[Make Up] Happy St. Patrick's Day Eye Shadow

St. Patrick's Day is Saturday and maybe a little leprechaun will come and visit or you need a great eye look for going out on the town... I found two YouTube tutorials that feature green and most specifically the use of the Maybelline Sunbaked Neutrals palette. 

I found Frmheadtotoe's St. Patrick's Day tutorial and Xteeener's Smokey Olive Autumn Eye tutorial and I really like how Xteeener's tutorial only used the Sunbaked Neutral palette with a few extra steps.  I did smoke my eye look a little, but not as much as the original.  I hope you enjoy the quick and easy St. Patrick's Day Smoked Green Tutorial.

[Make Up]  Smoked Green Tutorial

Difficulty:

• Easy

Time:

• 10 to 20 minutes

Tools:

Maybelline Sunbaked Neutrals palette

Any black eye shadow with glitter (optional): Sonia Kashuk

• Eyeshadow Brush
• Blending brush
• Eyeliner brush
• Black Eye Liner
• Eye Lash Curler
• Mascara

Steps:

1. With a eyeshadow brush, use the dark green on the outer half of your eye lid.  
2. With the other side of the same brush, blend the light green from the inner corner of your eye to the dark green.
3. With a blending brush, se the light matte brown to blend out the green with the brown.
4. Using your finger, add the white under your brow bone.
5. Add your favorite black eye liner to the top of both eyelids.  A wing is option and your preference.
6. Using your finger, add a small amount of black [glitter] shadow to the outer corner of your eyelid.  Your finger works best to help minimize fall out.
7. Using your black eyeliner, outline the outer corner of your water line.  On the bottom lash line using your eyeliner brush, use the dark brown on the outer 1/3, bronze on the middle 1/3 and white on the inner 1/3.
8. Next touch up or blend for the final eyeshadow look.
9. Now curl your eye lashes and use mascara to the top and bottom lashes.
10. And the final look! :)

 

 Someone wanted to be in the picture.

:)

I hope you enjoy this tutorial.  

For a more detailed tutorial, check out the tutorials listed above.

[DIY] Decorative Wall Art

I have a skinny hall in my home.  On one side there is a large painting that was given to my family from my wonderful brother-in-law and sister-in-law and on the other side... blank.

I have seen a few DIY wall hangings on Pinterest and this led me to Becoming Martha and Spunky Junky.  They each have two great tutorials using old shoebox lids and painting canvases.  I did not have either, but I did have these old pieces of Christmas presents left over.  What a great way to upcycle some old cardboard and scrapbook paper, fabric, paint... lying around your house. 

[Theirs: Becoming Martha | Mine: You Can Pinterest]

[DIY]  Decorative Wall Art

Difficulty:

• Easy

Time:

• 15 minutes to 30 minutes

Supplies:

• Box lids, canvas or any leftover cardboard pieces
• Scrapbook paper
• Glue stick
• Scissors 

Steps:

• Begin by measuring (or eyeballing) the paper over the cardboard.
• Add glue to the base of the cardboard.  A glue stick works best because it does not leave large blobs of glue behind.  

• Once you have the paper glued to the base, turn it over and cut out the corners to make it easy to fold over the edges.

 

• Simply glue the sides :)
• Now you have easy wall art to decorate any space in your home!

 

I apologize for the coloring of the photos.  My hall is skinny and there is absolutely zero natural light. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

[DIY] | [Cleaning] How to Clean Your Microfiber Furniture

I have a toddler.  I have a husband.  Therefore my couch is a bit messy.  A few stains, a lot of water rings and discoloration. 

My microfiber couch as been through spills, markers, ink, you name it... I wanted to clean it and the basic water and scrubbing was not cutting it.

I found this site (from Pinterest), The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking, where the it led me to Chris and Robin's Nest.  Robin posted the tips and tricks about cleaning a microfiber couch WITHOUT water... Here is my journey trying to clean my microfiber ottoman.

[Theirs: Chris and Robin's Nest | Mine: You Can Pinterest]

[DIY] | [Cleaning] How to Clean Your Microfiber Furniture

Difficulty:

• Easy | Medium depending on stains and furniture

Time:

• 15 minutes to 1 hour [depending on size of furniture and depth of stain]

Supplies:

• Vacuum
•  Rubbing Alcohol
• Cloth or Sponge
• Spray Bottle

 Steps:

• Start by vacuuming your furniture piece.  I used my brush attachment.  It was very helpful :)

 

•  Next take your alcohol and add it to a spray bottle.  [I forgot to picture this part...] but here are my supplies for the cleaning...

• From my research, rubbing alcohol does not harm the microfiber.  As with any new cleaning product, try a test spot on the fabric to ensure that it does not damage your furniture.  The rubbing alcohol dries very quickly.  This is one great thing about using it over water.

• Scrub, scrub, scrub.  Seriously, you don't need to do an arm workout if your couch was as dirty as mine.  My arms are so sore.  I can barely type this... [Insert Rosy Cheeks] 

• After it has completely dried, run your hands over the piece to "wake up" your microfiber.  :)  I found that my hand was just as easy as a bristled brush.  

• Here is my final product...

 

• Notice the dirt and grime on my rag... It was white when we began... now it is filled with yuckiness...  

 [Before] & [After*]

*Please note that my Ottoman was especially stained with very old water rings and stains.  Many of them came out in one try.  Tomorrow I will re-clean my Ottoman with the same steps and see if the leftover water stains will remain.

Although my stains still remain, I am overall excited about the outcome... and still ashamed I let my Ottoman get this bad... but I am proud of the hard work, and I mean hard work, that I put into it.

Note to self... Don't let your Microfiber furniture get this bad... makes cleaning a lot more work... ;)

[DIY] Yarn Vases

My kitchen/dining room bar needs something... but what?

I went on a Pinterest search for some simple do-it-yourself [DIY] ideas and I came across Yarn Vases.  After a few clicks I found Designs by Vanessa & A Simple Kind of Life have two great DIY tutorials. 

Myfriend came over (and she is crafty) so I put her to work on our first yarn vase.  Here is our journey with yarn, hot glue and a bottle.

[Theirs: Designs by Vanessa | Mine: You Can Pinterest]

[Recipe] Yarn Vase

Difficulty:

• Easy 

Time:

• 15 to 30 minutes [based on size of bottle and optional embellishments]

Supplies:

• Yarn
• Bottle
• Hot glue gun & glue

Steps:

• Start by placing a small strip of glue along the bottom base of the bottle.
• Place the yarn over the glue and begin wrapping the yarn around the bottle.

• After a few wraps (2-3 to begin, then 4-6 after you feel comfortable) push the yarn to create a tight, close coil.

• Since our bottle has writing, we wanted the yarn to be very tight, but depending on your bottle and style, you could leave the coils looser.  It's simply your preference. 

• If you choose to make the coils tight, you won't need additional glue until you reach the portion of the bottle that changes size.  Near the neck of the bottle you may need a small strip of glue every few wraps to keep the yarn in position.  (Trust us, this took a few tries without glue before we noticed it gaps and strange over-lapping...)

• Once you get to the top of the bottle, it is your choice to decide if you would like to place yarn around the top of the bottle.  Which ever way you choose, make sure you add glue to secure the yarn.   

• After our first [white] yarn vase, we decided to be a little bit more adventurous.  We made a bi-colored vase and added swirl flowers.  The ideas are limitless.  If you make some with with embellishments, please share what you did!  We would love to hear about them!

As always, thank you for stopping by!

[DIY] Bow Holder

I have a little girl.  She was born with a full head of hair.  The old wives' tale about heartburn and a newborn with hair was proven true for this mommy.  I never had heartburn before my pregnancy and towards the end of my second trimester into my third, Hello Heartburn.  Boy (or girl...) was I poppin' Tums.  

When my daughter was born, I did not go bow crazy.  It wasn't until about one month old I decided to add a nice alligator clip bow into her hair.

Now I never got into over the top bows, but after a few months, the bows became and essential part of my daughter's life to keep the hair out of her eyes.  A year and a half later, I was losing bows all over the place.  It was time to make a Bow Holder of my own.

[Left: Little Birdie Secrets | Right: You Can Pinterest]

I have seen many bow holders on Pinterest.  Some of my favorites have included:

Little Birdie Secrets: Bow Holder

Make It and Love It: Bow Holder

Baby Making Machine's Blog

 [DIY] Bow Holder

Difficulty:

• Easy 

Time:

• 15 to 30 minutes

Supplies:

• A picture frame [This was an old frame from my Grandmother]
• Scrapbook paper [I used 2 - 12"x12" sheets]
• Glue Stick
• Ribbon [I used the backside of a ribbon I had since I did not like the design]
• Hot Glue Gun & Glue

 

 Steps:

• Glue your scrapbook paper on to a piece of cardboard.  Make sure to line up the design the best you can.  Don't worry about if it is uneven, you can cover it with ribbon later.  The key is to leave paper along the edges to fold over.

 

• Fold the paper over.  Make a cut where the end of the cardboard is for each corner.

• You will have 4 corners cut out around the cardboard like so...

• Fold up the sides and glue with your glue stick.  You can use your hot glue gun if you'd like.

• Using your hot glue gun, glue ribbon strips on to your base.  Remember to cover the section where you aligned the design together with ribbon. (You can see where the longer ribbon is aligned with the start of the second page of scrapbook paper).
 

• Now add your base to your frame.  Volla!  You have your own bow holder!  You may decorate it accordingly or leave it as you wish.

Thank you for stopping by!  As always, comments and questions are greatly appreciated.