the egg and the vanilla extract.
3// in another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cream of tartar, and the salt. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet until all is combined and smooth.
4// fold in the sprinkles, then roll out into a flat sheet or take teaspoonfuls of dough and flatten them out by hand.
5// place an oreo on the flattened mixture and wrap the cookie completely in the dough.
6// add more sprinkles on top of the wrapped cookies, and put them in the fridge for at least two hours (or up to 48 hours if you can even fathom waiting that long).
7// once the dough is cooled, put the cookies in the oven for about 8 minutes on 350 degrees.
8// the cookies will not looked finished, but they will continue to cook on the baking sheet for another few minutes out of the oven*.
9// transfer to a cooling rack for a few more minutes, and then serve and enjoy.

* the photos above make the cookies look almost like they have a wet texture because I was running out of sunlight to photograph, but once cooled completely, the cookies will be dry but soft and chewy perfection, just like the one pictured below.These cookies were a hit in my house (especially with me, and normally I don't tend to indulge in the things I bake too much). One is just enough for a snack or dessert because these things are bombs, so the 15 it makes will last a while depending on how many people find out you made them*.

*this recipe can easily be doubled or tripled should you be the type of baker that feels guilty for not sharing.

tunes tuesday // april playlist.

This month I've been listening to a bunch of new albums (Haim, CHVRCHES, the Divergent and Catching Fire soundtracks), a new song was released last week by one of my favorite artists (Ed Sheeran) and another a few weeks ago by another fave (Phillip Phillips), and I have gone back to listening to a few old favorite albums (Ben Howard, Bastille, random glee fave). I upgraded to spotify premium, and it's so nice to have all of the music I could ever want to listen to at my beck and call on my iphone. Also, the computer app just got a huge facelift, which looks awesome. To listen to this playlist on spotify, click here.

*this post is not in collaboration with spotify in any way, I just love it.

project life 2014 // week fourteen.

March 31 - April 5. Though it snowed on Monday, I think spring has officially sprung, so this week had a lot of outdoor photos (thank goodness).What I did this week: I did hot yoga three nights this week with my friend Katherine, and it reminded me how much I love it. Rich arrived on Saturday so I spent most of the week getting ahead on work and blogging so that I could be present with him while he was here. I ordered new stamps that will hopefully be the product that reopens my etsy shop, and I drank a lot of coffee (the two included photos of coffee are not an accurate representation of the amount of caffeine I ingested this week).About this spread: This was a pretty simple spread with just a few highlights of my week (obviously). It was a little hard choosing photos because it wasn't a very eventful week, which is why a lot of the photos are similar. That happens though, life can be wonderfully average sometimes, which is fine by me.Details + interesting tidbits: I knew that I had the transparency from last week to work with, plus a calendar card for April and the two journaling cards for Max's and my currentlies (see this concept in the first spreads for February + March), so there wasn't going to be any room for patterned or "just because" journaling cards. Since the cards I chose for Max + I were black and white, I chose a black and white date card as well, and the rest was just stamping and journaling on the photos, which I do before I even open my album. Photo breakdown: phone photos: 8 // canon t3 photos: 3 // polaroid photos: 0. Taken by me, the self-timer, and shutter remotes. (Photo of Max taken by his dad at his first day of peewee tee ball. I die.)

Materials, supplies, and tools I used: seafoam core kit, midnight core kit, design A pocket pages, elise joy stamps and calendar card, less is more stamps, studio calico office hours monthly kit (cork circle sticker), studio calico bluegrass farm monthly kit (cork alphabet stickers), fiskars corner rounder, fiskars paper trimmer, staz-on jet black ink, hp everyday photo paper, smash date stamp, zig writer for vellum marker in black (on photos), zig writer marker in black (on journal cards).

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Project Life is a simplified solution to scrapbooking created by Becky Higgins that helps you to record the memories of everyday life. Document your story either physically or digitally along with me and so many others. Find out more here, how to start here, & see all of my PL 2014 posts here.

friday link love | 4.

These two boys from Pentatonix covered Beyonce's entire visual album in under six minutes, and it's amazing (also, can I get one of each of their sweatshirts, please?).
Thinking about the types of online shop hosts is daunting, but this post helped me.
This e-course from Ann-Marie was an awesome investment.
This inspirational dog has gone viral now, but I posted about him at the beach early last week over on my cousin's blog.
Honey Maid's amazing and humbling response to hate made my heart happy.
After Gwenyth and Chris' announcement that they are "consciously uncoupling", slate.com created a way for you to Goop-ify your own relationship (R + I are "artisanally partnered". So fancy).
Emma's fossil cookies look like the bomb.com.
I love everything about this wedding must.
I need this, this, and could probably make this for when I move out.
JGL can't lip sync for his life, but Stephen Merchant is a legend and Jimmy Fallon is good at everything.

these are a few of my favorite things.

I started to compile another list of facts about me to share more about myself, and what resulted were a lot of "my favorite ____ is" type of facts, so I figured I would use favorites as the theme here and try to come up with some non favorite facts for another post once I've thought of more things about myself. I actually have a lot of fun doing these types of posts because I also really like reading these types of posts from other bloggers so that I can get to know random things about them. So here we go!

Favorite phrase: "get it, girl."

Favorite thing to do when I’m nervous: listen to music.
Favorite thing to do when I'm sad: snuggle up with my puppy.

Favorite reason for laughter: Max's jokes, behaviors, and quirks.

Favorite children’s book: Where the Wild Things Are

Favorite smell: spring air.

Favorite place I've travelled to: Paris.

Favorite author: John Green maybe, but that's a toughie.

Favorite thing to do on Sunday mornings: sip coffee + read blogs.

Favorite type of weather: sunny and 60's, not a cloud in the sky.

Favorite soda: dr. pepper.

Favorite season: fall.

Favorite class in college: I took a media class for my education program, which was pretty awesome.

Favorite holiday: christmas.

Favorite cereal: kix or life.
Favorite month: October.
Favorite YouTuber: zoella + jaclynhill.

Favorite car you’ve owned: I've only owned one since I started driving in 2007 and he's a 2002 black ford escape named Jeffrey.

Favorite song: Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls.

Favorite positive affirmation: "you have the same number of hours in a day as Beyonce" (see also: favorite phrase).

Favorite hairdo: down, long, and loosely curled.

Favorite book: too many, but the Night Circus, The Fault in Our Stars, The Pact, Catching Fire.

Favorite vice: coffee.
Favorite musician: Ed Sheeran, Bastille, The Fray, The Script, One Direction.

Favorite country I've been to: Probably Israel because it is so beautiful and full of history.

Favorite state of mind: when I'm inspired and motivated.

Favorite novel character: either Nick from The Tea Rose, Peeta from The Hunger Games, Gus from The Fault in Our Stars, or Will from Me Before You. I have so many more, but I could write a full post about the books and characters I love so I'll spare you.

Favorite animated movie or show: the Fox and the Hound was my favorite movie as a kid and I still love it, but I am lovin' on Frozen too.

Favorite breakfast food: over easy eggs with bacon.

Favorite beverage: coffee or iced tea lemonade.

Favorite tropical fruit: mango.

Favorite TV series: Friends, HIMYM, One Tree Hill, LOST + Grey's Anatomy.

Favorite animal: elephants.
Favorite quote: "where you invest your love, you invest your life." (Mumford and Sons, awake my soul).

Favorite utensil: pencil.
Favorite meal of the day: brunch.
Favorite food: french fries.

Favorite vegetable: artichokes.

Favorite album: + by Ed Sheeran.

Favorite board game: apples to apples (is that a board game? I guess not).

Favorite cheese: all of them except american, but brie if I had to pick.

Favorite entertainment type: concerts.
Favorite number: 8.
Favorite year of your life: so far, 21.

Favorite sound: Michael Emerson's voice.

Favorite sleeping position: on my side with one leg pulled up to my chest.

Favorite article of clothing: a good denim button down.

Favorite sports team: NY Yankees.

Favorite time of the year: the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas where everyone is in good spirits and feeling generous.

Favorite city: a toss up between Paris and anywhere in California.

Favorite romantic moment: walking up to flowers waiting at my front door after a long day at work.

Favorite form of exercise: hot yoga.

Favorite stress reliever: running.

Favorite person to tell good news to: R, my mom, and my best friends.

Favorite color: neutrals + purple.

Favorite life accomplishment: honestly, this blog.

Favorite “aha” moment: every time I figure out a new thing about HTML and web design on my own.

Favorite superhero: spiderman.

Favorite crush: Leonardo DiCaprio has been my crush since 1997 until forever.

Favorite material possession: my DSLR camera.

Favorite day of the week: Friday.

Favorite electronic: my iphone.

Favorite way to travel: in the car or on a bus with tables and wifi.

Favorite compliment: when people tell me I have nice eyes, because I like my eyes.

Favorite family member: this seems unfair, but my Aunt Dolores because we're so similar and just get each other. Love to the rest of my family if you're reading this, you're all gems!
Favorite place to do work: my desk or my dining room table because it gets more sun.

Favorite thing to spend money on: makeup + clothes for me, & quirky, just because gifts for other people.

Favorite memory: pretty much any camp memory from my childhood.

Favorite movie: Titanic, Mrs. Doubtfire, Mean Girls, Pretty Woman.

Favorite dessert: peanut butter cookies or soft baked sugar cookies.

Favorite perfume: J'adore Dior.

Favorite actor: Leo, Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Christopher Walken.
Favorite actress: Jennifer Lawrence, Rachel McAdams, Jennifer Aniston.
Favorite time of day: 4:16.

*this list was compiled using questions from here and here, with a couple of my own peppered in.

abstract painting.

When I painted my one little word vision board last week, I got really inspired to keep the paint out and bring out some more brushes & another canvas to create something really cool. I've been seeing a lot of abstract painting on pinterest (this and this, for example), as well as in this awesome "dress your tech" post (this one is my ipad background, soooo pretty), and I wanted to try and dabble into it with literally zero experience and no idea what I was doing.I would honestly say for myself, that it was a success. I had gold, white, and red paints that I wanted to use, as well as some basic brushes, and I just dove into it headfirst. I started with the gold and spread it around until I was ready to transition, which is when it got a little bit difficult. I created the pink by mixing very little red with a lot of white, and started to go in with that, but I had to keep wiping my brush because it would turn gold. I'm not sure if this is a normal step, or if maybe I should have waited until the gold was a little more dry to start in with the pink or red, but I think if I had done that it wouldn't have been easy enough to keep adding to (and I knew that I wanted the gold to be the most present color). I have no idea which way I want to display it because it's not like there's really a "top", but I kind of like that about it.I love that this painting has texture, white canvas space around some of the edges, and is just a mess. It's pretty much exactly what I was going for since this was my first time around, but it will definitely not be the last time I create one of these. I may be obsessed.

my makeup storage solutions.

I am the type of person that can have certain parts of my life a little bit messy, but I still know where things are, so it's not that big of a deal. The way I kept my makeup (on a tray scattered and stacked all over the place) was the same way, and the only problem wasn't that I couldn't find anything, but that things started to get a little bit dusty, which was not great. I invested in a couple of acrylic pieces, and not only is my makeup dust free, but everything looks pretty and organized.The first thing I got was a lipstick holder from the container store (in retrospect I should have gotten the one with space for 24 lippies rather than 12), which is nice because I had them all over the place. I have more than what's there, but I have my current loves and favorites out in the open and it's easier to deal with.The second thing I got was a set of muji drawers. The piece has three large, thin drawers with room for lots of makeup. They have a million different types of acrylic storage options, but for the amount of space I have and the makeup I needed to store, this size works perfectly for me. I like that the drawers are clear so I can see what's where, and it kind of creates a really cool aesthetic on my dresser top.I have my brushes and pencils + mascaras in gold, polka dotted tea light holders from last fall's target collection, and now I stack those on top of the drawers with the lippies, and it's amazing to me how much makeup I have in a tiny square space, compared to how much surface area it all used to cover before. Life made simple for the win.

one little word album // march 2014.

Last week I posted my one little word vision board for my word, grow. There weren't any pages to print out this month for adding to the album, but I wanted to do more than just add my March reflection and a new intention. I decided to go ahead and take a photo of my vision board and print it at a full page size to add to the album so that the work I did with my word in March was represented.Because I used a square canvas, I had to print it to the width of the pocket protector I was using (about 8.25 inches), and then mount it on a piece of cardstock to add to the height (11 inches). I could have just trimmed an insert to make a square and then sealed off the cut edges, but in my head I envisioned cutting up the large photo to fit into the nine pocket page protector, so that's what I went with.After cutting the photo I added the date to the bottom right pocket and called it a night. I might go back in and add some journaling on the cardstock about my process, but for now, I like it a lot and I think it's a great thing to have in the album so that it feels whole and complete at the end of the year. On the back are nine squares of cardstock from the backing of the photo, so I'll have to see what I want to do with that as well as I start to work through April on the album.*To see the full page view of the reflections and intentions pages, see this post from last month.

project life 2014 // week thirteen.

Dated: March 24 - March 30. Week thirteen had a lot of little big moments, and I loved documenting it.What I did this week: This week I was slammed by spring allergies even though the weather outside was cold and gray for the whole week. I took a break from blogging during the week to recover a bit, so most of my action was with Max. He had his first play date with a friend from school that he loves, did a million and one funny things, learned the days of the week, and I swear he grew an inch a day. I had a productive weekend taking photos for a bunch of posts, saw Divergent in theaters again with my parents and best friend, and went out with friends on Friday and Saturday night.About this spread: I had very colorful pictures this week, so I knew that I was either going to go really neutral with the journal cards or I would try to match the color a little bit. It turns out I still had a bunch of cards from office hours that looked good paired with my photos, so I went for crazy color. I love the "at the moment" card next to the photo of makeup swatches from my ipsy bag, because the colors are so complimentary. The "play all day" card matched the colors in the carpet of the picture of Max and his friend playing, so it was perfect in both sentiment and coloring. Love when stuff like that happens.Details + interesting tidbits: I used a transparency card that I got as a 12x12 sheet from two peas in a bucket, and applied a cork sticker from office hours in seafoam in the middle of the spiral, then I chose a seafoam core kit date card with the same design because I loved the way they complimented each other in terms of design + coloring. I also used that date card to write in a few things about the week to eliminate some of the white space. I used the "at the moment" card to document March's bests, which I did for both January and February. Photo breakdown: phone photos: 7 // canon t3 photos: 4 // polaroid photos: 0. Taken by me, the self-timer, and shutter remotes.Materials, supplies, and tools I used: seafoam core kit, design A pocket pages, less is more stamps, studio calico office hours monthly kit (cork circle sticker, navy thickers, navy label, play all day & at the moment card), 3"x4" grid card, tiny attacher, transparency card from two peas, fiskars corner rounder, fiskars paper trimmer, staz-on jet black ink, hp everyday photo paper, smash date stamp, zig writer for vellum marker in black (on photos), zig writer marker in black (on journal cards).

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Project Life is a simplified solution to scrapbooking created by Becky Higgins that helps you to record the memories of everyday life. Document your story either physically or digitally along with me and so many others. Find out more here, how to start here, & see all of my PL 2014 posts here.

how I incorporated my selfie challenge into project life.

Earlier last month I posted about my thirty day selfie challenge inspired by A Beautiful Mess, and after posting about it I decided that I really should have put it into my project life album, especially because I am starting a new blog series based off of this project called "thirty days of", which you will hear a little more about soon. So I decided to do what I did for my instagram photos in my California PL spread, and use a coin protector page to print my thirty images at 2x2 each.Because the coin protector is twenty slots, I chopped off the outer column leaving fifteen spaces on each side. I tabbed the top right corner with an avery tab and labeled it "30 days of selfies". Bam. Easy insert. The most time consuming part of this process was cutting out the squares because there were so many, but to have an insert like this (and more of them once the series kicks off) is so much fun.Like I said in my main post about all of this, I highly recommend doing this if you love a fun little photo challenge. It can take three seconds a day or as long as you want it to, but the point is it can be a really easy + quick addition to your day that will go unnoticed until you have something substantial put together whether it be a photo album on your computer or an insert in your project life.

ipsy glam bag review // march.

Last month's ipsy glam bag was a great first run for me, so I think that's why I was a little disappointed in this month's bag. After last month I attempted to fine tune my beauty profile so that the arrangers of the bag would know me as well as possible, but it seems that maybe it's not an exact science.For starters, last month I recieved five products, so this month's four looked a little thinly spread to me. The bag was so weird, I can't imagine using it because of the design not being very me and the material on the outside was so weird feeling (though this is just me being a little too nitpicky, and I will for sure admit that honestly). I am not a sunless tanner, so the tanning lotion (which is SO dark, I don't know how anyone could put it on their skin and not look like an oompa loompa) is kind of a waste. The eyeshadows are not really my colors, and they're all shimmery, but even if I wanted to use the brown and gold, which are the two me-est colors, the color payoff is horrible. In the swatches below (top four swatches) I had to rub so hard into the shadows and I still couldn't get too much product onto my skin. I mean, look at that blue color in the packaging and then the blue on my skin. I had to try so hard to get that much color, which is nowhere near as bright as it should be, so that's just a waste in itself even though I'd never use that color on my eyes in the first place. The eyeliner is excellent (fifth swatch from the top), but I will never in my life be able to use a navy blue liner, so that's really just bad luck for me because if it were in black it would probably be my new go to liquid liner. And finally, there's good news, the lipstick (bottom swatch) is awesome and it's a color that I can wear and feel good in, so that's a win.I'm sure there are going to be a few months that this service is going to dud out, I'm just hoping that this month was the exception rather than last month's great bag. If things continue to go well I would really love to keep this subscription up because it's so fun, but if next month is iffy, I may have to reconsider. We shall see, ipsy. Do me proud again.